bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Birth outcome, not pregnancy process: Reply to van der Veen
Authors: Frisbie W. Parker , Forbes Douglas , Hummer Robert A. , Pullum Starling G.
Published: March 2007

In a recent article (Frisbie. Forbes. and Pullum 1996) we documented racial/ethnic differences in birth outcomes according to a more fine-grained classification than has typically been employed in the demographic literature. In his commentary, van der Veen focuses on the measurement of one of the dimensions of that classification, maturity of the infant. as proxied by the fetal growth ratio. The crux of the critique is easily seen in van der Veen's statement that “all of my disagreements with Frisbie et al. 's method arise from their particular use of a postnatal standard for the assessment of intrauterine growth.” Our critic misunderstands our objective: He fails to realize our interest in birth outcome, not pregnancy process, and does not perceive that our intent was to extend the research extant in both the demographic and public-health literatures in which patently postnatal (i.e., ex utero) measures are taken as outcomes interesting in their own right and/or as risk factors for infant mortality and infant and childhood morbidity. Specifically, he does recognize that we purposefully expanded our focus to include moderately compromised births to determine if they were at higher risk than the normal births with whom they are conventionally categorized. Our discussion draws on research cited in the original article, on studies cited by our critic, and on a few more recent investigations. Although we have never argued that ours is the only, or even the best, approach in all cases, we try to clarify the rationale for, and adduce additional empirical evidence of, the utility of the method we used.
Family size and children’s education in Vietnam
Authors: Anh Truong Si , Knodel John , Lam David , Friedman Jed
Published: March 2007

Data from the nationally representative 1994 Inter-Censal Demographic Survey are used to examine the association between family size and children s schooling in Vietnam. The data provide information on several education measures for all children over age 10, including children no longer residing in the household. Although a clear inverse bivariate association between family size and children s school attendance and educational attainment is evident, multivariate analysis controlling for urban/rural residence, region, parents’ education, household wealth, and child’s age, reveals that much of this association, especially that predicting educational attainment, is attributable to these other influences. Moreover, much of the effect that remains after statistical adjustment for the other influences is seen mainly at the largest family sizes. We consider the implications of these findings for current population policy in Vietnam and the possible features of the Vietnamese context that might account for the modest association.
Economic and cultural influences on the decision to leave home in Peninsular Malaysia
Authors: Johnson Richard W. , DaVanzo Julie
Published: March 2007

Although the departure of children from the parental home is an important life-cycle event, few studies have investigated nest-leaving in developing countries. Using retrospective data from the Second Malaysian Family Life Survey, we estimate hazard models of nest-leaving in Peninsular Malaysia. We find that the departure of children, especially sons, responds to economic incentives, including housing costs, family businesses, education, and economic growth, and that ethnic differences in nest-leaving are important. We also find that the median age of departure from home has declined sharply over the past 40 years, a period of rapid social and economic change in Malaysia.
Reassessing the decline in parent-child old-age coresidence during the twentieth century
Authors: Schoeni Robert F.
Published: March 2007

The share of the elderly living with an adult child decreased monotonically throughout the twentieth century, while the probability of reaching old age and the number of years lived in old age increased. As a result, the expected number of life-years lived with adult children while in old age may have increased, decreased, or stayed the same. I estimate that the number of life-years lived in old-age coresidence with adult children stayed roughly constant between 1900 and 1940, while the rate of coresidence declined. Life years lived in old-age coresidence then declined substantially between 1940 and 1990. Moreover, the number of life-years lived in old-age coresidence in 1990 would have been roughly half as great as it actually was had there been no improvements in mortality between 1900 and 1990. And if fertility had remained at its 1900 levels, life-years lived in old-age coresidence would have been about 45% higher in 1990 than it actually was. The results imply that analyses of the change in familial assistance to the elderly should also consider changes in mortality.
Mortality in Vietnam, 1979–1989
Authors: Merli M. Giovanna
Published: March 2007

Little is known about past and present mortality in Vietnam, as the first official data on mortality have only recently become available from censuses taken in 1979 and 1989. Using these data, I estimate Vietnamese mortality during the intercensal period using two techniques that rely on age-specific growth rates from two successive age distributions. Intercensal emigration and differential completeness of census enumeration associated with massive outflows of refugees in the wake of the Vietnam War; population-redistribution policies, and a highly mobile population represent important sources of bias for the estimation of intercensal mortality. I incorporate several strategies to minimize bias from these sources and to select the method that is least sensitive to errors associated with them. Life expectancy at birth estimated for the 1979–1989 intercensal period is 61.4 years for males and 63.2 for females. These results suggest a trend of declining mortality between the 1970s and the 1980s and add solid empirical evidence to the debate over whether mortality in Vietnam has been deteriorating or improving.
Men matter: Additive and interactive gendered preferences and reproductive behavior in kenya
Authors: Dodoo F. Nii-Amoo
Published: March 2007

