date

1822 May 13 Economy etc Q.
1822 May 13

Economy etc

Q. Does the greatest happiness principle require that the female sex

should be excluded from a participation in this function?

A. /A. Not any more than males./ Yes: if /No: unless/ persons of the

female sex are not members of the community if their happiness forms no portion of

the universal happiness - their interest of the universal interest: or the state of

their minds such as to demonstate them to be irremediably incapable of taking

/incapacitated from giving/ the direction to their own conduct without detriment to

their own interest

As to intellectual aptitude, no reason can be assigned /has ever been

assigned/ why in respect of that branch of appropriate aptitude this half of the

species ought to be deemed inferior to the other. Of experience - of experience /of

experience as far as it goes/ as applied to the highest situation in the scale of

power operative power the decision is rather /more/ in favour rather of the female

sex than of the male. In no two male reigns was England as prosperous as in the two

female reigns of Elizabeth and Ann. As to Ann whatever was the cause it was more

prosperous than that of her immediate male predecessor, a man as unamiable as she was

amiable. In intellectual aptitude Elizabeth of England shewed herself in an

incontestable degree superior to her immediate successor and even to the nearest of

her male and adult predecessors. If Ann was weak she was not more so than her two

immediate successors both males. If Mary put men to death for what was called

religion so did her father, and so did her next male successor: if Queen Mary put men

to death for what was called religion, so did Chief Justice Hale, the saint and hero

of English lawyers, for what was called Witchcraft.

As to intellectual aptitude considered as applied to the field of

thought and action at large two points require to be considered, in the first place

among writers for example in how small a degree the superiority is on the side of the

male sex. in the next place how small the number of those of the female sex whom laws

and institutions have left unexcluded from the competition in comparison of those

whom they have excluded.

They might be unapt for exercise of supreme operative power or a

share in it, and yet not be so for exercise of constitutive power in relation to

supreme operative power. But they can not be unapt for exercise of supreme

constitutive power i.e. constitutive power with relation to supreme operative power,

and at the same time apt with relation to supreme operative power.
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    8 or 7. Q. Females - does greatest happiness principle require their exclusion.

    A. Not more than males. Yes, if females are not members of the community: their happiness not a portion of universal do.: their interest not a do. of do.: or if in them intellectual inaptitude is so great as to incapacitate them from self direction to self advantage.

    9. or 8. From experience, as attested by history, no reason why they should be deemed inferior? Take operative power in its highest grade and quantity: regal function.

    Intellectual aptitude.

    1. Elizabeth higher than Henry 8 or James 1.

    2. Ann not lower than George 1 and 2.

    3. Under Ann, England more prosperous than under William 3d.

    4. If Mary killed heretics, so did Henry 8. and James 1.

    5. If Mary killed Heretics, Hale, Chief Justice and Lawyers hero, killed Witches.

    10. or 9. Consideranda. As to intellectual aptitude applied to the whole field of thought and action

    1. how little decided is the inferiority of females.

    2. how great their inferiority in respect of the means of acquiring do. aptitude under laws made by males.

    11. or 10. Unapt for supreme operative power they might be, yet not for constitutive: apt for supreme operative power and not for constitutive they can not be.

    12. or 11. From their right to equality as to happiness, if admitted, will follow their right to equality as to power considered as an instrument of happiness, so far as the nature of the species and sex permitts.

    To constitute equality in their favour, for every necessary inferiority, they should have a compensation.

    In domestic concerns, inferiority of physical force renders them inferior in power.

    So as to exercise of military function.

    So, under the military government of males, they are not likely to be placed in civil offices.

    13. or 12. Hence, from Executive power in almost all its branches, they will stand excluded.

    Also, from share in supreme legislative power by contemplation of confusion and corruption from mixture of sexes. Hence, greater the demand for equal share in constitutive power with reference to supreme operative.

    14. or 13. Q. Custom - is it not sufficient warrant for exclusion here?

    A. No more than in the case of tyranny.

    Time in which the custom originated, do. of barbarian immaturity

    In war, the origin of government

    During war, necessity placed Government in single chief.

    During peace, war continually in prospect, habit and providence.

    For war, females rendered less apt by weakness.

    15. or 14. Origin of democratico-representative │   │ of single-seated despotism. Money for war defensive or offensive, more promptly and certainly extractible from willing than unwilling contributors. For money, they received a share first of influence, and by degrees of power.

    The management of the family property by them alone could the fatigue and danger of Journeys to and from the chief seat of power be endured.

    16. or 15. In an assembly mostly of males, no mixture of females without confusion and ridicule.

    17. or 16. Q. From admitting Females, any practical good at any time?

    A. Yes: rendering legislative arrangements less unequally burthensome to females.

    18. or 17. Q. Would you now propose admitting females into supreme constitutive power?

    A. No. Till legislative system had received the maximum of improvement on almost all other points, no good, only evil from do. in this. Result of the proposal, excitation and discussion such as to suspend all other business indefinitely.
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    Among our British ancestors, not only the head of the state but the conductor of the war – the war against the oppressing Romans – was of the female sex – Queen Boadicea

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    In the portion of time stiled the reign of Henry 6 th the Monarch being in a state little if any thing above that of idiocy, and having a woman of spirit for his wife, of spirit sufficient to take a lead in the command of such armies as were then in use here then was another example of where a part destined by nature for the male sex, was under the pressure of necessity acted occasionally by a female.

    It must have been Nothing less than a /an extraordinary/ concurrence of circumstances could have produced an arrangement /a pretension/ so all according with the general state of the public mind in that rude age.

    By this example /these examples/ added to the support sought for /to/ his title by Henry the seventh to /in his marriage with/ the heiress of the House of York, and the extraordinary ascendancy /influence/ obtained over the public mind by the strength of character of Henry the eighth prepared the people for quiet submission after the death of his son Edward to his daughter Mary, and thus to his daughter Elizabeth. In her days it was no longer necessary that supreme ruler should be a military leader

    In all its branches appropriate probity, appropriate intellectual aptitude, and active talent, her aptitude for the situation equalled at least if it did not exceed that of any Monarch we then had or have since had of the male sex.

    Adverting to /Led blindfold by/ the custom formed by these examples /instances/ the /it was by /in the eyes of/ the/ politicians have /been/ deemed it right, proper and unexceptionable that the supreme acting power should be in the hands of a female: why? because they have been used it: /to see it there:/ in the same eyes the notion that it has been absurd and ridiculous absurd to such a degree as to be ridiculous /a just object of ridicule/ to suppose that a /this the/ minutest fraction of what controuling power there is that can apply a check to that same supreme power should be in female hands: Why? because they are not used to see it there.
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    But the power here in question is not that same vast integral power but this fraction of a controlling power. Whence it has happened that of this power no part has ever been in female hands – why the historical cause of the exclusion has had no exception is sufficiently obvious /obvious enough/

    In the feudal times in the times of the Henry and the Edwards here and there an instance may have been seen an instance in which in the absence of her husband, the castle of a Baron or a Knight has been defended by his wife But of a female clothed in iron armour and ranking[?] herself with the embattled Knights not so much as a single example it is believed would be to be found

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    In the case of the representative of a town, though military service was not so prominently in view, still the business was of a sort for which it was not natural that a person of the female sex should be selected, where a supposed tolerably qualified agent of the male sex were to be had.