In a word here is my dilemma, dear Mrs. Professor. Either women don't care for votes--in which case they will make a bad use of them; or they do care for them, in which case they have ours. Look how you rule in that Parliament for the business of which you do care, and whose budget you control and appropriate. What man dares call his home his own? What man, that deserves to be called a man, with a good wife, wishes to be other than her humble servant, breadwinner, hewer of wood and drawer of water, within the walls of that sacred sphere, of which the household hearth is the central sun? Depend upon it, if Nature had meant you for the franchise, you would have had it long ago. But then, if you had been in our place, we should have been in yours. Do you think it would be a better world for the change? The worldly wisdom and common sense shown in this letter is also to be found in _Punch's_ review of the whole question of Women's disabilities in the same year. The facetious, patronizing tone is largely dropped, and though the cartoon on the "Ugly Rush," inspired by the rejection of Jacob Bright's Suffrage Bill, clearly approves of the result, it fully recognizes the seriousness of the onslaught on man's monopoly of the franchise. The time for chaff on the subject, as Fawcett said, had gone by. Short of the vote, however, about which he remained recalcitrant, _Punch_ supported the claims of women to official employment in connexion with the Poor Law, Education, Local Government generally. He bestows a tempered approval on the appointment of Women Parish Officers in Bucks in 1868, and when the first elections to the London School Board were held at the close of 1870, unofficially but strenuously championed the three women candidates--Miss Garrett, M.D., Mrs. Grey and Miss Davies:-- There are some very good men in the candidature, but they are well known, and can speak for themselves. _Mr. Punch_ only wishes to point out that three ladies desire to do Woman's Work, and he hopes that they will be accredited to the Board. He seldom condescends to treat of mere political elections, but these Educational Elections are important, and wise men had better look to them. [Illustration: AN "UGLY RUSH"! MR. BULL: "Not if I know it!" (_See Division on the Woman's Vote Bill._)] [Sidenote: _Mrs. Nassau Senior_] The appointment of Mrs. Nassau Senior by the President of the Local Government Board to inspect and report on pauper schools, and her contribution to the Third Annual Report of that Department, meet with unqualified approval:--