No such person can deny that the idea which underlies the claim of votes for women is fairly summed up in the dogma laid down by Mill: 'That the principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes—the legal subordination of one sex to the other—is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on other.'[1]
Nor can any sound thinker deceive himself or be allowed to deceive others by the argumentative sleight-of-hand which first conciliates opponents by treating the introduction of woman suffrage as a commonplace reform, comparable to the extension of the Parliamentary franchise to lodgers, and then excites the enthusiasm of supporters by putting the same measure forward as a revolution which will work the political, social, and moral renovation of England.
I shall in this and in the next letter go through and weigh the importance of the arguments in favour of woman suffrage; and
- ↑ Mill: 'Subjection of Women,' p. 1.
