The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4155, 21 June 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 1876.

Yksterday the City Council aeknov - legged the right of women who are ratepayers to vote at elections for municipal representatives, and by a majority of seven to four decided that the right should be recognised in the new Bill. Mr Councilloi Isaac, as the exponent of man's superiority, took very high ground, and zeal for the privileges of- his sex carried him beyond the boundaries of controversial courtesv. Councilloi- Isaac is an enthusiast in all he undertakes. The school to which ho belongs is not remarkable for clearness of thought, purity of expression, | or even justice to others. It may perhaps be worthily characterised by the term " cantankerous," but men of the cantankerous school are not without their uses, one of which may be to show by what little wisdom the world is governed. When it is claimed for men that they alone should choose a civic Courfcil, there should at Any rate be a show ot reason for the contention. It should be shewn that there is something in the mind or education or Rtntus of a woman that prevents her forming a correct judgment as to the fitness of particular candidates for the office of Mayor, Councillor, or Auditor. It must be remembered-that the women who will have votes are not young ladies decadent upon fathers or

mothers or relations, but those who pay I rates, and have, therefore, a direct interest in the management of City affairs. It follows as a corollary that they are either in business, or have business affairs to attend to, They must, consequently, have Undergone so much training as to be fully competent to understand what is needed for im* provement of ihe City, and as they are equally interested with all men who own property rated at a like value, if the men are entitled to have a voice in dispensing their own money, surely women should not be denied one also. Mr Isaac's arguments wore certainly somewhat of the oddest. Having arrived at the age of fifty-one he assumes to know something about women's ways, and concludes from his knowledge that the right to vote has a tendency to their degradation. We confess to having passed through a, few more years than Mr Isaac, but cannot from our experience arrive at a like conclusion. We think it quite possible that if the election were for a partner at a dance, a stroll in the country, or a flirtation, some younger and less expe,rieaced men might be preferred to Mr Isaac or ourselves, even by ladies accustomed to manage their own monetary matters and pay City rates. But that is quite a different matter from choosing a City Councillor; and as all orderly ladies aie remarkable for wish- ] ing to have a place for everything and everything in its place, we fancy they would pretty Bhrewdly, and as a rule very conscientiously, perform the duty of recording their votes for one who would worthily fit the place he aspired to. We would not, however, misrepresent Mr Isaac's objection, which is really that no woman of respectability would go to the polling booth to record her vote. We think it quite possible that many would shrink from doing so in the first instance, although we see no more reason why they should hesitate to vote at an election than go to a theatre or even to church. The privilege is something new and strikes at many of the prejudices of past ages. Conventional ideas are not easily cast aside, and there is even under the shield of the ballot too great a tendency to that riot and ruffianism that used to be the accompaniment of ail elections under open-voting in olden days. Very possibly, therefore, many women would shrink from the risk of the compliments that a set of roughs might be inclined to greet them with. But this is no argument nor a reason for not conceding a right. Why should the roughs be there ? We grant, with Mr Isaac, that it is man's duty to guard women from insult, and until men have learnt the lesson that their duty to women is not only to protect them from injury by others, but scrupulously to consider their honor to be in their keeping, that the natural moraland intellectual relation between the sqxes venture to a polling booth to record her vote for a civic councillor, it is a picture of degradation that ought to make us heartily ashamed of our social condition. Little compliment is it to the body of which he is a member if such be really the state of affairs. The very end and purpose of municipal government is that the most perfect arrangements may be made for the security of person and property, combined with the most perfect liberty of individual action. Instead of this he informs us that this liberty of action cannot be enjoyed because of the tyranny of a degraded class; and because of the existence of that class and their imaginary influence; Mr Isaac would withhold a privilege founded on justice. Surely he might at least have left it to those interested to choose whether or not they would avail themselves of the privilege conferred on them. To do wrong to save others from imaginary insults to which they may or may not be subjected if they choose to expose themselves to the risk, may be very chivalric, but at the same time it tends to cast a doubt upon the fitness of the man who utters such fallacies for the position in which he is placed.