The Suffragette: The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement, 1905-1910

by E. Sylvia Pankhurst

In the Women's Parliament it was the more serious side of the case that appealed to us. We saw that the Government were preparing still further to resist our just and moderate demands, and rather than concede them were even ready to revive ancient coercive Statutes which the customs and principles of modern times had caused to fall into disuse. This Act of Charles II, with which they had threatened us, had originally been passed to obstruct the growth of the Liberal Party, which first came into existence in Stuart times. It was the political descendants of those very Liberals who would now use this coercive Statute against their countrywomen. Well might Christabel Pankhurst ask in the Women's Parliament, "What would have been said if a Tory Government had done this thing?" "This takes us back to stirring times, ladies," she told the women. "At last it is realised that women are fighting for freedom as their fathers fought.... If they want twelve women, aye, and more than twelve, if a hundred women are wanted to be tried under that Act and to be sent to prison for three months they can be found."

There was no militant demonstration on that day, but everyone knew that something more was to happen, and on Thursday afternoon, the 13th of February, when the Women's Parliament met for its concluding session, a feeling of most extraordinary excitement prevailed. Mrs. Pankhurst had just returned from the by-election at South Leeds, and the audience listened eagerly to her account of the campaign, and especially to the story of the torchlight procession and the wonderful meeting of 100,000 people on Hunslett Moor. In spite of the fact that police protection had been refused at the last moment, there had been no disorder, only sympathy and enthusiasm all along the route, whilst the vast crowds that parted to let the procession through had joined on to it and added to its numbers from behind, and some of the women had constantly called out in broad Yorkshire: "Shall us have the vote?" to be answered by others with cries of "we shall."

I have come to London, Mrs. Pankhurst concluded, feeling, as I have never felt before, the seriousness of this struggle. I feel that the time has come when I must act, and I wish to volunteer to be one of those to carry our Resolution to Parliament this afternoon. My experience in the country and especially in South Leeds has taught me things that Cabinet Ministers who have not that experience do not know, and has made me feel that I must make one final attempt to see them and to urge them to reconsider their position before some terrible disaster has occurred.

Then, amid some emotional excitement and cries of "Mrs Pankhurst must not go," "We cannot spare our leader"—cries which were calmly set aside by practical business-like Christabel, who announced that the deputation was definitely chosen and that its thirteen members were all prepared to be arrested and tried under the Charles II Act—the Resolution was carried and Mrs. Pankhurst, Annie Kenney, and eleven other women marched out of the hall, whilst almost the whole of the audience flocked into the corridor and stood around the doorway to watch them go.

Mrs. Pankhurst had been lamed in the cowardly attack that had been made upon her at Mid-Devon, and had not yet recovered. Seeing this Mrs. Drummond ran forward to get a conveyance. She saw none for hire, but called to a man in a private dog-cart and asked him if he would drive Mrs. Pankhurst to the House of Commons. He agreed, and the other women formed up on foot behind the vehicle two and two abreast. The police were already massed around in great force and the little procession had moved but a few slow steps when a Police Inspector came forward and insisted that Mrs. Pankhurst should dismount. She instantly obeyed the order, signing to her companions not to protest. The twelve women of the deputation at the same time hurried forward to re-form in double line behind their leader, but the Inspector and his men dragged them apart. Then the deputation, hemmed in by men, women and police on every side, proceeded in single file as far as Chapel Street. There the Inspector said they must not walk in procession. They therefore broke into twos and threes, but when they came to the entrance of Victoria Street the police entirely barred the way, and it was only after a considerable struggle that they were able to gain the main thoroughfare. There a vast concourse of people had assembled and right in the midst of it one saw Mrs. Pankhurst wearing a long loose cloak whose light grey colour made her figure stand out from the darkly clad men around. She came forward with Mrs. Baldock clinging to her arm, and tall, pretty, smiling young Gladice Keevil, her face a little flushed and her soft hair blowing a little in the wind, walking on the other side, and with the great crowd following and filling the whole street around.

Scattered amongst the people behind and moving forward either singly or in twos, the rest of the deputation followed. Close to Westminster Palace Hotel Mrs. Pankhurst, who up to this point had followed in the wake of a Police Inspector and carefully obeyed all the instructions of the police, was arrested and taken through Parliament Square on the side furthest from the House in the strong grip of two burly policemen. Clad in her heavy travelling cloak, her face had grown white with exhaustion, and she was evidently in pain, but no heed was paid to her lameness, and she was hurried along at a brisk trot, and at last disappeared down the narrow lane at the top of Bridge Street which leads to Canon Row Police Station. Mrs. Baldock and Gladice Keevil, who had refused to leave her, had for this cause been arrested and almost immediately afterwards Annie Kenney was also taken into custody. Later on the same fate befell Mrs. Kerwood of Birmingham and five others, some of whom were not members of the deputation.

Whilst this was happening, the Women's Parliament was still in session, and every now and then someone returned from the battle to describe how events were going. Before the meeting closed our ever thoughtful Treasurer, Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, urged all not on the fighting line to subscribe to the war chest. More than £400 had been raised when the prisoners came back to us on bail at the rising of Parliament.

Mrs. Pankhurst carrying a petition from the Third Women's Parliament to the Prime Minister on February 13th, 1908

In the House of Commons itself the Government's hostile attitude towards the Suffragettes was raised as a matter of urgency on the motion for the adjournment, by Sir William Bull, the Unionist member for Hammersmith, who showed genuine concern at the news of Mrs. Pankhurst's arrest. Other members of the same Party followed by jeering at the Government for the marked difference between their treatment of the Suffragist women and the men who had been arrested for cattle driving and similar offences in Ireland. Why was Mr. Ginnell, the Nationalist Member for Westmeath, to receive the privileges of a first class misdemeanant, they asked, whilst Mrs. Pankhurst and her comrades were to be treated as ordinary criminals. Lord Robert Cecil raised a laugh against the President of the Local Government Board, by pointing out that when he, Mr. John Burns, had been in prison for inciting to riot, the Government of the day had intervened to secure preferential treatment for him. In reply to all this Mr. Gladstone refused to take any action, saying that the women could come out of prison whenever they liked.