Chapter 209: The Old Gentleman from Austria (K)

Chapter 207 – The Old Gentleman from Austria (4K)

Just by sharing a box of tobacco, Arthur quickly warmed up his feelings with the two military officers.

The three of them chatted and farted about the world, from the customs of England to the snowy lands of Russia, and at the end of the day, due to the same professional resonance, the three of them couldn’t help but scold their unintelligent superiors as well as themselves who were not as bright as they should have been.

In the trivial words, Arthur finally vaguely constructed a basic impression of this European eastern power.

Once upon a time, Arthur’s knowledge of 19th century Russia consisted of a few outstanding literary figures and the serfdom and hazy administrative system that had been criticized by the literary figures.

As for the understanding of the mysterious organization of the Russian Imperial Office, it was even more limited to a little piecemeal and simple information.

Now, however, the concept was a little clearer.

Russian Imperial Office, its predecessor was the Office of His Majesty the Tsar established in the time of Peter the Great, in the time of Ekaterina the Great was changed to the Imperial Secretariat, Paul I continued to enhance the status of the period, and formally renamed as the Office of the Imperial Household.

However, throughout the 18th century, the Prefectural Office was a secret and undisclosed organization, and the terms of reference of the Office were not defined or legally based, but depended purely on the mood of the Tsar.

After 1812, in response to Napoleon’s attack on Russia, the Office was officially declared public, and its functions and hierarchical relationships began to approach those of the Qing Dynasty’s Military and Military Affairs Office, which was not accountable to any ministry but reported directly to the Tsar, and was responsible for collecting and communicating to Alexander I all matters of interest to him and his will.

They were responsible for collecting and communicating to Alexander I all matters of interest to him, such as: communication with commanders, settling prisoners of war, arranging supplies and camping for the army, etc.

Fortunately, there were no machine guns or telegraphs to transmit orders quickly, otherwise Alexander I, who was sitting in St. Petersburg, could have asked the front line to move their machine gun positions five meters to the left through the Praetorian Office.

After the Napoleonic Wars, the power of the Praetorian Office began to expand, and succeeded in putting this uncontrolled power in the form of provisions in the open.

The Regulations of the Office of His Majesty the Tsar directly stipulated that the Office of His Majesty the Tsar existed to deal with matters which came directly under the study and decision of the Tsar himself, and that all matters herein were to be dealt with either directly by the Tsar or by the Tsar’s authorization of the Chief of the Office. The extent of the Tsar’s will cannot be determined, and therefore neither can the competence and system of His Majesty’s Office.

This passage summarizes almost approximately the unlimited power of the Imperial Office.

And it was not long before the power to appraise and promote senior Russian officials and to evaluate the governance of local administrative and police bodies was also pinched in the hands of the Imperial Office.

In front of it, Russia’s other departments are fearless, who offended the Office of the Prefect of the Imperial Household, political career can be considered a good end early.

The expansion of the power brought about by the size of the organization is naturally greatly expanded, the Office of the Prefect of the Imperial Household in just a few years, from a department to four departments.

Among them, the first hall is responsible for overseeing the work of all departments, except for the Ministry of the Navy and the Ministry of War, all department heads and even the Orthodox Church Attorney General must report to the first hall every morning.

The Second Chamber, on the other hand, held the legislative power in its hands, and the Russian Ministry of Justice was responsible only for the implementation of the resolutions of the Second Chamber.

As for the Third Chamber, it was even more important.

To be more precise, the Third Chamber has almost all the powers that Arthur, the Superintendent of Scotland Yard, could not even think of.

There are five divisions under the Third Office, the first division is responsible for political investigation, covert surveillance of domestic revolutionary organizations and social activists, and handling political cases.

The second division was responsible for combating separatist and religious radicals.

The third division specializes in foreign intelligence, not only monitoring foreigners in the country but also spying on the outside world.

The fourth branch is mobile, and they specialize in dealing with domestic emergencies and major incidents, as well as collecting important information.

As for the Fifth Branch, their job duties are mediocre compared to those of several sister departments. It specializes in censorship in the areas of books, newspapers, drama and other cultural publications.

And in order to ensure that the Third Department is able to do its job successfully, they of course have their own executive body, that is, the Russian gendarmes, which are well-trained and spread all over the country.

