The House of Lords on Monday, by 119 votes to
45, rejected Lord Meath's Bill allowing women to sit as County Councillors. Lord Meath did not travel out of the usual arguments ; but Lord Derby produced the far-reaching one in favour of the Bill, that if the male electors desired female representatives they had a right to choose them. It was the electors' business, not the representatives'. Lord Cowper, however, who moved the rejection of the Bill, contended that if women were admitted to the London County Council, with its immense mass of interests, it would be impossible to keep them out of the House of Commons, and this argument weighed heavily with the Peers. It is not, however, quite perfect. A seat in the House of Commons involves rights differing in kind as well as degree—for example, the control of armies and fleets—from any rights conferred by election to a County Council. The County Councils must ultimately govern all parochial business, including education; and for parochial business women possess special qualifications, and are cog- nisant of special public needs. They do not, as a rule, make good Councillors ; but neither do the majority of men. By- the-way, why do some of the Lords sanction the atrocious vulgarism of using the word " ladies " when the distinction under discussion is not one of caste, but of sex?
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