Shadow of great britain

London, Borough of Westminster, Whitehall Street, Home Office, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

In the office of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Sir Peel was sitting on an office chair. He was holding a copy of The Times, which was newly released this morning, and next to him was a copy that had just been delivered to the Ministry of Home Affairs. A copy of the Manchester Guardian with rain on it.

He carefully read every word in the newspaper, but the more he read, the more his hands shook.

In the end, he had no choice but to slam the newspaper down on his desk.

"This is nonsense! These people will do anything to force the cabinet to fall!"

His personal secretary happened to open the door and came in at this moment. He was shocked when he saw this scene. The personal secretary was stunned for a while, and then he remembered his mission.

"Sir, the Duke of Wellington just sent a message. He summoned you to go to No. 10 Downing Street."

Unexpectedly, as soon as the secretary finished speaking, another wet head appeared behind him. Sir Peel recognized this familiar face at a glance. It was the exclusive messenger of the Duke of Wellington.

"Sir, the Duke of Wellington just sent me here to inform you that you don't need to go to him. He should come here by himself."

As soon as the messenger finished speaking, there was another sound of boots hitting the floor and hurried footsteps in the hall outside the minister's office. The permanent undersecretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs pushed away the two people blocking him and said in a hurry.

"Sir, His Excellency the Duke's carriage has already..."

This time, before he could finish speaking, the angry voice of the Duke of Wellington rang out in the hall of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"Robert, have you read today's newspaper! Those pickpockets are simply crazy! Why don't they dare to say these things in front of me? According to insiders, every newspaper is based on insiders! Do they think that by hiding the word Tory, I won’t know who the insiders are!”

The Duke of Wellington's voice arrived almost at the same time. He frowned at the courier, private secretary and permanent undersecretary who were crowding at the door of the office, and reprimanded dissatisfiedly: "Don't you have anything to do? What are you doing here? ?”

The three of them looked at each other and defended themselves: "Your Excellency, we are just here to convey your order."

"Convey my orders?"

The Duke of Wellington was obviously angry. He sarcastically said: "I thought that Prussian reinforcements came slowly enough during the Battle of Waterloo, but compared with the three of you, I think Marshal Blücher is pretty good." Motivated.”

The three of them smiled awkwardly, then quickly stepped aside, invited the Duke of Wellington in, and then gently closed the door.

The Duke of Wellington dragged a chair to his desk and sat down with an angry look on his face.

Seeing his appearance, Sir Peel could only smile helplessly, then got up and went to the cabinet in the office and asked: "Want a cup of tea or some sherry?"

Duke Wellington waved his hand impatiently: "Just watch."

When Sir Peel heard this, he could only shrug his shoulders, then took out two goblets and the long-collected sherry, and poured a little for each of them.

The Duke of Wellington shook the wine glass, sniffed the golden wine first, then took a sip and commented immediately.

"It's a good wine. It tastes like it comes from Port Sainte-Marie in Andalusia, right?"

Sir Pierre smiled and nodded: "You really know wine very well."

Perhaps the wine had an effect, and Duke Wellington's bad mood finally calmed down a lot.

He said: "If you fought in the Peninsular War, you would also understand. From Lisbon in Portugal, to Madrid in Spain, to Toulouse in France, I wish I didn't know so much about wine.

Robert, do you remember what I told you? Fighting all the time is a bad thing. No matter how cruel a person is by nature, as long as he is thrown on the battlefield for a day, he will pray to God not to let him fight for even one more hour!

The Catholic Emancipation Act must be passed and Great Britain must not suffer civil war. The opposition simply cannot understand how important peace is. They will just keep shouting. Only when the cannonballs fall on their heads will they know what pain is. "

Sir Peel shook his head and said: "Your Excellency, those extremes in the party are different from what you think. Quite a few of them think war is a good thing.

The Napoleonic War in 22 years caused Great Britain to suffer a long-term continental trade blockade. As a result, domestic food prices skyrocketed, and land rents also increased year after year.

But it is easy to increase land rent, but it is difficult to lower it. How can those people who are used to living a life of luxury and luxury be willing to go back to the life they used to have?

If it weren’t for their insistence on not lowering land rent, how could there have been such a large-scale ‘Swein Riot’ in the past few months? "

When the Duke of Wellington heard this, he couldn't help but cursed: "I'm so angry when I say this! This group of people did not agree to reduce the land rent, nor did they agree to continue to amend the Corn Laws. In the end, they followed the Whigs to suppress the rioters. The reason is pushed to my head!

They really took advantage of all the good things to say! Well now, the Whigs are proposing reforms again! If all the declining constituencies are cancelled, I don’t see how these people will ever get into the House of Commons in the future! "

When Sir Peel heard this, he could only put his hands on his temples and frown, thinking: "This cannot continue like this. Some people in the party have begun to sway towards the Whigs.

Without their support we will not be able to maintain an absolute majority in the House of Commons. We must find a way to win the support of some people. "

The Duke of Wellington said: "I have calculated that due to the passage of the Catholic Emancipation Act, we can currently win the support of almost all constituency members in Southern Ireland, plus some moderate party members in Northern Ireland, we can probably Win at least 80 of Ireland's 105 seats in the House of Commons.

At present, there are still about 200 Tory members in England, Wales and Scotland who have made it clear that they are willing to support us. This adds up to 280 seats. "

Sir Peel frowned and shook his head: "But it's still not enough. With you sitting in the House of Lords, I'm not worried. But there are a total of 658 seats in the House of Commons, and we must win the support of 330 seats. Now it is the key to determine whether the cabinet can continue. , it depends on whether we can win over those legislators who hold the middle ground."

When Wellington heard this, he couldn't help but sigh: "Robert, if it doesn't work out, I might as well just reconcile with Huskisson. Although he has gone further and further away from the mainstream of the party in the past two years, he has never made an official announcement. Break away from the Tories. Those Huskisson MPs who follow him probably have more than 30 seats."

When Pier heard this, he couldn't help but smile: "I didn't expect you to be willing to take the initiative to raise this issue."

"What else should I do?"

The Duke of Wellington said helplessly: "I can't really be like what was written in the Manchester Guardian: domineering, completely ignoring the laws of philosophy, holding deep-rooted prejudices, and being stubborn in my own opinions despite being mediocre in ability, right? "

Sir Peel narrowed his eyes and smiled: "So you saw it too. I thought that because of your temper, you came to me today and wanted me to order the Scotland Yard police to arrest them."

"Censorship? I'm too lazy to do such a thing. They can say whatever they like. They have their mouths anyway, so let them do whatever they want."

The Duke of Wellington stood up and smoothed his clothes: "Then it's settled. I'll go and get Huskisson taken care of first. I'll rely on your help to fight for the remaining dozen seats, Robert. I know you and Some of the Whigs are on good terms, you can try to win them over."

Sir Pierre nodded: "I will go find a few middlemen in a while to see if there is any chance to contact them."

As soon as he finished speaking, suddenly, the door to the office was pushed open with a creak, and the private secretary stuck his head out from the crack in the door and spoke weakly.

"Sir..."

Seeing his appearance, Sir Peel couldn't help but smile and speak before him: "Who sent you to deliver the message this time?"

"No, others are already downstairs."

When Duke Wellington heard this, he also laughed. He drank the sherry in one gulp and said, "It seems that you have made progress. There is not so much nonsense."

Sir Peel asked: "Who is coming this time?"

The private secretary blinked twice: "Police Inspector of Scotland Yard, Mr. Arthur Hastings, would like to see you."

"oh?"

Sir Peel and the Duke of Wellington smiled at each other.

"Invite him in."