Page:Letters to a friend on votes for women.djvu/22

 let me admit at once that there is an obvious prima facie case in favour of giving Parliamentary votes to women. Its strength (which I have not the least wish to underrate) lies in five arguments or lines of thought.

.—All the ordinary democratic principles or maxims, it is argued, on which English reformers have been accustomed to rely, support in appearance the claim of women to vote for members of Parliament. 'Every citizen,' it is often said, and still more often assumed, 'has a right to a vote.' It is surely hard to prove that a woman does not share this natural right. Secondly, 'representation,' we are told, 'ought to accompany taxation.' Why, then, deny representation to a woman who pays every tax payable by a man? Thirdly, 'the Court of Parliament,' to use an ancient formula, 'is the great inquest of the nation; its special function is to remove the grievances of the people.' But no one can deny that women, no less than men, have grievances, and grievances which often have not obtained the attention they deserve. Fourthly, 'every class,' it is said, 'ought to be represented