'ANTIBES,
'_Easter Eve_, '84.

'I had thought till lately that the Woman's Suffrage division in
Committee on the Franchise Bill would have been so hollow that my
absence from it would not have mattered; but as I find that
Grosvenor thinks that it will not be hollow, it becomes my duty to
write to you about it. I myself think Grosvenor wrong; the woman's
suffrage people claim some 250 "friends," but this they do by
counting all who, having voted with them once, have abstained from
voting for many years, and who are really foes. The division can
only be a close one if the Tory party as a body support the view
which is Northcote's, I believe, and was Disraeli's, but many of the
leaders would be bitterly opposed to such a course. Mr. Disraeli
left the woman's suffrage amendment an open question on his own
Reform Bill, and forbade the Government Whips to tell against the
amendment, but the mass of the Tory party voted in the majority. On
this next occasion there will be a larger Liberal vote against the
change than there was last year, and I do not believe that there
will be a larger Tory vote in its favour. But, supposing that I am
wrong and Grosvenor right, I should feel no difficulty in voting
against the amendment on the grounds of tactics which would be
stated, provided that Fawcett and Courtney, who are the only other
thick-and-thin supporters of woman's suffrage in the Government,
voted also, but I cannot vote if they abstain. Under these
circumstances what had I better do?'

Mr. Gladstone wrote back on May 11th: