FEMALE SUFFRAGE. 



435 



helpmate, the woman's need of a jjrotector and provider, especially 

 when she becomes a mother, and the common interest of parents in 

 their children. One of these factors must be withdrawn, or greatly 

 reduced in importance, to warrant us in concluding that a fundamental 

 change in the relation is about to take place. Mr. Mill hardly no- 

 tices any one of the four, and he treats the natural relation which 

 arises from them as a purely artificial structure, like a paper constitu- 

 tion or an act of Parliament, which legislatures can modify or abol- 

 ish at their pleasure. 



It has no doubt been far from a satisfactory world to either sex ; 

 but unless we attach a factitious value to public life and to the exercise 

 of public professions, it will be very difficult to prove that it has been 

 more unsatisfactory for one sex than the other. If the woman has had 

 her sorrows at home, the man has had his wars and his rough struggles 

 with Nature abroad, and with the sweat of his brow he has reclaimed 

 the earth, and made it a habitation for his partner as well as for him- 

 self. If the woman has had her disabilities, she has also had her 

 privileges. War has spared her ; for, if in primitive times she was 

 made a slave, this was better, in the days before sentiment at least, 

 than being massacred. And her jarivileges have been connected with 

 her disabilities. If she had made war by her vote, she could not have 

 claimed special respect as a neutral, nor will she be able to claim spe- 

 cial respect as a neutral if she makes war by her vote hereafter. 



In the United States the privileges of women may be said to ex- 

 tend to impunity, not only for ordinary outrage, but for murder. A 

 poisoner, whose guilt has been proved by overwhelming evidence, is 

 let off because she is a woman ; there is a sentimental scene between 

 her and her advocate in court, and afterward she appears as a public 

 lecturer. The whiskey crusade shows that women are practically above 

 the law. Rioting, and injury to the property of tradesmen, when 

 committed by the privileged sex, are hailed as a new and beneficent 

 agency in public life ; and because the German population, being less 

 sentimental, asserts the principles of legality and decency, the women 

 are said to have suffered martyrdom. So far from the American 

 family being the despotism which Mr. Mill describes, the want of do- 

 mestic authority lies at the root of all that is worst in the politics 

 of the United States. If the women ask for the suffrage, say some 

 American publicists, they must have it ; and in the same way every 

 thing that a child cries for is ajot to be given it, without reflection as 

 to the consequences of the indulgence. 



There is therefore no reason for setting the sexes by the ears, or 

 giving to any change which it may be just and expedient to make the 

 aspect of a revolt. We may discuss on its own merits the question 

 whether female suffrage would be a good thing for the whole com- 

 munity. The interest of the whole community must be the test. As 

 to natural rights, they must be sought by those who desire them, not 



