 Chapter 16 of the Suffragette, The History of the Woman's Militant Suffrage Movement by E. Sylvia Pankhurst 16. October to the end of 1908. The Trial of Mrs. Baines. The Mutiny in Holloway. The Taking Down of the Grill. Mrs. Drummond was right, for though she and her companions had left a great blank in the work of the Union, but as she had predicted at the dock at Bow Street, other women eagerly volunteered to raise up the flag that they had been compelled to lay down. In addition to the newcomers, every member of the staff cheerfully undertook some extra task, and the movement grew like a living flame. The office at Clements Inn was indeed fortunate in its abundance of willing and able workers. Beside Mrs. Pethic Lawrence and her husband, and charming Mrs. Tuch, Mrs. Pankhurst's co-secretary, there were a host of others amongst them dignified, businesslike like Ms. Kerr with her rosy face and pretty white hair, thoughtful, reliable, mishambling Mrs. Drummond's secretary, and Mrs. Sanders, who though financial secretary was now finding time to keep a list of cabinet ministers' engagements for us. There was also Jesse, the London organizer, earnest and serious like all the Kennies, who, showing a grasp of the political situation and an organizing capacity indeed remarkable in a girl of 22, marshaled the force of women to ask of members of the government those constant questions. The very greatest difficulty was now experienced in getting into cabinet ministers' meetings, for women were now almost entirely excluded. The expedient of issuing a limited number of special women's tickets, the recipients of which were obliged to sign both name and address to a pledge neither to disturb the meeting nor to transfer the ticket, was first resorted to for Mr. Haldane's meeting at Sheffield on November 20, 1907. The practice had now become general, and in some cases the women's tickets had also to be counter-signed by a liberal official to whom the applicants were personally known. But in spite of such precautions, the suffragettes frequently still succeeded in getting into the meetings, and that without having given any promise, and when they could not get inside, they invariably raised a protest in the street. When cabinet ministers cast as they were in unheroic mould discarded to a large extent, the custom of delivering their pronouncements to great public gatherings were all might come, and instead frequently made their weighty utterances at bazaars, private or semi-private banquets and receptions, and meetings of a few tried and trusted friends, these suffragettes were always there, even though the world and Mrs. Grundy might be shocked. On November 5, for instance, a well-known liberal hostess, Mrs. Godfrey Benson, gave a reception in honour of the Prime Minister. As they stood together at the head of the stairs receiving the guests, there came amongst the ladies and gentlemen in evening-dress, streaming upward towards them, one strikingly tall and handsome lady in white satin with abundant dark hair, who said as she took the Prime Minister by the hand, Can I do anything to persuade you to give votes to women? Then, still holding his hand in hers, she proceeded to read out to him some clauses of Magna Carta, explaining that these had been intended to apply to women as well as to men. Mrs. Godfrey Benson did not for some moments notice Mr. Asquist's dilemma, but as soon as she did so, she seized a police whistle which was attached to a ribbon at her waist, and by blowing loudly, summoned an officer of the law who conducted the lady out of the house. Very great precautions were taken to prevent the suffragettes approaching Mr. Asquist when he visited Leeds to speak at the Coliseum on the afternoon of Saturday, October 10. From seven o'clock in the morning the police had been masked around the hall and cordons, both of foot and mounted men were drawn up outside the railway station and along the road by which the Prime Minister was to pass. But, in spite of all the force to guard him, as Mr. Asquist emerged Mrs. Baines, a little fragile figure with face-ash and white and dark blazing eyes, a creature compounded of zeal and passion threw herself in front of him crying, votes for women and down with tyranny, and the crowd cheered her though she was at once rudely hurled aside by the police. Then, followed by thousands of people, she made her way to Cockridge Street outside the Coliseum where she had already announced that she would hold an open-air meeting simultaneously with that of Mr. Asquist inside. A great crowd had gathered there to hear her, and when she put to them a resolution that she and her suffragette comrades would go to the Coliseum to demand an interview with the Prime Minister, a forest of hands shot up in favour. Then, declaring, if these tyrants won't come to us we must go to them and compel a hearing. She jumped down from the carriage which had served her as a platform, and, followed by a number of other women and more slowly by the crowd itself, she moved on towards the Coliseum. Halfway across the road the police barred the way and an inspector asked her where she was going. It would be foolish Mrs. Baines. He said when she told him but she was not to be deterred, and running round one of the mounted police was arrested by a constable on foot. The other women still pressed forward, and one by one five of them were arrested and taken to the town hall where they were charged with disorderly conduct, whilst Mr. Asquist left the meeting by a back exit amid the hisses and groans of the crowd. On Monday morning the others were each sent to prison for five days on refusing to be bound over to keep the peace, but the case against Mrs. Baines was held over until the following Wednesday. She was then charged with inciting to riot and unlawful assembly. Her case was to be held over until the assizes in November and the opportunity of being tried by judge and jury which Mrs. Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst and Mrs. Drummond had claimed in vain was thus to fall to her lot. The grand jury having returned a true bill against Mrs. Baines, Mr. Pethic Lawrence, who was defending her, served subpoenas to give evidence at the trial upon Mr. Asquist and Mr. Herbert Gladstone, but the cabinet ministers had no intention of allowing themselves to be examined by the suffragettes and to be made into a suffragette advertisement a second time. They applied to the divisional court for a rule to set aside the subpoenas and did not scruple to take advantage of their position as members of the government to employ both the Attorney General, Sir William Robson K.C. and the Solicitor General, Sir Samuel Evans K.C. to plead their case in opposition to Mr. Pethic Lawrence. Though no precedent for setting aside a subpoena in criminal cases could be found, it was decided that neither Mr. Asquist nor Mr. Gladstone should be called upon to give evidence. On Thursday and Friday, November 19th and 20th, the actual trial took place in the Leeds Town Hall. Mrs. Baines freely admitted that she had used the words, if these tyrants will not come to us we must go to them and compel a hearing and that her intention had been to get into the meeting and secure an interview with the prime minister, but she protested that she had had no intention of injuring him or anyone and when Mr. Barristow, K.C., the counsel for the prosecution, asked if she had carried any weapons, she replied, oh my tongue is weapon enough. When asked to give an account of her life, she said that she was the daughter of a working man and had begun to help in earning the family living at eleven years of age. After her marriage she had continued to be a wage earner though she was the mother of five children because her husband, who was a shoemaker, was only able to earn twenty-five shillings a week. Nevertheless, she had done much public and social work as she had been a Salvation Army Lieutenant, an evangelist who are working men's mission, a member of the Stockport Unemployed Committee and Committee for the Feeding of Schoolchildren and a worker in the Temperance Cause. When asked to give some account of her speech to the crowd on the tenth of October, she said, I wanted the men and women of Leeds to understand why we were there to protest against Mr. Asquith's refusal to give us the vote. I said that that afternoon Mr. Asquith would be dealing with the licensing question, that this was more a woman's question than it was a man's because we women suffered most through intemperance and that no real temperance reform would ever be brought about until women had a voice in the matter. The unemployed question was also more a woman's question than it was a man's because it was the women who really suffered most. Mr. Asquith had never known what it was, as I have done, to go without food or to go to school hungry. We wanted to see Mr. Asquith and we wanted to know when we were going to have access to Mr. Asquith. After the evidence on both sides had been heard, Mr. Lawrence made an eloquent speech for the defense, but it was nevertheless decided that Mrs. Baines was guilty of unlawful assembly. The judge then asked her to enter into her own recognizances to be of good behavior, explaining that if she agreed she would merely be promising not to use violence or to incite to violence in the future. Mrs. Baines steadfastly maintained that she had had no intention of using violence but felt that she could not conscientiously agree to be bound over to keep the peace. Mr. Justice Pickford then said that though he was reluctant to do so, he must pass sentence upon her and order that she should be imprisoned for six weeks in the Second Division. In the result, however, she was only kept in prison for three weeks because, though she had gone free meanwhile, the fortnight during which she had awaited her trial at the Asaisas was counted as part of her sentence and, in addition, she was entitled to one week's remission of sentence for good behavior. Amid all the whirl of militancy that had been going on, the work of educative, peaceful propaganda was never allowed to flag hundreds of uncounted smaller meetings, a series of great indoor demonstrations calling for votes for women, and the release of the prisoners was held in the Free Trade Hall Manchester, the Town Hall Birmingham, the St. George's Hall Bradford, the Guild Hall Plymouth, the Town Hall Huddersfield, the Town Hall Battersea, the Town Hall Chelsea, the King's Theatre Hammersmith, and in many other places, and culminated in a second great demonstration that was collected. Then, in declaring the 20,000 campaign fund to be complete, Mrs. Pethic Lawrence appealed for it to be carried on to 50,000 pounds and that the halfway house of 25,000 pounds should be reached before the founder of the union should be released from prison. Whilst the WSPU had been thus active, the Women's Freedom League had startled London by a cleverly organized and smartly executed demonstration in the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons