shadow of britain

Chapter 685 A clear path
As a liberal republican, being born in the 19s was a terrible choice.

The aftermath of the French Revolution was completely quelled, and news of the failure of various uprisings came from all directions. Since Napoleon was defeated, the autocratic monarchs in Europe began a frantic purge of republicans and liberal elements.

Even in Britain, which is considered the most open constitutional monarchy in Europe, the group of radicals known as the British Jacobins can only maneuver in a very small space.

In Russia, the country with the highest oppression and the greatest monarchical power in Europe, everyone must remain under the great shadow of the Tsar.

Choosing to be a liberal in Russia may be one of the worst life plans in the world. Due to various historical reasons, most Russians carry a heavy psychological burden. They envy the relaxed environment in Western Europe, but they are not as humble as the Italians under Austrian rule and the Poles under Russian rule.

The Italians and Poles could look forward to the emergence of another dwarf named Napoleon on Corsica every day to free them from the oppression of the feudal monarchs, and they had no psychological burden about it.

But the Russians cannot do it, not only because they once proudly defeated the French, but also because they often want to regard themselves as citizens of a great power. Russia not only has its own unique history and culture that is different from Europe, but also Russia's strong national strength and influence do not allow the Russians to bow down in front of France. Perhaps Russia is somewhat far from a world hegemon like Britain, but let alone France, its defeated general.

Because of this, although there was a fierce dispute between the Slavophiles and the Westernists in Russia, Arthur could see a strong Great Russian concept in Pushkin, who was regarded as the leader of liberal elements by the Tsarist government.

In this respect, the Russians are even more stubborn than their next-door neighbors, the Germans.

After all, although the Germans also claimed to follow the German distinctive path, there were still factions like Heinrich Heine who regarded learning from France and inheriting Napoleon's legacy as top priority.

If Russian liberals were brought before German liberals, it would definitely lead to a large-scale criticism of the former by the latter.

Arthur's words were not without basis. He had written several letters to Heine some time ago, briefly introducing the current development of Russian literary circles, and sent several high-level Russian literary works along with the letters, including Pushkin's military travel notes and poetry collections, Karamzin's historical monographs, and Krylov's comedy and fable collections, etc.

The result was not beyond Arthur's expectations. Heine first praised Krylov's fables that criticized current politics, exposed the darkness of officialdom, and ridiculed the laziness and stupidity of aristocrats and landlords, saying that he had missed the works of such a great writer. Then, this German "proctocolt doctor" who always hated nationalists began to criticize Pushkin, Karamzin and others.

—Some of these works remind me of the parties of so-called representatives who talk about German nationality. I mean those false German patriots, whose patriotism is nothing but a stupid and absurd aversion to foreign countries and neighboring peoples, and they especially abuse France every day. These people are the remnants or descendants of the Teutonic Knights of 1815, but they have changed their old German clown costumes and cut their ears shorter. I have hated them all my life and will continue to fight against them for the rest of my life.

——Talking about special nationality, narrow patriotism, and the heritage of ancient Germany, I thought such ridiculous remarks would only appear in the empty-headed German region... As a result, Arthur, you really gave me a huge surprise. This is really a comforting thing. Now I finally understand that the average intelligence level of the German region is not the lowest in continental Europe. Yes, this is another major victory achieved by Germany in this century!

——If there is a group with a lower level of intelligence than the average German and Russian, it is probably the French Republicans. Arthur, you should know that my letters and articles often contain many small stories and anecdotes, whose symbolic meaning is not understood by everyone. In the eyes of those crude onlookers, these may be just petty anecdotes and gossips. However, in this way and tone, I can often bypass the censorship and report the most dangerous things.

—I admit that this tried-and-true tone is often cold. But many useful things are also expressed indirectly in it! But those Paris republicans complain that my reports are always unofficial, but they don't see how seriously I speak on their behalf when necessary! I constantly expose the ugly state of the ruling bourgeoisie, but these republicans are very slow to understand.

