while we feel that, much as we need more brick and mortar work to make our Mission more effective and less laborious, souls are more precious than any mere provision for bodily comfort.

We have reserved in the bank £200 from our sale of work last May, and to this we have been enabled to add £30 received as special subscriptions towards a Training Home for our young girls. By means of it we hope to take them from the associations of criminal mothers and sisters-to separate, house, clothe, and teach them; especially teaching them to know Christ, making them good and useful servants, and eventually finding employment for them in the colonies, if God will. This is our present pressing need. We do want enlarged mission premises, but we want, most of all, the young for Christ.

If English friends but knew how God has opened the door for the entrance of the Gospel, by means of the short sentence criminal class, to Irish hearts and Irish homes, they would aid the ladies of Dublin, who deeply feel that the Gospel of the Grace of God is the best cure for the anarchy and disorder of their country, and who find that in ministering to others God abundantly blesses themselves, and therefore joyfully, though often wearily and painfully, labour at the Dublin Prison Gate Mission.

MARY EDMUNDSON,

FANNY SIBTHORPE,
ELIZABETH J. EUSTACE,

Hon. Secs. of Dublin Prison Gate Mission.

22, Blackhall Place, Dublin,

1st January, 1881.

THE SOCIETY OF LADY ARTISTS.

The Times of April 1st said:

The lady artists are again to be congratulated on the continued success that attends their annual exhibitions which have now been kept up with great spirit for more than two decades. The gallery in Great Marlborough Street, which is admirably lighted, contains nearly 800 paintings in oil and water-colour, and these are not a mere omnium gatherum of good, bad, and indifferent, they represent chosen works from quite double the number sent in, together with those by the professional members, and associates, and those contributed by honorary members, among whom are to be noticed such accomplished artists as Mrs. Butler, Mrs. Higford Burr, Mrs. E. M. Ward, Mrs. Alma Tadema, and Madame Bischop. In point of active work, then, the society is in full vigour, and although there may be nothing of the most lofty and ambitious aim this year, the exhibition abounds with good average work in water-colour landscape and picturesque figure subjects, with many specimens of flower and fruit painting, and still-life, in water-colour and oils, which are above the average excellence attained by men in these branches of painting. That there should be so little to represent the higher walks of art in figure and historical subject painting is only what is to be expected in these times when it seems to be one of the inevitable things, whether in art or letters, that women must be compeers with

men and on the highest ground. The contest in this direction, therefore, is in the arena of the Academy, where we often have to acknowledge without the least indulgence the ability of the lady artists to hold their own. The society, however, takes special ground both as a school where ladies can study by themselves under such a competent professor as Mr. Fisk, and as a provident institution with a proper fund for mutual benefits in case of need, the exhibition being mainly self-supporting by the sales and admission fees. A list of some 70 ladies and gentlemen as life subscribers with an annual gift of £50 from the Royal Academy, and a legacy of £100 from the late Miss Landseer, shows that the fund for the advantage of professional members is increasing, having already reached an amount that insures the permanent utility of the society.

MISCELLANEOUS.

THE Queen has received through the hands of Princess Louisa (Marchioness of Lorne), a loyal address from the women of the Dominion of Canada, congratulating her Majesty upon her recent providential escape from danger.

MATRON AT SOUTH DUBLIN UNION.-Sister Barbara was appointed Matron of the South Dublin Union a few weeks ago. She is a deaconess of Dr. Lazerons' Institution, and had been head nurse in the Protestant wards for about a twelvemonth. Her appointment has given much satisfaction.

On

At Stockport recently, Ann Loftus, who is only 17 years of age, was presented with £10 by the magistrates for her bravery in saving the life of her little sister, a child of seven, at the recent fatal fire in that town. that occasion the girl had escaped from the burning building, but finding that her sister had been left behind, she rushed back through the flames and smoke, at the imminent risk of her life, and brought the child out in safety. Her own face was burnt in so doing.

HOME FOR LADIES.-A correspondent of Work and Leisure, calls attention to a small paying Home for Ladies recently opened at New Wandsworth. It is intended to afford help to Ladies, daily workers, or otherwise, whose incomes averaging from £40 to £60 per annum, are barely sufficient to maintain them in independence. There is a sitting room for general use, which is supplied with coals and gas, and the lady inmates pay 1s. 3d. per week for its use. They will furnish their own bedrooms, the rents of which will be

woman's

15th, 1882

5s. a week for a single room, 8s. for a double room. Attendance will be given them, and they can either arrange with the housekeeper to board them, or find their own provisions. The house is within ten minutes' walk of Clapham Junction. Inquiries should be addressed to M. C. Riversdale, Wandsworth Common. This experiment deserves to succeed.

FOREIGN NOTES AND NEWS.

ITALY.

AN Italian lady, Signora Pomba Pacchiotto, has just published a series of biographies of Italian women devoted to literature, under the title of l'Apostolato della donne.

ITALIAN LEAGUE OF FEMININE INTERESTS.-The programme of this association, lately established in Milan, is as follows:-(1.) Equality of instruction for both boys and girls. That all institutions for public instruction, which are founded or supported by direct or indirect taxation, shall be open to girls as well as to boys, on the same conditions. (2.) Municipal and political suffrage, without which women are compelled to submit to unjust laws in which their interests are not contemplated, and are systematically neglected or sacrificed. (3.) Equal admission to public offices, the individual being the sole judge of his or her personal convenience. (4.) Equal pay for men and women when officials of the same rank and category, and engaged in Government employments. (5.) Abolition of the present sanitary laws, and of all forms of coercion with respect to the public health. (6.) The revision of our juridical statutes, which all allow to be necessary, but which Parliaments hitherto, though peopled by lawyers, have not known how to initiate.-La Donna.

