Part 2
The influence of women and their faith in the recoverability of human nature are needed in these legislative matters. Our male legislators are apt to ride rough-shod over us in matters of domestic detail. Their heavy-handed legislation is applied now not only to matters of imperial interest, but to everything which most nearly concerns our conscience and feelings. It seems to me that we women shall soon have to fight for the last inch of ground left us;—not for our civil rights only, but for our hearths, our homes, our beds, our babies, our very persons. The crudeness of intellect of some of our young male legislators needs to be corrected by the wisdom of the thoughtful matrons of England. A young M.P. said to me lately, “We shall do no good at all until we make poverty a crime; disease is already made a crime in some cases, and poverty ought to be so also.” I did not answer him, but in my heart I said, “Thou fool!”
Such are some of the dangers before us. It has lately been suggested by several gentlemen who are alive to this subject, that it may be desirable and necessary to form some sort of a Covenant or League, of a wide and national character, for the protection of freedom and virtue as its general object, and in particular to observe vigilantly, and examine strictly, every proposal and act of the legislature, especially such as emanate from certain favoured cliques or professions, and to secure that nothing passes into law which has not the sanction of the whole nation, marked by open debate in Parliament, and by a majority of votes in a House where there is more than a mere fraction of members present. It has been suggested that no penal measures, involving extensive interference with the liberty of the subject, or measures sanctioning the erection of new tribunals for the assigning of grave and terrible penalties, shall in future be enacted except where two-thirds, or at least some reasonably large proportion of the House are present. It is a rule, in many private and public associations, that no grave or important changes or measures shall be made or enacted except in the presence of a very large proportion of the members, constituting a quorum. It would surely be a very right and natural demand on the part of the people of England (with the warning they have now before their eyes of the secret passing of the Contagious Diseases Acts) that Parliament should never again make any great change in our penal code, or infringe upon constitutional principles, in the name of sanitary improvements, medical necessities, or any other thing, except by means of such a parliamentary quorum as would satisfy the nation.
Any national league, such as has been suggested, for the defence of the constitution, of liberty, and of morality, would of course be composed both of men and women. Women are becoming rapidly educated in all these matters, and their vigilance would naturally exceed even that of men, for most of these threatening tyrannies fall _first_, if not exclusively, on women and children.
I know not what work God may have in store for us, dear friends, but this I know, that it is not for any small end that He has called our Association together, a mighty band throughout the kingdom, united with one heart in the presence of a common danger. He has not called up all these rapidly-formed and grave friendships, this loving co-operation and powerful mutual help, for any end or aim inadequate to so great an instrument. I believe that the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act, which is our immediate object, is only a small part of the work He has designed for us. I know not what that work may be; but this is sure, that God knows and that he is guiding us. I believe that the materialism of the day and the principle which opposes that materialism are about to meet and to try their strength in a deadly encounter, and that we have a great and holy work before us. We must be filled with high courage, hope, and stern resolve. Think what a machinery we have now for work! Our branch societies, our local secretaries, our power of concentration on a given point at a given moment, our organisation generally, resembles a great telegraphic system which is a swift and formidable power. But our power is not in the machinery; it is in the living principle which runs like lightning through this great telegraphic system.
I know there is abundant life in Scotland, but I venture to beseech you, friends, on behalf of England, which needs your help, as well as of your own country, to pray and seek for a redoubling of that life; for surely God is about to do great things. The power of evil is very awful, but greater is He who is with us than they who are against us. All cannot work actively for the ends we have in view, but all can pray, and
“More things are done by prayer than this world dreams of.”
A. Ireland and Co., Printers, Manchester.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.