Directly accountable to the Tsar, possessing power unconstrained by law, and capable of deploying gendarmes at any time and place to quell disturbances, all these factors combined make the Third Chamber effectively the most formidable department in the Imperial Office, and indeed, throughout all of Russia.

To be a policeman at the level of the Third Chamber is the ultimate. At least in Britain, Arthur would not even dare to think about it.

On this island, not to mention the establishment of an organization like the Third Chamber, even the establishment of a common law and order organization such as Scotland Yard, there are a bunch of people are reluctant.

London parishes not long ago also whined in parliament, “originally thought that the establishment of Scotland Yard can make the parish of the law and order expenses to reduce a lot, but at the end of the year to calculate the accounts only to find that in previous years, the London parish to hire their own sheriffs only need to spend one hundred and seventy thousand pounds, but the Scotland Yard this year’s funding has exceeded two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Why not just disband something that costs so much money?”

But although the clergy of various dioceses have mentioned this, the Ministry of the Interior has been unusually tough on this issue, and the dissolution of Scotland Yard is not even negotiable.

As the saying goes, it is easy to establish a department, but difficult to dissolve it.

Perhaps the clergy are really thinking about the parishioners and need to bring down the policing tax, but in the eyes of the Home Office, this is taking away my power!

You can remove Scotland Yard today, are you planning to remove our Home Office tomorrow?

You want to lower the tax? You can! Go to Parliament and ask for the disbanding of the Royal Navy. What’s the use of all the money they spend every year?

Tell them to build two fewer ships and use the money from the battleships to subsidize the parishioners.

Arthur said to this place, the two bearded military officers were also amused by him.

The more they look at this Englishman the more they feel good eyes, is two people think about where to ask him to drink a big drink in the evening, suddenly, the embassy came out of a retained wavy hair, leaning on a cane, wearing a black trench coat, covered with a large brimmed cap of middle-aged and old men. The two military officers saw that old gentleman and hurriedly smiled and reached out to greet him, “Guten tag! herr metternich.”

Hearing this, the old gentleman raised his hand and lightly touched the brim of his hat, then he walked down the steps with a heavy, strong stride, and in a short time was out of the embassy door.

Arthur frowned slightly; the other spoke as if in German.

Although in the teaching process of the University of London, in order to allow students to read and understand the official literature of European countries in the medieval period, the history department will offer Latin and Greek courses, but German is obviously not within the scope of instruction.

However, although Arthur had never studied German, he had at least watched some German videos in his past life, but unfortunately, he only recognized one reactionary slogan – Heil Hitler, but it was obvious that the other party was certainly not talking about this one today, at least half a century before the birth of that moustachioed gentleman.

He was about to ask the military attaché who the old gentleman he had just passed was, when before he could open his mouth he suddenly heard a voluble laugh.

“You must be Mr. Hastings?”

Arthur turned his head to see that the speaker was a beautiful lady with a beige brocade dress, two emerald earrings, a necklace of diamonds around her pale neck, and a pigeon blood red ring on her lace white gloves.

There are many rich ladies in London, and many more beautiful ones, but there is only one who is rich and beautiful, and who can live in the Russian Embassy.

Arthur took off his hat and saluted, “Madame, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

Mrs. Levine smiled as she sized up Arthur, “It’s really exactly as Emily described, a typical English gentleman indeed. Just by looking at your appearance, surely no one would have guessed that you would be a Scotland Yard police officer who has been dealing with criminals for years.”

Arthur did not dare to take it lightly when he heard the lady’s compliments, after all, he knew very well that the beautiful lady in front of him would be able to create a storm in Europe with just a gentle flapping of her pleated skirt.

Arthur smiled and handed the gramophone resting in his hand to a servant on the side, then pulled his wallet out of his pocket and drew out four concert tickets and handed them over.

“I am glad to be able to help you in some trivial matter, ma’am. Thanks to the enthusiastic support of you and Mrs. Cowper, I have succeeded in joining the London Philharmonic Society, and after consulting with Mr. Moscheles, we intend to give the first public performance of the Philharmonic Society’s Third Symphony Orchestra at the Coburg Theatre this weekend. The London Philharmonic Society would be honored if you could bring your family or friends to the concert from your busy schedule.”

