Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/764

 748 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE tana and Nevada, have granted it. The population of the fourteen States is 43,000,000 and that of the two States is 500,000." (Twelve States had fully enfranchised their women.) The real fight in the House of Lords began on Jan. 8, 1918, when the committee stage was reached. The debate lasted three days and on Clause IV, which enfranchised women, Lord Sel- borne made an extraordinarily powerful and eloquent speech in its favour. The House was filled and the excitement on both sides was intense. As we were sitting crowded in the small pen allotted to ladies not Peeresses in the Upper House on January loth we received a cable saying the House of Representatives in Washing- ton had accepted the Women's Suffrage Amendment to the Federal Constitution by the necessary two-thirds majority. This we hailed as a good omen. No one knew what Lord Sydenham thought of it ! The most exciting moment was when Lord Curzon rose to close the debate. The first part of his speech was devoted to a description of the disasters which he believed would follow from the adoption of women's franchise but the second part was occupied by giving very good reasons for not voting against it. He reminded their Lordships of the immense majorities by which it had been supported in the House of Commons, by majorities in every party "including those to which most of your Lordships belong. . . . Your Lordships can vote as you please ; you can cut this clause out of the Bill you have a perfect right to do so but if you think that by killing the clause you can also save the Bill, I believe you to be mistaken. . . . The House of Commons will return it to you with the clause re-inserted. Will you be prepared to put it back? . . . ' Before he sat down Lord Curzon an- nounced his intention of not voting at all, for the reason that if he had done otherwise he "might be accused of having precipitated a conflict from which your Lordships could not emerge with credit." The division was taken almost immediately after the conclusion of this speech. Both of the Archbishops and the twelve Bishops present voted for the bill. Our clause was carried by 134 votes to 71, and Women's Suffrage was, therefore, supported in the Lords by nearly two to one. The Lords inserted in it among other things Proportional Representation. It was on this and not on women's suffrage that the final contest took place when it was