shadow of britain

Chapter 776 The Decline of the University of London Department
The dice have been thrown.

—Julius Caesar

Unlike Elder, Arthur was not as concerned about his origins. After all, this Yorkshire farmer knew his background perfectly well. He knew his surname was Hastings, but before he changed it to Hastings, he didn't know what his surname was.

Even if he was related to the Hastings family by blood, it was his uncle, who was mentally unstable in his later years, who was connected to the Hastings family.

As for himself?
Unfortunately, his education at the University of London did not allow him to be proud of his aristocratic lineage, especially since it was just a name.

In the eyes of students, teachers and founders of the University of London, rising to a position through nepotism was a shameful thing, even though many of these people came from the aristocracy or knightly class, such as Elder, the Earl of Dalamore and Lord Brougham.

But perhaps precisely because of this, when they achieved success, they became even more reluctant to associate themselves with aristocratic forces.

That's right, they prefer that others attribute their success to their own efforts.

Take Lord Brougham, for example. This man, born into a Scottish lawyer's family, may have favored Arthur so much because he saw a reflection of his younger self in Arthur.

Brougham showed a passion for science in his youth. In his first year of work, at the age of 17, he published a paper on optics in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, which attracted the attention of the natural philosophy community.

After publishing several papers on light, color, and prisms, Brougham was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 25. Just when everyone thought that another young talent had emerged in the British natural philosophy community, Brougham unexpectedly put aside his scientific interests and went to study law. Just two years later, he passed the exam and was appointed a practicing barrister in Scotland.

During his studies, Brougham began to try to earn a living by writing.

His first article discussed colonial economic policies, and from that point on, he suddenly discovered his interest in economics, which led him to found the Edinburgh Review, the Whig party's left-wing newspaper.

While writing for the Edinburgh Review, Brougham would occasionally spare time to handwrite two essays on natural philosophy attacking Thomas Young’s arguments on the wave nature of light, or mocking the claim of Sir William Herschel, Director of the Royal Observatory, against the “correlation between the number of sunspots and the price of wheat.”

Of course, Lord Brougham's interests were not limited to this. In addition to natural philosophy and economic colonial policy, his articles published in the Edinburgh Review often touched on literature, poetry, surgery, mathematics, and fine arts, among other things.

After Brougham was elected president of the Law Society and helped the Queen win her divorce from the King, he began to lead the abolitionist and religious liberation movements, although he could not gain much support in Parliament because his views were too radical.

However, he soon turned his attention to the people, and after joining forces with Jeremy Bentham, the Earl of Dalamore, and others, Lord Brougham finally founded the "Atheist College on Gower Street," the University of London.

Portrait of the First Lords of Broham and Vaux, painted in 1825 by the English painter Thomas Lawrence.
In British society, whether Tory or Whig, upper or lower class, or even the middle class where Brougham's supporters are most numerous, whether you like him or hate him, everyone is willing to admit that Henry Peter Brougham was a brilliant and talented man.

Even a world-renowned scholar like Faraday often lamented that if Lord Brougham had focused his main efforts on research, his achievements might have rivaled those of Isaac Newton.

But there was no way around it. Like his student Arthur Hastings, Lord Brougham had a wide range of interests, but once he achieved excellence in each field, he would inevitably want to explore other areas.

For example, he recently invented a new carriage called the "Brookham Carriage" and has already obtained a patent for it.

This is a four-wheeled enclosed carriage designed specifically for the middle class, and it is far more comfortable to ride in than the travel carriages currently on the market.

The Brougham Coach

Even more absurdly, when Arthur saw the carriage in person, he realized that this classic Victorian carriage design was actually created by his teacher.

To support his teacher's business, the chairman of the board of Imperial Publishing placed an order for three carriages as soon as they were launched: one for his own use, one for company use, and one for Elder.

Generally speaking, apart from the time he bought a house, Sir Arthur Hastings rarely made such large expenditures.

Even that house was only bought because Lionel offered him an irresistible rock-bottom price, which is why Arthur "reluctantly" bought it.

