Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1856-01-03
From the Westminster Review.
THE POSITION OF WOMAN AMONG
PAGANS.

PAGANS.
The strongest expressions of the degrada
ton Of woman is to be found in the belief
that she has no soul. Such is the common
opinion of the Mohammedans, and though
it is not taught in the Koran, it receives "a
bundant countenance from the fact the pro-
fit to the faithful, will consist in enjoying
the society of houris instead of that of their
earthly wives. The Chinese, also, not on
ly treat their women throug ghout their mum
dane existence as the most abject slaves, but
deny them any hope of compensation here
after.
! At Paris, of all other places in the world,
a work was published for disproving the es-
sential identity Of nature in men and women
At much earlier date the same question
was gravely debated in clerical council at
Macon, and worthy divine of the Scotch
Kirk proved clearly from the scriptures that
there could not possibly be any of the fair
sex in heaven. We give our readers the
benefit of his logic: Being summoned before
a Presbytery, and being asked if he really
held SO heretical an opinion, he bravely "a
vowed it and said: Tin the Revelation of
ST. John the Divine you will find this pas
sage: And there was silence in heaven for
the space Of half an hour | appeal to all
of you to tell me whether that could possibly
have happened had there been any women
there? And since there are none there,
charity forbids us to imagine that they are
all in worse place; therefore it follows that
they have no immortal part; and happy it
is for them, as they are thereby exempted
from being accountable for all the noise and
disturbance they have raised in they have
raised in this world"
The custom of parents to enter into con-
tracts with each other for the marriage of
their children while the latter are still in
fants, prevails in many parts of the globe;
and though not co-extensive, we may safely
affirm it to be all but coeval with the human
race. Of all indications of the tyranny of
the stronger and the suferings of the weak
er sex, that of infant betrothal exhibits the
grossest violation Of personal right: it sub
jects woman at once to the utmost degrada-
tion, and to lifelong wretchedness If the
N the mere ground of sex 10 utter t5.il :,
,laint; but the nature. Of the law, and the u
node of its Observance, tell but too plainly
" whom and on whose behalf it was devils !
If man, betrothed while yet child by !
lis father, should find the woman to whom II
le is bound is utterly displeasing to him On
account of either fancied or real defects in y
mind Or body or because she proves twice
,r thrice as old as himself, or because de- =
string her affections he finds himself unable
% obtain them, they being already centeced
elsewhere; and if under these circumstan-
,es he was debarred through life from form
nc any other alliance, his case would be
sure of sympathy and commiseration. The
injustice and oppression of such
a law, if obligatory On the men of any tribe
Or nation, would speedily drive them to re-
bellion. But so completely regardless of all
the strongest, deepest and most sacred feel
ings of human nature is this contract, that
men have never even dreamed of fulfilling
it, and have never been expected to do so.
In every stage of barbarism and of ciylliza-
ton, in every grade of social life, they are
in the habit of indemnifying themselves for
the injury which infant betrothal, if faith
fully observed, would infict. Polygamy
and concubinage and prostitution in civiliz-
ed communities, are the means to which men |
resort But while averting for themselves
the evils of this monstrous law, they con-
tinue to uphold it for their own advantage.
Unable to comply with its provisions, they
annul it as regards themselves, but enforce
it with frightful severity on their Trailer
companions! Among every people the in
dividuality of women is more or less disre-
garded, but in this custom it is entirely ig-
nored. Woman is not yet treated as per-
SON having thought, affections, passions, will
but as property, subject to transfer, from
one to another, as avarice, lust, or the de-
sire of family aggrandizement may suggest
We see the most hideous features OF this
custom in the aborigines of New Holland.
There it is carried to such an outrageous ex-
tent that even a large proportion of the men
have to suffer from the grasping monopoly
of chiefs. In Western Australia the female
children are always betrothed few days al
ter their birth; and from the moment they
are betrothed the parents cease to have any
control over the future settlement OF their
child. Should the first husband die before
the girl has attained the age of puberty, she
then belongs to his heir. We are told by
Captain Grey that fhe old men take care to
keep the women chiefly among themselves,
giving their daughters to one another and
that the more female children they have, the
greater chance they of course have OF get
ting another wife by this sort of exchange; !;
but it is stated by another authority that
each male is entitled to all the females who
are related to him in certain degree. A
newborn child may thus be the betrothed
spouse of man of thirty years of age, and
may be claimed by him as soon as she is