shadow of britain

Chapter 587 Secret Service Fund
During the thirty years of unrest in Europe, Britain was the only country in Europe that was not affected by the French Revolution. In this case, there was no need for the kingdom to go backwards, and our ruling class had no motivation to push history forward. With the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the chauvinistic fear of the French and Napoleon disappeared. It was this mentality that once bound all classes in Britain together.

The disappearance of the wartime bonds that bound the nation together has brought discontent and disappointment, and the surge in the number of demobilized soldiers and sailors has made the situation even more dangerous. Soldiers are resentful of the king and country they fought for, because of their frequent and apparent ingratitude. This has brought new challenges to our policing and intelligence work.

Against this backdrop, we must re-examine the intelligence agencies that have been established since the 17th century. We must do everything we can to end the old tradition of the intelligence systems of the Foreign Office, the Home Office, the Treasury, the Royal Navy, the Army, the General Post Office, and Scotland Yard working independently. The reform, reorganization, and merger of intelligence agencies is imperative.

——Arthur Hastings, Memoirs of Hastings: Fifty Years of Life

When it comes to the history of intelligence agencies, Britain is clearly ahead of France and Germany.

Britain's earliest intelligence organization was established during the reign of Elizabeth I. Thanks to the effective use of intelligence, Britain won the war that destroyed Spain's maritime hegemony.

But after this, Britain, having lost external pressure, quickly lost interest in gathering intelligence.

Because this is a high-investment job with extremely unstable returns, neither Parliament nor the King is willing to increase investment in peacetime.

However, as the king and the parliament fought each other, Lord Protector Cromwell came onto the historical stage. In order to prevent the restoration of the Stuart dynasty, this famous dictator in British history, on the one hand, formed a new model army known as the "Iron Army", and on the other hand, began to drastically reform the lame intelligence system.

He appointed his confidant John Thurlow as Secretary of State, specifically in charge of intelligence work.

Thurlow lived up to expectations and spread his spies to various European countries. These spies not only closely monitored the actions of the European anti-British alliance, but also infiltrated the British royalists in exile. Through money, threats and other means, Thurlow successfully instigated some royalists to serve for his own benefit, and repeatedly thwarted the restoration conspiracy of the royalists.

When it comes to anti-espionage, Thurlow is an expert at it. He divided the country into 11 intelligence zones, each with a commander and a dedicated counterintelligence cavalry squad. All outsiders will be investigated and questioned by them.

In addition, postal inspection and code breaking were also important means for Thurlow to obtain intelligence.

After Thurlow became postmaster general in 1656, he quickly introduced a new postal regulations the following year, which clearly stated that postal inspection was an effective way to detect subversive plans. Soon after, he pushed Parliament to legislate to confirm the government's power to open private letters.

In order to decipher the code in the emails, Thurlow also set up a deciphering organization in London and hired a large number of mathematicians to decipher the royalist code.

The success of Thurlow's work even caused the Venetian ambassador to sigh: "There is no government in the world that can keep secrets as well as the British government, and learn about other people's affairs so quickly."

However, this tradition gradually declined with the death of Cromwell and the restoration of the British monarchy. Charles II and his successor James II did not pay much attention to intelligence work, so the development and research of codes were interrupted and abandoned, and postal inspection, an effective source and means of intelligence, was also abandoned.

After entering the 18th and 19th centuries, France and Germany came from behind in the field of intelligence.

The French were not bad at intelligence, and mail censorship had long been a method used by the old French regime. Its original purpose was to monitor foreign embassies and provide the king with some obscene gossip about his subjects' sexual affairs from time to time.

After the Revolution, the new government's mutual suspicion and the frequent occurrence of various assassinations intensified their fear of secret conspiracies, and this sentiment further increased the French people's emphasis on intelligence.

Napoleon and his Police Minister Fouché worked together to weave France's intelligence agencies into an impenetrable network.

There is no need to comment on what kind of person Fouché is.

Even Talleyrand felt that Fouché was of low moral character, but on the other hand, he also admitted, like Napoleon, that Fouché was the kind of talent that could not be cultivated.

In the early days of the French Revolution, Fouché insisted on the execution of Louis XVI and gained great prestige from it.

In order to show his loyalty to the National Assembly, Fouché volunteered to go to the Vendée to show his tough tactics.

To put it nicely, Fouché purged a large number of counter-revolutionaries in the Vendée, uprooted church organizations, and eliminated the remnants of Christianity.

To put it bluntly, Fouché did not kill many old nobles in the Vendée, but he massacred a large number of peasants and priests.

