The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-11 00:00:00

" WOMAN AND THE WORLD."

The Saturday Review this morning enters into a
kind of justifiedies of its resent cynicism respecting the
thareeter and meek. of women in the present cloy. it
opens Ito essay by declaring that the time has arrived when
they have to meet hard sayings with replisc " a little
lee eaperleial than the conventional stare of out-
raged womanhood or the trivial retort on the follies of
men." Referring to the denunciations of what is called
the " magcificent indecency" of New York, to the protest
of the Berlin schoolmaster, against the degrading exhibi.
Roue of the Premien capital, to the "thunder. of the
Vaticsn,"and the protest of theßishop of Orleans, the writer
rugged' that these may only be varied theses of cynicism,
bet contends that each a world-wide outbreak of that
rind Idthest i ea= is a somewhat isprobalil" event,
and the improbability is increased when we IN mark the
silent acquiescence of the women of America and the Coo.
tinent in the justice of these censures. It is only the
British mother who ventures to protest. But "we
Englishmen," complacently remarks the &flied ry Re-
view :

" Have always felt a sort of national pride in the British
mother. It has been a part of our patriotic self-satis.
faction to pique ourselves on her icy decorum, on the
merciless severity of her virtue. Colourless, uninterest-
ing, limited as Continental critics pronounced her to be,
we cherished her the more as something specially our own,
and regarded the Channel As a barrier providentially in-
vented for the isolation of her spotless, prudery. And it
mud be owned that the British mother took her cue
admirably. She owned, with • sigh of complacency, that
she was not as other women. She shuddered at foreign
morals, and tabooed French novels. She shook all life
and individuality out of her girls as un-English and eon.
tinentaL She denounced aspirations after higher and
larger spheres of effort as unfeminine. Such a type of
woman was naturally dull enough, but it fairly came up
to its own standard ; and if its respectability was pru-
dery, it still earned, and had a right to claim, man's
respect."
But according to the Renege, all these are things of the
peat, and it is positively •• amusing" that the claim is per.
silted in when the type has passed away :
" The British sponse has bloomed into the semi-detached
wife, with a husband always conveniently in the distance,
and a eiciabeo aa conveniently in the corner. The
British mother ham died into the faded matrino.
Kiel schemer, contemptuous of younger sons. The innocent
simper of the British maiden has developed into the loud
laefle and the honey slang of the girl of the season. But
maiden and matron are atilt on one point faithful to the
traditions of their grandmothers, and front all censorious
0002e111 with a shrug of their shoulder-straps and a flutter
of indignant womanhood, and maiden and matron still
claim their insular exemption from the foibles of their
ow. The Pope may de what be will with the women of
Italy. and llocarigneur of Orleans may deal stern justice
out to the women of France; continental immorality is
tt.e nature of things ; but there is something else that
Is is the nature of things too, and before the impeccable
sweaty of British womanhood every critic must sound
stscised."
Nothing, says the reviewer, can seem more simple or
more effective than the Is quoque retort familiar to feral.
nine disputants', which displays itself in every possible
form :

' if the girl of the period is fast and frivolous, is the young
man of the period any better! No sketch can be more
telling than the picture which she is ready to draw of hi
lounging ways, his epicuresn indolence, his boredom
at home, his foppery abroad, the vacancy of his stare, the
inanity of big talk, his incredible conceit, he
life vibrating between the club and the stable
She hits off with a charming vivacity the list of his
[ accomplishments—his skill A flirtation, his matchless
ability at croquet, his assiduity over Bell's Life, the clever.
Dees of his book on the Derby. No sensible or well-
informed girl, she tells us, can talk for ten !lout,. to this
creature without weariness and disgust at his icooranse,
bis narrowness, his trivislity ; no modestly-dressed e
decently-mannered girl can win the slightest share of In
attentions. Married, he is as frivolous as before marriage;
be selects the toilette of the deem-monde as en agoutis
topic of domestic conversation, be resents afTection sal
proclaims home a bore, he grudges the birth of children as
an additional expense, he stunts end degrader. the erica-
flocs of bis girls, be la the despot of his household aimd
the dread of his family."
And woman, we are told by the reviewer, owns that
what she really does is to mould herself as roucli ,be
can on this " monster's model," and "as he cannot talk
sense, she stoops to bandy chaff and slang."
As to the influence of the preeent generation of mother,
upon the children of the future, the Saturday ..,e
says:
- - - - - - -

