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throughout the whole country. But the injustice, as we observed, is in money matters, and not of the nature that the Woolstoncrafts, the Wrights, and the Martineaus, make such a pother about. These wrongs relate solely to a division of property, and to an inattention to the meanest comforts of the women of the very poor. Here, at this point, it is that the political economist should begin; it is here that he should commence his system of reform.

Every conceited English bookmaker that comes over, fancies himself capable of mending our laws, and improving our manners. Amongst other great designs with which the brain of Miss Martineau teemed, was that of teaching us the true system of banking. General Jackson having found out the secret before she came, rendered that part of her plan useless. She then beat up the quarters of the abolitionists and the disaffected, and her whole book shows how hard she laboured in sowing the seeds of dissension and disorganization.

Does a woman of circumscribed education and recluse habits feel herself competent to teach a whole nation-a nation that did not think the wisest and greatest in her land capable of giving them sound instruction? Did we not separate ourselves from them because we felt in advance of them? Did we not show ourselves superior in physical strength, and in moral strength? And, up to this moment, have we not outstripped them in wholesome laws, and in many of the arts? Until their demoralizing Malthusian and agrarian principles infected our land, introduced here by these itinerant lepers, were we not prosperous beyond example? Does this poor flimsy tool of a nest of poisonous radicals suppose we are to look upon the impertinences of her pen as a standard by which we are to regulate ourselves?

The insolence of these people is unparalleled. We have no desire to see them here; we do not invite them; their coming is purely to benefit themselves, and yet, as if they were injured by us, they go grumbling through the country, and blight every thing they touch. If they did no further mischief than to excite a spirit of resentment against them for their sneers and their ridicule of our peculiar manners, they might come out every year, and write Hall and Trollope books by the hundred. But when their object is to disseminate their hideous and loathsome doctrines agrarianism and amalgamation every man and woman in the country should raise their voices against them.

At any other time we should not trouble ourselves to mention her book, but these incendiaries have worked us so much mischief, and have still so much in reserve for future occasions, that they should be exposed. The whole American nation-with the exception of a few foreigners who have domes

ticated themselves with us, and a few weak, wrong-headed people is alive to the importance of the abolition question. Do the disaffected of the English at home think that we are unapprised of the evils of slavery, and that we would not wipe out the stain which their forefathers entailed upon us, if we could do it without bloodshed, civil war, and annihilation?

It is a very easy thing for the abolitionists of England to cry out for immediate emancipation; they can raise their wand and direct the storm, but they are indifferent to the result-nay, not indifferent, for it is our firm belief that this sudden affection which they profess for our negroes, is part of a deep policy-a policy that they have kept sacred from their vulgar tools-viz. the compassing of the dismemberment of the Union.

This is no idle surmise; it is not half so improbable as that the ripening of the seeds of agrarianism should produce a bankruptcy of the government. The agrarian doctrines of England have effected this destruction of our national credit, and the abolition project-much easier to be accomplished-will destroy the national compact. We say it without fear of contradiction, that it is entirely owing to this levelling, agrarian spirit-emanating from the deep ones of England-that the whole commercial interest of the country is laid prostrate.

In casting about for agents to effect the dismemberment of our Union-knowing the excitability of our people-they glanced at Harriet Martineau. She was prepared by study for all their purposes; she was imaginative, and they thought the best mode of spreading their quack code and Malthusian doctrines would be in the form of stories and petticoat perambulations, thus gilding the bitter pill, and making a woman the instrument of destruction. She made no scruple, when in this country, of saying that the whole plan of action—that is, of the Malthusian and agrarian doctrines to be disseminated in Great Britainwas previously arranged by the committee that employed her. But, fearing that this would detract from her own reputation as an original projector, she adds, "that, on comparing the points of discussion, all carefully committed to paper-and which was for her adoption-she discovered"-oh, mirabile dictu!" that in no one tittle did they differ, excepting that she took a wider range!"

"Then up he sprang and showed a dagger
To liberate the Yankee nigger;

Up she sprung, and called him bragger,

Showing one a great deal bigger."-Quashee's Tragedy.

These wily, radical English reformers, knowing our respect and reverence for women, fairly launched Miss Martineau loose, alone, on our devoted shores. They knew full well-and they

deserve credit for their penetration-that, had she been accompanied by a male conductor, she would be sent back with some such piteous tale as is told of the little woman who went to market to sell eggs; for our Yankee pedlars are famous for making short work. She was invited to many a tea party, but she never was at a Boston tea party.

Thank heaven, there are not many such women in England as Harriet Martineau. It was with the greatest difficulty that she could get any one to accompany her-not on account of her deafness, for that would have excited commiseration, but on account of the nature of the speculation in which they were to engage. It was not until a very late hour that a suitable person could be found who was willing to hire her ears to this Quixotic person, and we see how well suited she was to the undertaking.

Never, in the whole course of our reading-excepting it be of Cherubina-did we meet with a woman that was so totally deprived of that best of woman's grace-modesty. We do not say that Harriet Martineau made use of indecent language, or that she drank to excess, or that she was a libertine in a gross sense-so far as all this goes, we give her full credit. We say the same of Basil Hall and Doctor Fiddler; but where is the woman in America who could so unblushingly thrust herself into public and private offices-send for our public men that she might show off her knowledge, and pour out one strain of irony and deep sarcasm whenever the subject was one that did not accord with her views! Many a female servant and underling, in the employ of those who differed from her in sentiment, took their first lesson of rebellion to wholesome restraint from this bold woman's lips.

