they are lessened in proportion as that separation is minimized. Who can say how much the standard of respect for women is lowered, for those who make the law their standard of right and wrong, by the fact that they are stamped by law as unworthy of the elementary right of citizenship, which men hold so dear. Do some still say: women have gained so much without having votes; they really ought to be content? Then it is because they have not yet learned how insecure is every gain which has been won by those who are unrepresented. To bid women rest content with anything short of direct representation, is to bid them plant their feet on shifting sand rather than on solid ground. § 49. The Enduring Claim. Parliament has changed the qualifications for electors; women have widened their public activities; the opposition has changed its standpoint. But the claim itself remains unchanged, in all except the cumulative force that comes of persistent endeavour carried on through an entire generation. Men and women immersed in the calls of the moment, be it calls of study, of pleasure, or of bread-winning, to such a degree as to have no thought beyond effects, do not care, nor ever will care about the vote. But those whose thoughts travel beyond effects and search out causes desire it; and it is those who link cause with effect who make the world move on. That the claim should be most insistent in lands peopled by the Anglo-Saxon race is no accidental cir cumstance, but an inevitable result of the historical evolution of a race which, let it be remembered, at the time when it first fell under the influence of Christianity-the only form of faith which teaches the equal value of every human soul-still retained that freer life for women which marks the earliest civilizations of all Aryan peoples. A race for whom the life of walled cities was unknown; one which had not developed that rigid division of labour and hard and fast juridical systems which accompany the life of walled cities. A race which has worked out its faith along lines of Christian teaching that encourage independence of thought, and has worked out its political institutions on the lines of looking to the judgment of each to bear on the common concerns of all. Such a race is carrying on its own highest traditions to an harmonious development by trusting both halves of the community to acquire the sign and symbol of citizenship. Looked at thus from its wider bearings, the movement for the enfranchisement of women stands out as part of the stream of human endeavour towards that greatest power of the greatest number, which, when all is said, furnishes the best test of the worth of all human laws and institutions. SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. COLONIAL PROGRESS. § 50. A General Survey. THE story of the Women's Suffrage movement at home scarcely seems complete without some record, however brief, of the kindred movement, developed under many diversities of conditions in Britain beyond the seas, and presenting various stages from nebulous hopes to actual achievement. To begin with those Colonies where achievement has been reached. New Zealand stands out first, as earliest in the effort and earliest in its attainment. In New Zealand, as at home, the influence of John Stuart Mill made its mark, for the first presentment of the idea in that Colony appears to have been in articles and pamphlets by a correspondent of Mr. J. S. Mill, Mrs. Mary Muller.1 Neither can it be forgotten that the two Colonies in which this reform has just been carried, both came very directly under the influence of the statesman who left so deep a mark on our Colonial 1 See New Zealand White Ribbon (Christchurch), edited by Mrs. Kate W. Sheppard. |