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Chapter twenty-nine: Visions of the Future
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Pemberley
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December 1821
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- Ladies and Gentlemen, as often these last years we are here, in Pemberley, at Christmas' eve and at the beginning of what could very well be the revolution in journalism and information. I'm Joan Loaksley and I'm life from the Pemberley Television Studio and my guest today is her Grace the Duchess of Aquitania, Jane d'Arcy.
Joan, a tiny little brunette with the warmest voice you can imagine turned around to look at her guest while the camera was focusing on Jane.
They were sitting facing each other in the Pemberley Winter Garden –Jane d'Arcy's very own secret place- and the background was a wall of flowered bushes. Thanks to the new portable power plants the temperature within the Garden was around the twenty degree Celsius and they were both wearing light dresses. At the camera's side a control screen was displaying what was broadcasted.
As usual Jane smiled at the green light over the camera while nodding her welcome to all those people she knew were looking at her.
- Once more Your Grace, thank you for giving us the opportunity to interview you and this time with this extraordinary new tool that gives us the possibility to show ourselves while doing this exercise in futility.
Jane shook her head with her natural grace.
- Not at all, I'm always happy to give to the people the news about the family they like to get. We are very lucky and if seeing us evolve can give all our friends and admirers out there a little insight of what we really are, it's fine with me.
She turned from her counterpart and looked at the green light over the camera.
- Since this broadcast will be sent out to every Parrish all over the territory of Grand Great Britain I will use the opportunity to speak to our people out there in my name and in the name of all the members of the Family.
She made a little bow.
- Greetings from Pemberley to all of you, my friends. May you have a hallowed Christmas holiday and may the magic of these days fill your hearts with love and your minds with happy memories. It's not my place to speak in the name of the King, my son, even if he still listens to his mamma, is his own man and he will make his own public allocution in a few days with the beginning of the New Year. But if he is his own man, I'm my own woman and I hope I will be able to speak about those numerous things I believe important and, what is even more significant, convince the British people that they are important.
Joan Loaksley made the little hand sign and the image of Jane d'Arcy disappeared to let the screen show the family gathering that had taken place the day before when the last of the youngest members of the family –Charles and Charlotte Darcy- had arrived in Pemberley.
- The spectators are, as we speak, looking at your sister's arrival from Asia. Since they were the last arrival of the family here in Pemberley, I suppose the festivities will be launched as soon as tomorrow?
- Pemberley is Fitzwilliam's very special place and apart from William who is still not here, he's the one who'll have the honor to open the festivities.
- And this year we will have the great pleasure to show to the public the whole festival from the beginning to the festive closing ball in Lambton Hall.
- And it will be a real pleasure for all of us to invite all our friends from around the world to come along during this special week in Pemberley. For years now we've welcomed our neighbors from the surrounding Counties, it was time to let all of Great Britain's citizens have a chance to look at what we, the family, consider as the highlight of the year.
Joan Loaksley made another hand sign and the picture changed again to show her host in her comfortable armchair.
- Since you've spent quite a long time with your sister last evening could it be possible that you give us news about the situation in Asia?
- I wasn't there, so I only know what Lizzie reported. The Peace and Trade agreement with China is well under way and should be signed between Great Britain and the Middle Empire in January. The Son of Heaven is pleased but still believes Trade is not enough. He insists on signing an Alliance Treaty with us.
Joan Loaksley took advantage of the lull in Jane's speech to ask her question.
- And why do we hesitate?
Jane's smile was replaced with a worried mien.
- Because the Son of Heaven's impatience is a little frightening. Until last year China was broadcasting messages of mistrust and arrogantly refusing even to acknowledge our very existence and today everything has changed, and we are invited to become best friends.
A half smile came up on Jane's face.
- Clearly an alliance with Great Britain is what the Son of Heaven wishes to get, and he wishes it immediately. We don't ignore that such an Alliance is worth quite a lot and we entertain the same wish as the Son of Heaven to become friends with a Great nation whose Culture has survived more than two thousand years. But we believe that after three centuries of mutual ignorance a few weeks more could be necessary. And even if we wish to take our time there are, as we speak, diplomats of both countries discussing the basics of such a Treaty.
- Your husband lived a long time in China as his eldest daughter's arrival in London has shown, what is his advice on the matter?
