After receiving the report handed over to him by Foreign Secretary Russell, the Earl of Aberdeen at 10 Downing Street read all the contents of the report with great speed, and extracted the key words in the report by heart.

Then, Aberdeen put down the report and put his hands on the desk, leaned forward slightly and asked, "Your Excellency Russell, what do you think of Lord Seymour's report?" ”

Russell, as Foreign Secretary, immediately expressed his anti-Russian attitude again, only to see him respond without humility or arrogance: "I think the contents of the report are simply nonsense, and the ambitions of the Russian Empire for the Near East are already obvious." His theory of partition was nothing more than a stopgap measure in the event that the Ottoman Empire could not be completely annexed.

Think about it, how could the Russian Empire give up the occupation of Constantinople! ”

Russell used his sharp words to attack Lord Seymour's report, which he thought was mad to write such a suggestion.

According to his analysis of his temperament towards his diplomatic ambassador, Lord Seymour specified that he had accepted a bribe from Nicholas I in order to say all the good things about Nicholas I in his report.

Minister Russell does not averse to diplomats taking bribes, but at the very least, he should pay attention to the professional ethics of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Prime Minister Aberdeen listened to Chancellor Russell's anti-Russian rhetoric and pondered the direction of the United Kingdom's diplomacy.

It is true that Prime Minister Aberdeen was a well-known pro-Russian politician in a coalition government (one formed without a majority of the Whigs or Tories), and there were many "pro-Russian" actions during his time as a cabinet minister.

The most famous of these "pro-Russian" events was the Holy Land Ruling of 1844, when Prime Minister Aberdeen was still Foreign Secretary and supported the Russian Empire in the Holy Land Adjudication.

Since then, Nicholas I has considered Aberdeen itself to be in favor of the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. The partition policy he designated was also given under the premise of this.

However, Nicholas I did not know that Aberdeen's pro-Russian was only pro-Russian without affecting the interests of Britain itself, and that Nicholas I's policy of partition seemed to be for the sake of Britain, but in fact it harmed the interests of the Kingdom of Britain and disturbed peace in the Near East by the way.

No matter how close Aberdeen himself was to the Russian Empire, it was impossible to agree to the partition of Nicholas I.

After thinking for a while, Prime Minister Aberdeen sighed to himself.

Seeing this, Russell, who was sitting opposite Prime Minister Aberdeen, quickly turned into a master of arch fire, and he smiled and calmly said to Prime Minister Aberdeen: "Mr. Prime Minister, now is not the time to sigh!" Ambassador Seymour's report, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not dare to agree with it anyway! Please also, Your Excellency the Prime Minister, what is your idea? ”

Seeing that Russell was going to dump the pot on the "poor" prime minister of his coalition government, Prime Minister Aberdeen had a displeased look on his face.

If it weren't for the fact that Russell and others were still needed to work with each other at the moment, Aberdeen would have kicked the two big stir-grubbers in the cabinet to the House of Lords.

Aberdeen's displeasure was fully seen by Russell, and Chancellor Russell's heart could not help but gloat a little.

The position of prime minister is not something that anyone can sit in, and he sat in this position with trepidation and treading on thin ice.

happened to encounter an unfortunate economic crisis, and at the end of the day, he had a reputation of "doing things badly".

The situation in front of us is obviously not something that a guy like Aberdeen who is good at and mud can solve!

In addition to himself, the entire cabinet is left with Palmerston.

"Let's discuss this matter at a cabinet meeting!" Once again, Aberdeen used the Cabinet voting routine.

The disadvantage of a coalition government is that the prime minister does not have full control over the cabinet, and the problem must be resolved through negotiation.

However, this kind of disadvantage is a good reason for Aberdeen to push the pot now.

"Understood!" There are some regrets about the title of Lord Russell.

If Aberdeen was able to make some outrageous moves at this time, he was confident that he would be able to overthrow Aberdeen the next day.

It's a pity that Aberdeen is a philistine, but he is not a fool.

Two days later, on February 20, 1853.

After the Cabinet meeting began once again, and all the ministers and ministers were present, Prime Minister Aberdeen announced the official opening of the Cabinet meeting.

Although the Cabinet was in no hurry to get out Lord Seymour's report, all the ministers present knew that Lord Seymour's report must have been the bureaucracy of the entire Cabinet meeting.

The Prime Minister of Aberdeen first took out the financial report of the Ministry of Finance and read it out, and then asked William, as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Gladstone explains where each of the financial expenditures goes.

In William. When Gladstone said that the Home Office's finances had increased somewhat compared to the previous year, Prime Minister Aberdeen looked disgruntled and ordered Palmerston, as Home Secretary, to explain the source of the spending.