The extent of men’s roles in reproductive decision-making in Africa is a subject of contention. Despite the volume of work on the roles men play in fertility decisions, there have been few attempts to derive direct empirical estimates of the effect of men’s preferences on reproductive behavior. I employ 1989 and 1993 Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys to examine the relative roles of the reproductive preferences of males and females on contraceptive use. Additive and interactive measures of preferences document a significant effect of men’s preferences, which may eclipse women’s preferences. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Work, income, the economy, and married fathers as child-care providers
Authors: Casper Lynne M. , O’Connell Martin
Published: March 2007

Previous research on fathers as child-care providers indicates a need to study the father’s role in child care in the context of different economic cycles. Using data from the 1988, 1991, and 1993 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, we examine whether father’ availability and the couple’s economic resources are differentially related to child care by fathers over time. We focus on the differences between 1991—a recession year—and 1988 and 1993—two nonrecession years. Increased availability of fathers is significantly related to higher levels of fathers’ participation in child care in all three years. Relative economic resources between husbands and wives help explain care by fathers only during the recession year, whereas family income is important only in the nonrecession years. These results suggest that in the future, researchers should acknowledge fluctuations in the economy when studying husbands’ participation in traditional female tasks, as macroeconomic shifts appear to impact the likelihood of married fathers caring for their preschoolers during mothers’ working hours.
Have african american men become less committed to marriage? Explaining the twentieth century racial cross-over in men’s marriage timing
Authors: Koball Heather
Published: March 2007

Prior to World War II, the median age at marriage for white men was later than that for African American men. Since World War II, African American men have, on average, married later than white men. A discrete-time hazard model using data from the National Survey of Families and Households was analyzed to explain this racial cross-over in men’s timing of marriage. Dramatic increases in the educational attainment of African American parents and the large movement of African Americans out of the South brought about the racial cross-over in the timing of marriage. Increased enrollment in higher education among African American men also contributed to the racial cross-over in the timing of marriage. Although lack of full-time employment and military service delayed marriage, these factors did not contribute to the racial cross-over.
Explaining fertility transitions
Authors: Mason Karen Oppenheim
Published: March 2007

In this essay. I suggest that the crisis in our understanding of fertility transitions is more apparent than real. Although most existing theories of fertility transition have been partially or wholly discredited, this reflects a tendency to assume that all fertility transitions share one or two causes, to ignore mortality decline as a precondition for fertility decline, to assume that pretransitional fertility is wholly governed by social constraints rather than by individual decision-making. and to test ideas on a decadal time scale. I end the essay by suggesting a perceptual. interactive approach to explaining fertility transitions that is closely allied to existing theories but focuses on conditions that lead couples to switch from postnatal to prenatal controls on family size.
Sibling models of socioeconomic effects on the timing of first premarital birth
Authors: Powers Daniel A. , Cherng-Tay Hsueh James
Published: March 2007

Data on 1,090 pairs ofsisters from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are used to estimate the effects of observed individual-level factors, common family-level variables, and shared unobserved family-level traits on the timing of premarital births. Results show a moderate correlated risk of premarital childbearing among siblings after controlling for the effects of measured covariates. The effect of older sisters’ out-of-wedlock childbearing on the timing of younger sisters’ premarital birth is overestimated when shared unmeasured family-level traits are ignored. Public policy measures designed to reduce premarital births have a smaller multiplier effect via reduced younger sisters’ premarital births because unmeasured family-level factors are less amenable to policy measures. However, because the older-sibling effect is large when other sources of variability in premarital birth timing are controlled, interventions may be effective in reducing premarital births among young women in high-risk families.
Effect of provider characteristics on choice of contraceptive provider: A two-equation full-information maximum-likelihood estimation
Authors: Akin John S. , Rous Jeffrey J.
Published: March 2007

We use surveys of households and health-care facilities conducted in the same area at the same time to determine which characteristics of providers attract users of contraceptives. By using the full-information maximum-likelihood technique to jointly estimate choice of contraceptive method and choice of provider, we avoid self-selection bias. Results support the need for modeling quality and for jointly estimating the choice of contraceptive method and the choice of provider to avoid biased estimates of coefficients. The results suggest that for the Cebu, Philippines region, small local clinics that focus on family planning tend to be most favored by clients.
Residential mobility between cities and suburbs: Race, suburbanization, and back-to-the-city moves
Authors: South Scott J. , Crowder Kyle D.
Published: March 2007

