n
Macdonald thanking him for the introduction of provisions in his Bill
to enable women to vote and expressing their high appreciation of the
just and generous spirit which had actuated him. Mrs. Hallett had some
conversation with Sir John Hall, who told her the only difficulty they
expected in Canada as regarded passing the Bill was from the French
population. This expectation proved to be well-founded. The Women's
Suffrage Clauses were rejected by 51 ayes, 78 noes, after a debate
extending over thirty-one consecutive hours.

It was ten years before any further effort was made to secure the
Parliamentary Franchise. In 1894 a petition for this, in behalf of the
Women's Christian Temperance Union, supplemented by memorials from the
Provinces, was presented by Sir James Grant to the House of Commons,
and by the Hon. Mr. Scott to the Senate, but no resolution was
offered. A Bill introduced by Mr. Dickey, dealing with the electoral
franchise, contained a clause asking suffrage for widows and
spinsters, but the Bill was read only once. Mr. Davis, unsolicited,
brought in a resolution for Women's Franchise on the same terms as
men. Forty members voted for it, one hundred and five against it.

A petition for the Parliamentary Franchise for women, very largely
signed by Federal voters throughout the Dominion, was presented to the
House of Commons and the Senate in 1896. This was the last effort in
the Parliament, and as a change has since been made in the Electoral
Act, making the voters' list for the Dominion coincide with the
Provincial lists, the battle will therefore have to be fought out in
each separate Province.

THE PRESENT POLITICAL CONDITION.[496]

Women in Canada have no vote for any law maker, either Federal or
Provincial. Their franchise is confined to municipalities, which can
only make by-laws that relate to the execution of existing laws. But
although women have no direct vote, they have, by much labor and
united effort, effected some important changes in the criminal code
and civil laws, as well as in the political position of women in the
municipalities. The societies which have accomplished the most, if not
all, of these changes are the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the
Women's Enfranchisement Association and the National Council of Women.

In the Province of Ontario, in 1884, widows and spinsters were given
the Municipal Franchise on the same terms as men. All women, married
or single, if owners