The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-01-19 00:00:00

MRS. FAWCETT ON WDDIEN'S
SUFFRAGE.

Udder the heading " Womee's Suffrage' an the,
Franchise Bill," Mr. Henry Fawcett contributes an
article to the Pall Mel Giceite, from which we make'
the following extract:—
It le said sometimes that- women themselves-do not
wish for the perliamentery suffrage: a similar arg,u
ment has been used against every extension of the
suffrage- and against almost every great reform.
It VVO.se said that the slaves did not wish to be free, that
Noecomfoerniats did not wieh for the repeal of .the
, Tests and Corporation Acts; It is an old story.
l'heee who say women do not wish for the suf—
frage are probably guided by the opinions of
ledies whom they meet in society ;but surely the•
last t..:,f-ral election was a sufficient proof that
"society " and " the English people" are not Identi.-
eel expressions, It cannot be denied that hundreds of'
thousands of women do wish-for- the Parliamentary'
suffrage, that they petitioned Parliament again and.
again to grant it to them; a smaller number devote'
a great part of their lives in working to promote it,,
and make real end deeply-felt sacrifices for it, Nearly.
all the distinguished women of the present time have'
wished for it and expressed their desire for it. Mrs.
Somerville, Mies Martineau, Miss Florence Nightin-
gale are the first three names that occur tomeamon gthe
women who have made their names known in science,
literature, and philanthropy who have been from the'
outset of the movement cordial supporters of women's
suffrege. Corning down to the humble women of
every-day life, it is found that a very large propor-
tion now wish women-householders to have votes. A
few months ago 700 women-householders in Hyde,
near Manchester, were canvassed to sign a petition
in favour of women's suffrage, and of these 700 the
petition was signed by 608. A straw shows the way
the wind is blowing, and another little fact may be
mentioned in this connection. A young women's
debating society in Cambridge lately discussed
women's suffrage, and rejected a resolution con-
demoing it by 56 votes to 13. There- are, of
course, some women who do not wish for votes
the majority of these do not perhaps possess the
qualification that would enable them to vote; but
even if they do, no one wishes for a law to
compel women to vote. I have sometimes heard
men speaking with much satisfaction of having half
a dozen votes in different parts of the country and
never having used one of them. The type will pro-
bably be found among both sexes. But the women who
do not want votes are not so zealous in their renuncia-
tion of what others want as were the Dissenters who
petitioned Parliament against the repeal of the Five
Mile Act and the Conventicle Act. Their petitiott
was paraphrased by Burke in words that will not
eaAly be forgotten: "We, say the Dissenters who
petition against Dissenters, enjoy every species of in-
dulgence we can wish for; and, as we are content, we
pray that others who are not content may -meet with
no relief." Some of us are not content; we are asking
for freedom and for representation on exactly the same
grounds on which our fathers and forefathers asked for
it and won it.

