Chapter 180: Parliamentary Encounter (K4)

Chapter 179 – Parliamentary Encounter (7K4)

With the intervention of the security officers, the two councilors who had made a big fuss were quickly pinned to the ground.

After the two of them were pressed out of the council chamber, the boiling hall finally returned to a certain degree of calm.

The Duke of Wellington watched the two parliamentarians who had clamored for an agreement to fight a duel on another day being escorted out of the parliamentary hall, and then brought his cronies to the front-row seats reserved for him beforehand to take their seats.

However, before he could warm up his seat, he saw the Whig camp across the room hoot and holler and raise a hand.

Taking advantage of the time that the Speaker of the House of Commons had taken to reiterate his discipline, the Duke of Wellington rushed to Sir Peel at his side and asked, “Robert, what is the state of the King’s Annuity Bill?”

Sir Peel held his forehead with quite a bit of headache and said, “The situation is not too optimistic, the Whigs are grasping the issue of financial expenditure and corruption of the affairs officers and not letting go. Looking at their stance, this time they might have to pass the amendment to the King’s Annuity Bill no matter what.”

If Sir Pierre’s words were taken to the average London citizen, then most of the London citizens would not understand what exactly he meant by this.

But when the same words fell on the ears of the Duke of Wellington, they had a different meaning.

The so-called “King’s Annuity Act” refers to a bill passed by the British Parliament in 1697.

It was stipulated therein that the King’s Annuity would be granted by the Parliament every year according to the actual situation, and the main purpose of the King’s Annuity, apart from paying for the living expenses of the royal family, was to be used to pay for the salaries of the civil service officers of the government.

Members of the Cabinet such as the Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary were generally known as Parliamentary Secretaries.

Those who are members of the Cabinet, such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of the Interior, are generally called government officials.

The main difference between a minister and a councilor is that a councilor is a non-professional government official who is elected to lead a department and make decisions in the course of actual administration, but is not responsible for actual implementation.

The opposite is true of the desk officer, who is appointed rather than elected and is responsible for implementation rather than decision-making in the process of governance.

Because of this unique nature of their work, and because their salaries are paid from the King’s annuity, the appointment of stewards in Britain is now also known as the King’s gift. The allegiance of all stewards is in fact to the King, not to the Cabinet.

So although the king and the ruling party had no control over the election of the stewards, one of them held the power to pay their salaries and the other held the power to appoint and remove them. With these two powers, they had control over all the magistrates.

The reason why the Whig Party proposed the amendment to the King’s Annuity Bill is to completely separate the royal family’s living expenses from the salary expenses of the government affairs officers, so that from now on the salaries of the affairs officers will be paid out of the national treasury, not from the King’s Annuity.

In this way, the king, who wears the same pants as the Tories, can be limited to the greatest extent possible to exert influence on the officials and prevent them from being tripped up by the Whigs when they are in power in the future.

Of course, what’s more important is that in this way, many of the idle positions that were hidden in the shadows by the Tory party and used to bribe various neutral members of parliament and eat empty paychecks would also be exposed more clearly.

After all, it was always easier to check the Treasury’s books than the King’s bills.

With the fall of the Speaker’s gavel, calm finally returned to the Council Chamber.

All that could be heard was a long cry from the Speaker, “Lord John Russell!”

Just as the voice fell, a young and middle-aged man in a tuxedo and parted hair was seen walking up to the speaker’s box with pre-prepared materials.

“Mr. Speaker, I’d like to make it clear here that this corrupt and incompetent mess of a government has left our country in shambles. Everyone knows how serious the problem is right now, with protest marches erupting in London, Birmingham, and Manchester over the last month, rural starvation getting worse, the Swain movement gaining momentum in the south of England, and all nationals up and down the country from all walks of life, whether they be tradesmen, laborers, or peasants, calling for parliamentary reform.

Yet our Prime Minister, the brilliant Duke of Wellington, in the face of an energized public, knew nothing better than to hunker down in his ‘London One’ mansion, Apsley House. Apart from replacing the windows of his house with iron ones, I have not seen any effective measures taken by the Government to deal with the greatest crisis since the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

I do not doubt that His Excellency the Duke possesses the best commanding talents in the world, but I doubt whether a commander-in-chief of the army, who knows nothing but the application of military discipline, can in the end run the greatest country in the world in the same way. My question is whether His Excellency the Prime Minister really understands what he is really doing now? Does he realize that to continue to resist reform is to destroy the democratic traditions that have been gradually established in Britain since the Glorious Revolution?

