Chapter 178: Utopia (K4)

Chapter 177 Utopia (4K4)

“Aaron Pinkerton?”

Arthur stared at the somewhat stubborn brat in front of him and seemed to think of something as he asked half-jokingly, “Not a bad name, but I would have thought that someone with the last name of Pinkerton might be more interested in apprehending criminals than becoming one.”

Who knew that Pinkerton’s eyes widened in slight surprise when he heard this, perhaps his lips were a little white from being blown by the cold night air for too long, “Do you know my father?”

“Your father?” Arthur mulled over the words for a moment and opened his mouth to ask, “Your dad was a policeman, or maybe a trapper?”

Pinkerton nodded, “He was a Glasgow policeman.”

Arthur was relieved to hear this, “That’s good. Originally I was wondering what to do with you afterwards, after all, you are an unsupported outsider, and if you are dealt with according to the rules, even if I don’t send you to the magistrate’s court, you will have to be handed over to the poorhouse.

But even if it is the poor house, in this state most likely also have to send you out of the country. After all, the poorhouse in every parish in London is already overloaded, and the local residents are not willing to pay even one more farthing for the poorhouse tax.

Now that we know that your father is a police officer with a proper job, the rest is easy. Sergeant Pinkerton in Glasgow, right? I’ll try to find someone to contact.”

Pinkerton was about to open his mouth to part with something when he heard Arthur was going to send him back.

But before he could open his mouth, the door to the pub was pushed open again.

Only a tinkling of a ringing bell was heard, and two familiar faces came in from outside.

That is to Scotland Yard applied to the Tauer Hamlets half-day investigation and interview of the reporter Dickens and is responsible for accompanying the protection of police officer Tom.

When Arthur saw them, he smiled and raised his hand in greeting, “Charles, Tom, how are you today?”

Tom was surprised to see Arthur and asked, “Arthur, what are you doing here so late?”

Arthur just leaned on the counter and cocked his head at Pinkerton, “For a brat who poked his way from Scotland to London on his own. Get acquainted, the son of Sergeant Pinkerton of Glasgow, who just fumbled away Elder’s wallet under my nose a while back.”

Tom sniffed, a hint of weariness showing on his face, “So, you’re throwing him in jail?”

Arthur sipped his coffee, “You know, I’m a graduate of the University of London. From a utilitarian law enforcement point of view, the reason why we throw people in jail is not out of personal preference or anything, but so that they won’t make the same mistake in the future.

This brat’s situation is a bit unique, and I think it’s best to send him back to his father if we want to keep him from continuing to do work in London. Tom, you’re going on a business trip tomorrow, just as you haven’t had a vacation in a long time. Take your wife and Adam with you, and by the way, take the brat to Glasgow, and deliver him personally into the hands of Inspector Pinkerton. When you come back, remember to reimburse the station for your traveling expenses.”

Tom couldn’t help but be relieved to hear that, and he smiled back, “OK, I’ll take him back then, and I’ll set off with him first thing in the morning.”

Arthur nodded his head and said, “I knew it, when dealing with this kind of thing, it’s right to leave it to you.”

At the end of his speech, he saw Officer Tom walk up and say something to Pinkerton, at first Pinkerton was still wriggling and reluctant to go, but under Tom’s soft persuasion, he finally had to reluctantly leave the tavern together with Officer Tom.

Dickens watched the pair exit the tavern and then took a seat beside Arthur.

He hung his head and held his cup, hesitated for half a day, and finally summoned up enough courage to open his mouth and asked, “Arthur, I …… have actually always had some questions I wanted to ask you, of course, you can choose not to answer them if you find it inconvenient.”

Arthur saw his appearance, just smiled, “What you want to ask, is probably the matter of Hyde Park?”

Dickens couldn’t help but twist his head to look at him when he heard the name of the place, “How did you …… you know about it?”

Arthur just cupped his chin, “Because I’m afraid that’s the only thing that’s happened to me that could make you find it so hard to talk about.”

Dickens nodded bitterly, “I would have thought you’d be very squeamish about such things.”

“Quite squeamish indeed, but what’s done is done, and wouldn’t it be worse to pretend nothing happened while blindfolded? After all, the former leaves at least a chance of explanation, and I can’t think of a second reason for the latter other than weakness. But it’s just you, Charles, you’re willing to listen to me talk about why, and that’s because we’re familiar with each other. Generally speaking, other people don’t bother to listen to my explanations, so I don’t bother to explain.”

