bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Geometric Alignment of 2D Gel Electrophoresis Images
Authors: Winz M.-L. , Rohr K. , Wörz S.
Published: June 2009

Objectives: 2D gel electrophoresis (2-DE) is the method of choice for analyzing protein expression in the field of proteomics, for example, comparing a reference with a test population. However, due to complex physical and chemical processes the locations of proteins generally vary in different 2-DE images. To cope with these variations, accurate geometric alignment of 2-DE images is important.

Methods: We introduce a new elastic registration approach for 2-DE images, which is based on an analytic solution of the Navier equation using Gaussian elastic body splines (GEBS). With this approach cross-effects in elastic deformations can be handled, which is important for the registration of 2-DE images. In addition, landmark correspondences can be included to aid the registration in regions which are difficult to register using intensity information alone.

Results: We have successfully applied our approach to register 2-DE gel images of different levels of complexity. In each case, gel images from a reference group are compared with a test group. To analyze the performance of our approach, we have carried out a quantitative evaluation of the registration results. Moreover, we have performed an experimental comparison with a previous elastic registration scheme.

Conclusions: From the results we found that our approach is well-suited for the registration of 2-DE gel images of different levels of complexity and it turned out that the approach is superior to a previous hybrid scheme. Moreover, our approach is well-suited in a fully automatic setting and the performance can further be improved when landmark correspondences are available.
Gerichtete Evolution und rationales Design. Maßgeschneiderte Enzyme
Authors: Kourist Robert , Höhne Matthias , Bornscheuer Uwe
Published: June 2009

Immer aktiver, stabiler und selektiver – so wünschen sich Chemiker und Industrie ihre Biokatalysatoren. Obwohl Enzyme ihre Rolle in der Natur meist perfekt spielen, entsprechen sie oft nicht den Anforderungen für industrielle Anwendungen. Nach dem Motto “was nicht passt, wird passend gemacht”, sind Biotechnologen in der Lage, Enzyme durch Veränderung ihrer minosäuresequenz zu optimieren. Die beiden grundsätzlich verschiedenen Konzepte rationales Design und gerichtete Evolution werden in diesem Artikel vorgestellt und aufgezeigt, wie damit Enzyme im Hinblick auf ihre Stabilität und Enantioselektivität verbessert werden können – bis hin zur Schaffung von Biokatalysatoren mit neuen, nicht‐natürlichen Aktivitäten.
Characterization of New PPARγ Agonists: Benzimidazole Derivatives – the Importance of Position 2
Authors: Goebel Matthias , Staels Bart , Unger Thomas , Kintscher Ulrich , Gust Ronald
Published: June 2009

Probing SAR: The 1‐(biphenyl‐4‐ylmethyl)‐1H‐benzo[d]imidazole moiety is known to be an essential structural component of telmisartan for PPARγ activation. This study focused on the substituents at position 2 of the benzimidazole in an attempt to optimize PPARγ activation. In particular, the elongation of the alkyl chain and the introduction of an aromatic ring system were studied (shown).

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The relevance of substituents at C‐2 of the central benzimidazole of telmisartan for PPARγ activation has recently been demonstrated, and the most active compound identified in our previous work, 4′‐[(2‐propyl‐1H‐benzo[d]imidazol‐1‐yl)methyl]biphenyl‐2‐carboxylic acid (4 a), is used as lead structure in the present study. Modifications at C‐2 included butyl (4 b), iso‐butyl (4 c), tert‐butyl (4 d), phenyl (4 e), benzyl (4 f), phenethyl (4 g), 4‐chlorobenzyl (4 h), 4‐methoxyphenyl (4 i), and 4‐hydroxyphenyl (4 j) moieties. The compounds were tested in a differentiation assay using 3T3‐L1 preadipocytes and a luciferase assay with COS‐7 cells, transiently transfected with pGal4‐hPPARγDEF, pGal5‐TK‐pGL3 and pRL‐CMV, as established models for the assessment of cellular PPARγ activation. The activity in the luciferase assay increased in the alkyl series: propyl (4 a) <iso‐butyl (4 c) ≤ tert‐butyl (4 d) <butyl (4 b). A phenyl group at C‐2 led to the most active compound (4 e) in this study with an EC50 value of 0.27 μM. 4‐Hydroxylation of the C‐2 phenyl group (4 j) drastically decreased the activity (EC50=5.8 μm) presumably due to hydrophilic repulsion. This assumption was verified by O‐methylation to give compound 4 i, which maintained activity (EC50=0.29 μM). The weak effect of the benzyl derivative 4 f (EC50=1.4 μM) was abolished by an additional hydrophobic 4‐chloro substituent (4 h; EC50=0.55 μM) or an elongation of the alkyl chain between the phenyl and the benzimidazole core (4 g; EC50=0.31 μM).
Intramolecular Hydro‐N‐alkylation of Hydrazones and Oxime Ethers: Synthesis of Novel D‐Secoestrone Isoquinuclidines via Domino 1,5‐Hydride Shift/Cyclization
Authors: Frank Éva , Schneider Gyula , Kádár Zalán , Wölfling János
Published: June 2009

