minds there can scarcely be a doubt, but the time for organised action does not seem to have yet arrived.
The other Colonies of Great Britain, with the exception of Canada, are not self-governing.
DOMINION OF CANADA.
The story of the movement to obtain the Parliamentary Franchise in the Dominion dates back to 1883. In April of that year the Premier, Sir John Macdonald, introduced a Bill in the Legislature for amending the electoral law, including a clause which gave the suffrage to unmarried women who possessed the necessary qualifications.
Previously, on March oth, the Toronto Women's Literary and Social Progress Club had gathered in public for the first time in the City Council Chamber to consider the Suffrage question. Mrs. McEwan presided and a paper “treating pithily and with much aptness on the subject of the Franchise” was read by Miss E. Foulds, who moved a Resolution “that in the opinion of this Meeting the Parliamentary Franchise should be extended to women who possess the qualifications which entitle men to vote.” This and a second resolution proposing the formation of a society to forward such legislation as might be required were both carried, many ladies and gentlemen speaking in their support and a large number of those present giving in their names as members. On April 5th an adjourned meeting was held and the Canadian Women's Suffrage Association was constituted.
Sir John Macdonald's Bill was presented too late to become a law and was re-introduced in 1884. It was in this year that members of the British Suffrage Association visited Canada. Miss Lydia Becker and Mrs. Lilias Ashworth Hallett were among them, and they and several other English ladies united in sending an address to Sir John Macdonald thanking him for the introduction of provisions in his Bill to enable women to vote and. expressing their high appreciation of the just and generous spirit which had actuated him. Mrs. Hallett had some conversation with Sir John Hall, who told her the only difficulty they expected in Canada as regarded passing the Bill was from the French population. This expectation proved to be well-founded.
