Chapter 319: The Story of Sir Isaac Newton

Chapter 316 A Repetition of Sir Isaac Newton’s Story
Court of Equity, Chancery Lane, Bloomsbury, London.

Arthur and Director Rowan, shoulder to shoulder, leapt over the marble in front of the courtroom step by step down the steps.

There were a few more papers in their hands at this point than when they had both first arrived.

Those were the new resolutions made in the joint meeting just held by the Chancellor’s Office, the Ministry of the Navy, the Ministry of the Interior, and the General Post Office and the General Customs Administration.

According to the results of the consultation between the Royal Council, the Privy Council and the Cabinet this morning, King William IV, together with all the members of the Privy Council, formally signed the Seal of State Edict authorizing the Royal Chancellor of Great Britain, Lord Brougham, to oversee the national prevention and control of the cholera epidemic in his capacity as the supreme supervisor of the national health and wellness field.

The rest of the Government and all committees of the Privy Council and the House of Commons, including the Prime Minister’s residence, 10 Downing Street, will act on the advice of the Lord Chancellor’s Department.

Although Arthur had known for some time that the 19th century Lord Chancellor had far more power than the 21st century Attorney General, when he heard of the decision at the meeting he could not help but be shocked by the astonishing energy that his ‘benefactor’ held close to his heart.

Administratively, the Lord Chancellor had originally held the promotion channels for the judges of Britain’s magistrates’, criminal, civil, and equity courts, and possessed the power to decide which lawyers would be able to be promoted to Queen’s Counsel.

In royal affairs, he held both the position of Minister of the Seal and Royal Legal Advisor at the Imperial Household’s Inner Court.

Politically, the Lord Chancellor is himself the Chief Commissioner and Speaker of the House of Lords.

Judicially, he was a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the House of Lords and its final judge, and was the only person in the country with the power to convict a peer of treason.

In religious matters, the Lord Chancellor has retained his religious functions since the 16th century, when the Lord Chancellor was an archbishop or even a cardinal appointed by the Pope, until the Act of Supremacy was enacted by Henry VIII.

Not only is he responsible for overseeing all the property of the Church of England, but it is customary to consult the Lord Chancellor before appointing judges to the Inquisition in the lands of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.

As for the so-called overseer of the healthcare sector, Arthur had previously treated this aspect of his authority as an insignificant red cherry on the cake of the Chancellor.

Because on a day-to-day basis, since Britain does not have a unified public health department, the power in this area has always been dispersed in the hands of various government departments as well as local parish councils.

And in ordinary times, no one cared much about this aspect of things.

The Lord Chancellor has too many powers for public health to be of the first priority for him in any case.

And in the eyes of the local parish, what is meant by public health is that it is up to them to decide which sanitation company to hire to sweep up and dispose of the trash.

For Scotland Yard, public health was catching counterfeit drug sellers. On top of that, Arthur and the gang have to make sure that alcoholics can’t urinate and defecate in front of other people, because that’s the exclusive right of pregnant women.

Scotland Yard thinks about expanding its power every day, but not the alcoholics.

But despite the rhetoric, that was ultimately just wishful thinking on the part of the officers.

What is clear is that their efforts in this regard have never worked.

As Mr. Dick Whittington, the poor orphan who became Mayor of London in the Britannia saga, commented on his first visit to London: I thought the streets of London were paved with gold, but I didn’t realize that they were actually human excrement.

If Mr. Whittington had been lucky enough to live in the 19th century, he would have found London as authentic as it was in the 14th century.

Not only is there ‘human gold’ on the streets of London, there is also ‘human mercury’.

If it is true that these ‘gold’ and ‘mercury’ are an improvement on what they used to be, it is true that these excretions are far richer in heavy metals than they were in the 14th century.

In this respect, the brilliant inventions of unscrupulous merchants, whether arsenic-containing cosmetics or copper-containing fake tea, etc., have made a major contribution.

Rowan walked all the way down the steps, and when he saw that Arthur was not speaking, he took the initiative to pick up the conversation: ”The face is like dead water and the expression is stony, but I understand, this job that the Chancellor’s Office has assigned to us is indeed not good. Just sealing off the infected area is already dangerous and offensive enough, and now we have to go and cooperate with the Customs Administration and the Ministry of Navy to combat smuggling and prevent the continued importation of cases from other regions. Arthur, the first one can be handled by others, but the latter one is up to you.”

With these words Rowan stopped in front of a restaurant and leaned against the wall to light his pipe, then tossed the tin box containing the tobacco to Arthur.

Arthur was not polite as he took some tobacco and lit it, “It can’t be helped. But the decision of the Lord Chancellor’s Office and the Admiralty still surprises me a little, how on earth did they come up with the idea of transferring people from Scotland Yard to Liverpool to check on smuggling?”

