On July 16, one of the hottest days of the season, Mrs. Jacob Bright and daughter, Herbert Burroughs, and Mrs. Parkhurst came down from London, and we sat out of doors, taking our luncheon under the trees and discussing theosophy.  Later in the month Hattie and I went to Yorkshire to visit Mr. and Mrs. Scatcherd at Morley Hall, and there spent several days.  We had a prolonged discussion on personal rights.  One side was against all governmental interference, such as compulsory education and the protection of children against cruel parents; the other side in favor of state interference that protected the individual in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and happiness.  I took the latter position.  Many parents are not fit to have the control of children, hence the State should see that they are sheltered, fed, clothed, and educated.  It is far better for the State to make good citizens of its children in the beginning, than, in the end, to be compelled to care for them as criminals.

While in the north of England we spent a few days at Howard Castle, the summer residence of Lord and Lady Carlisle and their ten children.  So large a family in high life is unusual.  As I had known Lord and Lady Amberley in America, when they visited this country in 1867, I enjoyed meeting other members of their family.  Lady Carlisle is in favor of woman suffrage and frequently speaks in public.  She is a woman of great force of character, and of very generous impulses.  She is trying to do her duty in sharing the good things of life with the needy.  The poor for miles round often have picnics in her park, and large numbers of children from manufacturing towns spend weeks with her cottage tenants at her expense.  Lord Carlisle is an artist and a student.  As he has a poetical temperament and is aesthetic in all his tastes, Lady Carlisle is the business manager of the estate.  She is a practical woman with immense executive ability.  The castle with its spacious dining hall and drawing rooms, with its chapel, library, galleries of paintings and statuary, its fine outlook, extensive gardens and lawns was well worth seeing.  We enjoyed our visit very much and discussed every imaginable subject.

When we returned to Basingstoke we had a visit from Mrs. Cobb, the wife of a member of Parliament, and sister-in-law of Karl Pearson, whose lectures on woman I had enjoyed so much.  It was through reading his work, “The Ethic of Free Thought,” that the Matriarchate made such a deep impression on my mind and moved me to write a tract on the subject.  People who have neither read nor thought on this point, question the facts as stated by Bachofen, Morgan, and Wilkeson; but their truth, I think, cannot be questioned.  They seem so natural in the chain of reasoning and the progress of human development.  Mrs. Cobb did a very good thing a few days before visiting us.  At a great meeting called to promote Mr. Cobb’s election, John Morley spoke.  He did not even say “Ladies and gentlemen” in starting, nor make the slightest reference to the existence of such beings as women.  When he had finished, Mrs. Cobb arose mid great cheering and criticised his speech, making some quotations from his former speeches of a very liberal nature.  The audience laughed and cheered, fully enjoying the rebuke.  The next day in his speech he remembered his countrywomen, and on rising said, “Ladies and gentlemen.”