Great Meeting at Huddersfield - 25th Feb 1874

Huddersfield Chronicle, 26th February 1874

SUMMARY

    A large meeting was held at Huddersfield last night, under the presidency of Mr. Edward Huth, J.P., in support of the Bill to remove the Electoral Disabilities of Women.  Miss Lilias Ashworth, a relative of Mr. Bright, criticised the speech of Mr. Leatham in the House of Commons, against the measure, and attempted to demonstrate that his arguments were illogical, his facts inaccurate, and his position inconsistent with that of a Radical Reformer.  Miss Lydia Becker followed up the attack in a very ingenious manner.  She was informed, she said, that immediately after delivering his speech in the House of Commons, Mr. Leatham said he had demolished the question altogether ; but she would lead him to understand the women of England--that she would survive many such attacks.  But her liveliest thrust at Mr. Leatham was in her comments upon his going a century back to cite the opinion of Charles James Fox against the measure.  On that principle she urged Mr. Leatham never to get into a railway train, because it never entered the imagination of Charles James Fox to travel at forty miles an hour.  She said she held in her hand a poem written by Mr. Leatham, in which he lauded discovery as a wonderful and beneficent power of mankind.  Her remarks upon that were remarkably happy. Miss Becker, in her concluding remarks, hinted that the ladies of England had been avenged upon the Liberal party for not giving them the suffrage when in power, and that Mr. Disraeli would most likely win the honour of removing the disabilities of women from the Statute Book.  Resolutions were passed approving the principles of the bill, and adopting petitions to be sent to Parliament and borough member.

