"Men often think to bring about great results by violent and
unprepared effort; but it is only in fair and forecast order, 'as
the earth bringeth forth her bud,' that righteousness and praise
may spring forth before the nations."--JOHN RUSKIN.
In passing last to the United States of America, one is tempted to ask,
with Anna Brewster when rehearsing the hardships of Helvetian women,
"Can it be true, as the advocates of despotic government often say, that
under no government are women so harshly treated, so stripped of all
independent rights, as under a republic? In republican Helvetia, the
Vaudois peasant woman leaves all household care, to stand, spring,
summer, and autumn, in her vineyard; but not a bunch of grapes can she
gather for the market, without her husband's leave. _He_ may have
loitered and smoked through every sunny day, while _she_ has dug and
dressed and watered; but she may not sell one grape to buy bread for her
children."
And this is a picturesque statement of the English common law, on which
the common law of the United States still rests in the main, and on
which it has rested entirely until within the last ten years.