Their methods were bad and mistaken; but their ultimate motives shine, as a lamp shines through a fog

But that is the truth. Mrs Pankhurst, her daughters and her colleagues – for all their extravagances – are among the makers of history; they were fighting their way out of death into life; and what they did had to be done. They submitted to the outrageous handling of policemen and toughs as early Christians once submitted to the lions. It is true that, if we were to meet some of those early Christians today, we should not choose them for a quiet drink in the bar or a cosy talk over the fireside. They were doubtless an unlikely collection of human beings. But the state of Roman civilization made them essential, and by their deaths they saved the world from heaven alone knows what moral ruin. The suffragettes were, in their way, equally unlikely and uncompanionable; yet they assisted woman no little way towards the rediscovery of the place which was really hers in the world. Their methods were bad and mistaken; but their ultimate motives shine, as a lamp shines through a fog. And, before they are subjected to the unkindly processes of narrative, one would like to pause here and do them honour.

G. Dangerfield, The strange death of liberal England (1936), 135-6