The direct transformation of a benzylic C(sp3)–H bond into a C–N bond from steroidal hydrazones 10b, 10f–l and oxime ethers 28b–d under the action of a stoichiometric amount of Lewis acid is reported. The mechanism of functionalization to give novel types of isoquinuclidine derivatives 25b, 25f–l and 32b–d is assumed to involve an intramolecular domino 1,5‐hydride transfer/cyclization sequence. Azomethine imines 23b, 23f–l and oxyiminium ions 29b–d are proposed as intermediates, which undergo 1,5‐hydride shift to give the tertiary carbocation 24b, 24f–l or 31b–d. The nucleophilic addition of the hydrazine or hydroxylamine moiety to the benzylic C‐9 carbon led to bridged azaestrone derivatives. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2009)
A liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry method for the simultaneous determination of exemestane and its metabolite 17‐dihydroexemestane in human plasma
Authors: Corona Giuseppe , Elia Caterina , Casetta Bruno , Diana Crivellari , Rosalen Sara , Bari Mario , Toffoli Giuseppe
Published: June 2009

A simple and sensitive liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method has been developed and validated for the quantitation of exemestane (Exe) and its main metabolite 17‐dihydroexemestane (DhExe) in human plasma. The analytes were extracted by protein precipitation with acetonitrile, containing stable 13C‐labelled Exe (13C3‐Exe) as internal standard, and measured by LC–MS/MS. The best chromatographic separationof the analytes from the interferences was achieved by using a Phenyl column operating under isocratic regime conditions. The total chromatographic runtime was 5.0 min and the elution of Exe and DhExe occurred at 2.5 min and 2.9 min, respectively. Quantitation was performed by employing the positive electrospray ionization (ESI) technique and multiple reaction monitoring mode (MRM). The monitored precursor to product‐ion transitions for Exe, DhExe and 13C3‐Exe internal standard were m/z 297.0 → 120.8, m/z 299.1 → 134.9 and m/z 300.0 → 123.2, respectively. The lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) was 0.1 ng/ml for DhExe and 0.2 ng/ml for Exe. The method was linear up to 36–51 ng/ml with r2 ≥ 0.998. The intra‐ and inter‐assay precision were ≤7.7% and 5.1% for Exe and ≤8.1 and 4.9% for DhExe while deviations from nominal values were in the 1.5–13.2% and − 9.0–5.8% ranges for Exe and DhExe, respectively. The analytical method resulted robust and suitable for pharmacokinetic monitoring of Exe and its main metabolite during adjuvant therapy in patients with breast cancer. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effects of dietary microalgae, other lipid sources, inorganic selenium and iodine on yolk n‐3 fatty acid composition, selenium content and quality of eggs in laying hens
Authors: Rizzi Laura , Bochicchio Davide , Bargellini Annalisa , Parazza Paola , Simioli Marco
Published: June 2009

BACKGROUND: This aim of this study was to investigate the effects of supplementing laying hen diets with different n‐3 fatty acid sources (linseed oil, fish oil and microalgae) on egg quality and fatty acid profile. The addition of inorganic selenium (Se) and iodine (I) and their effects on egg characteristics and Se concentration were also evaluated.

RESULTS: A significantly lower egg weight was found in the control group and in groups fed a diet containing fish oil or a diet containing microalgae plus Se and I. Yolks from all supplemented diet groups exhibited a significant reduction in n‐6 fatty acid content compared with the control group. The docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) content of yolks was higher (P < 0.01) in all supplemented diet groups. Selenium supplementation increased the Se concentration (P < 0.001) in eggs.

CONCLUSION: The results of this study provide evidence that an improvement in egg weight and in the DHA content of yolks can be achieved by feeding hens a microalgae‐rich diet, which avoids the unpleasant flavours associated with fish oil supplementation. Dietary inorganic Se, especially in combination with I, can enhance the concentration of Se in eggs. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry
A comparison of MS/MS‐based, stable‐isotope‐labeled, quantitation performance on ESI‐quadrupole TOF and MALDI‐TOF/TOF mass spectrometers
Authors: Kuzyk Michael A. , Ohlund Leanne B. , Elliott Monica H. , Smith Derek , Qian Hong , Delaney Allen , Hunter Christie L. , Borchers Christoph H.
Published: June 2009

The peptide‐based quantitation accuracy and precision of LC‐ESI (QSTAR Elite) and LC‐MALDI (4800 MALDI TOF/TOF) were compared by analyzing identical Escherichia coli tryptic digests containing iTRAQ‐labeled peptides of defined abundances (1:1, 2.5:1, 5:1, and 10:1). Only 51.4% of QSTAR spectra were used for quantitation by ProteinPilot Software versus 66.7% of LC‐MALDI spectra. The average protein sequence coverages for LC‐ESI and LC‐MALDI were 24.0 and 18.2% (14.9 and 8.4 peptides per protein), respectively. The iTRAQ‐based expression ratios determined by ProteinPilot from the 57 467 ESI‐MS/MS and 26 085 MALDI‐MS/MS spectra were analyzed for measurement accuracy and reproducibility. When the relative abundances of peptides within a sample were increased from 1:1 to 10:1, the mean ratios calculated on both instruments differed by only 0.7–6.7% between platforms. In the 10:1 experiment, up to 64.7% of iTRAQ ratios from LC‐ESI MS/MS spectra failed S/N thresholds and were excluded from quantitation, while only 0.1% of the equivalent LC‐MALDI iTRAQ ratios were rejected. Re‐analysis of an archived LC‐MALDI sample set stored for 5 months generated 3715 MS/MS spectra for quantitation, compared with 3845 acquired originally, and the average ratios differed by only 3.1%. Overall, MS/MS‐based peptide quantitation performance of offline LC‐MALDI was comparable with on‐line LC‐ESI, which required threefold less time. However, offline LC‐MALDI allows the re‐analysis of archived HPLC‐separated samples.
In vivo enhancement of natural killer cell activity through tea fortified with Ayurvedic herbs
Authors: Bhat Jyoti , Damle Aparna , Vaishnav Pankaj P , Albers Ruud , Joshi Manoj , Banerjee Gautam
Published: June 2009

