The Carlton Club was a famous political club in Pall Mall, London. It was the recognised headquarters of the Conservative Party, and was founded in 1831 or 1832 by the Duke of Wellington. and held its first meeting in Charles Street, St James's before being removed to Carlton Gardens in 1832 and built a club-house in Pall Mall in 1836. Research Carlton Club
Catholic Emancipation was the abolition of those civil and ecclesiastical restraints to which the Roman Catholics of Great Britain, and particularly of Ireland, were once subjected. By the statutes of William III. Roman Catholics were forbidden to hold property in land, and their spiritual instructors were open to the penalties of felony; and although latterly these restrictions had not been enforced, they remained unrepealed in England until 1778. The proposal to repeal similar enactments on the Scotch statute-books was delayed by the strenuous opposition of the Protestant associations, in connection with which the Lord Gordon riots occurred. In 1791, however, a bill was passed allowing Roman Catholics who took the oath of allegiance to hold landed property, enter the legal profession, and enjoy freedom of education.
In Ireland the Roman Catholics had been even more unjustly treated. Their public worship was proscribed, all offices and the learned professions were closed against them, they were deprived of the guardianship of their children, and if they had landed estates they were forbidden to marry Protestants. Burke and a strong body of followers took up their cause, and in 1792 and 1793 the worst of the disabilities were removed by the Irish parliament. Restraints on worship, education, and disposition of property were removed; they were admitted to the franchise, and to some of the higher civil and military offices, and to the honours and endowments of the Dublin University. They continued to be excluded, however, from thirty public offices, and from parliament = an arrangement which could not be changed without a repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts. It was part of Pitt's scheme when the union with Ireland was formulated in 1799 to admit Irish Roman Catholics to the parliament of the United Kingdom and to offices of state.
To this proposal, however, George III. was strongly hostile, and in 1801 Pitt was compelled to resign. Between that year and 1828 numerous attempts were made to abolish remaining disabilities, but without success, the Lords throwing out the bills passed latterly in the Commons, and George IV proving not less unyielding than his father. At length, on April the 10th 1829 an emancipation bill was carried through the Commons by Mr. Peel, and through the Lords by the Duke of Wellington. By this act Catholics became eligible to all offices of state, excepting the lord-chancellorships of England and Ireland, the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland, the office of regent or guardian of the United Kingdom, and that of High Commissioner to the Church of Scotland. They were still excluded from the right of presentation to livings, and all places connected with the ecclesiastical courts and establishment. The church patronage attached to any office in the hands of a Catholic was vested in the Archbishop of Canterbury. Attached to the bill was a clause for the gradual suppression of the Jesuits and monastic orders (religious establishments of females excepted). During the 20th century full emancipation was realised. Research Catholic Emancipation
A day is either the interval of time during which the sun is continuously above the horizon, or the time occupied by a revolution of the earth on its axis, embracing this interval (the period of light) as well as the interval of darkness. The day in the latter sense may be measured in more than one way. If we measure it by the apparent movement of the stars, caused by the rotation of the earth on its axis, we must call day the period between the time when a star is on the meridian and when it again returns to the meridian: this is a sidereal day. It is uniformly equal to 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.098 seconds. But more important than this is the solar day, or the interval between two passages of the sun across the meridian of any place. The latter is about 4 minutes longer than the former, owing to the revolution of the earth round the sun, and it is not of uniform length, owing to the varying speed at which the earth moves in its orbit and to the obliquity of the ecliptic. For convenience an average of the solar day is taken, and this gives us the mean solar or civil day of 24 hours, the difference between which the actual solar day at any time is the equation of time.
The length of the days and nights at any place varies with the latitude and season of the year, owing to the inclination of the earth's axis. In the first place, the days and nights are equal (twelve hours each) all over the world on the 21st of March and the 21st of September, which dates are called the vernal (spring) and autumnal equinoxes. Again, the days and nights are always of equal length at the equator, which, for this reason, is sometimes called the equinoctial line. With these exceptions, we find the difference between the duration of the day and the night varying more and more as we recede from the equator, and at the poles the year consists of one day of six months' duration, and one night of the same.
The Babylonians began the day at sun-rising; theJews at sun-setting; the Egyptians and Romans at midnight, as do most modern peoples. The civil day in most countries is divided into two portions of twelve hours each. The abbreviations PM. and AM. (the first signifying post meridiem, Latin for afternoon; the latter ante meridiem, forenoon) are requisite, in consequence of this division of the day. The Italians in some places reckon the day from sunset to sunset, and enumerate the hours up to twenty-four; the Chinese divide it into twelve parts of two hours each.
For astronomical purposes the day is divided into twenty-four hours instead of two parts of twelve hours. Formerly it began at noon, but since the 1st of January 1885, the day of twenty-four hours begins at midnight at Greenwich Observatory; and this reckoning is now generally adopted for astronomical purposes elsewhere than at Greenwich. The Greenwich day practically determines the date for all the world. At mid-day at Greenwich the date (day of the week and month) is everywhere the same, though there are all possible differences in naming the hour of the day. But mid-day at Greenwich is the only instant at which we ever have the same date all over the world. The meridian of midnight, which is then at 180 degrees east or west, goes on revolving, gradually bringing a new date to every place to the west of that line, but obviously not bringing that new date to the places immediately to the east of that line until twenty-four hours after. From this it follows that whereas places on the one side of the globe never have a different date except when midnight lies between them, places on the opposite side of the globe, and on different sides of the meridian of 180 degrees east Or west never have the same date except when midnight lies between them. The actual difference of time between Wellington in New Zealand and Honolulu in Hawaii is only about two hours; yet a person at Wellington may date a letter 9 o'clock AM 26th June, while another writing at the same instant at Honolulu dates his 11 o'clock AM 25th June.
