re resident students at some universities and
at others present themselves on equal terms with men for examination.
The way has been opened to them in some professions and in many spheres
of activity from which they had been formerly excluded.

One advantage of the English mode of proceeding in these great questions
is that the situation can be reconsidered from time to time without the
discordant contentions which surround any proclamation of non-success in
State concerns. We feel our way and try this and that, and readjust
ourselves, and a great deal of experimental knowledge has been gained
before any great interests or the prestige of the State have been
involved. These questions which affect a whole people directly or
indirectly require, for us at least, a great deal of experimenting
before we know what suits us. We are not very amenable to systems, or
theories, or ready-made schemes. And the phenomenon of tides is very
marked in all that we undertake. There is a period of advance and then a
pause and a period of decline, and after another pause the tide rises
again. It may perhaps be accounted for in part by the very fact that we
do so much for ourselves in England, and look askance at anything which
curtails the freedom of our movements, when we are in earnest about a
question; but this independence is rapidly diminishing under the more
elaborate administration of recent years, and the increase of State
control in education. Whatever may be the effect of this in the future,
it seems as if there were at present a moment of reconsideration as to
whether we have been quite on the right track in the pursuit of higher
education for women, and a certain discontent with what has been
achieved so far. There are at all events not many who are cordially
pleased with the results. Some dissatisfaction is felt as to the
position of the girl students in residence at the universities. They
cannot share in any true sense in the life of the universities, but only
exist on their outskirts, outside the tradition of the past, a modern
growth tolerated rather than fostered or valued by the authorities. This
creates a position scarcely enviable in itself, or likely to communicate
that particular tone which is the gift of the oldest English
universities to their sons. Some girl students have undoubtedly
distinguished themselves, especially at Cambridge; in the line of
studies they attained what they sought, but that particular gift of t