The Second Reading debate upon the Franchise Bill opened in
the House of Commons on Monday in a very thin House. Mr. Harcourt began his speech with explanations as to why redistribution was not dealt with in the Bill. He said it was the Government's declared intention to pass a Redis- tribution Bill before the next General Election, but a fourth great measure in the present Session was impossible. He next declared his belief that manhood suffrage was the right basis for the Parliamentary franchise. The Bill at present con- tained no provision for woman suffrage, and he could not believe that Parliament was prepared to add 10,500,000 women to the electorate at the present moment. Mr. Pretyman moved the Opposition amendment, which asked that the House should not proceed with a measure, on the most im- portant aspect of which the Government were admittedly not agreed, which left the most glaring inequalities in the fran- chise unremedied, and was framed solely in the electoral interests of one party. In the course of the debate that followed two or three of the Government's supporters an- nounced their intention of voting against the Bill upon the third reading unless a provision giving the vote to women were inserted in it.
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