on the 8th. That morning all the world had awakened to find that little placards headed a proclamation containing a demand for votes for women had been posted on every hoarding. At 8.30 in the evening whilst Parliament was discussing the licensing bill and Mr. Remnant, one of the Conservative members was speaking, a woman in the Ladies' Gallery suddenly thrust through the brass grill one of these proclamations with a cry of, real matters darted to the front of the gallery and proceeded to deliver a suffrage speech to a tentance at once game rushing in tumbling over the Ladies' Trains and pushing unceremoniously past them in haste to drag her from her place only to find that they could not do so for by means of a padlock and chain around her waist she had attached herself to the grill. Whilst some of the men struggled to break the chains, others gagged her by holding their hands over her mouth but a second woman also chained took up the tale with command the vote and after she had been stifled in the same impromptu and objectionable fashion a third cried we have remained behind this insulting grill too long. Members of Parliament were meanwhile pouring into the house to see the show and though Mr. Remnant spoke on without pausing but little notice was taken of anything that he said. The attendants in the gallery now discovered that the chains around the women's waist had been wrapped in wool to prevent their clanking and were secured strong ill padlocks that on being snapped together had locked automatically without a key and after vainly dragging and pulling at the women who in spite of the gagging still managed to articulate a word or two occasionally and after tugging again and again at both locks and chains the men came to the conclusion that it would be necessary to remove bodily those parts of the grill to which the three disturbers were attached. Then all the women in the gallery suffragettes, suffragists were alike quickly bundled out. Next screwdrivers were brought and the attendants set to work to dismember the grill and when this had been done the women and the great pieces of wrought brasswork to which they were still attached were hauled out by the attendants and taken to committee room 15 where they were kept until a smith arrived to file through the chains. By this time the house had resumed its ordinary humdrum appearance and the members who had come in during the disturbance had all drifted away and the division bell rang and they came trooping back to vote, a man in the stranger's gallery shouted Why don't you do justice to women and was dragged out by a number of policemen and within ten minutes afterwards a second man shouted Why don't you give votes to women and flung a shower of leaflets down amongst the members. At the same time several women were attempting to hold a meeting in the lobby. The police flung them outside but they immediately climbed up to speak and killed a Lyon statue and whilst the constables clambered up after them pulled them down and placed them under arrest other suffragettes made dash after dash to re-enter the house. Crowds quickly gathered and the confusion grew and 14 women and one man had been taken into custody before the people were dispersed. Next morning the prisoners were brought up at the Westminster police court before Mr. Hopkins. The first to be charged was Mr. Arnold Cutler, the man who had been in the fray and it was alleged that he had protested against the action of the police crying, shame leave the women alone and that when dragged away he had taken off his belt and assumed a threatening attitude. He was fined 25 shillings. The women were more heavily punished being each fined five pounds and on refusing to pay were sent to Holloway for one month. Meanwhile both in and out of Parliament day after day and week after week Mr. Herbert Gladstone was being urged to extend to the suffragettes prisoners the treatment that his own father and every liberal statesman had declared to be due to political offenders and the protests were rendered the more pointed because at this very time there were a number of men political prisoners serving sentences in Ireland who were actually receiving all the privileges which were being demanded on behalf of the suffragettes. These men were convicted of boycotting and cattle driving. They were allowed to provide their own food and malted liquor and to have their own medical attendant and medicine sent into them at any time. They were allowed to smoke and to have books, newspapers and other means of occupation to carry on their profession if that were possible. They were allowed to correspond freely with their friends and to receive visitors every day and were exempted from prison tasks. Their imprisonment in fact entailed little more than the loss of freedom to come and go as they wished. The MP who whilst the suffragette leaders were in Holloway jail was convicted of inciting to cattle driving was technically parallel to that of Mrs. Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst and Mrs. Drummond but whilst both he and they were alike ordered to be bound over to keep the peace and to find surreities for their good behavior on their common refusal he was committed to prison in the first division while they were put in the second class. Meanwhile news of the prisoners in Holloway had gradually filtered out to us and the first messenger from them was Mrs. Drummond herself who nine days after her imprisonment had begun was suddenly and unexpectedly released. She then told us that on arriving in Holloway Mrs. Pankhurst had it once announced to the authorities that the time had come when the suffragettes would no longer submit to the degrading prison regulations which had hitherto been enforced upon them and that she and her comrades would begin by refusing either to allow themselves to be searched or to change their clothes in the future. She further stated that for her own part she was determined to speak with her fellow political prisoners both at exercise and at any other time when they might happen to be together for this was a right to which she considered all political prisoners were entitled. Seeing that it would be both difficult and troublesome to turn her from her purpose the governor gave way upon the first point and agreed that the suffragist prisoners should be allowed to undress privately in separate cells but in regard to any other matters the Home Secretary must be communicated with. Mrs. Pankhurst and Christabel therefore at once addressed petitions to Mr. Herbert Gladstone claiming that as political prisoners both they and the other suffragette should be permitted to write and receive letters to associate with their fellow political prisoners to receive visits from their friends to attend to business matters as far as possible to have books and newspapers sent into them to wear their own clothing and to provide their own food. Mr. Gladstone refused to comply with any of the requests and the prison rules were enforced with all their accustomed vigor except that for the first week Mrs. Pankhurst was allowed without challenge to speak to her fellow prisoners. On Sunday November 1st however the wardress suddenly called her out of the ranks sharply reprimanded her for speaking and when she refused to give a promise never to do so again ordered her to return to her cell. Hearing this the other suffragettes came running across the yard and clustered around giving three cheers for Mrs. Pankhurst whilst the wardress blew her whistle and dozens of others appeared to drive the suffragettes inside. It happened that on that same morning she never could tell why Mrs. Drummond's cell had not been unlocked at the time for exercise and she had been left behind whilst others had gone out into the yard. She was sitting wondering what had happened when she suddenly heard the sound of cheers. At once she hastily dragged her plank bed to the window and clambering up the suffragettes in their prison dress with numbers of wardresses after them running across the yard in all directions. Then they disappeared and all was quiet. When next she was let out into the corridor and when she was taken to the chapel she saw no sign of her comrades and though she asked the wardress for news of them no answer was returned. It was on the same evening that a sense of growing weakness that had been upon her since her entrance into prison overcame her and she must have fainted suddenly for she was found by the unconscious on the floor. She was carried to a hospital cell and put to bed and as she begged for more air the outer door was thrown open and only the gate with which hospital cells are also provided was closed. Soon afterwards Mrs. Pankhurst who occupied the next cell passed along the corridor to fill her water can and through the bars was able to tell Mrs. Drummond briefly what had happened that she herself was to remain under punishment and to be deprived of both exercise and chapel until she should not to attempt to speak again. By the doctor's orders Mrs. Drummond remained in bed until Tuesday when the governor and the matron came to her and told her that the home secretary had given orders for her release. As soon as the officers had left her she sprang up and rushed to the gate of her cell calling out loudly to Mrs. Pankhurst. The home secretary has ordered me out. I am glad was the reply as the wardress came hurrying back to expostulate. On hearing Mrs. Drummond's story we at once decided that a demonstration of encouragement to our imprisoned comrades and of protest against their treatment by the authorities must be held outside the jail and on the following Saturday evening a long procession of women headed by a brass band and a little carriage in which rode Mrs. Drummond and those of us who were to speak and a break filled with ex-prisoners in prison dress assembled in Kingsway and set off for Holloway jail. All along the root cheering crowds gathered and marched and when we reached Holloway all the rows that encircled the prison were densely crowded with human beings. We stopped outside the main entrance to hold a meeting but the masses of people were far too great for our voices to reach them and our horses startled by the vast crowds which pressed closer and closer showed signs of becoming restive. Mrs. Drummond therefore let off a cheer for the suffragette prisoners inside and the crowd raised their voices with her again and again. Then we slowly encircled the prison three times alternately cheering and singing the woman's Marseillais. Arise, though pain or loss be tied grudge not of freedom stole for what they loved the martyrs died are we of meaner soul are we of meaner soul our comrades greatly daring through prison bars have led the way who would not follow to the fray their glorious struggle proudly sharing to freedom's cause till death we swear our fealty march on march on face to the dawn the dawn of liberty during the ensuing week two batches of our prisoners were released and each one carried out to us further