The Shadow of Great Britain

Arthur swiftly put on his gloves and glanced at him from the corner of his eye: ”A devil, believing in others keeping their promises? Agares, I think you should take a good look at yourself.”

Agares was momentarily at a loss for words, the Red Devil left his mouth half-open, unable to speak for a long while.

Perhaps wanting to quickly regain his composure, he changed the subject: ”You better manage yourself first! Do you think you can have the final say in the Police Commission? Don’t forget, your two partners are no pushovers! One is an old hand who retired from the position of Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, Privy Council Advisor Henry Hobhouse. The other is Commodore Charles Shaw, who has just made great achievements in the Portuguese and Spanish civil wars. Do you really think you can manipulate them?”

Arthur fastened the buttons of his gloves, and upon hearing Agares’ words, he responded with a light ”Hmm,” a sound that neither conveyed agreement nor dissent.

Agares, seething with anger, demanded: ”What does ’hmm’ mean?”

”Hmm means agreement with your viewpoint,” Arthur said: ”When Hobhouse retired as Permanent Secretary of the Home Office, I’d only just joined Scotland Yard. In front of such an experienced old bureaucrat, naturally, I wouldn’t dare to be disrespectful. As for General Charles Shaw, he’s a war hero. His light infantry company was the first to break into Porto. He fought in Portugal for three years, rising from Lieutenant to Colonel. In the following Spanish civil war, he led the Irish Volunteer Brigade to break through the three-tiered defenses set by the Carlos Faction in Carlist. If it weren’t for the Spaniards giving him too little support, leading him to return home in frustration, he might still be in Spain fighting.”

Arthur paused here: ”Working with these two gentlemen, it’s truly an honor for me. How could I think of toppling them? Agares, don’t think that just because I have a medal bestowed by the Tsar, I am the Tsar. Britain is a land of freedom; the autocratic approach doesn’t work in London.”

Although Arthur spoke eloquently, Agares could hardly believe his nonsense.

Back when this lad couldn’t even get a seat at Scotland Yard, he could turn London upside down. Now that he’s taken the top spot in the Police Commission, could he really lack any ulterior motives?

In fact, Arthur indeed has some thoughts about the organizational structure of the Police Commission.

Based on what he currently understands, Arthur remains rather optimistic.

In Arthur’s view, although there are nominally three commissioners on the Police Commission, the most experienced among them, Henry Hobhouse, is but a retired old official. While he is a Privy Council Advisor, it is well known that such a position is often merely honorary, a reward for ”Empire’s public servants” for their years of loyal service.

Speaking of Hobhouse, he is a rather academic and orthodox bureaucrat. His father is a lawyer, and his grandfather, a Priest. He comes from a typical British middle-class family. He attended Eton College for secondary education and went to Brasenose College, Oxford University for his university studies.

As for his field of study...

It was classical literature, and he graduated with first-class honors.

Of course, Hobhouse’s highest academic credential today is not his Master’s in Literature from Oxford University, but an Honorary Doctor of Law from Oxford, an honor he received a month before retiring from the Home Office.

This old civil servant is likely uninterested in the trifles of the Police Commission because if he were interested, he wouldn’t have retired early at the age of 51 from the position of Permanent Secretary at the Home Office.

Of course, before meeting him, Arthur couldn’t rule out the possibility that Hobhouse values the 1,000 pounds retirement annuity more than his duties.

Compared to Henry Hobhouse, Charles Shaw brings Arthur more intrigue.

Despite being a Commodore, Shaw’s promotion path within the Army is quite unconventional.

Shaw joined the army rather early. As early as 1813, he entered the 2nd Battalion of the 52nd Regiment through a purchased commission. At that time, the 1st Battalion was following the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War, while the 2nd Battalion mainly provided training and reinforcements for the 1st Battalion.

Shaw trained for a year in the 2nd Battalion before finally getting a chance to go on an expedition. He went in the capacity of a Lieutenant with Sir Thomas Graham on the expedition to the Netherlands, participating in the disastrous Siege of Bergen op Zoom. After this battle ended, Shaw’s 2nd Battalion was sent to garrison the fortress at Antwerp and stayed there until the end of the war.

When the news of Napoleon’s Hundred Days of Restoration arrived, Shaw thought he could finally put his skills to the test. But instead, he was assigned the task of escorting baggage to Brussels. When he hurriedly completed this task and rushed back to Waterloo, requesting to be assigned to the 1st Battalion of the 52nd Regiment to participate in the battle, he was sternly reprimanded by his superiors and ordered to return to Brussels with the 2nd Battalion to await further orders.

Because of this decision, he regrettably missed the legendary Battle of St. Jean Mountain, which was significant enough to go down in history.

Under the command of Major General John Colborne, the 1st Battalion of the 52nd Regiment, along with the 1st Battalion of the 71st Regiment and the 95th Regiment, cooperatively held off Napoleon’s final assault. From the front, they defeated the most proud Imperial Guard of the French Empire, creating the iconic moment of ”The Guard retreats!”

For a soldier, missing such an opportunity is fatal, whether from a career advancement perspective or for leaving a legacy in history.

As expected, due to his tardiness, Shaw never encountered a moment to shine until the war’s end, and his rank remained at Lieutenant.

In 1816, after the 2nd Battalion of the 52nd Regiment was disbanded, Shaw was placed on the half-pay list of waiting officers.

In the following years, the persistent Shaw went to study military science at Carolyn College in Brunswick, and during this time, he went to Berlin to observe the Prussian army. Upon returning to his native Scotland, he completed his studies in law at Edinburgh University and diligently ran a wine import-export business.

Under normal circumstances, Shaw’s life might have continued this way.

But the outbreak of the Portuguese civil war offered Shaw a glimmer of hope for a return to his military career. He decisively joined the British volunteer army supporting Portugal’s Little Queen Mary and successfully made his mark in Portugal. The subsequent Spanish campaign further realized his dream of becoming a general.

From an observer’s perspective, Shaw’s inspirational story is indeed motivating.

But in Arthur’s eyes, these events don’t sit well.

For sending volunteer troops to Portugal and Spain, the Foreign Office’s covert support was indispensable. This means Shaw’s rise is inseparable from the diplomatic policies of Foreign Secretary Palmerston.

For this reason, Arthur naturally harbored some suspicions towards this colleague he had never met.

It’s well known that policemen are straightforward, living solely to loyally serve the country. Military personnel even more so.

While Arthur had no doubts about General Charles Shaw’s loyalty to the British motherland and his integrity on major issues, he did have reservations about how much influence Palmerston might have on Charles Shaw regarding minor issues.

Especially in such an important department as the Police Commission, Arthur was well aware that even if the Whig Party intended to buy him off, they wouldn’t let him enjoy the benefits alone.

Hobhouse, as an old secretary of the Home Office, spent his career during the Tory Party’s rule. Given his Privy Council Advisor status, his appointment was likely directed by St. James’s Palace, which is King William IV’s decision.

Arthur’s appointment, on the other hand, was due to his role as a policing expert and to recruit him as a teacher closely connected to the future Queen. There may even have been considerations for appeasing figures like Lord Brougham and Earl of Dalmo among the London University System members.

In this case, the only slot left for the Whig Party to place one of its own is just one.

So, if this Whig Party insider isn’t General Charles Shaw, then who could it be?