tion. There is a good deal of discussion at the present day on the subject of Women's Rights. No one would be willing to allow that he wished to deprive them of their rights, and the only difficulty seems to be to settle what their 5 rights are. The citizens of Boston, acting by their municipal representatives, have long since undertaken to answer this question in a practical way (always better than a metaphysical solution of such questions), as far as a city government can do it, by admitting the right of the girls 10 to have, at the public expense, as good an education as the boys. It is not in the power of the city to amend our constitutions, if amendment it would be, so as to extend political privileges to the gentler sex, nor to alter the legislation which regulates the rights of property. But it was in the 15 power of the city to withhold or to grant equal privileges of education; and it has decided that the free grammar schools of Boston should be open alike to boys and girls.

This seems to me not only a recognition, at the outset, of the most important of Women's Rights — equal partici20 pation in these institutions but the best guaranty that,

unfairly dealt With the ac

if in anything else the sex is unjustly or with, the remedy will come in due time. knowledged equality of woman in general intellectual endowments, though tending in either sex to an appropriate 25 development; with her admitted superiority to man in tact, sensibility, physical and moral endurance, quickness of perception, and power of accommodation to circumstances, give her for two or three generations equal advantages of mental culture, and the lords of creation, as you, Mr. 30 Chairman, have called them, will have to carry more guns than they do at present, to keep her out of the enjoyment of anything, which sound reasoning and fair experiment shall show to be of her rights.

I have, however, strong doubts, whether, tried by this 35 test, the result would be a participation in the performance of the political duties which the experience of the human

race, in all ages, has nearly confined to the coarser sex. I do not rest this opinion solely on the fact that those duties do not seem congenial with the superior delicacy of woman, or compatible with the occupations which nature 5 assigns to her in the domestic sphere. I think it would be found, on trial, that nothing would be gained, nothing changed for the better, by putting the sexes on the same footing, with respect, for instance, to the right of suffrage.

Whether the wives and sisters agreed with the husbands 10 and brothers, or differed from them, as this agreement or difference would, in the long run, exist equally in all parties, the result would be the same as at present. So too, whether the wife or the husband had the stronger will, and so dictated the other's vote, as this also would be the same, 15 on all sides, the result would not be affected.

So that it would be likely to turn out that the present arrangement, by which the men do the electioneering and the voting for both sexes, is a species of representation, which, leaving results unchanged, promotes the convenience of all, and 20 does injustice to none.

Meantime, for all the great desirable objects of life, the possession of equal advantages for the improvement of the mind is of vastly greater importance than the participation of political power. There are, humanly speaking, three 25 great objects of pursuit on earth, well-being or happiness for ourselves and families; influence and control over others; and a good name with our fellow-men, while we live and when we are gone. Who needs be told that, in the present state of the world, a good education is not 30 indeed a sure, but by far the most likely means of attaining all the ends which constitute material prosperity, competence, position, establishment in life; and that it also opens the purest sources of enjoyment?

The happiest condition of human existence is unques 35 tionably to be found in the domestic circle of what may be

called the middle condition of life, in a family harmoni

ously united in the cultivation and enjoyment of the inno cent and rational pleasures of literature, art, and refined intercourse, equally removed from the grandeurs and the straits of society. These innocent and rational pleasures, 5 and this solid happiness, are made equally accessible to both sexes by our admirable school system.

Then for influence over others, as it depends much more on personal qualities than on official prerogative, equality of education furnishes the amplest means of equal ascen10 dency. It is the mental and moral forces, not political power, which mainly govern the world. It is but a few years since the three greatest powers in Europe, two on one side and one on the other, engaged in a deadly struggle with each other to decide the fate of the Turkish empire; 15 three Christian powers straining every nerve, the one to

overthrow, the two others to uphold the once great and formidable, but now decaying and effete Mahommedan despotism of Western Asia.

Not less than half a million of men were concentrated 20 in the Crimea, and all the military talent of the age was called forth in the contest. And who, as far as individuals were concerned, bore off the acknowledged palm of energy, usefulness, and real power in that tremendous contest? Not emperors and kings, not generals, admirals, or engi 25 neers, launching from impregnable fortresses and blazing intrenchments the three-bolted thunders of war.

30

No, but an English girl, bred up in the privacy of domestic life, and appearing on that dread stage of human action and suffering, in no higher character than that of a nurse! And then for fame, to which, by a natural instinct, the ingenuous soul aspires:

"The spur, which the clear spirit doth raise,

(The last infirmity of noble minds,)

To scorn delights and live laborious days—"

need I say that the surest path to a reputation, for the

mass of mankind, is by intellectual improvement; and that in this respect, therefore, our school system places the sexes on an equality?

LXXIX. THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE.

WOLFE.

[CHARLES WOLFE was born in Dublin, Ireland, December 14, 1791, and died February 21, 1823. He was a clergyman of the established church. His "Remains," consisting of sermons, fragments, and poems, were published after his death, with a memoir.

Sir John Moore was killed at Corunna, in Spain, in a battle between the French and English, January 16, 1809. He was wrapped in his military cloak, and buried by torch-light in a hasty grave on the ramparts of the town. A monument has since been erected upon the spot.]

1 NOT a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried.

2

We buried him darkly at dead of night,
The sods with our bayonets turning;
By the struggling moon-beam's misty light,
And the lantern dimly burning.

3 No useless coffin enclosed his breast,

Nor in sheet, nor in shroud, we wound him;
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest,
With his martial cloak around him.

4 Few, and short were the prayers we said;
And we spoke not a word of sorrow;
But we steadfastly gazed on the face of the dead;
And we bitterly thought of the morrow.

5 We thought, as we hollowed his narrow bed,
And smoothed down his lonely pillow,

That the foe, and the stranger would tread o'er his head;
And we far away on the billow.

6 Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone,
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him;

But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on
In the grave where a Briton has laid him.

7 But half of our heavy task was done,

When the clock struck the hour for retiring;
And we heard the distant and random gun
That the foe was sullenly firing.

8 Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

From the field of his fame fresh and gory:
we raised not a stone,

We carved not a line,