It seemed to her, then, and in every memory of it afterwards, that he brought in with him that burst of sunshine and of music. His eyes met hers with a quiet smile, as if they two had been at work together all along in the hop-field.

What a pleasant afternoon service that was! When it was over, they strayed awhile among the long aisles and groves of pillars, where Thomas-à-Becket had lain bleeding and dying on the stone pavement, and then where Edward the Black Prince lies at rest, his coat of mail hanging overhead, unused from age to age.

When the old man was ready to close the cathedral doors, they all went home together, Dolly happy to find her dear Prince outside the door, and to show him to grandfather, who had heard from her about the dog before, and a little about Clayton, too. But to read over again the old, old story of young love in the face of the young man, and in the sweet blue eyes of Maggie, was entirely new and unexpected; and the good old man sat smoking by the fire, for already the evenings were chilly, and thought to himself how her mother's face had worn that look when the young man from London came to see her, and farther back, her mother's mother, his own young bride, had a smile like that in her eyes when he came. "Ah, well!" he sighed, with a tender smile and a dewy light in his kind old eyes.

Maggie's Sundays were bright days after that, and the dull ache was gone out of the work days which came between. And in the spring, there was made a new sweet home in a snug farm-house, out among the oasts and hop-fields, for John and Maggie, and the old grandfather, and bright-faced little Dolly.

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE.

BY MRS. E. M. KING.

(Paper read at Dublin at the time of the Meeting of the British Association.)

T is a curious thing that in all ages one set of men have been obliged to ask for their political rights and privileges from another set of men; that those without have always been obliged to come, hat in hand, to those within the political circle, to beg to be allowed to gain admittance there.

In former ages this asking was of a somewhat violent kind, and the demand for entrance was made with blows as well as words, but we have pretty well passed this violent period, and now confine our method of asking to words only, trusting that the frequent importunity of our request may work for us what sudden and strong action did in former times.

In those past ages when political rights were violently demanded, and violently opposed, women had no chance of obtaining a hearing, but now that words are substituted for blows, we women find that we, too, have tongues and other organs of speech; that we have a certain amount of mental power to enable us to judge of what we require, and to advance intelligible arguments for our request, and also an amount of patience enabling us to wait and look forward to the time when the solvent power of words shall have melted down the barriers of prejudice which at present bar our progress.

For myself personally I must say I always feel rather humiliated whenever I have to come forward to beg for this small political privilege, called the suffrage; and if it was for myself alone, men might keep it to themselves for ever before I would ask for it. But I

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am bound to consider others before myself in this matter; to think of those who are not in the same fortunate position of independence as myself; to think of those who have to work hard for their living, whose lives are full of care and suffering, which we think (whether rightly or wrongly) we could do something to mitigate, if we only had some small share of political power.

I can also reason away this feeling of humiliation by thinking in this way. This gradual widening of the boundary of electoral rights, this careful guarding of them from within, and this earnest seeking of them from without work together for the true well-being of the nation; both sides are learning gradually to accept and fulfil their new position and their new duties; and so throughout the struggle and the change, order always accompanies progress.

This plan of action seems to me so much better than that in which a nation seeks at once, as in a Republic, to enter upon a trial of complete self-government before the majority of the people have practised anything of the difficult art of individual self-government, or have attained to any knowledge of the complicated science of political government.

Therefore I am not ashamed to ask for this political privilege which it is in the power of men either to grant or to deny us, knowing, as I do, that I am following the same path which so many have trodden before me, that I am travelling along the same line of continuity which leads back to the very beginning of our national life, and that I am helping to work out, to the full end, the aim of our national constitution.

On the whole I am content with the progress which this Women's Suffrage question has made in the country, though, no doubt, it seems desperately slow to those who for many years have laboured to advance it. Still we must be patient, trusting that success will crown our efforts in the same way that it has crowned the efforts of other classes who have worked in a similar direction.

Not that I am so much of an optimist as to imagine that things will go right of themselves whether we work to make them go right or

not; far from it. There is a point in the life of every individual, of every species, and of every nation, when apparently some new and special effort is called for in order to enable the individual, the species, or the nation, to meet the requirements of the surroundings in which it is placed. Those who answer to this call spring forward with renewed powers of life, and prolong and extend their powers both for themselves and their descendants. While, on the contrary, those who fail to meet the new demand made upon them, inevitably fall back in the struggle for existence, and they and their descendants are doomed to ultimate extinction.

It has been wisely and truly said by someone that the attempt at social or national advance in the present day, without the aid of the female half of society, is like a man trying to work with one of his hands tied behind his back. Now, here is a recognition of what I believe to be a truth, that in this stage of civilisation, it is in the exercise of the right influence and legitimate power of women that the renewed health, strength, and vital power of the nation depends. I believe we have come, or are coming, to that point in the life of the social body when the female element in it must be utilised to perform some new and special work required by the social organism; that from them must be developed that new force, or rather new direction of force, by which alone the nation will be able to meet the requirements of the present age. But failing the new development, or new direction of force, failing this utilisation of thisat present-unorganised element in the social body, I believe that the progress of the race has reached its limits, that further advance is impossible, that retrogression must commence, and that the turning point in our history is come.

These grave predictions may seem ridiculous to many. Some think that the fall of nations is as inevitable as their rise, and if the turning point in our history is come-come it must. Others think that such a small thing as women's influence could neither make nor mar the fate of a nation.

Looking at the history of other animals we find that some species

who exist now have existed almost as far back as we can find trace of animal life, while others have had but a short period of existence, the reason for this difference in the time which each species has kept itself upon the earth seeming to be that one was capable of adapting itself to its surroundings, and the other not capable. There is apparently,

therefore, no necessary limit to the life of any species or race, if they are, and as long as they are, capable of meeting the requirements of their position.

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There is also another fact which strikes us, and that is, the very minute advantage, or very minute disadvantage, which has caused one class of animals to advance, and another class to retrograde. may, then, fearlessly repeat that this small thing springing out of women's influence in the political body, this small step of granting the suffrage to a few women, may be that one minute advantage fitting us to cope more successfully with modern surroundings, and which, being handed down to our descendants, to be enlarged and improved upon as it may seem to them right and wise so to do, may ensure the future progress of the race.

It may be said that we have women's influence already. Most certainly we have, and I have even the vanity to think that but for women's influence our country would not be in the position she now holds. But we want that influence brought to bear, not only upon individuals, but organised and incorporated with that of men as a recognised part or motive power of the body politic.

My reason for considering this a pressing necessity is that individual influence, except to the few men of exceptionally powerful minds, is becoming less and less every day; and in consequence there is a greater demand for united action, and a greater need for it.

In almost every department of life government by united action is displacing individual effort, individual influence, and individual will. The schoolmasters have got hold of us, and want to rule us all from an educational point of view. The doctors want to get hold of us, to rule us all from a sanitary point of view. Now Mr. Easton (President of the Mechanical Section) wants to get hold of us, to rule us all from