WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE QUESTION IN PARLIAMENT--FIRST STAGE
"All who live in a country should take an interest in that country,
love that country, and the vote gives that sense of interest, fosters
that love."--Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
The women's suffrage question in 1860 was on the point of entering
a new phase--the phase of practical politics. Parliamentary Reform
was again before the country; the principles of representation were
constantly discussed in newspapers, and in every social circle where
intelligent men and women met.
James Mill's article on "Government," referred to in Chapter I., has
been described as being "out of sight the most important in the
series of events which culminated in the passing of the Reform Act
of 1832."[11] The works of his son, John Stuart Mill, had a similar
influence on the series of events which led up to the passing of the
Reform Act of 1867. But whereas James Mill had specifically excluded
women from his argument, John Mill as specifically and with great force
and vigour included them.
In his _Political Economy_, and in his collected essays, and, of
course, in his _Liberty_, it was easy to perceive that he strongly
condemned the condition of subordination to which the mass of women
had been from time immemorial condemned. But in his _Representative
Government_, published in 1861, he put forward in a few eloquent
pages of powerful argument the case for the extension of the suffrage
to women, showing that all the arguments by which the principles of
representative government were supported were equally applicable to
woman.[12]
The volumes of his correspondence, published in 1908, show how
constantly his mind dwelt on the grave injustice to women involved
by their exclusion from political rights, and also how deeply he was
convinced that the whole of society loses by treating them as if they
had no responsibility for the right conduct of national affairs.
It was an enormous advantage to the whole women's movement, not
only in England, but all over the world, that it had for its leader
and champion a man in the front rank of political philosophers and
thinkers. He formed a school at the universities, and in all centres of
intellectual activity, and from that school a large number of the chief
leaders and supporters of the women's movement have been derived.
As early as 1851 an essay on the "Enfranchisement of Women" had
appeared in the _Westminster Review_. It had been written by Mrs. J. S.
Mill, and took the form of a review of the proceedings of a Convention
of Women held in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the previous year to
promote the cause of the political enfranchisement of women.
The essay is a complete and masterly statement of the case for the
emancipation of women. The terminology is a little out of date, but the
state of mind which she exposes is perennial. We can all, for instance,
recognise the applicability of the following sentences to the present
time:--
"For with what truth or rationality could the suffrage be termed
universal while half the human species remain excluded from it? To
declare that a voice in the government is the right of all, and demand
it only for a part--the part, namely, to which the claimant belongs--is
to renounce even the appearance of principle. The Chartist, who denies
the suffrage to women, is a Chartist only because he is not a lord; he
is one of those levellers who would level only down to themselves."[13]
This essay, with its clear, pointed, and epigrammatic style, produced
a great effect on the more cultivated section of public opinion. If
Mrs. Mill had lived longer she would probably have inaugurated the
practical organisation of a women's enfranchisement movement, but she
died in the autumn of 1858. What her death meant to her husband he has
left on record in glowing and touching words, and in his loneliness
he endeavoured "because she would have wished it," to make the best
of what life was left to him, "to work on for her purposes with such
diminished strength as could be derived from thoughts of her and
communion with her memory."[14]
Shortly before the general election of 1865 Mr. Mill was invited by
a considerable body of electors of the Borough of Westminster to
offer himself as a candidate. In reply he made the plainest possible
statement of his political views, including his conviction that women
were entitled to representation in Parliament. It was the first time
that women's suffrage had ever been brought before English electors,
and the fact that after having announced himself as strongly in favour
of it Mr. Mill was elected, gave a place to women's suffrage in
practical politics.
The situation in Parliament, as regards Parliamentary Reform, at the
time of Mr. Mill's election was very like what it is now in respect
of women's suffrage. Parliament had been playing with the subject for
a great many years. Reform Bills had been introduced, voted for, and
abandoned again and again. The real reformers were growing impatient.
