shadow of britain

Chapter 733: The Alhambra in Chaos
The Alhambra Theater at night is like a dream.

Strings of bubble lights flickered on the ironwork of the porch, and the red carpet in front of the door still had the lingering scent of a lady's skirt. Arthur helped Disraeli, who was still rubbing his eyes, through the bustling crowd and into the gold-rimmed glass double doors.

The guard at the theater door recognized the familiar couple at a glance, and welcomed them in with a nod and a bow, not noticing that Disraeli had heavy makeup on his face.

They went straight up to the box area on the third floor, and before they even stepped into the permanent box belonging to the directors of Empire Publishing Company, they heard a tense quarrel inside.

"This is the beginning of a usurpation! Just wait and see, that old sailor can dissolve Parliament today and burn the charter tomorrow!"

Dickens clapped his hands on the armrests as he spoke passionately. His face turned so red that a button on his burgundy waistcoat popped off.

It was the first time in all the time that Arthur had known Dickens that he had seen him so angry.

"Charles, stop talking about the Restoration of the Monarchy."

Dumas lazily leaned back in his chair. The fat man was using the telescope provided by the theater to look at the ballet dancers rehearsing below him: "Think positively. At least your king is William IV, not Louis Philippe, let alone some Bourbon."

"Then tell me, what should we do now?" Dickens jumped up: "We are writers, we are journalists, we need to speak out! Have you thought about what to write for tomorrow's editorial?"

"Write?" Dumas turned over with his belly bulging. "How about writing a tragedy? The name of the play is 'The Twilight of the Blue Lobster'."

Heine poured himself a glass of wine. "Twilight of the Blue Lobster? Alexander, you got it wrong. I feel like this is a good thing for Scotland Yard. If the British monarchy is really restored, Arthur will most likely rise from the sea level again."

He coughed lightly, as if he was clearing his throat, or as if he was reminding everyone to pay attention.

Then he recited a verse in a low but clear voice in German.

"I will write a new song for you, a better song, my friends! We will build a heaven on earth above this earth."

Just then, the door suddenly opened.

Disraeli wiped the blood from his nose with his sleeve and ignored Heine.

Arthur put Disraeli down on the sofa, stretched himself and said, "Here you go again, Heinrich, you want to talk about revolution again?"

Disraeli fumbled to sit up straight after hearing this, and said with disdain: "Let him speak, the problem with this little German Jew is that there are too many poems and too few actions. Even if he sings louder, when the time for re-election comes, the Tories will still be able to win half of the country. Can the paradise in his poems still beat the Tory gentry's carriage?"

After that, Disraeli was still dissatisfied and taught Dickens a lesson: "Charles, I really didn't expect that you are still a supporter of the Whig Party today. Tell me, what good things have those fake aristocrats who smell of ink and banknotes done in Parliament in the past two years?"

Dickens replied unconvincedly: "Benjamin, isn't the complete abolition of slavery a credit to them?"

"Yeah! To abolish slavery, the Whig Party is so great! Bah!"

Disraeli spat: "Because of the abolition of slavery, Parliament now has to pay 20 to 30 million pounds to compensate the slave owners. Such a huge financial burden has caused the government budget to be seriously overspent. Therefore, a new Poor Law has to be introduced to fill the deficit by reducing social welfare spending. If there are more good ideas like this, the poor in Britain will soon have to live on potatoes and seaweed!"

Dickens' face turned red and white at Disraeli's sarcasm. He insisted, "Of course the new Poor Law is a bad policy. My Oliver Twist is also about the new Poor Law, but just because there are problems with the new Poor Law, it doesn't mean that abolishing slavery is wrong! Moreover, what a shitty speech Gladstone of your party gave. Not only did he openly defend slavery, but you Tory members actually sat down and applauded him. You have no shame!"

