Great Meeting at Huddersfield - 11th Feb 1873

Huddersfield Chronicle, 12th February 1873

THE ELECTORAL DISABILITIES OF WOMEN.
GREAT MEETING AT HUDDERSFIELD.

Last night, a large meeting was held in the Gymnasium Hall, Huddersfield, in support of Mr. Jacob Bright's Bill for the removal of the electoral disabilities of women.  The hall was densely crowded with an enthusiastic audience of ladies and gentlemen.  The chair was taken by Mr. Alderman Woodhead, and the following ladies and gentlemen took part in the meeting :- Miss Lydia Becker, of Manchester ; Miss Sturge, of Birmingham ; the Rev. B. Glover, and Mr. Moore Sykes.

The CHAIRMAN briefly introduced the speakers by expressing his sympathy with the object of the meeting.

Mr. MOORE SYKES moved the first resolution, which was as follows:-
"That the exclusion of women otherwise legally qualified from voting in the election of members of Parliament is injurious to those excluded, contrary to the principle of just representation, and to the laws now in force regulating the election of municipal, parochial, and all other representative governments."

There were those who said that the women of this country did not demand the right which that meeting was intended to support that night.  There were no doubt numbers of ladies who were quite indifferent upon that subject, not caring whether they possessed the franchise or not ; but it was no argument why those who felt disposed to exercise the franchise should be kept out of it any longer, because there were men who were indifferent about the possession of the franchise.  Some people were more indifferent now about the franchise than they were before the passing of the ballot, because before the ballot became law such men only valued their votes insomuch as they commanded a market price, and depended for the amount of money which they put into their pockets for the skilful way in which they exercised their votes.  The difficulty as to the indifference of the women to the franchise might be at once dispensed with by a law allowing those who were disposed to vote, and not interfering with those who were indifferent as to whether they exercised the franchise or not.  He was sure of this, that the influence which ladies would exercise over public affairs would not be a damaging influence if they had political power put into their hands.  Taxation and representation ought to go together.  That was a very significant principle, and if there were ladies who were occupiers of houses, and who had to pay their rates, he thought it was nothing but right that if in the eyes of the State those ladies were significant enough to pay taxes, they ought to be deemed intelligent enough to have votes.  (Cheers.)

The Rev. B. GLOVER seconded the resolution.  Some people entertained the idea that the object of Mr. Bright's bill was to give electoral power to all women indiscriminately, but that was not so.  The bill only intended to apply to women who paid rates, and it proceeded upon the principle that where there was taxation there should be representation.  Nothing was more repugnant to the political feelings of every Englishman than that government should raise and expend taxes without being in any way under the control of the taxpayers.  (Cheers.)

Miss STURGE, in supporting the resolution, said a great many of the arguments against woman exercising the franchise might be considered sentimental ; people said it was out of her sphere. In different countries they had different notions about woman's sphere.  The average Turk considered it was not her sphere to show her face in public ; the average Englishman considered that woman was out of her sphere when her voice was heard.  Many of them had come into contact with actual life and needed practical answers to practical questions ; they could not live upon sentiment.  A gentleman said to her the other day "I suppose you do not want women to drive all the cabs?" She did not care for that particularly, but she should consider it exceedingly wrong if any law were passed to prevent women doing so.  She could easily image circumstances in which, when a cabman was laid aside, the easiest means of supporting the family would be for his wife to drive the cab.  She did not think it would be a whit worse than a woman driving a pony chaise or phaeton.  (Cheers.)  In an account of a meeting at Brighton, she noticed that a gentleman seemed to solve all the difficulty of employment for women.  He said if ladies would be content to do the work in their own nurseries and kitchens, there would be no difficulty whatever ; but if the ladies of England were to devote one half of their time exclusively to the nursery and the other half to the kitchen, the children would be spoiled by over nursing, and there would be nobody to eat all the food that was cooked.  (Laughter.)  It had been said that women exercised vast power for good over men ; that at dinner parties, when ladies were present, it prevented an excessive use of wine and bad language.  If women exercised such vast power for good over men, it was their solemn duty to carry it everywhere and into everything.  (Cheers.)  Having dealt with the objections that suffrage to woman would destroy the harmony of public life, that it would increase the power of priestcraft, and that it was dangerous to divide physical force from political power, she commended the resolution to the earnest support of the meeting.  (Hear, hear.)

The CHAIRMAN called upon a volunteer to propose the next resolution, which was to the effect that petitions in favour of Mr. Bright's Bill be sent to both Houses of Parliament and to the borough and county members.  The appeal was responded to be Mr Councillor MARRIOTT, and on a second appeal being made, the resolution was seconded by Mr. Councillor J. A. HOPKINSON.