I, myself, heard John Bright say about this time or a little later that
he began to think the best way of carrying a Reform Bill was to tell
working men that "a good rifle could be bought for £2." Candidates
who stood for election pledged themselves to Parliamentary Reform,
but year after year went by and nothing was done. Each party brought
forward Reform Bills, but neither party really wished to enfranchise
the working classes. Before 1867 the total electorate only numbered
a little over one million voters. The Reform Bill of 1867 more
than doubled this number. It is not in human nature for members of
Parliament really to like a very large increase in the number of their
constituents. Besides the extra trouble and expense involved, there
was in 1865 another deterrent--terror. Those who held power feared
the working classes. Working men were supposed to be the enemies of
property, and working men were in an enormous numerical majority over
all other classes combined. "You must not have the vote because there
are so many of you" was a much more effective argument when used
against working men than it is when used against women; because the
working classes are fifteen or sixteen times more numerous than all
other classes combined, whereas women are only slightly in excess of
men.[15] On one excuse or another the Reform Bills constantly brought
before Parliament were dropped or burked in one of the thousand ways
open to the experienced Parliamentarian for getting rid of measures
which he has to appear to support, but to which he is in reality
opposed. The time had come, however, after 1865, when it became
apparent that the game was up, and that a Reform Bill would have to be
passed. It was to this Parliament that Mill was elected, and in which
in 1867, as an amendment to the Reform Bill, he raised the question of
the enfranchisement of women. His motion was to omit the word "man" and
insert the word "person" in the enfranchising clause. Of this he says
himself that it was by far the most important public service that he
was able to perform as a member of Parliament. Seventy-three members
voted with him and 196 against him; with the addition of pairs and
tellers the total number supporting women's suffrage was over 80. This
amount of support surpassed all expectations. Before the debate and
division it was uncertain whether women's suffrage would command more
than a few stray votes in the House. Mr. Mill's masterly speech, grave
and high-toned, made a deep impression. Perhaps the thing that pleased
him most was the fact that John Bright voted with him. He was known to
be an opponent of women's suffrage, but he was fairly won over by the
force of Mill's speech. Those who watched him sitting in the corner
seat of the front row on the left-hand side of the Speaker, just below
Mr. Mill, saw his whole expression and demeanour change as the speech
proceeded. His defiant, mocking expression changed to one that was
serious and thoughtful; no one but Mill ever had the moral and mental
strength to wrestle with him again successfully. It was the first and
last time he ever gave a vote for women's suffrage.
It is an oft-told tale how in the previous year a little committee of
workers had been formed to promote a Parliamentary petition from women
in favour of women's suffrage. It met in the house of Miss Garrett,
(now Mrs. Garrett Anderson, M.D.), and included Mrs. Bodichon, Miss
Emily Davies, Mrs. Peter Taylor, Miss Rosamond Davenport Hill, and
other well-known women. They consulted Mr. Mill about the petition, and
he promised to present it if they could collect as many as a hundred
names. After a fortnight's work they secured 1499, including many of
the most distinguished women of the day, such as Mrs. Somerville,
Frances Power Cobbe, Florence Nightingale, Harriet Martineau, Miss
Swanwick, Mrs. Josephine Butler, Lady Anna Gore Langton, Mrs. William
Grey. In June 1866 Miss Garrett and Miss Emily Davies took the petition
down to the House, entering by way of Westminster Hall. They were
a little embarrassed by the size of the roll in their charge, and
deposited it with the old apple-woman, who hid it under her stall.
The ladies did not know how to find Mr. Mill, when at that moment Mr.
