the sublime and the
ridiculous may be too nearly allied for females to distinguish
the difference, unjust inequality is to them far more
contemptible than sacred, having thus far been ungraciously
subjected to it. Well may we be called "the weaker sex" if the
error in judgment is ours, although we have intellect and energy
enough not to respect the circumstances under which we are
placed, nor the powers which would designedly inflict such
injustice upon us.

Debased indeed would a man consider himself to employ a woman to
plead his cause, with a woman for judge and twelve women for
jurors. How much less degraded are women when exposed to a
similar assembly of men, who have for them neither interest,
sympathy, nor respect, subjected as they are to insolent
questions and the uncharitable remarks of an indifferent
multitude.

It is urged that women are ignorant of the laws. They are
sufficiently enlightened to comprehend the meaning of justice--a
far more important thing--which admits of neither improvement nor
modification, but is applicable to every emergency. With the
perceptibility that some can boast, it would require but a short
time for them to enact laws sufficient to govern themselves,
which is all that the most aspiring can covet; convinced as they
are that, as in families, so likewise in government, the mild,
indulgent parent who would consult the greatest good of the
greatest number, is rewarded with agreeable and honorable
children; while the one who is unjust, partial, and severe, is
proportionably recompensed for his indiscretion.

In regard to unjust imprisonment we are told, "It is of too rare
occurrence to require legal enactments." How many a devoted wife,
mother, and child can tell a far different story. Who of us or
our children is secure from false accusation and imprisonment,
or, perhaps, an ignominious death upon the gallows, to screen
some miserable villain from justice? Witnesses, lawyers, judges,
jurors, and executioners are paid for depriving innocent persons
of their time, liberty, health, and reputation, which, to many,
is dearer than life, while the guilty one escapes, and society,
when too late, laments the sad catastrophe. The life-blood of
many a victim demands not only justice for the guilty, but