The effect of a tea fortified with five herbs selected from Indian traditional medicine (Ayurveda) for their putative immunoenhancing effect (Withania somnifera, Glycyrrhzia glabra, Zingiber officinale, Ocimum sanctum and Elettaria cardamomum) on innate immunity was investigated. Ex vivo natural killer (NK) cell activity was assessed after consumption of fortified tea compared with regular tea in two independent double‐blind intervention studies. Both studies were conducted in India with healthy volunteers (age ≥ 55 years) selected for a relatively low baseline NK cell activity and a history of recurrent coughs and colds. In a pilot study conducted with 32 volunteers, the consumption of Natural Care tea significantly improved the NK cell activity of the volunteers in comparison with a population consuming regular tea. These results were validated in an independent crossover study with 110 volunteers. Data from these two studies indicate that regular consumption of the tea fortified with Ayurvedic herbs enhanced NK cell activity, which is an important aspect of the (early) innate immune response to infections. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A quadratic triangle of the Hermite type for second order elliptic problems
Authors: Ruas V. , Carneiro de Araujo J.H.
Published: June 2009

A triangular finite element method of the Hermite type for solving second order elliptic equations in two‐dimensional bounded domains is introduced. It can be viewed as a modification of the Morley triangle [8], but contrary to this element it provides converging approximations for this class of problems. The new element is particularly useful in situations where flux or normal stress continuity across interelement boundaries is required.
Anodic Aluminum Oxide Membrane-Assisted Fabrication of β-In2S3Nanowires
Authors: Shi Jen-Bin , Chen Chih-Jung , Lin Ya-Ting , Hsu Wen-Chia , Chen Yu-Cheng , Wu Po-Feng
Published: June 2009

In this study, β-In2S3nanowires were first synthesized by sulfurizing the pure Indium (In) nanowires in an AAO membrane. As FE-SEM results, β-In2S3nanowires are highly ordered, arranged tightly corresponding to the high porosity of the AAO membrane used. The diameter of the β-In2S3nanowires is about 60 nm with the length of about 6–8 μm. Moreover, the aspect ratio of β-In2S3nanowires is up to 117. An EDS analysis revealed the β-In2S3nanowires with an atomic ratio of nearly S/In = 1.5. X-ray diffraction and corresponding selected area electron diffraction patterns demonstrated that the β-In2S3nanowire is tetragonal polycrystalline. The direct band gap energy (Eg) is 2.40 eV from the optical measurement, and it is reasonable with literature.
A King in Search of Soldiers: Charles I in 1642
Authors: Malcolm Joyce L.
Published: June 2009

In his celebrated work England under the Stuarts George Macaulay Trevelyan dismissed in a single sentence the question of the position adopted by the bulk of the English rural population during the Civil War: ‘The tenant-farmer was in no position to avow any political or religious faith but that of his landlord.’ Given this assumption it was logical that Trevelyan and his successors should concern themselves with the problems and opinions of landlords and other, more independent, men and leave the doings of the peasantry to students of agrarian and social history. And so they have, never seriously questioning the proposition that the aristocracy's sympathy for the Crown would be reflected in the attitudes and behaviour of their tenants. Indeed, the king himself had felt confident of the peasants' support, and an assortment of facts and myths have been marshalled post facto to persuade us that his confidence was justified. For example, since peasants were assumed to have been rather simple-minded and very conservative men, it was deduced that they ought to have sided with their monarch. The Great Chain of Being, the accepted basis of heavenly and earthly society, placed kings between man and the angels, surely a height bound to inspire awe in a plain man of the soil. According to some historians, Charles I had been a veritable champion of the poor with his vigorous campaign to enforce the poor laws and his commissions for the prevention of enclosure. His humbler subjects must have been grateful for such paternalism. In any case, as Trevelyan pointed out, the stark reality of their dependent position would have forced tenants to adhere to the party chosen by their landlords, and most landlords who committed themselves to a party joined the king's.
The Origins of Munich: British Policy in Danubian Europe, 1933–1937
Authors: Newman Michael
Published: June 2009

