Chapter 453 Cultural Counselor in Russia

Elliot may not have taken Arthur's advice on trade negotiations with China to heart, because in the eyes of the Foreign Office and Elliot himself, there were only a handful of people in the entire United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland who really understood this Far Eastern country.

Even if there were people in Britain who really understood China, that person would most likely have served in the Guangzhou Trade Committee of the East India Company, such as John Davis, the second director of trade with China, and George Robinson, the third director of trade with China, who the Foreign Office was about to appoint.

Among them, John Davis joined the East India Company after graduating from Oxford University. At the age of 18, he served as the secretary of the board of directors of the Guangzhou Trade Committee of the East India Company. In 1816, he accompanied the diplomatic mission led by Earl Amherst to visit the Chinese emperor as a consultant and translator.

Most importantly, John Davis translated a large number of Chinese literary works out of interest in his spare time. Now 70 to 80 percent of the popular Chinese novels on the London market are produced by John Davis. In order to show off his status as a "China expert", John Davis was quite proud to fill in the Chinese name he gave himself - De Bi Shi in the translator column.

Because of this, whether it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Department of Colonial Affairs, or even his old employer, the East India Company, John Davis is regarded as the British who understands China best.

As for George Robinson, although he does not understand China as well as Davis, he has served in the management of the Guangzhou Trade Committee of the East India Company for more than ten years.

Moreover, Robinson's family background is also very reassuring.

In the British political arena, not everyone likes to struggle in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, which control the supreme power of the kingdom. With the continuous development of colonies, some families began to turn their attention to the broader overseas world, and the Robinson family is one of them.

The brothers of the Robinson family are widely distributed all over the world, including those stationed on the West African coast, those active in the colonial institutions of Western Australia, and those working in the administrative department of the British Hudson Bay Company in Canada.

Compared with these two senior colonial officials with endorsements, Arthur Hastings, a name with little influence in the Foreign Office, was obviously not enough to influence Elliot's judgment.

Moreover, in the letter sent by Viscount Palmerston to Elliot, there had been an order similar to that discussed by Arthur.

Elliot clearly remembered that the Viscount's order included:

First, station in Guangzhou after arriving in China and try to maintain friendly relations with the Chinese.

Second, do not use threatening words in letters to Chinese officials to avoid offense.

Third, do not ask for assistance from the Royal Navy unless necessary to avoid conflict.

Fourth, do not intervene in the opium smuggling trade, which is currently in a gray area, before the negotiation format is clear.

Elliot did not know whether to share Palmerston's secret letter with Arthur. After all, when he was in Guyana, he had learned about this guy who had stirred up a lot of excitement in London from letters with friends.

Although Arthur Hastings had little influence in the Foreign Office, the former Royal Assistant Superintendent of Police seemed to enjoy the same high reputation in Scotland Yard as Nelson in the Royal Navy.

In short, this guy seemed to be quite powerful in the closed system of the Home Office. Well, so powerful that the bureaucrats of the Home Office did not hesitate to kick this hot potato to the Foreign Office.

Elliot was still weighing his options, but Earl Daramore had already spoken.

As a lord lord seal who had once been in the cabinet, Earl Daramore, who was straightforward and arrogant, had never bothered to pay attention to these intrigues.

When the Whigs were away from the ruling position for more than 30 years, he dared to slam the table in Parliament and the Tories and repeatedly demanded parliamentary reform, led the Friends of the People Association to investigate the blood relationship and bribery of Tory MPs, and worked with Lord Brougham, Thomas Campbell and others to establish the University of London.

Now that the Whigs have regained power and his father-in-law, Earl Grey, has become prime minister, Earl Daramore has even less reason to indulge those old bureaucrats he has long disliked.

Not to mention, Arthur Hastings is a graduate of the University of London and the first graduate in the history of the university to be knighted. Considering his age of 24, it is even more precious.

Although he himself did not want to say it, at the cabinet meeting proposing to award the miraculously resurrected Arthur the title of knight, Earl Daramore, like Lord Brougham and Viscount Melbourne, did not hesitate to vote in support.

Count Daramo raised his eyebrows slightly and asked, "You said that you studied Russian history in depth when you were in college?"

Arthur smiled and replied, "Not in depth, but I did read more related books, and even learned a little Russian."

Daramo raised his hand and poured some wine for Arthur: "Why are you interested in Russia?"

Arthur didn't know why Daramo suddenly asked these questions, but when he thought of the political inclinations and experience of the biggest sponsor of the University of London, he easily gave a topic that interested him.

"I was not interested in Russia at first, but later I accidentally found a novel in a second-hand bookstore, which told the story of a Russian prince named Khvorostinin.

The 17th-century aristocrat was reported to the government for not practicing Orthodoxy, hiding Latin books, privately calling the tsar a tyrant, and complaining that Moscow was full of fools and that no one could talk to him. He asked to live in Lithuania, but was rejected and was eventually exiled to a remote monastery in the north for the rest of his life.

It was from here that I started to become interested in Russian related culture. I found that before the 18th century, this country could hardly hold any decent novels or plays. But starting from the 18th century, their literary works suddenly appeared one after another like moss after the rain. This phenomenon attracted my attention, and after rummaging through historical materials, I finally figured out the reason. "

"Oh?" Count Dalamo asked, "Why is this?"

Arthur held the wine glass and said with a smile: "This is because the emergence of a large number of literary and artistic works has two prerequisites. The first is that there needs to be a group of people who have received a certain education to engage in creation, and the second is that this group must have enough knowledge. Free time. For Russia, most people there are illiterate, and the educated group are generally aristocrats.

