he election of a
representative; she also stated that women were liable to all the
penalties of the law, even death, and ought to have a voice in
the fixing of them; but so far from this, on their trials both
judges and jurors were of the opposite sex. She could see no good
reason for the exclusion of women from political rights while the
highest office of the State, that of the crown, was open to the
inheritance of females; and, so we understood, the petitioner
expressed her indignation against those vile wretches who would
not marry, and yet would exclude females from a share in the
legislation. The prayer of the petition was that every unmarried
female, possessing the necessary pecuniary qualifications, should
be entitled to vote for members of parliament.

The following year Sir Robert Peel in opposing vote by ballot said:

The theoretical arguments in favor of woman suffrage were at
least as strong as those in favor of vote by ballot. There were
arguments in favor of extending the franchise to women to which
it was no easy matter to find a logical answer. Other and more
important duties were entrusted to women. Women were allowed to
hold property, to vote on many occasions in right of that
property; nay, a woman might inherit the throne and perform all
the functions of the first office of the State. Why should they
not vote for a member of parliament?

But Sir Robert Peel evidently had no idea that a time would come
when women would ask this question in downright seriousness.
Meanwhile the preference for the words "male person" in the new
enactments still continued. It was employed in the Municipal
Corporation Reform act, 1835; and in the Irish poor-law act of
1838, women, as well as clergymen, were expressly excluded from
election as poor-law guardians. The repeal of the corn-laws brought
the political work of women to the front; they formed local
committees, collected funds and attended meetings. In a speech on
free-trade, delivered in Covent Garden Theater January 15, 1845,
Richard Cobden said:

There are many ladies present, I am happy to say; now, it is a
very anomalous fact that they cannot vote themselves, and yet
that they have a power of conferring votes upon other people. I
wish they had the franchise, for they would often make much
better use of it than their husbands.