Information from the 1979 to 1985 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics is merged with data on respondents’ tract and metropolitan area of residence to examine patterns and determinants of residential mobility between central cities and suburbs. Consistent with the life-cycle model of residential mobility, mobility in both directions declines with age, but on balance the presence of young children deters moving to the suburbs. Among blacks, education increases the probability of moving from cities to suburbs, while high income retains blacks and whites in suburbs. Consistent with the place stratification model. blacks are substantially less likely than whites to move from cities to suburbs, and substantially more likely to move from suburbs to cities, even after standardizing for racial differences in sociodemographic characteristics. High levels of violent crime and unemployment in cities relative to suburbs also tend to spur city-to-suburb mobility or inhibit suburb-to-city moves.
On the Possibility of a Strictly Scientific Treatment of Universal History
Authors: Zerffi Gustavus George
Published: March 2007

Though we may justly pride ourselves on possessing the greatest historical writers in Hume, Robertson, Gibbon, Grote, Thirlwall, Buckle, &c., there is scarcely a civilized country in this nineteenth century in which the study of universal history is so utterly neglected as in our own. Fostered by a certain learned caste, afraid that too much light thrown on the past might injure their interests in the present, a general opinion has gained ground that history, if studied from a universal or general point of view, can but produce a creditable kind of ignorance and nothing more. Bolingbroke, in opposition to this, tells us that the study of history seemed to him of all others “the most proper to train us up to private and public virtue.” I could quote a number of authorities, both ancient and modern, especially Scottish, German, French, Italian, and American writers, who place the study of history in the van of all studies. The Greek word ἱστορειν means to learn by inquiry, and ἱστορ⋯α is therefore information acquired by inquiry. All our sciences, however, whether abstract or concrete, speculative or technical, are but informations resulting from inquiry. The great question which presents itself in taking the historical development of humanity as a subject for research will be, whether such inquiry can be conducted on a strictly scientific basis.
Notes on the Study of History
Authors: Rogers Charles
Published: March 2007

Cicero's definition of history as “the lamp of truth” can be accepted only when the events of history are recorded accurately. The writer who travesties historical facts poisons the fountain of knowledge, misrepresents the ancients, misleads his contemporaries, and deceives future generations. Mindful of his responsibility the faithful historian is exact in his narrative, avoiding undue panegyric on the one hand, and on the other rash denunciation. He regards history as a science in which truth is dissociated from falsehood; an art by means of which past events are to be recorded so as to produce a present interest.
Vladimir Monomachus, Grand Prince of Kyjev
Authors: Wratislaw Albert H.
Published: March 2007

It is not often that statesmanship, military skill, and earnest piety are found united in the person of a monarch. Yet such was the case with VLADIMIR MONOMACHUS, Grand Prince of Kyjev, a contemporary of our own Norman kings, William Rufus and Henry I. Henry I. of England is indeed said to have possessed a degree of refinement and learning which in that unlettered age spread his renown over Europe, and earned him the honourable surname of “Beauclerc.” But Vladimir, the Russian, has left written remains behind him which many a nation might well envy, and which few, very few, royal pens, always excepting the sweet singer of Israel and his wise successor, have surpassed or even emulated.
Alexander the Great in Affghanistan
Authors: Malden Henry Elliot
Published: March 2007

Before our own no European army, except that of Alexander, has ever traversed Affghanistan, and some interest naturally attaches to his movements among the passes so well known to us. Hitherto, however, the attempts to trace his progress have not been very satisfactory. My attention was drawn to the question, and reading a paper by Henry L. Long in an old number of the Classical Museum, I was led to believe with him that the theory of Grote and most historians which sends Alexander through Kohistan and the neighbourhood was untenable.
The Imperial Policy of Elizabeth, From the State Papers, Foreign and Domestic
Authors: Hall Hubert
Published: March 2007

We have heard a good deal of late years about the Imperial policy of Elizabeth. By some it has been extolled for its success in enabling the nation at first to steer clear of, and at last to brave openly, the hostility of Catholic Europe. By others its example has been deprecated not for its inherent defects, but because it is unsuitable to our own times; yet there does not seem to be any sufficient reason why, on the one hand, it should receive from us the praise that was denied to it by far less discerning contemporaries; or, again, why it should not be deemed as inapplicable to this particular age as to any other in which it has been tried and found wanting.
The Lost Opportunities of the House of Austria
Authors: Malleson Colonel G. B.
Published: March 2007

Whether, in deciding to uphold the old faith in Germany, the Emperor Charles V. and his brother Ferdinand I. missed a great opportunity of establishing the House they represented in a position of permanent predominance in that country, is a question to which I shall only refer as forming the historical starting-point of this paper. It has been argued with great ability by Schiller, and Schiller—certainly not under-estimating the enormous difficulties which would have beset the House of Habsburg had its representative cast in his lot with the Reformation—apparently leans to the conclusion that the actual decision arrived at by that representative was, in reality, a lost opportunity. ‘It is hard to say’ he observes towards the close of his argument, ‘what would have become of the Reformation, what of the liberties of the German Empire, if the dreaded House of Austria had not decided against the former. This much, however, seems proved, that the Austrian princes in no way so barred their way to universal monarchy, as by engaging in stubborn conflict against the new doctrines. Under no other circumstances and in no other eventuality would the weaker princes have been able to force their Order to make the extraordinary efforts which gave them strength to withstand the House of Austria. Under no other circumstances and in no other eventuality would the minor States have combined against one common enemy.’
Historical Suggestions in the Ancient Hindu Epic, the Mahábhárata
Authors: Stone Charles J.
Published: March 2007

