Shadow of great britain

Whoever will eventually shock the world with his voice will remain silent for a long time. Whoever will finally ignite the lightning will be as long as the clouds wandering. My time has not yet come, some people are born after death.

——Friedrich Nietzsche

When doubts are pressing in their hearts, everyone thinks this is a big problem.

But when someone pierces the window paper, these big problems seem to become insignificant.

Not only was Arthur not as angry as they imagined, he didn't even defend his actions. He just took off his white gloves and threw them on the table lightly: "Giuseppe, thank you for asking me this question. In fact, I have been I wanted to find a chance to answer, but Alexander never gave me a chance. If he didn’t ask, I couldn’t answer. The end result was that we both looked like thieves.”

"So...you really killed a lot of people?"

Arthur clapped his fingers and replied slowly: "If you insist on counting the hanging on my head, plus the deaths and injuries under the Tower of London, there should be thirty-one people who died under my hands last year. As for the injured , that’s a lot, and there’s no way to make detailed statistics, because I directed many suppressive operations in May and June last year.”

If Garibaldi had heard for the first time that someone had killed 31 liberal demonstrators, he would have been filled with rage, but after comparing it with the newspaper headlines, especially what happened in Paris last year, he suddenly I think this number is acceptable.

But less murder did not mean less brutality, and Garibaldi quickly shifted the focus to the crackdowns that left many injured.

This was not only to satisfy curiosity, but also because they had suffered a loss at the hands of the Italian police not long ago, so Garibaldi was eager to understand how the police usually worked.

"How do you usually do this? First put people into the venue, and then block all the ways into the venue, trying to catch turtles in an urn?"

When Arthur heard Garibaldi's conjecture, the old policeman leaned on the wardrobe and shook his head: "Giuseppe, you are talking about a war of annihilation on the battlefield, not a police suppression operation. If the police commander under me is like this Go ahead, I will definitely remove him from his post and ask him to pack up and get out immediately, because the goal of our operation is to solve potential riots, not to create them.”

At this point, Xu felt tired from standing. He pulled away the chair, took out his blue wallet from his arms, took out two talers and flicked them to Dumas with his fingernails: "Alexander, could you please run for a while?" Go downstairs and order two bottles of wine and get some side dishes to go with the wine. There are a lot of people here who want to hear stories."

Unexpectedly, Dumas picked up Taller but refused to go downstairs: "I want to hear it too."

"Then you can run faster."

Seeing this, Nuli took the silver coin from Alexandre Dumas' hand and said, "Let me run errands for you."

When Arthur saw Nouri going out, he turned to look at Garibaldi, who was eager to listen to the story. He said, "Giuseppe, in this regard, you are far less alert than Mr. Nouri."

"Huh?" Garibaldi thought Arthur was blaming him for not being diligent: "I was going to go just now, but Mr. Nouri spoke before me. And ordering food is not a physical job. If it is I definitely can’t let him do it alone when loading and unloading cargo at the dock.”

"That's not what I said." Arthur said: "Mr. Nooley does not believe me, and he is also suspicious of Alexander, who is my friend. He is worried that I asked Alexander to order food to tip off the news. So he would rather work himself out than let Alexander leave the room."

"Is this...so important?" Garibaldi scratched the back of his head: "Mr. Dumas participated in the July Revolution."

Arthur raised his brows and poured himself a glass of water: "Napoleon also participated in the French Revolution. It is human nature to judge a person's possible actions based on his past experiences. However, in the face of a life-and-death situation, It’s also very dangerous to apply this thinking pattern when it comes to questions.”

"Arthur!" Alexandre Dumas slapped the table: "I am not Napoleon! Although I know his nephew, it does not mean that I am a Bonapartist."

"Don't be angry, Alexander." Arthur took a sip of tea and said, "I'm just giving you an example."

"That's right." Heine interrupted abruptly: "Napoleon is not that easy to be a leader."

