WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3357, 11 January 1879, Page 4

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE.

I'he annual meeting of the Manchester Bufiilr for Womon's Suffrage wne held in the iVlauchoiter Town Hull. Air Alderman Hey*vood presided. Mr L. Courtnoy, M.P., in rsuoving the adoption of tho annual report, -xexnitrked that it was in Manchcstor tho proanotcrs of the movement met with tho most / energetic and indefatigablo support, and ii jiiiy thing like tho same degree of activity were* *hown in other centres he should flatter hiiu*df on the much earlier triumph of tho

1-lUI4L- ihun ho could now auticipule. Its due-«-l'S3 w.i 9 letarded by a kind of human inertia — a kind of sluggishness of the male intellect — of torpidity of the masculine conscience, ivliifh had been an obstacle to tho attainment

of many other great mousureeof justice iv limes past. Such measures often required v threat of something like war to obtain them from a British Legislature. It was j'l-rl.ajrt viu i misfortune of llie advocates oi ■vtoiiu-a's suffrage that they could not appeal to any of thoso auxiliaries of force which on tfonuvr occasions wore 80 powerful, for ho did mot eifx-cr lo see Miss Bcoker leading n band *»t «v#rkvM)*.«en to break windows or to throw *ltwjj jtui-li. paliugs, cither in Manclustci 1 or in A4*n lutilropolid. 'Iho present movement could

only hope to succeed by what was called 11 pegging away," or as its opponects perhap9 ■would call it, "nagging away" until the inertia and torpidity he had referred to were overcome. Tho claim for the enfranchisement of women ratepayers was based upon common sense. There might be two ratepayers side by side in the same street, each paying rates and taxes, each equally interosted in the well government of the people, but the ono had a voice in choosing a legislator, and the other had not, the sole ground of the difference being the difference of sex between them, which was a differenco quite immaterial to the objects of legislation, and having no sort of respect to the qualifications of the voter. The arguments against the measure seemed to be exhausted. It had been a trial of patience to hear the adverse argument based upon the impulsiveness and precipitancy and other faults of women's judgment, as if these were faults from which 'the judgment of men was free. The way in which the London newspapors, for instance, were now admitting the need of information on the Afghan question — as to which there was not one of them that did not pronounce a decided opinion upon every point four weeka ago— was enough to suggest tho inquiry whether all the leading articles of these journals were written by women. These howling dervishes of the Press — these people who could solve all difficulties by keeping up a row with trumpets and tom-toms, and many of whom were the strongest opponents of tho claims of women — were themselves among the chief examples of the mental infirmity they charged upon women. After referring to the questions of property, law of personal protection, and of apportionment of funds for education in which justice to women had been neglected by a Legislature elected only by men, Mr Courtney concluded by declaring that his main reason for desiring women's suffrage was its educational effect, both upon women and men. By bringing women into direct contact with the political life of tho country wo should increase the range of their interests, tho width of their intellects, and the power of their sympathies in all that was best and most generous on the part of men. The report was adopted. The meeting was afterwards addressed by Mr Alderman Baker, Mr Alderman Bennett, Mrs Scatcherd, of Leeds, Dr John Watts, Mrs M'Larcn, Mies Sturgc, Dr Whittle, Mrs Ellis, Miss Driver, and the Rev Mr Slater.