"I see."
"I don't see what better safety-valve could be suggested. They could work out their own ideas there as much as they liked. Of course, details would come later."
"And the rest of the Proclamation?" asked the other, lifting the sheet.
"I think we've got at the essentials," said the priest, glancing again at his own copy, "and at the immediate results. Of course, all his other measures don't come into force till the Houses pass them. In fact, nothing of the Proclamation has force until that happens. I expect the Bill for the Establishment of Catholicism will take some time. We shall get ours through before that. They'll pass a few small measures immediately, no doubt—as to the Court chaplains and so on."
There was a pause.
"I really think we've got at the principles," said the priest again, meditatively. "Are they clear to you?"
Monsignor rose.
"I think so," he said. "I'm very much obliged, Father. I'm sorry I was stupid just now; but you know it's extraordinarily bewildering to me. I still don't seem to be able to grasp all you said about Democracy."
The old priest smiled reassuringly.
"Well, you see, the universal franchise reduced Democracy ad absurdum fifty years ago. Even the uneducated saw that. And then there came the reaction to the old king-idea again."