When Mrs. Pankhurst and her comrades were brought up at Westminster Police Court before Mr. Horace Smith, next day, it was found that the authorities, who were perhaps disappointed at the way in which their challenge had been accepted, had changed their minds and instead of prosecuting the women as they had threatened under the Charles II Act, had decided to revert to the old method of stigmatising the whole affair as a mere vulgar brawl with the Police. Probably thinking the true facts would arouse too much public sympathy, the prosecution put forward as evidence an absolute tissue of falsehood, in which it was stated that the deputation had set out from the Caxton Hall singing and shouting in the noisiest manner and that they had knocked off the helmets of the police and had assaulted them right and left. As we have seen everything had been done most quietly, and Mrs. Pankhurst herself had carefully complied with every order from the police short of abandoning her intention to reach the House of Commons. Our rebutting evidence was disregarded and Mrs. Pankhurst's own statement in the dock was cut short by Mr. Horace Smith's saying, "I have nothing to do with that. It only amounts to another threat to break the law, and it is in no way relevant here. You, like the others, must find sureties in £20 for twelve months' good behaviour or be imprisoned for six weeks in the Second Division."
Then as usual the women were hurried off in the van to prison, the Holloway gates were closed upon them, and the Government settled down to forget them as far as it could until next time.
February 28th was the day for the discussion of the Women's Enfranchisement Bill, in moving its second reading, Mr. H. Y. Stanger, whilst he carefully dissociated himself from the methods of the Suffragettes, reminded the House that, if in the course of a political agitation, excesses were committed, the authorities should search for the cause of the discontent and apply an appropriate remedy. Mr. Cathcart Wason, another Liberal member, but an anti-Suffragist, declared on the other hand that the Suffragette movement was founded on riot, and that the House should not "yield to clamour"; yet with an entire lack of consistency, he went on to extol physical force, saying that because in his opinion women could make no contribution to this, they ought not to be allowed to vote. Evidently he forgot that, whilst the whole trend of civilisation has been in the direction of mental rather than physical dominance, in the age when physical force was the governing power, women were actually members of the legislature and, that they retained the right to vote for Members of Parliament throughout the ages when its possession was looked upon as a burden and until, having become a privilege, it was wrested from them. But all this talk was mere word spinning. It was a pronouncement from the Government benches, that was eagerly awaited. As last time, it was Mr. Herbert Gladstone who spoke, and for the Ministry, and he soon disclosed the fact that the Government was still determined to make no move. It was the old story of opposition in the Cabinet and the old excuse that no party in the House was united either for or against the question. As for the Bill he himself intended to vote for it, for, he said, making an important admission which his colleagues might well have taken to heart, "It may be imperfect, but at any rate it removes a disqualification and an inequality which have been for so long a deep source of complaint with great masses of the people of this country." Then Mr. Gladstone went on to make some very remarkable statements, of which both he and the Government were afterwards to be reminded. He said amongst other things:
Men have had to struggle for centuries for their political rights.... On the question of Women's Suffrage, experience shows that predominance of argument alone—and I believe that that has been attained—is not enough to win the political day.
In any reform movement, he went on to explain, various stages had to be gone through; first there was the stage of "academic discussion," and the ventilation of "pious opinions" unaccompanied by "effective action," but after this, he continued, becoming perhaps a little carried away by his own words;
Comes the time when political dynamics are far more important than political argument. You have to move a great inert mass of opinion which, in the early stages, always exists in the country in regard to questions of the first magnitude.... Men have learned this lesson and know the necessity for demonstrating the greatness of their movement and for establishing that force majeure which actuates and arms a Government for effective work. That is the task before the supporters of this great movement.... Looking back at the great political crises in the thirties, the sixties and the eighties, it will be found that people did not go about in small crowds, nor were they content with enthusiastic meetings in large halls; they assembled in their tens of thousands all over the country.
"But," said Mr. Gladstone, "of course it is not to be expected that women can assemble in such masses," but, "power belongs to the masses and through this power a Government can be influenced into more effective action than a Government will be likely to take under present conditions."
Mr. Rees (Liberal) then made an attempt to talk out this Bill as he had done that of Mr. Dickinson the year before, and, after firing off all the jokes that he could think of, he fell back upon the Scriptures, saying, "Jerusalem is ruined and Judah has fallen. As for my people, children are their oppressors and women rule over them.... Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched-forth necks, therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion and in that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments."
But at this point he was interrupted by Lord Robert Cecil who moved the closure of the debate, and, on the Speaker's accepting the motion and its being agreed to without a division, a vote was taken upon the Bill itself, in which 271 members voted for the Bill and only ninety-two against. There was therefore a favourable majority of 179, the largest that had ever been cast in support of Women's Suffrage.