The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-03 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3. 1870.

WHETHER the result of the School Board Elec-

tions will all of them hold good must be regarded as
somewhat problematical. The ballotting in Many
districts appears to have been conducted in a manner

the most unsatisfactory. Tho arrangements were
here and there muddled and confused. The

novelty of the scheme was the one only
excuse of the authorities. There was in
every- way an insufficiency of accommodation
for the ratepayers. Time was most unnecessarily
occupied in, first of all, authenticating the right of
each proposing voter. When the claim in each case
had been allowed, the voting paper was handed to
him for his own unguided, and often bungling, mani-
pulation. Throngs crowded aboutthe entrances, and up
the staircases, along the passages and corridors, and at
last, at a side table, in some inner room, ono by one
the voters were slowly admitted to the exercise of
their privileges. The consequence of all this was
that by the time for closing the interval allowed
fort the one day's voting had arrived, an
enormous proportion of the ratepayers had
lost their opportunity of according their suffrages
to one or other of the candidates. Hence it
happened that in some places when the hands of the
clock were approaching 8 p.m., voting papers were
freely distributed right and left to these who
were present, without any authentification what-
ever of their claim to be regarded as rate-
payers ! Many voted again and again, and
the whole working of the system after
reaching a dead-lock merged into the wildest
chaos. The ballot box was stormed by those
struggling to thrust in their folded voting papers,
and eight p.m. sounded in the midst of a storm of
confusion. STEPHEN BLACKPOOL, Of " Hard Times,"
might have very truthfully described the whole
spectacle by uttering anew his familiar and laconic
expression—" It's aw a muddle." It is in no degree
surprising, therefore, to find that the principal work-
ing-man's candidate, Mr. GEORGE POTTER, has
already entered his formal protest against the
whole of the proceedings. ',According to him, a
multitude of his supporters were denied the possi-

bility of recording their votes in his favour, a state-
ment perfectly credible to ourselves after the scenes
which were witnessed at so many voting places, north,

south,!east, aid west, all over the metropolis. It is a
matter of absolute certainty at the same time that

by the adoption of a very little system the votes
might easily enough have been taken, not
from a quarter, not from a moiety, but
from the whole body of the ratepayers
Ridiculous to relate, many votes were invalidated
by the voters going the absurd length of authenti-
cating their ballot-papers with their signatures.
Others, having voted in the morning, returned and
voted again in the afternoon and in the evening. A
female ratepayer had the cool effrontery, in one
instance, to maintain her right—having entered
two votes on her voting paper in the forenoon—to
supplement those two votes by three others on a
second voting paper ;in the afternoon. A right,
needless to add; not allowed.

The astounding majority by which the lady

candidate, Miss GARRETT, M.D., headed the
poll in Marylebone, is certainly the incident
in the election of the School Boards of the metro-
polis. Nearly 50,000 votes (47,858) marked the

sense of her fitness for the post in the estimation of
the multitude of ratepayers. The fact is propitious
in the interests of what are called Women's
Rights, The triumph achieved by Miss GAR-
RETT surpasses that of any other representa-
tive woman who has yet come to the fore
in the vindication of the political, social, and educa-
tional privileges of the fair sex as coutradistinguished
from what the author of " Lothair " is fond of calling
the dark sex. The popular Conservative represen-
tative of Westminster, again, very considerably dis-
tanced the whole of his competitors-13,602 votes
being accorded to Mr. W. H. SMITH, M.P., as com-
pared with merely 7,119 to the second-best candidate,
Viscount SANDON, M.P. A complete list of all the
representatives chosen, not alone in the metropolis,
but throughout the country—a list carefully com-
piled and judiciously annotated—would be of singular
value and interest, if only well and promptly cata-
logued. Already it is remarkable to observe
one or two instances in which the Catholic
candidates—unsuccessful in the person of Mr. DALE,
the barrister, at Chelsea, and still more ratably in
the person of Lord How Ann of GLOSSOP at West-
minster—have, in a very striking and con-
splcuous manner, distanced all competition. At
Gateshead, for example, two of them headed the
poll, while, not simply a lay Catholic, but a Catholic
priest—Canon SvwyAN—stood, at the close of the
day's voting, at the head of the poll in Birmingham.
Everything considered, however, we cannot but
think that a rigid scrutiny is required with regard
to the very confused and bungiing method in which
the voting by ballot took place throughout the
Metropolis.

Topics OF TUE DAY.

POLAND,

Amongst the papers published in the new Austrian
Red Book, one of the most remarkable is a private
letter of July 27th, from Count Beust to Count
Apponyi, Austrian Ambassador at London. It re-
fers to the interview between the Kii.g of Prussia
and the Emperor .A lexander at Ems, and proves
that the question of Poland does seriously engage
the attention of those two Sovereigns. Count Beust
says that he hears from several quarters that the
Polish question played a certain part.in the inter-
view at Ems. The two sovereigns, it is said, thought
it necessary to come to an understanding owing
to the attitude of the Austrian Government
in Gallicia. This news is confirmed by
Count d'Apponyi's own intelligence. From the
details which he gives of his private and confidential
conversation with Lord Clarendon, it seems that the
English Foreign Minister did not consider the ap-
prehensions of Russia and Prussia altogether with-
out foundation. Count Beust says it is difficult to
understand that their nAglibours can rejoice to see
an important province of Austria remain dissatisfied,
but perceive a danger to themselves in its con-
tent. If it is merely as
.partner Powers that
they concern themselves in the affairs of
Gallicia, the Austrians might as well corn-
plain of the manner in which Russia manages
her Polish provinces. They make no such preten-
sions, and he refuses to acknowledge that any
administrative organisation in Gallicia gives either
Russia or Prussia the right to call the Austrian
Government in question. In making concessions to
the Gallicians lie is convinced that he has adopted a
wise policy. At the same time, he has not recom-