ABSTRACT
Lady .A .-A capital objection comprising three heads. 1st. You would not have women voting because it might prevent or retard their moral elevation; why, it is as clear to me as daylight, that whatever will make women (one half of the community) consider the great social questions of the day which are moral questions as well as so called political, must do good, and you cannot make women or men interested as a mass in questions which are decided entirely without their participation. I think men as a whole are the better for being citizens. Their intellectual development again, appears to me as certain a consequence as their moral elevation. You think voting detrimental to their influence and social position! You must remember that the prayer of the petitioners is that heads of families, spinsters, and widows, should have the franchise; having the property or rental qualification it seems to me this objection can only be answered by ex perience. Now, I know that many unmarried ladies of my acquaintance who are known as authoresses and in other ways distinguished, would utterly deny having any particular influence which would be lost if they voted; some have influence by writing, some by their friendship with the wives of electors and members of Parliament, and some by their acquaintance with men, but not one would admit they would lose influence if they voted. Do you know I think this is quite a. man's view, but grant it for a moment, do you really conE;ider men have a. right to prevent women from abandoning this supposed subtle social influence, if women were willing, in exchange for
the more solid· advantage of a vote 1 It is not a question of forcing them to vote. But perhaps I misunderstood you, and you would not include politics in the proper sphere of women's influence at all
Lady B.-I cannot believe but that the rights and duties of citizenship are elevating to men; probably you are thinking of the evil effects of .. treating," the meetings at public houses, and the drunkenness too often seen at elections; now it is curious, I have a letter from our cleverest opponent, Mr F. H., who says that" an illiterate working man will be a very good voter because his habits of public meeting and discussing at Taverns, in work rooms, and in Trade societies, &c., give him practical instincts worth any reading." You see, he thinks some of this rough sort of life which YOll think corrupting, essential to a good and useful voter; now, I think some of these frequenters of public places an essential ingredient in an election, but I am as certain that the quiet spinster sitting at home teaching her nephews and her nieces, or the hardworking widow woman who is carrying on her late husband's trade, the lodging-house keeper, or the rich Miss Bountiful of Philanthropic Lodge, would be also good ingredients in the elections of the men who are to govern the country. And again, to go back to your plea of los8 of influence, I cannot see how any, who have social influence now, will lose it.
