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Wt..£fl2!L "Kfcw - 26. 1859.1 THE LEADER...
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THE WRONGS OF WOMEN. There are some subj...
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enough to provide decent human methods o...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Italy And The Congress
In the present case , however , men of standing « nd property have given themselves to the work of change and reformation , and hence , no doubt , may be discovered the reason for the unanimous desire manifested for union under a constitutional monarch . The position and personal characteristics of Victor Emmanuel are every way calculated to forward the wish for union . - _ The heir of a long ancestral line of sovereigns , his , kingdom stands ready to accept and appropriate , without engulfing , the territory which is offered to him ; while his own character is such as to attach , those to him who are urged by policy to place themselves beneath his rule . The manner in which the wishes and
feelfrom the hand of one master to another , like un thinking cattle and beasts of burden .
ings of Lombardy have been studied in the administrative measures taken with reference to this new province of the Sardinian kingdom may well encourage the other States to persevere in their efforts for annexation . It is earnestly to be desired that the approaching Congress should sanction the unanimous and openly manifested desires of the people of Central Italy . It is argued with much appearance of justice that if the great European Powers oppose their , wishes , Piedmont will , in all probability , refuse to adhere to their decision . But then will come a terrible time of reaction following upon the unnatural repression in Avhich the Italians are now kept . And this is the least unfavourable result that could be looked for ; if
on the other hand Piedmont ' should accept and acquiesce in their adverse decision , her prestige vrould be lost , and with it all faith in the monarchical principle . The cause of order would suffer irreparable loss ; the Republican party would again rise stronger than ever ; " the Peninsula would be in flames , and Europe would be con-„ vulsed from one end . , the other with a repetition of the scenes of 1848 . We feel fully warranted in asserting that , under present circumstances , the sole hope of averting the mos t dire political catastrophe lies in the substitution of a powerful , enlightened , trusted , arid national
government in Upper and Central Italy for the stern , despotic rule of Austria and its vicegerents , and the tyrannic and intolerant oppression of the Pope . It is well that the great Powers should be convinced , that tho , ugh Italians have hitherto so admirably restrained their impatience , it would at once burst forth if they found their just rights despised , and their wrongs unrcdressed , after the period to which they have been taught to look at as the moment when their fate is to be decided . The present , therefore , is undoubtedly a most important crisis in the affairs of the Peninsula . The treaties of 3815 have been so completely set at defiance of late that it will be sheer folly if any attempt should be made to employ them against ' Austria and
Italy in the approaching Congress . France have both unhesitatingly violated them whenever it has served their purpose to do so . It would , then , be hard it their provisions were to be renewed or enforced for the special oppression of Italy . By those treaties the Bonaparte family was proscribed and debarred from sovereign power in any European State ; yet England , Russia , . Prussia , and Austria recognised the French , empire and Napoleon III . ns Emperor . While himself reigning in defiance of resolutions made in a European congress , at is somewhat ludicrous that the French Emperor should so strongly inculcate upon the Italians the duly of referring their very political existence to a * congress of tho gtfbat Powers , and deferring implicitly , to its decisions . *
But in . the midst of all the uncertainty and agitation accompanying the present provisional state of things ; real progress is going forward in certain directions likely to have a permanent influence upon tho condition of the Peninsula , and which must , whether sooner or later , effect those important changes which are tho grand want of Ituly . The people are beginning to o »\ joy the benefits of freedom of thought and speech . In Florence , cities for reli
Pisa , and various other , meetings - gious worship , in which dootrines opposed to Jxoaianism are advanced , are permitted to bo hold openly . Several very modest places of worshipnot magnificent tommies , as described by tho oor > respondent of a daily oontoinporary , avowedly Protestant—have been built , or are in process of erection . All appearances , in short , indicate that the Italians have determined to bo no longer Suppots in tho hands of despota and bigots , and le day will surely soon dawn when they will exorcise the right of free wen , and no longer bo passed
Wt..£Fl2!L "Kfcw - 26. 1859.1 The Leader...
Wt .. £ fl 2 ! L " Kfcw - 26 . 1859 . 1 THE LEADER . 1299
The Wrongs Of Women. There Are Some Subj...
THE WRONGS OF WOMEN . There are some subjects which recur in cycles . The authorship of Junius , the sources of the Nile , and the advantages of compulsory education , are all subjects which belong to this periodic class . One can predict with certainty that they will attract public attention towards November , and disappear below the social horizon with the meet- , ing of Parliament . They never are settled—they never can be settled—they are never even meant to be settled . Periodical literature fosters and
protects them , as a rat-catcher watches over some tough old rat who has brought him many a job , and-will bring him . many another yet . The great female question is the most favoured specimen of the class . More nonsense has been written , more twaddle has been talked about it , than about any other unfortunate subject we are acquainted T ^ ith . We observe that , as usual , the discussion between the advocates and opponents of " women ' s rights " has been resumed at this season of the year , and for the next few weeks the old battledore and
shuttlecock controversy is likely to rage with its wonted activity . It requires a more sanguine temperament than we possess to hope that the controversy will lead to any practical result . Women have a grievance —a very real grievance—to complain of . But that grievanee is asocial , not a legal one . The laws ^ of which women complain , are the symptoms , not the causes , of their peculiar position . A state of social feeling is one of those ills " which neither laws nor kings can cause or cure , " and rt is a state
of social feeling which , keeps women in their present condition . There are two great . parties to the controversy—one who ignore the existence of our present social arrangements , and assume that the difference between men and . women is purely an artificial one : and another who look upon pur social state , which entails peculiar disabilities on women , as unchangeable and final . For our own part-we disagree almost equally with either view , and think we may be doing soni 6 little good by stating , shortly , what the plain facts of the case are , and what each party really means by their
The whole question is , in fact , a material one Whatever the state of society may be , women will marry as fast as they can , and the more prosperous society is , the more marriages there will be inevitably . The only way to improve the position of woman is to make marriage more easy and more universal ; at present the middle-class female population , in a political economical point of view , is entirely unproductive . In consequence , men have to do a vast amount of work which might equally well be performed by women , and therefore this male labour is lost to the State , and the production , . of the country is as muchl the
neighbours ; the daughters , as we said , are brough up to marry . If they do marry , weil and good but if they do not , there is nothing for them Marriage , we all know , is a lottery , and the proportion of blanks to prizes is daily increasing . Ir this part icular class the men get to marry latei and later , and the number of batchelors is , we suspect , increasing . An unmarried woman , with us , is a social anomaly- Like the steward in the parable , she cannot work , and she is ashamed to beg . She is fit for nothing . She loses caste ii she becomes a servant or a shopwoman ; and she becomes a governess , for the same cause , and in the same way , that a hopelessly ruined man always turns into a coal merchant .
smaller . If every woman , not of independent fortune , were not only taught a-trade , but actually pursued the trade in practice till she married , women would be independent of marriage , and yet , at the same t ime , would afford to marry much , more safely and readily . This solution of the " women question' _ we believe to be the * only possible one , but yet it is one to which both of the controversialists on the question would give an indignant denial . _ The defenders of " the rights of women" despise it , because it-io-nores all the high views about the .
mental quality of the sexes and woman ' s missiont On the other hand , the advocates of our present system dread any innovation of this kind from one simple " cause . If women are brought up to support themselves , our whole rule of female education must be thrown overboard . No woman could learn , ' or pursue , a trade , without getting to knew a good deal of life and the working of the world ; and in England the contraction of a woman ' s mind' is made as great an object as the contraction of her foot in China . This is tae real difficulty which all JSteiglish social reformers are afraid to face . Till they " o > so , their efforts will lead to nothinsr . .
arguments . We suspect that amongst tlie aristocratic and the working classes , women , as women , have not much to complain of . In the former class , the daughters of a family almost always can marry , if they wish , and if they do not , there is sure , as a rule , to be sufficient provision made to enable them to live in comparative comfort . Irithe latter , women have a great chance of marrying , as the men of their own class marry almost universally J ; and if they are unfortunate enough to miss the chance , they are obliged to work ibr their own livelihood , and are not probably worse off than working men . The re & lnardship of the grievance vast
falls entirely upon the middle classes , on that and daily increasing body , who support themselves and their families by labour which is not manual . In an ordinary middle-class family , the sons are brought up to some trade' or profession or pursuit , the daughters are brought up to marry . It is simple nonsense to say that any father of a family ought to make provision for his daughters . You might every bit as well say , that every man ought to have d 10 , 000 in theThree per Cents . Life Assurance doea not solve-the problem , as people seem to think . There is no royal road to . wealth , and insurance is -only rather an expensive , and speculative way of investing your savings . If you have no savings to invest , ypucannotinsuro , and ' fch at large fluctuating class which forms tho link between the wealthy and the poor , have no savings to invest . The necessit ies of existence eat up their increase ,
and capital thoy have none . This may be a very bad state of society—wo do not say that it is not ; but while things remain as they are , there will always be an enormous class , who , by the exigencies of their position , bring wx their children as gentlemen and ladies—accordqag to tho common saying—and yet oan make no provision for them alter death . The indirect working of this system is the real griovanoc that wonien nave to complain of . Sons have not , as a rule , much fault to find with' it . They are given education enough t $ fuppo $ t them-Helves os their fathers have done before them , and if they out ill , or are unfortunate , they sink into a lower class , and arc not worse off than then-
Enough To Provide Decent Human Methods O...
enough to provide decent human methods of living for tl ° e vast swarms of our population , we have no ri"ht to expect the sufferers will preserve a contented equanimity and bless the gross inequalities of 'fortuftb which loaves them in hovels , and laps " their betters" in palatial luxury . ; In some shape or another , the , sufferings of the loss , favoured classes will make themselves known , and as the rich acquire daily more means of self-indulgence , the poor will bo loss disposed to submit to privations the degradation of which becomes allxuo more calling and conspicuous by force of contrast with tho pomp and splendour that opprossos their hearts , and diisalps their , oyes . If tho wages fund btf'hot sufficient to satisfy tho demands of the emrflmfod . lot us make it move , and instead of abusing atural
STRIKES AND THE WA ^ S FUND . It is an unfortunate thing that there is much more complaint against strikes than agains * the evils of which they are at once th « syniptoqai and the expression . The capitalist class complafifc of them because they are productive of loss , and w hey rate the working class severely for not understanding or practically believing in the laws of jAonticaJ economy . They tell them about the limitation oi the wages fund , and its ratio to population , ' and offer a rough sum in arithmetic as a consola tion for grievances which , not suffering themselves * they represent as inevitable . If it bo true— -wlncl ? wo holinve—^ tliftt the existi ng wages fund is notlarge
the working class for a discontent which is n , although not always wis % expressed , lot the capitalists use thoir powet to remove obstacles whioh impede , and to obtain iaciUties whioh . would promote , a better state oi things . Some writers attompt to prove that the taxntoon of the country does not boar unfairly upon industry ; *> ut , in spite of all mystification , there oan be no doubt that our system of taxation , w in mow flagrant contradiction to the laws of politioal
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 26, 1859, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26111859/page/15/
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