Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-28
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN ENGLAND.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN ENGLAND. The activity of those strongminded women who have desire to stand side by side with the politicians and the male voters at the polls is not confined to America, for woman's nature is pretty much the same the world over. There are Susan B. Anthonys in England as well as America, and they are about as lively portion of the English popula- tion as any that come under the notice of people on this side, always excepting of course those who are engaged in the ad- justment of the Irish problem. Several letters recently published in the London Times have attracted attention in this country as being fairly representative exposition of the position taken by both sides on the question of woman suffrage.
 The first letter is from MT GOldwin Smith and takes severe and decided ground against the extension of the franchise to women, and the other is a sharp and spicy reply from Mrs Fawcett, one of the leaders in the women's cru sade for the ballot. MT Smith holds that women, for all purposes of practical training in affairs, are in the position of the least favorably placed portion of the male sex that they are not of the stand up fight with circumstances which best develop the practical intelligence, and that the overwhelming majority of women must always be placed in this position. In other words, he holds that would admit to the control of imperial and diplomatic affairs persons who have little or no training to direct them, and who have no right to undertake re- sponsibility the results of which they could not squarely meet. 'Home," says MT Smith, ''is the woman's sphere, and happily it is not a political school though female suffrage will almost cer- tainly make it a scene of contention. Law rests at bottom upon force, and force is wide. This is the reason why women have not made the laws.' In reply to her antagonist Mrs Fawcett points to the experience of woman suf- frage in America as justifying its adop- tion in England. She shows that in Toronto, where MT Smith lives, and in Boston at the recent municipal election women have been a helpful factor in the vote, and she thinks that if the moderate
 kind of woman suffrage now advocated in England were adopted, it would bring the political position of women into line with the changes which have already | taken place in their social and educa- tional status.
 MT Smith hews close to the truth when he points in triumph to the fact that women have not made the laws of the world and could not have made them, for beyond their limited sphere they are incapacitated by their emotional nature to exercise the impartial judgment that is required on practical statesmanship Those women who are most devoted to the proper functions of womanhood who look upon the sacred duties of mother hood and connubial partnership as the highest privileges to claim their fealty, are not the ones who are strenuous in pushing their claims of political enfran- chisement. They find in the limits of their proper sphere motive that is in consistent with the pursuit of political knowledge, at least in that broad sense, that applies to circumstances beyond their immediate surroundings Until women shall demand more generally than they have yet done the right of franchise the movement will make little headway among the lords of creation. And there is little evidence, beyond the periodic outbreaks of the strong-minded Anthonys and Fawcetts, that there is any general desire for the suffrage on the part of the female sex either in Eng land or America