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The editor of the country’s most famous newspaper had to use a little sleight-of-hand to bring journalism to the people.
The best kind of automation creates jobs and raises wages by increasing productivity. Unfortunately, when the Times introduced steam presses in 1814 many workers and activists still did not understand this, and it took daring and a little deception to help Progress on her way.
Posted August 17 2019
692
Ethel Smyth encouraged writers to try to find their own words before deciding to borrow someone else’s.
In her book of essays ‘Streaks of Life’, composer Dame Ethel Smyth (rhymes with Forsyth) was unusually severe on the Quotation Freak, the writer who borrows phrases from more famous authors simply to save himself the trouble of turning his own.
Posted August 16 2019
693
A French sea-captain let his tongue wag over dinner, and New Zealand’s destiny took a different turn.
When Britain finally decided to make a colony of New Zealand, she sent Captain William Hobson (1792-1842) of the Royal Navy to North Island, as Lieutenant to the Governor of New South Wales in Australia. He landed at Kororareka (now Russell) in the Bay of Islands on January 29th, 1840.
Posted August 14 2019
694
Edmund Burke warned that the French Revolution could have a devastating effect on British and European culture.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) regarded the fates of England and France as closely intertwined, and consequently the catastrophic events of the French Revolution in 1789 made him afraid for England. If France falls into tyranny and moral decline, he warned, it will be that much harder for England to resist going the same way.
Posted August 10 2019
695
Peasie wants to visit her lonely father, but she can’t get her sister Beansie to come along with her.
This story comes from a collection of folktales from the Punjab, as told by Flora Annie Steel (1847-1929) who spent twenty-two years in India. It reminds us that little acts of kindness bring their own rewards, so long as the rewards aren’t the reason that we do them.
Posted August 8 2019
696
After a hundred and forty-two slaves were tossed overboard in an insurance scam, Granville Sharp wouldn’t let the matter rest.
The scandal of the slave-ship ‘Zong’ was one of the turning points in the campaign to end slavery throughout the British Empire. As so often, the quest for justice was led by self-taught jurist Granville Sharp, who turned to the Press after a sensational court case had failed to deliver any kind of justice at all.
Posted August 6 2019