archives.trin.cam.ac.uk

You may remember that when I had the honour of dining in Trinity last June {1} I mentioned to you that I should like some day to have a talk with you about the woman’s militant movement for the franchise at the beginning of the century. Thinking it over I have come to the conclusion that it will probably suit you better if I put what I have to say in writing.

I must begin by apologising for troubling you at all about the matter but as you know I have been for a great part of my life a propagandist and I am still incorrigible in my old age. I do not like to think that you, our foremost British historian, should have, as it seems to me, the wrong slant on this movement which I hold to have been of considerable historic importance. The fact that I played a prominent part in it myself entitles me to speak on its behalf though I am free to admit that it also entitles you to charge me with bias. But then you have said (and I agree) that even an historian is none the worse for bias.

My case is:— 1) that any section of the community that has no political rights should endeavour to win them by reason and argument, but that if prolonged peaceful agitation fails to influence those who have the power, then it has no alternative but to use extraordinary and extralegal methods unless it is prepared to acquiesce in its own subjection.

2) that such methods should be designed so as a) to rouse the largest number of the unenfranchised section to a consciousness of their subjection b) to create the greatest difficulties for the Government, and c) to win the support of the bulk of the population by casting odium on the Government for its repressive counter measures.

3) that the militant suffrage agitation acted broadly on these lines (though it naturally made some mistakes), and that it was instrumental—though not exclusively—in creating a situation from which there was no escape except by conferring a measure of enfranchisement on women.

I do not think you will substantially disagree with me on either of the first two points which are borne out by countless examples, the latest of which come from Asia—India and Indonesia, in the former of which I was acting for the Government—but I gather that you do not accept my version of the facts as to the third.

It is to this point therefore that I will specially devote myself.

I was brought up, like you, in the Liberal fold and I still think that we owe much of our national democratic heritage to the great Liberal statesmen of the 19th century. Nevertheless I think that the Liberal Party bungled the case of the women and of the working man and lost its prestige and pre-eminence by so doing. By the time that the militant suffrage movement began women had grown tired of asking politely for the vote and being fobbed off it by discreditable political devices; and some younger spirits had become rebellious.

The militants directed the spear-head of their attack upon the members of the Liberal Government because they were the most vulnerable in that it was contrary to Liberal principles to deny enfranchisement to a section of the community which paid taxes and was subject to the laws made by a parliament in which they were not represented. In the earlier stages of the agitation they abstained from violence and concentrated on questioning Cabinet Ministers, campaigning against Liberal candidates at by-elections and committing technical breaches of the law. As a consequence they were subjected to considerable violence at the hands of stewards at meetings and of the police in the streets and they suffered terms of imprisonment.

I think it is indisputable that in this way they succeeded in rousing the sympathy of a very large number of their own sex. Many thousands enrolled themselves in the militant organisations. They included such prominent women as Dr. Garrett Anderson the Mayor of Aldeburgh, Mrs. Saul Solomon widow of the Cape Premier, Lady Constance Lytton, and leading actresses, novelists and others. Funds were contributed running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. The paper Votes for Women the weekly organ of the movement had a circulation of 30,000 to 40,000. About a thousand women served terms of imprisonment. Moreover after militancy began (and in my opinion, and in the publicly expressed opinion of Mrs. Fawcett the leader of the “constitutional” suffragists, largely in consequence of it) the membership of the non-militant suffrage societies showed a marked and rapid increase.

They succeeded also in directing the attention of the general public to the question. At one time from 100 to 200 meetings were being held every week, some of them vast open-air demonstrations, others in the largest halls of the country which were packed to overflowing. I do not suggest that all the members of the audiences were supporters though many were, but there was little or no hostility; and in the street demonstrations the crowds were mostly sympathetic. In fact in the so-called “raids on Parliament” the women counted on the crowd to protect them from the police.

