Page:Letters to a friend on votes for women.djvu/31

 suffragists to more than one sacred democratic watchword.

.—English women, it is argued, have an irresistible claim to votes, based on the ground that they have suffered, and may again suffer, injustice which cannot be removed until they possess the Parliamentary franchise. My wish is to do the fullest justice to by far the strongest practical reason producible in favour of woman suffrage. It indubitably contains an amount of truth which ought never to be overlooked. Under a representative government any considerable body of persons who are not represented in Parliament is exposed, at best, to neglect. In a country such as England, the views of the unrepresented are overlooked far less through the selfishness than through the stupidity or preoccupation of the voters and their representatives. In 1861 Mill pointed out with truth, though with characteristic exaggeration, that the ideas of the wage-earners, and especially the policy of trade-unionists, did not receive proper attention, and would not command it until artisans were fairly represented in Parliament. The changed