Alexandre Dumas glared at him when he heard this, then turned to Arthur and said, "You'd better tell your story first."

Arthur was always happy to comply with the requests of his friends, and since everyone wanted to hear Scotland Yard's Police Operations Manual so badly, he didn't mind leaking it.

"Of all the repressive actions I have experienced, the protest rally held in the Strand was the largest. According to the intelligence we received in advance, eight thousand protestors would be present that day. From the perspective of the police Observation, based on past historical experience, if such a large-scale protest rally is allowed to be held, if there is even the slightest spark, the protest may turn into a riot.

So I took the initiative at a senior police meeting at Scotland Yard that all means should be used to break up the gathering. In order to reduce the number of attendees, I first went to see Mr. Francis Price, the leader of the Radicals, who was an admirer of Mr. Bentham and with whom I had developed a somewhat personal relationship in college.

I offered Mr. Price an appropriate quid pro quo. I told him that as long as he did not take his supporters to the rally on the Strand and they held protest rallies elsewhere, we would never object, and We will also ensure their personal safety during the rally. Mr. Price graciously accepted my request, and the number of demonstrators was reduced by one-third before the rally at the Strand was held.

Two hours before the Strand rally started, I ordered the police to strengthen police deployment on all major roads leading to the Strand. Use methods such as road construction ahead or traffic accidents to persuade and divert demonstrators who plan to attend their appointments. But this is not unique to Scotland Yard. Giuseppe, the Italian police used the same trick on the day you planned to launch an uprising in Genoa. "

Garibaldi leaned on the back of the inverted chair and asked seriously: "So, the police took action earlier than we expected? What you care about is not the protest rally, but the size of the rally?"

"That's right."

Arthur said: "It is difficult for a small-scale gathering to pose a threat to the government. Even if there is an emergency at such a gathering, it will be at the level of a street fight at most. A small police force can control the situation. But on a large-scale The rally is a nightmare for all governments. Even though the organizers of the rally have repeatedly promised that it is a peaceful protest rally, from my standpoint, I cannot believe their words.

Because whether based on the historical record or based on the lessons of the first few mass rallies in May, I found that the best outcome of these rallies was to trigger an urban riot. Even if nine-tenths of these people are peaceful demonstrators, the damage caused by the remaining one-tenth is already intolerable to the police department.

Every time a similar rally occurs, shops are smashed, looted and stolen, and official residences are attacked, churches are burned, and prisons are attacked. The reason why I advised the Home Secretary to introduce the Special Constabulary Bill was because of a three-day riot in Bristol. During that day, nearly a third of the houses and government offices in Bristol were smashed or burned. "

Garibaldi heard this and said disapprovingly: "But aren't these things that must be experienced when a revolution occurs?"

"Giuseppe, if you think so, then military suppression of riots is also something that revolution must experience."

Arthur said: "Since the riots in Bristol, the British Army has deployed more than 10,000 people in the areas around London. In the end, Britain did not send out large-scale troops, not because our government is more lenient than the French government, but because Because the situation was under control before the military was deployed on a large scale. You can be one of the ten violent protesters, but as a police officer, I have to consider the remaining nine tenths.”

When Garibaldi heard this, he couldn't help but turn his eyes to Alexandre Dumas aside: "Alexander, it seems that I guessed it right. The situation in Britain seems to be not much different from what we saw in Italy, and even Italy is even worse. Oops, we don’t even account for one tenth.”

As a witness to the London riots last year, although Dumas didn't want to admit it, with Arthur's candid attitude, he rarely said a word for his old friend.

"Giuseppe, there is a slight difference. At least the UK actually passed the Parliamentary Reform Act. Although as a Frenchman, I naturally hate Wellington, I still have to say that he finally passed the "Parliamentary Reform Act" in June last year. Concessions at critical moments are crucial. Militarily, he is Napoleon's opponent, but politically, he is simply the reverse of Robespierre. But there is always someone who can turn around in time. Sometimes you have to admit that the British have good luck that other countries do not have.”