But this time, Arthur not only refused Lord Brougham's offer of a 20% discount, but also ordered three cars at once.

This wasn't just out of teacher-student affection; perhaps more so because Arthur was willing to spend some money to make his mentor feel better.

Just yesterday, the list of the new cabinet of the Viscount of Melbourne was officially published in the London Gazette.

In this cabinet appointment, most of the cabinet ministers were retained from last year's Melbourne cabinet.

Unfortunately, Lord Brougham's name is not among them.

Even more strangely, Prime Minister Viscount Melbourne did not appoint anyone else to succeed Lord Brougham, but instead left the position of Chief Justice vacant.

Lord Brougham was neither dismissed, nor removed from office, nor promoted; instead, he simply disappeared.

In fact, Arthur had already heard the news from Lionel Rothschild the night before the London Gazette was published.

However, at that time, he still held a sliver of hope, thinking that Melbourne might just be too hesitant, which was why it did not immediately appoint a Supreme Court Justice.

But when he saw the official appointment notice the next day, marked "temporarily vacant," he realized that it wasn't because he was too late, but because it was intentional.

The Viscount of Melbourne wanted to sideline Lord Brougham and the London University faction he represented.

The reason he hasn't appointed a Chief Justice yet is simply because he fears that replacing Lord Brougham with someone else at this time might provoke opposition from the party's radicals. Given Lord Brougham's character, he is currently in his prime, and replacing him outright would be tantamount to humiliating him. If he were provoked, he might very well lead his faction to defect from the Whig Party.

However, if Brougham is appointed to the position... the consequences might be even worse.

Lord Brougham's unwavering political stance on slavery and the Irish Church, coupled with his rebellious nature and eloquence, earned him many enemies within the party and made him unpopular with the King. Neither a party split nor the King's wrath was something Melbourne desired.

Therefore, leaving the position of Supreme Court Justice vacant now is the safest solution.

First, they secretly sent someone to speak very kindly to Brougham, offering him a rosy picture to appease him.

Then, once everyone has forgotten about Brougham, Melbourne can openly send its trusted confidants.

Although Arthur had not seen the Viscount Melbourne's roadmap, he was certain that things would likely turn out this way in the end.

The only saving grace is that the ambassador to Russia, the Earl of Daramo, was not affected by the cabinet reshuffle. However, Arthur believes this is mostly not because the Viscount of Melbourne showed leniency, but because the British diplomatic system has always preferred to maintain the stability of personnel at overseas embassies.

Moreover, taking down Brougham alone might be enough to keep things quiet, but if we also take down Count Daramo...

Then it becomes: Darwin's head louse—an obvious fact.

The Whigs pressed closer, forcing Arthur to gravitate towards the Tory Party.

After all, he doesn't have many cards to play right now. Although Victoria is his trump card, it's too expensive and won't be unlocked for several years.

If you rush to open it now, you might end up losing more than you gain.

On the other hand, the position of Provost of the University of London not only lost its value severely after Lord Brougham's fall from power, but also made him an easy target.

Arthur has recently been hearing frequent rumors that the University of London may merge with King's College London to form a new University of London.

The University of London was officially granted the Royal Charter of Teaching four years ago. At that time, thanks to the strong insistence of Lord Brougham, the then Lord Chancellor, the rising tide of parliamentary reform, and the exemplary figure of Arthur Hastings, the Tories and Whigs finally reached a compromise, officially granting the University of London the right to award degrees.

However, four years later, the situation has clearly changed.

The University of London, once a Whig stronghold, was now seen as a hot potato, and Whig support for the university wavered significantly after Viscount Melbourne came to power. Conversely, in an effort to appease the King, quell William IV's anger, and unite various factions within the Whig party, Viscount Melbourne planned to make concessions to the monarchy on some issues he had previously disagreed with, such as his stance on education for commoners and slavery.

The merger of the University of London and King's College London was clearly a necessary and mutually beneficial sacrifice.

The original intention of the conservatives in establishing King's College was to compete with the University of London in university education.

Yes, King's College's primary mission is to compete with the University of London, and its secondary mission is to educate those good-for-nothing Anglicans who can't get into Oxford and Cambridge.

