Chapter 386 Big News

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 were piles of old books everywhere, an old piano that I didn't know where to buy was sitting idle in the corner, and on top of the piano stand was a violin from Wheatstone Musical Instruments.

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

There were big brass locks hanging on the cabinets, as if they contained some dirty secret.

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 this place, it is because in Arthur's view, Fleet Street, as the center of London's press, 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 the 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 regard, 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, the 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.

Viscount Goderich, a moderate, had a good relationship with Sir Canning, so he also expressed his willingness to support the reform.

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 after just 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 have any chance under the Duke of Wellington, because he was promoted by Lord Canning himself. In his early years, he basically acted as a mouthpiece for Canning in Parliament, and the Duke of Wellington's dislike for Lord Canning was almost known to everyone.

Therefore, when Palmerston keenly realized that the Wellington cabinet was doomed, he decisively threw himself into the arms of Earl Grey. Even before leaving the party, he did not forget to win the support of a wave of Anglicans. He claimed that the reason for his withdrawal from the Tory Party was that he felt that the sacred status of the state religion was threatened.

After talking about the two Tory gentlemen, the next turn is the two radicals of the Whig Party.

Lord Russell comes from the glorious Duke of Bedford family, and his character is almost the same as those of his ancestors.

Even the maids in the Lord's house would privately tease, "The Russell family are all very strange people."

Like other members of the family and many young nobles in Britain, arrogance and pretentiousness are synonymous with Russell.

Rebellion is in his blood, and even though he is a noble, it does not affect his rebellious spirit at all.

After all, hundreds of years ago, the Duke of Bedford's family personally planned a rebellion against the king. His ancestor William Russell was executed for treason in 1683 after the secret plan of assassinating Charles II and his brother James at Rye House was exposed.

But Russell did not think it was a shame. Not only was it not shameful, he felt honored and even published a biography about that ancestor himself, and wrote about the assassination in detail.

However, Arthur was not very interested in the assassination, because Lord Russell's storytelling skills were so poor that Disraeli, a young man who had just been elected, unscrupulously attacked him in Parliament with Russell's works.

Disraeli directly mocked Russell's play "Don Carlos" and novel "Sister Alonca": "Even if you put aside the plot, from the perspective of the text alone, these two works are the greatest tragedies in the history of Chinese literature."

Although Lord Russell often showed his cowardice, his greatest skill was to ignore criticism when he was upset, pretending to be calm and continuing to tell the story with a thick face.

However, Arthur did not care about Lord Russell's performance in Parliament. He was most interested in the story that Lord Russell had pursued Lady Cowper, the sister of Viscount Melbourne, in his early years and was ruthlessly rejected.

In short, this is an outstanding person, but it must be noted that this person's spiritual realm is as short as his stature.

He has a bad temper and is a little lonely in the crowd. He doesn't 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 bones, so he has never been willing 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 changes his position freely.

As for the prime minister's son-in-law, Sir Lampton, in a sense, he is almost the same as Lord Russell.

And there are several such guys in this Whig cabinet, such as Arthur's mentor Lord Brougham and Admiral Sir James Graham.

Perhaps the Whigs pushed them up, hoping that these guys with the attributes of the stormtroopers would force the reform bill through with the mentality of dying if they fail.

However, is this really the case?

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

Accompanied by a rustling sound, the passionate collision of love between men and women sounded.

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

As the red color slowly melted in the cup, the Adam's apple slowly moved, and with two gulps, the record finally reached the position Arthur wanted to hear.

"Dear, you... are great."

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

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

"Alas... I would like to stay here every day, but people always have to work. The atmosphere in the group has been a bit wrong recently. It is said that the layoffs may affect us. I finally asked someone to help me get my current position, but I ended up doing it. It's a joke that I'm asked to retire after just a few months!"

"Retire? Honey, aren't you an officer? I see those soldiers call you major. Will a major 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 many majors in Britain, compared with the current size of our army, it is still excessive."

"In other words... there are majors without soldiers?"

"Oh, ma'am, you are too harsh. Although it's okay for you to say that, in the army we usually call them reservists."

"What's the difference between reservists and active duty?"

"Of course there are differences. First of all, our salaries are different. Reserve officers basically don't get paid, while active officers are paid by the War Department every month. In addition, if we want to do something, we can ask our subordinates to help run errands. And officers like us who are stationed in the home country don't have very tight training. Apart from showing up at the station every day, we can use most of our time as we please."

"Well... it sounds like being retired is pretty miserable. But for a talented person like you, even if you transfer to the reserve, I believe it won't be long before you will be reactivated, so you don't need to worry so much."

"You are just a woman's opinion. I heard from my uncle that if the active officers are ordered to retire this time, it will not be transferred to the reserve, but real retirement. From now on, they will basically be separated from the army and can only withdraw a small amount of retirement pension every year. Do you know what this means? This means that I can't even get my original capital back! "

"I heard that the retirement pension of officers is not very high? Everyone knows that when the Duke of Wellington returned from Waterloo, His Majesty the King rewarded him with 100,000 pounds at one time!"

"You also know that it is the Duke of Wellington, who came out of the Peninsular War and Waterloo. An officer like me who has never fought in a war can't be treated the same as His Excellency the Duke. Of course, this is just because I didn't have the opportunity. If they sent me to Waterloo, even if I couldn't be as good as the Duke, at least I could make the same contribution as the Marquis of Anglesey under his command.

Alas... But after saying so much, we still have to go back to the starting point. My uncle said that if the knife comes to my head this time, he will find a way to send me to serve in India, because this disarmament is only for the local garrison. If I go to the colonies, they will have no reason to talk about my head. "

"But then I can't see you, right? Dear, can't you think of a way to stay in London?"

"My little beauty, why don't I Miss you? But there are some things that I can't decide. I have to obey the arrangements of the superiors. "

"Why are they doing this? Isn't it good to have more troops stationed in London? Many of our customers here are soldiers. If you all leave, our business will be difficult."

"It would be great if the Whigs thought the same as you, but unfortunately they don't. You like soldiers, while the Whigs are afraid of soldiers."

"Why are they afraid of soldiers?"

"Humph... because they are afraid that one day we will put the saber on their necks. Apart from this, I can't find any other reasonable explanation."

"Swish..."

The phonograph stopped playing here.

Arthur picked up the record and stood up. He glanced at the note on it and laughed softly: "Interesting."