Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/958

This is, from whatever cause, a very Common phenomenon in our political history. A movement which began with the promise of sweeping all before it, seems to lose all its force, and is supposed by many observers to be now only the care of a few earnest and fanatical men. Suddenly it is taken up by a minister of commanding influence, and the bore or the crotchet of one parliament is the great party controversy of a second, and the accomplished triumph of a third.

During the year of 1879, it was thought desirable to ascertain by some practical test what were the various reasons which caused thinking women to wish for the suffrage; and letters were addressed to ladies who were eminent either in literature or art, or who were following scientific or professional careers, or were engaged in any form of philanthropic work. The answers that were returned were collected into a pamphlet of exceeding interest, which was sent to each member before the debate, and it was amazing to watch from the gallery how the little green pamphlet was consulted and quoted from, in the most opposite quarters of the House, by friends who sought fresh arguments from it or by enemies who were looking for some sentence on which to base a sarcasm.^[1]

As a specimen of these letters Miss Frances Power Cobbe said:

So far from the truth is the reiterated statement of certain honorable members of parliament that women do not desire the franchise, that in my large experience I have scarcely ever known a woman possessed of ordinary common sense, and who had lived some years alone in the world, who did not earnestly wish for it. The women who gratify these gentlemen by smilingly deprecating any such responsibilities, are those who have dwelt since they were born in well-feathered nests, and have never needed to do anything but open their soft beaks for the choicest little grubs to be dropped into them. It is utterly absurd (and I am afraid the members of parliament in question are quite aware they are talking nonsense) to argue from the contented squawks of a brood of these callow

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1. First in the list came six ladies, members of school-boards: Mrs. Buckton of Leeds, Miss Helena Richardson of Bristol, Mrs. Surr, Mrs. Westlake, Mrs. Fenwick Miller and Miss Helen Taylor, London; then followed the opinions of ladies who were guardians of the poor. Forty ladies known as authoresses or painters came next on the list; among these were Mrs. Allingham, Mrs. Cowden Clarke, Mrs. Eiloart, Mary Howitt, Emily Pfeiffer, Augusta Webster, Women doctors came next: Dr. Garrett Anderson, Dr. Annie Barker, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, Dr. Eliza Dunbar, Dr. Frances Hoggan, Dr. Edith Pechey; and next to the doctors came Miss Eliza Orme, the only woman who was successfully practicing law. The section of education included the names of Mrs. Wm. Gray, and her sister, Miss Shirreff, Mrs. Nichol (Edinburgh), Miss Emily Davies, founder of Girton College, Miss Byers, founder of the Ladies' Collegiate School, Belfast, Mrs. Crawshay and Miss Mary Gurney. Nineteen ladies, the heads of women's colleges and high-schools, next gave their reasons why they desired the suffrage. After these came ladies engaged in philanthropic work, which included the sisters Rosamund and Florence Davenport Hill, Florence Nightingale, Miss Ellice Hopkins, eminent for rescue work; Miss Irby, well-known for her efforts among the starving Bosnian fugitives; Miss Manning, secretary of the National Indian Association; Mrs. Southey, secretary of the Women's Peace Association; Mrs. Lucas, and Mrs. Edward Parker, president and secretary of the British Women's Temperance Society. The opinions were various, both in kind and in length, some being only a confession of faith in a couple of lines, others a page of able reasoning.