Shadow of great britain

Chapter 316 The Story of Sir Isaac Newton

Chancery Court, Chancery Lane, Bloomsbury, London.

Side by side, Arthur and Director Rowan jumped over the marble in front of the court and walked down the steps step by step.

Compared to when they first arrived, they had several more documents in their hands.

That was a new resolution made at a joint meeting just held by the Chancery Hall, the Admiralty, the Ministry of the Interior, the General Post Office and the General Administration of Customs.

According to the results of consultations between the Royal Council, the Privy Council and the Cabinet this morning, King William IV, together with all members of the Privy Council, formally signed the Imperial Seal authorizing Lord Brougham, the Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom, to supervise this country as the highest supervisor of the national health field. National prevention and control of sub-cholera epidemics.

Other government departments and all committees of the Privy Council and House of Lords, including No. 10 Downing Street, will follow the advice of the Chancery.

Although Arthur had long known that the power of the chief justice in the 19th century was far greater than that of the attorney general in the 21st century, when he heard the decision at the meeting, he couldn't help but feel shocked that his "mentor" held it tightly in his hand. Shocked by the energy.

Administratively, the Lord Chancellor originally controlled the promotion channels for judges in Britain's public security, criminal, civil, equity and other courts, and had the power to decide which lawyers could be promoted to the Queen's Counsel.

In royal matters, he served as Lord Chancellor of the Royal Seal and Royal Legal Advisor in the inner court of the royal family.

In politics, the Lord Chancellor himself is the unshakable Chief Commissioner of the House of Lords and Speaker of the House of Lords.

Judicially, he is a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the House of Lords and the final judge of the committee. He is also the only person in the country with the power to convict nobles of treason.

In terms of religious affairs, since the chief justices were served by archbishops and even cardinals appointed by the pope before Henry VIII promulgated the "Act of Supremacy" in the 16th century, the chief justices have basically retained their religious functions to this day. .

Not only was he responsible for overseeing all property of the Church of England, but by custom, even judges appointed to the Inquisition in the territories of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York had to consult the Chancellor first.

As for the so-called supervisors in the medical and health field, Arthur had previously regarded this power as an insignificant red cherry on the cake of the justice.

Because in day-to-day work, there is no unified public health department in Britain, so power in this area has always been scattered among various government departments and local parish councils.

In ordinary times, no one pays much attention to this aspect.

The justice has too much power, and public health is not his first priority anyway.

From the perspective of local parishes, the so-called public health means that they decide which sanitation company to hire to clean up and dispose of garbage.

For Scotland Yard, public health is about catching counterfeit medicines. In addition, Arthur and the others also have to ensure that drunkards cannot defecate in front of others, because this is the exclusive right of pregnant women.

Scotland Yard wants to expand its power every day, but the drunkards can't.

But even though that's what they say, it's just wishful thinking on the part of the police officers.

What is clear is that their efforts in this area never worked.

Just like what Mr. Dick Whittington, who rose from a poor orphan to the mayor of London in the British legend, said when he first came to London: I thought the streets in London were paved with gold. Come to think of it, it's actually human excrement.

If Mr. Whittington is lucky enough to live into the 19th century, he will definitely find that London still looks authentically like the 14th century.

There is not only 'human gold' but also 'human mercury' on the streets of London.

If we insist on saying that these 'gold' and 'mercury' have made any progress compared to before, it is that the heavy metal elements contained in these excrements are indeed much higher than those in the 14th century.

In this regard, outstanding inventions by unscrupulous businessmen such as arsenic-containing cosmetics and copper-containing fake tea have made significant contributions.

Luo Wan walked all the way down the steps. When he saw that Arthur was silent, he took the initiative to start the conversation: "The face is as dead as water and the expression is solemn, but I understand that the job assigned to us by the Chancery Hall is indeed difficult to do. Light. It is already dangerous and offensive enough to seal off the epidemic area. Now we have to cooperate with the General Administration of Customs and the Navy to crack down on smuggling and prevent the continued importation of cases from other areas. Arthur, others can handle the previous matter, but The last one is up to you."

After Rowan said this, he stopped in front of a restaurant, leaned against the wall and lit his pipe, and then threw the iron box containing the tobacco to Arthur.

Arthur was not polite. He took some tobacco and lit it and said: "There is nothing we can do about it. However, the decision of the Chancery and the Admiralty still surprised me. How on earth did they come up with the idea of ​​transferring people from Scotland Yard to Liverpool?" Checking for smuggling?"

