The Parliamentary Organisation of the Whig Junto in the Reign of Queen Anne: A Further Note

The parliamentary organisation of the whig Junto in the reign of Queen Anne was far superior to that of the tory party. At the centre were the meetings in which three or four of the five members of the Junto were present together with some of their followers. Evidence of such meetings is rare but here is presented a letter giving the details of a meeting of all five in April 1713 at the home of Lord Somers, together with their ally, the tory earl of Nottingham, probably to discuss the forthcoming peace proposals, to end the war of the Spanish Succession, and the protestant succession to the British throne.     

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.     

The Longitude Act of 1714 and the Last Parliament of Queen Anne

Historical literature on the Longitude Act of 1714 has postulated a direct monocausal connection between a British naval disaster off the Scilly Isles in 1707 and the parliamentary enactment seven years later. This article proposes, and provides evidence for, a multicausal interpretation encompassing political, economic, and scientific factors. It argues that the Longitude Act, whose tercentenary was marked in July 2014, was the outcome of general circumstances, the legislation being concurrent with other statutory measures designed to protect shipping at a time of expanding commercial opportunities. The article re‐evaluates the parliamentary process and timetable and considers the role of MPs, men of science and journalists in promoting and seeing through parliament this important statute. It notes that the events in June 1714 mark one of the first instances of expert scientific opinion being heard at parliamentary level. It also evidences an earlier bill in 1712 promoted to protect a time movement invention designed to help in the discovery of the longitude, one of the most controversial subjects in the 18th century.     

Suffragan Bishops in the Medieval Diocese of York

Abstract

By looking at three families, all of Anglo-Scandinavian descent in the male line and neighbours in the Furness peninsula, this article seeks to examine the particular ways in which they, and similar families in the region, adapted to the changes that occurred in the century and a half or so after the Norman Conquest. By the early thirteenth century, an assimilation had taken place whereby these families were beginning to play the role expected of knightly families in thirteenth-century England as a whole, taking their place within a single elite alongside families that traced their male descent back to Continental immigrants. The article examines this process of assimilation by looking at the families' participation in the local aristocratic network, their changing naming practices, their marriage and landholding relationships, and their mix of old and new tenures. It further looks at the introduction of castles, markets and boroughs, and the families' interaction with the growing penetration and sophistication of royal and ecclesiastical administration in the region. Finally, it examines the families' reaction to, and participation in, the transformation of the local Church, both secular and regular.     

Whig Party Fortunes in the Yorkshire County Election of 1708

Abstract

The impact of State intervention in rural education was not to supplant the role of the aristocracy and gentry in providing schooling for those who lived on their estates. Rather it brought about a partnership between evolving State policy on the one hand and continuing propertied paternalism on the other. This article argues that the point of conjunction in the partnership occurred through the acquisition of government grants that were, throughout the period, linked to evolving conditionality. The responsibility for obtaining and maintaining school grants expanded the roles of landowners, as they became school managers as well as benefactors. Through the use of school logbooks these dual roles will be illustrated to show the complex relationship that some landowners in Northumberland had with their village schools which primarily focused on fulfilling the criteria for gaining government finance.     

同治、光绪朝如意馆

本文以《内务府造办处各作成做活计清档》为基本文献,以故宫博物院所藏同治、光绪两朝内廷画士的奉旨之作为重要参照,探讨了晚清宫廷绘画机构——如意馆的诸项制度(入值画家的选拔与考核、奖惩与等级、画作的审查与作品格式等),并论述了如意馆绘画的主要功用(纪实、装饰和案头观赏)及其各自不同的绘画风格。     

‘Too Wild to Succeed’: The Occasional Conformity Bills and the Attempts by the House of Lords to Outlaw the Tack in the Reign of Anne*

By the late 17th century it had been largely established as a part of the ‘constitution’ that the house of commons played the leading role in proposing financial legislation and that the house of lords by convention could not amend such bills, but only accept or reject them. From the late 1670s, the practice developed of the Commons ‘tacking’ money or supply bills to other, controversial legislation, to try to ensure that the Lords would pass the whole bill. This underhand proceeding sometimes worked, but at other times the Lords amended the non‐monetary parts in such a way as to render the bill unacceptable to the Commons, but such actions sometimes resulted in the loss of financial legislation necessary for the king's government. From the 1690s, the whig‐dominated Lords attempted to ‘outlaw’ tory‐backed tacking by protesting at its unparliamentary nature. This culminated in a formal declaration by the House in 1702 of the unconstitutionality of tacking. The last major attempt at tacking took place over the Occasional Conformity Bills of 1702–4. The final bill of 1704 essentially failed, however, because of the party strengths in the Lords when the tories were outvoted by the whigs. The Lords, however, continued to condemn tacking until at least 1709.