"I understand the president to dislike any proposals which view the estates differently, though of course this is not decisive, given the rule on committee membership requiring that no estate be left out." He has noticed how many of the people he has influence with are nobles, even if many of them are 'elected' in the eyes of the convention.

"I agree it would be a simple and understandable matter to order topics by a vote which could be held the previous day. But this assumes multiple provisions are already hitting the floor on the same day, and we must decide which happens first, and I imagine the most useful and formidable powers of this committee will be in choosing which day a proposal is to be considered on, and which amendments will be valid for that proposal or must be separate bills. I do not yet see a mechanistic way to prevent amendments from being added to bills without it being a vote on the amendment itself, or to delay a previously submitted bill to allow it consideration against a rival proposal submitted later, which we will need to truly put racing to bed."

"I agree that the scheduling committee will have to have the authority to decide those things, and cannot imagine any mechanistic guideline - other than banning amendments without the approval of the proposer - which would remove the significance of their judgment in that matter. Which means the committee has to be made up of men who we believe are sober, have good judgment, and can decide fairly and in the service of Cheliax. 

The archdukes are the men already chosen by the Queen for those qualities."

Hmm. It really is the simplest of the solutions before them; it just has the problem that the Hellcoast is vacant, Longmarch is as good as vacant, and Ravounel is often 'indisposed'. Sirmium's taste is questionable, Menador has outsourced all judgment to the church, and Molthune might well be the church soon enough. The Heartlands seems to be wise enough, so far, if not as ready for rulership as he would like.

"I note that the responsibilities of the archdukes, and thus the trust extended them by the Queen, vary significantly. Perhaps we should weight the strength of their votes by the number of counties they represent, and only require more votes in favor than opposed?"

Around a third of Cheliax's counties are in the Heartlands; it doesn't quite give him the ability to dictate things, but Blanxart would only need one other archduke to agree with him to settle any question in the committee, if Shawil isn't present. He is currently staying at Carlota's mansion, so this is less independence than he would like, but still seems less partial than other ways they could settle it.

Carlota doesn't particularly mind that because she trusts Blanxart and would be delighted for the principle of influence based on population density to be introduced, but she's not sure it'll pass the floor. She looks around the room to see what everyone else thinks of it. "I'd be perfectly happy with that, but I wonder, would our committee trust such a framework for rules and oversight of the convention?"

He’d be a lot happier about it if Blanxart hadn’t been so cravenly dishonorable about Voshrelka.