Veteran Politics in Restoration England, 1660–1670

This article calls attention to the political and social significance of the military during the first decade of Charles II's reign. The “Old Army” of the Commonwealth continued to be a sensitive issue long after 1660, and its disposal was neither as unproblematic nor as bloodless as oft-quoted sources such as Pepys might suggest. The redeployment of thousands of troops in Portugal, Tangier and Bombay is presented as a decisive episode in the consolidation of royal power. This redeployment, together with the great demobilisation of 1660–1662 had a significant impact on local communities, where demobilised veterans, maimed soldiers and war widows (both royalist and parliamentarian) had already become catalysts for economic and cultural tension. The author argues that the various issues concerning veterans were inextricably intertwined with wider political issues and had far-reaching consequences for the Restoration regime.     

The growth of the pottery industry in England, 1660–1815

This paper summarizes the author's attempts to quantify the growth of the pottery industry in England before 1815. It begins by considering the nature and limitations of the large body of miscellaneous data about trade, including the exports of glass and earthware and the imports of china-ware. It continues by presenting some new calculations of the growth of the industry based on a count, at five-yearly intervals, of the numbers of potteries at work and their sizes. The results of these estimates are presented in nine tables in the appendix. The third part of the article uses this new evidence to analyse the patterns of growth from 1660–1815 and concludes that this provides a framework for further, and more detailed, studies.     

Reason,ridicule and religion: The age of enlightenment in England 1660–1750

Abstract

Montesquieu and Adam Smith undertook deep analyses of the structural laws of agrarian civilizations and described the traps and tendencies which would prevent any final escape from constant toil and inequality. David Hume's work in certain of his ‘Essays’ complements their work. He shows the social, political, religious and economic conditions which had made England the most free and wealthy nation in the world by his time. Simultaneously he shows the strong forces which would ultimately lead to stasis even in the English case. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.     

The opinion–policy link in Australia

Whether or not policy is responsive to public opinion is central to questions of representation. Democracy by many accounts is premised on there being a strong correspondence between public opinion and policy. This link has not, however, been examined in detail in Australia. This article examines the policy–opinion link in a more robust way than that has previously been achieved in Australia, through the use of legislative data from the Australian Policy Agendas Project (APAP) and public opinion data from Roy Morgan. The article asks: is policy congruent with public opinion in Australia? In addressing this question, we examine to what extent policy accords with the preferences of the public. This in turn provides us with some answers about how representative Australian democracy is, as well as contributing to an international debate about the responsiveness of policy to public opinion.

政策是否要对舆论负责,这是代表制的核心问题。民主的前提往往就在于舆论和政策之间的息息相通。但在澳大利亚,人们并没有仔细地研究过二者间的关联。本文根据澳大利亚政策议题计划提供的立法资料以及罗伊摩根提供的舆情资料,对政策—舆论关联做了比以往充分多的研究。本文试问：政策与舆论在澳大利亚是否一致？我们考察了政策在多大程度上符合民意。这也为澳大利亚民主在多大程度上具有代表性的问题提供了答案,对于国际上争论政策对民意的回应问题也具有参考意义。。     

Armour in England, 1325–99

A dramatic change in the personal armour of the knightly classes occurred across the whole of Europe in the middle of the fourteenth century: the addition of plate armour on top of the mail defences that had been worn since the time of the Roman empire. This change is documented in England by the series of monumental effigies and brasses, as well as a very few surviving examples. The story is supplemented by documentary records, especially those of the armoury at the Tower of London, which shed new light on the equipment of the English armies of the first half of the Hundred Years War.