FEMALE SUh VRAGE.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]

Sts,—The desire for female suffrage is daily gaining ground in the estimation of so many women of cultivated intelligence and generous sympathies, that a dissentient is now coining to be regarded as a reactionary. Nevertheless, there are women who dissent from this movement, to whom the charge of obscurantism would be a great injustice. As one of those, will you allow me a brief space in which to defend my views ?

The strong feeling which has grown up on this subject probably springs from the joint action of two causes ; (1) the natural and laudable desire of intelligent women to find further scope for the exercise of their faculties, and to take their part in the concerns of mature life ; and (2) the conviction, inherited from the fathers of Liberal politics, that the electoral vote is the topstone of adult freedom, lacking which, a human being is more or less a slave. Now, that the electoral vote is an indispensable part of the machinery of representation, and that on full and fair representation the freedom matter at all." The Times of this morning publishes extracts from of the nation most largely depends, is unquestionable. But the leading articles in fifteen prominent papers East and West, the attention of reformers has been so long and so eagerly fixed on gist of all of which is in this passage, taken from one of them the mere act of voting, that its importance has become super- " In the first place, its necessity cannot be shown. The country is stitiously exaggerated, and they are apt to forget that it is not an in no danger from the actions of President Johnson, because there end in itself, but only one of the means to an end. As such, it is is fortunately a majority in Congress sufficient to override his of course to be desired in its proper place, and I do not at all persistent vetoing. The highest argument, however, against im- object a priori to its possession by women. But I think that peachment is that the people do not desire it." But in the English women in general have not yet reached the stage of develop- Tribune's article is one question, prudent, yet naively exposing meat at which it would be useful, either to themselves or others, the motive of the whole movement. It is this :—" May we not and that, while striving for it as they are now doing, they are but pat a precedent upon our statute-books which will give any too likely to lose sight of the preliminary work which can alone Democratic majority in the Senate or the House, in future years, make that and all other franchises of any value.

the right to revolutionize the Government in the interests of There are four classes of argument used in this movement, which slavery ?" May we not, indeed ? I have much mistaken the comprise nearly every suggestion I have heard in favour of female intelligence and the temper of my countrymen, if in the long run suffrage. (I have omitted to discuss Mr. Mill's view,—that

—it may not be this year, or possibly the next—the inevitable " the accident of sex" is of no account in political rights,—

pondering upon that suggestion, and the point it touches, will not because it has usually been avoided by the promoters of the settle the whole question now before the country, in a manner present movement,—which only asks for the enfranchisement somewhat different from that now looked for by people who seem of female householders and ratepayers,—and also because ,a to think that the political system of this country was framed in a critical analysis of the Democratic theory would far exceed my generation, and may be destroyed in half a decade. If that poll- present limits.) 1. Female interests need female representation.

teal system has any strength, or is at-all worthy of the sacrifices 2. Those women who are already competent to vote would, by that were made to obtain, and have been made: to maintain it, it enfranchisement, be enabled to utilize their knowledge on social is so because it is so contrived that no majority, Democratic or problems, which is often very valuable. 3. Those women who are

Republican, in Congress can revolationki the Government in any not now competent to exercise political functions would soon be interests whatever. Revolution may of course be needed here, made competent by " the educating power of the vote." 4. Certain and is easily to be effected by peaceful means, if it is demanded by social advantages would accrue to women from the exercise of the the people. But willing as the majority in the late Free States vote.

are to take strong measures, and to make great sacrifices, to pre- That female interests would be better promoted if the female vent the return of the Democratic party to power, they may be thought of the country were duly represented, I heartily admit, trusted in the end, I believe, to refrain from a revolution which and that there are already women fully competent to represent would establish a system under which any majority in Congress the needs of their sex is an undoubted fact, of which we may all might hereafter declare the people of any State who resisted its be proud. But there are two ways of representing your convic- will out of the Union, and unentitled to representation, and to tions,—the direct way, by publishing facts, or reasonings, and the relieve itself by impeachment of a President who, wisely or un- indirect way, by giving the 200th or 20,000th fraction of a decision wisely, opposed its measures—a system, in brief, which would as to whether A. B. or C. 1.). shall be your mouthpiece in Parlia- leave the minority of the States and the minority of the people to meat. The direct mode of representation is that which alone the unconstitutional mercies of the majority in Congress. gives voice to individual thought or suggestion ; the indirect mode

A YANKEE. of influence not sanctioned by usage, they would secure attention

to their persuasive appeals." If so, this was clearly not a case in which the suffrage would have been used. The writer adds that " many women are scarcely aware that they possess the right [of parochial voting] until it is brought home to them by a con- tested election, and then there is often so little to choose between the rival candidates, that it is not worth while to take the trouble of voting" (a contingency which also attaches to an immense propor- tion of Parliamentary elections). Surely those women who shrink from exercising the lower franchise, and evenforget that they possess it, are inconsistent in asking for the higher one.

