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OUR TRENCH CORRESPONDENT. 269
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Ladies, Paris, November 20, 1861.
ing laughter of reporters and attorneys' clerks at such a piece of modern innovation . But , perhapsin a place where women iii
, days of much enlightenment have stood their trials for the vague offence of delit politique , although their political existence was
. denied by the code that condemned them and the judges that sentenced them , it does not , to the quick-witted French , seem either
" ridiculous or reprehensible ; and if unusual , not a subject to be sent to the _Chafriv art . Nevertheless , enlightened on matters of Social Science
as the countrymen of MM . Chevalier and Ernest Desmarest may be , it is difficult to say what would have been the effect produced by a
speech too severe and equitable to be called gallant , that treated most especially of _" woman / ' had . any avocat at the French bar less
eloquent , less bold , and possessing a lesser degree of mastery over his hearers' minds , or a lesser reputation for trifling gallantry than
Jules Favre , ventured to broach the subject . M . Favre _' s eloquence has been called " gall given in a golden cup" but there is too
, high a strain of justice and of generosity in the following quotation from his discours cle rentrewhich he made as bdtonnier of the order
of French avocats , to deserve , such a title , although unmeaning prejudicesand culpable thoughtlessness of parents , ( more to be
seenit must , be confessedin London than in Parisnotwithstanding our , eminently practical , reputation , ) are most mercilessl , y attacked .
After pointing out to the assembled barristers the necessity of doing all that lies in them to modify the unjust laws and unjust prejudices
of society that are such a terrible trial to the woman who chooses , in preference to a life of sloth and degradation , to strike out a path
to independence by her own exertions , M . Favre continues : _" But why should I not also most particularly allude to your
everyday business relations with women , whom domestic misfortunes and pecuniary embarrassments so often oblige to surmount the
timidity of their sex , and have recourse to us for aid in their difficulties ? I regret to say that we do not think sufficiently about the
injustices with which society overwhelms them , as much by its passions as "b y its blindly inexorable prejudices . Exposed to a
thousand dangers , having to fear the scourge of the tongue as much as they have to dread either kindness or incivility ,
surrounded by false _friendshixos and interested flatterers , they are continually perplexed as to how they should conduct themselves
, and to whom they should confide . Victims alike of law and custom , they never know the insufficiency of their education till , rudely
thrown upon life , they find it is too late to provide a remedy ; and when events for which they arewith an unthinking cruelty , left
, totally unprepared , place before them grave difficulties , or power in their inexperienced hands , they are , of necessity , incapable of
meeting either rightly . This situation , of which none of us can thoroughly picture the agonies , is simply and truthfully expressed
in a letter of the mother of Chrysostom , of which I request
your leave to read a fragment : — ' My son , God -was pleased
Our Trench Correspondent. 269
OUR TRENCH CORRESPONDENT . 269
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1861, page 269, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121861/page/53/
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