A duel (from the Latin duellum) is a single combat following on a challenge, for the purpose of deciding some private difference or quarrel, and conducted according to the regulations of the code of honour. The combat generally takes place in the presence of witnesses called seconds, who make arrangements as to the mode of fighting, place the weapons in the hands of the combatants, and see that the laws they have laid down are carried out. The origin of the practice may probably be traced to the judicial combats of the northern tribes who overthrew the Roman power. Possessing no well-defined system of jurisprudence, they refereed the settlement of all disputes to an appeal to arms, invoking the deity to defend the right.
Duelling took hold early in France, and it is calculated that 6000 persons fell in duels during ten years of the reign of Henry IV. His minister, Sully, remonstrated against the practice; but the king connived at it, supposing that it tended to maintain a military spirit among his people. In 1602, however, he issued a decree against it, and declared it to be punishable with death. Many subsequent prohibitions were issued, but they were all powerless to stop the practice. During the minority of Louis XIV. more than 4000 nobles are said to have lost their lives in duels.
Duelling with small swords was introduced into England in 1587 from France. The first recorded English duel took place in 1096 between Williamcount of Eu and Godfrey Baynard. Duelling has always been illegal in England, with the issue of a challenge seen as a breach of the peace and the killing of an opponent as murder or manslaughter, with the charge raised against the survivor and the seconds. Notable duels include: Between the duke of Hamilton and lord Mohun which was fought with small swords in Hyde Park on the 15th of November 1712. Lord Mohun was killed on the spot and the duke died of his wounds as he was being carried to his coach. On the 8th of June 1807 a Mr Alcock killed a Mr Colcough and went mad as a result. On the 21st of March 1829 the Duke of Wellington and the earl of Winchelsea duelled with no injury, indeed the duel was a farce with both parties firing into the air. Research Duel
The Oberlin-Wellington Case was an American criminal case which occurred in 1858. A negro named John Rice was captured near Wellington, Ohio, by Kentucky kidnappers. An Oberlin College student gave the alarm, and the kidnappers were pursued by a large crowd, who rescued the negro. For this infraction of the law thirty-seven citizens of Oberlin and Wellington were indicted. During the progress of the case the greatest excitement prevailed over the entire country, however no severe penalties were imposed upon the offenders. Research Oberlin-Wellington Case
The Wellington or Dumelow's Seedling is an English species of apple named after the farmer (Dumelow) who raised it. It was said to be Queen Victoria's favourite apple, and is very good for mincemeat and makes excellent baked apples. The fruit stores very well. Research Wellington
John Bell was a Scottish surgeon. He was born in 1763 at Edinburgh 1763 and died in 1820. After completing his professional education he travelled for a short time in Russia and the north of Europe; and on his return to Edinburgh began to deliver extramural lectures on surgery and midwifery. These lectures, which he delivered between the years 1786 and 1796, were very highly esteemed, and speedily brought him into an extensive practice as a consulting and operating surgeon. His principal works are: The Anatomy of the Human Body, Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds, The Principles of Surgery, and Letters on Professional Character, etc.
John Bell was a Scottish surgeon. He was born in 1763 at Edinburgh 1763 and died in 1820. After completing his professional education he travelled for a short time in Russia and the north of Europe; and on his return to Edinburgh began to deliver extramural lectures on surgery and midwifery. These lectures, which he delivered between the years 1786 and 1796, were very highly esteemed, and speedily brought him into an extensive practice as a consulting and operating surgeon. His principal works are: The Anatomy of the Human Body, Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds, The Principles of Surgery, and Letters on Professional Character, etc.
John Bell was a Scottish surgeon. He was born in 1763 at Edinburgh 1763 and died in 1820. After completing his professional education he travelled for a short time in Russia and the north of Europe; and on his return to Edinburgh began to deliver extramural lectures on surgery and midwifery. These lectures, which he delivered between the years 1786 and 1796, were very highly esteemed, and speedily brought him into an extensive practice as a consulting and operating surgeon. His principal works are: The Anatomy of the Human Body, Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds, The Principles of Surgery, and Letters on Professional Character, etc.
Charles Grey (Earl Grey) was a British soldier. He was born in 1729 and died in 1807. A major-general, he accompanied Howe from England in 1775, surprised and defeated General Wayne's force near the Schuylkill on September the 20th, 1777, had a command at Germantown and Tappan, and destroyed the shipping and stores at New Bedford in 1778.
Charles Grey (Ear Grey) was an English statesman. He was born in 1764 and died in 1845. The eldest son of Charles Grey, the first earl Grey, he was educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge. In 1786 he was returned to parliament as member for Northumberland. On the accession of the Grenville ministry in 1806, Charles Grey, now Lord Howick, was made first lord of the admiralty, and on the death of Fox succeeded him as secretary for foreign affairs and leader of the House of Commons. The death of his father in 1807 raised him to the House of Peers, and from this period up to 1830 he beaded the opposition in the Lords, and especially opposed the proceedings against Queen Caroline. On the accession of William IV and the retirement of the Wellington ministry, Earl Grey was summoned to office. The great event which marks his administration is the passing in 1832 of the first reform bill. In 1834 Earl Grey resigned, and was succeeded by LordMelbourne. The remainder of his life was chiefly spent in retirement. Research Charles Grey
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Abbreviations
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