"What is it that they want?" he exclaimed, not quite meaning it as a question; rather as expressing the opinion that the subject was a hopeless one.
"They want a great many things," said his daughter; "they've got what they call 'grievances'; I know very little about them; they may be right or wrong--that isn't the point. The only thing that concerns you, papa, is that they want to come and see you; and they are not allowed to."
"No; but you can say that they shall be."
The King shook his head. Charlotte did not know what she was talking about.
"Yes, papa, that is the position. Of course you haven't the right to make laws or levy taxes, but you can send word to Parliament to say something has got to be considered and decided. And about this, Parliament won't consider and won't decide. And that is why they are trying to get to you with a petition; so that you shall say that it is to be looked into."
"But I can't say that sort of thing, my dear."
"Yes, you can, papa! It's an old right; the right of unrepresented people to come direct to their sovereign and tell him that his ministers are refusing to do things for them. And your ministers are trying to keep you from knowing about it, to keep you from knowing even that you have such a power; and by not knowing it they are making you break your Coronation oath. Oh, papa, isn't that dreadful to think of?"
"But it is true, papa! These women are trying to bring you their petition, and they are prevented. The ministers say that you have nothing to do with it; so they go to the ministers--they take their petition to the ministers, and ask them to bring it to you, so that you may give them an answer. Have any of them brought you the petition, papa?"
"You see, they do nothing! And so the women go again, and again, and again, taking their petition with them; and because they are trying to get to you--to say that their grievances shall be looked into, and something done about them--because of that they are being beaten and bruised in the streets; and when they won't turn back then they are arrested and sent to prison."
"They may be quite wrong," she cried, "foolish and impossible in their demands; they may have no grievances worth troubling about--though if so, why are they troubling as they do?--but they have the right, under the old law, for those grievances to be inquired into and considered and decided about. And Parliament won't do it; it is too busy about other things, grievances that aren't a bit more real, and about which people haven't been petitioning at all. But you, papa (if that petition came to you), would have the right to make them attend to it. And they know it; and that's why they won't let you hear anything about it."