94 The Higher Education of Women. 



view, men do owe a little monetary help to the higher education 

 of women. Referring to the names of the distinguished ladies 

 who were pioneers of education, I may mention that there was 

 in Belfast a lady — Mrs, Elizabeth Hamilton — who in the year 

 t8oo published a book on the education of women, which is 

 worth reading, for its practical hints, to-day. It is true that she 

 lived a great deal in Scotland, nevertheless she was a Belfast 

 woman, and though Belfast was a very small place in those days, 

 not one of us could possibly use stronger language, or claim a 

 higher place for women than she did. I have been thinking 

 also of the immense strides this question has made since I first 

 attended some of the meetings held in this room on the subject 

 of higher education. I may say that the Queen's University 

 was only a few months behind Cambridge in founding local 

 examinations for women. It was in this very room that the 

 first year's examinations were held. Last year as one of the 

 Englishwomen's Committee of Education for the Chicago 

 Exhibition, I had occasion to make a complete collection of 

 reports, &c., connected with the education of girls in Ireland, 

 to send out there ; from these I found that we had a more 

 complete state-aided system than exists in either England or 

 Scotland. It is perfectly true that we have nothing like the 

 same amount of money, but a more complete system. The 

 National system provides an elementary education all over the 

 country, and the intermediate system has given an immense lift 

 to the secondary education of boys and girls. It is under state 

 supervision and state sanction, and then the Royal University 

 is as open to women as to men. I think that we ought not here 

 to overlook the immense work which has been done by one lady 

 — Mrs. Byers — in creating by her own brains the Victoria 

 College, from which a very considerable number of graduates of 

 the Royal University have come. It is with the greatest possible 

 pleasure that I second the vote of thanks. 



Mr. MiLLiGAN. — I think the Irish Celts must be excepted from 

 what the learned Professor has stated. At a very early period 

 women had equal rights with men as to the inheritance of land 



