SGB Chapter 362

## Chapter 362: Storm Clouds Gathering

**London, Palace of Westminster.**

Through the long corridors of the palace, pushing open the heavy doors, the four hundred plus green leather seats of the House of Commons chamber instantly came into view.

Although the chamber wasn’t small, it still felt cramped with over six hundred members of Parliament, journalists, citizens, and petition groups crowding in.

In the bustling environment, no one would notice a Scotland Yard Inspector standing on the second floor of the chamber.

Arthur’s status was no longer what it used to be. He was even on the fringes of true high society.

However, compared to the gentlemen present here, his title seemed unremarkable.

Many of the gentlemen here had “Sir”, “Baron”, or even “Lord” printed on their calling cards.

As for why there were no Baronets, Viscounts, Earls, or other more prestigious titles in the House of Commons, it was simply because those noble gentlemen were all sitting in the House of Lords next door.

Although the House of Commons was also known as the “House of the People”, in 19th century Britain, anyone who thought the gentlemen of the House of Commons were ordinary commoners because they lacked noble titles would be greatly mistaken.

Take the common Lord titles in the House of Commons for example. There were only two possibilities for holding the title of “Lord”.

One possibility was that the title holder was a bona fide Baron or above, regardless of whether they were a Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquess, or even Duke, they could all be collectively called “Lord”.

However, in practice, people usually only called a Baron “Lord”. When facing higher-ranking nobles, they would respectfully call them Duke, Marquess, and so on.

The reason for this was simple: to avoid awkwardness.

It was like how people would automatically drop the “Vice” when addressing a Vice-President or Vice-Manager, calling them President and Manager respectively.

Of course, the Lords present in the House of Commons weren’t even Barons. They belonged to another special category: their fathers were nobles and their fathers were still alive.

For these “second-generation nobles”, the British people, according to traditional custom, would also politely address them as “Lord”.

For example, the current Home Secretary, Viscount Melbourne, was always called “Lord” when his father was alive. He had been in the House of Commons for nearly thirty years due to his commoner status.

After his father’s death, the Viscount, who inherited his father’s title, naturally had to leave the House of Commons and go to the new world of the House of Lords.

Of course, not everyone had the same luck as Viscount Melbourne, being the eldest son and only needing to outlive his old man to be promoted to the House of Lords.

For the younger sons of the family, they would lose the title of “Lord” after their father’s death.

But most fathers understood their sons’ situation, so they would often send their younger sons into the military to gain some experience before their death. When their time and experience were sufficient, they would pull some strings to get their sons a knighthood or a Baronetcy.

Although Knights and Baronets still belonged to the commoner class in the British social hierarchy, at least they could put “Sir” on their calling cards, right?

The most successful person to take this path was Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington.

As a younger son with no inheritance rights, Wellington didn’t show any exceptional talent in his childhood. After graduating from Eton College, he was sent to the École Militaire de Pinerolo in Angers, France.

After graduating from military school, his second brother, Edward Wellesley, donated a Lieutenant’s commission in the 73rd Highland Regiment in Scotland for him.

After several years of experience in the army, Wellington himself managed to raise funds and donate his way up to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Then, the French Revolution broke out, and young Wellington was sent to the Netherlands to fight against France. His first battle resulted in his first and only defeat.

Perhaps he learned valuable combat experience from this defeat. After recovering from his injuries, Wellington, hardened by the baptism of fire, went on to achieve greater success.

He first followed his elder brother, Richard Wellesley, to India and was promoted to Colonel, commanding the 33rd Infantry Regiment to participate in the war against the Kingdom of Mysore.

In his five years in India, Wellington achieved many victories, almost single-handedly helping Britain win the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War.

He also used his outstanding achievements to save his father a significant sum of money for bribing people to award him a knighthood.

Thanks to his achievements in India, Wellington was knighted as a Knight of the Bath upon his return to England. He was promoted to Major General and concurrently appointed Irish Secretary.

In the subsequent Peninsular War, Wellington continued to climb the ranks, stepping over the heads of several French Marshals.

In 1808, after defeating French Marshal Jean-Andoche Junot at the Battle of Vimiero, Wellington was promoted to Lieutenant General and awarded the title of Baron Douro of Wellesley in Somerset.