Luo Wan took a puff of his cigarette. He raised his hand to brush off the dust on Arthur's shoulder straps and said, "They should think that there is a mole in the local anti-smuggling officer in Liverpool. But that is indeed the case. After all, if smuggling is a serious matter, Without someone to support them, they would never be able to do it.

Moreover, the outbreak in Liverpool is not as clear as that in Sunderland. They can't even find the source. This can be explained from the perspective of miasma theory. But if you look at it from the perspective of contagion theory, this doesn't make sense anyway. Anyway, you try your best to check first. If you find out clearly, of course everyone will be happy. But if the investigation is unclear, or the idea is too hard, you will blame it on the miasma.

All in all, it's best for you to make a quick decision this time when you go to Liverpool. After all, that's not our jurisdiction. London needs you just as much as Liverpool. "

Although Luo Wan had thought clearly about how to deal with various consequences early on, it was obviously impossible for Arthur to go on vacation to a hard-hit area like Liverpool.

Moreover, within the scope of his knowledge, it was definitely not miasma that caused cholera, there must be someone behind it.

Arthur said: "In other times, it would not be so easy for us to touch these smugglers. I heard a friend of mine who served in the Royal Navy say that when tea was smuggled in the past, these smugglers usually The distribution centers will be located in Ostend, Belgium or Nantes, France. Before heading to the British mainland, they will first use large ships to transit in Jersey and Guernsey, and then divide them into several batches. At night, they used a small smuggling boat called a 'quick crab' to transport them to their lair in a cliff cave on the seaside."

Luo Wan couldn't help laughing when he heard this: "I didn't expect that a young man like you would understand this kind of thing. You have caught up with the good times. Although the smuggling phenomenon still exists now, it is not as rampant as before. I When I was young, almost every household drank smuggled tea. I thought that was the limit, but my father said it was even more exaggerated than that when he was young.

When he was a young man, tea was available on the market for 5 shillings per pound, of which 4 shillings and 9 pence were import duties. And the same tea, if you buy it from a smuggler, only costs 2 shillings. And if you buy it in the Netherlands, it's only 6p. Tsk tsk... But no matter how expensive tea is, we Britons still have to drink it, right? No matter you are poor or rich, you cannot escape from having two teas a day.

I bet you that the whole of Europe imports so much tea every year not because they like to drink tea, but because they keep the tea to smuggle it to us. This can be seen from the fact that William Pitt the Younger lowered the tariff on tea. As a result, our annual tea tax revenue increased instead of falling. Can you imagine? The tax rate was reduced from 119% to 12.5%, but the tax rate increased. This shows that at least 90% of people drank smuggled goods in the past. "

Arthur asked: "Although the profits from smuggling tea are not as high as before, there are still people doing this job. And judging from the situation at the West India dock, the profits from smuggling wool, raw silk, tobacco and spirits are also very high." considerable."

Rowan patted Arthur's chest with the back of his hand: "Arthur, I know you are a college student and you are civilized. But when you go to Liverpool this time, you must not show mercy when you should do it. The smugglers are as brutal as The greed is far beyond that of ordinary murderers. Everything they do is worthy of the gallows. When we were at war with the French and when the two sides imposed an embargo on each other, they smuggled clothing and firearms to France, and from French smuggled brandy and tea back. They do this all the time, so if you find something is wrong, don't hesitate to take action."

Arthur asked: "Sir, I heard you say that, has anyone hesitated before?"

Rowan took a puff of cigarette: "It's not a hesitation, do you know the Hawkhurst gang?"

Arthur shook his head: "I haven't heard of it. There shouldn't be such a group in London, or in other words, their scale is not big enough for Scotland Yard to send undercover agents."

Rowan waved his hand: "They are not a smuggling gang in London, and they have been active for many years. Let's put it this way, they were active when my father was young, and he was lucky enough to meet these bastards.

At that time, the Royal Navy seized one of their smuggling ships on the high seas. As a result, the next day, more than 200 bandits on horseback came to the port. Each of them had two carbines and scimitars in their waistbands. They rode into the town unscrupulously in broad daylight, intending to seize back their multi-masted smuggling ship filled with tea and spirits.

Not only that, they also swore and threatened to kill the customs collectors, to shoot their heads through, and to burn their customs offices. But fortunately, reinforcements from the Royal Navy arrived in time and the gangsters were prevented from succeeding. Just when everyone thought it was over, guess what happened?

