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( 49 )
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VII.—WOMEN IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND; THE
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¦ •? It is common in our day to call Swi...
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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.
( 49 )
( 49 )
Vii.—Women In French Switzerland; The
VII . —WOMEN IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND ; THE LAWS RELATING TO THEM . BY MDLLE . CtEMENCE EOTEE .
¦ •? It Is Common In Our Day To Call Swi...
¦ It is common in our day to call Switzerland the classic land of
liberty . Perhaps it may really be the classic land of liberty for men , but assuredly it is not in the same degree the promised land of
freedom for women . Switzerland is better known in Europe by its political institutions than by its civil laws ; but the former are a
matter of indifference to women , who have no part in them , and who benefit by their meritsor suffer from their
injusticeonlindirectly , by the general action , of these laws on the public prosp , y erity and the national character . The civil laws , on the contrary ,
restrict not everywhere only or without extend bear having upon their them ri made ghts immedi ; them and or at these el consented y , laws govern they to their them come interest but under for s , ,
the most part without even knowing them . It is about the , political at constitution rare intervals of emp some ires journ that al all in the quest noise of news is made calls ; attention now and to then an ,
, abuse in civil legislation . The popular agitators , the most restless demagogues , the most violent club orators , pass by so many codes
constructed out of sight by a few lawyers , finding here nothing to shock themnothing to excite their passion for change . Is the
, legislative edifice then _jDerfect ? Is it the final triumph of the accumulated wisdom of sixty centuries of jurisprudence ? We think
not , and the proof is , that all these different laws , all these codes criticise each other , not agreeing among themselves . These men ,
whose moral epidermis is so sensitive to the slightest encroach- , ment upon their political liberty—does civil legislation never affecfc
them ? Certainly it does . In m , any cases it is to themmore than to women , embarrassing , unjust , and blemished hy _jDartialities , to
their | disadvantage . It is remarkable that nearly all the legal arrangements of which women complain are to men themselves an
inconvenience and a restraint , from which they often suffer much more than from interferences with the liberty of the or
restrictions of electoral rights . Whence then comes this press silence , ? From ignorance of the evil . The eliible take good care to keep
every elector well informed on the g political constitution of the country : those who are electors spread the knowledthose
ge among who would like to be , bat the civil laws are nothing' to deputies , they do not touch their little personal ambitions . Finallit is
much easier to know a constitution than a code . How many y , newspaper writers have never so much as looked at that by which they
are governed ! But when women are concernedit is the codenot , ,
VO _£ . XI . E
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 2, 1863, page 49, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_02031863/page/49/
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