During the late 19th Century there was considerable debate in the United States among members of the legal profession, the general public and even some scientists about the validity of using tree rings to determine tree age. In an earlier boundary dispute case in Maryland (1830) the Honorable Theodorick Bland rejected the use of tree rings to establish the date when a purported witness tree was marked with an identifying blaze. Bland did not believe that there was enough scientific evidence or legal precedent to support this idea. A review of the current scientific literature of the time, however, indicates that most scientists, especially in Europe, accepted that tree rings could be used to determine age. In the United States, however, this idea was debated, particularly in the late 19th Century, in both the popular press and scientific publications. The main argument of opponents such as A. L. Child was that the number of tree rings was often wildly in excess of the known age of the tree. These inconsistencies were likely because of the inexperience of the observer, mistaking earlywood and latewood for separate rings, and the presence of a small number of false rings, sometimes called secondary rings. The great ages reported for the giant sequoias may have also raised doubts among the public. Among scientists, however, the relationship between ring number and tree age and between ring width and climate became widely accepted. Several cases heard in both Federal and State Courts as well as Bernhard E. Fernow’s Age of Trees and Time of Blazing Determined by Annual Rings laid to rest any doubt of the relationship between tree rings and age in temperate forests, i.e. one ring equals one year’s growth, and showed that the date when a witness tree was blazed could be easily determined from a cross-section of the trunk.

British religious revivalism in the mid nineteenth century is an undeniably neglected area of study; despite the widespread incidence of revivals, and the vast numbers of men, women and children embraced by evangelical churches, there exists no comprehensive analysis of revivals in these years. Similarly neglected - yet widely recognised as influential in the development of that revivalism - is the impact on the British evangelical community of American revivalistic ideas and practices. By examining the latter, and in particular the British itinerancies of American revivalists, this thesis offers an insight into the extent and organisation of British revivals in a generation when attitudes to conversion and revivals were undergoing fundamental changes. In the 1820s the majority of evangelicals were extremely reluctant to use anything other than the most traditional of 'means' to encourage revivals. By the time of the revival of 1859 a much more 'instrumentalist', calculated and promotional approach to conversion and church recruitment had taken hold. American example transmitted through publications, private letters and the work of visiting Anericans played a significant part in this transition. The main sources used for this study - especially biographies and autobiographies of major evangelical figures, revival sermons and addresses, and the great quarry of material in evangelical periodicals - have made it possible sympathetically, if not uncritically, to examine the evangelical world from within. They have suggested the need to recognise that there existed a world of conversion and revivals with a life of its own. The evangelical was always a member of a wider secular society as well as of his church; but for the most aggressively evangelistic the regeneration of himself and others was his primary object. Once this is understood, simple secular explanations of the outbreak of revivals - economic decline, or the onset of cholera - are seen to be inadequate} the causation of revivals was complex, but the evangelical's search for conversions and his constant expectation of widespread revival were always fundamental ingredients. Chapter one examines the origins of the more 'engineered', new measures revivalism in the United States in the early nineteenth century. It argues that the revival movement originating in upstate New York under the aegis of Charles Grandison Finney has been given too prominent a place in explaining the introduction of this new style revivalism, and that equally important was the stimulus provided by the fast-growing hyper-evangelistic Methodist churches. Moreover, much of this thrust came from urban centres and not, as has been generally assumed, from the frontier and western areas alone. The urban modifications in the methods and style of revivals (betterorganised agencies of conversion, growing refinement and decorum in worship, for instance) are examined, as are the problems of city churches facing a more heterogeneous population than in Protestant small-town America. The chapter concludes with a summary of the incidence of revivals in the generation up to 1857, noting the peaks of the late 1820s and early 1830s, the late 1830s and early 1840s, and the late 1850s; and asserting the everbroadening hold of the new measures during the period.

