THE COUNTESS OF SELBORNE ON WOMAN'S FRANCHISE SELBORNE (Maud Palmer, Countess of Selborne, 1858-1950, wife of the 2nd Earl 1859-1942, Political and Women's rights Activist)

Exceptional Autograph Letter Signed to Mr Baddeley saying that she thinks "your suggestion is a very good one and I have sent your book on to Mr Fyfe ... I enclose the figures of infant mortality which I spoke to you about. They are curious, whether you draw the deductions which this leaflet does or not. I was looking at those for 1911 the other day, & they are much the same. The United Kingdom is I think relatively rather worse on account of the very hot dry summer. The most inexplicable thing is the very high German figure. I think we may say that it proves that the political woman is no worse at her own job , than the political man is at his. I really don't know why anyone should have supposed she would be. It is difficult to believe that the difference in legislation is responsible for the improvement. The woman voting countries have better laws on sanitation and the protection of children, but I don't think that can make the difference between let us say 72 in Norway & 170 in Germany. I expect the difference is really moral. That the men in the countries which have given women votes, accept more often permissive standards, & also that the mothers are more deferred to in the lower classes. However, these are the figures & they certainly deserve consideration ... Figures never were my strong point & I am aghast at the number I make it. So I will state the problem for you. A population of 70 millions with a birth rate of 37 per thousand living out of every 1000 babies born 170 dies before they are a year old. Of those 170 90 might be saved. How indignant you would feel if you heard that an invading army had massacred all those children, but you only think us cranks because we are trying to suggest that somehow or other we do succeed in saving the children's lives. You won't even take the trouble to go into the evidence & see what we have to say for ourselves. Well I suppose every reformer has felt like this ...", with a postscript "the chances are you will not even work out that sum", 4 sides 8vo., 49 Mount Street, 25th February

The Countess' father was Prime Minister Lord Salisbury, and her husband High Commissioner for South Africa, 1905-1910. Jack (John, 1893-1918, M.C.) and Victor (1891-1977) were sons of her brother Lord William Gascoyne-Cecil, Rector of Hatfield and later Bishop of Exeter.

Item Date:  0

Stock No:  39781      £275

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