ABSTRACT
Although the Ladies’ National Association was founded almost accidentally – certainly without any ringing manifesto of the need for women to organise as a sex against the Acts – the mere fact that it operated independently of men, had a profounder effect than many may have realised. Daniel Cooper of the Rescue Society told Josephine Buter:
At this crisis [the situation in 1869] we heard that the women of England were waking up to the consideration of the question. We were rejoiced beyond measure when we saw the announcement of your Ladies’ Association in opposition to the Acts ... We felt on hearing of your Association, that Providence had well chosen the means for the defeat of these wicked Acts. The ladies of England have saved the country from this fearful curse; for I fully believe that through them it has had its death blow. But for the Ladies’ Association we should have had no discussion, and the Acts would by this date have probably been extended throughout the country. 1
