This vote places the question of Women's Suffrage in a new phase, and its friends have only to continue to press it upon the attention of Parliament and the public in order to render it necessary at no distant date that it should be dealt with by the Government of the day. This has been the history of nearly all important measures of reform. They have very rarely been placed on the Statute Book by private members; but private members by repeatedly bringing a particular question before the House give the opportunity for its full consideration by Parliament and the country, so that in due time it takes its place as a Government measure. It will be the aim of the Union to put Women's Suffrage in this position, so that no Government, of whatever party, shall be able to touch questions relating to representation without at the same time removing the electoral disabilities of women.
The closer coalition that Autumn of all the Societies which make Women's Suffrage their sole object into a National Union was in itself a symptom of that new phase, and the combined Sub-Committee was now further modified into the Executive Committee of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
1898-1899.—The value of this second reading has been permanent notwithstanding that its progress through the next stage of going into Committee was thwarted by what even the Times described as an "undignified shuffle." The rule that Bills which have reached Committee stage before Whitsuntide should be taken on Wednesdays after Whitsuntide in their turn, so that if any one Bill is not finished on the day it is taken it is carried to the next, was so worked as to shut out the Women's Franchise Bill in 1899, and the rule which was meant to give equitable share to all was abused by purposely protracted talk over Bills which had no claim to such profuse attention.
This was the last opportunity that the pressure of the eventful years with which the century closed afforded for Parliamentary debate. The great meeting in Queen's Hall, London, June 29th, 1899, when the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies gave hearty welcome to their fellow-workers from all parts of the globe during the International Council of Women, remains the latest event of public significance.
The new House of Commons, 1901, includes 267 members who have voted in former Parliaments on the question of extending the Parliamentary Franchise to Women; of these 96 are opponents, 171 are supporters. One has continued to be a consistent opponent from the division on Mr. John Stuart Mill's amendment to the Reform Bill of 1867. Two have continued to be consistent supporters from the same division. Of members whose first time of voting dates from one or other of the numerous divisions which took place between the Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884, there still remain 20 opponents and 25 supporters. Of the members who recorded their vote for the first time on the question in the division on Sir Albert Rollit's Bill of 1892, there remain 24 opponents and 30 supporters. Of those whose first votes date from the division on Mr. Faithfull Begg's Bill in 1897, there remain 51 opponents and 114 supporters.
Thus the ratio of supporters gradually strengthens, and this notwithstanding the retirement of twice as many tried friends as of steady opponents. If to these considerations it is added that amongst the newly-elected members, for each one who is understood to be an opponent there are at least three understood to be friendly, it will be seen that the march of time strengthens the ranks of the Women's Suffrage cause in the House of Commons.
Amongst the supporters who have retired from Parliamentary life are three past leaders of the Women's Suffrage Bill, Mr. Leonard Courtney, Mr. Woodall and Mr. Faithfull Begg. Two past leaders now have seats in the Cabinet, Lord Selborne and Mr. George Wyndham. The Premier, Lord Salisbury, has been at all times a true friend; the leader of the House of Commons, the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, has voted and spoken in favor of the question in that body.
Mention has been made of the death of Miss Becker and of Miss Biggs. Miss Isabella M. S. Tod of Belfast, who passed away on December 8th, 1896, was a bright and leading spirit, in Ireland especially. In November, 1899, the Edinburgh Committee lost their much-loved Hon. Secretary, Miss Eliza Wigham, who had held that office for more than thirty years. In the same month Mr. Jacob Bright, who secured the Municipal Franchise for women, also passed away.
In Ireland the Local Government Act of 1898 gave fresh impetus to women's public work, and Mrs. Haslam, the veteran Hon. Secretary of the Dublin Women's Suffrage Society, for the past twenty-six years, still encourages the rising workers of today.