Jane didn't react to the side comment. The latest adjunction to the d'Arcy family was not yet a subject of public comments. She would let the girl speak her own mind should she wish to do it which was, in her opinion, quite doubtful.
- He's one of those who support an immediate signature. He had his doubts about China's dynasty until Yonglin took over the Throne. Now he is a zealous supporter of as much Treaty with China as possible.
- So, he does not believe that to sign an Alliance with China would be a bad thing?
- Clearly not! But he is nevertheless aware that there are other considerations we need to consider. We already have other Alliances and William believes those must come first. It is never a good idea to anger old friends because you are too eager to make new ones. And even if China's offer is interesting, we cannot forget what already exists just because what could be seems so much more attractive.
- Why would our current allies frown at a Treaty furthering the bonds between Great Britain and China?
- Not all our current allies have problems with said proposed Treaty. The main Ally we will have to consider is Russia. We have a strong and living Alliance with Russia -soon to be reinforced by a dynastic marriage- and there are a few items of China's foreign policy that will never be acceptable for the Czar and the Russian Boyars. So, we have to tread with caution in these matters.
- I suppose that the fact that the King is betrothed with the Czar's daughter is one of the reasons the Treaty is not yet sighed?
- Not at all, Elizabeth knows about the Chinese's proposal and she has abstained to offer any comment about the current situation. She knows that said situation is awkward enough without adding to her fiancé's burden. She knows William is not a man to make decisions without thinking everything through and shows her support by not nagging at him about it.
- Do Princesses nag?
- Of course not, answered Jane with a knowing smile. But young girls and fiancées are, from time to time, known to succumb to the temptation and become, from time to time, insistent.
- But not Elizabeth Romanovna?
- Not that I know of my dear Joan, but I'm not very often invited to come along when they are together. So, it is the mother's general feeling that her son feels himself supported by his fiancée and not pressured by her.
- So, will the Alliance Treaty finally happen?
- I'm not very gifted to see the future but there is a very high probability that it will happen. Great Britain will try to make this Alliance a reality because we are all convinced that it is an unexpected and welcomed evolution when compared to the war all military analysts –my dear husband included- were foreseeing. So, it has been agreed that Fitzwilliam will go back to Beijing in January to sign the trade and peace treaty. While there, he and the Son of Heaven will have the opportunity to take the negotiations into their own hands.
She saw the frown on Joan's face.
- The Son of Heaven would have preferred to sign only one treaty with everything included. Had William approved Fitzwilliam would have gone into the next negotiation round right away. But with William's doubts Fitzwilliam had no choice but to come back to make a report. Luckily for us it seems that the Son of Heaven and Fitzwilliam do appreciate each other quite a lot so the delay was accepted.
- So, you are positive that an Alliance is still possible?
- It is my conviction but being upgraded does not give any power to see the future. There will be a Treaty signed and that fact only will secure the peace between China and us. We hope that we will find a way to enter an Alliance with China that doesn't mean a break with Russia. But, as said before, we won't risk our current friends' trust because we are in a hurry.
- And the Vice-Roy will be our chief negotiator?
- Fitzwilliam has, no need to remind it, quite a lot of experience in ruling a country that is in the process of industrializing itself. His advice was until now very welcome and the Son of Heaven has emitted the wish to see him stay. Even if he was a little disgruntled that Fitzwilliam chose to interrupt his Chinese sojourn, he still made it known that his return would be very welcomed.
Joan Loaksley nodded.
- Christmas in Pemberley is a strong family tradition indeed but shouldn't he have stayed in this particular moment. As you said, the military analysts were all, until this fall, sure that a war with China was quasi unavoidable.
- Had it been necessary, Fitzwilliam would, of course, have stayed. But as I said the Trade and Peace agreement is already on track and could have been signed immediately if there had not been France's demands to be associated.
Jane looked at the Journalist and made a face.
- And to answer your next question: Russia and the Ottoman Empire have been informed and the Czar has declined to be associated to the negotiation. The Sultan has sent an emissary but for now he'll only observe.
- So, France has once more taken advantage of an opportunity Britain has uncovered?
