a man a high price for his labor when he can get the work done as well for less money by a woman, is not much to be apprehended. But that Legislatures, male or female, could equalize wages, few will be credulous enough to believe, though it is possible that the attempt might be made.
As to domestic cruelty, if it can be stopped by any extension of the criminal law, there is surely not the slightest reason for believing that male Legislatures are unwilling to perform that duty; though, of course, criminal legislation in this case, as in all others, to be effective, must keep terms with reason and justice. In fact, in this matter, women are probably better in the present hands than they would be in their own. The source of these infamies and horrors in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred is drink; and if the member for Marylebone, instead of tampering with the relations between the sexes, will turn his mind to the improvement and extension of the legislation commenced under the late Government against intemperance, he will deserve, in the highest degree, the gratitude of women in general, and especially of those who have the greatest claim to our sympathy.
The case of women is not that of an unenfranchised class, the interest of which is distinct from that of the enfranchised. The great mass of them are completely identified in interest with their husbands, while even those who are not married can hardly be said to form a class, or to have any common interest, other than mere sex, which is liable to be unfairly affected by class legislation. There is therefore no reason why Parliament should not do justice in any practical question relative to the rights of women which may be brought before it, as it has already done justice in several such questions, without invoking upon itself the coercion of female suffrage.—Macmillan's Magazine.
| A BABY-FOX. |
By Dr. BURT G. WILDER.
MY readers may have heard of the artist who, finding that his portrait of the "king of beasts" was not often recognized, indignantly wrote beneath it, "This is the picture of a lion." Something of like necessity exists with reference to the figure in the present article; for it is doubtful whether any one, not already familiar with fox-babies, would recognize it as the picture of one; to use the words of another, this is an "odd, snub-nosed little creature, resembling almost any animal rather than a fox."[1]
Yet the non-recognition cannot, in this case, be ascribed to any
- ↑ Wood's "Illustrated Natural History of Mammalia," p. 334; it is not often that so compact an expression occurs in these usually verbose volumes.
