Champ de Mai

The Champ de Mai (; "Field of May") was a public assembly held by Napoleon on the Champ de Mars, Paris, a large open area near the École militaire, on 1 June 1815. This was during the Hundred Days, the period between Napoleon's return from exile and the restoration of the Bourbon kings following his failed Waterloo campaign. The objective of the Champ de Mai was to gather public support behind Napoleon's Charter of 1815, a constitutional reform that promised a more liberal government than under his earlier rule. The Charter was put to the citizens in a constitutional referendum and the results of this would be announced during the ceremony by representatives of the electoral college.
Several temporary structures were constructed including a semi-amphitheatre, housing 9–10,000 military and civic dignitaries; a throne platform for Napoleon and his brothers; and a religious altar and a platform from which Napoleon was to distribute imperial eagles, the French standards, to his troops. Around 200,000 spectators attended the event which included a parade of 25,000 soldiers and 25,000 National Guardsmen.
After a Catholic mass, the results of the referendum, a landslide in favour, were announced. Napoleon afterwards signed the Charter and swore, on a copy of the New Testament, that he would uphold it. The distribution of standards overran and those of the National Guard had to be distributed at the Louvre three days later.
Background.
Since his defeat by the Sixth Coalition in May 1814 the former French Emperor Napoleon had been exiled to the island of Elba off the coast of Tuscany. His Empress Marie Louise and their son Napoleon (the former King of Rome) fled to Austria, where Marie Louise had a lover. The Bourbon line were restored as kings of France. The Bourbons refused to pay Napoleon's stipend, which left him unable to maintain his position in Elba, and, knowing the unpopularity of King Louis XVIII, Napoleon left Elba on 1 March 1815 to regain his position in France. Landing with a small force he marched northwards, rallying French troops to his cause and entering Paris on 20 March.
Napoleon had the support of the French army but was less popular among the general populace; according to Dawson (2017) only 3% supported him. Seeking to improve his position, Napoleon proposed the Charter of 1815, which was similar to the constitution of Louis XVIII. The Charter, also known as the "acte additionnel" as it was considered merely an amendment to Napoleon's previous constitutions, was written to appeal to liberals and conservatives alike. It contained a bill of rights similar to those of the French Republic and an expanded electorate while reserving power for the propertied classes through a Chamber of Peers. Napoleon's long-term plans are unclear as to whether he intended to rule through the Charter as a constitutional monarch or would renege on it and return to a dictatorship. In the short term, to cement public support, he proposed a grand ceremony in Paris to sign the charter, following its approval by referendum.
Assembly.
The assembly was planned to take place in May on the Champ de Mars, a stretch of open ground running from the military school at the École Militaire to the banks of the River Seine. The site had a long association with public assemblies; new laws had been promulgated there since the time of the early French monarchs and, in 1790 during the Fête de la Fédération, Louis XVI had sworn to upload the post-revolutionary constitution. The Champ de Mars also had a long association with Napoleon; a festival was held there in 1793 to celebrate the young Captain Bonaparte's victory at the Siege of Toulon and Napoleon had distributed imperial eagles, the standards of his regiments, to the troops there on the day after his coronation as emperor. Napoleon announce the assembly on 30 April and the members of the electoral college (representatives of the arondissements and departments) were called to meet at Paris. The ceremony was to have taken place in May, hence the name (Mai is French for May), but was delayed until 1 June.
The republican faction had wanted Napoleon to appear at the event only as a general, not as an emperor. Napoleon considered this but decided it would not suit his authority and styled the event after his coronation. This alienated some of the faction, who saw him only as a means of ridding France of the Bourbons. A large semi-circular platform was erected in front of the military school, accessible by two bridges from the first floor of the building and approached by two flights of stairs. Atop this platform sat a gilded throne for the emperor from which he could look out upon a semi-circular amphitheatre that would provide seating for 9–10,000 civil and military officers, magistrates, elected members of the house of representatives and the deputies of the electoral college. Seats were provided next to the throne for Napoleon's brothers. An altar was erected in the centre of the Champ de Mars for the religious portion of the ceremony.
Napoleon travelled in formal procession to the ceremony. His coronation carriage, drawn by eight horses, was preceded by his mounted princes, and escorted by marshals of the Empire, including Michel Ney. Napoleon wore a silk robes, with a purple cloak, embroidered in gold with ermine trim and his imperial mantle. On his head he wore a black bicorne with a plume of feathers held in place by a large diamond. The procession travelled via the garden of the Tuileries Palace, the Champs-Élysées and the Pont d'Iéna, through streets lined with citizens. The embankments along the Champ de Mars were crowded with 200,000 onlookers. Paraded in the Champ de Mars were, on one side, 25,000 National Guardsmen and, on the other side, 25,000 soldiers of the Imperial Guard and VI Corps together with 100 artillery pieces.
After arriving, to the sound of soldiers cheering "Vive L'Empereur", Napoleon entered the École Militaire from the rear and emerged onto the throne platform. From the altar platform the Archbishop of Tours Louis-Mathias, Count de Barral led a service of mass after which the "Te Deum" was sung. Five hundred of the electoral college deputies then advanced from the amphitheatre to the throne upon which their spokesperson spoke of the loyalty to Napoleon, hatred towards the foreign armies massing against France and their wishes for a firm and liberal government. The college's arch-chancellor then announced the results of the referendum: 1.3 million votes in favour with only 4,206 against. The Charter was presented to Napoleon who signed it before making a speech denouncing the members of the Seventh Coalition who he said wanted to annex Northern France to the Netherlands and split off the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. The Archbishop of Bourges provided a copy of the New Testament which Napoleon used to swear that he would observe the Charter. Afterwards the crowd cried out "Vive L'Empereur" and also "Vive l'Impéitrice" and "Vive le Roi de Rome".
Napoleon then advanced to a separate platform, decorated with trophies of French victories, from which he distributed new eagles to his regiments. The ceremony overran and the distribution of National Guard standards had to be postponed, it took place at the Louvre on 4 June. At the close of the Champ de Mai the military troops marched, in quickstep, off the field to cries of "Vive L'Empereur".
Afterward.
The success or otherwise of the Charter to regulate a Napoleonic constitutional monarchy would not be determined. Seven days after the Champ de Mai the Imperial Guard marched out of Paris for the Belgian border to face France's enemies; Napoleon followed them on 12 June. With Russian and Austrian armies en route to reinforce the Coalition, Napoleon crossed the border, seeking to defeat the Anglo-Dutch-Belgian and Prussian armies assembled there. Despite some success, he was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and retreated to Paris. Here he was forced to abdicate by parliament on June 22 and afterwards surrendered himself to British protection. Napoleon lived out his final years in exile on the remote Atlantic island of Saint Helena.
The Champ de Mars remained important to the French. It was the scene of military demonstrations and parades under the restored Bourbon kings. It was afterwards used for horse races and, during the Second French Empire, was again used for the distribution of imperial eagles to French regiments. It was later the site of Expositions Universelles (world's fairs), including the 1889 exposition which saw the construction of the Eiffel Tower on the site.


