Shadow of great britain

In the corner cafe, Darwin and Arthur were sitting in the corner talking. In front of them were several textbooks from Darwin's classes at the University of Edinburgh.

Darwin taught him all the pharmacological knowledge he had learned throughout his life, while Arthur listened quietly, occasionally picking up a pen to write down some important knowledge points on the manuscript paper.

Whenever Darwin said something crucial, Arthur would raise his hand and ask a few questions.

"So the most widely used narcotic drug at present is laudanum? And it is very easy to buy?"

"Even if you have a fever, cold, headache or brain fever, will the doctor prescribe this medicine?"

"What? Do you also prescribe this for insomnia?"

"The side effect is that it's easy to become addicted? Well, I know that."

"You will treat patients through bloodletting. I have indeed seen this in the clinic."

"It sounds like sucking blood with leeches is less disgusting to me. At least the patient won't feel any pain."

As time passed, Darwin glanced at the page full of notes recorded by Arthur and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Arthur, I think what I said today should be enough for you to digest for a while."

Arthur nodded, put the notes into his bag, picked up the tea cup and took a sip.

"You've had a hard time today, Charles."

After saying this, Arthur glanced at Elder, who was sitting beside him holding a newspaper and reading in rapt attention.

He asked: "But... Elder, what are you doing here today? Didn't you tell me that you have been working hard on drawing skills every day lately?"

Unexpectedly, Elder was reading the newspaper with great enthusiasm. He waved his hand and said: "Wait until I finish reading this paragraph. I really didn't expect that other newspapers are so good. This kind of street tabloid that sells for one penny has endless content. It has more content than a regular newspaper that sells for fourpence."

When Arthur heard this, he couldn't help but said: "Even if you like reading this kind of newspaper, can you not tell me the selling price in front of me?

Everyone knows that there is a stamp duty of three pence on a newspaper, so anything selling for less than three pence is an illegal publication that has not paid tax.

Elder, I'm still wearing a police uniform right now. Can you at least wait until I take it off? "

But Elder didn't care whether Arthur was wearing a uniform or not. He excitedly took Arthur's arm and pulled him over, and pointed to a passage in the newspaper and said to Arthur.

"Look at this paragraph. It scolds the parliament and says that these donkeys have finally stopped crowing."

Arthur glanced at it and found that most of the contents in the newspaper were about the recent 'Swein Riots' that broke out in rural areas.

Unable to bear the high cost of basic living brought by the Corn Bill, coupled with the agricultural crisis that broke out in recent years, the farm laborers gathered together. Whenever night fell, they would attack the landowners' manor and burn their granaries, causing destruction along the way. Their threshing machine.

This phenomenon is particularly serious in Hampshire, Wiltshire and Kent. In the past few days, there have been several news in the newspapers about landowners and priests being set on fire by angry farmers.

Incidents like this kind of wreaking havoc at night have actually happened many times in the UK, and a standard riot procedure has even been formed, and it is not limited to the agricultural field.

The most famous of these was the Luddite Movement that broke out in 1811.

At that time, socks merchants in Nottinghamshire ignored industry rules and produced a type of inferior stockings, lowering the price of socks and severely impacting the normal income of handmade socks workers.

So some weavers organized secretly, in the name of the fictional "General Luther", to destroy the merchants' stocking machines, destroy their wool and sock factories, and hang them immediately if the factory owners were found.

The fire in Nottingham soon spread across England, and all kinds of riots broke out across the country in just one year.

In order to suppress workers' uprisings, the British authorities even had to recall some of the army troops who were participating in the Napoleonic Wars in the Iberian Peninsula.

At the height of the Luddite Movement, more British troops remained at home to deal with the rebellious workers than to deal with Napoleon.

Afterwards, in order to deal with the Luddite movement, the British government urgently passed two bills, namely the Destruction of Machinery Restricted Damage Act and the Malicious Damage Act of 1812.

But it is obvious that the rioting workers will not care so much.

Because the Luddite movement was almost spontaneously initiated by workers from all over the country and there was no unified organization, the British authorities suppressed it one after another. It continued intermittently until the 1820s, and there were still people named "General Luddite" 'Flags of riot appeared.

Although the Swain riot was not under the banner of "General Ludd" this time, they only changed the banner to "Captain Swain". As for the methods of the riot, of course they were still the same.

However, regarding the 'Swain Riots', the Tory cabinet headed by the Duke of Wellington was unusually quiet, although they still sent military and police to the riot area to restore order.

But at the same time, they also uncharacteristically stated that as long as the situation does not continue to escalate, they will not send army troops to suppress it.

In the next few days, the development of the situation became increasingly magical.

At almost the same time as Swain's riots, Lord Suffield delivered a speech in the House of Lords on the promotion of 'the establishment of a system of allotments'.

He proposed to allocate 50 acres of land as allotments in various parishes across the country and rent them to landless farm laborers at low prices. He emphasized that this would not only effectively reduce the poverty rate and increase the employment rate of agricultural workers, but also ease the relationship between farm laborers and farm laborers. Conflicts among landed farmers.

Indeed, Lord Suffield had made similar suggestions many times before, but only this time it won the approval of the House of Lords.

The Speaker of the House of Lords even spared no words of praise, praising Lord Suffield's idea as an outstanding, excellent and creative proposal.

He also said that although he had heard Mr. Lord mention this proposal many times, he still remembered it fresh every time.

Just eight days after Lord Suffield's speech in the House of Lords, Member of the House of Commons Briscoe also expressed support for Lord Suffield's initiative in the House of Commons and planned to propose a feasible bill on related issues.

For the first time since Arthur came to this country, he felt that the Houses of Lords and Commons of Great Britain were such an actionable institution.

The Tories, which had always been known as conservative, suddenly made a 180-degree turn, which caught the Whigs off guard, who had been eagerly preparing to impeach the cabinet.

With both parties nodding at the same time, the implementation of the land allocation system has almost become an irreversible foregone conclusion.

The only question of the specific promulgation time is the timing of legislation.

This was the first time since the end of the Napoleonic Wars that such a harmonious scene had occurred in the House of Lords and the Lower House.

Elder held his stomach and clapped his hands and laughed. This incident has almost made him laugh today.

"As the newspapers say, the donkeys have stopped braying."

As for Arthur, he touched his chin as if he saw something in it.

Suddenly, he figured out something. Arthur smiled slightly and took the newspaper from Elder's hand.

He murmured: "It seems that sometimes, if the whip is used well, they can still make them pull the millstone."