The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1279: Chapter 163: Secret Service Fund

During the thirty years of turmoil in Europe, Britain was the only European country not affected by the French Revolution. Given that, there was no need for the kingdom to backtrack, and our ruling class lacked the motivation to push history forward. As the Napoleonic Wars ended, the fear of the French and Napoleonic chauvinism vanished. It was this very mindset that once tightly united all classes in Britain.

The wartime emotional ties that connected the entire country disappeared, followed by discontent and disappointment. The surge in the number of demobilized soldiers and sailors made the situation even more dangerous. The soldiers harbored resentment toward the King and country they had fought for, as they were frequently ungrateful. This also presented new challenges for our police and intelligence work.

In this context, we must re-examine the intelligence agencies established since the 17th century. It is imperative to end the age-old traditions of separate intelligence systems within the Foreign Office, Home Office, Treasury, Royal Navy, Army, Post Office, and Scotland Yard, and pursue reform, reorganization, and integration of intelligence agencies.

—Arthur Hastings ”Hastings Memoirs: Fifty Years of Life”

If we talk about the history of intelligence agencies, Britain was clearly ahead of France and Germany.

Britain’s earliest intelligence organization was founded during the reign of Elizabeth I. Due to the effective use of intelligence, Britain won the war that ended Spain’s maritime supremacy.

However, after that, Britain, without external pressure, quickly lost interest in intelligence gathering.

Since it is a high-investment endeavor with highly unstable returns, neither the Parliament nor the King was willing to increase investment during peacetime.

However, as the King and Parliament were at loggerheads, Lord Protector Cromwell came to the historical stage. This famous dictator in British history, to prevent the restoration of the Stuart Dynasty, on one hand, formed the so-called ’Iron Army’ new model army, while on the other hand, began drastic reforms to rectify the struggling intelligence system.

He appointed his confidant John Selow as State Minister, specifically responsible for intelligence work.

Selow did not disappoint, deploying his spies across European countries. These spies not only closely monitored the actions of anti-British alliances in Europe but also infiltrated the exiled British Royalists abroad. Through various means such as money and threats, Selow successfully turned some Royalists to his side, thwarting Royalist conspiracies for restoration time and again.

In counter-espionage, Selow was even more adept. He divided the nation into 11 intelligence districts, each with a commander and a dedicated anti-spy cavalry squad, investigating and interrogating all outsiders.

Additionally, postal inspections and code-breaking were important means for Selow to obtain intelligence.

After becoming Postmaster in 1656, Selow quickly introduced a new postal regulation the following year, clearly stating that postal inspection was an effective means to investigate subversion plans. Shortly thereafter, he pushed Parliament to legislate, confirming the government’s right to open private letters.

To decipher the codes in the mails, Selow also established a decryption organization in London and hired a large number of mathematicians to decode Royalist ciphers.

The success of Selow’s work even drew admiration from the Venetian ambassador: ”There is no government in the world that keeps secrets as tightly as the British government, nor understands others’ affairs so quickly.”

However, such traditions gradually declined with Cromwell’s death and the restoration of the British Monarchy. Charles II and his successor James II were not highly attentive to intelligence work, thus interrupting and neglecting the development and research of codes, and abandoning postal inspection as an effective source and means of intelligence.

Entering the 18th and 19th centuries, France and Germany surpassed in the intelligence field.

The French originally had a solid foundation in intelligence. Mail inspection was a long-used method of the old French regime. Its original purpose was to monitor foreign embassies and occasionally provide the King with some obscene gossip about the people’s affairs.

After the Great Revolution, the new government’s mutual suspicion and the frequent assassination cases further intensified their fear of secret plots, which in turn increased the French emphasis on intelligence.

Napoleon and his Minister of Police Fouche joined forces to weave the French intelligence agencies into an impenetrable network.

What kind of person Fouche was does not need much evaluation.

Even Talleyrand considered Fouche morally low, yet on the other hand, he and Napoleon both acknowledged: Fouche was a talent that could not be nurtured through training.

In the early stages of the Revolution, Fouche insisted on executing Louis XVI, gaining immense prestige from it.

To show loyalty to the National Assembly, Fouche also volunteered to go to Vendee to demonstrate his iron fist tactics.

To put it nicely, Fouche in Vendee purged a large number of counter-revolutionaries, uprooted church organizations, and eradicated remnants of Christianity.

To put it less nicely, Fouche in Vendee did not kill many old nobles but massacred a large number of peasants and priests.

Besides, Fouche also succeeded greatly in the suppression actions in Lyon, where he tied hundreds of people together and shot them with grapeshot, winning himself the ’achievement’ of causing rivers of blood.