Wallace House (Somerville, New Jersey)

The Wallace House is a Georgian style historic house, which served as the headquarters of General George Washington during the second Middlebrook encampment (1778–79), located at 38 Washington Place, Somerville, Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 2, 1970.
History.
Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh, a Dutch Reformed minister who lived in the nearby Old Dutch Parsonage, sold a small farmhouse and of land to John Wallace, who was a merchant and fabric importer in Philadelphia.
In 1775 and 1776, Wallace bought more land, and in 1776 built an eight-room Georgian mansion next to the farmhouse.
Wallace named the estate "Hope Farm," and planned to retire there.
The Continental Army camped in the Watchung Mountains at Middlebrook, from Hope Farm during the winter of 1778-79.
The Wallace House became George Washington's headquarters, though he only stayed there for 11 days before leaving to attend the Continental Congress in Philadelphia for 6 weeks. Washington returned in February 1779 bringing his wife Martha. The Washingtons were given use of half the house. He then used the house to host foreign dignitaries and official dinners, and to plan military strategy.
In particular, he planned the 1779 campaign against the Iroquois League known as the Sullivan Expedition. Guests at the parties included Benedict Arnold, Nathanael Greene, Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox, and Baron Steuben.
Washington left on June 3, 1779, and paid Wallace $1,000.
The Wallace family and their slaves then returned to their normal lives in the house.
John Wallace, his wife, and his mother-in-law all died in 1783-84, and his youngest son William inherited Hope Farm.
William lived there until he died at age 33 in 1796, leaving three orphan children.
William's brother Joshua took care of the children and sold Hope Farm to Dickinson Miller in 1801.
The Revolutionary Memorial Society bought the house in 1896, and gave it to the State of New Jersey in 1947.


Statue of Artemas Ward

General Artemas Ward is a bronze statue of American Revolutionary War general Artemas Ward by Leonard Crunelle at Ward Circle, at the intersection of Nebraska and Massachusetts Avenues in Northwest, Washington, D.C.
As a part of bequest of George Artemas Ward, great grandson of the general, to Harvard University, the sculpture was funded for $50,000. Increases in the cost of bronze made an equestrian memorial unaffordable.
It was unveiled on November 3, 1938 by Maj. Gen. Ward's great-great-great-granddaughter, Mrs. Lewis Wesley Feick, and is authorized by (45 Stat. 689). The base of the statue bears this inscription:
ARTEMAS WARD

1727–1800

SON OF MASSACHUSETTS

GRADUATE OF HARVARD COLLEGE

JUDGE AND LEGISLATOR

DELEGATE 1780–1781 TO THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

SOLDIER OF THREE WARS

FIRST COMMANDER OF THE PATRIOT FORCES
As part of American Revolution Statuary in Washington, D.C. the statue is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


Henri Admirat

Henri Admirat (3 September 1744 – 17 June 1794) was a notable figure in the French Revolution. He was executed on the guillotine for attempting to assassinate Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois.
Admirat's assassination attempt.
Henri Admirat lived in the same building as Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois. He bore many grudges against the Revolution, not least for closing down the public lottery of which he had been an employee, and making him redundant. He decided to assassinate Collot and had lain in wait for his victim, armed with two pistols. Collot, returning from a late-night meeting of the Committee of Public Safety, was chatting with his governess on the stairway when Admirat struck. Admirat fired two shots at Collot at point-blank range, but both pistols misfired. Collot then defended himself with his sword and managed to prevent the would-be assassin from escaping from the building. Admirat barricaded himself in his flat and was later arrested by the passing National Guards patrol, but not before seriously wounding a man named Geoffroy who was helping the National Guards to gain entry into the flat.
Trial and execution.
Admirat was brought into the Revolutionary Tribunal and subjected to a trial that lasted only two minutes in which he could only answer. Admirat's sentence of death was a foregone conclusion. He never provided an explanation of the assassination attempt in public and his testimony, written in the secret Committee of General Security, an oppressive police body in the Revolutionary Government, is used by historians with extreme caution. On 17 June 1794, Admirat was guillotined at the Place de la Nation. His body is buried with fifty-three others in Picpus Cemetery.


