Daily national Democrat., 1861-03-14
An Important Social Question.

philosophers An English Reviewer says
that there is a vast number of mature unmar-
ried women in England, of the more respec-
table class. about whose status and the pro-
visions society makes for them the mind OF
the country might very properly be eXerclS-
ed In England there are about six hundred
thousand more women than men. OF course,
then, with laws against polygamy, there are
lust COO, 900 who can never be married. III
is an element in statistics which cannot be ac-
counted for, says the reviewer, without
bringnp in the divine hand" But it is an !
element which is found to be toeratly un-
varying. Some reasoners judge from this
that Nature dictates polygamy. Be this as
it may, it is quite certain that there has never
been in the social economy of England any
provision for this preponderance of the fe-
male SEX AS for the surplus sc fthe poor
er class they find employment in hard labor,
and for the most part opportunities are offer
ed them but the unmarried females of the
superior class are frequently great sufferers.
They are a class mot high enough" Cn prac-
tical sense) "to be independent of paid en-
ployment nor low enough TO enter into the
ten thousand avenues of menial service" In
1851, says the reviewer, the "adult women
OF England numbered six millions; three of
these six millions labored for their subsist-
ence and two of these three millions uere IN
married. very large proportion of these
two millions of women, dependent upon their
own exertions, belonged to the more resFecta
bic class Of society. No~, where could they
hare found employment y
The expense of prividing for a wife is set
down as one of the causes Of the celbacy OF
SO many of the female sex. but the six hund
red thousand women who are compelled to
die old maids furnish tact in statistics not to
be set aside.
A corresponding state Of things exists in
the United States. Women complain of hard
ships, and there are numerous maids who are
go against their wills and who have to strug-
gle to live. How is it to remedied ? The
woman's rights advocates say that women
should have the political power to legislate
in their own behalf, and first of all that they
should have the elective franchise. They pay |
taxes on property, if they have any, they are
amenaile to the laws in every sense, and they |
should have a hand in making the laws TO
which they are subject.
Mrs Dali, an American female lecturer
asks, why there are not more women engrav-
ers, painters, printers, sailors, farmers, clerks,
physicians. lawyers, ministers? She wants
no distinctions made between the sexes in
these respects at ALL She says:
"Scientitic pursuits cannot be said to be
fairly opened to women here, The two la
dies employed on the Coast Survey were EN-
ployed 10y special favor, and probably on ac
count of near relationship to the gentleman
who had charge of the department of attitudes
and longtudes. This work is done at home,
Some years ago, Congress made an appro-
prarion for an American Nautical Almanac,
end Lieutenant Davis was appointed to take
charge of it. Three ladies were at one time
employed upon the lunar tables. Lieutenant
Davis told one of them that he preferred the
woman's work, because it was quite as accu
rate, and much more neat, than the men's -
In 1854, Mary Mitchell was employed in
computing for this almanac, with the same
salary that would be given to a man. | may
say in this connection. that great many eX-
ira female clerks have been employed in
Washington for many years The work has
generally been obtained by women who had
lost husband or father in the service of
his country; and, am proud to say, such
WON have usually been paid the same
ges as men. During Mr. Filimores admins
tration, two women wrote for the Treasury,
on salaries of twelve hundred and fifteen
hundred dollars year; but the succeeding
administration reformed this abuse, and very
few are now at work"
The Christian Examiner says, the simple
principle of making every kind of labor free
to the taste and faculty, irrespective Of sea-
settles the question; and there is sense in the
suggestion.
There are intellectual women who must
have intellectual mates or none at all, and as
intellect among men is not quite so common
as the air we breathe, intellectual women
frequently die old maids
Willis proposes that the Home Journal be
made the medium of communicating between
female correspondents for that paper an
those intellectual persons of the masculine
gender who may have admired the genius or
talent of the feminine writers. This would
have the effect to marry off many pinng
intellectual maiden young or old, who would
otherwise be vainly looking for her mate.
But this relieves only portion of the
difficulty. Perhaps some of our readers may
he able TO suggest still another remedy for
the trouble. If so, our columns are open
and at their service
The only suggestion that we have to make
is his-let reasonabl amount of the fe-
male surplusage come to California, and they
will very soon be married, if they are not too
exceedingly particular in their choosing.
REFERRING to the death of A. r. Meloney,
late State Controller, the Contra Costa Gazette
(near which place he died) says:
"IIe died at Lafayette, in this county, on
the lst instant, and was consigned to an un-
timely grave on the following day, almost
year ago he became mixed up ina scandalous
affair at the Capital, and from that time his
: political prospects paled, and he fell. lie
was deserted 10y his former political associ-
ates; domestic difficulties environed him; all
hope of further political preferment or of
5 retrieving his former fair fame forsook him,
and he resorted to the inebriating cup as n
soace for all his troubles. The result, an