The Sailor, the Lover, the Husband, and the King

2019 ◽  
pp. 77-98
Author(s):  
Cindy McCreery
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Victorian Period ◽  
Parliamentary Reform ◽  
National Hero ◽  
Naval Officers

William IV’s life (1765–1837) overlaps the period of Paul Langford’s A Polite and Commercial People, and encompasses several of its key themes. William’s sexual adventures, complex family life, and struggle to find a suitable wife recall the challenges facing both his Hanoverian relatives and other elite men of his generation, including fellow naval officers. Yet William’s life also illuminates the changing public attitudes to politics and rulers which marked the uneven transition from the Georgian to the Victorian period. Bitter attacks on William’s relationship with his wife Adelaide alternated with mostly sympathetic accounts of his role in the movements for Catholic Emancipation and parliamentary reform. Ultimately, if oddly, William was held up as a national hero and commercial symbol of Britain’s early nineteenth-century progress. Above all, William’s life was chronicled through caricature, which A Polite and Commercial People drew attention to as a distinctive and significant element of Georgian culture. An assessment of his representation in both caricatures and other engravings, including new forms such as lithographs, helps us to better understand William’s contemporary significance, and in turn the political, social, and cultural changes and continuities of the Georgian and Victorian periods.

scholarly journals The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 550-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Assef Ashraf
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Political History ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
The Political ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Center Periphery

AbstractThis article uses gift-giving practices in early nineteenth-century Iran as a window onto statecraft, governance, and center-periphery relations in the early Qajar state (1785–1925). It first demonstrates that gifts have a long history in the administrative and political history of Iran, the Persianate world, and broader Eurasia, before highlighting specific features found in Iran. The article argues that the pīshkish, a tributary gift-giving ceremony, constituted a central role in the political culture and economy of Qajar Iran, and was part of the process of presenting Qajar rule as a continuation of previous Iranian royal dynasties. Nevertheless, pīshkish ceremonies also illustrated the challenges Qajar rulers faced in exerting power in the provinces and winning the loyalty of provincial elites. Qajar statesmen viewed gifts and bribes, at least at a discursive level, in different terms, with the former clearly understood as an acceptable practice. Gifts and honors, like the khil‘at, presented to society were part of Qajar rulers' strategy of presenting themselves as just and legitimate. Finally, the article considers the use of gifts to influence diplomacy and ease relations between Iranians and foreign envoys, as well as the ways in which an inadequate gift could cause offense.

The State

2019 ◽  
pp. 124-152
Author(s):  
Paul Stock
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Definitive Form

Chapter 6 discusses late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century geography books’ sustained focus on the political states of Europe. The books present states both as organic communities with multi-faceted jurisdictions, and as increasingly centralized governmental authorities. They usually specify that monarchy is the definitive form of European government, and that European states share a propensity for ‘liberty’, broadly defined as respect for law and property, and the maintenance of the balance of power in Europe. Some geographical texts talk about ‘nations’, but ideas about European polities remain reliant on established notions of governmental structures.

scholarly journals “The Great End of All Government…”: Working People's Construction of Citizenship Claims in Early Nineteenth-Century England and the Matter of Class

1995 ◽  
Vol 40 (S3) ◽  
pp. 19-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc W. Steinberg
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Manual Labour ◽  
Working People ◽  
Parliamentary Reform ◽  
The Right ◽  
William Cobbett ◽  
A Share

In the heat of the battle for parliamentary reform William Cobbett preached to the working people of England in his inimitable blustery dictums. “[I]f you labour honestly,” he counselled, “you have a right to have, in exchange for your labour, a sufficiency out of the produce of the earth, to maintain yourself and your family as well; and, if you are unable to labour, or if you cannot obtain labour, you have a right to maintenance out of the produce of the land […]”. For honest working men this was part of the legacy of constitutional Britain, which bequeathed to them not only sustenance but, “The greatest right […] of every man, the right of rights, […] the right of having a share in the making of the laws, to which the good of the whole makes it his duty to submit”. Nonetheless, he warned, such rights could not legitimately negate the toiling lot that was the laborer's fate: “Remember that poverty is decreed by the very nature of man […]. It is necessary to the existence of mankind, that a very large proportion of every people should live by manual labour […]”.

scholarly journals ‘The radicals in these Reform times’: Politics, Grand juries, and Ireland’s Unbuilt Assize Courthouses, 1800–50

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 109-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Butler
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Funding Sources ◽  
Architectural Development ◽  
Irish Case ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Do So

It is the aim, in this article, to identify the reasons why certain designs for courthouses in early-nineteenth-century Ireland remained unexecuted, and to do so by analysing surviving drawings and placing them in the political context at this time of Irish local government and of the efforts of Westminster politicians to institute reform. The funding and erection of courthouses were managed by grand juries, an archaic form of local government which gave few rights to smaller taxpayers and was widely perceived as an unaccountable institution associated with theancien régime. In addition to hosting court sittings, courthouses were used by these grand juries for their private meetings and functions. By exploring the agendas and pretensions of these bodies, and by looking at the fluctuating availability of funding sources that were needed to initiate building work, I will argue through a series of Irish case studies that a renewed focus on elite patronage and its associated politics allows a new insight into courthouse building, which places less emphasis than is often the case on, for example, the role played by the changing legal profession in the architectural development of the courthouse.In nineteenth-century Ireland, courthouses demarcated the visible and tangible presence in the urban landscape of the law and state-sanctioned justice. Laws passed by the Irish parliament and then, after its abolition in 1800, by the Westminster government, were enforced in assize courthouses by travelling judges on established ‘circuits’, visiting each city or county town twice a year (in the spring and summer). These judges travelled with great splendour through the countryside, and were welcomed by a high sheriff at the county border and escorted with military pageantry, ritual, and procession to their destination.

