Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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343

Counsel’s Duty to his Client

When King George IV tried to divorce Queen Caroline with maximum embarrassment, her barrister warned that two could play at that game.

344

Undaunted

Facing defeat at the General Election of 1812, Henry Brougham stood before the voters of Liverpool and made a spirited defence of liberty’s record.

345

Banner of Liberty

In 1840, Secretary at War Thomas Macaulay treated the Union Jack like a bully’s visiting card, but backbencher William Gladstone believed it deserved better.

346

The First Opium War

In 1840, the British Government declared war on the Chinese Empire over their harsh treatment of drug smugglers from Bengal.

347

The Time of Age

Seventeenth-century poet and statesman Edmund Waller reflects on the benefits of advancing years.

348

Vice and Virtue

Vice is a fact of life, wrote Pope, and God can even bring good out of it; but vice is never a virtue and in tackling vice together we make our society stronger.