d or of a particular district should petition for the
proposed boon. Experience proved the wisdom and justice of this
course, for although women throughout the country had taken no
active part in agitating for the municipal franchise, no sooner
was the privilege accorded than they freely availed themselves of
it, and statistics obtained from some of the largest boroughs in
the kingdom show that from the first year that women possessed
the suffrage, they have voted in about equal proportion with men
to the number of each on the register. The parliamentary vote is
more honorable and important than the municipal vote; it is,
therefore, safe to conclude that women who value and use the
latter will appreciate and exercise the former as soon as it
shall be bestowed upon them. Your memorialists submit that great
injustice and injury are done by debarring these women from a
voting power which there is such strong presumptive ground for
believing that they would freely exercise but for the legal
restraint.

Your memorialists are especially moved to call your attention to
the urgency of the claim at the present time, when a bill
extending the application of the principle of household suffrage
is about to be proposed to parliament, which bill received last
year such expressions of approval from members of her majesty's
government as to lead to the belief that they are willing to take
the proposal into serious consideration. They submit that the
claim and the need for representation of women householders are
even more pressing than that of agricultural laborers. The
grievances under which women suffer are equally great, and the
demand for the franchise has been pressed by a much greater
number of women and for a much longer period of time than in the
case of county householders now excluded. The number of persons
who petitioned last session for the County Franchise bill and for
the Women's Disabilities bill respectively were, for the former,
1,889, and for the latter, 329,206. The latter bill has received
most influential support from both sides of the House, and more
votes have been recorded in its favor than have been given for
any bill not directly supported as a party measure by one or
other of the great parties in the State. Under these
circums