The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions

1890

Janet Murray, Myra Stark

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781315398723
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

The Englishwoman's Review, which published from 1866 to 1910, participated in and recorded a great change in the range of possibilities open to women. The ideal of the magazine was the idea of the emerging emancipated middle-class woman: economic independence from men, choice of occupation, participation in the male enterprises of commerce and government, access to higher education, admittance to the male professions, particularly medicine, and, of course, the power of suffrage equal to that of men.

First published in 1979, this twenty-third volume contains issues from 1890. With an informative introduction by Janet Horowitz Murray and Myra Stark, and an index compiled by Anna Clark, this set is an invaluable resource to those studying nineteenth and early twentieth-century feminism and the women's movement in Britain.

The Englishwoman's Review
(New Series.)
No. CCVII.—OCTOBER 15TH, 1890.

ART. I.—Lydia Ernestine Becker,

Born in Manchester, February 26th, 1827, Died at Geneva, July 18th, 1890.

THE last issue of this REVIEW was barely in the hands of its readers when tidings arrived that Miss Becker had fallen a victim to a diphtheric attack, far from home and friends, at Geneva, on July 18th—tidings that fell with a painful stun of surprise on her friends and co-workers everywhere. Although her health had been sadly broken for many months past, so that she had been compelled to seek the waters at Bath in the spring, and in May had gone for further treatment to Aix-les-Bains, the anxiety of her friends had been allayed by the accounts of steady improvement which her letters brought.

That her life should end before the cause for which she had expended the best years of her life had reached its consummation, added that sense of incompleteness —which pervades so much of human fate—to the sense of personal loss felt far and wide, by numbers to whom she was known through her work as the steadfast defender of justice to women in all things, as well as by those who enjoyed her friendship. The recollections which have been contributed by several to the memorial number of the Women's Suffrage Journal attest this, and bring out many little-known traits of her character. "The Women's Cause owes everything to her," to quote from one of the many letters of sympathy received by the present writer; "she was the leader of the vanguard at the beginning, and the chief supporter of it through all its first difficult years, and now how sad it is to think that she too, like poor Caroline Biggs, has gone before seeing the success she had so long worked for. Truly this is a rigid service she gave herself to. I hope, however, she had some happiness in it. I like to think that my last intercourse with her was in a visit she paid us here, and to remember her intense enjoyment of scenery and flowers."

The sorrow is too fresh, the loss too recent to attempt to estimate the place her memory will hold in history. That may be left to the true hand of the great sculptor, Time. Enough for our day and generation that we inherit the good she had already powerfully helped to accomplish, and inherit, too, the task to carry forward the movement she had led from the stage of general contemptuous scorn to the stage of an equally general respect for its inherent justice.

That Miss Becker was the pioneer of the Women's Suffrage cause was due to no accidental circumstance, but to the deep-rooted desire which embued her to help her fellow-women. Her early life was passed in the country, chiefly at Altham near Manchester, occupied with the duties which naturally fall to the eldest daughter of a family of fifteen children and with the scientific studies which were her favourite enjoyment —botany and astronomy. It was only after the removal of her home to Manchester, in 1865, that the horizon of her activity widened. Coming from the quiet country lanes, where she had made the stars and flowers her friends, to the rushing tide of human life, she brought the ripened powers of a gifted and cultured mind to bear on the problems of human society, especially that which chiefly appealed to her—the widening of the interests of women. Thus the occasion of Madame Bodichon's paper on the Franchise for Women at the Social Science Congress in Manchester, in 1866, found her ready to put her hand to that work which was the mainspring of all the rest.

There is a story told of her when a girl, how she was seen one wild stormy day standing on a bridge near her father's house looking intently down upon the rough water below. On being asked what she was doing out on the bridge in the wind and storm, she said she had often heard that oil smoothed the troubled waters, and so was trying it for herself by dropping oil on the waves. The girl was mother of the woman; she always went straight to the facte of the case in everything she dealt with, and her scrupulous accuracy in all details revealed the scientific bent of her mind, while her clear view of the general bearing of any subject which interested her showed her intellectual strength.

This double perception of general relations and minute details rendered Miss Becker pre-eminently just. Justice was her dominant characteristic; it pervaded all her actions. She knew how to value vexations and disappointments, hopes and wishes at their true proportion; she forgot unpleasant things said or done, and remembered all kindly things. She was impatient of fussy magnifying of small matters, but tenderly sympathetic in real difficulty. She knew how things ought to be done, but also she could appreciate the difficulties incidental to their being done, therefore, while insisting on good work, she was also most considerate of those working with her. "There was much sweetness under that strong dauntless manner," as a venerable worker wrote of her the other day.

