Women as Lawyers.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 18, 22 January 1904, Page 4

Women as Lawyers.

The decision recently arrived at | by the Earl of Hatsbury, Loid High Chswueellor of Englaiud, that there wias no precedent for calling women Iji the English Bar, and that it was not desirable to create One, touches a problem of greater moment than will at first be imaigin(d, inaamueh as it affects to an extent the future physi(i(ue of the British race. History has proved tl/at in some oases, perhaps exceptional, women are possessed of acumen as sfliarp as 1 , Knot shai'per than men, amid for this reason, and for the one that women have never been more am'bitious for fame than tbey are to-day, there are perh a.ps hundreds of female law stuidonts in Great Britain who will receive the Chancellor's decision with disappointment awd dismay. Looked at from a purely technical point of view, there seems no reason to Suppose that wpnum wioukl noli be as successful at the Bar as men, but their success would ije transient, •and it is the question' of physical strength amd mental endurance, so necessary in performing' work of this kind, that has to be seriously considered. Women were never ordained to possess the almost aid'amnnitim' powers of men, and it would seem foolish to attempt an emulation so impossi'hie. In fcJurjjjosßion that women were admitted to the Bar, there would naturally he a few very brilliant 'advocates amongst others of meaner ability, but. the mental

strain would be as great, if not greater, an the duller ones than on the more brilliant, and after a time the continual tension and worry j would, im all probability, lead to a mental derangement, perhaps imperceptible ut first, but nevertheless certain, and appalling* in its *ft»r effects. It is here that the trouble commences ; because a woman chooses to adopt the law as a profession it does not follow that she will therefore defy the laws of 'Mature and rttniain in a state of celibacy all her life. Wearying of her unnatural life, she will one day raise herself to the sphere of womamihaoid, employ the subtle and beautiful art that nature has given her as her prerogative, and marry ; but, alas, perhaps too late. Her offspring, lacking the finer physical propprtioms, and perhaps intellectual powers of ohilUren born under healthier and more natural conditions, can never hoipe to |>erform their duties in helping to perfect the physitme of the race as satisfactorily as they might have done 'had they not been so terrible handicapped at the outset. The' consc'quont efi'ect of this, however, might be so slight at first as to almost escape perception ; but after a few generations the 'degeneracy would appear more pronounced. u,r.',l people would begin to wonder what force was at work to cause a decadence in the physical and moral conditions of the British race. There isr another question which, albhougn not perhaps so vitally important as the previous one, is, nevertheless, a qjuostion of great mojmenl, and one that must be considered'. This is the question of women participating in arguments embodying the harrowing and repugnant details so frequently revealed in certain criminal cases. The puhlic has declaimed against the publication of a summary of these passages, and it would seem almost a crime im it.'ielf for women to d'iscuss them "in extenso." Jt is time that women' doctor's must occasionally view some painful sights, but at, the worst they are only confronted with the human bods', mutilated or otherwise, which is "never de-gl.-ad'irjg. Again, if tlve women Inwyei's were to discuss these details with opponents of tlwlr own sex, it would not appear so noxious ; but to engage in such arguments with men, probably utter strangers,would be, to say the least, shameful, and wholly degrading to themselves and to their sex. And so, if woman is to retain her reputation as an emIblefli of purity, she must leave the mach'ilnatiuns of the law in the bands of the stronger sex, who were primlairily ordained to undertake such work.. — and who are without doubt the more fitted to perform it.—By J. V. Solomon in the New Zealand Times.