the vote on
the same terms as were extended to men. The great man said
meekly--"Well, perhaps I have made a mistake, but I thought with a
property qualification the beginning would awake less antagonism." He
said to me that if I was not to return to London till January we were
not likely to meet again. He walked with me bareheaded to the gate, and
it was farewell for both.

Wise man as Mill was he did not foresee that his greatest object, the
enfranchisement of women, would be carried at the antipodes long before
there was victory either in England or America. When I received, in
1869 from the publisher, Mr. Mill's last book, "The Subjection of
Women," I wrote thanking him for the gift. The reply was as
follows:--"Avignon, November 28, 1869--Dear Madam--Your letter of
August 16 has been sent to me here. The copy of my little book was
intended for you, and I had much pleasure in offering it. The movement
against women's disabilities generally, and for the suffrage in
particular, has made great progress in England since you were last
there. It is likely, I think, to be successful in the colonies later
than in England, because the want of equality in social advantages
between women and men is less felt in the colonies owing, perhaps, to
women's having less need of other occupations than those of married
life--I am, dear Madam, yours very truly, J. S. Mill." I have always
held that, though the Pilgrim Fathers ignored the right of the Pilgrim
Mothers to the credit of founding the American States--although these
women had to take their full share of the toils and hardships and
perils of pioneer and frontier life, and had in addition to put up with
the Pilgrim Fathers themselves--Australian colonization was carried out
by men who were conscious of the service of their helpmates, and
grateful for it. In New Zealand and South Australia, founded on the
Wakefield system, where the sexes were almost equal in number, and the
immigration was mainly that of families, the first great triumphs for
the political enfranchisement of women were won, and through South
Australia the women of the Commonwealth obtained the Federal vote for
both Houses: whereas even in the sparsely inhabited western states in
the United States which have obtained the State vote the Federal vote
is withheld from them. But Mill died in 1873, 20 years before New
Zealand or Colorado obtained woman's suffrage.

In treating of my one interview with Mr. Mill I have