Raleigh Tavern

The Raleigh Tavern was a tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, and was one of the largest taverns in colonial Virginia. It gained some fame in the pre-American Revolutionary War Colony of Virginia as a gathering place for legislators after several Royal Governors officially dissolved the House of Burgesses, the elected legislative body, when their actions did not suit the Crown. It was also the site of the founding of the Phi Beta Kappa Society on December 5, 1776.
Rebuilt in 1930–31, it was both the first building to be reconstructed and to be opened as part of Colonial Williamsburg. Unlike several other taverns in Williamsburg that operate as restaurants or inns, the reconstructed Raleigh Tavern building serves as a museum, showing visitors how the tavern would have appeared.
It was named after Sir Walter Raleigh, an important figure in the English settlement of Virginia. A lead bust of Raleigh sat above the entrance door.
History.
From 1699 to 1779, Williamsburg served as the capital of the colony of Virginia. As such, there were numerous taverns to host legislators and other visitors having business with the government while the House of Burgesses was in session.
The original tavern is believed to have been built some point prior 1735. It changed ownership and keepers numerous times, continuing in use as a tavern, eventually being acquired by local cabinetmaker Anthony Hay (father of jurist George Hay) in 1767.
The tavern was an institution in Williamsburg; auctions as well as balls were held under the Raleigh's aegis. The tavern was the site of reception dinners held for at least two Royal Governors upon their arrival to Virginia: Robert Dinwiddie in November 1751, and Lord Botetourt in October 1768.
In May 1769, the Raleigh Tavern began its role as a center of sedition when the Governor Botetourt dissolved the House of Burgesses, because of resolutions against the Townshend Acts. After its dissolution, the burgesses immediately convened in the Apollo Room as the 'late representatives of the people' and adopted the Non-Importation Agreement. The House of Burgesses was reconvened by the Governor in November that year.
This room was the frequent rendezvous of Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and other Revolutionary patriots. They met here in 1773 to develop intercolonial committees of correspondence. Dissolved by Governor Dunmore, the Burgesses met again in the Apollo Room in May 1774.
The Marquis de Lafayette was entertained at a banquet here in 1824, and the building remained in continual use as a tavern until it burned at the hands of an arsonist in 1859.
Architecture.
Based on period prints, the present reconstruction is an L-shaped white weatherboard building with 18 dormer windows.
The main room of the Raleigh Tavern was a banqueting hall known as the Apollo Room. Accounts note that the Latin motto "Hilaritas sapientiae et bonae vitae proles" ("jollity is the offspring of wisdom and good living") was written over the mantel. Historian Lyon Gardiner Tyler wrote of the room that it "witnessed probably more scenes of brilliant festivity and political excitement than any other single apartment in North America".
Reconstruction.
The tavern was reconstructed in 1930–31 on its original foundation. At a ceremony overseen by Virginia Gov. John Garland Pollard, the tavern opened to the public on September 16, 1932, thus marking the opening of Colonial Williamsburg.
The reconstructed Raleigh Tavern is one of the more modest but popular attractions of Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum depicting life in Virginia's colonial capital city. It stands on Duke of Gloucester Street in contrast to the elaborate Capitol Building.


Republican Circle

The Republican Circle or CRK (Dutch: "Republikeinse Kring", French: "Cercle républicain", German: "Republikanischer Kreis") is a Belgian trilingual republican association that aims to promote republican values and various republican forms of government whilst respecting cultural specificities.
History.
The association was founded on 1 January 2000, and organises debates, spreads information and provides speakers to conferences. The cause for its foundation was the wedding of Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde in 1999. Some prominent members are Claude Boumal, Nadia Geerts (chair 2000–2010) and Philipp Bekaert (chair in 2013), all three of them connected to the VUB-ULB. In 2011, the CRK had 'a few hundred members'. There are both Francophone and Dutch-speaking members, and according to Bekaert, with the exception of Vlaams Belang, almost all political parties are represented. The association is mainly trying to argue that the monarchy is a backward and undemocratic institute. It does not take a position on a potential partition of Belgium. Bekaert himself opined that Belgium is not 'too complex' to require a king for stability between the communities, because Switzerland, despite having its own linguistic conflicts, has not had any need for a monarch in its long republican tradition either.
In August 2000, CRK members called for reopening the discussion about the monarchy. Amongst other things they recalled the Royal Question and the assassination of Julien Lahaut, who allegedly yelled "Vive la république!" ("Long live the republic!") during the inauguration of Baudouin on 11 August 1950, which was repeated by Jean-Pierre Van Rossem in 1993. They emphasised that 'the monarchy is not more legitimate today than yesterday'.
On the occasion of the European Union's expansion on 1 May 2004, thirteen republican organisations from all the EU's monarchies petitioned the European Parliament to abolish the monarchy in the entire European Union. The petition was an initiative of the Republican Circle (CRK).
From 2003 until 2007, the association annually awarded the 'Prize for Vocal Republican Citizenship' and the 'Prize for Submissiveness to His Majesty'.
The CRK conducted an inquiry on how expensive a republic would be in comparison to a monarchy, and found that Belgian citizens pay three times the amount for their king then Germans do for President and a hundred times the amount the Swiss pay for their President. The CRK concluded that it's a 'myth' that republics are more expensive than monarchies, especially in the case of a parliamentary republic in which the president is appointed by Parliament (like in Germany, Austria, Israel and Italy) without expensive direct elections.
Since 2010, the CRK is member of the Alliance of European Republican Movements (AERM). In March 2013, the CRK hosted the AERM convention in Brussels.


Johan Leonard Hagen

Johan Leonard Hagen (1849 - ??) was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.
He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament in 1892, representing the constituency of Tromsø Amt. He only served one term. He worked as a telegrapher.