Huddersfield Chronicle, 28th February 1874

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MEETING AT HUDDERSFIELD.
MR. LEATHAM CRITICISED BY RADICAL LADIES.
   A great meeting was held in the Gymnasium Hall, Huddersfield, last night, in support of the bill to remove the electoral disabilities of women, Miss Lilias Ashworth, Miss Lydia Becker (Manchester), and Miss Stuart, attended as a deputation from the National Society.  Among the local gentlemen upon the platform were E. Huth Esq., J.P., Mr. Alderman Denham, Mr. Alderman Woodhead, and Mr. Moore Sykes.
    Mr. E. HUTH, having been called to the chair on the motion of Alderman WOODHEAD, seconded by Alderman DENHAM, said many of them had lately been engaged in political and party warfare, a warfare that very often made them wax warm and brought their blood to a fever point.  It was therefore refreshing once more to be able to meet on a platform which did not appeal to their political or religious feelings, but solely to their reason and sense of justice.  (Cheers.)  As women's suffrage was supported on ether side of the House of Commons, it did not now stand as a political question.  It might have political consequences, it was true, but with that they had nothing whatever to do at present.  It always appeared to him a very anomalous thing that women should have votes for Town Councils and School Boards but should be deprived of that privilege when it came to the question of a member of Parliament.  If they could trust the judgement of women in one case why should they not be able to trust them in the other?  It was a well--known fact that there were a greater number of women in England than men.  A great many of those women had to pay rates and taxes, and he asked if it was not a fiction to say that the House of Commons fairly represented the opinions and feelings of all parties in the kingdom when a great number of their fellow subjects had no voice in the Parliamentary representation? He never could see any reason why women should be placed in the same category with minors and lunatics, who had no votes, although perhaps some of the audience would think that those two classes were amply represented in the British House of Commons--the former by those young scions of nobility who gained seats in the House of Commons before they had had time to shake the nursery dust off their boots, and the latter by such shining lights as the honourable member for Peterborough and the late honourable member for Guildford.  (Laughter.)  Many persons said that women were not able to judge upon political matters.  His experience was that woman has as much reasoning power as any man, and she often exercised it much more calmly.  (Cheers.)  It was said by some that the question of women's suffrage was not ripe yet, because a great proportion of those who had municipal votes were too indifferent to exercise it.  There were at every election a large number of male voters who never went to the poll, and thereby showed their indifference to it.  But was it right that they should exclude the other portion because of that indifference?  He ridiculed the idea that if they gave women the suffrage it would weaken their feeling of domesticity.  He hoped every one present would leave the room with the conviction that by supporting women's suffrage they would be doing an act of justice and fairness to the noblest portion of creation.  (Cheers.)
    Mr. Alderman DENHAM, in an able speech, moved the first resolution--
    "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 government."
    Miss STUART, in seconding the resolution, said they were sometimes told that marriage was the natural state of all women, and then they were represented by their husbands.  If so, it was a little irrational that the marriage law should treat the commission of matrimony by a woman in much the same way as it treated the commission of felony--by confiscating her property and giving it to her fellow criminal.  The whole social status of a woman suffered from her political nonentity.  They were excluded from most of the honourable and lucrative trades and professions, and in those in which they were permitted to join, they were expected to perform the same amount of work as men for about half the wages.  The fifth part of the education of a man was sufficient for a woman, and if in spite of the barriers surrounding her she succeeded in obtaining a good education, the tyrant custom prevented her from turning it to profit.  The Government had to a great extent taken the education of the rising generation out of the hands of parents, but it was wholly impossible for any Government, however despotic to prevent a mother from laying the first and most important foundations of education and character.  Before the child could possibly be forced to school, before it could walk or talk, its character was being formed and its education had been begun by the words and actions of its mother.  Was it rational for a Government that professed to believe that the thing to be desired before all others was a race of citizens virtuous, patriotic, and free to keep the women to which the education of those citizens must be committed debarred from all the highest of human trusts?  The chief evil that some people professed to apprehend from women's suffrage was that terrible and somewhat misty calamity known as the subversion of the foundations of society.  That had ever been a battle cry of tyranny, till she had come to conclude that the foundations of society must be a grand English word for the foundations of oppression.  (Cheers.)  She had unhesitating confidence in demanding the support of all parties of the bill, a measure so entirely in agreement with the spirit and letter of the British Constitution as to claim the support of the Conservatives, so moderate as to demand the help of all Moderate politicians, and so Radical as to imperatively call for the support of those who rallied to the standard of Radical Reform.  (Cheers.)
    Miss LILIAS ASHWORTH, in supporting the resolution, said--Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,--In advocating the claim of women to the same share of representative government we are not asking for anything that is novel in the history of mankind, we are not seeking to form a precedent which other nations have set us.  There are several of the nations of Europe at the present time where women have already obtained the franchise.  In Italy, Austria, Sweden, and some of the local Governments in Russia, where women are duly qualified, they are allowed to exercise the franchise.  In the territory of Wyoming women have obtained womanhood suffrage, and the Governor of Wyoming, in his last message to the Legislative Assembly made the following statement in reference to the working of womanhood suffrage.  He says : "Two years more of observation of the practical working of the system have only served to deepen my conviction that what we in this territory have done has been well done, and that our system of impartial suffrage is an unqualified success."  (Cheers.)  We are not seeking for womanhood suffrage in this country, we are only asking that women who are householders, and who pay rates and taxes--women who have property, and who have all the privileges attached to property--that women may have household suffrage, as well as men.  (Hear, hear.)  At the present time in this country we have two classes who are asking for representative Government--the agricultural labourers and women.  