the
gallery how the little green pamphlet was consulted and quoted
from, in the most opposite quarters of the House, by friends who
sought fresh arguments from it or by enemies who were looking for
some sentence on which to base a sarcasm.[546]

As a specimen of these letters Miss Frances Power Cobbe said:

So far from the truth is the reiterated statement of certain
honorable members of parliament that women do not desire the
franchise, that in my large experience I have scarcely ever known
a woman possessed of ordinary common sense, and who had lived
some years alone in the world, who did not earnestly wish for it.
The women who gratify these gentlemen by smilingly deprecating
any such responsibilities, are those who have dwelt since they
were born in well-feathered nests, and have never needed to do
anything but open their soft beaks for the choicest little grubs
to be dropped into them. It is utterly absurd (and I am afraid
the members of parliament in question are quite aware they are
talking nonsense) to argue from the contented squawks of a brood
of these callow creatures, that full grown swallows and larks
have no need of wings, and are always happiest when their pinions
are broken.

The production of this pamphlet marked an era in women's suffrage
literature. It was impossible after this to doubt that a large body
of thinking women, not the queens of society, but the women who
wrote, read, thought, or worked, were in favor of having full
admission to political rights and responsibilities.

The chief work of the society had now crystallized into five or six
great centres. Edinburgh, under the presidency of Mrs. McLaren,
assisted by Miss Wigham and Miss Kirkland, treasurer and secretary,
was the recognized centre of activity for Scotland. In Ireland
there was a committee in Dublin, of which Mrs. Haslam is the most
active member; and the North of Ireland Committee, led by Miss
Isabella Tod.[547] The three principal associations in England were
those of London,[548] including the east and north-east counties;
Manchester,[549] taking charge of the north of England and Wales,
and Bristol[550] looking after the West. The officers of the
several committees of the three kingdoms form a National Central
Committee which has its headquarters in London and superintends all
of the work bearing specially upon the action of parliament.

Petition