Not one of them was what you would call a bad man.

Some of them suffered over forcible feeding and the Cat and Mouse Act as acutely as does the loving father or mother who says to the recently spanked child, "You _know_, dear, it hurts _me_ almost as much as it hurts _you_." If one met them out at dinner parties, or in an express train which they could not stop by pulling the communication cord, and sympathized with their dilemma, they would ask plaintively _what_ they could do.

They could not yield to violence and anarchy; yet they could not let women die in prison.
Of course the answer was this, but it was one they waved aside: "Dissolve Parliament and go to the Country on the one question of Votes for Women.

If the Country returns a great majority favourable to that concession, you must bring in a Bill for eliminating the sex distinction in the suffrage.

If on the other hand, the Country votes against the reform, then you must leave it to the women to make a male electorate change its mind.