[To THE EDITOR OF THE .4 SP liCT&TOIS.1 STE, — There is
a peculiar aptness with which the old metaphor of the ship of State may be applied to the insistent question of women's suffrage. The sea-ship and the State-ship are both governed by men because men invented the use of them, and the orders of the officers of each have to be carried out by men. Women can learn navigation and seamanship as easily as men, but the manipulating sex does not appeal for direction to the other so long as it feels itself not too deficient in intelligence to direct its own actions. Women clamouring for votes because they have to obey the laws are like women- passengers clamouring for a share in the navigation because they are sailing on the ship. Women claiming them because they have estates are like women-passengers demanding a voice on the bridge because they have been allotted big state- rooms. In each case the ship is navigated for the common interest of all on board; and when trouble comes to either, as it came to the `Snevic ' and the ' Tebba,' the women and the children are not neglected, but are put first into the lifeboats
or the cradle on the am, Sir, &c., G. C.
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