My own story
welfare of humanity demands this sacrifice; they believe that the
horrible evils which are ravaging our civilisation will never be removed
until women get the vote. They know that the very fount of life is being
poisoned; they know that homes are being destroyed; that because of bad
education, because of the unequal standard of morals, even the mothers
and children are destroyed by one of the vilest and most horrible
diseases that ravage humanity.
"There is only one way to put a stop to this agitation; there is only
one way to break down this agitation. It is not by deporting us, it is
not by locking us up in gaol; it is by doing us justice. And so I appeal
to you gentlemen, in this case of mine, to give a verdict, not only on
my case, but upon the whole of this agitation. I ask you to find me not
guilty of malicious incitement to a breach of the law.
"These are my last words. My incitement is not malicious. If I had
power to deal with these things, I would be in absolute obedience to the
law. I would say to women, 'You have a constitutional means of getting
redress for your grievances; use your votes, convince your fellow-voters
of the righteousness of your demands. That is the way to obtain
justice.' I am not guilty of malicious incitement, and I appeal to you,
for the welfare of the country, for the welfare of the race, to return a
verdict of not guilty in this case that you are called upon to try."
After recapitulating the charge the Judge, in summing up, said:
"It is scarcely necessary for me to tell you that the topics urged by
the defendant in her address to you with regard to provocation by the
laws of the country and the injustice done to women because they are not
given the vote as men are, have no bearing upon the question you have to
decide.
"The motive at the back of her mind, or at the back of the minds of
those who actually did put the gunpowder there, would afford no defence
to this indictment. I am quite sure you will deal with this case upon
the evidence, and the evidence alone, without regard to any question as
to whether you think the law is just or unjust. It has nothing to do
with the case. I should think you will probably have no doubt that this
defendant, if she did these things charged against her, is not actuated
by the ordinary selfish motive that leads most of the criminals who are
in this dock to commit the crimes that they do commit. She is none the
less guilty if she did these things which are charged against her,
although she believes that by means of this kind the condition of
society will be altered."
The jury retired, and soon after the afternoon session of the court
opened they filed in, and in reply to the usual question asked by the
clerk of arraigns, said that they had agreed upon a verdict. Said the
clerk:
"Do you find Mrs. Pankhurst guilty or not guilty?"
"Guilty," said the foreman, "with a strong recommendation to mercy."
I spoke once more to the Judge.
"The jury have found me guilty, with a strong recommendation to mercy,
and I do not see, since motive is not taken into account in human laws,
that they could do otherwise after your summing up. But since motive is
not taken into account in human laws, and since I, whose motives are not
ordinary motives, am about to be sentenced by you to the punishment
which is accorded to people whose motives are selfish motives, I have
only this to say: If it was impossible for a different verdict to be
found; if it is your duty to sentence me, as it will be presently, then
I want to say to you, as a private citizen, and to the jury as private
citizens, that I, standing here, found guilty by the laws of my country,
I say to you it is your duty, as private citizens, to do what you can to
put an end to this intolerable state of affairs. I put that duty upon
you. And I want to say, _whatever the sentence you pass upon me, I shall
do what is humanly possible to terminate that sentence at the earliest
possible moment. I have no sense of guilt. I feel I have done my duty. I
look upon myself as a prisoner of war. I am under no moral obligation
to conform to, or in any way accept, the sentence imposed upon me._ I
shall take the desperate remedy that other women have taken. It is
obvious to you that the struggle will be an unequal one, but I shall
make it--I shall make it as long as I have an ounce of strength left in
me, or any life left in me.
"I shall fight, I shall fight, I shall fight, from the moment I enter
prison to struggle against overwhelming odds; I shall resist the doctors
if they attempt to feed me. I was sentenced last May in this court to
nine months' imprisonment. I remained in prison six weeks. There are
people who have laughed at the ordeal of hunger-striking and forcible
feeding. All I can say is, and the doctors can bear me out, that I was
released because, had I remained there much longer, I should have been a
dead woman.
"I know what it is because I have gone through it. My own daughter[4]
has only just left it. There are women there still facing that ordeal,
facing it twice a day. Think of it, my lord, twice a day this fight is
gone through. Twice a day a weak woman resisting overwhelming force,
fights and fights as long as she has strength left; fights against women
and even against men, resisting with her tongue, with her teeth, this
ordeal. Last night in the House of Commons some alternative was
discussed, or rather, some additional punishment. Is it not a strange
thing, my lord, that laws which have sufficed to restrain men
throughout the history of this country do not suffice now to restrain
women--decent women, honourable women?
"Well, my lord, I do want you to realise it. I am not whining about my
punishment, I invited it. I deliberately broke the law, not hysterically
or emotionally, but of set serious purpose, because I honestly feel it
is the only way. Now, I put the responsibility of what is to follow upon
you, my lord, as a private citizen, and upon the gentlemen of the jury,
as private citizens, and upon all the men in this court--what are you,
with your political powers, going to do to end this intolerable
situation?
