Welcome to Charming, where swirling petticoats, the language of flowers, and old-fashioned duels are only the beginning of what is lying underneath…
After a magical attempt on her life in 1877, Queen Victoria launched a crusade against magic that, while tidied up by the Ministry of Magic, saw the Wizarding community exiled to Hogsmeade, previously little more than a crossroad near the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the years that have passed since, Hogsmeade has suffered plagues, fires, and Victorian hypocrisy but is still standing firm.
Thethe year is now 1895. It’s time to join us and immerse yourself in scandal and drama interlaced with magic both light and dark.
Complete a thread started and set every month for twelve consecutive months. Each thread must have at least ten posts, and at least three must be your own.
Did You Know?
Did you know? Jewelry of jet was the haute jewelry of the Victorian era. — Fallin
About the campaign — congratulations on running well, condolences for having lost, et cetera — whatever the most appropriate pleasantries are. I assume you'll forgive me glossing over this bit to get straight to business.
If you were forming a committee on voting reform, who would be on it? Specific names are fine if any spring to mind immediately, but I'm more interested in classifications — categories of people. What groups must be represented, in your view, for the resulting decision to be legitimate?
[assume Jude already sent a letter of congratulations after the election result]
30th October, 1893
Mr. Dempsey,
Thank you for your letter. I admit I’d planned to let you settle in for a week or so before I began petitioning the Minister’s office on any particular issues. But as you’ve asked –
I would expect a committee that broadly reflects our society as a whole, and not just the current voting populace. So, firstly, equal representation of men and women.
Of course, the more perspectives included within those categories, the better: I would hope for a proportional weighting of non-purebloods to purebloods; preferably some variety in background, professional area, and marital status; and, significantly, representatives from across all social classes. I would be hard pressed to call it legitimate without the latter – though I don’t know how many candidates able to adequately defend and represent the interests of the working class you will find if the committee is to be selected from the current benches of the Wizengamot.
And I imagine there will be limitations in practice by the size of the committee and so on – but I hope this is a useful start. I can also put forward a few names if you require them.
I sincerely look forward to seeing progress made on voting reform, and the change you bring whilst in office. Congratulations again – and I am happy to offer my cooperation
Thank your for your reply; it was indeed helpful. Equal representation of men and women may be difficult to achieve, but we'll see how the cards fall. You may recall from the campaign that I am personally in favor of women's suffrage, but for full transparency I asked Lucius Lestrange for his opinion on the matter of reform committee as well, and you can imagine his recommendations are at significant odds to yours. And, as we all want reform to actually happen (I believe even Mr. Lestrange wants this, if only to stop protestors from blocking his egress to and from the Wizengamot) one of my chief priorities is to keep the committee small enough to be productive.
But they will certainly not be drawn exclusively from the Wizengamot, so there's that.
Thank you for your encouraging words about the committee, at any rate – I do see the difficulties there will be to implement the committee’s recommendations, and naturally I expected no less from Mr. Lestrange.
If you are looking more widely within the Ministry, there are certainly some strong female candidates – I would personally trust Mrs. Fallon Hatchitt to make the case for women’s suffrage well. She has had a promising career in the Auror office, has worked hard to be where she is, and would not be afraid to defend her opinions in debate.
Beyond that, New Zealand may also prove of interest in your thinking – they successfully passed an electoral bill for female suffrage just in September. I know there is not much comparison to be made between the state of their community and ours (magical or muggle), but there may be something of interest in amongst the angles their campaign used, if not in the precedent alone.
Perhaps Mr. Lestrange and the Wizengamot will be inclined to entertain the more ‘moderate’ face of female suffrage, if you can find the right representative for it – some way to link the question of voting reform to increased moderation of character and social morality?
