in Manchester and Salford, where they were organised and led by that stalwart suffragist, Miss Lydia Becker, sought to have their names registered as Parliamentary electors. Most of the Revising Barristers to whom they made application refused to put their names upon the register. Others interpreted the new legislation as did the women themselves. In order to settle the question a legal decision was sought, and four selected cases were tried before the Court of Common Pleas. Judgment was given against the women. Lord Chief Justice Bovill and his colleagues deciding that, although for all ordinary purposes the word 'man,' when employed in an Act of Parliament, must be held to include women, this did not apply when State privileges were in question. By this ruling it became established that a woman must pay taxes when these are imposed by the State, and suffer the penalty of the law when she breaks the laws made by Parliament, but that she may not vote for the men who assess those taxes and make those laws.
This famous decision, known as the Chorlton v. Lings decision, had the effect of stimulating the woman suffragists of the country in a very remarkable degree, as it revealed the strength of masculine prejudice, and showed quite clearly that the fight for the vote would be a long, uphill struggle.
