that it would have been better if a
less terrible convulsion had sufficed to awaken him, but still, now he
was awakened, he was prompt in owning he had been in the wrong and
therefore no more was to be said. The subsequent stages of this
Representation of the People Bill were a series of triumphs for the
suffrage cause. The second reading debate was taken on May 22d and 23d
and again turned almost entirely on the women's question; the majority
was 329 to 40. When the Bill was in Committee and the clauses
enfranchising women were taken up on June 19 the majority was 385 to
55, or exactly seven to one. On June 20 a last division was made, when
the number of anti-suffragists was only 17.

Our friends in the Speaker's Conference had so often impressed on us
the danger of departing, even in the direction of obvious improvement,
from its recommendations that we had carefully abstained from urging
any deviation from them; but when the immense majorities just quoted
showed that the Bill and our clauses in it were safe beyond a
peradventure, we did press very strongly that the same principle
should be applied to Municipal suffrage for women which had already
been sanctioned by the House for the Parliamentary Suffrage, namely,
that the wives of householders should be recognized as householders,
which would entitle them to vote. On November 15 an amendment to this
effect was moved but was not accepted by the Government. There were
vigorous protests in our favour from all parts of the House and the
debate on it was adjourned. During the interval the N.U.W.S.S. and
other societies with whom we were cooperating bombarded the leader of
the House and the Minister in charge of the bill with letters and
telegrams in support of the amendment. These produced a good effect
and on November 20, Government opposition having been withdrawn, the
amendment was agreed to without a division. Thus without the existence
of a single woman voter but on the strength of her coming into
existence within the next few months, the women on the Municipal
registers of Great Britain and Ireland were increased in number from
about one million to over eight-and-a-half millions. And yet Lord
Bryce and the other anti-suffragists assured us that the vote would
make no difference!

In the House of Commons a third reading of the Representation of the
People Bill was taken on December 7 without a division. The Bill was
now safely through the Commons but its passage t