disquieting news Mrs. Pankhurst who was still being punished had been characterised by the authorities as a dangerous criminal and because she still refused to pledge herself to perpetual silence a wardress was constantly stationed outside her door to prevent any rampant communication with her it was rumoured also that she was very ill and this was confirmed by Mr. Gladstone and replied to questions by members of parliament but my request either to be allowed to see her for myself or to send in her own medical attendant to interview her was denied again on the following Saturday we marched around the prison but this time accompanied by crowds even greater than before in the meantime whilst many questions had been put in the house by members the suffragettes who had just been released had paid many visits to the strangers' lobby and eventually Mr. Gladstone agreed that Christabel and Mrs. Pankhurst should be allowed to spend one hour of each day together at the same time he refused to allow Christabel to write a book upon the woman's suffrage question for a firm of London publishers to be published after her release though it was well known that Mr. General during his imprisonment for inciting to cattle driving had been allowed to write his book entitled life and liberty on Saturday November 19th 13 more prisoners were released and we learnt that a fortnight before there had been another so-called mutiny in Holloway Mrs. Lee had been falsely accused of inciting the other suffragette prisoners to mutiny and as a punishment had been deprived of exercise and chapel for three days and Ms. Wallace Dunlop determined to prove her innocence every prisoner has the right to lay a complaint before the governor but the application to see him is supposed to be made because Mrs. Lee's cell doors are first opened at six o'clock in the morning and he afterwards visits the prisoner when and where he may think fit and usually in her own cell it was necessary for Ms. Wallace Dunlop's purpose that he should come to her when all her fellow prisoners were together in order that each might give her testimony she accordingly chose to make her application during the associated labour which Dr. Mary Gordon the new lady inspector had instituted that summer so at half past three that afternoon when the suffragettes with the space of a yard between each other had seated themselves at a number of deal tables in one of the corridors and had settled down to make shirts and mail bags she asked the wardress in charge to send for the governor by five thirty when the time for associated labour was at an end the governor had sent no reply and the wardress gave the order return to yourselves but Ms. Wallace Dunlop gave a counter command do not return to yourselves there had been no previous understanding between them but the women sat firm and when the order to leave was repeated they still did not move leaving it to their leader to again explain that they would remain where they were until the governor or his deputy should arrive the wardress then sharply blew her whistle where upon crowds of tall wardresses appeared from all directions and lined the corridor in long rows then Ms. Wallace Dunlop rose those of us who know her can well imagine the scene she has one of those faces that when we recall them to our minds we always see as though lit up turned towards a full light that streams upon them and at the same time illumined from within the spirit that glows within them is intensely vibrant with sympathy for others yet though the sadness of other sorrow finds instant reflection in them and we know that their hearts throb with the bitter pain of other hearts a quiet gaity is habitual to them and we think of them always as brightly happy it seems not possible for a shadow to fall across the clear purity of their minds so we can plainly picture for ourselves her tall, slight, erect figure standing forth and here her gentle light-toned voice say to the women set your backs against the wall and all link arms instantly they obeyed and stood where she had told them looking firm and immovable though the officials outnumbered them by more than ten to one then there was silence and the wardresses made no move at last steps were heard coming from a long distance one always hears them away off in Holloway gradually they came nearer and nearer until the governor arrived then the suffragette leader stepped forward we have sent for you she said gravely because we have a statement to make one of our comrades has been unjustly punished you know I am always willing to listen to your statements the governor replied but I can do nothing tonight unless you return to yourselves then on his promising to inquire into the whole matter Miss Wallace Dunlop was satisfied and she and her comrades quietly obeyed but when the governor came round the cells next morning he ordered that every suffragette who had been present should appear before the visiting magistrates to answer to a charge of mutiny and on the following day they were each sentenced to from a solitary confinement and the associated labor about which there had always been more labor than association as the prisoners were forbidden to communicate was abandoned altogether Mrs. Lee was still deprived both of chapel and exercise and the others who had caught an occasional glimpse of her as she passed to fill her water can stated that she appeared to be suffering very greatly from this close solitary confinement again on the next Saturday we marched to Holloway there was a white banner inscribed with the text of the women's and franchisement bill there we found the police on horse and foot mustered against us a thousand strong barring the nearest approaches to the prison so that although we again circled it it was at so great a distance that only once through a gap in the surrounding buildings could we see its walls and we doubted whether our voices loud and numerous as they were could be heard by the prisoners inside footnotes Chapter 1 by Ms. F. E. M. McCauley End of Chapter 16 Chapter 17 of the Suffragette The History of the Woman's Militant Suffrage Movement by E. Sylvia Pankhurst This LibriVox recording is in the public domain 17. November to the end of 1908 Mr. Burl at City Temple Mr. Lloyd George at Albert Hall release of Mrs. Pankhurst Christabel Pankhurst and Mrs. Lee During the autumn Mr. Burl had been visiting his constituency of North Bristol and E. Kenny the center of whose flourishing west of England organizing district was in that town had prevailed upon him to receive a woman's deputation. In reply to this deputation Mr. Burl had said that the government did not intend to carry the Woman's Unfranchisement bill during that session that many members of the cabinet were to the idea of giving the woman the vote on any terms that in his opinion the matter was not ripe for settlement and also that he would not endanger his position in the cabinet by pressing the question forward. He added that he was in favor of the enfranchisement of rate paying widows and spinsters on the municipal basis but that he disapproved of qualified married women voting and that he would not support a measure to give adult suffrage to women. This last point was exceedingly interesting. It really demonstrated the cynical character of the suggestion made by Mr. Lloyd George and others that to give votes to women on the same terms as men was not sufficiently democratic to be supported by a liberal government for here was a liberal cabinet minister declaring opposition to any wider measure. On November 12th Mr. Burl spoke at the city temple the church of Mr. R. J. Campbell the well-known initiator of the so-called New Theology. It was well known that the suffragettes were present to heckle him and the chairman tried to deter them by stating that Mr. Burl had promised to give his influential support to any measure giving a liberal extension of the franchise to women. The suffragettes considered that this meant absolutely nothing at all and continued to protest as earnestly as they could. The result was a terrible scene of violence in which large numbers of women were flung out of the church and dragged down the steps. The WSBU afterwards wrote to Mr. Burl to ask what his statement had really meant. His answer, given through his secretary was simply and solely that he had nothing to add to the reply which he gave recently to a deputation introduced by Miss Kenny. Meanwhile, though the militant tactics were being condemned as vigorously as ever, sympathy for the militants and a desire for the franchise were rapidly spreading amongst women of all shades of opinion. The women's conservative and unionist franchise society was formed about this time and the Margate and the Wallacy Women's Liberal Associations passed resolutions dissolving themselves until women were enfranchised whilst the secretaries and committee members of other associations resigned their posts on the same ground. At this point, Mr. Lloyd George wrote to the executive of the Women's Liberal Federation offering to speak for them on women's suffrage in the Albert Hall. They agreed to his suggestion and it was announced that he would make a government on this ground. The organizers of the meeting approached the committee of the WSBU asking that the chancellor of the Exchequer should not be heckled but we replied that unless we had an assurance that Mr. Lloyd George's pronouncement was to contain a government promise to act, we could not comply with this request. As requests that we would alter our decision continued to pour in, Mrs. Tuke, our honorary secretary wrote to Mr. Lloyd George on November 30 stating that we would gladly ask the government not to interrupt him if he could assure us that the government were really prepared to do something for the suffrage cause and that if he wished we would pledge ourselves not to divulge his reply until after his speech had been delivered. Mr. George's only answer was a curt note stating that anything that he had to say in regard to the government's attitude would be said in the course of his speech in the Albert Hall. There was no hint in the letter of any great government pronouncement but indeed everyone knew that the use of the liberal women themselves knew and in fact had admitted to us that Mr. Lloyd George had nothing of importance to say. His speech was merely intended to pacify those women who were beginning to falter in their loyalty to the liberal party and to take the win as far as possible out of the suffragette sales. Mr. Lloyd George was as much responsible as any of his colleagues for the present warfare. His own personal record in regard to the women's movement was not a good one. Therefore there was absolutely no reason for modifying in his favour the rule that all cabinet ministers must be heckled. Indeed his coming forward at this juncture to carry favour by offering empty platitudes was felt to be in the nature of adding insult to injury. When on Saturday December 5th the day of the liberal women's meeting arrived the Albert