The Shadow of Great Britain

324: Chapter 205: The Power of the British (6K2) 324: Chapter 205: The Power of the British (6K2) London, Westminster, 4 Whitehall, headquarters of the Greater London Police Department.

Today’s Scotland Yard was as bustling as ever, but the usual contingent of high-ranking officers who typically settled in the headquarters were rarely found leisurely staying in their offices, drinking tea, and reading newspapers.

This wasn’t because the officers had suddenly become more diligent; it was due to the pressure of circumstances, the presence of a formidable enemy.

Even if Scotland Yard couldn’t produce any results, it still needed to show the right attitude.

As Rowan, the department head, and Arthur had anticipated, ever since Representative Bernie Harrison was released, he began to apply constant pressure on Scotland Yard in Parliament.

To determine if there was corruption, dereliction of duty, violations of judicial procedure, and other forms of injustice within Scotland Yard, Parliament was considering whether to follow Harrison’s proposal to establish a special police investigation commission, or even to abolish Scotland Yard and restore the centuries-old model of local sheriffs’ management.

Of course, in Arthur’s view, corruption, dereliction of duty, and violations of judicial procedure were indeed all present within Scotland Yard.

Not only that, Arthur could even add a few more charges to the list for the investigation commission, and he could write them out in even greater detail.

Senior officers of Scotland Yard often engaged in practices like subcontracting police district prosecution business to law firms for the difference in price, exchanging excessive police deployment for the security of stores, accepting intermittent banquets, and receiving condolence money from industry associations within their jurisdiction, among other things.

Among the lower-ranking officers, it was more common to see accepting bribes to release criminals, embezzling loot, selling stolen goods, and accepting assistance from certain criminal groups to tip them off, etc.

It could be said that what improper behavior existed in Scotland Yard depended entirely on the powers it had, a principle that could also be unreservedly applied to other administrative departments in Britain.

However, while Scotland Yard could hardly be considered a paragon of justice and integrity, it was still more restrained compared to the old sheriff model.

Because the problems inherent in Scotland Yard were essentially inherited intact from the sheriff model, at the very least Scotland Yard now had some clear management regulations, with what was right and what was wrong readily apparent, and corresponding punishment rules.

What’s more, the sheriffs always hated Scotland Yard for not obeying their beck and call, after all, the means by which Scotland Yard made money once belonged to them and their subordinates.

As the grandson of the famous Whig Party orator, Lord Russell, who had yet to be born would say, “A beggar does not envy a millionaire, but he certainly envies a beggar who earns more than he does.”

Although neither the sheriffs nor Scotland Yard were beggars, on the whole, the social status of the senior officers of Scotland Yard and the sheriffs had essentially reached the same level.

As such, they naturally held the viewpoint, “The failure of the sheriffs was certainly awful, but the success of Scotland Yard was even more troubling,” seizing every opportunity to find fault with Scotland Yard.

Hence, in the constant tug-of-war between these two self-interested groups, a hint of judicial justice had actually begun to emerge.

Following the fall of the Tory Party, this trend only intensified; those who had risen to become sheriffs during the Tory times were trying everything in their power to make the prosecution represented by Scotland Yard lose in ordinary cases.

Therefore, when Harrison’s case came to light, the long-suppressed sheriffs began to exclaim: “Our glorious era is coming back.”

Of course, in Arthur’s opinion, the sheriffs might be celebrating too soon.

He meticulously savored the arrest warrant for Representative Bernie Harrison that had been previously issued by the Westminster Magistrate Court, his peripheral vision deliberately and decidedly drifted to the signature at the bottom of the document.

The sheriff who had approved the arrest of Bernie Harrison was none other than Mr.

George Norton, who had only recently taken office.

Although Mr.

Norton had declared his resignation from the Tory Party six months prior in order to obtain the position, as a former hardliner of the Tory Party, Arthur certainly did not think that Mr.

Norton was unfamiliar with Bernie Harrison, a supporter of the Earl of Eldon.

He quickly picked up another document that was beside him, which contained some information obtained from a conversation with Mrs.

Norton.

Character descriptions of George Norton, whether from his former classmate Disraeli or from his wife, who was intimate with him, led Arthur to the same conclusion.

Mr.

Norton was an utter narcissist and misanthrope.

The reason Mrs.

Norton had pleaded with Viscount Melbourne to secure a sheriff’s position for her husband was not just for the position’s high annual salary of 1,000 pounds; it was also because an idle George Norton was indeed a problem.

If Mr.

Norton stayed at home all day, he would direct all his energy onto his wife and two children under the age of three, which for Mrs.

Norton would be almost catastrophic.

Hence, to avoid falling into endless arguments and conflicts with her husband daily, Mrs.

Norton sought ways to keep him occupied.

However, ordinary positions were beneath Mr.

Norton’s notice.

Were it not that she had a friend who was Home Secretary, Viscount Melbourne, and that Mr.

Norton’s father had the foresight to ensure his son attended Inns of Court and forced him into seven years of lawyering at an early age—just meeting the minimum qualifications for a sheriff—this problem would have been difficult to solve.