—But I used to think of them in a much better light. I thought they were only pretending to be stupid, that the republicans were trying their best to play the part of Junius Brutus, pretending to be stupid and foolish so that King Louis Philippe could rest easy and destroy the government by making it careless. But a series of recent events have made me realize my mistake, and I have found that these republicans are honest gentlemen who are not pretending, and they are what they appear to be.

——Finally, thank you for your concern for me, your old friend. However, Arthur, for the sake of our friendship, please do not send the Tsar's gilded spittoon with your letter in the future. The Tsar feels uncomfortable with them, and I feel uncomfortable using them. Of course, a lowly person like me cannot be compared with the Tsar's mighty dragon body. It is indeed a grand favor to give me the spittoon that he is not used to. But as I said before, although I am lowly and I always have enough money, I don't lack spittoons, because my thick phlegm has enough Paris Republican brains to place (I don't mean to ridicule Alexander here, although I seriously suspect that his brain is connected with other Republicans).

As a poet who likes to write political commentaries, there is a reason why Heinrich Heine is famous in Europe.

Although his opponents often criticized this guy for being sharp-tongued, you have to admit that even a letter written by Heine casually is very popular and topical.

Although Herzen is still young, this kid already has a lot of Heine's temperament.

If the Russian environment had not strictly restricted his growth, this young man would have become as sharp-tongued as Heine sooner or later if he had moved to another place.

It's a pity that he has not made up his mind to leave Russia now. If one day he plans to change his environment and breathe some fresh air, "The Englishman" would be very willing to open its doors to him.

Although The Economist, a subsidiary of The Brit Magazine, is edited by John Stuart Mill, the quality of its economics content has always been guaranteed, but in terms of political commentary, the aggressiveness and topicality have obviously decreased a lot since several French people left.

When Arthur's old friends were still in London, there was no need to mention Alexandre Dumas, the former wanted criminal of the July Monarchy, and Louis, this kid, could get a lot of money in every issue.

Like something from the early days:
My principles are thoroughly republican, but I am opposed not to all monarchies, but to monarchies that cannot be combined with the "interests of the people."

If the Rhine were the Rhine Sea, if virtue were the only motive of human action, if authority could only be acquired by merit, I should be a simple republican.

After working with Arthur, he seemed to have a pragmatic streak, and thus made the following statement:
Without Napoleon's government and empire, the revolution would have been just a spectacular drama, leaving behind many great memories but no trace. The reason why Napoleon was able to accomplish such a great cause was that he thought about what the people thought about and was concerned about what the people were concerned about. So why did Napoleon become emperor?

Because what lasts is good. What lasts the longest is the best for the people, and the monarchy lasted the longest in France and is the best for the French. If the desire to have an emperor had not already existed in the emotions and ideas of most people, Napoleon would not have been able to realize it.

Napoleon said to the whole nation: Do you want a hereditary monarchy?
The nation voted in favor of the election with 400 million votes. Louis even presciently added a note: "Some people question the legitimacy of this election, but by doing so, they are also attacking all the constitutions of the Republic, because none of them received so many votes in favor."

Of course, Louis's statement can only fool those who don't know the subject. As a top student majoring in history at the University of London, although Arthur pretended to be confused when facing Louis, it didn't mean that he didn't understand what was going on.

After all, even a fool knows that it is impossible to reach a 99.8% approval rate in any vote, and the approval rate of 100% in Corsica, Napoleon's hometown, is even more ridiculous. According to French police documents intercepted by British spy William Wickham at the time, Napoleon's real support rate should be at least 30% higher.

But how did they raise their approval rating?

Arthur once privately asked Marshal Soult, who was responsible for organizing the vote of the Saint-Omer garrison at the time, and the Paris detective Vidocq, who was a policeman collecting votes on the front line at the time in Paris.

Marshal Soult did not explain it too clearly, leaving the emperor some face.

