ublic sentiment, however, looks
with favor upon women electors. It is only in recent years that a few
of the most advanced have begun to agitate the question in this
country, which holds a most conservative attitude towards women. They
have recently been admitted to a few of the universities.

In most of the Prussian towns the property qualifications of the wife
are accounted to the husband in order that he may take part in
municipal elections. In Saxony women proprietors of landed estates,
whether married or single, are entitled to a municipal vote but this
can be exercised only by proxy, and for this purpose one of their male
relatives must be invested with their property. In Saxony, Baden,
Wurtemburg, Hesse, the Thuringian States and perhaps a few more, women
are permitted to attend public political meetings and be members of
political societies, but in all other German States they are excluded
from both. They are thus prohibited from forming organizations to
secure the franchise. In Westphalia since 1856, and Schleswig-Holstein
since 1867, all qualified women have some form of suffrage by male
proxy.

In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, since 1862, women with property have a
proxy vote in municipal and provincial elections and for members of
the Lower House of the Parliament, but there are many restrictions to
this law. In Bohemia, since 1873, women who are large landed
proprietors have a proxy vote for members of the Imperial Parliament
and the local Diet.

In Russia among the peasant class the representative of the household
votes. The wife, if owner of the necessary amount of property, may
select her husband as proxy, but he may also delegate his vote to the
wife, and it is a common thing to see her take his place at elections
and at village and country meetings of all kinds. In the cities and
territorial assemblies, women, married or unmarried, possessing
sufficient property, may vote by male proxy for members of the
municipal and county assemblies. Property-owning women of the nobility
may vote by proxy in the assemblies of the nobility. Part of the
universities are open to them. There are 650 women physicians in
Russia.

So far as can be learned women are not eligible to office in the
above-mentioned countries with a very few exceptions.

In Finland, since 1865, widows and spinsters may vote at rural
elections; since 1873 those who are rate-payers may vote at municipal
elections. Since 1889 women are eligib