Progress

The real gain of a reform, starting from the heart of the family, must necessarily be very slow. I remember that some years ago, when I printed my book on labor, one of my kindest critics congratulated the public that of my nine lectures, I had published only these. He thought it was useless to contend for more book-learning for women, and the subject of Civil Rights still disgusted his sensitive ear. The common sense of the book on labor ought to have shown him how I should treat the subject of education. He could not understand how the woman who gets an education which does not make her a "bread-winner," is essentially defrauded, nor how a woman well paid for her labor is essentially wronged, when she is denied the privilege of protecting it by her vote. There is, however, a surely growing sense of this shown in the substantial advance of her civil rights.

In the early part of 1865, the people of Victoria, in Australia, assembled to elect a member of Parliament, were surprised to find the whole female population voting. Some quick-sighted woman had discovered that the letter of the new law permitted it, and their votes were accepted and wisely given. The London Times, in the month of May, says that, in a country like Australia, it can easily believe that such an extension of the franchise will be a marked improvement, and thinks that the precedent will stand! The Government of Moravia has also, within the past year, granted the municipal franchise to widows who pay taxes. In January, 1864, the Court of Queen's Bench in Dublin, Ireland, restored to woman the old right of voting for Town Commissioners. The Justice (Fitzgerald) desired to state that ladies were entitled to sit as Town Commissioners as well as to vote for them, and the Chief Justice took pains to make it clear that there was nothing in either duty repugnant to womanly habits.

The inhabitants of Ain (or Aisne) in France, lately chose nine women into their municipal council. At Bergeres, they elected the whole council, and the Mayor, not being prepared for such good fortune, resigned his office. A very remarkable autograph note of the Queen of England attracted my attention in 1865. It expressed to Lord John Russell the Queen's dissatisfaction with Lord Palmerston. It was a very distinct assertion of her regal prerogative, and as such Lord Palmerston submitted to it.

Our cause has found able advocates in John Stuart Mill, The New York Evening Post, and Theodore Tilton. If I were asked whether, in connection with this gain, we have lost any ground, I should reply that we have decidedly lost it in connection with the daily press. I do not know any newspaper, if I except The Boston Commonwealth, which will print a letter touching civil rights from any woman, precisely as it is written. I think what we need most is to purchase the right to a daily use of half a column of The New York Tribune.