Note 359 — REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE: 1702–1714. (continued 2)

Lord Anstruther was the same judge and privy-councillor whom we have seen concerned in the case of Aikenhead. He published a volume of Essays, in which he speaks not very handsomely of the fair sex. ‘It is true,’ says he, ‘woman is subject to man; he is her head; but I may question if it was not rather inflicted as the punishment of her sin, than sprung from the prerogative of our nature. But it may be thought we retain some resentment at the first cause of our misery, and by our innate love to the sex, they continue to be the bane of human life.’—Scottish Elegiac Verses, note. p. 175.