How far electors were influenced at by-elections to vote against Liberal candidates by suffragette orators and canvassers can never be proved one way or the other but the press frequently alleged that they were, and there is no doubt that Cabinet Ministers were greatly embarrassed and hard put to to defend their attitude. Naturally, as is always the case when coercive action is taken by a Government, the British public opinion reacted against the Government.

During this period of the agitation there was a growing feeling among all parties in the House of Commons that the question of woman suffrage ought to be treated seriously and sympathetically and in 1910 an all-party committee devised a compromise proposal which came to be known as the “Conciliation Bill”. In order not to prejudice the chances of this compromise the militant societies were asked to desist from any militant action. They agreed; and for several months they carried out strictly constitutional and non-provocative activities. But in the end the Liberal Government made it quite clear that they would have nothing to do with the Conciliation Bill and Mr. Asquith remained adamant in his opposition. Militancy was therefore resumed in all its forms. Women continued to go to prison in increasing numbers and suffered violence in the streets and at Liberal meetings for their insubordination.

It was then that some militant women decided upon a change of tactics in the direction of actual violence against property. They were influenced to take this course 1) by the preference for being arrested quickly rather than after being knocked about and 2) by the taunts levelled against them by Cabinet Ministers that their rebellion was trumpery and not of the same account as the riots indulged in by men agitators in the 19th century. The form of violence adopted was that of breaking windows. At first the leaders of the militant movement opposed and tried to restrain women from taking this course but later they recognised it and organised it. A great shop-window breaking raid took place in London and created a sensation. The Government took action by arresting the leaders of the militant movement on a charge of conspiracy. I was one of those leaders and I made a speech in the dock at the Old Bailey in my own defence. I enclose with this letter, a verbatim report of it which you may feel disposed to read (not the biographical note which precedes it which has no relevance to the present issue.) It gives a number of further facts which I have not repeated in this letter. The trial, which was given immense prominence in the press, ended in our conviction, the jury appending a sympathetic rider, and we were sentenced to nine months imprisonment. At the same time several hundreds of the rank and file of the movement were also imprisoned. After serving part of our sentence the prisoners adopted the hunger strike. Some of us were forcibly fed and then released.

Subsequently there was a division in the leadership. Mrs. Pankhurst decided on new and more violent tactics which did not appeal to my wife and myself and we parted company. The Government also adopted new tactics and instead of applying forcible feeding the hunger strikers, took powers in a special Act of Parliament—The Cat & Mouse Bill—to release them and to rearrest them when they had recovered their health. The agitation continued with increasing bitterness on both sides up to the outbreak of the first world war.

Meanwhile of the purely political side there had been many developments. Supporters of woman suffrage did not succeed in inducing Mr. Asquith to support a woman suffrage measure. Instead, he promised that the franchise Bill which would be introduced to extend the male franchise would be open to amendment to include women. In the event the Speaker ruled that the Bill could not be so amended. This created an impasse in which it became evident that though the supporters of woman suffrage were not strong enough to insist on the passage of a Bill to enfranchise women they were strong enough to prevent the passage of a Bill to enfranchise more men from which women were excluded.

The external war brought a truce to the domestic militant campaign and during the war women rendered great services to the nation. When in the middle of the war a new registration and franchise reform measure became necessary a Speaker’s conference was constituted to frame the basis of its provisions and a partial enfranchisement of women was included among them and was accepted as a reasonable compromise and as such was enacted.

I am in no doubt that the women’s war service reconciled a large number of doubters to the inclusion of women in the future lists of electors. But I equally have no doubt that the prominence given to the question by the pre-war agitation made it impossible to ignore their claims and that, without it, gratitude to women for their help in critical hours might easily have fizzled out without the accordance of any tangible recognition of their right to participate in the future governance of their common country.

—————

{1} 21st. See PETH 6/279.

Copy of letter from Max Beerbohm to George Macaulay Trevelyan

TRER/1/129 · Item · Feb 1941?

