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tut increased respect , provided that they be doing their worfc in a lonajide spirit . The Lady of Erin's Isle can -walk about in her jewels , " rings on her fingers and rings on her toes , " as she chooses , without ' any poet , therefore , thinking it necessary to put her into a ballad ; and though the Bard of Seven Dials sings , apropos of Miss Nightingale , that "Women was born for the comfort of man , man certainly has at last secured a very large amount of personal comfort and freedom to women , and in so far has altered somewhat the condition , or rather the level , of his relations to them . The -wood and water , the coarser elements of safety and bodily ¦ welL-beiii" ' , having been secured to the sex , we find
ourselves raised to the consideration of deeper and more delicate relations , which formerly had no play because they had no existence . The woman is no longer sold , actually or virtually , by her father to her husband .. She makes her own choice at an age when she is supposed competent to exercise a choice , and society ,-. whatever its practice , is extremely shocked at * any otlier theory of married life . Nowcome into the question various shades of feeliig , various complications of interest between father , mother , and children . ; the mother , feeling directly and individually responsible to God for the moral well-being of boys , and girls , desires to exercise some practical influence over their destinies , and it is universally conceded that she has a joint right to do so , even during the life of the father , while the case of Alicia Race has lately proved that Protestant
prethe part ; of- the other : sex , which has kept them , so . Among artists . are Mrs . Oliver and Mrs . Carpenter . ; among philanthropists . we may reckon Mxb . Fry , who . has been dead but little more than ten . years ; and -what she did for love aud zeal , other women can do for benevolence and necessary pay . Mts . Chisholrn works as hard as a Foreign Secretary ; and Madame Luce , in Algiers , is the paid directress of the Mussulman school , which she was the first to organize and force upon the attention of Government . It is the same in all countries , from Mrs . Johnstone , of Edinburgh , who was for years the real editor of the widely-circulating Inverness Courier , which \> as put out under her husband ' s name , to
Mrs . S . C . Hall , Mrs . Newton Cross land , and soon ad infinUum . Mrs- Everett Green collates state papers and "truly the labourer is worthy of his hire . " Then among teachers of arts and of languages , from the El- . listons , who inherit the genius and grace of both father and mother , to the exiles , 'Madame KinkeL and Madame Pulsky , everywhere we see the same thing—married women of ability and reputation helping their husbands in the struggles of Life . And it is no use to set up a sentimental theory that they oughtnot to do this , when the claims of their own genius , or the economical necessities of the country , are increasing every day the number of female labourers . As well try to dam out the flowing of
a mighty river , as to stop women from working when once they have seen the need , felt the power , and tasted the profits of exertion . And the laws which once operated with sufficient justice in a society where every wife was supported by her husband , and took out that support in active , practical household work—weaving of linen and knitting of hose—no longer apply to a condition of things in which , these operations being necessarily confided to Manchester and Nottingham , and the cooking to a maid of all work , women of ability find it to be far more profitable to spend their time in earning
pounds , than in saving pennies . In a succeeding letter we hope to prove , that , so soon as the wife really contributes actively her'share to the -family income , its uncontrolled disposal by the husband is an injustice productive of many moral evils , while , on the other hand , we need not fear , although the love of money is defined by Jeremy Taylor to be " a . vertiginous pool , sucking all into it to destroy / ' that English mothers will be drowned by reason of its depth . Bessie Rayner Pabkes . Algiers , February 1 , 1857 .
