Chapter 387 Foreign and Domestic Affairs?
"Maybe you should find a brighter house, the office environment here is a bit too bad."
The belatedly arrived Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Schneider, took off his hat and hung it on the coat rack at hand. He barely squeezed out a seat among the debris, pulled out the chair used for entertaining guests, and sat down.
Arthur took out an iron box containing shredded tobacco from his pocket and threw it over: "I'll clean it up a little later. This house has just been rented not long ago, so I have to give me some time to improve."
Schneider lowered his head to glance at the tobacco and joked: "Aren't you afraid of setting the house on fire if you smoke in such a crowded environment?"
"It's lit just right." Arthur struck the match and lowered his head to light the cigarette: "I have more than a few hot documents here. If there is a fire, many problems will be solved."
Schneider laughed loudly when he heard this: "It seems that we all have the same worries, but in a sense, your domestic intelligence is more sensitive than my foreign intelligence."
Arthur took a puff of cigarette and asked casually: "Mr. Schneider, since we will have many opportunities to communicate with each other in the future, do you have to explain some things to me? When I was in Liverpool last time, I left the port for Azov. There must be more than one visitor to the Seal Islands, right? Although I am not interested in foreign intelligence, there is no need for you to hide it from me so deliberately. "
When Schneider heard this, he didn't take it to heart, but joked: "Brother, the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not as easy as you think. If I let you know the news in advance before I get it done... …If anything happens, what awaits me is not as simple as being dismissed from office.”
Arthur asked casually: "Who is so important? Has a higher confidentiality level than General Napier?"
Schneider held his pipe in his mouth and laughed: "Arthur, I don't want you to think that I am deliberately trying to trick you. So, now that the confidentiality period has passed, I will let the matter go. I left the port with General Napier. It’s Pedro.”
"Pedro?" Arthur was stunned for a moment, then realized: "The Emperor of Brazil?"
"That's right."
Schneider nodded and said: "When I came, I entered the country secretly, and when I left, it was also kept secret at the highest level. If His Majesty hadn't come to London in person to ask for help, he would have persuaded His Majesty the King and the Prime Minister to deal with the Portuguese liberals led by his 12-year-old daughter. Reach out, we can't immediately decide to reinstate General Napier."
Arthur thought for a while and then said: "That's no wonder. I have seen the front page headline of The Times this morning. Portugal has officially appointed General Charlie Napier as Commander of the Royal Navy of Portugal. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also After more than a year of ambiguity, I publicly announced that I would side with the liberal camp led by Queen Maria in the Portuguese Civil War. The world was changing, and it felt like everything had changed overnight, so much so that my thinking was a bit confusing. Can’t keep up.”
Schneider certainly knew what Arthur was talking about, because just over a year ago, Britain's Wellington cabinet expressed support for Portugal's authoritarian rebel leader Prince Miguel.
In response to Arthur's doubts, Schneider just smiled and replied: "Come on, Arthur, you are a smart man, of course you know why."
Arthur shook his head: "Maybe I can somewhat understand the changes in our country, but why did King Ferdinand VII of Spain, the 'irritable king', turn to support Queen Maria of Portugal? If I If I remember correctly, he once planned to personally send troops to help Miguel win the Portuguese crown. "
"Well... we need to mention some humanity."
Schneider gave a little reminder: "When Ferdinand VII wanted to intervene in the Portuguese Civil War, he had no legal heirs. But God may want to praise his piety and achievements, so Princess Isabella of Spain is like an angel. It suddenly came.
At this time, His Majesty, who could not be offended, suddenly discovered that his heir was actually a minor woman like Queen Maria. If he wanted to resolutely implement the "Salic Law" that prohibited women from being kings and opposed Queen Maria's rule of Portugal, his daughter Princess Isabella would also lose her right to inherit.
Perhaps Ferdinand VII's temper was a little grumpy, but his mind was still very good. Therefore, without us even having to send someone to explain to him, he had already taken the lead in expressing his understanding of our foreign policy and repeatedly emphasized to us that Spain was not interested in interfering in Portugal's internal affairs.
But if Queen Maria wanted to crush those rebellious rebels, he would be happy to help the little queen, because it has always been Spain's mission to hoe the strong and help the weak, and to demonstrate the Lord's mercy and faith. "
"This sounds much more logical." Arthur pulled out another newspaper from the table: "But what happened in Spain can be explained. What is happening in the German states cannot be because of those small states. Let’s have sex.”
Due to Schneider's German immigrant status, he obviously knows better than Arthur what is happening in his hometown.
He didn't even need to read the newspaper to know that Arthur must be talking about the series of near-revolutionary events that occurred in Germany a while ago.
Roethke and Welke's liberal speeches at the Karlsruhe Assembly won over the house, and newspapers throughout Germany praised their views and courage.
Archduke Friedrich of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was pressured to reform the state congress.
Due to the continuous unrest and protests in the country, Grand Duke Leopold I of Baden also announced that some financial and administrative powers would be decentralized to the parliament and publication censorship would be relaxed to promote press freedom.
As for the Kingdom of Bavaria, their King Ludwig I was originally an enlightened patron of art and science. Since he ascended the throne in 1825, he has been committed to pursuing grand architectural tastes and building Munich, the capital of Bavaria, into one of the most literary and beautiful cities in Europe.
To this end, he even spent a lot of money to move the Bavarian State University, Landshut University, to Munich as a whole.
But his enlightened image has been impacted by the recent general reform wave in Germany.
It is not known whether he was frightened by the July Revolution in France in 1830, or because the Bavarian Parliament had long restricted his large-scale investment in architecture and artworks. Ludwig I refused to give in this time and was unwilling to continue to strengthen the power of the parliament and promote liberal reforms.
