The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-25 00:00:00

Shall Women Vote ?

Most men dislike the very sound of the words
"women's rights," which is proof presumptive that
they ought to be obliged to hear them. No parti-
sanship, social, political, or theological, which fret-
fully shrinks from full and open discussion of its
own merits, can escape the suspicion of unsoundness
or injustice. It is true that a great many men hate
a given subject merely because they hate the
trouble of thinking about it ; but their moral atti-
tude is not much better than that of those who con.
ceive that by simply shutting their ears to argument
they will be able to keep something which they
have no right to withhold. The question of women's
rights can never be tided over by either of these
expedients any more than the question of aboli-
tion was. Whatever our individual opinions,
it is the part of wisdom to strive rather to
see the future as it will be than as we would
have it to be. Emancipation was not prevented by
the fact that we were able to laugh at some of its
advocates because they had long hair, ate brown
bread, or talked through their noses; and women's
rights, whatever the phrase may cover, will hardly
be materially retarded because some of the women
who are brave enough to come forward and claim
them have corkscrew curls, red noses, squeaky
voices, or other attributes which make them to un-
feeling eyes appear ridiculous. The subject of
women's rights will have to be taken up sooner or
later in this country, and dealt with seriously,
thoroughly, and justly. We cannot, if we would,
escape it. Conventional thinkers, preachers, and
presses will, of course, hold out against the discus-
sion, and will employ alternately the weapons of
ridicule, neglect, and persecution to stifle and extir-
pate it. But this will be of little avail. The agita-
tion has been commenced ; it is carried on in public
meetings, of which we get reports more or less ab-
surd, but always indicative of progress ; it is advo-
cated by some very thoughtful heads and by some
very able pens, and it is the subject of anxious con-
sideration by many a fireside in thousands of little
nooks and corners all over the land. We may as
well make up our minds first as last that the women's
rights question can neither be crushed out nor laughed
down. Can it be argued down? We cannot tell ;
but we may be very sure that, if put down at all, it
will be by this means, and not by any other. Now,
it is extremely difficult to find arguments which can-
not readily be disposed of as frivolous and vexatious
against granting women the suffrage. Whether it be
a right or a privilege, why should educated and in-
telligent American ladies be debarred from that
which the hod-carrier who visits Biddy in her kitchen
now enjoys, or which Sambo, who cleans the boots,
is to have next year ? Is it because the hod-carrier
and Sambo are better judges of the principles of
political economy, or because their moral sense is so
much nicer—so sensitively superior—that they are
more likely to wield their power for the public bene-
fit ? These questions are manifestly absurd and un-
answerable. The truth is, there are a great many
weighty reasons against manhood suffrage; but man-
hood suffrage once conceded, it is next to impossible
to find valid reasons against universal suffrage. When
we think of the unwashed and degraded mob, in all
sections and of all colours and odours, now and here-
after to control the policy and destiny of this mag-
nificent country, and remember the millions of re-
fined and thoughtful wonaen who are absolutely with-
out voice in the matter, it is idle to assume that our
system is what it should be or what it might be. We
claim to be in some sort the organ of the unrepre-
sented classes, and, so far as any efforts of ours can
cause this much ridiculed and most important topic
to be gravely investigated and considered, we are
well disposed to give them. The arguments of the
lamented Mrs. John Stuart Mill, who was scarcely
less gifted than is her illustrious husband, and which
may be found in the collection of his miscellaneous
writings, deserve, in this connection, to receive pro-
found attention. It may well happen, after all said
and done, that the best corrective for the evils of
ultra-extensive suffrage may be found in the admis-
sion of an element which has other good reasons to
recommend it. The objections so often urged respect-
ing dangers to domestic tranquillity and the unfe-
minine surroundings of the polling-booth, which
would militate against obvious advantages, are in
a considerable degree superficial, and, probably
quite surmountable; and the plea of unfitness may
surely be met by the consideration, that it would
scarcely be possible to find so many women intellec-
tually or morally disqualified as there are now men
in the country who cast votes without challenge.
If the best form of human government is adjudged
to be that which nearest approaches the type of the
divine, the feminine complement can assuredly be
shown to be essential to its unity and perfection.
The justice of the ideal man. tempered by the mercy
of the ideal woman must compose something higher
than either constituent without the other can be
hoped to attain. We cannot justly affirm that cruelty,
passion, dishonesty, or any of the worst products
of either the tyrant spirit or• the mob spirit are more
likely to exist in the tender sex than the other. Fe-
male sovereigns have notoriously been above the aver-
age, both in wisdom and clemency, and why women
should collectively be worse than they are indivi-
dually it is noteasytopercelve. A nation which tole-
rates polygamy is in no fair position to refuse to at
least listen to arguments in. behalf of female suffrage.
Whatever evils might a'eis e from its concession, we
have no fear that senchng from among their own
sex representatives who. should be prototypes of the
blacklegs and pugilists. sent by the other would be
among the number. Even a Congress half com-
posed of women, visionary and absurd as such a
thing may at first sk flit appear, would not, to our
thinking, be either less upright or less dignified
than those to which we have unhappily been accus-
tomed. We have riot managed so remarkably well
as to justify our re fusal to give the friends of female
suffrage a respectrAill hearing. Let them have a fair
field, then, and- their countrymen are so ungal-
lant as to insist won it—no favour. We cannot
afford to forget all our late experience, and stranger
things have happened than would be the spectacle
five years hellets of the whilom bitterest foes of
feminine enfrani chisement coquetting for an alliance
with the female vote.—The Round Table.

