the contrast with the struggles over the great Reform Act of 1866 was stark. Then, both sides of the argument had assumed ‘that fitness’ for the franchise ‘had to be proved’, Now, ‘when one talks to the young sentimental woman suffragist he [sic] sees no relevance in the enquiry whether the great mass of women know or care anything about politics. It is quite enough for him that they are human beings. As such they have a right to vote.’
