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On behalf of the Council of our College, I have the pleasure of transmitting to you, as below, the Resolution of grateful acknowledgment which they have entered on their books; and I have the honour to be, dear Ladies, your faithful and obedient servant,

EDWD. BAINES,

Chairman of Council.

The following resolution was, on the motion of Sir Edward Baines, Chairman of the Council, seconded by Mr. F. Lupton, Chairman of the Finance Committee, unanimously passed at a meeting of the Council of the Yorkshire College on the 9th of November :

The Council gratefully acknowledge the receipt by the Treasurer of the sum of one thousand guineas, being a munificent contribution from ladies of Yorkshire to the Building Fund.

This appreciation of the recognition by the College of the equal rights of women to enter its class-rooms is most gratifying to the Council. The lists of students have, for several years, included many women; and it is most satisfactory that not only is the number of these students an increasing one, but that women have obtained in competition both scholarships and numerous class-prizes.

The Council tender their hearty thanks to all donors to the ladies contribution, and especially to those ladies who have so zealously worked for its success.

MEDICAL WOMEN FOR INDIA.

At a Meeting held by the National Indian Association at 11, Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, W., on November 28th, under the presidency of Surgeon-General HUNTER, a Paper was read by Dr. FRANCES HOGGAN, "On Medical Women for India." She treated the subject specially with reference to the condition of Indian women, and their need to have medical aid presented. to them in an acceptable form through physicians and surgeons of their own sex, and touched also on the question of native medical women, and of the difficulties, removable by Government, which now lie in the way of their studies. Extracts were read from letters received from influential friends of India, and from Indian medical men in high positions, in reference to Dr. FRANCES HOGGAN'S article in the Contemporary last August, and also a proposal made to her from Bombay to raise a fund for sending out there, on guaranteed and fixed salaries, two or three qualified women doctors.

Mrs. HOGGAN said that medical women were most urgently needed in India, not merely for their profes

sional knowledge and skill, but also as the most powerful agents for raising the tone and the lives of women in that great empire. There was now in India a growing demand for women's attendance upon women, especially in cases of childbirth. Government should, she urged, be most earnestly entreated to make provision for the study of medicine by women, for by so doing they would save the lives of whole multitudes. What was needed was a new medical department, as a part of the public service in India, managed by women and responsible only to some high officer of State, working in harmony with the existing civil medical service, but co-ordinate with and not subordinate to it. Nothing but the merest fringe of the native population had been reached by the highly-organised medical service and the network of dispensaries throughout the country and town. Opinion might, perhaps, be divided as to the duty of Government to place medical men and women on something like an equal footing in India. It could hardly be divided as to the duty of insisting that State-maintained or State-aided medical institutions should no longer refuse to provide medical teaching for such medical students as might desire it, whether these were male or female. To maintain this would be contrary to the spirit which Government had always shown in dealing with Indian educational or social questions. In the discussion which followed, Mrs. GARRETT ANDERSON remarked that, looking at the matter from an English point of view, there was certainly some considerable field for English medical women in England; but a very important question to her mind was what sort of practice would be obtained by English women in India, and whether it would be paid or unpaid. Plenty of unpaid practice could be obtained by medical women in England, and the great thing was that a medical woman going to India should be able to obtain a good practice and make a reasonable income. The establishment of a guarantee fund would be a very good thing and extremely desirable for the success of the movement. Mr. STansfeld, M.P., asked, Why should the Government be less disposed to employ medical women in India than they

were in England? He advised the association to apply to Lord Ripon and to Lady Ripon for their aid and support in the matter. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, Mrs. Heckford, Ameer Syed Ali, barrister-at-law, Calcutta, and others joined in the discussion.

BELFAST HARBOUR BILL.

The revised sketch of a new Bill which is to be brought forward for the management of Belfast Harbour was discussed on November 21st, by the Harbour Commissioners. In it is expressly provided that "no person is disqualified for being registered and entitled to vote under this Act by reason only of being a female." It is well known that this right of voting for the election of the Belfast Harbour Commissioners is one of the very few local franchises shared by ladies in Ireland.

WORK OF WOMEN GUARDIANS.

The substitution of domestic life and family discipline for the monster schools in which of late years it has been the fashion to train pauper children is one of the points that we should naturally expect to occupy the attention of woman guardians. Although the large school was an improvement in some respects upon the workhouse life which preceded it which ended in the early demoralisation of the children, it has been clearly demonstrated that the drill and monotonous discipline rendered necessary by the large numbers congregated there, does not tend to foster self-reliance, energy, nor even the most ordinary knowledge of the details of common life. We alluded before to the successful efforts made by Miss Whitehead in Lambeth to persuade the guardians to adopt boarding out-the happiest life, when it can be managed, for any little pauper child. She has continued her work by endeavouring to cause the substitution of the cottage system for the new schools which are to be erected by the Lambeth Board at Norwood.

