The Shadow of Great Britain-Chapter 661 - 323: Brighter than the Stars

"Gentlemen, Mr. Hastings has arrived."

Arthur, led by his secretary, walked into the office and immediately saw two important members of the Cabinet leaning on the sofa, smiling as they sized him up.

Although Arthur had already learned about today’s main event from Chadwick’s mouth, he still felt uneasy until the matter was completely clarified.

Frankly, it was just another junior rank knighthood; he already had plenty of those honorifics.

More than being addressed as ’Sir,’ he preferred to fish for something substantial.

At the very least, he needed to extract some useful information from the two Gentlemen—what exactly was going on with the assassination in Liverpool, and whether the Home Office was involved. He was still in the dark about it.

Although Talleyrand insisted that the matter was related to the Russians, Arthur always took the words of the old cripple with a grain of salt.

How could it be that Metternich spent millions of Francs for intelligence from Talleyrand, much of which was false, yet he, a small police officer from Scotland Yard, hadn’t spent a penny, and he was expected to make the experienced European player spill his guts?

The precedents set by Louis XVI, the Directory, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and others were all there—as doing business with Talleyrand always required caution.

Arthur politely took off his hat and greeted the two Gentlemen, and after a brief exchange of pleasantries, they quickly got down to the matter at hand.

Brougham took out the document that Arthur had sent from Liverpool from a drawer of the office desk and began with a smile.

"Your work in Liverpool is there for all to see. The Customs Administration is quite excited about the inspection of the unreported customs duties. As for the Central Health Committee, while the medical authorities still have their doubts about the new treatment, at the very least the emergency measure of closing the wells in Liverpool has, from an objective standpoint, indeed contained the further spread of cholera.

Coleridge, Sosse, and Wordsworth, these three nuisances from the Lakeside faction, previously ridiculed the Government’s mandatory quarantine measures and Liverpool authorities’ use of beer to replace drinking water. Now, with the trend of cholera spread being gradually controlled, they’ve also gone silent."

Confused, Arthur put down the document bag in his hand and asked, "How did those three get involved with cholera prevention?"

Viscount Melbourne, reclining on the sofa with a cup in hand, replied softly, "It’s not that they got involved; they attached themselves to it. They blame the Liverpool assassination on the Government’s over-control of the epidemic, and they say that cholera occurred because of a century of industrialization and urbanization in Britain. The dirty and chaotic cities have become breeding grounds for diseases, many of which were unheard of in the past decades."

Arthur, sitting on the sofa, pondered for a moment and tentatively offered, "In a way, I think they are not entirely wrong. But if we’re only talking about cholera, according to the statistics I’ve received, the incidence rate in the countryside is actually not lower than in the cities. Moreover, due to a lack of professional doctors, once cholera breaks out in rural areas, the mortality rate is frighteningly high."

Brougham, upon hearing this, asked, "You’re talking about that small village near Sunderland, aren’t you? That’s indeed a tragedy. A village of dozens, none spared, and it was only when the postman went to deliver a letter the following week that he discovered there were no survivors in the village. If it weren’t for that cash-on-delivery letter, we might still be unaware of what happened there."

Viscount Melbourne shook his head and said, "Such matters, those three can’t scrutinize; after all, they are not working with the Government. And since the French Revolution, their thinking has also gradually become more conservative and pragmatic. If it’s just moral issues they want to discuss, then let them be."

At these words, Arthur couldn’t help but frown.

He never would have linked those three Lakeside poets with the French Revolution.

Arthur asked, "Are you saying that the three of them are Republicans?"

"They used to be."

Viscount Melbourne laughed, "When the French Revolution happened, Wordsworth was in Paris, and during that time, he was close to the Girondins and even joined them for a while. Even after returning to Britain, he vigorously promoted what was called the advanced ideas of France in London.

However, after the Jacobin dictatorship of 1793 and the bloody suppression that swiftly followed, a large number of Wordsworth’s friends were executed. In his own words, it was Robespierre and the Reign of Terror that cast a shadow over the brilliance of the Great Revolution, yet his downfall did not restore hope.

He claimed that he still believed in the early Republican ideals and, like all radicals, was convinced that the wars could have been avoided. But as France’s expansionist ambitions became evident, especially after their rejection of Britain’s peace proposal in 1796 and Napoleon’s victories in Italy, Wordsworth completely changed.

Faced with reality, he could no longer believe in the French Government’s propaganda, no longer believe that the continuance of the war was merely a plot by the British Pitt Cabinet, nor maintain that amidst the chaos in Francey, the ideals of the Great Revolution remained intact somewhere.

After 1796, Wordsworth disappeared from public view for a considerable time. When he reemerged, he had become—the man without clear creeds he is now—a once fervent radical who had lost his faith, without even an opposite set of beliefs to hold onto."