ABSTRACT
Three books, the Essay on Liberty, the Subjection of Women, and the work on Utilitarianism, are selected as exemplifications of each of the three ideas from which Mr Stephen feels himself impelled to express his 'dissent in the strongest way'. In reading Mr Stephen's book one would think that he regarded liberty as a curse, and that he looked to restraint and coercion as the most effectual means of promoting the good of mankind. Mr Stephen has mentioned the inequality of age as one which is and which ought to be recognised by the law in bestowing unequal rights on persons of unequal age, and he places the inequality of sex on the same footing. The legal disabilities, founded on inequality of age, differ so essentially from those founded on inequality of sex, that no argument can be drawn from expediency in one case as to expediency in the other.