Mrs. Levine took the tickets and the program attached to them, and with just a quick glance, she lit up and said, “Wow! Good heavens! Are you sure you’re not mistaken? In addition to you, Mr. Moscheles and Mr. Mendelssohn will be on the stage at this concert?”

Arthur nodded with a smile and said, “That’s right, the association attaches great importance to the debut of the Third Symphony Orchestra, and Mr. Moscheles, as the head of the association, is always holding his breath to make the Third Orchestra’s fame a hit. That’s why he specially called back Mr. Mendelssohn, who was touring Italy.

In addition to this, I can privately inform you that Mr. Moscheles is trying his best to get Mr. Cipriani Porter, who teaches at the Royal College of Music in London, to join him for this concert. As far as I have been able to gather from Mr. Moscheles, the situation is very promising with regard to Mr. Porter’s joining.”

Even for a noblewoman like Mrs. Levine, she still couldn’t help but feel a little excited when she heard about the unprecedentedly powerful lineup for this concert.

Ignaz Moscheles, the prestigious Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Society and Academic Member of the Royal Academy of Music.
Felix Mendelssohn, the gifted pianist who made his name in Europe at the age of 21, and author of the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
And Cipriani Potter, the best Mozart and Beethoven pianist in England.

Add to that a Paganini of Scotland Yard – Arthur Hastings – who is not famous now, but is sure to be rapidly gaining in popularity in the future.

Such a lavish line-up was more than enough to support a large-scale performance such as a Christmas party, and to use it just for a routine Sunday concert seemed to Mrs. Levine to be a bit of a big deal.

Seeing that Mrs. Levine had some interest, but it didn’t rise to a decisive level, Arthur continued to raise the stakes, “Of course, although Moscheles, Mendelssohn, and Porter are all absolute powerhouse pianists, they are still dwarfed if compared to the concert’s special guests.”

Hearing this, Mrs. Levine couldn’t help but cover her mouth with her white gloves, “You mean, there are still masters?”

Arthur smiled and nodded, “I heard from Mr. Moscheles that his teacher, the mentor of pianists in all of Great Britain – Mr. Muzio Clementi will be attending this concert.”

“Muzio Clementi?” Mrs. Levine couldn’t help but widen her eyes at the name and said in surprise, “Hasn’t he not given a concert in over ten years?”

Arthur smiled, “As you said, Mr. Clementi began to dedicate himself to music education more than a decade ago and no longer attends concert performances. But this one is an exception; his old man is getting on in years, so he intends to announce his retirement soon. This should be his farewell performance.

It is for this reason that I, on behalf of Mr. Moscheles, would like to ask you to attend this concert, as he would like to give his mentor a decent farewell concert. Mr. Moscheles would be most grateful if a socialite like yourself would be willing to attend.”

Hearing this, Mrs. Levine finally stopped hesitating.

The name Muzio Clementi was not as prominent as Mozart and Beethoven in later generations, but in 19th century Europe, this master who composed more than 110 piano compositions in his lifetime was a legendary pianist on par with Mozart and Beethoven.

Even in the United Kingdom, his fame and respect is more than Mozart and Beethoven a head, the romantic pianist from the Apennine Peninsula is definitely deserved the leader of the music industry in Great Britain.

Mrs. Levine immediately said: “Please rest assured that it is a great honor to attend Mr. Clementi’s farewell performance. Even if you don’t take the initiative to request me today, I will definitely take the initiative to help promote this concert for Mr. Clementi in the club.

A trip to Vienna without hearing Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven is nothing, and a trip to London without hearing Mr. Clementi is a lifetime wasted. It so happens that I have a friend who has recently arrived from Austria, and I will be able to take him with me to sample Clementi’s style of playing as opposed to that of the Viennese pianists.”

“A friend from Austria?” When Arthur heard this, he was first stunned, and he suddenly remembered the German phrase that had just been spoken by the two Tsarist military officers – Herr Metternich.

Metternich?

Metternich?
He looked back sharply, yet the old gentleman was long gone behind him.

Damn!

The one just now, was that the Austrian Imperial Chancellor – Clemens Metternich?

What was he doing in the Russian Embassy?
(End of chapter)