History Books

For the last two or three years the King of Spain had been in very weak health, and in danger of his life several times. He had no children, and no hope of having any. The question, therefore, of the succession to his vast empire began now to agitate every European Court. The King of England (William III.), who since his usurpation had much augmented his credit by the grand alliance he had formed... more...

FOREWORDBy the Editor of "The Bystander."HEN Tommy went out to the great war, he went smiling, and singing the latest ditty of the halls. The enemy scowled. War, said his professors of kultur and his hymnsters of hate, could never be waged in the Tipperary spirit, and the nation that sent to the front soldiers who sang and laughed must be the very decadent England they had all along denounced... more...

PRELUDE About the walled city of Quebec cling more vivid and enduring memories than belong to any other city of the modern world. Her foundation marked a renaissance of religious zeal in France, and to the people from whom came the pioneers who suffered or were slain for her, she had the glamour of new-born empire, of a conquest renewing the glories of the days of Charlemagne. Visions of a hemisphere... more...

CHAPTER I. Character of a City illustrated by Riots.—New Material for History ofDraft Riots.—History of the Rebellion incomplete without History ofthem.—The Fate of the Nation resting on the Issues of the Struggle in NewYork City.—The best Plan to adopt for Protection against Mobs. The history of the riots that have taken place in a great city from its foundation, is a curious and unique one,... more...

James Buchanan James Buchanan was born near Mercersburg, Pa., April 23, 1791. His father, James Buchanan, a Scotch-Irish farmer, came from the county of Donegal, Ireland, in 1783. His mother was Elizabeth Speer. The future President was educated at a school in Mercersburg and at Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in 1809. Began to practice law in Lancaster in 1812. His first public... more...

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION The Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln marks the beginning of the end of a long chapter in human history. Among the earliest forms of private property was the ownership of slaves. Slavery as an institution had persisted throughout the ages, always under protest, always provoking opposition, insurrection, social and civil war, and ever bearing within itself the seeds... more...

CHAPTER I. THE THREE SHIPS SAIL Elizabeth of England died in 1603. There came to the English throne James Stuart, King of Scotland, King now of England and Scotland. In 1604 a treaty of peace ended the long war with Spain. Gone was the sixteenth century; here, though in childhood, was the seventeenth century. Now that the wars were over, old colonization schemes were revived in the English mind. Of the... more...

CHAPTER 1 Entrance of the Mississippi—Balize On the 4th of November, 1827, I sailed from London, accompanied by my son and two daughters; and after a favourable, though somewhat tedious voyage, arrived on Christmas-day at the mouth of the Mississippi. The first indication of our approach to land was the appearance of this mighty river pouring forth its muddy mass of waters, and mingling... more...

THE LAND OF SCHAMYL. Circassia—under which name the country occupied by a great number of tribes of which the Circassians are one, is best known to foreigners—lies in the Caucasus, a range of mountains which, running in the direction between north-west and south-east, extends from the shores of the Black Sea to those of the Caspian, and divides by its wall of rock the two continents of Europe and... more...

SHOWELL'S NOTES OF BIRMINGHAM IN THE PAST. Birmingham to the Seventh Century.—We have no record or traces whatever of there being inhabitants in this neighbourhood, though there can be little doubt that in the time of the invasion of the Romans some British strongholds were within a few miles of the place, sundry remains having been found to show that many battles had been fought near here. If... more...