226 



Ihe Review of Reviews. 



S«i)««m*«r 1, ISOe. 



fifths of the children desire denominational edu- 

 cation is to be decided by ballot, parents having 

 as nianv votes as they have children, and all who 

 do not vote are to be reckoned as having voted 

 against extended facilities. The real struggle will 

 not begin until the autumn Session, when the Bill 

 will be sent down from the Lords with amendments 

 a\-owedly intended to defeat the object of its 

 authors. The more militant Nonconformists are 

 alreadv restive at the concessions made by the 

 Government. But it is doubtful whether they will 

 carry their opposition so far as to force a system 

 of purely secular education upon the nation. The 

 Anglicans, who appear to be determined to fight 

 regardless of consequences, have adopted the novel 

 plan of holding a Lancashire indignation meeting 

 in the Albert Hall, London. A cheap trip to Lon- 

 don is always popular, and the idea is one worthy 

 of the political genius that invented the Primrose 

 League. 



Of much more importance than 



Moral Instruction the wrangle between denomina- 



in Schools. tionalists and their opponents is 



the provision which has been 

 made in the new Code for giving moral instruction 

 in the schools. Mr. Birrell informs the local 

 authorities that moral instruction 



should form an important part of every elementary school 

 curriculum The instruction may be either incidental or 

 Bysbematic. but in citlier oa«e it must include lessons on 

 such points .is courage, truthfulness, cleanliness of mind, 

 body and speech, the love of fair-play, gentleness to the 

 weaker, humanity tD animals, temperance, self-denial, love 

 of one's country, and respect for beaut.v in nature and in 

 art. The teaching is to be brought home to the children 

 by reference to their actual surroundings in town or coun- 

 try, and teachers are instructed that it should be illus- 

 trated as vividly as possible by stories, poems, quotations, 

 proverbs and examples drawn from history and biograph.v. 

 Discussing tins new requirement, the Board say that it is 

 important th.Tt the teaching should not develop into a 

 hum-drum repetition of ancient saws." but shonid be a 

 forcible and spirited application of the teacher's own mora! 

 sense. 



Good, very good. If these instructions are acted 

 upon much of the objection to purelv secular in- 

 struction will disappear. 



Tu r- ..^ The active campaign in favour of 



The right ,,r ■ c- a ? •. , 



fgj. \\ Oman s burrrage has excited con- 



Wsman's Suffrage siderable attention on the subject 

 this month. Mr. Asquith is be- 

 lie(-ed to be the strongest opponent of the claims 

 of women for full enfranchisement, and he has been 

 made the mark for concerted attack. His meeting 

 at Northampton was interrupted, and a subsequent 

 attempt to force an inter('iew at his residence led to 

 the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of Miss 

 Billington. The earnest women who are canning 

 on this campaigr* take their chances of i'.l-usage, 

 and do not complain if equal rights in the way of 

 imprisonment are meted out to them by the admin- 

 istrators of the law. Women ask for no privilege. 

 They only claim equality of rights at the ballot 



box, in the dock, and at the gallows. Those who 

 condemn the suffragettes should remember that 

 their protest is justified by the persistent cimning by 

 which thev have been jockeyed out of every at- 

 tempt to obtain a full debate and a clear division in 

 the House of Commons. Let Mr. Asquith or the 

 Prime Minister or any other responsible Minister — 

 whether he be for or against woman's suffrage 

 makes no difference — frankly declare his views and 

 promise to have the question brought up promptly 

 for settlement before the House of Commons, and 

 there will be a speedy end to these tactics of ex- 

 asperation. Women are in one respect singularly 

 like men. They like fair play, and thev dislike 

 being cheated out of a fair stand-up discussion and 

 a straight out-and-out division. • So long as these 

 evasive tactics are pursued in the House so long 

 will the suffragettes be justiiied in their campaign 

 in the country. If they fail to force the question 

 to an issue on their preseriit line, they may find it 

 necessary- to organise a general strike. If all the 

 mills of Lancashire were laid idle by the refusal of 

 the mill-girls to work until Parliament had an op- 

 portunity of pronouncing an opinion on womans 

 suffrage, even the most cynical would admit that 

 " something must be done." 



Lady Aberdeen presided last month 



Progress ^^_^^ ^^^ meeting of the Interna- 



the Movement, tional Council of Women at Paris, 



where satisfactory progress was re- 

 ported and fresh vigour infused into what is one of 

 the most promising international movements of our 

 time. The claim of the women ' graduates of 

 Scottish Universities to the franchise has been 

 he.-rd by the Scottish courts, judgment as to whether 

 a woman is a person being reserved. Miss Pank- 

 hurst has taken her degree with honours iii law at 

 Manchester University, and will now devote her 

 whole energv to the active prosecution of the cam- 

 paign in this country. In New Brunswick the Legis- 

 lature has just passed a law admitting women to 

 practise law. The Dutch women are taking ad- 

 vantage of the com:ng revision of the Dutch Consti- 

 tution in order to demand full civic rights and 

 equal eligibility for State employment. They claim 

 that if women are forbidden to work before or after 

 confinement thev should receive compensation, as 

 in Denmark, for this confiscation of their right to 

 earn wages, working power being equivalent to pro- 

 perty, of which no citizen should be depiived with- 

 out compensation. By way of meeting the cr)' that 

 women render no ser\nce to the State similar to the 

 military ser\'ice exacted from men, the Dutch 

 women offer to give one or two years of their life 

 to the community, if it be required, for the pur- 

 pose of insuring the independence of the country 

 and the defence of its frontiers. A conference for 

 the protection of women is shortly to be held in 

 Vienna. " Austrian women mav not be guardians 