Unexpectedly, Dickens' accusation fell on Disraeli, but he felt nothing. "Gladstone was originally a bastard, and you only know it now? Didn't you think that guy liked to persuade prostitutes to change their ways and often went deep into the slums to investigate, so he was a decent gentleman? His family had 3,000 slaves working on the plantation in the West Indies. Why do you think he defended slavery? After the abolition of slavery, his family received a lot of compensation, and in Liverpool, the slave owners' lair, he is now regarded as a hero!"

Arthur poured a cup of tea and watched his two friends arguing leisurely.

Although to later generations it may seem strange that a person supported slavery and advocated protecting the rights of the poor.

But in fact, people with similar views were not uncommon in 19th century politics.

The most interesting of these was a speech Arthur had seen in a newspaper some time ago.

It was a speech by Mr. William Cobbett, the founder of the Poor People's Political Monthly, against the new Poor Law. The speech was so passionate that just by reading the text one could imagine the scene on the day of the speech when Mr. Cobbett raised his arms and shouted, and the workers responded in unison.

Mr. Corbett said bluntly: The poor endured occasional famines just to enrich the pockets of the landlords! In my opinion, the real purpose of the new Poor Law is to reduce the living standards of the English to the situation of the Irish, so that they can only live on potatoes at most.

You see, Mr. Corbett is already a well-known progressive figure in the UK. He was once imprisoned for two years for libel and once went into exile in the United States due to political persecution in his country.

However, even such a person would still unconsciously convey his contempt for the Irish in his words.

Not many people cared about the interests of the Irish, let alone the slaves.

All in all, it is indeed a bit simplistic to simply use liberalism or conservatism to divide a person's political inclination.

Just like Disraeli and Gladstone both opposed the abolition of slavery, but their reasons for opposing it were very different.

Dickens was about to continue speaking, but was interrupted by Disraeli with a wave of his hand.

"You always use the Abolition Bill as a cover." Disraeli was very annoyed with Dickens's flattery of the Whig Party: "If you want to talk about a bill that really fights for the interests of workers, you should not say a word about us Tories." "What do you mean?" Dickens frowned: "You mean the new Factory Act?"

"Yes!" Disraeli nodded unceremoniously. "The Factory Act of 1833 limited child labor to no more than twelve hours a day, prohibited the employment of children under the age of nine, and required the establishment of an inspectorate system in factories. Although the original draft of this bill was proposed by the Whig Party, do you know who was the first to stand up and support it?"

"Sir Edward Dunmur, the Whig," Dickens blurted out.

Disraeli sneered: "Sir Dunmur? His ideas are not as clear as those of the Vicar of Blackburn! Who really made the bill move from paper to reality? It was Sir Robert Peel! A Tory! Not only did he vote in favor, but he also took the lead in implementing it in his own Manchester factory. If you check the records at the time, the proportion of Tories voting in favor of the bill in the House of Commons was far higher than those Whig MPs who were still thinking about how to appease the trade unions."

Dickens' eyebrows jumped: "Peel is a contradiction. His father is a cotton magnate, and he himself is often criticized for his lack of sympathy for workers. But now you want to regard him as a friend of workers?"

Disraeli sneered: "Arthur is also a contradiction. He is a cop from Scotland Yard. He was criticized by Fleet Street for shooting at demonstrators on the eve of parliamentary reform. But now you want to treat him as a true friend?"

Arthur almost choked to death on his tea when he heard this. He put down his teacup and said, "Everyone, I didn't provoke you today, did I?"

Disraeli snorted, crossed his legs and insisted, "Ask Charles, he started it. I hate those idiots who cheer for the Whigs. Isn't it just dissolving Parliament? Dissolving it is good! I am happier to see the Whigs step down than to see me elected!"

As Disraeli finished his words, he heard applause from the corner of the room.

Heine, who was eager to see the world in chaos, stood up and applauded, saying, "Well done! Mr. Disraeli, you should be happy about the dissolution of Parliament. If you keep going like this, the British Parliament will become your favorite farce, in which you can always find a way to be the protagonist."

