Shadow of great britain

Hyde Park today is a little different from the past.

The speakers who had arrived early in the morning looked resentfully at the area under a maple tree, which was a makeshift podium made of more than a dozen wooden boxes.

But even though they were full of complaints, they still had to keep their complaints in their hearts.

Because everyone knows that the speaker visiting Hyde Park today is one of the most influential social activists in Great Britain, the owner of the New Lanark Factory, the founder of the New Harmony Commune, and an advocate of minor education. , an important initiator of the movement to reduce working hours and working days. At the same time, he was also a series of British labor movement leaders and a staunch supporter of parliamentary reform - Mr. Robert Owen.

Although it is still early, today's Speakers' Corner has already gathered an audience of hundreds of people.

The vast majority of the audience were workers from all over London. They held up billboards supporting Irving, shouted their demands under the leadership of union leaders, and spontaneously maintained order at the scene.

The remaining audience included both factory owners and potential parliamentary candidates.

The purpose of the factory owners coming to listen to the speech is to learn from Mr. Owen's factory management experience. After all, everyone knows that the annual output value of Mr. Owen's New Lanark factory has been among the top in the industry for many years.

In this factory with an average working time of only 10 hours, the per worker output is actually higher than that of most factories with an average working time of 15 hours. This phenomenon, which almost goes against the common sense of factory owners, has long been caused by their group. Attention.

And those young people who are interested in running for Congress plan to imitate Irving's speaking skills. After all, these days, it’s not uncommon for a speaker to cause traffic jams in the surrounding area with just one speech.

In various places outside Hyde Park, Scotland Yard police officers were also in place early, keeping a safe distance from the audience so as not to arouse excessive confrontational emotions in them.

The Metropolitan Police Department has always been prepared for this kind of situation. Director Rowan even issued the latest order from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in an earlier regular meeting - the closer the election is, the more cautious we must be in dealing with society like Robert Owen. activist.

Of course, the reason why the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued such an order was not entirely out of public safety considerations. Of course, they also had some selfish motives.

If a mass incident broke out before the election, it would be a burden that the dying Wellington cabinet could not bear.

Therefore, rather than caring about what Robert Owen was going to say, the first task of Arthur, who was on duty in plainclothes, was to maintain order at the scene so that Mr. Owen and the audience could end the speech without incident.

Arthur glanced around, lowered his big-brimmed hat slightly, and asked Tom, who was also in casual clothes next to him, "Have everyone been counted clearly?"

Tom looked a little nervous. He also knew that if his identity was exposed on such a occasion, a beating would be considered a light thing.

He replied in a low voice: "It is similar to our previous estimate. Most of the audience is organized by trade unions. According to the information returned by our informants previously sent to various workers' associations, there are 147 people in the London Textile Workers Association, London Dock There are 112 people in the Workers' Association, 133 in the London Construction Workers' Federation, and there are also some scattered small associations with a total size of about 300 people. Most of the others are just temporary people who come to join in the fun. They should not be able to start. What a big wave."

Arthur nodded slightly: "Keep an eye on several major associations. After all, no one knows if any of them have been bribed by the Whig Party and come here specifically to cause trouble. But according to the temper of the Whig Party, they probably will not send anyone to Mr. Owen's speech. On-site. After all, most of the factory owners are on their side, and Mr. Irving’s proposition is there, and the two must not be able to reach an agreement.”

As soon as Arthur said this, he heard a sudden burst of thunderous applause from around him. Everyone was working hard and blushing, as if they didn't care if they broke their hands.

"Good morning, friends of the public!"

A middle-aged and elderly gentleman with gray hair wearing a black suit and coat stood on the podium.

His eyes swept across the audience, and he spoke enthusiastically: "I'm glad to see our workers here, and I'm also glad to see all the factory owners who have provided countless jobs for the society. Again, if you want To learn from my factory management experience, remember the following sentence.

