Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

← Page 1

1051

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway

Businessmen in Liverpool engaged George Stephenson to build one of his new-fangled railways.

The first purpose-built freight and passenger railway line linking two cities was opened in 1830, joining the port of Liverpool with the mills around Manchester. The social and economic impact was instant, bringing more real and tangible benefit to Britain’s common man than he had ever known before.

Read

Picture: © Alan Murray-Rust, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

1052

An Incorrigible Fanatic

William Wilberforce told Parliament that the more his opponents slandered him, the more he was sure he was winning.

William Wilberforce, Britain’s leading anti-slavery campaigner, was accused of ‘fanaticism’ for his refusal to accept the prevailing customs of the day. But as he warned Parliament, such jibes only made him more determined to fight on.

Read

Picture: By John Simpson (1782–1847), Art Institute of Chicago, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

1053

The Winter Queen

Conspiracies and dynastic expectations swirled around James I’s daughter from the age of nine.

When King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603, he brought his family to London, including a seven-year-old daughter named Elizabeth. Just two years later, she was the unwitting focus of a traitorous plot to assassinate her father and put England back under the dominion of Continental Europe.

Read

Picture: By Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656) or his circle, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

1054

Filioque

It started as an honest mistake, became a diplomatic standoff, and brought down an Empire.

In 680, English bishops gathered at Hatfield sent Pope Agatho a signed copy the Creed in which they declared their belief that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father ‘and the Son’. They would have been horrified to learn that this little phrase was not in the original. Unfortunately, some at Rome had invested so much of their credibility in it that they were prepared to go to any lengths to save face — even if it meant bringing down the Empire.

Read

Picture: © Сайт Новгородской епархии (website of the Eparchy of Velikiy Novgorod). Used with permission.. Source.

1055

The Start of a Beautiful Friendship

Dr Watson is looking for rooms in London, and an old colleague suggests someone who might be able to help him.

Dr Watson, an army surgeon invalided out of the Royal Berkshire Regiment in the Second Afghan War (1878-1880), is looking for rooms in London. Fortunately, he runs into young Stamford, a colleague from his days at Barts, and Stamford knows someone wanting a flatmate to go halves on the rent at 221B, Baker Street.

Read

Picture: By Henry Treffry Dunn (1838-1899), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

1056

Judicial Iniquity

John Stuart Mill reminds us that governments and the courts must never be allowed to criminalise matters of belief or opinion.

We often see those in power trying to use the courts to silence views they find objectionable, rather than tolerate them or engage with them. But Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill recalled that many centuries ago, such supposedly high-minded legislation resulted in one of history’s worst miscarriages of justice – the execution of Socrates.

Read

Picture: By William Blake (1757-1827), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.