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miserably inadequate scale of punishment usually meted out to them, and Mr. Justice Hawkins has given a good example to his legal brethren. In an article in Macmillan's for March, Mr. Macfarlane, M.P., who has already done good service to women by calling the attention of the Home Government to the inadequate sentences usually pronounced on brutal crimes against the person,

says:

Finally I moved for a return of the number of outrages upon the person during the last five years, and the punishments accorded in each case. I fear that the return will show an increasing number of such crimes, and if it does it will be due to the inadequacy of the punishments given by police magistrates and others. If it could be shown that the maximum punishments permitted by the law were generally given, then it would be clear that the law itself was to blame, and not its administrators. Perhaps it is partly both, but before changing the law it must first be shown that its full power has been applied. I do not think that this is the case, for it often happens that not a tenth of the punishment allowed by law is given.

Mr. Macfarlane proceeds to instance a case where a man had been sentenced to six weeks' hard labour for kicking his wife so brutally that she died, and another to ten years' penal servitude for quietly stealing a purse containing nine shillings; one to twelve months for wounding his wife with a razor, with another in the same sessions to five years' penal servitude and three years' police supervision for stealing a watch, value 35s. Still worse instances could be multiplied until the reader became weary. It is surely time that law should be made to coincide with common sense and justice.

OBITUARY.

MRS. NATHAN.

There died on the 19th of February, in London, a lady who, more publicly known perhaps in Italy where the late years of her life had been spent, and to which she had dedicated her untiring and devoted efforts, was yet beloved and honoured by a large circle of friends in England. Sarina Nathan, by birth a Jewess, was one of the earliest and most devoted friends of Joseph Mazzini, and shared with him his faith in the divine law of progress. She was the friend also of Quadrio, Campanella, Pisacane, Brusco Ounis, and countless others, and her

house was ever open to the faithful workers against Austrian and Papal tyranny. Mrs. Nathan founded the Scuola Mazzini in Rome, which has done so much towards elevating the intelligence of Italian working men, and she either founded or powerfully supported the democratic newspapers La Roma del Popolo, L'Emancipazione, and Il Dovere. The marvellous success of the conference held in Genoa three years ago against State regulated vice, was mainly due to her; for with her son, Joseph Nathan, she devoted time, fortune, and strength, to the service of humanity and morality. Her remains have been transferred to Rome and interred in the Campo Verano.

MISS HAMILTON.

The admirers of the late Sir William Hamilton, Bart., of whom there are many, not only among ourselves but in every country where mental philosophy is studied, will learn with deep regret of the early death of the only daughter of the celebrated Professor of Metaphysics. Miss Hamilton gave very large proof of the intellectual power which has linked her father's name with the metaphysical thought of our country. She had at an early stage in the history of the Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women connected herself with it, and at once gave evidence of intellectual acuteness and grasp which did honour to herself and her family. First as a student in the classes she proved herself an enthusiast in metaphysical speculation, and afterwards as secretary to the Association she showed ardent devotion to the cause of the higher education of women. Last year she left for Germany, where she settled to persistent work, too arduous for her physical strength.

WOMEN'S EMIGRATION.

The Freeman's Journal of February 22nd says:

No man ever more devotedly gave himself for his countrymen than William Smith O'Brien. In a less obtrusive way, but none the less really, his daughter, Miss Charlotte G. O'Brien, is following in his footsteps. Her writings show how warmly her heart has ever beat for Ireland, and of late years the interest she has taken in the safety and welfare of the thousands of our countrywomen who annually leave us for homes across the Atlantic, proves that her interest

has not been alone speculative but practical. Miss O'Brien has now taken a further step, and on the first of next month purposes to open at Queenstown a home for female emigrants. We need scarcely say that her object is not to make money; nor is there anything charitable about the undertaking. Every person making use of the Home will be charged current rates for the accommodation they receive. An attendant will meet emigrants at the landing station, will go with them to the offices of the line for which they hold tickets, and as far as practicable, Miss O'Brien herself will accompany them on board to ensure proper precautions being observed as to berthing. Nor is this all. She proposes working with the "Children of Mary" in Boston and other Catholic communities on the United States seaboard, so as to protect women more effectually on their arrival; and wherever their destination in the States is decided upon she will advise the Catholic clergyman of the district of their departure, and the probable date of their arrival. There will, therefore, be every guarantee that from the hour women leave their old home until they reach their new home across the Atlantic they will be in safe hands. Miss O'Brien's effort has our heartiest sympathy. We are certain she will achieve a large measure of good. Her own Protestantism will not suffer in her loyal and sincere attitude towards her Catholic sisters. The Home will not be in connection with any special line of steamers; but we believe that her influence over them all, through the reports which those who pass through her hands will return of the treatment they have received on the passage, will not be the least of the benefits likely to accrue from the exertion to our Brave, brave Irish girls" who cross the Atlantic.

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FOREIGN NOTES AND NEWS.
FRANCE.

HYGIENIC COMMISSION.-The Minister of Public Instruction has created a Commission of Hygiene for Schools. Several ladies have been appointed to form part of it: viz., Madame Delabrousse, General Secretary of the Fröbel Society; Madame Dillon, Chief Inspectress of the Ecoles Maternelles; Madame Ferrard, Directress of the Normal School of the Seine for Teachers; Mesdames Fleury, De Friedberg, Girard, Millard, and lastly, Madame Toussaint, SecretaryGeneral of the Association for the Professioral Instruction of Women, -Droit des Femmes.

