A " PERSON " AL DEBATE.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 93, 19 November 1879, Page 2

A " PERSON " AL DEBATE.

The past week will be marked as a memorable one m the present. Parliamentary Session, anrl were the spefches made m committee retailed by its TfcewrrHng Angels, the thirteenth number of JTansard would be well worth reading. The question of extending the franchise to the fair sex was before the House, and as the Stingers' Q-allevy was on each Slight crammed with youth and beauty ; fat, fair, and forty ; and stern, scraggy, and sixty, the chivalrous senators were almost slopr>y with gush. There are t-wova^hei' suggestive facts m connection with the debate, and those are that while all the legislators who ranged themselves on .the side of Eve's daughters were men with bo mean opinion of their power.6 of captation, it $?as also noticed that while their opponents never glanced toward the Ladies' Gallery, their champions when npon their legs (and when off them, for that matter) turned their back upon their i Speaker, and sought to catch brighter eyes. So punctilious was the House not to wound the tender sensibilities of its fair protegees, that the time-honored title of " woman " was eschewed, and the boon of the franchise was actually bestowed upon every " man'" and " person," when some silent lever was set to work, "and the resolution was rei scinded by 31 to 3Q. The faijee is now played out, and at the risk of being dubbed a crabbed old hunks, I must say I am glad that the sex has been, saved from tho very equivocal honor so nigh being thrust upon it. The Swan of Avon, m his " Measure for Measure," puts excellent advice into the mouth of Angelo when he warns Isabel to " Be that you are. That. i3, a woman j' if- you be more, you're none." • Had the law aa at first passed boen allowed to stand, imagine the " persons "• on the day "of election, inflited with excitement and the other exhiliratine inducements to voting thrown m the way of- " free and independent," and I imagine — whether you be father, brother, husband, or sweetheart — ■ you will feel thankful for the loss. Qn a n average, ths oratorical tnp was turned on fcViat particular subjpet four hours a night for four successive sitliug.s, so that at the rate of £30 nn hour, the tribute to youth and beauty by gushing senators has cost the country £J.BO.