THE The Drey River Argus. TUESDAY, JULY 5, 1870.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 696, 5 July 1870, Page 2

THE The Drey River Argus. TUESDAY, JULY 5, 1870.

A measure was introduced into the House of Representatives the other day which, with the exception of a telegraphic announcement, has hitherto escaped observation, but which is sure to cause considerable discussion, not only in the House, but throughout the Colony, when it comes up for its second reading. We refer to the motion by Mr J. C. Richmond for leave to introduce a Bill to amend the laws relating to the property of married women. The motion was agreed to, and the Bill was read a first time on the 23rd ult. Om the face of it, it contains only a few very- necessary and highly important provisions, giving a married woman power to deal with her own property under certain very exceptional circumstances. Some time ago the Legislature did a good work when it provided the possibility of an ill-used or deserted wife obtaining by easy process of law a maintenance order from her husband ; but then the work was only half done, because the law did not prevent any drunken scamp of a husband coming home, seizing upon, and dissipating all the hard earn-' ings that she had, by her labor, accumulated in his absence. In introducing the measure, Mr Richmond stated that it had been carefully drawn up by Mr Justice 1 Richmond for giving women the protection of their own property, and not as the thin end of the wedge for raising the question of women's rights which has of late received so much attention, and made such rapid strides both in England and America. He said—" It was not intended by this Bill to put woman as woman in the place of man, but he thought that hon. members would admit that the ladies were quite competent to manage their own property. He should be sorry to cast any ridicule on a movement in which the great intellects of England, such as Mr John Stuart Mill, were engaged ; but he would say that all such movements were liable in their earlier stages to misrepresentation and ridicule— though the Bill which he had the honor to bring in did not go in that direction, but he had thought it necessary to state it. He thought that the women did not want to have women in that House — hon. members were the representatives of the women as well as of men. The class of people for whom the Bill proposed to legislate were not the people to go on to the public platform to express an opinion in favor- of their rights." . . . . "An agitation for legislation of the kind he now proposed to introduce had been going on in the United States of America for the last twenty years, and had been adopted in many parts. In. Canada, also, ifc had been brought into operation in the upper portion of that colony ; and he might say that it was observed that society^ that of Lower Canada. He would now come to our own country, and, in doing so, would take occasion to make honorable mention of a little corner of it — well named from the manly law which existed there— and that was the Isle of Man. In that island the partnership of man and wife was complete, and each party had a voice in the disposition and a veto against the waste of the common property. He would point out that this was a Bill for the protection of women of the poorer classes, and for this reason, the Court of Chancery protected the women of the higher classes by means of settlement, but those of the lower class had no such protection."—ln seconding the introduction of the Bill, Mr Fox took occasion to give it all the weight of the Government influence, by expressing his pleasure at the evident unanimous manner in which two such important measuresof political reform as that of the introduction of the ballot and the measure now before them had been received, and he trusted that their descendants would reap the benefits of the extension of political reform in future times.

There is no question of the justice and importance of a Bill such as this, and it is to be hoped it will pass in principle, whatever modifications it may meet with in Committee, because there are minor degrees of misery brought about by the want of provision for the protection of the married woman's property from her husband's vice or folly, which must have come under the experience of all our readers, in whasever society they may chance to move, or with whatever phase of human nature they may be most intimately acquainted, all of which equally demand redress. At the same time, there is reason to believe, whether Mr Richmond intends it or not, that the passing of this Bill will be the first stepping-stone to the agitation for the recognition of women's rights in the Colony ; and indeed he almost hinted as much when he said that "a general election was coming on shortly, and he was quite aware of the power of the ladies on the hustings." It may be so, and he may probably require the influence of the ladies in the district to secure his return ; but we think that probability is far distant in this Colony, although it is needless to express too decided an opinion, when the latest mail from England brings us the startling intelligence " that the House oi Commons has affirmed the principle that women ought to be permitted to vote as well as men." Should this principle become law, or even obtain a very formidable amount of support in the old country, there is no doubt that a strong body will be found in the Colony to follow suit, of whom, should he be again returned, Mr J. C. Richmond will prove to be one of the leaders. Already, the subject is attracting considerable attention, and is being warmly taken up by the Press of Victoria, as will be seen by the following extracts from one of the most influential of our Melbourne contemporaries : — " What are we to say to the dilution of the electorate by the introduction of women? Had the news of the second reading of a Woman's Franchise Bill come from America, no surprise would have been occasioned. There, for generations, an agitation for political rights has

been maintained by females — plain females, who dv? not lose by virtue of their plainness the right of stooping to folly. There women are admitted to the bar, to the pulpit, and to the medical practice of the hospitals. Only the other day we read that the female medical students of Florence, New Jersey, appeared in that city simultaneously with Prince Arthur, and utterly threw his Royal Highness in the background by their attire. It was a something unknown before in the heavens or in the earth, consisting of a man's gray trousers aDd black kersey sacque, and a woman's bonnet. Ladies of this semi masculine type may have a claim to enter the' field of politics. The Washington Legislature might with some show of reason have argued that votes and trousers go together. But in Great Britain the ladies have neither clamored for political rights nor discarded petticoats. For the reformed Parliament, then, to affirm the principle that " woman should be relieved from electoral disabilities" the first time of asking — without any female demonstration in bifurcated garments — must make the boldest hold his breath. Is a Legislature which closes its doors to an unfrocked priest, to admit ari utisexed woman '? What is to be is to be. The idols of our forefathers have been destroyed, one by one, by the realistic tendencies of the age, without many expressions of alarm. The optimists have possessed a majority. But if the Domestic Woman is to be the next victim, the cry of many of us, like that of Jacob deprived of his lastborn and fondest, will be exceeding bitterThe spirit of this age may come to be re. garded in other days as a Destroying Angel."