Sir James Steuart Denham, 8th Baronet

General Sir James Steuart Denham, 8th and 4th Baronet (August 1744 – 12 August 1839) was a Scottish soldier of the British Army.
Birth and education.
He was born James Steuart, the only son of Sir James Steuart, 2nd Baronet, of Coltness in Lanarkshire, by his wife Lady Frances, daughter of David Wemyss, 4th Earl of Wemyss. The year after his birth, during the Jacobite Rising of 1745, his father attended the court of Charles Edward Stuart at Holyroodhouse, and consequently had to leave Scotland with his wife. Young James was left with the family of William Mure of Caldwell. He was then educated at Angoulême from 1749 until he and his parents were forced by the looming Seven Years' War to move to Flanders in 1755. He attended the University of Tübingen from 1757 to 1761.
Early military career.
On 17 March 1761 Steuart was made a cornet in the 1st (Royal) Regiment of Dragoons (General Conway's regiment), through the influence of his father's friend Lord Barrington. He served with the regiment in Germany until the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763. On 13 January 1763, passing over the rank of lieutenant, he was promoted to captain in the 105th Regiment of Foot (Queen's Own Royal Regiment of Highlanders), but when the regiment was disbanded in 1764 he was placed on half pay.
From 1764 to 1766 he travelled in France and Germany, studying the cavalry tactics and organisation there, and then was appointed to command a troop of the 5th (or Royal Irish) Regiment of Dragoons, joining the regiment in Ireland. In 1769 he was an aide-de-camp to the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Townshend. He was promoted to major in the 13th Regiment of Dragoons on 6 November 1772, transferring to the 1st Irish Horse on 26 September 1775. On 15 July 1776 he went back to the 13th (now Light Dragoons) as lieutenant-colonel, a command he would hold for the next fifteen years.
Succession and Member of Parliament.
Steuart's father had been allowed to return home after the end of the war in 1763, and was formally pardoned in 1771. In 1773 he succeeded his cousin Sir Archibald Steuart Denham as 7th Baronet, of Coltness (his own baronetcy was "of Goodtrees", which he had sold in 1756; Coltness had been purchased from the senior branch of the family in 1712). In 1776 he inherited the estate of Westshield from Sir William Lockhart Denham, 6th Baronet, and the Steuarts father and son adopted the surname of Denham, being known as Denham in England and Steuart in Scotland. James Steuart Denham the younger succeeded his father in the baronetcies of Coltness and Goodtrees and the estates of Coltness and Westshield on 26 November 1780.
On 29 April 1784 Denham was elected Member of Parliament for Lanarkshire through the influence of the Duke of Hamilton. Though a cousin of the Whigs Henry and Thomas Erskine and the independent Francis Charteris, he had been elected as a supporter of William Pitt the Younger and voted with the government, including for parliamentary reform in 1785. At the general elections of 1790 and 1796 he was re-elected unopposed. He is not known to have spoken in Parliament and devoted most of his time to his military career.
Later military career.
Denham spent much time and money on the command of the 13th, showing himself a capable commander in the transition to the light cavalry role and in devising new exercises. He was promoted brevet colonel on 20 November 1782, and in 1788 was appointed by Sir William Augustus Pitt, the commander-in-chief in Ireland, as President of a commission to improve the discipline and organisation of the cavalry in Ireland. His recommendations were favourably received, and officially adopted after review by David Dundas. In March 1789, having commanded his regiment thirteen years, he requested to be made colonel of an infantry regiment, hoping for the 20th or 71st. He made further requests for the 14th in October, the 41st in December, the 56th in January 1790 and the 74th in April 1791, all without success. He was finally appointed colonel of the 12th (The Prince of Wales's) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons on 9 November 1791.
In 1793 the 12th were ordered to Toulon and Denham was to have gone out as a brigadier-general, but never sailed and was instead promoted to major-general in October that year. In 1794 he was intended to command the cavalry to be sent to Flanders under Lord Cornwallis, but the expedition was cancelled. Instead he was appointed (at the suggestion of Henry Dundas) to organise regiments of fencible cavalry in Scotland, and he commanded them in summer camps in 1795, 1796 and 1797, though initially refusing the post owing to rheumatism and depression.
In autumn 1797 he went back to Ireland as commander of the forces in Munster, with local rank of lieutenant-general. With the approval of the commander-in-chief, Sir Ralph Abercromby, he ensured that military officers in his district would not act as justices of the peace, and in March 1798 he organised the yeomanry and militia of Munster into night patrols, improving discipline for the volunteers and relieving the burden on the regular forces. He was made substantive lieutenant-general on 1 January 1798.
Denham's "nervous complaint" meant that he relied increasingly on his subordinates. When the Irish Rebellion of 1798 broke out, its suppression in Munster was largely the work of Major-General Henry Johnson, who won the Battle of New Ross, Brigadier-General John Moore, who won the Battle of Foulksmills and took Wexford, and the new commander-in-chief Gerard Lake.
Retirement and death.
Denham finally resigned his command in Ireland in 1799, though he denied this was because of his health. 1799 also saw the death of Denham's political patron the Duke of Hamilton, and the new Duke had two sons with parliamentary ambitions. Denham reminded the government of his consistent support, but when Lord Archibald Hamilton declared himself as prospective candidate in 1801 the Hamilton influence was too strong. Not wanting to be defeated, Denham withdrew his candidacy on 11 July 1802 and Hamilton was returned unopposed in the general election.
He saw no further military service, but was made full general in 1803, colonel of the 2nd (Royal North British) Regiment of Dragoons in 1815, and a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order. At the 1818 general election he was a noted supporter of Sir Alexander Cochrane against Hamilton in Lanarkshire, without success.
Sir James Steuart Denham died at Cheltenham in his ninety-fifth year; at the time of his death he was the senior general in the British Army. He had married on 30 September 1772 Alicia, daughter of William Blacker of Carrick Blacker, County Armagh, but they had no children, so he was succeeded in the baronetcies by his second cousin Henry Steuart Barclay.


Halvor Bjellaanes

Halvor Bjellaanes (19 June 1925 – 7 October 2010) was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.
He was born in Mo i Rana.
He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Nordland in 1965, but was not re-elected in 1969.
Bjellaanes was involved in local politics in Korgen and Vefsn between 1959 and 1963.


All In with Chris Hayes

All In with Chris Hayes is an American news television program that airs weekdays at 8:00 p.m. ET on MSNBC. It is hosted by Chris Hayes, who previously hosted "Up with Chris Hayes" on MSNBC weekends. The show premiered on April 1, 2013.
Similar to "Up", the show's format consists of "long-form panel discussions in which the participants talk through several issues." The opening night had 859,000 total viewers, including 298,000 in the ages 25–54 demographic.
"All In" won its first Emmy Award in 2015 at the 36th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards in the Outstanding News Discussion and Analysis category.
On August 23, 2019, "All In" began experimenting with a series of three, Friday-night editions presented in front of a live studio audience in Studio 6-A.


Khmer Power Party

The Khmer Power Party (; KPP) is a Cambodian pro-American political party founded on 18 March 2010 by Cambodian American Sourn Serey Ratha. It did not officially register until March 2015. The party is in favor of abolishing the monarchy, and establish a second Khmer Republic government.
Serey Ratha was charged and put in jail in August 2016 for criticizing the government’s deployment of troops to the Laos border. He than receive a royal pardon a year later But Sophorn refused to restore him as president but will give him a title of honorary president instead.
Serey Ratha than threatened to file a complaint against Sophorn for allegedly forging public documents to secure the title of party president. Serey Ratha has also asked the Interior Minister to inspect a letter dated September 2017 allegedly forged by Sophorn to appoint himself as president without consent. Later both of them establish a new Party, Serey Ratha form Khmer Reform Party whiled Sophorn form Khmer Win Party. Both of them claim as the Successor of Khmer Power Party.