In 1809, after ambushing French Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult and capturing the Portuguese stronghold of Porto at the Battle of Talavera, he was awarded the title of Viscount Wellington of Talavera and Somerset.

In 1810, after defeating Marshal André Masséna at the Battle of Busaco, he was awarded the title of Earl Wellington.

In July of the same year, he defeated French Marshal Auguste Marmont at the Battle of Salamanca with fewer troops, captured the Spanish capital of Madrid, was promoted to General of the Army, and awarded the title of Marquess Wellington.

In 1813, he made a long march, completely destroyed the 50,000 French troops led by his uncle, King Joseph Bonaparte, at the Battle of Vittoria, drove the French out of the Iberian Peninsula, and invaded France. For such brilliant achievements, the King and Parliament naturally bestowed upon him the highest honors: he was promoted to Field Marshal, awarded the title of Duke of Wellington, and awarded the highest honor in Britain, the “Order of the Garter”.

Of course, this was far from all of Wellington’s honors.

As a veteran medal collector, Arthur saw in his residence, 1 Apsley House in London, medals that included, but were not limited to:

The highest honor of the Kingdom of Portugal: the Order of the Tower and Sword, Grand Cross.

The highest honor of the Kingdom of Spain: the Order of the Golden Fleece.

The highest honor of the Kingdom of Sweden: the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword, First Class.

The highest honor of the Austrian Empire: the Order of Maria Theresa, Grand Cross.

The highest honor of the Russian Empire: the Order of St. Andrew.

The highest honor of the Kingdom of Prussia: the Order of the Black Eagle.

The highest honor of the Kingdom of Sardinia: the Order of the Annunciation.

The highest honor of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies: the Order of St. Ferdinand and Merit.

In addition, there were many top medals from the small German states, as well as medals that Arthur couldn’t even recognize.

Of course, the highlight was the Duke’s eight Marshal’s batons.

It could be said that the Duke of Wellington was only missing one French Legion of Honor medal to complete his European medal collection.

But he didn’t get this medal because he was the one who forced Napoleon to abdicate.

Because of Napoleon’s abdication, the medal was temporarily discontinued, making it unavailable to everyone. Arthur wanted to take a look at the medal, but he had to apply to Talleyrand, which was truly a heinous crime.

However, although the Duke of Wellington’s achievements were dazzling and brilliant, it didn’t mean that every nobleman’s younger son could be as successful as him.

Many people in the House of Commons only had a Baronetcy bought with money, or a lower order knighthood obtained through backdoor connections.

Of course, there were also those who didn’t even have a Baronetcy or a lower order knighthood, such as Benjamin Disraeli, who was being besieged by a group of Whig MPs on the central stage.

Mr. Hunt of the Westminster Union kept pounding on the table, his face flushed as he fired a barrage of questions at Disraeli.

“From 1721 to 1832, 22 Prime Ministers, 13 were Lords of the Upper House, 6 were sons of nobles, and 1 was a grandson of a noble. Important positions like Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State, and Lord Chamberlain were also held by nobles, and Britain’s major diplomats were mostly controlled by the great nobles!

From 1734 to 1832, 3/4 of the members were landowners or their close relatives, and the rest of the MPs were either their friends or wealthy merchants and freelancers nominated by them. As for the military, it was even more of a noble’s world. Our Parliament once explicitly stipulated that officers should come from property-owning families! Therefore, most of those serving in the military were landowning nobles and property owners.

In Parliament, I conducted a background investigation on 558 MPs who have served in the House of Commons for a long time. The results show that 107 were sons of nobles, 68 were brothers and nephews of nobles, and 129 were Baronets and their immediate relatives. In other words, 55% of the MPs in the House of Commons have some noble blood in them.

Parliament and the military are controlled by nobles, while local judicial and administrative power is controlled by influential gentry. Britain’s vast workers, farmers, and small craftsmen are excluded from state power. The current British government does not represent merchants, nor does it represent farmers. It represents the nobles who make up less than one ten-thousandth of the entire population!

This is a typical aristocratic oligarchy, with power concentrated in the hands of a few. If Parliament does not represent all the people of Britain, Disraeli, how can you continue to shamelessly claim to be the people’s representative? How can you shamelessly claim that parliamentary reform is unnecessary!”

