§ 21. The First Bill. The Women's Suffrage Journal, in its first number, sent forth the note of preparation for a direct appeal to the House of Commons by means of a Bill for extending the franchise to women. Its opening article testifies to the store set at that time on petitions, and quotes a statement made on one occasion by Mr. Disraeli, when Chancellor of the Exchequer, that "there was no right really more valuable than the right of petition, nor could any opinion be more erroneous than that which supposed it to be a mere form. Because the petitions presented did not now lead to discussion, it was supposed that the House did not attend to them, but the fact was not so. Opinions expressed in petitions had great influence on the judgment of the House." At the time the journal started, 20,166 signatures had already been sent in, and by the end of the session of 1870 the total rose to 134,561, a number which was increased year by year for several years. Several meetings had already been held that year, which, though not distinguishable in character from hosts of meetings held in after years, have nevertheless that special interest which attaches to the early beginnings of great endeavours. The first resolution pledging support to the actually drafted Bill, was the annual meeting of the Edinburgh Women's Suffrage Society (in Queen Street Hall, 17th January), when Sir David Wedderburn, M.P., moved "that this meeting rejoice to learn that Mr. Jacob Bright and Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke have agreed to bring in a Bill, during the ensuing session of Parliament, to remove the electoral disabilities under which women now suffer, and this meeting resolve to use their utmost efforts to support the measure." Mr. Duncan M'Laren, M.P., presided at this meeting, which was also addressed by Mr. Jacob Bright, M.P., Prof. Calderwood, Prof. Masson, and several other gentlemen. A resolution of similar character was also carried (4th February) at a meeting in the Athenæum, Bristol, where Prof. F. W. Newman, Prof. Sheldon Amos and Mr. F. W. H. Myers, also Mr., now Judge, Norris took part. No ladies, it may be noted, took part in either of these meetings, which in that respect stand almost alone in the annals of the movement, for the ladies who threw themselves into this work knew well that the claim came most effectively when women came forward to ask it on behalf of other women; they felt, to use the words of the President of the Bristol and West of England Society, Viscountess Amberley, "that if there is anything unwomanly in the fact of urging on others that which we earnestly believe to be true, we had better never have had feelings, for feelings without action will be but a fetter and millstone round our necks."1 Mrs. Peter Taylor presided at a great meeting in the Hanover Square Rooms on March 20th, just after the Bill had been introduced into Parliament, when a resolution was carried-"That this meeting is of opinion that the extension of the franchise to women will tend to promote amongst them a more cogent sense of their special 1 Lecture in the Assembly Rooms, Stroud, 25th May 1870. This lecture was published in the Fortnightly Review, and afterwards reprinted as a pamphlet. duties as citizens, and of their general responsibilities as concerned with the advancement of the highest moral interest of the whole community." This was moved and seconded by Mr. J. S. Mill and Prof. Cairnes, supported by Mrs. George Grote, wife of the historian, who said she had never been engaged in any work in which her feelings were more completely seconded by her reason than this. She had always felt that the arguments against women's franchise were so feeble and limited and ineffective, that it was a wonder they were ever put forth. Another resolution, expressing satisfaction with the Bill, was moved with what, at this distance of time, may be termed prophetic appropriateness, by Mrs. Fawcett, who only three days before had made her first speech in public at the Town Hall, Brighton, where the largest audience hitherto seen in that hall had gathered to hear the wife of their newly elected member lecture on the electoral disabilities of women. In that lecture Mrs. Fawcett marshalled all the objections urged against the measure under thirteen heads, which to this day continue an exhaustive classification of the armoury of the opposition. The friends of the movement in Ireland were also alert, and on April 18th-thanks to the exertions of Miss J. A. Robertson-an influential gathering met in the Molesworth Hall, Dublin-Sir Robert Kane presiding-to hear a lecture from Mrs. Fawcett. Prof. Fawcett also took part, and much impetus was given to the petition work in Ireland. On May 4th the Bill "For the Removal of the Electoral Disabilities of Women came on for second |