The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-05-10 00:00:00

WOMEN'S RIGHTS.

On Wednesday evening, the 31st nit, the
House of Commons again, by a decisive majority,
rejected the bill, having for its object the re-
moval of the electoral disabilities of women, and
which the honourable member for Manchester.
Mr. Jacob Bright, notwithstanding previous
defeats,had the temerity once more to introduce,
but in so modest and unassuming a shape as
might easily have dispelled all suspicions of its
sweeping and iconoclastic nature. It contained
no preamble, and but one clause of seven lines,
the marginal reference to which set forth that
" in Acts relating to the qualification and voting
of Parliamentary electors, masculine gender to
include females,' and so beneath a humble ap-
pearance was concealed a measure which, had it
passed into law, would have shaken the entire
fabric of society to its very foundations; for the
bill was openly acknowledged by its promoters
upon the platform and in the press, to be the
tirat step towards the emancipation of women
from what they are pleased to consider her pre-
sent state of degradation and servitude.
Now it is not only unnessary but impossible
for us within the limits of this article to re-
capitulate the many arguments which in all
reason and common sense might be urged
against the endowment of females with the
Parliamentary tranchise. In the first place
there are objections against such a proceeding,
which in a public assembly or a public print the
tongue is unwilling to utter, or the pen to write,
and we, therefore, content ourselves with a con-
fident assertion that the present generation of
English women du not desire or ask for the
questionable benefits which a very few of their
energetic sex are so earnestly striving to obtain
for them. Of what use would a vote be to a
happy wife and mother whose sole thought
should be the welfare and comfort of her hus-
band children '? Would she desert either the
one or the other, or both, that she might plunge
into the riot and noise of a political discussion,
or the confusion and turmoil of a polling booth?
Would she neglect her household duties and
those indescribable attentions to her family
which go so far to make home happy, in order
that she might the better study treatises on the
merits of direct taxation, the utilization of
sewage, the international drawbacks on sugar,or
any other knowledge necessary to a complete
political education,and the conscientious exercise
of her newly acquired functions? We venture
to say that in tim four corners of this kingdom it
would be extremely difficult to find any woman
except those to whom home tits and domestic
joys have become wearisome, and who are but
tit companions for those who have never felt
such sweet and sacred influence to follow the
lead of the Manchester school of her advanced
sisters. As Mr. Bruce remarked on the even-
ing of the debate, to confer on women the
electoral franchise would be to reverse the policy
of all mankind, and repeal the laws of the
Universe. But there is happily no immediate
prospect that such an undesirable result will
ever be attained, as we are assured that the
women of this country are totally indifferent to
their so called rights, for did they really wish
that the suffrage should be extended to them,no
Parliament could withstand their demands. It
is a curious fact, although it may be somewhat
ungallant to name it, that at least three-fourths
ef the ladies who are the self-constituted leaders
of this agitation, are as yet "iii maiden medita-
tion fancy free," whilst the age of most of them
damps ,the hone that they will ever enter a
happier state. Should, however, future events
negative our somewhat dismal anticipations
there is little doubt that the movement would
quickly subside, and that its most eager and
earnest supporters would soon become the
loving wives and tender mothers which nature
has ordaiued to be their true and best condition
in life.