The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1220: Chapter 142: Hastings’ Double Life

In the Göttingen City Hall Hotel, Garibaldi and several young Italian exiles puffed on pipes, clutching slightly crumpled English newspapers in their hands.

Few among them understood English, but fortunately, the newspapers had been pre-translated into Italian with a pen.

Due to the enormous workload of translating the entire articles, the translator only selected certain excerpts. However, even just reading the headlines was enough to experience the shocking scenes within.

“The Swin Rebellion’s final verdict settled.”

Deputy Prosecutor of the London Regional Prosecutor’s Office and Special Representative of the Police, Arthur Hastings: “1976 rioters from 34 counties were sentenced according to the severity of their crimes, receiving punishments such as exile, imprisonment, fines, or pledging not to disturb the peace again.”

“Evasion of the real issue! According to this newspaper, 252 rioters were sentenced to hanging!”

“Prelude to a police state! Scotland Yard publicly demands an expansion under the backdrop of a major army downsizing!”

According to informed sources, a high-ranking official of the London police once privately suggested to the Home Secretary, Viscount Melbourne, that a large special police force should be rapidly recruited because the recruitment of these “special” police could cancel at least one reform protest.

“Home Secretary adopts absurd suggestion and proposes ‘Special Police Bill’ to Parliament.”

According to the news this morning, the ‘Special Police Bill’ passed its third reading in the Whig-controlled House of Commons, but was defeated by a majority in the Tory-controlled House of Lords. Sir Robert Peel, in conjunction with Home Secretary Viscount Melbourne, tried to persuade Tory members to approve the bill but met with strong opposition within the party.

Duke of Newcastle: “We cannot endanger Britain’s spirit of liberty; expanding police powers harms our tradition of local autonomy.”

“Is the Whig Party’s banner of freedom faltering? Viscount Palmerston expresses a different view.”

Viscount Palmerston: “The Tory Party’s reluctance to expand the police force is not for the sake of preserving freedom or traditional local autonomy. Instead, they wish to deploy the army for direct suppression during riots, which the expansion of the police would prevent.”

“Gravity is not only a major discovery in physics, but also belongs in the realm of political science.”

“From England’s finest officer to the Executioner of the Tower of London: how many steps does it take?”

“Freedom or death? Britons! Honest people, stand up!”

The time had finally arrived!

All Londoners gathered on that Tuesday.

We assure you, our frontline reporters witnessed the transfer of 6,000 machetes by Scotland Yard from the Tower of London, preparing for a bloody crackdown.

Remember the King’s odious speech! Remember Wellington’s arrogant face atop his horse! Remember the Peterloo Massacre, the Six Acts, the Swin Rebellion trial!

Those damned police, pigs, devil blue lobsters were now armed, flapping their tailcoats and tightly surrounding the new Satan, Arthur Hastings, ready to unleash doomsday upon good old Britain and its citizens.

Britons, can you endure any longer!

…

In the bedroom, only the dull sound of smoke being inhaled and exhaled could be heard, as if the air in the hotel had solidified.

These young Italian members felt their chests filled with nothing but anger.

Some clutched the edge of a newspaper so tightly they tore a hole into it. Others put down their newspapers, stood up, and paced the room, their heads down as if pondering something.

As for Garibaldi, he put down the newspaper and sat motionless in a chair.

He looked at the awkward, head-scratching Great Dumas sitting across the table and earnestly asked, “Mr. Dumas, if you just tell me these news reports are translation errors, I will believe you.”

The Great Dumas glanced at Garibaldi, not knowing what to say.

As a straightforward French Republican, nothing was more unacceptable than admitting his good friend was a reactionary.

In these matters, Dumas was nowhere near as adaptable as Heine.

Heine’s principles of friendship did not include sharing political views; he valued personal character and cooperation between the two.

And since Heine could not be considered a tolerant person, most of his enemies were not conservatives, but like-minded radical liberals who spoke harshly and had excessive egos.

But Dumas was different; he was quite tolerant towards fellow republicans and harbored deep hatred for conservatives.

Getting a free lunch from Mr. Dumas was simple; you merely needed to praise the French Revolution to win over this chubby man’s favor.

His approach meant that Dumas was wary of people mentioning his involvement with reactionary conservatives. He didn’t mind the exposure of his improper relationships with actresses or the fact that he had several illegitimate children, but he was particularly ashamed of his friendship with Sir Arthur Hastings.

Seeing Dumas lower his head in shame, Garibaldi instantly understood the situation.

He looked at the newspapers spread across the table and murmured, “So it seems Mazzini’s reports sent from London are true? Is he really such a person? This… this is truly unbelievable… someone who supports the Italian Revolution, someone who supports Polish independence, could actually be involved in such actions in London?”