John Moore (British Army officer)

Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, (13 November 1761 – 16 January 1809) was a British Army general, also known as Moore of Corunna. He is best known for his military training reforms and for his death at the Battle of Corunna, in which he repulsed a French army under Marshal Soult during the Peninsular War. After the war General Sarrazin wrote a French history of the battle, which nonetheless may have been written in light of subsequent events, stating that "Whatever Buonaparte may assert, Soult was most certainly repulsed at Corunna; and the English gained a defensive victory, though dearly purchased with the loss of their brave general Moore, who was alike distinguished for his private virtues, and his military talents."
Early years.
John Moore was born in Glasgow, the son of John Moore, a doctor and writer, and the older brother of Admiral Sir Graham Moore. He attended Glasgow High School, but at the age of 11 joined his father and Douglas, the young 16-year-old 8th Duke of Hamilton (1756–1799), his father's pupil, on a grand tour of France, Italy and Germany. This included a two-year stay in Geneva, where Moore's education continued.
Military and political career 1776–1798.
He joined the British Army in 1776 as an ensign in the 51st Regiment of Foot then based in Menorca. He first saw action in 1778 during the American War of Independence as a lieutenant in the 82nd Regiment of Foot, which was raised in Lanarkshire for service in North America by the 8th Duke of Hamilton. From 1779 to 1781 he was garrisoned at Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1779, he distinguished himself in action during the Penobscot Expedition in present-day Maine, when a small British detachment held off a much larger American force until reinforcements arrived.
After the war, in 1783, he returned to Britain and in 1784 was elected to Parliament as the Member for Lanark Burghs, a seat he held until 1790.
In 1787, he was made Major and joined the 60th briefly before returning to the 51st. In 1791 his unit was assigned to the Mediterranean and he was involved in campaigning in the invasion of Corsica and was wounded at Calvi. He was given a Colonelcy and became Adjutant-General to Sir Charles Stuart. Friction between Moore and the new British viceroy of Corsica led to his recall and posting to the West Indies under Sir Ralph Abercromby in 1796. Moore played a leading role in the British recapture of St. Lucia, which at the time was under the nominal control of the French as a result of a successful invasion by French Republican administrator Victor Hugues. During the campaign, Moore retook Fort Charlotte with the 27th Inniskilling Fusiliers after two days of bitter fighting. The regiment was honoured for their actions in capturing the fort by having their regimental colour displayed on the flagstaff of the captured fortress at Morne Fortune for an hour, before being hauled down and replaced by the British flag. Upon the capture of the fort, Abercromby departed the island, placing Moore in charge of the British garrison. Moore remained at this post until falling with yellow fever, upon which he was repatriated to Britain.
Moore in Ireland 1798.
In 1798, he was made Major-General and served in the suppression of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. His personal intervention was credited with turning the tide at the Battle of Foulksmills on 20 June and he regained control of Wexford town before General Gerard Lake could, thereby possibly preventing its sacking.
Moore and military training.
In 1799, he commanded a brigade in the Helder Expedition, with the campaign failing after the British and Russian forces failed to overcome entrenched Dutch defenders. Moore himself was seriously injured in the action. He recovered to lead the 52nd regiment during the British campaign in Egypt against the French, having become colonel of that regiment in 1801 on the death of General Cyrus Trapaud.
He returned to Great Britain in 1803 to command a brigade at Shorncliffe Army Camp near Folkestone, where he established the innovative system of drill and manoeuvre. Sir Arthur Bryant wrote: "Moore's contribution to the British Army was not only that matchless Light Infantry who have ever since enshrined his training, but also the belief that the perfect soldier can only be made by evoking all that is finest in man – physical, mental and spiritual."
War with France 1803–1808.
When it became clear that Napoleon was planning an invasion of Britain, Moore was put in charge of the defence of the coast from Dover to Dungeness. It was on his initiative that the Martello Towers were constructed (complementing the already constructed Shorncliffe Redoubt), following a pattern he had been impressed with in Corsica, where the Torra di Mortella, at Mortella Point, had offered a stout resistance to British land and sea forces. He also initiated the cutting of the Royal Military Canal in Kent and Sussex, and recruited about 340,000 volunteers to a militia that would have defended the lines of the South Downs if an invading force had broken through the regular army defences. In 1804 Moore was made a Knight Companion of the Bath and promoted to Lieutenant-General. In 1806 he returned to active duty in the Mediterranean and then in 1808 in the with Edward Paget to assist the Swedish. Disagreements with Gustavus IV soon led to his being sent home where he was ordered to Portugal in July 1808.
Spanish War 1808–1809.
Moore took command of the British forces in the Iberian Peninsula following the recall of Sir Harry Burrard, Sir Hew Dalrymple and Sir Arthur Wellesley (the future Duke of Wellington) to face the inquiry over the Convention of Cintra on the French troops' evacuation from Portugal. When Napoleon arrived in Spain with 200,000 men, Moore drew the French northwards while retreating to his embarkation ports of A Coruña and Vigo. Moore established a defensive position on hills outside the town while being guarded by the 15th Hussars. He was fatally wounded at the Battle of Corunna, being "struck in his left breast and shoulder by a cannon shot, which broke his ribs, his arm, lacerated his shoulder and the whole of his left side and lungs". Like Admiral Lord Nelson, he was mortally wounded in battle, surviving long enough to be assured that he had gained a victory. He remained conscious and composed throughout his final hours. Before succumbing to his wounds, Moore confided to his old friend and aide-de-camp, Colonel Paul Anderson: "You know, I always wished to die this way, I hope the people of England will be satisfied! I hope my country will do me justice!" He asked Colonel Anderson to speak to his friends and mother, but became too emotional to continue, and changed the subject. He asked if his staff were safe and was assured that they were, and where his will could be found. Casting his eyes around the room, he spied Charles Banks Stanhope and said to him: "Remember me to your sister, Stanhope." He was then silent and died shortly afterwards.
Moore was buried wrapped in a military cloak in the ramparts of the town. Moore's funeral was commemorated in the poem "The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna" by Charles Wolfe (1791–1823), which became popular in 19th-century poetry anthologies. The first verse runs:
<poem>
Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried.
</poem>
ending six verses later with:
<poem>
Slowly and sadly we laid him down,
From the field of his fame fresh and gory;
We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,
But we left him alone with his glory.
</poem>
When the French took the town, a monument was built over his grave by the orders of Marshal Soult. The burial scene was rendered in oil by George Jones, RA, and commissioned by Colonel Anderson. The painting was sold by the family in 2016.
The monument was rebuilt and made more permanent in 1811. In his native Glasgow he is commemorated by a statue in George Square, and in England by a monument in St Paul's Cathedral by John Bacon. Houses are named for him at The High School of Glasgow and HM Queen Victoria School, Dunblane. Sir John Moore Avenue is in Hythe Kent near the Royal Military Canal.


