Page:Letters to a friend on votes for women.djvu/13

 The considerations which, independently of specific arguments, have in respect of woman suffrage told upon my own judgment may be summed up under a few heads:

First, the movement for the maintenance of the union between England and Ireland brought me for the first time into something like active political life. For nearly a quarter of a century I have joined in resistance to every demand for Home Rule. This circumstance told in several respects upon the way in which I gradually came to look upon the movement in favour of woman suffrage.

My Unionism impressed upon me, as did also my keen sympathy with the Northern States of America in their opposition to secession, the thought that Conservatism may in some instances be an effort to enforce the supremacy of common justice, and to maintain the unity of a great nation. It made me feel that the mere desire of a class, however large, for political power or for national independence affords no conclusive reason why the wish should be granted. It raised in my mind the doubt whether the Liberalism of the day, which I had fully accepted, had not