Expectations of Englishwomen During Wartime
Old England to Her Daughters
Address to the Females of Great Britain
Poor Old England.  The Warning Drum:
The British Home Front Faces Napoleon.
Broadsides of 1803.  (Berkely 1944)
Countrywomen!
When ev'ry Class of Men are called upon for the purpose of repelling this Invasion, 'tis surely Time that you should be reminded of those great Duties which, well or ill perform'd, must in such Moments produce Consequences sudden as serious; and may stay or overturn the State of Britain. The Days are past when one Moiety of Mankind affected to treat the other Moiety with a peculiarity of Manner, expressing half Admiration and half Contempt. Ev'ry Statue now stands without its Pedestal, so that its true Size can no longer be mistaken. Women no longer have a Right to complain of a confined or sterile Education, or to throw off their Faults upon their Fathers. Nobody now hinders them from being wise or strong, learned, or courageous; nor does any one I see pretend to like them better for being weak, ignorant, or pusillanimous. You are therefore solemnly call'd upon, to act rationally and steadily, and to maintain that Place among reasonable Beings, we
have so often heard you urge a Claim to; and for this Purpose I first address you.
Ladies!
Meaning all Wives, Daughters, Mothers, Nieces, Sisters, and Intimates of Land and Sea Officers, Clergymen, and Members of either House of Parliament, and of rich Citizens, and Servants of the King's Household: and I do hereby prohibit all Screamings, Faintings, & c. when our Enemies appear, as out of Time and Place. Leave them to the Novels and the Novel Writers; and as you value Happiness or Honour, cling not around your Parents, Husbands, Lovers: holding their Hands and weakening their Exertions, when every Exertion is no more than necessary. Let me then hear no Lady say, 'I am frighted out of my Wits.' She must keep in her Wits, and not be frighted; but lend her best ability to help us:
Nor run with raving Cries to fill the City,
But rather whilst your Brothers, Fathers, Friends,
Pour Storms of Fury on our fierce Invaders,
Do you implore kind Heav’n to shield your country,
With silent Earnestness and calm Devotion.
Remember the Halsewell Indianmen! 'Twas lost; merely because the Ladies came on Deck, clung round the captain, fainted in his Arms; hinder'd his giving necessary Orders, and, as he said himself, wholly unman'd him. Now behave better! or if you will fear, fear to perplex the Men with silly Questions, and an ill-timed Softness. Fear to confound them, with whose true Valour can only protect your from everlasting Shame and Sorrow; and by your Readiness to co-operate with their Endeavors, give good Example to inferior
Women
Who being many of them busy Shop-keepers and active Huswives in the Town or Country, now well enough the value of a Sober and well regulated Conduct; such must be diligent to take Thought for their own Property, and to preserve it from the Hands of Robbers--they must be Honest too, and faithful if entrusted with ought belonging to a weaker Neighbour. It will be their Care to keep their Doors locked as much, and suffer their Servants to go out as little as possible remembering--’tis for them that life is hazarded, and Money set at nought for their Defence.
Labouring Women!
May get in the Harvest, and feed the Horses tho’ they cannot clean them. All may be useful to the wounded Soldiers; all may employ Needles to work for them. Pictures of Lady Harriet Ackland in an open Boat fired on by Enemies, hangs up in many Houses of the Continent, and written under The brave English Lady!
She went to war beyond Sea with her Husband--You have but to keep Home, and save that Home by Prudence.

Had not the Women of old Times betrayed their Country to Ferdinand Cortez, the Spaniards had never got Possession of America, where they soon broil’d the Kind upon a Gridiron, and made the rich Nobility all Salves, tying the Peasants together by Hundreds and burning them in Heaps. Had not the LADIES of Italy three Years ago, encouraged the French, when first they broke in upon their beautiful Country--Genoa, Venice, Milan, had still been free. Let me hope better from my noble Girls: it is on British Virtue, British
Courage, that all the World at present has its Eyes fix’d. Shew them the Difference between our Females and those that inhabited less happy Nations----You have been gay and airy long enough, "Let us divert the Wenches," "Let us amuse the Ladies," has been the Cry now for these Fifty Years, I think--as tho’ the Ladies, like Leviathan, came only into the World to take Pastime. But if you ever wish to see good Days again, be serious now; cease to be frivolous, study to be circumspect--Oh! these mad Marauders, starving
Frenchmen, must die and perish in a foreign Land, if totally deprived of your Assistance.

Lost and perplex’d, unknowing of the Country, Roads, and Distances--unskilled in Language to enquire their Way--if every Woman will be but true, and shew no Favour to a Foreigner, none will be left in Three Weeks after Landing. Let the Sight of them be hateful to you and not terrifying. Consider them as Rats or Frogs--a Plague, but not a Danger--for I am confident that if the Women act with becoming Spirit and true Caution, never betraying by a Look or Gesture where any Treasure is concealed, but suffering Death rather than divulge a National Secret--Infinite Good may be done, and Mischief inconceivable prevented. This I the rather require at your Hands, my dear and lovely COUNTRYWOMEN, because my brave Sons have already done such Wonders, that You alone are able to upon this Emergence to increase my Glory, or add one Laurel to the
Wreath which You must keep from fading upon the Brows!
Hats Off to the Heroines
Uniquely Canadian Site Map
Victorian Canada Home Page