Part of Papers of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan

Copy of letter from Thomas Babington Macaulay to Margaret Cropper

O./18.1/f. A16Ar · Part · 7 Dec. 1834 [date of original]

Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

Macaulay, Thomas Babington (1800-1859), 1st Baron Macaulay, historian, essayist, and poet

Correspondence and cuttings relating to J. R. M. Butler's appointment as Chief Military Historian

BUTJ/E/3/6/1 · File · 1946

Part of Papers of Sir James Butler (J. R. M. Butler)

Correspondence: Received by J. J. Thomson as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge

THMJ II/C/65 · File · 1927

Part of Papers of Sir Joseph Thomson (J. J. Thomson), Part II

Correspondence, etc. re Trinity College, Cambridge: Trevelyan - VIscount Ullswater

THMJ I/A/11 · File · 1924-1931

Part of Papers of Sir Joseph Thomson (J. J. Thomson), Part I

Cuttings, mostly relating to the death of Desmond MacCarthy.

TRER/4/286 · Item · 1920-1952

Part of Papers of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan

Draft [?] letter from R. C. Trevelyan to Winston Churchill

TRER/18/135 · Item · 24 Apr 1943

Part of Papers of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan

Draft letter from R. C. Trevelyan to R. J. L. Kingsford at the Cambridge Unversity Press

TRER/21/80 · Item · 13 Oct 1948

Part of Papers of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan

Draft of speech given by Ambrosius Hubrecht at the wedding of Elizabeth des Amorie van der Hoeven and Robert Trevelyan

TRER/23/21 · Item · [June 1900]

Part of Papers of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan

His father [Paul François Hubrecht] has asked him to act as master of ceremonies. Remembers the 'veneration' he felt as a boy for his father's young unmarried sister [Hermina], 'not so very [underlined] many years' older than he was himself; he happened to be present on her first meeting with his mother's cousin [Jan des Amorie van der Hoeven], and the marriage followed soon afterwards. Spent 'many pleasant hours' when a student in Utrecht of 'that uncle and aunt whom we cherished so dearly', and 'what fun' they often had, which [Mien] Röntgen and Elizabeth Trevelyan missed as they were then 'babies in cradles or babies in arms'. When these babies, as young girls, had 'the great misfortune' to lose both parents, it was 'the most natural thing in the world' that they should be looked after by his own family, and soon were considered by his two sisters and himself 'an absolutely integral part of our parental home'.

Did not then know that their home would be 'subjected to predatory raids made upon it by the most diverse foreign nations'. His dear brother [in-law] Alphonse [Grandmont], a 'staunch Belgian', has taken his elder sister [Bramine] 'not only across the border, but as far as the extreme south of Italy'; they are said to have a 'charming villa' there, which he is sorry he has never seen 'in the groves of which many nationalities meet and do not always seem to regret it' [a reference to the bride and groom's first meeting]. Mien was 'abducted not so very long ago by a fair haired Saxon' [Julius Röntgen] whose name 'already celebrated by his own achievements, has travelled all over the world on the all-penetrating rays of his cousin' [Wilhelm Röntgen, discoverer of X- or Röntgen rays]. Fortunately, he did not take her to Leipzig and they remain in Amsterdam. Now their 'youngest little sister' Bessie has also decided to 'throw in her lot' with a foreigner. Sure however that her husband will soon become one of them, as the other two have. Robert and Elizabeth already know, and Ambrosius hopes his parents and brothers 'whose presence on this occasion is such an inestimable pleasure' will also have realised in the last few days, that their sadness at Bessie leaving is 'far outweighed by the joy' that her husband 'has become so very dear' to them 'on his own account', especially to Ambrosius's mother; he jokes that he even feels a 'little jealous'. Therefore it is a 'case of international brotherhood' dictating his toast to the health of the bride and groom: 'may their union... coincide with a period of peace and good will among nations'.

