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    No . ' 505 . STov . 26 , 1859-1 THE LEADER . 1299

    Untitled Article

    In the present case , however , men of standing and property have given themselves to . the work of change and reformation , and hence , no doubt , may be discovered the reason for the unanimous desire manifested for union under a Constitutional monarch . The position and personal characteristics of Victor Emmanuel are every way calculated to forward the wish for union . The heir of a long ancestral line of sovereigns , his kingdom stands ready to accept and appropriate , without engulfing , the territory whichis . offered to him ; while-his own character is such as to attach those to him who are urged by policy " to place themselves beneath his

    rule . The manner in which the wishes and feelings of Lombardy have been studied in . the administrative measures taken with reference to this new province of the Sardinian kingdom may well encourage the other States to persevere in their efforts for annexation . It is earnestly to be desired that the approaching Congress should sanction the unanimous and openly manifested desires of the people of Central Italy . It is argued with much appearance of justice that if the great European Powers oppose their wishes , Piedmont will , in all probability , refuse to adhere to their decision . But then will come a terrible time of reaction

    following upon the unnatural repression in which the Italians are now kept . And this is the least unfavourable result that could be looked for ; if on the other hand Piedmont should accept and acquiesce in their adverse decision , her prestige ¦ would be lost , and with it all faith in the monarchical principle . The cause of order would suffer irreparable loss ; the Republican party would again rise stronger than ever ; the Peninsula would be in flames , and Europe would be convulsed from one end to the other with a repetition of the scenes of 1848 . We feel fully

    warranted in asserting that , under present circumstances , the sole hope of averting the most dire political catastrophe lies in the substitution of a powerful , enlightened , trusted , and national government in Upper and Central Italy for the stern , despotic rule of Austria and its vicegerents , and the tyrannic -and intolerant oppression of the Pope . It is well that the great Powers should be convinced , that though Italians have hitherto so admirably restrained their impatience , it would at once burst forth if they found their just rights despised , and their wrongs unredressed , after the

    period to which they have been taught to look at as the moment when their fate is to be decided . The present , therefore , is undoubtedly a most important crisis in the affairs of the Peninsula . The treaties of 1815 have been so completely set at defiance of late that it will be sheer folly if any attempt should be made to employ them against Italy in the approaching Congress . Austria and France have both unhesitatingly violated them whenever it has serve their purpose to do so . It would , then , be hard it their

    provisions were to be renewed or enforced for the special oppression of Italy . By those treaties the Bonaparte family was proscribed and debarred from sovereign power in tiny European State ; yet England , Russia , Prussia , and Austria recognised the French empire and Napoleon HI . as Emperor . While himself reigning in defiance of-resolutions made in a European congress , it is somewhat ludicrous that tho French Emperor should so strongly jnoulcate upon the Italians the duty of referring * their very political existence to a congress of the great Powers , and deferring implicitly to its decisions .

    But in the midst of all the uncertainty and agitation accompanying the present provisional state of thingu , real progress is going forward in certain directions likel y to hnvo n permanent influence upon the condition of the Poninsula , and which must , whether sooner or later , effect those important changes which are tho grnnd want of Italy . The people arc beginning to enjoy the benefits of freedom of thought and speech . In Floronoo ,

    Pisa , and various other cities , meetings for religious 'worship , in which doctrines opposed to Romanism aro ( Advanced , are permitted to be held openly . Several very modest plaoes of worshipnot magnificent tumbles , as described by the correspondent of a daily contemporary , avowedly Protestant—have boon built , or arc' m process of erection . All appearances , in short , indicate that the Italians have determined to be no . longer Suppcts in tho hands of despots and bigots , and «} day will surely soon dawn when they will oxorojse tho right of free men , and no longer bo passed

    from the hand of one master to another , like un thinking cattle and beasts of burden .

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    THE WRONGS OF WOMEN . There are some subjects which recur in cycles * Tie authorship of Juriius , the sources of the Nile , and the advantages of compulsory education , are all subjects which belong to this periodic class . One can predict with certainty that they will attract public attention towards November , and disappear below the social horizon with the meeting of Parliament . They never are settled—they never can be settled—they are never even meant to be settled . Periodical literature fosters and

    protects them , as a l'at-catcher watches over some tough old rat who has brought him many a job , and will bring him many another yet . The great female question is the most favoured specimen of the class . More nonsense has been written , more twaddle has been talked about it , than about any other unfortunate subject we . are acquainted ¦ with . We observe that , as usual , the discussion between the advocates and opponents of " women ' s rights " has been resumed at this season of the year , and for the next few weeks the old battledore and shuttlecock controversy is likely to rage with its wonted activity .

