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Riding through Sussex, William Cobbett comes across a large family relaxing together in front of their charming cottage.
Radical MP William Cobbett was a man of strong emotions. Among them was a rooted objection to the Revd Thomas Malthus, who in a learned study on population begged Government to dampen the birth-rate among the working classes, or else the planet would soon be stalked by famine, war and pestilence. Cobbett faced the prospect of impending catastrophe without anxiety.
Toby ‘Trotty’ Veck used to love hearing the church bells ring the New Year in, but now the chimes make him feel guilty, and afraid for the world.
It is New Year’s Eve, but old Toby ‘Trotty’ Veck, a hard-up widower, is not celebrating. Alderman Cute has got him so worked up about a sustainable economy, food injustice and industrialisation that Trotty despairs for future generations if things carry on as they are. Even the church bells seem to toll the death knell of Victorian England. But that night, the spirits of the bells rise up to demand an apology.
Jonah is sent to Nineveh to decry the wickedness of the city, but the prophet is more worried about his reputation than their cure.
In the synagogue, the Book of Jonah is read in its entirety on the Day of Atonement. It is a tale about repentance and forgiveness. It is a tale about the intrinsic value of all life, even that which seems worthless. But above all it is a tale about doing the God of Israel’s bidding whatever it may cost, because although he is infinitely merciful his arm is very long.
Jonah grudgingly fulfils his calling to preach repentance in Nineveh, and God tries to make him as comfortable as possible.
After the famous incident of the whale, a much chastened Jonah agreed to fulfil his commission and go to Nineveh in Assyria. His task was to upbraid the people for their wickedness and prophesy certain destruction, but he suspected that God would not actually do it, and harboured regrets for the effect this would have on his reputation.
Some people are not more equal than others, nor are they entitled to more life and liberty.
English philosopher John Locke is one of the most influential political thinkers in British history, whose ideas profoundly influenced the American Declaration of Independence. Here, he states his belief that freedom belongs to every man equally.
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.