estions
concerning them. On this condition these women consented to serve
on the advisory board a few months longer, with the understanding
that, if the legislature fails to make this important provision,
their advice will be withdrawn, and the men will be left to take
care of thieves, criminals and paupers until they are ready to
ask for our help on terms of equality and justice.

In the _Providence Journal_ appeared the following:

Mrs. Doyle seems to have learned by experience that the board, as
now constituted under the law, can have no real efficiency. The
ladies are responsible for the management of no part of any of
the institutions which they are permitted officially to visit.
Their reports are not made to the boards which are charged with
the responsibility of managing these institutions, and, in the
case of the reform school, are not made to the body which elects
and controls the board of management. The State ought not to
place ladies in such an anomalous position. The women's board
should have positive duties and direct responsibilities in its
appropriate sphere, or it should be abolished. The following is
Mrs. Doyle's letter of resignation:

_To His Excellency Henry Lippitt, Governor of the State:_

SIR: Please accept my resignation as member of the Board of
Lady Visitors to the Penal and Correctional Institutions of
the State. The recent action of a part of the board, in
regard to the annual report made to the General Assembly,
makes it impossible for me to continue longer as a member.
Before the report was submitted, it was carefully examined
by the members signing it, and was acquiesced in by them, as
their signatures testify. Still further, I am confirmed in
the opinion that so important a trust as this should be
coupled with some power for action; without this we are
necessarily confined to suggestions only to the male boards,
which suggestions receive only the attention they may
consider proper. Believing that this board, as now
empowered, can have no efficiency except where its
suggestions or criticisms meet the entire approval of the
male boards, and failing to see any good which can result
from our inspections under such conditio