The Machinery Question during the early Nineteenth Century was the question of the impact of technical progress on the total economy and society. The question was central to everyday relations between, master and workman, but it was also of major theoretical and ideological interest. The very technology at the basis of economy and society was a fundamental platform of challenge and struggle. In the early Nineteenth Century, it was political economy, the 'natural science' of economy and society which took up the theoretical debate on the introduction, diffusion, and social impact of the radically new techniques of production associated with the era. The machine question also came to infuse not only the theoretical realm of political economy, but also the wider culture and consciousness of the bourgeoisie and the working classes. The machine question reflected the close connections of the relations of production to the concerns and conflicts pervading theory, culture and politics. This thesis has analyzed only one part of this many sided issue. It has focused on the attempt of the middle classes to use the new science of political economy to depict technical progress as a natural and evolutionary phenomenon. However, the thesis also shows that the great variety of theoretical traditions in political economy, combined with significant theoretical and working class dissent with the so called doctrine of political economy prevented the unqualified success of this attempt. The depth of the controversy evoked over the machinery issue indicated the still marked uncertainty of the experience of industrialization. By the 1820's and 1830's the factory, urban agglomerations and the coal heaps of mining counties had transformed some parts of the industrial landscape. But the permanence of this change still seemed questionable. Such change was still confined to a very small number of regions, affected small sections of the population, and contributed minimally to national income. The experience of technical change was of great novelty and excitement for those who contemplated the prospects of wealth and power it might bring. On the other hand, for the first generation of factory labour and cast off artisans and domestic workers, it still seemed possible to stop the 'unnatural' progress of technology. Working men and women felt keenly the unprecedented demands for mobility, both geographical and occupational. For them the machine meant, or at least threatened, unemployment, an unemployment which at best was transitional between and within sectors of the economy, and at worst affected the economy as a whole at times of scarce capital. For them the machine was accompanied by a change in the pattern of skills, and involved all too often the introduction of cheap and unskilled labour. In the period before the 1840's, when labour's great onslaught was against the machine itself, the machine question also featured in middle class doctrine. The times were still uncertain enough to demand that the 'cult of improvement' take on the shape of a cultural offensive rather than mere complacency. Thus the 'cult of improvement' during this era sought its -reatest scientific context in political economy. Most of the secondary literature on this period depicts the views of the middle classes and especially of political economy as ones of great pessimism. This thesis shows, to the contrary, that optimism and great faith in the new industrial technology was fundamental to the vision of political economy and to that of its middle class adherents. Ricardo's work was an intellectual and doctrinal tour de force which gripped the whole period, but which, in addition, just as significantly generated a great array of criticism. Curiously, the great historical problem of Ricardo's work was the lack of understanding it met, and the serious distortion it suffered at the hands of his popularizers. The great range of Ricardo criticism in the decades after his death was based often on misconceptions of his work. His own Principles which exuded so much interest in and hope for technical progress generated a wealth of dissident literature which also focused on improvement, skill and technical change. Though the political economy of these years was very diverse, and policy debates were hotly conducted, there is no doubt that the self-defined profession of political economy accepted certain assumptions and outlooks. There were several themes and conceptions which shaped the overall nature of this critique of Ricardo. These themes allow for the demarcation of two epochs of political economy between the 1820's and the 1830's. Political economists of the 1820's placed great emphasis on labour productivity and the skills of the artisan in their attempt to contradict the so called Ricardic predictions of overpopulation and the stationary state. By the 1830's economists still found in 'improvement,' technical change, and increasing returns, the great empirical and theoretical rebuttal to the 'Ricardian' predictions. However, 'improvement' was now discussed as the evolution of capital, and even more crucial to this change was the tendency to see capital as a material embodiment, as fixed capital and machinery. This shift of concepts was accompanied by a new methodological thrust. The political economy of the 1830's reflected a polemically inductivist mood. Unprecedented energy was devoted to debates over abstraction and induction. The political economy which resulted was more empirical, comparative and historical. New interest was given over to visiting factory districts, drawing on government reports, and in using and participating in social surveys. Political economists devoted more time to comparing the course of economic development in Britain to that of other Western economies, that of primitive societies, and that of previous historical epochs. The conceptual shift in political economy over these years seems to parallel certain tendencies and changes in the economy itself. The political economy of the 1820's appears to reflect the concerns underlying the economic-phase defined by Marx as the phase of 'manufactures'. The shift that takes place in theory in the 1830's approximates to the shift in the economy to the phase of 'modern industry.' But the conceptual changes in political economy over the period are also very closely connected to class struggle. This shows in the very seriousness attached by political economists to the 1826 anti-machinery riots in Lancashire and to the 1830 agricultural riots. Discussion of these two disturbances infused the very heights of economic theory. The establishment of political economy reflected the alarm of the middle classes and provided the 'scientific' answers to the working man's critique of machinery. Moreover, in debate with their critics, they helped to generate a new theory of technical change based on the machine and on the evolution and security of capital and the capitalist. The overall effect of these riotc on the middle clashes was a celebration of the cult of technical improvement. The force of this 'scientific' optimism in political economy was given a deep cultural basis in middle class improvement societiesandmdash;the Mechanics Institute Movement of the 1820's and the scientific and statistical societies of the 1830's. These movements were attempts to involve both the working classes and the middle classes in a concerted energetic programme to promote technical advance. They also acted to forge new cultural connections between the provinces and the metropolis. A scientific movement which, in its rhetoric at least, focused on the practical, economic and technological connections of science, created a new nexus simultaneously economic and cultural between province and metropolis. This scientific culture was material and empirical.

