trained mind, stated their case, teased out the meaning of the term ‘rush’ and
cross-examined the two Cabinet Ministers. The two men were ridiculed and
embarrassed, especially when Christabel quoted militant phrases from past
speeches given by Lloyd George and pointed out that Herbert Gladstone had
said, in a House of Commons debate, that women fighting for the vote should
take action on their question. The humiliation went further when she quoted
the historic words of Herbert Gladstone’s father, the illustrious Liberal
statesman, William Ewart Gladstone. ‘I am sorry to say that if no instructions
have even been addressed in political crises to the people of this country, except
to remember to hate violence and love order and exercise patience, the liberties
of this country would never have been attained.’^9 Although Emmeline and
Flora Drummond also questioned the two men, it was the young, charming
Christabel’s audacious advocacy that captured the headlines, a fascinated press
calling her ‘Suffragette Portia’.^10 The event attracted widespread publicity so
that the trial was like ‘a suffrage meeting attended by millions’.^11
As the trial proceeded, Emmeline’s concerns about the effectiveness of the
WSPU campaign if its two key leaders were imprisoned, which seemed likely,
did not lessen. Realising the strategic importance to the women’s movement of
the well-known ex-actress Elizabeth Robins, with her dramatic skills and powers
of persuasion, Emmeline wrote to her on 23 October, unashamedly asking her to
use her influence with important people during the time the leaders would be
absent and to devote her considerable talents to the women’s cause:
I may not see you again for six months for I have a feeling that the
magistrate means to give us as long an imprisonment as the law allows
him. Facing this withdrawal from human society as I do may I without
vexing you speak faithfully to you what is in my mind?
I believe that you could do more for the woman’s movement if you
could let yourself go a little more than you do. You have influence with
many people which could be made useful if you made those people who
admire you & believe in you feel what people who know Christabel &
me feel about us. ... You have the gift of personal magnetism in a far
greater degree than I have by nature. Naturally I am a very ordinary
matter of fact person. It is very difficult for me to express feeling of any
kind. All this natural reticence & diffidence has been overcome by my
strong impulse to devote myself to the work.
It would be a great comfort to me during these months if I knew
that you with your great gifts were giving yourself heart & soul to the
Cause. ... Of the women who are left at the helm Mrs Lawrence will
be the one to bear the heaviest burden. My daughter Sylvia will do her
best to help her but she will need much more than Sylvia can give to
replace Christabel & myself. May I hope that you also will be at her
side?^12EMMELINE AND CHRISTABEL