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In 1840, Secretary at War Thomas Macaulay treated the Union Jack like a bully’s visiting card, but backbencher William Gladstone believed it deserved better.
1840
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
In 1840, Secretary at War Thomas Macaulay treated the Union Jack like a bully’s visiting card, but backbencher William Gladstone believed it deserved better.
1840
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
In 1840, the British Government, outraged at Peking’s crackdown on the smuggling of opium by British merchants from Bengal, declared war on the Chinese Empire. On April 8th, William Gladstone rose in the Commons to denounce the Government’s belligerent attitude, deploring the execrable drug traffic and taking exception to the way Secretary-at-War Thomas Macaulay wrapped it in the Union Jack.
I AM not competent to judge how long this war may last, or how protracted may be its operations, but this I can say, that a war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated in its progress to cover this country with permanent disgrace, I do not know, and I have not read of. The right hon. Gentleman opposite* spoke last night in eloquent terms of the British flag waving in glory at Canton, and of the animating effects produced on the minds of our sailors by the knowledge, that in no country under heaven was it permitted to be insulted.* We all know the animating effects which have been produced in the minds of British subjects on many critical occasions when that flag has been unfurled in the battle-field.
* Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), Secretary-at-War, who as a member of the governing Whig Party sat across the floor of the House from the Conservative benches where Gladstone sat. ‘Right hon.’ is an abbreviation of Right Honourable, a courtesy title extended to all Members of Parliament. In accordance with convention, Gladstone addressed his remarks to the Speaker, not directly to Mr Macaulay.
* When the first clashes took place between Chinese and British troops near Canton, Royal Navy captain Charles Elliot (1801-1875), later Admiral Sir Charles Elliot, planted the Union Jack in full view of his men to stiffen their resolve. “It was natural” Macaulay had said on the previous day, April 7th, “that they should look with confidence on the victorious flag which was hoisted over them, which reminded them that they belonged to a country unaccustomed to defeat, to submission, or to shame.” It was to these words that Gladstone took exception.