And if you will enquire into the grievances of these two classes, I think you will find in many respects they are similar.  They have both been to a large extent deprived of the benefit of education--they have both been badly paid for their labour done--and both have been the classes least considered by the laws which have been made, and although the recipients of much sympathy, they have found it a poor substitute for justice.  (Hear, hear.)  But I think if you will care to enquire further into the grievances of those classes, you will find that women have been notably far the greatest sufferers, owing to the want of the franchise ; for besides the fact that an equal number of women suffer the hardships and wrongs of the poor labourer, women have special disabilities from which men, by reason of their sex, are altogether exempt.  Miss Stuart has already referred to some of these.  The married women of this country have no right to their own children.  On getting married, women have to suffer confiscation of their property, and are absolutely deprived of employment and labour which they are well qualified to do.  They are obliged to seek in foreign universities that education which is denied to them in the universities of this country, which that are taxed to support and benefit.  (Hear, hear.)  If men were liable to any one of those grievances to which women are subjected we should have a revolution in the country, but women of every station in life are at present obliged to suffer from them, and the attempts which have been made in Parliament to alter such laws have only proved the impossibility of obtaining any justice while women are a disenfranchised class.  (Hear, hear.)  To some extent the labourer of the country is represented in the labourer of the town, but if no on represents the women, what comes of that class of absolutely self-dependent women whose numbers are increasing year to year?  If the partially-represented labourers cannot obtain redress of their grievances, how can women, with no representation, expect to alter the legal, industrial, and social disabilities from which they now suffer.  Only a few years have passed since this question was discussed in the country, but in that short space it has made extraordinary and rapid strides in the House of Commons and in the country.  Each year the Women's Disabilities Bill has been brought before Parliament it has received a greater number of votes recorded in its support.  Mr. Gladstone made a speech three years ago on the question, in which he fully admitted the claim of women to the suffrage, but Mr. Disraeli has voted every year in favour of it, and he has spoken several times in favour of it.  Not only has the chief of the present Government voted year after year in our favour, but many of the Conservatives, as well as those of Mr. Gladstone's Government, have given us their assistance.  We are supported on both sides of the House of Commons, it being no party question.  Conservatives and Liberals have alike given the question their support.  (Hear, hear.)  But I am sorry to have to tell you that the hon. member for Huddersfield has always shown a great disfavour to this question.  (Hear, hear.)  Last year he made a speech at the time when the question was before Parliament ; and while I don't wish to speak with any disrespect of the member for Huddersfield, I think when members make speeches in the House of Commons about women, it is only fair that women should be allowed to reply to them in the country.  (Hear, and laughter.)  I have no doubt the member for Huddersfield, who claims to be one of those men who are always pressing forward in the path of progress, will be very glad to hear what we have to say about his speech to-night, because it will give him a chance of altering his opinions, or at any rate, telling us that he has modified his views.  (Laughter.)  It is a curious thing that when this question had obtained a standing in the House of Commons, which was such that the same could not be said of any other question outside of party--at a time when its greatest opponents had given up making those speeches--disrespectful speeches--their constituents did not like to hear--the hon. member for Huddersfield made a speech which, you must pardon me for saying so, was so scurrilous in its character, that I am confident when he saw it in print in the Times the next morning he must have felt a feeling of discomfort akin to shame.  (Hear, hear.)  There are some objections in his speech to the suffrage which are fit to bring before the notice of an audience, and one or two of them I should like to mention.  He objects to women suffrage because he says "it ignores the career which the revelation and experience of all ages and the common consent of mankind has marked out for women."  Yet what has been the experience of ages?  We have found that some of the most remarkable governors of the various kingdoms of the world have been women ; we have seen Isabella of Spain, our own Elizabeth, and our present sovereign.  (Cheers.)  Mr. John Stuart Mill, who from his long experience of Indian affairs is an authority that cannot be gainsayed, tells us that in the East the greatest sovereigns have been women.  (Cheers.)  In some of the Indian States, where the men had failed to govern, women had succeeded in bringing those States to a degree of prosperity which was in itself quite remarkable.  If we have found that women can fill the highest functions in the State creditably to themselves, and with advantage to the nations they have governed, surely the experience of ages has shown that women are not altogether incapable of taking part in the politics of a country, and fulfilling those minor functions if voting for members of Parliament.  (Cheers.)  The Mr. Leatham tells us that "by the nature of things, generally speaking, the position of women is one of dependence, and that it is our duty as far as possible, to enfranchise, not dependent, but independent voters."  Well, I am inclined to think that men are quite as dependent upon women as women are upon men.  (Laughter and cheers.)  The hon. member did not object to give dependent men votes, and, because dependent men were enfranchised, he became a great supporter of the ballot, and took some trouble to prepare an elaborate machinery to protect those dependent voters.  (Cheers.)  Then the member for Huddersfield comes to quote the opinions of Mr. Fox, a century ago, on this question.  Are we to pin our faith to statesmen of a hundred years ago?  (Cheers.)  The hon. member for Huddersfield is in favour of separating Church and State.  What statesman of a hundred years ago ever thought of such a proposition?  We always thought Radicalism meant progress, but it seems astonishing that a man should aspire to be the Radical member for Huddersfield and yet talk such trash.  (Laughter and cheers.)  Well, the question we have come to discuss to-night is one which will be shortly discussed again in the House of Commons.  We know not what will be its fate, but we hope we shall have a much larger division in its favour.  Whatever its fate, women have no reason to be discouraged.  They have an association formed throughout the country, and carried on chiefly by women, and one that is constantly increasing in numbers and strength.  But women are perhaps for the first time in the history of the country united in some degree for one great end, and if there are those who still doubt the earnestness of women on this subject, I would say look on the work and strength and progress of that association.  (Cheers.)  We believe this belongs to the true and upward progress of civilisation and Christianity ; and just as sure as good shall at last conquer ill, and error shall be overcome by truth, so must the emancipation of women come into that sure and safe freedom whereby the truth makes free.  (Loud cheers.)
