DURING the next few days the House of Commons will be occupied
with the question, which arises incidentally in the Franchise Bill,
whether six millions of women shall be placed upon the register
without any attempt to ascertain the feeling of the existing
electorate. Yesterday, Mr Aldred Lyttelton was to move the
amendment standing in Sir Edward Grey's name, for the removal of
the word "male", which now qualifies the word "person". The Cabinet
being divided, the voting will be without the intervention of the
Whips. Unionists and Radicals will go through the Lobbies hand in
hand, those on the right to vote for the greatest revolution that
has ever beenw seen in English politics, and those on the left to
show that there is still some sanity left in the nation. If the
Grey amendment can be defeated, we shall be rid of the Suffragist
question during the life of this Parliament. If, on the contrary,
it is carried, then the House will discuss several alternative
proposals, one of which would admit every adult female to the
franchise. The others are more limited in their scope. But even if
artificial barriers could be set up for a while, they would in no
long time be ruthlessly swept away. Those who approve of votes for
women must accept the inevitable consequence, the enfranchisement
of the sex as a whole and the transference of political power at
the polls to women. In all this business Mr Asquith [the Prime
Minister] stands out as a melancholy figure. He believes the
proposal of votes for women to be a policy fraught with political
disaster, but he is prepared to help in giving effect to it if the
majority in Parliament so desires. The last thing which he appears
ready to do is to resign office.