??228: Chapter 153: The Unfortunate Lady
228: Chapter 153: The Unfortunate Lady
After Mil left, Robuck also rose politely and soon took his leave from Arthur and Eld.
“Although I’m not sure what John is planning to do, if he’s unsuccessful, I hope to make so progress on my end.
I have an appointnt with Mr.
Edwin Chadwick, the secretary to Mr.
Bentham, in a while, and I need to have a serious talk with him about your matter, to see if there’s anything we can do.”
With that, Robuck smiled, picked up his hat, and left the café.
No sooner had Robuck departed than Eld sprawled out on the café’s seats, “Look at that, look at that!
Our University of London students do have so clout!
Just at your request, both the East India Company and ‘The Westminster Review’ have started to make their moves.”
In contrast to Eld’s inexplicably high confidence, Arthur seed unusually calm.
He tasted his coffee, in which the bitterness was mitigated by the milk: “I had thought that changing locations might free
from the burden of social obligations, but now it seems that no matter where you are, you have to pay attention to these things.
Governnt promotions are all about your connections, and that’s even after the reforms.
I can’t even imagine how deep the corruption and chaos were within the governnt before the civil service reforms.”
Eld tossed a biscuit into his mouth, “The previous era?
That was quite a remarkable ti.
I heard from my uncle that at the end of the 18th century, when he was just an ordinary Captain, it was almost an open secret within the Navy Departnt to buy and sell offices.
The Navy Departnt’s Paymaster, Charlie Middleton, was making 300 guineas a year just by selling subordinate positions, and he didn’t even bother to go to work himself, instead he took out ??500 from his salary to pay soone to handle his job, while he spent the rest of his earnings and the inco from selling offices on horse betting and card playing, living a rather dashing life.”
Arthur, stroking his chin, said, “I’m not surprised to hear about such things in the Navy Departnt, given how high the salaries are over there.
But if it were the Ho Office, I bet it wouldn’t be so easy to fool around, would it?”
Eld raised an eyebrow, “Indeed!
It’s widely known that the salaries of the civil servants and the subordinate departnts in the Ho Office are quite low.
That’s exactly why the chief clerk of your Ho Office spends ??60 to find soone to stand in for him.
On the other side, he receives paynt for acting in the stead of senior officials in the Lord Chancellor’s office.
I saw in a parliantary work report that he seems to make an extra inco of ??227 and 3 shillings a year from this part-ti job, which is much higher than his regular job.”
Upon hearing this, Arthur couldn’t help but widen his eyes and stare at Eld for quite so ti.
Eld felt uncomfortable under his gaze and asked dissatisfiedly, “What are you looking at
for?”
Arthur put down his coffee cup and apologized to Eld with embarrassnt, “Eld, it seems I misunderstood you all this ti.”
“Misunderstood
about what?” Eld asked nonchalantly, munching on a biscuit.
Arthur sighed and said, “I used to think you’d only read so erotic literature at most.
I never thought you’d actually read parliantary work reports.”
Eld snorted through his nose, “What do you know?
Parliantary work reports are dirtier than erotic literature.
Sotis, what’s written in there is even worse than the sewers of the East End of London.
Mourn for , Arthur, for that aspiring young man, Eld Carter, is dead.
Now, standing before you is nothing but a shell filled with desire, and topics like embezzlent and corruption have always been of utmost interest to .
“Embezzling public funds for interest, for instance, is child’s play among civil servants.
If it weren’t for the parliantary work reports, I couldn’t even imagine that they could turn corruption into an art form.”
“They start by recording the Treasury’s ledger using Arabic nurals, then transcribe it into formal Latin copies.
The first alteration is made when reporting to the Treasury, another one when the Treasury makes the budget, and further changes occur when the budget is distributed to each departnt.
With all these changes back and forth, mistakes in transcript copying are normal.
They take advantage of these errors to embezzle funds from here and there.”
“Thanks to this trickery, the Army Departnt’s accounts co up short by forty to fifty thousand pounds every year, and the land tax office in 1780 declared thirty-nine thousand pounds less than what they actually collected.”
Upon hearing this, Arthur couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, “Although I know the financial audits of the departnts are usually a sham, to be short thirty-nine thousand pounds in 1780 for just the land tax is a bit of an exaggeration, isn’t it?
Even if the audit office outsourced their duties, they can’t be that incompetent, can they?”
Eld cursed and punched the table, “Audit office?
Those bastards are the fattest leeches of them all!
During the Arican War of Independence, when we were fighting those rebels, two auditors from the Army Departnt alone pocketed tips of 16,565 pounds and 10,331 pounds in just one year.
Think about it, why would anyone give them so much in tips for no reason?”
Arthur, unable to suppress a smile, swore jokingly, “Eld, you rember this too damn well, all the way to the last digit.
If you could apply this mory to scientific research, even Sir Isaac Newton, the only sun in your heart, couldn’t shake your status in the slightest.”
Eld nodded in agreent and said, “Honestly, I’ve always believed that Sir Isaac Newton’s invention of calculus had everything to do with his position as the warden of the Royal Mint.
If I had his job, my math skills would surely improve imnsely.
