London Bloomsbury, Lord Chancellor's Lane, Court of Chancery.

Arthur and the head of the Rowan Hall jumped shoulder to shoulder over the marble in front of the courtroom and walked down the steps.

Compared to when the two of them first arrived, they had a few more documents in their hands at this time.

It was a new resolution that had just been made in a joint meeting of the Chancellor's Hall, the Admiralty, the Ministry of the Interior, and the General Post Office and the General Customs Administration.

Following consultations between the Royal Council, the Privy Council and the Cabinet this morning, King William IV, together with all members of the Privy Council, formally signed the Edict of the Crown, authorizing Lord Broughham, Lord Lord Chancellor, to oversee the national prevention and control of the cholera epidemic in his capacity as the country's supreme health watchdog.

Other government departments and all committees of the Privy Council and the House of Commons, including 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister's House, will act in accordance with the advice of the Chancellor's Chamber.

Although Arthur had long known that the power of the 19th-century justices was far greater than that of the 21st-century attorneys, when he heard the decision at the meeting, he could not help but be shocked by the earth-shattering energy of the 'mentor' in his hand.

Administratively, the Lord Chancellor was in charge of the promotion of judges in the Justice, Criminal, Civil and Equitable Courts of Britain, and had the power to decide which solicitors could be promoted to the Queen's Counsel.

In royal affairs, he served as Minister of the Seals and Counsellor to the Crown in the Imperial Court.

Politically, the Chancellor himself is the chief Commissioner of the House of Lords and the Speaker of the House of Lords.

Judicially, he was a member of the Judicial Committees of the Privy Council and the House of Lords, and a judge of final appeal of the committees, and the only person in the country who had the power to convict the nobles of treason.

In religious affairs, since the Chancellor was appointed by the archbishop and even the cardinal appointed by the Pope before the Supreme Act of Henry VIII in the 16th century, the Chancellor basically retains the religious function of the past.

Not only was he responsible for supervising all the property of the Church of Britain, but it was customary for even the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York to consult the Chief Justice before the appointed judges of the Religious Tribunals on the grounds of the Archbishop of Canterbury and York.

As for the so-called overseers in the field of health care, Arthur had previously only regarded this power as an insignificant red cherry on the cake of the justices.

As Britain does not now have a unified public health department, power in this area has traditionally been dispersed among the various branches of government and the local parish councils.

And in ordinary times, no one paid much attention to this aspect of things.

The Chancellor has too much power, and public health is no matter what's the number one priority for him.

In the eyes of the local diocese, the so-called public health is up to them to decide which sanitation company to hire to clean up and dispose of the garbage.

For Scotland Yard, public health is all about catching and selling counterfeit medicines. In addition to this, Arthur and the others have to make sure that drunkards cannot defecate in front of others, because this is the exclusive right of pregnant women.

Scotland Yard wants to expand its power every day, but the drunkards cannot.

But having said that, it was just wishful thinking on the part of the officers.

It is clear that their efforts in this regard have never worked.

As Mr. Dick Whittington, who rose from a poor orphan to mayor of London in the British legend, commented when he first came to London: I thought the streets of London were covered with gold, but I didn't expect it to be human excrement.

If Mr. Whittington had been lucky enough to survive into the 19th century, he would have found London still authentically like the 14th century.

There is not only 'human gold' but also 'human mercury' on the streets of London.

If there is any improvement over the 'gold' and 'mercury' of these excrements, it is that the heavy metal elements in these excrements are indeed much higher than in the 14th century.

In this regard, the outstanding inventions of unscrupulous merchants, whether it is arsenic-containing cosmetics or copper-containing fake tea leaves, have made a significant contribution.

Luo Wan walked all the way down the steps, and when he saw that Arthur didn't speak, he took the initiative to provoke the conversation: "The face is like stagnant water, and the expression is solemn, but I understand that the job assigned to us by the Chancery Hall is really not easy to do." The mere lockdown of the affected areas is dangerous and offensive enough, and now we have to cooperate with the General Administration of Customs and the Admiralty to combat smuggling and prevent the continued importation of cases from other regions. Arthur, the first one can be handled by others, but the latter one can only be done by you. ”

With that, Rowan stopped in front of a restaurant, leaned against the wall and lit his pipe, before throwing the tin box of tobacco to Arthur.

