She hath done what she could: A Discourse addressed to the Ratepayers of St. Marylebone, urging the adoption of The Public Libraries Act, 1855Feilde, Matthew
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She hath done what she could: A Discourse addressed to the Ratepayers of St. Marylebone, urging the adoption of The Public Libraries Act, 1855
Feilde, Matthew
Library legislation -- Great Britain
When doctors disagree I will not presume to decide as to the necessity of
granting medical diplomas to women, but why not “Women and Watch-work?”
Is the Swiss girl more naturally artistic than the English? Is she more
capable? Certainly not. It is instruction alone which constitutes her
superiority. Let a woman be employed in that branch of industry for
which she is adapted. Why there are parts of a watch which a woman can
finish far better than the best workman. Talk of negro slavery, the
tyranny of the workshop is more odious, more hateful in every respect.
But I rejoice to perceive the dawn of a brighter day when a truer and
higher civilization will threw open the doors of _Watch Manufactories_
and _Printing Offices_ to English women.
Ladies of St. Marylebone, I invite you to attend the Public Library
Meeting at the Literary Institution, 17, Edwards Street, Portman Square,
at 12 o’clock at noon, on Monday 18th June, 1860.
On this vital question I counsel you to throw off the absurd trammels and
customs of fashion. The law allows you to vote for the Libraries Act,
and I warn you that if you persist in clinging to delusion, if you permit
yourselves to be overcome by indifference and listlessness,—if you “likes
to be despised,” and prefer being tied and bound by the chains of
fashion,—the day will come when you will bitterly repent such fastidious
and disdainful behaviour. Read ANNA JAMESON’S “Communion of Labour.”
Prisons, Reformatories, Schools, Hospitals, Workhouses, all engaged the
attention of this noble person. Like Florence Nightingale she was in
every sense a model woman. Yet those eyes, beaming with intelligence,
have now lost their lustre, and are for ever closed, and the hand that
wrote that admirable pamphlet is mouldering in its shroud. But though
dead, she still speaks to you in terms more eloquent than any I can use.
ANNA JAMESON would say to you, “Be true to yourselves and naught shall
make you rue.” Believe me the custom of confining women to mean, or
trifling pursuits is
“A custom
More honour’d in the breach, than the observance.”
You who may be so powerful in society, why should you remain powerless?
Why not _do what you can_ to slay this Demon Ignorance in St. Marylebone?
Why should Central Africa and other far off Missions engross your FIRST
attention? I exhort you to attend this Library Meeting, and _take your
part in this good work_.
Yes, vote for an Act which will bring silent, yet most interesting
companions, BOOKS to your Homes! But do not too curiously and haughtily
enquire, as is the wont of some, “Who is the chief Promoter of this
movement?” “NON QUO, SED QUO MODO, _Not who_, _but how_,” must be your
battle cry. Be swayed by _arguments_, rather than by authority.
Consider _what is said_, _not who says it_; never mind whether he has, or
has not a bank account.
“O what a world of vile ill-favour’d faults
Looks handsome in six hundred pounds a year!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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