Volume III Part 132 (1/2)

Women are also sometimes appointed as church wardens, overseers of the roads, and registrars of births and deaths. These are the only public offices they fill.

Under the second heading, the removal of legal disabilities, is included the Married Woman's Property act, which was finally pa.s.sed in 1882, twenty-five years after it had been first brought forward in parliament by Sir Erskine Perry. The ancient law of England transferred all property held by a woman, except land, absolutely to her husband. A step was gained in 1870 by which the money she had actually earned became her own. This was followed by frequent amendments, sometimes in Scotland, sometimes in England, and a comprehensive bill met with frequent vicissitudes, now in the House of Lords, now in the Commons. The honor of this long contest is chiefly due to Mrs. Jacob Bright and Mrs. Wolstenholme Elmy, whose unwearied efforts were finally crowned with success by the act of 1882, under which the property of a married woman is absolutely secured to her as if she were single, and the power to contract and of sueing and being sued, also secured to her. The right to the custody of their own children is another point for which women are struggling. In 1884, Mr. Bryce, M. P., brought in a bill to render a mother the legal guardian of her children after the father's death. This was read a second time by a vote of 207 for, and only 73 against. In 1885, however, though pa.s.sing the House of Lords, it was postponed till too late in the Commons. Another important alteration in the legal condition of married women was made in 1878. In that year Mr. Hersch.e.l.l introduced the Matrimonial Causes act to remedy a gross injustice in the divorce law, and Lord Pensance inserted a clause which provided that if a woman were brutally ill-treated by her husband, a magistrate might order a separate maintenance for her and a.s.sign her the care of her children. It is no secret that the original drafting of this clause was due to Miss Frances Power Cobbe. The long struggle which is not yet terminated against the infamous Contagious Diseases acts belongs to this division of work. The acts were pa.s.sed in 1866, '69, and for many years were supported by an overpowering majority of the House of Commons. Mr. Stansfeld, who has always been the supporter of every movement advancing the influence of women, has been the leader of this agitation. Mrs. Josephine Butler, Mrs.

Stewart of Ougar, and latterly Mrs. Ormiston Chant, have been the most untiring speakers on this question. On April 26, 1883, Mr.

Stansfeld carried a resolution by a vote of 184 against 112 for the abolition of the acts, since which time the acts have been suspended, but we must look to the new parliament for their total repeal. The Criminal-law Amendment act was the great triumph of 1885. It had been postponed session after session, but the bold denunciation of Mr. Stead, editor of the _Pall Mall Gazette_, finally roused the national conscience, and now a larger measure of protection is afforded to young girls than has ever been known before.

Of the successive steps by which colleges have been founded for women, and the universities opened to them, it is impossible to give any record. The London University and the Royal University of Ireland, recognize fully the equality of women; nine ladies secured the B. A. diploma from the latter university in 1884, and nine more in 1885. Oxford and Cambridge extend their examinations to women.

The Victoria University acknowledges their claim to examination.

The London school of medicine gives a first rate education to women (there are 48 this session), and the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, admits them to its cla.s.ses. There are now about 45 ladies who are registered as medical pract.i.tioners. One of them, Miss Edith Stone, was appointed by Mr. Fawcett medical superintendent of the female staff at the general post-office, London. The success of the movement for supplying women as physicians for the vast Indian empire has attained remarkable success during the last two years.

FOOTNOTES:

[536] This was called out by the movement in America. A report of a convention held in Worcester, Ma.s.s., published in the New York _Tribune_, fell into the hands of Mrs. Taylor and aroused her to active thought on the question. She comments on a very able series of resolutions pa.s.sed at this convention, in which such men as Emerson, Parker, Channing, Garrison and Phillips took part.--[EDITORS.

[537] _Council of the a.s.sociation_--Mrs. S. Turner, Mrs. S.

Bartholomew, Mrs. E. Stephenson, Mrs. M. Whalley, Mrs. E. Rooke, Mrs. E. Wade, Mrs. C. Ash, president _pro tem._, Mrs. E.

Cavill, treasurer, Mrs. M. Brook, financial-secretary, Mrs. A.

Higginbottom, corresponding secretary.

