Charles Watson-Wentworth, second marquess of Rockingham, F. R. S. (1730-1782): some aspects of his scientific interests

1956 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-76 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Science ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Complicated Structure ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
George Iii

'I cannot but wish that our nation abounded with more frequent examples of persons, of like rank and ability with your lordship, equally desirious of promoting . . . every other branch of natural science that lends to the honour and benefit of our country.’ So James Bradley, a member of the Council of the Royal Society addressed the Earl of Macclesfield, P. R. S. from 1752-1764. Bradley’s wish, so like Sprat’s of nearly ninety years before, was realized in the person of the second Marquess of Rockingham, elected F. R. S. at the age of 21 on 7 November 1751, who died on 1 June 1782 at the early age of fifty-two. Hitherto, attention has been concentrated on the political aspects of Rockingham’s career. This is not unnatural since Rockingham was twice prime minister: at the age of thirty-five and also at his death. He was an outstanding advocate of proposals to grant independence to the American colonies, and a champion of those who suffered under the crippling disabilities of the Test Acts. His only biographer, Lord Albemarle, ransacked Rockingham’s papers to print a rechauffé of letters concerned entirely with the political kaleidoscope of the eventful thirty years in which his subject played such a leading role (2). Subsequent historians have either been bemused by the towering personality of Burke and tended to regard Rockingham as Burke’s patron, or have been so intent in unravelling the complicated structure of patronage and political connexion in the age of George III that Rockingham has appeared as just another Whig (3). * Numbers in parentheses refer to the numbered notes at the end of this paper.

The Multifarious Mr. Banks

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby Musgrave
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Botanical Garden ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Profound Impact ◽  
British Science ◽  
George Iii

As official botanist on James Cook's first circumnavigation, the longest-serving president of the Royal Society, advisor to King George III, the “father of Australia,” and the man who established Kew as the world's leading botanical garden, Sir Joseph Banks was integral to the English Enlightenment. Yet he has not received the recognition that his multifarious achievements deserve. This book reveals the true extent of Banks's contributions to science and Britain. From an early age Banks pursued his passion for natural history through study and extensive travel, most famously on the HMS Endeavour. He went on to become a pivotal figure in the advancement of British scientific, economic, and colonial interests. With his enquiring, enterprising mind and extensive network of correspondents, Banks's reputation and influence were global. Drawing widely on Banks's writings, the book sheds light on his profound impact on British science and empire in an age of rapid advancement.

Anniversary Address

1982 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Christopher N. L. Brooke
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Know How ◽  
Meeting Room ◽  
Rich Sense ◽  
The Rich ◽  
George Iii ◽  
Incoming President

As a President wanders in the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries, ever and anon he is confronted by the vision of his predecessors—sometimes singly, sometimes in formation; and for myself I cannot escape the feeling of bewilderment as to how I come to be in such company; and with it goes that exquisite sensation of inadequacy mingling with vainglory on which several of my predecessors have commented at their first entering in—and above all the rich sense of gratitude and appreciation for an honour scarcely earned but deeply felt. In particular, an incoming President cannot escape the amiable eye of his predecessor Jeremiah Milles—familiar to all of us from his portrait in the Meeting Room and his bust in the Library; and in the year now past he has been in a quite special way in our thoughts. It was just over two hundred years ago under his Presidency that the Society acquired one of the most valuable of its privileges or assets, if so we may term it: its rooms in Somerset House. This was the result of a pincer movement by ourselves and the Royal Society. Dr. Milles was a Fellow of both, as were many of the leading Antiquaries of the eighteenth century. He was an able, learned antiquarian and a Doctor of Divinity, who rose to be Dean of Exeter and to contribute to the study of the antiquities of Devon. He was a bon vivant who founded the first of our dining clubs. If he had been less of an antiquarian and more of a politician, no doubt he would have become a bishop; and very likely he would have been quite forgotten. But he was diplomat enough to know how this Society should secure free rooms in the new Somerset House. On 29th February 1776, after months or years of anxious intrigue, Lord North, the Prime Minister, was elected to our Fellowship, and agreed to carry to His Majesty King George III a petition for the rooms; on 19th March Lord North came to announce His Majesty's consent. In 1781 we entered possession; and a little under a hundred years later graciously consented to withdraw from Somerset House on condition that we were provided with adequate new accommodation on the site where we still meet.