But before 1762, Russian nobles had to serve the monarch for at least 25 years. They were usually either fighting or receiving military training. After 1762, due to the promulgation of the "Declaration of Noble Freedom", a large number of nobles were able to retire early. These people have knowledge, money and time, so naturally some of them will put it into literary creation.

And even those who don’t write books will naturally become a group of readers. From a business point of view, it can also be explained that there is a market for reading, so there is naturally a soil for creation. And when Catherine II succeeded to the throne, in order to refute Montesquieu's discussion of Russia that "Russia only has lords and slaves, and no civilian class", he also began to vigorously encourage citizens to write books and read.

She founded Russia's first periodical, Vientiane, which she characterized as a satirical magazine and wrote for it herself. With the empress taking the lead, Russia soon set off a wave of satire writing. Although at the beginning, the quality of these articles was very low, but as time went by, good articles gradually began to appear.

At that time, a nobleman named Novikov also founded a publication called Xiongfeng, and openly expressed his unwillingness to join the army, politics, or serve the government. He also attacked Most of the Russian aristocrats are lazy, like to show off, indifferent to the sufferings of the poor, morally corrupt, pursue fame and fortune, are sycophants, uneducated and despise knowledge.

He almost scolded everyone, and he didn't know if it was because he felt it was not enough. Then he simply attacked Catherine II herself in a roundabout way. The Queen didn't take the attacks seriously at first, but she eventually got angry after being attacked more often.

But she did not directly exile the opposition to a bitter cold place like the tsars of the 17th century. Instead, he picked up the pen and started a debate with Novikov on "Everything". She bluntly said that the things Novikov said were not a problem unique to Russia, but a weakness of human nature. Novikov himself could not do anything and was just a manic troll. "

Everyone present couldn't help laughing when they heard this.

Count Daramo smiled and took a sip of wine. He seemed to recall the past when he had a verbal battle with other scholars in the parliament in his early years, and secretly scolded the late King George IV for his incompetence.

Daramo asked: "How did Novikov respond?"

Arthur smiled and replied: "Mr. Novikov's response was very clever. He didn't want to give in, but he couldn't directly insult the monarch, so he questioned the Queen's Russian level in a roundabout way."

As soon as Arthur said this, everyone present laughed.

Everyone knows that although Catherine II is the Empress of Russia, before she married to Russia, she was a German girl. She was the princess of the Anhalt royal family of Prussia.

Moreover, unlike her husband, Peter III, who is a spiritual German, Catherine II herself is quite taboo about others saying that she is German. She prefers to emphasize that she is a Russian daughter-in-law.

Daramo asked: "After Novikov said this, didn't anything happen later?"

Arthur shook his head slightly and said: "That's not true. When I read this paragraph, I even felt that the Russian upper class society during that period seemed to be more relaxed than Britain. Not only was Novikov not retaliated, but he was even more relaxed afterward. He won the respect of the Queen and received a writer's allowance from Russia. As you know in Britain at that time, there were many people who went to jail for criticizing George III."

Earl Dalamo shrugged: "At least not now. This is what I have struggled for so many years."

Arthur smiled and replied: "You are right, Britain had a bad start, but it got better and better later. But unfortunately, the Russians did the opposite. At the end of Catherine's reign, The French Revolution suddenly came, and in her heart, the panic about the revolution quickly overwhelmed the desire for progress. During that time, Britain tightened the censorship of books and newspapers and restricted the freedom of the press. The situation in Russia was obviously worse than ours. Hell, they outright banned many satirical publications and exiled many famous figures.

As I said before, Russians inherently have a sacred feeling for military service, so during the Napoleonic Wars, these measures did not have an overly negative impact due to factors in foreign wars. However, when the Napoleonic Wars ended, the consequences of this quickly became apparent like a volcanic eruption.

Those nobles who were exiled during the war went to France or the German and Italian regions occupied by France, where they were exposed to many new things. You are older than me, so you must know how much impact French ideas had on Britain during the Revolution. These ideas had an even greater impact on Russian literati.

Therefore, when the war ended, these literati returned home one after another. They not only began to seek progress on paper, but also wanted to put it into action. Because of this, they were correctly tuned. During the period when Alexander II died and Nicholas I first came to power, the Decembrist uprising started. In my opinion, this is the cause and effect of the whole thing. "

After listening to Arthur's explanation, Count Daramo looked at Arthur up and down with his eyes, the love and appreciation in his eyes was beyond words.

He stood up and patted Arthur on the shoulder: "Arthur, I never knew that you knew this much about Russia. If I had known that you had this level of knowledge reserve, I should have nominated you to follow I’ll do the Russian thing together, and you should be my secretary.”

Arthur was stunned when he heard this: "Sir, will you go to Russia with me?"

Baoning on the side coughed, leaned down and said in Arthur's ear: "You probably don't know yet, but our former ambassador to Russia stayed for several months without even seeing the Tsar's face."

When Arthur heard this, he frowned and said, "You mean, that Sir Canning's brother?"

Baoning nodded slightly and said: "He often made some unfriendly remarks towards Russia in the country before. As a result, the Tsar found out after he took office, so Nicholas I has been reluctant to see him. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to do this. Consider appointing a new ambassador. When Count Dalamo visited Russia last year, he got along well with the Tsar, so Viscount Palmerston wanted to nominate him as the new ambassador to Russia. "

Count Daramo smiled and winked at Arthur: "Arthur, what do you think? Aren't you complaining that you don't like your job in Hanover? I also think that the second secretary is too low a level for you. Why don't you come directly to St. Petersburg to work as my secretary after you complete the tasks assigned to you by His Majesty the King? I don't dare to mention other positions, but I think I can still decide on my own as a cultural counselor in Russia. ”