The wild boar is in a hurry and will turn around and rush to 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

On Fleet Street, next to the editorial office of the British, there is such an airtight cubicle.

There are no windows on all sides, no fireplaces for heating, and only a dim kerosene lamp is on the old desk.

If it's your first time in this place, you'll probably think it's a utility room for storing useless items.

And judging from the furnishings here, it does look like that.

There were old books piled up everywhere, an old piano that I didn't know where to get it was idle, and a violin from Wheatstone Musical Instruments was placed on top of the piano stand.

And on the four sides of the yellowed and painted walls, lined up one after another, there are one after another gray iron cabinets.

There were large brass locks hanging from the cabinet, as if some shady secret was stored in them.

However, it was such an uninteresting room that was Arthur's exclusive office in the editorial department.

At the same time, it is also the general liaison office of the London Police Intelligence Service appointed by the Superintendent of Hastings.

As for why it is placed in such a place, it is because in Arthur's view, Fleet Street, as the center of the London press, has a siphoning effect on all kinds of news from all over the world.

Moreover, the news of Fleet Street is usually not explicitly directed, which means that their news covers all aspects of British social life.

And this is what the Police Intelligence Agency is most concerned about, as a warm-hearted government agency, the Police Intelligence Bureau under the leadership of Arthur is very eager to understand the details of the lives of the British people.

Of course, there are priorities, and Arthur is clearly more interested in information from powerful people.

They would never have imagined that the institution they had approved and agreed to establish would one day be monitored on their heads.

However, the establishment of the Police Intelligence Service cannot be entirely said to be negligent on the part of the parliamentarians, who are far less experienced than the French in this area, and have not even been able to understand a joke made by the French ambassador, Mr. Talleyrand, at a reception at the Olmarc Club last month.

- It is true that the bayonet can do a lot of things, but it is not easy to rely on it with peace of mind.

At the time, everyone thought that Talleyrand was talking about his old employer, Napoleon.

Only a handful of people noticed the slight change in the expressions of some of the people present after hearing this.

Luckily, Mr. Hastings, a pianist who was invited to play piano music on stage at the time, was one of them.

He clearly remembered that the few people whose expressions changed slightly at that time were:

Viscount Palmerston, Foreign Secretary who switched from the Tories to the Whigs,

Former Prime Minister and current Minister of War and Colonial Affairs, Viscount Godrich, who had the same experience as Palmerston,

and the two Lords responsible for drafting the Parliamentary Reform Bill, Lord Russell, Comptroller of the Royal Navy, and Sir John Lampton, the Keeper of the Seals, son-in-law of the Prime Minister, Earl Grey, and known as 'Radical Jack'.

If it had been a few years ago, Arthur would never have associated these four Excellencies, let alone thought that the four of them would have any common interests.

As early as 1827, the Tory Party split into four camps under the Catholic Liberation Act.

The most radical Cannings advocated the passage of the bill, even at the cost of turning the gun around and uniting with the Whigs.

Moderates with Viscount Godridge also expressed their willingness to support reform because of their good friendship with Sir Canning.

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 the Earl of Elden, they opposed all liberal reforms.

However, when Sir Canning died during his tenure as Prime Minister and Viscount Godrich failed to form a cabinet, the king appointed a conservative representative, the Duke of Wellington.

It's just that after the Duke of Wellington came to power, the development of events later was simply abrupt.

After much deliberation, the Duke of Wellington decided to persuade his faction to change his position, and forced the Catholic Liberation Act through the heads of the extremists in the party and the king.

However, this did not heal the split within the Tories, but instead separated the extremists from the Tories, and the moderates and Cannings, who had previously supported the liberation of the Catholics, joined the Whigs under the leadership of Viscount Godrich.

Viscount Godrich's personal statement was that he supported Catholic liberation, but at the same time he was a staunch supporter of parliamentary reform, which is why he was dissatisfied with Wellington's sleep on the credit book for religious liberation.

But having said that, in Arthur's opinion, Viscount Godrich's words were half hidden and half hidden.

Godridge was replaced by the Duke of Wellington after only 144 days in the prime ministership, and if it weren't for the death of the former prime minister, Sir Canning, after just 100 days as prime minister, Viscount Godridge would have almost become the fastest man in Britain.

This will certainly make him feel a little resentful.

As for Viscount Palmerston, his situation is even simpler.

He would not have been given a chance under the Duke of Wellington, for he had been personally raised by Sir Canning, and in his early years he had basically acted as a sounding board for Canning in Parliament, and the Duke of Wellington's dislike of Sir Canning was almost universally known.

Therefore, when Palmerston was keenly aware of the general trend of Wellington's cabinet, he decisively threw himself into the arms of Earl Gray. Even before he quit the party, he did not forget to enlist the support of a wave of Anglicans, who claimed that he quit the Tory because he felt that the sanctity of the state religion was threatened.

With the two Tories out of the way, it was the turn of the two radicals of the Whigs.

Lord Russell came from the glorious Duke of Bedford's family, and his character was almost in the same vein as his ancestors.

Even the maid in His Excellency's house would tease in private: "The Russell family are very eccentric people. ”

Like the rest of the family and many of Britain's aristocratic youths, arrogance and pretentiousness were synonymous with Russell.

The blood in his bones is rebellion, even if he is a nobleman, but this does not affect his rebellious spirit in the slightest.

After all, the Duke of Bedford's family had personally planned a rebellion against the king hundreds of years earlier, and his ancestor William Russell was executed in 1683 on charges of treason after the secret plot to assassinate Charles II and his brother James was revealed.

