I have said this Public Library movement—this precious boon of Reading for All is especially a Woman’s Question, and I hope the Meeting will be graced by many Ladies to attest its truth and do honour to this great occasion. With such powerful allies I for one have no fear of the result.
“From woman’s eyes this doctrine I derive,
They sparkle still the true Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academies
That show, contain and nourish all the world.”
I have briefly alluded to the economic aspect of this question, and shewn how pauperism would be diminished by the advance of the people in Knowledge. You may depend upon it nothing is so expensive to this Parish, so burdensome on the rates as Ignorance and Inebriety. I have designated the Public Libraries Act as a scheme for reducing the rates by improving the condition of the people. Let me for one moment turn from the £ s. d. point of view, to the social. What power in BOOKS! What various knowledge in those great Public Instructors, NEWSPAPERS! God be thanked for Books!
No matter how poor I am, no matter if the rich will not enter my obscure dwelling. If the oldest and most precious of all books, the BIBLE, with its unparalleled wisdom, with its unrivalled English, and its unequalled and incomparable Poetry is my companion and familiar friend,—if Shakespeare, the first of uninspired writers, still enchants me with his presence, and the witty Sydney Smith, (whom bigots, with their little learning but enormous arrogance, stigmatize “irreligious”) preaches to me with his practical wisdom; though languid perhaps with toil I shall not pine for want of intellectual associates, and I may become lettered, though entirely excluded from other companionship. What humanizing tendencies in Books, and how imperceptibly they influence the habits and tastes of the Public! Do what you can then to satisfy this increasing thirst for intelligence, and the cultivation of the intellect, and you will enlarge the field of remunerative employment, you will open up the avenues to honourable and congenial occupation to young women, whom the narrow existing labour market fails to find bread, let alone the means of support. But, remember it will be an uphill fight, for there must be two to one in favour of this permissive, and not compulsory Act, and no poll can be demanded.
To the best of my ability I have set it forward; and to you I now remit this WOMAN’S question, believing as I do that despite conventional frowns or sneers, you will, like the youthful David, valorously shoot down this giant ignorance that is desolating our land, and that with the shield of Bellew, Tout d’en haut (All from on High, from Above, from the Father of Lights,) you will triumph in a cause second to none in its economic and social bearings.
I use no unmeaning phrase when I again assure the Ladies of St. Marylebone that in inviting them to take part in this conflict, on the issue of which so much depends, in asking them to come out and separate themselves from the vain, and frivolous, and heartless, I invite them to no unfeminine or unbecoming action. Believe me the time has come when you must throw off indecorous reserve and squeamishness, that is if you really desire to do good and raise yourselves on the social ladder, if you really desire to be released from the terrible bondage of GOVERNESSING, or the cruel servitude of DRESS MAKING. You are NOT called upon to lead Troops, or to Preach, or to make public speeches about Woman’s rights, but YOU ARE earnestly entreated to SAVE YOURSELVES, to agitate this subject started by a distinguished political writer, viz.: “WHAT WILL THE WOMEN DO NEXT?” Take fast hold then of this Public Library question, agitate it with nothing but your humanities about you, and the time is not distant when the field of profitable employment for young women shall be considerably widened. That civilization must be very imperfect, extremely smooth and artificial, which selfishly permits and tyrannically decrees that the kitchen, and the nursery, the workroom and the factory shall entirely absorb energies which might be much more usefully directed. Mr. John Bennett, so honourably identified with the cause of progress and social reform, urges the importance of National Instruction as a sine quâ non, without which it is vain to expect English women to compete with the Swiss in watchwork, and discloses the humiliating fact that the number of uneducated women in England, as ascertained by the signing of the marriage register was, one-third greater than that of men, and that out of nearly 80,000 women who were married, 68,175 could not write their names, but had to sign the register thus, + “her cross.” Surely this is not a state of things to be proud of, there is no ground here for boasting and glorification, and the condition of England, as a Nation, wholly uneducated, is in strong contrast to that of the Swiss population, where all the means and appliances of education of the highest character are to be found even in the remotest village.
When doctors disagree I will not presume to decide as to the necessity of granting medical diplomas to women, but why not “Women and Watch-work?” Is the Swiss girl more naturally artistic than the English? Is she more capable? Certainly not. It is instruction alone which constitutes her superiority. Let a woman be employed in that branch of industry for which she is adapted. Why there are parts of a watch which a woman can finish far better than the best workman. Talk of negro slavery, the tyranny of the workshop is more odious, more hateful in every respect. But I rejoice to perceive the dawn of a brighter day when a truer and higher civilization will threw open the doors of Watch Manufactories and Printing Offices to English women.
Ladies of St. Marylebone, I invite you to attend the Public Library Meeting at the Literary Institution, 17, Edwards Street, Portman Square, at 12 o’clock at noon, on Monday 18th June, 1860.
On this vital question I counsel you to throw off the absurd trammels and customs of fashion. The law allows you to vote for the Libraries Act, and I warn you that if you persist in clinging to delusion, if you permit yourselves to be overcome by indifference and listlessness,—if you “likes to be despised,” and prefer being tied and bound by the chains of fashion,—the day will come when you will bitterly repent such fastidious and disdainful behaviour. Read Anna Jameson’s “Communion of Labour.” Prisons, Reformatories, Schools, Hospitals, Workhouses, all engaged the attention of this noble person. Like Florence Nightingale she was in every sense a model woman. Yet those eyes, beaming with intelligence, have now lost their lustre, and are for ever closed, and the hand that wrote that admirable pamphlet is mouldering in its shroud. But though dead, she still speaks to you in terms more eloquent than any I can use. Anna Jameson would say to you, “Be true to yourselves and naught shall make you rue.” Believe me the custom of confining women to mean, or trifling pursuits is
“A custom
More honour’d in the breach, than the observance.”