    The resolution was carried by acclamation, only one hand was raised against it.
    Mr. Ald. WOODHEAD rose to move the second resolution.  At the outset he read two petitions, one addressed to the Lords, and the other to the Commons, against the present disabilities of women. He concluded by moving--
    "That the petitions now read to both Houses of Parliament be adopted and signed by the chairman on behalf of this meeting ; and that a memorial to Mr. E. A. Leatham, member for the borough of Huddersfield, requesting him to support the Bill to remove the electoral disabilities of women, be signed by the chairman and forwarded by him."
    Miss BECKER, who was well received, referred in the course of her speech to the part which Mr. Leatham had taken in the debates upon the measure in the House of Commons.  She said--Your member stated that he would not agree to the measure because it had never entered the imagination of Charles James Fox.  Now, I think it certainly never entered the imagination of any statesman in those days that you should have a lady candidate for the suffrages of a great popular constituency, and her husband acting as vice-chairman of the election committee.  (Laughter and cheers.)  I was very much struck with the remarkable speech of your member.  I was informed by another member of Parliament that immediately after delivering that speech your member said he had demolished the question altogether.  (Laughter.)  I take the liberty of saying we have not been demolished. I hope we shall survive many such attacks.  There are some attacks which recoil against those who make them, and I shall, without fear of contradiction from anyone who reads this speech, say that that was one of them.  (Hear, hear.)  I may point out the little inconsistency, if we can allow that anyone of the masculine order of mind can be illogical or inconsistent, but, on the principle of the Jesuit whom I mentioned just now, Mr. Leatham said he would, if he had an opportunity, support the bill for extending the household suffrage to counties ; and then he went on to say, "so long as women accept the protection of the law, so long should they submit to the laws, and their property be made to contribute to the expenses of carrying them out.  I deny the grand fundamental axiom, that because women obey the law and pay taxes, therefore they have an abstract right to vote."  If some Conservative member were to turn that argument upon Mr. Leatham when he comes to speak for the county franchise, I am at a loss to see how he could refute it consistently with his principle of denying the franchise to the women householders who pay their taxes.  (Hear, hear.)  It is not true that the agricultural labourers accept the protection of the law--that is such protection as the law affords them, which some do not consider adequate to their needs?  Do they not obey the law and pay their taxes just as women do?  Therefore, on his own principle they have no right to vote.  (Hear, hear.)  Then Mr. Leatham, in regard to the application we make by saying it would improve the moral and intellectual development of women to invest them with the full rights and the responsibilities of rational beings, says, "This is not a question of moral or intellectual development, it is a question of the rights and the duties of one sex claimed by the other."  That is an instance of what I call begging the question.  We deny that the right to vote is an exclusive right, or the duty of the male sex.  We say we have an equal right to vote when the State comes upon us for our share of its burdens, and we claim a share in the duty of governing the country, of helping to raise up the poor and oppressed, of raising our voice on behalf of peace and reform, and every good and holy end for which the Government is formed.  (Cheers.)  Then as to Queens and Empresses, we say that women of high rank have discharged political functions nobly.  Looking back upon the history of our own country, England has no need to be ashamed of the part played by its Queens.  We believe there is no special virtue in Royal blood, but that the women of the people are equally well qualified to play their part as any Queen that ever wore a crown.  (Cheers.)  The most remarkable utterance of Mr. Leatham was that in which he referred to Mr. Charles James Fox.  How would that apply to other things besides politics?  On that principle Mr. Leatham ought never to get into a railway train, because it certainly never entered the imagination of Mr. Charles James Fox to travel at the rate of 40 miles an hour.  I hold in my hand an eloquent poem written by your member, called "Discovery," in which he lauds discovery as a wonderful and beneficent power of mankind, and he takes us over the whole world and domain of physical scenery, and praises the discoveries that have been made.  I ask him whether discovery is limited to the physical configuration of the globe and the realms of natural science?  Will he not allow us a little discovery in the realms of politics?  Does he claim discovery as a monopoly on his own sex?  Women are beginning to discover that they have been wronged, and that their wrongs need to be righted by the same means which men have found so effectual to right theirs.  Men have discovered long ago that representative government alone can give them security for personal and political rights.  Women have been a little behind in making the discovery, but when once their eyes opened, not all the members for Huddersfield can ever shut them.  (Cheers.)  It is a matter of great regret that the Liberal Government neglected the opportunity they had of carrying this measure of reform into effect.  Who knows when they may be in a position to have it again?  There are women who think that the failure of the Government to pass women's suffrage was one of the sins which led to their downfall ; and I hope the Liberals of Huddersfield will forgive women if they feel that they are in some measure avenged now.  There seems nothing to prevent Mr. Disraeli passing the measure. We ask you to help us to influence your member, so that if he will not vote for us, at least he shall no longer play the part of an obstruction to a measure for the extension of the franchise among the people.  (Cheers.)
    Mr. THOMAS FIRTH supported the resolution, which was unanimously carried.
    The CHAIRMAN then proposed a vote of thanks to the deputation, which was seconded by Mr. Alderman WOODHEAD, and carried amid loud applause.
    Miss ASHWORTH briefly returned thanks, and proposed a vote of thanks to the chairman.
    Miss STUART, in seconding the vote of thanks, expressed the pleasure she felt in addressing so large and enthusiastic a meeting.  Referring to the almost unanimous support they received from the Scotch members, she trusted that part of the empire would follow in the lead of the rest of Great Britain, and concluded with the following lines :--
          For a' that and a' that,
          It's comin' yet for a' that,

          That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth,
          May bear the gree and a' that.
    The CHAIRMAN briefly replied, and the meeting then dispersed.

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