Clyve Jones and Parliamentary History

The ‘constitutional revolution’ which occurred in Ireland after 1691 meant that parliamentary management became one of the prime functions of the viceroyalty. Interest focused on the Commons, where supply legislation was drafted. But the upper House, though smaller, less busy, and on the whole more easily managed, could not be ignored, since it could still cause major problems for government. The situation for the incoming ministers in 1714 was problematic, since the Lords had been a tory stronghold, and the ‘Church party’, buttressed by the bishops, remained powerful. The situation was a mirror image of Westminster in 1710, when Robert Harley's tory ministry had to cope with a whig-dominated house of lords. This essay analyses the means by which Lord Lieutenant Sunderland (1714–15), and his successors, Lords Justices Grafton and Galway, brought the Irish upper House under control, constructing a court party with some of the elements which Clyve Jones has identified as having been crucial to Harley's strategy in 1710–14: moderate or non-party men, pensioners and placemen depending on government largess, new episcopal appointments and a block creation of peerages. In Ireland it was the new peers who played the most important part. The whigs were able to make some inroads into the episcopal bench, previously a stronghold of toryism, until the issue of relief for dissenters rekindled anxiety over the maintenance of the ecclesiastical establishment, prefiguring future problems.     

Women's History and Biography

Books reviewed in this article: Helen M. Hopper, A New Woman of Japan: A Political Biography of Kato-Shidzue Delia Jarrett-Macauley, The Life of Una Marson 1905-65 Cynthia Nelson, Doria Shafik, Egyptian Feminist: A Woman Apart Judith Olmstead, Woman Between Two Worlds: Portrait of an Ethiopian RuralLeader Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, Phyllis Shand Allfrey: A Caribbean Life     

Writing Scottish Parliamentary History,c.1500–1707

In the 19th and 20th centuries, scholarship on the Scottish parliament was heavily informed by a narrative of ‘failure’, directed at explaining why its members voted it out of existence in 1707. Part of the problem was the tendency to see any deviation from the practices of the Westminster parliament as weakness. By reappraising parliament in terms of its utility to those who comprised its membership, notably the titled peerage and the monarch, historians have revealed its adaptability and inventiveness, especially in times of crisis. This essay considers how fresh approaches both to what constituted the parliamentary record and what can – and cannot – be found within it have exerted a transformative influence on our understanding of parliament's evolving role in Scottish political life. Although the Reformation crisis of 1560 and the accession of the ruling house of Stewart to the English throne in 1603 effected profound changes on parliamentary culture, this essay emphasises how parliament sustained its legitimacy and relevance, in part, by drawing on past practices and ideas. Historians have become more attentive in recent years to the means by which social groupings ordinarily excluded from formal parliamentary activity were nonetheless able to engage with, and influence, its proceedings. Gaps remain in our knowledge, however. Some periods have been more intensively studied than others, while certain aspects of parliamentary culture are understudied. The writing of Scottish parliamentary history will continue to offer rich possibilities in future.     

民国议会史研究述评

民国议会制是辛亥革命以后中国政治制度“承百代之流,而会乎当今之变”的主要创新之一。民国议会的建立及其运行不仅标示着民国时期中国人在建立现代国家的努力中民主政治发展的程     

The Extra‐Parliamentary Organisation of the Whig Junto in the Reign of William III

There is much evidence for the parliamentary organisation of the whig junto in Queen Anne's reign, but little for its extra‐parliamentary organisation. This note gives evidence for such extra‐parliamentary organisation late in the reign of William III from letters by both James Vernon and Robert Harley, which describe meetings of the junto and some of its supporters in the country houses of followers in the summers of 1698, 1699 and 1700.     

世界历史教学的挑战

当今,无论在研究领域还是教学领域,世界历史都成为最重要的议题之一。人们可以真切地感受到有关世界体系的历史研究取得了长足发展。这一新趋势削弱了传统的中、小学历史教学,传统历史教学建立在种族中心主义方法基础之上,被民族国家用于加强民族集体认同（通常与其他国家相对立）。与此相反,新的世界历史教学可以被视为一种开展不同文化间教育和加强世界主义的手段。这里建议世界历史课程计划以概念、空间和时间这三重框架为基础。概念框架集中于两个主题：人类社会的演进及其相互交往;空间框架可以持续利用与主题有关的球体投影图来展示;时间框架由基于9个时代的历史分期连接起来,另附一个时期论述未来前景。