Making Kew Observatory: the Royal Society, the British Association and the politics of early Victorian science

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
LEE T. MACDONALD
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
British Association ◽  
The Political ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
John Herschel ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Victorian Science ◽  
George Iii

AbstractBuilt in 1769 as a private observatory for King George III, Kew Observatory was taken over in 1842 by the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS). It was then quickly transformed into what some claimed to be a ‘physical observatory’ of the sort proposed by John Herschel – an observatory that gathered data in a wide range of physical sciences, including geomagnetism and meteorology, rather than just astronomy. Yet this article argues that the institution which emerged in the 1840s was different in many ways from that envisaged by Herschel. It uses a chronological framework to show how, at every stage, the geophysicist and Royal Artillery officer Edward Sabine manipulated the project towards his own agenda: an independent observatory through which he could control the geomagnetic and meteorological research, including the ongoing ‘Magnetic Crusade’. The political machinations surrounding Kew Observatory, within the Royal Society and the BAAS, may help to illuminate the complex politics of science in early Victorian Britain, particularly the role of ‘scientific servicemen’ such as Sabine. Both the diversity of activities at Kew and the complexity of the observatory's origins make its study important in the context of the growing field of the ‘observatory sciences’.

scholarly journals British Intellectuals and the British Government: Junius vs Grafton Administration (1768–1770)

2021 ◽  
pp. 50-59
Author(s):  
Т.С. Сидоркина
Keyword(s):  
Figurative Language ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Political Adversary

В статье рассматривается процесс развертывания борьбы известного анонимного публициста Юниуса с администрацией герцога Графтона с ноября 1768 года по январь 1770. Издатель журнала “The Public Advertiser”, в котором печатались письма Юниуса, в 1772 году опубликовал их и ответы некоторых оппонентов анонимного автора в сборнике “Stat Nominis Umbra”, оставив широкое поле для исследований будущим поколениям историков. «Письма Юниуса» до сих пор не переведены на русский язык. Это объясняется, с одной стороны, трудностями интерпретации иносказательности текста, с другой — сложностью исторического контекста, связанного с ситуацией политического кризиса в Британии на рубеже 60–70-х годов XVIII века. В статье на основании текста писем Юниуса реконструирован персональный состав кабинета герцога Графтона, обстоятельства прихода его к власти, а также показана слабость правительства в решении двух принципиально важных вопросов этого периода — дело Уилкса и кризис в английских североамериканских колониях. Кульминацией карьеры Юниуса является письмо XXXV, в котором анонимный автор посмел обратиться к самому Георгу III и попытаться навязать ему свои советы. После этого в январе 1770 года герцог Графтон подает в отставку, оставив тем самым в победителях своего главного политического соперника. The article focuses on the confrontation between an anonymous publicist known to the general public as Junius and the Duke of Grafton, the prime minister of the United Kingdom. The confrontation started in November 1768 and finished in 1770. The anonymous writer Junius contributed his public letters to the Public Advertiser, a London newspaper which later, in 1772, published the letters and some answers of Junius’ opponents in the Letters of Junius: Stat Nominis Umbra. The book, which contains valuable historical information, remains untranslated into Russian. Its allegorical and figurative language makes the book highly difficult to translate. Moreover, it is exceptionally difficult to render in translation the intricacies of the historical background, namely of the political crisis Britain was involved in at the turn of the 1760s–1770s. The article analyzes the letters of Junius to reconstruct the cabinet composition and the circumstances of the Duke of Grafton’s rise to power. The analysis shows that the Grafton ministry failed to solve two crucial problems of the time, namely the Wilkes case and the crisis in Britain’s North American colonies. The turning point in Junius’ career was his letter XXXV, in which he addressed the prime minister himself and sought to impose his advice on the 3rdDuke of Grafton. After that in January 1770, the Duke of Grafton resigned from his post recognizing defeat from his major political adversary.

Earl Baldwin Of Bewdley, K.G. 1867-1947

1948 ◽  
Vol 6 (17) ◽  
pp. 2-5
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Political History ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Scientific Thought ◽  
Scientific Training ◽  
Close Friendships ◽  
Scientific Mind ◽  
History Of

This tribute is an attempt to portray the qualities of a remarkable man and is in no sense a chapter in the political history of our times. Stanley Baldwin—the title of nobility can never replace the name by which he was familiarly known—was admitted to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1927 under the Statute which permits the election of ‘those who have rendered conspicuous service to the cause of Science or are such that their election would be of signal benefit to the Society’. The honour was well merited and the obligation implied in its acceptance was fully discharged. At that date Baldwin was approaching the summit of his powers, having already been twice Prime Minister and likely to occupy that exalted position again. Many honours and dignities had come to him and many more were to follow, but to the end of his days he cherished with special pride the honour of being numbered among those who sought truth by ways unfamiliar to him. He was in no sense a scientist. Beyond attending in his early business life a brief course of lectures on metallurgy delivered by Turner at Birmingham he had never undergone the discipline of a scientific training; the soil on which his intellectual gifts had been nourished was a compost of classics, literature and history, a mixture which produced rich fruits but denied to him access to the scientific thought of his generation. Nevertheless, as became one whose spiritual home was Cambridge, he had a profound respect for the working of the scientific mind and he formed many close friendships with scientific men, envying them poignantly and with lovable humility, their possession of knowledge from which he was excluded. His contribution to science was, in consequence, mainly that which can be given by a Prime Minister and by a Lord President of Council sympathetic to the claims of science as worthy of man’s highest endeavour and of support by the State.

