Such were the men and women who had rallied to the movement what time the Bill for removing the electoral disabilities of women first came before the House of Commons.

CHAPTER VI.

THE PARLIAMENT OF 1870 TO 1873.

§ 20. The Advance Guard.

THE session of 1870 found the Women's Suffrage organization in full working order. The plan of an organ for the movement had been long and carefully discussed between Miss Becker and Miss Boucherett, and finally the first issue of the Women's Suffrage Journal appeared in March 1870. The journal was edited by Miss Becker, and carried on by her with loving care and strenuous exactness during the rest of her life. The volumes of the Women's Suffrage Journal are the sources whence the student can draw information with absolute reliance on its exactness. On that journal Miss Becker bestowed an amount of anxious labour, which at times seemed to her friends too great a strain on her-but as she herself said of it, it was "like a child to her. She realized the value of a continuous record, better than perhaps any of her colleagues could do-a record which served to keep the workers in touch, which gave the cue to their common policy, and was a ready reference for Members

of Parliament and others engaged in political questions. The Women's Suffrage Journal has preserved an unbroken record of every step of the movement for the twenty years during which it was carried on.

This year found the Committees in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Birmingham, established on a firm basis, while local Committees were springing up in many places, under the lead of some energetic worker, with a view to promoting local work in connection with the larger centres, to which they contributed many valuable permanent correspondents.

Some early pioneer workers were drawn off to the special provinces of women's progress with which they had been originally identified; thus Mrs. Bodichon and Miss Davies became absorbed in the foundation of Girton College; Miss Elizabeth Garrett in the pursuit of the medical career. But new recruits were not lacking, drawn in by the centripetal force of a movement, which in its turn gave out force to help every effort for opening the gates of enterprise and possibilities of public service for women.

It was a period marked by an intensity and unity of action then without a parallel amongst women-at least women in secular life. These hitherto had laboured in isolation, each leavening her own sphere of influence only: the period of associated action had now set in, bringing along with it new ties of friendship and common interest for the common good, between men and women as well as between women themselves.