Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/939

Miss Becker, seconded by the venerable Arch-deacon Sandford, and supported by Mr. T. B. Potter, M. P.:

Resolved, That the exclusion of women from the exercise of the franchise in the election of members, being unjust in principle and inexpedient in practice, this meeting is of opinion that the right of voting should be granted to them on the same conditions as it is or may be granted to men.

The other resolutions were spoken to by Dr. Pankhurst, Mrs. Pochin (who had also written a very exhaustive pamphlet on "The Claim of Woman to the Elective Franchise," signed, Justitia), Mr. Chisholm Anstey, Mr. Jacob Bright, M. P., Miss Annie Robertson of Dublin, Mr. F. W. Myers, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Mr. J. W. Edwards. This meeting, and the one which followed in Birmingham, May 6, are fair types of those which have followed by thousands. With few exceptions they have been addressed by men and women jointly; the resolutions passed have generally been of a directly practical and political character. They have been presided over, whenever possible, by the chief magistrate, or some other well-known man in the locality; in comparatively few cases have women presided, and very seldom, indeed, strangers. Thus they have been modeled closely on the ordinary English political meeting; and this form, quite apart from the principles discussed at the meetings, has done much to identify women's suffrage with the practical politics of the day. The first meeting ever held in London (July, 1869,) excited much attention. Admittance here was by ticket. Mrs. Peter A. Taylor took the chair; Miss Biggs read the report, and a noble array of speakers followed.^[1]

The principle of women's suffrage was unhesitatingly conceded by the passing of the Municipal Amendment act of 1869. The time was come to demand its application in parliamentary elections. Moreover, the decision of the Court of Common Pleas had left no mode of action possible except for parliament to reverse that decision. Mr. Jacob Bright, therefore, on the first day of the session gave notice of his intention to introduce a bill to remove the electoral disabilities of women. Sir Charles Dilke, a Liberal, and Mr. E. B. Eastwick, a Conservative, also gave their names on the back of the bill

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1. Mr. Thomas Hare, Mr. Boyd Kinnear, Mr. Mill, who was no longer in parliament, the Rev. Charles Kingsley (this was the first and only meeting at which he was present), Prof. Fawcett, M. P. and Mrs. Fawcett, Lord Houghton, Mr. John Morley, Sir Charles W. Dilke, Bt. M. P., Mr. P. A. Taylor, M. P., Professor Masson of Edinburgh, and Mr. Stamfeld, M. P.