Page:The Female Advocate.djvu/73

 and women scarcely exist?—Is it not an usurpation which every violator must blush at, when considered in the light it ought to be, as an act of the greatest injustice? Then, drive hence all such distress: let it not be said, that Britons can cherish a wish to oppress their sisters, wives, and mothers, but rather that they are merciful to the fatherless and the widow; and though the mischief of this iniquitous precedent should lie too deep to be cured by any thing less than a total suppression, can it be called an invasion of right? No; it is only the suppression of an usurped prerogative; and cannot fail to be productive of every good, not only in clearing the streets of prostitutes, but in providing a sufficient number of proper and fit hands, in time of peace, for the various manufactories which, it must be granted, it is always the interest of Britain to cherish; and in such calamitous times as these, by having ready a sufficient number of soldiers and sailors fit for service, without being driven to so many expensive and oppressive expedients: independent of the little need there is of throwing any thing in the way to send