226 



The Review of Reviews. 



March 20, 190S. 



ed as to the fact that the infected area was strictly 

 conterminous with Highbury and the environs there- 

 of. Mr. Chamberlain was unable to infect other 

 districts with the Protectionist contagion. Wherever 

 he spoke to listening thousands in his pilgrimage of 



women to be postponed indefinitely because half a 

 dozen Cabinet Ministers fail to see that, if any of 

 the old Liberal watchwords are true, the demand of 

 the women is irresistible. All that is needed to con- 

 vince them that the situation is not one in which they 



passion the constituencies he addressed took special can indulge their illogical and illiberal prejudices, 



good care to return Free Traders at the head of the is a demonstration that the majority which supports 



poll. Only Birmingham, where he had established them is pledged to woman's suffrage, and means to 



his influence when a Radical on foundations too firm pass a Woman's Suffrage Bill before there is another 



to be shaken even if he had turned Mormon or had 

 advocated an Autocracy, remained faithful to him 

 when the nation Avas put to the test. Hence Mr. 

 Chamberlain withj-- 

 his six retainers ' 

 and his son Aus- 

 ten have been 

 returned to West- 

 minister to walk 

 as chief mourners 

 behind the hearse 

 of the corpse of 

 Protection as it 

 is borne to the 

 unhallowed 

 grave into which 

 it will be flung 

 amid the dismal 

 universal curse 

 which rises from 

 the heart of four 

 nations. 



Electoral 

 Reform. 



Daily Mail.] 



Sir George Tre- 

 velyan has sug- 

 gested that the 

 first session of 

 the new Parlia- 

 ment should be 

 utilised for pass- 

 ing a Bill reform- 

 ing the Registra- 

 tion laws, which 

 are admittedly in 

 urgent need' of 

 reform. But it is 



difBcult to attack the electoral question piece- 

 meal. Registration is tied up with other ques- 

 tions. The payment of the returning officers' ex- 

 penses leads directly to the payment of mem- 

 bers. Any dealing with the lodger franchise Avill 

 raise the question of the franchise, and it is now 

 abundantly evident that Ministers ha\e got to make 

 up their minds to deal with the question of woman's 

 suffrage. Some of them dislike it as intensely as 

 Mr. Lowe and Mr. Horsman disliked the enfran- 

 chisement of the working man. But it is impossible 

 for the concession of the just claims of the working 



appeal to the country. The working w'omen have 

 shown that they are in earnest on this question. The 

 Labour men are practically unanimous in favour of 



the enfranchise- 

 m e n t of the 

 women. The fact 

 that at Wigan 

 Mr. T h o r 1 e > 

 Smith, a candi- 

 date who stood 

 simply and solely 

 on the platform 

 of woman's suf- 

 frage first, polled 

 no fewer than 

 2205 of men's 

 votes at a time 

 when party feel- 

 ing ran highest, is 

 a significant 

 warning of dan- 

 ger ahead. We 

 do not want 

 another cause of 

 dissension in the 

 Liberal ranks. 

 Hence, the soon- 

 er the woman's 

 suffrage question 

 is taken up and 

 settled the better. 



Prediction— July, 1905. 

 Seats to be lost by the TJnionists marked black. 



\_Skeleton Map. 



Citizenship for 

 Women. 



It is to be 

 hoped that Mr. 

 Keir Hardie and 

 Mr. Snowden,. 



who have honourably distinguished themselves 

 by the earnestness and enthusiasm with which 

 they have supported the claim of women to full 

 citizenship, will lose no time in organising a 

 small bur resolute Parliamentary Committee for 

 directing the franchise campaign in the House 

 and out of it. What Ministers should be given 

 to understand, with all due emphasis and with- 

 out the lack of an unnecessary day, is that the 

 line of least resistance for them does not lie over 

 the necks of the women who are clamouring for the 

 vote. Hitherto both parties have toyed wdth thd 



