The Copybook

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

283

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

The Wisdom of the People John Trenchard

In one of his ‘Cato Letters’, John Trenchard took issue with the view (popular in Westminster) that the public could not be left to make up their own minds.

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284

By Nikolai Florianovitch Dobrovolskiy (1837-1900), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Great Northern War Clay Lane

Peter the Great wanted Russia to join the nations of Western Europe, but the nations of Western Europe refused to make room for him.

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285

© Nic McPhee, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

By Wager of Battle The Newgate Calendar

It began to look as if Abraham Thornton might go down for rape and murder, so his attorneys dug deep into their bag of legal tricks.

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286

By Giuseppe Patania (1780-1852), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Thank Heaven for Free Speech John Trenchard

The authors of the ‘Cato Letters’ recalled how Greek general Timoleon replied when the people he had saved from oppression turned and bit him.

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287

By Alf van Beem, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Lover’s Leap Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison tells the legend of the great Greek poetess Sappho and the Lover’s Leap.

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288

By David Martin (1737–1797), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

How I Learnt to Write Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin recalls the disciplines he put himself through on the way to becoming one of America’s literary giants.

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