436 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in communities, but in the primeval woods, where the available rights 

 of women will be small. 



The question whether female suffrage on an extended scale is good 

 for the whole community is probably identical, practically speaking, 

 with the question whether it is good for us to have free institutions or 

 not. Absolute monarchy is founded on personal loyalty. Free insti- 

 tutions are founded on the love of liberty, or, to speak more properly, 

 on the preference of legal to personal government. But the love of 

 liberty and the desire of being governed by law alone appear to be 

 characteristically male. The female need of protection, of which, so 

 long as women remain physically weak, and so long as they are moth- 

 ers, it will be impossible to get rid, is apparently accomj)anied by a 

 preference for personal government, which finds its proper satisfaction 

 in the family, but which gives an almost uniform bias to the political 

 sentiments of women. The account commonly accepted, of the reac- 

 tionary tendency which all admit to be generally characteristic of the 

 sex, is, that they are priest-ridden. !N"o doubt many of them are 

 priest-ridden, and female suffrage would give a vast increase of power 

 to the clergy. But the cause is probably deeper and more permanent, 

 being, in fact, the sentiment inherent in the female temperament, which 

 again is formed by the normal functions and circumstances of the sex. 

 And, if this is the case, to give women the franchise is simj)ly to give 

 them the power of putting an end, actually and virtually, to all fran- 

 chises together. It may not be easy to say beforehand exactly what 

 course the demolition of free institutions by female suffrage would 

 take. In the United States probably some woman's favorite would 

 be elected President, and reelected till his power became personal, 

 and perhaps dynastic. But there can be little doubt that in all cases, 

 if power were put into the hands of women, free government, and 

 with it liberty of opinion, would fall. 



In France, it is morally certain that at the present moment, if 

 votes were given to the women, the first result would be the restora- 

 tion to power of the Bourbons, with their reactionary priesthood, and 

 the destruction of all that has been gained by the national agonies of 

 the last century. The next result would be a religious crusade against 

 German Protestantism and Italian freedom. 



But would the men submit? Would they, in compliance with the 

 edict of the women, and in obedience to a woman's government, haul 

 down the tricolor, hoist the white flag, bow their necks to the yoke of 

 reaction, and march against the victors of Sedan in a cause which 

 they detest ? This question points to another serious consideration. 

 It is true that law is much stronger now than it was in primitive or 

 feudal times, and a woman is more under its protection and less under 

 the private protection of her husband and her kinsmen. But law, 

 after all, though the fact may be rough and unwelcome, rests at bot- 

 tom on the force of the community, and the force of the community is 



