Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Thomas Phillips, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Lord Durham warned Westminster that colonial Canada must be run by elected MPs, not career bureaucrats.
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Anonymous c. 1902, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Some wanted Britain on a path to being a thoroughly European nation, but William Monypenny wanted her at the world’s crossroads.
© Mike Qunn, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
A shepherd boy has fun teasing the local farmers, but comes to regret it.
By Adolphe Roehn (1780–1867), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
The fear that Russia might make an ally of Great Britain drove the would-be Emperor of Europe to extreme measures.
By Heinrich Lossow (1843–1897), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Leopold Mozart was eager to win the hearts of the English, and thought he knew just the way to do it.
© Lisa Jarvis, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
French economist Jean-Baptiste Say recalls a time when an ounce of prevention might have saved many pounds of cure.