- Great Britain hasn't uncovered anything in this matter. It was China's move and China has greeted Napoleon's demand to join the negotiation. Yonglin has accepted and the French diplomats are now in Beijing and they are discussing with their Chinese and British counterparts how the bilateral Treaty already negotiated can be improved into a multilateral one. They should need at least a few weeks to negotiate acceptable terms for all the parties. And the First Consul has accepted that it would be Fitzwilliam's decision that would finalize the Treaty for Great Britain and France.
- It seems that the First Consul has a lot of trust in His Highness.
- There is no more honest man within Earth rulers than Fitzwilliam, said Jane with all the seriousness of a very convinced person. Napoleon knows that my brother will honestly defend both countries' interests while negotiating. And, as I already said, Fitzwilliam has an intimate knowledge of what it means for a country to enter an Alliance. He did it with France and Napoleon has been a direct witness to my brother's craftiness. He knows that only Talleyrand is as good a negotiator as him but, as we all know, Talleyrand's honesty is a fantasy of the mind and the Chinese's wealth is way too important to believe they wouldn't find Talleyrand's price.
Joan Loaksley nodded once again and smiled at what was perhaps not a quip.
- Thanks for all that interesting news, Your Grace, but let's come back to what really interests our viewers: the Darcy family. How is everybody?
Jane couldn't help but shake her head.
- That will be a long litany if you want details. Let's just say that all the adults -and I include the dozen young adults around the age of William- are in good health and that the teens and toddlers are giving us a lot of matter to deal with. Luckily for us mothers they all like each other and love to be together. So, this reunion should go on as smoothly as all those others we had in the past.
- There are wild rumors running around about the last generation. Is it true that they are even more impressively effective than their elders?
This time Jane nodded strongly.
- Well, they are the first generation that has been born with the upgrade and raised by parents who had, at last, a clear understanding of what it really means to be upgraded. So yes, you are right, and the rumors are based on facts: this generation is even more promising and challenging than the ones that came before. These new members of the family are improved and, even for us, they are truly amazing. We have great hopes in them.
- So, it is a different experience than with your former children.
- Totally, as it always is because no child is like another. But I will admit that this time it is even more different than usually. It helped to have already raised quite a score of young ones before, but those little ones are unique in more than one way. So, we had already a lot of experience, but it still was a real challenge to give those ones what they needed.
- Am I wrong or are they as precocious as it looks like on the shootings?
- You are not wrong at all; they are precocious on every level you can imagine. They are stronger and smarter and due to these improvements; they are a lot more mobile than toddlers their age. They moved on all fours after only a few months and they walked sooner and faster than we expected. So, corralling them is a real problem but luckily for us they are smart and easy going. They already have a rather important vocabulary and have no difficulties to initiate or follow a conversation. So, one can convince them that what they want to do is not reasonable. It's not very different than with the elder ones but it is a lot more concentrated. The phase where they were totally dependent from us has been much shorter. I'd say that after ten months the last of them was ready to toddle and with one year they were all fluent in their first language.
A happy and satisfied smile blossomed on Jane's lips.
- It is as satisfactory as with the first ones, but it is a lot faster. Thank God there are eight of us experienced mothers to manage the whole adventurous brood.
She nodded while smiling.
- It was a challenge and we had to develop a rather military organization with four different shifts to always have four of us on deck ready to intervene, but it was and is a success.
- Is it a full-time occupation?
- It is but as I said we are eight mothers and there is a very efficient and capable staff that has been in the family's service for years now that is at our side to help us. The first three months had been strenuous but after that we were able to develop a rather efficient organization. Thanks to the help of said very experienced staff of nurses and teachers we were able to solve most of the problems. Now, especially after the first year, it's become easier and we have again the time to manage our other duties. They are of course not yet independent, but they are already able to organize their own time pretty well with the help of the staff. The fact that each of them has a pair of nannies to keep an eye on them, helps tremendously.
Jane's smile increased and became ironic.
- I'd like to use this opportunity when so much people are looking at us and listening to me to put out a message. We, the Darcys of both branches, are probably the richest people currently living on the Isles. We do, as you see…
And she pointed at her surroundings.
- …Love our comfort but we are rather thrifty, and we avoid wasting money with the purchase of ostentatious items. What we do often and easily since we have the means to do it is to hire a lot of people. Hence the huge staff we've hired to help us raise the little ones.
