પ Calidore to Mr. Paley, on his "Principles of Philofophy." 99 of VICTORINUS, or of TETRICUs, father and fon, four of the thirty tyrants in the time of Gallienus; afterwards fubdued, led in triumph, pardoned, and preferred by Aurelian, about the year 273; and are of no fort of real value. The coins, though in bad prefervation, fee not to have been much injured by long currency, and were probably put in the urn foon after they came from the mint, where they were rudely formed, probably in France, for they are evi dently not of Italian fabrication. Befides thefe pieces (fome of which are herewith fent *), there are feveral foffil fhells in a chalk-bed; but whether thefe were added fince the difcovery of the urn, is not certain, though it is rather probable that they have been added, perhaps in confequence of having been found in the neighbourhood of the ground out of which the urn was dug. The height of the urn is 13 inches; EUGENIO. the breadth 9 inches. Γυναι ̓ εκρινεν εν τολαις Mr. URBAN, HE Lord bad fold Sifera into the "THE Lord bad fold if faid Mr. Paley (Febb's Works, vol. I. p. 82), Fittle thinking how foon the fame heroine would drive a nail through his own political head, which he finds it out of his power to draw. The fignature PRrsCILLA flides easily into that of the SpaBut as the nifh patriot PADILLA†. difdained to take notice of the reflection From these we have felected two, though neither of them unedited nor uncommon; merely by way of illuftrating the date of the urn in which they were inclofed. 1. A coin of Victorinus. On one fide the head of the ufurper, with a radiated crown, IMP. e. VICTORINVS P. F. AVG. On the other fide a military figure, with a helmet, the right hand refted on a fpear, in the left hangs a fhield. The infcription VIRTVS AVG. 2. A coin of Tetricus. On one fide the head of Tetricus junior. C. PIVESV. TETRICVS CAES. On the other the common type of Hope, with an opening flower in her hand, and the infcription SPES AVCG. There are others with the head of the father, &c. thrown on her fex in the following extract, I, however unequal, stand forward as their champion. a natural "We wave a controverfy (obferves Mr. Paley) with thofe writers who infift upon representation as right. If this right be natural, no doubt it must be equal, and the right, we may add, of one fex as well as of the other. Whereas every plan of reprefentation, that we have heard of, begins by excluding the votes of women: thus cutting off, at a fingle stroke, one half of the public from a right which is afferted to be inherent in all, a right too, as fome reprefent it, not only univerfal, but unPrinciples alienable and indefeafible.” of Moral and Political Philofophy, book VI. chap. vii. p. 489, 2nd edit. In every former reign fince the Revolution, writers thought they recommended themfelves by producing arguments in favour of natural liberty; but of hate it furnishes matter of fpeculation to fee, that, on the contrary, the favourite attempt is to deprefs and confine the The bril native rights of mankind. liant conceit, that men are not naturally free, because women are kept in flavery, is certainly very ingenious, and a great difcovery in political philofophy; but Mr. Paley fhould not have affumed the merit of being the first who started this thought. Whether the honour of reviving it from Filmer, with whom it had lept quietly for more than a century, belongs to the Dean of Gloucester, I cannot fay; but it makes no mean figure This among his political difquifitions. argument is, indeed, become at prefent fo fafhionable, that the most profound and circumftantial Biographer of Jobne fon has with great proprietv adopted it, together with other flavih doctrines officioufty thrust into his work. I will, however, venture to throw out a few hints in defence of the fex, while Mrs. Macaulay is tharpening her pen; and I hope you will, Ladies, excufe the pedantry of frequent quotation in your caufe, as I have not the vanity to unagine, like Voltaire and Paley, that the thoughts of others will appear with a better grace when filently interwoven with my own *. It *The divine right of kings is like the You pilfered divine right of conitables." that, with many other thoughts, from my + See Padilla's letters to Mr. Paley, in pamphlet, fays Apib nus. (See Gent. Mag. vol. LVI. p. 1029, and vol. LVII. p. 224.) our last vol. p. 751, It is certainly