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1822 May 29
Economy
On this subject if they laugh it is either [...?] or the [...? ...?]
for want of thought
To the admission of females into official situations at large,
objections present themselves - objections that are obvious, and that seem to be
conclusive. In the difference between sex and sex presents an obvious cause of
political corruption: as in the choice of functionaries beauty would /might/ stand in
the place of every branch of appropriate aptitude
But the more unavoidable the continuance is of unequality to the
prejudice of one half of the species in respect of this branch of power, the more
reasonable and urgent the demand is /appears to be/ for the removal of it in the case
of a branch of power in the exercise of which by that sex there is no room for
corruption in this or in any other shape: alway understood that the veil of secrecy
covers the delivery of the suffrages
With respect to intellectual aptitude, not any the slightest ground presents itself
for any such operation as that drawing a line between the two sexes, and saying the
place of the whole of the male sex is above the line, the place of the whole of the
female sex below it. If for the possession of adequate intellectual aptitude the
faculty and habit of self seated judgment were necessary the bulk of the female sex
have the same leisure /applicable time/ and the same means of information as the
male. If for the possession of this same attribute /qualification/ a borrowed
judgment be regard as sufficient, the parity /equality/ is still more obvious and
incontestable
Similar Items
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Title: [[clx. 298] 1822 July 6 Constitut]Description: [clx. 298] 1822 July 6 Constitut. Code Factitious honor Evils of Extravasated Suppose not only no extravasated factitious honor, but no superiority by power, no superiority by opulence to have place, sympathy and esteem, thence free and spontaneous service in all its shapes would attach itself to superiority in the scale of genuine moral virtue: of effective benevolence in harmony and alliance with self-regarding prudence and thus it is that these same instruments of felicity attaching themselves in the character of reward to that same moral virtue, tend to /operate towards/ the encrease of it, by furnishing inducements to the practice of it. This order is disturbed by power: it is disturbed, as hath been /will be/ seen, by opulence it is thus further disturbed by /experiences further disturbance from/ extravasated factitious honor, and in so far as that order is disturbed by them, those instruments of felicity are every one of them, instruments of moral corruption, instruments of corruptive influence Note (a) In the case of the female sex, another article that requires /comes/ to be added to the list of instruments of corruption, moral as well as political, is beauty. But for obvious reasons it belongs not to the present purpose It is not of /belongs not as power and opulence does to/ the number of the objects of which government is the creator: good economy could not in this case as in that /those/ prescribe any proposed reduction in the quantity of it In the female sex Beauty by the influence it gives /exercises/ serves as a compensation for inferiority in the scale of physical strength, and as a couterforce for /to/ the sinister force /power/ which it enables and prompts the male to exercise and thus to reduce /diminish/ the inequality produced by it Note that when, on this occasion, and in this view, superiority in beauty is attributed to the female sex in comparison with the male, all that to this purpose is true in what is said is that the enjoyment in which both are partakers is in the case of the male most commonly /upon the average/ more intense, the desire accordingly stronger, the need more urgent, and the inducement to employ service in all other shapes for the obtainment of it: and in particular the negative service consisting in the forbearing to apply the superiority in the article /scale/ of physical force to the purpose of intimidation, depredation and oppression in other shapes. For as to beauty itself, it has not absolute, it has only a relative existence. It depends as much upon the nature of the being in whom the sentiment is produced as on the nature of the being by whom it is produced.
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Title: [1822 May 13 Economy etc Q.]Description: 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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Title: [1818 Sept. 19. {§.4} ┴ E §.3 Parl]Description: 1818 Sept. 19. {§.4} ┴ E §.3 Parl. Reform Bill. Postpone Reasons ult o §.3 Eligible Who Question. Why exclude from the function of Representative of the people the whole female sex? Answer 1. {Because,} though the election of a Majority of this sex is a result too improbable to be prevised[?] for, yet the election of some small number might not be altogether so. A person of the female sex, selected for beauty and accomplishment, might be to an incalculable degree of efficiency an instrument of fascination and seduction in the hands of the Executive, on the supposition that in here and there an instance, spite of all precautions to the contrary it might not be impossible for that branch of the sovereignty, to succeed in procuring the nomination of Member to officiate in the /serve in this/ other. Answer 2. Because, independently of all such danger, by the presence of persons of that sex in an assembly composed chiefly of males, distraction and obstruction would in various ways be likely /sure/ to be produced. On all subjects on which the difference between sex and sex came in question regard for decorum would cramp the freedom of debate: merriment, excited by the most trivial causes, would be continually diverting the attention from rational argument, and so long as it lasted would be occupying the place of serious debate /discussion/. Answer 3. To the interests of the female sex, considered in contradistinction and opposition to those of the male, no advantage could by any such mixture be produced. That, in a number approaching in any degree to a majority, persons of this sex should become the object of choice, is a result far too improbable to be supposed.
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