ABSTRACT
Of the many fields of labour open to women, I wish to speak of but one, a sphere especially in need of honest, thorough workers. Mr. Goschen has said, "there is no labyrinth so intricate as the chaos of our local laws." Would women but inform themselves upon municipal and parish affairs, they might be the benefactors of their generation. And nowhere could they better apply their organizing faculty in this chaos than as Guardians of the Poor, or Members of School Boards. Pauperism and elementary education are the most perplexing problems of modern times; and yet it is the exception to find highly cultivated men in local governing bodies. The best class of men hesitates to enter upon arduous duties with which little or no honour is connected. Now I think women are morally braver than men, and that what they are once convinced they ought to do they will accomplish at any cost. But in advocating their entrance into public life, let us keep before our minds that a different type of woman is required for an official position, than for membership in private organizationR for relief. Women elected to public offices, unlike those interei;ted in charities, must cultivate exact technical knowledge, business habits, submission to the final decision of a majority, the use of argument not indirect influence, and must render strict account of their stewardship to a larger and
watchful constituency. In a too enthusiastic advocacy of the employment of our sex, we often forget the wise words of Plato, "there is no function peculiar to a woman in the management of a state." Everyone isprjmarily an individual, and one's fitness for public usefulness is not dependent upon the accident of sex.
