I Became A Hidden Powerhouse Of The British Empire [EN]: Chapter 107

Showdown

“Wait, wait a minute! I’m not finished with my story yet!”

As I turned to go back into the palace, Robert Peel urgently called out and grabbed me.

“What is it? I don’t have much time.”

If Victoria finds out that I interrupted her tea time to listen to a story that’s not even as good as a silly joke, she’ll be even more furious. Shouldn’t we just stop here?

“If I’m suggesting a draw, shouldn’t you at least hear why?”

“Do I really need to? And if you have something to say, shouldn’t you be talking to Wellesley over there, who’s still giving a passionate speech?”

“That man won’t even meet with me, which is why I’m doing this. Can you tell Wellesley for me? That we’re both heading down a path to destruction right now.”

“Both of us dying? I only see one person in danger.”

“Ha. That’s why you lot lack experience. Of course, it’s clear that I have no way to win against you in the current situation. I admit that.”

If he couldn’t admit that now, he wouldn’t be human.

He’s been abandoned by the House of Lords, and the moment he saw Victoria’s businesslike reaction when he tried to appeal to the royal family for mediation, he should have known.

“If you have no way to win, you should concede defeat, not try to gloss over it with some bizarre talk about a draw.”

“No. Just because I have no way to win doesn’t mean you automatically win. Have you forgotten? The election isn’t just for the Tories [Conservative Party], but for the Whigs [Liberal Party] as well.”

I wondered what he was getting at, but it seemed he was going with the ‘if I can’t have it, I’ll destroy it’ strategy.

As I listened silently, the anxious former Prime Minister spilled the beans on his plan without even being asked.

“You don’t understand, do you? Then let me explain slowly. Why do you think the House of Lords is keeping silent? Because they think Wellesley is so lovely and admirable? No, it’s because they don’t care who wins as long as the Tory party wins in the end. But if Wellesley doesn’t win a majority in the election, he’ll naturally be condemned by the House of Lords, and when he’s pushed out, you’ll be pushed out with him, won’t you?”

“Oh, how spine-chillingly terrifying.”

“You don’t think I’m capable of doing that? Have you forgotten that I still have over 100 MPs [Members of Parliament] who follow me?”

The current Tory party holds 310 out of 658 seats.

The Wellesley faction and the Robert Peel faction were splitting it almost in half, but the Wellesley faction has taken a significant lead with this vote of no confidence, widening the gap somewhat.

Still, there were quite a few who were on Robert Peel’s side, and most of them were veteran MPs who were at odds with Wellesley.

“So many MPs still follow you. You’re more popular than I thought, former Prime Minister.”

“Don’t you understand the gravity of the situation? If I wanted to, I could send them all to constituencies contested by the Whigs to split the vote! Then the Whigs would win, and you’d lose the election and be blamed for ruining the Tory party with me!”

“So, you’re saying if we don’t want to die together, we should settle for a draw.”

He’s trying to negotiate by threatening to overturn the game if he doesn’t think he can win. It’s a typical and common tactic.

“Yes. I’m not asking for much. Just guarantee the election of the MPs who follow me, and create a position for me in the next government, even if it’s just an honorary one. If you do that much, I’ll admit defeat and quietly hand over the party leadership to Wellesley.”

“You want an escape route to make a dignified exit.”

“That’s right! You finally understand me. What do you think? I don’t think this is a bad offer for you either.”

It’s certainly not a bad offer. If he had come to me right after the vote of no confidence and made this offer, I might have considered it with an open mind.

But when he comes out so stiffly in a situation where he’s already cornered, I can’t help but want to break his neck.

“I’m sorry, but I think I’ve given you enough time. It doesn’t move me at all to hear you say that now.”

“…What? Have you eaten something wrong? You don’t think I can really do it, do you…?”

“If I may offer you one last piece of advice out of goodwill, I suggest you don’t. Even though you pushed the ministerial position onto me to keep me in check, it ended up being a huge benefit to me, so I’m giving you this advice from the bottom of my heart.”

“…Even if you try to smooth things over with such words…”

“To put it bluntly, you’re saying you’ll make a mess of things since you can’t win anyway, but what do you think will happen if Wellesley wins even after you do that?”

