the bewilderment of the devoted Liberal is comprehensible. Why does the new movement appear just at the moment when a Government inspired by democratic ideals comes into office, and when there is a chance, so thinks the Liberal, of forwarding social reforms that have already waited too long? Why were these women, admitting that they are entirely sincere, and that their motives are deserving of the highest respect, why were they so misguided as to allow the Conservatives to remain many years in power without subjecting them to the annoyance and irritation involved in the present tactics?
To this question many answers can be given. In the first place some of the leading spirits in this agitation were not during the last Government's term of office of an age to rebel against anything save the regulations of schoolroom or college. Nothing can be more ludicrous to one acquainted with the active members of the Women's Social and Political Union than the quite extraordinary contrast between the Suffragette as she really is and the Suffragette as caricatured. The latter is a gaunt, elderly person, badly dressed and excessively plain—she is popularly supposed to want a vote because her lack of charm has failed to secure her a husband; the former is quite frequently a girl or young matron between twenty and thirty, of delicate, even dainty appearance and usually dressed, if not fashionably, at all events with considerable charm and individual taste. Few movements have in all probability so many young people among their leaders, and many of the agitators, if asked why they
