a plank in their Liberal programme. A perusal of the pamphlet by Mrs. Eva McLaren entitled "The History of the Women's Suffrage Movement in the Women's Liberal Federation," furnishes an illustration of one of our most strongly-marked national characteristics, our inability to comprehend an argument until it receives practical application in our daily life.
The Federation was organised in 1887, twenty years after the first Suffrage society was founded. Thus for nearly a generation women had enjoyed opportunities for reading reports of debates in Parliament, books, pamphlets, and some of them of attending meetings on the subject. But to none save the few had it become a vital issue. Suffrage societies in great centres of population such as London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Manchester, Newcastle, Bristol, &c., had endured in spite of all reverses, but planted in smaller places they had as a rule withered away.
There was no driving force to create a great national organisation for Women's Suffrage, and not even enough to make it a fundamental in either a Conservative or a Liberal Woman's organisation. Hence in 1887, when the Women's Liberal Federation was formed, the original promoters did not intend to give any prominence to Women's Suffrage, the reason alleged being that it had always been treated as a non-party question. As soon, however, as women outside the inner Party circle were invited to join, it became evident that the legitimate demands of women for political justice could not be ignored.