Everyone instantly realized that a war without gunpowder had begun.

Palmerston was just the prime minister's first shot at a section of the opposition.

Seeing this, Palmerston still maintained a calm posture and explained to Prime Minister Aladdin the funding problem of the Home Ministry.

"A large part of the Ministry of the Interior's funding is for the stability of Paris and the surrounding counties, and this year the police department alone has doubled as much as the previous year! The extra people will inevitably lead to a rise in finances! ”

"What the hell is the point of adding so many cops to you?" Prime Minister Aladdin continues to harass Palmerston.

"This year's crime rate is lower than the previous year, and the city's security is better than the previous year!" Palmerston spoke to Prime Minister Aladdin, and then handed Prime Minister Aladdin a comparison of the number of crimes.

Palmerston is like a prophet of the future.

Looking at the crime rate that Palmerston handed him, Aberdeen's face was like eating a fly.

After the problems of the Home Office were over, Aladdin asked William to do so. Gladstone then went on to report down.

After all the financial expenditures of all departments were sorted out, Prime Minister Aladdin nodded with satisfaction.

Next, it's time for the main part.

"Recently Ambassador Seymour handed me a report on his conversation with the Emperor of the Russian Empire! Now I'll give it to you, and we'll discuss it collectively! Aberdeen motioned to the Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet next to him to send a copy of Seymour's report.

Copies were handed out to everyone's desk, and everyone carefully reviewed the contents of the report.

Although they all have a general understanding of what the Seymour report says, most of them have not read the content of the Seymour report.

Three minutes after the photocopy was distributed, a voice came from the cabinet seat: "Ridiculous! It's ridiculous! ”

All the ministers in the cabinet looked fixedly, and it turned out to be the Minister of Finance, William. Gladstone.

"Your Excellency, Great Britain cannot accede to this request of the Russian Empire!" William. Gladstone said to Prime Minister Aberdeen.

Palmerston was surprised to find William who thought Palmerston would be the first opponent of Aberdeen. Gladstone is also a potential "oppositionist".

"I know there's something out of it that doesn't make sense, so I'm asking you all to take a look! Let's discuss how to deal with it! "The Prime Minister of Aberdeen still spoke kindly to William. Gladstone said.

"Your Excellency, please forgive me! All the conditions in the report are unreasonable! Nicholas I kept saying that the Ottoman Empire was completely decaying, did he forget that the Tanzimat reforms were being carried out? "Palmerston followed William. Gladstone continued to fire, and his cannon was even more ferocious than the Chancellor's for the Exchequer.

The Tanzimatt reform refers to a reform of the Ottoman Empire in the mid-19th century to save the country, and it is also a reform that some British people are "optimistic" about.

In their view, the Ottoman reforms would have allowed Britain to control the empire without much effort.

In this world, with the exception of a few European powers (mainly France, Austria, and Russia, of which Austria and Russia have nothing to worry about. No one in the field of free trade has resisted the flood of attacks of the Kingdom of Britain.

If it weren't for the fact that France itself had a hard enough gun to raise tariffs, the fledgling industrial bourgeoisie in France would not have been able to bear the export of the world's "only" industrial country.

France succeeded in turning trade between Britain and France into a surplus with high tariffs and a luxury industry, and the surplus is gradually expanding.

And the poor Ottoman Empire, the state was unable to raise tariffs. Relying on the folk bourgeoisie of the Ottoman Empire to stand alone against the flood beasts of Britain, it is a pipe dream.

The Tanzimat reforms gave the Ottoman Empire the opportunity to turn feudalism into capital, but whether the bourgeoisie that surpassed it was the comprador bourgeoisie or the national bourgeoisie was a matter of two things.

For Palmerston and others in the cabinet, the Tanzimat reforms are the perfect excuse.

"yes!"

"That's right!"

There are people within the Cabinet who have repeatedly echoed Palmerston, perhaps on the basis of various kinds of support for Palmerston, but their role has been decided.

Soon, more than half of the cabinet members supported Palmerston's decision, and some even believed that the Tsar's theory of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was merely an attempt to find a suitable excuse for their aggression.

Nearly half of the cabinet ministers rejected, and the Prime Minister of Aberdeen ordered Russell to ask Lord Seymour to write a new report.

The cabinet meeting ended with the total defeat of the "pro-Russian" faction, and the prestige of the Prime Minister of Aberdeen in the cabinet is gradually decreasing.

On February 23, Lord Seymour, who lived in the embassy in St. Petersburg, received a letter from Russell.

Russell harshly demanded that Seymour "report truthfully" and not get involved in any personal feelings.

Lord Seymour immediately understood that Lord Aberdeen in the cabinet might have failed.

So, a brand new report came out of Seymour's hands.

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