Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/1091

 mentary leadership of the question. It will hardly be needful here to go into all the causes which thwarted the vigilance of the leader in procuring a hearing for the measure in that Parliament.

On June 1st, 1895, a representative Conference was held at Westminster Town Hall to consider a plan for an appeal to the House of Commons from women all over the United Kingdom. Miss Florence Davenport Hill, who presided, briefly explained that the object of such an appeal was to convince the country in a more emphatic manner than could be possible by the petitions, memorials and demonstrations that already had been tried again and again, all of which were necessarily limited in their scope. This appeal should be from women of all ranks and classes in all parts of the United Kingdom. The Appeal for the Parliamentary Franchise then agreed upon was managed by a committee appointed from the chief organisations amongst women.

1896. — This effort to "focus the diffused interest of women in the suffrage into one concentrated expression" resulted in the collection of 257,796 signatures, nearly every constituency in the United Kingdom being represented. Although the Appeal was in readiness for presentation in the session of 1895, a suitable opportunity did not arise until 1896, when a fairly good place had been drawn in the ballot by Mr. Faithfull Begg and the Bill was set down for May 2oth. Permission was obtained to place the Appeal in Westminster Hall on May 19th, and passes were given to the Committee to enable them to show it to any Members of Parliament who might wish to inspect it. Accordingly — although it was already known that all Wednesdays had been taken in Government business — the Appeal of the women of this day and generation for constitutional rights was placed in that grand old Hall, round which the Parliamentary associations of a thousand years are clustered. Many Members showed great interest in studying the signatures from their respective constituencies.

Irrespective of the interest called forth, other good results followed, for the Women's Suffrage Societies had been drawn into pleasant relation with a great many new friends and helpers all over the country. It was also shown that women who differed widely on political and social questions could work cordially and unanimously for this common object. The closer union which