CHAPTER 569: CHAPTER 560: PALMERSTON’S AMBITION

Just as the British Foreign Ministry received a telegraph from the French Embassy, the telegraph office of The Times also received a message from the French Havas Agency... or rather a message sent in the name of the Havas Agency.

When the telegraph operator at The Times translated the Morse code into text and read it through, he immediately burst into the editor-in-chief’s office, who was staying at The Times.

"Editor-in-chief, big news! Big news!" The telegraph operator shouted loudly to the editor-in-chief, who was slumped over the desk, while shaking the telegraph in his hand.

The editor-in-chief, hearing the telegraph operator’s shouts, opened his sleepy eyes, yawned, and lazily asked, "What big news?"

"Look! Look!" The telegraph operator hurriedly slapped the telegraph in front of the editor-in-chief.

The editor-in-chief picked up the telegraph and began to read its contents. After a while, the originally lazy editor-in-chief astonishingly sprang to life.

"It truly is big news!" The editor-in-chief exclaimed excitedly, clenching his fist, "It must go on the front page, and it needs a striking headline... It must appear in today’s paper!"

"But, editor-in-chief, our paper for today has already started printing! If we have the workers redo the layout, I fear it will waste a considerable amount of cost. How about we wait a day?" The telegraph operator suggested, considering the cost.

"No! We can’t wait until tomorrow!" The editor-in-chief said firmly, then explained to the telegraph operator, "The most important things in news are timeliness and immediacy! The success of a newspaper depends on whether it has firsthand news! Publishing a day late may save us some cost, but the impact it causes cannot be compensated by ten times the cost.

We absolutely cannot let our loyal subscribers get information that lags behind other newspapers!"

"Other newspapers? Do you mean that besides us, other newspapers have also received this news?" The telegraph operator asked in confusion.

"I’m certain! This news is definitely not exclusive to us; I fear many influential newspapers have received it!" The editor-in-chief responded confidently to the telegraph operator.

"Why would they do such a thing?" The telegraph operator still asked in puzzlement.

"We don’t need to understand why! We only need to know that, from the moment we received the telegraph, we already have competitors!" The editor-in-chief responded to the telegraph operator, then issued an order, "You now go to the printing press immediately and tell the workers there to stop printing and wait for further instructions!"

"Yes!" The telegraph operator hurriedly responded after receiving the order.

"Go!" The editor-in-chief waved his hand, reminding him, "Remember to act quickly!"

Watching the telegraph operator leave the office, the editor-in-chief opened the drawer, took out the paper and pen, and this time he intended to personally embellish the brief piece of news, turning it into a more readable article.

After sitting in the office and embellishing for more than an hour, a brand new article appeared vividly on paper.

After carefully reading the article, the editor-in-chief was quite satisfied with the piece he had written.

Even though it had been a long time since he last wrote an article, his writing skill had not deteriorated at all.

"I need to come up with a title that fits this article!" The editor-in-chief muttered quietly, then wrote down one title after another on another draft paper.

However, he was dissatisfied with every title, always feeling they lacked a critical tone.

"What kind of title would be good?" The editor-in-chief scratched his head hard twice.

Unable to come up with a title, the editor-in-chief had to pull out all the newspapers from recent times, hoping to find answers from them.

Until he saw a particular title in the Bonaparte Newspaper, inspiration immediately gushed into his mind like a fountain.

The editor-in-chief seized the opportunity to quickly record his idea, and an article with the headline "A Letter to the British Prime Minister" "appeared" on the draft paper.

After finishing the article, the editor-in-chief glanced at the time; there were nearly 3 hours left until dawn (5 o’clock). He had to hurry.

Thus, the editor-in-chief decided to personally go to the printing press to give instructions.

...

When the editor-in-chief arrived at the entrance of the printing press, the entire place was eerily quiet, and it seemed all the workers inside had left.

"No way! Didn’t I ask them to wait?" Looking at the quiet printing press before him, the editor-in-chief felt a sense of anxiety welling up inside him.

Just as the editor-in-chief thought the printing press was empty, a figure emerged from within.

The figure took one look at the editor-in-chief standing under the gas lamp and quickly said, "Editor-in-chief, you finally came!"

The editor-in-chief quickly walked up to him; it was the telegraph operator he had sent to the printing press. He hurriedly asked, "What on earth is going on? Why is there no movement inside the printing press?"

"You told us not to start work, so I didn’t let the workers start work!" The telegraph operator responded to the editor-in-chief,

"Look at my mind!" The editor-in-chief then remembered he had indeed told them not to start.