I’ve never been interested in doing calculations on draft paper, but if you put
in charge of counting money, I would overco the poor mathematical intellect that’s been passed down in the Carter family.”
Arthur replied with a laugh, “But instead of becoming the High Chancellor, you might as well swallow your pride and borrow so money from your uncle to study at the Inns of Court.
As long as you get a legal practicing certificate, if you end up in the Lord Chancellor’s office, I guarantee you’ll make a killing.
As you know, since the overthrow of Charles I and the establishnt of the Long Parliant in 1640, judges’ salaries have always been high.
By that ti, their salary was already fixed at a thousand pounds a year, and that money ca directly from customs revenue, unaffected even by the Treasury’s budget planning.
After the Act of Settlent was passed in 1701, besides the fixed salary, many legitimate additional incos were added, like appointnt fees for clerks of their courts, judgnt fees, litigation settlent fees, office supplies fees, and a bunch of other additional allowances that I can’t even list.
All these miscellaneous incos added up to at least an extra five to six hundred pounds.”
Of course, it’s not out of the question that so judges might be gaining wealth through illegal channels we don’t know about.
For example, when the Beer Act failed to pass recently, the issuance of licenses for pubs still needed the local magistrate to grant permission.”
Given Eld’s character, he should be dazzled upon hearing these things, but Mr.
Carter, who had just been passionately discussing embezzlent and corruption, fell into a quiet state.
He stirred his coffee cup with a spoon while frowning tightly, as if listening to sothing.
Arthur saw his expression, all set to ask a question.
Yet suddenly, Eld raised his hand to interrupt him, his ears twitching, “Shh!
Be quiet, I think I hear the sound of a beautiful lady crying.”
“A lady is crying?”
Arthur looked around the coffee shop, where custors were sparse at this early hour, and he quickly spotted the person Eld ntioned.
In the corner of the hall on the eastern side, he noticed a lady wearing a beige wide-brimd hat.
Red Devil, who had originally been leaning against the window, couldn’t help but bring his hands to his chest and began to recite poetry in praise of her appearance,
“Black hair, simply styled into a bow at the back of her head.
Beneath two dark eyebrows, a pair of black eyes brimming with sorrow, the proud and straight bridge of the nose complents the curved arc of the lips.
Tranquil and serene, your sealed lips have lost their smile, the breadth of your forehead cannot change the narrowness of his heart.
Oh, my girl, why entrust your fate to another?
With your broad and resolute forehead, imagine, who could be the ssiah to save your destiny?”
Caught up in poetic fervor, Arthur, Britain’s foremost literary critic, couldn’t help but glance at him and comnted, “Fate, and bloody ssiah, quite a mystical air there!”
Eld thought Arthur was mocking him and glowered, “Arthur, what the hell are you talking about?”
“Nothing.” Arthur lifted his chin slightly and gestured towards the silent, tear-wiping lady in the corner, “The crying lady over there, seems like we know her.”
“You know her?”
Eld almost had his eyes popping out as he muttered fiercely, “Arthur, damn it, how co every woman you know?
Have you really turned into Scotland Yard’s Paganini?
The charming musical master?
Playing the violin just to earn your bread?
Touring Europe just a side gig?
Paganini, his hands that captured the wings of music—one plunged into filthy gambles, the other into the drapes of prostitutes with the stench of sweat.
And you, your hands skillful with the exquisite Fiore Style sword techniques—one delves into the dirty East End of London, where are you planning to stick the other?”
Arthur pressed his palms downward to urge him to cool down, “Calm down, Eld, one hand is in the East End of London, and I intend to offer the other to the field of electromagnetism research.
Of course, I can’t guarantee it will stay that way.
Because if I get sacked this ti, the hand I withdraw from the East End might consider reaching sowhere else.”
Eld pointed a finger in warning, “Before my problem is solved, that hand of yours isn’t allowed to go anywhere.
Alexander, that flirt already has a son, and Charles is secretly heating things up with so mysterious girl.
If you beat
to it, how can I ever face staying at Lancaster Gate?”
Arthur sympathized, “If you can’t face it, you can move out.
I’ve always been against forcing you, I believe people should have the freedom to migrate.”
“Ah…” Eld covered his face, a visage of deep sorrow, “Arthur, I didn’t think you held our friendship so lightly.
Are you forcing
onto the streets?”
“Onto the streets?
You’re my friend, how could I just watch you sleep rough?”
Upon hearing that, Eld humphed and crossed his arms, “I guess you do have so conscience left.”
Seeing him like this, Arthur laughed, “Eld, have you forgotten what I do for a living?
I’m a policeman, and if I find you sleeping rough, I most certainly will have you locked up.
Especially in an area like this, next to Hyde Park.”
At these words, Eld was just about to retort.
But then, the coffee shop’s bell rang, and in walked a gentleman wearing a black top hat.
Arthur took a glance at the man, then subtly pressed his own hat down a bit, just enough to cover his eyes.
Eld was puzzled, “What are you doing?
It was just a joke, no need to look so ashad.”
Without elaborating to the blunt Eld, Arthur muttered, “Viscount lbourne?
What is he doing here?”
Reviews
All reviews (0)