Page:Letters to a friend on votes for women.djvu/41

 These expressions, because they mean sometimes delivery from bondage and sometimes the acquisition of political rights, suggest the notion that to give English women votes is to give them freedom. They cannot be emancipated, because they are born free, are free, and will remain free, whether they obtain Parliamentary votes or not.

This point is the more important because the language used conceals from view the fact that personal freedom has little or nothing to do with participation in sovereign authority. I do not, however, for a moment doubt that the gradual removal, which has been going on for more than a century, of fetters placed on the free action and thoughts of women, as also of men, has been an unspeakable blessing to our country. Nor do I wonder at the argument drawn from this fact in favour of admitting women to a share in sovereignty. My contention is that this line of reasoning is open to a clear reply.

The answer is that the progress which gives satisfaction to every man who notes the increase of human freedom and of human welfare has assuredly not arisen from the