1243
Victorian MP Richard Cobden pleaded for Britain to set the world an example as a nation open for business.
Richard Cobden MP urged Queen Victoria’s Parliament to embrace a policy of global free trade, instead of the over-regulated, over-taxed trade deals brokered by politicians and their friends behind closed doors. It was, he said, nothing less than the next step in Britain’s destiny, and her Christian duty.
Posted October 7 2016
1244
An eccentric, self-made businesswoman, who ‘made three fortunes and spent five’ in the campaign against the death penalty.
Violet van der Elst (1882-1966) was a highly eccentric self-made businesswoman from a working-class background, who arguably did more than anyone else to end the barbaric practice of capital punishment. Yet she died forgotten and all but penniless, having given all she had for her cause.
Posted October 7 2016
1246
A young Jewish girl is chosen as the Queen of Persia, but quickly finds she has enemies.
The story of Esther is the story behind the Jewish feast of Purim on the 14th of Adar, which falls in February-March. The tale is set in the 480s BC, following Persia’s conquest of Babylon, when the Kings of Persia became lords over Jewish people scattered right across the ancient Near East.
Posted September 28 2016
1247
Jane Eyre meets a not very handsome stranger, and likes him all the better for it.
On a dark road near Thornfield Hall, Jane Eyre has caused a stranger’s horse to shy and throw its rider, a big, frowning and far from good-looking man. He brushes her offers of help away, but she hangs around all the same, prompting her to wonder why she feels so comfortable with this gruff traveller.
Posted September 25 2016
1248
Marianne Dashwood sprains an ankle, but help is at hand.
Marianne Dashwood - young, impressionable and dangerously romantic - has gone for a walk with her younger sister Margaret, leaving her mother and older sister Elinor at home. On the way back she has slipped and sprained her ankle, but fortunately a young gentleman is there to offer her a helping hand.
Posted September 25 2016