The Ideal State 245 



petard ; " the whirligig of time brought in its re- 

 venges," and the clever women at the head of the 

 movement found the men turn and rend them for this 

 gross violation of their maternal instinct and the 

 modesty of nature ; and the real mothers of the nation 

 were not long in showing their disapproval ! Truly, 

 " these violent delights have violent ends and in their 

 triumph die ! " 



Another cause of the collapse of this ill-thought-out, 

 ill-digested programme was the fact that within its 

 borders were two hostile camps. The movement began 

 with the demand for the suffrage to women of property ; 

 before long the Labour members were not slow to dis- 

 cover that Britain would never tolerate such a violation 

 of all democratic principle, and it appeared to them a 

 good political move to lend their support as thereby 

 securing the suffrage to all women on the same basis as 

 men and in all probability double their own parlia- 

 mentary party. From the present-day political stand- 

 point, the latter were quite right to advocate a measure 

 which would be likely to augment largely their parlia- 

 mentary power. But this is at best a poor motive, and 

 until parties and Governments realise the advantage 

 in the long run which accrues to those who act solely 

 in conformity with Christian ethics, they will find 

 that such methods will fail and recoil on their own 

 heads. 



We want, moreover, more reverence for scientific 

 opinion ; no body of men in Parliament or outside of it 

 have any right to advocate such a breach with the tradi- 

 tion of the past, who have not referred the matter to 

 the leaders of psychological science, who have had 

 experience through the devotion of their entire lifetime 

 to its study, and have observed the mentality of both 

 sexes over a long period of years. Inexperience and 

 power are a sorry combination, and the sooner all men, 



