Parliament?

Mr. MAY moved that Mrs. Stephen Smith be placed on a Committee in
his stead.

The PRESIDENT quickly replied: Woman's Rights' women do not like
to be called by their husbands' names, but by their own.

Mr. MAY corrected himself and said--_Rosa Smith_.

Matilda Joslyn Gage made her first public appearance in an address to
this Convention. She pressed the adoption of some settled plan for the
future--brought up many notable examples of woman's intellectual
ability, and urged that girls be trained to self-reliance. Although
Mrs. Gage, whose residence was Onondaga County, had not before taken
part in a Convention, yet from the moment she read of an organized
effort for the rights of woman, she had united in it heart and soul,
merely waiting a convenient opportunity to publicly identify herself
with this reform; an opportunity given by the Syracuse Convention.
Personally acquainted with none of the leaders except Mr. May, it was
quite a test of moral courage for Mrs. Gage, then quite a young woman,
in fact the youngest person who took part in that Convention, to speak
upon this occasion. She consulted no one as to time or opportunity,
but when her courage had reached a sufficiently high point, with
palpitating heart she ascended the platform, where she was cordially
given place by Mrs. Mott, whose kindness to her at this supreme moment
of her life was never forgotten.

Mrs. GAGE said: This Convention has assembled to discuss the
subject of Woman's Rights, and form some settled plan of action
for the future. While so much is said of the inferior intellect
of woman, it is by a strange absurdity conceded that very many
eminent men owe their station in life to their mothers. Women are
now in the situation of the mass of mankind a few years since,
when science and learning were in the hands of the priests, and
property was held by vassalage. The Pope and the priests claimed
to be not only the teachers, but the guides of the people; the
laity were not permitted to examine for themselves; education was
held to be unfit for the masses, while the tenure of their landed
property was such as kept them in a continual state of dependence
on their feudal lords.

It was but a short time since the most common rudiments of
education were deemed sufficient for any woman; could she but
read tolerably and write her own na