She looked and smiled into the camera's lens.
- But our interest in you goes a lot further. If you are amongst the best in your specialty, whatever said specialty is, come to see us and apply. We love to have smart and interesting people working for us and we pay superb wages to those people who combine loyalty to the family with skillful and original efficiency.
She looked back at the interviewer.
- We are neither normal parents nor are we members of a normal family. Normal parents must manage their offspring all alone, and we are aware that it is a difficult workload that is today weighting heavily on the mothers' shoulders. And even if it is way easier for us than for those normal parents, we haven't forgotten that raising children is a difficult task. We have lots of people helping us and we believe that even normal parents should have help when they need it. That is where Lizzie's next step in Parrish Young Child Social Management will come handy. Pixi, as we call it, will help those parents who need to both have a job to find a place where their small -preschool- children can be placed while they are busy.
- What are the conditions to have children accepted?
- We are not quite sure yet, but we know that only weaned children will be accepted, so the first year will still be weighting on the parents' -mostly the mother's- shoulders.
- I've heard that in Wales they have hired what they call the Itinerant Nannies. Aren't they just there for those cases? To help parents who have problems with raising their very little children.
- Of course, they are and William is thinking about introducing the Nannies everywhere in Great Britain. But even in Wales where they have existed for years now, there are parents who are ashamed to admit having difficulties and don't ask for help. If they don't ask for help, they won't receive it. The nannies have been trained and hired; now the parents must accept to call out for them. We are very aware that, as was the case with the school system, even if we extend the measures it could still take a few years to get them to be known and accepted.
- Won't you have hired people who won't be used?
- Not in the least. We can build on the Welsh' experience. To begin with we hire our new nurses only on a half time basis. A lot of women with nursing skills have wouldn't have considered full time jobs but will accept half time jobs. And to ensure that even during their four hours of presence they won't be idle when not called upon, all the nurses and nannies have been based in Parrish dispensaries and local hospitals and are at the disposal of the medical staff. Nobody will be idle and twiddle their thumbs, believe me. They will all have an occupation while paid by the Crown.
- You've thought of every contingency.
- Probably not every one of them but we try to not reproduce the same mistake twice. We had that problem, you remember probably, the first years of the Parrish dispensaries when people were still mistrusting our new medical facilities. Luckily since our hired nurses were under the Parrish Priest's authority they soon were put at work to help the Priests to tend their flocks so we did not waste too much money but we now know that new features won't be accepted as easily by the more traditional rural folk than in a City like London or a town like Lambton.
She breathed strongly.
- You know my passion for little ones and children. You know that I fight daily in order to give every one of them wherever he's been born, whatever his skin color and whenever his parents have become members of our Commonwealth the best possible opportunities to get an education and to do what God has gifted him to be.
Her eyes focused on the camera and concern replaced friendliness. Her tone soon showed a very unusual zeal.
- Times have changed my friends, and it pleases me to believe that everything is now possible. There is no longer a fatality that forces your children to have the same occupation you and your parents had. Your sons and your daughters have new opportunities and we want them to follow their passions to become satisfied and productive members of the community. Don't be the ones who deprive them of those opportunities, send them to school and accept, when it is proven that they can reach for even more, to let them enter University. The Crown will be at your side and help you should your child's new life cause difficulties to the family. We will all profit of it, you and your loved ones because your sons and daughters will have interesting, challenging and profitable jobs with incomes you cannot even imagine yet and so will Great Britain that will grow stronger and richer because it will harvest every new talent and promising mind its people has born!
She smiled at the camera.
- Together we can build a better society. Together we are, at this very moment, with our decisions building this Country's future. And please do remember, even if I reassert my promise to do everything that's in my power to have the Upgrade generalized, that for a quite a few years more it won't be the case and only the best and the most successful will have the best prospect to be Upgraded. Upgrading will spread out in the future and, one day, it will be generalized but it could still take a few decades to see everyone who's interested benefiting of it. So, don't smother your children's chances and let them become what God intended them to be.
Jane stopped and took a few seconds to let her usual serenity come back.
- Sorry, said she finally, her smile back, but it needed to be said. The world is changing, and we really need to have every talent Britain has to offer at its peak to be sure that we miss nothing.