"_To the women I have represented, to the women who, in response to my
incitement, have faced these terrible consequences, have broken laws, to
them, I want to say I am not going to fail them, but to face it as they
face it, to go through with it, and I know that they will go on with the
fight whether I live or whether I die._
"_This movement will go on and on until we have the rights of citizens
in this country, as women have in our Colonies, as they will have
throughout the civilised world before this woman's war is ended._
"That is all I have to say."
Mr. Justice Lush, in passing sentence, said: "It is my duty, Mrs.
Emmeline Pankhurst, and a very painful duty it is, to pass what, in my
opinion, is a suitable and adequate sentence for the crime of which you
have been most properly convicted, having regard to the strong
recommendation to mercy by the jury. I quite recognise, as I have
already said, that the motives that have actuated you in committing
this crime are not the selfish motives that actuate most of the persons
who stand in your position, but although you blind your eyes to it, I
cannot help pointing out to you that the crime of which you have been
convicted is not only a very serious one, but, in spite of your motives,
it is, in fact, a wicked one. It is wicked because it not only leads to
the destruction of property of persons who have done you no wrong, but
in spite of your calculations, it may expose other people to the danger
of being maimed or even killed. It is wicked because you are, and have
been, luring other people--young women, it may be--to engage in such
crimes, possibly to their own ruin; and it is wicked, because you cannot
help being alive to it if you would only think.
"You are setting an example to other persons who may have other
grievances that they legitimately want to have put right by embarking on
a similar scheme to yours, and trying to effect their object by
attacking the property, if not the lives, of other people. I know,
unfortunately--at least, I feel sure--you will pay no heed to what I
say. I only beg of you to think of these things."
"I have thought of them," I interjected.
"Think, if only for one short hour, dispassionately," continued the
majesty of law, "I can only say that, although the sentence I am going
to pass must be a severe one, must be adequate to the crime of which you
have been found guilty, if you would only realise the wrong you are
doing, and the mistake you are making, and would see the error you have
committed, and undertake to amend matters by using your influence in a
right direction, I would be the first to use all my best endeavours to
bring about a mitigation of the sentence I am about to pass.
"I cannot, and I will not, regard your crime as a merely trivial one. It
is not. It is a most serious one, and, whatever you may think, it is a
wicked one. I have paid regard to the recommendation of the jury. You
yourself have stated the maximum sentence which this particular offence
is by the legislature thought to deserve. The least sentence I can pass
upon you is a sentence of three years' penal servitude."
As soon as the sentence was pronounced the intense silence which had
reigned throughout the trial was broken, and an absolute pandemonium
broke out among the spectators. At first it was merely a confused and
angry murmur of "Shame!" "Shame!" The murmurs quickly swelled into loud
and indignant cries, and then from gallery and court there arose a great
chorus uttered with the utmost intensity and passion. "Shame!" "Shame!"
The women sprang to their feet, in many instances stood on their seats,
shouting "Shame!" "Shame!" as I was conducted out of the dock in charge
of two wardresses. "Keep the flag flying!" shouted a woman's voice, and
the response came in a chorus: "We will!" "Bravo!" "Three cheers for
Mrs. Pankhurst!" That was the last I heard of the courtroom protest.
Afterwards I heard that the noise and confusion was kept up for several
minutes longer, the Judge and the police being quite powerless to
obtain order. Then the women filed out singing the Women's
Marseillaise--
"March on, march on,
Face to the dawn,
The dawn of liberty."
The Judge flung after their retreating forms the dire threat of prison
for any woman who dared repeat such a scene. Threat of prison--to
Suffragettes! The women's song only swelled the louder and the corridors
of Old Bailey reverberated with their shouts. Certainly that venerable
building had never in its checkered history witnessed such a scene. The
great crowd of detectives and police who were on duty seemed actually
paralysed by the audacity of the protest, for they made no attempt to
intervene.
At three o'clock, when I left the court by a side entrance in Newgate
Street, I found a crowd of women waiting to cheer me. With the two
wardresses I entered a four wheeler and was driven to Holloway to begin
my hunger strike. Scores of women followed in taxicabs, and when I
arrived at the prison gates there was another protest of cheers for the
cause and boos for the law. In the midst of all this intense excitement
I passed through the grim gates into the twilight of prison, now become
a battle-ground.
FOOTNOTE:
[4] Sylvia Pankhurst, who was forcibly fed for five weeks, during an
original sentence of two months imposed for breaking one window.
CHAPTER VI
Prison had indeed been for us a battle-ground ever since the time when
we had solemnly resolved that, as a matter of principle, we would not
submit to the rules that bound ordinary offenders against the law. But