The Shadow of Great Britain

Disraeli paused at this point and then solemnly advised, "However, before pursuing Sarah, you must swear to the heavens that you are sincere. I wouldn't want us to not even remain friends due to you two having a discordant marriage."

The Red Devil stood behind the bar, holding a bottle and burping, saying, "Got it! I finally understand why this little brat has a thing for older women! Turns out he's a sis-con!"

Arthur glanced at Agares, who had bluntly hit the nail on the head, and calmly replied, "Miss Sarah and I have only met a few times, and during those meetings we mostly discussed her proud brother's work. Benjamin, your imagination is quite vivid."

Disraeli, hearing this, sighed in relief at first, but soon felt somewhat worried.

Just the thought of his sister possibly getting married made him feel uneasy.

However, from another perspective, he indeed hoped his sister could have a good future.

Sufficiently, he even introduced a few promising young nobles to his sister after being elected as a Member of Parliament, concerned about her future marriage.

Unfortunately, Miss Sarah Disraeli wasn't fond of any of those guys. According to her own words, her ideal husband must be more talented than her brother. In Mr. Disraeli's view, this standard is indeed set quite high.

However, even if he couldn't find someone more talented than himself, Disraeli felt at the very least, his old friend Arthur was on the same level as him. Moreover, he believed his sister probably thought the same way because the young noblemen he introduced only met her once, while Arthur could meet her several times, which said a lot about things he couldn't say too clearly.

Disraeli pondered over his sister's thoughts, and for a moment, his mind drifted away.

Watching Disraeli's expression, Arthur could see something wasn't quite right. The sixth sense of the Scotland Yard officer was alerting him that this situation seemed no less dangerous than facing a mathematics professor.

At this point, it was Dirichlet who saved Arthur from the situation, looking at Alfred Krupp, who was with Arthur: "And this gentleman is?"

"This is our newly acquainted friend today, Mr. Alfred Krupp."

Observing everyone carefully, Krupp stepped forward to greet them: "Hello, gentlemen."

Mendelssohn shook his hand with a smile: "Not two, but three."

He pointed to a middle-aged man holding three glasses of beer walking towards them: "Tonight, it's three against three, with Mr. Liszt as well."

"Liszt?" Arthur turned his head to look behind upon hearing this.

But to his surprise, this Liszt wasn't the 'King of Paris Piano Franz Liszt' blacklisted by Heine, but a middle-aged scholar with an unimpressive hairline, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, and sporting mutton chops.

Arthur asked, "Is this man Franz Liszt's father?"

"Hahaha, Arthur, stop joking."

Mendelssohn waved his hands repeatedly and said, "He has nothing to do with Franz. He's the United States Consul General in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Mr. Friedrich List. Moreover, he's a remarkable political economist. Do you know the German Customs Union? This concept was first proposed by him, although it wasn't accepted by the Germans ten years ago."

Arthur was left bewildered by Mendelssohn's words: "Isn't he the U.S. consul? How could a U.S. consul propose the German Customs Union?"

Mendelssohn apologized repeatedly: "I didn't explain it clearly. Mr. List was originally a German. In 1820, he was not only the editor-in-chief of the 'German Commercial Gazette' but also a member of the Wurttemberg Parliament. However, shortly after he was elected, he spoke some inappropriate words in a petition which led to his disenfranchisement by the Wurttemberg authorities, and he was sentenced to ten months in jail. To gain judicial clemency, Mr. List had to agree to the condition of relocating to the United States for release."

At that moment, List, holding his beers, had moved by the group. The serious political prisoner of the Wurttemberg Duchy, in his deep voice, began to defend himself.

"I do not believe I said anything inappropriate. Even those with only a cursory observation of Wurttemberg's domestic affairs can easily conclude that there are fundamental flaws in Wurttemberg's national legislation and administration, evident to the naked eye as an ever-expanding bureaucratic system that is isolated from the people and spread throughout the nation, concentrated everywhere. This bureaucratic world not only does not understand the needs of the people and the state of social life but also regards any citizen's intervention as a threat to the state."

He put down his beer glass and continued, "I don't want to boast about my intelligence, so I usually only discuss historical experiences. Any unbiased observer can clearly see that my previous observations on German politics are coming true one by one. I said they perceived citizen intervention as a national threat, and then they immediately shut down my newspaper, dismissed my parliamentary position, and stripped me of my political immunity.

I said that the thirty-eight tariffs and transit toll routes in Germany hindered internal transportation, just like binding every part of a human body to prevent blood from flowing to other parts, thus the urgent need for a customs union to eliminate the tariff barriers of each state and create a large internal market in Germany, which is a prerequisite for German industrialization. As a result, now they've created three customs unions in the north, central, and south of Germany at one stroke. Whether they admit it or not, history will eventually prove I was right."