Sir F. Banbury moved an amendment resisting the grant of
the vote to women under any conditions Whatever. He denied that the House had any mandatO to act in the matter, and argued that women had never suffered through want of the vote, and were constitutionally averse from conducting themselves violently like politicians. Sir Charles Hobhouse seconded the amendment, saying that woman's genius was domestic and local, not external and political. Lord Hugh Cecil in an entertaining speech chaffed the extremists on both sides. Neither the " pink " view that the suffrage would settle all questions, nor the " white " view- that it would ruin all, was true. Sir F. E. Smith emphasized the importance of remembering that the Reform Bill was a balance, and urged that if he and others accepted, as they did, Woman Suffrage, the opponents of Proportional Representation should make a like concession. At the end of the debate Mr. Arnold Ward made a powerful appeal for the losing cause.
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