Who would have thought that after finishing an article, he would forget about it.

"Now immediately give this to the workers at the printing press, and have them rush to print!" The editor-in-chief handed the article to the telegraph operator and said.

"Good!" The telegraph operator nodded and entered the printing factory.

The editor-in-chief likewise followed closely behind into the printing factory.

"Wake up! Quickly, wake up! Time to work!" A voice called to the workers in their sleep, waking them up; they grudgingly suppressed their sleepiness and began working.

After working for nearly two and a half hours, tens of thousands of newspapers were printed by the hands of the printing factory workers.

Looking at the newspapers hanging on the ropes with ink still wet, the editor-in-chief nodded in satisfaction.

In another half hour, the ink would dry.

...

As the first rays of dawn appeared on the shimmering surface of the Thames River, the editor-in-chief ordered the printing factory workers to take all the newspapers down from the ropes.

The exhausted printing factory workers reluctantly gathered and stacked the tens of thousands of newspapers.

By this time, it was around 6 o’clock, and newspaper boys from various districts of London arrived at the printing factory as if they had prearranged a time. They queued up, waiting for the newspapers.

"One at a time!" The editor-in-chief enthusiastically directed the workers to distribute newspapers to the newspaper boys and instructed them to make sure to sell several copies.

Once all the newspaper boys had received their share of the newspapers, the editor-in-chief looked at the remaining newspapers.

By now, it was already 7 o’clock in the morning, and the delivery men of The Times arrived at the printing factory.

"This is yours... this is yours..." The editor-in-chief handed the newspapers to the delivery men and advised them to ensure the newspapers reached the subscribers’ hands.

Although the delivery men present were puzzled as to why the editor-in-chief was there, none dared to ask him.

After all the newspapers were distributed, a wave of fatigue swept over the editor-in-chief.

"I’m going back to rest! You should go back early too!" The editor-in-chief yawned and said to the telegraph operator before leaving the printing factory.

...

Nine o’clock in the morning, 10 Downing Street residence.

As the Cabinet Prime Minister, Palmerston officially began his new day of work.

He first asked his private secretary about today’s schedule; the private secretary shook his head and informed Palmerston that there was no schedule for today.

If nothing unexpected occurs...

"So, I can properly rest for a day!" Palmerston replied with a smile to the private secretary as he walked over to sit down on the sofa.

"Certainly, Your Excellency Prime Minister!" The private secretary respectfully nodded.

"That’s good!" Palmerston nodded, then commanded the private secretary, "Can you bring me The Times on the table! I want to have a look!"

As a loyal reader of The Times, Palmerston was not willing to miss any issue.

Although The Times now criticized him far more than praised him, it did not diminish Palmerston’s interest in The Times.

After all, which cabinet hadn’t been criticized by The Times? If one couldn’t even tolerate minor criticisms, how could one serve as Prime Minister?

"Yes, Prime Minister!" The private secretary handed the newspaper to Palmerston.

Receiving The Times and looking at the headline "A Letter to the British Prime Minister," Palmerston was already convinced that The Times’ content was largely a critique of some cabinet minister.

After all, who would write to the Prime Minister out of nowhere!

Thinking of this, Palmerston couldn’t help but feel a bit schadenfreude, as he was quite willing to see his ministers getting embarrassed.

After all, most of the ministers who formed the cabinet with him did not share his interests, and some were even opposed to him.

After toppling the Aberdeen Cabinet, Palmerston’s formed cabinet, though nominally a hardline cabinet, was, in fact, one carrying a façade of being hardline.

The cabinet members’ handling of the Russian Empire differed greatly from Palmerston’s views; some cabinet ministers believed that after occupying the Sevastopol Fortress, the Kingdom of Britain should know when to stop and quickly negotiate peace with Russia. Another part believed that the Kingdom of Britain should initiate dialogue with the Russian Empire after occupying Crimea.

Palmerston himself was dissatisfied with both factions.

According to his thoughts, the Russian Empire must be completely and directly undone; the Caucasus, Crimea, and the coast (Odessa) should be restored under Ottoman Empire rule, Finland should be returned to Sweden, a Grand Duchy of Poland should be established in the Polish Region, the Kingdom of Prussia could expand toward the Baltic Sea, and the Austrian Empire could expand inward to Bessarabia...

In Palmerston’s blueprint, the best outcome was for the Russian Empire to revert to the Grand Duchy of Moscow.