. The Mortal Sickness had
swept away the entire Royal Family, unto the third and fourth
generations, and thus it came to pass that Hermann the Fourteenth of
Saxe-Drachsen-Wachtelstein, who had stood thirtieth in the order of
succession, found himself one day ruler of the British dominions within
and beyond the seas. He was one of the unexpected things that happen
in politics, and he happened with great thoroughness. In many ways he
was the most progressive monarch who had sat on an important throne;
before people knew where they were, they were somewhere else. Even his
Ministers, progressive though they were by tradition, found it
difficult to keep pace with his legislative suggestions.

"As a matter of fact," admitted the Prime Minister, "we are hampered by
these votes-for-women creatures; they disturb our meetings throughout
the country, and they try to turn Downing Street into a sort of
political picnic-ground."

"They must be dealt with," said Hermann.

"Dealt with," said the Prime Minister; "exactly, just so; but how?"

"I will draft you a Bill," said the King, sitting down at his
typewriting machine, "enacting that women shall vote at all future
elections. Shall vote, you observe; or, to put it plainer, must.
Voting will remain optional, as before, for male electors; but every
woman between the ages of twenty-one and seventy will be obliged to
vote, not only at elections for Parliament, county councils, district
boards, parish councils, and municipalities, but for coroners, school
inspectors, churchwardens, curators of museums, sanitary authorities,
police-court interpreters, swimming-bath instructors, contractors,
choir-masters, market superintendents, art-school teachers, cathedral
vergers, and other local functionaries whose names I will add as they
occur to me. All these offices will become elective, and failure to
vote at any election falling within her area of residence will involve
the female elector in a penalty of L10. Absence, unsupported by an
adequate medical certificate, will not be accepted as an excuse. Pass
this Bill through the two Houses of Parliament and bring it to me for
signature the day after to-morrow."

From the very outset the Compulsory Female Franchise produced little or
no elation even in circles which had been loudest in demanding the
vote. The bulk of the women of the country had been indifferent or
hostile to the franchise agitation, and the most fanatical Suffragettes