Her public speaking had nothing in it of the empassioned orator. It carried weight by its clear, cool logic; it was the eloquence of facts, concisely stated, all the newest light brought to bear on the prominent points. Speaking so continually as she did—in the early years of the movement especially—it was wonderful to note the variety she introduced into her speeches from the freshness of illustration, reminding one of the endless play of light and shade over mountain scenery.

The family of Beckers were originally of German descent, but Miss Becker was essentially a Lancashire woman. Her father and her grandfather before him carried on chemical works near Accrington, and her mother, Miss Mary Duncoft, belonged to an old Lancashire family. She was the eldest child of her parents, who at the time of her birth lived in Cooper Street, Manchester, a street now wholly occupied by warehouses, They moved soon after to Glayton-le-Moors, and thence to Altham, continuing, with a brief interval at Reddish, to reside at Altham until about 1865, when the family returned to live in Manchester.

To tell the story of Miss Becker's public life would be to tell the story of the Women's Suffrage movement, in which she so entirely lived and laboured. Of her life as it was to her own familiar friends, let these words from an attached friend of years tell their tale of affection:—

"Yet, oh, if we were wiser,
We should deeply thankful be
That the heaven abiding our coming
Is henceforth the richer with thee;
For when it opens around us,
And we breathe the welcoming air
It will take us in with a happier smile
For thy sweet presence there."

The record of her last hours is in full accord with her life. Miss Becker had finished a course of baths at Aix-les-Bains, during which she had considerably recovered her powers of walking, and had started on a little tour, proposing to return for a second course when the cooler weather returned. It was while staying at St. Gervais les Bains, in the Haute Savoie, that the malady attacked her throat which proved fatal. Whether the long drive of forty miles which she undertook to Geneva to seek better medical skill was an aggravation of the malady, or whether the end was inevitable, we can never know. All we know is that after she had been a few days at St. Gervais she wrote of a serious sore throat, adding how dismal it would be to be ill alone amongst foreigners, but, happily, some kind English ladies were staying at the hotel. Two days later, on the 17th, she wrote of business matters to her Suffrage co-workers in Manchester and at the London office, and spoke of feeling better, of the skill of her doctor, and the attention of her maid. But that night a change seems to have corae for the worse; her maid saw it in the morning, so did the doctor when he came, and recommended trying an operation by a medical man in Geneva. Miss Becker must herself have realised some danger, for she had just written a will, which she now asked the doctor and her maid to witness, and resolved to start immediately for Geneva. After calmly concluding all her business arrangements, she started on the long drive to seek life or face death. Even on that dreadful journey her enjoyment of the beautiful did not forsake her, and several times she called the attention of her attendant to the striking parts of the scenery they were passing through, by signs, for the disease had bereft her eS powers of speech. Arrived at Geneva, the doctor whom she wished to consult was from home, and place after place refused to take her in, till at last the driver brought her to the Clinique Juillard. There the matron saw the urgency, received her, and telephoned for a doctor, doing her utmost for her comfort. Within a few minutes after the doctor's arrival, sitting in a chair, the valiant soul passed quietly away.

HELEN BLACKBURN.

ART. II.—The Session of 1890.

THE session of 1890 has been barren of actual legislation on women's special interests, although several measures vitally affecting them were introduced and carried some stages.

The Bill for legalising Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister passed second reading, but did not get through the Committee stage. Thus the pressure on the time of our legislators has again checked a measure which, whatever may be thought of its merits, none can deny would affect twice as many women as men, and moreover would create a difference of treatment between brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, thus adding another to the inequalities of the law between men and women. So long as numbers of women are well known to regard the Bill with the distrust set forth by our correspondent E. B., it is emphatically one that should not be passed into law while as yet the majority of persons who would be affected by it have no power of giving expression to their opinion, whether for or against, by the legitimate channel of the Franchise.

Quite apart from their respective merits we cannot regret that Prof. Hunter's Divorce Bill has been dropped, or that the Bill for the Breach of Promise of Marriage introduced by Sir Roper Lethbridge was withdrawn; these are questions which ought not, in justice, to be dealt with by a legislation which is backed by a one-sided representation.

The Midwife's Registration Bill passed second reading, and was referred to a Select Committee, which sent up a report with various amendments. The Bill was recommitted, but proceeded no further. As it will doubtless be introduced again, and as it seeks to effect a great change in the status of women following an important profession, it will be desirable to give a summary of its proposals (in its amended form).

