Mr. Gladstone himself admitted that the Visiting Committee who had ordered it were guilty of a grave error of judgment and ordered the discharge of Miss Davison; but later on he addressed a letter to the officials of Strangeways Gaol through the Prison Commissioners expressing his appreciation of the way in which the medical officers had carried out their duties and commending "the efficiency of the prison service, the carefulness and good sense shown by the staff," and "the tact, care, humanity and firmness" with which the problem of the Suffragette imprisonments had been "handled by all concerned."
The other Manchester prisoners were obliged to complete their sentences, being forcibly fed during the whole time.
At this point the Government had an opportunity of learning the view of the electorate as to their treatment of the women, for a by-election was now taking place in Bermondsey and the Suffragettes were, as usual, actively opposing the Government candidate. In order that every elector might understand as far as possible what forcible feeding really meant, a pictorial poster showing the operation was displayed throughout the constituency and models representing forcible feeding were shown at the W. S. P. U. committee rooms. A manifesto against the Government was also issued by nine representative men, including Mr. Brailsford, Mr. Nevinson and Dr. Hugh Fenton, which urged the electors "in the name of chivalry and humanity as well as in the interests of true Liberalism to see to it that whatever else may happen at this particular election the Government candidate is left at the bottom of the poll." The Suffragettes worked, if possible, more vigorously than ever, and after the first three days of their campaign, Liberal workers came to them in despair, saying: "Why have you come down to boss our election?" The Suffragettes never go to Liberal meetings at election times, but the Liberal speakers were constantly being heckled by the men and women of Bermondsey as to the forcible feeding of the Suffragettes. The Suffragettes themselves were greeted with cheers and words of encouragement wherever they went. "All the policemen in this constituency are going to vote for you," one of the constables said, and others testified that they preferred to keep order at the women's meetings than at any other because "they talked sense." In the result the Liberal candidate was defeated and the Liberal poll was reduced by more than 1,400 votes. The figures were:
| Mr. Dumfries, Unionist | 4,278 |
| Mr. Spencer Leigh, Hugh, Liberal | 3,291 |
| Dr. Salter, Socialist | 1,435 |
| Unionist majority | 987 |
The figures at the last election had been:
| George J. Cooper, Liberal | 4,775 |
| H. J. Cockayne Cust, Conservative | 3,016 |
| Liberal majority | 1,759 |
On polling day an unlooked-for, and to the Women's Social and Political Union, unwelcome incident occurred. The Women's Freedom League endeavoured to render the election void, because they objected to any election being held at which women might not vote. The W. S. P. U. were against this, because their policy was to prove that the electors were prepared to defeat the Government candidate in order to show their belief in Votes for Women. The attempt of the Freedom League members to render the election void was carried out in the following manner. Two members of the League, Mrs. Chapin and Miss Allison Neilans, each entered a separate polling booth with a glass test tube filled with a solution of ink and photographic chemicals which had been carefully prepared to destroy the ballot papers without any risk of injury to any person who might happen to touch it. In each case the woman concerned broke the test tube by striking it on top of the ballot box so that the black liquid might fall into the slot. When this was done by Mrs. Chapin a Mr. Thorley rushed forward, and some of the black liquid splashed into his eye. In Miss Neilans' case a man stretched out his hand and some of the liquid fell upon it. In both cases the men asked if the stuff would burn, and were told it would do no harm if it were washed off at once. Miss Neilans' own hands and gloves were soaked with the fluid, but she suffered no harm. Only five papers were touched by the fluid and none of these were indecipherable.
A great outcry was raised, however, for it was declared that Mr. Thorley would be blind for life. For some time he went out wearing a black shade over his eye, but when he was called upon unexpectedly by some members of the Women's Freedom League, he was found to be without the shade and his eye appeared perfectly normal. The cases hung over for some time and eventually, on November 24th, Mrs. Chapin was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for interfering with the ballot box and four months for a common assault upon Mr. Thorley, the sentences to run concurrently; whilst Miss Neilans was ordered three months' imprisonment. After a time it leaked out that the slight injury from which Mr. Thorley had suffered, had been caused, not by the liquid which Mrs. Chapin had thrown, but by some ammonia which he had used to counteract any after-effects. Two days after Miss Neilans' release Mrs. Chapin was granted the King's Pardon.
On October 30th Mrs. Leigh was suddenly released from Birmingham Gaol, in a very critical state, though two months out of the four to which she had been sentenced still remained to run. She was at once removed to a nursing home.
November 9th was Lord Mayor's Day, and, as usual, the Lord Mayor had invited the Cabinet Ministers to a banquet in the Guild Hall. Knowing this, Miss Alice Paul, an American citizen, and Miss Amelia Brown disguised themselves as charwomen, and, carrying buckets and brushes, entered the building with the other cleaners at nine o'clock in the morning. There they hid themselves and waited until the evening, when they took their stand in the gallery outside the Banqueting Hall. When Mr. Asquith was about to speak, Miss Brown, having carefully selected a pane of the stained glass window upon which there was no ornament, and which she thought might be easily replaced, stooped down, took off her shoe and smashed the chosen pane in order that her shout of "Votes for Women" might be heard by those below. Miss Alice Paul also took up the cry. Both women were arrested and afterwards sent to prison for one month's hard labour on refusing to pay fines of £5 and damages of £2 ten shillings each. They were both forcibly fed and as a result of this Miss Brown was attacked with severe gastritis.