"I am very anxious to impress on you," he said, addressing the jury, "that from the moment we begin to deal with the facts of this case, all questions of whether a woman is entitled to the Parliamentary franchise, whether she should have the same right of franchise as a man are matters which in no sense are involved in the trial of this issue.

All you have to decide is whether the prisoner in the dock committed or procured and assisted others to commit the very serious acts of arson of which she is accused..." Nevertheless he or the hounds he kept in leash, the lesser counsel, sought subtly to prejudice the jury's mind against Vivie by dragging in her parentage and the eccentricities of her own career.

As thus:-- _Counsel for the prosecution_: "We have in you the mainspring of this rebellious movement..." _Vivie_: "Have you ?" _Counsel_: "Are you not the daughter of the notorious Mrs.Warren ?" _Vivie_: "My mother's name certainly is Warren.

For what is she notorious ?" _Counsel_: "Well--er--for being associated abroad with--er--a certain type of hotel synonymous with a disorderly house--" _Vivie_: "Indeed?
Have you tried them?
My mother has managed the hotels of an English Company abroad till she retired altogether from the management some years ago.

It was a Company in which Sir George Crofts--" _Judge_, interposing: "We need not go into that--I think the Counsel for the prosecution is not entitled to ask such questions." _Counsel_: "I submit, Me Lud, that it is germane to my case that the prisoner's upbringing might have--" _Vivie_: "I am quite willing to give you all the information I possess as to my upbringing.