GEORGE ELIOT ON CONSPIRACY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In reading the " Life of George Eliot " I was struck by the following remarks from her pen on conspiracy ; and as they seem to me to apply very forcibly to the present-day conspiracy of the militant suffragettes, I take the liberty of bringing them to your notice. George Eliot says :—
" Now, though I believe there are cases in which conspirae
may be a sacred, necessary struggle against organized wrong, there are also cases in which it is hopeless, and can produce nothing but misery ; or needless, because it is not the best means attainable of reaching the desired end ; or unjustifiable, because it resorts to acts which are more unsocial in their character than the very wrong they are directed to extinguish and in these three supposable cases it seems to me that it would be a social crime to further conspiracy even by the impulse of a little finger."
The main point of this criticism lies in the fact that the militant suffragette resorts to acts which are snore unsocial
in their character than the very sorong they are directed to
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