The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1898-08-20

AAAuo " udVo tWU cdIeKOIleS vi M0MUeIS
OF Parliament, one Of them the estab-
lished and the larger one, consisting Of
persons who can travel without check
along all the lines Of public duty and
honour. the other, the novel and the
smaller one, stamped with disability for
the discharge Of executive, administra-
tive. Judicial or other public duty? Such
a stamp would apprehand be a brand.
There is nothing more odioue, nothing
more untenable, than an inequality In
legal privilege which does not stand
upon some principle in its nature broad
and clear. Is there here such princi-
pie, adequate to show that when capacity
to sit In Parliament has been established,
tho title to discharge executive and
duty can be withheld. Tried by the test
Of feeling, the distinction would be Of
fensive. Would 1t stand better under
the laws Of logic? 1t would stand still
worse, if worse be possible. For the
proposition we should have to maintain
would be this. The Legislative duty is
the highest OF all public duties; for this
we admit your fitness. Executive and
judicial duties rank below it: and for
these we declare you unfit.
l think it impossible to deny that
there have been and are women indiyid-
ually f1t for any public Office however
masculine Its character; just as there
are persons under tho age OF twenty-one
better fitted than many Of those beyond
it for the discharge Of the duties Of full
citizenship. In neither case does the
argument derived from exceptional in
stances seem to justify tho abolition of
the general rue. But the risks involved
in the two suppositlons are immeasur-
ably different. In the one, individual
Judgment and authority plainly would
have to distinguish between childhood
and manhood and specify criterion Of
competency in each case, which is now
more conveniently fixed by the uniform
ity OF law. In the other, q permanent.
and vast difference Of type has been inn
RASSoSu uHVh WOAlCA auu Hull lcSptCt.
lively by the Maker of both. Their differ
ehoes Of social office rest mainly upon
causes, not flexible and elastic like most
mental qualities, but physical and in
their nature interchangeable. l for Cne
am not prepared to say which of the two
sexes has the higher and which has the
lower province. But l recognize the
subtle and profound character Of the
differences between them, and l must
again, and again, and again, deliberate
before aiding in the issue Of what seems
an invitation by public authority to the
one to renounco as far as possible its
own office, In order to assume that OF the
other. | am not without the fear lest
beginning with tile State, we should
eventually be found to have intruded
into what is yet more fundamental and
more sacred, the precinct of the family.
and should dislocate, or injuriously mod
ify, the relations Of domestic life.
As this is not party question, or a
class question, SO neither is it sex
question. have no fear lest the woman
should encroach upon the power OF the
man. The fear that have is, lest we
should invite her unwtttingly to trespass
upon the delicacy, the purity, the refine.
ment, the elevation Of her own nature
which are the present sources OF its
power. admit that we have often, as
legislators, been most unfaithful guard
ians OF her rights to moral and social
equality. And I do not say that full
justice has In all things been Gone; but
such great progress has been made il
most things, that in regard to what may
still remain the necessity for violent
remedies has not yet been shown. I I'D
nit that in the universities, in the pro
: fessiOns, in the secondary circles O
public action, we have already gone 81
far as to give shadow Of plausibility Il
the present proposals to 60 farther; bu
it is shadow only, for We have don,
nothing that plunges the woman as sucl
into the turmoil of masculine life. M.
disposition is to do all for her which i
: free from that danger and reproach. bu
to take no step in advance until l an
convinced of its safety. The stake i
!! enormous. The affirmation pleas are t
my mind not clear, and. even if
| thought them clearer, should deny tha
they were pressing.
Such being the state Of the evidence
t and also such the immaturity of tn
h public mind, earnestly hope that tn
b House Of Commons will decline to give
second reading to the Woman's Suffrag
Q Bill. Iremain, dear Mr.. s. Smith, yer
J. faithfully yours,
3 w. E. GLADSTONE,