However, Russell did not consider it a shameful thing, not only was it not shameful, but he was also so honored that he even published a biography of that ancestor and wrote a big book about the assassination.

However, Arthur did not show much interest in this assassination, because Lord Russell's storytelling skills were so poor that a young man like Disraeli, who had just been elected, brazenly attacked him in parliament with Russell's writings.

Disraeli bluntly mocked Russell's plays Don Carlos and Sister Aronca: "Even if you put aside the plot, from the point of view of the text, these two works are the greatest tragedies in the history of Chinese literature." ”

However, although Lord Russell was often timid, this man's greatest ability was to ignore the criticism when the car overturned, and pretended to be calm and cheeky to continue talking.

However, Arthur did not care about Lord Russell's performance in Parliament, and he was most interested in the story of Lord Russell's early courtship of Lady Cowper, the sister of the Viscount of Melbourne, and was ruthlessly rejected.

All in all, this is a remarkable figure, but it must also be noted that this man's mental realm is as small as his stature.

He has a short temper, is a little withdrawn from the crowd, and does not want to hide his malice towards those he hates. Although he was a radical liberal, he had the arrogance of an old aristocrat at heart, so much so that he never disdained to appease his followers, even if it was a simple hat off.

In terms of relationships, he was far less popular than Viscount Palmerston, who freely changed sides.

As for Sir Rampton, the Prime Minister's son-in-law, in a sense, he is almost carved out of the same mold as Lord Russell.

And there are a few such guys in this Whig cabinet, such as Arthur's mentor, Lord Bruham, and Lord James Graham, Secretary of the Admiralty.

Perhaps, the Whigs pushed them up, hoping that these stormtroopers would force through the reform bill with the mentality of being a loser or a benevolent.

However, is this really the case?

Arthur raised his hand and placed the phonograph stylus gently on the record he had just received from Fiona.

Accompanied by a rustling sound, followed by the passionate collision of male and female love.

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

As the reddish color slowly melted in the cup, the Adam's apple slowly stirred, and the record finally went to the place Arthur wanted to hear.

"Honey, you...... Awesome. ”

"Hehe, I've never liked to boast about myself. But I have to admit that this is not the first time I have heard such compliments, and almost every lovely young lady has commented on me after feeling my power. ”

"So, when is your next visit? Honestly, that's all I think about you, and none of the other guests can make me think about it like that. ”

"Alas...... I'd like to be here every day, but people always have to work. Recently, the mood in the regiment has not been quite right, saying that disarmament may be cut on our heads. I managed to get someone to help me get my current position, but within a few months of doing it, I was asked to leave the army, which is a joke! ”

"Discharged? Aren't you, my dear, an officer? I see that those big-headed soldiers all call you major, will the major also be asked to be discharged? ”

"Ma'am, you may be very proficient in tailoring, but things in the army are completely different from those of those. Although there are not many majors in Britain, they are still excessive compared to the size of our current army. ”

That is to say...... And a major who doesn't bring troops? ”

"Oh, ma'am, you're being mean, and while it's all right, in the military we usually call them reserves."

"Is there any difference between reserve and active duty?"

"Of course it's different. First of all, the salaries we receive are different, the reserve is basically not paid, and the officers on active duty are paid by the War Department every month. On top of that, if we want to do something, we can ask our men to help us run errands. Moreover, officers like us stationed in the homeland do not have particularly tight training in normal times, and most of the time can be used freely except for going to the station every day to show up. ”

"Hmm...... It sounds like a miserable thing to be retired. However, a talented person like you, even if he is transferred to the reserve, I believe it will not be long before he will be reactivated, so you don't need to worry so much. ”

"You are a pure woman's opinion. I heard from my uncle that if an active duty officer is ordered to retire this time, it will not be transferred to the reserve, but really retired. From now on, he will basically be disconnected from the army, and he can only withdraw a small part of the pitiful retirement pension every year. Do you know what that means? That means I can't even get my money back! ”

"I've heard that there are not a lot of retirement pensions for officers? Everyone knows that when the Duke of Wellington returned from Waterloo, His Majesty rewarded him with a one-time reward of 100,000 pounds! ”

"You know it's the Duke of Wellington, and he's got out of the Peninsular War and Waterloo. An officer like me, who has never fought at all, cannot be compared with the treatment of His Excellency the Duke. Of course, this is just that I have not had the opportunity, and if they send me to Waterloo, I will not be as powerful as His Excellency the Duke, but at least I can do the same thing as the Marquis of Anglesey under his command.

Alas...... But having said all that, we have to go back to square one. My uncle said that if the knife came to my head this time, he would find a way to get me to serve in India, because this disarmament was only for the local garrison. If I go to the colonies, they won't have a reason to talk about my head. ”

"But then I just can't meet you, can't I? Can't you, my dear, find a way to stay in London? ”

"Little beauty, why don't I miss you? But there are some things that I can't say, and I have to obey the arrangements of the higher-ups. ”

"What the hell are they doing here, isn't it good to have more troops in London? Many of our guests here are military personnel, and if you all leave, it will be difficult for us to do business. ”

"If only the Whigs thought the same way, but unfortunately they weren't, you like the military, and the Whigs are afraid of the military."

"Why are they afraid of the military?"

"Hmph...... Because they were afraid that we would one day put our saber around their necks, and I could not find any other plausible explanation. ”

Rustle rustle......

At this point, the gramophone played, and the sound suddenly stopped.

Arthur picked up the record and stood up, glanced at the note attached to it, and chuckled softly, "It's kind of interesting." ”

(End of chapter)