After almost forty years of discussion and analysis, British policy at Munich in 1938 remains as controversial a subject as ever. But despite the fact that many thorough and important studies have been written, the focus of the controversy has not shifted very substantially. Much emphasis is still placed upon the ‘men of Munich’ and the question of whether they were guilty men who betrayed Czechoslovakia or reasonable and astute statesmen who sought to preserve the peace of Europe. And, in consequence, both their defenders and their critics have invested a great deal of effort in scrutinizing their contemporary writings to see whether their intentions in September 1938 were laudable or contemptible. However, it is by no means certain that the fundamental causes of governmental behaviour during a crisis are revealed in their clearest perspective by a concentration upon the contemporary utterances of policy-makers. For, by the time such a situation has been reached, the available options are normally strictly limited so that the task of the ‘decision-maker’ is often to provide a rationalization, both for himself and posterity, for a course of action which has been all but predetermined by earlier decisions. This article seeks to demonstrate that the Munich crisis was of such a type: that it represented a continuity in Britain's Central European policy and that the behaviour of the ‘men of Munich’ can only be judged in the context of this continuity. It argues, in fact, that the British adopted a policy of ‘passive pragmatism’ in defence of their world position throughout the inter-war period and that it was this which accounted both for their inaction between 1933 and 1937 and the Munich policy in 1938.
II. Enlightened Government and its Critics in Eighteenth-Century Germany
Authors: Parry Geraint
Published: June 2009

The debates between ‘rationalism’ and ‘traditionalism’ and between ‘organization’ and ‘community’ 1 which are such a striking feature of contemporary political thought may be traced back in their modern form to the eighteenth century. Men like Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Bolingbroke, Hume, Bentham and Burke recognized the relevance of these debates to theory and practice and they attempted to link the issues by exploring the conceptual and practical connexions between rationalist politics and the theory of community. The problems were not, of course, discussed in either an intellectual or a political vacuum. The intellectual context was produced by the impact of the discoveries of natural science on social investigation. Students of social affairs hoped to discover behind the apparent diversity and complexity of actual societies a framework of uniform, consistent and, above all, predictable rules which would be analogous to the laws of the planetary system.
V. The Politics of the Establishment of County Councils
Authors: Dunbabin J. P. D.
Published: June 2009

‘I wish there was no such thing as Local Government’, wrote Lord Salisbury,1 exasperated by the difficulties of securing a measure his whole Cabinet could accept. Gladstone's second administration had already encountered difficulties in considering the question, and had not proceeded to legislation. The subject thus passed to the Conservatives. And, though Local Government was not considered an issue of the first importance, the fact that they were to some extent dependent upon the support, and therefore influenced by the wishes, of the Radical Unionists made for prolonged negotiations before County Councils were finally established in 1888. These negotiations and difficulties are principally interesting for the light they shed on the politics of the time. But, since they revolved around technicalities, they cannot be understood without some exposition of the possible courses open to a legislator.
I. Juan de Ovando and the Council of Finance (1573–1575)
Authors: Lovett A. W.
Published: June 2009

The Habsburg monarchy – its Iberian branch, at least – could regard 1559 as the beginning of a new era; a lasting peace had been made with France and the new King had returned to Castile. In Europe the Empire had withstood the stresses of the previous fifty years with remarkable success: Habsburg control of the Netherlands and the thin ribbon of territories linking them with Italy remained unimpaired: in Italy, Charles V and his successor had defeated all attempts by France and the Papacy to weaken the Imperial hold on the peninsula.
III. State Treason Trials During the Puritan Revolution, 1640–1660
Authors: Hast Adele
Published: June 2009

The government of the parliamentary party during the Puritan Revolution of 1640–60 instituted changes in judicial and legal procedures to maintain its power and subdue its enemies. This study of treason trials conducted by the state will examine their legal basis and the events and activities considered treasonable. It will show the ways in which the concept of treason changed under a revolutionary government, and to what extent those trials conducted during the interregnum differed in their legal—judicial bases and content from those held before the King's death. Although there were hundreds of treason convictions during the interregnum throughout England, either by military courts-martial, or by common-law courts sitting in the provinces — as is shown by the Acts providing for die sale of estates forfeited to the Commonwealth for treason — this discussion will limit itself to trials initiated by the government in London. These state trials illustrate die political use of the treason charge; diey provide a direct link between the enactment of the interregnum treason laws and their implementation by the same legislative body. Not only was the meaning of treason determined, and die machinery of trial set up, by parliament; but who was to be tried was also decided eidier by parliament or die Council of State, and, after 1654, by the Protector and his council. It will dierefore be instructive to examine the types of treasonous action considered sufficiendy threatening to warrant parliamentary attention.
Tory Industrialism and Town Politics: Swansea in the Eighteenth Century
Authors: Jenkins Philip
Published: June 2009

In the last two decades, British urban history has flourished. The Tudor and Stuart periods have attracted particular attention, so that we are well informed on the party factions and politics of this time. There are excellent general accounts by Drs Clark, Slack and others; and notable local studies like Dr Evans' account of Norwich. However, it is interesting that early eighteenth-century towns are by no means as well covered, especially in the area of politics. We have studies of Norwich and the West Midlands, but these mostly concern the period after 1760. On the first half of the century, most of the available published material comes from incidental references in books on broader party politics and organization; for instance in works by Drs Holmes, Brewer and Colley.
VI. Hitler and the Origins of the Second World War. Second Thoughts on the Status of Some of the Documents
Authors: Koch H. W.
Published: June 2009