    It requires a more sanguine temperament than we possess to hope that the controversy will lead to any practical result . Women have a grievance —a very real grievance—to complain of . But that grievanee is a social , not a legal one . The laws , of which women complain , are the symptoms , not the causes , of their peculiar position . A state of social feeling is one of those ills " which neither laws nor kings can cause or cure , " and it is a state of social feeling which keeps women in their present

    condition . There are two great parties to the controversy- —one who ignore the existence of our present social arrangements , and assume that the difference between men and women is purely an artificial one : and another who look upon our social state , which entails peculiar disabilities on women , as unchangeable and final . For our own part we disagree almost equally with either view , and think we may be doing some little good by stating , shortly , what the plain facts of the case are , and what oach party really means by their

    arguments . We suspect that amongst the aristocratic and the working classes , women , as women , have not muci to complain of . In the former class , the daughters of a family almost always can marry , if they wish , and if they do not , there is sure , as a rule , to be sufficient provision made to enable them to live in comparative comfort . In the latter , women have a great chance of marrying , as the men of their own class marry almost universally !; and if they are unfortunate enough to miss the chance , they ard obliged to work for their own livelihood , and are not probably worse off than

    working men . The real hardship of the grievance falls entirely upon the middle classes , on that vast and daily increasing body , who support themselves and their families by labour which is not manual . In an ordinary nutklla-class family , the sons ore brought up to some trade or profession or pursuit , the daughters are brought up to marry . It is simple nonsense to say that any father of a family ought to make provision for his daughters . \ ou might every bit as well say , that every man ought to have £ 10 , 000 in thcThree per Cents . Life Assurance does not solve the problem , as people seeiii to think . There is no royal road' to wealth , and insurance is only rather an expensive , and speculative way of investing your savings . If you have no savings to invest , you cannot insure , and that largo fluctuating class which forms the link between the

    wealthy and the poor , have no savings to invest . Tho necessities of existence eat up their increase , and capital they have none . This may be a very bad state of society—wo do not say that it is not ; but while things " remain as they are , there will always bo an enormous olnss , who , by the exigenoios of their position , bring tip their children as gentlemen and ladies—according to tho common saying—and yet oan make no provision for thorn after death . Tho indirect working of this system is the real grievanoo that women lhavo to complain of . Sons have not , as a rule , inuoh fault to find with it . They are given education enough to support themselves as thoU' fathers' have done boforo tjipm , and if they out ill , or we unfortunate , they sink into a lower class , and arc not worse ofT than their

    neighbours ; the daughters * as we said , are brought up to marry . If they do marry , well and good , but if they do not , there is nothing for them , Marriage , we all know , is a lottery , and the proportion of blanks to prizes is daily increasing . In this particular class the men get to marry later and later , and the number of batchelors is , we suspect , increasing . An unmarried woman , with us * is a social anomaly . Like the steward in the parable , she cannot work , and she is ashamed to beg . She is fit for nothing . She loses caste il she becomes a servant or a shopwoman ; and she becomes a governess , for the same cause , and in the same way , that a hopelessly ruined man always turns into a coal merchant . -

    The whole question is , in fact , a material one . Whatever the state of society may be , women will marry as fast as they can , and the more prosperous society is , the more marriages there will be inevitably . The only way to improve the position of woman is . to make marriage more easy and more universal ; at present the middle-class female population , in a political economical point of view , is entirely unproductive . In consequence ,

    men have to do a vast amount of work which might equally well be performed by women , and therefore this male labour is lost to the State , and the production of the country is as much the smaller . If every woman , not of independent fortune , were not onl y taught a trade , but actually pursued the trade in practice till she married , women would be independent of marriage , and yet , at the same time , -would afford to marry much more safely and readily . "

    This solution of the " women question we believe to be the only possible One , but yet it is one to which both of the controversialists on the question would give an indignant denial . _ The defenders of "the rights of women " despise it , because it ignores all the high views about the . mental quality of the sexes and woman's missiont On the other hand , the advocates of our present system dread any innovation of this kind from one simple cause . If women are brought up to support themselves , our whole rule of female education must be thrown overboard . No woman

    could learn ; or pursue , a trade , without getting to know a good deal of life and the working of the world ; and in England the contraction of a woman s mind is made as great an object as the contraction of her foot in China . This is the real difficulty which all English social reformers are afraid to face . Till they do so , their efforts will lead to nothing .

    Untitled Article

    STRIKES AND THE WAGES FUND . It is anunfortunate thing that there is much more complaint against strikes than against the evils of , which they are at once the symptom and the expression . The capitalist class complain of them because they are productive of loss , and they rate the working class severely for not understanding or practically believing in the laws of political economy . They tell them about the limitation of the wages fund , and its ratio to population , and offer a rough sum in arithmetic as a consolation for grievances which , not suflering them selves , they represent as inevitable . If it bo true—whicn w « helievo—that the cxistinff wages fund is not large

    enough to provide decent liumnn methods of living for the vast swarms of our population , wo have no ri"ht to expect tho sufferers will preserve a contented equanimity and bless the gross inequalities Of fortune which leaves them in hovels , and laps " their betters" in palatial luxury . In some shape or another , the suffeiings of tfio less-favoured classes will make themselves known , and as tno rich u oquiro daily more means of self-indulgence , the poor will bo loss disposed to submit to privations , tho degradation of which becomes all tUo more ffftUing and conspicuous by force of contrast with tlio pomp and splendour that oppresses their hearts and ihu » les their eyes . If the wages fund bo not sufficient to satisfy tho demands of the em-« in ™< l . let us make it more , and instead of abusing

    the working class for a discontent which is natural , although not always widely oxprossod , lot the capitalists use their powqr to remove obstacles which impede , and to obtain facilities which would promote , a better state of things . Some writers attempt to prove that the taxation of tho country does not boar unfairly upon industr y ; but , in-spite of all my stincation , there can bo no doubt that our system of taxation is m more flan-rant contradiction to tho laws of political

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 26, 1859, page 1299, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2322/page/15/