Hall was girt by an army of mounted police. There was a general feeling of uneasy expectancy and everyone seemed suspicious of what his or her neighbour might be going to do. Bands of men's stewards known by their yellow badges were massed in the corridors and stationed in groups at the end of every row of seats. Nevertheless in spite of the fact that these men had been obviously engaged for the forcible ejection of interrupters in order to protect the promoters of the meeting from subsequent charges of brutality officials orders of the day were prominently displayed in which the stewards were counseled and the members of the women's liberal federation were asked whatever happened to act as though they were soldiers silent and steady under fire. Lady McLaren who presided over the meeting rose to speak with obvious uneasiness which was increased when she suddenly realised that all the women in the front row of the arena who had suddenly removed their cloaks were clothed as second division prisoners in dresses of green surge blue and white check aprons and white caps all stamped with the broad arrow. For some time however all was quiet and it was not until Mr. Lloyd George had been speaking for some moments and was proceeding to give various reasons why women were entitled to the franchise that he was interrupted by a tall graceful woman in one of the boxes. She declared that all present were agreed as to the justice of the cause and that a government pledge to take action was alone required. The speaker was Ellen Augustine B.S.C. under his university and the daughter of Professor Augustine of Aberdeen. Her words were no sooner uttered than a man in the next box left over the barrier and struck her a blow in the chest while several stewards sprang upon her from behind. She protested that she was prepared to leave the hall at once but the men did not heed her and continued to pummel her in the most savage way. At this the audience were astonished to see her draw a whip from under her cloak and strike at one of her assailants. Shortly afterwards she was knocked down and disappeared. Note 32 Now the whole hall was an uproar. Mr. Lloyd George strove to continue, weakly protesting that he was in favor of women's suffrage but then why don't you do something? And deeds not words, deeds not words came a clear bell like cry. Again he went on to urge that he really was in favor but was met by why don't you resign from a cabinet that is hostile to women? Our women are in prison. You run with the hare and hunt with hounds. Only one woman spoke at one time and each one merely fired a short sharp pertinent interjection but there were many of them and more than that the raising of each woman's voice was the signal for a wild outburst of fury on the part of the stewards who sprang upon the interrupter silenced her by a blow under the chin or an impromptu gag and after flinging her either to the ground or across the seats dragged her out head foremost hitting her again and again. Some members of the audience struck with fists and umbrellas at the women who were being carried past. Others tried to protect them but the latter were always set upon by the officials and speedily bundled out. Even outside in the numerous passages that surround the circular hall the ejectors some of whom were heard to say that the affair was more amusing to them than it might at the music-hall would not allow their captives to escape and still continued to ill-treat them until they had finally flung them down the steps and out of the building. At last Mr. Lloyd George stopped. The scene was becoming too much even for him. He declared that he would rather sit down than be the cause of so much violence. Yes, do sit down and stop it. A chorus of distressed voices rose but after a moment he went on again with the stale old reasons and wrote in his notes, We have known those for forty years. We want your message. Still the woman's voice is called and each interruption meant an ejection. We shall get peace presently by this process of elimination, he said. Yes, fling them ruthlessly out. His own words at Swansea were repeated and you will never eliminate the suffragettes from practical politics. For more than an hour the scene continued. Again and again Lady McLaren intervened and secured a few moments peace for Mr. Lloyd George to make his statement and again and again he himself promised to give the government message but failed to do so, floundering back instead into a maze of arguments for and against the vote. If Queen Elizabeth had been alive today he ventured once but she would have been in Holloway came the retort and then the protesting voices broke out afresh. Then at last after a flight of oratory on the excellence and the importance to women of the measures already introduced by the liberal government the declaration came. It was nothing but Mr. Asquist's old worn out promise to introduce a reform bill and not to oppose a woman's suffrage amendment to it on certain conditions. The woman reminded the Chancellor that the Prime Minister had relegated the introduction of the reform bill to the dim and speculative future but he protested that it would be introduced before the Parliament came to an end. He was asked how women were to prove the demand for their enfranchisement which was one of the conditions of the promise and his reply was as the men showed their desire but the women answered men burnt down buildings they shed blood and the government has ignored our demonstrations. He was questioned as to the second condition that the votes for women amendment must be drafted on democratic lines but though asked again and again what is democratic he vouchsafed no reply and at last the cry where is the message broke out once more and a great white banner with the inscription be honest was hung out from one of the boxes of course the WSPU was as usual much blamed for what had taken place the heckling of Mr. Lloyd George was declared to be both foolish and wrong nevertheless many newspapers protested strongly against the behavior of the stewards of the meeting the liberal Manchester Guardian said that the ejections were affected with a promptness that gave the chairman no opportunity for intervening and in many instances with a brutality that was almost nauseating the special correspondent of the standard spoke of the grossly brutal conduct of the stewards declaring that some of the worst acts of unnecessary violence took place within ten yards of the chairman's table and therefore right under the eyes of Lady McLaren and Mr. Lloyd George the men responsible for the acts were stewards wearing the official yellow rosette that I am prepared to swear to at the same time the Manchester Guardian in its leading article though it condemned our action admitted that Mr. Lloyd George's repetition of Mr. Asquith's promise was entirely unsatisfactory from the votes for women point of view many others took the same line and the conservative globe said we see very genuine grounds by the suffragettes at the Albert Hall Mr. Lloyd George must have known that the declaration he had to make would have infuriated any body of men but the matter did not end with newspaper discussions we had realized from the first time that we should be made to suffer in many ways again and again attempts had been made to break up meetings addressed both by suffragettes and suffrages but the women would hardly ever afforded the protection of the police and as their meetings were almost entirely monitored by women stewards they were obliged to rely on their own powers of persuasion and magnetic force of will to control their audiences this the suffragettes have always been prepared to do but it was not always done without difficulty already at a meeting in Birmingham Christabel had been assaulted with the bodies of dead mice and on live mice being let loose at one of our meetings a well known Glasgow Daily Paper had suggested that rats after Mr Lloyd George's Albert Hall meeting such outbreaks of violence against us became for a time exceedingly frequent at a meeting which I addressed just then for a women's suffrage society in Ipswich there was abundant evidence to prove that well known liberals in the town had bought shelling tickets of admission for a number of men whom they paid a further shelling each to create a disturbance and as soon as I rose to speak I was assailed by shouts and yells the singing of a song especially composed and printed with this object which had been distributed broadcast throughout the town the rattle of tin cans and the ringing of bells during my speech several free fights took place in the hall walking sticks and other missiles were sent flying through the air and an offensive smell of self-ureted hydrogen was let out the women who had promoted the meeting whilst anxious that I should stand my ground were in despair at the damage which they saw was being done to the hall but when they sent for the police to quell the disturbance the chief constable of the town declared that he had no power to act his statement sounded strangely to suffragettes who had seen the police always massed around the meetings of cabinet ministers and had also frequently seen them brought in to eject women interrupters a few days after the Albert Hall meeting Helen Augustine herself spoke at Maidenhead were a gang of men some of them made up as guys and dressed in women's clothes waved whips at her and finally drove the speakers from the platform the only thing that the police could suggest was that the women should fly at this time a by-election was in progress at Chelmsford and in organizing our campaign there we had at first to contend with great disorder on the opening night of the election the members of the national union of women suffrage societies were entirely swept from their platform in the market square whilst a mob of hooligans surrounded the lorry from which we were speaking and dragged it down a hill into the darkness away from the street lamps though aided by steadier sections of the audience we still succeeded in maintaining a semblance of order as soon as we descended from the cart the rowdies crushed and jostled us so unmercifully that had it not been for some men who fought for us and who were seriously bruised in the struggle we should have been trampled underfoot we were at last dragged for safety into the entrance hall of the municipal building where a banquet was being held the head waiter who stood at the door was exceedingly anxious to get rid both of us and the noisy crowd that remained clamoring outside and we were therefore taken by underground passage to the police court and kept waiting there for an hour this sort of thing did not continue long in Chelmsford for as has invariably been the case as soon as the suffragettes became known to the people the hostility which was at first manifested towards them entirely disappeared mrs. Drummond was the heroine of this section for the WSPU campaign was entirely organized by her in an illustration she has shown distributing