Review of Reviews, 1/11106. 



History of the Month. 



437 



P)ioto. by] IHughes and MiiUin?. 



The Late Miss Elizabeth Sewell. 



Died at Bonfhurc'i, aged ninety-two. She wrote a book 

 every year between 1844 and 1885.) 



hagen replied, '■ We owed it to tno thing.s : (i) Co 

 , education in primary and secondary scliools and thu 

 universities, and (2) to the fact that in our struggle 

 against Russia women fought side by side with 

 men." The prisoners who were guilty of lesc- 



The Deborah 



of 

 South Africa. 



it difficult to 



iikiiestc in attempting to ring the sacred doorbell of 

 Mr. Asquith in Cavendish Square have been re- 

 leased. They are now exploiting the advantage 

 their imprisonment has secured them by address- 

 ing large meetings .ill over the country. When the 

 Plural Voting Bill comes on it is to be hoped the 

 Goxernment will consent to a full discussion of the 

 whole cjuestion. It will be unpardonable if they try 

 to sidetrack the question once more. 



Those who profess 'to believe that 

 nature has given a monopoly of 

 political genius to the boys and left 

 the girls out in the cold, would find 

 account for the existence of such 

 women as Madame Koopmans de Wet, who for 

 thirty years has been the most influential woman 

 ill South Africa. If she. had but had the good for- 

 tune to be born in a male phvsical envelope, she 

 would have been Prime Minister of the Cape, and 

 there would have been no South African War. 

 There was no two-legged thing in South Africa. 

 had a better brain, a stouter heart, and a clearer 

 insight into the truth of things. But as this in- 

 valuable biped wore petticoats instead of trousers, 

 she was deprived of all opportunity of rendering 

 any direct service to the State. Shut out of Parlia- 

 ment, she made her salon a great centre of political 

 influence. But when the supreme moment came 

 ■ind the crisis might have been solved by one brave, 

 true word spoken, one clear, resolute act done, the 

 men failed her and Milner triumphed. Madame 

 Koopmans de Wet was a woman abo\e parties. 

 Mr. Rhodes had for her the sincerest respect and 

 admiration, and all who knew her intimately loved 

 and revered her as a mother in Israel. She died 

 last month after a long illness, racked with ex- 

 cruciating pain. But never in the worst moments 

 did that lion heart show sign of weakness. Her 

 faith in her God and in Afrikanderland sustained 

 her to the last. She was far the noblest Roman 

 of them all. For generation? to come her memory 

 will be an inspiration and a 5upport to the women 

 of South Africa, and not of S uth Africa alone. 



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