difficulties; his wife, to quote Mrs. Poyser, does not know which end she stands uppermost till her husband tells her. But even intelligent and benevolent despots do not live for ever. Her husband dies, and leaves his wife with a large family of young children. Her previous life has not prepared her by experience to fulfil the arduous task of being both father and mother to them. She is ignorant of the management of their property and of their education. She is utterly unfit for the weight that suddenly falls on her shoulders. What is left for her to do except transfer to some other husband the direction of her family, or in some other way shift to other shoulders the responsibility that she ought to discharge?
In Mary Wollstonecraft's remarks respecting what she considers the moral inferiority of women to men, I think we see more than anywhere else evidence of the salutary change that has already been brought about in the social position and education of women. Very few modern writers or observers consider women less sensible to the claims of duty than men. The late Rev. F. D. Maurice, writing in support of women's suffrage, and speaking of English women as he knew them, said, "In any sphere wherein women feel their responsibility, they are, as a rule, far more conscientious than men;" and I think there is a general concensus of opinion, that where large and important duties have been confided to women, they have been on the whole faithful in the discharge of them. The moral trustworthiness of the run of women is
