Chapter 785: It Is Difficult for a New Official to Start a Fire

Daniel O'Connell, as one of the leaders of the Irish at that time, was indeed valued by the British government and received many personal honors and monetary rewards.

But O'Connell's ally, the Whig Party, did not fulfill its promise to solve the famine problem after overthrowing Robert Peel's Tory Party.

In fact, the new Prime Minister John Russell was facing a mess that was much more difficult to deal with than he imagined.

Robert Peel represented the conservatives but played free trade, so it was naturally impossible for him to sit on the prime minister's position for a long time.

A split occurred within the Tory Party, and Robert Peel had to submit his resignation to Parliament. After the Whig Party came to power, it found that there were messes everywhere, and the war failures and threats that were difficult to completely solve dispersed the country's military forces.

And the global hegemony with the French was a bottomless pit, especially the Russians actually sold Alaska to Louis Philippe, and now the French could directly threaten Britain's Canadian colonies.

What's more terrible is that the Russians are ready to move, even if they are fighting a civil war, they don't forget to covet the land near the Black Sea.

The Jewish state plan completely failed, which not only affected Britain's reputation, but also changed the Ottomans' attitude towards Britain.

After the newly elected US president found that he could not continue the invasion to the south, he turned his attention to Canada, demanding to monopolize Oregon and redraw the northern border with Britain.

Of course, as the toughest president in American history, James Polk was not a completely reckless man, so he chose the time of the change of the British government to add insult to injury.

John Russell, who had just come to power, was almost suffocated by the American gift. However, this was not the only thing that bothered him. Prince Albert, the prince's husband, was not satisfied with just holding exhibitions in the country.

Prince Albert hoped to promote British products to the world, which would not only demonstrate national strength but also open up sales for goods.

However, this view was completely a whimsical joke in the eyes of economists and politicians at the time. Some people even bet whether this world exhibition would cause Britain to fall into a new crisis with heavy debts.

Unfortunately, Albert, the husband of the king, had the support of Queen Victoria. John Russell had no way to stop the royal family from going his own way. It was not a wise move to confront the royal family at this time.

In addition, the problem of railway fever has begun to emerge. Railway construction is changing from a high-input, high-return investment to a high-input, low-return infrastructure project.

The British government was helpless about this, because no matter what it did, it would damage the interests of Britain in the end, so it simply ignored it.

Cholera in London was spreading across the country, and British experts had no way to prevent or treat it.

They could only pray that the disease was not serious, or try opium tincture and bloodletting therapy, and some other treatments, but that would have no effect except to make the patient suffer more.

The expansion in the East was also less than expected, and there were many news indicating that a new crisis was brewing on this continent.

At this time, Britain was facing an unprecedented diplomatic crisis, that is, from the East to the West, from the Australian aborigines to the Irish next door, they had no friends.

Qing Dynasty and Japan in East Asia, Nanming, Zhenla and Dutch East India Company in Southeast Asia, Afghanistan in Central Asia, Oman and Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, and Egypt in North Africa.

Although the Ottoman Empire had to rely on Britain at this time, it was no longer obedient as in the past. The French had absolute dominance in the Franco-Spanish Alliance in Western Europe, and France happened to be one of Britain's main competitors for world hegemony.

Central Europe was Austria's world. The German princes and small Italian states that had flirted with Britain in the past did not dare to make any extra moves under the constraints of the German Customs Union and the Apennine Customs Union, and Switzerland was preparing for a civil war.

Strictly speaking, there were only two countries in Eastern Europe at this time, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The people in the Balkans could only choose one of these two countries that was not so bad.

Judging from the experience of the British in southern Albania, these three countries were actually the same.

The attitude of a series of secondary powers such as the United States, Brazil, and Mexico towards Britain was not good, and even its most loyal brother Portugal had a rift because of Britain's military operations in southern Brazil.

At this time, Queen Maria II of Portugal was the biological sister of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. They had the same father and mother, so it was impossible for them to stand on the side of the British emotionally.

Among the Low Countries, the Netherlands joined the German Confederation, and Belgium was raised by France and was already in name only.

It doesn't feel good to be enemies with the whole world. In history, the British could easily decide the life and death of a bunch of countries by holding a diplomatic conference, and they could play the great powers around without spending a single soldier.

But now the situation has changed. The emergence of regional alliances and some minor changes in history have brought together the cost of British expansion to increase exponentially.

In fact, Robert Peel had discovered this problem a long time ago, and he also tried to change it, but after going around in circles, he found that he was back to square one.

In fact, this was not because there was something wrong with the British thinking, but because the rhythm had changed, and everyone did not follow its rhythm.

Especially the failure of the two London Conferences and the rise of Austria (or it did not lose its influence as in history and became a follower of the British), these events made it impossible for Britain's influence to reach the level of one call and a hundred responses.

Britain is an island country, which means that its strategy cannot rely on its own army and navy like Russia and France.

John Russell also discovered this problem, but he could only make some minor repairs and could not really change anything.

But facing the heavy pressure, John Russell really couldn't care about the Irish on the banks of the Shannon River.

O'Connell was rejected again and again, and he realized that he was actually an outsider.

By chance, O'Connell learned about the evil plan of the Colonial Office, and he could no longer tolerate his compatriots being transported and sold like livestock.

The two sides immediately wrestled with each other. At first, the British Colonial Office planned to conceal the matter, but O'Connell was a social activist after all, and he was familiar with finding media to create momentum.

Even if the big newspapers dared not accept it, there were always tabloids that wanted to make a big hit. In the end, the matter of finding a wife for the old bachelors at the bottom of the colony had to be abandoned, because even if it was nominally voluntary, it was inevitable to be suspected of taking advantage of others.

The British government was already under too much pressure at the time, and it was completely unnecessary to add too heavy a moral burden for no reason.

Moreover, the countries on the European continent were ready to watch the show, and when the time came, they would probably put the great England on the same level as the barbaric America.

In fact, the reason why O'Connell was able to see through all this was that Franz was behind the scenes.