Subsequently, the Rev. H. W. Crosskey, of Birmingham, brought forward
the claims of women to the Parliamentary franchise; and in this he was supported by Miss Cobden and by a daughter of Mr. Bright's,—Mrs. Bright-Clarke, of Street, in Somersetshire. The Conference was favourable to this rider on the resolution, and voted it by a great majority, though not, apparently, till after a good many members had gone away. This is, we hold, a very unpractical gloss adopted into the text of the record of the Conference, and certainly not one on which Liberal statesmen will be agreed. The Conservatives advocate women's suffrage, because they think, and probably rightly think, that the votes of women at large would be preponderantly Conservative,—and, of course, it would be impossible to abide by the present qualifications, if it be assumed that women of average political capacity should be put on an equality with men of the same capacity. At all events, the adoption of the women's franchise would confuse everything, raise many more questions than it would be possible to settle, and vastly increase the chance of indefinitely postponing any Reform Bill ; and this, no doubt, especially recommends the women's franchise to the Conservative leaders. We take it, however, that very few of the Leeds delegates were specially instructed to vote for the women's franchise, and that this was a bit of by-play, on which delegates were at liberty to do much as they pleased.
