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In 1890, Sir Henry Parkes reminded Australians that they had a natural kinship and declared them ready to manage their own affairs.
At a banquet in Melbourne on February 6th, 1890, a decade before the founding of the Commonwealth of Australia, Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New South Wales, rose to reply to the toast ‘A United Australia!’, and spoke warmly of Australia’s ties of kinship and purpose.
Posted May 4 2019
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In 1852 the Council of New South Wales sent a strongly-worded petition to London, demanding the right of self-government.
On June 18th, 1852, the Duke of Argyll informed the House of Lords of a petition from the Council of New South Wales, prompted by unrest in the goldfields over taxes and regulations. The petition demanded self-government for the Colony, accepting all the responsibilities which that implied.
Posted May 2 2019
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Lord Durham warned Westminster that colonial Canada must be run by elected MPs, not career bureaucrats.
In 1839, Lord Durham, Governor General of Canada, reported to Westminster on mounting civil unrest in Canada. He was expected to blame Anglo-French antagonism, but chose to highlight a system in which elected Parliaments were mere window-dressing, while real power lay with bureaucrats appointed by the Crown.
Posted May 1 2019
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Some wanted Britain on a path to being a thoroughly European nation, but William Monypenny wanted her at the world’s crossroads.
William Monypenny, a journalist with the Johannesburg ‘Star’ and the London ‘Times’, held that Britain had a responsibility to remain a country at the crossroads, aloof from the ideological extremism of her European neighbours, steadied and balanced by truly global ties of family, trade and culture.
Posted April 30 2019
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The fear that Russia might make an ally of Great Britain drove the would-be Emperor of Europe to extreme measures.
Napoleon Bonaparte’s retreat from Moscow in 1812 is one of the epic tales of history, and a generous one. It has given music Tchaikovsky’s unforgettable Overture, it has given rhetoric that stern officer ‘General Winter’, and it has given us all an object lesson in the deserts of excessive political ambition.
Posted April 27 2019