Bright Clark, the daughter of Mr. John Bright, M. P.,
who had been appointed delegate from one of the few Liberal
associations which comprise women among their members, said:

There was in this country a considerable and increasing number of
earnest women of strong liberal convictions, who felt keenly the
total exclusion of their sex from the parliamentary suffrage.
Their hope was, of course, in the Liberal party, though all of
its members were not yet converted to true liberalism. The
Liberal women would not rest satisfied until there was throughout
the United Kingdom a real and honest household suffrage. They
knew that they were weak in the cabinet, and they regretted to
know that some of the most eminent leaders of the Liberal party
were not in this matter wholly their friends. These leaders had
fears which she thought the future would show to have been
unfounded. But she could venture to say on behalf of the Liberal
women of England that they were not unmindful of the past, and
were not ungrateful for the services which these men rendered and
were prepared to render to their country. Women were grateful.
They sympathized with the efforts of Liberal statesmen in the
past, and they knew how faithfully and loyally to follow. But
they felt that they must sometimes originate for themselves, and
they dared not blindly and with absolute faith follow any man,
however great or however justly and deeply beloved. Further, she
could say that, with the result of the high political teaching
they had had in the past, they would endeavor faithfully,
intelligently and with what ability was given to them, to uphold
those great principles of justice, and trust in the people which
she believed had made the Liberal party what it was, and which
alone were capable of lifting it to the highest triumphs in the
future.

There were enthusiastic cheers when Mrs. Clark had finished
speaking. The historical interest, the self-evident justice of the
plea brought forward by the daughters of the great reform leaders
on behalf of the continuance of the grand cause of freedom for
which their fathers had so bravely battled, went to the hearts of
the crowded assembly. Delegates who had come determined to vote
against the resolution--the "monstrous political fad," as one of
our opponents in parliament had called it--sa