an ill compliment a mong the moderns, to extol female perfonal beauty at the expence of innate mental endowments, by which nature intended to fotten the ferocity of uncivilized, and, in a ftate of refinement, to reftrain the infolence of lettered men, and regulate the extravagances of fcience. What wild work have men made fince they invaded the province of medicine, an art fo peculiarly feminine ! Can any one doubt of this, when he fees the illuftrious Bacon prattle like a child the inftant he enters the medical walk? and Boyle degrade his fcience by commenting on the abfurd confection by which Rayleigh difgraced his name? What woman would have thought of crowding, like Mithridates and Andromachus, an hundred difcordant ingredients into one compofition, fo that a dofe fcarcely contains a fingle grain of any particular drug? What woman, like the male practitioners of all ages, would have pronounced fresh air deftructive to the fick ? And what woman would have allowed the laws of the land to be intangled with so many intricate fictions, when common fenfe informs the most ignorant, that law ought to be founded on the fevereft truth, and conducted by methods the most fimple? The minds of men, when degraded into flavery, often break out into the moft violent exceffes; but it is highly complimentary to the female fex, that foibles and pardonable levities are the utmoft they can be accused of, in a state of conftant oppreffion. Their fondness for rank is a never-failing theme of ridicule among the witlings. But, it is apparent, if there be any truth in the accufation, that they have borne neglect with great patience. For, while the men have divided themfelves into a regular gradation from an Efquire to a Duke, the lady of the highest commoner legally bears only the antiquated title of Dame; a name which would affront a modern farmer's wife and fo fparing No, replies Mr. Paley, I never faw your pamphlet. (Vol. LVII. p. 152.) This may be very true, and yet the thought not his. own. "A conftable, no lefs than a king, acts by a divine commiffion, and poffeffes an indefeasible right." Hume's Elay on the Original Contrail. And why do these gentlemen difpute for the honour of Filmer's pai triarchal fcheme of tyranny Mr. Paley, having decked his work entirely with ftolen plumes, mult expect to be stripped of them: it will then appear, quam curta impellex I have the men been in their honorary dif tinctions, that the appellation Lady confounds the Peerefs with the females of a fhopkeeper's family. If I were thus only to examine abftractedly the faculties which nature has bestowed on the two fexes, I make no doubt, I fhould be able to fupport at leaft the equality of the female; and, though the ufurpation of man has become fo general, I do not hesitate to ap peal to hiftory. It was impoffible that the elegances of the Eaft could be brought into Southern Europe without fome of thofe degenerate opinions which always attend luxury, and its conftant companion tyranny. But the Northern Hive, either rejecting or efcaping the o-riental refinements, which over-ran Greece and Italy, and afterward found their way hither, preferved the natural equality of the fexes inviolable. So far from fhutting up women in feraglios, and degrading them into an inferior clafa of beings, the ancient Germans, of whom our Saxon ancestors are a branch, looked up to the female fex as indued with a fuperior intelligence, and deliberated with them in national emergencies.-"They (according to Tacitus) believed that their women were endowed with a divine and prophetic fpirit, fo that they always confulted them, and never neg. lected their oracular refponfes." effe quinetiam fan&tum aliquid et providum putant: nec aut confilia earum (to minarum) afpernantur, aut reiponia negligunt." De Mor. Germ. ch. viii. That this deference for the fofter fex was not left behind them by our forefathers, when they migrated into this inland, is evident; for we find that the Abbelfes had feats in the great council holden, in 694. "And rona par pe he cing par; he het gaderian mycel Loncilium on pane rrope pe ir geclypod Baccancelbe. on pane par Jihened sittende Lanz-pane cing, and re Arceb. of Lantuane byɲi Bruhtpáld. and se bircop Tobiar of Rhoue-ceartre. and mid heom abbooar and abbe derjen. and manige pire menn þær panon gezaderade." Saxon Chron. Again, in the fucceeding: "Præfen tibus et