a, and got himself out as he could. In advocating the
franchise to five-pound tenement-holders, it did not occur to him
that woman may possess the same qualification that man has, and
in justice, therefore, ought to have the same rights; and when
the simple question was put to him (simple questions are very
troublesome to statesmen), having too much sense not to see the
justness of it, and too little moral courage to admit it, he
entered into quite an interesting account of what a delightful
little creature woman is, provided only she is kept quietly at
home, waiting for the arrival of her lord and master, ready to
administer a dose of purification, "which his politically sullied
mind is unable to feel." Well! I have no desire to dispute the
necessity of it, nor that he owes to woman all that makes life
desirable--comforts, happiness, aye, and common sense too, for
it's a well-known fact that smart mothers always have smart sons,
unless they take after their father. But what of that? Are the
benefits woman is capable of bestowing on man, reasons why she
must pay the same amount of rent and taxes, without enjoying the
same rights that man does?

But the justice of the case was not considered. The honorable
gentleman was only concerned about the "happiness of society."
Society! what does the term mean? As a foreigner, I understand by
it a collection or union of human beings--men, women, and
children, under one general government, and for mutual interest.
But Mr. Roebuck, being a native Briton and a member of
Parliament, gave us a parliamentary definition, namely; society
means the male sex only; for in his solicitude to consult "the
happiness of society," he enumerated the benefits man enjoys from
keeping woman from her rights, without even dreaming that woman
was at all considered in it; and this is the true parliamentary
definition, for statesmen never include woman in their solicitude
for the happiness of society. Oh, no! she is not yet recognized
as belonging to the honorable body, unless taxes are required for
its benefit, or the penalties of the law have to be enforced for
its security.

Thus, being either unwilling or afraid to do woman justice, he
first flattered her, then, in his ignorance of her true nature,
he assumed that if s