In addition, Fouché also had great success in suppressing riots in Lyon, where he tied hundreds of people together and blasted them with shotgun shells, earning himself the "merit" of causing a river of blood.

In the five turbulent years that followed, Fouché repeatedly jumped between the Royalists and the Jacobins, and finally waited for the opportunity to "meet a wise leader."

In August 1799, General Napoleon, who had won a great victory in Egypt, secretly returned to Paris and had a secret meeting with Talleyrand, Fouché and others.

I guess only the parties involved know what they talked about.

As outsiders, we only know that three months later Napoleon became the First Consul of the Republic, while Talleyrand was reinstated as Foreign Minister and Fouché as Minister of Police.

When Fouché officially took office as Minister of Police at the headquarters on the Quai Voltaire, the first thing he did was to ruthlessly suppress his former Jacobin colleagues and strictly censor theaters, publishing houses and newspapers to quell protests. To show his determination, all those who disobeyed were ordered to be shot.

Perhaps intelligence work always leads to the same result, or perhaps Fouché read about Britain's successful experience in a book.

Therefore, the French top intelligence chief quickly restored the long-lost code-breaking technology in a different place.

Although the National Assembly once issued a decree requiring all postal officials to swear an oath not to violate the privacy of personal communications.

However, for reasons of national security, letters from political exiles were excluded from this act on May 1793, 5.

But everyone knows that in France, the law is the law and enforcement is enforcement, and the two cannot be confused.

The first country to violate the Declaration of Human Rights was France, the country that drafted it.

Therefore, by the time Napoleon came to power, all correspondence at the social level was placed under Fouché's control.

Even the "dark room" that Fouché used specifically to check letterheads was located next to the postal sorting office.

The staff of the "darkroom" are often selected from the most savvy and capable clerks in the post office. This group of people are not only arranged for comprehensive training including mathematics, but the best of them are even sent abroad for further study. Therefore, they can not only handle foreign language letters, but also recognize local dialects, popular words, rural slang and abbreviations.

Under Fouché's leadership, the Dark Room was proficient in breaking every kind of deception. It was familiar with every chemical method, it had learned its cracking methods from mathematical probability and grammatical analysis, it could skillfully take a mold, soften the wax, and harden it after the wax penetrated the replica seal. After a long period of study, even the most difficult codes would eventually be revealed to the world.

What’s even more interesting is that in order to conceal the existence of this group of people, Fouché arranged other official positions of similar status for the members of the ‘Dark Room’ as soon as they took office.

And this is exactly what Arthur does in the Police Intelligence Bureau.

Noble souls have their own brilliant colors, but dirty thoughts always smell alike. If Fouché inherited Thurlow's intelligence thinking, then Arthur obviously regained the orthodoxy of spy work for Britain.

Foreign Secretary Viscount Palmerston called this former senior police officer who was keen on surveillance a genius and spoke highly of the police research report Arthur sent back to London. However, compared with Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister Earl Grey and Home Secretary Viscount Melbourne were much more conservative.

Prime Minister Earl Grey was not a realist, as can be seen from the fact that he had been calling for parliamentary reform and firmly supporting abolition for more than ten years in opposition.

For Earl Grey, protecting freedom is more than just a slogan. Although limited by practical factors, after the impact of the London riots last year, Earl Grey's ideas are no longer as radical as before, and he is more willing to accept compromise solutions.

However, this does not mean that he thinks Arthur's initiative is a good idea, even though it looks very attractive.

As for Viscount Melbourne, he has always been a centrist within the Whig Party. His political views are quite moderate among the Liberals, and even coincide with those of Sir Peel of the Tory Party in many aspects. However, he also thinks that Arthur's proposal is too conservative.

If the name was covered, he would even think that the proposal was made by the Duke of Wellington, or the Earl of Eldon, the Duke of Newcastle, etc.

As for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Viscount Althorp, he strongly opposed the proposal.

But this has nothing to do with his political inclinations; his opposition mainly stems from the old traditions of the Ministry of Finance.

The misers at the Treasury Department oppose all proposals that take money out of their pockets. Although most people feel that this money, at least in name, is not the Treasury's, but taxpayers' taxes, the Treasury Department clearly holds a non-mainstream view.

The Ministry of Finance believed that if they wanted to take money out of their pockets, they had to give them money first. In other words, the Ministry of Finance asked for a tax increase, and they also cited that Fouché's intelligence funds at the time mainly came from heavy taxes on gambling houses and brothels.

Therefore, if Parliament allows the Treasury to increase taxes on these sites, the Treasury will agree to expand and reorganize the intelligence system.