I believe that everyone has realized the benefits of machines with solid structure, exquisite design and perfect manufacture in the long-term production and operation process. If we say that good maintenance of inanimate machines can improve production efficiency. So, if you use the same energy to care about living workers, whose structures are far more wonderful than machines, is there anything you can't accomplish?

Shorten working hours, build spacious dormitories, green the factory environment, and establish some amateur clubs for workers. In addition, remember not to employ young children, but to give them appropriate skills education. If they get a good education, are you still worried about not having enough high-level skilled workers to hire in the future? "

As soon as Irving finished speaking, there was another burst of cheers from the audience.

Owen raised his arms and shouted: "I am not here today to satisfy boring and useless vanity. I am here to complete a solemn and extremely important task. What I value is not to win over everyone. favorability and future fame.

The only motive that governs my actions is the desire to see you and all my fellow countrymen everywhere actually enjoying the extremely abundant happiness that nature has given us. This is my lifelong wish that I will never change until my death.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland now suffers from greater misery, poverty and misery than it has ever actually suffered in many centuries before!

Never before in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland were so innumerable conditions available to relieve the whole people from such misery, degradation, and danger!

From 1781 to 1830, my country's cotton consumption in the textile industry increased 50 times.

In 1820, my country's pig iron production accounted for 40% of the world's total, and its coal production accounted for 75%. However, have the rapidly soaring economic data benefited our British public?

The authorities in our country have yet to come up with any reasonable method to provide once and for all relief to the tens of thousands of people struggling in poverty.

These rulers failed to use the power at hand and practical knowledge to arrange the country's abundant conditions and free the people from ignorance and evil, both of which are the sources of all existing evils.

I often say that a country can never be prosperous and powerful if it supports a large portion of the working class to live in idle poverty or engage in meaningless work.

A country in which taverns abound, and where the temptations of public gambling are readily available, are bound to become imbecile and useless, or to commit evil, crime, and harm to others.

In this way, coercive means must be used and severe, cruel and unfair punishments must be used, and then the people will have dissatisfaction, resentment and various resistance emotions towards those in power.

If the government allows and condones the existence of all incentives for bad habits, bad things, and criminal behaviors, and then talks about religion, improving the living conditions of the poor and working class, and improving their morals, then it is simply mocking people for their lack of common sense. .

Such actions and remarks are the most boring and stupid way to deceive the public. The public is no longer deceived by these words and actions, and no one will be deceived by such flawed and meaningless nonsense in the future.

If you allow such conditions to persist and hope for the country to progress, it would be as foolish and visionary as seeing the rivers in the world running toward the ocean day and night and waiting for the ocean to dry up!

It's time for a change, we've had enough of the corrupt politics in the constituency, the vote-buying efforts of MPs, and their backroom dealings!

If they don’t give us professional skills education to ban child labor and underage children, we will elect our own members to fight for it!

If they don't give us normal rest days and a maximum working time of ten hours, we will elect our own members to fight for it!

If they don't give us unemployment benefits and a reasonable wage payment mechanism, we will elect our own members to fight for it! "

When Owen shouted here, he heard a voice from somewhere: "Down with Wellington! Overthrow the Tories!"

This roar instantly ignited the emotions of the workers present. They held slogans high and repeated the slogans just now with righteous indignation.

“Down with Wellington, overthrow the Tories!!!”

I don't know who took the lead. The enthusiastic audience poured out of Hyde Park one after another. When the Scotland Yard police officers saw this, they were also shocked.

They quickly took out the civilized weapons from their waists and subconsciously wanted to take action, but when they recalled the order from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they finally suppressed the urge to take action.

Under the urgent command of two Scotland Yard police inspectors, police officers followed closely on both sides of the crowd in small groups.

Arthur looked up at the direction where the out-of-control crowd was leaving, and couldn't help but slap his forehead: "Damn it! Are they really planning to trouble the Duke of Wellington?"