but not indifference; in the counsels of the older parties there is an angry feeling that at least this is a question that can no longer be ignored.
How welcome all this is to those who have for years striven to drive out the early-Victorian attitude towards women from politics it is needless to say. Looking out on a world pregnant with hope from east to west, the friend of democracy finds no part of the great world movement more hopeful than that which the women of England are now carrying on for their own emancipation. Even the Russian Revolution is not more widespread, certainly not more unexpected than this. In our unromantic age, our unromantic land, a great popular movement has at last arisen, a movement of revolt, not less heroic than those of more distant times and nations.
It is not yet so very long ago since the members of the Women's Liberal Associations decided no longer to work for any candidate who was not in favour of the emancipation of their sex. The views of the candidates were ascertained, and many of the most earnest women refused to work for unsatisfactory men. Here, perhaps, the more clear-sighted women may have realised the extent to which the denial of citizen rights to women has vitiated the atmosphere of British politics. In a State where women had votes it would be impossible for any party to select a candidate unacceptable to its members of either sex; but in England, outside the ranks of the Independent Labour Party, the whole business of selecting candidates is almost entirely monopolised by men. The members of Conservative and Liberal Associations
