42 



serious people who understand 

 accustomed to deal mth thing 



•• And that, you think, wa- 

 ment ? ' 



'' It is not a question of th 

 know it was so. You could 

 night with all manner of Germ 

 without being able to realise 

 intensity of the good feelins;. 

 who was with us from first i" 1 

 pilgrims." 



The Review of Revievis. 



July 1. 1906. 



practical life and are 

 s as they are.' 

 the universal senti- 



inking ; 



it was so. I 



not sf)end dav and 



ans in th^ three cities 



the sincerity and the 



Ask Sir John Gorst, 



last, or ask am c-f the 



•" Then you are hopeful Y 



" So far as the Gernian.s arr ciinct-rned, I am 

 confident. I only hope that the influential deputa- 

 . tion of burgomasters and councillors who are paying 

 us a return visit this month will carry back to Ger- 

 manv anvthing like so deep an impression of British 

 goodwill. " . 



This is good hearing, all the more so becai s ■ 

 Dr. Lunn is a man who "' understands practical li! 

 and is accustomed to deal with things as thev are. " 



LXXXVIII.-ON THE VALUE OF IMPATIENCE IN POLITICS: A WOMAN'S RIGHTER. 



The questii n of W'lman's Suffrage is ripenii^g ffs;, 

 and one of the most significant signs of this wel- 

 come consummation \vas the scene in the Ladies" 

 Gallery of the House of Commons last month, for 

 it indicates that women are becoming impatient with 

 the way in which their claims have been cushioned 

 year after year by an assembly which contains a 

 majority of men pledged to their support. It was ■ 

 the one thing n edful, for impatience is an essential 

 element in practical politics. The incident came 

 about in this wise. Mr. Keir Hardie mo\'ed a reso- 

 lution asserting the justice of woman's claim to 

 citizenship. It was opposed by Mr. W. R. Cremer, 

 whose speech was worthy of the cause in which it 

 was delivered, for on this subject Mr. Cremer is the 

 blackest of reactionaries. It was known that an im- 

 mense majority of members, 400 in a House of 670, 

 weie pledged to vote in favour of the citizenship 

 of women. Therefore it was determined bv ^Ir. 

 Evans to talk out the debate, and so to prevent a 

 di\ision. The Speaker, it was understood, had de- 

 cided to refuse the closure, and the obstructives 

 had the game in their own hands. They reckoned, 

 tiowever, without the women. A small knot of 

 earnest and angry women of the working classes, - 

 seated in obscurity behind the grille, gave free ex- 

 pression to ther disgust at the ob-tructive tactics 

 of their opponents. If there had been no grille it 

 is doubtful whether they would have had the cour- 

 age to perpetrate such a breach of decorim. But 

 behind' the bars of the cage in which women are 

 immured they made such a tumult of protest that 

 the police were called in, and all the ladies were 

 unceremoniously bundled out. Next day the papers 

 shrieked in chorus over the folh . the wickedness, etc., 

 etc.. of the suffragettes. Tliey had ruined their 

 cause, woman's suffrage was lost, members were re- 

 pudiating their pledges, and so forth. 



" All stuff and nonsense," said a stalwart woman's 

 righter. " The row has done more to make woman's 

 suffrage a live issue than a hundred ^conventional 

 demonstrations." 



■' Because it supplied the one thing that was 

 w cessary to convince men that the subject is get- 

 ting .so hot that they can no longer fool w^th it as 

 thev have been doing. Patience has been tried 



\<i\v^ enouuli, .md what has it laought? Less than 

 one teit-minutes' expression of the divine impatience 

 that lilazed up iii tlv I.-idies" Gnllery that memor- 

 able night." 



"But what about t.e M. .-i'. wa.. are repudiating 

 their pledges becau.se of of the scene?" 



"Oh, we did not need that to prove that there 

 are men as illogical as any women, or that some 

 membeis are fools enough to regard the impatience 

 generated by injustice as a reason for persisting in 

 1 eing unjust. Xii c.iuse can ever triumph until it 

 has combed off such fainthearts." 



■ Then do vou approve, of women making a row 

 i:i the Gallery?" 



" Pray what else can they do but make a row ? 

 They have pleaded, canvassed, petitioned, agitated. 

 Thev have succeeded in getting four hundred men 

 returned pledged to their cause, and they find this 

 huge majoritv so inert; apathetic, indifferent and 

 feckless that a single creature like Mr. Evans caii 

 prevent the passing even of an abstract resolution." 



" Surelv, it was verv unwomanlv?'' 



" Pshaw ! It was not anything like so unwomanly 

 as it was unmanly to allow a cause admittedly just 

 to be stifled without a single indigna"t protest. May 

 I be profane ?'l 



■■■ Oh, certainly, if you wish il.' 



"Well, there is no other way of putting the qu s- 

 tion into a nutshell. A newspaper editor once said 

 he would nex'er have a woman on his staff because 

 ' vou cannot sav damn to a woinan.' In like man- 

 ner it is cjuite clear women will never get on the 

 - register until thev pluck up courage to say damn 

 to the men who profess to support them, and then 

 leave them in the lurch. And the row in the Ladies'' 



Gallerv was just the big, big. d which needs 



to be uttered when the limits of endurance have 

 been passed, and " 



" It was ver\- horrid all the same, and vt rv un- 

 ladylike " ' 



"Resolutions cannot be made with rosewater ; 

 and if you pull the tail of the tamest of tabbies too 

 hard some day It will scratch. You may swear at it 

 and kick it out of doors, but next time you will re- 

 member that cats have claws.'' 