- Speaking about everyone, are you satisfied with how women are now more and more part of the society?
- In the British isles, yes, answered Jane. Here we really have succeeded in changing the way the society looks upon women. We have opened doors and those females who wanted to cross that threshold have done it with everybody's approval. And those who were pleased with the current -not yet past- situation went on feeling free to be like their mothers or grandmothers were. I'm more than proud that it happened in such a sedated way. Women have obtained more freedom but those who prefer being mothers and household managers, like I do, are nowhere belittled because of their choices. We have built a more balanced society that I would have hoped for in the beginning.
- You spoke of the British Isles… Elsewhere the situation is, I suppose, not as satisfying.
- You are right. America's and Australia's women have been, in my opinion, too enthusiastic when they embraced the new possibilities. Women around those places tend to look at those of us who prefer the old ways as brain washed crones. That is not a satisfactory situation and I hope tolerance will grow everywhere in the coming years. But that is a small problem when compared to what is still happening in India. What we achieved here in Europe seems in an extremely far future in our Eastern territories. We will have to work hard to get the situation there to change.
- There are rumors that you envision to go there to do something on-site.
- With Lizzie there as the Vice-Roy's consort I will probably spend quite a lot of time there, indeed. It will perhaps not be enough, but I have always the last resort to call my sisters and my mother to the rescue. Even a subcontinent will have difficulties to resist to the whole Bennet Clan's presence.
She looked at the camera.
- You are warned, dear Indian citizens, the Bennets are coming and they are quite unhappy with the way you treat your women.
- And how is that?
- I hate to emit judgments and to make believe that what a minority is doing is what is normal because it is not. Most men out there treat their wives with love and respect and most families welcome newborn girls as happily as we do it here in Europe. But you know I have for years been funding orphanages all around the Commonwealth and I must sadly admit that if most of my British establishments could be closed these last five years it is not at all so in India where my agents open at least one new orphanage every week. And ninety percent of the children we admit there are girls. Infant girls.
Jane sighed.
- Girls are considered as a heavy burden for most families because of the dowries the girls' families must pay to marry their daughters away. Some, because of their economic situation are forced to abandon their sweethearts and my houses take them in. We have thousands of new entries each week and, to my great regret, I must admit that the existence of the Gauri Houses has increased the rate of girl abandonment all over the Northern part of India.
- You believe yourself responsible?
- I do. My Houses are playing a role in this increase; I am sure of it. Because some parents who wouldn't have considered condemning their daughter to starvation in the streets will, without remorse, give them away to live in a Gauri House. It is sad but I won't judge those who see no alternative while we haven't been able to boost the medium income in India. The little ones are welcome in my Houses and they will benefit of the best education available to girls in the whole subcontinent. It will be my mission to let them be assets for India and the Subcontinent. The family will aid with teachers and vocational training within the Company's factories. And we will help them to play important roles in the Country's future. They will be successful in their professional and personal life, but they still will have been raised by strangers outside of a loving family.
Once more she looked at the camera.
- But I will have to warn everybody out there that it will be my first endeavor in the coming years to eradicate the whole concept of arranged marriages and inflated dowries all over the British territories and especially in India. I know there will be resistance -even from women- but we will not accept defeat even before the beginning of the fight. We have already shown to the world that we Bennets aren't afraid by even the most daring challenges. We will overcome everything that will be thrown in our way and, in the end, we will get for our Indian sisters the same opportunities that exist here in Britain for women who won't accept to be belittled and dominated.
- It won't be easy, noted the journalist, for what I know those traditions are profoundly ingrained in the Indian society.
- As was the fact here in Great Britain that women are half idiots who needed to be tutored by the superiorly intelligent men folk. We came to grips with that lie and I don't doubt for a second that we will do the same all over the Empire with everything that tends to show women as less accomplished than men.
- Aren't you afraid that your crusade will generate great hostility from those men who are, right now, still in power?
- We aren't afraid at all! Why should we? We have already won the first battle of this war. And, whatever the male supremacists had to say about our fight, we proved them wrong. Our society hasn't gone under in anarchy and bloodshed and those women who seized the opportunity to show their real worth have proven that they are as efficient and trustworthy than their male counterparts. And we have already refused to accept the lie that a few brown pigments more in the skin has drastic consequences in matter of intelligence. So, now that we have succeeded in Britain, it is high time to take the fight where the situation is still unacceptable. Now that we have eradicated slavery this combat is for us women the only fight worth fighting for. Our daughters and granddaughters will thank us tomorrow.
