made in our laws, we see also a
change in the employment of women. They are coming down from the
garrets and up from the cellars to occupy more profitable posts
in every department of industry, literature, science, and art. In
the church, too, behold the spirit of freedom at work. Within the
past year, the very altar has been the scene of well-fought
battles; women claiming and exercising their right to vote in
church matters, in defiance of precedent, priest, or Paul.

Another evidence of the importance of our cause is seen in the
deep interest men of wealth are manifesting in it. Three great
bequests have been given to us in the past year. Five thousand
dollars from an unknown hand,[171] a share in the munificent fund
left by that noble man of Boston, Charles F. Hovey, and four
hundred thousand dollars by Mr. Vassar, of Poughkeepsie, to found
a college for girls, equal in all respects to Yale and Harvard.
Is it not strange that women of wealth are constantly giving
large sums of money to endow professorships and colleges for boys
exclusively--to churches and to the education of the ministry,
and yet give no thought to their own sex--crushed in ignorance,
poverty, and prostitution--the hopeless victims of custom, law,
and Gospel, with few to offer a helping hand, while the whole
world combine to aid the boy and glorify the man?

Our movement is already felt in the Old World. The nobility of
England, with Lord Brougham at their head, have recently formed a
"Society for Promoting the Employments of Women."

All this is the result of the agitation, technically called
"Woman's Rights," through conventions, lectures, circulation of
tracts and petitions, and by the faithful word uttered in the
privacy of home. The few who stand forth to meet the world's cold
gaze, its ridicule, its contumely, and its scorn, are urged
onward by the prayers and tears, crushed hopes and withered
hearts of the sad daughters of the race. The wretched will not
let them falter; and they who seem to do the work, ever and anon
draw fresh courage and inspiration from the noblest women of the
age, who, from behind the scene, send forth good words of cheer
and heartfelt thanks.

Six years hence, the men of New York purpose to revise our State
Constitution. Among othe