Page:Letters to a friend on votes for women.djvu/32

 tone of the House of Commons in regard to trade-unionism, since the introduction of household suffrage, has justified Mill's complaint and his prediction.

Mill also insisted, and with substantial truth, that the law with regard to women, and notably in regard to married women's property, was one-sided and unjust; and he argued that this state of things gave strong ground for the claim of women to political equality with men. Nor can any impartial critic maintain that, even at the present day, the desires of women, about matters in which they are vitally concerned, obtain from Parliament all the attention they deserve. A recent proposal to exclude thousands of barmaids from a lawful means of earning an honest livelihood may well cause women of every class to feel that legislation passed by a Parliament representing only men may at any moment deal recklessly with the interests of women. Despotism is none the less trying because it may be dictated by philanthropy, and the benevolence of workmen which protects women from overwork is not quite above suspicion when it coincides with the desire of