My own story
ought this time to be received manifested itself in many questions put
to the Government. One member even asked leave to move the adjournment
of the House on a matter of urgent public importance, namely the danger
to the public peace, owing to the refusal of the Prime Minister to
receive the deputation. This was denied, however, and the Government
mendaciously disclaimed all responsibility for what action the police
might take toward the deputation. The Home Secretary, Mr. Gladstone,
when asked by Mr. Kier Hardie to give instructions that the deputation,
if orderly, should be admitted to St. Stephen's, replied: "I cannot say
what action the police ought to take in the matter." Our Women's
Parliament met at half past seven on the evening of June 29th, and the
petition to the Prime Minister was read and adopted. Then our deputation
set forth. Accompanying me as leader were two highly respectable women
of advanced years, Mrs. Saul Solomon, whose husband had been Prime
Minister at the Cape, and Miss Neligan, one of the foremost of the
pioneer educators of England. We three and five other women were
preceded by Miss Elsie Howey, who, riding fast, went on horse-back to
announce our coming to the enormous crowds that filled the streets. She,
we afterward learned, progressed as far as the approaches to the House
of Commons before being turned back by the police. As for the
deputation, it pressed on through the crowd as far as St. Margaret's
Church, Westminster, where we found a long line of police blocking the
road. We paused for a moment, gathering strength for the ordeal of
trying to push through the lines, when an unexpected thing happened. An
order was given from some one, and instantly the police lines parted,
leaving a clear space through which we walked towards the House. We were
escorted on our way by Inspector Wells, and as we passed the crowd broke
into vociferous cheering, firmly believing that we were after all to be
received. As for myself I did little speculating as to what was about to
happen. I simply led my deputation on as far as the entrance to St.
Stephen's Hall. There we encountered another strong force of police
commanded by our old acquaintance, Inspector Scantlebury, who stepped
forward and handed me a letter. I opened it and read in aloud to the
women. "The Prime Minister, for the reasons which he has already given
in a written reply to their request, regrets that he is unable to
receive the proposed deputation."
I dropped the note to the ground and said: "I stand upon my rights, as a
subject of the King, to petition the Prime Minister, and I am firmly
resolved to stand here until I am received."
Inspector Scantlebury turned away and walked rapidly towards the door
of the Strangers' Entrance. I turned to Inspector Jarvis, who remained,
to several members of Parliament and some newspaper men who stood
looking on, and begged them to take my message to the Prime Minister,
but no one responded, and the Inspector, seizing my arm, began to push
me away. I now knew that the deputation would not be received and that
the old miserable business of refusing to leave, of being forced
backward, and returning again and again until arrested, would have to be
re-enacted. I had to take into account that I was accompanied by two
fragile old ladies, who, brave as they were to be there at all, could
not possibly endure what I knew must follow. I quickly decided that I
should have to force an immediate arrest, so I committed an act of
technical assault on the person of Inspector Jarvis, striking him very
lightly on the cheek. He said instantly, "I understand why you did
that," and I supposed then that we would instantly be taken. But the
other police apparently did not grasp the situation, for they began
pushing and jostling our women. I said to the inspector: "Shall I have
to do it again?" and he said "Yes." So I struck him lightly a second
time, and then he ordered the police to make the arrests.
The matter did not end with the arrest of our deputation of eight women.
In recurring deputations of twelve the Suffragettes again and again
pressed forward in vain endeavour to reach the House of Commons. In
spite of the fact that the crowds were friendly and did everything they
could to aid the women, their deputations were broken up by the police
and many of the women arrested. By nine o'clock Parliament Square was
empty, an enormous force of mounted police having beaten the people back
into Victoria Street and across Westminster Bridge. For a short time all
looked tranquil, but soon little groups of women, seven or eight at a
time, kept appearing mysteriously and making spirited dashes toward the
House. This extraordinary procedure greatly exasperated the police, who
could not unravel the mystery of where the women came from. As a matter
of bygone history the explanation is that the W. S. P. U. had hired
thirty offices in the neighborhood, in the shelter of which the women
waited until it was time for them to sally forth. It was a striking
demonstration of the ingenuity of women opposing the physical force of
men, but it served still another purpose. It diverted the attention of
the police from another demonstration which was going on. Other
Suffragettes had gone to the official residence of the First Lord of the
Admiralty, to the Home Office, the Treasury and Privy Council Offices,
and had registered their contempt for the Government's refusal to
receive the deputation by the time-honoured method of breaking a window
in each place.