leaflets to the farmers in the Chelmsford marketplace at the close of her speech to them the result of the poll was a fall of nearly 20% in the liberal vote and a piling up of one hostile majority against them from 454 to 2565 which was generally acknowledged in the constituency to be largely due to the suffragettes the violence of the rowdies met with little rebuke from political leader writers and under the heading sparrows for suffragettes the Westminster Gazette stated Essex had just provided two amusing suffragettes incidents and described in the same spirit the letting loose of a flight of sparrows inside a hall where the women were speaking and the breaking up of a suffragette meeting by boys who had rushed the speakers and cast carbide on the wet roads considered the action of a body who in order to obtain a share in the constitution deliberately decide to attend the meetings addressed by the members of a government that has the power to grant them what they desire but withholds it consider also that these women are deprived by their sex of the principal constitutional means of pressing their claim and that their action is taken at great personal risk then contrast the action of these women with that of a crowd of men who absolutely careless of injuring either persons and merely because they imagine that their victims are unpopular or opposed to those whom they believe to be their own political friends deliberately set out with the intention of breaking up the meetings of women who are withholding no man's rights from him and who have no power to give rights to anyone but who are merely struggling to obtain the franchise which their assailants themselves possess surely no one with an unprejudiced mind could consider that there is a parallel between the case of those particular women and those particular men party politicians had before them frequent examples of the two cases and they decided that there was no parallel they decided that the action of the men was excusable but that the action of the women must be condemned in the most emphatic terms and must be sternly repressed at any cost a measure called the public meeting bill providing that any person who acted in a disorderly manner in order to prevent the transaction of the business meeting had been called together should be rendered liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one month was therefore laid before parliament by Lord Robert Cecil as the slightest interjection or the most pertinent question by a suffragette had now become the signal for a scene of disturbance it was clearly apparent that they would not be able to raise their voices at the meetings of cabinet ministers without rendering themselves liable to the suggested penalties though the bill was introduced but a few days before the end of the session the government at once provided for it the facilities which had been denied to that equally short measure to enfranchise the women of the country and it was quickly rushed through the two houses and became law before the end of the year party feeling on the one hand and public indifference on the other veiled for the time being the serious and revolutionary nature of this measure and allowed it to be placed on the statute book with scarcely a word of discussion and a request nevertheless it struck at one of our most ancient and fundamental national customs describing the ancient governmental assemblies of the Saxon peoples Tacitus explains that though as a rule only the more distinguished members of the community put forward new proposals all had a right to be present and the bystanders at once expressed their opinion in regard to all suggestions he says the eldest opens the proceedings then each man speaks according to what is distinguished by age, family renown in more or eloquence no one commands only the personal dignity residing in him exercises its influence no distinction of rank exists the assembly determines and its determination is law proposals when deemed acceptable are hailed with loud acclaim and clash of arms a loud shout of descent rejects what appears to be unacceptable our present system of government is after all the direct descendant of these ancient assemblies largely owing to the distinctions of class which have sprung up and have grown more and more complex and at the same time more deeply marked because of the constant struggling of those who already possess advantages of property and of education to add to these advantages a greater political power than their fellows by restricting the rights of those who are poorer and weaker than themselves many changes have been wrought it has come about that our modern parliament is elected by only a section of the people and that almost the whole of the business transacted by parliament is carried on by a small cabinet of persons nominated by one man himself pitchforked into power by a possibly transient wave of popularity moreover our existing system of party government renders this small cabinet almost all powerful during its term of office and the strong party prejudice obtaining both amongst private members of parliament and the press of the country secures that the cabinet shall remain almost exempt from criticism except by the followers of the opposing party this criticism loses an influence and value because for party purposes it is directed almost without exception against every act of the cabinet whether the act be in itself worthy or unworthy the section of the people who are entitled to vote and who elect the majority that makes the power of the cabinet possible may it is true dismiss them at the next general election if they disapprove of the way in which their stewardship has been fulfilled but they cannot insist upon an election when they will and they have no power to decide that their representatives have done well in one respect and badly in another it is only possible either entirely to accept what the representatives have done or to reject them altogether there exists also the right of every section of the people to carry resolutions embodying their opinion in regard to matters of government which may either be published broadcast or presented in the form of petitions for redress of grievances to those in power but what usually happens to resolutions and petitions put forward by those who have no political power is aptly expressed in the words of Mr. Sargent Halak the council who spoke for the coercionist government in one of the cases arising out of the massacre of Peterloo which took place in 1819 prior to the passing of the first reform act if deliberation had been their object he said could they not have settled their petition in a private room and then have sent it to the House of Commons where it would have been laid on the table and never heard of again nevertheless the old right of the bystanders the right of the whole people to express their opinion in regard to suggestions put forward by powerful folk and to receive them either with shouts of approval or equally loud cries of dissent still exists and it exists if it has not been altogether destroyed by the public meeting bill not merely for men but for women this right is constantly exercised when a member of the government and to a lesser extent a private member of parliament appears before a public meeting of the people to make proposals for fresh legislation and to give an account of his stewardship in the past when he comes forward thus the people, women as well as men have the right to express assent or dissent with what he has done or with what he has left undone with what he proposes they have the right to question him and to demand an answer to heckle him during his speech if they will and if they will cry out and refuse to let him speak until he has dealt with the thing which they have at heart and if they believe that he has not dealt justly with that thing they have the right to decide that he shall not be heard how else can he know the mind of the country how else can those who are without the parliamentary franchise express their will there is no other way and this right is one of those upon which the people of these islands have always insisted those who have said that if this right be exercised the right of free speech will be endangered do not realize what the right of free speech is the right of free speech is the right of everyone to speak publicly and without penalty or restraint of what seems important and this old right to question and to express assent and dissent is included in it it is the only refuge of those who have no political power the right of members of the government to speak freely can never be endangered for they have parliament to speak from the police and military at their beck and call to protect them and enforce their wishes and the press of the country all waiting to note down their words and publish them broadcast throughout the land the right of poor and vote less people to be heard has been endangered by this bill and so long as it remains on the statute book it is a standing menace to our ancient popular liberties happily up to now the bill has been practically a dead letter but none can be sure that an instrument of coercion which exists will not be put into force had the movement for women's enfranchisement been a movement solely of poor women with others dependent upon them as might have been the case the new bill might have proved a serious menace to the movement but as it happened there was fortunately no lack of women who were able and willing to risk imprisonment therefore this bill could make no difference to us nevertheless though our members might not have left a crowd of starving children behind them we well knew that they're going to prison entailed many sacrifices and we always waited impatiently for their release and welcomed them back amongst us with the greatest joy during the summer and autumn bands of women in white dresses had flocked to the jail gates had unhorsed the carriages provided to carry the prisoners to breakfast and with purple white and green ribbons had drawn them in triumph through the streets scotch tartans and scotch heather the scotch woman had been welcomed four irish calleens and an irish piper and a jaunting carmet mrs. tanner an irish woman and women in prison dress marched from the station with mrs. baines on her return to london when mrs. pankhurst mrs. lee and christabelle were released earlier than had been expected on december 19th women on white horses do their carriage and behind and before there marched long lines of w-s-p-u members wearing white dresses purple skirts and gaiters green caps and votes for women regalia in the evening a meeting of welcome was held in queens hall and as mrs. pankhurst christabelle and mrs. lee appeared all the organizers of the union and their white dresses lined up and saluted them with tricolor flags was the great audience of women sprang to their feet and cheered and waved and cheered again as few but suffragette audiences can step forward holding in her hand a purple