The Shadow of Great Britain

Capítulo 1512: Chapter 252: France Coup—Your Emperor Has Returned! (Part 2)

Although when he parted with Louis in Paris, he sensed that the young man seemed to have changed.

Ever since the young Bonaparte learned that the son of Napoleon, the King of Rome, died of tuberculosis in Vienna, and that he himself had a significant opportunity to become the next leader of the Bonaparte family, an unrealistic fervor had ignited within him.

It was a kind of passion that Arthur had never seen during Louis’s tenure as Secretary of Police. The once grounded, progressing young man had suddenly vanished, replaced by a potential claimant to the throne of France.

The friends surrounding Louis had also changed from a group of old acquaintances to some unfamiliar faces Arthur had never seen.

The last time he met Louis in Paris, he advised him to consider the influence of the Royalists appropriately. Looking back now, it seems Louis had taken that advice, or else he would not have reached out to the Royalist leader Marquis of Gricourt.

However, Louis likely did not heed any of Arthur’s other advice.

Although Arthur understood that the young man was eager to become the Republican Emperor he envisioned, acting now seemed rather hasty.

In the past year, Louis had sporadically written Arthur a few letters, most of which discussed how unstable and unsupported by the people Louis Philippe’s July Monarchy was, as well as his discontent with the current state of France, this great nation.

At the time, Arthur dismissed it as the ambitious grievances of a young man, casually consoling him with a few words and leaving it at that.

Who would have thought that while Arthur was still struggling in the muddy trenches of Russia, burning incense and praying the Foreign Office wouldn’t ship him off to an overseas colony, his former subordinate had already dared to utter ‘he can be replaced’ towards Louis Philippe.

Louis’s rapid progress far exceeded Arthur’s basic expectations. Generally speaking, if a friend got into trouble, Arthur would always try to help, no matter what.

When in London, whether it was Eld’s petty theft or the trouble caused by a night of revelry with Great Dumas, Arthur would suppress it if he could.

But when it comes to ‘treason’, well, honestly, Arthur had never dealt with that before.

Besides, it’s not a matter of British treason; it’s French treason.

Arthur truly had no idea which way the door of the Paris Court of Appeal swung.

Arthur’s fingers irritably tapped on the tabletop as he muttered under his breath, “Why hasn’t that fat Alexander advised him a bit…”

But it wasn’t long before Arthur figured it out himself.

The big news Louis was causing wasn’t even known to him, so there was even less chance that Louis would tell Great Dumas.

According to Great Dumas’s Republican stance, although this chivalrous fat man might not directly report Louis, if he knew, he would surely write to Arthur complaining about Louis’s recent ideological decline.

Blackwell assumed that Arthur was mourning the possible downfall of the Grey Cabinet and set aside his file to comfort him, “Every coin has two sides. You might as well look on the bright side. Actually… I think as long as you don’t go to Canada or Australia, if you’re sent to India, it’s not that bad. Everyone says India is full of financial opportunities, right? Whether it’s as Governor of Mumbai or Governor of Madras, the fixed salary alone exceeds 6000 Pounds, and on top of that, there’s commission and such. An annual income breaking 10,000 Pounds should be a certainty. Even if you can’t be a Governor, becoming the mayor of Calcutta would be better than staying here and freezing your butt off, wouldn’t it?”

Arthur saw through Blackwell’s little scheme right away. For an official like him with neither background nor resume, promotion was a very elusive thing, but going to India to become rich was a high-probability event.

Although the East India Company now was not the corrupt and rampant commercial company it was a century ago, and the company’s contracted civil servants were prohibited from engaging in commercial activities, unable to act as both referee and player as in the past.

However, as Blackwell pointed out, in order to clarify governance and improve administrative efficiency, the East India Company had long adhered to a policy of high salaries to maintain integrity for successive Governors of India.

Those who served in the East India Company for over 20 years could easily break the 600 Pounds income barrier.

What kind of concept is this?

When Arthur was the Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, his income wasn’t even that high.

Not to mention the various welfare benefits that the East India Company had that Scotland Yard Police didn’t enjoy, such as pensions, hardship allowances, and numerous work injury compensations.

Just a few years ago, the East India Company distributed pensions and annuities totaling 80,000 Pounds to hundreds of former employees.

With such generous economic returns and life assurance, it’s no wonder many people go to great lengths to get their children into employment at the East India Company, allowing their descendants to hold onto this golden rice bowl.

Moreover, even though the East India Company was running a campaign against corruption now, that didn’t mean there weren’t any off-the-books incomes.

Because the employees of the East India Company were mainly of two types: the higher-ranked British contracted civil servants and the local Indian non-contracted civil servants working under them.

This meant that as long as you were a British employee in the East India Company, you were at least a leader with an official rank, and you would surely have quite a few Indian subordinates.

And India had an ancient custom—if a subordinate wanted to gain favor from a superior, they should present them with a ‘Nazir’ (gift). If the gift was refused, they didn’t suspect that the superior was refusing out of integrity, but assumed it was because the gift wasn’t valuable enough. So they would come back with a bigger gift.

Although the East India Company clearly stipulated that contracted civil servants were forbidden from accepting gifts valued over 4 Rupees from Indian subordinates,

rules are dead, but people are alive, so there’s quite a bit of leeway in actual operations.

Anyway, most contracted civil servants receive gifts valued at 3.99 Rubles, and how this value is determined is something you better not ask.

If Arthur were not interested in advancing further, going to India wouldn’t be a bad way to become wealthy.

But for the shareholder of “British”, “Economist”, and “Nature” magazines, and the investor in the Great Western Railway and Hanover Railway, Rupees, no matter how tempting, couldn’t compare to the Pounds, Francs, and Thalers he held. Even if you take a step back, Rupees aren’t as good as Rubles!

Although Arthur was not inclined to go to India, Blackwell’s words inadvertently reminded him.

He was planning to stage a ‘good deed with bad results’ for the Foreign Office. If the young man embraced a lottery-winning mindset about going to India to execute the plan, Arthur might well stumble into his trap.

Suddenly, as if struck by an idea, he asked Blackwell, “This letter in my hand, it must have been sent through regular channels, right?”

“Of course,” Blackwell nodded, “Aside from letters sent via the Foreign Office channels, others are sent through regular civilian channels.”

Arthur thought it over, “So it can’t be ruled out that the Third Bureau has seen this letter?”

“Uh…” Blackwell hesitated, “I think it’s highly probable. You wouldn’t know, but Pushkin’s letters with his wife were just privately opened by the Third Bureau a while ago. The great poet was very upset and directly brought it up to the Tsar. He initially thought the Tsar would deny it, but the Tsar surprisingly and openly admitted to Pushkin that he did indeed read those letters.”

“Hmm…” Arthur absentmindedly drew out a tin cigar cutter from the depths of the drawer. Under the cigar cutter was suppressed a record of the Tsar’s secret police activities in Poland, news of the Orleans Party in France interacting with Russian nobles, and even Sir David Eckett’s area of activity in the Caucasus Region.

Arthur’s gaze swept over these documents and then he caught sight of a letter sent by Victor from Paris.

Outside the window, the moonlight was spreading over the colorful domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral.

“Ha! Louis is really lucky, alright, I’ll do him a favor this time.”