In 1870 the vote for the School Board, and eligibility thereto, was conferred upon them. Ancient rights allowed them to vote for Poor Law Guardians; and in 1888 they were allowed to vote for County Councillors. In 1893 they were made electors, and eligible for election on Parish District Councils.
Many Bills have been passed in their favour through the toil and energy of devoted women, and the co-operation of broad-minded men.
The Married Women’s Property Acts of 1870 and of 1882 have secured the earnings of industrious wives from the clutches of grasping or drunken husbands to a certain degree. A slight improvement has taken place in regard to the Custody of Infant Children. The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1884 took a step in the right direction, though sadly crippled by its overriding conditions. (See Mrs. Fawcett’s pamphlet on “The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1884.”)
Various other moral Bills have showed the woman’s spirit working behind the scenes in favour of justice and mercy and chastity.
And the famous Clitheroe case, in 1891, which sent back the Judge, through lack of Precedent, to the original Statutes to find a decision as to the imprisonment of a wife, bewildered the populace, and reduced the demand for wife-kicking boots.
Public Conscience is beginning to be awakened to the errors of its judgments in regard to women. The disproportionate awards of punishment to those who steal food when hungry, and those who maltreat their wives through tyranny, do not so often now arouse the indignation of those who read the Law Reports in newspapers.
Yet the tide has not been uniform in its motion. It is the way of waves to retire before and after a rise.
I forbear enlarging on the last great decision regarding women’s disabilities, by which the Judge, following the example of his predecessor in Rex v. Chardcroft, refused the electors of Brixton a right to elect Lady Sandhurst as County Councillor, and put another in her place that the majority of them had not elected; refused also to the County Councillors themselves their right of electing Miss Cons among their Aldermen. On May 16th, 1889, in the Queen’s Bench Division, was tried the case of Beresford-Hope v. Lady Sandhurst. The other candidates had given notice of objections to the Lady, but the Deputy disallowed these, studying only the Statute. There were 1986 votes recorded in favour of Lady Sandhurst, and 1686 in favour of Beresford-Hope, who appealed. It was allowed, that the office being new, there was no precedent to guide them; that the Municipal Act of 1882 had enacted that “for all purposes connected with the right to vote at municipal elections, words in this Act importing the masculine gender include women.” It was allowed that the Local Government Acts of 1888 contain no enactments against women.
One Judge stated that it was a new office, but that no woman had ever sat in a Municipal Corporation. That Anne Clifford was a solitary instance of a woman being Sheriff.[[23]] That it was necessary that a statute should give express permission to women to be elected, because Lord Brougham’s Act does not apply to this.
[23]. See “Ante,” pp. 43, 44.