Disraeli, upon hearing Hunt’s questioning, simply wrinkled his nose and snorted softly, “Mr. Hunt, I never said I was firmly opposed to parliamentary reform. However, I believe that parliamentary reform should be a gradual, slow process. If you insist that we immediately implement universal suffrage, fine, then the first people you need to convince are your Whig colleagues who stand on the same sewer as you. This is Parliament, not a market square where you haggle over prices. If you don’t coordinate your actions beforehand, then any discussion we have here will be pointless…”

Arthur leaned on the railing on the second floor, listening to Disraeli’s eloquent speech on the rostrum in the center of the chamber, and couldn’t help but comment, “It seems Benjamin is quickly getting used to his new responsibilities.”

Dumas, standing beside him, couldn’t help but shake his head upon hearing Disraeli’s words, “Benjamin, this kid is really hiding his true self. But I can’t understand how a Jewish boy could become a Conservative. Is there any disadvantage to parliamentary reform for Jews? How did his rear end end up on the Tory side?”

Arthur leaned against the railing and said, “Alexander, this isn’t a matter of the rear end, it’s a matter of politics. He is currently a Tory MP under the patronage of the Earl of Lindhurst, and secondly, he is a Jew. At this stage, he can’t really put forward too many of his own views.”

Dumas snorted, “Maybe the Earl of Lindhurst chose him because of this? Jews who have been discriminated against are all on their side, how can anyone else propose further reforms?”

Arthur shook his head, “In my opinion, it’s better to have the support of the Earl of Lindhurst than the support of the Duke of Newcastle. The Earl of Lindhurst is at least a liberal within the Tories, on the same side as Sir Peel, while the Duke of Newcastle and the Earl of Eldon are the most difficult to deal with. In the second vote on the last Parliamentary Reform Bill, half of the 76 votes against it in the House of Commons came from them.”

“Only half?” Dumas asked, “Who cast the other half?”

Arthur played with the gilded snuffbox given to him by Inspector Jones, “Need I say more? Of course, it was Wellington’s Conservatives.”

Dumas frowned, “Didn’t the Tory extremists break with the Duke of Wellington over the Catholic Emancipation Act? How come they’re all in the same pit on the issue of parliamentary reform?”

“Times have changed,” Arthur said, looking at the noisy MPs downstairs, “The Catholic Emancipation Act offended all the priests, but the Tory extremists also have those who aren’t so devout. In fact, the Tories are not only split among liberals, but even the extremists are split in two. If the Tories didn’t still control the absolute majority in the House of Lords, the Parliamentary Reform Bill should have been passed by now.”

Dumas asked, “That’s why I said the British House of Commons is just a formality. As long as you control the House of Lords, you can veto any bill passed in the House of Commons. If that’s the case, what’s the point of having two houses in Britain? Just to make themselves look democratic?”

Arthur simply shook his head, “Alexander, you don’t understand. Although the House of Lords can indeed veto bills from the House of Commons, using this power too much will cause trouble. The current protests and marches for parliamentary reform across Britain are already a clear sign.”

Dumas shrugged, “Is that so? But what about it? Isn’t the Home Office planning to establish permanent police forces across the country? Are you still afraid of protests and riots?”

Arthur just glanced at him, “Yes, the Home Office is planning to do so. But are you pre-setting the political stance of the police force? I want to remind you that the Whigs are currently in power, they proposed the Parliamentary Reform Bill, and then they plan to set up local police forces. Although the initial intention of this approach is indeed to maintain local security and order, do you think it’s that simple?”

“Otherwise?” Dumas raised his eyebrows, “Is there anything else they are guarding against besides marches and riots?”

Arthur just chuckled, “Alexander, I thought the French were especially sensitive to this. But you, who participated in the July Revolution, are remarkably insensitive.”

Dumas pondered for a moment. He was about to ask further questions.

Suddenly, a hand patted him on the shoulder.

“Arthur, Alexander, although I don’t want to interrupt your enjoyment of watching the debate in the House of Commons, we need to take care of business now. Mr. Harrison is here, he’s at the entrance of the chamber.”

Dumas turned his head and saw that it was Louis who was speaking, “But I have to ask clearly! These British people always say one thing and do another.”

Arthur straightened his coat and chuckled softly, “If you ask me, I don’t know either. For this kind of thing, you should ask Louis. He’s an expert in this area.”

(End of Chapter)