943
American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson praises the English public for still loving freedom, despite their politicians.
American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) saw the English as a people much less biased and belligerent than their political masters. Liberty was safe, Emerson believed, while Englishmen still craved not influence abroad, but independence at home.
Posted February 25 2018
944
Lord Salisbury tells his fellow statesmen that no country should have its laws dictated from abroad.
In 1863, Copenhagen announced the first joint Constitution for Denmark and the Danish King’s duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. Amid rising German nationalism, Prussia demanded the two duchies for the German Confederation, and invaded in February 1864. London hosted a meaningless Conference, and that August the Danes gave in.
Posted February 25 2018
945
Arthur Wellesley watches on as one of his soldiers is rescued from a watery grave.
Arthur Wellesley (not yet the Duke of Wellington) spent the years 1797 to 1804 in India, confronting the Maratha Empire that threatened Indian princes and the British alike. Wisely, he learnt to make war as the Maratha did, and acquired a proper respect for the elephant.
Posted February 24 2018
946
That infernal nonsense ‘Pinafore’ took America by storm.
Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘HMS Pinafore’ (1878) was surprisingly slow to get going in England, picking up speed only after Hamilton Clarke arranged some numbers for orchestra and military band at the Proms in Covent Garden. In America, however, it was a smash hit right from the start, though some people tired of it sooner than others.
Posted February 23 2018
947
The East India Company’s top agent in India was also the man who put Calcutta on the world map.
Calcutta (Kolkata) in West Bengal was the capital of British India from the start of the Raj in 1857 to 1911, when King George V announced a move to Delhi. Calcutta was not the first choice location for British commercial activity in Bengal, but it proved to be the best, and that was to the credit of one man, Job Charnock.
Posted February 22 2018
948
William Cobbett makes a distinction between everyday business and the murky world of Westminster lobbyists and financial speculation.
William Cobbett, MP for Oldham, was sometimes accused of being anti-trade because he criticised the cosy arrangement between Government, big banks and big business. He replied with his customary vigour, distinguishing clearly between two kinds of commerce, the free trade that promotes liberty and the cronyism that endangers it.
Posted February 21 2018