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    AK £r *l QDttttt (!uQUlKUt» ~

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    IK THIS DXPABTUEKT , A 3 AH OPINIONS , IIOWBVHR EXTREME , XKU AI . LOIFED AH KXPJiSSSlON , TUB BD 1 XOB MBCfiSSARlLY HOLDSUUISB 1 . F BB 3 PO . f 3 IBLS FOR HOBE . ] ' ' ' There is no learned man b \ it -will confess ne h . aUi much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to write . —Hixiosr . - i s \ *

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    SOCIAL EEFORM . ( To the . Editor of the Leader . ") Sir , —It is an old saying that a straw shows which way the wind blows ; and when we see a great many straws all blowing determinedly in one direction , it suggests the idea that there ia a very high wind indeed . This was my thought when I read the admirable notice in your last number of -works by writers so widely apart in point of time as Mary Wolfstonecraft i r l > » f

    and Margaret Fuller , —it was one of the many signs of the times . On one hand we read in the advertisements that Mrs . Norton ' s Letter to the Queen has reached a third edition , proving the extensive circulation of a work not remarkable for cheapness , and whose interest lies in the strong , eloquent presentation of one phase of English domestic life . On the other , we see the Quarterly Reviews devoting articles to the consideration of the laws relating to the female sex , and the weekly papers taking up the subject at intervals .

    I have often thought that the progress of reforms might be generalised into something like an invariable process . The idea which they contain is first germinated in the mind of some solitary thinker . A Spinosa builds up in his garret some intangible theory of ethics or theology ; a Bacon sketches , by the force of some marvellous divining intuition , the gigantic and shadowy outlines of a science whose realisation it will take centuries to fulfil- A Jean Jacques Kousseau broaches theories of republican equality in the face of an enslaved Europe , which vainly endeavours to accept the doctrines , and sinks back exhausted into the . rfyime of 1815 . St . Simon , and Fourier , and Robert Owen , preach to bare walls ,

    or at least try some experiment with materials that crumble under their hands . A Shelley utters his cry of despair , his prophecy of triumph , and dies at 29 ; a Mary Wolfstonecraft Ilings a solemn and solid word into the startled ' society of " has bleus" and the respectable matronship of England . And of all but the man of science ( whom comparatively few would take the trouble to read ) lias the world declared that their words are vain;—the solitary voice is overpowered by the din of an opposing multitude , and it seems as though the words and the meaning are quonched for ever . Not so ; they penetrate little by little into the dense mass of prejudice—they seize upon two or three , or , at most upon a dozen , impressible minds , who are to be the Apostles of the New Thoughts . They shake the dust off their feet in testimony against an

    unbelieving generation , and go their ways , pariahs and outcasts . But tho hope of the world ia the young . A few more and a few more of those spirits upon whom no print of prejudice is vet impressed , and the phantom rises slowly Into a question of domestic discussion . Then a solitary editor is seized with tho unluoky ideality of adherence to the now faith . If it bo a matter of politics he has time to consider it more deeply in prison , liko Leigh Hunt ; if it bo a matter of religion , his house is burnt , and ho flics for his life , like Dr . Priestley ; if It be a scheme of social regeneration , hia name ia tabooed aa the . symbol of everything coarse arid immoral , liko a disciple of Fourier : if it bo tlio Uightu of Woman , the writer is q uietly locked up in a closet and condemned to one duaty edition in fifty years , and his readers aro abused and laughed at . But the ; battle has begun . From books it creeps into papers ; from papers to tho Parj ,

