for one sex than the other. If the woman has had her sorrows at home, the man has had his wars and his rough struggles with nature abroad, and with the sweat of his brow he has reclaimed the earth, and made it a habitation for his partner as well as for himself If the woman has had her disabilities, she has also had her privileges. War has spared her; for if in primitive times she was made a slave, this was better, in the days before sentiment at least, than being massacred. And her privileges have been connected with her disabilities. If she had made war by her vote, she could not have claimed special respect as a neutral, nor will she be able to claim special respect as a neutral if she makes war by her vote hereafter.
In the United States the privileges of women may be said to extend to immunity, not only for ordinary outrage, but for murder. A murderess of her husband whose guilt has been proved by overwhelming evidence, is let off out of regard for her sex; there is a sentimental scene between her and her advocate in court, and afterwards she appears as a public lecturer. The whisky crusade shows that women are practically above the law. Rioting, and injury to the property of tradesmen, when committed by the privileged sex, are hailed as a new and beneficent agency in public life; and because the German population, being less sentimental, asserts the principles of legality and decency, the women are said to have suffered martyrdom. So far from the American family being the despotism which Mr. Mill describes, the want of domestic authority lies at the root of all that is worst in the politics of the United States. If the women ask for the suffrage, say some American publicists, they must have it; and in the same way, everything that a child cries for is apt to be given it, without reflection as to the consequences of the indulgence.
There is, therefore, no reason for setting the sexes by the ears, or giving to any change which it may be just and expedient to make, the aspect of a revolt. We may discuss on its own merits the question whether female suffrage would be a good thing for the whole commu-
