The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1881-12-09
NO WCMEN LAYERS IN MASSA-
CHuSETTS.

that the Supreme Judicial Court had
refused the application of Mrs. Leila
]. Robinson, of Boston, for admis-
sion to the bar of Suffolk County but
the elaborate opinion written by
Chief Justice Gray has only just
been handed down. The application
was made under the statute of 1876,
which provides for the admission of
ga citizen of this Commonwealth :"
as practicing attorney. and the opin-
ion of the Chief Justice is, therefore,
devoted to the construction of the
word citizen. The opinion contains
the following: "The word citizen,
when used in its most comprehensive
sense, doubtless includes women but
a women is not, by virtue of her
citizenship, vested by the Constitu-
ton of the Commonwealth, with any
absolute right, independent of legis-
lation, TO take part in the Govern
ment, either as voter or as an Of
icer, or to be admitted to pIactice as
an attorney. Minor V. Hapgersett.
81 Wall. 1862. Bradwell " Illinois,
1e Wall. 13O. The rule that words
importing the masculine gender may
be applied to females, like all other
general rules of construction of stat
utes, must yield when such construc-
ton would be either repugnant to
the contex of the same statute. or in
consistent with the manifest intent of
the Legislature. General Statutes, c..
3,S7. The intention of the Legisla-
ture in inacting a particular statute
is not to be ascertained by interpret
ing the statute by itself alone, and ac-
cording to the mere literal meaning
of it's words" Judge Gray then
proceeds to consider the construction
of the statute in connection with the
system which it forms part, show
ing, first, that by the English com
mon law, under the degree of a
Queen, no woman married or unmar-
ried, could take part in the govern
ment of the State, and no case is
known where women was admitted
to practice as an attorney, solicitor or
barrister. The petitioner cited the
case of Anne, Countess of Pembroke,
who is alleged to have held and ex-
ercised the Office of Sheriff in the
seventeenth century, but Judge Gray
quotes Craik's Romance of the Peer
age to show that she did not habit
ually discharge the duties Of this in
herited office, and could not have
done SO without violating the well
settled law. After declaring chat
there is nothing in the action OF the
Legislature of the Judiriary of the
Commonwealth, which has any ten
dency to prove such change in the
law and usage prevailing at the time
of our separation from the mother
country, as to admit women to the
exercise of any office that concerns
the administrators of justice, His
Honor repeats the reasons for the
Courts decision in 1871 that wom-
an cannot legally be Justice Of the
Peace. Whenever the Legislature
has intended to make change in the
legal rights or capacities of women,
it has used words clearly manifesting
its intent, and the extent of the
change intended, as, for instance, in
1874, when it was enacted that no
person shall be ineligible to serve up
on school committee by reason OF
sex. AS for the Poor Debtor act, tn
only statute making any provisions
concerning attorneys that mentions
women, the Judge says that if its
provisions do not imply that the
Legislature assumed that women
should not be attorneys they certain
ly have no tendency to show that it
intended that they should. The word
" citizen" in the statute under which
the application is made is but repe-
tition OF the word originally adopt
ed with view of excluding aliens to
be admitted to- the bar who had
made the preliminary declaration OF
intention to become citizens. The re
enactment of the act relating to the
admission OF attorneys in the same
words without more, SO far as relates
to the personal qualifications of the
applicant, modified the legal rights
and capacities of women in other inn
portant respects, tends rather to re-
fnte than to advance in the theory
that the Legislature intended that
these words should comprehend wo-
men. No inference of an intention
Of the Legislature to include women
in the statutes concerning the admis-