these, that
"there is a difference between being exempted and being
incapacitated," and that "an excuse from acting, etc., is
different from an incapacity of doing so. For it must not be
forgotten, that it is upon the footing, not of disability,
but of exemption, that those exclusions are vested, by the
authorities which declare them." Thus, Whitelocke: "By the
custom of England, women are not returned of juries, nor
put into offices or commissions, nor eligible to serve in
Parliament, or admitted to be members of the House of Peers;
but, by reason of their sex, they are exempted from such
employment. The omission of the electoral franchise from
that enumeration [of exemption] is remarkable. If women
were, at that time, considered to be excluded by any "custom
of England" from the Parliamentary franchise, as well as
from Parliament, it is scarcely conceivable that Whitelocke
would have omitted to mention so important a fact. Singular
to say, there is no trace of any such custom or usage in the
reports or amongst the records, not even, so far as the
author's researches have been successful, in the Journals of
the House of Commons itself; and yet the right of the
returning officer to reject the vote of a female elector
when tendered at the polling-booth is always assumed to be
an adjudged point. Mr. Oldfield appears to have been under
the impression that the resolution of the House of Commons
upon the occasion of the Westminster election, asserting the
incapacity of an alien to vote in elections of members to
serve in Parliament, extended to "women" also. If it were
so, the incident would have no weight, for the enactment,
which, according to a second resolution of the same date,
was to be prepared for carrying into effect that intention,
never received the sanction even of that House. But, in
truth, no mention of "women" appears in either resolution.
Nor was there, in that year, or at any other period, any
resolution or determination of the House, so far as the
author's information goes, directly impeaching the capacity
of any female, in respect of her sex, to vote at