The Spirit of Reform, 1832 and 1867

1980 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellis A. Wasson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
The Political ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Parliamentary Reform ◽  
1 John ◽  
Progressive Force ◽  
Landed Elite

The connection between political reform and aristocratic decline is central to an understanding of nineteenth-century Britain. No one denies that the landed elite dominated the institutions which passed the parliamentary reform acts of 1832 and 1867. However, historians continue to speculate about the motives that inspired these remarkable measures. Was the ruling class retreating, retrenching, being overthrown, or surrendering gracefully? The articles appearing in this issue by David Spring, Richard Davis, and Thomas Gallagher occasion an opportunity to reflect further on this question. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to a neglected aspect of the reform process, especially in relation to the 1832 act, the first and most important step in the aristocracy's displacement. This element was the spirit of reform, a progressive force, that made the great reform bill something more than either a concession or a cure.Professors Davis and Gallagher remind us of the extraordinary change in the political firmament wrought by the 1832 act. Those who argue, in response to the traditional interpretation of the Whig historians, that the great bill scarcely altered anything find it increasingly difficult to sustain their case.1 John Cannon, Michael Brock, and others have already undermined much of the ground upon which the revisionists, led by D. C. Moore, based their analysis. An extraordinary array of convincing evidence has been adduced to show that Earl Grey and his colleagues were not in the business of trying to cure the source of demands for reform in order to avoid yielding to the demands themselves. Professor Davis has been particularly effective in demonstrating Moore's anachronistic view of deference.

An Eighteenth-Century Case of Plagiarism: William Smith's A New Voyage to Guinea

1979 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 45-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.M. Feinberg
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Gold Coast ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
The Political ◽  
African History ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Complete Report

In the first number of History in Africa P.E.H. Hair reiterated A.W. Lawrence's plea for a “critical appraisal” and analysis of primary sources for African history. The aim of this brief note is to appraise the originality of certain of these works. The focus will be the Gold Coast, with emphasis on the book by William Smith, A New Voyage to Guinea, first published in 1744 and reprinted (without an introduction or editorial comment) by Frank Cass in 1967.The literature about the Gold Coast during the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries is rich in accounts by visitors, residents, and compilers. Dapper, Barbot, Bosman, Atkins, and Smith all provided descriptions. Only Bosman lived on the Gold Coast for an extended period of time, and the concentration of detail in his book reflects that experience. From about the 1720s to the early nineteenth century, a hiatus in the descriptive literature exists, but then Meredith, De Marree, Bowdich, and Dupuis resume the earlier tradition, so that one cannot say that the Gold Coast has been ignored in terms of European visitors or their original descriptions of the it area.However, when we look carefully at some of these narratives, we find that not all of what is written is in fact original. For example, Barbot's account of the political organization of Elmina is an exact duplicate, in translation from the Dutch, of Dapper's description. Barbot also copied his description of the “Degrees of Blacks” from Bosman. De Marree, an early nineteenth century Dutch official on the Gold Coast, included without attribution in his narrative, a complete report by Governor General Pieter Linthorst written in 1807.

“Modifying the Traditional for the Good of the Whole”: Commentary on State-Building and Bureaucracy in Nassau, Baden, and Saxony in the Early Nineteenth Century

1991 ◽  
Vol 24 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 293-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion W. Gray
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
State Building ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
German Politics ◽  
Vital Debate

The three articles of this symposium contribute to a vital debate about the nature of modern German politics. The works by Barbara Anderson, Loyd Lee, and Lawrence Flockerzie discuss the political culture upon which the post-Napoleonic reconstruction of Germany rested. This political culture transcended the conventional concepts “liberal” and “conservative.” It was based on bourgeois ideals.

Science and popular education in the 1830s: the role of theBridgewater Treatises

1992 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Topham
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Popular Education ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Economist ◽  
Best Sellers ◽  
The Creation

As is widely known, theBridgewater Treatises on the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Creation(1833–36) were commissioned in accordance with a munificent bequest of the eighth Earl of Bridgewater, the Rev. Francis Henry Egerton (1756–1829), and written by seven leading men of science, together with one prominent theological commentator. Less widely appreciated is the extent to which theBridgewater Treatisesrank among the scientific best-sellers of the early nineteenth century. Their varied blend of natural theology and popular science attracted extraordinary contemporary interest and ‘celebrity’, resulting in unprecedented sales and widespread reviewing. Much read by the landed, mercantile and professional classes, the success of the series ‘encouraged other competitors into the field’, most notably Charles Babbage's unsolicitedNinth Bridgewater Treatise(1837). As late as 1882 the political economist William Stanley Jevons was intending to write an unofficialBridgewater Treatise, and even an author of the prominence of Lord Brougham could not escape having hisDiscourse of Natural Theology(1835) described by Edward Lytton Bulwer as ‘thetenthBridgewater Treatise’.

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