in any other contemporaneous government. In
England unmarried women have, by the laws of that country, always
been competent to vote and to hold civil offices, if qualified in
other respects; at least such is the weight of authority. In
"Callis upon Sewers," an old English work, will be found a
discussion of the question as to the right of women to hold
office in England. The learned and distinguished author uses the
following language:

And for temporal governments I have observed women to have
from time to time been admitted to the highest places; for
in ancient Roman histories I find Eudocia and Theodora
admitted at several times into the sole government of the
empire; and here in England our late famous Queen Elizabeth,
whose government was most renowned; and Semiramis governed
Syria; and the Queen of the South, who came to visit
Solomon, for anything that appears to the contrary, was a
sole queen; and to fall a degree lower, we have precedents
that King Richard the First and King Henry the Fifth
appointed by commissions their mothers to be regents of this
realm in their absence in France.

But yet I will descend a step lower; and doth not our law,
temporal and spiritual, admit of women to be executrixes
and administratrixes? And thereby they have the rule or
ordering of great estates, and many times they are
guardianesses in chivalry, and have hereby also the
government of many great heirs in the kingdom and of their
own estates.

So by these cases it appeareth that the common law of this
kingdom submitted many things to their government; yet the
statute of justices of the peace is like to Jethro's counsel
to Moses, for there they speak of men to be justices, and
thereby seemeth to exclude women; but our statute of sewers
is, "Commission of sewers shall be granted by the King to
such person and persons as the lords should appoint." So the
word persons stands indifferently for either sex. I am of
the opinion, for the authorities, reasons and causes
aforesaid, that this honorable countess being put into the
commission of the sewers, the same is warrantable by the
law; and th