This word is a combination of mahá, great, and bhárata, supporter. Bhárata is the ancient name of northern Hindustan, and was derived from a celebrated early monarch. This ‘great supporter’ poem extends in length to about 215,000 longlines, as Professor Monier Williams of Oxford has observed. Milton's ‘Paradise Lost’ only contains about 10,600. Even the voluminous Spenser's ‘Fairy Queen’ has not more than some 30,000. It is ascribed to a celebrated ancient Sage, who is also recorded to have compiled the Vedas (i.e, books of knowledge), and to have written thePuranas (i.e. ‘ancient’ books of the Hindu religions), which belong to phases of religious thought subsequent to the Vedic but professing to be associated with the Vedas. As his name simply means ‘collector or compiler,’ it is suggestive of his being mythical. Introductory recitals, in the poem itself, assign it to Vyasa, just as Washington Irving ascribes his ‘History of New York’ to Knickerbocker. Vaisampayana is said to have recited it to a king, and may have been the author. Modern commentators of late years seem generally to have assigned it to several authors. Comparing it, however, with the Waverley novels, as the work of one man, it does not seem beyond the capacity of a single author. Fifteen years’ labour, about the time bestowed by Gibbon on his ‘History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,’ would complete the work at the rate of some fifty lines per diem, allowing for holy days. It is written in what is styled the classical Sanscrit.
The Transition From Heathen to Christian Civilization, from the Time of the Antonines to the Fall of the Western Empire
Authors: Irons William J.
Published: March 2007

The old legal dictum, that Christianity is “part and parcel of the law of the land,” had a more definite meaning in the days of Blackstone than now; and the somewhat popular saying, that “religion is an affair between a man and his God,” considerably modifies the fact every day, not only in England, but in all Europe. Christianity, of course, has not been interwoven with the laws of Western Christendom for so many ages without greatly moulding the men and the institutions of the present; but we can see that its influence will, in future, be felt less and less as a definite objective system, even if more and more (as we may trust) subjectively.
On Some Tudor Prices in Kent. (1577 Chiefly.)
Authors: Cowper J. M.
Published: March 2007

Nicholas Tylman, one of the famous yeomen of Kent, whose yearly income passed into a proverb, being “somewhat sick in body, but of good and perfect mind and memory,” made his last will and testament on the 26th March, 1577. On the 6th of April he died. His executors seem to have been good and honest men, and would, there is little doubt, have carried out the instructions contained in his will, even if left to themselves. Fortunately for us, they were not left to themselves. At Faversham, the parish in which Tylman lived and died, was established a court, called “The Court of Orphans.” To this court all executors seem to have had to give an account; in other words, to render an inventory of all the moveable property in the possession of deceased persons at the time of death, with the values of the articles attached. These inventories were entered in the Wardmote Books, and so have come down to us.
Immanuel Kant in his Relation to Modern History
Authors: Zerffi Gustavus George
Published: March 2007

Single individuals stand to the general historical development of humanity in the same relation as do detached stones, statues, corbels, spires, or weather-cocks to a building. The individual, in the eyes of the philosophical historian, has only so far an interest as he forms a link in the great chain of human activity; or one stone in the historical dome. The individual is the outgrowth of his times, his dwelling-place or country, the intellectual and social atmosphere in which he has been reared and nourished. In proposing to read a paper on Immanuel Kant, I did not intend to occupy your time with his private life, or little biographical notices of his character, but to place before you my objective views as to his influence on our mode of thinking as the basis of our modern history. I purpose to keep to the general principles which I laid down before you in my paper “On the Possibility of a strictly Scientific Treatment of Universal History” (see vol. III., Transactions of Royal Historical Society, page 380), and shall try to apply those principles in sketching the development of an individual in whom the static and dynamic forces working in humanity were well balanced. Kant, as philosopher, is merely a link in a long chain of mighty speculative and empirical or deductive and inductive thinkers, who serve to illustrate, that from the earliest times of the awakening consciousness of humanity man tried to bring about an understanding of the natural and intellectual phenomena surrounding him.
Historical Notices of the Cradle of Henry V.
Authors: Old William Watkins
Published: March 2007

The venerable relic which is the subject of this paper is a wooden cot (or cradle, as it has been called) of unquestionable antiquity, traditionally said to have been the cradle of the hero of Agincourt, the glory of Monmouth, Henry V.

