The CHAIRMAN remarked that there was a committee in existence for promoting the election of the ladies named, and he hoped that committee would be considerably augmented.

A vote of thanks to Mr. and Miss Fry concluded the proceedings.-Abridged from the Western Daily Press.

NEW CROSS.-A drawing room meeting was held on January 31st by kind permission of Mrs. Wates, at 10, Tressillian Road, New Cross, with the object of forming a local committee to promote the election of suitable women as Guardians in Woolwich and Greenwich. The chair was taken by the Rev. Mr. Higgins, and the usual resolutions were spoken to by Miss C. A. Biggs, Mrs. Shearer, Mr. Hughes, of Woolwich, Mrs. Charles, Guardian for Paddington, and Mr. J. Carlton Lambert.

The following leaflet has been issued by the Society of which Miss Eva Muller and Mrs. Chamberlain are the Hon. Secretaries:

SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS ON THE STFPS TO BE TAKEN BY WOMEN TO QUALIFY AS POOR LAW GUARDIANS.

1.-To what Parochial Official should a woman apply when desirous of being put in nomination as a Guardian?

To the Clerk of the Guardians.

2.-By whom should she be nominated?

By any ratepayer in the yarish who has been rated for the previous year, and who has paid the necessary rates.

3. What is the latest day for nomination?

For the year 1882 it will be the 27th March, the usual day (the 26th) being Sunday. A notice is published by the Returning Officer, on, or before the 15th of March, giving full particulars as to dates, and the amount of rental qualifying for election.

This notice is posted on Church doors, town halls, vestry halls, workhouse gates, and other prominent places.

4-To whom (how and when) should the nomination paper be delivered?

The nomination paper accurately filled up and signed, must be delivered to the Returning Officer appointed to receive it, after the 14th, and before the 27th of March. (See the public notice above referred to.) If delivered before or after these dates respectively it will not be valid. It may be sent by post, but if sent in any other way it is not to be delivered before 9 a.m. or after 8 p.m.

5.-What is the rateable qualification for the Candidate?

She must be rated to the poor, at an annual rateable value that need not exceed £40, but is less in many parishes.

6.-How long must the rates have been paid by her?

The payment of the rate is not requisite; the rating alone being sufficient.

7.-If not a householder may she legally become a ratepayer?

She may be an owner, and claim to be rated for her property in the place of the occupier.

8.-Is the fact of her name being assessed on the rate book to the proper annual rental, legal proof of her full qualification for nomination as Guardian ?

She should be able if required to prove that her rating is bonâ fide. The fact of her being assessed on the rate book is primâ facie evidence, but she ought to be prepared to back this up by legal proof.

9.-Need she be a resident?

It is not required that the candidates should occupy the property for which he or she is rated, nor is it necessary to be resident in the parish or even within the union.

10.-How does the case stand as regards married women?

There has not been a judicial decision upon this question. It appears that any woman who is duly rated is qualified to be elected, and it is admitted that a married woman with a separate estate may be duly rated under certain circumstances. Published by the Society for Promoting the Return of Women as Poor Law Guardians,

44, Belsize Road, N. W.

L. B. CHAMBERLAIN,

Hon. Sec. (pro. tem).

DISPENSARIES.

DISPENSARIES FOR WOMEN.-In addition to the dispensaries mentioned in our last number there is another in Edinburgh, the "Canongate Christian Institute Dispensary," in connection with a medical mission. It is open three days in the week. Miss Agnes McLaren M.D., is the attendant physician, and there are two men doctors in addition.

HARROW ROAD, LONDON, W.-There is also another dispensary for women and children at 1, Portnal Road, Harrow Road. Mrs. Russell Grant, L.K.Q.C.P.I., is attendant physician.

EMPLOYMENT.

LIBRARIAN.-The Westminster and Lambeth Gazette says that a lady is required as an evening assistant at the Free Library in Kennington Lane. Hours 6 to 10. Unfurnished room, gas and coals supplied. Applications must be made by letter only, stating salary.

TELEPHONY FOR WOMEN.--As many as between 30

and 40 ladies are now employed as clerks, at salaries commencing at £32 10s. The chief requirements for telephone work are clear articulation, accuracy and quickness in hearing and seeing.

WOMEN CLERKS.-Seven ladies were named last month to appointments in the General Post Office as clerks and telegraph learners.

The correspondent of the Northern Whig says:

Where in the world could such a spectacle be seen as that furnished by the columns of one of the great morning papers here during all the past week?-a persistent stream of ill-written, brutal letters, reviling the poor hard-worked women who toil in our post offices, and attacking the system under which employment has been given to them at all. Of course these letters have called out a few replies, of these I do not speak. As a matter of fact, the post office women clerks of London are as civil, as exact, and something smarter, than any clerks of any sex I have had to do with in rather an extended experience.

