VOTES FOR FAMILIES.
[To ma Eons or THE "Sersysma."] SIR,—Have your readers noticed the daring proposal of IL Rouleaux-Dagage in the French Chamber, only dismissed by 219 votes against 290, for better representation in France? His own summary of his proposal is as follows :— " Every person enjoying French nationality, independently of age and sex, possesses the right of the suffrage as a corollary of his or her-civil personality. A father of a family exercises this right for himself end for all persons legally placed under his civil authority; that is to say, on behalf of his legitimate wife and his minor children of both muss if legitimate or (if legally recognised) illegitimate."
The facts in France are that of a population of thirty-eight millions, only eleven millions have the vote under manhood suffrage. More than this, of the eleven million of voters, seven millions were either bachelors or had not more than two children. They represented, in fact, only sixteen millions of French people. The other four millions, fathers of families exceeding two children, represented twenty-three millions; that is to say, some nineteen millions of women tied children.
We have given votes to wives, which means that if the wife votes differently from her husband, the pair practically cancel one another's votes. We do not recognise that a father has a higher claim to the suffrage than a bachelor. We allow a double vote in the case of University voters who have also the ordinary suffrage. We recognise education but not parentage as increasing civic responsibility; the individual rather than the family. Yet all civic life is an extension of family regent-
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