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Untitled Article
slightest outward indication of her feelings . One word might secure perchance the happiness of two lives , but that one word she is forbidden to speak . It has been ordained by the selfishness of the law-makers , that the bond-slave woman shall not be allowed to speak her wishes , and a heavy anathema has been
pronounced against her , in case she should break the law . So barbarous a rule must be broken through , ere that equality of affection which is necessary to the happiness c ^ f the married , can exist amongst the great mass of the community ; but the resolution must be taken up on the part of the women , ere the tyranny will be ended .
When a man , not overwealthy , of the middle classes of the community , possesses several daughters , —which he frequently considers equivalent to several inflictions , —his principal reflection is , how he is to get them ' off his hands , ' as fast as they have gone through the routine of accomplishments , and are arrived at a marriageable age . In the case of ordinary mercantile
commodities , it is usual to advertise in the newspapers and other periodicals , and , for my part , looking at the real indelicacy with which the legal and chartered commerce of the sexes is conducted , I cannot conceive why a man with marriageable daughters should not advertise them , as he would any other chattels he might wish
to dispose of , just as some of our fortune-seeking males advertise themselves as eligible husbands . * Marry your daughters when you can ^ your sons when you will , ' is an ancient axiom , well known to almost every pater familias . And the cruelty which is frequently used by sordid parents towards daughters of delicacy and refinement , in order to force them into alliances which are
repugnant to them , sometimes to prostitute themselves to imbecile age , and at others to coarse brutality , for the sake of a good settlement / is but faintly furnished forth in the conduct of Sir Giles Overreach to his daughter . One instance I remember , in which the persecution lasted upwards of five years . The affections of the poor girl were fixed upon one less wealthy than him whom
the parents had selected , —a coarse , brutal sensualist , who could scarcely be said to possess a mind . Constant and unwearied persecution at length did its work , and to escape from a state of daily torture , she desperately rushed upon the unknown evil . As might have been foreseen , she subsequently sought a fear-haunted refuge from absolute disgust , in stolen interviews with her lover , while the world , which looked not beneath the surface , dwelt in
pleasure or in spite , as varying passions prompted , on the * good match * she had made . In another case , a girl of refinement refused many good offers , ' and the only reason which she gave for it was , that she could not resolve to unite herself for life to a being she could not love . This seemed most unreasonable to her father , who was one of those beings who hold with Squire Western , that when once marriage is performed , love will follow
Untitled Article
On the Condition of Women in England . 221
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1833, page 221, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2612/page/5/
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