[538] Mrs. Biggs, Anna Knight, Mrs. Hugo Reid and many other English women were roused to white heat on this question, by the exclusion of women as delegates from the World's Anti-slavery Convention held in London in 1840. That was the first p.r.o.nounced public discussion, lasting one entire day, on the whole question of woman's rights that ever took place in England, and as the arguments were reproduced in the leading journals and discussed at every fireside, a grand educational work was inaugurated at that time. The American delegates spent several months in England--Lucretia Mott speaking at many points. She occupied the Unitarian pulpit in London and elsewhere. As Mrs. Hugo Reid sat in this convention throughout the proceedings and met Lucretia Mott socially on several occasions, we may credit her outspoken opinions, in 1843, in a measure to these influences.--[EDITORS.

[539] The committee as at first formed, consisted of the following persons: The very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury, Dr. Alford, Miss Jessie Boucherett, Professor Cairnes, Rev. W. L. Clay, Miss Davies, the originator of Girton College, Lady Goldsmid, Mr. G. W.

Hastings, Mr. James Heywood, Mrs. Knox, Miss Manning, and Mrs.

Hensleigh Wedgwood. Mrs. Peter A. Taylor was treasurer, and Mrs. J.

W. Smith, _nee_ Miss Garrett, honorary secretary. A few months later Mrs. Smith's death left this post vacant, and Mrs. P. A.

Taylor then a.s.sumed the office of secretary which she retained with the aid of Miss Caroline Ashurst Biggs till 1871. No one else could have rendered such services to our movement while it was in its infancy as Mrs. Taylor gave. Her gentle and dignified presence, her untiring energy, the experience of organization and public life which she already possessed, her influence with an extended circle of friends chosen from among the most liberal thinkers of the nation, secured at once attention and respect for any cause she took up. Many years before she had worked hard for the a.s.sociation of the Friends of Italy, and on the breaking out of the American civil war her sympathies and practical knowledge led her to found a society for a.s.sisting the freedmen. In acknowledgment of the invaluable a.s.sistance she rendered, her friends in America sent a book containing a complete set of photographs of all the chief anti-slavery workers. When she began her efforts for women's suffrage, the English Abolitionists were among the first correspondents to whom she applied, and they nearly all responded cordially. For years her house, Aubrey House, Kensington, was the centre of the London organization to which she gave her time, strength, and money, well earning the t.i.tle of ”Mother of the Movement,” which loving friends have since bestowed.

[540] In 1869, 255 pet.i.tions, signed by 61,475 persons; in 1870, 663 pet.i.tions, signed by 134,561 persons; in 1871, 622 pet.i.tions, signed by 186,976 persons (75 of these pet.i.tions were from public meetings and signed only by the chairman, or from town councils and sealed with the official seal); in 1872, 829 pet.i.tions with 350,093 signatures; in 1873, 919 pet.i.tions, with 329,206 signatures; in 1874, 1,494 pet.i.tions with 430,343 signatures; and in 1875, 1,273 pet.i.tions were sent in containing 415,622 signatures.

[541] This lady, sister of John and Jacob Bright, and wife of the senior member for Edinburgh, Mr. Duncan McLaren, so much esteemed that he was sometimes spoken of as the ”Member for Scotland,”

unites in her own person all the requisites for a leader of the movement. She has the charm and dignified grace so generally found among Quaker ladies, and the pathetic eloquence which belong to her family. She is clear-sighted in planning action, and enthusiastic and warm-hearted in carrying it out, and for the past sixteen years the movement in Scotland has centered around her.

[542] Mr. Thomas Hare, Mr. Boyd Kinnear, Mr. Mill, who was no longer in parliament, the Rev. Charles Kingsley (this was the first and only meeting at which he was present), Prof. Fawcett, M. P. and Mrs. Fawcett, Lord Houghton, Mr. John Morley, Sir Charles W. Dilke, Bt. M. P., Mr. P. A. Taylor, M. P., Professor Ma.s.son of Edinburgh, and Mr. Stamfeld, M. P.

[543] Mrs. Penington, Mr. Hopwood, Q. C. and Professor Amos were honorary secretaries the first year, and succeeding them Miss C. A.

Biggs and Miss Agnes Garrett. The princ.i.p.al committees united with the central, including Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Dublin and the North of Ireland.

