New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-10-15

and upon the whole spirit of the Scriptures both OF
the old and the new law. When God made woman,
the Bible tells us that He made her as help NEE.
for Man. When Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the
Lord made it a part OF her punishment that sno
should thenceforth be subject to her husband anu ho
should rule over her." Paul reminded the 0orih-
thians that the man not created for the woili'
but the woman for the man; lie wrote TO lhnotnS'
f" Let the woman learn in silence, with all suolec-
ton :" and to the Ephesians he declared, Inc nus
band is the head of the wife Therefore as the
Church is subject unto Christ let the wives DE 10
their own husbands in everything" Mr. MIL mas
encountered here his chief difficulty, and he mas not
fairly faced it. 1t is answer to say that o faui
purpose was merely to counsel obedience 10 eA-
listing laws; for he uniformly treats the relation
between husband and wife as something iar
more sacred than social or legh CUSTOM
and establishes the will of obedience upon the
highest religious considerations Neither is IL true
as Mr. Pearson says, in the essay to which we nave
alluded further back, that the Christian Chnrch' oy
successive notifications, gradually nulilhed inc
Apostles commands. The ancient Church anu I'll
modern denominations, with the exception OF very
few independent sects of tho present day. nave con-
rmed and enforced the Pauline doctrine; and those
who reject it do 80 the ground that reason or some
other authority which they hold superior to that OF
Panl and all ancient religious usage, sanctions their
doing so. We do not see how anybody who recog-
nizes the authority of the Scriptures can refuse as
Mr. Mill does, to meet these grave objections Ihey
must be answered or else the authority of the BDie
must be rejected altogether.
Admit that there is no real inequality of the sexes
that the basis of the family which has always pre-
vailed is wrong one, and that women can do every
thing which men do except the rough labors demand
ing superior muscular force, and you come naturally
to the admission of woman-franchise and the open
ing of all political offices to both alike Mr.
Mill starts with the assertion that to have voice
in choosing those by whom is to be governedis
means of protection due to ety one y that to say,
he makes universal suffrage natural right, which 1t
is not and never has been regarded in any country or
in any age. II il were natural right it would not
lie easy to find any authority for excluding Young
men under 81 or many other classes OF men who are
now denied vote. lie puts the discussion upon afar
sounder basis when he argues from the mental char
acersties of women that their admission TO poticai
life would be benefit 10 the community. Their APP
parent intellectual inferorty to man is the result,
he says entirely Of education. They have indeed
been emancipated from the Ignorance which en-
shaved them formerly but this emancipation
is so recent and imperfect that we cannot yet eX
pect from them the highest works of genins. Inc
highest works of genius however not the fruit of
| preceding them. How much culture was there lead
ing up to Homer, and how many advantages had he
which have been denied the average OF women Tor
the last two or three centuries The brightest in
tellects are capable of Towering without the aid OF
lighthouses. II no woman has ever been great
musician, great artist, or great philosopher OF
great theolOgian or even, may add great poet,
there is no way of accounting for the fact except on
the suppostion of intellectual inferority Tue, this
does not prove that women are unit to votes but 1t
is one point against the argument that they are IN
all things the natural peers of men, and have there
fore God given right to share equally with him in
| the government of the State
The principal advantage TO be anticipated from the
admission of women to political life is that il would
enlarge the number of those fit to discharge public
functions and so increase cur chances of getting
capable rulers But everybody knows that there Is
no lack i'm any civilized country Of men fit to hold
Office while there is great difficulty in getting the
| fit ones appointed. 0ur trouble i'll America and the
trouble in Great Britain. is not the scarcity oil good
men to rule but the abundance Of corrupt OF careless
voters Unless it can be shown that the presence OF
women at the polls and in the cancus-room would
purify the voting population, we can look for no
benefit by extending the suffrage TO them though
score OF statesmen may now be buried III petticoats
or Pitt and a Henry Clay be pining in the
nursery And so far from purifying, We believe the
admission of women would hopelessy corrupt the
suffrage. 1t is notorious that women are more ac-
cessible to improper Influences than men, more easily
blibed, moro easily swayed by personal prejndices
and pques. At the polls we should see the lowest
| class OF women almost in mass the more refined,
| the yirtuous the intelligent, would shrink from the
repulsiye associations inseparable from such scene.
In Congress and the Legislature we might have fe-
male representatives from Mercer-st and the Fourth
Ward; we should have very few from, any more de
cent locality. Even Miss Anthony could not poll
many votes as q woman of the town. In the lobby
already woman is one OF the worst pests OF our po-
ltical SYSTEM In the committeeman she would be
orr ruin.
But even If tho good women would vote and vote
wisely and if they could be chosen TO Congress, and
so forth, and were capable of doing good service
in Office it would remain TO be asked whether,
in thus diverting our wives and daughters from the
I,lfe which for trle Of SIX thousand years has
been deemed the most fitting and the happest for
them, we and they would not lose a great deal
more than under the best of circumstances we could
hope to gain Public life after all is not the better
half Of existcnce and country can be worth much
in which man and his wife are merely partners b.
business, and the cultivation of domestic happiness,
the education of the affections and the regulation Of
the family made of subordinate interest 10 poi-
cal government. r.f r.
MIR. BRYANTS LETTERS OF TRAVEL
LETTERS OF A TRAVELLER; Or. NOTES OF THINGS
BRYANT. l2mo PIP. A2. q. II. Putnam Son.
LETTERS FROM THE EAST BY WILLIAM CULLEN
BRYANT. l2mo. PIP 2s6, q. p. Putnam Son.