registration of voters or persons entitled to or claiming to be registered and to vote in the election of members of Parliament, wherever words occur which import the male gender, the same shall be held to include women for all purposes connected with and having reference to the right to be registered as voters, and to vote in such election, any law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding." The second reading of Mr. Bright's Bill was carried on May 4, 1870, by a majority of 33, in spite of Mr. Secretary Bruce rising on behalf of the Government to ask the House to delay consideration of the matter. A week later the Bill went into Committee, and after the Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone, had made a statement expressing disappointment at the previous vote, and concluding with the words, "I for one strongly entertain—in common with all those now sitting near me—that it would be a very great mistake to carry this Bill into law," the Bill was rejected by 220 to 94.
Dr. Arnold in one of his letters speaks of his love of democracy and his hatred of the aristocratic spirit, whether evinced in an aristocracy of race, skin, wealth, priesthood, or landed interest. He might have added there is no aristocracy so all dominant as that of sex. If proof is needed it is in this attitude of so noble a mind as that of Mr. Gladstone's.
Strange that one whose golden words, "The essence of Liberalism is trust in the people, qualified by prudence; the essence of Toryism is distrust of the people, qualified by fear," should, in the question
