com any demand for franchise on the part of women. If there was any such demand then the women would get the franchise. With regard to the parisons which had been made with other countries, they were entirely misleading, for no European country had ever ventured to plunge into this cauldron of trouble. It had never been adopted by liberty-loving France, nor had Switerland or Denmark ever contemplated any scheme of the sort. Only four small States in the United States had adopted it. The extension of the suffrage to women would be a shifting of the responsibility which the men of a great nation ought to bear, so that by them, as by their cowardly cowardly progenitor, the blame might be cast on "the woman thou gavest me." In all matters of legislation the interests of women were already strongly voiced. Were they not already sufficiently heckled at public meetings by women? At the last election they all pledged themselves in favour of various social reforms affecting women. All would be in accord with the Prime Minister as to the influence of women on domestic legislation; but after telling their constituents of the great things to be expected from the present Government, were they now to enter upon a great constitutional change not mentioned in the programme and which might be appalling in its effect? Scotland ruled in the Cabinet, and yet it seemed as if she was to get no legislation. If the Government were to pass such a Bill as this and leave in suspension the magnificent programme of Reform which they had preached but a short time back they would indeed "be far left to themselves," which was about the most unkind thing they could say to them without using bad language. They wanted to be able to go back to their constituencies and show that they had done something for them. Scotsmen were powerful in the Cabinet, and yet it seemed as if Scotland was to get Mr. Cathcart Wason. no legislation. They ruled the finances of the country, and yet they could not get anything. Scottish members wanted to be able to return to their constituencies showing some little fish in their baskets. [OPPOSITION cheers.] He did not wonder Members opposite cheered; but he was too old a bird to rise to their fly. There was something wrong somewhere. They were pledged to educational reform, and a variety of other reforms, and he sincerely hoped that before they were sent back to their constituents they would have something to show. Hon. Members who were inclined to support the Bill need not take any comfort to themselves by supposing that it would receive severe criticism in another place. It would be hailed there with approval and passed into law, and the result was very hard to foresee. The action of New Zealand in granting the franchise to women was relied on by the supporters of the Bill. He had lived for many years in that country and could say that not only the conditions there, but the people were entirely different. His hon. friend had described Australia as the most parochial country in the world, although nobody liked to say it. He was very much of the same opinion. It was confined absolutely to its own affairs and protected from outside interference by the British Fleet. The priests and parsons had no power there; in this country they were all powerful. There social interest was as nothing; here it was everything. In such a country the franchise might be extended to boys and girls just left school, and it would not make much difference. The country would go on prospering just as it was doing now. He would vote most cordially against the Second Reading of this Bill. He thought it was a not designed for country, but for the embarrassing of the the good of the Government if it could be embarassed. It was inconvenient to everyone, and he sincerely trusted that it would not be passed into law. measure 1158 MR. WILLIAM REDMOND (Clare, E.) | as well entitled to the franchise as men. expressed the hope that the vote to be There was no man in the House who taken that afternoon would be could a say that it was just or proper that thoroughly straightforward one, indicat- the dregs of the male population ing the real opinions of hon. Members. should have the right of voting and The most astonishing statement he had shaping the affairs of the country, while ever heard during the twenty-four years most highly educated and intellectual he had been a Member of the House was women were deprived of all share in the one made by the hon. Member for government. What was the fundaHaggerston that day. He had told mental principle of the British Conthe House that after the last division stitution? It was that there should be was taken on this subject several Mem- no taxation without representation. Yet bers who voted in favour of the franchise women were taxed and allowed no voice for women came and thanked him sin- in selecting the country's representatives. cerely for voicing their opinions against He agreed that this Bill was in many the Resolution and declared that they respects one which Liberals could not be were afraid to give expression by their expected to support enthusiastically, votes to their true opinions. If there but after all they had not been discussing were any Members in the House of that the merits or the demerits of the parkind he certainly did not know them. ticular Bill before the House. He believed that they must be very few It was true that the Bill was before in number, and he was perfectly per- them, but they were not dissuaded that every Member of the House cussing the details of that or any other would vote on this question according Bill. The great question they had to to his conscientious convictions. He had decide was