THE POLITICAL WOMAN

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 111, 4 February 1920, Page 4

THE POLITICAL WOMAN

The letters of Mi.<-s Emily Eden, daughter of the first Lord Auckland, and sister of the second, who was Consecutively President of the. Board of Trade, First Lord, of the Admiralty in Lord Grey's Reform Administration, and afterwards, in 1835, Governor-General of India, should make very instructive and aniusiiur rcadinsr. The "Saturday Westminster" draws a very interesting parallel between the modern political woman and those of a bygone day, of whom Miss' Eden mav be instanced as a brilliant exnmnlej The writer says:—"ln spite-of hflr essentially political life, we gather from her' very fascinating letters that she really look little interest in it. Sho was far moro thrilled by little homely incidents and personalities connected with her friends. Politics was a game-' full of interest and the natural jo)) of her-menfolk. For sheer delightful inconsetiuence in regarding a great political crisis (hi.; can scarcely bo beaten: 'The, division was a phasing surpriso to me. T had been awake since four that nisrhr. and at last had settled that Georu'e (Lord Auckland) must have comhome and gono to bed, and that nobody had voted for us, but just the Cabinet Ministers, and then I:heard the housedrcii' banc, and knew by tho way ho rushed unstairs how it was. Now that it is over, and that our enemies have not triumnhed, I am left with a sort of wish—that is, not a wi4. but an idea— that it mi'.'hl; havo ended (just for fun) Ihe other way. I should so like to know what would have comd next. I! is all so like a game of chess, and I was anxious to know; how Lord Grey would eet out. of check. ... I see we are !■• have longer holidays, which makes me doto' uiioii them all, both Greys and Snlisb'urvs. for so arranging it." "And that win the final division in. the House of Lords on the great Reform Bill of -1832. "Miss Eden had, to judge from these letters of licrs. some very charming and remarkable friends, from-Lord Clarendon to Pamela Fitzgerald, daughter of the. ill-fated Lord Edward: Miss Eden had a great objection to dull old gentlemen. 'I shall continue to think,' she writes, 'a visit to Cha'tswo'rth a very creat trouble. We have now made a rule lo accent one invitation oul'of two. Wo go (hero with the best intentions, wishincr to be amused, liking the people we. meet there, loyal and well-affected lo the Kins:, of the Peak himself, supuorlcd b\-. the knowledge that in the eyes of the neighbourhood wo are covering ourselves with glory by frequenting the ureal, house: but.'wilh all these helps we havo never been able to slay above two davs'there without finding'change of air absolutely necessary.' We feel that wo should have liked Miss Eden. "But'we shall have to be quick if we aro to meet any more old ladies of her Ivne. These old ladies, to whom poli. ties was a sort of intellectual countryhouse cricket, performed for the benefit, mill entertainment of their families, under the admiring gaze of the local yokels, ladies whor-9 dinner-parties somelimes made political history, are. no more. Politics have migrated to the office and fhe couiiting-houso, and the women have L'one there after them. The woman administrator or private secrets rv now. has moro inlinence Ihiin Hi" tactful hostess, who collected the 'right' people and left them to their port, and their conspiracies. AVomen nowadays do not leave anything behind them, neb I her tho port nor tho plots. We have in coußcnuence lost something. On. tho other hand, we have gained a great dearmore. Man may have lost an amanuensis, but he has gained an equal and valuable collaborator; lost a plaything but. gained a playmate."