FEMALE SUFFRAGE, 431 



authority as the mistress of the family, without regard to the common 

 law against arbitrary imprisonment. Such a constitution was essen- 

 tial to the existence of the family in primitive times ; without it, the 

 germs of nations and of humanity would have j)erished. To suppose 

 that it was devised by the male sex for the gratification of their own 

 tyrannical propensities would be most absurd. It was at least as much 

 a necessity to the primitive woman as it was to the primitive man. It 

 is still a necessity to woman in the countries where the primitive type 

 of society remains. What would be the fate of a female Bedouin, if 

 she were suddenly invested with woman's rights and emancipated 

 from the protection of her husband ? 



That the present relation of women to their husbands literally has 

 its origin in slavery, and is a hideous relic of that system, is a theory 

 which Mr. Mill sets forth in language such as, if it could sink into the 

 hearts of those to whom it is addressed, would turn all affection to bit- 

 terness, and divide every household against itself. Yet this theory is 

 without historical foundation. It seems, indeed, like a figure of invec- 

 tive heedlessly converted into history. Even in the most primitive 

 times, and those in which the subjection of the women was most com- 

 plete, the wife was clearly distinguished from the slave. The lot of 

 Sarah is different from that of Hagar ; the authority of Hector over 

 Andromache is absolute, yet no one can confound her position with 

 that of her handmaidens. The Roman matron who sent her slave to 

 be crucified, the Southern matron who was the fierce supporter of 

 slavery, were not themselves slaves. Whatever may now be obsolete 

 in the relations of husband and wife is not a relic of slavery, but of 

 primitive marriage, and may be regarded as at worst an arrangement 

 once indispensable which has survived its hour. Where real slavery 

 has existed, it has extended to both sexes, and it has ceased for both 

 at the same time. Even the Oriental seclusion of women, perhaps the 

 worst condition in which the sex has ever been, has its root, not in the 

 slave-owning propensity so much as in jealousy, a passion which, 

 though extravagant and detestable in its excessive manifestation, is 

 not without an element of affection. The most beautiful building in 

 the East is that in which Shah Jehan rests by the side of Nourmahal. 



If the calm and philosophic nature of Mr. Mill is ever betrayed into 

 violence, it is in his denunciations of the present institution of marriage. 

 He depicts it as a despotism full of mutual degradation, and fruitful of 

 no virtues or affections except the debased virtues and the miserable 

 affections of the master and the slave. The grossest and most degrad- 

 ing terms of Oriental slavery are used to designate the relations of 

 husband and wife throughout the whole book. A husband who desires 

 his wife's love is merely seeking " to have, in the woman most nearly 

 connected with him, not a forced slave, but a willing one — not a slave 

 merely, but a favorite." Husbands have, therefore " put every thing 

 in practice to enslave the minds of their wives." If a wife is intensely 



