The Copybook
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
The tale of how a prim little English horse cleaned up his Continental stables.
The following anecdote comes from a book of tales published in 1841, introducing children to a selection of Britain’s wild and domestic animals. Apparently all quite true, it tells of a prim little horse who suddenly found himself stabled among the lower classes.
Sir Thomas Smith, one of Elizabeth I’s diplomats, explains how in her day criminals were brought to trial.
In the 1560s, Sir Thomas Smith wrote a guide to the Kingdom of England, in which he detailed some of the country’s customs and laws. Among them, was the ‘hue and cry’, the pursuit and apprehension of thieves and murderers, which was not the responsibility of law officers only, but the collective responsibility of all.
The young Christian from ancient Northumbria was healed of a lame leg in a manner that reminded Bede of the archangel Rafael.
As a small boy, Cuthbert had been approached at playtime by a toddler who told him in the most grown-up fashion to cultivate mind as well as body. Some years later, though long before he became a monk, another unearthly visitor came by.
In 1890, Sir Henry Parkes reminded Australians that they had a natural kinship and declared them ready to manage their own affairs.
At a banquet in Melbourne on February 6th, 1890, a decade before the founding of the Commonwealth of Australia, Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New South Wales, rose to reply to the toast ‘A United Australia!’, and spoke warmly of Australia’s ties of kinship and purpose.
In 1852 the Council of New South Wales sent a strongly-worded petition to London, demanding the right of self-government.
On June 18th, 1852, the Duke of Argyll informed the House of Lords of a petition from the Council of New South Wales, prompted by unrest in the goldfields over taxes and regulations. The petition demanded self-government for the Colony, accepting all the responsibilities which that implied.
Lord Durham warned Westminster that colonial Canada must be run by elected MPs, not career bureaucrats.
In 1839, Lord Durham, Governor General of Canada, reported to Westminster on mounting civil unrest in Canada. He was expected to blame Anglo-French antagonism, but chose to highlight a system in which elected Parliaments were mere window-dressing, while real power lay with bureaucrats appointed by the Crown.