Shadow of great britain

The wild boar is cornered and will turn around and charge at the hunter. If the sovereignty you want is incompatible with their freedom, where will they go? They will throw your sovereignty in your face!

——Edmund Burke

In Fleet Street, next to the editorial office of The British, there is such an airtight little cubicle.

There were no windows on all sides and no fireplace for heating. There was only a dim kerosene lamp placed on the old desk for lighting.

If it is the first time a guest comes to this place, he will probably think that this is a utility room used to store useless items.

And judging from the furnishings here, it does look like that.

There are piles of old books everywhere, an old piano that I don’t know where to buy is sitting idle in the corner, and on top of the piano stand is a violin from Wheatstone Musical Instruments.

Arranged one after another beside the yellowed and peeling paint walls, are the dusty iron cabinets one after another.

There were big brass locks hanging on the cabinets, as if there were some dirty secrets stored inside.

However, such an uninteresting room is actually Arthur's exclusive office in the editorial department.

At the same time, this is also the general liaison office of the London Police Intelligence Bureau designated by Superintendent Hastings.

As for why it is placed in such a place, it is because in Arthur's view, Fleet Street is the center of London's press and has a siphon effect on all kinds of news from all over the world.

Moreover, Fleet Street news usually has no clear direction, which means that their news covers all aspects of British social life.

And this is what the Police Intelligence Bureau is most concerned about. As a warm-hearted government agency, the Police Intelligence Bureau under Arthur's leadership is very eager to understand every bit of the lives of the British people.

Of course, things are also divided into priorities, and Arthur is obviously more concerned about intelligence from high-ranking people.

They never imagined that the institution they had approved and approved would one day spy on them.

However, the establishment of the Police Intelligence Bureau cannot be said to be entirely due to negligence on the part of the MPs. After all, they are far less experienced than the French in this area, and they did not even have a deep understanding of what the French Ambassador, Mr. Talleyrand, said at the Olmark Club reception last month. A joke.

——The bayonet can indeed do many things, but it is not easy to rely on it safely.

At that time, everyone thought Talleyrand was talking about his old boss Napoleon.

Only a few people noticed the slight change in the expressions of some people present after hearing this sentence.

Fortunately, Mr. Hastings, a pianist who was invited to play piano music on the stage at that time, was one of them.

He clearly remembered that the expressions of the people whose expressions changed slightly at that time were:

Viscount Palmerston, the foreign secretary who switched from the Tories to the Whigs,

Viscount Goderich, the former Prime Minister and current Secretary of State for War and Colonial Affairs, who has the same experience as Palmerston,

As well as the two Excellencies responsible for drafting the "Parliamentary Reform Bill" - Lord Russell, Comptroller of the Royal Navy, and Sir John Rampton, son-in-law of the Prime Minister Earl Grey, Lord Privy Seal, and known as "Radical Jack".

A few years ago, Arthur would never have associated these four gentlemen together, let alone thought that the four of them would have any common interests.

As early as 1827, the Tories split into four camps because of the Catholic Emancipation Act.

The most radical Canning faction advocated passing the bill, and even turned their guns and joined forces with the Whigs.

The moderates such as Viscount Goderich expressed their willingness to support the reform because they had a good relationship with Sir Canning.

The conservatives led by the Duke of Wellington and Sir Peel opposed the passage of the bill.

As for the extremists led by Sir Crocker and Earl Eldon, they opposed all liberal reforms.

However, when Sir Canning died during his tenure as prime minister, Viscount Goderich repeatedly failed to form a government. Finally, the king appointed the conservative representative Duke of Wellington to form a government.

However, after the Duke of Wellington came to power, the subsequent development of events changed dramatically.

After careful consideration, the Duke of Wellington decided to persuade his faction to change their position, and forced the passage of the Catholic Emancipation Act in the head of the extremists in the party and the king.