Robert Peel didn’t say anything and just bit his lip.

He probably knows. What’s the point of saying it?

He’d be branded as a traitor, a piece of trash who deliberately put up candidates in contested areas to undermine the party and prevent it from winning.

“The House of Lords is a lifetime position, so you won’t lose your seat. But you should forget about being on friendly terms with anyone in the Tory party until the moment you retire, right? Maybe someone will deliberately try to get rid of you. Do you really want to go down that road?”

“…It would be like that if I failed, but can you really win when I go this far?”

“Well, we’ll take quite a hit. At most, we might lose about twenty seats to the Whigs.”

“What, twenty seats? Now I see that your brain is just paralyzed by unfounded arrogance.”

He was taken aback, but this is a loss that I estimated through a fairly cool-headed calculation.

In fact, this is the maximum estimate, and the actual damage might be around fifteen seats.

It’s more absurd to believe that you can take away 100 seats just because you have 100 MPs following you.

“Which side is it that has a paralyzed brain? I’m sorry, but your basic calculations are wrong. You say you have 100 MPs following you? It’s not that, but your core faction is only about ten to twenty people, and the rest are just hangers-on.”

The number of Tory heavyweights who are at the forefront of attacking Wellesley, following Robert Peel, is no more than twenty.

And the numerous first-term and second-term MPs who are attached to them are filling the remaining seats.

Those core members are likely to share their fate with Robert Peel until the end.

Because the gap between them and us is too deep to turn back now.

But what about the other MPs who were pushed into the faction’s will?

Would they really keep their loyalty to the defeated enemy, giving up everything they have?

“The solidarity of the MPs who follow me is…”

“It’s like a sandcastle. Do you know how many letters Wellesley received this morning? About thirty. You know what’s written in them without me having to tell you, right?”

“Our MPs sent letters? Surely…”

“That’s right.”

They said that it was never their intention to oppose Wellesley, and that it was due to pressure from other MPs who wanted to be re-elected in the next election if they followed their lead.

So, from now on, they want to join the Wellesley faction and help build the Tory party in the right way. Please allow them to continue to run in their current constituencies.

Things like that were coming up one after another.

Since the election process has to start immediately after the parliament is dissolved, it’s actually too late for us to put new candidates in the constituencies.

So, there was no reason not to accept those who bowed their heads and begged for forgiveness.

It not only meant that our power was increasing, but also that the number of suicide soldiers Robert Peel could throw was decreasing.

“Tha-that’s a lie! It must be a lie! It must be a trick to prevent me from interfering with false information!”

“Then believe that and continue the work you were going to do. I won’t stop you. But keep one thing in mind. There’s a way to guarantee your seat if you come to this side and bow down, but how many people will choose to be branded as traitors to the Tory party and sink with the former Prime Minister?”

“…”

Robert Peel, who was about to retort reflexively, soon lowered his head without making a sound.

No matter how much he thought about it, he could only think of about a dozen people who would do that.

That’s the reality.

“Just stay still like a dead mouse. Then I won’t do anything more to the former Prime Minister.”

“…Is that really true?”

“Yes. I’m already too busy to spare any attention to someone who’s left the stage.”

This was a perfect truth without even 1% of lies.

Even after the election is over, it’s just the beginning, and there are so many things to deal with, why would I be focusing on a loser?

But judging from the way our Queen is, she seems to have a lot of resentment, so I can’t take responsibility for that.

Just go and kneel and beg for forgiveness.

Then maybe? Victoria might be moved by compassion and give you a break.

* * *

They say that if you have preparation, you have no worries.

For me, who had already finished all the preparations for the election campaign in advance, everything that happened after the dissolution of parliament felt very static.

Victoria dissolved parliament at Robert Peel’s request, and the UK went into a general election period of about two months.

Robert Peel, judging that there were too many dissenting votes, did not carry out the water ghost operation as I advised and simply went into hiding, and his faction completely collapsed.

The Whigs put forward a new face, Gladstone, and worked hard on the election campaign, but unfortunately, they could not keep up with the issues that we were creating.

