Personally we are not at all alarmed at the idea
of manhood suffrage. We fancy it would make very little difference, and in many ways it would be a great convenience as compared with our present system. But then there would be the women's demand. It is made on new grounds, and therefore with a new force, whether right or wrong. The distraction caused by the controversy would be tremendous. During the war is emphatically not the time to discuss a Reform Bill. The strangest thing in the whole situation is the composition of the groups who are trying to force on a domestic franchise battle. We cannot question the sincerity of Sir Edward Carson and some others, but, for the most part, those who are de- manding changes in the franchise are enemies of the Government who would use any stick to beat them with. Still stranger, they are, as a whole, the very men who incessantly urge the Government to be more serious and more energetic in conducting the war. Yet now they do their utmost to weaken seriousness and paralyse energy. They are the very men who talk with lofty pity and supercilious contempt of "mere politicians," and "party politicians," and "lawyer politicians," yet now they themselves excel all previous efforts conceived in the spirit that is forensic and partisan.
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