The debate was continued on Tuesday amid considerable excitement. We
wish we had room to do justice to Mr. S. H. Butcher's admirable speech in which he pointed out that universal adult suffrage and the entry of women to Parlia- ment were the only possible solution of the anomalies so freely proposed in the Bill. How could Unionists vote for a Bill which would have such a culmination? Mr. Churchill, who had been expected to bless the Bill, rose only to curse it. He was in favour of removing women's disability, which was "a slur on the whole sex," but not by such a Bill as this. It was not only not democratic, it was anti-democratic. It offered a capricious addition to the list of voters, and the more he studied it the more he marvelled that Radicals and Labour Members should have backed it. It gave unfair advantages to property. A rich man could multiply votes for his family. He could let out a cottage to one, a piece of land to another, and the reactionary vote would be greatly increased. It was creditable that many Unionists refused the favours thus offered to them. Again, a disreputable woman could get a vote, but she would probably lose it by marrying and becoming an honest woman; and then she could only win it back again by divorce !