This PhD dissertation seeks to define the configuration and evolution of French women’s moral identity and social status, through works of art created during the first thirty years of the Third Republic (1870-1900). More specifically, my thesis investigates the artistic perception and visual recording of “traditional” female roles and analyses the socio-historical factors which contributed to the construction of the ideal woman. I focus on the representation of young girls’ education and First Communion and study the portrayal of maternity which was perceived both as a personal role and a republican ideal. Furthermore, I consider the institutions of marriage and family through portraits and scenes of everyday life. The woman’s relations to the Catholic Church within a secular state, as well as the notions of chastity and patriotism, are thoroughly explored. In my dissertation I prioritised nineteenth century texts, where French doctors, demographers and statesmen from different ideological backgrounds give moral guidelines concerning hygiene, breastfeeding and childcare, or analyse phenomena such as the birth rate decline. The writings of these authors who communicated major social anxieties served as an evaluative platform; more specifically, I ventured to see how French painters and illustrators participated to the most important debates of their time. Therefore, the criterion for the choice of images was not artistic excellence, but their engagement with the moral and social issues I decided to consider. Since in my thesis pictures are treated within a socio-historical context, I was challenged to achieve a balance between the visual and theoretical material, making them inter-relate effectively. Finally, my time-frame covers the three first decades of the French Third Republic and observes the succession of different governments. I investigate to what extent certain social attitudes which were developed during this period of thirty years shifted, and try to find out whether these alterations are conveyed in painting.

This thesis examines the connection between participation in the British empire and constructions of Scottish national identity, through investigating the activities of civil society organisations in Scotland, in particular missionary societies and the Presbyterian churches in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Though empire is commonly thought to have had a significant impact on Scots' adoption of a British identity. The process of how representations of empire were transmitted and understood at home has been little explored. Similarly, religion is thought to have played an important role in supporting a sense of Scottish identity. but this theme has also been little explored. This thesis, then, examines evidence of civil society activity related to empire, including philanthropic and religious, learned and scientific, and imperial propagandist activities. In order to elucidate how empire was understood at home through the engagement with empire by civil society organisations. Of these forms of organisation. missionary societies and the churches were the most important in mediating an understanding of empire. The pattern of the growth and development of the movement in support of foreign missions is described and analysed, indicating its longevity, its typical functions and membership, and demonstrating both its middle class leadership and the active participation of women. Analysis of missionar) literature of a variety of types shows that dominant discourses of religion, race. gender and class produced iconic representations of the missionary experience which reflected the values of middle class Scots. The analysis also demonstrates both that representations of Scottish national identity were privileged over those of a British identity, but that these were complementary rather than being seen as in opposition to each other. Through examining the public profile of the missionary enterprise in the secular press it is shown that these representations were appropriated in the secular sphere to represent a specific Scottish contribution to empire. The thesis concludes that the missionary experience of empire. embedded as it was in the institutional life of the Presbyterian churches, had the capacity to generate representations and symbols of Scottish national identity which were widely endorsed in both religious and secular spheres in the age of high imperialism.

The first Bishop of Truro, Edward White Benson, saw the building of a Cathedral as the centre piece of his vision for Cornwall. The foundation stones were laid in May 1880, only three years after his enthronement. The building itself, the ability to raise money for it in impoverished Cornwall and the use of Cathedral Canons for training, education and mission for the whole diocese were intended to inspire faith and make the Cathedral the mother church for all Christians in Cornwall. The Cathedral revived an imagined vibrant medieval Church in Cornwall, some of whose saints were named in the Canons’ stalls and whose bishops, Benson believed, were his predecessors. Benson failed to unify Cornish people around this vision. Methodism was far too strong in Cornwall and remained so for many decades after he left Cornwall in 1883 to become Archbishop of Canterbury. Here Benson was no more successful implementing the vision on a wider stage. The state, not the church, became the umbrella organisation that started to reach everyone at local and national level. Nevertheless, Anglicanism in Cornwall did revive in Benson’s time and disagreements between Anglicans over styles of worship and other matters were partially sorted out by Benson, both as Bishop of Truro and as Archbishop of Canterbury. Benson’s interest in history further encouraged Cornwall’s interest in its Celtic past. An increasingly pluralistic culture enabled a reviving Anglicanism to take its place alongside Methodism in Cornwall, without ever coming close to replacing it. Shortly before Benson arrived in Cornwall, a Baptist minister suggested that the sturdy non-conformist people of Cornwall needed a Bishop no more than a duck needed an umbrella. Cornish people appreciated Bishop Benson and the Cathedral he helped to inspire. By and large they chose not to shelter under the umbrella of the Church of England. In the words of Edward Fish in a letter to the Royal Cornwall Gazette published on the 5 January 1877: “Looking around on this great Non-conformist county we did not need a bishop any more than a duck needs an umbrella. My statement as a Non-conformist is this, and I do but echo the opinion of thousands in the county, we do not need a bishop.”