Ernst Nolte in his Die Epoche des Faschismus writes that Hitler undoubtedly in principle had wanted war ‘but hardly that war at that time’, meaning the war of 1939. This somewhat muddled thesis conceals two distinct issues, namely the argument that in 1939 contingencies were not entirely to Hitler's liking and the argument that in 1939 contingencies were so little to his liking that we must conclude that Hitler took no conscious steps to risk a general war.
I. The Defection of Sir Edward Dering, 1640–1641
Authors: Hirst Derek
Published: June 2009

Historiography of the years immediately preceding the English civil war has tended to conceive of two disparate entities in politics, Westminster and the localities. There are in practice two distinct kinds of history, reflecting diis division, which connect only on rare occasions. The latest major work on the period can, despite its title, limit itself almost entirely to the confines of Westminster and the court, while the student is faintly aware of volumes of local works which contain scarcely a hint of what passes outside the town wall or beyond the county boundary. Parliament was indeed an aggressively self-conscious and independent body, and the county or borough was frequently particularist and introverted, but this did not preclude all contact between the two. Dr Pearl has demonstrated how vulnerable parliament was to the influence of London, and vice versa, and there have recently been several local studies which illustrate the close relationship between the county and the centre. But by and large, Clarendon's assessment of the importance of the Buckinghamshire petition against the attempt on the Five Members, and the obvious prominence accorded by Commons leaders of both sides to petitioning, has not been sufficiently appreciated. Parliament was deeply concerned about what might be termed ‘public opinion’: events in the localities, and the reactions to parliament's policies.
The Casket Letters: A Famous Case Reopened
Authors: Villius Hans
Published: June 2009

The place where the University of Edinburgh now stands was once the site of the church of St Mary in the Fields or, as it is usually called, Kirk o'Field. On a February night in 1567, in the small house close to the church, there occurred what is certainly the most frequently discussed event in the history of Scotland, the murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, consort to Mary Queen of Scots. Much discussed it has been, but since it is still not properly resolved it merits another look.
The Garibaldi Riots Of 1862
Authors: Gilley Sheridan
Published: June 2009

Violence is the means of expression of men who lack any other, and is especially useful to the historian of an otherwise inarticulate working class, starving on die scraps which middle-class sources leave him. Everyman is anonymous, but becomes memorable in rebellion; and in die many memorable rebellions of nineteenth-century Europe, that self-proclaimed ‘age of revolution’, historians have rejoiced that trie poor had found voice in violence.
III. Doctrinal Influences on the Judicial Policy of the East India Company's Administration in Bengal, 1772–1833
Authors: Sinha Chittaranjan
Published: June 2009

Until 1793, the judicial policy of the Company's Government in Bengal was guided only by expediency and tradition. The tradition was that of the Moghul government which entrusted the management of civil justice to the Executive and those in charge of collection of revenue; 1 and the expediency—that of discharging the responsibilities of the Diwani with as little spending from the profits as possible. This is clearly visible in Warren Hastings's administrative arrangements of 1772 under which the civil judiciary in the mofussil was consigned to the District Collectors of revenue. With few interruptions marked by Hastings's administrative experiments,2 the practice of keeping the revenue and judicial functions united continued for the following twenty years. In 1790, when for the first time the Company took over the administration of criminal justice, the District Magistracy was also vested with the Collector. He thus became the Judge, Magistrate and Collector, all in one. This ‵single officers′ plan for the Districts had been advocated by Sir John Shore as being in conformity with the tradition with the Indians looking up to a single despotic authority for the redress of all their grievances,3 and had found favour with the Directors4 for the economy involved.
Power and Authority in Seventeenth Century England
Authors: Tuck Richard
Published: June 2009

Many English political theorists of the mid-seventeenth century reveal in their writings an awareness that new political terminologies were needed to cope with the apparent breakdown of traditional ideologies. Such an insight is of course famously displayed by Thomas Hobbes and the early Hobbists such as Dudley Digges, in their treatment of orthodox Natural Law doctrines - ‘if we looke backe to the Law of Nature, we shall finde that the people would have had a clearer and more distinct notion of it, if common use of calling it Law had not helped to confound their understanding, when it ought to have been named the Right of nature’ wrote Digges in 1643.
The Foreign Office and the First Chinese Indemnity Loan, 1895
Authors: McLean D.
Published: June 2009

In the 1890s the concept of laissez-faire still dominated the attitude of the Foreign Office to the question of overseas loans and investment. Unlike its European counterparts, the British Government had no tradition of interference in the world of high finance, nor were there any formal channels of communication between die City and the Foreign Office whereby a community of interests might be established or policies correlated. In the mid-nineteenth century there had been little need for closer contact. The power of British finance had ensured ample opportunities for British investment in fields where foreign competition was virtually non-existent. Such communication as had been considered necessary could be effected through hints in speeches, social contacts, or personal relationships - strictly informal procedures which, apart from Disraeli&s bid for the Suez canal shares, had produced minor and unspectacular results.
V. Cardinal Manning as Temperance Reformer
Authors: Dingle A. E. , Harrison B. H.
Published: June 2009

