Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
By Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Riding through Sussex, William Cobbett comes across a large family relaxing together in front of their charming cottage.
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Thomas Hearne (1744–1817), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Gabriel Betteredge’s cottage was cosy, his employment rewarding and his status respectable, but his cup of happiness was not quite full.
By Leslie Ward (1851–1922), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
The citizen should not dutifully accept government intrusion as the price of community life.
From the Walters Art Museum, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
When Porus, the Indian king, surrendered to Alexander the Great at Jhelum, he had only one request to make of him.
© InfoGibraltar, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
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.
By Nikolai Florianovitch Dobrovolskiy (1837-1900), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Peter the Great wanted Russia to join the nations of Western Europe, but the nations of Western Europe refused to make room for him.