tried to instil in his children a sense of duty to society. When he appeared in
evening dress, they would watch with admiration as Emmeline put in the
diamond studs that had belonged to Richard’s own father, ‘preparing him
lovingly’ for some important function where he had to speak.^21
Emmeline had remedied her earlier unsuccessful attempts at managing the
weekly housekeeping allowance by asking the faithful Susannah to take control
of the budget since the servant could stretch the money further than the
mistress.^22 But she longed to have some means of economic independence of
her own so that she would not have to worry over such matters but be a finan-
cial support to her husband. Again, she approached her father about the
property he had promised her, on her marriage. Still bearing the scars of the
recent differences of opinion between them, Robert Goulden promptly
informed his eldest daughter that no such promise had been made. Emmeline
never saw her father again. She longed to fulfil her childhood dream of moving
to London; there, she believed, Richard would stand a better chance of being
elected to parliament.^23 The opportunity came sooner than she expected when
a few months later the Liberal government, with Gladstone as Prime Minister,
resigned.
Richard was invited by the Rotherhithe Liberal and Radical Association to
stand as their parliamentary candidate in the November general election of that
year, 1885. He gladly accepted but insisted on standing as a Radical, with a
similar socialist election address as before: ‘This is the hour of the people and of
the poor. ... There must be for every man a man’s share of life, through educa-
tion, free and universal, training for work through technical teaching; full
citizenship.’^24 Eager to help her husband in this important mission, Emmeline
wrote in August to Caroline Biggs asking her if she and other London women
working for the suffrage cause would assist Richard’s candidature. In September,
she also wrote to Florence Balgarnie of the Manchester National Society for
Women’s Suffrage, thanking her for bringing Richard’s candidature before the
committee.^25 Then, despite the fact that she still had not fully recovered from
the birth of the last child, Emmeline accompanied Richard to London.^26
Emmeline wanted no controversies to wreck Richard’s chances during this
campaign but had not reckoned with the tactics of his Conservative oppo-
nent, Colonel Hamilton, and of Charles Parnell, leader of the Irish
Nationalists. Colonel Hamilton was determined to present Dr. Pankhurst as a
man of dubious character and printed a handbill accusing him of atheism, a
view that held a certain notoriety in mid-Victorian Britain. Although Richard
denied the libel, it was known that he was not a Christian but an agnostic.
Emmeline, sensing the onset of defeat, became indignant at the uproar that
broke out and begged Richard to find some way to silence his critics. When
he retorted that he had publicly denied the libel, she protested that it was not
enough; they must attend church together to show he was not disrespectful of
Christian beliefs, even if he did not share them. ‘Iunderstand these people’,
she insisted, ‘I know what to do; you have always got your head in the
MARRIAGE AND ENTRY INTO POLITICAL LIFE