Character and Conduct
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Character and Conduct’
An aristocratic statesman was choked with emotion as he reflected on Britain’s creative social mobility.
The Industrial Revolution increased social mobility beyond all measure. Some shook their heads, but for most people, from ordinary working men to aristocratic statesmen, it was a matter of celebration and pride.
Benjamin Disraeli did not make a promising start to his Parliamentary career - but he did start with a promise.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime Minister, oversaw the expansion of the electorate as well as a range of social reforms aimed at improving the living and working conditions of the poorer classes. He was also an accomplished novelist, though his first attempts had been cruelly mocked by the critics, and his early political career fared little better.
The great Dr Johnson argues that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
Samuel Johnson, one of England’s literary giants, encourages us to employ as much courtesy and good cheer as we can muster in our dealings with those who disagree with us, appealing to no less than the Apostle St Peter for authority.
William Pitt the Elder doubts the wisdom of letting experts run the country.
In 1769, the colourful John Wilkes MP was repeatedly barred from taking up his seat in the Commons. William Pitt leapt to Wilkes’s defence in the Lords, not concealing his irritation that Lord Justice Mansfield had, in a speech of wit, learning and meticulous argument, completely misunderstood Pitt’s point.
A young man from the Italian city on the Adige River demonstrates that class has nothing to do with wealth.
Samuel Smiles’s ‘Self-Help’ enthusiastically encouraged working men to take advantage of Britain’s entrepreneurial economy. Yet he never once promised riches; he promised dignity and self-respect, and told this tale to illustrate their superiority.