This Bill would provide (1) That the General Council of Medical Education and Registration should lay down regulations for the examination of Midwives. (2) That these examinations should be carried out by the County Councils, who should also grant certificates to those who pass, and keep a register of all midwives in the county. (3) That no woman shall have any right to claim to be examined until after she has first produced a certificate from a registered medical practitioner practising in the district in which she is herself resident, that she is of good conduct and of good health. (4) That any person not registered according to the regulations, who should use any name or title implying that she is so registered, should be liable to a fine not exceeding £5, and no woman who is not registered should be entitled to recover any fee for services rendered as a midwife.

Such are in brief the provisions of this Bill, which is backed by Mr. Fell Pease, Sir Frederick FitzWygram, Sir Roper Lethbridge, Sir Walter Foster, Dr. Farquharson, Mr. Rathbone, and is supported by the Midwives' Institute. According to the prospectus of that Institute, seven out of ten cases of childbirth amongst Englishwomen take place without the presence of a medical man, while no assured means exist in England for ascertaining whether a midwife is qualified or not, hence the Iustitute desires to see the office of midwife —as distinguished from monthly nurse—rendered a close profession.

The second reading of the Infant Life Protection Bill was recorded in the April number of the REVIEW—the Bill being then referred to a Select Committee. The evidence taken by that Committee has now been published and should be carefully considered by all interested in the welfare of pauper children, especially that of Miss Joanna Hill, who, as secretary to the Society for Befriending Pauper Children, in Birmingham, has had wider experience than perhaps any other person of the difficulties of caring for the children of the poorest. In its anxiety to protect infants from the cruelties of the professional baby-farmer, this Bill as originally drafted seemed calculated to stop the flow of kindly neighbourly offices. Under the original form no woman would have been able to take charge of a neighbour's child in any stress of trouble, unless she could do so gratuitously, or receive into her house little children whose parents are in India, without going through all the formalities of registration, and bo becoming classed as a baby-farmer—a title held in abhorrence by the respectable poor. In its passage through Committee, the Bill has consequently been weighted with a long list of exceptions to prevent its application in the case of children in institutions, or taken by relatives, or left by relatives absent from reasonable and temporary cause.

The Infant Life Insurance Bill, introduced by the Bishop of Peterborough in the House of Lords, is another Bill which arouses a conflict of opinion, so that it is doubtless for the best that it has not been proceeded with this year, and time is gained for further consideration of its effects.

ART. III.—Women's Questions in India.

An Appeal from the Daughters of India.

Fifth Annual Report of the National Association for supplying Female Medical Aid to the Women of India.

THE above publications indicate the present position of the two questions which stand at the fore-front of women's advancement in India—the first dealing with the agitation against the custom of child-marriage, with all its attendant train of evils social and economic; the other with the introduction of trained women, especially native women, doctors into the Zenanas.

Mr. Malabari has earned the right to speak with authority on the subject he has by years of earnest study and labour made pre-eminently his own, and an appeal from his pen on behalf of the daughters of India has corresponding claim on careful consideration. This pamphlet briefly states the main points of the agitation against infant marriage, and indicates the lines on which legislation may be brought to bear in discouraging the practice without prejudice to the necessary neutrality of Government on matters affecting religion.

"With the blight of early marriage resting on them," says our author, "it is too much to expect the sons of India to be patriots and heroes, her daughters to be saints and heroines of history. For the brightest, happiest, loveliest period of life, the youth of the nation, is being sacrificed on the altar of this suicidal custom." This custom, as has been often shown, is no part of the religious system of the Hindus, though it has been "mystified into religion." To quote again from Mr. Malabari, "How and when the custom arose it is difficult to say. The explanation probably is that in its origin infant marriage was a temporary expedient to which high-class Hindu parents were driven during the early inroads on India of the Tartars and Mongols. . . . . Unable to fight these ruthless destroyers, the Hindu parents probably thought they shifted the responsibility of protecting their daughters by making them over as early as could be to the care of ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Original Title
• Original Copyright
• Contents
• The Englishwoman's Review (New Series.)No. CC.—JANUARY 15TH, 1890.
• The Englishwoman's Review (New Series.) No. CCI.—FEBRUARY 15TH, 1890.
• The Englishwoman's Review (New Series.) No. CCIL—MARCH 15TH, 1890.
• The Englishwoman's Review (New Series.) No. CCIIL—APRIL 15TH, 1890.
• The Englishwoman's Review (New Series.) No. CCIV.—MAY 15TH, 1890.
• The Englishwoman's Review (New Series.) No. CCV.—JUNE 16TH, 1890.
• The Englishwoman's Review (New Series.) No. CCVI.—JULY 15TH, 1890.
• The Englishwoman's Review (New Series.) No. CCVII.—OCTOBER 15TH, 1890.