fubfcribentibns Archiepifcopis et Epifcopis Angliæ univerfis, necnon Beoriedo rege Merciæ, et Edmundo Eft anglorum rege, Abbatum, et Abbitef Jarum, Ducum, Comitum, proceruinque totius Calidore to Mr. Paley, on his " Principles of Philofophy." ros totius terræ." Hiftoria Ingulphi, an. 855. "Venerunt ad generalem vocationem Abbates, Priores, Abbatissa." M. Pa ris, an. 1210. And the Abbefs Hild prefided over the Scotifh party in an ecclefiaftical fynod, on fome controverted points of importance. Bed. Hift. Eccl. 1. iii. ch. 25. I am perfuaded the good Abbess had too juft notions of religion, to have given her fanction to Mr. Paley's fcheme of amending Chriftianity with ethics. In other words, to embellifh our plain bible with tawdry fringes of morality *. It alfo appears evidently, from records in Hickes's Thefaurus, that women among the Saxons retained feparate property, had a power to make wills and bequeath legacies, even while their hufbands were living; and that not only Abbeffes, but other women, fat and decided in the county-courts ("the great feats of Saxon juftice," Blackflone), in equal numbers with the men. For inftance, after the Abbots and Nobles are mentioned, the ladies follow, with many other "Thanes and good wives" whofe names are omitted. Eabgyfu abbudirre. and lioFrun abbudisse. and æpelhild. and eadgifu ær leofecan-oran. and hyne rpurton. and hype dohton (her fifter and her daughter). and lrzypu and hyre dohroɲ. and pulpyn. and æpelgyfu. and ælрanu. and ælgÿFu. and æpelflæd. and menig god bezen. and god pif þe pe calle atellon ne, magon. þær pæn forb come ealle re Fulla ge on penum. ze on Pirum." Differtatio Epiftolaris, p. 5. According to our prefent establishment, there is undoubtedly an inconfiftency in allowing women to hold the fupreme executive power, without any fubordinate; to be queens, but not conftables; and in denying them the leaft part of the legiflative. By the glorious reigns of Elizabeth and Anne, from whofe fplendor every male fceptre fhrinks iato obfcurity, we may judge, that it would have been fortunate for this nation, had the reins of government been oftener in female hands; and we have a right to forebode the happieft effects from trufting to them an equal share of reprefentation. Nor fhould it be forgotten, that the laft efforts to preserve this ifland from Roman tyranny were made by Boadicea. When the fell, the men bowed their necks without farther refiftance. If we wanted greater proofs, the actions of the four fucceeding heroines of the North would confirm what I advance. They unquestionably fhew, that the leading maxims of feminine empire are, to rouze men from ignorance and barbarifm, and to diffuse among them arts and literature. The natural tenderness of the fex, if they had been perimitted to affift at the national councils, would most indubitably have prevented our numerous legal profcriptions, which are written deeper in blood from year to year. Their hu manity, fo tremblingly alive toward the prefervation of mankind, who are so peculiarly intrufted to their care during the early ftages, would have been ftudious to contrive laws preventive of crimes, inftead of dealing out fanguinary edicts, which extirpate, without amending, the human race. Let not this affertion be deemed extravagant, or merely fpeculative: for when the Saxon women fat, as I have proved already, in our courts, cápital punishments were extremely rare. Nor, during the reigns of Elizabeth and Catherine II. in favage Rufia, has any. perfon died by the hands of the executioner; and the prefent Czarina has likewife abolished torture. For flight offences alfo, the inherent mercy of the female mind would have adapted fuitable penalties. To confound misfortune with fraud; to allow debtors to pine and rot in loathfome gaols, because they are deftitute of property; to croud wretches together to breed infectious diftempers, and to harden each other in iniquity; to render thofe defperate whofe only fault at worst is indifcretion; and to fuffer thofe tragic fcenes, which would difgrace a fyftem of the most abject flavery, to fhock our eyes, which way ever we turn, even without the fanction of any pofitive law, are abfurdities truly mafculine, and which pofterity, if mehorated by feminine fentibility, will view with the fame horror as the burning of men for creeds and witchcraft. CALIDORE. (To be concluded in our next.) Mr. |