Rowan took a sip of his cigarette as he raised his hand to pat the dust off Arthur’s shoulder patch and said, “They supposedly thought there was a mole in the local Liverpool anti-smuggling officials. But that’s really what happened, after all, if there’s no one behind something like smuggling, they wouldn’t be able to do it anyway.

And it’s not like the outbreak in Liverpool was as clear as it was in Sunderland, they actually couldn’t even trace a source. If it was according to the miasmatic viewpoint, this could still be explained. But if it’s according to the contagionist viewpoint, it doesn’t make sense in any way. Anyway, you try your best to find out first, and if you do, of course all will be happy. But if you can’t, or if the point is too hard, you blame it on the miasma.

All in all, you go to Liverpool this time it is best to be quick. After all, it is not our jurisdiction, London and Liverpool need you as much as you do.”

Although Lovan had long ago figured out how to handle the various outcomes, it was clear that Arthur could not muddle through and run off on a vacation to a hard-hit area like Liverpool.

Besides, within his knowledge, it could never be a miasma that caused cholera; it had to be someone behind it.

Arthur spoke, ”If it was any other period of time, it really wouldn’t be that easy for us to move these smugglers. I heard from a friend of mine who served in the Royal Navy that in the past when tea was being smuggled, these smugglers would usually set up their distribution centers in Ostend, Belgium or Nantes, France. And before heading to the British Isles, they would also use big ships to make a transit in Jersey and Guernsey before splitting up into several batches and transporting them to their lairs in cliff caves on the seashore in the darkness of the night on a small smuggling ship called a ‘fast crab’.”

Luo Wan couldn’t help but laugh at his words, “I can’t imagine that a young man like you still understands this kind of thing. You’ve caught up with a good time, although smuggling still exists nowadays, it’s not as rampant as it used to be. When I was young, almost every household drank smuggled tea. I thought that was the limit, but my father said the situation was even more exaggerated than that when he was young.

When he was a lad, tea on the market would fetch five shillings a pound, and four shillings and ninepence of that was import duty. And the same tea, if you bought it from a smuggler, was only 2 shillings. And if you buy it in Holland, it’s only 6p. Tsk tsk …… But even if tea is expensive, we Britons have to drink it, don’t we? It doesn’t matter if you’re poor or rich, you can’t get away with two cups of tea a day.

I’ll bet you that all of Europe imports so much tea every year, not because they actually like to drink tea, but to save it for smuggling towards us. This can be seen from the fact that William Pitt Jr. lowered the tariffs on tea, and as a result, our annual tax revenue on tea has increased rather than decreased. Can you imagine? From a 119% duty rate down to 12.5% and as a result the tax revenue has gone up. This means that at least 90% of the people who used to drink it were smuggling it.”

Arthur asked, “Smuggling tea isn’t as profitable now as it used to be, but it’s still a job that people do. And judging from the situation at the West India Docks, smuggling wool, raw silk, tobacco and spirits is also very profitable.” Rowan patted Arthur’s chest with the back of his hand, “Arthur, I know you’re a college student and do things in a civilized manner. But on your trip to Liverpool, don’t show mercy when you should strike. The brutality and greed of smugglers is far beyond that of ordinary murderers, and everything they do is good enough for the gallows. When we were at war with the French, they smuggled clothes and guns to France, and brandy and tea back from France when we were under embargo. They do this sort of thing all the time, so don’t hesitate to make a move if you ever realize that something is wrong.”

Arthur asked, “Sir, from what you’re saying, has anyone ever hesitated before?”

Rowan took a drag on his cigarette, “It’s not exactly hesitation, do you know about the Hawkhurst gang?”

Arthur shook his head, “Never heard of it. I don’t think there’s such a group in London, or maybe they’re not big enough to warrant Scotland Yard sending undercover agents.”

Rowan waved his hand, “They’re not a smuggling group in London, and the period they were active is years away from now. Let’s put it this way, they were active during my father’s youth, and his old man had the honor of dealing with the bastards.

At the time, the Royal Navy seized one of their smuggling ships on the high seas. The next day, over 200 of them came into the harbor on horseback. They had two carbines in each hand and short cutlasses in their pockets. In broad daylight, they rode into the town on horseback with the intention of stealing back their multi-masted smuggling ship loaded with tea and spirits.

More than that, they swore and threatened to kill the custom collectors, threatening to blow through their heads and burn down their custom-house. But luckily, reinforcements from the Royal Navy arrived in time, which prevented the bandits from succeeding. Just when everyone thought it was over, guess what happened?
A few days later, an officer of the Customs Department suddenly disappeared and was eventually found buried alive in an inn outside of Rowlands Castle. Another shoemaker who had been tipped off to the Royal Navy had his nose cut off and was stoned to death and thrown down a well. That’s the way the Hawkehurst gang does things, the sons of bitches do what they do to provoke the government and keep telling the local civilians that nothing good can come of going against them.”

