Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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1339

Fit and Proper Persons

No one is more dangerous than the man who thinks that it is his destiny to direct things for the common good.

The revolutionary Scottish philosopher Adam Smith did not like to hear politicians speaking of managing the national economy ‘for the common good’. Leaving ordinary people to manage their own affairs was, he said, far more beneficial to society at large, and much less of a temptation to susceptible politicians.

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Picture: © Jorge Royan, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.

1340

Equal before the Law

Queen Victoria assured her subjects that there were no second-class citizens in her eyes.

After the Indian Mutiny in 1857, some Indians were concerned that Britain intended to force them to convert to Christianity. However, Victoria reassured them that (in contrast to some Indian religions and laws) forcible conversion and ‘second-class citizen’ are both concepts alien to the British constitution.

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Picture: © Leonard Bentley, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

1341

Victoria and the Munshi

Abdul Karim’s rapid rise in Victoria’s household made him enemies.

When Queen Victoria (r. 1837-1901) acquired a motherly affection for a lowly Indian clerk, her servants and her ministers were united in their resentment. But for a lonely widow weary of the flattery of courtiers and fascinated by the ‘jewel’ in Britain’s crown, Abdul Karim was a godsend.

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Picture: From Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.. Source.

1342

St Elizabeth the New Martyr

The grand-daughter of Queen Victoria was as close to the poor of Moscow’s slums as she was to the Russian Tsar.

Elizabeth (1864-1918) was the grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. Her husband Sergei was Tsar Nicholas II’s uncle and the Governor-General of Moscow; her younger sister Alix was the Tsar’s wife. Steadfastly opposed to violence and the abuse of power, she dedicated her life to peace-making and charity.

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Picture: Photo by Hayman Selig Mendelssohn, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

1343

The Battle of Glen Shiel

King Philip V of Spain sent a second Spanish Armada against Britain, but it suffered much the same fate as the first.

The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 forbade Philip V of Spain, grandson of Louis XIV of France, to claim the French throne. But his chief minister, Italian cardinal Giulio Alberoni, egged him on, triggering the ‘War of the Quadruple Alliance’.

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Picture: © Nigel Brown, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

1344

The Pimpernel Fails to Show

Lady Blakeney agrees to spy for the French Revolutionary government in return for her brother’s life.

In exchange for her brother Armand’s life, Marguerite, Lady Blakeney, is reluctantly playing the spy at a society ball. Citizen Chauvelin, of the French Revolutionary government’s secret police, wants her to find out what she can about the mysterious ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ who has been rescuing prisoners from the guillotine.

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Picture: © David Dixon, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.