" The general uneasiness of which we have spoken bef.e
arises simply from the conviction that woman is bemiring
more and more indifferent to her actual post in the iscAll
economy of the world. After all protests against limitim
the sphere of the sex os single function et their existence,
public opinion still regards woman primarily in her relates
to the generation to oome. If it censures the sensible girl rto
stoops to slang, or the modest girl who stoops to ind ecency is le
becaueethe sense andthe modesty which they abandon isnot
theirs to hold or to fling imay, but the heritage of the
human race. But this ',Remit to be leas and less the fod.
ing of woman herself. For good or for evil, or, perl.pi
more truly, for both good and evil, woman is becoming
conscious every day of new powers, and longing 'oe
an independent sphere in which she can exert those.
Marriage is aimed at with a passionate ardour unknown
before, not as a means of gratifying affection,
but as a means of securing independence. To des
unmarried girl life is a sheer bondage, and there is ro
sacrifios too great to be left untried if it only promises
a chance of deliveranoe. She learns to despise the senor,
the information, the womanly reserve which fail to attract
the deliverer. She has to sell herself to purchase her free
dem,. and she will take very strong measures to secure
purchaser. The fop, the fool, little knows the Leti
scrutiny with which the gay creature behind her fan a
taking stock of his feeble preferences, in preparing to May
upon his feebler aversions. Pitiful as be is, it is for lion
that she arranges her artillery on she toilet-table, the
little secrets,' the powder bloom, the roma
precipitated from the damask rcee-leaf,' the
Styrian lotion that gives ' beauty and freshness to the
complexion, plumpness to the figure, clearness ond soft
nese to the akin.' He has a faint dicker of liking for
brunettes she lays her triumphant finger on her ' walnut
stain,' end darkens into the favourite tint. lie lora
plumpness, and her' Sinai Manna' is at hand to *ems
embonpoint. Belladonna flashes on him from her eyes.
Kohl and antimony deepen the blackness of her eyebrom.
' bloom of roses' blushes from her lips. She stoops to ca-
nner, and it is no wonder that the fop and the fool is
down."

SECOND EDITION.

F-OREIGN NEWS.

(THIS DAY.)

(SLUM'S TE2OIANI.)
oMMERCIAL TREATY BRIM=
AUSTRIA AND ENGLAND.
VIENNA, Ay= 10.
Tie negotiations for a commercial treaty be-
Austria and England hare been sucoceshilly
..c!„,k.d, and the draft of the treaty prepared by
Eip:lish and Austrian plenipotentiaries now
e sanction of the ministers. It is pro-
chat the treaty shall come into operation on
!st .Inne next.

lIEF•I(INATTON OF
STRY. THE SWEDISH
MINI

STOCKHOLM, APJUL 10.

The M:uisters of Foreign Affairs, War, Finance,
:.:1,17!ie inter►or have tendered their resignations
v i❑ consequence of some votes of the Diet
questions.

OUR PARIS LETTER.

Ila if: OWN COIII.E.VONDLVT.)
PARIS, FRIDAY EVERI7IO.

The felloa ir.. decree in this morning's Monitcur
e-ems to me to deserve a place in coutempory his-
. -e, as a pungent illustration of the frequent re-
.,ark that France is a country over-administered :
N,N.LPON. by the gram, of God and the national will,
:.T.Pror of the French.
To all to whom these presents shall come greeting :
the proposition of our Minister of FiIIIIIOP
..Niug the decree of the 18th June, 1880, by which •
I4n; was created for the reception of national offerings to
•1 ::.nd and sea armies of France ;
> etog article 910 of the Code Napoleon ;

• .`f ing the decree of January 30, 1852, on the internal
nation of the Council of fitate,and the decree of March
1,52, on administrative decentralisation ;

-i`eing the opinion of the superior committee of national
•iernge notified by the letter of its secretary, dated
Mach 16,1868 ;
We have decreed and by these presents do decree as
follows :

Art. 1. The Director-General of the Caine des Depots
and Consignations is authorised to accept the donation of
a sum of lbfr. made to the bank of national offerings to
the sea and land armies of France by M. Masson, a pen-
'loner, formerly a gendarme, now residing at St. Haon-le-
Miele], in the department of the Loire.
Art. 2. Our Finance Minister is charged with the execs-
on of the present decree, which will be inserted in the
des Lou.

Done at the Tuileries this Ist of April, 1868.
By the Emperor, NAPOLZON.

The Minister of Finance, P. MAG:II4
Nnsioner Masson, who is probably an old sol-
.Mr in more senses than one, has a wonderful deal
fun for his, no doubt, hardly saved twelve
sE.ilings. He gets his name ender the immediate
. :ice of the Emperor, and has the widest publicity
ziven to his munificence by a decree under the
Emperor's signature. But what state could afford
receive any large number of small gifts under
-,,ch conditions ? If a statistician were to calculate
the expense of the paper and printing and the
salaries of the various employes whose time was taken
11, about these 15fr., it would be found that the
patriotism of Pensioner Masson costs the state a
very pretty penny. It cannot be supposed that
the Emperor wishes to render gifts to his "land
and sea armies" ridiculous; but such a decree as
that of April, in the Afonik/fr, has certainly a ten-
k.ency that way.
The United States legation receives scores of
A :ten every day from Frenchmen, asking to be
I.turalised as citizens of the United States, in
rder to escape the operation of the army bill. The
:dorm answer given is, that the law of the States
—•:ires a bond fide residence in the territory of the
.I%blie before naturalisation can be granted.
Pi.• semi-Ai/161 insurances that there is nothing
• .11.• rumours of war have not had the effect of
In.! the Bourse; on the contrary, the feeling
•• that the governmental organs " protest
:‘• ," and there was more vague uneasiness
than has been observed for some time.
!..m..s fell 10e., both for cash and account, closing
h ease, at 69fr. Italian fell 40c., closing at
t.lc. Credit Fonder declined 7fr. 50c. ; and
'..!...r :ifr. 75c.