Beſides, when poverty is more diſgraceful than even vice, is not morality cut to the quick? Still to avoid miſconſtruction, though I conſider that women in the common walks of life are called to fulfil the duties of wives and mothers, by religion and reaſon, I cannot help lamenting that women of a ſuperiour caſt have not a road open by which they can purſue more extenſive plans of uſefulneſs and independence. I may excite laughter, by dropping an hint, which I mean to purſue, ſome future time, for I really think that women ought to have repreſentatives, inſtead of being arbitrarily governed without having any direct ſhare allowed them in the deliberations of goverment.
But, as the whole ſyſtem of repreſentation is now, in this country, only a convenient handle for deſpotiſm, they need not complain, for they are as well repreſented as a numerous claſs of hard working mechanics, who pay for the ſupport of royalty when they can ſcarcely ſtop their children's mouths with bread. How are they repreſented whoſe very ſweat ſupports the ſplendid ſtud of an heir apparent, or varniſhes the chariot of ſome female favourite who looks down on ſhame? Taxes on the very neceſſaries of life, enable an endleſs tribe of idle princes and princeſſes to paſs with ſtupid pomp before a gaping crowd, who almoſt worſhip the very parade which coſts them ſo dear. This is mere gothic grandeur, ſomething like the barbarous uſeleſs parade of having ſentinels on horſeback at Whitehall, which I could never view without a mixture of contempt and indignation.