Lambarde, in his “Topographical Dictionary,” speaking of the destruction of Monmouth Castle in the thirteenth century, writes: “Thus the glorie of Monmouth had cleane perished, ne had it pleased God longe after in that place to give life to the noble King Hen. V.” (“Alphabetical Description of the Chief Places in England and Wales,” by William Lambarde, first published in 1730). It may befit me, therefore, as an inhabitant of this town, to use my endeavour to preserve from perishing the memory of an object which tradition has associated with him who has given undying fame to my place of residence, and which for a period of many years has been lost to us. Tradition, of course, is not evidence. But where direct testimony is not to be obtained, and in the absence of authoritative contradiction, it must be accepted as of a certain weight and worth. It will generally be found to be built upon a substratum of fact, and although, in process of time, the groundwork is almost invariably distorted, it is rarely destroyed. Should there be nothing, then, but tradition to link this rare example of mediaeval furniture with the House of Plantagenet and the town of Monmouth, it would not, I opine, be beneath the notice of those whose professed aim is to classify the stores of the past and to preserve everything connected with those of our forefathers whose history is an honour to our land.
The Reconstruction of the Civilization of the West, from Charlemagne (Transitio Imperil) to the Era of the Crusades (and Concordat, 1122).
Authors: Irons W. J.
Published: March 2007

The influence of Christianity on the Roman Empire, and so ultimately on modern Civilization, was immediately felt, as we first observed, in its action on the social system; and eventually in the formation of better public opinion in morals and Religion. The ideas of individual right and personal freedom (absolutely essential to the new faith which had appeared as the teacher of conscience), found their echo, and also in some sense a defined limit, in the advancing Roman Law; but the more active relations of the gradually-formed Christian Society to the State in which it took its mission would, as we saw, be much determined by the course of events, and by the action and development of the State itself.
The Early History of Sweden
Authors: Howorth Henry H.
Published: March 2007

In the previous papers which I have had the honour of reading before the Royal Historical Society, I have tried to elucidate the first adventures of the Norse pirates in the west, as related in the contemporary Frank and Irish annals, and have thus laid the foundation for an examination of the earlier story as contained in the Sagas. This is a singularly difficult field of inquiry, and one which has baffled many explorers. I can only hope to throw a few more rays of light into a very dark and perplexed subject. The Sagas are divided by Mr. Laing into two classes, historical (including biographical) and fabulous. Of the former, the most important were the Sagas, included in the works of Saxo Grammaticus, and Snorro the son of Sturle—two works of world-wide repute, and which have been (especially the former) a riddle and puzzle to most inquirers. Before we grapple with the problem before us, we must first dissect these two famous compilations.
Domestic Everyday Life, Manners, and Customs in this Country, from the earliest period to the end of the Eighteenth Century
Authors: Harris George
Published: March 2007

The history of civilization generally, and of the mode of life of our forefathers, embraced by the present paper, is a record rather of progress than of actual change in the condition of this country. No external circumstances operated to affect the latter through invasion by a foreign foe, as was the case during each of the periods of history considered in my former discourses. Civil war between contending parties for the crown of England, had now ceased; but contests not less fierce followed, arising out of differences of opinion in religious matters, which were productive of great moral and social results. To these succeeded angry political contentions, and a long and bloody civil war, which occasioned also extensive changes in the general condition of the nation. Happy it is for us who live in the present age, that, although contests rage as fiercely as ever in the political world, the only weapon used against an adversary is that fiery, unruly, and untameable assailant, termed the tongue. Parties are nowadays, as in the times of which I am about to speak, by turns overthrown; but waste of breath only, instead of waste of blood, is the worst calamity that ensues.
The Siege of Quebec
Authors: Robjohns Sydney
Published: March 2007

We commonly speak of America as “the New World,” and deem its grand scenery a negative illustration of the truth that human association is an essential quality in our enjoyment of natural loveliness. And the fact that we discover Longfellow at Bruges, Washington Irving “within bounds ” at the Charterhouse, Motley at Dresden, and Prescott at Madrid, gives colour to this impression of prevailing novelty. But for all that, the threads of history are woven rapidly on that continent as elsewhere, and the tapestry record—the warp and woof of life—is unfolded, with its enigmas and its dramatic characters and situations, forthe student's unravelling or enjoyment. There is in that New World an aristocracy that is not parvenu, and territory that is not lacking in the venerable qualities of a grand history. The discovery of the St. Lawrence river by Jacques Cartier, the counterpart in feature and in energy of our own Sir Francis Drake, his sojourn at theIndian villages of Stadacona and Hochelaga, the modern Quebec and Montreal, and his erection of a huge cross instead of an ensign on the shores of Gaspé, in claiming the future New France for Christ and the king, are as much an old-time story as that of the Spanish Armada and the game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe. From the Atlantic to the Ohio, and from Virginia to the great lakes, the land is rich in history and fruitful of romance. The exile from Grandpr£ and Port Royal, and the scattering of the Acadian families over the States of Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and Virginia, are full. of heart-break to us who read the story even now, whether we gather it from the page of history or from the poetic setting of “Evangeline ”; and the associations of Forefathers Rock and the Puritan graveyard, ” beautiful for situation,” at New Plymouth, together with the quaint laws and customs which prevailed in that new England town, must be of interest to English-speaking people the wide world over.
On the Establishment of Swiss Freedom, and the Scandinavian Origin of the Legend of William Tell
Authors: Heywood James
Published: March 2007