She proposed that they should provide extra accommodation for 300 children, on the Cottage system, the cottages to cost £600 each, as by this means they could provide extra accommodation for the 300 children for £9,000. Each cottage would contain two sitting rooms, five or six bed rooms, with four beds each, and for each cottage there would be a master and matron. That was the motion she wished to

bring before them, and if they adapted their present buildings it would provide all they required, and that could be done by turning the present wooden building, which might be dangerous for sleeping accommodation, into a dining hall, and the present dining room into workshops; they could add a floor to their present schools, and provide additional dormitories. She had not many words to add tɔ these suggestions, which formed in fact the motion, except to say that the great success which was spoken of in connection with the schools was owing very much to their detached and broken up condition. Miss HOPKINS, a friend of hers, had expressed an opinion to that effect, stating that the character of the building had enabled the children to be treated like children rather than as machines, which was the case in large barrack-like schools. It seemed a pity to do anything to alter the present satisfactory state of affairs, and they would do so if they adopted the plans already agreed to. They ought, in spending other people's money, to be careful to get the very best result that could be had for the outlay. She, therefore, moved that they adopt the Cottage system for 300 children, and the alteration of the present buildings in the way suggested.

Mr. MANN said, he hoped to see the boarding-out system more fully carried out, and if that was dore, they would not require to expend very large sums of money in huge buildings, but the cottage system could be used so that they could provide for the children as they might require; the cost of management might be a little greater, but the advantages of the cottage houses, especially for infants outweighed the small additional cost, and in the end, by adapting the present buildings they would certainly not have to expend so much money. He felt that the right thing had been proposed by Miss WHITEHEAD, and it was a pleasure and satisfaction to him that he had been permitted to second the motion.

Miss LORD thanked Mr. MANN for his fatherly speech, and she asked that they should give the question a fatherly and motherly consideration. She had said before, and she did not think it could be said too often, that with the people in the workhouse, little more could be done for them in the way of reclaimir g them, but she did not believe any one entertained that feeling in respect to the children. They all believed they were on the point of being moulded into something and they were a sacred trust confided to them, and she asked them to remember this. Her own heart, and those of her lady-colleagues, were full of the responsibility and the sacredness of the trust, and it was in that spirit that she spoke to them that day. The members of the Board said very truthfully that the plans which had been approved had received very careful and full consideration, and they bore evidence of having been very carefully considered before they (the ladies) came on to the Board. With respect to boarding-out she did not think that it would be advisable at present to ask that any child should be so dealt with unless they came under the carefully formed rules of the Local Government Board, and were either orphans or deserted children. They had about 800 children, and only about one in eight came under that description. She did not therefore look to the boarding-out

system to relieve them of more than 100 of these children. The expense of the adoption of Cottage homes had been referred to. When they were first tried at Kensington, the cost was £36 per annum per head, but that amount had been now reduced to £25, and it was hoped to bring the cost down to within a sovereign of what they now had to pay for each child. The cottages they proposed to be built would cost about £600 each, she did not mean to provide pretty houses, with various adornments, but plain, well drained and nicely built houses where the children could be taught domestic work, and see the difficulties that arose in home life. The cost of making this provision would be about £9,000.

Miss EVA MULLER said some members had spoken of the Cottage system as being expensive, but they were all aware that in small households economies could be practised which were impossible in large Schools were there were immense numbers of children. Then, again, it had been said that difficulties would arise in getting proper persons to become the parents of the houses, but as a matter of fact there had been no such difficulty experienced either at Birmingham (where the system had proved the most economical) or any where else, the supply had always been equal to the demand. Then it had been said that the system would do very well for better class children, but not for paupers. She did not agree with that. Her idea of a cottage was that it should contain not more than twenty children. They desired to make the value of home life known to these children, so that they might go into the world as useful beings, rather than be turned out as useless machines, which was the general result of the barrack system. She wished the children to be known by their names instead of by numbers. The success of the present Schools was attributed by Mr. and Mrs. Hammond to the fact that they were distributed about, and enabled the children to be brought up in a natural way; they had a certain amount of change. With regard to the other alterations proposed, she said they were brought forward so that they might receive the careful consideration of the Board.

After a few remarks from the CHAIRMAN, the motion was put, and eight voted for and eight against; the CHAIRMAN voted against, and the motion was therefore lost.-Abridged from "Westminster Gazette."

Mrs. CHARLES, lady guardian for Paddington, has also obtained the removal of the pauper children from the district school of Ashford where such great mismanagement was discovered.

OPINIONS OF M.P.'s ON WOMEN'S QUESTIONS.

At the Great Liberal Meeting at the Colston Hall, Bristol, on November 22nd, Mr. LEWIS FRY, M.P., said in reviewing the past session, there was one other very important measure which had been passed, and that was the Act relating to the property of married

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