We have no objection to a woman's informing herself of what is passing in the outward world-books and conversation can instruct her in all things fitting; nor do we object to her travelling from end of the country to the other in proper company, and with the simple purpose of amusement and health. But there are subjects in which she cannot engage her sex, her duties, entirely forbid it. Her province-and it is a noble one, admitting of a wide scope to her genius and talents-is to fill the world with men and women-to educate them-to instil virtuous and religious and chivalric principles-to encourage her own sex in all that is commendable and feminine-to assist her husband in all his schemes for the advancement of their mutual family-to mend his temper by her forbearance and gentleness, and to make her home his happiness-all this she is to do, and can do, without meddling with legislation and universal suffrage.

Her gentle, Christian spirit can be better exercised within her

domestic circle. One tender word from her loving mouth, one gentle look from her loving eye, will sink deeper in her husband's heart when she is pleading the cause of the oppressed, than if whole armies of Martineaus were to rise up in public assemblies and make a speech. It is not that we are fearful of their encroaching on our privileges, when we treat women with severity and ridicule. It is because we fear the utter extinction of all feminine grace and sensibilities-fear that if their gentle, yielding nature listen to the bold ravings of the hardfeatured of their own sex, it will unsettle them for their true station and pursuits, and that they will throw the world back again into confusion-thus frustrating the designs of an all-wise Legislator, who so strongly drew the line between the pursuits and occupations of the two sexes.

To show the absurdity of this great clamour for more female liberty, see how tenaciously women guard their own rights and privileges. Will they allow a man to meddle with house government? Is he not assailed with scornful and ridiculous epithets, of which "hen hussy" and "cot betty" are but mild samples? In fact, a man becomes despicable when he interferes with the domestic arrangements of his wife, and it is right and fitting that it should be so; nature intended them for different pursuits.

Miss Martineau wishes to see the day when men and women shall "ride and tie" in out-door and in-door government-that when the woman is ill in bed with a young infant, the men shall make laws, send ambassadors, go to the polls, and provide for the wants of a whole people; and when she has recovered sufficiently to bear the exposure-for the generality of women are not "horse marines"-she is to assist the men in all these matters. We are not quite sure that Miss Martineau intends the men to nurse the babies, or to give physic to the maids, whilst the wife is haranguing at the polls, for she is not so clear on that point. She does, to be sure, give one instance of a young southern husband who assisted his wife in household work, but it seems that was for the purpose of teaching her humanity.

The robust health of this Malthusian makes her hard-hearted towards the whole sex. They have, one should think, as many duties as they can well perform, without assisting in mannish occupations. Why, a woman must have the gift of nine lives, and a Martineau constitution in the bargain, to go through the labours of both sexes. As to the "take turn about" system, that was happily illustrated by one of our early nursery poets, who makes the man sneer at his wife for the disproportion of her labours to his, and he undertakes to do all her work in a much less time than she accomplished it. How he fared, how the work

seemed to grow upon him, and how he failed, must be well known to our readers; but in despair at the close of day—

"He looked east, he looked west,

He looked up to the sun;

He said it was the longest day

His wife would never come home."

We are not told how this wife performed her part of the engagement, but we suspect the sly gipsy hied off to the public house, or to the race ground, or to some agrarian Jack Cade meeting, and played the part of Martineauism admirably.

The book is full of contradictions; at one time she praises, and at another condemns. At one time "the American manners please, on the whole, better that any she has seen;" then, "the travelling manners of ladies are any thing but amiable. While on a journey, women who appear well enough at home present all the characteristics of spoiled children. Screaming and trembling at the apprehension of danger are not uncommon. [Are the English women exempt from fear?] But there is something far worse in the cool selfishness with which they accept the best of every thing at any sacrifice to others, and usually, in the south and west, without a word or look of acknowledgment." "I never saw any manners so unpleasant as that of many American ladies on board of steamboats. The suspicious side-glance, or the full stare; the cold, immovable observation, the bristling self-defence the moment you come near; the cool pushing to get the best places; [ah, this touched Miss Martineau, for it was observed of her and the little hearer general that their anxiety to get the best places at table was very remarkable ;] every thing said or done without the least trust or cheerfulnesss," &c.

What follows are hints which her own countrymen may profit by, as they have been sneered at by all travellers for the very faults which she so pathetically conjures the American women to get rid of.

"If these ladies would but enquire of themselves what it is that they are afraid of, and whether there is any reason why people should be less cheerful, less obliging, and less agreeable, when casually brought into the society of fifty people whose comfort depends mainly on their good offices, than among half a dozen neighbours at home, they might remove an unpleasant feature of their national manners," &c.

Then comes another contradiction:-" This noble wordwoman-spirit-stirring as it passes over English ears, is in America banished, and ladies and females substituted; the one to English taste mawkish and vulgar; the other, indistinctive and gross. So much for the difference of taste. The effect is odd."

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