Chapter 190: The Unfortunate Lady
Chapter 189 The Unfortunate Lady
Not long after Mill’s departure, Robak took the initiative to get up and politely take his leave of Arthur and Elder as well.
“Though I don’t know what John intends to do, I hope I can make some progress on my end if he doesn’t succeed. It just so happens that I have an appointment with Mr. Edwin Chadwick, Mr. Bianchin’s secretary, in a few moments, and I’ll have to have a good talk with him about you and see if there’s anything we can do.”
With these words, Roebuck smiled and picked up his hat and left the café.
No sooner had Robak left than Elder leaned back on all fours on the cafe seat, “Look, look! Our London University students still have energy! As soon as you opened your mouth, even the East India Company and the Westminster Review started operating.”
Compared to Elder’s inexplicable confidence, Arthur looked unusually calm.
He tasted the coffee whose bitterness had been neutralized by the milky taste, “I thought I could get rid of the human condition by changing places, but now it seems that you have to talk about this stuff no matter where you are. Government promotions are all about affinity, and that’s after the reforms, I don’t even know to what extent corruption and chaos within the government would be if it were placed in the era before the civilian reforms.”
Elder took a cookie and threw it into his mouth, “Before? That was a great era before, I heard my uncle say that in the late 18th century, when he was still just an ordinary captain, the buying and selling of officials within the Admiralty was almost out in the open.
Charles Middleton, the Comptroller of the Admiralty, was sitting on 300 guineas a year just from the sale of his men’s titles, and instead of going to work himself, he usually took 500 pounds out of his paycheck to hire men to handle the work for him, and he himself took the rest of his salary and the proceeds from the sale of his officers to gamble on the horses, play cards, and whatnot, and had a pretty good time of it.”
Arthur clenched his chin and said, “I’m not surprised that there is such a thing in the Admiralty, after all, you guys are well paid over there, I’m afraid it wouldn’t be so easy to fool around if you switched to the Home Office here, right?”
Elder raised an eyebrow, “Yes! The salaries of your Home Office clerks and subordinate departments are indeed notoriously low, and because of that, that’s why your Chief Clerk of the Home Office spends sixty pounds while looking for someone to fill in for him.
On the other hand, he is paid to work on behalf of the senior clerks of the Chancery Office, and I have seen in the report of the work of the Parliament before, it seems that he is able to reap 227 pounds and three shillings a year in return for this part-time work, which is much higher than the income from his own work.”
Hearing this, Arthur couldn’t help but stare at Elder for a while with his eyes wide open.
Elder was made uncomfortable by his look and asked unsatisfactorily, “What are you looking at me for?”
Arthur put down his coffee cup and apologized to Elder in shame, “Elder, it seems that I misunderstood you all along in the past.”
“Misunderstood me about what?” Elder chewed his cookie without caring.
Arthur sighed, “I used to think that you would at most read some erotic literature, I really didn’t think that you would actually read parliamentary work reports.”
Eldad hummed out a breath through his nose, “What do you know? Parliamentary working papers are far dirtier than erotic literature, sometimes the stuff written there is worse than the sewers of the East End. Arthur, feel sorry for me, that once aspiring young man Elder Carter is dead, now standing in front of you is just a shell filled with desire, corruption is always my most interesting topic.
Like embezzlement of public funds to earn interest and so on, within the civil service can only be considered as child’s play. If I hadn’t read the report on the work of the parliament, I would have never thought that they could make an art out of corruption.
They first the treasury books in accordance with the Arabic numerical records, and then translated into the official Latin transcription, reported to the Ministry of Finance to do the first change, the Ministry of Finance to do the budget to do another change, the budget is distributed to the various departments will be changed again, so change to change to go, the account transcription transcription more, there are errors is also very normal, they take the opportunity to in these wrong accounts in the flickering around to get down to business.
By this means the War Office had a deficit of 40,000 or 50,000 pounds a year which it could not reconcile, and the Land Office tax collector paid 390,000 pounds less tax in 1780 than he actually did.”
Arthur couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at this, “Although I know that the financial audit offices of various departments are usually fed, is it not too much to ask that the Land Office alone could have a deficit of £390,000 in the year 1780 in terms of the revenue it paid in? Even if the Audit Office is a hired substitute, it’s not incompetent to that extent, is it?”
Elder cursed and pounded his fist on the table, “The Audit Office? Those guys are the ones with the fattest fucking appetites! When we were fighting the North American War of Independence against those rebels, the two auditors of the War Department received 16,565 pounds and 10,331 pounds a year in tips alone, think about it, what the hell are people doing tipping them so much for when they have nothing better to do?”
When Arthur heard this, he couldn’t help but laugh and scold, “Elder, you’re remembering too much fucking detail down to single digits. If you could put that memory to use in scientific research, even Sir Isaac Newton, the one and only sun in your heart, wouldn’t be able to shake you one bit.”
Elder sniffed and nodded his head rather approvingly, “To be honest, I’ve always thought that the reason why Sir Isaac Newton was able to come up with Calculus was inextricably linked to the fact that he had taken up the position of Director of the Royal Mint. If I could sit in that position of his, my math skills would definitely be greatly enhanced as well. I’ve never been interested in making equations on draft paper, but if I’m sent to count money, then I’d say anything to get over the impoverished math mind that’s been passed down from generation to generation in the Carter family.”