Arthur was not polite, he took a cigarette and lit it, "This is also something that cannot be helped." But the decision of the Chancellor's Hall and the Admiralty still surprised me a little, how on earth did they come up with the idea of sending people from Scotland Yard to Liverpool to investigate smuggling? ”

Rowan took a puff of his cigarette, he raised his hand to pat the dust off Arthur's epaulettes and said, "They should think that there are ghosts among the local anti-smuggling officers in Liverpool." But that's exactly what happened, after all, if there was no one behind them, they wouldn't be able to do it anyway.

And the outbreak of the epidemic in Liverpool is not as clear as Sunderland, and they can't even find the source. This can also be explained if we follow the view of miasma. But if you look at it from the perspective of contagionism, it doesn't make sense in any way. Anyway, you try your best to check first, and if you find out, of course everyone will be happy. But if you can't figure it out, or if the idea is too hard, you push it to the miasma.

All in all, it's best to go to Liverpool this time to get a quick fix. It's not our jurisdiction after all, London needs you just as much as Liverpool. ”

Although Rowan had already thought through the ways to deal with the various results, it was obviously impossible for Arthur to go to a hard-hit area like Liverpool for a vacation in a daze.

Moreover, within the scope of his cognition, it could never be a miasma that caused cholera, it must be someone behind the trouble.

Arthur said, "If it were another period, it would not be so easy for us to move these smugglers. I heard from a friend of mine who served in the Royal Navy that in the past, when tea was smuggled, the smugglers usually had their distribution centers in Ostend, Belgium, or Nantes, France. Before heading to the British Isles, they would make a transit in Jersey and Guernsey in large ships, and then divide into several batches and take advantage of the night to arrive at their nest in a cliff by the sea in a small smuggling boat called 'fast crabs'. ”

Luo Wan couldn't help but laugh when he heard this: "I didn't expect a young man like you to understand this kind of thing." You've caught up with the good times, and although the smuggling phenomenon still exists, it is not as rampant as it used to be. When I was a child, almost every household drank smuggled tea. I thought that was the limit, but my father said that when he was younger, it was even more exaggerated than that.

When he was a young man, tea was sold for 5 shillings a pound, of which 4 shillings and 9 pence were import duties. And the same tea, if you buy it from a smuggler, costs only 2 shillings. And if you buy it in the Netherlands, it's only 6p. Gee...... But no matter how expensive tea is, we Britons have to drink it, don't we? It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, you can't run away with two meals of tea a day.

I'm willing to bet you that all of Europe imports so much tea every year, not because they like to drink tea, but because they keep it for smuggling to us. This can be seen from William Pitt Jr.'s reduction of tea tariffs, and as a result, our annual tea tax revenue has increased instead of decreasing. Can you imagine? The tax rate was reduced from 119% to 12.5%, and as a result, the tax rate went up. This shows that at least 90 percent of people used to drink smuggled goods. ”

Arthur asked, "Although the profits of smuggling tea are not as high as they used to be, there are still people doing this work." And judging by the situation at the West India docks, the smuggling of wool, raw silk, tobacco and spirits was also very profitable. ”

Luo Wan patted Arthur's chest with the back of his hand: "Arthur, I know that you are a college student and civilized in your work. But when you go to Liverpool, don't be merciful. The smugglers are far more brutal and greedy than the average murderer, and they do everything enough to go to the gallows. When we were at war with the French, when there was an embargo between the two sides, they smuggled clothes and guns into France, and they smuggled brandy and tea from France. They do this all the time, so don't hesitate to act if you notice something is wrong. ”

Arthur asked, "Sir, have anyone hesitated before?" ”

Rowan took a puff of his cigarette: "It's not a hesitation, do you know the Hochhurst gang?" ”

Arthur shook his head, "Haven't heard of it. London probably doesn't have such a group, or rather, they're not big enough to warrant an undercover agent from Scotland Yard. ”

Rowan waved his hand: "They are not a smuggling gang in London, and they have been active for many years now. Let's put it this way, they were active in my father's youth, and he had the privilege of meeting these bastards.

At that time, the Royal Navy seized one of their smuggling boats on the high seas. As a result, the next day, more than 200 bandits on horseback came to the port. They each had two carbines and a cutlass in their waists. In broad daylight, they rode into town with impunity, intending to reclaim their multi-masted smuggling ship laden with tea and spirits.

Not only that, but they swore and threatened to kill the customs collectors, threatening to punch them in the head and burn their customs office. But fortunately, the reinforcements of the Royal Navy arrived in time, so that the gang did not succeed. Just when everyone thinks it's over, guess what's going on?