One hundred and eight women were arrested that night, but instead of
submitting to arrests and trial, the Women's Social and Political Union
announced that they were prepared to prove that the Government and not
the women had broken the law in refusing to receive the petition. My
case, coupled with that of the Hon. Mrs. Haverfield, was selected as a
test case for all the others, and Lord Robert Cecil was retained for the
defence. Mr. Muskett, who conducted the case for the prosecution, tried
to prove that our women had not gone to the House of Commons to present
a petition, but this was easily demonstrated to be an unwarranted claim.
The speeches of the leader, the official articles published in our
newspaper, _Votes for Women_, and the letters sent to Mr. Asquith, not
to speak of the indisputable facts that every member of the deputation
carried a copy of the petition in her hand, furnished evidence enough of
the nature of our errand. The whole case of the subject's right of
petition was then brought forward for discussion. Mr. Muskett spoke
first, then our council, Mr. Henle, then Lord Robert Cecil. Last of all
I spoke, describing the events of June 29th. I told the magistrate that
should he decide that we and not the Government had been guilty of an
infraction of the law, we should refuse to be bound over, but should all
choose to go to prison. In that case we should not submit to being
treated like criminals. "There are one hundred and eight of us here
to-day," I said, pointing to the benches where my fellow-prisoners sat,
"and just as we have thought it is our duty to defy the police in the
street, so when we get into prison, as we are political prisoners, we
shall do our best to bring back into the twentieth century the treatment
of political prisoners which was thought right in the case of William
Cobbett, and other political offenders of his time."
The magistrate, Sir Albert de Rutzen, an elderly, amiable man, rather
bewildered by this unprecedented situation, then gave his decision. He
agreed with Mr. Henle and Lord Robert Cecil that the right of petition
was clearly guaranteed to every subject, but he thought that when the
women were refused permission to enter the House of Commons, and when
Mr. Asquith had said that he would not receive them, the women acted
wrongly to persist in their demands. He should, therefore, fine them
five pounds each, or sentence them to prison for one month in the second
division. The sentence would be suspended for the present until learned
counsel could obtain a decision from a higher court on the legal point
of the right of petition.
I then put in a claim for all the prisoners, and asked that all their
cases might be held over until the test case was decided, and this was
agreed to, except in regard to fourteen women charged with
window-breaking. They were tried separately and sent to prison on
sentences varying from six weeks to two months. Of them later.
The appeal against Sir Albert de Rutzen's decision was tried in a
Divisional Court early in December of that year. Lord Robert Cecil again
appeared for the defence, and in a masterly piece of argumentation,
contended that in England there was and always had been the right of
petition, and that the right had always been considered a necessary
condition of a free country and a civilised Government. The right of
petition, he pointed out, had three characteristics: In the first place,
it was the right to petition the actual repositories of power; in the
second place, it was the right to petition in person; and in the third
place, the right must be exercised reasonably. A long list of historical
precedents were offered in support of the right to petition in person,
but Lord Robert argued that even if these did not exist, the right was
admitted in the Charles II "Tumultuous Petitions Act," which provides
"That no person or persons whatsoever shall repair to His Majesty or
both or either Houses of Parliament upon pretence of presenting or
delivering any petition, complaint, remonstrance, or declaration or
other address, accompanied with excessive number of people ..." etc. The
Bill of Rights had specially confirmed the right of petition in so far
as the King personally was concerned. "The women," pursued Lord Robert,
"had gone to Parliament Square on June 29th in the exercise of a plain
constitutional right, and that in going there with a petition they had
acted according to the only constitutional method they possessed, being
voteless, for the redress of their grievances."
If then it were true, as contended, the subject not only possessed the
right to petition, but to petition in person, the only point to be
considered was whether the right had been exercised reasonably. If
persons desired to interview the Prime Minister, it was surely
reasonable to go to the House of Commons, and to present themselves at
the Strangers' Entrance. Mrs. Pankhurst, Mrs. Haverfield and the others
had, as the evidence showed, proceeded along the public highway and had
been escorted to the door of the House of Commons by an officer of the
police, and could not therefore, up to that point, have been acting in
an unlawful manner. The police had kept clear a large open space
opposite the House of Commons, the crowd being kept at a certain
distance away. Within the open space there were only persons having
business in the House of Commons, members of the police force and the
eight women who formed the deputation. It could not possibly be
contended that these eight women had caused an obstruction. It was true
that a police officer told them that the Prime Minister was not in the
House of Commons, but when one desired an interview with a Member of
Parliament one did not make his request of a casual policeman in the
street. Moreover, the police did not possess any authority to stop
anyone from going into the House of Commons.
The letter given the women, in which the Prime Minister said that he
could not or would not see them, had been cited. Now, had the Prime
Minister, in his letter, said that he could not or would not see the
women at that time, that the time was not convenient; but that he would