The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT or TEN PUBLIC JOURNALS

'The Times thinks the decisions already given by the
revising barristers as to the right of women to be put on
the register may, perhaps, indicate the course which will
be followed by the other registration courts. But, what.
ever the barristers may decide, the question will be
brought in November before the higher courts, and there
can be little doubt what the decision of the judges will
be. Unless plainly compelled by the letter of the law,
they would naturally refuse to initiate so total a
change in our constitutional practice. The barrister
at Manchester forcibly urges that where precedent
is so uniform nothing but an express enactment
could he held to sanction a change ; and this
consideration is likely to carry still more weight with a
superior court. The ladies will, therefore, be ultimately
_ _ .

struck off the register, even if here and there placed on it

by the barristers, and they must content themselves with

exercising a purely domestic influence over the constitu-

tion of the first Reformed Parliament. It is evident,
however, that there are those among them, as well as
among their advocates, who will return to the charge ; and

the question will be again referred to the decision
of Parliament itself. Stranger things, we own,

have happened than their gaining the day ; and equally
strange things have also happened without producing
much effect one way or the other. But whatever effect
the change might have, would, we believe, be extremely
injurious to the position of women, and would involve no
advantage whatever. We recommend one point to their
observation at the forthcoming election. They will pro-
bably have sufficient evidence that an election is somewhat
rough work, and whatever claims they have hitherto
advanced, none of them, we believe, have as yet pretended
to be on a level with men in physical strength. The fact is,
that physical strength has a good deal to do with politics
in innumerable ways, and for that reason alone, women
are not capable of holding their own in the rough contests
of the world. We must frankly say that we should regret
anything which could tend to distract the interests of
women from domestic life ; and we are convinced that the
great majority both of men and women are of the same
opinion. It is an old and true saying that a happy State
can only be composed of happy families, and by bending
all their energies to make our families happy, women will
exercise a far more powerful as well as more beneficial in-
fluence on their country than could be exerted by even
universal female suffrage.
The Standard notes with exceeding satisfaction that the
proceedings of the International Working Men's Congress,
still sitting at Brussels, have so far been of an eminently
practical and dispassionate character. In so describing
them we by no means intend to imply that we necessarily
agree with the views of the several speakers, much less
that we literally accept all the formal resolutions at
which the Congress has arrived. We refer more to

the manner than to the matter of its discussions, though
there is much in the matter even with which we heartily

coincide. But the tone of the deliberations of working

men has been beyond all praise, and might be advan-
tageously imitated by many debaters who no doubt con-
sider themselves in every way their superiors. The
Standard, whilst questioning some of the decisions of the
-Congress, has no objection whatever to the most important
resolution, that in favour of co-operation. The machinery
must be in the hands of those that work it. Be it so.
We have no earthly objection, if the thing can be done ;
and unquestionably it can. But for the doing of it work-
ing men must make themselves capitalists ; and in order
to make themselves capitalists they must do what
everybody who ever made himself a capitalist by honest
means has invariably done. They must abandon habits of
self-indulgence. They must become prudent and save.
They must practise and inculcate self-denial, and under-
stand that they have really no enemies but themselves,
reckless marriages, passion for amusement, and the public-
house. Let them cease to insist less upon their rights—an

exceedingly vague phrase—and think more of their duties.
We do not mean their duties to other people, but their
duties to themselves and their own class. It is as idle as
it is malignant to attempt to combine against capital and
machinery, save by themselves becoming, through in-
dustry and thrift, the possessors of both.
The Daily Neill believes that the friends of working.
• men will learn with satisfaction that their Congress at
Brussels has declined to assume a hostile attitude toward
the introduction of machinery into the various depart.
ments of labour, but has recommended that working men
shall everywhere endeavour to secure for themselves a fair
share of the increased profits arising from the use of such
machinery. Experience has shewn that machinery has
invariably multiplied employments. How small has been
the diminution of those employed in driving coaches,
omnibuses, or cabs since the system of railways began in
proportion to the tens of thousands to whom that system
has given employment ! All history spews that money
released by invention sows itself anew, and wherever it is
planted tends again to produce machinery, so passing on
to new investments, involving a multiplication of means
and methods, each of which becomes a fresh centre calling
about it new labourers.

