THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1909. EARLY SUFFRAGETTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9640, 4 November 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1909. EARLY SUFFRAGETTES.

Everyone knows that there is no new thing under the sun, but who recalls that the suffragette agitation now swirling along so flamboyantly in England is among those things/of which it may be said, "It hath been already or. old time, which was betore us?" In methods, at least, and i in some measure in essentials, the women who are prancing about English streets and meeting places, and so importuning worried statesmen that the Prime Minister cannot even play golf without a guard being stationed round Ihe links, had their prototypes in Rome 195 years before 1 Christ. The Oppian law had been passed, wherebv, during the stress of war, austere legislators thought to conceal class distinctions by preventing any woman having more than half an ounce of gold, wearing a parti-coloured garment, or riding in a chariot in the city or within a mile of it except on religious duties. Against this war-tax, when the worst of the war was over, the Roman dames rose as one woman, and made their demands in a way which, when compared with the methods of the modern shrieker of "votes for women," show how wisely the Preacher discerned the everlasting recurrence of earthly things. "The matrons could be kept at home neither by persuasion nor by a sense of modesty, nor by the authority of their husbands," wrote the shocked historian of the time; "they blocked up all the streets of the city and the approaches to the Forum, importuning men as they came down to the Forum to vote for the restoration of their rights." So the journalist of to-day might describe the tactica of the suffragettes who give him each day his sensation, importuning members as they come down to the British Forum to give them their rights. Even the superior male argument was the same then as now, for Cato, the leader of the host against the new woman, sternlv deprecated female interference with the making or repealing of laws and letting women "go into politics even," and appear "at public meetings and in the voting places." The Roman ladies were deal to reproof, blind to the wrong proportions of their conduct, so eloquently pictured to them. They actually assembled in crowds nefore the doors of two tribunes who had threatened to veto the repeal of the Oppian law (as they do before the doors and windows ot Mr Asquith now) and would not cease from troubling until the beleaguered politicians had promised to let the measure pass—as it did by a unani*

mous vote. By parallel this would augur that the suffragettes are destined to bent down opposition and get their "rights" at the ballot box. This ia only one of many instances ot

the prevalence of aggressive fjmin iam in early history. The early Roman women had been treated as veritable children. Their husban la were chosen for them, were entitled to beat them, and took their pro • perty and earnings. Yet in this case disuse of facultirs did not cause their failuie. Probably, as far as that I goes, woman's will and spirit were not so far subjugated as might

appear. At any rate, they were on. campaign again, when their property was requisitioned upon to carry on the war with Brutus and Cassius, and again they came to the Forum about it. On this occasion they anticipated the protest of the American colonists. "Why should we pay taxes?" tauntingly asked Hortensia, their spokeswoman, "when we have no part in the honours, the commands, the statecraft, for which you contend against one another with such harmful results?" The legislators were [indignant with Hoitensia for bearding them thus, and had the women driven away "until cries were raised by the multitude outside." There was a woman party already! Later, women formed a "little senate," where they used to meet to settle questions of dress, etiquette, and so on, thus establishing the principle uf female legislation on feminine subjects. Still later women began more noticeably (for the tendency had always existed) to acquire influence in the counsels of the State as the result j of political marriages. A notable example of this is quoted in the struggle between Cleopatra and j Octavia, the one planning to enlarge the Egyptian Empire, the other to keep Italy united and dominant. It was a woman, again, who had Cicero bmiehed and his property confiscated, and yet another who spurred Mark Antony on to action when Caesar was assassinated and for a time made herself mistress of Italy. It is a curious fact that masculine sympathy with the theory of temfnine equality is no newer than female insistence upon it. Although he regarded them as "leaser men," Plato advocated equality for women in education and work. Equally remarkable is it, perhaps, that women have not made greater head* way politically by the force of high example. Taking one instance among very many, no king ever ruled more tactfully than Elizabeth. It was all very well for the foreign envoy to declare of her obstinacy, but her policy, in the words of one of the shrewdest of English historians "was a policy not of genius, but of good sense. . . . Her political tact was unerring. . . . Her

notions of statesmanship lay in watching how things turned out around her and in seizing *he moment tor making the beat of them." What better quality could statesmanship rest upon? Yet in Romin days as well as these the average estimation ot woman was that she needed humouring rather than enfranchisisg. "Magistracies, priestho^dd,triumphs, insignia of office, the prizes and spoils of war. may not come to them," said their senate champion against the Oppian law, "elegance in adornment and dress-these are their insignia; in these they delight and glory." It must be admitted that the movement lihs taken wings unto itself since that. At the same time Cato held the argument in opposition tha 1 : "as soon as tuey have begun to be your equals thev will be your superiors." The modern female suffragist has used that, too, and doubtless will go on protesting, in the words of the old Roman, that it is not merely equality man fears in withholding her "rights" from woman.