This, however, may be only an individual case. Supposing the parochial franchise to have been thoroughly and judiciously exercised, there are still many subjects, stretching far beyond its range, on which women have sometimes valuable experience, well worthy of the attention of Parliament. It is true that such women are seldom likely to be unacquainted with any member of Parlia- ment, or influential man, through whom to call attention to their views, but still there would be great advantage in a regular system, by means of which every such woman would have a claim on a special representative, so as to multiply and intensify such in- Iluences all over the country. The actual amount of good thence resulting might be far less than is now anticipated by the san- guine, but some good would surely be attained, and that in a right -direction.

But now comes the important question,—What proportion do these thinking and experienced women bear to the body whom it is proposed to enfranchise? No electoral returns can inform us, but there can be no doubt whatever that such women are in a very small minority. For practical purposes we may divide the female householders into three classes,—the highest class, already men- tioned ; the lowest class (probably much larger), who know little and care less about public affairs altogether ; and an inter- mediate class, shading off at either end into the two others, who take more or less interest in politics, but have no ideas thereupon except what they derive at second-hand from the society in which they live. The most intelligent and conscien- tious of these intermediate women often pass on into the highest class, and even when they do not, their political sym- pathies tend to widen their minds, and benefit themselves and others in many ways ; and if their admission to the suffrage would not effect any marked good, neither would it be likely to do any harm. But below them come the large section who have no fixed political principles at all, and are at the mercy of any prejudices that float towards them, who take their notions from the nearest plausible friend or newspaper, without a thought of sifting them. Still lower rank the women to whom political honour is a thing unknown, who would sell their votes for worldly advantages ; and of such women we might expect to find not a few among the female householders, if, we may judge from one of the arguments most frequently used for their enfranchisement.

The census of 1861 states that 22,788 of the farmers of England and Wales (about TNT of. the whole) are women, and it is said that as landlords are averse to weakening the agricultural interest by losing votes, they often eject widows whose husbands had held farms in order to substitute a male tenant, and that if the franchise should be (as expected) so lowered as to reach the pre- sent large number of female small farmers, they, too, will suffer in the same way. The grievance, both present and prospective, is a very serious one, and must command indignation and sym- pathy. But the suggested remedy, to give the franchise to all these female farmers, is surely the most damaging proposal that could have been made for the political elevation of women. What possible motive could any landlord have for ejecting a tenant (otherwise suitable), merely because she had no vote, unless he reckoned as a matter of course that her vote would go to his can- didate? And would the voting at the bidding of a landlord be a step upward in the political scale for any human being? To " enfranchise " these 22,788 female farmers would simply be to put so many additional tools into the hands of an interest that is enor- mously over-represented already, and that is far too apt to abuse its power by obstructing useful reforms. Was not the Chandos Clause (giving votes to 501. tenants-at-will) actually devised in the interest of Toryism? Nor would the ballot afford adequate pro- tection to a class so politically immature as those female farmers must long be. When, too, we remember the disgraceful revela- tions of our bribery commissions, and the immense number of false votes which have been given under far less temptation than

these poor farmers would be exposed to, we have surely reason to be very careful not to make arrangements that would tend to multiply spurious votes. It can never be too strictly borne in mind that a vote which is not the expression of a political desire is a falsehood, more or less base, as the case may be.

Another plea comes iu here ; that " the educating power of the vote " would soon make those women competent to exercise it who are not so at present. You " must go into the water," it is said, " before you can learn to swim." True, but there is water and water. Would you turn a pupil adrift on the Atlantic for his first lesson ? A good swimming-bath is quite large enough for that purpose, and a great deal safer. Let women set up their political swimming-baths, and undergo some such training as all men pass through whose political life has any robustness. Let women, like men, have their political debating societies ; let philanthropic female householders form combinations among themselves to carry out improvements in parochial affairs ; let them use faithfully and thoughtfully all the privileges which they already possess, and by such means as these they will gradually increase the highest class of women,—the women of independent convictions,—till it reaches a clear majority in the nation, and then the suffrage will be so genuinely- deserved, that it must soon be conceded. Meanwhile, to say, as Soine do, that women cannot be expected to take an in- terest in politics unless they have political power, and that they should therefore be endowed with the power in order to tempt them to study politics, is childishly absurd. Nor can I think that the vote is to be desired because men would then respect us so much more. If we used the vote well, the manifestation of that fact would doubtless bring us more respect ; but if we did not, our voting would only bring out our weaknesses more visibly than our silence could do, and the vulgar and despotic men who would alone be likely to estimate us more highly for our possession of a mere external privilege, would be the very men most ready to take advantage of an inexperienced woman, suddenly endowed with a power which she did not know how to use. Edged tools are worse than useless to those who have not learned how to handle them.

Not for mere power, still less for mere prestige, is the suffrage to be desired, but as the means of expressing political life ; and its first requisite is that we should have a political life to express. By all means let our sex do their best to develop it (in discreet pro- portion to our other and primary life) ; but to agitate for the symbol before we possess the thing to be signified is, I think, to adopt a course not only unwise in itself, but one which, by revers- ing the true order of realities, tends greatly to obscure any just ap- preciation of the very privilege which is desired, and thus even to retard the political education of Englishwomen.—I am, Sir, &c.,

S. D. C.