Cardinal Manning in old age wanted his successor to follow his lead into the temperance movement: ‘I pray God that my successor will humbly and with his whole heart go into the midst of the people as I have tried to do’, he wrote in 1890, ‘and will give to the League of the Cross a warm and encouraging countenance.’ He also wanted his successor to join the prohibitionist United Kingdom Alliance as ‘the only real power outside of Parliament to hold the Drink Trade in check’. When Herbert Vaughan attended a dinner of Manchester publicans who advocated winter-gardens and light beers as the agents of temperance, Manning was furious and excluded him from the list of his executors. In many statements from the 1870s onwards Manning expressed his passionate enthusiasm for the temperance movement. His temperance speeches show that he took great trouble to keep his arguments up to date, and that he read widely in temperance literature. Here, then, was no passing enthusiasm, but a cause to which Manning devoted his life after 1868, and for which he laboured through literature as heavy as Dr F. R. Lees' Alliance Prize Essay and the report of the 1853–54 Select Committee on Public-Houses. He travelled about the country on temperance tours, gave evidence before a parliamentary committee on the drink question, and braved much hostility from within the Catholic world by creating the League of the Cross, an association of Catholic abstainers.
II. The Austen Chamberlain-Mussolini Meetings
Authors: Edwards Peter
Published: June 2009

One of the most fertile grounds for diplomatic and journalistic speculation in the late 1920s was the series of private meetings between Sir Austen Chamberlain and Benito Mussolini. During Sir Austen's tenure of the Foreign Secretary's portfolio, from November 1924 to June 1929, the two met five times in complete privacy, without aides or even interpreters, since both spoke fluent French. The communiqués they subsequently issued were conglomerations of clichés, stressing their personal friendship and political harmony but omitting any specific reference to the subjects discussed. It is not surprising, therefore, that rumours of secret agreements and cynical deals abounded. Indeed, Mussolini was compelled publicly to deny the widespread assumption diat he sought and received Sir Austen's approval for Italian foreign policy at these meetings,1 while Chamberlain was obliged to take his holidays in 1927 in Spain to avoid the ’ undesirable political speculation ‘ that would have followed another visit to his beloved Italy.2 The evidence of the Chamberlain Papers and the British and Italian diplomatic documents suggests that much of the speculation was very wide of the mark.3
Public Finance and Political Stability: The Administration of the Land Tax, 1688–1720
Authors: Brooks Colin
Published: June 2009

Two major themes have been orchestrated in the course of recent research into the period 1688 to 1714. In the sphere of politics, die extent and intensity of party conflict, especially in Anne's reign, has been laid bare in the work of G. Holmes and W. A. Speck, among others; whilst J. H. Plumb, in The Growth of Political Stability has sketched the motive forces behind the spreading and then the quieting, of that conflict.1 In the second recently developed area, that of public financ , P. G. M. Dickson's The Financial Revolution in Englandhas provided us with the insights and precision necessary to qualify and confirm previous assertions about the substantial contribution made by the developing ‘funding system’ to the success of England, under William and then Marlborough, in holding off Louis XIV, and, consequently, in establishing the Hanoverian dynasty on the throne.2
British Rearmament in the 1930s: A Chronology and Review
Authors: Dunbabin J. P. D.
Published: June 2009

At the close of his article on ‘The East Fulham By-election, 25 October 1933 C. T. Stannage was allowed extra space to attack the account of the 1933–5 by-elections given in K. Middlemas’ and J. Barnes’ Baldwin, to re-state the charge that Baldwin deceived the country at the 1935 general election over the need to re-arm, and to suggest that there was no essential difference between the government's position on rearmament and that of the Labour opposition. It is not my wish to rush to the defence of Messrs. Middlemas and Barnes (who are no doubt capable of looking after themselves). But Dr Stannage's account of the rearmament controversy seems over-simplified. And, as it has been accepted uncritically by no less a figure than Henry Pelling, it may be worth looking at the question in rather more detail.
Reginald Pole and the Priorities of Government in Mary Tudor's Church
Authors: Pogson Rex H.
Published: June 2009

Mary Tudor's ecclesiastical policy is highly vulnerable to the criticism that it was negative and lacked a sense of direction. She seems to have reserved her efforts for the repeal of schismatic legislation and the burning of obstinate heretics. It is therefore easy to agree with those who see little positive zeal or spiritual content in the Marian Church —‘arid legalism’ is one recent verdict. And this condemnation includes Reginald Pole. He received extensive legatine powers from the Pope, enjoyed a wide reputation as a reforming Cardinal, and was trusted by Mary as her kinsman and adviser; we should therefore expect him to have employed in England all the available weapons of the Roman Church for an attack on heresy. Yet, in Professor Dickens' words, Pole and Mary ‘ failed to discover the Counter-Reformation ’.2 It is the intention of this article to examine the priorities which Pole followed in his plans for the Marian Church, and to investigate whether his legalistic approach and his rejection of the positive methods of the Counter-Reformation were the result of inefficiency or were based on a considered, though possibly mistaken, long-term policy.
V. The Baltic in British Diplomacy Before the First World War
Authors: Sweet David W.
Published: June 2009