white and green silk standard with an aluminum staff bearing a guilt shield inscribed with the great dates in christabelle's career when christabelle spoke she recalled the many thousands of women suffrage meetings that had been held in this country and the work of the pioneers who had begun the agitation more than 40 years before these women had labored well and devotedly yet they had not succeeded in gaining for women the military vote she believed the reason for this to be that they had relied too much upon the justice of their cause and not enough upon their strong right arm for an idea had only life and power in it when it was backed up by deeds what had been wanted was action and it was for this reason that the militant tactics had achieved so much already and would in the end succeed the old methods of asking for the vote had proved futile and not only were humiliating and unworthy of women I say to you she said that any woman here who is content to appeal for the vote instead of demanding and fighting for it is dishonoring herself the women who came into the militant movement did not fear suffering and sacrifice they felt not that they gave up anything for the movement but that they gained everything by it why? she cried the women of this union are the happiest people in the world we have the glorious pride of being made an instrument of those great forces that are working towards progress and liberty that note was struck again and again and it was upon that note that the whole meeting rested loyalty, enthusiasm courage, belief in a great cause the joy of fighting for it these things failed the air no one could fail to be impressed by them when mrs. pankhurst rose to speak she stepped forward and pressed into her hand a replica of a medal struck to commemorate the fall of the Paris Bastille in the French Revolution because she had been born on the anniversary of that day she was weakened and mourned by her imprisonment but her speech brief and somewhat hesitating as it was contained a pronouncement heralding important events for it foreshadowed the hardest and bitterest struggle to secure the rights of political offenders to British women, political prisoners that had yet been fought two further events must be chronicled before closing the story of the year 1908 the first is the fight of the Scottish women graduates for the recognition of their claim to vote under the Scottish university franchise which they carried right through to the house of lords though they failed to establish their claim they yet brought to light many valuable new facts in regard to the rights and privileges of their country women in ancient times one of their contentions was that the question as to whether they might vote should be decided according to the actual wording of the university franchise act and not according to the known or supposed intentions of parliament for that is the rule which the British courts have agreed to be always the just and proper one to adopt there was nothing in the words of the act to prevent women graduates from voting on equal terms with men and even if it were held that this had happened because when the act was passed the legislator had not foreseen the possibility of there ever being women graduates the right course to pursue because it was the accepted course when such questions in regard to acts of parliament arose was for the women to be allowed to vote until parliament if it chose to do so should carry an amending statute the graduates pointed out that this had been done in the case of the first woman who had graduated in medicine in the Netherlands where as in England graduation carried with it the right to vote this lady had claimed her right and not being allowed to exercise it in her case to the courts for technical reasons the case had been postponed and during the postponement the legislature had brought in a repealing enactment to prevent women graduates voting and had succeeded in carrying it the reason for the refusal of the English authorities to take this course is clearly apparent for it would have been difficult indeed for our parliament to carry such a repealing measure in the face of the tremendous suffragette and suffragist agitation the second of these two important happenings and perhaps the most auspicious one of the whole year was the granting of votes to women in Victoria where after struggling for many years these suffragists had at length succeeded in inducing their government to take the matter up and had secured their enfranchisement on November 8, 1908 footnotes 32 Miss Augustine acted upon her own initiative in using the dog whip and her intention was not known to the committee of the W.S.P.U. who felt however that they could not condemn her for seeking to protect herself she employed the whip as a protest not against ejection but against the unnecessary violence to which she herself and other women had been subjected End of chapter 17 Chapter 18 of the suffragette the history of the women's militant suffrage movement by E. Sylvia Pankhurst this LibriVox recording is in the public domain 18 January to March 1909 reminding the cabinet council of votes for women attempts by the women's freedom league to interview Mr. Asquith arrest of Mrs. Desperd the 7th woman's parliament arrest of Mrs. Pethic Lawrence and Lady Constance Lytton Mr. Jeffrey Howard's reform bill the 8th woman's parliament speaking in December 1908 on the policy of his government in the new year Mr. Asquith had declared that the stream of advice as to what he should do next session was pouring in upon him both night and day and that he was constantly receiving deputations who came to him from all quarters and in all causes on an average of something like two hours on three days in every week these deputations all asked for different things but were all agreed that their measure must be mentioned in the king's speech in that the best hours some of the best hours of the session must be given to its special consideration and the worst of it is he went on that I am disposed myself to agree with them all for as each group in their turn come to me I recognize in them some of our most loyal and fervent supporters thus Mr. Asquith was constantly receiving deputations of men and as he here admitted the deputations were helping him to decide what measures he must include in the next king's speech but he again refused to receive a deputation of the women therefore when the first cabinet council of the season met on January 25 members of the women's social and political union called at number 10 Downing Street to urge their claims again as they had done last year for knocking at the door four of them were arrested and at Bow Street where for administrative reasons all suffragette cases were in future to be tried they were ordered to go to prison for one month but unfortunately for Mrs. Clark a sister of Mrs. Pankhurst voiced the feelings of all when during her trial she said I felt that it was not I who was knocking at the prime minister's door but the great need of women knocking at the conscience of the nation and demanding that justice shall be done next day it was the members of the women's freedom league who strove to obtain an interview with Mr. Asquith and in consequence six of their number were arrested in Victoria Street 16 at the entrance to Downing Street and six including Mrs. Desperd and Mr. Joseph Clayton a journalist who protested on their behalf at the door of the stranger's entrance to the House of Commons the resulting sentences varied from one month to 14 days imprisonment little notice was given of these imprisonments the press evidently thinking such sensations stale but those active inventive brains at Clementson were determined not to be checkmated or devising new stratagems and new surprises as a means of pushing the cause forward when Mr. Churchill visited Newcastle to inspect a battleship on December 4th and 5th he was approached on the first of these days no fewer than 15 times and on the second almost constantly by women who met him at the station at the door of his hotel at a reception held in his honour on the pier, on the launch, on the ship itself and again at every turn on landing and who presented him with copies of Votes for Women urged the cause upon him in brief hurried reminders and made speeches to him from neighbouring votes every other minister was similarly waylaid when parliament met and the king's speech was found to contain no mention of Votes for Women the WSPU decided that another woman's parliament must be held and another deputation of women must be sent out from it then again something that had never been done before had to be contrived for focusing public attention on this event quite opportunely the postmaster general happened to issue new regulations making it possible to post human letters of course it was at once determined to post some suffragettes as letters to Mr. Asquith on Downing Street accordingly on Tuesday morning January 23rd Jesse Kenney dispatched Miss Solomon and Miss McClellan from the Strand Post Office then in charge of a little messenger boy one carrying a placard inscribed Votes for Women deputation to the House of Commons Wednesday and the other to the right honourable H.H. Asquith 10 Downing Street as W the two ladies marched off to the official residence when they arrived the messenger boy was invited inside and the door was shut but after a few moments it was opened again and an official appeared saying to the women you must be returned but we have been paid for they protested and he replied the post office must deliver you somewhere else you cannot be received here an express letter is an official document they persisted and must be signed for according to the regulations but the official replied you cannot be signed for you must be returned you are dead letters so there was nothing for it but to go back to Clemens Inn another day a facsimile of Black Maria the van which takes the prisoners to Holloway is seen driving through the town it bore the inscription E.P. for Amalene Pankhurst instead of E.R. Edward Rex and a man dressed almost exactly like a policeman rode on the back step when the van reached Regent Street a body of women in imitation prison dress emerged and proceeded to distribute handbills to the passersby and to chalk announcements of the forthcoming deputation to Mr. Asquith upon the pavement the members of the women's freedom league on a new and striking advertisement for Miss Matters the heroine of the grill scene floated over the House of Commons in a cigar shaped dirigible balloon painted with the fateful words votes for women ridiculous petty even unworthy of serious people you may think were some of these methods of propaganda and advertisement but the suffragettes knew only too well that the cause which does not advance cannot remain stationary but slips back into the limbo of forgotten things on February 24th the Seventh Woman's Parliament met in the Caxton Hall Mrs. Pethic Lawrence saluted forth from it with a number