The Bill enabling unmarried female householders to vote for Members
of Parliament was defeated on Wednesday, by 219 to 140. There was little originality in the debate, and none of the political leaders took part in it. Mr. Courtney, who moved the second reading, employed the usual argument from representation, which would be more forcible if we had universal suffrage ; and Mr. Beresford Hope made the usual reply, that women did not ask for the vote. Mr. Hanbury pressed the argument that the Bill, in admitting unmarried lodgers, would admit an immoral class of voters; and Mr. Smollett ridiculed the assertion that great political leaders were in favour of the Bill. If they were, they could carry it. Perhaps the best point was made by Mr. Smollett, when he said that to deprive a woman of a vote because she had married was to stigmatise marriage ; and perhaps the worst by Mr. Blennerhasset, when he denied that government in civilised States was based on force. Is it in uncivilised States that one finds organised police and scientific armies? If govern- meat is not based on force, independence is.
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