LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

1. Seal of the Abbey of Wilton. Effigy of St.

Eadgitha (Edith), daughter of King Edgar To face page 1

2. Seal of Mary de St. Paul, Countess of Pembroke

3. Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, Montgomery and Pembroke

3

7

Seal of the Abbey of Wilton-one of the four great abbeys whose

abbesses received frequent writs for military service, and summons to attend the Council of the King (34th Edward I.). The effigy represents St. Eadgitha or Edith of Wilton. Died 984. Daughter of King Edgar. The high esteem in which she was held is seen by her effigy being used for the seal of the Abbey of Wilton where she was a nun. (After an engraving in Archeologia, vol. xviii.)

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE.

PART I.

BEFORE THE REFORM ACT OF 1867.

CHAPTER I.

RETROSPECTIVE.

§1. Our Early Heritage.

ANGLO-SAXON, Roman and Feudal influences, are all intermingled in the legal system of Great Britain to-day. Each has left some impress on the relations of women to public duties, and has helped in shaping our present condition. Of these three, the Anglo-Saxon is the pervading influence. Naturally it has become so, for Society organized on the basis of the Parish as in Saxon England, preserves more of the common ground of companionship between men and women, and its responsibilities are more closely interwoven between them, than is the case in a Society organized on the basis of the Camp as under Roman sway, or of the Castle as under the Feudal régime.

It is therefore part of the continuity of historical development that the movement towards recognizing,