MR LABOUCHERE ON FEMALE SUFFRAGE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2665, 10 August 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

MR LABOUCHERE ON FEMALE SUFFRAGE.

DISCUASINO the Bill brought into the ! House of Commons for granting votes to unmarried women with property Mr Labouchero has in Truth the following lively remarks ou female suffrage:—This Bill ought to be opposed by every friend of woman. It grants to Hagar what it denies to Sarah; it gives women votes and then disqualifies them if they marry. A woman has to elect between the social rights of a wife and tho political rights of an elector. The former is a disqualification to tho enjoyment of the latter. lam not surprised, therefore, that nil the principal advocates of female suffrage amongst women aro bitterly opposed to it. Am I, then, in favour of votes being given to all women ? Neither to all nor to any- But if to any, it is only fair that votes should be sriven to all. And why am I opposed ? For the plain nnd simple reason that I am a man. Theie are more women in England than men. If we give, as I have said, to some, we must give to all. Tho result, therefore, would bo that female suffrage would bo the abdication of men. We should be under petticoat government, and I do not approve of petticoat government. A few women are perfectly well fitted for the suffrage, but these are the exceptions ; and in these matters we most look to the rule and not to the exception. Collectively, women are impulsive and easily swayed. I do not believe that they would be continuously either Liberal orConservative. They would be a distributing element in politics, mainly actuated, in giving their votes, by non-political motives. Having now inhabited this planet for a considerable number of years, I have known many women. On the whole, I think that they have been better than the men that I have known; but, charming, agreeable, tender, and kind as I have found gome women, I never knew one ou whose continuous common sens;; one could reckon. Nature has made them mentally flighty. Their opinions are almost always the reflex of those of some one else. I have known the wisest and the most staid of them as potter's clay in the hands of an assertive fool. Let anyone observe the sort of man whom woman regard as an intellectual divinity. Generally speaking, the god is one of the poorest creatures that walks the globe on two legs. Argument is thrown away on must women. Either they blindly agree, or they obstinately repeat tho foregone conclusion that seems to be impressed on their miuds. They have, I admit, a sort of iustinct, but if this instinct is to be termed reason, I can only s»y that the female reason is quite a different thing from the male reason. There are Albinoes in Africa, and there are women who are equal—indeed, superior to most men in the reasousing faculty. But how few! To these petticoated men I have no doubt that it. seems unfair that they should not vote for M.P.'s and be M.P.'s. But I should no more dream of giving women votes because of theso sports of nature than 1 should of giving them to infants because there are infant prodigies. There is not the slightest indication that tho mass of women have the least desire to havo votes; indeed, I think that they greatly prefer to be without them. This is fortunate, for they are not likely to have them until tho youngest female baby in Great Britain baa become the most ancient drone—if then. Tho female advocates of women's franchise are iu that happy paradise into which their charming sex is so fond of wandering. A considerable nuinbei of M.P's have at times voted for women's franchise, in a Bort of complimentary way to women, never believing that it would be carried. The boast of its advocates that the measure may be carried, and the parade of the promises of support that they have received, have led many to perceive the abyss into which their thoughtless civility was leading them. Most of them have recanted. Some will vote against any Bill for giving women votes ; others who have been loudest in professing their approval will somehow keep away whenever the vote is taken. Revile me, ladies, if you will, but do not fancy I am deceiving you. I can assure you that I am telling you the exact truth, and whenever the question comes to tested, you will find that this is so. iiy life I am ready, at a moment's notice, to sacrifice for a whim of any of you, but to hand over my country to your charming hands ! No. There I draw the line.