Donald Luskin

Donald Luskin (born April 1954) is Chief Investment Officer for Trend Macrolytics LLC, a consulting firm providing investment strategy and macroeconomics forecasting and research for institutional investors. Luskin was a contributing editor and columnist both for National Review Online (NRO) and SmartMoney.com. His columns touch on investing, economic and political matters.
Luskin was a frequent guest on Larry Kudlow's CNBC television show, "Kudlow & Company." He has published three books, "Index Options and Futures: The Complete Guide", "Portfolio Insurance: A Guide to Dynamic Hedging" and "I Am John Galt: Today's Heroic Innovators Building the World and the Villainous Parasites Destroying It" (co-author Andrew Greta).
Lushkin also wrote a blog, "The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid," based on the title of his as-yet unpublished book. The blog's tagline was: "How big government, big business, big media and big academia block your road to financial freedom—and tell you it's for your own good." Luskin is a self-avowed libertarian, and his blog linked to other financial and political blogs espousing similar beliefs. He has been a columnist for TheStreet.com and "Business 2.0" magazine. His writings have appeared in "The Wall Street Journal", "The Washington Post", the "Journal of Portfolio Management", the "Harvard Business Review", and other publications.
Biography and achievements.
On his former blog, Luskin stated he "attended Yale in 1973–1974; dropped out to rejoin the real world as soon as possible."
After dropping out of college, Luskin worked for several years as a creative consultant to Los Angeles companies such as Mattel and Teledyne, and motion picture studios Warner Brothers and LucasFilm. He and two colleagues developed a series of all-night treasure-hunts, one of which was adapted into the Walt Disney motion picture "Midnight Madness".
Luskin's investment career began in 1979, when he started a hedge fund while an options market maker on the Pacific Stock Exchange. As his fund grew and evolved, he became a market maker on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (where he helped pioneer index options trading, executing the very first OEX contract) and the New York Stock Exchange, where he traded the first option contract in the NYSE's history.
In 1984 Luskin joined Jefferies & Co., a brokerage firm. There as senior vice president, he invented POSIT, a crossing network enabling institutional investors to exchange entire portfolios with each other. POSIT was later spun out of Jefferies as a separate publicly traded company, Investment Technology Group.
In 1987 Luskin joined Wells Fargo Investment Advisors, a division of Wells Fargo Bank, as senior vice president in charge of investment management and trading. He became vice chairman when the firm merged with Nikko Securities in 1989, becoming Wells Fargo Nikko Investment Advisors. When the firm was acquired by Barclays Bank in 1995 and became Barclays Global Investors, Luskin became chief executive officer of the firm's global business in mutual funds. Over Luskin's eleven years with the firm, assets under management grew from $69 billion to over $500 billion. Luskin was responsible for numerous innovations in index funds and quantitative investing—including the development domestic and international quant-active funds, every one of which outperformed its benchmark over Luskin's tenure—and the creation of the first sector ETFs. Luskin created the LifePath family of mutual funds, for which he is the named inventor on a US patent.
In August 1999, during the tech bubble, Luskin and partner Dave Nadig started the MetaMarkets Open Fund, the first mutual fund to publish trades and list its holdings in real-time via its website. This "transparency" and "openness," Luskin and Nadig said, was a step forward in the financial world, equivalent to the political revolutions and international democratic transformations of the 1990s, because it leveled the playing field for the average investor and overthrew "financial elites." MetaMarkets.com, the venture-backed company that Luskin and Nadig founded to operate OpenFund, was hailed by "Fortune" magazine as one of the "coolest companies" in America in 2000. Their model was dismissed by some analysts as being a "gimmick," having nothing to do with investing "per se": "They brought chat boards to life in a mutual fund." At its peak, OpenFund received $45 million in investments, and the fund's biggest positions included companies like JDS Uniphase and Extreme Networks. At the end of 1999, OpenFund was among a handful of the best-performing mutual funds in America. After the market top in March 2000, the valuations of technology companies collapsed and many OpenFund investors redeemed their shares. The fund was shut down in the summer of 2001, after losing much of its investors' money. Published reports note that the open fund lost over half its value.
Conflicts with Paul Krugman.
Luskin has been controversial as a public intellectual. Much of his blog and many of his "NRO" columns were devoted to arguments that economic facts, figures, and trends are distorted by politicians, pundits and the media. He has a particular animosity towards "The New York Times", especially columnist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, whose economic pronouncements he has endeavored to debunk. Luskin is "de facto" leader of what he calls the "Krugman Truth Squad," an ad hoc group of bloggers who are dedicated to detailing and rebutting what they consider Krugman's lies and distortions.
According to Daniel Okrent, former Public Editor of the "Times", "Luskin serves as Javert to Krugman's Jean Valjean. From a perch on "National Review Online", he regularly assaults Krugman's logic, his politics, his economic theories, his character and his accuracy." Luskin claims that his work has resulted in corrections from Krugman and "the imposition of a new and more rigorous corrections policy for the entire "Times" editorial page."
Krugman has occasionally responded directly to Luskin's criticisms. In one instance Luskin accused Krugman of making an arithmetical error in his appraisal of the costs and effects of the 2003 tax cuts. Krugman responded with a series of postings on his website. In one such posting, apparently referring to the persistence of Luskin's criticisms, Krugman humorously referred to Luskin as his "stalker-in-chief". Later, after Luskin appeared at a Krugman book signing, Krugman said of Luskin on the Fox News television program "Hannity and Colmes", "That's a guy, that's a guy who actually stalks me on the web, and once stalked me personally". The animosity between Luskin and Krugman became so intense it became the subject of a story in "The New Yorker" with extensive remarks from both men. Krugman's characterization of Luskin as a stalker was repeated by blogger Atrios (Duncan Black) prompting a threat of legal action from lawyers representing Luskin.
Predictions.
Over the years, some of his predictions have drawn controversy. In May 2001, when he was a columnist for the financial website theStreet.com, he predicted a new bull market in gold and gold stocks, for which he drew intense criticism from fellow columnists including Jim Cramer. Shortly thereafter, Luskin's escalating public dispute with Cramer led to his resignation from theStreet.com via real-time postings on the site's discussion boards that became a cause célèbre on the web.
Luskin's predictions courted controversy again in 2008 when, in a September "The Washington Post" opinion piece, he cited evidence of what he claimed were factual errors made by Barack Obama and members of his presidential campaign concerning the state of the economy. Luskin claimed that the market was healthy, and Obama was simply using the state of the economy to discredit John McCain. However, the following day, Lehman Brothers filed for the biggest bankruptcy in US history and two days later, on September 16, stock markets imploded, thus discrediting every prediction he made in his editorial. Additionally, in the same editorial, he cited evidence that the economy was weak, but not in recession. He wrote, "…anyone who says we're in a recession, or heading into one—especially the worst one since the Great Depression—is making up his own private definition of recession." Shortly afterward, following the sudden collapse of Lehman and several other large financial firms, the economy sharply worsened, and was subsequently declared to have been in recession all year by the National Bureau of Economic Research. "Foreign Policy" included Luskin's prediction in its list of "The 10 Worst Predictions for 2008" on its website and noted that it gave additional opportunities for liberal bloggers to criticize Luskin. The editors of "The Yale Book of Quotations" also made note of the inopportune timing of Luskin's editorial and included his prediction in their list of "Top ten quotes of 2008". He has been singled out for "some of the worst, money losing commentary of the past few years."
He has been frequently referred to by Brad DeLong as "the Stupidest Man Alive" for, among other things, his continued support for literal interpretations of the Laffer Curve.
Controversial Statements.
Commenting about the coronavirus pandemic on FOX network, Luskin said
"What are we gonna do about China? What are we gonna do about a totalitarian dictatorship where it's OK to sell live, virus infected bats in open air marketplaces and then have business travel and tourist travel between that country and the civilized world?". John Oliver called him "Usain Bolt of racism" for this remark.