But it is well known that casinos and brothels belong to a gray area in Britain. There is no law in Britain that makes these places legal or illegal, and there is no systematic law to manage or ban these places.

Since there are no legal provisions, it is naturally impossible to levy taxes on these places.

Therefore, if one wants to regulate casinos and brothels, one must first legalize them.

This issue is a disaster for the lawmakers.

Is there any MP who can stand in the Palace of Westminster who doesn't know that the largest voting group at present, the middle class who are neither poor nor rich, likes to find a sense of accomplishment in moral issues the most?
Although the parliamentarians are not moral gentlemen, they are just a bunch of hypocrites.

But perhaps because they are hypocrites, in order to win votes and support, they often have to be more high-profile than moral gentlemen.

Whenever the topic of gambling and prostitution comes up in parliament, as they do every day, the MPs become indignant, criticising the social problems caused by them and vying with each other to express that they are incompatible with gambling and prostitution.

Then there was a lot of thunder but little rain. They would grab a newspaper headline and then contentedly pick up a glass of champagne and go to the casino with their lover to continue creating more social problems.

The distinguished Lords of Whitehall Street obviously understood the character of most of their party members in private, so when the Treasury put the issue on the table, even Viscount Palmerston, who was the most staunch supporter of Arthur, turned his attention to His Majesty the King.

William IV saw that he seemed to have made a big mess, so he quickly pushed all the credit for this perfect plan onto Arthur.

That's why the Duke of Sussex's inquiries in the box today seemed to be accusatory but were actually full of sympathy.

From a personal standpoint, a liberal like the Duke of Sussex would not like Arthur's plan. If Arthur had never met him, he might even hate this guy and regard him as the same person as his brother, the extreme royalist Duke of Cumberland.

But people are such strange creatures. Although the Duke of Sussex and Arthur cannot be called friends, they work together on many issues, from reforming the Bloody Act to investigating the disappearances in St. Giles Parish and properly handling the riots in the Tower of London.

Sussex has always felt that this is a good young man with good character and ability.

Even if we put aside the previous events, Arthur had just used the Ohm incident to help the Duke of Sussex gain a reputation for being courteous and humble, thus helping him temporarily suppress the dissatisfaction of the scientists of the Royal Society towards him.

He was even willing to take the initiative to make up for the Duke of Sussex's most criticized shortcoming - he had never published any philosophical papers or natural philosophy papers.

Arthur cordially invites the Duke of Sussex to publish an article in his capacity as President of the Royal Society in the first issue of Nature magazine, which is currently being prepared.

Of course, if the Duke of Sussex thinks this is inappropriate, Arthur said that in addition to Nature, the Brit magazine also has The Economist.

For someone like the Duke of Sussex, money bags like Rothschild are certainly valuable, but the Duke of Sussex, whose material desires are not as high as those of his brothers, still pays more attention to reputation. Otherwise, how could he jump into the position of President of the Royal Society even though he knew it was a pitfall?

What Englishman could resist sitting in the same seat once occupied by Sir Isaac Newton?

The Duke of Sussex told Arthur the whole story without reservation, and apologized: "Arthur, I know you are not a man like Fouché, but there are too many French elements in your plan. Although I have no ill feelings towards France, just like I like this painting "Liberty Leading the People". However, you also understand that there are too many anti-French elements in the cabinet and parliament."

Disraeli, who was standing by, pretended to be ignorant and continued speaking along with the Duke of Sussex's words, putting all the blame on the French.

He patted his chest and said, "That's right, there is one anti-French element here. Arthur, your plan is not that bad, but I think if you want it to be passed in Parliament, you have to add a little more British characteristics. Britain has a long tradition. Why do we need to learn from the French? It's like they have run their own country so well."

Although the Duke of Sussex and Disraeli had said so much, Arthur, who was determined to show off, still refused to give up and wanted to put up a final resistance.

In fact, deep down, Arthur didn't have much desire to push for any bullshit reforms.

He hadn't even thought that His Majesty had actually taken the time to read his lengthy report on police reform.

However, since this matter has caused a stir in London, he still wants to try his best.

As for why this is happening?
That's of course because the police intelligence reform that Arthur wants to carry out is his area of ​​expertise. If this plan can be passed, the most suitable person in Britain to preside over this task will be Sir Arthur Hastings.

He was simply fed up with being his thief's entourage in Hanover. It was bad enough that the students were not as obedient as the police, but the pressure from the professors was far greater than that from Dean Rowan, Sir Mayne and others.

Arthur thought for a while and asked, "Your Highness, do you know about the Secret Service Fund?"

(End of this chapter)