MUSIC.-Madame Augusta Holmés, the author of three symphonies which have obtained a great success, has been named Member of the Jury of Musical Competition at Paris. This is an unusual honour to be paid to a woman.

THE Gazette des Femmes says that in the Art Salon at Nice, there is not a single mediocre picture or statue by women artists, and the majority are very good.

THE Academy of Fine Arts has transmitted to the Council of State a donation of 48,000 francs from M. Ardoin, the interest of which will be given every year to young girls who are devoting themselves to art, and whose means are insufficient.

HOSPITALS.-The Annuaire Statistique, of the town of Paris, lately published, records the fact that a majority of hospitals and asylums existing in Paris, have been founded by women :

Anne of Austria, founded the Hospital Sainte Anne.

Marguerite Rouille, wife of Le Bret, founded Les Incurables in

1632.

Marie de Medicis created La Charité in 1605.

Angelique Faure, widow of Claude Bullion, Superintendent of Finance, founded Les Convalescents in 1631.

Madame La Rochefoucauld, in 1781, established the Maison Royal de Santé, now the Rochefoucauld Asylum.

Madame Necker, 1779, founded the Necker Hospital, and there are many others. The charity of women in England has been continually noted. Unfortunately, too frequently, their own sex has been the last to profit by it.

MIDWIVES.-The Assistance Publique provides qualified midwives to attend the poor. They were usually paid 50 francs (£2) for nine days attendance. The Municipal Council has raised their wages to 60 francs for ten days, and if a further attendance is required, they are to be paid an additional 5 francs for each day. This is a real gain, so far as it goes, because by making the profession more profitable, a better class of women will undertake it.

A BRAVE WOMAN.-The Débats thus describes a brave cantinière, Annette Drevon. There is to be seen every morning at the Halles, where she sells vegetables, a woman about 55 years of age, with her hair still black, and her countenance unwrinkled and full of courage and energy. This is Annette Drevon, ex-cantinière of the 32nd Regiment of the line and the 2nd Zouaves, who has followed our regiments in Africa, the Crimea, Italy, and on the banks of the Rhine. Annette Drevon is decorated with the cross. At the taking of Magenta, two Austrian soldiers seized the flag of the 2nd Zouaves. She threw herself upon them, killed one, wounded the other twice with a revolver, and returned triumphantly waving her flag. This was not the only time that Annette Drevon showed her bravery. During the Franco-German war, she was one of the cantinières of the 32nd Regiment. One day, after the armistice, she was grossly insulted on the high road, near Thionville, by a Bavarian soldier. She shot him dead with her revolver. Arrested immediately, she was condemned to death by a council of war then sitting at Metz. On the day fixed for her execution, chance brought Prince Frederick Charles to Metz. Hearing that a woman was to be shot, he inquired into the details of the case, delayed her sentence, and four days later, she received her free pardon, and was sent back to France. In 1874 she was granted a little pension by MacMahon.

A LARGER number of women follow the profession of literature in

France than in any other country. There are 2,127 authoresses. Of these 1,200 are novelists, 200 write books for young people, and nearly 300 write poetry.

ITALY.

MILAN.-The League for the Interests of Women held one of its special meetings on the 22nd ult., and a special resolution was passed condemnatory of the salt tax, in which it was stated women were specially interested, as it affected the well-being of families. The members of the League were invited to agitate for its suppression.

AN opera in four acts, "Le Sais," of which both the libretto and the music are by a lady, Madame Olaquier, has been produced with great success.

SWITZERLAND.

The women of Switzerland have received a small proportion of their "rights." A law came into operation on New Year's Day by which both sexes are made of age on attaining twenty-one years. Previous to that time the age of majority varied in different cantons; in many cases men were not so called until they were twenty-six years old, and women were never of age at all. The property of the unfortunate sex was held under trustees, the guardianship being in most cases imposed upon the communes. These authorities now find themselves relieved of a burden very grudgingly borne, and an immense sum-more than ten million francs in the town of St. Gall alone-has come into the direct possession of its rightful owners.

AMERICA.

MUNICIPAL SUFFRAGE.-Our friends in Massachusetts are straining every effort to obtain the municipal vote for women. A stirring circular has been issued, signed by Abby W. May, Julia Ward Howe, Sarah Shaw Russell, Ednah D. Cheney, Mary A. Livermore, Louisa May Alcott, Mary F. Eastman, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, and Lucy Stone, impressing upon editors, clergymen, and all other influential men and women the importance of this question. Women pay their full share of taxes. In the cities of Boston, Chelsea, and Newton, and the town of Brooklyn, the women paid in a single year 1,448,479 dollars. This large sum is taken from women without their consent. In revolutionary times it was considered a high-handed proceeding to tax the colonies without allowing them any expression in regard to the expenditure of the money. Is it any less a wrong to-day because the victims are women? If it was a noble thing for our fathers to resist it, even unto death, will it not be nobler to help to secure this measure of justice for the women of Massachusetts ?

THE Massachusetts House of Representatives have voted, on the motion of Mr. Wells of Cambridge, that the committee on Probate and Chancery consider the expediency of further legislation for the protection and support of married women abandoned by their husbands, or living apart from their husbands for justifiable cause, and of minor children; and to secure a more summary enforcement of the orders and decrees of the Probate Court in such cases.

PROBABLY the most serious blow yet aimed at polygamy in the United States is the passage of Mr. Edmund's Anti-Polygamy Bill

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