Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/719

Rh rare when the authority of law has to be maintained by force, and correctly draws the inference that it would be dangerous to mix up with those who, by their votes, make the laws a large number of non-combatants. We do not find, however, as distinct a recognition as we could wish of the fact that not only are laws founded in the last resort on physical force, but that, in the interest of liberty, it is desirable that they should be so founded—that physical force should be fully in view as the final arbiter between those who favor a law and those who are opposed to it. The reason is obvious: if a law may have to be fought for, and if there is nothing to deter those who object to it from fighting against it, if it seems unduly to infringe their liberties, and provided they feel themselves strong enough, there will be a reasonable parsimony in the passing of laws, and individual liberty will be the gainer. If, on the other hand, the idea of armed resistance to any law which has once been passed dies entirely out, there will be no bounds to the tyranny of majorities. This is the condition of things which the sharing of the suffrage equally between men and women would tend to bring about. Even to-day laws are being passed, in this country particularly, in vastly too great number, precisely because the instinct of resistance to unjust or unnecessary laws is already weaker than it should be. If we could be sure that it was always "the common sense of most"' that kept a "fretful realm in awe" there would not be so much reason to complain; but we have no reason in many cases to suppose that there is anything more than a common desire on the part of a majority to have their wishes and fancies imposed upon others. Men seem to be approximating to women in their belief in compulsion: add the female vote, and liberty, in any wholesome sense, is at an end.

We trust that Woman and the Republic will be widely read and deeply pondered. One advantage which the suffragists possess is that the arguments they use, though very superficial, are specious in their simplicity. It is so easy to ask whether women are not as good as men, whether they are not as cultivated, whether they are not as intelligent; and when affirmative answers are given to these and similar questions, it is so easy to draw the inference that they ought in that case to have equal voting power. The result is that unwary persons are apt to be carried away to an acceptance of the suffragist position. Many men, and some of no mean note, have been so carried away; but the remedy for the error is to look deeper and consider society in its organic character. Prof. Goldwin Smith, as quoted by Mrs. Johnson, expresses the fear lest, through the "feeble facility of abdication" which prevails in a revolutionary era like the present, men may give way to the demands that are being made by the woman-suffragists. Mrs. Johnson shares the fear, but sees also a source of danger in "the very tender-heartedness of the men of our time," adding that, "so far from desiring to hold the slightest restriction over the women of the republic, they may rush into an attempt at abdication of a sovereignty that did not originate in their will, but in their environment, in order to prove the sincerity of their desire that woman should not even appear to be compelled to obey." For our part we share both fears; but our special dread is lest the intellectual superficiality of our time should lead to the acceptance of arguments which move, as it were, in one dimension only, the dimension of abstract rights. Any logic chopper can deal with