[544] Minutes of a meeting at the House of Commons, June 23, 1875.

Present: The Right Honorable E. P. Bouverie, in the chair; and the following members of parliament: Right Hon. H. C. Childers, Marquis of Hamilton, Lord Randolph Churchill, Hon. E. Stanhope, Mr.

Bentinck, Mr. Beresford Hope, Mr. Chaplin, Mr. Hayter, Sir Henry Holland, Sir Henry James, Mr. Kay Shuttleworth, Mr. Edward Leatham, Mr. Merewether, Mr. Newdegate, Mr. Raikes, Mr. de Rothschild, Mr.

Scousfield, Mr. Whitbread.

_Resolved_, That a committee of peers, members of parliament and other influential men be organized for the purpose of maintaining the integrity of the franchise, in opposition to the claims for the extension of the parliamentary suffrage to women.

_Resolved_, That Mr. E. P. Bouverie be requested to act as chairman, and Lord Claud John Hamilton and Mr. Kay Shuttleworth as honorary secretaries.

The following members have since joined those named above: Lord Elcho, Right Hon. E. Knatchbull-Hugessen, Right Hon. J. R. Mowbray, Sir Thomas Bazley, Mr. b.u.t.t, Mr. Gibson and Colonel Kingscote.

[545] We must mention the names of the ladies who during the previous two or three years had been most active in speaking and organizing societies. So many meetings had been held that there was hardly a town of any importance in England, Ireland or Scotland where the principles of woman suffrage had not been explained and canva.s.sed. One of the foremost for her activity in this department of work was Miss Mary Beedy, an American lady, resident for some years in England. She had thoroughly mastered the legal and political condition of the question in this country, and her untiring energy, her clear common sense, and her ready logic made her advocacy invaluable. The regret was general when she was compelled to return to America. Miss Helena Downing, niece of Mr.

McCarthy Downing, member of parliament for Cork, arranged and gave many lectures during 1873 and 1874. Miss. Lillias Ashworth, honorary secretary of the Bristol committee, frequently spoke at meetings about this time. In Scotland Miss Jane Taylour and others still continued their indefatigable labors, in which they were frequently a.s.sisted by Miss Isabella Stuart of Balgonie in Fifes.h.i.+re. In Ireland, in addition to the usual meetings in the north, a series of meetings in the south was undertaken by Miss Tod, Miss Beedy and Miss Downing. Other meetings were addressed by Miss Fawcett, Miss Becker, Miss Caroline Biggs, Miss Eliza Sturge, Miss Rhoda Garrett, Mrs. Fenwick-Miller and many others. During 1873 Mrs. Henry Kingsley, sister-in-law of one novelist and wife of another, also spoke frequently. s.p.a.ce fails me to do justice to the varied powers of the speakers who have carried our movement on during these years of patient perseverance; to the clear logic and convincing power of Mrs. Fawcett's speeches; to the thrilling eloquence of her cousin, Rhoda Garrett, now, alas! no longer with us; to Miss Becker's accurate legal knowledge and masterly presentation of facts and arguments; to Miss Helena Downing's eloquence marked by the humor, pathos and power which were hers by national inheritance. During these years of trial, too, the cause owed much to the strenuous advocacy of the Misses Ashworth, Anne Frances and Lillias Sophia, nieces of Jacob Bright. Miss Ashworth did not herself speak at meetings, but she comforted and helped those who did, while Lillias possessed the family gift of eloquence and charmed her audience by her witty, forcible and telling speeches. So numerous and so well attended have been these meetings during these and subsequent years, that it is impossible to exonerate men and women from the charge of willful blindness if they still misconstrue the plain facts of the question.

[546] First in the list came six ladies, members of school-boards: Mrs. Buckton of Leeds, Miss Helena Richardson of Bristol, Mrs.

Surr, Mrs. Westlake, Mrs. Fenwick Miller and Miss Helen Taylor, London; then followed the opinions of ladies who were guardians of the poor. Forty ladies known as auth.o.r.esses or painters came next on the list; among these were Mrs. Allingham, Mrs. Cowden Clarke, Mrs. Eiloart, Mary Howitt, Emily Pfeiffer, Augusta Webster. Women doctors came next: Dr. Garrett Anderson, Dr. Annie Barker, Dr.