ishwomen of the cultivated
classes. In England almost all intelligent women of the upper and upper
middle classes take a very lively interest in politics, are tolerably
well informed upon the public questions of the day, and in many cases
they have no inconsiderable influence upon them. The reason of this is
that political life and the social life of the upper classes there are
so thoroughly intermingled. Politics form the chief concern of the
members of those classes; apart, of course, from their own private
affairs. Hardly a woman of that class is without a husband, brother,
kinsman, or friend who is, or who has been, or hopes to be a member of
Parliament, or who is in diplomacy, or connected in some way with
colonial affairs. Politics there are intimately connected with the
great object of woman's life in modern days--social success. It is
difficult for women in England, and even for men, to understand the
entire severance of politics and society which obtains in "America,"
and to believe that a man may be a member of Congress or even a
Senator, and yet be entirely without social position. Politics there
are the most interesting topic of conversation among intelligent and
cultivated people in general society, and such an acquaintance with
political questions and party manoeuvres as is here confined to a very
few women indeed, whose relations to public men are peculiar, and who
"go to Washington," is there very common among all women of superior
position.

Of this I met with a striking illustration on my way from Warwick to
Coventry. As I was about entering the railway carriage, a friend, an
Englishman, who was kindly travelling with me for a day or two, and
"coaching" me, told the porter who had my portmanteau to put it into the
carriage. This, by the way, is permitted there. If there is room, and no
one objects, you may take a huge trunk into a first-class railway
carriage. Indeed, one could hardly be taken into a second-class carriage
for lack of room; and a third-class carriage is hardly larger than that
marvellous institution known to American women--but to no others--as a
Saratoga trunk. I objected to my friend's proposal because there was a
lady in the carriage. She was standing with her back to me as I spoke,
but she immediately turned and said, in a clear, sweet voice, "Oh, yes;
bring it in; never mind me; there's quite room enough." I never saw a
more elegant woman. She was about forty years old, still very