judice itself declines to interfere with the rights of a widowed mother , the Catholic guardian to the children of a Protestant father , who died " defending his country . " Hard as the individual religious question , appeared in this case , \ ve yet greatly rejoiced tliat the law gave to the surviving parent those parental rights which , by the death of the other , naturally fell to the decision of her conscience . Ihus it is , we think , amply proved , that even iecause men have secured so much legal justice aud personal safety t « women , questions are now rising on all hands having their root in . this new and noble foundation of our social life ; and that , since the woman no longer has to buy protection by the unconditional surrender of person and property , the manifold evils occasioned by the present law , whereby the property and earnings of the wife are thrown into the absolute power of the husband , become daily
more apparent . The same clause goes on to state " that the sufferings -thereupon ensuing extend over all classes of society . That it might once have been deemed for the middle and upper classes a comparatively theoretical question , but it is so no longer , since married women of education are entering ; on every side the fields of literature and art , in order to increase the family income by such exertions . " No sign of the times is more singular than the diffusion of the habit of working for money among married women . We do not mean to say that money is always the motive of the work—wliich it can never primarily be in the
caBe of true artists—but that the labourer is worthy of hia hire . While many women really do a great amount of hard literary hack-work , such as translating and compiling , for the sake of earning an honourable livelihood for those dear to them , and are paid in the same way , if not always at the same rate as professional literary men , editors , et id genus omne , female geniuses receive no less a golden equivalent for their talents ; Mary Barton bears a price , as well as Vanity Fair , Aurora Leigh will prove that the apple of the tree of knowledge bears some affinity to the golden apples of the garden of the Ilesperides , and will run through as many bound and gilded editions as the Poet Laureate ' s In , Memoriam
And comparing the literary women of the present day with those of the early part of the century , it is curious to remark how many more of the highest class of intellect are married , and living happily in domestic life . Maria Edgeworth , Jane Austin , Mary Mitford all these lived and died unmarried . Mrs . Ilemans , the poetess par excellence of our mothers and aunts , was separated from her husband . L . E . L . had but a short find fatal experience of matrimony , over which liuiigs an impenetrable mystery . At the present day our two most popular female- novelists , Mrs . btowo and Mrs . Gnskill , are both married and the mothers of many children ; Elizabeth Barrett is a wife , and mother to a " young Florentine , " who finished
, wo suppose , the original of that most unsurpassed baby in Aurora Leigh . Our only strictly scientific iemalo writer ia also married—Mary SomeryiUe ; Currer Boll married , and , had she lived , would have continued , as Mrs . Nichol , tiro noblo series which Cluirlottc Bronte had begun ; while the popular writers whose works circulate in all our watering-i > lucee , Mas . Gore , Mrs . Marsh , and Mrs . Trolloiw aro equally within the ' holy estate . ' The woman whoatvname is known all over England in connexion with the improvement of literature for the people is Mrs . Ilowitt -, but wo might go on for ever will * the hat . And among those women who , unmarried , occupy , uprominent place in literature , it in choice or the-incidents of life , and no dread of'baa blew '
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IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT . QTo the Editor of the Leader . ~ ) Sir , —An article which appeared in your paper some months since , and which spoke in . favour of an alteration in the present laws , makes me take the liberty of troubling you with this letter . Some da } 's since I met with a letter in the Times , headed " Imprisonment for Debt in France , " and its contents so startled me , that I at once despatched a letter to Paris , and the result was a reply of which I will give you . some extracts .
your , space than to give you the opinion of ' the u + I LordEldon : — "cutte " The law of . imprisonment-for-debt is a nerml * sion to commit a greater oppression and crueltv tW is to be met with in slavery itself ; to tear the fatW from his weeping children , the husband from hi ! distracted wife , to satiate the demoniac veneean f * of some worthless creditor . " - ^ Lord JEldon ' s Boeerh ^ 2 the Slave Trade . ** i »«*©» . I am , sir , your obedient servant , Oivicus . . , y
Some time since , a Mr . Morney , whom , my correspondent states was a gentleman of amiable manners and disposition , having just parted from a friend who visited him in his cellule before breakfast , walked down a passage , and looking out of a window , was shot by a , sentinel ; the ball severing the carotid artery , his death was instantaneous . The murderers excuse for his act was , that the deceased had mocked him ; that he had six times called out " Retircz-voiis J" and that he was attempting to escax ^ e . How , my correspondent says that this gentleman was not the sort of person to mock any one . He perfectly understood , and could speak the language , and had'just settled a process which . entitled him to receive lGO , OOOf . ( OOOOZ . ); anil as to his attempt to escape , that he died with his hands in his pockets !
The writer of this letter implores me to use my pen in the cause of the distressed "English" dctenue- in a foreign hind . He states that their sufferings in those prisons are very dreadful , and as no notice lias ever been given that the net of looking out of a window may bo punished by death , fears that occurrences of the kind may be frequent . If half the miseries inflicted upon prisoners lor debt in the United Kingdom ( and which imprisonment I term " punishment for misfortune" ) , were known to exist among the natives
of Timbuctoo , or some of the wilds of Central Africa , tho saints of JOxcter Hall would , long ere this , luive placarded all London , and have met in solemn couclavo . But in addition to tho continuance of n l > nrburous law , stud tho keeping up of bmtilles and all their machinery as e : igos for the victims of tho black tmccp of tlio legal profession , wo aro now to hour of our countrymen being confined in a foreign land , and shot at like < logs if they attempt to catch a few nioulhfuls of tho polluted air which is wafted around their dungeons .
