TITLED LADIES IN POLITICS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2752, 5 March 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

TITLED LADIES IN POLITICS.

Marked success has followed tlie establishment of the Conservative and Unionist Women’s Suffrage Association. Conservative influence has been paramount in the original Women’s Suffrage Society for years past, as it has been practically governed by Lady Frances Balfour and Mrs. Fawcett; but few ladies of the upper class joined it, and Lady Knightley of Fawsley, who is mainly responsible for the foundation of the new specifically Conservative Society, has for the lirst time brought into the movement the ladies of the ' 1 great families.” At a meeting held at Kens_ ington Town Hall recently the, resolution ‘The time is ripe for extending the franchise to duly qualified women” wa s moved by Lady Betty Balfour, who is, of course, sister-in-law of Mr. Arthur Balfour, and also sister of Lady Constance Lytton, who has been in prison as a suffragette. Needless to say, however, the Conservative Ladies’ Association ag a body repudiates Suffragette methods. Amongst the fashionable gathering wore Lady Robert Cecil. Catherine Lady Decies, Lady Emily Wyndham-Quin, the Hon. Lady Aclaiid, Lady Alary Cooke, Ladv Jano Taylor, and many other members of Conservative and titled families.

Perhaps, as significant of the interest of educated women in public affairs was the great attendance of peeresses and their daughters (who alone have the right of entry to the House of Lords during debates) at the Budget discussions.*! am told that the entrance lobby was full of ladies anxious to obtain admission nearlv two hours before the doors were opened, and many could not get in. at all, while of those who. did secure an entrance into tlie chamber a number had no seats, and either sat or knelt on the floor for hours. Perhaps the day will come when a peeress in her own right will claim a seat and a voice in the “gilded chamber!’’ In a few years’ time there will be quite a little group of daughters of eminent men in this position, and the “spirit of their fathers” may burn within them to this degree. They would at least have irrefragable precedent in their favor, for it is quite certain that when the leading abbots were called to_ sit in England’s earliest representative assemblies, the- abbesses of several great foundations were also summoned there to sit and vote. Amongst the peerages which have been granted in recent years to descend to daughters in default of sons are those of the Duke of Fife, Lord Roberts, Lord Wolseley, and Lord Amherst of Hackney. It is no new thing for “great ladies” to he actively interested in politics. In Georgian days, there was the famous beauty, the Duchess of Devonshire, who kissed the butcher to gain his vote for Fox, as everybody has heard, but this was only a passing incident in her longcontinued support of. the same statesman. On the other side, the Tories of that day had the strong support of the Duchess of Gordon. On beliolf of Pitt, the Duchess “acted as Whip for Ministers. She assembled in evenings at he r splendid mansion in Pall Mall a crowd of distinguished persons of both sexes, consisting principally of those attached to the Administration: she sent for .members of Parliament to question, to remonstrate, to use every means of confirming their adherence to the Government.” Then there were peeresses like Lady Derby and Lady Palmerston m the mid-Victorian era, who were actually a s active members of their respective parties as their husbands. Lord Alalmesbury describes Government negotiations carried on by Lady Derby between the Ministers and the Opposition ; while the Prince Consort 00m " plained that Lord Palmerston allowed his expressed opinions to he modified by after-conversation with his wife, so that the Prince did not know “where he had him” till Lady Palmerston had given her views on questions. Other ladies, of course, were less active or less brilliant, but it would always have been thought silly and strange if women ot the governing families had declared themselves indifferent to the affairs or the nation.