The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-10-05
Ths 9nitg alletin.
MONDAY, OCT. 8, 1885.
WOMAN VICTORIOUS.

of the kind can be that next year,
whichever political party may be in
power, our legislature will place the
crown on the labors of those who
have so long advocated what are
called women's rights, by admitting
our sisters, cousins, and aunts to the
exercise of the franchise. The lii
berals may safely be said to stand
committed to this reform after the
remarks which fell from their leaders
during the course of the discussion
of the details of the great measure
of the past session. The chief, if
not the only reason, it was then
stated, why the subject was not i'm
mediately dealt with, was because
such course would inevitably delay,
if not absolutely imperil the passing
of the Bill. On the other hand, the
bulk of the Conservative party has
for some time been believed to be in
favor of the change. Lord Bcacons-
field was strong "women's rights
man," and Sir Michael Hicks Beach
only day or two ago declared that
though he had been originally OPP
posed to granting the right to vote
to females, his disobedent heart had
at last been turned to the wisdom of
Miss Becker, and he was now con-
WINGED that second thoughts were
best. The boon they have been so
long craving thus looks like being
assured to what we suppose we
ought no longer to call the
softer sex, at least to those
amongst its ranks who are I'M
married-double ladies, for some
mysterious reason, being looked up
on as uniting recipients of the
vote, in spite of the fact that the
last Married Women's Property Act
put, or affected to put them, as far
as their property was concerned, in
precisely the same position as.temmes
soles.
We have said that the acquisition
of the franchise will be merely the
browning of the edifice. 1t is in no
slight degree amusing to look back
on former stormy disputes on the
subject, and ON the broader question
of the equality of the sexes with
which it is indissolubly connected,
and to recall the times when allu-
sion to the "shrieking sisterhood''
were considered arguments, and
when those who thought it their
duty to claim for their fellow women
equal participation in the rights and
functions Heretofore solely exercised
by men were contemptuously dis
missed by member of the Liberal
Government as '!social failures"
The so-called logic of controversial
lists such as these now looks strange
indeed, and their efforts to overturn
the axiom of modern political phil
osophy-that it is eXpedent to
grant to every section of the COM
munity all capacities and abilities
which they desire to have and which
can be enjoyed by them without
injury to the rest of their fellow
citizens-weak in the extreme.
In the first place, reasoned those
who were irremovably stuck in the
mud of the vite antique, women
are, as general rule, inferior to
men in intellect. Where, they asked
triumphantly, are the female Mil
tons, Drydens, Bacons, and Lockes?
The female Racines, Molieres, and
Pascals? The female Goethes and
Niebuhrs? The female Tassos and
Galileos? The twofold answer to
this was obvious, though it took the
dodos considerable time to assimi-
late it. elbow can you expect
things" it was said, "to be other
wise than they are! Women have
never received the same education
as men; they have been brought up
in manner altogether different;
and they have always been taught
that the whole aim and tenor of
their lives should be of an entirely
distinct and opposite nature. What
wonder, then, that they have never
yet exhibited the same intellectual
attainmentsE" 1t was sometimes
attempted to make the weak reply
that, though defective education
might have something to do with the
fact that women had never distin-
guished themselves in the domains
of learning and science, it could
not affect the great truth that they
had seldom or never shown in even
a moderate degree that diUi,auS If
.fdtus or originality which is of the
essence of real success in poetry or
art. Then came the time to use
the second barrel, and the question
whether he thought that the posses
sion of genius was Indispensable for
the proper exercise of the duties of
a doctor, lawyer, or an elector
generally blew the caviller-to con-
tinun the met anhnr-intn the small