In other words, the suffragist women are not in the
least prepared to accept Mr. Asquith's concession in the spirit in which it was made,—namely, to allow further discussion of the matter. Having inserted the thin end of the wedge, they mean to drive it in at all costs. Or, to go back to our metaphor of last week, the tiger does not mean to be content with looking at its food. It means to eat it, or know the reason why. Very natural from the tiger's point of view. It seems to us that Mr. Asquith ought to have recognised that the situation which is now developing was inevitable. He should have made up his mind to stand firm on the question. To pretend that he was only faced with a question of pro- cedure was a case of self-deception. He was face to face with the whole issue. We suppose that in the end the
Parliamentary tacticians will beat the suffragists, but in doing so the whole question will become more than ever exasperated_ and inflammatory. If our forecast is correct, a very heavy responsibility will rest on the Prime Minister.
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