- Don't you fear that, as it had already happened when slavery was outlawed, that Indian people will claim it is a racist approach of their cultural differences? That the way they treat women is profoundly and culturally ingrained.
Jane shook her head, but her mien showed that she was clearly aware of that sort of arguments.
- If to fight sexist traditions that end, sometimes, with baby girls abandoned in the wilderness to die of exposure, we must accept being called racists, we will gratefully be called just that. We -especially I- won't let bad faith and spurious arguments stop us. Women are Human Beings with a few specific differences when compared to men. The most important one being that without women to bear children the race ends with the current generation. So, they can call me racist and disrespectful of the Indian culture, it won't stop me. Those arguments are bogus, and those men know it perfectly well. They still will use it to stir up the most fanatic of their followers and to push them into rejecting the necessary changes Mankind needs in this new era.
Jane's eyes became unusually flinty.
- The Gendarmes will deal with the rioters when they show up and the Crown will deal with those who stirred them up from the shadow and who hold them on their leash. I am not a woman of power, but I know the rules and I'm married to a man whose past has shown that he is aware that, sometimes, illegal measures are necessary to clean up a bag of snakes.
- It could bring you in personal danger, couldn't it?
- I was exceedingly difficult to kill when I wasn't upgraded, I wouldn't advise anyone to try it now that I am. My eldest daughter had been shot twice -once in the heart- and she's still there in perfect health. Those who tried to kill her -executioners and sponsors- were not as resistant and are long dead!
Joan Locksley couldn't help but show her surprise.
- Sorry about my surprise but I never heard you threaten anyone before, Your Grace.
- That's probably because you weren't in Spalatro when that Muslim journalist called my Geoffrey a bad Muslim. But, this time, I'm not threatening at all, Joan. I'm stating facts and I'm reminding everybody out there that even if we have rebuilt Great Britain into a world power with benevolent laws and great respect for personal freedom, it is still a Monarchy. And that means that the executive power is still concentrated in the hands of one dominant ruler who is, by law, entitled to take extreme measures to protect the Realm against rioters and power mongers. Until now he has been able to pacify all the different countries and cultures with patience and good sense. But that doesn't mean that he does not also have other means at his disposal. William has indeed been raised to be lenient and open and in acceptance of all the cultural differences he will encounter when travelling his Realm, but he has also been raised to do what's necessary to warrant the Kingdom's and its people's survival. Add to that some personality traits that do come in direct line from his father and I really hope nothing will ever force him to show to the world what a spawn of William the Conqueror's line is ready to do to maintain order in his lands!
Jane took a long breath and forced a smile on her lips.
- Sorry about that little daunting episode that had invaded what should have stayed a lot more sedate! But I suppose even a romantic like I am must, from time to time, look reality in the eyes and admit that we do not live in a fantasy land even if what our scientists have discovered could push us to believe it.
She nodded at the Journalist.
- Do you have other, less explosive and disturbing questions?
Joan nodded and took another sheet of paper.
- Indeed, I have, your Grace. The Pemberley and Lambton Gala is often the occasion for the rulers who assist to straighten up problems between them. I have heard that Prussia and Austria's rulers have hinted that it would be within this Year's Gala that the question of the House of Nations will finally be resolved.
- I've heard the same rumors and if certain of my sources are as reliable as usual, it could very well be the fact.
- And what is the Family's opinion on the matter?
Jane didn't try to hide the fact that the question -and the plan behind it- did not thrill her.
- Considering the number of members, the family is divided on this question. Some of us do believe that it is a good idea, that giving the Nations a peaceful way to deal with each other and to solve antagonisms before they end up in war, is a progress.
- You don't seem to share that enthusiasm.
- You know me too well, Joan. I'll soon have to change my favorite interviewer.
She sighed before answering.
- The idea was and is interesting and in a certain manner even attractive but the fact that it has been proposed not to further conflict resolution but as a gambit for a bunch of losers to get back into the political game of Nations does not bode well for the institution's usefulness. Especially since those who promote this plan had been ejected from said game because of the foolishness of their current rulers.