Britain is a great democracy and not a worn-out horse being whipped forward by His Excellency the Duke, who is now gradually transforming Britain into his own personal military dictatorship. If he does not recognize this, then he must at least be able to offer a rational explanation for his tardy response and negative behavior!”

As soon as Lord Russell’s words left his mouth, a large crowd of Whig backbenchers rose to their feet, chanting and applauding to applaud the questioning of the speaker, Lord Russell.

The Speaker’s gaze turned obediently to his right as he shouted, “His Excellency the Prime Minister!”

The Duke of Wellington rose to his feet with his cane like a sword, but before he could take a step, he heard Sir Peel, who was seated on the side, lower his voice and plead, “Your Grace, if you come across a problem that you just can’t cope with, turn it over to us.”

Who knows that the Duke of Wellington just lifted his hat when he heard this, as he spoke, “Robert, have you forgotten what I told you before? It’s true that I’m not good at debating, but I’m not here to debate today, I’m here to scold.”

At the end of his speech, the old Duke was only seen walking up to the speaker’s box in three steps, and in accordance with parliamentary tradition, he did not directly reply at Lord Russell, but opened his mouth at the Speaker of the House, who was the intermediary.

“Honorable Mr. Speaker, I believe that a true patriot must abandon the concepts of religion and identity, and that his acts of opposition in Parliament must be directed to the motion and not to the individual. Lord Russell’s view in the party that a soldier cannot rule the country well is a comical one.

May I ask Lord Russell who preserved the democratic power of Parliament for us when the King dissolved it? It was the soldiers, it was Cromwell!
And who firmly and boldly opposed Charles II’s intervention in Parliament and led the parliamentary movement? It was the soldier, William Cavendish!

Or who, after having been given the reins of power, resolutely welcomed back the King and restored the constitutional traditions of Britain? Again, it was soldiers, it was George Monk!
It is because of these soldiers that we have the parliamentary traditions we have today, and that we can get people like Lord Russell into Parliament. Yet people like Lord Russell are already so poor and uninsightful, and now he is planning to let another group of people into Parliament who are not even close to being as good as him.

I am afraid that if we make a decision to adulterate the Parliament by passing the Parliamentary Reform Bill, the only people who will benefit are people like Lord RUSSELL. Because when the level of political decision-making in Parliament is lowered, I am afraid that in future even his laughter-inducing remarks will be set on a high pedestal. This is really the worst thing I have seen since I was born!”

As soon as the Duke of Wellington’s words left his mouth, the Tory camp burst into another round of hoots and hollers.

And General Sidney Smith, who was standing on the second floor of the Parliament watching the questioning, even laughed out loud and sneered, “Your Excellency the Duke, I disagree with you, you think that the Parliamentary Reform Act is the worst thing in the world, that’s because you haven’t seen that new five-act play ‘Don Carlos’ written by Lord Russell. Compared to that play, I think even the Parliamentary Reform Act has become acceptable.”

Lord Russell, who was originally sitting on the stage, already had a cloudy face because of the Duke of Wellington’s explicit and implicit taunts, and at this time, when he heard General Sidney Smith’s taunts, he was even more directly unable to stop himself from bouncing out of his seat, pointing at him and cursing, “Smith! What did you say?”

General Codrington who came with General Sidney Smith also changed his face, he tugged at General Smith’s pants on one side, and on the other side, he lowered his voice and begged, “The atmosphere of the council is already tense enough at this time, so don’t follow and add to the chaos.”

General Smith nodded at his words, as if he had agreed to General Codrington’s plea, but he turned his head and spoke again, “Lord Russell, I mean no offense. Actually, well, apart from that play, you’re not always so bad as a person. I have always thought, gentlemen, that Lord Russell has many talents, and I think he would be able to operate on a patient to remove a stone, or build St. Paul’s Church, or replace my friend Admiral Codrington in command of the Channel Fleet of Great Britain. ……”

Here Lord Russell’s hard face eased a little, but soon General Smith’s voice was heard again.

General Smith laughed out loud, “But as you should all be able to tell from his demeanor, the patients he treated are dead, the church he built has collapsed, and the Channel Fleet under his command has been beaten to death.”

General Smith’s remark at once provoked a roar of laughter from the Tory camp, while the Whig councillors rose in indignation and shouted accusations.

Seeing that the situation was about to get out of hand again, the Speaker, whose neck was bursting with veins, had to pick up his gavel again to demand discipline: “Silence! Silence! Guard officer, quickly invite the idlers out of the council chamber!”