Dickens only felt the heavy air lighten when he heard this.

He exhaled with a huff and a smile grew on his face, “That’s true. It’s because we know each other and I know exactly who you are, so I know that there must be some reason for this. At least you’re definitely not taking the initiative, am I right?”

Hearing this, Arthur just shook his head, “You really guessed wrong on that one, this is something I took the initiative to approach my superiors to mention. I’m afraid that if things continue to evolve, I’m afraid that I’ll end up having to send out the close-guard cavalry again. Rather than eating the cavalry’s sabers, I think it’s more cost-effective to let them take a couple of clubbings, aka squatting in a squad room for a few days.”

“That ……” Dickens hesitated, “but what do you think of parliamentary reform? Are you not in favor of it?”

“Parliamentary reform?” Arthur raised an eyebrow, “Do you mean the same parliamentary reform that gave the middle class the right to vote, but was going to get the workers killed?”

“The middle class getting the vote?” Dickens was stunned, “No! Wasn’t the purpose of parliamentary reform universal suffrage?”

Arthur just laughed, “Do you think that’s possible? Universal suffrage? If it ****ed up, neither the Tories nor the Whigs would be able to elect any of them, and it would be the Birmingham Political Union led by Thomas Attwood or the Capital Political Union in London that would end up in power.

So the Whigs have gone to all this trouble to push for parliamentary reform, but in the end they’re going to lose the election themselves? Charles, do you think that’s possible? You’re a proper Briton and you’ve been doing parliamentary interviews for a while now, so you must know that compromise is an important part of British politics.

In order to pass motion A, we would normally propose a motion B that is even less acceptable to Parliament, but motion B was never actually in the cards in the first place, it exists so that the opposition parties can hold their noses and agree to let A pass.”

Dickens frowned slightly, he didn’t seem to agree with Arthur very much, “That ……”

Arthur just held his coffee cup, he felt the temperature coming from the cup and spoke, “Perhaps there do exist some people in the Whig Party who really want to realize universal suffrage, but as soon as it is expanded to the entire Whig Party, then that small handful can be ignored. Do you know why I think the Duke of Wellington and Sir Peel are not bad?” Dickens asked, “Why?”

Arthur took a sip of his coffee, “Because they were two of the rare political figures who dared to go against the mainstream opinion of the party, and with the Catholic Emancipation Bill, I’m still a bit in disbelief that the Duke of Wellington, a figure known as a die-hard Tory politician, was able to make such a courageous decision.

From the moment he signed the bill, his political career was pretty much over, yet he still chose to sign the thing, which is not something that any ordinary person would have the guts to do.

I admire him and did get a benefit from the bill, so in order to throw in the towel, I can’t at least let someone else continue to smash the window glass in his house. It doesn’t do the glass smasher or the smashed any favors.

You know, Charles, that ingratitude to the first benefactor of early life, the maker of life’s fortune, deserves retribution. To me, Sir Peel and the Duke of Wellington both count as lucky makers.”

Dickens couldn’t help but light up when he heard this, “Ingratitude to the first benefactor of early life, the fortunate maker of life, deserves retribution …… That sounds pretty good, is that another quote from Marco Aurelius?”

Arthur just laughed, “No, it’s yours.”

“Mine?” Dickens froze, “You mean I can put that in a book?”

“Of course, anytime.” Arthur raised his coffee cup and clinked it with him, “Charles, I wish you a great future.”

Arthur asked, “By the way, have you finished reading Marco Aurelius’ Meditations?”

Dickens embarrassedly related, “Halfway through, but I’ve gotten hooked on other books lately.”

“Wow? What book?”

Dickens smiled and took a wrinkled, turned book out of his bag, “This is it, Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. Have you read this book? It’s a very interesting work.”

Arthur nodded, “Not only is the book interesting, Sir More the man is also very interesting. When our King Henry VIII wanted a divorce, he wanted the nobles of the country to jointly write a letter to the Pope, but Sir Moore, the Chancellor, was dead set against signing the joint letter.

Then Henry VIII passed the Act of Supremacy, making himself the supreme head of the state religion, and again Sir Moore was unwilling to take the oath of faith to the king.