The separation of Norway and Sweden in 1905 and the subsequent developments in Scandinavian politics evoked in British diplomacy a concern and an activity which are remarkable in view of the neglect into which Baltic questions had fallen during the preceding half-century. This new concern (like the previous neglect) can be explained satisfactorily only by reference to changing strategic circumstances. The diplomatic events are of interest not only because of the light which they shed upon the evolution of wider European politics at the time, but also because of their relation to strategic calculations; and they provide one of the rare instances before 1914 in which the direct influence of the Committee of Imperial Defence on foreign policy can actually be demonstrated.
VI. The Entente and the Vatican during the Period of Italian Neutrality, August 1914–May 1915
Authors: Renzi William A.
Published: June 2009

Both the Entente and the Central Powers interpreted the ascension of Benedict XV to the papal throne in the fall of 1914 as signalling a reinvigoration of Vatican foreign policy. Indeed there was little reason to expect that Giacomo Delia Chiesa, elected successor to Pius X on the morning of 3 September, would be passive in a diplomatic sense. As Rennell Rodd, the British ambassador to the Italian court remarked a few days after Benedict's election, the new Pontiff's first acts gave promise of prefacing a ‘vigorous and interesting reign.’.
IX. The Seventh Dominion
Authors: Rose Norman
Published: June 2009

As a result of the Great War, the Zionist movement came of age. For the first time since its inception as a political organization, Zionism gained a backer of international and worldwide repute. The political charter which Herzl had hawked around the chancelleries of Europe found its consummation in the Balfour Declaration. The British Empire, in its moment of supreme crisis, stamped its seal of approval on the concept of a Jewish National Home in Palestine.
Martial Law: Legal and Administrative Problems of Civil Emergency in Britain and the Empire, 1800–1940
Authors: Townshend Charles
Published: June 2009

Not the least significant constitutional difference between Britain and many continental states in the nineteenth century lay in the sphere of formal arrangements for the exercise of power during civil emergencies. Britain had no clearly understood concept of notrecht or of 'state of siege’. This omission certainly reflected the absence of foreign invasion as much as the feebleness of domestic revolutionary threats. Internal emergencies occurred, indeed, with a frequency hard to square with the old Whig interpretation; but while they often alarmed the authorities, none of them proved so formidable as not to be amenable to control by the civil power backed up by fairly small numbers of troops. A good deal of emergency legislation was passed until the 1820s, but thereafter a marked decline in the incidence and severity of violent disturbance, and in the violence of the government's responses, set in. The threat of revolution in Britain itself, in so far as it had ever existed, had faded. The terrible uncertainties revealed by the 1831 Bristol riots could be optimistically put aside: magistrates could get by with ‘reading the Riot Act’ and trusting to luck, and perhaps a few dragoons or yeomanry.
British Finance and Foreign Policy in Turkey: The Smyrna-Aidin Railway Settlement 1913–14
Authors: McLean D.
Published: June 2009

It was often difficult in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to distinguish the interests of European financiers and concession holders operating overseas from the political policies of their respective governments. Concessions from a weak regime, in regions where political disorder and economic hardship were apparent, gave the power which held them a basis for the development of political influence in the country; and a basis too for an exclusive sphere of economic enterprise or, in the event of a total disintegration of the native administration, for a sphere of political influence which might follow a general partition among the European powers. In this context, railway enterprise was especially important. Railways promoted trade, and they could bring prosperity and progress to the areas through which they passed. They allowed military mobility too; and could be thus offensive or defensive instruments to be manipulated in accordance with economic and strategic interests.
James Tyrrell, Whig Historian and Friend of John Locke
Authors: Gough J. W.
Published: June 2009

It has been said of James Tyrrell that his ‘main claim to distinction was perhaps his friendship with John Locke’, but his elaborate monument in Oakley church, near Brill in Buckinghamshire, although it records a number of his qualities and achievements, does not mention this. James was the eldest son of Sir Timothy Tyrrell, Knight, of Shotover House, near Oxford; his mother's father was James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh. Sir Timothy had been a Cavalier and in royal service, but his n son was to devote himself to writing books attacking the principles for which the royalists had stood. Born in London in May 1642, James Tyrrell was entered before he was fourteen as a student at Gray's Inn, but a year later he abandoned legal study and went up as a gentleman commoner to Queen's College, Oxford.
Who were the French Colonialists? A Reassessment of the PartI Colonial, 1890–1914
Authors: Abrams L. , Miller D. J.
Published: June 2009

On 23 December 1910, Jean Victor Augagneur, deputy for the Rhône, directed this attack in the French Chamber on the influence and the methods of the parti colonial. Augagneur was not an opponent of French imperialist expansion, who would have been inclined to exaggerate the importance of the parti colonial for political or ideological purposes. On the contrary, he was a professional colonial administrator who had recently been governor general of Madagascar (1905–10). As such, he was deeply sympathetic to a policy of imperialist expansion and critical only of the process by which this policy was formulated and executed. His contention that a powerful pressure group existed which was capable of influencing decisively the making of French foreign policy has to a large extent been confirmed by subsequent historical research.
The British White Paper on Palestine, May 1939 Part II: The Testing of a Policy, 1942–1945
Authors: Cohen Michael J.
Published: June 2009