I could tales unfold respect ing our own prisons which would fully show tho necessity of tho rt'i > i : nl of tho present law , but will not now * nmhor occupy
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GOLD-( To tlie Editor of the Leader . ) Sib , —For the sake of one of the most importanf principles connected with , modern chemical science I beg . to call your attention , and tliat of your readera tp an extract admitted into the Leader of Janu ' ary 3 from an article on Occult Philosophy in Ffaser ' s Magazine of the current month . The passage referred to , after instancing , the extent aud variety of application of a few of what are considered to l ) e elementary bodies , expresses a doubt that Nature , after clothing a man from head to foot with carboir hydrogen , and nitrogen , should be so extravagant . as
to devote a single element to the man ufacture of a watch , or a coin- No doubt , there is here a logical paradox ; but ' when it is remembered that Nature has no hand in selecting man ' s costume , and that it " would be indifferent to the Universal law if he were to garb himself entirely in gold , the attribution of such anomalous conduct to our great mother , is , I tiring simply impertinent . It has never been proved that gold does not combine with other elements , and form nev # substances of an organic nature , even supposing tliat we do not discover its presence in animal . atfd vegetable substances . Other elements have been found to exist in conditions in which they were iu ? sensitive to ordinary tests . Are the usual tests for
gold infallible ? Gold was once thought .-to be inca ? pable of vaporisation . Gay Lussac caused it toevaporate under a powerful burning-glass . Might it not , in such a state , find a fitting partner amongst , the other elements to constitute some new body valuable to man , and interesting to the philosopher ? Let it be shown fully that gold and its combinations are not primarily essential members of the grand system of physical nature , before their restricted applications to the arts of life ( arguing only man's incapacity ) be assumed good ground for upsetting . a scientific dogma that has sustained all the proof that human ingenuity has been enabled to apply .. I am , sir , your obedient serv « nt , F . B . Thompson .. 17 , Great Canterbury-place , Lambeth-road .
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Leader Office , Saturday , February 1-1 . LAST EIGHT'S PARLIAMENT . HOUSE OF LORDS . Ix this House , the Earl of Dkkbit gave notice of Ms intention to make a motion on the subject of the Chinese war ; and discussions took place with regard to tho state of the Encumbered Estates Court in Ireland , and the Rights of Married Women , the latter being originated by Lord . Brougham , who 3 however , introduced no measure on the subject . Their Lordchips adjourned at nine o ' clock-HOUSE OF COMMONS . CATHEDRAL UEFORM . la answer to Mr . Sidney Heroiekt , Lord Palmerston said that the Government had no present intention of bringing in a bill ou tlie subject of Cathedral lleforin .
rttKSIA . In answer to Mr . Layard , Lord Palmerstox said that a debate on the l ' ersian question would have a detrimental effect on the negotiations now going on with tho Shall—especially as tho negotiations were proceeding in a promising manner .- —In answer to Mr . II . J . Ba . ili . ik , Lord Palmkkston said ho could not at present lay on the tablo the ultimatum which was sent to Persia before the declaration o > f Avar . —Mr . KoKbuck said tho circumstances of the Persian wnr , and of the negotiations that were going on , showed that the boasted supervision of Parliament over public affairs was a mere farce ; as they could not ask a question cither before , during , or alter a wnr , and get an answer . of affairs
—Lord John Kusseli , said that the position in relation to this matter was peculiar , and ouo that required tho forboaranco of the IIouso ; and he deprecated any discussion on tho subject . —Mr . Giaiwtonk said it would bo diflicult for tha JIouso at present to enter into a discussion on this subject ; but alM there was this peculiarity , that n , war had been begun by tlic Government on their own responsibility , and without tho sanction of Parliament ; but , as the papers which hod bi'cn promised professed to clear up tliat point , h" could not at present form any judgment us to the neeuHisity <>» opening n . rielmte . —Mr . J ) i , siUixi said that it wan necessary that the llouao should know tliat tho negotiations which were Roiny ou wcro such iw UqUI out a sound prospect of their ending in a peace ; because it
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 14, 1857, page 154, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2180/page/10/
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