If to be unpopular because he promoted the practical success of the opinions his life had been spent in advocating is to have failed, then Mr. Mill failed.  If, however, the success of a politician is to be measured by the degree in which he is able personally to influence the course of politics, and attach to himself a school of political thought, then Mr. Mill, in the best meaning of the words, has succeeded.  If Mr. Mill had died ten years ago, is it probable that his views on representative reform would have received so much practical recognition as they have obtained during the last five years?  If he had never entered the House of Commons, would the women’s-suffrage question be where it now is?  Before he introduced the subject into the House of Commons in 1867, it may be said to have had no political existence in this country.  The whole question was held in such contempt by “practical politicians,” that the House would probably have refused to listen to any member, except Mr. Mill, who advocated the removal of the political disabilities of women.  Mr. Mill was the one member of Parliament whose high intellectual position enabled him to raise the question without being laughed down as a fool.  To every one’s astonishment, seventy-four members followed Mr. Mill into the lobby:  the most sanguine estimate, previous to the division, of the number of his supporters had been thirty.  Since that time, the movement in favor of women’s suffrage has made rapid and steady progress.  Like all genuine political movements, it has borne fruit in many measures which are intended to remove the grievances of which those who advocate the movement complain:  among these collateral results of the agitation for women’s suffrage, may be enumerated the Married Women’s Property Act, the Custody of Infants Bill, and the admission of women to the municipal and educational franchises and to seats upon school-boards.  A large part of the present anxiety to improve the education of girls and women is also due to the conviction that the political disabilities of women will not be maintained.  In this question of the general improvement of the position of women, Mr. Mill’s influence can scarcely be over-estimated.  All through his life he regarded it as a question of first-rate importance; and the extent to which he was able practically to promote it is sufficient in itself to make his career as a politician a success.  A strong proof of the vitality of the movement, of which he was the principal originator, is that his death cannot injuriously affect its activity or its prospects of ultimate success.  What he has done for women is final:  he gave to their service the best powers of his mind and the best years of his life.  His death consecrates the gift:  it can never lessen its value.

What is true of Mr. Mill’s influence on the women’s-suffrage question is true also of the other political movements in which he took an active interest.  He was able in all of these powerfully to influence the political history of his day in the direction in which he desired to influence it.  If this is failure, failure is worth much more than success.