Georgian Era
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Georgian Era’
Acclaimed in Germany as a composer on a par with Mendelssohn himself, Bennett sacrificed his life and talents for music in Britain.
The young William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875) was expected by many, including Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, to take his place as one of Europe’s most accomplished composers. Today he is almost unknown, a consequence of the sacrifices he made for the careers and talents of others.
The East India Company installed Mir Kasim as Nawab of Bengal, only to find that he had a mind of his own.
Robert Clive’s victory against the Nawab of Bengal at Plassey in 1757 made him and his employers, the East India Company, quite literally kingmakers. But Clive now retired to London, leaving Bengal to the new Nawab, Mir Jafar, and Company policy to Henry Vansittart, Clive’s successor in Calcutta.
A literary man tries to trick Samuel Johnson into an honest opinion, which was neither necessary nor very rewarding.
James Macpherson published two poems, ‘Fingal’ in 1762 and ‘Temora’ a year later, which he said were translations of Irish oral tradition. He attributed them to Ossian, the legendary 3rd century Irish bard, who told of the ‘endless battles and unhappy loves’ of his father Fingal and son Oscar. Dr Johnson was, like most modern scholars, unconvinced.
A nation with its own laws and a strong sense of shared cultural identity makes good economic sense.
Adam Smith argues that preferring to live in a sovereign nation, with a strong sense of shared cultural identity and well-drafted, homemade laws, is not a matter of prejudice. It is a matter of sound economic reasoning, for every country of the world.
Adam Smith warns that politicians are the last people who should lecture the public about how to run their affairs.
Adam Smith, the pioneering Scottish economist, objected very strongly when politicians criticised the public for their spending habits. Private individuals alone actually create wealth, he said. By definition, Governments spend other people’s money and never make a penny in return.
James Cook describes his first sight of a beloved Australian icon.
James Cook captained ‘Endeavour’ on a round trip to New Zealand and Australia from 1768 to 1771. Between June and August 1770, the ship lay at the mouth of the Endeavour (Wabalumbaal) River in north Queensland, undergoing repairs. Cook kept a meticulous journal, in which he described some of the animals he saw.