Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/153

 The passing of the Divorce Act of 1857 also contributed to the strength of the demand for the political emancipation of women, for by that Act the double standard of morality was established by law, making it impossible for a woman to divorce her husband for the grossest infidelities unaccompanied with cruelty or desertion, whilst it permitted relief for a husband for one offence of this sort by his wife.

The great nineteenth century champion of the rights of women was John Stuart Mill, whose book, The Subjection of Women, has been of the greatest value in creating an enlightened public opinion on the whole woman question. John Stuart Mill was first sent to Parliament as a known woman suffragist, for he made no secret of his views on the subject when asked by a delegation to contest the seat for the city of Westminster in the Radical interests in 1865. He was elected, and became the champion of the woman suffrage cause on the floor of the House of Commons. He moved an amendment to the Reform Bill of 1867, and by his eloquence commanded the attention of the House from the beginning to the end of his speech. The amendment was lost by 73 to 186, but the result was far better than the supporters of the cause outside imagined it would be. For the first and last time in his Rh