ave acted admirably. Nevertheless, the reactionary Education Act of
June, 1903, took away from the women the right to hold office as members
of school boards in the County of London. They can still secure
administrative offices by governmental appointment, but no longer by an
election. In 1888 were created the county councils for England and Wales;
the county councils were at the same time organs for the self-governing
municipalities. Since this law, like those of 1869 and 1870, did not
specially exclude women from the right to hold office, two women, Mrs.
Cobden and Lady Sandhurst, presented themselves as candidates for the
office of county councillors of London. They were elected. Thereupon Mrs.
Beresford-Hope, whom Lady Sandhurst had defeated, contested the legality
of the election. In 1889, the Court of Appeals declared that women were
eligible to public office only _when this is expressly stated_.[41] This
decision of the Court, which was in conflict with the English
Constitution, also brought about the loss of the right of the women of
Scotland and Ireland to hold office as county councillors.

As a result of this judicial decision, when the new Local Self-government
Act for England and Wales was enacted (1894), it was necessary expressly
to state the eligibility of women (unmarried and married) to hold the
minor local offices (parish, urban, rural district councillors, poor-law
guardians, etc.). Article 22, however (in spite of historical precedents),
excluded women from the office of justice of the peace. In 1894 the same
thing occurred in Scotland, and in 1898 in Ireland.

In 1899, the attempt to secure the eligibility of women to the
metropolitan borough councils (for London only)[42] failed, owing to the
opposition of the House of Lords.

The law of 1907,[43] known as the _Qualification of Women Act_, grants
unmarried women the right to hold office in the borough and county
councils (councillor, alderman, mayor). Married women have this right only
in the County of London; elsewhere they can merely vote for these
officers.[44] On the occasion of the first elections under this act twelve
women presented themselves as candidates; six were elected (one as mayor);
hitherto the women had been elected only in small places, and then owing
to exceptional circumstances. Whoever investigates the struggle of the
women to secure their rights in the local government and studies the
attitude of the men toward these exceedi