NOTTING HILL SCHOOL OF COOKERY.-Three ladies, Miss Brimley, Miss Stock, and Miss Wilson, diplomées from South Kensington, have commenced classes at 124, Lancaster Road, Notting Hill. They have practice lessons and demonstration classes for ladies, classes for servants, and a weekly lesson of cookery for the people, to which district visitors, deaconesses and others engaged in charitable work are invited on reduced terms. They will also give private lessons at ladies' houses in town and country. These ladies will also cook dinners and suppers at ladies' own houses, and will provide refreshments, luncheons, &c., themselves, if desired. This seems to be the beginning of a practical business which educated women might find both profitable and pleasant.

WOMEN'S PRINTING SOCIETY.-An extremely interesting drawing-room meeting was held on January 26th, at the house of Miss Williams, 4, Vicarage Gate, Kensington. Mr. A. J. Williams gave a report of the progress of the Society. The principle on which the Society started was that the women were to do every part of the work, instead of the composing only. It began six years ago with four girls who were absolutely new to the work, and an old journeyman printer to teach them. Under these circumstances it was not surprising that for the first four years the balance sheet of

the Society showed a continually increasing deficit, but that deficit was now steadily diminishing, and there was great hope that by the end of this year the income would be found slightly to exceed the expenses. The eight girls trained by the Society have now passed through their apprenticeship, and are rapidly becoming efficient workwomen, and the Directors find that one of the girls who was compelled, from living at a distance, to leave them, readily found good work in a City Printing Office. A plan has recently been commenced of giving instruction in proof reading to educated women. A fee of two guineas is charged for six months' instruction, and several applications have been received. The Society are anxious to raise additional capital by means of shares which would enable additional machinery to be bought. Several specimens of beautifully executed printing were on view.

BRISTOL WOMEN'S LIBERAL ASSOCIATION.

In connection with this recently formed organisation, Mr. Herbert N. Mozley, commenced on Feb. 7th, at the Victoria rooms, a series of lectures on the laws of England as affecting women. Miss Priestman, who presided over an influential and pretty numerous audience, enforced the necessity of repealing unjust laws, and expressed a hope that women would now be freed from the reproach of supineness to which they had been subject. Unwise or harsh laws would long survive if those who were governed by them remained indifferent or ignorant about the subject. Mr. Mozley then proceeded with his lecture, the subject for the day being the custody of children.

The lecturer commenced by referring to the classifications of guardianships according to English law. Guardianships might be classified according to the law or jurisdiction under which they arose, whether under the old common law or under some statute, or under the doctrines of the Court of Chancery. These distinctions, however interesting from an historical point of view, were not now of any practical importance, especially since the Judicature Act had imported into the Common Law Courts the rules of equity on this as ou other subjects. A far more important distinction was that which determined the person in whom the guardianship should be vested. On this the rule of English law was that the guardianship of a legitimate child belonged to the father and his nominees; but if the

father were dead and had not appointed any guardian for a child then the guardianship belonged to the mother. Even in that case the mother was bound to bring the child up in the religion of the deceased father. But these rules relating to guardianship and religious instruction were not allowed to prevail in cases where it was unequivocally shown that owing to the misconduct or neglect of the legal guardian, the true interests of the child required that his power should be controlled or annulled. Thus, if a father allowed the mother or her relations to have the custody of children for several years, the courts would not allow the father by insisting upon his legal rights to prejudice the education of his children and their prospects for the future. Again, if a father was given to drunkenness or profligacy co open and flagrant as to set a bad example and injure their moral character or their prospects in society, the court would not allow him to exercise any rights of guardianship over them. The lecturer here referred, among other cases, to the case of the father who sold his children to the proprietor of the Beni ZougZoug troupe of acrobats, and afterwards attempted to get the children again into his custody. Mr. Justice Kay granted an injunction to restrain him from doing so. Not only by virtue of its inherent jurisdiction was the Court of Chancery empowered to remove children from their father's cust:dy, but the court was expressly enabled by two Acts of Parliament known as Talfourd's and Fowler s Acts (the former repealed by the latter), in its discretion to give over children to the mother on her petition. Moreover, if the mother sued in the Divorce Court and obtained a divorce or judicial separation from the father for matrimonial misconduct, the Divorce Court was empowered to order that the children of the marriage might be handed over to the mother's custody, which would generally be done if the mother were successful in her suit. But even in this case the paramount consideration would be, what was best for the interest of the children. The subject of the next lecture is "The Labour Laws."

SWIMMING SCHOOL.

Mr. John Chadwick, of Manchester, the Provincial Grand Secretary of the Freemasons of East Lancashire, at the Quarterly Court of the Masonic Girls' Schools, in October, read a letter from Mr. Salmon objecting to the building of a swimming bath, on which £2,000 was proposed to be expended, on the ground that swimming was not a necessary part of a girl's education, and the funds of the institution were raised and subscribed for the purpose of education. The motion which was before the Court was, however, adopted, but on Jauuary 14th, at the Quarterly Court, although the minutes so far as they regarded the building of a bath were confirmed, they were altered by the substitution of £1,500 for £2,000.