whether the women of the listened with great amusement to the country as well as men were entitled to speech of the hon. Member for Orkney and vote, and it was on that principle the Shetland in opposition to the Bill. When division would be taken. His view was he looked for direction in Liberal and that no community of men had the right democratic principles he did not turn to to deprive of their share in the managethe hon. Member. He looked, and he ment of national affairs any section of believed the mass of the people generally God's creatures. [Laughter.] Women would look, for the true principles of were endowed, as much as hon. Members Liberalism and democracy, not to op- who laughed, with intellect by Almighty ponents of the Bill on the Ministerial God. Where would they find any text Benches, but to their leader, the Prime in Scripture that it was the Divine inMinister; and those who followed the tention that women should be treated as right hon. Gentleman into the Lobby in slaves; and yet they were treated as support of the Bill would be regarded as slaves when they were deprived of the the true exponents of Liberalism and rights of citizenship in the land. democracy. It was said that the agita- | The hon. Member for Orkney and tion outside the House had set back the movement for the enfranchisement of women. He was filled with amazement to hear Liberals speaking sneeringly of agitators. What great reform had been carried in this country except by agitation, backed up by violence greater in some instances than the ladies had indulged in? He was not going to enter into the question whether women were Shetland had referred to Australia. That Colony could give us lessons in many things, and in this matter among others. The extension of the franchise there had given greater power and strength to the masses of the people than in any other country. He would vote with the Prime Minister, and he hoped that every true liberal would take the same course. *MR. T. A. HERBERT (Buckingham- votes. He would rather rely on the votes shire, Wycombe) said there was a real of married women of the working danger that when hon. Members came classes, because they had been brought to vote they would be at cross purposes. into more intimate contact with the Everybody who had spoken in favour of realities of life than others. enfranchisement had urged them to vote for some principle principle that was different from and inconsistent with MR. COURTENAY WARNER (Staffordshire, Lichfield) said he had for many years been fighting to give the labouring classes power to take a share in the making of the laws and to have some voice in controlling the affairs of the country. The Bill now before the House would simply give votes to a privileged class, and for that reason he could not support it. In New Zealand and Australia, where it was said female suffrage worked well, it was not the suffrage proposed by the Bill which worked well, but a suffrage conferring the right of voting on the working classes. From an analysis of the 21,000 names signed to a statement which had been sent to Members of the House in favour of female suffrage it appeared that 5,000 were married women. The next class were school teachers. Were they unorganised, and had they no power in the House? Then came people of independent means, and people of various occupations. They were people who were well represented by men in the House of Commons. The names of poor downtrodden women who suffered in laundries and other places from overwork and who were not organised, did not appear in large numbers on that paper. It was signed by people who already had privileges and were asking for more. the principle of the Bill. He had never listened to a more complete non sequitur than that contained in the argument of the Prime Minister's speech. The right hon. Gentleman told the House that he was in favour of some great principle for the enfranchisement of women, he told them next that the Bill did not carry out and could not carry out that principle; that he did not approve of the Bill, and that, therefore, he would vote for it. It appeared to him that the great authority of the Prime Minister was likely to mislead a number of his faithful supporters into following an equally illogical course. What he was going to vote upon was the Bill before the House, and not upon any great moral principle with respect to which they might be all agreed. It was idle to say they might affirm the principle and amend the details in Committee. That was not possible with this Bill. Here the details were the principle. This Bill was designed to establish the principle that whatever franchise men had women should in every detail enjoy the same. If therefore they altered any detail it was a different Bill. He would remind the hon. Member for the Clitheroe Division that our sole democratic franchise was the household franchise, and it did not apply to married women. Every married woman who got a vote would have to do so on a property qualification. In order to do so she and her husband would have to live in a house of at least £20 a year value. The meaning of that was that no married woman of the working classes would get a vote, while every married woman of the *MR. REES (Mongtomery Boroughs) wealthier classes would get a vote, and said that only one representative of wealthy women might get many plural Wales had spoken in the course of and the debate. He was afraid that the, then the Speaker called him by speech of his eloquent fellow country- name; and immediately he found man, the Member for Merionethshire, himself hauled on to the friendly was likely to convey a wrong impression knees of another hon. friend