Exercise book with diary by R. C. Trevelyan

TRER/29/21 · Item · Aug-Sept 1923

Part of Papers of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan

Trevelyan has filled in the sections printed on the front: 'Written by' with 'R.C.T'; 'Commenced' with 27 August 1923 [looks like 8]; 'School' with 'Ἡ ΓΗ' ['The Earth' in Ancient Greek]. Notes in his first entry that he has been reading Ponsonby's book ["English Diaries" by Arthur Ponsonby] which has inspired him to start this diary.

Mentions of Mabel [Godwin?], Marian [?], Alice, Bert and Bobbie Elms; Bessie and Julian; his parents; Miles Malleson and his wife [Joan] and uncle [Philip Malleson]; O[liver] Simon at the "Fleuron" (who asks him to translate the "Acts of the Apostles", to be illustrated by Paul Nash); Miss Ewing [later wife of Walter Rea], Nicky Mariano; Bernard and Mary Berenson; Frances and Arthur Dakyns (visiting the Ponsonbys at Fernhurst); his brother George (who has written to the "Times" saying the matter between Greece and Italy should be referred to the Powers not the League of Nations); Margaret and Ralph Vaughan Williams and their mother; Mrs [Jane] Russell Rea; Irene [Cooper Willis or Noel-Baker]; 'Miss [blank left], with whom Rennier had an affair. She is now private secretary to [Henry?] Hamilton Fyfe'; Francis Birrell; Clifford and Joan Allen; 'an Italian-French lady' whom Trevelyan had met at I Tatti; Barbara Strachey; [Simon] Bussy [paintings by]; John Rodker 'and his child [Joan] by Sonia [Cohen]'; a 'nice rather muddle-headed young man.. Labour candidate for Petersfield' [Dudley Aman]; Bertrand Russell.

Works on: translations of Theocritus; his 'Flood poem' ["The Deluge"]; possible continuation of "Pterodamozels"; review of books on metre by Lascelles Abercrombie and E[gerton Smith] (Smith is the first person he has 'attacked' in a review; wonders if Desmond MacCarthy will think his comments 'too strong); review of Sturge Morre's "Judas" for Leonard Woolf at the "Nation"; his 'Pandora play'.

Reads (as well as Ponsonby, and sometimes with Julian): the "Manchester Guardian", Spenser's "Mother Hubbard ['s Tale]", Epicharmus, "Henry IV pt 1", Phaedrus, Macaulay, Aristophanes, the 'Summer number' of Julian's "Hurtenham Magazine", Lucian, the "Mikado"; Ssuma Ch'ien [Sima Qian]; Hastings' "Dictionary of the Bible" [at the London Library]; a "Classical Review" with Duff and Bailey on Lucretius; Molly MacCarthy's autobiography ["A Nineteenth-Century Childhood", 'Very charming']

G M Trevelyan to Piero Sraffa together with a note that he should be allowed to return to England to resume his duties for Michaelmas term 1945

SRAF/C/315 · File · 1945–46

Part of Papers of Piero Sraffa

H. A. Hollond: correspondence arising from the television programme in honour of Bertrand Russell's 92nd birthday

Add. MS c/110 · Item · 22, 26 May 1964

Part of Additional Manuscripts c

Hollond, Henry Arthur (1884-1974), academic lawyer and historian

Incomplete letter from Charles Philips Trevelyan to his parents

TRER/46/354 · Item · [Jun 1894]

Part of Papers of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan

[Beginning of letter missing]. - About an unknown individual, says 'The detail of reform floors him. It brings out his distrust of any judgment but that of himself & his class'. A bonfire was lit for St. John's Eve [23 Jun] 'on the Kippel [?]... seen no doubt by chill spirits of the mountain perched on the Jung Frau'. So far they have met only one acquaintance, 'an insipid feeble Trinity man', going up the Kippel today 'in boots that may have been patent leathern', with two ladies 'in their Sunday best, who shrieked' when Charles told them they might have to go through over ankle-height snow; did not mention the risk of the reflected sun to their 'pretty untanned skin'.

