"By no means, sir; I admit that it is very serious."
"I was never told so before."
"We did not wish unnecessarily to trouble your Majesty. This is hardly a case for Cabinet intervention; the Home Office does its duty, takes preventive measures as far as is possible, and puts down the disturbances when they arise."
"Yes, yes," said the King, "but is nothing going to be done?"
The Prime Minister raised his eyebrows, as though asked to reply once more to a question already answered.
"Everything possible is being done, sir."
"Legislatively, I mean."
"Oh, sir," exclaimed the head of Government in a tone of the most deferential protest, "that surely is a matter for the Cabinet."
"Quite so," said the King. "That is why I ask."
So then the Premier explained circumstantially and at great length why, in that sense, nothing whatever could be done. We need not go into it here—those who read Jingalese history will find the Prime Minister's reasons published elsewhere; and it all really came only to this: "It is the duty of a government to keep in power; and if it cannot do justice without endangering its party majority, then justice cannot be done."