in order to to the House of the opinions of the address the Chair. But supposing men and women of Wales. His hon. on that occasion the unfortunate male friend had gone to Germany and had to seek similar refuge on the had quoted from Tacitus, but his knees of a lady Member. The privileges wonder was why his hon. friend had of Members would be curtailed in all not quoted from the poetry of Wales. directions. For instance, he and two The beauty of his fellow countrywomen, other Members had occupied last session while it had inspired his eloquence, the seats from one of which he now had impaired his judgment. He addressed the House. A powerful and, would like to make a quotation himself in this behalf, unscrupulous nation had from a Welsh poet, but he would spare the House the ordeal. [Cries of "Quote."] Well, he would quote, but he would spare the House the vernacular of Wales, which unfortunately it did not understand, but when he listened to his hon. friend he expected him to conclude with the well-known lines: "When I remember the marches of Merioneth, where my head was pillowed on a white arm." If his hon. friend had remembered his native raided that particular corner, but he and two friends had successfully resisted the inroads of the Picts and Scots. Had they been Scottish ladies he and his friends, with rage in their hearts, would have had to give way to the lady Members, and to protest the last thing they wanted was their seats. MR. DICKINSON rose in his place and claimed to move, "That the Question be now put; but Mr. SPEAKER withheld his assent, and declined then to put that Question. *MR. REES proceeded with his speech, but on account of interruptions he was almost inaudible in the Press gallery. Referring to the cries of "Order" he said he was perfectly in order, and that what he had to say in regard to this matter would be of considerable benefit to the State, which was threatened with a revolution. literature he thought he would have been spared from presenting this demand or pressing this Bill. His hon. friend also said "Go to Turkey." He did not know whether his hon. friend like he himself had been there, but if he would go to Turkey or to the East he would hear the wise men there say that "the English are a powerful and mighty race, with a disposition in spite of all to lunacy." That was an opinion widely held throughout the East; and nothing would confirm that opinion like a favourable vote on this Bill, which would in effect and in the end hand over the management of affairs to the women of the country. If this measure passed there would subsequently come the entry of women into the House itself. No Member would be able to obtain a seat if once ladies were admitted to the House. The other day he suddenly came *MR. REES, speaking amid cries of into the House from another sphere" Divide," protested against this attempt and was unable to secure a seat. to force a revolution on the country, He sat accordingly on the floor, and especially when the supporters of the VOL. CLXX. [FOURTH SERIES.] was MR. DICKINSON rose in his place, and claimed to move, "That the Question be now put; but Mr. SPEAKER withheld his assent, and declined then to put that Question. 2 S Bill were apparently unwilling to give a BURNS, Battersea) said he believed the critic five minutes wherein to address contracts referred to by the hon. Member the House, but desired to rush through came within the terms of reference. a Bill of this character after a brief and Having given that assurance, he hoped inadequate discussion on a Friday after- the hon. Member would not oppose the noon, a proceeding against which he Motion. protested with all his might. MR. CLAUDE HAY said that on the And, it being Five of the clock, the understanding that these contracts would Debate stood adjourned. Debate to be resumed upon Monday next. POLITICAL PENSIONS BILL. be included in the terms of reference, he would not press his opposition. Question put, and agreed to. Ordered, That a Select Committee be Read a second time, and committed appointed to consider the Radiotelefor Friday next. RADIOTELEGRAPHIC CONVENTION. Motion made and Question proposed, "That a Select Committee be appointed to consider the Radiotelegraphic Convention, signed at Berlin on the 3rd day of November, 1996, and to report what, from the point of view of national and public interests, would, in their opinion, be the effect of the adhesion or nonadhesion of this country to the Con: en tion." *MR. CLAUDE HAY (Shoreditch, Hoxton) asked whether the terms of reference would bring within the purview of the Committee the consideration of the contract between the Admiralty and the Marconi Company, and also any other contract between any other Government Department and that company or any other? He moved that the consideration of the motion be adjourned. THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. JOHN Mr. Rees, graphic Convention, signed at Berlin on the 3rd day of November, 1906, and to report what, from the point of view of national and public interests, would, in their opinion, be the effect of the adhesion or non-adhesion of this country to the Convention. Committee accordingly nominated of, -Mr. Adkins, Mr. Sydney Buxton, Sir John Dickson-Poynder, Mr. Enoch Edwards, Mr. Gwynn, Sir William Holland, Mr. Lambert, Mr. Arthur Lee, Mr. Macpherson, Sir Gilbert Parker, and Sir Edward Sassoon. Ordered, That the Committee have power to send for persons, papers, and records. Ordered, That Four be the quorum.(Mr. Whiteley.) Whereupon Mr. SPEAKER adjourned the House without Question put, pursuant to Standing Order No. 3. Adjourned at six minutes after Five o'clock till Monday next. |