By their exertions, a government candidate was defeated at one by-election, and ...

By their exertions, a government candidate was defeated at one by-election, and a Cabinet Minister nearly defeated at another.' From this success it might safely have been deduced that the enfranchisement of women was in the long run inevitable, if only for the reason that no party could afford to lose such efficient allies. But it was never a party question.

Strong advocates could be found in both camps; John Bright changed sides,' and the most virile and persistent opponent of women's rights was a Liberal whose experience of life, though he remained unmarried, was generally known to be in all other respects of an exceptional breadth.

As early as 1884, ninety-eight Conservatives voted for an enfranchising amendment. In spite of Jesse, as many Liberals would no doubt have voted with them, had not their leader intimated that the question of Women's Franchise was too sacred to be discussed on a Franchise Bill.