Ludwig I insisted that the parliamentary power of Bavaria was already large enough compared with other German states. After all, he had never seen other German princes like him, who even wanted to build an art gallery but could not get approval.
Although his words were unpleasant to hear, from a practical perspective, what Ludwig I said was all true.
After all, among the many member states of the entire German Confederation, only Bavaria on the Rhine River could publish newspapers with almost republican views, and the German University Youth Federation was the first to recover in Bavaria.
This was also the fundamental reason why Heine was willing to put down his airs and go to Bavaria to find a stable job.
In the environment of Germany, the general is picked from the short ones, and our Bavaria is okay.
After all, even Mr. Schneider, who looked down on Bavaria, once said: "Austrians are a transitional species between Bavarians and humans."
No matter how bad Bavaria is, it is closer to humans than Austria.
The German states are in such a mess, the two factions in Portugal are directly training, and the Carbonari uprisings that broke out in Modena, Parma, Bologna, Romagna and other places in Italy last year have just been suppressed by the intervention forces sent by Austria. In Poland, the Russians are still busy cleaning up the aftermath of the Warsaw Uprising.
It can be said that there is no peaceful and peaceful land in the whole of Europe.
Even the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire is currently suffering from the invasion of the Egyptian Pasha Muhammad Ali.
Now recalling the judgment made by Sir Peel when the July Revolution just broke out a few years ago-every revolution that broke out in France will release the same power in Britain, it can only be said that Sir Peel obviously underestimated the influence of the July Revolution.
Many liberals on the European continent are still looking forward to the emperor of France coming again, just like he did thirty years ago, to drive out the despotic tyrants riding on their heads.
But this time, they obviously got the wrong person.
They not only pinned their hopes on personal feelings and writers' pens, but also on the Polish Reconstruction Committee established by French King Louis Philippe and the Italian Liberation Movement advocated by him.
They took the encouragement and assurances made by Louis Philippe as the standard, but did not notice that those words were all empty cannons.
Before the Carbonari uprising in Italy, Louis Philippe verbally agreed to the Italian exiles' request for troops and promised them that he would send a large army from Marseille.
However, until the Austrian army hanged the last Carbonari, this imaginary army never appeared on the horizon of the Apennine Peninsula.
As for his promise to Poland, there is no need to mention it.
The Russians have not yet officially recognized the legal status of the July Monarchy of France. If the atmosphere is right, given Louis Philippe's personality, he will most likely exchange Poland for a ticket to the Tsar's reception.
In other words, the reason why he was stirring up trouble in Poland was to prove the strength of the July Monarchy to the Russians.
This is not liberalism, but a way to raise the price.
If he did promote the growth of the wind of freedom to some extent, it was probably an accident.
But unfortunately, after the July Revolution, not many people on the European continent could recognize this.
And these hot-blooded guys are the main reason for the deteriorating security environment in London.
Since the beginning of the year, the number of reports to Scotland Yard has begun to grow exponentially.
And what worries the police most is that the proportion of violent cases is rising.
Take the most popular night lighting activity among London protesters recently. If the protesters find that a house does not hang lights to show support for reform at night, the window glass will at least be hit by a few stones.
Due to their hard work, the sales of windows in London have increased significantly recently, and those frightened shop owners and factory owners have suddenly become enthusiastic about paying security fees.
Although it is just the beginning of spring, the social donations received by Scotland Yard this year have exceeded the total of the past two years.
Almost every store hopes that Scotland Yard can allocate one or two police officers to patrol and stand guard there, even if it cannot guarantee 24-hour online access, at least to ensure security at night.
Faced with unprecedented public security pressure, Director Rowan assigned the Police Intelligence Bureau the task of finding out who the guys who smashed windows and attacked shops and residential areas were.
Although anyone can do the job of smashing windows, it is not something that ordinary thugs can do to accurately find the homes of MPs who oppose parliamentary reform.
Not to mention, in this day and age, it is not right to protest on the streets every day without working and still be able to support yourself.
And the news sent back to Arthur by the intelligence agency agent basically confirmed this.
Among these protesters, the obvious forces include the Capital Political Alliance and the Birmingham National Political Alliance. The former organization is led by Benthamite Price, and the latter is centered on banker Atwood.
Of course, there are also some old acquaintances of Arthur and Scotland Yard, Mr. Hetherington, the founder of the Poor Guardian.
Although Arthur had no problem with them smashing the windows of the MPs' houses, he could not turn a blind eye to these things. After all, the Cabinet is responsible to the Parliament, and government agencies like Scotland Yard are responsible to the Cabinet.
If Scotland Yard does not pretend to do something, then when the recess is over, those MPs who were frightened by the stone will form a group to cause trouble for Scotland Yard.
Arthur tapped the table with his fingertips: "August, what do you think of what is happening in Germany and Britain?"
Schneider picked up the teacup and shook his head: "I can still talk about Germany, but I don't know about Britain. That's your job."
"Really?" Arthur said: "If that's the case, I'll have my men hand over the guy we caught at the meeting yesterday to the criminal court. Are you sure there are no spies in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? I remember clearly that the guy claimed to be a subordinate of Mr. August Schneider, the Assistant Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
"You caught our people?"
Schneider raised his eyebrows, looking a little surprised: "But there's nothing strange about this. Everyone has their own political views, and there are also reformists in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As long as he does his job well, what he does after get off work is none of our business. Of course, if he breaks the law, you should deal with it as you should, and you don't have to show me any mercy. This is Britain, not a foreign country, so he naturally can't enjoy diplomatic and consular immunity."