because
of change of residence or of the difficulties of the registration
process. Finally, it abolishes absolutely both the plural vote and the
separate representation of the universities. The effect of the first
two of these provisions, it is estimated, would be to enlarge the
electorate by 2,500,000 votes, that of the third, to reduce it by
upwards of 600,000;[129] so that the net result of the three would be
to raise an existing electorate of eight millions to one of ten
millions. A total of twenty-eight franchise statutes are totally, and
forty-four others are partially, repealed by the bill. The ground upon
which the measure, in its earlier stages, was attacked principally was
its lack of provision for a redistribution of seats. The defense of
the Government has been that, while the imperative need of
redistribution is recognized, such redistribution can be effected only
after it shall be known precisely what the franchise arrangements (p. 091)
of the kingdom are to be.[130]

[Footnote 127: See pp. 110-113.]

[Footnote 128: October, 1912.]

[Footnote 129: The number of plural voters is
placed at 525,000; that of graduates who elect the
university representatives, at 49,614.]

[Footnote 130: A timely volume is J. King and F. W.
Raffety, Our Electoral System; the Demand for
Reform (London, 1912).]

*95. The Question of Woman's Suffrage.*--It will be observed that the
Franchise Bill restricts the franchise to adult males. The measure was
shaped deliberately, however, to permit the incorporation of an
amendment providing for the enfranchisement of women. It is a fact not
familiarly known that English women of requisite qualifications were
at one time in possession of the suffrage at national elections. They
were not themselves allowed to vote, but a woman was privileged to
pass on her qualifications temporarily to any man, and, prior to the
seventeenth century, the privilege was occasionally exercised. It was
not indeed, until the Reform Act of 1832 that the law of elections, by
introducing the phrase "male persons," in effect vested the
parliamentary franchise exclusively in men.[131] The first notable
attempt made in Parliament to restore and extend the female franchise
was that of John Stuart Mill in 1867. His proposed amendment to the
reform bill of that yea