George's Hall, Bradford, on November 22, and here again Mrs. McLaren took the chair, and said:
We are here to-night in the spirit of self-sacrifice. We have had our sorrows in working on this question. We are here because we know there are on our statute books unjust laws which subject many women to sorrow and suffering, and the fact that we have worked our way to such a platform proves that women are capable of holding a political position, and ought to have a voice in our national affairs. We cannot rest contented under the consciousness of injustice because there are women who accept it as their natural condition. We feel it our duty to arouse our sex everywhere to a sense of their high destiny. The inspiration for this work has come from a higher source than ourselves, and we have had often to feel that God does not leave his children to fight their battles alone.
In 1882 there were two more demonstrations. The first was in Albert Hall, Sheffield, on February 27, Lady Harberton presiding, and it was crowded to overflowing with women of all ranks and conditions of society. The demonstration at Glasgow was on November 3, and no way inferior to the other in brilliancy and interest.[1]
These demonstrations conclusively proved that the suffrage is desired, not only by a few educated women, the leaders of the movement, but by the great masses of the hard-working women. They proved also woman's political capacity and organizing power. No body of persons could possibly do more to manifest their desire for political liberty than the women who have organized and attended these demonstrations. So far as I am aware no such meetings have been attempted by the agricultural laborers over whose enfranchisement the House of Commons has been so deeply exercised, and though the absence of interest which these classes of men have as a whole shown in the question of the franchise is no argument for depriving them of it, the political knowledge and aspirations that women have shown for more than fifteen years ought to count for something in establishing their claim. .
The session of 1880 was broken, and the dissolution of parliament in March, the general election which followed, the change in the government and the consequent press of public affairs,
- ↑ Mrs. McLaren occupied the chair and was accompanied by Mrs. Nichol, Miss Wigham, Miss Tod, Mrs. Charles McLaren, Miss Craigen, Miss Becker, Miss Beddoe, Mrs. Shearer (formerly Miss Helena Downing), Miss Flora Stevenson, Mrs. Wellstood, Miss Annie Stoddart, Mrs, Burton and a distinguished visitor from New York, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was able on this visit to England to estimate the wide difference in the position of women since the time—more than forty years before —she had been refused a seat as a delegate in the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London.
