PREFACE.
This Paper has been reprinted by desire of some Members of the House of Commons. It has been revised, and some sentences have been added to meet new arguments on the other side, while special allusions to the legislative phase of the question last session have been omitted.
I cannot take notice of personal attacks, especially when they proceed from ladies. In answer to appeals to party allegiance I have to say, in the first place, that the Bill for removing the Electoral Disabilities of Women comes from the Conservative side of the House, and is apparently, like the enfranchisement of the residuum, not unconnected with the objects of a reactionary policy. In the second place, what is of much more importance, I have to say that I owe allegiance to party in politics, not when it invades the family and home.
A friend, seconding the request that the Paper should be reprinted, writes to me: "The argument that weighs most with me is the incalculable danger of disturbing the tacit concordat on which the relations between the sexes now repose. By virtue of that concordat women get more privileges and fewer burdens, while men take rights and burdens for themselves. Whatever tends to upset this compromise tends to bring on a struggle in which the weaker must needs go to the wall."
- Toronto, January, 1875.