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    hiin . is well ; prepared * \ The , letter is thrown aside ; On the ; 16 th of August , a gentleman presentshimself— - a . traveller ; of graceful figure and eelf-posSesaed bearing . He pre- » seats a letter— -the duplicate of that already received ; but does not make any request . Only Senor Fbancisco is happy to make the acquaintance of so perfect a gentleman , the Visitor departs , arid * as the French would say , leaves behind him the perfume of his esprit ; Next day , however , he calls again , and happens to want 11001 . A cheque is handed to him at once , and he is ushered to the door with the most benevolent wishes . It must now be counted airiong historical parallels , that the same circumstances , the same dates , the same results , attend the visit of Don Mahijeii de Camio to the house of Senor Yglesias ; only that here the sum which Dojt Mantteii was authorised to have , and happened to want , was not more than 700 / . It was an accident which made the bank of Messrs . Stoke , Mabtin , and Co . pay De Mttbb . ieta ' s cheque in small notes—fives and tens , with five pounds in gold . Nowy travellers have a preference for gold , and Doit Manueii at once proceeded to change his notes for gold at the house of Messrs-. Spieilman and Co ., the money-changers in liombard-street . Had the cheque been paid in large notes- ^ say two 500 Z . and one 100 / . —the changing of the paper would have created no surprise ; but to need gold for so many fives and tens—that was suspieious- ^ - arid it was suspected : Campo was traced to the - London Tavern , and met by the police entering it . Another man had just come in too , and went up-stairs ; but did not come down again : that man was his Valencia companion , Massip . Oampo was not in the tavern as Campo , but by another name , and eventually is found to be Cortazab . He said that he could account for all , and that he had given the notes in care of a friend ; and lie actually took the police to many places of amusement , and yet gayer abodes , in search of his friendr- ^ -in vain . Nor was the money found , though Massip wasj after a time . But the cash had been spirted away . All the probable resorts were examined , in . vain . At last it was presumed that the post had been used , and the telegraph transmitted orders , sanctioned by Government , to procure a search of the post-office ; and , curious coincidence ! two letters were found in Paris , addressed in Massip ' s handwriting to himself , containing the amount of the produce of the two forged letters of credit , save 200 / . The plan , therefore , was quite successful , except through the consequences of the accident that made the cheque be paid in small notes . The two letters of credit , probably , did not exhaust the ingenuity of the couple , nor were the placeB named all that they had visited . Mabsip , we believe , has been seen in Italy and France as well as England ; Cobtazab had honoured other commercial houses with his visits besides the two ia London : he had paid attention to others on the Continent , in one instance , at least , without any immediate demand for cash ; no doubt laying a foundation' for : other and future transactions . He seems to be really well connected with commercial families in Spain , and is exactly the man to be invaluable ia a " Co . " of tho peculiar kind to which he ultimately belonged . Nor ia it probable that ho and Massip aTe the onlypartners < in the firm—there are others etiU uncondemned or evou unarrestod . And ! to . a certain ,. extent it may l > e said that the ; tribe ia OB immortal as that of Sx'bahan , Pattx ., and' Co . Spain is not a thoroughly tranquil country , -with an omnipotent and omnipresent police : there aro Maasips in

    the'mountain passes , and Cor bazars in the cafes ; with oousins * -german probably in commercial firms , i Our own" trading classes recognise the principle of the short cut ; and Cobtazab only took a Bhort cut to the possession of wealth . The growth of sharpers is not likely to be arrested in Spain for some time to come ; nor is it probable that in the commercial towns of JEarope , where the quickest acquisition of wealth is the test of " position , " the opportunities of the tribe will be contracted . Before we can expect such blessed results , we must expect Espabtebo to have introduced constitutional selfgovernment into Spain , and the clergy of the English churches to have introduced Christianity into trade ! q " 1 3 3 3 f b ¦

