Lord Sandon made a speech at Sheffield on Wednesday on
occasion of the opening of three more School-Board Schools, in addition to the eleven already previously opened in that great town. He disavowed any intention of speaking as a member of the Government, or discussing controverted questions, but thought it his duty to wait and watch the feeling of the country. He expressed frankly his own preference for Voluntary Schools, though he was quite willingalso to identify himself with the School- Board system. He specially approved the liberal policy of the Sheffield Board in relation to religious teaching, that is, their use of the Bible in education without taking account of controversional differences of interpretation. He defended the attempt in the recently-revised Education regulations to make schoolmasters appeal more to children's intelligence and less to their mere memory, though he strongly defended the practice of teaching them to learn by heart such pieces of good poetry as are suitable to their age ; and he sustained the new provision which makes a small portion of the grant depend on the disci- pline of the school. All this is judicious enough, but we could wish to see in Lord Sandon a little more of the educational spirit which Mr. Cross manifested some months ago. We fear, indeed, that we detect in his speech a rather increased emphasis in defending the waiting and watching attitude, which hardly looks well for any extension of the policy of compulsion.
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