MR. MUk4DELLA ON EDUCATION IN "I
SCOTLAND.
Mr. Mundella, M.P., In addressing a public meeting
In the City.hall, Glasgow, observed that the Educe.
tinn Act of 1872 had worked in Scotland great
educational changes. The vital differenoes between
the etete of things before the passing of that Act and
the state of things at the present moment was that
before the passing there was a noble ideal, a grand
tredition of the Scottish nation, but the nation had
outgrown it, and the facts did not correspond with the
ideal. If ever any man bad a noble aspiration before
him it was the great reformer, John Knox, who laid
down that it was the duty of a Christian nation to
educate every child in that nation, in every parish and
borough of that nation, to the extent of that child's
ability, and John Knox went further. He said
" You must provide for the poor, clever child, so that
the ladder which has been set down shall reach from
the gutter to the university, that the State may have
the full benefit of the child's ability, and that th
child may have the full benefit of that intellect with
which God has endowed it." That grand idea was
first attempted to be carried out In connection with the
Church bu 11 1696, a asemerable period of Scottish
hietory, one of the last acts of the Scottish Parliament
was to embody it in a statute. Passing on to speak ef
the working of both the English and Scotch Acts, Mr.
Mundell& devoted some remarks to the absenteeism of
a large number of children; and in this connection he -
alluded to the exemption made in favour of childrer
who had passed the fifth standard. In many of th_
Glasgow schools he had mean clever children of ten
years in the fifth standard. It was for Scotch men
and Scotch women to say whether their children, be-
cause they were well taught and had quick brainr,
were to pass out of school at ten or eleven years of age.
(Cries of "No,' and one voice, "Yes.") The man
who said " Yes," Mr. Mundelle observed, must be a
southener like himself; the doctrine was a southern
one, it was net a northern one, he hoped. It
sreent putting a premium upon the neglect of the _
clever children, who, when they left school at ten,
forgot a great deal of what they had learned. Speak.
log of the general prescreen of Sootland under the Act
of 1872, Mr. Mundell& alluded to the satisfactory in. -
crew, within the peat few years in the number ol
students in the higher subjects, and he expressed a
belief that the Act would do for the national eharacter
what the Act of 1696 did in its day, although net on
the same scale, for Scotland was then alone in educe.
tional progress, whereas new all the nations of Europe
were full of vivacity and evergy on the question of the
education of the people. Mush, however, had yet to
be done in beth England and Scotland, and he would
lay before the meeting a few suggestions of what
seemed needful to be done, In the first place, we
must begin with the lowest rung of the ladder; we
must begin with the gutter children. There was
remarkable evidence in the state of things in the
great metropolis of the frightful condition of tens
of thousands of our population. We had social
questions to solve that we must look in the face
bravely, and mien we dealt with them summate
fully they would deal with us; and where the
masses were permeated with ignorance, pauperism, and
crime parents, echoed board otiloeve and schoolmasters
came too late. Children in such circumetanees were
beyond our reach. God only could reach the condition
of tens of thousands of those poor people, neglected as
they had been by society, and sunk ws they were in
Intemperance and depravity. If we would create a
better state of things we must begin with the children.
We must insist upon the discharge of mental duty,
and, failing the discharge of that duty by the parents,
we must nowise the fact that the child has some
rights as well as the parent. (Cheers.) A Royal
Commissien bad tat upon this subject for the last
two or three years, and the right hop, gentleman said
be looked anxiously fir the results it had obtained.
If society was to be saved, he went on, we must save
the children, and to do this we must begin with
truant schools and day industrial schools, and we must
extend the reformatory system. Hs did not venture to
say to what extent that would have to be done, but he
was quite sure it would have to be done to some
extent, and he hoped the enlightened people of Scot-
land would support him in his contention that some.
thing more must be done to snatch the poor children
from the misery that awaited them. Mr. Mundella
further went on to say, that a great deal more could
be extracted from the Act of 1872 than the mere teach.
ing of the subjects of the Code. He had noticed that
for some time past that there gemmed to be in the
public mind of Seotland a sense of dissatisfaction with
the working of the Act, so far as it referred to
secondary education. There was an Incompleteness
about that system as now earned out, which to the
real friends of education was a subject of great con-
cern. He conformed that, to his mind, no educational
system was complete which did not provide the ladder
whereby a poor, clever child could bridge the gulf
between the elementary school and the university. In
this matter they would have to push the School
Boards. He was afraid too many of the School
Boards had got the fear of the ratepayers before
their eyee. The right hon. gin Woman next dealt with
the better provision which would have to be made for
the education of girl.; and, in oonclusion, he terehed
upon the question of technical education, contending
that it we were to maintain our national supremacy we
must offer greater facilities for the technical education
of our population. He instaneed what foreign
countries were doing in this matter, and
pointed to
several branches of trade in which we were 'being out.
stripped by French and German manufacturers
through the better tehhnical eduoatien of tbate
workmen.

On Saturday evening Frederick Macdonald, 14,
brass finisher, died at the Walsall Cottage Hospital
under very painful circumstances. On the previous
night, through destitution, ha went t sleep upon a
breeze heap, and was asphyxiated and poisoned by the
fumes of sulphur,
The inquest on a farmer who was found drovrned in
accidentallywit
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AGRICULTURAL Prionracre.--:The Maria of M.
day, in a review of the British corn trade during
last week, says :—Winter sowing has been completed
in most parts under favourable auspices, and tha
generalagricultural outlook is satisfactory. Tha
young wheat plant mostly looka well. So far there
are no oonaplaints, and from an agricultural point of
view the season up to the present has been a success.
The acreage curler wheat is larger than during the
pat year or two.

PROOF Poiiirrive.—Mand.—Did you. enjoy your
holiday at the Blinkfords? Auguststs.—l stippoEe I
as I've hall a vie/ent indieeetism ever itince.—Funny
Faits.