Lord Hartington addressed the members of the Women's Liberal Unionist
Association on Wednesday, at St. George's Hall, when the Duke of Westminster took the chair. Lord Hartington said that he had never supported the proposal to give women votes, not because he did not admit that a great many of them are fully competent to form a sound political judgment, indeed a great deal more so than many men, but because he saw a very great practical difficulty in giving the weaker sex the nominal right to turn a majority of the stronger sex into a minority by their votes. He did not think that such an arrangement would stand, and if it were broken through after it had been accepted, the violent disregard of it would bring a general feeling of distrust of the con- stitution in its train. On the other hand, taking the same practical ground, he did think that women had and should have a very powerful political influence, and he quite approved of such an organisation as this to encourage them to exercise that influence.
Previous page