Freedom in Europe made a considerable advance in the thirteenth century. An interregnum occurred in Germany from 1250 to 1273, and during that interval the King of Hun-gary and the Count of Holland entirely freed themselves from the homage which they had been accustomed to pay to the German Emperor. The Hanseatic League was formed at the same period between the cities of Lubeck, Cologne, Brunswick, and Dantzic, for their mutual defence against the encroachments of great lords, and these towns were afterwards joined by eighty others. Liberty was purchased for a sum of money by the cities of Lombardy, and duly confirmed to those important centres of mediaeval civilization.
History on the Face of England
Authors: Malden Henry Elliot
Published: March 2007

History and Geography, if we would study either thoroughly and intelligently, can never be completely dissevered. The continual influence exercised, from generation to generation, by climate, food, and necessary pursuits upon a people, combined with the influences of the political geography of the surrounding countries, the presence of strong or weak, civilised or barbarous neighbours, all these exercise the strongest pressure upon the original character, and mould the course of the history of every nation. And, therefore, to appreciate the full meaning of that history, a study of the theatre in which the action was played is of importance.
Hungary Under King Matthias Hunyady, surnamed ‘Corvinus.’
Authors: Zerffi G. G.
Published: March 2007

The Roman province, Pannonia, after having become a prey to the Vizigoths and Ostrogoths, was suddenly invaded towards the end of the fourth century, A.D., by an Asiatic people known under the name of ‘Huns,’ ‘Konoi,’ ‘Aorsoi,’ or ‘Alans.’ These Huns were followed by the Avars, undoubtedly a cognate tribe. The Avars are said to have overcome the Kutugurs, or Usurgurs, and driven from Pannonia the Longobards (Lombards), a Teuton tribe, which settled in Italy, and formed the principal ethnical element of Tuscany. At last we have the Magyars, another cognate tribe of the Huns occupying Pannonia. That the Magyars were Fins was often asserted, but is now an entirely exploded hypothesis. There are a few Finnish words in the Magyar language, proving that at a certain historical period the Magyars must have had some kind of connection with the Fins, but the test words proving the affinity of languages are entirely different.
On the Epoch of Hittite, Khita, Hamath, Canaanite, Lydian, Etruscan, Peruvian, Mexican, Etc.
Authors: Clarke Hyde
Published: March 2007

The Book of Generations, in chap. x. of Genesis, states that Canaan was a son of Ham, and consequently brother of Cush, of Mizraim, and of Phut. This is given again in the First Book of Chronicles, chap, i., ver. 8. Cush (Gen. x. 10) held Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. The verse says: “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech,” etc. Again, verse 11 says: “Out of that land went forth Asshur and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah and Resen, between Nineveh and Calah; the same is a great city.” Asshur (verse 22) was a son of Shem. Cush, therefore, was considered to be a dweller in Babylonia, and not in Africa. This is consistent with Havilah, son of Cush, being Havilah, chap, ii., ver. 11. Of the rivers of Eden, “the name of the first is Pison, that is it which encompasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.” Khavilah has been well conjectured to be Kholkis or Colchis, and the river the Pshani, which, as I have pointed out in the Georgian languages, still means a river.
Buckland Abbey and Sir Francis Drake
Authors: Robjohns Sydney
Published: March 2007

The mariners of the sixteenth century are no exception to the rule that the biography of great men illustrates the period in which they lived. Francesco Pizarro might have been a cowherd at Seville for ever, instead of a viceroy at Lima, for any value attaching to his biography to the student of European politics; but he and Cortez, Cartier, Hawkins, Drake, and many another, marked an epoch in the history of maritime adventure, namely, the period which witnessed the union of science and enterprise—a union enabling the sailor to navigate his bark into the wide and unknown seas, where no landmark points the course—a union which gave to civilisation another world. The Phoenician groping his way, hugging the land along the shores of Africa and Spain, and shooting across the channel, with the sun and stars alone to steer by, until he touched the lonely but rich shores of the Cassiterides, was a mariner of equal daring with those who, westward ho! set sail for the Spanish Main; but, with an increase of knowledge, there had been discovered a new world—a world that, without the sensitive needle, and the discovery of the fact that it was ever true to its magnetic principle, true as the star to which the sailor from Tyre had in his day attached his faith —and for the subduing of that world it was necessary there should be a new departure, not in enterprise, for that was conspicuous in the earth's central sea, but a union of scientific knowledge with the enterprise and energy common to all young nations—at least to all nations which have made their mark in the world, and left the impress of their life upon time's honourable records.
The Seventy Weeks of Daniel, and Persian Chronology
Authors: Milner John
Published: March 2007

