a hatchet at Mr.
Redmond, and trying to burn down a theater. That finished Ireland, but
still they were dissatisfied. There was a dangerous movement of
sympathy with their agitation in Wales, and they felt that at any cost
it had to be checked. They not only checked, but demolished, it with
the greatest ease by breaking in upon the proceedings at an Eisteddfod.
Now the Eisteddfod is not only the great national festival of Welsh
poetry and music and eloquence, it is also an oasis of peace amid the
sharp contentions of Welsh life. To bring into it any note of politics
or sectarianism or public controversy, even when these things are
rousing the most passionate emotions outside, seems to a Welshman like
the desecration of an altar. That is just what the militants did, and
Welsh interest in their cause fell dead on the spot. But even then they
were not happy. They were still encumbered by the good-will of perhaps
a hundred Tory M.P.'s. But they proved entirely equal to the task of
antagonizing them. They began smashing windows, burning country
mansions, firing race-stands, damaging golf-greens, striking as hard as
they could at the Tory idol of Property. There is really nothing more
left for them to do; they have alienated every friend they ever had;
their work is complete beyond their wildest hopes.

Well, one can not dignify such tactics and antics by the title of
"political propaganda." The proper name for them is sheer organized
lunacy. The militants have erected militancy into a principle. I am
beginning to think that a good many of them are more concerned with the
success of their method than with the success of their cause. They
would rather not have the vote than fail to win it by the particular
brand of agitation they have pinned their faith to. They don't really
want the vote to be given them; they want to get it and to get it by
force; and they are quite unable to see that the more force they use
the stronger becomes the resolve both of Parliament and of the country
to send them away empty-handed. If they had accepted Mr. Asquith's
pledge of two years ago and thanked him for it and helped him redeem
it, woman suffrage by now would be an accomplished fact. But they
preferred their own ways, and what is the result? The result is that
working for their cause in the House of Commons to-day is like swimming
not merely against a tide but against a cataract. The real reason why
the attempts to carry woman suffrage throu