right, not merely of voting at elections
of burgh commissioners, but also of voting with the other
inhabitants as to whether a populous place should be constituted a
police burgh.

The election under these new measures was in November, 1882, and
then Scottish women voted for the first time, excepting of course
in school-board elections. The result was entirely satisfactory,
though the number of women who voted varied greatly--in some places
where no special interest attached to the election none came to
vote, while in others they voted in equal proportion with the men,
and in a few towns nearly every woman whose name was on the
register voted. The passing of these two franchise bills was an
undoubted triumph of the women's suffrage party. As one of the
opponents in the debate of July, 1883, scornfully observed, "Had it
not been for the question of women's suffrage being agitated
throughout the country at the time, we should not have heard a
syllable of the Scottish women's franchise bill," a sneering
admission which we willingly construe into compliment.

The year 1882 also witnessed the passing of the Married Women's
Property act, whose immense benefits can hardly be estimated, and
we may confidently assert that but for the unceasing agitation of
the friends of women's suffrage, another quarter of a century would
have been suffered to pass without bringing in this tardy measure
of justice.[553]

We now come to the session of 1883, inoperative as far as actual
legislation was concerned, but rich in its augury for the future.
Already in April the improved temper of the House on questions in
which women were concerned, had been shown by the brilliant
majority that voted with the Rt. Hon. Mr. Stansfeld for the
suppression of the Contagious Diseases acts which have so long
stained the English statute book. Early in May a memorial to Mr.
Gladstone was signed by 110 Liberal members of parliament,
unconnected with the government, in which they stated:

That in the opinion of your memorialists no measure for the
assimilation of the county and borough franchise will be
satisfactory unless it contain provisions for extending the
suffrage without distinction of sex to all persons who possess
the statutory qualifications for the parliamentary franchise.

This memorial was a most remarkable manifestation of the support
which members on the Liberal side of the House are pledged to give
to the princip