Victor Victorious

by Cecil Starr Johns

I had then--and so far have had no reason to change my views--a very strong conviction that Germany was the great danger to the world's peace.

All of them expressed pleasure at having Merlin's son upon the Rudarlian throne. Even the Bornian Minister pretended that he was overjoyed, and expressed himself to that effect in beautiful, flowery language; verbiage which I accepted smilingly, and at my own idea of its worth.

To me, Bornia was our greatest menace, I had imagined this always; and now, since my conversation with Alexis, I was quite certain of it. So I gave all the time I could spare, from pressing home affairs, to planning out how to get the better of our neighbour in the conflict that I foresaw.

Nothing could be done, however, until some kind of order had been established within the kingdom, the chaotic state of which caused a complete change of government to be necessary.

Up to now, Rudarlia had been an absolute monarchy, the king's power being autocratic; a curious survival of mediæval days, and which for centuries had satisfied Rudarlians; but now a more modern spirit was at work, and there were indications that a representative form of government was desirable. But what kind of constitution would best suit the country? That was the question, and I gave it a great deal of thought, before asking some of the leading men to give me their ideas in writing. These, when I received them, proved rather disappointing, for all of them suffered from the same fault: that of not recognising the whole, as a whole.

I had suggested to Mr. Smith that he should give me his idea, but he requested me to allow him to stand aside for the present. He told me that he would like to know what his King had thought of doing. He was interested to see what Merlin's son would do.

I set to work vigorously, although, I confess, with a great deal of trepidation. A scheme to turn an absolute monarchy into a constitutional one, without injury to the various classes, and without upsetting the national morale, was one from which anyone might shrink.

I did not propose to work out details--that would have taken too much time, as well as being something that could be better done by others--but I did wish to think out the main structure. I therefore compared the different systems of legislature known to the civilised world. I collected information from all sources, in the course of conversations with men of all classes, and I also thought deeply on the nature of the Rudarlian people. This was the most difficult part of the whole problem; for, of all things, national character is the most complex. Along one road, a nation may be steered as easily as a flock of sheep; along another, the first few yards will split it into a hundred conflicting elements.

Rudarlia was mainly an agricultural country, and it has always seemed to me that such are best governed by a system akin to the patriarchal; yet, as a European country, such a system was impossible. Therefore I had to arrange that, although not patriarchal, an element of it should be there, combined with more up-to-date forms.

It was with this in my mind that I considered the possibility of combining the municipal government with the parliamentary, and to that end introduced the Mayors, as the lowest class in the parliamentary pyramid.