Women's suffrage is not at anytime in the nineteenth century an obtrusive ...

Women's suffrage is not at anytime in the nineteenth century an obtrusive or even a prominent issue in public affairs. It could not be until there was a sufficient number of women able to conduct a political movement.

But those who were able had already tested their strength and shown that it could be formidable.

Between 1864 and 1868 Parliament, alarmed for the health of soldiers and sailors, had sanctioned a system for controlling prostitution, which might be, and in some instances, undoubtedly was, most gravely misused. Encouraged by Mill and guided by Fawcett, a group of educated women set out to repeal the obnoxious Act.