signatures. Among these were many who in after years took a prominent part, not only in suffrage, but in other movements for the elevation of women. The petition was presented by Mr. Mill in May, 1866, and was received with laughter. He then gave notice of a motion to introduce into the Reform bill a provision to the same effect. The committee [1] immediately began to circulate petitions and pamphlets. Two of these were by Mrs. Bodichon, "Reasons for, and Objections against the Enfranchisement of Women," being the substance of a paper she had read at the Social Science Congress, in October, 1866. We give the text of the petition, as it differed somewhat from those circulated in after years:
To the Honorable, the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled:
The humble petition of the undersigned,—showeth, That your petitioners fulfill the conditions of property or rental prescribed by law as the qualification of the electoral franchise, and exercise in their own names the rights pertaining to such conditions; that the principles in which the government of the United Kingdom is based, imply the representation of all classes and interests in the State; that the reasons alleged for withholding the franchise from certain classes of her majesty's subjects do not apply to your petitioners. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray your honorable House to grant to such persons as fulfill all the conditions which entitle to a vote in the election of members of parliament, excepting only that of sex, the privilege of taking part in the choice of fit persons to represent the people in your honorable House.
This form of petition was only signed by unmarried women and widows of full age, holding the legal qualification for voting in either county or borough, but there were other forms for other classes of persons. On March 28, the Right Hon. H. A. Bruce presented a petition from 3,559 persons, mostly women. Mr. Mill, in April, presented one with 3,161 names collected by the Manchester committee, and the Right Hon. Russell Gurney one signed by 1,605 qualified women, i. e., free-holders and house
- ↑ The committee as at first formed, consisted of the following persons: The very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury, Dr. Alford, Miss Jessie Boucherett, Professor Cairnes, Rev. W. L. Clay, Miss Davies, the originator of Girton College, Lady Goldsmid, Mr. G. W. Hastings, Mr. James Weywood, Mrs. Knox, Miss Manning, and Mrs, Hensleigh Wedgwood. Mrs. Peter A. Taylor -was treasurer, and Mrs. J. W. Smith, nee Miss Garrett, honorary secretary. A few months later "Mrs. Smith's death left this post vacant, and Mrs. P. A. Taylor then assumed the office of secretary which she retained with the aid of Miss Caroline Ashurst Biggs till 1871. No one else could have wendered such services to our movement while it was in its infancy as Mrs. Taylor gave. Her gentle and dignified presence, her untiring energy, the experience of organization and public life which she already possessed, her influence with an extended circle of friends chosen from among the most liberal thinkers of the nation, secured at once attention and respect for any cause she took up. Many years before she had worked hard for the association of the Friends of Italy, and on the breaking out of the American civil war her sympathies and practical knowledge led her to found a society for assisting the freedmen. In acknowledgment of the invaluable assistance she rendered, her friends in America sent a book containing a complete set of photographs of all the chief anti-slavery workers. When she began her efforts for women's suffrage, the English Abolitionists were among the first correspondents to whom she applied, and they nearly all responded cordially. For years her house, Aubrey House, Kensington, was the centre of the London organization to which she gave her time, strength, and money, well earning the title of "Mother of the Movement," which loving friends have since bestowed.
