Shadow of great britain

Elliot may not have taken Arthur's suggestions regarding trade negotiations with China to heart, because in the eyes of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Elliot himself, no one in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland really understood this large Far Eastern country. There are only a handful of people.

Even if there is someone in Britain who really knows China, most of that person has already served on the East India Company's Guangzhou Trade Committee, such as John Davis, the second director of trade with China, and the third director of trade with China that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to appoint. George Robinson.

Among them, John Davis joined the East India Company after graduating from Oxford University. At the age of 18, he served as the secretary of the Board of Directors of the Guangzhou Trade Committee of the East India Company. In 1816, he accompanied Earl Amherst as a consultant and translator. He led a diplomatic mission to pay a visit to the Chinese Emperor.

The most important thing is that in his spare time, John Davis also translated a large number of Chinese literary works out of interest. Seventy or eighty percent of the popular Chinese novels in London are now produced by John Davis. . And in order to show off his status as a "China expert", John Davis also proudly filled in the Chinese name he gave himself in the translator column - Derby Shi.

Because of this, both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Colonial Affairs, and even his old employer, the East India Company, regard John Davis as the British person who knows China best.

As for George Robinson, although he did not understand China as well as Davis, he had served in the management of the East India Company's Canton Trade Commission for more than ten years.

Moreover, Robinson's family background looks very reassuring.

In the British political arena, not everyone likes to struggle around in the Houses of Lords and Lower House, which control the supreme power of the kingdom. With the continuous development of colonies, some families began to turn their attention to a broader overseas world, and the Robinson family was one of them.

Brothers of the Robinson family were widely distributed around the world, including those stationed on the coast of West Africa, others active in the colonial establishment of Western Australia, and others working in the administration of the British Hudson's Bay Company in Canada.

Compared with these two senior colonial officials with endorsements, Arthur Hastings, a name with little influence in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was obviously not enough to influence Elliot's judgment.

Moreover, in the letter sent to Elliot by Viscount Palmerston, there was already an order similar to what Arthur discussed.

Elliot clearly remembered that His Excellency the Viscount's order included:

First, after arriving in China, he was stationed in Guangzhou and tried to maintain friendly relations with the Chinese.

Second, when writing letters to Chinese officials, do not use threatening language to avoid causing offense.

Third, do not request assistance from the Royal Navy unless necessary to avoid causing conflicts.

Fourth, until the form of negotiations is unclear, do not intervene in the opium smuggling trade, which is currently in a gray area, for the time being.

Elliot didn't know whether to share Palmerston's secret letter with Arthur. After all, he had already learned about this secret letter from his friends when he was in Guyana, which had caused a stir in London for a while. Guy.

Although Arthur Hastings had little influence in the Foreign Office, the former Royal Assistant Superintendent of Police seemed to enjoy as high a reputation in Scotland Yard as Nelson did in the Royal Navy.

In short, this guy seems to be quite powerful within the closed system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Well, he is so powerful that those bureaucrats from the Ministry of Internal Affairs are not willing to kick this hot potato to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Elliot was still weighing the matter in his mind, but Count Dalamo had already spoken.

As the Lord Privy Seal who once served in the cabinet, the outspoken and arrogant Earl of Daramo has never bothered to pay attention to these intrigues.

When the Whigs were away from power for more than 30 years, he dared to bang the table with the Tories in Parliament several times and repeatedly demanded parliamentary reform. He led the Association of Friends of the People to investigate the blood relationships and bribery of Tory MPs, and negotiated with Brussels. Lord Doom, Thomas Campbell and others worked hard to establish the University of London.

Now that the Whig Party has regained power and his father-in-law, Earl Gray, has become Prime Minister, Earl Durham has no reason to tolerate those old bureaucrats whom he has long disliked.

Not to mention, Arthur Hastings is a graduate of the University of London, and the first graduate in the history of the university to be knighted. Considering that he is 24 years old, it is even more valuable.

Although he did not want to say it himself, at the cabinet meeting that proposed awarding the miraculously resurrected Arthur a knighthood, Earl Durham, like Lord Brougham and Viscount Melbourne, did not hesitate to vote in support. of one vote.

Count Dalamo raised his eyebrows slightly and asked, "You said that when you were in college, you studied Russian history more deeply?"

Arthur smiled and replied: "I can't go into detail, but I did read more related books, and I even learned a little bit of Russian."

Daramo raised his hand and poured some wine for Arthur: "Why are you interested in Russia?"

Arthur didn't know why Daramo suddenly asked these questions, but when he thought of the political leanings and experiences of the University of London's largest patron, he easily picked a topic that interested him.

“I wasn’t actually interested in Russia at first, but then I accidentally found a novel in a second-hand bookstore, which told the story of a Russian prince named Hvorostinin.

This 17th-century aristocrat was reported to the government for not practicing Orthodox Christianity, hiding Latin books, privately calling the Tsar a tyrant, and he also complained that Moscow was full of stupid people and no one could talk to him. He asked to live in Lithuania, but was rejected and was eventually exiled to a remote monastery in the north for the rest of his life.

It was from here that I started to become interested in Russian related culture. I found that before the 18th century, this country could hardly hold any decent novels or plays. But starting from the 18th century, their literary works suddenly appeared one after another like moss after the rain. This phenomenon attracted my attention, and after I rummaged through historical materials, I finally figured out the reason. "

"Oh?" Count Dalamo asked, "Why is this?"

Arthur held the wine glass and said with a smile: "This is because the emergence of a large number of literary and artistic works has two prerequisites. The first is that there needs to be a group of people who have received a certain education to engage in creation, and the second is that this group must have enough knowledge. Free time. For Russia, most people there are illiterate, and the educated group are generally aristocrats.

