THE FRANCHISE.
[To mils EDITOR OP TIIR "SPECTATOR.") SEE,—Lord Rosebery at Glasgow the other day used the significant phrase, "picked men and picked women," where- upon a voice cried " Votes for women!" The most valuable part of that admirable speech was that in which he insisted on self-reliance as the basis of character, and the supremacy of character as the basis of education, and lamented the modern tendency to count by heads and level down ; to prescribe for a patient instead of cultivating a healthy personality. If women desire the suffrage, their claim is a righteous one, but only on the plea that they are " picked women." Clearly .their policy is to, confine the suffrage to "picked men." Property qualification is a fallacious test ; it takes no heed of character. The rivalry of parties has bestowed the franchise on men absolutely unworthy to exercise it, and the process of levelling down will probably only stop short at universal manhood suffrage. As this suffrage, if bestowed on women, would make them arbiters of the country's destinies in virtue of their greater numbers, this fact will always be a strong argument against bestowing on them the franchise at all. And if we are to admit " picked women," we must pick the men. There must be an educational test which will exclude men who are unworthy to aid in guiding the destinies of their fellow-men. The more the people are edu- cated, in the true sense of the word—and Lord Rosebery thinks it does not mean boob-learning so much as character—the more they will perceive the folly of counting beads, and making a sham equality the test of fraternity and the safeguard of liberty. Does it pass the wit of man to devise some scheme which shall arrest the tendency of party leaders to win favour with King Demos by ever richer and more plentiful supplies of "hare soup" ?—I am, Sir, &c., E. D. STONE. Helensbourne, Abingdon.
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