But General Smith, who was on the second floor, was clearly more sensible than the two MPs who had just been thrown out, and spoke up, “Don’t bother Mr. Speaker, I’ve had enough of being in the same room with Lord Russell too, I’ll go out myself.”

With those words, he took one step and three shakes of his cane and walked out the door under the gaze of the crowd.

Lord Russell’s eyes widened as he pointed at his back and cursed, “Smith, when the questioning is over, I’ll be sure to find you for an explanation! The reason why we are pushing for parliamentary reform is to eradicate uneducated assholes like you for Britain.”

The Speaker saw that the topic of the day was about to go off the rails, so he hurriedly raised his voice to inquire, “Next! Duke Bedford!”

Duke Bedford first pressed the agitated brother beside him back into his seat, and then quickly stepped up to the speaker’s box and questioned, “Regardless of the Prime Minister’s sophistry, we still hope that all of you will be able to see that His Highness, the dictator standing before us, is defying public opinion in an attempt to centralize all of the country’s great powers in his own hands. Although I have always been against anarchism, if I have to choose between anarchism and authoritarianism, then I prefer anarchism!”

The Duke of Wellington sniffed, and almost without thinking, he opened his mouth and shot back, “If anyone wants to see anarchism, there is no need to leave Britain, you only need to travel to the Duke of Bedford’s territory, and you will be able to see what kind of anarchism is really like. As far as I know, the peasants’ Swain movement has always gone well in His Excellency the Duke’s dominions, and Bedford was similarly hard hit by the Luddite movement that used to smash textile factory machinery.”

As soon as the Duke of Wellington said this, the two brothers, the Duke of Bedford and Lord Russell, were instantly disliked.

The Tory supporters were also amazed at the Prime Minister’s performance today, and no one expected that the Duke of Wellington, who has always been reluctant to debate, would actually be on fire today, even in the face of the Whig’s well-known debaters, the Russell brothers, did not lose ground.

In the Tory’s piece of applause, the Whig leader Earl Grey finally could not sit still.

“Charles Earl Grey!”

With the Speaker’s roll call, Earl Grey catapulted onto the speaker’s box like a discharged cannonball, holding up a thick stack of materials in his hands as he loudly announced.

“I did not come here today to tease the Prime Minister! We wish to show you this material in my hand, that many people simply do not understand the urgency of passing the King’s Annuity Bill and carrying out parliamentary reforms in Britain!
According to a survey by the ‘Friends of the People’ Association, today’s Parliament is not representative of British public opinion, and of our 203 constituencies in England, only 20 have more than 1,000 voters, with less than 4% of the total population of England having a vote.

And the situation is even worse in Scotland, where there are fewer than three thousand effective voters in the 33 counties, with an average of fewer than a hundred people electing a councillor.

If this perspective is pulled across the country, out of a population of 24 million in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, only 400,000 people have the right to vote, a proportion of less than 3% of the adult population. On top of this, cronyism is so intricate in the various small electorates that MP seats are virtually tied to land and have become part of the ancestral legacy of some of the local aristocracy. Lancashire’s MPs have been surnamed Danby since the 17th century, and Cumberland’s MPs have always been surnamed Lansdowne.

If there are two local gentry, then they will conventionally field two candidates, and this kind of two-for-one election is meaningless for parliamentary politics!

And all sorts of fraud and corruption are commonplace in canvassing campaigns! In this case, the carriage transportation, banquet for voters, and the gift of money and gifts are all considered more civilized!
Even more disgraceful was the fact that some big landowners would threaten their tenants that if they didn’t vote for someone, then they would raise the rent for the following year, or even deprive him of his tenant rights outright.

There are even families who fight and maim their rivals for a seat in the legislature with their family retainers! Yet our government turns a deaf ear and plays deaf-mute to similar situations! Is this the behavior of a responsible cabinet?”

When the Duke of Wellington heard this, even though he was as calm as he was, he couldn’t help but frown violently.

But fortunately, he had known from early on that the Whigs would definitely take the opportunity to make a move, so he had left a plan in advance on how to deal with this situation.

Duke Wellington flipped through the materials laid out in front of him, looking over the information provided by the permanent undersecretary while coping.

“It is certainly disgraceful to resort to violence and bribery during the election process, but I don’t know exactly where Earl Grey got the information at hand from. As far as I know, the current situation of violent campaigning and bribery in Britannia has long since improved from a dozen years ago, and the democratization of the parliament has steadily increased.

