"Most of the revolutions that take place in this country nowadays," said
Sir Lulworth, "are the product of moments of legislative panic. Take,
for instance, one of the most dramatic reforms that has been carried
through Parliament in the lifetime of this generation. It happened
shortly after the coal strike, of unblessed memory. To you, who have
been plunged up to the neck in events of a more tangled and tumbled
description, the things I am going to tell you of may seem of secondary
interest, but after all we had to live in the midst of them."
Sir Lulworth interrupted himself for a moment to say a few kind words to
the liqueur brandy he had just tasted, and them resumed his narrative.
"Whether one sympathises with the agitation for female suffrage or not
one has to admit that its promoters showed tireless energy and
considerable enterprise in devising and putting into action new methods
for accomplishing their ends. As a rule they were a nuisance and a
weariness to the flesh, but there were times when they verged on the
picturesque. There was the famous occasion when they enlivened and
diversified the customary pageantry of the Royal progress to open
Parliament by letting loose thousands of parrots, which had been
carefully trained to scream 'Votes for women,' and which circled round
his Majesty's coach in a clamorous cloud of green, and grey and scarlet.
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