Buckingham Palace.
Palmerston did not object, sighing: "This is really not easy for His Majesty William IV."
"How is it not easy?" Queen Victoria asked with a sneer.
"I have been in contact with him, and he is very calm, so he made arrangements in an orderly manner. Take this marriage conference. He said it was canceled, but it was canceled directly, without any hesitation, and without worrying about the European royal family caused by it. dissatisfied"
Palmerston said worriedly, "I didn't believe it at first, but this trip to the Netherlands has made me sure that William IV is indeed the promoter behind the scenes in Belgium for so many days."
"Are you sure?" Queen Victoria immediately straightened up, her stern expression unobstructed. The cold air of the Atlantic Ocean in February had not dissipated, as if it had frozen again at this moment.
"It shouldn't be wrong," Palmerston said: "From the beginning of Belgium to the present, the characters in the series are all in the dark, but combined with the recent quietness of Prussia and France, the Holland's lively contrast seems abrupt, and the two The country is not a fool, Napoleon III and Bismarck will not be easily used by others, how can they be used by the Netherlands.
Showing them so abruptly is obviously a deliberate hint to me and Your Majesty that the protagonist Holland is the protagonist is too strong.
Coupled with the expansion of the Netherlands in the Pacific, there is no need to question. "
"Then what is he plotting?" Queen Victoria frowned and said dissatisfiedly: "Actually, according to what I think, the Netherlands under William IV is disobedient and has no consciousness as a country that lags behind others. I don't believe the Dutch government and parliament, how could that little guy like William IV have such dashing ambitions and see the world."
"As long as the Dutch moderates who are afraid of the British Empire's gunboat attack come to power, as well as those businessmen who have many interests in the British Empire and other people from other circles, William IV may follow in the footsteps of his father William III and become castrated. It's not impossible to be a king."
With the attack of the constitutional monarchy in Europe in 1848, the power of kings in European countries was basically shared a lot. The most typical example was Oscar I of Sweden. Therefore, the parliament did not cooperate on the Norwegian issue. Oscar I and the current king Carl XV are the kings, but Norway has produced a prime minister and a Norwegian parliament, and is autonomous from Sweden alone. Except for the garrison and diplomacy, everything else is undoubtedly a self-reliant kingdom.
But Norway is much better than Ireland.
The latter has to pay all the taxes, while Norway is self-reliant and self-sufficient.
"Exactly what I'm going to say," Palmerston said solemnly; "During my time in Amsterdam, the information I obtained through exchanges with our embassy personnel is sufficient to prove it."
Palmerston's weathered old face showed surprise, and he said to Queen Victoria, "The Kingdom of the Netherlands shows that there is a constitutional monarchy.
"Boom!"
A beautiful teacup suddenly fell from the Queen's hand to the ground, and it stopped after hitting the ground several times.
"Ah! What?" Queen Victoria stood up in a complacent manner, ignoring the teacup that fell to the ground, and hurriedly asked, "How can Holland still be?"
"Your Majesty, although this fate swept Europe at the beginning, some countries were not really affected, did they?"
Tsarist Russia, Prussia, Austria, Ottoman, and Napoleon III, who was changed to a constitutional monarchy only a few years ago, all resisted that storm. Regardless, no one would have imagined that the Netherlands, as a small country, would secretly steal from Chen Cang, which really shocked Palmerston's guess.
A centralized Dutch king and a Dutch king bound by the parliament and the constitution are definitely not two concepts. Anyone who understands politics knows this.
Even if you don't know, you will understand that it will be used to check and balance the king for a while, but when this council is changed to the king's surname, then it means that the king is already the one who speaks for itself in this country.
When King Chrysostom comes out, it becomes a decree!
Queen Victoria was taken aback.
After the Great Revolution in Europe, the United Kingdom actually escaped, but Queen Victoria and Palmerston had an idea, so they pushed its development behind the scenes. In the end, it swept the whole of Europe, even the waiting powers. Powers such as Sweden, Portugal and Spain couldn't stand it either. In the end, they could only delegate power to the parliament to quell the turmoil. The source of France was a republic without an emperor at that time. Napoleon was still the president of the country, but Napoleon was last in 1856. It was restored again in 2009, which caused the royal families to scold the little Napoleon of France, that is, the current Napoleon III.
Therefore, even if he was as strong as Napoleon III, he could only finally agree to make France a constitutional monarchy.
Even France has bowed down, how could the little Holland still hold on?
