NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE main political interest of the week has been the pub- lication by Mr. Murray, in pamphlet form, of a letter addressed by Mr. Gladstone to Mr. Samuel Smith upon the sub- ject of Female Suffrage. We have said enough upon the subject elsewhere, but may add here that we see no trace in the letter of the indefiniteness or spirit of compromise which some of our contemporaries have contrived to read into it. It is, for Mr. Gladstone, singularly free from reserves and loopholes. He begins, no doubt, by affirming that the country has never considered the proposal, but he advises the House to reject Sir A. Rollit's Bill, which only gives the vote to female house- holders and lodgers, upon grounds which would be fatal to female franchise even if universal suffrage were conceded. Mr. Gladstone maintains, in fact, that there is an "unchange- able difference of social function" between the sexes, and that by transferring the duty of one to the other, the highest quali- ties of women may be destroyed. That is surely intended to be final, as is also his argument that if women vote, they must necessarily be admissible as Members of Parliament, and Members not debarred from any of the chances of employment in the service of the State which accrete to the stronger sex when once elected. The pamphlet is remarkably free from wordiness, and is, in fact, a series of closely linked arguments intended to show that Female Suffrage is im- possible.
