7 MAY 1892, Page 15

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE BILL.

TO THE EDITOR OF THY "SPECTATOR."]

SIE,-I see in your note on the debate on the Women's Suffrage Bill, you write of myself as "quoted by Sir Henry James as having formerly expressed so very strong, and even bigoted an opinion against Women's Franchise, that none of those who are now its strongest opponents could accept his language; indeed, they would, for the most part, heartily repudiate it."

Perhaps you will let me say that the sentences which my right hon. and learned friend last Wednesday, not for the first time, severed from their context, were part of an argu- ment in favour of admitting women to the Parliamentary franchise ; in respect of which I have never expressed a different opinion from that I now hold. Looking back, indeed, at the speech from which the sentences are taken (" Hansard," June 19th, 1878), I am rather surprised at the power of my own argument.—I am, Sir, &c.,