Fawcett passed through Westminster Hall and at once offered to go in
search of him. Mr. Mill was much amused on his arrival when he found
the petition was hidden away under the apple-woman's stall; but he was
greatly delighted by the large number of names which had been obtained,
and exclaimed, "Ah, this I can brandish with great effect."[16]
It was in 1867 that the Reform Bill was carried, and Mr. Mill's Women's
Suffrage Amendment defeated on May 20th. The testing of the actual
legal effect of the passing of the Bill upon the political status of
women (already described in Chapter I.) took place in 1868. These
events caused a great deal of thought and discussion with regard
to women's position in relation to the State and public duties in
general; and it is as certain as anything which is insusceptible of
absolute proof can be, that to the interest excited by the claim of
women to the Parliamentary vote was due the granting to them of the
Municipal Franchise in 1869; and also that in 1870, when the first
great Education Act was passed, they were not only given the right to
vote for members of School Boards, but also the right to be elected
upon them. At the first School Board election, which took place in
London in November 1870, Miss Elizabeth Garrett, M.D., and Miss Emily
Davies were returned as members. Miss Garrett was at the head of the
poll in her constituency--Marylebone. She polled more than 47,000
votes, the largest number, it was said at the time, which had ever been
bestowed upon any candidate in any election in England. In Manchester
Miss Becker was elected a member of the first School Board, and was
continuously re-elected for twenty years, until her death in 1890.
In Edinburgh Miss Flora Stevenson was elected to the first School
Board, and was continuously re-elected for thirty-three years until
her death in 1905. From the date of her election she was appointed
by her colleagues to act as convener of some of their most important
committees, and in 1900 was unanimously elected the chairman of the
board; she retained this most honourable and responsible post until the
end of her life.
The connection between the election of the ladies just mentioned--and
other instances might be added--with the suffrage movement is strongly
indicated by the fact that they were, without exception, the leading
personal representatives of the suffrage movement in the various places
in which they respectively lived. Miss Garrett and Miss Davies, as
just described, helped to organise the suffrage petition, which they
handed to Mr. Mill in 1866; Miss Becker was the head and front of the
suffrage movement in Manchester, and Miss Flora Stevenson in Edinburgh.
These ladies had taken an active part in starting the women's suffrage
societies in their own towns. Five important societies came into
existence almost simultaneously in London, Manchester, Edinburgh,
Bristol, and Birmingham, and as they almost immediately devised a
plan for combining individual responsibility with united action, they
formed the nucleus of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies,
which has become the largest organisation of the kind in the United
Kingdom, and in October 1911 numbered 305 societies, a number which is
constantly and rapidly increasing.
With the suffrage work carried on by the societies, other work for
improving the legal status of women, resisting encroachments upon
their constitutional liberties, and improving their means of education
went on with vigour, sobriety, and enthusiasm; these qualities were
combined in a remarkable degree, and were beyond all praise. It has
been remarked that the successful conduct of every great change needs
the combination of the spirit of order with the spirit of audacity.
It was the good fortune of the women's movement in England to secure
both these. The suffrage societies from the first saw the necessity of
keeping to suffrage work only; but the same individuals in a different
capacity were labouring with heroic persistence and untiring zeal to
lift up the conditions of women's lives in other ways; thus to Mrs.
Jacob Bright, Mrs. Wolstenholme Elmy, Mrs. Duncan M'Laren, and Mrs.
Pochin, we owe the first Married Women's Property Act, and also the
Guardianship of Children Act; to Mrs. Bodichon and Miss Davies, Henry
Sidgwick and Russell Gurney, the opening of university education to
women; to Miss Garrett (now Mrs. Anderson), Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell,
and Miss Jex Blake, the opening of the medical profession; to Mrs.
Josephine Butler, and Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon Amos, Sir James Stanfeld,
and Mr. James Stuart, the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts
(passed in 1866 and 1868); to Mrs. William Grey, Miss Sherriff and
Miss Gurney, the creation of good secondary schools for girls. I am
well aware that in this bald recital I have omitted the names of many
noble, conscientious, and self-sacrificing workers for the great causes
to which they had devoted themselves; I cannot even attempt to make
my list exhaustive; I have but selected from a very large number, all
ardent suffragists, a few names that stand out preeminently in my
memory among the glorious company whose efforts laid the foundations on
which we at the present day are still building the superstructure of
equal opportunity and equal justice for women and men.