One would naturally think that a prophecy like that of the seventy weeks (heptades) of Daniel—known to have been fulfilled—would admit of easy proof and explanation; but so far is this from being the case that (as Professor Stewart justly remarks) “it would require a volume of considerable magnitude to give a history of the ever-varying and contradictory opinions of critics respecting this locus vexatissimus, and perhaps a still larger one to establish an exegesis that would stand. I am fully of opinion that no interpretation as yet published will stand the test of thorough grammatico-historical criticism, and that a candid, searching, and thorough critique here is still a desideratum.”
Visitations of the Plague at Leicester
Authors: Kelly William
Published: March 2007

Had Daniel Defoe not immortalised himself as the author of that inimitable work “Robinson Crusoe,” he would still have held a prominent place in the foremost rank of English novelists by the production of two of his less known works, which have been over-shadowed by his great masterpiece, namely, the “History of the Plague in London,” and the “Memoirs of a Cavalier.” These historical romances, or, as they might be more accurately termed, imaginary autobiographies founded on facts, are such life-like delineations of character, and so historically true in colouring, down to the minutest touches of detail, while the scenes depicted have such an absorbing interest thrown over them, that we might well believe them to be veritable chronicles of the two imaginary heroes who are supposed to relate the events in which each is described as bearing so prominent a part, and either of whom might well exclaim with Father Æneas:

“Quaeque ipse miserrima vidi

Et quorum pars magna fui.”
Wat Tyler
Authors: De Vericour
Published: March 2007

It is singular and instructive to mark how close is the resemblance between the popular discontents of different times and the spring as well as the progress of their action. During the fourteenth century the great body of the people, especially in England, was gradually rising in the scale of civilisation, and, at the same time that the pressure on them was increased, the simplest civic rights were denied them. During the age we are referring to, there was a contemporaneous movement of the lower classes—of the body of the people—in various countries. The stern slavery under the feudal system was relaxing. The voice of the serf, who so long in silence had endured his bondage, was at length more or less heard. The spirit of freedom, which heretofore had animated only the noble and the high-born, was now inflaming the hearts of those who, under the bonds of villain-service, had been part of the ownership of the soil. There was an almost simultaneous rising of the lower orders of the people, and its not being confined to any one country, can only be explained by general, and, doubtless, various causes affecting European society and governments at large.
Materials for A Domestic History of England
Authors: Harris George
Published: March 2007

There are as many different modes of writing the history of each country, as there are differences between one country and another in all those various qualities which contribute to constitute the character of a nation. Some histories treat on the laws and constitution, some on the political contentions, some on the commercial enterprises, and some on the natural productions, of a country. That, however, which appears to me to be the most important and the most interesting department of history relating to any country,—that which comes home nearest to our hearts and feelings,—is its domestic history, embracing an account of the manners and customs, the pursuits and habits, and every-day life of the people at large. This, however, strange as it may seem, is one of the most neglected portions of history, not only as regards nations in general, but more particularly as regards our own.
History of the Trent Bridges at Nottingham
Authors: Briscoe John Potter
Published: March 2007

The history of the Trent bridges at Nottingham is particularly interesting. Their early history is clouded in the mists of antiquity. The site of these bridges has for many hundred years been the crossing place of the Trent, between the south of England and the north. During the excavations for the foundations of the new bridges, to which we shall refer subsequently, traces of what we may infer to have been a landingstage have been brought to light. These consist of some “cross-braced framing, formed of black oak beams trenailed, together with oak pins, the whole resting upon large unhewn blocks of stone.”
Domestic Everyday Life, Manners, and Customs in the Ancient World
Authors: Harris George
Published: March 2007

History is, of all studies, the most interesting and the most generally followed. By this means we become acquainted with what has taken place during the ages of the world which preceded our own; and vast and valuable indeed are the lessons to be learned from the extended experience thus afforded. Of all the various branches of history, that which relates to the domestic everyday life of our fellow-creatures who have lived before us under very different circumstances from those by which we are surrounded, and who have been influenced by events and causes totally different from any of those by which we can be affected, appears to me to be by far the most useful for us to be acquainted with. An account of the wars which have been waged between different nations, a narrative of the political intrigues which have been carried on in certain states, a description of the various kings and queens who have reigned over particular peoples, possess their peculiar attractions for some tastes; but a relation of what were the modes of life, the daily pursuits, the ōrdinary occupations, and the common resources of the people themselves at these various periods of the world's history, appears to me to be a subject that comes home more nearly to us, and is calculated more warmly to excite our interest than any of the former matters. We shall thus be led to trace out the earliest dawn of civilisation, and shall have an opportunity of watching its course from the period when its light first gleamed above the horizon, to that when its midday splendour served to disperse the darkness of barbarism, and to diffuse knowledge and refinement wherever its rays had penetrated.
Kings' Briefs: Their Purposes and History
Authors: Walford Cornelius
Published: March 2007