Commenting on the! correspondence between the Duke
of Marlborough and Mr. Brocirielc, the Post says there
are influences which are not only allowable, but upon the
ex.2rcise of which the whole plan and theory of election is
sui.posecl to and ought to rest. Nobody, for instance,
would expressly deny that it is proper for a candidate to
make electors acquainted with the views he holds upon all
questions in which they are interested ; nor would any-
body pretend that it is not his business and his duty to
advocate those views by giving the best reasons he can
discover in their support. Again, it must be admitted
that his friends and supporters are also justified in using
in his favour the same methods of persuasion; and the
more credit and importance those supporters have in the
constituency, the more clearly is it their duty as well as
their right to use the methods in question. The limits of
that use are only to be found where intimidation, express
or implied,beg,ins,but short of that it must be conceded that
every influential person in a constituency is entitled to use
his influence in support of his political opinions. Thin
rule applies to landlords as well as to other people, and it
would be absurd to deny to them the proper exercise of a
right because they are in a position to exercise it impro-
perly if they choose to do so. Yet this is what a great
many candidates appear to be desirous of doing, and it is
beginning to be pretty clearly hinted, if not openly
avowed, that in all elections landlords ought to wrap
themselves as it were in a sort of political cloud, and to
make, until the contest is over, none of the signs of life
and reason which are permitted so freely to other people
t.those times.

The Herald admits that it is easy to find arguments for
such a change as Mr. Shaw Lefevre contemplates, viz.,
giving married women the control of their own property.
If the operation of equity be necessary or beneficial, it
would. seem by no means clear why the law should not
start from the same point, without all the present in-
genious and complicated machinery which is now neces-
sary to qualify firmly-established but purely arbitrary
doctrines. The strongest reason against change is to
be found in the fear that separate interests will involve
divided households and statutory settlements which will
be the fruitful sources of family feuds. But the committee
do not share these apprehensions. In the first place they
say that no such evil consequences have been found to
result from much sources among those classes with whom
settlements are common things. In the next, they lay
great stress upon the evidence of witnesses from Canada
and the United States, where laws, originally identical
with our own, have been modified in the way which we are
advised to imitate. The extent of the change has varied in
. different States, but the testimony in its favour is pretty
nearly uniform. Whether equally strong testimony is
procurable on the other side, and whether what has
worked well in America would be equally beneficial here,
are points on which there is room for difference of opinion.
But in the face of the vote of the House and the recom•
raendation of the committee, it is manifest that the question
must be exhaustively discussed before very long. It is
not a party matter, and will probably be treated as an
open one by the Ministry, though past experience
forbids us to hope for equal candour from the Oppo.
sition.

The Star congratulates the revising barrister of West-
Minster and Lambeth on their repentance. On Monday
the revising barrister at 'Westminster struck off the list
certain lodgers who paid 4s. 6d. a week as rent. The
ground upon which this was done was that the words
" clear yearly value " required the reviser to take in to account
a supposed share of the rates paid on the whole house
before recognising the rent actually paid by the lodger
as the measure of the clear annual value of his
lodging. This consideration was obviously a very subtle
one. No decision on such a point was likely
to be satisfactory, especially while the revising barrister
adopted so high a minimum as must have been in his mind
when he struck off the list people paying 4s. Gd. a week.
Before the conrt reassembled on Tuesday the barrister
had reconsidered the point, and after some dubitation and
discusssion with the agents, he arrived at a very sensible
dcT,ision. Four shillings a week is £lO Bs. a year, and
the extra Bs. is surely en,ugh to cover any difference
• betucen the apparent and the clear annual value
of a lodging. -Upon this principle the
ing Barrister of Westminster determined to act,
and accordingly pers, ns paying four shillings or
upwards, who had previously been struck off, will now be
restored to the list. In like manner the Lambeth barrister
• relaxed his demand for the description of the landlord's
occupation in the lodger's claim. , This also will lead tc
the restoration of a considerable number of names which
on the first day were struck off. So far so good ; but
repentance should be carried further. The Lambeth
. barrister has other occasions to make amends • and we
hope his confession of mistake in this case will be followed
by a rectification of the injustice which he did on Monday
to some 450 claimants, old compounders, by rejectino. theb
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