lection which followed was even more favorable, the
friendly Members returned being in an actual majority, and yet session
after session passed and the pressure of Government business consumed
Parliamentary time.

_1887-1890._--The need of a central point, such as is afforded when
there is a bill before the House, round which all the suffrage forces
could rally independent of party, made it difficult for them to
maintain their cohesion. The Central Committee of the National Society
for Women's Suffrage had been such a point but it could not escape the
distracting outside influences, and a revision of its rules took place
in December, 1888, with the result that the Society as hitherto
existing dissolved and reformed in two separate organisations. One of
these established new rules which enabled it to affiliate with
Societies formed for other purposes; and one adhered to the old rules
which admitted only organisations formed with the sole object of
obtaining the Franchise. But if, as was held, the internal
re-organisation of the Societies redounded to greater strength, even
more so did an unprecedented attack from the outside, in the Summer of
1889, when the _Nineteenth Century_ opened its pages to a protest
against the enfranchisement of women, to which a few ladies in London
society had been diligently canvassing for signatures. The appearance
of this protest was naturally the sign for an immediate counterblast,
and the two Central Societies in London put a form of declaration into
immediate circulation. The _Fortnightly Review_ gave space to a reply
from the pen of Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett and to a selection from
the signatures which poured into the Suffrage Offices with a rapidity
that was amazing, as in sending out the forms for signature numbers
had not been aimed at but rather it was sought to make the list
representative. The _Nineteenth Century_ had contained the names of
104 ladies, mostly known as wives of public men, while those who had
taken part in work for the good of the community and to advance the
interests of women were conspicuous by their absence. The
_Fortnightly_ gave space for about 600 names asking for the suffrage,
selected from over 2,000 received within a few days.[484]

This was the last work in which the distinguished reformer, Miss
Caroline Ashurst Biggs, took part, as she died in September, 1889.
Miss Lydia Becker, editor of _The Women's Suffrage Journal_, which she
had founded in 1