Chapter 189: The East India Company’s Trade Secrets (K7)

Chapter 188 – The East India Company’s Trade Secrets (4K7)

In the cafe across from the University of London, the table was simply set with a few plates of snacks, and four young men with nothing better to do came together to engage in a casual conversation on their day off.

Elder grinned broadly with one arm resting on the back of the chair and asked at the duo sitting across from him, “So you two aren’t students at the University of London?”

The duo shook their heads and Mil spoke up, “We’re friends, met in the London Debating Society.”

“The Debating Society?”

Arthur asked as he added some milk to his coffee and stirred it, “Why would the Debating Society want to come and debate on the campus of the University of London, our school is usually noisy enough as it is. You probably don’t know what it’s really like to have Protestants, Catholics, atheists and a whole bunch of weird contraptions on the same campus.”

Roebuck snorted, “Can it get any worse than Oxford?”

Elder instantly found empathy, and even his tone became a lot more cordial: “You didn’t like Oxford either?”

Mill sniffed disdainfully, “How many utilitarians have a favorable opinion of Oxford? Even Mr. Bianqin, an Oxford graduate, frowned when he mentioned Oxford, and we both heard Mr. Bianqin mention it when he was working at the Westminster Review.

He said that when he was a student at Oxford, his tutor’s greatest pleasure was not to let the students have any fun, and as soon as he was admitted, he let Mr. Bianchin read Cicero’s Lectures, and even if he read them backward and forward, he still had to continue reading every day.

And when it comes to class time, is reading from the book, the so-called geography class, is to set up a map hanging on the blackboard, and then tell you which place where, in that kind of classroom want to learn things completely on their own.

The tutors at Oxford were never indifferent to their students, and it was difficult to cultivate any feelings among them. According to Mr. Bianchin’s words, ‘the tutors did boring routine work in the morning and played cards in the evening. Some of the seniors were debauched and extravagant, some were depressed and withdrawn, and most were lifeless.'”

Hearing this, Elder couldn’t help but speak, “No wonder that when I was at school, I once heard Mr. Bianchin berating Oxford in a presentation, saying, ‘I believe that lies and hypocrisy are the inevitable, and the only inevitable, result of university education in England. That is why we must open the University of London; we must not let all the brilliant young men of Britain be ruined at the hands of Oxford and Cambridge’.”

Hearing this, Mill smiled and asked, “So where do you both work?”

Hearing this, Elder proudly said, “I serve in the Royal Navy, and as for this Mr. Arthur Hastings beside me, he’s a remarkable man, having graduated just over a year ago, he’s now a Superintendent of Scotland Yard.”

Roebuck first froze when he heard this, and then said in surprise: “Just graduated for a year and achieved such a high position?”

Roebuck also seemed to remember something when he heard the name Hastings, he pestled Mill: “Have you forgotten? It’s that Hastings, Mr. Bianqin also purposely posted two articles in the Westminster Review to talk about him and that little boy theft case.”

Mill was reminded of this by his companion, and he laughed, “So you are that Sergeant Hastings? You must be credited with more than half of the amendments to the Bloody Act.”

In the face of such a compliment from the other party, Arthur was only modest: “Actually, Sir Peel wanted to push for the Blood Act matter a long time ago. That case of mine can only be considered an opportunity.”

But Roebuck shook his head, “You can’t say that, Mr. Hastings, you should understand that what is missing in many things in Britain is an opportunity. Without that opportunity, no amount of preparation can be good enough.

Take for example the matter of parliamentary reform, although the topic of reform has been raised for decades, there has not been any time when it has come so close to success as it has today.

And it turned out to be due to the fact that the Duke of Wellington favored progressive Catholic emancipation, which led to a split in the Tory party. Now that the diehard Tories, who were once the most opposed to reform, are demanding it, don’t you think it’s funny?”

Hearing this, Mill also spoke enviously, “To be honest, Mr. Hastings, I envy you a little. The work you do is much more meaningful than me, and it is mostly helpful to society. You may not know that the reason why I stopped writing for the Westminster Review two years ago was because I was in a daze.

I felt as if the work I was doing was meaningless and that I was wasting my time.

It was like that Coleridge poem that says: Working without hope is like putting wine through a sieve; hope without purpose cannot exist.

I felt at that point as if I could no longer exist.”

Arthur looked sympathetically at this early 19th century human being with depression, “This symptom of yours is quite similar to another friend of mine.”

“Is that so?” Mill asked, “What was the name of that friend of yours? Maybe I even recognize it, I did meet some people with the same symptoms as me.”