The 1939 White Paper remained the basis of British rule in Palestine during the first three years of war. The military crises that erupted in the Middle East between 1940 and 1942 did not permit consideration of any alternatives - if only because Britain could not be certain that in would still be in the area at the end of the war. Since his appointment to the War Cabinet in September 1939, Churchill had tried, in vain, to halt the implementation of the White Paper.
Foreign Policy in the Age of the Reformation: French Involvement in the Schmalkaldic War, 1544–1547
Authors: Potter D. L.
Published: June 2009

On 24 April 1547 the forces of the leading protestant princes in Germany were annihilated at Miihlberg by Charles V, and the political wing of protestantism received a blow from which it never entirely recovered. Events during the preceding year had moved with a startling rapidity. Diplomats had widely expected a drawn contest in the summer of 1546, while John Frederick of Saxony and Philip of Hesse had sent a series of missions to France and England to request the military aid and intervention which might tip the balance decisively against the emperor. The diplomatic experts of the Schmalkaldic League had expected France to take advantage of the emperor's difficulties in Germany. The outbreak of war there might seem to have brought to fruition decades of French efforts to cripple the emperor by embroiling him with his German subjects, and 1546 certainly saw a culmination of French diplomatic activity across the Rhine. Yet the outcome of the frenetic negotiations which accompanied the war showed, on the part of the French, a lack of decisiveness at this critical time which is not easy to explain. Four years before, a grand anti-Habsburg coalition had been the pivotal point of French foreign policy. Now, in 1546, any chances of such a coalition were frittered away in petty negotiations with the English and a marked lack of faith between the French and the Germans.
The British Secret Service and Anglo-Soviet Relations in the 1920s Part I: From the Trade Negotiations to the Zinoviev Letter
Authors: Andrew Christopher
Published: June 2009

On the morning of Saturday 25 October 1924 Philip Snowden, the Labour chancellor of the exchequer, was woken by the sound of J. H. Thomas, the colonial secretary, hammering on his bedroom door. ‘Get up, you lazy devil!’ Thomas is reported to have said. ‘We';re bunkered.’ What Thomas really said was probably more vivid but less printable. The cause of his excitement was the publication of the Zinoviev letter, the greatest Red Scare in British political history. Allegedly written by Zinoviev, president of the communist International, to the British Communist party on 15 September 1924. this sinister document instructed British Communists to put pressure on their sympathizers in the Labour party, to ‘strain every nerve’ for the ratification of the recent treaty with the Soviet Union, to intensify ‘agitation-propaganda work in the armed forces’, and generally to prepare for the coming of the British revolution. A copy of the letter was first obtained by the Daily Mail, then circulated by the Mail to the rest of Fleet Street. It was published in the press four days before the general election of 29 October 1924, at a critical moment in the life of the first Labour government. Until its publication Labour leaders felt their election campaign was going well. Afterwards they changed their minds.
Edward Hyde and Thomas Hobbes's Elements of Law, Natural and Politic
Authors: Dzelzainis Martin
Published: June 2009

Although the existence of materials relating to Hobbes's Elements of law and De cive in Bodleian Library MS Clarendon 126 has been known to scholars for some time, the first notice of these in print came as recently as 1987, in an article by Dr J. C. Hayward. The aim of this communication is to provide a full description and analysis of one of these items – the notes and extracts from the Elements – in the hope that this will shed some light on the earlier stages of the relationship between Clarendon and Hobbes.
A Low Road to Extinction? Supply and Redress of Grievances in the Parliaments of the 1620s
Authors: Cogswell Thomas
Published: June 2009

When his colleagues at the beginning of the 1621 session were puzzling over whether supply should precede redress of grievances or vice versa, Sir George More rose to give them the benefit of his considerable experience. The question could best be resolved, he suggested, if redress and supply were thought of ‘as twins, asJacob and Esau’ which ‘should go hand in hand, for though grievances go first, yet the blessing may be upon subsidies’. The biblical analogy was quite clear. Although grievances like Esau had precedence as the elder of the twins, the two should in fact ‘go hand in hand’ through the House; at the closing, the order would be reversed and the subsidy would first receive the blessing just as the younger of Isaac's twins eventually did.
Prelude to Disaster; The Precipitation of the War of the Mantuan Succession, 1627–29
Authors: Stradling R. A.
Published: June 2009

Cardinal Richelieu's spectacular military intervention in Italy in 1629 plunged his ministry into a desperate crisis from which it only narrowly emerged intact. It marked the definitive departure of France upon the difficult road of outright opposition to the Habsburg hegemony in Europe. This policy – as the cardinal well knew – was in many ways potentially counter-productive, with a risk factor so high that failure might well entail the end, not only of his personal career, but with it the adolescent Bourbon state. Indeed, his initiative had the almost immediate consequence of a rebellious challenge from a prince of the blood and his domestic allies, amounting to a prototype fronde des princes. For decades to come, French society was to be impoverished by the manifold negative impact of war, while political stability was persistently affected by the unrelenting material and ideological pressures of continuous hostilities.