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    liament ; . from , Parliament to meetfn ^ a . and mobs ; ilj rages , it roars , it is attacked , it tremble *; ' i « " $ nf grosses all the bad language in the' dictionary j > t arouses all thfe angry passions of the human heart Toryism rallies a dying energy , and . absolutely foam » at the mouth : it will succeed—it will not ; , it . shaU-rn it shall not . It is a point of thought , a scattered dream , a nebulous notion , an ardent conflict , ah Enacted Haw . It is a Iteform Bill of ' 32 , a Limited Liability Bill of' 55 . r . k Look at the written history of every reform j ac-. cording as the subject is connected with the deepen feelings of the humau heart , or with the external necessities of commerce , so is the conflict moie or less in length , ia passion , in bitterness . Bat the good day comes at length ; comes with sure and advancing feet . L < et all those who struggle for ' a principle learn by heart the history of the past , and set their faces forward like a flint . It is a noble and a hopeful thing to be " At once a new thought king and prisoner . " ?* Endurance w Hie crowning quality , And patience all the passion of great heart * . " Endurance , not of wrong , but of the contumely cast on the opposers of wrong ; Patience , not in thraldoni , but in the steady upbearing against power , against prejudice , against the almost unconquerable might of lazy acquiescence in the things that be . To those who feel keenly upon the atrocious state of the laws relating to women , who take simply one point in hand—the property law s against which Mrs . Norton inveighs—the existing state of things would be sufficiently discouraging but for such considerations as I have dwelt upon above . The laws themselves are a confused jumble , a terrible labyrinth of threads , a sort of texture of rough , coarse power , patched here and there with tighter stufffrom theCourts of Equity . Unmarried women are remarkably free in England ; so far as freedom may avail them with their scanty means of earning money ; married women are in a state of legal slavery at which the sense of catholic and continental nations revolts . The practical feeling which operates in domestic life is one of considerable indulgence , allowing scope of course for isolated cases , of barbarity , and for an immense quantity- of petty oppression which is never recpgr nised by either party under its right name . To the man it his " prerogative , " to the woman her inevitable " statu quo , '" to which she submits , as we do < to frost in winter , with an occasional grumble . Society is courteous to women who " keep $ ^ 4 jjBJiM& fiercely intolerant to women who g ° J « j | JO » & > i * indefinite locality . Men , as men . in t " ^ w *«« ggw ?" their pulpits , their clubs , their senate , ; A | l |^ 'niRnpriVj |^ few noble exceptions , utterly oblivious jfl ( ftJ !{ $ ftjiMftfl £ ; sex , out of the plane of a novel or % 9 Jfflgftfg $ bitterly satirical or vehemently com " *^^^ B |^ WL overt plan of changing the law or the cl fWWJgjjjW ^ % * . country . I find indeed , in a little paittinpttjjMMMfc' ^ lished by Chapman , one of a series on ^ VkMfSgf ^^^ J : of woman , and entitled a Brief / & ' um >^ ary |«|^ m ; JmK > Important Laws Concerning Woman , ' ^ Nf JBgWpfiOf ' . defined to be a correction or qualification / j OTjB jfe / WHS' ? generally made in the part wherein it jW ^ VwylMlf' too severe ; " but I also find in the concludtaKt ^ jgj ^ ljB the very obvious" question , " Why ahbulfegggt * jjMMj [[ legal devices be done away with by the , ? Wittjpg §| ttfc ; tion of a law which we have outgrown . jjo' 4 •' itaatLtu It is time that we bestirred ourselves o # ijMtflW *' tion—time that we endeavoured to collecirTw . JW ^ « ing opinions of the day into a more -iii ^ pttomjSiw mjA tangible form—that , we should ask our » el # iWOT | liw f l these laws being what they are , and a ) aM « yg HmWW of the more intelligent x » ublic having been aPwSJwj | t ' roused to the perception , whether wo cannot * mal » r some effort to extend the feeling tp those whose task it is to frame aud alter the luws . * Yours truly , A SussoniBcn .

    Ak £R *L Qdttttt (!Uqulkut» ~

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    Tins Papal Legate in Ikklanp . —Tho Freeman ' * Journal announces that the first mooting of tho ( Roman Catholic ) Cathedral Chapter of tho diocese of Dublin , for tho desputcb . of capitular business , which has not been convened for centuries ( the last meeting having boenlield before tho Reformation , In the year 1617 ) , toolt place on Thurwduy week in tho archiopiacopal roaidenco la Ecclosetreet , It was called ( continues tho Koman or « an > by his Grace tho Archbishop , to receive a brief of Ma ilon ~ ness tho Pope , conferring several important privilege * ott tho chapter . It has boon determined that «*• chapter ohall henceforth meet regularly opco « »> oaUl Xor ao ~ epatch of buHinoHu . o . « nnOM *«« iiX ^ r ^ = nic ™» i ¦ 2 ^ L 3 SSS 5 SSs i TwSE ^ s sn safc £ 5 r MSTJSJ . SS 5 I \ £ ZZ * tho I » thmi » of Uarion u . thu » mmoved .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 27, 1855, page 1033, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2112/page/13/