Arthur smiled back, “But instead of going to be a chancellor, why don’t you have the cheek to ask your uncle for a loan to read for the bar. As long as you can get a license to practice law, I guarantee you’ll make a fortune if you make it to Chancery Hall in the future.
As you know, judges have been well paid ever since the overthrow of Charles I and the establishment of the Long Parliament in 1640. Back then, their salaries were fixed at 1,000 pounds a year, and that money was paid directly from the revenue of the Customs and Excise, not even subject to the budgeting of the Treasury.
After the Succession to the Throne Act of 1701, in addition to the fixed salary, there were a lot of additional legal income, such as the appointment fee of the clerk of the court under his command, the judgment fee, the agreement of litigation fee, the cost of office supplies, and a large number of additional allowances I can not even say. The total amount of all these incomes adds up to at least five or six hundred pounds.
Of course, it can’t be ruled out that some judges also get rich from illegal sources we don’t know about, such as when the Beer Bill wasn’t passed a while back, and a permit from the local magistrate was required to get a license to operate a tavern.”
According to Elder’s character, he would have done a double-take when he heard these things, but Mr. Carter, who had just been talking about corruption, was now in a state of silence.
While stirring his coffee cup with a spoon, he frowned tightly as if he was listening to something.
Arthur was about to open his mouth to ask when he saw this look. Unexpectedly, Elder suddenly raised his hand to interrupt him, and his ears twitched, “Hush! Keep quiet, I think I hear the sound of a beautiful lady crying.”
“A lady crying?”
Arthur raised his eyes and scanned around the cafe, this early in the morning, there were very few customers in the cafe, he quickly found the object that Elder was talking about.
On a seat in the east corner of the hall, he spotted a lady wearing a beige wide-brimmed hat.
The Red Devil, who had been leaning against the window, could not help but press both hands to his chest at the sight of her, and began to recite a poem in praise of her appearance
“Dark hair, plainly combed to the back of her head and tied in a bow.
A pair of large dark eyes under two diaphanous eyebrows were full of sorrow, and the straight nose, which was transparently proud, complemented the bowed curves of her lips.
Sedate and tranquil Zhu lips closed, miserable life took away your smile, the broadness of your forehead can not change the narrowness of his heart.
Oh, my girl, why trust your fate to others?
Do your best to think with your broad forehead full of fortitude, who is the Messiah who can save your destiny?”
The Red Devil was so poetic that Arthur, who was the first literary critic of Britain, couldn’t help glancing at him and commenting, “Destiny, and a fucking Messiah, quite the mysticism!”
Elder thought Arthur was mocking him and couldn’t help but glare, “Arthur, what are you kid talking about?”
“Nothing.” Arthur lifted his chin slightly and raised it at the lady who was silently wiping her tears in the corner, “That lady who is crying, it seems like we know each other.”
“You know?”
Elder’s eyes fell out of his head at that, and he lowered his voice to curse, “Arthur, for fuck’s sake, how is it that you know a woman? Are you really the Paganini of Scotland Yard? A flamboyant musical maestro?
Playing the violin for a living? Touring Europe for a living? Paganini’s hands, which grasped the wings of music, had one hand in a filthy casino, and one in a mantle of fox-scented prostitutes.
And you, with your hands that can pull off a subtle Fiorentino sword trick, have one hand in the seedy East End of London, and where do you intend to reach with the other?”
Arthur pressed his hands down to signal his composure, “Take it easy Elder, I have one hand in the East End of London and the other I intend to dedicate to the field of electromagnetism research. Of course, I can’t guarantee that this will still be the plot behind it. Because if I’m dismissed this time, this hand I’m pulling out of the East End of London might consider reaching elsewhere.”
Elder held out a finger in warning, “That hand of yours isn’t going anywhere until my problems are solved. That tart Alexander already has a son, and Charles is secretly hitting it off with some mystery girl, so if you get ahead of me again, how will I ever have the face to live in Lancaster Gate?”
Arthur apologized, “You can move out if you don’t have the face to live there, for that matter, I’ve never been one to advocate forcing you, I think humans should have the right to move freely.”
“Ah ……” Elder covered his face and said with a sullen expression, “Arthur, I didn’t expect you to actually value our friendship so little, are you forcing me to sleep on the streets?”
“Sleeping rough? You are my friend, how could I stand by and watch you sleep on the streets?”
When Elder heard this, Fang grunted and wrapped his hands around his body and said, “Count on you still having a bit of a conscience.”
Seeing his look, Arthur smiled and said, “Elder, have you forgotten my profession? I’m a police officer, if I found you sleeping on the streets, I would definitely send you to jail. You know, especially in an area like next to Hyde Park.”
Elder heard this and was about to share a few words with Arthur.
Unexpectedly the bell in the cafe rang, and a gentleman in a black bowler hat came in at the door.
Arthur sized the man up and suddenly slightly pressed the hat he wore on his head down a bit, just enough to cover his eyes.
Elder was flabbergasted by him, “What are you doing? It’s just a couple jokes, no need to feel guilty like this.”
Arthur didn’t say much about Elder being rough around the edges, he just mumbled under his breath, “Viscount Melbourne? What is he doing here?”
(End of chapter)