A. Schuchardt, resident
of the county, to the office of Master in Chancery. Mrs.
Schuchardt gave bond with security approved by the court,
taking and subscribing the required oath of office. Since
that day, she has been the acting Master of Chancery of that
county, taking proofs, making judicial rules, and performing
the other various duties incident to such office. At the
last term of the court the State attorney, at the instance
of Mr. Frank Hall, relator, filed an information in the
nature of a _quo warranto_ charging that Mrs. Schuchardt had
usurped and was unlawfully holding and exercising the
office. Mrs. Schuchardt filed pleas setting forth the order
of the court appointing her, her bonds with the order of
approval, and the oath of office filed by her. To these
pleas a general demurrer was interposed and argued.

The questions presented by the demurrer were: _First_--Is
the defendant eligible to this office, she being neither a
practicing nor a learned lawyer? _Second_--Is the defendant
eligible to this office, she being a female? The court
dismissed the first question on the ground that the statute
does not require admission to the bar as a qualification. Of
the eleven Masters in Chancery in that Judicial Circuit, it
was shown that only five had been admitted to the bar. As to
the second objection, _i. e._, that Mrs. Schuchardt was a
female (!) it was decided that the common law never
contemplated the admittance of a woman to the office of
Master in Chancery, and that doubtless it was the first
instance in which a woman had been admitted to the office.
It was also decided that the act of March 22, 1872, did not
make women eligible to this office; Master in Chancery--for
woman--did not mean "occupation, profession, or employment,"
and that "persons do not select an office, but are selected
for the office."

Judge Harker, in delivering this opinion, said: "It is due
to Mrs. Schuchardt to say in conclusion, that while I am
constrained to sustain this demurrer and hold that under the
law she cannot retain this office, there is not one of the
Masters i