As an illustration of how the tone has changed in regard to the
personal and proprietary rights of women I can give a little story
which fell within my own experience. In the 'seventies I was staying
with my father at a time when he had convened in his house a meeting of
Liberal electors of East Suffolk. We were working then for a Married
Women's Property Bill. The first Act passed in 1870 gave a married
woman the right to possess her _earnings_, but not any other property.
I had petition forms with me, and thought the "Liberal" meeting would
afford me a good opportunity of getting signatures to it. So I took
it round and explained its aim to the quite average specimens of the
Liberal British farmer. "Am I to understand you, ma'am, that if this
Bill passes, and my wife have a matter of a hundred pound left to her,
I should have to _ask_ her for it?" said one of them. The idea appeared
monstrous that a man could not take his wife's £100 without even going
through the form of asking her for it.
But we were making way steadily. It is true that Mr. Mill was not
re-elected in 1868, but Mr. Jacob Bright succeeded him as the leader
in the House of Commons of the women's suffrage movement. The second
reading of his, the first Women's Suffrage Bill, was carried on May 4,
1870, by 124 to 91. Further progress was, however, prevented, mainly in
consequence of the opposition of the Government, and on the motion to
go into committee on May 12, the Bill was defeated by 220 to 94.
From the beginning women's suffrage had never been a party question.
In the first division, that on Mr. Mill's Amendment to the Reform
Bill, the 73 members who voted for women's suffrage included about 10
Conservatives, and one of them, the Rt. Hon. Russell Gurney, Q.C.,
Recorder of London, was one of the tellers in the division. The great
bulk of the supporters of the principle of women's suffrage were then
and still are Liberals and Radicals, but from the outset we have
always had an influential group of Conservative supporters. And it is
indicative of the general growth of the movement that among the large
majority secured for the second reading of Sir George Kemp's Bill in
May 5, 1911, 79 were Conservatives, a number in excess of the total
of those who supported Mr. Mill's amendment in 1867. Sir Stafford
Northcote (afterwards Lord Iddesleigh) was among the friends of women's
suffrage, and so was Sir Algernon Borthwick (afterwards Lord Glenesk),
the proprietor and editor of _The Morning Post_. Support from the
Conservative side of the house was greatly encouraged in 1873 by a
letter written by Mr. Disraeli in reply to a memorial signed by over
11,000 women. The memorial had been forwarded by Mr. William Gore
Langton, M.P., and was thus acknowledged:--
"Dear Gore Langton,--I was much honoured by receiving from your
hands the memorial signed by 11,000 women of England--among them
some illustrious names--thanking me for my services in attempting
to abolish the anomaly that the Parliamentary franchise attached to
a household or property qualification, when possessed by a woman,
should not be exercised, though in all matters of local government
when similarly qualified she exercises this right. As I believe this
anomaly to be injurious to the best interests of the country, I trust
to see it removed by the wisdom of Parliament.--Yours sincerely,
"B. Disraeli."
This was written in 1873 in immediate prospect of the dissolution of
Parliament, which took place in February 1874, and placed Mr. Disraeli
in power for the first time.
These were days of active propaganda for all the suffrage societies.
A hundred meetings were held on the first six months of 1873, a large
number for that time, though it would be considered nothing now. All
the experienced political men who supported women's suffrage told us
that when the 1874 Parliament came to an end a change of Government
was highly probable, a new Liberal Government would be in power, and
would certainly deal with the question of representation--that then
would be the great opportunity, the psychological moment, for the
enfranchisement of women. The agricultural labourers were about to
be enfranchised and the claim of women to share in the benefits of
representative government was at least as good, and would certainly be
listened to. With these hopes we approached the election of 1880.