[Abolitionist Party to Dissolve!]

[Daniel O’Connell Joins Charles Wellesley. “I have decided to entrust the future of Ireland to Minister Killian Gore. I have decided to join the Tory party because I believe that Charles Wellesley, who is with him, has a cause.”]

Not only Ireland, but also Scotland, which was greatly encouraged by the Queen’s visit, showed a more favorable view of the Tory party to which I belonged, and there was no way for the Whigs to reverse this trend on their own.

Of course, the Whigs’ image had improved compared to before, and there were some dissenting votes from the Tory party, so it was not expected that the number of seats would decrease significantly.

Charles Wellesley, who received a report containing these rough expected results, sighed openly with regret.

“I was secretly hoping for a much bigger victory than the last election, but it seems that it will be difficult to achieve.”

“Isn’t it as expected? Anyway, the important thing was whether or not we could get a majority of seats.”

“But if we had won such a great victory that we could have cut off the Whigs’ breath altogether, the parliament would have become our perfect world. Should we try to work harder to make that happen in the next election?”

“Wellesley, if you want to do politics for a long time, you should try to get rid of such thoughts.”

“Why? The Whigs will always be our political enemies, and if we neutralize those enemies, won’t our position become more solid?”

If you feel that way, it’s a dangerous sign that you’re slowly starting to get drunk on the power.

It’s a common trap that those who have just started to seize power fall into, so Wellesley can’t be an exception.

It seems like it’s time to tighten the reins around here.

“They are political enemies. But what will happen to us if we get rid of all those political enemies? We will have absolute power.”

“Isn’t that the long-cherished desire of our party? To kick out all the Whigs and create a Tory world.”

“Wellesley, there’s something you must remember before that. In the past… no, this word wouldn’t have come out now. Anyway, if you’re going to do politics, there’s something you should remember for a long time, so keep it in your heart. Power tends to corrupt. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. If you want to go down in history as a corrupt power-holder, get rid of all your political enemies.”

“That’s…”

“A capable political enemy is precious. As long as they are there, our side will not be divided and will continue to unite to fight against them, and we will not be able to go too far without worrying about losing the support of the citizens.”

No matter how talented a politician is, he cannot control hundreds of MPs one by one.

Then there are only two ways to make them at least pay attention.

Make them pay attention to the dictator, or make them pay attention to the citizens.

It goes without saying which one will be more helpful to the national interest in the long run.

“I’m not saying anything hypocritical like ‘Don’t pursue your own interests and become a patriot who only thinks about the country.’ If you want to remain a truly respected politician for a long time, you must make your own interests the interests of the country.”

“You mean to pursue my own interests and make that the national interest…”

“That’s right. So, the Whigs are just right in their current state. They can check this side as a large opposition party, but they don’t have the power to create a government. Keep your political enemies by your side and use them as an alarm. If you keep this in mind, Wellesley, you will be able to keep your position as a respected Prime Minister.”

If there are no enemies, the allies will split.

The fact that the Tory heavyweights tried to tame Wellesley and me as soon as they judged that the Whigs were not a threat was proof of that.

If the Whigs are completely destroyed, there is no guarantee that this side will not split next time.

Whether it’s Disraeli, Wellesley, or maybe I’ll change.

Who said that?

It’s much harder to maintain power than to get it.

That’s why people who don’t want to let go of power may fall into the temptation of dictatorship.

Because suppressing them with guns and swords seems easier and more comfortable than continuing to win the support of the citizens and recreating the government.

In the end, I, Wellesley, and the new Tory party have only just reached the starting point, and we still have a long way to go.

So, on July 22, 1841, the long-awaited day finally arrived.

The Robert Peel cabinet was dissolved, and the newly opened general election was completed, with about 600,000 voters casting their votes.

Tory party 361 seats

Whig party 297 seats

Someone sighed in relief and stroked their chest, and someone else expressed regret, but the results were clearly divided.

The Tory party, which absorbed the Abolitionist Party, succeeded in leaving the Whigs far behind and exceeding the majority on its own.

The time has come for a new era to begin.