Page:Letters to a friend on votes for women.djvu/88

 force, however, of these reasons lies mainly in their correspondence with much of the prevalent sentiment of the day. When examined, they turn out too weak to prove the necessity or the expediency of exposing an ancient commonwealth to the risks of a dangerous experiment, which can hardly, indeed, be complimented with the name of an experiment, since, when once tried, it cannot be given up.

The claim to Parliamentary votes, as a matter of abstract right, is part of an obsolete political creed which did not command the assent of the teacher whose 'Subjection of Women' supplies the argumentative foundation of the claim to woman suffrage. This demand, again, is treated by suffragists as a deduction from the principles of popular government; but these so-called principles, when rationally examined, turn out to be mere watchwords or shibboleths which, if treated as the premises of serious political argument, must, from their vagueness and inaccuracy, lead to absurd conclusions. The desired innovation or revolution is, we are further told, needed to deliver English women