The course of ez change at New York on London for bills at
60 days' sight :about 1091 per cent. At this rate there is
no profit On theiihrpOrtatlo4 of gold 40011 tllO United, States

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—If there be one English institution which
Englishmen regard with a greater traditional pride
than another, it is our judicial system. The House
of Commonsitself has its detractors; local statesman-
ship ceases to inspire the same confidenp as it once
did ; nor are there wanting indications of a grow-
ing desire for State interference, in more than one
quarter, to the prejudice of individual liberty.
The administration of justice is almost the only
function of Government which has not been sub-
jected of late to this sacrilegious criticism, and
upon which national self-complacency may still
be indulged without reserve. With most of our
countrymen who have never gone to law, it is a
fixed idea that our legal machinery, with all its de-
fects, works as well as any legal machinery can be
expected to do. The expense, the delays, and the
glorious uncertainty of law have passed into a pro-
verb—but very few people have been audacious
enough to surmise that such evils are due in a very
great degree, to causes within our own control, and
that we have probably more is learn from our
neighbours on this subject than on any other. The
consequence is that the law reforms, of all kinds,
excite less interest in the popular branch of the Le-
gislature than measures of infinitely less import-
ance, and that grievances incident to litigation are
tolerated by the public with a patience otherwise
inexplicable. Perhaps the most conspicuous, and
certainly the most remediable, of these grievances
is the difficulty of getting the simplest cause tried.
within a definite or reasonable time. There was, at
least, some excuse for the duration of Chancery
suits in the good old days of Lord Eldon, for the
questions involved in these suits are often most
complicated, the parties concerned in them are very
numerous, and the steps to be taken for the protec-
tion of various interests are of such a nature as to
require many successive applications to the Court.
In ordinary actions at law there are no difficulties
of this kind. All the pleadings have been pre-
viously conducted on paper; the matter in dispute
has been thus reduced to one or two plain issues of
fact ; the counsel on either side have been engaged,
and the witnesses summoned for a given day ;
there are no other parties to be consulted ; and the
case might be decided in a very few hours, to
the relief of both the litigants ; yet, in very many
instances, it is adjourned to the next assizes or
sittings, unless this grievous hardship be anticipated
by a mutual arrangement or an all but compulsory
reference to arbitration. In any of these events,
the money spent in counsel's fees and the payment
of witnesses is absolutely thrown away, while in the
event of an adjournment or an arbitration the and
happy suitor is taxed over again in order to obtain
the redress which is his lawful right, but which the
Court has virtually denied him. A short paragraph
which appeared in our Law Report yesterday will
show that we have not exaggerated the magnitude
of this injustice. It there appears that out of 153
special jury causes and 143 common jury causes
entered for trial at the last Guildhall sittings but 50
in all were tried, 75 having been withdrawn, 53
having been made remanets by the parties, and
nearly 100 having been " left untried." In other
words, little more than one-sixth of the business set
down on the cause list was actually transacted,
while no less than one-third was postponed for
want of time. Of the remaining half, the 53 re-
manets evidently belong, for the most part, to the
same category, since it rarely happens that a cause
stands over on the application of the parties, except
where there is little chance of its being fairly tried.
Even the 75 cases withdrawn do not all represent
voluntary settlements by amicable mediation, for,
as our reporter truly observes, such arrangements
are often forced upon unwilling suitors " by sheer
despair of ever coming on in order for trial." Yet
two judges have been working assiduously early and
late to despatch their hopeless task, and " even those
who have been holding winter assizes have been
pressed into the service of the public at the Guild-
hall sittings the moment they have returned from the
country." When we consider the amount of incon-
venience and pecuniary loss entailed on the mercan-
tile community by such a result as this we can only
marvel at their long-suffering. It is not merely that
all the expense and anxiety of litigation is incurred
twice over when the trial of an action is adjourned,
but that in the meantime engagements of the
greatest importance may be kept in abeyance, and
undertakings of urgent necessity may be reduced to
a standstill. Let us suppose, for example, that an
action is brought against A for £20,000 or £30,000,
held by him as agent of B, and claimed by C. So
long as it remains to be determined whether the sum
in question is really due to C (the plaintiff), A (the
defendant) is not only placed in a hostile relation to
him, but must decline, in self-defence, to make any
further payments on account of his principal or cor-