This thesis examines the literary uses of biblical typology in the last three decades of the nineteenth century. It aims to show how late Victorian writers, having opted out of the orthodox Christian beliefs of the age, were still writing from within a cultural discourse shaped by, and based upon, such faith. Covering works as diverse as Sartor Resartus, De Profundis, and The Island of Doctor Moreau, and discussing writers who range from Mary Augusta Ward via Hardy to Strindberg and Dostoevsky, my contention is that these writers not only used the structure, terminology, and imagery of biblical typology to express their religious doubts, but that they 'reclaimed' what was strictly seen as a mode of exegesis and transformed it into a richly suggestive signifying system. Through this reconstructed mode of expression, they could offer to their readers ideas of a new 'religion' or, at least, a possible way out of the despair caused by the ultimate failure of Christian faith. The thesis is presented in three parts, the first of which briefly details the various available definitions of biblical typology itself. Following this, each sub-section of Part One traces a different aspect of late Victorian typology usage. Parts Two and Three deal with what I claim to be the two major strains of the late nineteenth century's secular use of typology - those concerned, respectively, with the 'imitation of' or 'association with' biblical types in their relation to literary characters. The changes made to the traditional biblical typology by late Victorian writers, as examined in this thesis, brought the biblical anti-type closer to the Jungian archetype, just as it brought the Nineteenth Century closer to our twentieth-century view of our religious and textual inheritance.

No description available.

Following the article on church choires in Greater Poland the author publishes another work on secular choral ensembles in the Great Duchy of Poznan (at that time occupied by Prussia). The article brings comprehensive information on the development of secular choirs, the changing number of their members, the character of their activities, the repertoire.

D.Litt. et Phil. / The fundamental axle of this work is the educational and ideological policy during the years 1833-1862 concerning the secondary education. That’s to say, it is attempted the research and presentation all those of factors that directly or indirectly are involved in the molding/shaping and organization of the secondary education during King’s Othon reign, something which is imprinted both on the educational speech, and on the particular school activity. Specifically, the related laws and circulars are presented and the significance or the possibilities of application are evaluated. Further more, the way of acceptance or their reaction to them is located. This also has a special meaning, because during this period the steady basis of secondary education of Greek nation is formed. This is proved by the way of the formation and organization to a great degree development of the school plant. Thinking so, the basic matters and work inquiries, which are mentioned to European lending and domestic needs, the educational uniformity, the legislative frame and thoughts, the United organization of the secondary main circle of the circular education, the school liturgy according to regions of the Greek country and the by chance particularities, the orientation of the religions professional education, the education of Greek women, teachers, school children, pedagogic instructive teaching and educational task. Documents as primary sources were developed and kept in the General files of state “mainly in Kapodistrias’ and king Othon’s files” in the historic and ethnological society of Greece, in private files and collections. At the same time, those days what was written in the press was searched and was seriously taken into account as well as the existing bibliography. Finally the work was structured into eleven parts. The first part is mentioned to the conceptual and historic frame and what is related to the educational operation as well as the school work analyzed there. The second part includes what there was in Greece before 1833, mainly in Kapodistrias’ government. In the next part (c) entitled “The institutional operation in the secondary Education” the laws, thoughts and philosophy, directions and articles are analyzed. The foundation and operation both of Greek schools and high schools are the contents of fourth part. In the fifth part there are the economic possibilities and resources of the Medium Education and explicit information is given for the financial grants, the housing school problem and the luck in supervisory material. The next part concerns the common inferior education of Greek girls and as a rule the limited possibilities that they had for attending the courses of secondary education. The syntax and development of the analytic programs of study as well as the teaching of lessons is the content of the seventh part. In the eighth part the synthesis of the instructive corpus, the conditions of nominated teachers, their salary, their duties and obligations are examined. It follows “9th part” a certain report to the extend of school potential, registration conditions of students in Greek schools and high schools, according to their geographical regions as well as their fathers’ and guardians’ social and occupational data. The teaching works, in general, studies, penalties, wages, examinations, progress, reactions etc, are evaluated in the tenth part. The work is completed by the account of discoveries and general conclusions.