Britain

Tim Pat Coogan points the finger of blame for the Great Famine at ministers in Lord Russell’s government, which came to power in 1846, and sees echoes of the disaster in the Republic’s current economic plight.

Roger Hudson pictures British gunboat diplomacy in Egypt in 1882.

Victoria Gardner looks back at earlier attitudes to Britain’s press freedom and how the withdrawal of the Licensing Act of 1662 spawned a nation of news addicts.

Duff Cooper examines the consistencies and differences between two centuries’ worth of Prime Ministers and asks, 'Has there been a truly great statesman among them?’

Claud Cockborn explains how British bloodstock has its origins in a small group of Arab horses first imported in the seventeenth century.

Four times Prime Minister, Gladstone owes his great reputation, A.F. Thompson argues, less to his achievements in office than to his character and personality.

A study of diplomacy in transition by Nicholas Henderson

A Liberal, a Catholic and a great Historian who yet never composed a great work of history—these are some of the aspects in which Roland Hill considers Lord Acton's career.

An acceptable minister in peace-time, Lord North’s misfortune was to hold office at the time of the American Revolution and War, as Eric Robson here shows.

Chinese Governments are notoriously difficult in their relations with Europe. G.H.L. LeMay gives a chastening account of two early British attempts to get into diplomatic touch with Pekin.