1878.] 
469 
The “ W oman s- Rights' ” Question. 
tion to an expert. If Mr. Morris finds it necessary to call 
in the aid of “ Punch,” the “John Bull,” or the “ Globe,” 
he only betrays his own “ plentiful lack ” of sound argu- 
ment. But there is yet a final court of appeal : the 
authority is invoked of one who, we suppose, is no less 
distinguished by his candour, his courtesy, and his stridt 
regard for truth, than by his vaunted “ thinness of skin,” 
his freedom from egotism, and the typographical eccentrici- 
ties of his works, where italics and small capitals cover a 
multitude of sins. The pamphlet is, it seems, dedicated to 
“ The Right Honourable the Common Sense of the People 
of England.” We have more than once been compelled to 
point out that “ common sense ” is the name under which 
many worship their own ignorance. We were partly in the 
wrong ; it is the name they invoke when they seek to 
utilise the ignorance of others. 
III. THE “ WOMAN’S-RIGHTS 5 ” QUESTION 
CONSIDERED FROM A BIOLOGICAL POINT OF 
VIEW. 
INCE Natural History was remodelled by Mr. Darwin 
it has been found capable of throwing valuable lights, 
previously little anticipated, upon topics quite uncon- 
nected with the origin and attributes of zoological or 
botanical species. Of this solidarity of the sciences — -one 
supplying another with methods of inquiry — a striking- 
instance is afforded by a recent work,* in which the doctrine 
of Natural Selection is successfully utilised in the study of 
certain political subjects. That futher applications more or 
less analogous are still possible will scarcely be doubted. 
There is in particular one question now agitating human 
society which seems particularly to require such treatment. 
Everyone knows that of late years a movement has sprung 
up to secure for women, as contra-distinguished from men, 
certain rights, liberties, and powers of which it is contended 
they have been arbitrarily and wrongfully deprived. To 
* Physics and Politics, by Walter Baoekot, 