However, Victor, who had long been out of the system, had no scruples when speaking.

Victor bluntly stated that the voting rules at the time stipulated that if there was no explicit opposition, it would be deemed as approval, which resulted in a large number of unsigned signatures being automatically classified as in favor.

At that time, there were 1124 eligible residents in the third arrondissement of Paris, which he was responsible for, of whom only 29 actually signed, but the resolution was reported as unanimously in favor.

As for those who intended to vote against, the police used conventional means, first sending commissioners to persuade them, and then hinting to them that if they voted against, they would be investigated to see whether they had participated in the rebellion of 1793.

Not only that, Vidocq even swore to heaven that he had heard with his own ears the then Police Chief Fouché complain privately: We have created the first statistical emperor in history.

Arthur certainly had no doubt that there were indeed many people in France who were Napoleon's die-hard supporters, but Fouché's words also further demonstrated that Napoleon's mathematical level was quite high.

Apart from anything else, at least when he was counting the number of prostitutes at Scotland Yard, he did not dare to be as meticulous as Napoleon and report to Parliament that prostitutes accounted for only 0.02% of the total number of women in London.

Why didn't Arthur dare to report it?
After much thought, the Jazz concluded that the main problem was that the level was not high enough.

There is indeed an insurmountable gap between a deputy European-level official like the Emperor of the First Empire and a deputy department-level official like the Assistant Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police.

Even Napoleon himself was too lazy to hide his own secret operation, because Arthur heard from Talleyrand that the original text was: The point of the vote is not the number, but to let the opposition in Europe and at home see how France kneels to him. This is a classic Napoleonic demonstration.

It was obvious that Arthur was not so stupid as to think he could make Parliament and the Cabinet bow down to him.

If he really intended to do this, then let alone such a good job as participating in the winter swimming competition in the Ganges, sending him to Australia to set up a colonial security agency was Agares's secret effort behind the scenes.

However, from this point of view, Napoleon and Nicholas I are similar in some aspects.

The only difference between the two is that Napoleon's level was indeed higher than Nicholas I, and with the blessing of military victory, there were indeed quite a lot of people in France at that time who sincerely voted for Napoleon.

Arthur shared interesting stories about Paris with this group of young people, which finally helped to dilute the heavy atmosphere after learning that the Lyon workers' uprising was bloodily suppressed.

"Napoleon's nephew..." Herzen muttered, "I never thought you knew such a man."

"Is it strange?" Arthur joked, "You actually know a lot of weird people. Remember the Leipzig incident? There was a member of Young Italy, Mr. Garibaldi. He must have arrived in South America by now."

"Of course I remember Dumas, Heine, Garibaldi and Otto..."

Happy memories appeared in the eyes of the young people. Whenever they recalled the experience of that day, they still felt as if they were dreaming.

However, Arthur interrupted their reminiscence at the right time. The old man looked at Herzen and said with both good intentions and ill intentions: "And Mr. Karl Schapper, how could you forget him? If Heine had not written to me later to explain the situation, I would probably still be in the dark until now."

"Mr. Karl Schapper? What happened to him?"

Arthur said bluntly, "As you know, I was the academic supervisor and special national representative of the University of Göttingen at that time. The reason why the German Confederation set up special national representatives in various universities was because of the Frankfurt Garrison incident in April last year, when a group of students attacked the Frankfurt Arsenal. Later, I learned that Mr. Schapper was one of those students. At that time, he was wanted by the German Confederation, so he fled to Switzerland and joined the Young Italy led by Mazzini. Later, he was sent by Mazzini to organize the Genoa Uprising with Garibaldi. Garibaldi originally planned to take him to South America, but Schapper actually got off the ship in Calais halfway, secretly went to Paris, and formed a secret organization with many German political exiles living in France, called the League of the Just. If Heine had not been invited by them a while ago, I would not have known that I was also deceived by him until now."

(End of this chapter)