Mr. Snowden, winding up the debate for the promoters of the Bill, replied to Mr. Lloyd George's challenge. He said: "We will withdraw this Bill, if the Right Hon. gentleman on behalf of the Government or the Prime Minister himself, will undertake to give to this House the opportunity of discussing and carrying through its various stages another form of franchise Bill. If we cannot get that, then we shall prosecute this Bill." Mr. Lloyd George and the other members of the Government sat silent. They well knew the difficulties under which the Conciliation Committee laboured, and they knew, too, that the women were striving at great cost and sacrifice to obtain for their sex the largest possible measure of representation; but with the power to speedily bring the matter to a satisfactory conclusion, they preferred to hamper the efforts of both with obstructive criticism. As Mr. Snowden aptly put it:
"It would pass the wit of man to put that principle into a Bill which would meet with the approval of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Home Secretary."
Mr. Balfour, Mr. Haldane, and Mr. Runciman were amongst those who spoke in support of the Bill, but the two Ministers urged that it should not be allowed to pass to one of the standing Committees.
After thirty-nine speeches had been delivered the division was taken. The Second Reading was then found to have been carried by 299 votes to 190, giving a favourable majority of 109, a majority larger than that cast during the Parliament for any measure and even for the Government's vaunted Budget and House of Lords Resolutions.
A division was next taken on a resolution to refer the Bill to a Committee of the Whole House. The anti-Suffragists, in the hope of shelving the Bill, those who feared to anger the Government and those who genuinely believed that so important a measure should be considered by the Whole House in each of its stages combined to carry this resolution by 320 votes to 175.
The question was now whether the Government would allow the few days necessary for the Committee and other final stages. Practically all other important legislative work was hanging fire because of the deadlock in regard to the House of Lords controversy. The Conference between the leaders of the Conservative and Liberal parties, which, after King Edward's death, had been set up to discuss this matter, was still sitting and until its deliberations were at end no progress towards a settlement would be made. Therefore for the moment Parliament had plenty of time on its hands, and urgent pressure was brought upon the Government to give out of this abundance to the Women's Bill.
On July 17th the Men's Political Union for Women's Suffrage, the Men's League for Women's Suffrage and the Conciliation Committee held a joint meeting in Hyde Park, in support of the Bill. On July 23rd, the Anniversary of the day in 1867 on which the pulling down of the Hyde Park Railings won the vote for the working men in the towns, the Women's Social and Political Union held another great demonstration there for which a space of half a square mile was specially cleared. There were forty platforms, many societies co-operated and two fine processions—one from the East and the other from the West—marched to the meeting. The older Suffragists had also demonstrated in Trafalgar Square, but on the very day of the W. S. P. U.'s big Hyde Park meeting the Prime Minister wrote to Lord Lytton refusing to allow any further time for the Bill that session.
But Parliament was to meet again in the Autumn. It was still hoped that the Government might concede the time then. Resolutions urging them to do so were sent in from numbers of popularly elected bodies including the Corporations of Manchester, Liverpool, Bradford, Nottingham, Glasgow, Dundee, Dublin, Cork, and thirty others.
There were signs that the truce of the militants, which had lasted for nine months, would soon be at an end. This time it was men friends to the cause who gave the first warning. On October 17th young Mr. Victor Duval, now secretary of the Men's Political Union for Women's Suffrage was arrested for seizing Mr. Lloyd George by the lapel of his coat and rebuking him for his hostility to the Women's Bill as he passed into the City Temple where he was to speak. Mr. George Jacobs, an elderly man saw that the police were treating Duval roughly and called out to them, "Do not hurt him." He also was arrested and both men were imprisoned for a week.
Mr. Lloyd George had been speaking against the Conciliation Bill in Wales, and numbers of Welsh women Liberals plainly showed their disapproval of his action. The women constituents of several other Cabinet Ministers were pressing to be received in deputation, and in view of the General Election they could scarcely be denied. On October 27th, Mr. Asquith consented to see the women of East Fife. He told them that facilities could not be granted before the close of the year and even when asked what of next year he merely answered, "Wait and see." Other Ministers seconded him. They were all agreed in refusing to allow the Bill to pass into law that year.