Queen Victoria looked at Palmerston in confusion and heard his explanation and analysis.
"According to the final analysis results of the intelligence collected by our embassy, the two factions in the Netherlands have completely pledged their allegiance to William IV. That is to say, there is no objection against King William IV in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. group"
"That is to say?"
"Your Majesty, that is to say, as long as William IV makes a correct decision in the Netherlands, it will definitely be approved by the Dutch Parliament and take effect immediately."
After finishing speaking, Palmerston revealed deep fear in his eyes. A Netherlands with a decent military would not have any ambitions for major European countries to annex each other, not to mention that constitutional monarchies basically exist in all countries. Legislation, parliamentary checks and balances, monarch and minister checks and balances, so that the foreign policy of various countries can not be quickly reached consensus.
Even Queen Victoria in the United Kingdom, although the policies she supports are often passed due to strong reasons, but when it comes to internal reforms, she also encounters repeated opposition from the old aristocracy and the new business class. Headache.
Especially the bipartisan dispute between the Whigs and the Tories is about to turn into an opposition for the sake of opposition.
Makes the Queen dissatisfied with the UK's two-party system.
Comparing the two matters, it is conceivable how great the shock to Queen Victoria was when William IV of the Netherlands gained power.
"No, Your Excellency Viscount, I can't tolerate the Netherlands becoming stronger in Europe again," Queen Victoria said firmly.
"But Your Majesty, the strengths of European countries are so well hidden now that it is difficult for us to see through. The Netherlands' actions, if we look at it from a different perspective, are a good opportunity for us to use the Netherlands to discover new Continental Europe,"
Palmerston sighed: "Unfortunately, William IV was too wary of us, and there was no chance for me to strike.
However, he agreed that I would take the situation in Belgium as a game of chess and invited me to play a game with him. The deadline is April 25th after February. However, whether it is a complete victory or the upper hand, it belongs to the winner. If I win, the Netherlands will will completely withdraw from all plans for Belgium this time."
"What about losing?" Queen Victoria asked, with a bad premonition.
"If he wins, the UK will exchange the Netherlands for the Overseas Territories"
Queen Victoria looked at him in surprise. After Palmerston confirmed, she asked, "How to exchange?"
Palmerston walked slowly to the huge map hanging on the wall, more than 2 meters wide and 3 meters long, and pointed to Kalimantan Island in Southeast Asia, saying: "The Netherlands is going to use the East Kalimantan Province of Kalimantan Island and the West Kalimantan, in exchange, we start with the Queen Charlotte Islands in the Pacific region, and follow the Peace River to the Great Slave Lake until the Nelson River estuary north of the sea to the Netherlands.
"The equivalent of taking the Queen Charlotte Islands, the whole of British Columbia, Alberta, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, the Arctic Islands, Saskatchewan, etc.,"
Palmerston has done a lot of work, so he counts these areas one by one.
Queen Victoria had a somewhat grim look, but suddenly an even more chill hit Palmerston.
I don't know what, Palmerston suddenly had a bad feeling.
Although he doesn't know why, he has always believed in his own hunch, and he used this hunch to achieve many victories in the past. UU Reading www.uukanshu.com
Queen Victoria said: "There, I'm afraid it won't work, because just two days after you went to Holland, the leader of the Tory Party, Benjamin Disraeli, came here with a lot of bourgeois intentions, because Britain should In the development of Canada, we must increase our efforts, and we cannot let the United States specialize in the former, so I am sorry."
Did such a thing happen?
Palmerston felt doubtful, but he didn't want to ask Queen Victoria in depth, he just looked at her with a wry smile, "It seems that I'm going to concede defeat with William IV, but I didn't expect to lose before it even started. "
"No" Victoria stopped: "The British Empire will not admit defeat, let alone the promise made by the Prime Minister of the British Empire.
Seeing that Palmerston was puzzled, Queen Vilia said: "Since William IV has taken a fancy to Canada, then obviously there is something he likes on it. In this case, it happens that Disraeli is an excuse to block it. His mouth, and, since it is in the Dutch territory in the Pacific Ocean, naturally we should also take out the territory of the Pacific Ocean in exchange. Well, wait for the Viscount to send me a telegram to William IV. I agree with this. A bargain, but what Britain is willing to offer is not those territories in Canada, but..."
Palmerston immediately became interested in the location of the transaction she was about to announce. Where would it be?
Canada is out of the game, is it India? Malaya? still?