of women in her train but she and 28 of her comrades including Lady Constance Lytton and Miss Daisy D. Solomon the daughter of the late Prime Minister of the Cape were soon arrested their trial took place before Sir Albert Derutzen at Bow Street next day and on refusing to be bound over to keep the peace they received sentences of from one to two months imprisonment there were now many members both of the Women's Social and Political Union and of the Women's Freedom League in Holloway and one day whilst they were exercising together a member of the latter organization Mrs. Meredith McDonald a lady in middle life fell on the frosty stones two of her fellow prisoners ran to help her but the wardress forced them away and though she said she believed her thigh to be injured she was forced to leave herself unaided to herself her request to see her own doctor was refused and not until she became unable even to turn in her bed was she removed to the prison hospital when at last the x-rays were applied it was found that her thigh was fractured and that owing to the long delay and lack of poor treatment she would be lame for life the matter was reported to the Home Secretary with a demand for redress but no result followed until June 1910 a year afterwards when legal proceedings having been instituted the authorities at last agreed to pay Mrs. McDonald 500 pounds of damages and her legal cost amounting to an equal sum meanwhile a place for a women's suffrage measure had been won in the private members ballot by Mr. Jeffrey Howard a liberal member of parliament and son of the Countess of Carlisle Mr. Howard and the women's suffrage committee of liberal members with whom he was working decided to abandon the old equal bill and to introduce a complicated reform measure on the lines of that foreshadowed by Mr. Asquith in his famous promise of the previous year except that in this case votes for women was to form part of the original measure instead of being left to come in as an amendment under this private members reform bill the only condition required for registration as a parliamentary voter was to be that the person registered whether man or a woman should be a full age and have resided for not less than three months within the same constituency it was estimated that the bill would qualify some 15 million new voters 12 million of whom would be women and would thus nearly trouble the number at present entitled to exercise the franchise note 33 it would at the same time abolish plural voting the professed object of bringing forward this measure was to meet the stipulation put forward by Mr. Asquith and Mr. Lord George that votes should not be given to women except on democratic lines on Friday March 19 the bill came up for second reading and Mr. Howard in explaining its provisions said that he had no hope of carrying it into law but merely wished to clear the air for the reform bill presented by the government Sir Charles McLaren said that he hoped this bill might help the government to come to some decision as to the manner in which they would deal with a woman's suffrage question next year but when Mr. Asquith arose to make the expected government pronouncement he declared that the opinion of the government was unchanged and entirely unaffected by the introduction of this bill he added however that there were certain proposals contained in the measure of which he approved but carefully explained that his approval only extended so far as the bill referred to men though he was aware that the measure would not be pressed beyond a second reading he stated that the members of the government would abstain from voting either for or against it the whole debate therefore ended in fiasco and had been merely a wasted opportunity after Mr. Asquith's pronouncement the house divided and there voted for the bill 157 against the bill 122 majority for the bill 35 it will be thus seen that this bill of Mr. Howard secured a very much smaller measure of support than that which had been accorded to the equal woman's parliament bill in the previous year for the figures had then been for the bill 271 against 92 majority for the bill 179 the woman's social and political union now decided that another deputation should attempt to obtain an interview with Mr. Asquith and an eighth woman's parliament was held on March 30th Mrs. Saul Solomon widow of the governor general of South Africa an elderly motherly figure who deleted deputation of 30 women who were to carry the usual resolution to the house whilst Ms. Dora Marsden B.A. of Manchester looking exactly like a Florentine angel marched before with a purple, white and green standard announcing the arrival of the deputation as soon as the woman reached the street the usual pushing and hustling by the police began and after an hour's brave struggle 11 of them were arrested next day 9 of those who had not been taken again returned to the charge and eventually the 20 women were sent to prison at Sir Albert Derutson's orders 19 of them for one month and Patricia Woodlock because she had served several sentences already for three on April 16th Mrs. Pethic Lawrence, our dear treasurer was released and we were able to tell her that no less than 8,000 pounds had been collected by the sacrifice of our members during self-denial week a great procession was formed in her honour and marched from the marble arch all to which theatre, where she was to speak what a day it was to welcome anyone from prison the trees were just bursting into leaf and the brilliant April sunshine glistened on the silver armour of Elsie Howey who represented Joan of Arc the warrior maid whose beatification was taking place that very day and rode at the head of the procession as tried her great white charger with the brisk wind blowing back her fair hair and gaily fluttering the purple, white and green standard which she bore then came women and girls with flowers and banners and Mrs. Lawrence's own carriage covered with flags and everywhere were the purple, white and green colours except at one point where the American delegates to the international women's suffrage congress then sitting in London rode in a carriage draped with their own stars and stripes inside the theatre the platform was covered with flowers sent by hundreds of members and friends and there too the American delegates had added their tribute a little silk copy of their national flag it was a wonderful speech that Mrs. Lawrence then delivered full not only of enthusiasm and deep feeling but of logic and common sense and of unanswerable arguments for the women's cause she reminded us that she and her fellow suffragists had gone to prison in support of the old English constitutional maxim that taxation and representation should go together before she had gone to prison she told us a birthday book had been shown to her that had been got out for church bizarre in that book Mr. Asquith had been asked to write his favourite quotation with his signature and this favourite quotation of Mr. Asquith had turned out to be taxation without representation is tyranny many stories she told us of what she had seen and heard in prison one morning the chaplain had come into the hospital where she was and had called up an old woman to speak to him and her had heard the conversation that passed between them and had learnt and replied to his peremptory questioning her name, her age, the length of her sentence and so on she was seventy-six unmarried and for the first time in her long life she was now imprisoned because she could not pay her rent and taxes three pounds sixteen shillings I keep a lodging house for working men she said it has been a very bad winter for my lodgers and they have not been able to pay me this woman was quite good enough to pay taxes, said Mrs. Lawrence this old woman of seventy-six and to go to prison when she could not meet the taxes and yet she was not counted fit to exercise a vote Mrs. Lawrence also told us of a conversation between herself and the chaplain I have heard a great deal of you Mrs. Lawrence he had said you have started holiday homes for girls I wish you would start a holiday home for wardresses they work very hard, twelve hours a day they very often break down and then they have not enough money to go away on holiday I looked at him in amazement Mrs. Lawrence told us to think that a government servant should come to me a voteless woman and suggest that I should supply a deficiency created because our legislators do not pay their women servants enough so argument followed argument and there were many suffragettes who joined the union on that day ever since the night on which the members of the freedom league had changed themselves to the guild and pieces of that historic monument of prejudice had been taken down whilst two men in the strangers gallery had loudly demanded votes for women the galleries had been closed and though press representatives had still leave to come and go as far as the general public was concerned the house had sat in secret conclave for six months members of parliament found the exclusion of all visitors to the house to be exceedingly inconvenient and at last the government introduced what it called a brawling bill which was to settle the question by providing that any person not being a member of either house of parliament while present in the palace of Westminster during the sitting of either house who is guilty of disorderly contact or acts in contravention of any rule or order of the house in respect of the admission of strangers shall be guilty of misdemeanor and liable to some reconviction and imprisonment for a term not exceeding 100 pounds in bringing the bill forward the attorney general urged that though the house could already punish strangers who broke its rules by committing them to Newgate prison their imprisonment there could only last whilst the house was sitting so that those who committed an offense towards the close of the session would be too easily let off moreover the house had not the power to punish offenders without debate and for it to suspend its consideration of high matters in order to discuss the cases of persons who though he declared that no offense could be more serious than theirs he yet characterized as unworthy in themselves of further consideration than any ordinary police magistrate could give them was to play the game of the disturbers and to give them the maximum of advertisement with a minimum of punishment when someone pointed out that all accused persons liable to six months imprisonment were entitled to trial by jury he at once stated that he should prefer to reduce the proposed term of imprisonment to three months finally he recommended the bill to the house as one that would save its time and safeguard its dignity Lord Balcares urged that anyone charged under the bill would have the right to subpoena the speaker of the chairman of committee who had witnessed the occurrence complained of to give evidence at the trial it would be impossible he said to say that Mr. Speaker must not be