British leaflet of the 1790s contrasts British Liberty with the French Medusa

In the 1790s, campaigns against influences from France appear in England, frightened by the backdrop of bloody reprisals and the overthrow of the monarchy. A propaganda broadsheet compares two allegories of Liberty: Britannia with the scales of justice, Magna Carta under the protection of the imperial lion, and a staff topped with a Phrygian cap, naively borrowed from the French, set against the hideous French Medusa, accompanied by destruction and death. I do not know whether it is worth recalling Tocqueville's idea that liberty and equality cannot exist at the same time. Or, say, reflecting on the overwhelming majority of Britons, who in the 1790s lived in extreme poverty, while the handsome posters spoke of industry, national prosperity and happiness. And what, in the end, in historical perspective, is better: religion, morality and lawfulness, or atheism and anarchy?

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

British leaflet of the 1790s contrasts British Liberty with the French Medusa

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s