The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-19 00:00:00

THE SCHOOL BOARD FOR LONDON.

At a meeting of the Court of Aldermen, at the Guild-
hall, yesterday, the Lord Mayor, who presided, said he
wished to call attention to a matter of very great impor-
tance. It was whether they would take any action in the
election of four gentlemen to form past of the Central
Board of Education which was now being created. His
suggestion was that they should refer the matter
to the General Purposes Committee, with directions
to confer with any committee that might be appointed by
the Court of Common Council in order to take such steps
as might be necessary to secure the return of proper and
active men.—Mr. Alderman W. Lawrence, M.P., ob-
served that if they thought it was desirable the Corpora-
tion as a corporation should take any action in the matter
it would be better for the Common Council to do
so rather than the Court of Aldermen.—Mr.
Alderman Cotton was of opinion that if the
Court took any action in the matter it would be
interfering with the right of election. The board ought
to be elected free of all political bias.—The Lord Mayor
explained that he had made the suggestion from an influen-
tial committee having waited upon him and represented
to him that unqualified persons were likely to be returned.
Mr. Alderman Gibbons thought the intelligence of the
municipal electors was such that they would be most care-
ful in the selection of proper men, and therefore he thought
it would amount to dictation on the part of that court or
the Common Council if they took any action on the
matter whatever.—The matter then dropped.

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.
The Sultan, 12, iron armour-plated 'ship, lying in tho
stream off Chatham dockyard, on Monday got up steam
to test her machinery, which has been supplied by Messrs
Penn and Sons, of Greenwich. The results were very
satisfactory, only a few alterations requiring to be made
in the engines. The Sultan will leave Chatham about the
middle of next month for Portsmouth, where she will be
completed. Much more work will be done in her there
than was set down in the Navy Estimates, but the object
is to employ hands at Portsmouth, while a large number
will be released at Chatham, whose services are urgently
needed for the various ships building there.

The English men-of-war at present at Malta are the
armour-plated frigate Caledonia, 30, Captain T. Cochrane;
the receiving-ship Hibernia, bearing the flag of Rear-
Admiral A. Cooper Key, C.B. ; the screw steam-sloop
Columbine, 3, Commander Tucker ; the despatch-vessel
Psyche, 2, Commander J. Fellowes ; and the Antelope,
out of commission. The ironclad-frigates Royal Oak and
Prince Consort, and the sloops Cruiser and Rapid, are at
Gibraltar.
A sergeant belonging to the Depot Brigade, Royal
Artillery, at Woolwich, has been missing for about a
fortnight. He was last seen at the dockyard station
of the North Kent Railway, about to leave for London.
It is supposed that he has deserted. Ho was caterer
for the sergeants' mess, and his accounts are £3O in
arrear.

An order has been received at the Royal Laboratory
Department, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, the carrying out
of which commenced on Monday, for 50,000,000 of
5 7-7ths bore breeCh-loading central fire Boxer cartridges
for the Snider-Enfield rifle, which the Volunteers are
about to be supplied with, and now under conversion
from the Enfield rifle. The cartridges are to be both for
service issue and for sale to the Volunteers. This order
is very opportune, as it places the whole of the small arm
manufacturing departments at Woolwich in full work for
the winter.

Major-General Paul Haines, will, on the Ist proximo,
assume charge of the office of Quartermaster-General at
Headquarters in the place of Sir Hope Grant, who suc-
ceeds Sir James Scarlett. After the la November the
Quartermaster-General ceases to be the head of an inde-
pendent department. He will, in future be subordinate
to the Adjutant-General, who practically though not in
name becomes the chief of the staff.