one of the most important of the verbal agents by which the suffragist
hopes to bring moral pressure to bear upon man.

Now, the term _right_ denotes in its juridical sense a debt which is
owed to us by the State. A right is created when the community binds
itself to us, its individual members, to intervene by force to
restrain any one from interfering with us, and to protect us in the
enjoyment of our faculties, privileges, and property.

The term is capable of being given a wider meaning. While no one
could appropriately speak of our having a _right_ to health or
anything that man has not the power to bestow, it is arguable that
there are, independent of and antecedent to law, elementary rights: a
right to freedom; a right to protection against personal violence; a
right to the protection of our property; and a right to the impartial
administration of regulations which are binding upon all. Such a use
of the term _right_ could be justified on the ground that everybody
would be willing to make personal sacrifices, and to combine with his
fellows for the purpose of securing these essentials--an understanding
which would almost amount to legal sanction.

The suffragist who employs the term "Woman's _Rights_" does not employ
the word rights in either of these senses. Her case is analogous to
that of a man who should in a republic argue about the divine _right_
of kings; or that of the Liberal who should argue that it was his
_right_ to live permanently under a Liberal government; or of any
member of a minority who should, with a view of getting what he wants,
argue that he was contending only for his rights.

The woman suffragist is merely bluffing. Her formula "_Woman's