, Miss Hare, Mrs. Lucas, Mrs. Stansfeld, with
Mrs. Taylor as secretary. In the Manchester committee Mr. Jacob
Bright, M. P., at once took up the position of leader and advocate
which he afterwards so long and nobly maintained in the House of
Commons. Miss Becker was appointed secretary. The Edinburgh
committee elected Mrs. McLaren[541] for their president. At a
special general meeting, November 6, 1867, it was resolved that
these three societies should form one national society, thus
securing the advantages of cooeperation while maintaining freedom of
action. The same rule applied to societies in Birmingham, Bristol
and other towns.

To return to the debate in the House of Commons on May 20, 1867 on
clause 4 of the Representation of the People bill. Mr. Mill moved
to leave out the word "man" and insert the word "person." His
speech has been too long before the public to need quotation; it is
a model of inductive reasoning and masterly eloquence. The debate
which followed was very unequal in character, but the division was
gratifying, for he received 73 votes (including pairs, 81); 194
voted against him. Mr. Mill wrote afterwards to a friend:

We are all delighted at the number of our minority, which is far
greater than anybody expected the first time, and would have been
greater still had not many members quitted the House, with or
without pairing, in the expectation that the subject would not
come on. But the greatest triumph of all was John Bright's vote.

At the election for Manchester, held near the end of 1867 (when Mr.
Jacob Bright was elected), Lily Maxwell, whose name had been
accidentally left on the parliamentary register, recorded her vote.
No objection was taken to it by the returning officer, or by the
agents of either candidate. The _Times_ devoted a leading article
to it. The circumstance was of no legal value, but it was useful to
show that a woman could go through the process of recording a vote
in a parliamentary election even before the Ballot act was passed.
The idea gained ground that by the new Reform act the right to vote
had been secured to women. The Reform act of 1867, sec. 3, declares
that:

Every man shall in and after the year 1868 be entitled to be
registered as a voter, and when registered, to vote for a member
to serve in parliament.

In the substitution of the word "man" for that of "male person"
in the Reform act of 1832, a great difference