The journey from Vevey the day before yesterday went well; they travelled by boat to Villeneuve, passing Clarens and Chillon and 'getting more in love with the Lake [Geneva/Léman] than ever'. The Rhone valley was as 'dull as can be', the only remarkable things being a 'beautiful waterfall', he thinks near St. Maurice, and 'a queer sanctum of some monkish order nestling in an almost inaccessible rock'.

Everything is better than expected - 'Bless the weather for it'. Is 'reading with delight' Meredith's Vittoria, [John?] Morley and Byron. Began Carlyle's Cromwell today: 'Ha! Ha! How about 7 volumes'. Soon there will be 'some difficulty' about Italy, since he is 'so determined to get well' that he will not 'go down and be roasted on Como, even if there are no mosquitoes', but Bob is 'bent on going'' there will have to be a compromise by which he crosses a pass with Bob but does not go much further, and lets Bob travel on for a couple of days by himself if he wants. All is however 'amicable' at the moment.

His parents should write to this place when they get this letter: he and Bob are staying at least until Wednesday. Further plans will follow in the next letter. After that will try and write alternately to his parents and George, so there will not be a need to send letters on to or from Skye [where George is going for a holiday]; asks them to send this on to George.

Incomplete letter from Elizabeth Trevelyan and R. C. Trevelyan to Paul François Hubrecht

TRER/23/93 · Item · [28 Nov 1900]

Part of Papers of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan

Beginning of letter missing; text starts mid sentence with Bessie referring in Dutch to financial matters and thanking her uncle. Asks if Bramine will come tomorrow [for Uncle Paul's birthday], which will be very cosy; hopes their own 'little flower' will be delivered tomorrow. Robert wants to say something now so she will let the 'eloquent poet' speak for himself.

Robert adds a note in English, though he first addressed Paul Hubrecht as 'Mijn beste Ooom'; wishes him 'every happiness' for his birthday, and wishes he could be there. Hopes that if there are speeches, 'the oratory may reach as high last year, when the dinner was made so pleasant by brilliant flashes of humour from you and Paul and Ambro' and his own 'brilliant flash of silence', which perhaps should be called his '"break-down"'. He and Bessie hope to be with the Hubrechts before Christmas; also that Jan might be able to pay them a short visit, and perhaps also visit Robert's brother George at Cambridge. Hopes that by the time they come to the Netherlands. Aunt [Maria] and [Alphonse] Grandmont will be 'much better'; they both seem to be improving, though slowly. Must be a 'great relief that Tuttie is quite well again'. Bessie has been well except for a 'nasty cough', but this is nearly gone now. They recently went to Cambridge and saw Aeschylus's "Agamemnon" acted [the Cambridge Greek Play], though they thought it was not done so 'with great success'; Bessie's 'musical conscience was offended by the badness of the chorus music'. Was kind of Uncle Paul to send 'that prophetic Strand Magazine', which Bessie says she got 'as early as '92': her 'unconscious prophetic instinct must have been working even in her schooldays'. They find their "Encyclopaedia Britannica" a 'great recourse': they will be 'very omniscient' by the time they next see Uncle Paul, particularly Bessie, though she says the article on Dutch literature is 'poor'. Perhaps this is because it 'does not do justice to the great 17th century poet [van den Vondel?], whose works form so brilliant an adornment to their bookshelves'. Best wishes to Aunt Maria and Tuttie; hopes that tomorrow [Uncle Paul's birthday?] will be a 'happy day'.

Incomplete letter from R. C. Trevelyan to Caroline Trevelyan

TRER/46/69 · Item · [Jan/Feb 1899?]

Part of Papers of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan

Invitation from the Master of Trinity and his wife (G. M. and Janet Trevelyan) to an 'at home ' for married undergraduates, directed to Robert P. E. F. and Rosemary Hirsch

Add. MS a/675 · Item · 1946

Part of Additional Manuscripts a

Hirsch, Paul Adolf (1880-1951), iron merchant and collector of music

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