Part 19 (1/2)

It is not in the nature of things, I take it, that a class politically subject can obtain justice froained by political equality for the colored people of the South is that the la generally make no difference of color in penalties for crime In slavery times there were dozens of crimes which were punished more severely by the statute if coro than if done by a white I feel very sure that under the reign of ie we should see fewer such announce Express:”--

”Last night Capt Lowery, of the Twenty-seventh Precinct, made a descent upon the dance-house in the basement of 96 Greenwich Street, and arrested fifty-two ht before Justice Fla Louise Maud, the proprietoress, was held in five hundred dollars bail to answer at the Court of General Sessions _The fifty-twoat once; and the eight women were fined ten dollars each, and sent to the Island for one month_”

The italics are my own When we reflect that this dance-house, whatever it as unquestionably sustained for the gratification of men, rather than of women; e consider that every one of these fifty-two men came there, in all probability, by his own free will, and to spend money, not to earn it; and that probably a majority of the women were driven there by necessity or betrayal, or force or despair,--it would seem that even an equal punishment would have been cruel injustice to the wo a penalty was three dollars each to thesein some form, and forty of whom had the ae an amount was ten dollars each to women who did not, probably, own even the clothes they wore, and ere to be sent to prison for a month in addition,--we see a kind of injustice which would stand a fair chance of being righted, I suspect, if women came into power Not that they would punish their own sex less severely; probably they would not: but they would put men more on a level as to the penalty

It may be said that no such justice is to be expected from women; because women in what is called ”society” condeuilt But it uilt is rarely a matter of open proof and conviction, in case of men: it is usually a matter of surmise; and it is easy for either love or ambition to set the surmise aside, and to assume that the worst reprobate is ”only a little wild” In fact, as Margaret Fuller pointed out years ago, how little conception has a virtuous wo man really is! But let that saislator or a voter, and let her have the unmistakable and actual offender before her, and I do not believe that she will excuse hiuilty woman a penaltyspecial sys of children Who can read without shanation this report from ”The New York Herald”?

THE CHILD-SELLING CASE

Peter Hallock, coirl thirteen years old, whoe Dinser, had sold to Hallock for purposes of prostitution, was again brought yesterday before Judge Westbrook in the Supreme Court Chambers, on the writ of habeas corpus previously obtained by Mr

William F Howe, the prisoner's counsel Mr Howe claimed that Hallock could not be held on either section of the statute for abduction Under the first section the complaint, he insisted, should set forth that the child was taken contrary to the wish and against the consent of her parents On the contrary, the evidence, he urged, showed that the father was a willing party Under the second section, it was contended that the prisoner could not be held, as there was no avere Westbrook, a brief counter argu been made by Mr Dana, held that the points of Mr Hoell taken, and ordered the prisoner's discharge

Here was a father who, as the newspapers allege, had previously sold two other daughters, body and soul, and against whoh the defectiveness of the statute, or the reoes free, without even a trial, to carry on his infamous traffic for other children Grant that the points were technically well taken and irresistible,--though this is by no means certain,--it is very sure that there should be laws that should reach such atrocities with punishment, whether the father does or does not consent to his child's ruin; and that public senti officers to be as careful in fra their indictments where human souls are at stake as where the question is of dollars only It is upon such matters that the influence of woislation

INDIVIDUALS _vs_ CLassES

As the older argue are abandoned, we hear more and more of the final objection, that the majority of women have not yet expressed themselves on the subject It is common for such reasoners to iven number of women--say fifty, or a hundred, or five hundred--who honestly wished to vote, they would favor it

Produce that number of unimpeachable names, and they say that they have reconsidered theten thousand, and the deain rises ”Prove that the majority of women wish to vote, and they shall vote” ”Precisely,” we say: ”give us a chance to prove it by taking a vote;” and they answer, ”By no ht not to be settled that way,--by dealing oitators do not e for her as a class: they claim it for each individual woman, without reference to any other If there is only one woht to have it

In Oriental countries all legislation is for classes, and in England it is still mainly so A man is expected to remain in the station in which he is born; or, if he leaves it, it is by a distinct process, and he comes under the influence, in various ways, of different laws If the iniquities of the ”Contagious Diseases” act in England, for instance, had not been confined in their legal application to the lower social grades, the act would never have passed It was easy for islate away the hter of an earl could have been arrested, and subical exahter of a ht be, the laould not have stood a day So, through all our slave States, there was class legislation for every person of negro blood: the laws of crime, of punishment, of testimony, were all adapted to classes, not individuals

Emancipation swept this all away, in most cases: classes ceased to exist before the law, so far as men at least were concerned; there were only individuals The islation We claim the application of this principle as rapidly as possible to women

Our coo unveiled till it is proved that the majority of women desire it; it does not even ask that question: if one woman wishes to show her face, it is allowed If a woman wishes to travel alone, to walk the streets alone, the police protects her in that liberty She is not thrust back into her house with the reproof, ”My dearmajority of women are indoors: prove that they all wish to come out, and you shall come” On the contrary, she comes forth at her oill: the policeman helps her tenderly across the street, and waves back with iesture the obtrusive coal-cart Some of us claim for each individual wo, but to go voting; not merely to show her face, but to show her hand