FEMALE SUFFRA.GE.
(TO THE EDITOR or THZ "SPRCTILTOR.")
Si,—We cannot but protest against the root idea upon which your opposition to the franchise for women is based. You believe, in spite of signs all over the world of higher ideals coming in, that the old pagan ideal of physical force as the ultima ratio is the eternal law of the world. We women will never accept this ideal. There is an awakening among women everywhere. Even the poor down-trodden women of the East are turning uneasily and demanding, though with faltering voice, their rights, and no opposition will stifle this demand. Doubtless the movement is attended with many crudities and imperfect knowledge. But the ideal of women is moral force. They are gradually opening their eyes to their responsibility in the great public questions, both domestic and foreign, which affect them equally with men. In endeavouring to secure the expression of that responsibility some may make mistakes in method. That is a detail. The great tide is rising, and no force of man nor mistakes of women can ultimately stem it. May I commend to you the words of the wise Gamaliel (with one syllable added) F—" Refrain from these women, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will be overthrown: but if it is of God, ye will not be able to over- throw them ; lest haply ye be found even to be fighting against God." Our belief is that it is in the providence of God that this movement for the political enfranchisement of our sex has come. It is perhaps the most important among many methods of asserting that moral, not physical, force is the great ideal of the future, an ideal in part realised even to-day. It asserts, too, that justice, not patronage, must be the basis on which alone right relations between the sexes can be [We have received a large number of letters on both sides, but cannot devote any great amount of space to a discussion which is bound to be infructuous.—En. Spectator.]
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