The granite drinking-fountain which has been erected on the Thames
Embankment by women, in gratitude to the late Mr. Fawcett for his services to the cause of women, was unveiled on Tuesday by Lady Goldsmi& in the presence of some fifty other ladies. Lady Goldsmid delivered a short address, describing the late Postmaster-General's great exertions on behalf of the public, and especially on behalf of women. She referred with some irony, not to say bitterness, to the "masculine conviction that women neither could nor should trouble themselves about public or political matters. They had their households, their husbands; their children to look after and attend to." So far as we know, the "masculine conviction" thus described exists only in very narrow minds. The very fact that women have their husbands and children to attend to should be a reason for their taking a deep interest in public and political matters, and exerting a great influence over them, not for neglecting them. But it is quite another question what the nature of that influence should be, and how it can be best exerted. For our own part, we do not think it would be increased, but diminished, by forcing women into those positions which must be and must remain eminently combative and militant.
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