ectors continue, would you have women hold office? If
they are capable and desirous, why not? They hold office now most
acceptably. In my immediate neighborhood, a postmistress has been
so faithful an officer for seven years, that when there was a
rumor of her removal, it was a matter of public concern. This is
a familiar instance in this country. Scott's "Antiquary" shows
that a similar service was not unknown in Scotland. In "Notes and
Queries," ten years ago (Vol. II., Sec. 2, 1856, pp. 83, 204),
Alexander Andrews says: "It was by no means unusual for females
to serve the office of overseer in small rural parishes," and a
communication in the same publication (First Series, Vol. II., p.
383) speaks of a curious entry in the Harleian Miscellany (MS.
980, fol. 153): "The Countess of Richmond, mother to Henry VII.,
was a Justice of the Peace. Mr. Atturney said if it was so, it
ought to have been by commission, for which he had made many an
hower's search for the record, but could never find it, but he
had seen many arbitriments that were made by her. Justice Joanes
affirmed that he had often heard from his mother of the Lady
Bartlett, mother to the Lord Bartlett, that she was a Justice of
the Peace, and did set usually upon the bench with the other
Justices in Gloucestershire; that she was made so by Queen Mary,
upon her complaint to her of the injuries she sustained by some
of that county, and desiring for redress thereof; that as she
herself, was Chief-Justice of all England, so this lady might be
in her own county, which accordingly the Queen granted. Another
example was alleged of one ---- Rowse, in Suffolk, who usually at
the assizes and sessions there held, set upon the bench among the
Justices _gladio cincta_." The Countess of Pembroke was
hereditary sheriff of Westmoreland, and exercised her office.
Henry the VIIIth granted a commission of inquiry, under the great
seal, to Lady Ann Berkeley, who opened it at Gloucester, and
passed sentence under it. Henry VIII's daughter, Elizabeth Tudor,
was Queen of England, in name and in fact, during the most
illustrious epoch of English history. Was Elizabeth incompetent?
Did Elizabeth unsex herself? Or do you say that she was an
exceptional woman? So she was, but no more an exceptional woman
than