The infuriated king threw him into the Tower of London and sent a bunch of people to perjure themselves and convict him of treason. As a show of mercy, Henry VIII also hypocritically changed the execution from dismemberment to beheading.

But Sir Moore’s first reaction to learning of this was to jest ‘pray God that my dear friend may be spared such mercy’. And as he walked up to the guillotine, he actually had the heart to jest at the executioner, saying, ‘Please help me up, and as to how I am to come down, I have already arranged it myself.'”

Dickens couldn’t help but laugh at this, “Sir Moore is a very interesting man indeed, but what does this have to do with the book Utopia?”

Arthur pointed to the title of the book, “Don’t you realize that the title of Utopia is also a joke by Sir Moore?”

“What does this …… this have to do with anything?”

Arthur said, “Charles, as a future man of letters, perhaps you should brush up on your Greek. Utopia is actually a composite word made up of two Greek words, which are ‘ou’, which stands for ‘nothing’, and ‘place’, which stands for ‘topos’, so the actual meaning of utopia is actually ‘no such place’.

This book is not the same as Plato’s Ideal State. If you read this book with any seriousness, you’ll not only fail to see its true essence, you’ll be fooled by Sir Moore. But that’s not really a big deal, maybe Sir Moore intended to have fun with us readers when he wrote this book in the first place.”

“Is …… that so?” Dickens frowned and stroked the cover of the book, “But …… but I think that utopia in this book is pretty good, isn’t what people want a world like that in the book?”

Who knows, Arthur just raised an eyebrow when he heard this, “I thought the same thing you did at first, but after experiencing so many things that have happened in the neighborhood, and all the people I’ve come in contact with, and after talking to a certain ancient friend of mine, now my opinion has changed a bit.”

Dickens couldn’t help but follow up with, “Is it not utopia that people seek?”

“Certainly not.”

Arthur leaned back in his chair, “Well, what can I tell you? For most people, what they want is complicated. They want anarchist individual freedom, utopian social welfare, chauvinist national policies, militaristic international engagement, capitalist commodity economy, nihilistic work ethic, feudalistic views on marriage. Oh yes, and most importantly, the sexual openness of a primitive society.”

As soon as Arthur said this, the red devil sitting on the counter couldn’t stop slapping his thighs and tilting his head in wild laughter, his tongue flopping out, “Arthur! You finally see the point!”

Dickens’ face suddenly turned odd when he heard this, “And what kind of thing would this be if all of this came true?”

“I don’t know.” Arthur shrugged his shoulders, “Anyway, I think it’s something that I’m afraid even God can’t fulfill them. But if they can become King of Great Britain, and they can promise Parliament that they’ll give up interfering with domestic and foreign policy, then the Cabinet might be able to grudgingly accede to their demands. But Charles, as you know, there are twenty million people in Great Britain and only one king, so our biggest dilemma now is how to find forty trillion subjects for our twenty million king.”

Dickens listened and wondered, “So if they don’t become king, these things won’t change?”

“Change, of course they must.” Arthur said, “But if they don’t give up some of their demands, none of the above can be realized. As you know, Britain is a cesspool, and now someone in the cesspool is telling them that if they get the right to vote, they will be able to fulfill all their demands, but in reality they are not going to actually give them the right to vote.

It’s not good that the workers have been duped and are enjoying it. I think they should have fought for some factory legislation or something like that by now, after all, this is when they are at their highest value in the eyes of the Whigs. Something that doesn’t ask for it now can be overdue.”

Dickens sighed suddenly as he heard this, his head bowed in silence for a moment.

He took out a notebook from the canvas bag he was carrying and spoke, “That’s just it, let’s not talk about these demoralizing things. Arthur, you also know that I have been doing parliamentary interviews again recently, regarding the list of cabinet members prepared by the Whigs, I have some news here from the mouths of the parliamentarians, are you interested in this?”

Arthur blinked at that, “I’d certainly like to hear about it if you don’t mind telling me about it.”

Dickens flipped open his book, rubbed his temples, and opened his mouth to read, “If there are no surprises, once the Tories step down and the Whigs come to power. Then, the Home Secretary, who is one of the three thrones of the Cabinet, will probably come from among Viscount Palmerston, Viscount Melbourne, the Duke of Bedford, and his brother, Lord John Russell. ……”

(End of chapter)