This can be seen from the fact that King's College was founded by George IV and its first principal was the Duke of Wellington himself.

If it were a struggle in another field, given Arthur's character and scheming, he would have taken a step back during his time lying low at Kensington Palace.

However, there are two places he is determined not to back down from.

First, Scotland Yard.

Second, there's the University of London.

You shot the lord in the chest, and he tolerated it.

But if you shoot Robert Culli, Sir Alex Ferguson won't stand for it.

If you don't allocate educational funds to the University of London, Sir Sir David can raise the funds himself through donations.

But if you were to merge the University of London and King's College London into one, and even change the name of the University of London, anyone who has studied there would find it unbearable.

If this had been accomplished during Arthur's tenure, it would have been a disservice to Mr. Jeremy Bentham, Lord Broham, and the Earl of Daramore. From then on, how would Sir Arthur Hastings have the face to face the people of Westminster?
The most difficult part of this issue is that, apart from the people at the University of London, everyone, whether Tory or Whig, is in favor.

Arthur remained silent, lost in thought, his fingers unconsciously tapping on the wooden edge of the car window.

"Hey, Arthur, what are you thinking about?" Elder patted Arthur on the shoulder, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Ok?"

“I’ve been talking for a while now, what’s your opinion?” Elder said. “Miss Flora Hastings, the Duchess of Kent’s lady-in-waiting.”

"What did you just say?"

“Don’t play dumb.” Elder glared at him. “I’ve been saying all along, what do you think of Flora? She’s been talking about you a lot lately.”

"What did she say about me?" Arthur asked absentmindedly. "Was she praising my dedication to teaching, or was she complaining that I never offer her my seat when we meet?"

“Neither.” Elder waved his hand, as if he didn’t know how to begin: “She said that when she went home to visit her family recently, she heard some gossip, which seemed to be about your background.”

Arthur's eyebrows slowly rose: "What gossip? Saying I'm the illegitimate son or grandson of the first Marquis of Hastings? Didn't you start this gossip first?"

“When did I ever spread such rumors? Arthur, don’t wrong me.” Elder said righteously, “Do I look like the kind of person who spreads rumors?”

“How could it not be?” Arthur counted on his fingers, “Who told me about the gossip between the Viscount Melbourne’s late wife, Duchess Pomsonby, and Lord Byron?”

"Is that just gossip? It's all true!"

“I know it’s true, but is it also true that she once attached a tuft of bloody… cough, hair to her love letters to Lord Byron as a sign of devotion and pain?”

"How can it not be true? It's absolutely true!"

"How do you know it's true?"

"Nonsense! It's because I saw that love letter with my own eyes!"

"what?!"

Arthur was startled. He never expected that this was actually true. He had previously thought that Elder was just making up rumors about other people because he had nothing better to do.

But then he thought again, given Duchess Ponceby's madness, she might actually do something like that.

After all, when Byron's coffin was transported from Greece back to England, she disregarded everything and rushed out of the street in front of tens of thousands of people, throwing herself onto the coffin and weeping uncontrollably. Several people tried to pull her off the coffin, but they couldn't.

In addition, there was her previously published book, *Glenarvon*, which used extremely explicit language to describe her affair with Byron...

It's important to know that this book is considered by the Book Publishing Committee to be on par with, or even a higher level than, many of Elder Carter's anonymous works, and has been on the controlled list for years.

Thinking about it this way, it's not particularly surprising that such a person would do anything.

Seeing that Arthur remained silent, Elder felt that his reputation had finally been cleared, and he said triumphantly, "Now you believe me, right?"

“Speak,” Arthur said, leaning back in his chair. “What gossip did Miss Flora overhear?”

“She said…” Elder glanced at Arthur, his tone softening, “The Earl of Huntington, a distant relative of the Hastings family whose title was restored in 1819, his aunt’s family was in the area on the border between Scotland and England, and the parish priest’s surname was Johnston. He was old and talkative, but his memory was frighteningly good. The old priest was talking about an old story from more than twenty years ago…”

(End of this chapter)