Show WOMEN AND THE STUDY OF LAW the week toi toronto onto 1 prejudice wes hard bard even in the last jast decade of the nineteenth century witness the attitude taken by some legal liabo in the ontario assembly on the debate on mr balfourd Bal fours bill to t conter confer on the law society power to admit women to the study of law what possible reason can there be why women should not be permitted to study law if they wish to do sot so la Is not jurisprudence one ot of the noblest the most moat profound the mst m st broadening arid and elev elevating ting of all studies in which the human mind can engaged engage by what right human or divine should the masculine moiety of our citizens take it upon themselves to say that they must have a monopoly of the study of this ennobling science the men pure minded farsighted far sighted creatures that they are are afraid forsooth that it if women are permitted to get a knowledge of law they may wish to enter the courts to practice it and in the course of their practice may some novas day come in contact with something ug so pitchy as to be fit to be handled only by their com peers of the other sex aex Is not such an argument as this a little too late in the day has it not now been pretty well demonstrated that women may be safe ly left to follow the dictates of their own innate and cultured sense ot of propriety and that they are quite as well qualified fled to judge what is in modest and becoming for them as are the average of their mentors of the other sex Is is it not indeed just juat as possible that the presence of ladies at the bar should have the effect occasionally of modifying the character of the cross examina eions in certain classes of criminal cases and of preventing the putting of unnecessary and outrageous ageous questions neither justice nor modesty would suffer from the change but the question is not whether it Is ia desirable that women should practice as barristers bar in all kinds of cases it la Is whether they shall be permitted to share educational advantages which are furnished at the public expense and to which women there foras contribute their share of taxation tion itis also whether V WL can be trusted to aw govern themselves in accordance with theiron thel rown sense seme of it Is necessary that they should be restricted strict eted ed and hampered at every turn by limitations prescribed by the sex ax which has hitherto had bad a monopoly of the lawmaking law making bu business ainess and add which is 0 ly just learning at this late day to use that monopoly with anything like a just and reasonable consideration for the rights of the other sex we certainly are not particularly anxious to see women ad advocates vacates in the civil and criminal courts but we are a anxious that women should be at liberty to follow this or any other honorable or pro profession if they choose to do so and can flail fin d a demandt deman tr for their services we confess that we have never before given much thought to this particular eular phase of the question of womans comans sphere as it has never before we believe been made a living question in canada may we be pardoned if we add that the weakness of the objections raised against mr balfoura fau vis bill even more than the cogency odthe reasoning in its support have convinced us of the essential juaice jus ice of the measure when able opponents of a given giren proposal are forced to resort to such reasoning as was used by mr meredith in the case in question it seems pretty safe to oon conclude elude that they have somehow got on the wrong side |