be it said, that girls have more liberty of choice in this respect than they had formerly.  There is still room for improvement.  The sooner match-making and match-makers die out, the better for the world.  If man or woman make a mistake in marrying unfortunately, and in consequence suffer unhappiness, let those more fortunately situated, pity and be kind to the sufferer; but let none incur the responsibility of having made such a match.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote K:  By recent legislation in Ontario, she is deprived of her right of dower in wild lands.]

CHAPTER VII.

Woman and Legislation.

What rights, it may be asked, ought women to have accorded to them which they do not now enjoy according to law?  From what rights does custom debar them?  We claim that women, being held equally responsible to the law with men, are as well entitled to have a voice in making that law.  It is a fundamental principle of all governments, not despotic, that “taxation without representation” is a gross infringement upon the civil rights of the subject or citizen.  When, in spite of the disadvantages under which women labor, they have, by unflagging industry and prudent management, acquired real estate, their property is taxed according to the same rule by which the property of men is taxed; and still the elective franchise is denied them.  Men in legislating for men know their wants and understand their particular needs, because they have experience of them; but in legislating for women they look at things from their own stand-point; and because of its being impossible for them to experience the various annoyances and humiliations to which women are subjected, they do not realize the injustice toward women of the existing state of things, or the nature and extent of the changes which justice to them requires.  To secure any thing like impartial justice in civil affairs for women, they should have an equal voice in making the laws.

It is contended that, if women were entitled to the franchise, it would make no difference with a party vote, since as many women would vote on one ticket as on the other.  What of it?  The franchise has been extended from time to time for centuries to various classes of men, and these classes did not, as a class, confine themselves to one particular ticket or party.  Was it any the less the unalienable right of these men to enjoy their liberty to vote as they saw fit, or as they deemed for the best interests of the country?  Certainly not.  Neither is it just that women should be denied the right to vote because it would make no perceptible difference to a party ticket.