Lord Salisbury on Woman Suffrage.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 889, 15 March 1889, Page 5

Lord Salisbury on Woman Suffrage.

Lord Salisbury made a most important declaration in favour of the extension of the Parliamentary franchise to women in the speech which he delivered to the Marquis of Salisbury Habitation of the Primrose League in Edinburgh recently. The Premier, referring in the first instance to the Primrose League, said : * I think its greatest achievement is that it has brought the influence of women to bear upon politics in a way which it never bore before. Now, the Primrose League in that respect represents, to my mind, modifications of our Constitution that have taken place in the past, and modifications which will probably take place in the future. In the past there has been a large extension of the suffrage, and a much larger portion of the inhabitants of this country now take their share of the election of members and in the framing of the policy by which the country is guided. By its more elastic rules and freer organisation the Primrose League has adapted itself to that state of circumstances. Well, lam now speaking of myself only. Do not imagine lam speaking for anybody else. But, speaking for myself only, I earnestly hope that the day is not far distant when women also will bear their Bhare in voting for members in the political world and in determining the policy of the country. I can conceive no argument by which they are excluded. It is obvious that they are abundantly as fit as many who now possess the suffrage by knowledge, training, and by character, and their influence is likely to weigh in a direction which in an age so material is exceedingly valuable —in the direction of morality and religion.’ It is needless to say that this passage of Lord Salisbury’s speech was loudly applauded. So emphatic a statement of opinion emanating from the Prime Minister cannot fail to give the strongest possible encouragement to the supporters of women’s suffrage.