Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Christine Matthews, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
William Pitt the Elder doubts the wisdom of letting experts run the country.
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© John Lord, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
Some people are not more equal than others, nor are they entitled to more life and liberty.
© Jonathan Billinger, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
Good government is not about enforcing uniform order, but about maximising liberty among a particular people.
© Yoga Balaji, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Edmund Burke told fellow MPs that the only way to unite the peoples of the Empire was for London to set them an enviable example.
© Chris, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
Free trade brings to smaller nations all the advantages of empire without the disadvantages.
Anonymous, from Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
John Buchan’s dashing adventurer Sandy Arbuthnot didn’t think much of foreign policy after the Great War.