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apparently in favour of the principle. Thus there was much justification for the bright hopefulness with which the leading article of the Women's Suffrage Journal concludes: "We have but to persevere in our efforts in order to reap a speedy reward, and we may look forward with a reasonable hope that the moral victory of last month will be converted into a numerical victory when next Mr. Jacob Bright asks the assent of the House of Commons to the second reading of the Women's Disabilities Bill."

"The hopes expressed in our letters in those days would read idiotic now," said one of the "old gang," in this year 1900. But, ah! no. Not so it is as true for the life of a cause, as for the life of a soul, that:

". . . . tasks in hours of insight will'd
Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled."

§ 23. The Session of 1872-Formation of Central

Committee.

The encouragement to the suffrage party in 1871 naturally aroused extra exertions on the part of the opponents in the following session. A whip was sent round.

"Women's Suffrage.-You are earnestly requested to be in the House on Wednesday, May 1st, not later than four o'clock, to vote against the second reading of the Women's Suffrage Bill. Division certain.

"E. P. BOUVERIE.

"A. J. BERESFORD HOPE.

J. H. SCOURFIELD.

HENRY JAMES."

This whip told with more instant effect on doubtful votes than all the 330,000 signatures of men and women, from all parts of the United Kingdom, who petitioned for the passing of the Bill, and than all the one hundred and fifty meetings that had been held during the previous winter and spring. Even then the list of supporters was longer than that of 1871; for though, as will be seen by the Parliamentary chart, the figures of the division were less favourable, the addition of eighteen pairs brought the total of friendly members to the increased total of 160.

Turning from Parliament to the work outside, the most important sign of progress was the formation, in 1872, of a Central Committee in London, in accordance with the wish expressed by Mr. Jacob Bright at a Conference of Friends of Women's Suffrage, in the Mayor's Parlour, Manchester, in the previous November. At that Conference Mr. Bright had said: "Any Member of Parlia ment who has a Bill before the House, especially if it be for a popular object, knows very well how important it is to have an energetic support from the country; and during the last session of Parliament, when I was looking forward to the second reading of the Women's Disabilities Bill, I felt strongly the want of a body in London, representing all the various Associations, which could produce some agitation there, and take the various means which we know are taken to influence members. Well, this was very difficult, as there was no Central Association. There was a London Committee, a Manchester Committee, a Dublin Committee, a Bristol Committee, and so on; but there was no Association

representing all these Committees, and therefore there was no one, as it were, to arrange anything, or to adopt such political action as was necessary at the time. Yet, in spite of this difficulty, a very influential Conference was called in London, largely attended by ladies, and chiefly addressed by ladies; and the members of this Conference, being in London, used what influence they could with such Members of Parliament as they knew. All that was very important, and I have no doubt whatever that the number of those who voted for the second reading of the Bill was increased by the action which was then taken. What we want now is, if possible, to have a standing Central Committee. The object of this Committee is solely that we may, as it were, pour all our divergent streams into it for particular work on particular occasions; and I must say that, having this Bill in hand in the House of Commons, I have greatly felt the necessity of such an organization; and I doubt very much whether we shall ever succeed in this cause until we unite our forces in that way for the particular objects to which I have referred."

The proposal met with approval from the provincial Societies-only the London dissented. This they did for reasons which they thus expressed in a circular to their members: "We hold it to be important that no person conspicuously engaged, either as officer or as lecturer, in some other agitations now proceeding, to which we will not further allude, should hold any conspicuous place in the movement for Women's Suffrage." The fear was not entirely without groundwork, as the names of the provisional honorary secretaries of the pro

posed Central Committee were conspicuously associated with another agitation. At the same time the fear was needless, for the leaders of the Women's Suffrage policy were all fully conscious of the importance, not to say necessity, of keeping the Women's Suffrage agitation on its own distinct and separate basis. The circular just quoted disclaimed any unfriendly or personal feeling in the matter; "but we have arrived deliberately at the opinion that it would be better that two Committees should co-exist than that one only should exist, exposed to the reasonable dissatisfaction of those friends of Women's Suffrage strongly opposed to some other movements now on foot: inasmuch as, if there existed no executive body entirely disconnected with those other movements, many friends of Women's Suffrage might find themselves compelled to withdraw their support."

Accordingly, for a while, two Societies worked in London. The Central Committee, which was formally constituted at a meeting at the Langham Hotel on January 17th, took an office at 9 Berners Street, in the premises of the Berners Club for Ladies - the then solitary forerunner of the now numerous women's clubs. The "Old London" continued its separate existence for a few years-Mrs. Wm. Burbury acting as honorary secretary. It did some useful local work, chiefly by lectures; but in 1877, by the good offices of Mr. Leonard Courtney, it amalgamated with the Central Society, the objections felt by its members having disappeared with the lapse of time.

§ 24. Work for the Bill.

In December a Conference was held in Birmingham, attended by delegates from all the Women's Suffrage Societies, as well as by an influential contingent of supporters in Birmingham. Mrs. Robert Feast-who, as Miss Johnson, had been the first Secretary of the Birmingham Committee-presided. A paper was read by Mrs. Arthur Arnold on the general claim of women, followed by one from Miss Becker on 'The Future of the Women's Suffrage Movement," showing the position, under the three aspects, of:-the alterations in the legal and social position of women which would be effected by the possession of the franchise; the probable course of the movement in the longer or shorter time that must elapse before the Bill became law; the course to be adopted in the immediate future. Under this last head their object must be worked for in four distinct directions: the Government, the opposition, the House of Commons, and the country. The paper then went on to discuss practical suggestions for work in each of these directions, and concluded by indicating the political possibilities on the then horizon in words which gave the cue to the work and hopes of the next ten years.

"There are rumours abroad of the prospect of a new Reform Bill, the main provision of which is to be the extension of the principle of household suffrage to the counties. In anticipation of such a Bill various political societies are holding meetings and framing resolutions pressing upon the Government the desirability of such a proposal. I suggest that an earnest effort should be made to

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