- Those are very harsh words coming through lips more accustomed to praise.
- Because the King of Prussia and his so-called cousin the Austrian Emperor are both of them, even if not for the same reasons, perfectly despicable individuals who, weren't they born as Dynastic Heirs, would have wasted their petty lives a long time ago. Some people are unworthy to be given any responsibility and those two men clearly enter that category. It's sad for Prussia and Austria that in this extraordinary period their rulers have been so…
She hesitated clearly searching for an adequate word.
- Unworthy is the only qualifier that's able to describe them. They are unworthy of their heritage and unworthy of their current place in the world's hierarchy. So, to answer your question I am very reluctant to support an initiative that those two have come up with since it is those men's last chance not to be flushed out by History.
- Isn't the fact that the idea is better than its authors reason enough to support it?
- I'm not sure that it is a good idea at all, Joan. The theory is attractive. If you want a place where the important people of the world can gather and discuss before they send their armies against each other, such a place already exists. And it is here in Pemberley where every crowned or uncrowned ruler has a standing invitation and will be given every opportunity to speak with whomever he wants and who is present. Do we really need an organization full of idle diplomats devoted to talks and negotiations? Do you really believe that countries like Grand Great Britain or the French Consulate will accept to be reined in by a board of diplomats who run together a Country Club devoted to preventive Peace Talks?
- The little Nations are backing the plan…
- Good for them but, in my opinion they are wrong, it will only show to those little Nations who have entered the Club in the hope to have a say in matters world politics that they will have to obediently follow the rules while the really powerful ones will have the means to go on doing what they want… It will be for them an awful frustration-enhancer while becoming the Great Nations' favorite toy.
She shook her head.
- The only real path to world peace would be a world government with one ruler above everybody else. As long as there will be competing Strong Nations, the risk of war will continue to exist and a Peace Country Club like the one Prussia wants to create will only restrict the lesser members not those powerful enough to ignore the club's orders.
- Couldn't Grand Great Britain give the example in this matter?
- William -and I don't say this because he is my son- is a very cool manager. He's not at all given to harsh and sudden decisions; he thinks everything over for as long as possible. But once he's taken his decision, he will stick to it and if said decision is to go to war, I don't see him waiting for the Country Club's approval before making his moves.
- Must we conclude that you don't like Country Clubs?
- Indeed, I hate the idea of it. Creating sheltered environment where good -hear powerful and wealthy- people would be able to do what they want without being pestered by the poor and the lowly is anathema to me. Those with wealth and power, and I will never deny that we are amongst the most powerful and richest, do have a moral obligation to do what is in their power to improve the lot of those who have not been as lucky as themselves. And I don't speak about giving alms after church to those who gather there, but to create things that help all poor people to have better lives. Thank God there are a lot less poor people now than when I was a young girl -at least here in Britain- but oversea, especially in India, the poor people are still a huge majority and the Caste system there isn't helping when looking for solutions.
- So, it seems that the Subcontinent is your next target?
- Of course, it is! Uncle Gardiner is sure that India is the place where this country's future wealth will be produced. India has the manpower we no longer are able to find here in Britain.
- Why not import workers? I'm quite sure they would come.
- So am I but we spoke about it within the family and we came to the conclusion that it is better to build factories where the workers are available, i.e. in India, than to uproot people and to force them to live out of their normal Cultural environment. Don't misinterpret me: those who have the wish to come join us here in GGB will be welcome but it is out of the question to organize a massive worker exodus in order to get a cheaper workforce where the factories are. The company's profit is already high enough to ensure an incredibly good life to all the shareholders' families and since we don't intend to decrease the workers' wages to make more profit bringing outsiders into Britain is of no interest.
- But there are quite a lot of strangers currently in Great Britain.
- Most of them come from non-British countries. Mostly their origin is Central Europe where the company has very few factories installed. People there have an extremely low standard of living when compared to Great Britain and the wages paid here have a real pull on young workers without families. They earn their keep here and send money home where their wages ensure a living to their whole family.
- Won't they stay here?
- Some will because the life here will suit them, some will go back home to use the money saved to buy a business or a house. The latest trend within the Company is to offer workers a ticket to their home country whenever a factory is built there. Everybody stands to gain with those bargains. Even the country where they come from benefits from it.
