Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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163

The Hornets’ Nest

Britain’s fear of Russia led her to attempt regime change in Afghanistan, but it cost many lives and damaged the army’s reputation.

Jawaharlal Nehru has been telling his daughter about the rise of the Punjab State under Ranjit Singh, who died in 1839. From there he passes on to the stirring events unfolding to the north-west. The British East India Company, then ruling most of India, had been struck by a sudden fear that Nicholas I’s Russia might invade Afghanistan and threaten their Indian monopoly.

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Picture: By Elizabeth Thompson (1846-1933), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

164

Question More

Ordinary people put too much faith in the judgment of experts, which is bad for us and bad for the experts.

In The English Critic (1939), NL Clay urged his readers not to let themselves be daunted by expert authority, slick advertising or mesmerising jargon. Every opinion deserves to be weighed and tested; and failing to subject the opinion of experts and professionals to scrutiny not only leaves the ordinary man a slave to fads and fashions, it coarsens the experts and professionals too.

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Picture: By Georgios Jakobides (1853-1932), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

165

Let Us Kiss and Part

Michael Drayton’s lady friend breaks up with him, and really it’s a relief, absolutely the best thing to do. Unless...

Michael Drayton was an English poet of William Shakespeare’s generation, remembered today for his poems on English history and geography, and his clever imitations of Horace and Ovid. In 1593, he began publishing Idea: The Shepherd’s Garland in which he recorded the ups and downs of his attachment to a lady from Warwickshire. The sonnet below appeared in the 1619 edition.

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Picture: By an anonymous artist of the British school, via Dulwich Picture Gallery and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: public domain.. Source.

166

The Rochdale Pioneers

In 1843, a group of working men gathered in Rochdale to discuss how to ease the cost of living for their families, and the Co-op was born.

Most people in Victorian England acknowledged that the condition of the working man was shocking. But how should it be improved? Some looked to Government for help, but others believed that working men of good heart should turn their backs on the powerful and help each other. As Miss Isa Nicholson of the Preston branch tells us here, that vision led to the first Co-operative Wholesale Store.

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Picture: By an anonymous photographer, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

167

The Fisherman’s Net

A little fable from ancient Greece about those political activists who make a living from stirring up controversy.

The ancient Greeks were the first European people to form democratic governments. The experiment was not without its problems, chief among them being the ambitious ‘demagogues’ or ‘leaders of the people’ who made a living out of setting citizens against each other. The phenomenon did not escape the notice of the storyteller Aesop.

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

168

A Conflict of Interest

Economist Adam Smith warned that when Western commercial interests get involved in policy-making abroad, war and want are sure to follow.

In 1757, a Government-backed trade agency called the British East India Company achieved such commercial and military superiority in India that its board members appointed princes, conquered territories, and dictated social and economic policy. Twenty controversial years later, Scottish economist Adam Smith warned that a company set up to make profits for European clients should not and could not run India for the Indians.

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Picture: By Dip Chand, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.