But not only did this fail to heal the divisions within the Tory Party, it actually alienated the extremists from the Tory Party. The moderates and Cannings who had previously supported Catholic emancipation actually joined the Whigs under the leadership of Viscount Goderich. The embrace of the party.

In this regard, Viscount Goderich's personal statement is that he supports Catholic emancipation, but at the same time, he is also a loyal supporter of parliamentary reform, so he is dissatisfied that Wellington has been resting on the credit book of religious emancipation. express dissatisfaction.

But having said that, in Arthur's opinion, Viscount Godrich's words were half spoken and half hidden.

Goderich only served as prime minister for 144 days before he was replaced by the Duke of Wellington. If the previous prime minister, Sir Canning, had not died of illness just after 100 days as prime minister, Viscount Goderich would have almost become Britain's fastest man.

This will definitely cause him some dissatisfaction.

As for Viscount Palmerston, his situation is even simpler.

He would not get the slightest chance under the Duke of Wellington, because he was promoted by Sir Canning himself. In the early years, he basically served as Canning's mouthpiece in Parliament, and the Duke of Wellington had a strong influence on Canning. Sir Ning's disgust is almost universally known.

Therefore, when Palmerston keenly sensed that Wellington's cabinet was doomed, he decisively threw himself into the arms of Earl Grey. Even before quitting the party, he did not forget to win the support of a wave of Anglican Christians. He claimed that the reason why he quit the Tory Party was because he felt that the sacred status of the Anglican Church was threatened.

Having spoken of the two Tory Lords, it was the turn of the two Whig Radicals.

Lord Russell came from the glorious Duke of Bedford family, and his character was almost identical to that of his ancestors.

Even the maid in His Lordship's house would tease her privately: "The Russells are some very weird people."

Like other members of the family and many aristocratic young men in Britain, Russell was synonymous with arrogance and pretentiousness.

The blood flowing in his bones is rebellion. Even though he is a noble, this does not affect his rebellious spirit at all.

After all, the Duke of Bedford had personally planned a rebellion against the king hundreds of years ago. His ancestor, William Russell, was killed in 1683 after the secret plan to assassinate Charles II and his brother James at Rye House was exposed. Executed for treason.

However, Russell did not think this was a shameful thing. Not only was it not shameful, he also felt it was an honor. He even personally published a biography about the ancestor and wrote a book about the assassination.

However, Arthur was not very interested in this assassination, because Lord Russell's story-telling skills were so poor that a young man like Disraeli, who had just been elected, unscrupulously took Russell's works to speak in Parliament. He lashed out.

Disraeli bluntly ridiculed Russell's play "Don Carlos" and novel "Sister Alonka": "Even if you ignore the plot, from a textual point of view, these two works are Chinese literature. The greatest tragedy in history.”

However, although Lord Russell often shows timidity, his greatest skill is to ignore criticism when he overturns, pretending to be calm and shamelessly continue talking.

However, Arthur was not concerned about Lord Russell's performance in Parliament. He was most interested in the story of Lord Russell's early pursuit of Lady Cowper, the sister of Viscount Melbourne, and her ruthless rejection.

All in all, this is an outstanding person, but it must also be noted that this person's mental state is as short as his stature.

He has a bad temper, is a bit withdrawn in the crowd, and does not try to hide his malice towards those he hates. Although he is a radical liberal, he has the arrogance of an old aristocrat in his heart, so much so that he has never bothered to appease his followers, even if it is just a simple hat-off.

In terms of interpersonal relationships, he is far less popular than Viscount Palmerston, who can change his stance freely.

As for the Prime Minister's son-in-law, Lord Rampton, in a sense, he is almost modeled after Lord Russell.

There are several such guys in this Whig cabinet, such as Arthur's mentor Lord Brougham and Lord of the Admiralty Sir James Graham.

Perhaps the Whigs pushed them forward because they originally hoped that these guys with stormtrooper attributes would force the passage of the reform bill with a win-or-win mentality.