Within a few days, an official from the Customs Service suddenly disappeared and was eventually found buried alive in an inn outside Rowlands Castle. Another shoemaker who reported to the Royal Navy had his nose cut off, was stoned to death and thrown into a well. This is the way the Hawkhurst gang works. What these sons of bitches do is provoke the government, and they keep telling the local civilians that there will be no good consequences for going against them. "

When Arthur heard this, he just laughed softly: "Sir, if you say that, I will understand. If these guys are really like what you said, then I don't mind learning from Isaac's past What Sir Newton did at the mint."

"Sir Isaac..."

Rowan heard Arthur mention Newton and roughly understood what he was talking about.

It is true that Newton did many earth-shattering things in his life, but as the top officer of Scotland Yard, the one that Rowan remembers most clearly is Newton's case against counterfeit money dealers.

When Newton was the director of the Royal Mint, counterfeit currency was rampant in the United Kingdom, and coins circulating on the market were often short of half a pound. In order to solve this problem, Newton directly took over the task of recasting currency.

The president of the Royal Society reminted 7 million pounds of coins in one year, more than the mint had done in the previous thirty years combined.

In order to completely solve the problem of counterfeit currency, Newton personally launched an investigation to arrest the counterfeiting gang.

For this reason, William Challoner, the largest counterfeit currency dealer in London at the time, started a direct fight with Newton. Challoner relied on people behind him to repeatedly escape from the court, but Lord Niu could not bear this anger.

During the day, he haunted dirty hotels and slums to spy on intelligence, bribed informants in dark corners, and even went to work as an undercover agent himself to collect their fabricated evidence.

And in the evening, Lord Niu didn't forget to arrange tiger stools and chili pepper water, and worked overtime to 'greet' the caught counterfeit money dealers, and by the way, treat them to a taste of Britain's special delicacy - water-dipped leather whip.

In this way, Newton finally relied on a perfect and impeccable chain of evidence, adhering to the attitude that all evil will eventually be brought to justice, and refuted Chaloner in court without saying anything.

In the end, Challoner was punished to a degree that satisfied Newton, because Mr. Challoner would use a rope and his own neck to help him verify gravity.

Of course, what made Newton even more happy was that more than twenty counterfeit currency dealers were also prosecuted together with Challoner to verify gravity at Tyburn execution ground.

Luo Wan couldn't help but shudder when he thought of this.

He suddenly felt that he might have thought too much about intellectuals in the past, and that he had forgotten that there were people like Sir Isaac Newton in the world.

He thought about it carefully, and then he realized that no one who opposed Newton seemed to have a good death.

Once he figured out the crux, Luo Wan put down the last stone in his heart. He took off his pipe and blew out a cloud of smoke: "It seems you can handle this matter well."

Arthur just smiled: "Of course, sir. I remember that smugglers do not seem to be subject to common law. They are under the jurisdiction of the Admiralty Court under the Royal Navy. There is no jury, and the sentences will not be light based on the principles of case law. The judges have learned It’s not the case law system of the Bar Association, but Roman law experts who all graduated from theological schools of various church universities. And, most importantly, I remember that the smuggled goods confiscated by the Admiralty Court seem to be turned over directly to the Admiralty, right?”

Director Luo Wan heard this and took a long drag on his cigarette: "I used to be a little worried about you, but now I'm starting to worry about those smugglers."

Arthur smiled: "Why?"

Luo Wan glanced at his arm, and then at the degree certificate that Arthur held in his hand that had just been sent from the University of London. He just shook his head and said: "Those smugglers, whether they are literary people or Those who play martial arts, they can't beat you."

"Sir, you are serious." Arthur asked: "But before that, I have one more request. I want to take a few people with me on this trip to Liverpool. I can't handle the case alone."

Rowan replied: "You can pick any of the people in Scotland Yard who can breathe, below the level of superintendent."

"Sir, that's not what I meant." Arthur said: "I need a sharpshooter to solve physics problems, a beautifully written clerk to commend Scotland Yard's achievements, a well-trained detective to investigate the case, and finally, if something goes wrong, It’s all over, I still need a guy whose identity is difficult to deal with to block the knife for us.”

Rowan nodded slightly: "I know the last two, Sergeant Charles Field and Officer Louis Bonaparte. But who are the first two you mentioned?"

"The first two guys are now in isolation in the hospital." Arthur said: "So sir, I need you to approve a document so that I can get them out of there. At my level, I don’t have such authority at the moment.”

When Rowan heard this, he clicked his pipe against the window sill, then took out the pen directly from his pocket, wrote a note to Arthur and handed it over.

"Go to Liverpool with two guys who might have cholera, as long as you're not afraid of death."

There are still today