Victorian

Haldane and Asquith

William Verity describes how Haldane and Asquith were close political friends and colleagues from 1882 until Haldane was abruptly dropped from office in 1915.

The Anti-Corn Law League

If there are turning points in history, the Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, and the adoption of Free Trade, represented such a moment in Britain. By peaceful means, writes W.H. Chaloner, the new industrial forces in the nation had triumphed over the old landed interests.

The Birth of the Panama Canal, 1869—1914

Panama, and its American-controlled Canal Zone, have lately been the scene of a revolutionary flutter. W.H. Chaloner asks, what is the history of the building of the Canal, and of the United States connexion with it?

Garibaldi in England, 1864

The Italian patriot’s visit to England was extraordinarily successful. But Queen Victoria deplored the scenes it provoked; and Karl Marx described them as “a miserable spectacle of imbecility”.

The Ministerial Crisis of 1885

The unexpected fall of Gladstone's government in June 1885 was a cause of acute embarrassment to the parliamentary Opposition, whose victory caught them unprepared.

Radical Joe

Joseph Chamberlain entered public life as a self-made man and a Republican Radical: he left it as the leader and idol of Protectionist Toryism. Such are the transformations of the English political scene, writes Robert Rhodes James.

The Search for Franklin

In 1845, writes George Woodcock, a veteran of the Arctic Seas perished with his crews in the Canadian North.

Lady Sale in Kabul, 1842

Amid the disasters of the First Afghan War, the courage and buoyancy of Lady Sale stands out — James Lunt describes her as the shining epitome of “a soldier's wife."