Mr. Goldwin Smith has written a very interesting and instructive
letter to a Conservative M.P. on Lord Salisbury's strange "leap in the dark" in relation to female suffrage. He remarks that the Tory leader no doubt counts on it confidently as a Conservative measure, but that he profoundly doubts its proving to be Conservative in its working. The Conservative women are not, as a rule, political, and will not vote. On the other hand, the extreme Radicals, the revolu- tionary women, will both vote and agitate ; indeed, they will be very effective agitators. Female suffrage was tried in Nebraska, says Mr. Goldwin Smith, and was given up. It is still on trial in Wyoming Territory ; but the general tone of American criticism on it is very unfavourable. "You have a Conservative Parliament," concludes Mr. Goldwin Smith. "Use it, or you will never have another." We wonder that Lord Salisbury should not have seen the extreme and exceptional imprudence of catching as he did at what he thought a Conservative weapon, but what we strongly sus- pect might be used with fatal effect against him. It was of those who grasped at such weapons as these, that it was said,—" Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken."
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