respondent B. It is easy to imagine circumstances
under which almost any present sacrifice would be
preferable to indefinite suspense, and in Which a firm
might wisely submit to be wronged once for all,
rather than be righted by so lingering a process.
Now, the question is why all this injury should be
inflicted on merchants and other classes, both in
London and the country, if it could be prevented
by so obvious an expedient as au increase in the
number of the Judges. No one ventures to allege
that more work can possibly be done by the indivi-
dual members of the present Bench. There are no
public servants of equal rank, except a very few
Cabinet Ministers, whose labours can be compared
to theirs, and there are few men so advanced in life
who would be capable of the sustained efforts day
after day which are imperatively required of them.
Others who fill high offices can often choose their
own times for exertion, can delegate some things to
deputies, and can slur over things without being
called to account. A Judge lives wholly in public ;
from morning to night his every word and act is
exposed to the watchful scrutiny of an acute pro-
fession and the ordinary routine of his duties is such
as to keep his faculties at their utmost stretch. The
mode in which these duties are discharged is, upon
the whole, admirable, and fully deserves the respect
which is sometimes transferred, with less justice,
from the persons to the system. It is no fault of
our Judges that prompt justice is not and cannot
be administered in our superior Civil Courts ; it
is the fault of the Government and the Legislature.
We have not increased our judicial staff in propor-
tion, or in anything like proportion, to the in-
crease of population, wealth, and litigation.
If 12 judges were not too many some time ago, 15
are too few now, unless, indeed, some radical change
be made in procedure and practice. It has often
been urged that if the most difficult Chancery suits
can be decided to the satisfaction of the bar and the
public by a single Vice-Chancellor, many of the
points which come before a Court of Common Law
in bane might be determined by a single judge. How
far this could be done, and how much power might
be thus economised, is a consideration for the judges
themselves and for those who practise before them.
For our own part, we greatly doubt whether any
advantage gained in this manner will more than
compensate for the additional business which addi-
tional facilities for disposing of business seldom fail
to create. If this be so, we shall still need more
judges, and although objections to this proposal are
said to be entertained, we have never seen or heard
them specified, and have yet to learn their nature.
POST.—Over the hush of suspended business, over
the strifes of men and nations, over the discords of
human passions and the pangs of human suffering,
over all that is fleeting, frail, and temporal, rings
out once more the happy message of the Christmas
bells. For a brief day the voice of things unseen
and eternal calls the thoughts of men to the higher
powers and privileges of their nature, and reminds
them that there is an immortal as well as a mortal
side to the destiny of mankind. If sometimes clouds
of sorrow hang thick and dark over the world, and
compel us to own that the dispensation under which
we live is a mystery, there are other times when the
balance is rectified by the precious insight into the
future prospects of our race given by the historical
facts which have gone before. In these we trace
the spiritual laws which guide our being, and
read—dimly indeed, but not uncertainly—the
principle of the Divine dealings with men. Christ-
mas day is one of these. The consent of Christen-
dom has made it a day of joy, as being the
birthday of Christianity. All that is distinctive in
the Christian system starts from this day. The
initial point of that Faith which all the Churches,
Eastern or Western, have held for nearly twenty
centuries is built upon the Incarnation of the Son
of God. Get rid of that central fact, and the doc-
trines circling round it, and Christianity is at an
end. Then either the Jewish dispensation is yet in
force, or we are referred back to the systems of the
ancient philosophers. If neither of these content
us we are cast loose upon an unlimited ocean of
speculation, and left, each one for himself, to make
what conclusions we can ont of the mysteries and
problems that lie around us. Certainly if Chris-
tianity be not true no other system yet known is,
and the world has yet to discover who and what we
are, whence we came, why we live at all, why we
die, and what—if anything—comes after death. In
fact, the difficulties of rejecting Christianity are so
great that even those least disposed to accept it as
a practical rule of life are fain to admit its facts
and submit to its consequences, rather than encoun-
ter the far greater difficulties which must attend
any attempt to construct a moral system out of the
results of imperfectly known sciences. Ethnology,
anthropology, biology, metaphysics, contribute
their share towards unravelling the tangled web in
which the human condition is involved, but they
do nothing to help us towards making the best of
the three score years and ten within which we
have not only to discover and accept, but
also to cultivate, utilise, and enjoy the true

