The Conseil de Prefecture threw out that plea by laying down in its judgment that "the obligation to pay taxes was in no way correlative to the enjoyment or the exercise of political rights; that the law of April 21, 1832, had determined that taxes had to be paid by every French inhabitant and by every foreigner of both sexes enjoying his rights; and that the words 'enjoying his rights' were only used in a special and restricted sense."

In 1885, women presented themselves and, being rejected, made an appeal to the Court of Cassation. Their claim was based upon a comprehensive nature of woman suffrage; based upon the ancient Latin formula, signifying "a reference in speech to the male sex is generally applied to both sexes.” And, further, that the government proviso of March 8, 1848, had given so ample a meaning to the term "universal suffrage" that it could not be intended to exclude women from it, when its exercise had even been conferred upon freed slaves.

The Court delivered a judgment containing the following:

"Whereas, in accordance with the terms of Article VII of the Civil Code the exercise of civil rights is independent of the qualification of citizen, which alone confers the exercise of political rights, and is only acquired in conformity with constitutional law; whereas if women enjoy civil rights in the mode de

termined by law, according to whether they are married or single, no constitutional legal provision confers upon them the enjoyment, and, consequently, the exercise of political rights; whereas the enjoyment of these rights is a condition essential for enrollment on the electoral lists; whereas the constitution of November 4, 1848, in substituting 'universal' for 'partial' suffrage from which women were excluded, only intended to confer on citizens of the male sex who hitherto alone had been invested with such right, the right of electing representatives of the country to the several elective offices established by the Constitutions and statutes, etc., etc.

"Women not being expressly named in electoral legislation which 'speaks of Français, not of Françaises, of citoyens, not of citoyennes' are eo ipso debarred from the electoral franchise."

The orator of the Constituante, speaking on the subject, said that exclusion of woman from political power was one of the principles "preëxistent in the minds of all French people."

NOTE.-From time to time strong efforts to secure the suffrage for women have been made in France, but so far without success, it having been defeated as late as 1913.

IV

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN ENGLAND

IR EDWARD COKE (1557-1633), the great authority of English jurisprudence, said: "In

many cases multitudes are bound by acts of Parliament which are not parties to the elections of knights, citizens or burgesses: as all they that have no freehold, or have freehold in antient demesne, and all women having freehold or no freehold."

The Chief Justice in 1739 said: "I do not know that it has ever been determined that women had not a right of voting, and whether they have not anciently voted for members of Parliament, either by themselves or by attorney, is a great doubt.

"But the courts unanimously decided that women had no longer the right to vote if they had ever possessed it."

The French Revolution came near convulsing England, and-until it became a frenzy in France-its principles and spirit, like an infection, fevered many. William Goodwin, in "Political Justice," reproduced the ideas of Rousseau-perhaps carrying them beyond their original intent,-while his wife, Mary Wollstonecroft, wrote one of the strongest arguments

for Woman Suffrage ever made, in her "Vindication of the Rights of Woman."

"Revolutionary Clubs," such as those in France, were started in England, and some of them invented the word "citizeness" as an equivalent for "citoyenne." But the French Revolution exploded, and all English sympathizers with it, and its principles encountered an overthrowing reaction. But in popular movements in the more recent organizations which abounded in England after 1815, women were very active.

In 1867 appeals were made to the highest courts of England against more than 5,000 women who had appealed against the decisions of the revising barristers. The Lord Chief Justice declared that the Act of 1832, which confined the franchise in boroughs to male persons, had sanctioned the exclusion of women; that if the legislators of 1867 wished to introduce so important an alteration as the extension of the franchise to women, it is difficult to believe that they would have done it by using the word "man." The Lord Justice declared therefore that he (the legislator of 1867) used the word "man" in the same sense as "male persons " in the former act; that it amounted to the express provision in conformity with Lord Brougham's Act, that every man, as distinguished from women, possessing the qualification, was to have the franchise. The other judges concurred with His

Lordship's opinion, but further affirmed "that the exclusion of women from the suffrage was not on account of their intellectual inferiority but from a desire to promote decorum; in this way it was rather a privilege and a homage paid to the sex, 'honestatis privilegium,' as the great Selden remarked."

A bill for granting Woman Suffrage was introduced into Parliament in 1870. The affirmative was ably maintained and the negative also. But the measure was rejected. Several similar attempts have been made since that date, but the project has not met with success.