- That's what happened in Scotland!
- Indeed, as you probably recall, ten years ago a third of London's factories' workers came from Scotland. That's no longer the case, today most of the Scottish workers who came to London to work for the Company are back home working for the same Company but in Glasgow, Edinburgh or Inverness. They earn the same wages but live with their families in their Home Country. And those departing Scots have been replaced by workers coming from elsewhere who will, in time, return home richer in wealth and experience and for the best of them to work for another factory of the Company.
Jane, once more, looked at the camera.
- And for the most of them their experience here in Great Britain will remain one of their better memories. Those satisfied home comers will be our best ambassadors all over Europe and their liking for Great Britain and our British way of life will be our best way to influence peacefully our neighbors.
- Do we need to influence our neighbors?
- We don't need it but soon there will only remain four or five major Powers in the world and if we don't want to see the preponderance of one of them decided on the battlefield, we will have to find other means to see who's the leader of the pack. Britain's technology is already spreading out all over the world, I'd like to see our culture and civilization do the same.
- You spoke of major powers. Who do you include in the Club beside of Great Britain and France?
- That's a difficult question because the others are not yet clearly defined. Candidates are Russia, China, the Ottoman Empire and, if its rulers finally overcomes his current breakdown, Spain who still has quite a lot of territories and potentialities.
- Would not Russia be an evident candidate?
- Russia is Great Britain's friend and ally but that fact cannot hide the reality that Russia has huge domestic problems. The Czar has been forced by circumstances to invest in too many different directions at the same time. He should have -and it is always easy for outsiders to provide advice- invested most of the produced wealth in industrializing its country but with most of his Aristocracy putting obstacles in his way it had been awfully difficult for him to break the current deadlock. Russia is better off than ten years ago but it is still badly lagging behind.
Jane couldn't help but sigh.
- We have done our best to help Alexander and Elizabeth but every try they gave it was always countered and sabotaged in at least a dozen different ways be it by the Boyars or the Clergy. Russia's standard of living has in average become better but the differences between towns and cities and rural estates are still huge. Most of the Boyars go on treating their own people as serfs. And some Russian serfs are treated with a lot less humanity than some slaves in the New World. I must admit that it is difficult to go on helping a country where a majority of the Aristocracy is…
She hesitated clearly searching for a word that wouldn't show the contempt she was feeling.
Joan dared to make a proposition.
- …Untrustworthy?
Jane shook her head.
- Untrustworthy is not the right qualifier but I will abstain to use the one I have in mind for now.
Jane closed her eyes and clearly fought to get back on track.
- So, for these reasons, even if in China peasants are also treated like dirt, I believe it will be the Ottoman Empire and the Middle Kingdom that will emerge as the two other hugely powerful countries. China is no better than Russia when it comes to the way the poor are treated. It is probably a lot worse since nobody there tries to change the fact that the land is a tyranny! The Son of Heaven, being a Despot and having all the latitudes to act like one has a lot less problems with his Aristocracy than Alexander. He has no qualms to behead those who don't obey. Should Yonglin decide to pull out all the stops China has the manpower and the wealth to catch up and overcome Russia in a matter of years. It is sad to admit but it is now clear that a country cannot be changed when a great deal of its elite not only refuses to adapt to the new reality but fights their Monarch to undermine him.
- Do those facts invalidate the betrothal between our King and Elizabeth Romanovna?
- Of course not, whatever the Boyars do, William's word has been given, he won't negate it.
- Could it be that is because there are feelings between the fiancés?
- You'll have to ask them, Joan, but the betrothed's mother does indeed have a few suspicions about the existence of mutual feelings. Elizabeth is a kind soul and even if, in the beginning, her feelings had largely been only hers, she's been able to help William discover his own feelings towards her. It is an interesting match and what is in my eyes even more important they should be happy together.
There was a little ringing sound and the camera turned to show Joan Lockley's face.
- It is time for our half time interruption with your local news and advertisement. We'll be back in fifteen minutes if Her Grace is still willing to go on with today's torture.
- It's never a torture to give the people news about the family, said Jane with a smile of her own. Let's use this time to get ourselves refreshed.
I
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