hese words should not
include females. Accordingly in enforcing the act the extra
liabilities and burdens were imposed on women ratepayers, to many
of whom they caused grievous hardship. There was, therefore,
reason to expect that the enfranchising clauses would bear the
same interpretation, inasmuch as they were confessedly offered as
an equivalent for the increased liabilities. But when the women
who had been subjected to the liabilities claimed their votes,
they found that words importing the masculine gender were held to
include women in the clauses imposing burdens, and to exclude
them in the clauses conferring privileges, in one and the same
act of parliament.

This kind of injustice was shown in a marked manner in the case
of certain women ratepayers of Bridgewater, who, in a memorial
addressed to you in 1871, set forth the grievance of most heavy
and unjust taxation which was levied on them, in common with the
other householders of that disfranchised borough, for the payment
of a prolonged commission respecting political bribery. The
memorialists felt it to be unjust and oppressive, inasmuch as,
not exercising the franchise nor being in any way directly or
indirectly concerned in the malpractices which led to the
commission, they were nevertheless required to pay not less than
three shillings in the pound according to their rental. To that
memorial you caused a reply to be sent through Mr. Secretary
Bruce, stating that "it was not in the power of the secretary of
State to exempt women owning or occupying property from the local
and imperial taxation to which that property is liable." While
fully admitting this, your memorialists beg to represent that it
is in the power of the legislature to secure to women the vote
which their property would confer, along with its liability to
local and imperial taxation, were it owned or occupied by men.

They submit that this concession has recently been granted in
respect to local taxation, and that if justice demands that Women
should have a voice in controlling the municipal expenditure to
which their property contributes, justice yet more urgently
demands that they should have a voice in controlling the imperial
expenditure to which the same property is liable. The local
expenditure of the