THE WOMAN QUESTION AGAIN !

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8763, 26 April 1890, Page 3

THE WOMAN QUESTION AGAIN !

The greatest comic dramatist of antiquity must, we shrewdly suspect, have had certain fair female agitators in his mind's eye at Athens, when in " The Birds " he exhibits a simple minded and rather nervous male being 1 exclaiming in affright : — *' How they thicken, how they muster ! How they clutter, how they cluster ! Now they i amble here and there. Now they scramble all together. What a bdgetting and clattering ! What a twittering and chattering ! Don't they mean to threaten us ?''

Three and twenty centuries have passed . away, empires risen and fallen, new worlds been discovered, since tho age of AribtophaneH, but woman and her i\ays present as inexhaustible and attractive a topic as ever. There lies before uh a familiar magazine named after this century of the Christian Era, in which no fever than two articles appear on (his question, each written by a woman. The CoiiDte6B of Jersey's contribution, with which we are here concerned, is entitled, "Ourselves and our Foremothera ;" an ominous title enough, significant, indeed, to eyes capable of perceiving the f.igns of tho times in which we live now. To discuss the propriety of the relative order in which the above words occur, would be useless in days when "our noble sehes" inevitably staDd first in rank in the natural order or things, as regarded by the emancipated woman ; but Foremvthen I Shadeß of Dr Samuel Johnson and our forefathers! ! It is enough to justify the warning of Sir Anthony Absolute against

very alphabet will be employed by them as one of the black arts. In the preface to L'idy Jersey's half-serious, half-bantering observations in the review, is contained an extract from The European Magazine of the year of grace 1800 — for anything that is known of it in our own date, as much forgotten now as perhaps the Nineteenth Century will itself be in another fifty years. We offer one brief quotation, " There has been a good deal of debate and much shedding of ink in the learned world for some time past respecting the rank that women ought to hold in the scale of creation;" a quotation which, as our noble authoress very properly remarks, is equally applicable ninety years later. " The learned world is still much exercised by the question whether women should bo heroines or mothers of heroes, or whether both roles are compatible; and the only point on which all appear to agree is, that, for good or for evil, women are ! very different from their foremothers." We are by no means convinced that this statement of Lady Jersey's may not allow* of large exception. So far at least as essential qualities are concerned, it may be I very muchdoubted if women are altogether different from those depicted in Chaucer's matchless " Tale of Grisild," and in his caustic advice at its conclusion : '' O Noble Wyuus ful of heigh prudence, Lat non humilitee your tongo naille." She proceeds to ask, with due seriousness, this question: "Is it quite just to assume, as is very commonly taken for granted, that when a woman attempts anything which is more commonly done by men (sit 1 ), she therefore desires to emulate or rival men ? Is it not conceivable that she may sometimes like the work or sport for its own sake, without any thought of competition with tho other sex ? Imitation is doubtless the sincerest form of flattery, but all women are not altowjs taking of flattering men." We should imagine not. She adds, with equal accuracy, " Nor do men seem ever to have appreciated this special kind of flattery." In illustration of this truism, she quotes the following lines addressed in 1802 by " Philander " to some beauteous Amazon or other: " Since to handle the reins, Hunt and shoot you take pains, And act, my dear girl, so uncommon, I can't locc you, I swear,

For your words, look, and air, Make me think you a Man, not a Woman."

With that delightful consistency of reasoning- which, -\\o know, characterises many cle\er women, Lady Jersey next entertains us with more than one interesting anecdote, apparently to prove that women, of every age, are substantially alike in their characteristics. She relates how at York races in August, 1804, :i Colonel's wife, one Mrs Thornton, rode a match on the course for 500 guineas before one hundred thousand spectators ; how, being easily beaten by her male antagonist, iitly named Flint, she wrote an indignant letter to the York Herald, bitterly complaining that the wretch had done his brutal best to beat her, particularly when ker horse broke down ! Did we dare ourselves to brave, Mr Editor, the lightning some tierce Belinda's eyes, wo could a like"- "'ithetie tale unfold of a gentle creature's hysterical passion, under hardly less severe" pV^VP,q2tion from a ruthless male opponent, whieif^L 110 years buck and in a distant land from this,^k-ne.ed.searcely be stated, foil under our own notice. "-We blush to add, that like the shameless Flint," ■ the hardened brute also refused to be sorry for his sin. But a still more horrible example is next given of the state of things which, at any rate till of late year.-., our respectable and slightly humdrum Mother Country is now beholding in the curious capers which certain of her daughters are cutting in these days of emancipation. -Tiiu dountu^u of Jersey usMires us that a lady — and a Conservative too — was heard to pronounce it as her decided opinion, that the political exertions of which, even in this distant corner of the Empire, we have heard something, put forth by Primrose Dames, were directly inspired by the Evil One become incarnate in this notorious League ! Who can this lady be ? Can it possibly be the gifted wife of a celebrated ex-Conservative leader' recently, we believe, boycotted by these spirited dames as a penalty for a scandalous Parliamentary assault on their hero, the Premier? But if bad begins, worse remains behind. Lady Jersey thus goes on : " This lady and Sir Robert Peel (the late unhappy candidate for Brighton) have thrown a lurid light upon the subject. Henceforth these (Primrose League) festivities must be condemned as Walpurgis night revels, in which Mephistopheles (evidently the Irish Chief Secretary is here meant) meets the witches." Heartily do we echo the cry of our scandalised authoress, and exclaim with her, " How truly dreadful!" Most sensible persons, with a knowledge of human nature — of woman's nature in particular — will, we fancy. a£TC€with Lady Jersey's words,, 'which concluded this really cley^jf slightly inconsequential, articje^of hers. "The individual woman and not her special pursuits or accom EJishments is the important consideration. Would it be too old-fashioned }J6 go back to the story of Creation, and read that the woman was made as a helpmeet to man ? . . . . Many women, however, cannot marry, and of them, also, it may be said, that it is not so much what they do, as why find how they do it, which imports to the future of womanhood." Yds ; and to the future of manhood no less. For as St. Bernard, in Dante's Beatific Vision ie depicted exclaiming in honour of her, whom Christendom has united to acknowledge the crown and flower of womanhood, so, in degree may it be uttered to every faithful and noble woman :—: — " In thee is mercy, pity is in thee ; In thee munificence ; in thee combined Is all of good in every creature found." Egmoxt ,