Miss BECKER supported the resolution.  She said the political position of woman had been compared to that of minors, criminals, lunatics, and idiots, but when they examined into the facts of the case, they found it worse than either of those classes.  A householder who was a minor only had to wait a little before he came into possession of his vote ; but a woman householder was never allowed to grow up to the rights of citizenship, but remained a minor all her life.  Criminals were only temporarily disqualified.  During the debate in the House of Commons a clause was introduced dis-enfranchising for ever a man who had been sentenced to penal servitude, but Mr. Gladstone said it would be wrong that such a man should bear the brand of electoral incapacity.  Yet the Legislature inflicted that brand upon rational and responsible human beings who had never broken the law, for the sole crime of womanhood.  As for lunatics, she had bestowed some pains in finding out the law on that point, and it was that if at the moment of the election a man should have a lucid interval during which he was sufficiently compos mentis to remember the names of the candidates, he was allowed to vote ; but the law never allowed a woman a lucid interval during which she was sufficiently compos mentis to go through the simple process of voting.  (Laughter.)   They all knew the elaborate provision that was made for the exercise of the franchise by the illiterate voter.  In old times there was a law by which the life of a person condemned to death was spared if they could only read a verse from a psalm.  The accomplishment of reading was so rare in those days that it was considered to be an injury to society to put any person to death who professed it.  That was called the law of benefit of the clergy.  They might suggest that woman should be allowed something of that kind as to voting, and that if a female householder could prove to the satisfaction of the authorities that she was able to read and write, she ought to have equal electoral privileges to the man who went through a formal declaration that he could do neither.  (Cheers.)   In a debate in the House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone said there were various important particulars in which woman obtained much less justice under legal and social arrangements.  On the first night of the present session of Parliament there were notices of no less than seven bills all directly, and some exclusively, dealing with the personal rights of women.  Was it likely that Parliament would deal so impartially and thoroughly with such bills when it took pains to exclude from all influence over itself the very class whose interests were under consideration?  Two of those bills referred to the question of the property of married women.  She asked the women present if they saw any reason why they should not have as full a title to all the property which they had earned or inherited, and why the tenure of property by women should be less secure than the tenure of property by men.  (Hear, hear.)  A case which occurred only a few days ago in this neighbourhood showed the kind of feeling there was about the property of women.  A woman, whose husband had deserted her and gone to America was engaged as servant at an inn in Blackpool.  The man refused to pay her wages to her, and as he was a resident near Dewsbury she sued him in the Dewsbury County Court.  The judge asked her if she had her husband's consent to sue.  She said she had not, as he was in America, and she had not heard from him for three years.  The judge said she could not sue her late employer for wages without her husband's consent ; so that under cover of law a woman was debarred obtaining the earnings to which she was justly entitled.  (Shame.)  Some time ago, a lady who was collecting signatures for a petition, met with a woman selling oranges in the streets of Liverpool, and the orange woman related her history.  She said she was the widow of a man who had left her in a public-house with a thousand pounds in the bank, and she and her daughter carried on the business.  She married again, and in a short time the second husband went to the bank, drew out the thousand pounds, and went away to Australia.  He remained away many years.  At last he made his way back, having spent all the money, ragged, penniless, and ill.  His wife had compassion upon him, forgave his past offences, and nursed him till he was well.  He sent her out one day in a carriage for a drive.  When she got back she found a stranger in the bar, and asked the man what his business was.  He then showed her a bill of sale by the husband to him of the house and all it contained, and the poor woman and the daughter were turned adrift at a moment's notice homeless and penniless on the streets of Liverpool.  That transaction was in exact accordance with the present state of the English law.  Another fact, which touched even more closely the interests and most tender emotions of women, was the absolute negation of all the rights of mothers.  Under English law, English wives had no more right to custody of their children than American slaves had before emancipation.  Judges on the bench had declared that the rights of mothers were absolutely nil, and within the last day or two the judges had found themselves obliged to order that a girl of 10 years old should be taken away from her mother and taken to a Roman Catholic home, because, eight years ago, the father was said to have executed a deed declaring that that should be his will.  Surely the rights of a living mother ought to be paramount to those of a dead father.  (Hear, hear.)  She (Miss Becker) felt an especial interest in coming to Huddersfield.  Last year, according to the newspapers, there was a rather remarkable scene in the Huddersfield Town Council.  It was proposed that a petition should be presented to Parliament in favour of Mr. Bright's bill, and without having a word as to the why and the wherefore, the Town Council appeared to have passed a resolution that no petition should be sent.  Some member of the Council said it was at least advisable to hear what was asked of them.  After a discussion, the Town Council, by a very considerable majority, voted for the petition.  That she believed to be an instructive type of the manner in which that question was received.  When an adverse decision was given it came from those who had not given themselves the trouble to understand the merits of the case.  He [sic] hoped that the Huddersfield Town Council would again do the great service of sending a petition in favour of the bill, for such petitions had a great value, and could not fail to exert a strong and decided influence upon the House of Commons.  About one-seventh of the constituency of a Town Council were women, and anything which affected the interests of a seventh part of a community was a proper subject to engage the attention of their representatives.  The Attorney-General had obtained leave to bring in a bill to make one list for Parliamentary and Municipal elections, and to introduce such charges in the law as was necessary to make the qualification identical.  Now, what a strange thing it would be, when that occurred, that the same qualification which gave a man both a municipal and parliamentary vote would give to a woman only a municipal vote!  She would like to put it to the ingenuity of any person to devise a satisfactory reason for such a great difference.  The municipal vote was of not so much consequence to women because their interests as ratepayers were precisely identical with those of the men ratepayers, but their interests in imperial legislation were not identical, because Parliament made a difference in legislating for men and women.  If it was true that women ought to be legislated for on different principles from those on which men ought to be legislated for, it was an especial reason why they should have some women electors to control legislation.  If, on the other hand, women ought to be legislated for on exactly the same principles of equity and justice, that was the strongest reason for making their political rights equal.  (Cheers.)  At the last division on Mr. Jacob Bright's Bill, 143 members of Parliament voted for it.  The largest proportion of those votes came, as might be expected, from the Liberal side of the House,-(cheers)-but the most influential votes came from the Conservative side, Mr. Disraeli and five members of the late Conservative Government being among the number.  Their cause would be near its triumph if Mr. Gladstone would unite with Mr. Disraeli in carrying the bill.  That is what the advocates of woman's suffrage desired to accomplish.  She asked the electors of Huddersfield to use their influence to induce Mr. Leatham, the borough member, to support that measure of political justice.  She hoped the electors would let him know that it was not agreeable to them that their Liberal member should vote against enfranchisement, as he did when he voted against the bill on the last occasion.  She did not expect a man suddenly to change his mind to vote for a measure of which he disapproved merely because it was the wish of his constituents, but she thought the Huddersfield electors might reasonably ask Mr. Leatham not to oppose such a measure.  More than one member of the House of Commons had, to her knowledge, abstained from opposing the bill because they had received a petition from a large portion of their constituents, whose opinions they respected.  She hoped that Liberal constituencies would give their representatives to understand that it is their duty no longer to be obstructive in any measure of reform.  (Cheers.)  It had been said that it would be very undesirable that women should take part in popular elections ; indeed, that was the argument used by Mr. Gladstone. In answer to that she would point out that by giving the municipal franchise to women they had been brought up to the polling booth and taken an active part in municipal elections every year, and that was a far greater evil than allowing them to take part in a Parliamentary election once in every four or five years. Elections under the ballot were very quiet and uninteresting affairs, and he [sic] thought no one would be found to say that, practically, there was any inconvenience in the act of recording a vote, so that an objection as to the character of a poll was no longer tenable.  Some people said that women would have no time for domestic duties if they were allowed to vote. That was rather a dangerous argument, for it appeared to her that, among the working classes especially, it was the men who found it difficult to get time to vote.  What meant the cry for extended hours of polling but that the men being so engaged in their work could not leave it and find time to record their votes?  In the School Board election for Manchester, hundreds of women brought their husbands' voting papers, and asked to be allowed to fill them up.  She thought that where there was a political duty, the time to discharge it must be found by those who were conscious of the responsibility which that duty involved.  (Applause.)  It was said that women had nothing to do with politics, but that was not a maxim of the English constitution, because women were by the English constitution capable of occupying the throne and exercising the highest political functions.  Women ought to be constitutionally eligible to exercise political power through the machinery of popular elections.  She appealed to them to support the good undertaking in which they were engaged-an undertaking of the deepest import to national and moral life.  The accomplishment of their object might be near at hand ; all that was required was an earnest effort, and an expression of the national will.  If they could gather the nation together and speak to them as she had spoken to the meeting that night, she was perfectly sure that that expression would be given in unmistakable terms, and the Legislature would no longer hesitate to grant that just demand.  (Applause.)