However, is this really the case?

Arthur raised his hand and gently placed the phonograph needle on the record just sent from Fiona.

Accompanied by a rustling sound, what followed was the passionate collision of male and female love.

Arthur poured a cup of boiling water and threw an Earl Gray tea bag into the cup.

As the reddish color slowly dissolved in the cup, the Adam's apple slowly moved, and with two beeps, the record finally reached the position that Arthur wanted to hear.

"Honey, you're... awesome."

"Haha, I never like to boast about myself. But I have to admit that this is not the first time I have heard such compliments. Almost every lovely lady has been like this after feeling my power. commented."

"So, when will you come next time? To be honest, I only have this thought about you. The other guests can't make me think about it so much."

"Sigh... I would like to stay here every day, but people always have to work. The atmosphere in the regiment is not quite right recently. It is said that the disarmament may fall on us. I had a hard time asking someone to do it before He helped me get my current position, but after just a few months, he asked me to retire. This is a joke!"

"Retired? My dear, aren't you an officer? I see that the top soldiers call you major. Will a major also be asked to retire?"

"Madam, you may be proficient in tailoring, but things in the army are completely different from those. Although there are not too many majors in Britain, compared to the size of our current army, they are still excessive."

"That is to say...there is also a major who does not lead troops?"

"Oh, ma'am, that's very mean of you to say that. It's okay for you to say that, but in the military we usually call them reservists."

"Is there any difference between reserve duty and active duty?"

"Of course there are differences. First of all, the salaries we receive are different. Reserves are basically not paid, while active-duty officers are paid monthly by the Ministry of War. In addition, if we want to do If you want to order anything, you can ask your subordinates to help with running errands. And for officers like us who are stationed in the mainland, the training is not particularly tight. Apart from going to the station to show up every day, most of the time can be freely used. "

"Hmm... It sounds like being retired is quite miserable. But for a talented person like you, even if he is transferred to the reserve army, I believe he will be reactivated soon. You don't need to worry so much."

"This is just a woman's opinion. I heard my uncle say that if an active-duty officer is ordered to retire this time, it will not be transferred to the reserve, but actually retired. From now on, he will basically be separated from the army. Because of the relationship, I can only withdraw a small portion of my pitiful retirement annuity every year. Do you know what this means? It means that I can’t even get my fucking capital back!”

"I heard that officers' retirement pensions are not very high. Everyone knows that when the Duke of Wellington returned from Waterloo, His Majesty the King rewarded him with a one-time reward of one hundred thousand pounds!"

"You also know that is the Duke of Wellington. He came out of the Peninsular War and Waterloo. An officer like me who has never fought in a war cannot compare with the treatment of His Excellency the Duke. Of course, this is just me. It’s just that I haven’t met the opportunity. If they send me to Waterloo, even if I can’t be as powerful as His Excellency the Duke, at least I can make the contribution of the Marquis of Anglesey under his command.

Sigh... But having said all that, I still have to go back to the starting point. My uncle said that if the knife hits my head this time, he will find a way to get me to serve in India, because this disarmament is only for local troops. If I go to the colonies, they have no reason to talk over my head. "

"But then I won't be able to see you? My dear, can't you find a way to stay in London?"

"Little beauty, why don't I miss you? But there are some things that I can't have the final say on. I have to obey the arrangements from above."

"Why are they doing this? Wouldn't it be better to station more troops in London? Many of our guests here are soldiers. If you all leave, it will be difficult for us to do business."

"It would be nice if the Whigs thought that way, but they don't. You like soldiers, and the Whigs are afraid of soldiers."

"Why are they afraid of soldiers?"

"Hmph...because they are afraid that we will put a saber on their necks one day. Other than that, I can't find any other reasonable explanation."

swish swish...

The gramophone played here, and the sound suddenly stopped.

Arthur picked up the record and stood up, glanced at the note attached to it, and smiled softly: "It's interesting."