Disraeli smiled with a fake smile. If he hadn't been feeling unwell today, he would have stepped up and punched him. "What do you have to do with this? Do you understand politics?"

"Of course, I don't understand politics." Heine's tone suddenly became extremely sincere: "Because I naively thought that politics was about letting children go to school, letting the poor not go hungry, and letting women light stoves in winter. But you told me that politics was about letting Robert Peel speak for child laborers and then turn around and make peace with slave owners. Who are you going to give these leftovers to?"

Disraeli retorted, "Yes, it is leftovers, but at least we really served the meal. Unlike you, Heinrich, who writes poems in Paris and curses the German princes and nobles, and comes to London to live in hotels, drink port wine, wear cashmere coats, and date girls all over Europe with the help of the French government, and then you have to brag about it in the newspapers and say: Look, I am the friend of the people!"

Heine's face turned red with anger at these words. He slammed the table hard, and the wine glass fell over with a snap.

"What did you say?!" He took a step forward and pointed at Disraeli's nose: "You are a politician who has made a name for himself in the House of Commons by talking nonsense!"

"Come on!" Disraeli took off his coat. "You are a man who talks hard but does soft things. Do you think we Sephardim Jews are as spineless as you Ashkenazi Jews?"

Seeing that the two of them were about to fight again, Dumas stepped forward and tried to smooth things over in a familiar manner: "All right, all right, gentlemen, gentlemen... If you really want to fight here tonight, then I suggest you go to the backstage dressing room instead. There are lines to cushion your fists, curtains to wipe your nosebleeds, and makeup mirrors to look at your ugly faces now."

"Humph!"

"Humph!!"

Heine turned his head away, Disraeli sat down with gritted teeth, and the two men looked at each other like defeated roosters, taking advantage of Dumas' step to get off the ground.

After a moment's silence, Dickens said softly, "Well, at least we have reached a consensus. We are both against each other on the issue of the king dissolving parliament. So, Arthur, which side are you on?"

Arthur was slowly adding sugar to his teacup. He looked up at everyone and said, "You want to hear my opinion? I'm just a dismissed official."

Heine begs the question: "Perhaps it will soon cease to be, just as someone will soon lose his lucrative job as a member of the House of Commons."

Disraeli also urged, "You should return to Scotland Yard as soon as possible. It would be best if you could lock up this German spy who has been paid by the French government tomorrow afternoon."

Dumas looked at Disraeli and laughed. "Benjamin, you talk as if you were Home Secretary."

Disraeli snorted. "Who knows? Anyway, we are sure to win a landslide victory in this election. After the parliamentary reform, the workers felt that they were cheated. After the new Poor Law came out, I don't know how many protests the trade unions held. If we still can't guarantee a majority in the House of Commons under this circumstance, then I will..."

When Arthur heard this, he poured cold water on him: "The question is, do the workers have the right to vote?"

Disraeli was stunned for a moment, then he slapped his forehead as if waking up from a dream: "This... After the news of the dissolution of Parliament came out, I was too happy, and ended up letting this matter..."

Arthur shrugged. "That's all. How can you be so sure that the election will be favorable to the Tories? Although the lower classes are indeed very dissatisfied with the Whigs' rule in the past two years, the middle classes are also cheering for them. I don't think you will be able to gain an advantage in another election, unless His Majesty the King is really crazy and wants to stage a military coup instead of just dissolving Parliament."

Disraeli's face turned green when he heard this.

Although there is a chance of a military coup, after all, the army is in the hands of the Tories, but the Royal Navy supports the Whigs!

If this happens, wouldn't that mean a civil war?

Although Disraeli was dissatisfied with the Whig Party, the civil war was too extreme.

When he thought of this, his hot-blooded brain calmed down.

Arthur saw that he had finally calmed down, and asked, "By the way, you, the person closest to the truth, have not yet explained to us what happened in the parliament today."

(End of this chapter)