Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Ewan Munro, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Adam Smith could not imagine it would ever happen, but he nevertheless recommended that Britain grant independence to her colonies.
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Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Contemporary historian Ramanath Aiyar catalogued the ways in which Maharajah Moolam Thurunal led the way in modernising British India.
© SMU Central University Libraries, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of Bombay, shared his excitement at the way railways were making Indians more independent.
© David Dixon, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
A persistent dream prompts a Norfolk tradesman to walk all the way to London in the hope of bettering his lot.
From ‘College Addresses’ by Sir Hubert Parry (1920).
Sir Hubert Parry explained to students at the Royal College of Music that some mistakes are creative whereas others are destructive.
© LA(Photo) Angie Pearce / MOD, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Open Government Licence v1.0.
Richard Cobden despaired at British statesmen using the peerless Royal Navy merely to strangle trade in other countries.