Chateau de Cirey

The Chateau de Cirey is a chateau in Cirey-sur-Blaise, Haute-Marne, France (not to be confused with Bellevaux Abbey in Haute-Saône, sometimes also referred to as the chateau of Cirey-lès-Bellevaux). The chateau was the home of Voltaire and his lover Émilie du Châtelet from 1734 to 1749.
Today the chateau is owned by the count of Salignac-Fénelon. Various parts of the building and its interiors have been protected as a monument historique since 21 September 1981.
History.
In the 17th century the seigneurie of Cirey was held by a member of an influential family from Lorraine, Louis-Jules du Châtelet. He held an official post at the French court and was governor of Aigues-Mortes. However he sided with Gaston, Duke of Orléans in his intrigues against Louis XIII, fell from favour and was condemned to death by quartering. All his property was confiscated and he fled to escape execution. His wife Christine de Gleiseneuve succeeded in regaining the seigneurie, but could not prevent the 11th century castle from being slighted in 1633.
When Louis XIII and his brothers were reconciled in 1634, Louis-Jules was amnestied and returned to his estates. In 1642 he began building a new house in the baroque style in the foundations of the old castle. Before his death in 1671, only one tower and an extension were built, of the planned structure with four towers and three wings.
The castle became famous in the second half of the 18th century when it was the home of the Marquis Florent-Claude du Châtelet, Count of Lemout, Seigneur von Cirey. He was a lieutenant general in the army of Louis XV and had married the 18 year-old Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil in 1724. The couple had three children before Émilie met Voltaire in Paris in 1733 and began a relationship with him. With the consent of the Marquis, Voltaire moved to Cirey.
When Voltaire arrived in 1734 he found a somewhat run-down building in the style of Louis XIII in red brick and pale stone. He set renovations in hand, and between 1734 and 1735 he had a new wing built, in which the couple installed their laboratory and a library of 21,000 books. In the following years, until the early death of Madame du Châtelet in 1749, Cirey was a meeting point for literati and intellectuals from every part of France.
From Émilie’s son Louis Marie Florent du Châtelet, later duke of Châtelet, the chateau passed to his niece, later Madame de Simiane, Diane-Adélaïde de Damas, who received La Fayette there many times. Her heirs in the Damas d'Antigny family sold the property to a merchant, who sold it on in 1890 to a pen owner named Armand-Viellard, ancestor of the present owner.
Description.
The chateau stands on the bank of the river Blaise and consists of the main building and a large southwestern outer bailey. Together with several other buildings, these structures all lie within an English landscape garden.
The main chateau building consists of a large pavilion tower with a square floor plan and a tented roof. Connected to this on the south side is an extension, built in the 17th century at the same time as the tower. The L-shaped gallery wing, which adjoins the pavilion on its west side, dates from the 18th century. It has an elaborately designed portal that was built according to Voltaire's designs, with reliefs indicating his interest in the sciences, philosophy and the arts.
One of the oldest private theaters in France is located on the top floor, set up by Voltaire in 1735 to rehearse the plays he wrote during those years. A short northern extension to the pavilion dates back to the 19th century, as does the castle chapel, whose wall paintings date from 1851 and were executed by Constant Ménissier. Inside, much of the valuable furnishings from the 17th and 18th centuries has been preserved, for example the dado and panelling in the billiard room and an oven in the dining room.
Almost all of the castle's outbuildings date from the second half of the 19th century and are located around a rectangular inner courtyard, through whose driveway in the southwest corner the castle grounds can be entered. Access to the main castle is via a pavilion-like gatehouse with a round arched archway on the east side of the service yard. However, the building is not part of the original baroque development, but was only erected in 1915. The various buildings we’re formerly used as a stable and chicken coop, granary, dovecote, barn, shepherd's house and cattle shed. An icehouse has also been preserved.
The chateau complex includes a large landscaped garden, dating back to the mid-15th century. Since 26 December 2001 it has been separately protected as a monument historique. The castle park has an approximately 566 meter long canal that is fed by the river Blaise. A metal bridge from 1880 leads over it. In addition to an orangery building, there is also a chalet in the park in a typical 19th century style.