When Arthur heard this, he just let out a soft laugh, “Sir, if you put it that way, I understand. If these guys are really like what you said, then I wouldn’t mind learning from the things Sir Isaac Newton did at the mint back then.”

“Sir Isaac ……”

Rowan heard Arthur mention Newton and roughly understood what kind of things he was talking about.

It was true that Newton had done many amazing and great things in his life, but as the highest officer of Scotland Yard, Rowan remembered most clearly the case of Newton’s great battle against the counterfeit coin dealers.

When Newton became the director of the Royal Mint, the British domestic counterfeiting rampant, the circulation of coins on the market often lack of pounds. In order to solve this problem, Newton directly took over the heavy responsibility of recasting currency.

The president of the Royal Society within a year to recast 7 million pounds of coins, more than the previous thirty years of the mint’s workload.

And in order to completely solve the problem of counterfeit money, Newton also personally launched an investigation to arrest the counterfeiting gangs.

To this end, the largest London counterfeiting businessman at the time, William Chaloner also directly and Newton fought the law, Chaloner rely on someone behind them repeatedly get off from the court, and the Lord Ox where to stand this gas.

He frequented dirty hotels and slums during the day to spy on intelligence, bought informants in dark corners, and even went undercover to collect evidence of their counterfeiting.

And at night, Lord Ox still didn’t forget to arrange tiger benches and chili water, working overtime to ‘greet’ those counterfeiters who were caught, and incidentally treating them to Britannia’s specialty – dipped leather whips.

In this way, Newton finally relied on a set of perfect to impeccable chain of evidence, adhering to the attitude that all evils will eventually be brought to justice by my old ox, and refuted Chaloner speechless in court.

And in the end Chaloner was disciplined to Newton’s satisfaction, for Mr. Chaloner would help him verify gravity with a rope and his own neck.

Of course, even more pleasing to Newton was the fact that along with Chaloner, who verified gravity in the Tyburn penal colony, were the two dozen or so counterfeit dealers who were prosecuted along with him.

Lovan couldn’t help but shudder at the thought.

He suddenly felt that he had perhaps thought of the cultured as too unearthly in the past, so much so that he had forgotten that there was such a figure as Sir Isaac Newton in the world.

He thought about it carefully, he realized that none of the people who went against Newton seemed to be able to end up in a good death.

Once he thought clearly about this crux, the last stone in Rowan’s heart was put down, he took off his pipe and puffed out a cloud of smoke, “It seems like you can handle this.”

Arthur just smiled, “Of course, sir. I seem to recall that smugglers are not subject to common law, they come under the Admiralty Court under the Royal Navy. There are no juries, they don’t get light sentences according to case law principles, and the judges don’t study the case law system of the Lawyers’ Guild, but are all experts in Roman law who graduated from the seminaries of various church universities. And, most importantly, I seem to recall that the smuggled goods confiscated by the admiralty court are paid directly to the Ministry of the Navy, right?”

Hearing this, Director Luo Wan took a long, slow drag on his cigarette, “I was somewhat worried for you, but now I’m starting to worry for those smugglers.”

Arthur laughed, “Why?”

Rowan took a look at his arm, and then looked at the degree certificate that was cradled in Arthur’s hand and had just been delivered by the University of London, and just shook his head, “That gang of smugglers, no matter if they are playing with literature or martial arts, they can’t play with you.”

“Sir, you flatter me.” Arthur asked, “But before that, I have a request. On this trip to Liverpool, I want to bring a few people with me. Investigating cases, I can’t handle it alone.”

Rowan returned, “Anyone in Scotland Yard who can breathe, below the rank of superintendent, you can pick any number of people.”

“Sir, that’s not what I meant.” Arthur spoke up, “I need a sharpshooter to solve physical problems, a rhetorical clerk to recognize merit on behalf of Scotland Yard, a trained detective to investigate the case, and lastly, if something goes wrong, I’ll need a guy with a bad identity to take the knives for us.”

Rowan nodded slightly, “I know the last two, Sergeant Charles Field, Officer Louis Bonaparte. But who are each of the first two you mentioned?”

“The first two guys are in isolation in the hospital right now.” Arthur spoke up, “So sir, I need you to approve a document for me to be able to fish them out of there. At my rank, I don’t have that kind of authority at the moment.”

Hearing this, Rowan snapped his pipe toward the window sill, then directly drew a pen from his pocket and casually wrote a note for Arthur and handed it over.

“Go to Liverpool with two fellows who may have contracted cholera, as long as you are not afraid to die.”

There was more to-day.

(End of chapter)