epresentation except to write an occasional letter to the
press. So I started another novel, which was published serially in The
Observer. Mr. George Bentley, who published it subsequently in book
form, changed its title from "Hugh Lindsay's Guest" to "The Author's
Daughter." But my development as a public speaker was more important
than the publication of a fourth novel. Much had been written on the
subject of public speaking by men, but so far nothing concerning the
capacities of women in that direction. And yet I think all teachers
will agree that girls in the aggregate excel boys in their powers of
expression, whether in writing, or in speech, though boys may surpass
them in such studies as arithmetic and mathematics. Yet law and custom
have put a bridle on the tongue of women, and of the innumerable
proverbs relating to the sex, the most cynical are those relating to
her use of language. Her only qualification for public speaking in old
days was that she could scold, and our ancestors imposed a salutary
cheek on this by the ducking stool in public, and sticks no thicker
than the thumb for marital correction in private. The writer of the
Proverbs alludes to the perpetual dropping of a woman's tongue as an
intolerable nuisance, and declares that it is better to live on the
housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house. A later writer,
describing the virtuous woman, said that on her lips is the law of
kindness, and after all this is the real feminine characteristic. As
daughter, sister, wife, and mother--what does not the world owe to the
gracious words, the loving counsel, the ready sympathy which she
expresses? Until recent years, however, these feminine Rifts have been
strictly kept for home consumption, and only exercised for the woman's
family and a limited circle of friends. In 1825, when I first opened my
eyes on the world, there were indeed women who displayed an interest in
public affairs. My own mother not only felt the keenest solicitude
regarding the passing of the Reform Bill, but she took up her pen, and
with two letters to the local press, under the signature of "Grizel
Plowter," showed the advantages of the proposed measure. But public
speaking was absolutely out of the question for women, and though I was
the most ambitious of girls, my desire was to write a great book--not
at all to sway an audience. When I returned from my first visit to
England in 1866, I was asked by the committee of the South