Arthur didn’t hold back, “Benjamin Disraeli, candidate for Westminster constituency number 4. God forbid, he’d better get elected as an MP this year or I reckon I’ll have to listen to him pour out his woes all afternoon again.”

Elder spoke up as if he knew himself, “By the way, John, what do you do for a living? How come it’s pointless?”

Mil smiled reluctantly, “I’m a clerk for the East India Company.”

Arthur had been sipping his coffee when he heard this and barely managed to hold back spitting in the face of Roebuck, who was sitting across from him.

He spoke while picking up the napkin next to him to wipe his mouth, “I probably understand now why you are depressed, the East India Company’s London office, this is a place where even Oxford and Cambridge students break their heads trying to squeeze in.”

Elder even hugged his head and cried, “Damn! How did you squeeze in? How come I don’t have this luck? Do you still accept people there? I’d quit my job in the Royal Navy in a heartbeat if I did.”

Roebuck also nodded with his coffee cup in hand, “John, I told you, you’ve had a pretty good life already. Don’t think about all that stuff all day, just relax, you don’t have time for emptiness if you’re fighting sacks at the docks all day.”

Mill also seemed to be used to their reactions, he helplessly pursed his lips, “Getting into the East India Company is not as difficult as you think, as long as you can successfully graduate from the company’s East India College located in London’s Haileybury, you can all be successfully onboarded in the company.”

Elder pounded the tabletop excitedly, “John, don’t you understand? It’s already good luck to be a clerk at the East India Company, let alone that you’re in the London office. My God! Do you realize what this means? It means you don’t have to travel across the ocean and you’re still just as well paid. And you’ve got all the time in the world to be vacuous, which means the London office must be pretty idle, right?”

Mil was pressed so hard by him that he had to reveal only part of the information slightly, “It gets a little busier during the peak shipping season.”

“And the off-season?”

Mil sheepishly picked up his coffee cup, “Trade secret.”

Seeing that Elder was about to lose his inhibitions, Mil hastily changed the subject, “But that’s not what we’re talking about now. The reason I’m empty is because I’m thinking, ‘If all the goals in your life were realized, and all the changes in systems and perceptions you’re looking forward to were instantly and fully realized, wouldn’t that be a tremendous amount of happiness and joy for you?'”

Arthur, who had been silent, heard this and coldly remarked, “Certainly not. Nonetheless, the goal, if it were all realized, would be very painful for you. Because from now on, you’ll simply be living just for the sake of living. Even if you set a very vulgar goal for yourself, such as earning a hundred million dollars or something, it’s still better than setting a goal that can be accomplished easily.”

When Mill heard this, he couldn’t help but light up, “Mr. Hastings, you really do think the same way. At that time, I was in a state of lost goals. Because I realized that the entire foundation on which I had built my zest for life collapsed, and that all my happiness originally lay in persevering in the pursuit of that goal. And now that the original goal was no longer attractive, how could I continue to be interested in the means to achieve it?
At that point, I was like what is described in Depression – sadness without sharp pain, emptiness, melancholy, desolation, sleepy, suffocating, passionless grief that could not be naturally dispelled with words, sighs or tears.

I felt so uninspired to do anything, so muddled through my days, that I can barely remember now what I did in those past years, as if I hadn’t lived them.

I tried to seek relief from my favorite books, but to no avail. The ones that I used to think were great don’t help me, they’ve all lost their passing charm.

I also thought of seeking help from my father, but in the end I couldn’t make up my mind because all indications were that he was totally unaware of the mental anguish that I was suffering, and even if I could get him to understand, he wasn’t the doctor who could cure me.

As for my friends, as you can see, Roebuck and the others are incapable of understanding me.”

Arthur asked, “And how did you come out of it afterward?”

Mil smiled and sighed, the temperature in the bright café wasn’t too hot, but his head was covered in beads of sweat.

“I was reading Marmontel’s Memoirs, and quite by accident I read a part about his family’s grief when his father died, and Marmontel, who was just a young boy at the time, suddenly had a revelation, and felt, and made his family feel, that he could be everything to them – to replace them everything that was lost.

The scene struck me deeply, and although I’m embarrassed to say so, I was indeed moved to tears. From that day on, the burden I was carrying was lighter.

Gradually, I realized that the ordinary things in life could still bring me joy. I still find joy in the sun, the sky, books, conversations, and public affairs, not strong, but enough to make me happy.

And once more having a conviction for myself, I had that thrill of acting up for the public good, and the cloud over my head slowly lifted, and I enjoyed life again.”