Candidates today prefer to lobby voters in person and go door-to-door a few months before an election than their crass predecessors, and those who are wealthy prefer to hire lawyers and writers to publicize their policies and campaign ideas in the newspapers, while many of the candidate’s inner circle take to the streets to support their husbands’ causes at campaign rallies.

Within the Tory Party, we encourage all aspiring MPs to make contact with their local parish priests and to combine their sermons with their parliamentary campaigns, so that voters can listen to the Gospel and at the same time take part in decisions about the country’s future.

Earl Grey mentioned earlier that his data came from the ‘Friends of the People’ association, which, according to the Cabinet’s understanding, should be sponsored by Earl Grey himself. As for the reliability of their data source, I don’t think I can jump to conclusions here.

Perhaps what they say still exists, but we Tory MPs have always obeyed the law and conducted our elections in accordance with the spirit that has been handed down since the Glorious Revolution. Therefore, I implore Earl Grey not to apply what is happening in the Whig constituency to every area of the country.”

The Duke of Wellington’s tone sounded calm, but in reality, every word was clipped, in a vain attempt to provoke Earl Grey.

But a veteran like Earl Grey, who had been whacked by several generations of Tory party leaders, was clearly not as easily angered as Lord Russell.

Earl Grey opened his mouth and said, “Is that so? Your Excellency believes that the Tory Party does not exist in the above situations I listed?”

The Duke of Wellington returned, “The situation has greatly improved.”

Hearing this, Earl Grey merely turned over the material and stated, “Let us then take our time in dividing our arguments from far and near. As far as I know, in the 1784 General Election, your party’s Lord Falmouth spent £9,000 for three seats, Lord Mount spent £13,000 for six seats, and Lord Montagu was more astute, he only spent £4,000 to take two seats, and the above material can not be investigated by the ‘Friends of the People’ alone. May I ask the Prime Minister whether he recognizes that such a situation exists?”

The Duke of Wellington rushed to the Speaker, “Mr. Speaker, I think you must remind His Excellency the Earl that it is now 1830, and if he really wants to make such an argument, he can go back to the time of William the Conqueror as mentioned above. And as I said, corruption of all kinds does still exist.

But apart from corrupt constituencies, we have many exemplary constituencies. The most exemplary of these are the Cambridge and Oxford constituencies, where all students at Oxford and Cambridge are automatically entitled to vote in the university constituencies. Is there a more generous parliamentary voting system in the world?”

When Earl Grey heard the Duke of Wellington mention the two university constituencies, it was as if he had instantly grasped the winning formula, and he immediately fired, “Good! Since the Prime Minister is willing to take the initiative to mention the university constituencies, I have two more questions here that you need to clarify to me. It is true that Oxford and Cambridge is the model for elections in the whole of Britain, but I don’t know if the Prime Minister is aware of the existence of such a situation.

That is that Oxford and Cambridge students can vote not only at their university but also back home at the same time. The same applies elsewhere, where a person automatically acquires the right to vote in more than one place, provided he owns enough real estate in several places. Does the Prime Minister think that there is a loophole in this kind of electoral system, which is not distributed on a per capita basis, but is judged solely on the basis of property?”

When Duke Wellington heard this, his hands could not help but sweat, although he knew that Earl Grey was difficult, he did not expect that he would actually be difficult to this extent today.

He flipped through the materials at hand in annoyance, “I hope that Your Excellency the Earl can go and learn about Britannia’s Election Complaints and Whistleblowing System before asking a question. For these unfair phenomena, such as multiple votes, inaccurate vote counting, voter bribery, violent intimidation, and other behaviors, the unsuccessful candidates and their supporters can submit a whistleblower report to the parliament at any time, any place.

As long as the Election Committee of the House of Commons ascertains that the situation is true, it will naturally impose sanctions on members of parliament who have committed fraud, and disqualification of members of parliament has occurred repeatedly in past history, which is all well documented.”

Hearing this, Earl Grey couldn’t help but show a hint of a smile, for today’s battle, he had been preparing for too long, how could he possibly allow Duke Wellington to snivel and make peace here?
He faced the Speaker and opened his mouth, “Then Mr. Speaker, please ask the Prime Minister for me, what is the successful pass rate of the Election Commission in handling prosecution cases? If the Prime Minister doesn’t know, I can give a direct answer here. According to the records of the House of Commons, the success rate of such whistleblowing is less than one percent.

However, according to the Electoral Report for 1787, at least 370 of the 513 MPs investigated were suspected of using improper means.

And in 1827, your party’s political commentator, John Crook, on the basis of a survey of the social relations of all 658 members of the House of Commons, found that 270 were suspected of being under the control of patrons of large landowners.

