heartening barrenness. Bills and resolutions were either crowded out, or days for which they had been set down were taken by a relentless Government.
It was not until towards the end of the expiring Conservative Ministry that Sir Charles McLaren on March 16, 1904 to the surprise even of the friends of the movement, carried his Women's Suffrage Resolution by a majority of 114. The debate on Sir John Bamford Slack's Bill did not reach a division. Meantime, in view of the dissolution which came with dramatic suddenness in the autumn of the following year, the Suffragist Committees and the Women's Liberal Federation, cheered by the success of Sir Charles McLaren, redoubled their efforts to influence and educate Parliamentary candidates. The result of the General Election of January, 1906, was to give us upwards of 400 avowed supporters amongst all parties within the House of Commons. It gave us, however, another divided Cabinet, and although the Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, has by speeches, the reception of deputations, and the absence of every form of coercion upon his followers proved himself personally our friend, it does not appear to be either in his will or in his power to lead us to victory. The fortunes of the ballot made the leader of the Independent Labour Party, Mr. Keir Hardie, responsible for our resolution in the first session of Parliament. It was talked out, the reason alleged being that a disturbance in the Ladies' Gallery had hardened the hearts of the more lukewarm supporters. When a similar fate befell the Bill on
