Page:Letters to a friend on votes for women.djvu/78

 why it is that her petulance or her cunning is allowed occasionally to interrupt the sittings of the House of Commons, and lower the dignity of Parliament? The answer assuredly is that habitual consideration for the weakness of women makes Englishmen for the moment unwilling to use the force needed for the suppression of misbehaviour, which it may any day be necessary to punish with the severity due to serious crime. Meanwhile law is enfeebled unless supported by adequate force. Now the sovereignty of Parliament, or, in other words, the power of the electorate, might easily be imperilled if the majority of the electors were a class which, though more numerous, is weaker than a minority of the nation. But this is exactly the state of things which might arise under a system of adult suffrage, embracing not only men but women. Suppose an Act of Parliament passed which was opposed to the wishes of the decided majority of male electors, but carried practically by the votes of women. In such a case the ominous result would ensue that, whilst the political sovereign—that is, the majority of the electors—supported the