Of these, MPs with Tory party membership accounted for 203, while eight of Britain’s great noblemen controlled 57 of these seats, and how does the Prime Minister intend to respond to this?”

Hearing this, the Duke of Wellington was only silent, but Earl Grey had no intention of letting him off the hook, and multiplied his words.

“The Prime Minister has just held up the Electoral Commission as the most impartial and powerful election monitoring organization in Britain, is this not forgetting the two serious cases of election fraud that broke out when he first came to power in 1827?

At that time Lord John Russell, the spokesman of my party, demanded that those two corrupt electorates should be permanently outlawed, while a number of your party demanded that the two seats should be handed over to districts under the control of the ruling party, and Mr. Huskisson, who sadly departed not long ago, advocated that at least one of the seats should be forwarded to Birmingham, which is a city with a growing population.

And in the end your decision was to divide the two seats directly between the two parties without an election. But in the interest of justice, I believe that this non-electoral division is contrary to parliamentary tradition, and I take this opportunity to reintroduce the Parliamentary Reform Bill, which has been under consideration for decades.

Your response at the time was that as long as I am in government, I will always resist such a bill.

Therefore, my question today is: Even though several years have passed, even though the current situation has changed, even though the clergy, businessmen, workers and peasants up and down the country are calling for reforms, are you still so firmly opposed to parliamentary reforms!

Prime Minister, please answer my question positively! This is not Waterloo, you don’t need to play those machinations that are only used on the battlefield to the entire public of Great Britain!”

As soon as Earl Grey’s words fell, a dead silence fell over the noisy parliamentary chamber.

Regardless of whether it was the Tories or the Whigs, everyone held their breath, and their eyes were focused on the Prime Minister, Duke Wellington.

Only to see that Duke Wellington, who had just been flipping through the materials, suddenly stopped moving, his body suddenly trembled, and a snort of laughter from the old Duke resounded in the silent hall.

Only a snapping sound could be heard as Duke Wellington slapped his hand in front of the case, startling everyone present.

Duke Wellington turned his head towards Earl Grey, and instead of sending a message through the Speaker, he raised his right arm and pointed at Earl Grey.

“I never play any tricks, I only defeat my enemies in a frontal battlefield.

Gray, I’ve said long ago that I’m a simple man, I hate being the Prime Minister because it’s a job that doesn’t suit me, I’m just an honorable man, so I’m not good at, and don’t care to hide my intentions.”

Hearing this, Sir Peel hastened to rise and urged, “Your Excellency the Duke.”

But before he could speak, he saw the Duke of Wellington interrupt him with his hand, “Robert, mind your own business! This has nothing to do with you, or the party you lead, this is a private matter between me and Gray.”

At the end of his sentence, the Duke of Wellington pointed at Earl Grey’s nose and spoke, “You’re right, Grey, my attitude has always been the same, I have been, am, and will be steadfast in my opposition to parliamentary reform!
Politics in Britannia is not a haphazard endeavor, and if you wish to let in idlers, I respect that, but you will never expect me to be on your side!
Do you hear me? As long as Arthur Wellesley is alive, as long as I can move my legs to call, as long as I can stand in the Council Chamber of the Palace of Westminster, you will never pass the Parliamentary Reform Bill!”

Earl Grey shivered with anger when he heard this.

And behind him, the angry and red-faced Whigs threw the materials in front of them into the sky.

Papers were flying in the council chamber, and Lord Russell and the others clapped their hands.

“Simply outrageous!”

“Wellington, we demand that you resign and step down immediately!”

While those cronies who came after Duke Wellington heard this, they were all in a rage, they subconsciously wanted to draw their swords, but when their palms touched their waists, they realized that they didn’t have anything with them.

However, this did not affect the generals who had already been away from the battlefield for many years to push up their sleeves to help their old officer.

But before they could rush forward, several of the generals were pressed down by Sir Pierre and the others.

Sir Pierre held down the Marquis of Anglesey, who had one leg, while gritting his teeth and consoling him, “Don’t be impulsive, this is all arranged by His Excellency the Duke, if you guys go up and swing your fists, it’s the same as wasting all of his efforts today.”

And Viscount Palmerston, who was sitting directly across from Sir Pierre, just smiled slightly when he saw this.

He then quickly collected his face, stood up and rushed at the Speaker with his arms raised, “Henry Temple Palmerston, hereby reminds the Speaker that the Whig Party has requested that a motion of no confidence in Wellington’s Cabinet be formally initiated when Parliament convenes next week!”

(End of chapter)