nd militant spirit, were felt to supply a lacking element,
and the first picturesque and dashing exploits of the Union were on the
whole well received. The obvious sincerity and earnestness of these very
fresh recruits covered the rashness of their new and rather ignorant
enthusiasm.

But a hasty excess of ardour only befits a first uncalculated outburst
of youthfulness. It is quite another matter when it is deliberately
hardened into a rigid routine, and becomes an organized method of
creating disorder for the purpose of advertising a grievance in season
and out of season. Since, moreover, the attack was directed chiefly
against politicians, precisely that class of the community most inclined
to be favourable to woman's suffrage, the wrong-headedness of the
movement becomes as striking as its offensiveness.

The effect on the early friends of the new movement was inevitable.
Some, who had hailed it with enthusiasm and proclaimed its pioneers as
new Joans of Arc, changed their tone to expostulation and protest, and
finally relapsed into silence. Other friends of the movement, even among
its former leaders, were less silent. They have revealed to the world,
too unkindly, some of the influences which slowly corrupt such a
movement from the inside when it hardens into sectarianism: the
narrowing of aim, the increase of conventionality, the jealousy of
rivals, the tendency to morbid emotionalism.

It is easy to exaggerate the misdeeds and the weaknesses of the
suffragettes. It is undoubtedly true that they have alienated, in an
increasing degree, the sympathies of the women of highest character and
best abilities among the advocates of woman's suffrage. Nearly all
Englishwomen to-day who stand well above the average in mental
distinction are in favour of woman's suffrage, though they may not
always be inclined to take an active part in securing it. Perhaps the
only prominent exception is Mrs. Humphry Ward. Yet they rarely associate
themselves with the methods of the suffragettes. They do not, indeed,
protest, for they feel there would be a kind of disloyalty in fighting
against the Extreme Left of a movement to which they themselves belong;
but they stand aloof. The women who are chiefly attracted to the ranks
of the suffragettes belong to three classes: (1) Those of the well-to-do
class with no outlet for their activities, who eagerly embrace an
exciting occupation which has become, not only highly respectable, but
even