Kings' Briefs, under a variety of designations—as Kings' Letters, Orders in Council, Patents of Alms, Letters Patent, Fire Briefs, Church Briefs, Charity Briefs, Commissions, Royal Letters, &c, &c.—have played an important part in the social history of this country, and yet our national historians have been remarkably silent concerning them; as indeed they have been upon many other matters of great social interest. It seems hardly necessary to say that the term “Brief” has several significations. In its more common acceptation it is a short writing or epitome, as an abridgment of a law case, made out for instruction to counsel, or indeed any short statement of facts. But there are “Apostolical Briefs,” being letters or written messages of the Pope, addressed to princes or magistrates, respecting matters of public concern.* It is not to these exclusively that we must look for light in the present instance. The word was, in early times, written “Breve,” and Cowell, in his Law Dictionary, says, “Any writ or precept from the King was called Breve; which we still retain in the name of Brief, the King's Letters Patent to poor sufferers, for Collection.” The general title of “King's Briefs” used in England, is traceable to the fact that these documents, under whatever designation adopted, or for whatever purpose designed, were in later times issued under the direct authority of the sovereign; at first under his personal authority, but later under the authority of the Council, through the Lord Chancellor. But it will be made clear that the Church exercised the right of issuing them, not only prior to, but apparently coeval with the sovereign at one period.
Antonio Perez in Exile
Authors: Hume Martin A. S.
Published: March 2007

Nothing is so attractive to the historical student as a mystery to be unravelled upon which ingenuity and research can be exercised; and hardly any unsolved historical riddle has excited more speculation and interest than has the extra-ordinary, and apparently inexplicable, treatment extended by Philip II. to his former prime favourite and trusted minister, Antonio Perez.
The Case of Lucas and Lisle
Authors: Round J. H.
Published: March 2007

There has been revived in various ways, within the last few years, an old subject of controversy, namely, the execution of Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle, in cold blood, on the surrender of Colchester to Fairfax in 1648. Mr. Firth's discovery of the Clarke papers, his valuable lives of the two knights in the ‘Dictionary of National Biography’, Mr. Gardiner's judicial summary of the case, and—magnis cotnponere parva—the erection of a memorial on the scene of the execution by a local enthusiast, have all contributed to remind us of a dispute which has led, at the hands of partisans, to heated and angry recrimination.
The Florentine Wool Trades in the Middle Ages
Authors: Dixon E.
Published: March 2007

The origin of the present paper may be traced to a request made to me by Dr. Cunningham, when I was passing through Florence in November 1896, to examine a list of the English and Scotch monasteries which furnished raw wool to the mediæval Florentine wool merchants, given in the fourteenth century manuscript of Balducci Pegolotti's ‘Pratica della Mercatura,’ preserved in the Riccardian Library. This list, as printed by Peruzzi in his ‘Storia del Commercio,’ was suspected by Dr. Cunningham to contain sundry clerical and other inaccuracies, a suspicion which proved to be amply justified in fact. It was then suggested to me that it might be worth while to try and collect information bearing upon the wool trades of the Florentine Republic as a whole, inasmuch as there must assuredly be no little material in the way of contemporary documents stored away in Florentine archives and libraries.
The Finance of Malton Priory, 1244–1257
Authors: Graham R.
Published: March 2007

At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the religious Orders held a strong position in England, with a fair prospect of extending their influence still further. Before the close, however, though outwardly the monasteries were more im-posing, internally there were already signs of decay. As the friars journeyed through England to execute the numerous Papal mandates, they had ample opportunities of observing the different houses of the religious, and their contemptuous remarks are therefore very suggestive. In their eyes the Cistercians were unlearned farmers, half laymen, and the Benedictines splendid epicures. Matthew Paris was stirred to wrath at the presumption of the friars in daring to criticise. He saw that the very causes which had altered the character of the other religious were at work among the friars themselves. Though scarcely forty years had passed since their founding, they were already occupied in amassing wealth and erecting stately buildings.
The Negotiations Preceding the Peace of Lunévllle
Authors: Roberts L. M.
Published: March 2007

Introduction

Three negotiations, separate yet dependent, like three acts in a drama, preceded the Treaty of Lunéville.

In Act I General St. Julien, assuming the airs of Plenipotentiary, treats with Talleyrand in Paris.

In Act 2 M. Otto, Captain George, and Mr. Hammond negotiate somewhat languidly in London.

In Act 3 Joseph Bonaparte and Count Cobenzl watch each other and the events of war for four long months in Lunéville.