ur war is not without; our work
follows us into the heart of the family. We must sustain
ourselves in that dear circle against our nearest friends;
against the all-pervading law, "Thus far shalt thou come, and no
farther."

What have we gained since 1855? Many things, so important, that
they can not be worthily treated here. I have often mentioned in
my lectures, that in his first report to the French Government,
Neckar gave the credit of his retrenchments to his thrifty,
order-loving wife. Until this year, that acknowledgment stood
alone in history. But now John Stuart Mill, the great philosopher
and political economist of England, dedicates his "Essay on
Liberty" to the memory of his beloved wife, who has been the
_inspiration of all, and the author of much_ that was best in his
writings for many years past. Still farther, in a pamphlet on
"English Political Reform," treating of the extension of the
suffrage, he has gone so far as to recommend that all
householders, without distinction of sex, be adopted into the
constituency, upon proving to the registrar's officer that they
have a certain income--say fifty pounds--and "that they can read,
write, and calculate."

A great step was taken also in the establishment of the
Institution for the Advancement of Social Science. The sexes are
equal before it. It has five departments. 1. Jurisprudence, or
Law Reform; 2. Education; 3. Punishment and Reformation; 4.
Public Health; 5. Social Economy.

The first meeting at Liverpool considered the woman's question;
and, while it was debated, Mary Carpenter sat upon the platform,
or lifted her voice side by side with Brougham, Lord John
Russell, and Stanley. At the second meeting (last October), Lord
John Russell was in the chair. The Lord Chancellor of Ireland
presided over Law Reform; the Right Hon. W. F. Cooper, over the
department of Education; the Earl of Carlyle--personally known to
many on this platform--over that which concerns the Reformation
of Criminals; the Earl of Shaftesbury over Public Health; and
Conolly and Charles Kingsley and Tom Taylor and Rawlinson bore
witness side by side with Florence Nightingale. Sir James Stephen
presided over Social Economy. Isa Craig, the Burns poetess, is
one of its Secretaries.

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