The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-04-28
For the National Era.
LETTERS ON FRAECE.-NO. 8,
. WAsHINGToN, ID. C.. Jan. IS

| WASHINGTON, ID. C., Jan, 1852.
My DEAR MADAM find have vet a sub
ject to touch upon, and that | must venture
upon another letter il would treat of it.
is q matter of much delicacy in which fee
deep interest-an interest which am quit.
sure is participated in by yourself
Who indeed, rejecting on the miseries and
| injustice Of our social condition, causing SO
much suffering and misfortune to the weaker
sex, but will rejoice in any, however trivial,
alienation of the moral condition of humanity ?
What woman that has heart, but will rejoice
to know that the social position of her own sex
has been improved, and that the revolving
degradation of the old time has been changed
to one of less danger to moral character?
II there is anywhere a true test of the prog.
ress of nation, it is to be found in the moral
condition of its women. France will bear
fair examination on that point, as compared
with what she was, and with other nations
around her.
We all know-our common sense tells US So
our knowledge Of the female character tells us
80, and proofs are never wanting to the OBJ
server-that the dircst distress and injustice
are the sources of woman's misfortunes Re-
move, in portion, that distress and injustice,
and you partially remedy the evil Remove it
entirely, and the moral sore disappears.
In European countries, where feudalism-
social, political and religious--bas so long ex-
isted women have been the greatest sufferers
Treated as interiors, their ineqality has been
an additional disadvantage in the inequality
already existing among men Unable to main
tain herself by industry woman has necessarily
descended to the lowest step in the social lad
der
In France 70 little was woman respected be-
fore the Revolution of 1889, that the wives of
tradesinen were called mesdemoiselles,u the
upper class thinking them unworthy the rank
Of :" madame" The marriage tic was consid-
eTs.i, g. &c .2tle importance smens class SO near
that of The serls To this day, even, you can
not insult an aristocrat Of the true kind, more
thoroughly than by asserting that he or she is
of the same flesh and blood as we'll an color,
with the lower classes
The Revolution has changed these things,
and, in doing 30, has raised among the Clover
class sentiment of selfrespect. Not only do
they know they are az good, but they have be-
come comparatively independent in circum-
stances, and therefore farther removed from
the pcrils of Generalization
In England, we see the Disadvantages of the
system Of inequality, even in the villages. In
France, it is in the great towns almost exclu-
sivcly that that social pest to which we allude
is TO be found for in towns the extremes Of
wealth and misery necessarily congregate and
victims there must then be.
1t is a remarkable circumstance, that in q
Protestant country like England, no means
have ever been adopted to check vice. Il il
argued there that il must cure itself az if i'm
morality contained within itself the qualities Of
virtue. In that naughty France, which has
been 30 abused and misrepresentcd, the police
interferes to regulate what requires by its ma
ture q watchtul check. The unfeudaiised
moral sense OF the country demands il. In
Paris, what there is bad, In TO be speedily do
tected--the compact nature of the town per.
hitting q concentration Of everything within
u limited space Not 30 in London. People
may live there for years, and know nothing Of
the hideous realities Of its almost unchecked
miseries vllanies, and vices.
IL is hardly sn exaggcration TO say that oil
the Woes and crimes perpetratcd in Paris do
not amount 10 o fourth that OF London. In
deed, an Englshman lately published tables,
comparing crime in various countries, and
states, as tho result Of his inquiries, that there
are four times ~ many persons accused in
England, and three and half times as many
~ in France Now, such q result
can only be accounted for on the ground OF tho
inferior position and disheartening dependence
Of the English lower class
On the other hand, although since 1880 the
form Of marriage among the people in France
is more respected, yet very many consider that