CHAPTER VIII.
THE TURN OF THE TIDE.
1868-1894.
“Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.”
It was not only the seven thousand women from Manchester and Salford who were disappointed in the results of their appeal. Women began on all sides to analyse the grounds of the judgment, and to take steps towards counteracting its baneful influence. An ever-increasing body of generous-hearted or far-seeing men joined their party, and worked with, and for them, both within and without the House of Commons. Meeting after meeting has spread enthusiasm. Petition after Petition has been presented. Bill after Bill has been brought forward. Amendment after Amendment has been proposed hitherto without success. As Mr. Stuart, M.P., once wittily said at a public meeting, “Petitions sent up by the Unrepresented, are like Bell-handles rung outside of a door, that have no bell attached at the other end. They occupy the attention of those outside of the house, but do not disturb those that are within.” The strongest plea has been taken from women. By the extension of the Franchise in 1884, the Service Clause disallowed the doctrine that taxation was the qualification for representation, and reversed the prime reason of members being first called to the House in the reign of Hen. III. If women had felt it hard that their payment of taxes had not been sufficient to purchase their right of representation, they felt it harder that their payment of taxes, invalid and inoperative as regards themselves, was valid and operative as providing the qualification of their male servants, that, in short, the qualification had been altered fundamentally. Yet some good has come out of the evil. It has provided a reductio ad absurdum.
It has made women see clearly that no qualification, but that of sex, lies in the modern readings of the Statutes. They cannot alter the sex, but they may alter the Basis of Privilege. Such things have been done ere now. Ripe scholars in Mathematics have been excluded the Universities because they could not subscribe to the articles of the English Church. Political Economists have been excluded the House of Commons because they were of Jewish descent. These disabilities have been removed for men. The disabilities of sex must ere long be removed for women.
Progress has been very rapid since 1868.—The “woman’s question” no longer provokes somnolence nor awakes mirth: it is treated as a question of gravity. The publication of John Stuart Mills’ “Subjection of Women,” in 1869, educated many minds. The humorous treatment of the question in Fraser’s Magazine in the article entitled, “Latest News from the Planet Venus,” where logical objections against Male Enfranchisement are supposed to be urged by women, taught others that there were two sides to the principles of exclusion, and that those against the Enfranchisement of men, were, to say the least of it, quite as valid, as any that have ever been brought against the Liberty of Women. Many other interesting volumes and articles have been written, making the views of women known.
Women have begun to speak for themselves, and to speak clearly—with no uncertain sound.
No new elucidation of the 1867 Charter has taken place except one very remarkable one. “If a woman’s name were to get on an election list by mistake, and she afterwards tenders her vote, that vote must be accepted” (see “Warren on Election Law”). The humour of the remark is great. As by the mistakes of some men women lost their rights, by a further masculine mistake they may regain them. Is this what it imports? If not, what?
The 1868 Decision threw back civilisation theoretically 2000 years. But it necessitated opposition. One clear sign of this effect was given in 1869 when Mr. Jacob Bright moved a resolution in the House that women should vote in Municipal affairs, and it was adopted almost without discussion. The Bill was modified, but reconfirmed in 1882. The right has been exercised by women since that time without any overturning of the social fabric.