misuse of it, is scarcely a less flagrant act of
insubordination than to protest against the power itself. The
professions of women in this matter remind us of the State
offenders of old, who, on the point of execution, used to protest
their love and devotion to the sovereign by whose unjust mandate
they suffered. Grlselda, himself, might be matched from the
speeches put by Shakespeare into the mouths of male victims of
kingly caprice and tyranny; the Duke of Buckingham, for example,
in "Henry VIII.," and even Wolsey.

The literary class of women are often ostentatious in
disclaiming the desire for equality of citizenship, and
proclaiming their complete satisfaction with the place which
society assigns them; exercising in this, as in many other
respects, a most noxious influence over the feelings and opinions
of men, who unsuspectingly accept the servilities of toadyism as
concessions to the force of truth, not considering that it is the
personal interest of these women to profess whatever opinions
they expect will be agreeable to men. It is not among men of
talent, sprung from the people, and patronized and flattered by
the aristocracy, that we look for the leaders of a democratic
movement. Successful literary women are just as unlikely to
prefer the cause of woman to their own social consideration. They
depend on men's opinion for their literary, as well as for their
feminine successes; and such is their bad opinion of men, that
they believe there is not more than one in a thousand who does
not dislike and fear strength, sincerity, and high spirit in a
woman. They are, therefore, anxious to earn pardon and toleration
for whatever of these qualities their writings may exhibit on
other subjects, by a studied display of submission on this; that
they may give no occasion for vulgar men to say--what nothing
will prevent vulgar men from saying--that learning makes woman
unfeminine, and that literary ladies are likely to be bad wives.

But even if a large majority of women do not desire any change in
the Constitution, that would be a very bad reason for withholding
the elective franchise from those who do desire it. Freedom of
choice, liberty to choose their own sphere, is what is asked. We
have not heard that the most ardent apostles of female suffrage
propose to compel any woman to make stump speeches against her
will, or to march a fainting sisterhood to the polls under a
police, in Bloomer costume. Women who condemn