PRACTICAL BASE OF FORMULATING RETRAINING PROGRAMS ON ETHNIC MINORITY AFFAIRS KNOWLEDGE FOR CADRES, CIVIL SERVANTS UP TO 2030

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Van Dung ◽  
Giang Khac Binh
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Training Program ◽  
Political System ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
The Political ◽  
Target Groups ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past

As developing programs is the core in fostering knowledge on ethnic work for cadres and civil servants under Decision No. 402/QD-TTg dated 14/3/2016 of the Prime Minister, it is urgent to build training program on ethnic minority affairs for 04 target groups in the political system from central to local by 2020 with a vision to 2030. The article highlighted basic issues of practical basis to design training program of ethnic minority affairs in the past years; suggested solutions to build the training programs in integration and globalization period.

The Foreign Policy Mechanism of the Union Of South Africa and the Development of its Diplomatic Relations (1910–1948)

2020 ◽  
pp. 74-86
Author(s):  
Alexandra Arkhangelskaya
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
The Political ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
Economic Evolution ◽  
Local Elite ◽  
History Of

The history of the formation of South Africa as a single state is closely intertwined with events of international scale, which have accordingly influenced the definition and development of the main characteristics of the foreign policy of the emerging state. The Anglo-Boer wars and a number of other political and economic events led to the creation of the Union of South Africa under the protectorate of the British Empire in 1910. The political and economic evolution of the Union of South Africa has some specific features arising from specific historical conditions. The colonization of South Africa took place primarily due to the relocation of Dutch and English people who were mainly engaged in business activities (trade, mining, agriculture, etc.). Connected by many economic and financial threads with the elite of the countries from which the settlers left, the local elite began to develop production in the region at an accelerated pace. South Africa’s favorable climate and natural resources have made it a hub for foreign and local capital throughout the African continent. The geostrategic position is of particular importance for foreign policy in South Africa, which in many ways predetermined a great interest and was one of the fundamental factors of international involvement in the development of the region. The role of Jan Smuts, who served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and from 1939 to 1948, was particularly prominent in the implementation of the foreign and domestic policy of the Union of South Africa in the focus period of this study. The main purpose of this article is to study the process of forming the mechanisms of the foreign policy of the Union of South Africa and the development of its diplomatic network in the period from 1910 to 1948.

Classical Presences and ‘Post Dramatic’ Performances

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurit Yaari
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Greek Tragedy ◽  
Israeli Society ◽  
The Political

This chapter looks at theatrical productions created in the wake of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, which sought to convey the shock that permeated Israeli society as a result, and to provide theatrical responses to help the grieving community come to terms with his death. The chapter analyses the theatrical oeuvre of four post dramatic theatre creators—Ruth Kanner, Ilan Ronen, Rina Yerushalmi, and Hanan Snir—who saw Greek classical tragedy as a vast artistic arena where the political, the humanistic, and the artistic-performative merge, encompassing present and past, myth and history. Moreover, classical Greek tragedy allowed them to project their most disturbing concerns about the Israeli present and future by tearing apart the well-known texts, deconstructing their dramatic templates, and editing, adapting, revising, and redesigning their content in the decades after Rabin’s assassination, when hope gave way to despair.

scholarly journals Losing the Discursive Battle but Winning the Ideological War: Who Holds Thatcherite Values Now?

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172098670
Author(s):  
Stephen Farrall ◽  
Emily Gray ◽  
Phil Mike Jones ◽  
Colin Hay
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
New Right ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Margaret Thatcher ◽  
The Uk

In what ways, if at all, do past ideologies shape the values of subsequent generations of citizens? Are public attitudes in one period shaped by the discourses and constructions of an earlier generation of political leaders? Using Thatcherism – one variant of the political New Right of the 1980s – as the object of our enquiries, this article explores the extent to which an attitudinal legacy is detectable among the citizens of the UK some 40 years after Margaret Thatcher first became Prime Minister. Our article, drawing on survey data collected in early 2019 (n = 5781), finds that younger generations express and seemingly embrace key tenets of her and her governments’ philosophies. Yet at the same time, they are keen to describe her government’s policies as having ‘gone too far’. Our contribution throws further light on the complex and often covert character of attitudinal legacies. One reading of the data suggests that younger generations do not attribute the broadly Thatcherite values that they hold to Thatcher or Thatcherism since they were socialised politically after such values had become normalised.

scholarly journals Swords and Ploughshares: The Election Prerogative in Canada

1972 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-291
Author(s):  
James Lightbody
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
General Election ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legislative Assembly

Modestly impressive by its lack of mention both in a recent examination of the political leadership of the prime minister and the more traditional texts of the Canadian political process, is serious notice of environmental limitations on the prime ministerial prerogative in dissolving the Legislative Assembly and announcing a general election.

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