Page:Letters to a friend on votes for women.djvu/103

 even against the subversive force challenging this House to-day, and we shall not escape the heavy judgment of history. We are links in a living chain, pledged to transmit intact to posterity the glorious heritage we have received from those who have gone before us.'

These are the words of Lord Roberts. They were addressed to the House of Lords. They refer immediately to the imperative need of providing at all costs for the defence of the country. But their wisdom and their patriotism give them a wide application. They admirably describe the grave responsibility which falls upon every elector when urged to revolutionize the constitution of the United Kingdom. Whoever takes them to heart will refuse his sanction to an experiment which might well bring destruction on his country.