A few days later, an official from the Customs Department suddenly disappeared, and he was eventually found buried alive in an inn outside Rowlands Castle. Another shoemaker who had reported to the Royal Navy had his nose cut off, stoned to death and thrown into a well. That's the way the Hochhurst gang does things, these bitches are raised to do the work of provoking the government, and they keep telling the local civilians that they can't end well if they go against them. ”

When Arthur heard this, he just chuckled lightly: "Sir, if you say that, I will understand. If these guys are what you say they are, then I don't mind learning what Sir Isaac Newton did at the Mint. ”

"Sir Isaac......

When Rowan heard Arthur mention Newton, he roughly understood what he was talking about.

It is true that Newton did many earth-shattering things in his life, but as the supreme governor of Scotland Yard, Rowan remembers most clearly the case of Newton vs. counterfeit money dealers.

When Newton became director of the Royal Mint, counterfeit money was rampant in England, and coins in circulation were often short of two pounds. In order to solve this problem, Newton directly took over the task of recoining the currency.

The president of the Royal Society reminted £7 million in a single year, more than the previous thirty years of work at the mint combined.

Moreover, in order to completely solve the problem of counterfeit money, Newton also personally launched an investigation to arrest the counterfeiting gang.

For this reason, William Charona, the largest counterfeit money dealer in London at that time, also directly fought with Newton.

During the day, he spies on filthy hotels and slums, bribes informants in dark corners, and even goes undercover to collect evidence of their counterfeiting.

And in the evening, Lord Niu did not forget to arrange tiger chairs, chili water, and work overtime to 'greet' those arrested counterfeit money dealers, and invited them to taste Britain's special delicacy - dipped in water and leather whip.

In this way, Newton finally relied on a perfectly perfect chain of evidence, and with the attitude that all evil would eventually be brought to justice, and he had nothing to say in court.

In the end, Newton was pleased with the punishment Chalona, as Mr. Charona would help him test gravity with a rope and his own neck.

Of course, Newton was even happier that Chalona was joined by more than two dozen counterfeit dealers who had been prosecuted together at the Tyborne execution site to test gravity.

When Luo Wan thought of this, he couldn't help but shudder.

He suddenly felt that he might have thought of the man of culture too much as a cannibalistic person, so that he forgot that there were such figures as Sir Isaac Newton.

He pondered it for a while, and then he realized that none of the people who opposed Newton seemed to be able to die well.

As soon as he thought about the crux of the problem, the last stone in Luo Wan's heart was also put down, he took off his pipe and puffed out a cloud of smoke: "It seems that you can handle this matter." ”

Arthur just smiled, "Of course, sir. I remember that smugglers did not seem to be subject to common law, and that they were under the jurisdiction of the Admiralty Courts under the Royal Navy. There are no juries, no lenient sentences according to the principles of case law, and the judges do not study the case law system of the Bar Society, but all Roman law experts who have graduated from the seminaries of the various religious universities. And, most importantly, I remember, it seems that the smuggled goods confiscated by the maritime court were handed over directly to the Admiralty, right? ”

When Director Luo Wan heard this, he took a long puff of cigarette: "I used to worry about you, but now I'm starting to worry about those smugglers." ”

Arthur laughed, "Why? ”

Luo Wan glanced at his arm, and then at the degree certificate that Arthur held in his hand and had just been sent by the University of London, and just shook his head and said: "Those smugglers, whether they play literature or martial arts, they can't play with you." ”

"Sir, you're serious." Arthur asked, "But before I do that, I have a request. I'm going to take a few people with me on this trip to Liverpool. I can't handle the case alone. ”

Rowan replied: "There are those who can breathe in Scotland Yard, below the rank of superintendent, you can pick a few of them." ”

"That's not what I meant, sir." Arthur spoke: "I need a sharpshooter to solve physics problems, a rhetorical clerk to honor Scotland Yard, a trained detective to investigate the case, and finally, if something happens, I need a guy with a bad identity to block the knife for us." ”

Rowan nodded slightly: "I know the last two, Sergeant Charles Field, Officer Louis Bonaparte." But who are the first two you mentioned? ”

"The first two guys are now locked up in the hospital and isolated." Arthur spoke, "So, sir, I need you to give me a document so that I can get them out of there. At my level, I don't have such permission for the time being. ”

Hearing this, Rowan snapped his pipe on the windowsill, then took out his pen directly from his pocket, wrote a note to Arthur and handed it over.

"Go to Liverpool with two guys who may have contracted cholera, you don't have to worry about death."

There are still today

(End of chapter)