Alexandre Dumas couldn't help but shudder when he thought of the situation in London last year.

Although he participated in the July Revolution in France, the situation in Britain was completely different from that in France. Most of the revolution in France broke out in Paris, but the chaos in Britain was overall. The depressive atmosphere that lasted for more than half a year combined with the gloomy weather in London was suffocating just thinking about it.

Moreover, in Alexandre Dumas's view, the British's luck is not only reflected in politicians knowing how to make concessions in time, but even God has favored them.

The riots in British cities were caused by parliamentary reform, so they quickly subsided after the reform bill was passed. But the Swain riots in rural areas were caused by food shortages.

The reason why the Swain Riot disappeared was not because farmers were afraid of the Inquisition, but because this year Britain ushered in a rare food harvest in history.

Obviously last year, all social classes were filled with resentment, but this year, no matter where they go, they can see smiling faces, as if everyone has amnesia, and everyone has forgotten what they were doing at this time last year.

In Britain this year, not many people care about Britain's own freedom anymore. The political news in various newspapers is almost all in support of Polish independence and the Italian revolution. They have begun to accuse the authoritarian governments of Prussia and Austria.

The publication of a best-selling political pamphlet called "The Future of Russia" also made the British people worry that the rapid expansion of the Russians in Central Asia might affect the British tea estates in India. Concerns caused by Russia's expansionary policies and authoritarian regime have made the Russian threat theory rampant in British society.

Compared to the "international vision" of British society, the actions of the French July Monarchy government made Dumas feel helpless.

Although this government created by the July Revolution verbally supported Poland and Italy and claimed to bring French freedom to Europe. But on the other hand, they pursued a self-contradictory "non-interference policy" and declared that they would not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

All discerning people can see that the July Monarchy government is completely a fence-sitter on the liberal revolution. They verbally support freedom because they themselves were created by the revolution.

As for why they are unwilling to fully support Poland and Italy, on the one hand, they are worried about breaking up with the Russians and Austrians, and on the other hand, they are worried that when Poland and Italy successfully revolutionize, they will be reversely imported into republicanism by these two regions.

It is precisely because they need the skin of the revolution and cannot reveal their own past that the policies of the July Monarchy government are weird everywhere. The British obviously do not have such historical baggage. They opposed the French concept from the beginning and did not recognize the "freedom, equality, and fraternity" symbolized by the tricolor flag.

In order to compete with French ideas, they also came up with their own set of things during the Great Revolution. The British slogan was "Liberty, Rule of Law, State".

However, although both slogans contain freedom, British freedom is obviously not the same as French freedom.

British freedom emphasizes the rule of law and individual rights, and attaches importance to the constitution and parliamentary system.

French freedom tends to be revolutionary, emphasizing collective will, social equality and institutional change.

The two riots that occurred in London and Paris at the same time last June were basically the real interpretation of the two freedoms.

Dumas couldn't help sighing when he thought of this. Although Britain only made a little progress in that riot, France stagnated after the failure of the uprising.

The failure of the French certainly made Dumas regretful, but the success of the British made him feel more distressed.

What made Dumas even more indignant was that because of being wanted, the leader of Young Italy, Mazzini, could not stay in France and Switzerland, but Britain accepted him carelessly.

If he hadn't gone into hiding in London, Garibaldi and the others probably wouldn't have seen these scandals about Sir Arthur Hastings.

The July Monarchy government used to be able to flatter itself by taking in political prisoners, but after the Young Italy's performance, it's estimated that all the exiles in Europe knew that it was safer to stay in Paris than in London.

Dumas was about to loudly rebuke the King of France for being so unpleasant, but before he could open his mouth, the door was knocked open by a "Prussian private."

Nuri grabbed Bismarck's collar, put his gun behind his back with one hand, and said, "Look what I caught? A spy of Metternich."