ossession
of the _jus suffragii_, at least, if not also of the _jus
honorum_, is the principle which governs at this day in defining
citizenship in the countries deriving their jurisprudence from
the civil law. (Wheaton's International Law, p. 892).

The Dutch publicist, Thorbecke, says:

What constitutes the distinctive character of our epoch is
the development of the right of citizenship. In its most
extended, as well as its most restricted sense, it includes
a great many properties. The right of citizenship is the
right of voting in the government of the local, provincial,
or national community of which one is a member. In this last
sense, the right of citizenship signifies a participation in
the right of voting, in the general government, as member of
the State. (Rev. & Fr. Etr., tom. v, p. 383).

In a recent work of some research, written in opposition to
female suffrage, the author takes the ground that women are not
citizens, and urges that as a reason why they can properly be
denied the elective franchise, his theory being that if full
citizens they would be entitled to the ballot. He uses the
following language:

It is a question about which there may be some diversity of
opinion, what constitutes citizenship or who are citizens.
In a loose and improper sense the word citizen is sometimes
used to denote any inhabitant of the country, but this is
not a correct use of the word. Those, and no others, are
properly citizens who were parties to the original compact
by which the government was formed, or their successors who
are qualified to take part in the affairs of government by
their votes in the election of public officers. Women and
children are represented by their domestic directors or
heads in whose wills theirs is supposed to be included.
They, as well as others not entitled to vote, are not
properly citizens, but are members of the State, fully
entitled to the protection of its laws. A citizen, then, is
a person entitled to vote in the elections. He is one of
those in whom the sovereign power of the State resides.
(Jones on Suffrage, p. 48.)

But all such fallacious theories as this are