conditions of life. That any of these sciences
when 'they come to be thoroughly known—as
doubtless in future years they will be—will oppose
themselves in any powerful way to the great facts
and doctrines of Christianity, we do nut believe.
Beyond question the time will come when the facts
of revealed religion will be found to square exactly
with the facts of ascertained science, and when the
ethics of the Gospel will be accepted with gratitude
by the most accomplishol of inticp,udent inquirers
and moralists. But that time has not yet come.
Meanwhile there is a conflict as to what is truth,
arising not so muc'a out of a desire to find diffi-
culties in Christianity, as out of a reluctance not to
face apparent difficulties presented by the progress
of science. In such a conflict there will always be
some enthusiasts who, overflowing with zeal but
short of patience, will take one side or the other
with an energy that shows no mercy and pardons
no hesitation. But the greater and deeper men can
afford to wait. They see the case to be this :—On
the one hand is the revealed system of Christianity
complete, admitting no discoveries, no developments,
but perfectly independent of human wisdom, re-
vealed ab extra, and concluded once and for all. On
the other hand, a number of sciences, each of great
importance and utility, but thoroughly inductive,
and purely dependent for their discovery, elucida-
tion, and completeness upon the achievements of the
mind of man, at present only in progress, and
wholly unfinished either as regards their facts or
theories. No wonder, then, that wise men prefer to
accept the fully revealed Christianity in preference
to the conclusions of sciences yet imperfectly known,
and theories necessarily crude and narrow. On the
whole, we may be thankful for the heritage be-
queathed us by the past, and for the great fact
whereof this glad day is the commemoration. Year
by year, since the day when New Testament history
begins, Christians have celebrated Christmas. The
celebration has wound itself round their hearts,
worked itself into their habits, and associated itself
with their best affections. Of late years, since the
revival of the Church Arts, it has become identified
with much of sentiment and beauty, besides devo-
tion. To decorate our churches with expressive sym-
bols, to beautify the services with all the appliances
of music, to blend nature and art in one expression
of adoration and gratitude, are now amongst the
accepted modes of observing Christmas. Every
such act is a witness for the truth in these
days of trial and conflict, and a protest against
the schools of Strauss and Renan. May the time
never come when the growth of infidelity shall
have deprived weary sinking hamau nature of one
of its greatest helps and consolations—that, namely,
of knowing that the Son of God was manifest in
the flesh, and, being manifested, and becoming one
with us, has enhanced the dignity of human nature
by identifying it with his own, and attaching to it
privileges and powers which, if well used, must help
on the best hopes of our race in this life and the next.
Almost every year has had its own controversy, and
Christmas has generally found some ecclesiastical
suit pending iu the court of final appeal. This year
is no exception. In other years it has been some
phase of Rationalism, like that of the " Essays
and Reviews," or Colenso ; this time it is Ritualism.
While all through the Church the facts and doc-
trines of the day are universally admitted and
celebrated, the mode of celebration will be enor-
mously varied. In some, the appointed service
will be sung within walls resplendent with elabo-
rate and costly decoration, by priests in vest-
ments of ancient pattern and gorgeous colour,
amidst clouds of perfumed incense, and with pros-
trations and genuflexions of studied precision. In
others, the decorations will be less elaborate, the
vestments no other than are ordinarily worn by
officiating clergy, and there will be no prostrations
and no incense. In some, the broad line of demar-
cation between the Roman and the Anglican cere-
monial will almost disappear ; in others, it will be
traced as clearly as it could have been in the days
of Elizabeth ; while a few still rejoice in the bold
sterility of the Georgian era. Out of this varying
standard of ceremonial within the Church of Eng-
land a great controversy has arisen,and is still run-
ning high. Our counsel is to let it have full run.
Like other controversies, it will expend itself in due
time, and reason, law, and common sense will bring
all prudent people safely through it. At all events,
let there be a truce to-day. In terra pax is the
motto of Christians. Let us all heed it ; let it hush
the jar of family discord, still the voice of anger,
quiet the spirit of the discontented, revive the hope
of the desponding, and bring comfort to all sorts
and conditions of men.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

COLCIIESTER—DEc. 22.

A very short supply of wheat at market, which sold at
is per qr advance. Barley in better demand, and brought
is more money. Other grain was quiet, with no material
change in value.
Wheat, white f2s 70s Beans, Mazagan......3Bs 405
red 605 66s Middle and small ._443 484
Barley . l2s 565 Peas, white 385 125
Oats ....... ..... ...—s s grey • ••365 125