But before 1762, Russian nobles had to serve the monarch for at least 25 years. They were usually either fighting or receiving military training. After 1762, due to the promulgation of the "Declaration of Noble Freedom", a large number of nobles were able to retire early. These people have knowledge, money and time, so naturally some of them will put it into literary creation.

And even those who don’t write books will naturally become a group of readers. From a business point of view, it can also be explained that there is a market for reading, so there is naturally a soil for creation. And when Catherine II succeeded to the throne, in order to refute Montesquieu's discussion of Russia that "Russia only has lords and slaves, and no civilian class", he also began to vigorously encourage citizens to write books and read.

She founded Russia's first periodical, Vientiane, which she characterized as a satirical magazine and wrote for it herself. With the empress taking the lead, Russia soon set off a wave of satire writing. Although at the beginning, the quality of these articles was very low, but as time went by, good articles gradually began to appear.

At that time, a nobleman named Novikov also founded a publication called Xiongfeng, and openly expressed his unwillingness to join the army, politics, or serve the government. He also attacked Most of the Russian aristocrats are lazy, like to show off, indifferent to the sufferings of the poor, morally corrupt, pursue fame and fortune, are sycophants, uneducated and despise knowledge.

He almost scolded everyone, and he didn't know if he felt it was not enough. Then he simply attacked Catherine II herself in a roundabout way. The Queen didn't take the attacks seriously at first, but as she was attacked more often, she eventually became angry.

But she did not directly exile the opposition to a bitter cold place like the tsars of the 17th century. Instead, he picked up the pen and started a debate with Novikov on "Everything". She bluntly said that the things Novikov said were not problems unique to Russia, but the weaknesses of human nature. Novikov himself could not do anything and was just a manic troll. "

Everyone present couldn't help laughing when they heard this.

Count Daramo smiled and took a sip of wine. He seemed to recall the past when he had a verbal sparring with other scholars in Parliament in his early years, and even secretly scolded the late King George IV for his incompetence.

Daramo asked: "How did Novikov respond?"

Arthur smiled and replied: "Mr. Novikov's response was very clever. He didn't want to give in, but he couldn't directly insult the monarch, so he questioned the Queen's Russian level in a roundabout way."

As soon as Arthur said this, everyone present laughed.

Everyone knows that although Catherine II is the Empress of Russia, before she married to Russia, she was a German girl. She was the princess of the Anhalt royal family of Prussia.

Moreover, unlike her husband, Peter III, who is a spiritual German, Catherine II herself is quite taboo about others saying that she is German. She prefers to emphasize that she is a Russian daughter-in-law.

Daramo asked: "After Novikov said this, didn't anything happen later?"

Arthur shook his head slightly and said: "That's not true. When I read this paragraph, I even felt that the Russian upper class society during that period seemed to be more relaxed than Britain. Not only was Novikov not retaliated, but he was even more relaxed afterward. He won the respect of the Queen and received a writer's allowance from Russia. As you know in Britain at that time, there were many people who went to jail for criticizing George III."

Earl Dalamo shrugged: "At least not now. This is what I have struggled for so many years."

Arthur smiled and replied: "You are right, Britain had a bad start, but it got better and better later. But unfortunately, the Russians did the opposite. At the end of Catherine's reign, The French Revolution suddenly came, and in her heart, the panic about the revolution quickly overwhelmed the desire for progress. During that time, Britain tightened the censorship of books and newspapers and restricted the freedom of the press. The situation in Russia was obviously worse than ours. Hell, they outright banned many satirical publications and exiled many famous figures.

As I said before, Russians inherently have a sacred feeling for military service, so during the Napoleonic Wars, these measures did not have an overly negative impact due to factors in foreign wars. However, when the Napoleonic Wars ended, the consequences of this quickly became apparent like a volcanic eruption.

Those nobles who were exiled during the war went to France or the German and Italian regions occupied by France, where they were exposed to many new things. You are older than me, so you must know how much impact French ideas had on Britain during the Revolution. These ideas had an even greater impact on Russian literati.

Therefore, when the war ended, these literati returned home one after another. They not only began to seek progress on paper, but also wanted to put it into action. Because of this, they were correctly tuned. During the period when Alexander II died and Nicholas I first came to power, the Decembrist uprising started. In my opinion, this is the cause and effect of the whole thing. "

After listening to Arthur's explanation, Count Daramo looked at Arthur up and down with his eyes, the love and appreciation in his eyes was beyond words.

He stood up and patted Arthur on the shoulder: "Arthur, I never knew that you knew this much about Russia. If I had known that you had this level of knowledge reserve, I should have nominated you to follow I’ll do the Russian thing together, and you should be my secretary.”

Arthur was stunned when he heard this: "Sir, will you go to Russia with me?"

Baoning on the side coughed, leaned down and said in Arthur's ear: "You probably don't know yet, but our former ambassador to Russia stayed for several months without even seeing the Tsar's face."

When Arthur heard this, he frowned and said, "You mean, that Sir Canning's brother?"

Baoning nodded slightly and said: "He often made some unfriendly remarks towards Russia in the country before. As a result, the Tsar found out after he took office, so Nicholas I has been reluctant to see him. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to do this. Consider appointing a new ambassador. When Count Dalamo visited Russia last year, he got along well with the Tsar, so Viscount Palmerston wanted to nominate him as the new ambassador to Russia. "

Count Daramo smiled and winked at Arthur: "Arthur, what do you think? Aren't you complaining that you don't like your job in Hanover? I also think that the second secretary is too low a level for you. Why don't you come directly to St. Petersburg to work as my secretary after you complete the tasks assigned to you by His Majesty the King? I don't dare to mention other positions, but I think I can still decide on my own as a cultural counselor in Russia. ”