Arthur couldn’t help but smile when he heard this, “I thought you needed enlightenment, but I didn’t realize that you actually came out on your own. The goal of living for the common good is indeed sustainable, and you never have to worry about it materializing because there will always be something for you to do.

Mr. Mill, perhaps you should write a book, I’m sure it would help a lot of people with the same symptoms you have. I would especially like to recommend this book to my friend Benjamin Disraeli to take a look at, perhaps he could gain a lot from your book.”

Mill picked up his handkerchief and wiped his sweat, “Thank you, Arthur, perhaps I am supposed to think about this. I think it should be a couple of years though, it’s probably too soon to be writing memoirs at our age. You might want to consider writing about your journey while working on a case though, I’d definitely buy a copy if it was published.

It’s the first time I’ve met someone who understands me the way you do. Most of the others, like Roebuck, and this friend of yours, open their mouths without asking and say that I am idle.”

Roebuck sniffed disgruntledly, “I didn’t say that at the time, I told you to read more of Byron’s poetry, and that you would naturally be better off.”

Mil glared, “Byron’s poetry? You don’t look at the things he did in Britain, he didn’t leave a good impact on this country.”

Arthur snickered, “John, you don’t need to flatter me like that. I understand your reason; perhaps it is because I, too, am an idle man?”

Mill frowned over his coffee cup, “Idle? A Scotland Yard officer would be an idler?”

Hearing this, Elder also spoke offhandedly in front of the two young men, who were close to Bianchin, “Even if they aren’t now, they will be soon. When the Whigs come up, Arthur might have to roll out of Scotland Yard. By then, he’ll have time to be empty. But I can’t organize the job of enlightening people, John, and you’ll have to help me with that job when the time comes.”

Roebuck asked, “What’s this all about?”

Arthur laughed, “No big deal, factionalism, it’s in Parliament, it’s certainly in Scotland Yard, and it’s certainly where you work. It’s like the Edinburgh Review, the Westminster Review and the Quarterly Review fighting a three-way battle all the time. Only everywhere else but the newspapers, as soon as they fall out of favor, they’re out.”

Mill keenly caught the meaning of Arthur’s words, “You mean the Whigs will replace you as soon as they get into power? That can’t be possible, can it? Didn’t you do a pretty good job at Scotland Yard?”

Roebuck couldn’t help but wave his hand at his words, “John, you’ve been bare and empty in the East India Company for the past few years, and you really haven’t grown at all in terms of substance. Have you forgotten? Amending the Bloody Act, Robert Peel, Arthur this must have been labeled as a Peelite.

It’s the same as reorganizing the board of directors of your East India Company, and every time you do, you have to replace a number of the company’s senior civil servants. Arthur isn’t exactly a lowly position in Scotland Yard, and if a Home Secretary comes up who doesn’t see eye to eye with Peel, then it makes sense to replace him.”

Hearing this, Mill mumbled while biting the finger stuffed into his mouth, “That’s no good, replacing an outstanding officer like Arthur isn’t in the public interest. Faction fighting is a damn thing, can’t they just concentrate on what they’re doing?”

For his part, Roebuck leaned back in his chair to mull over a solution, “John, why don’t you contact Mr. Suthern, the editor of the Westminster Review? He should have the contact information for quite a few Whig parliamentary candidates over there.”

When Mill heard this, he couldn’t help but curse, “Roebuck, don’t you know, the editor isn’t Suthern now, but has been replaced with Bowling. My previous contribution to the Westminster Review was also the last.

Both my father and I have completely fallen out with the editorial board, don’t you know, that bastard thing Bowling actually secretly sold the distribution rights of the newspaper without our knowledge.

We both knew the paper was struggling, so we hardly took any money from it, but he did something like that, and I’ve never forgiven him for that in my life! My depression has a lot to do with this too, he ruined my ideals!”

Roebuck heard this and couldn’t help but cover his forehead, “Then this is difficult …… University of London …… This school brand is not popular either …… “

“University of London, University of London …… Right!” Mill suddenly brightened up and clapped his hands.

He put away the coat that was hitched to the chair, rushed to Arthur and said, “Arthur don’t worry, I’ll go to York this afternoon, you wait for my good news.”

At the word, Mill hurried out of the door of the cafe.

Arthur looked at his figure that disappeared quickly into the street and rushed to Roebuck and asked, “What’s he up to?”

Robak was also confused by him, “I don’t know!”

Elder was the only one who laughed twice conspiratorially, “You guys don’t get it here?”

“You understand then why don’t you tell us?”

Elder lifted his coffee cup and took a leisurely sip, he put down the cup and spoke faintly, “Sorry, business secrets.”

(End of chapter)