A
private member would be allowed to bring in a Bill for conferring
the franchise on women, and the opinion of the House would be sought
on its merits independently of party issues. The Government Whips
would be withdrawn and members of the Government be left free to
vote as they pleased.
It was a fair deduction, however, from what was said at that time
and later, that the strongest possible pressure--arguments _ad
hominem_ and in a sense _ad pecuniam_--was brought to bear on
Liberals and on Irish Nationalists to vote against the Bill. Had the
Second reading been carried, the Government would have resigned and
a Home Rule Bill for Ireland have been once more postponed.
The rejection of Mr. Dickinson's measure by a majority of
forty-seven convinced the Militants that Pharaoh had once more
hardened his heart; and the hopelessness of the Woman's cause at
that juncture inspired one woman with a resolution to give her life
as a protest in the manner most calculated to impress the male mind
of the British public.
CHAPTER XV
IMPRISONMENT
Prior to the Derby day of 1913, Vivie had heard of Emily Wilding
Davison as a Northumbrian woman, distantly related to the Rossiters
and also to the Lady Shillito she had once defended. She came from
Morpeth in Northumberland and had had a very distinguished
University career at Oxford and in London, of which latter
university she was a B.
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