A PLEA FOR THE MEN.
THE Daily Chronicle having begun soberly enough by dis- cussing the preponderance of unmarried women over single men shown by recent statistics, has fallen into a some- what heated argument as to why men will not marry. We remember, not very long ago, a very similar correspondence which filled the columns of the Daily Telegraph for the whole of the "silly season ; " and judging from the extreme similarity of the tone and the style of the letters addressed to both, we are inclined to think that the correspon- dents of one paper are also the correspondents of the other,— a theory which we are the more disposed to hold because, after a fashion, it limits the amount of human folly and fatuity which the correspondence exposes. One thing at least is noticeable in the case of both papers. The discussion is founded on the assumption that women remain unmarried because the men will not marry them. And this state of things is attributed by the male disputants to the fact that women are too exacting in their demands, by the disputants of the gentle sex to the selfishness and cowardice of the male creation. No one has yet seen fit to deplore the lot of the unmarried men, and to say a good word for those unhappy mortals who are debarred from marriage either by the want of attractions to a woman's eye, or by the want of means to support a wife and family. And yet one would think that the lot of the un- marriageable man who cannot find a mate is just as hard to bear as that of the marriageable but unmarried woman. Indeed, the anger and bitterness which the disputants, especially the women, bring into a discussion of this kind seem to blind them entirely to the real facts of the case. A calm consideration of those facts would probably con- vince them that the evil of which they complain is an order of things more or less inevitable. There is nothing, perhaps, more misleading than statistics ; but there is one fact which bears directly upon the case, and which may explain to a great extent the large number of unmarried women. There are in England, as it is admitted, 897,000 more marriageable women than marriageable men ; very nearly a million of women condemned to a life of single blessedness, not because the men will not marry them, but because there are no men to marry them. As long as poly- gamy is discouraged by our laws and our customs, we do not understand how these women can expect to be married. The main reason for men being unmarriageable, is that they do not exist in sufficient quantities to meet the demands of women. Whether this is the result of the preponderance of female over male births, or the greater mortality among the men, or of the emigration of the men, matters little ; the fact remains, that there are in England nearly a million women who cannot be married, whether every man be willing to marry or not. And of the rest of marriageable men and women, who remain in equal proportions, there is no evidence to show that their want of union is rather the fault of the man than that of the woman, except the fact that the initiative in proposing lies with the first. It may be that " Barkis is willing," after all, though Peggotty declares that he is hanging back ; and that, were the positions reversed, and the onus of proposing laid upon Peggotty's shoulders, she would show herself to be no more willing than he has shown him- self. We really believe, and the belief is complimentary to the fairer sex, that there are no more bachelors than there are spinsters who remain in that state from choice. One thing at least we have remarked,—that though we have heard of many spinsters who have boasted that they had refused offers by the dozen, we have rarely, if ever, heard of a bachelor who would admit that he had been rejected more than once : from which we might infer that the willingness and the modesty are all upon one side, and the hardness of heart upon the other.
The correspondents of the Daily Chronicle, although they throw but little light upon the question in general, often throw a good deal of light upon the question as it affects their own particular case. "A Contented Bachelor," "A Wide-awake Bachelor," and "Another Wide-awake Bachelor," are signa- tures that explain themselves, and do no particular honour either to the wits or the good feeling of those who write above them. No one would be disposed to quarrel with such gentle- men because they choose to remain single. Perhaps the most notable letter from one of their sex, though of a different per. suasion, is that of a clergyman. "Having been for years," he writes, "a clergyman in the heart of Belgravia, and in other districts of varying degrees of gentility," he has remarked that his clerical brethren can only be induced to marry the richest woman of their congregations, "whether she be eminent for piety, or the reverse," whence he sagely opines that "money is the root of all evil," and kindly gives the necessary reference for that text. However much the degrees of gentility varied, the degree of the reverend gentleman's charity seems to have been an unvarying factor in his -observation of his neighbours. Let us turn to the gentle sex, and their most gentle epistles; to the "Four Working Girls," who answer one particular bachelor, and add to their railing a delightful postscript,—does the bachelor require knitted socks P because they will be glad to knit him some, should he be in want of them ; to the indignant young woman who complains that young men think too much of their clubs, and signs herself "A Domestic Servant;" and to the splendid rhetoric of the lady who describes "hearts breaking themselves in lonely agony until death relieves them," and declares that "respon- sible for such a state of things are our false-to-nature, one-sided, man-made laws which have ever aimed from the beginning at woman's subjection." It is without surprise that one finds the signature of Lady Florence Dixie appended to this last outburst of eloquence. Curious above all others, however, is the contribution of "A Curio-Spinster "—who must be a very curio-spinster indeed, judging from the unique character of her confessions. She is disposed to take her readers into her complete confidence. "I have an over-sensi- tive nature," she informs us, "and am too apt to think that I have been insulted when, perhaps, no harm was meant, and, having an unlucky knack of speaking my mind, get disliked in consequence. But being possessed, perhaps, of more charms than most women, I have had many admirers and would-be suitors, but have never seen but one man I would change my single life for." This is truly a very proper pride. "He was my beau-ideal, and yet, though I was as much in love as he," it was not to be. "An untimely but well-meaning friend" stepped in just as he was coming to the point, "and so he went away, and left a blank that no other can fill." Here is both poetry and pathos. "He thought me cold, and would not be such a Juggins as to place his affec- tions upon a marble statue." And here is prose with a ven- geance. Bat what kind of prose is a Jugging, and in the name of all that's feminine, what manner of young woman is a "curio-spinster "? Whatever she may be, she does not despair. "But everything comes to those who wait," she says : and that is philosophy.
Little indeed can be gained by the perusal of such letters. The only one of the whole series that contains a grain of common-sense is written by "A Thoughtful Mother," who encloses a cutting from a Queensland newspaper, and makes a very sensible suggestion thereupon. It would appear from the journal in question, that women are but few in that country, and that the Queenslanders are much in want of wives,—so much in want that they actually suggest an assisted immigration of women from England. After all, why should not women emigrate to seek a husband, in the same way as men emigrate to seek a fortune ? Emigration is to a certain degree responsible for the want of marriageable men in England ; therefore let it form an escape for the superfluity of marriageable women. There is no reason why girls should not emigrate with their brothers ; and if they were only sen- sibly educated with that end in view, they would prove rather an assistance than a burden to the man whom they accompany. If it be a fact—and so far it seems to be undisputed—that women at home preponderate so largely over men, there really seems no other hope for the hapless female population. We can hardly suppose that those women who complain wish either to stop the stream of male emigration from the country 'for their own benefit, or to introduce the system of polygamy, so that every woman may be assured of a fraction of a husband at least. Three women cannot divide two men equally among them, and the only remedy is for the third to go away and look for a man elsewhere. Recriminations such as are indulged in by the correspondents of the Daily Chronicle, are quite useless, and do not touch the root of the matter at all. It is just possible that, were the situation changed, and women to propose as well as men, there might be more marriages ; but we should doubt whether they would add largely to the present sum of conjugal happiness. L'honttne propose,—and the woman knows how to refuse. But when woman proposes, the man will not know how to refuse,—not at least until the whole relation between the two sexes has been altered.
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