The Copybook

Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.

1183

© Andy F, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

A Monument to Liberty Samuel Smiles

Samuel Smiles explains why the London and Birmingham Railway was an achievement superior to the Great Pyramid of Giza.

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1184

From the US National Archives and Records Administration, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. (Note: this is Richard Cobden, not ‘Richard Corden’ as given by NARA.)

The Grievances of the South Richard Cobden

Victorian MP Richard Cobden believed British politicians supporting the slave-owning American South had been led a merry dance.

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1185

By Staecker, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Blessings of Nicholas Mogilevsky Clay Lane

Passengers sharing Bishop Nicholas’s Moscow-bound flight found his blessings faintly silly — but that was when the engines were still running.

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1186

© Greg Willis, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Dixie on Thames Richard Cobden

Victorian MP Richard Cobden offered a startling analogy for the American Civil War.

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1187

© Graham Horn, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

The Reform Acts Clay Lane

Nineteenth-century Britain had busy industrial cities and a prosperous middle class, but no MPs to represent them.

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1188

© Robert Graham, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Battle of Brunanburh Clay Lane

Athelstan confirmed himself as King of the English, and also reawakened a feeling that all Britain should be a united people.

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