The resolution in favour of the petition was then submitted, and almost unanimously carried.

Mr. MOORE SYKES moved a vote of thanks to the deputation for their excellent addresses.

Mr. F. ABBEY seconded the motion. he avowed himself a supporter of Mr. Bright's bill as a Conservative, and was glad to hear Miss Becker acknowledge the lift which Mr. Disraeli had given the movement by supporting the bill.  He complained that that meeting had been convened as a Liberal gathering, whereas it was not a party question at all, and he hoped in future whenever questions on which Liberals and Conservatives were agreed were to be discussed both parties would be invited.

The CHAIRMAN explained that there was no intention of limiting that meeting to Liberals, and he should be glad to work with the Conservatives for the regulation of woman's suffrage. (Cheers.)

Miss BECKER, in acknowledging the vote of thanks, assured Mr. Abbey and the Conservatives generally that the advocators of woman's suffrage conducted their agitation on strictly "constitutional principles."  (Loud laughter.)  The gentleman who seconded the vote of thanks had no reason to complain of no opportunities of helping forward the movement, for if he sent his name in to the society accompanied by a subscription, it would be cheerfully received.  (Laughter.)  With regard to Mr. Disraeli, she expressed the hope that he would succeed in educating the Liberal party on that question as well as he had educated his own party in other points.  (Laughter.)  She concluded by recommending the appointment of a local committee for the promotion of the bill.

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