HUNGARY.

EDUCATION OF GIRLS.-According to the last report (1880-81) of the Minister of public instruction in Hungary, the number of girls in elementary schools was 586,709; in review schools, 155,584; in higher elementary schools, 2,474; in middle class schools, 3,865; in private schools, 4,413; in three secondary schools, 422. In training colleges were 1,283 women; and in the year 1880, 382 female teachers were certificated. The number (2,714) of certificated female teachers at present, is about the tenth part of the whole staff of teachers, which consists of 21,664 members.

The special colleges at Budapest were well frequented in 1880-81. In the Royal College of Music were 66 women; in the art training college, 8; and in the college for actors, 57 women.

AMERICA.

The Massachusetts Legislature has just passed three distinct bills relating to women, and all tending towards greater justice or humanity. The first is the bill permitting women to practice as lawyers. Col. Higginson writes:-"It is but eleven years since the attempt of Governor Claflin to make women justices of the peace brought down a storm of indignant surprise, and the Supreme Court put a speedy stop to it. Then when Miss Robinson applied for admission to the bar and submitted her admirable plea, the bar association, through one of its ablest lawyers, submitted a counter plea, in which every one could read between the lines the same indignant opposition, though of course the plea turned on technicalities. The Supreme Court again decided against the application, on technical grounds; the profession breathed more freely; and but for the persistence of Miss Robinson the whole thing would have fallen through. The very professors under whom she had studied showed no special anxiety that she should be admitted; but she pleaded her own cause before the Judiciary Committee, and with the almost unanimous aid of the press the bill went through. The logical result of this is that ultimately another bill will be passed which shall supersede the previous decision of the Supreme Court, and permit women to be justices of the peace as well as lawyers. If they are to be admitted to the profession at all, it is obviously just that they should have the right to administer oaths and take depositions for themselves, instead of running into some neighbouring lawyer's office for that purpose.

"The second bill passed provides that in case of the death of a married woman, leaving children and intestate, one half only of her personal estate shall go to the husband, instead of the whole as now. The effect of this is to reserve to her children one half of her personal property-perhaps obtained by her own earnings-instead of placing it absolutely under her husband's control. The corresponding provision in case of a husband's death is that his widow has only onethird of his personal property. The tendency of this law is therefore towards equality between the sexes; and gives perhaps as near an approach to equality as can be justly asked, so long as it is the husband, not the wife, who is legally held bound, under the law, for the support of the family. This law was doubtless obtained largely through the influence of Judge Wells, of Cambridge, chairman of the Committee on Probate and Chancery, who has become a convert, within a few years, to the principle of woman suffrage.

"The third law was passed as a measure of humanity and to promote the health of those young women employed in shops, by requiring their employers to provide them with seats. Like all such laws, it was to some extent the indirect result of the perpetual silent presence of the woman suffrage agitation upon the conscience and reason of our legislators."

THE following is a brief list of the States and Territories in which women have the vote on school matters:

California, women over 21 years of age are eligible to all educa

tional offices except those from which they are excluded by the constitution.

Colorado; women may vote at school district elections and may serve as school district officers.

Connecticut; women hold the position of school visitors.

Illinois; women are eligible to any office under the general or special school laws.

Indiana [decision of attorney-general], "women not married, nor minors, who pay taxes, and are listed as parents, guardians, or heads of families, may vote at school meetings.'

Iowa; no person is ineligible, by reason of sex, to any school office. Kansas; women are allowed to vote at school meetings, and are eligible to election as school officers.

Kentucky; widows having children of school age, or owning taxable property, may vote at school meetings.

Louisiana; women over 21 years of age are eligilbe to school offices. Maine; limits the eligibility of women to "certain" school offices. Massachusetts allows voting at school meetings for members of school committees, and the holding of school offices.

Michigan permits women to hold school offices, and when taxpayers they can vote at school meetings.

Minnesota entitles women to vote at school district meetings and to hold school offices.

Nebraska allows women to vote at school meetings on the same grounds as men.

New Hampshire; women may vote at school district meetings, and may be elected on school committees.

New Jersey; women over 21 years of age, residents of the school district, may become school trustees therein.

New York authorizes the voting at school meetings by women residents of and holding taxable property in the district.

Oregon limits the voting at district meetings to widows with taxable property and children to educate.

Pennsylvania gives women over 21 years of age the privilege of holding any school offices.

Rhode Island places women on school committees.

Vermont allows women to vote on school matters and to hold the offices of town clerk and town superintendent.

Wisconsin considers women eligible to any school office except state superintendent.

Territories, Dakota; women may vote at school meetings.

Idaho; widows or unmarried women of 21 years of age, residents of a district, and holding taxable property therein, may vote as to special district taxes.

Washington Territory; women over 21 years of age, residents of the district for threee months preceding district meetings, and liable to taxation, may vote at school meetings.

Wyoming Territory; women have a full right to the elective franchise, and to hold office.

The States and Territories, which, according to the latest issue of their school laws, do not give women any voice in school matters, are Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland,