so admirably for the Conservatives. It is laughable to note that the necessity for bringing in women to assist arose from the fact that sufficient men could not be found to do the necessary work after the passing of the Corrupt Practices Act of 1888, which made the payment of canvassers illegal. The women have since done this hard and thankless work for the men without reward of any kind, and it is fully admitted by pollticians of all sorts that the political party which cannot command the work of intelligent women is in a most unfortunate and disadvantageous position. The admission of women to this kind of work has considerably weakened, if it has not utterly destroyed, the favourite argument of politicians against the proposal to enfranchise women, that women ought not to be allowed to engage in the dirty and disagreeable work of politics. It would be too stupidly illogical to accept the work of women and then, on the ground that the work was unsuitable for them, deny them the opportunity of doing what they were instructed to persuade men to do.
Not all Liberal women are in favour of woman suffrage. For many years after the formation of the Federation, woman suffrage was rejected by the Annual Meeting when it was brought up for discussion. Perhaps this was very largely due to the influence of its
