paid 6d. a lb. for the little they could afford to use; and in Italy it was nearly 8d.—­a source of revenue to the Governments, but prohibitive to the poor.  There were no sweet shops in Italy.  England only could afford such luxuries.  I visited at Siena a home for deaf mutes, and found that each child had wine at two of its daily meals—­about a pint a day.  It was the light-red wine of the country, with little alcohol in it; but those who warn us against looking on the wine when it is red will be shocked to hear of these little ones drinking it like milk.  Those, however, who live in Italy say that not once a year do they see any one drunk in the streets.

I reached South Australia on December 12, 1894, after an absence of 20 months.  I found the women’s suffrage movement wavering in the balance.  It had apparently come with a rush—­as unexpected as it was welcome to those whose strenuous exertions at last seemed likely to be crowned with success.  Though sympathetic to the cause, I had always been regarded as a weakkneed sister by the real workers.  I had failed to see the advantage of having a vote that might leave me after an election a disfranchised voter, instead of an unenfranchised woman.  People talk of citizens being disfranchised for the Legislative Council when they really mean that they are unenfranchised.  You can scarcely be disfranchised if you have never been enfranchised; and I have regarded the enfranchisement of the people on the roll as more important for the time being than adding new names to the rolls.  This would only tend to increase the disproportion between the representative and the represented.  But I rejoiced when the Women’s Suffrage Bill was carried, for I believe that women have thought more and accepted the responsibilities of voting to a greater extent than was ever expected of them.  During the week I was accorded a welcome home in the old Academy of Music, Rundle street, where I listened with embarrassment to the avalanche of eulogium that overwhelmed me.  “What a good thing it is, Miss Spence, that you have only one idea,” a gentleman once said to me on my country tour.  He wished thus to express his feeling concerning my singleness of purpose towards effective voting.  But at this welcome home I felt that others realized what I had often said myself.  It is really because I have so many ideas for making life better, wiser, and pleasanter all of which effective voting will aid—­that I seem so absorbed in the one reform.  My opinions on other matters I give for what they are worth—­for discussion, for acceptance or rejection.  My opinions on equitable representation I hold absolutely, subject to criticism of methods but impregnable as to principle.

CHAPTER XIX.

PROGRESS OF EFFECTIVE VOTING.