CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
CONTENTS
THE MARTYR SEX.
THE YOUNGEST BRITISH COLONY.
THE SECRET.
BETTING-OFFICES.
A MAY FLOWER-SHOW AT CHISWICK.
GOLD-SEEKING AT HOME.
COMPETITION AND MONOPOLY.
MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL.
WAGES HEIGHTENED IN CONSEQUENCE OF IMPROVEMENT OF MACHINERY.
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'SINFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
| No. 447. New Series. | SATURDAY, JULY 24, 1852. | Price 1½d. |
THE MARTYR SEX.
Ever since that unfortunate affair in which the mother of mankind wasso prominently concerned, the female sex might say, with Shylock,'Sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.' They are, in fact, anincarnation of the Passive Voice—no mistake about it. 'Ah, gentledames, it gars me greet,' as Burns pathetically says, to think on allthe hardships and oppressions which you have undergone throughout thecourse of history, political and domestic. It is most wonderful thatyou can bear up your heads at all in the world. Most assuredly itcould not be done except under favour of some inherent principle offortitude, quite beyond all that your associate, Man, has everdisplayed. For this reason, I propose to fix upon you the honourablestyle and title of the Martyr Sex.
As insanity is the more affecting when we observe its victim to beunconscious of the visitation, so does my heart bleed mostparticularly for the Martyr Sex, when I observe them undergoing severeoppressions without knowing it. So natural is suffering to the sex, orso accustomed are they to it, that they subject themselvesspontaneously to enormous loads of trouble and torture, which no onewould think of imposing upon them, and which they might easily avoid.It might almost be said, that suffering has a sort of fascination forthem, drawing them placidly into it, whether they will or not. Itseems in some mysterious way wrought up with their entire destiny.
Hence, at no period of the history of the Sex, do we find them freefrom some form of amateur affliction. At one time, it is one part oftheir persons, at another time, another, which is subjected tovoluntary distress—but always some part. Not that the shifting is, sofar as can be seen, designed as a measure of relief; it would ratherappear the object simply is—to make every part bear its