summoned because he represented the quintessence of the collective wisdom of the House of Commons and it would be a most deplorable thing if the speaker and other officials and members of the House were to be hauled into court for no other reason than to draw public attention to the police court proceedings and to make sensational paragraphs in the evening papers Mr. Mooney an Irish member said amid great laughter that he thought the bill must have been drafted in the neighborhood of Clemens Inn because of the advertisement it would give to certain propagandists whilst Mr. Hazelton declared that the government were merely setting up an act of parliament as an act sally for every suffragette to come along and have a shot at Mr. Keir Hardy stated that in his opinion the bill was only necessary because of the failure of members of the government and members of the House to redeem their election pledges in regard to women's suffrage and that it was because women felt that they could no longer appeal to the honour of the House of Commons that they had taken to extreme measures in his reply the attorney general ignored this loud review of the case but dealt at length with the right of witnesses pointing to the setting aside of the subpoenas to Mr. Asquith and Mr. Herbert Gladstone in the case of Mrs. Bain's trial it leads as approved that this could easily be done again to protect the officers of the House and especially the great officers from being summoned. He promised that stringent provisions with this object should be added in committee saying I do not think the House need trouble itself without objection evidently therefore the gradual sweeping away of every safeguard of a free people against coercion which had been won for us by the suffering and sacrifice and ceaseless effort of generation of our forebears was as nothing to the government in comparison with the staving off of the women's claim to vote now it was one of the fundamental rights of the accused person that they were proposing to tamper with but the House would not agree Sir Edward Carson whilst expressing doubt as to the practicability of the government's proposals protested emphatically against the suggestion there should be a law of subpoena for the House of Commons different to that which prevailed in the rest of the land finally the Prime Minister rose to say that though after the trouble that had been taken in drafting it he did not like to withdraw the bill altogether he yet thought that further time should be given for consideration and that the debate should be adjourned the brawling bill was never heard of again its final death blow was dealt on April 27th exactly a week after it had been discussed when five suffragettes effectively showed that no threat of a brawling bill could prevent them from demonstrating in the House of Commons by entering St. Stephen's Hall and chaining themselves to the statues of five men. Walpole Lord Summers, Seldon and Lord Falkland whose names are famous in the struggle for British liberties in Stuart days. Having so chained themselves the women addressed the visitors and members of Parliament explaining that they themselves were engaged in fighting for the liberties of one half of the British people. With strong pincers the police succeeded in breaking the chains but there was no prosecution and shortly afterwards the speaker announced that both the ladies and strangers galleries were to be reopened on certain conditions before being admitted each visitor must now subscribe his or her name and address to the following printed pledge. I undertake to abstain from making any interruption or disturbance and to obey the rules for the maintenance of order of the galleries. Having signed the pledge men visitors were to be absolutely trusted but women were treated as having absolutely no sense of honour for no woman was to be permitted to get even so far as the signing of the pledge unless she happened to be related to a member of Parliament and no member was to be allowed to introduce any lady to the gallery unless he had previously won a place for her in the ballot. On May 13th the women's social and political union opened in the Princess skating rink a votes for women exhibition in the purple white and green. Mrs. Lawrence and the committee of the union were driven thither by a woman chauffeur in a motor car for which the suffragettes had subscribed in order that they might present it to the treasurer on her release from prison. The rink was covered outside with a mass of waving flags in the colours and inside these also predominated. The theme of the decorations which lined the walls of the great central hall was so in tears shall reap in joy and he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him. And indeed in those bright spring days of the skating rink though the victory of the franchise was not yet won some of the fruits of the struggle were already present in the glad comradeship of the workers. Everyone seemed to be full of high spirits and all were keenly interested in the success of the enterprise and in spite of the strenuous militant tactics in which they were engaged and of all the propaganda work which they were accomplishing every branch of the union and every organizing centre had its stall laid in with goods. Friends from all over the world had sent their contributions and the Norwegian delegates to the international suffrage congress had a stall of their own in aid of the WSBU funds. But this was no mere bizarre for at every turn one was reminded of votes for women. Each day as one entered a ballot paper was always pressed into one's hand and every visitor to the exhibition was invited to record a vote upon some question of the moment. The ballot box and everything connected with the voting being arranged just exactly as it is in parliamentary elections. At one end of the hall was a facsimile of a prison cell in which sat a woman in second division prison dress who herself had actually been to hall away and could explain exactly how the bed was rolled and the tins were cleaned. And by side with this was the sort of cell which may be occupied by men political prisoners. Ranged along one wall were glass cases containing clever little cartoon models prepared by sculptors in the union and showing numerous representations of cabinet ministers in their various encounters with the suffragettes. Amongst a host of others there was Mrs. Pankhurst and her deputation at the door of the House of Commons with the cabinet ministers hiding fearfully behind a group of stalwart women. There was a picture gallery of press photographs showing the history of the militant movement and there were entertainments all about votes for women by those ardent suffragists the members of the actresses franchise league. The exhibition lasted a fortnight and at the end of the first week came a great surprise for a woman's drum and fife band consisting of members of our union who had been practicing in secret for months past now dressed in a specially designed center of the rink and with Mrs. Lea's drum major marched out playing the Mercedes and then went round the town to advertise the exhibition. Hundreds of new members were made during the fortnight and perhaps the smallest part of the whole achievement was that 5,564 pounds was added to the WSPU campaign fund. Altogether it was decided that the exhibition in the colors was the smartest, brightest and shriest anyone had ever seen. Strangers visiting it said what happy women you suffragettes are we never thought you were like that to those who read of this movement in future years it may seem strange that in spite of the unremitting character of the struggle the suffragettes were not actually engaged in the fighting line should have been so generally merry and light hearted W. D. Howells in his Venetian life and others tell us that whilst Venice was dominated by Austria the whole town was under a cloud the Italians gave no balls dinners or entertainments and even the great opera house was closed but the attitude of the suffragettes was perhaps more in keeping with the English character. Have we not heard that though the Spanish armada had long been expected Drake and the other great sea fighters were playing bowls when the news came that it was in sight and now whilst the exhibition was in progress the fighting campaign was going forward for the country as briskly as ever Note 34 The protests in connection with cabinet ministers meetings continued almost daily and whilst the strictest precautions were taken to keep them out the greatest ingenuity was displayed by them in obtaining an entry at a meeting of Mr. Burles in the Causton Hall Bristol two women were found to have hidden themselves among the pipes of the organ when the same minister spoke with Lord Crue at Liverpool Mary Phillips who had lain crouching for 24 hours amid the dust and grime in a narrow space under the organ was there to remind them of Patricia Woodlock the Liverpool suffragette who was then serving a sentence of three months imprisonment in Holloway Jail Meanwhile, during the spring of 1909, eight by-election contests had been fought at Glasgow Heuch Burrows, Forfer South Edinburgh, Croydon East Edinburgh, the Attercliff Division of Sheffield and Stratford on Avon The Scotch constituencies with the exception of Glasgow which is not typically Scotch or the most difficult to fight for the majority of the Scotch people have long been so rootedly liberal that a very exceptional degree not only of sympathy with the cause but of belief in the by-election policy was needed to induce any of the electors to alter their old allegiance and to allow a conservative to be returned Nevertheless, the liberal majority was in every case reduced In Glasgow, the seat which had been held by a liberal was rested from the government by a liberal majority of 2,113 At Croydon, the liberal candidate was also defeated by a greatly increased majority for whilst in the general election it had been 638, it was now 3,948 The elections at Attercliff and Stratford on Avon were perhaps the most striking of the series In the former contest the liberals strove to counteract the suffragette influence in numerous ways including the issuing of leaflets with such headings as Working men don't be fooled by Mrs. Pankhurst and suffragette and Tory lies nailed to the counter In these documents they tried to lead the public to think that the police and not the government in power were responsible for the suffragette's imprisonments When the result of the polling was made known, it was found that the liberal nominee had been placed third on the poll having secured less than half the votes which had been cast for his party in the last election At Stratford on Avon another liberal seat the government candidate was again routed this time by a majority of 2,627 votes Footnotes 33 Estimate given by the liberal daily chronicle Note 34 The Freedom League had also held a successful and interesting Green-White and Gold Affair at the Caxton Hall End of Chapter 18