this as a question having precedency over all other
questions. And the reason why men have only taken a very temperate
interest in woman's suffrage is that women themselves, in the mass, have
taken an equally temperate interest in the matter when they have not
been actually hostile to the movement. It may indeed be said, even at
the present time, that whenever an impartial poll is taken of a large
miscellaneous group of women, only a minority are found to be in favour
of woman's suffrage.[56] No significant event has occurred to stimulate
general interest in the matter, and no supremely eloquent or influential
voice has artificially stirred it. There has been no woman of Mary
Wollstonecraft's genius and breadth of mind who has devoted herself to
the cause, and since Mill the men who have made up their minds on this
side have been content to leave the matter to the women's associations
formed for securing the success of the cause. These associations have,
however, been led by women of a past generation, who, while of
unquestionable intellectual power and high moral character, have viewed
the woman question in a somewhat narrow, old-fashioned spirit, and have
not possessed the gift of inspiring enthusiasm. Thus the growth of the
movement, however steady it may have been, has been slow. John Stuart
Mill's remark, in a letter to Bain in 1869, remains true to-day: "The
most important thing women have to do is to stir up the zeal of women
themselves."

In the meanwhile in some other countries where, except in the United
States, it was of much more recent growth, the woman's suffrage movement
has achieved success, with no great expenditure of energy. It has been
introduced into several American States and Territories. It is
established throughout Australasia. It is also established in Norway. In
Finland women may not only vote, but also sit in Parliament.

It was in these conditions that the Women's Social and Political Union
was formed in London. It was not an offshoot from any existing woman's
suffrage society, but represented a crystallization of new elements. For
the most part, even its leaders had not previously taken any active part
in the movement for woman's suffrage. The suffrage movement had need of
exactly such an infusion of fresh and ardent blood; so that the new
society was warmly welcomed, and met with immediate success, finding
recruits alike among the rich and the poor. Its unconventional methods,
its eager a