Simon-Joseph Pellegrin

The abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin
(1663 – 5 September 1745) was a French poet and playwright, a librettist who collaborated with Jean-Philippe Rameau and other composers.
Biography.
He was born at Marseille, the son of a "conseiller" to the Siège Présidial of the city. He was at first designated for an ecclesiastical career, from which he retained the courtesy title "abbé". Though he was for a time a novitiate of the Servites at Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, he soon embarked on a career as a ship's bursar. Returning to France in 1703, he settled in Paris and composed his earliest poems, among them an "Epître à Louis XIV", praising the Sun King's military successes, which gained the king's attention and the Académie française prize in 1704.
Probably thanks to Madame de Maintenon, Pellegrin succeeded in escaping the urging of his superiors that he become more fully integrated with his order; instead a papal dispensation enabled him to enter the Cluniac order, whereupon he was at the service of various schools, such as Saint-Cyr, for which he provided numerous pious "cantiques spirituelles", in which he translated psalms and canticles and set them to familiar tunes from the opera, at the same time that his services were retained for the theatres and the opera, which permitted an otherwise unknown poet Rémi the epigram:
Antoine de Léris esteemed him "an excellent grammarian and a most fecund author, to which he joined great goodness of heart and a grand simplicity of manner. Out of respect for his character as an abbé, he published most of his dramatic works under the name of his brother Jacques Pellegrin, styled the "Chevalier Pellegrin".
From 1705 onward he wrote four tragedies with Greek and Roman settings, "Polydore", "La Mort d'Ulisse", "Pelopée" and "Catilina", and six comedies, with modern aristocratic settings, "Le Pere intéressé, ou la Fausse inconstance", "Le Nouveau monde", "Le Divorce de l'Amour et de la Raison", "Le Pastor fido", "L'Inconstant" and "L'Ecole de l'hymen".
At least seven of his libretti were set to music and presented at the Opéra: "Télémaque" with music by André Cardinal Destouches (20 November 1714), "Renaud, ou la suite d'Armide" with music by Henri Desmarest, (5 March 1722), "Télégone" with music by a certain La Coste, "Orion" (in collaboration, music by La Coste), "La Princesse d'Elide", "Jephté" with music by Michel Pignolet de Montéclair (1732), and "Hippolyte et Aricie" with music by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1 October 1733), Rameau's first opera. The theatre anecdote would have the seasoned Pellegrin, who had demanded 500 "livres" for his poem, regardless of the work's success, tear up the promissory note on hearing the young Rameau's music, arguing that such a genius did not require such a stringent guarantee.
Pellegrin collaborated on at least one ballet-opera with the dramatist Marie-Anne Barbier, co-writing the libretto for "Les Plaisirs de la campagne" (1719)
Pellegrin died in Paris in 1745.
Works.
In addition to some librettos for opera ("Antigone, Ariane, Loth, Orion"), Léris suggests also several other tragedies : "La Mort d'Ulysse, Pélopée, Catilina" ; six comédies : "Le Père intéressé ou la Fausse inconstance", "Le Nouveau monde", "Le Divorce de l'Amour & de la Raison", "Le Pastor fido", "L'Inconstant", "L'École de l'hymen".


Patriote popular assemblies

The Patriote popular assemblies gathered supporters and leaders of the Patriote movement and the Parti patriote in 1837 Lower Canada. The assemblies, concentrated in the Montreal and Montérégie region, saw votes on resolutions and speeches of some of Lower Canada's most reputed orators.
History.
The resolutions and the speeches often protested against the Russell Resolutions and what the Patriotes saw as the injustice of the colonial government that imposed its will by force and without the direct democratic participation of the people. A number of occasions honored Patriote leader Louis-Joseph Papineau. The text of the resolutions were often prepared by members of a permanent central committee in Montreal. Speeches also appealed to either economic boycotts of British products or to an armed uprising. Papineau believed in the former while Wolfred Nelson became a proponent of the latter.
Often, allusions were also made to the great liberty of the United States of America and the possible support for Lower Canada that could arise in the neighbouring republic. The American Revolution was indeed a major influence of the Patriote movement and its rebellion. Ultimately, the United States would be of little help to the coming Lower Canada Rebellion, despite plans by American northeastern citizens to provide weapons and the passive role that country played hosting the Frères chasseurs and the hunted and banished Patriotes (notably Papineau). They eventually proclaimed their neutrality and, in January 1838, American President Martin Van Buren even cautioned Americans against any assistance or protection, declaring that anyone who would compromise the neutrality of the United States would expose themselves to arrestation and punishment.


Sir John Clerk, 2nd Baronet

Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, 2nd Baronet (1676–1755) was a Scottish politician, lawyer, judge and composer.
He was Vice-President of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, the pre-eminent learned society of the Scottish Enlightenment.
He was the father of George Clerk Maxwell and John Clerk of Eldin, and the great-great-grandfather of the famous physicist James Clerk Maxwell.
Early life.
John Clerk was son of Sir John Clerk, 1st Baronet by his first wife Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Henderson of Elvington.
 He had a legal education first at University of Glasgow and then at Leiden University. During 1697 and 1698 he went on a Grand Tour and in 1700 was admitted to the Scottish Bar.
Parliament.
He was a member of the Parliament of Scotland for Whithorn from 1702 to 1707, and a Commissioner for the Union of Parliaments for the Whig Party: he sat in the first Parliament of Great Britain in 1707.
He was appointed a Baron of the Exchequer for Scotland on the constitution of the Exchequer Court, 13 May 1708, a position he held for nearly half a century. With Baron Scrope, in 1726, he drew up an "Historical View of the Forms and Powers of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland", which was printed at the expense of the Barons of Exchequer for private circulation.
A leading supporter of the Act of Union 1707 with the Kingdom of England, Clerk wrote in his memoirs of English novelist, journalist and secret agent Daniel Defoe that it was not known at the time that Defoe had been sent by Godolphin : "... to give a faithful account to him from time to time how everything past here. He was therefor a spy among us, but not known to be such, otherways the Mob of Edin. had pull him to pieces".
Antiquarian leanings.
Of his other treatises, Clerk wrote papers in the "Philosophical Transactions": one an "Account of the Stylus of the Ancients and their different sorts of Paper", printed in 1731, and the others "On the effects of Thunder on Trees" and "Of a large Deer's Horns found in the heart of an Oak", printed in 1739. He was the author of a tract entitled "Dissertatio de quibusdam Monumentis Romanis &c", written in 1730 but not published until 1750. For upwards of twenty years he also carried on a learned correspondence with Roger Gale, the English antiquary, which forms a portion of the "Reliquiae Britannica" of 1782.
Patron of the arts.
Sir John Clerk was one of the friends and patrons of the poet Allan Ramsay who, during his latter years, spent much of his time at Penicuik House. His son, Sir James Clerk, erected at the family seat an obelisk to Ramsay's memory. Sir John was a patron to various other artists and architects, and even dabbled in architecture himself.
Musical talent.
Clerk had a musical bent also, and while in Rome may have been tutored by the Baroque composer Arcangelo Corelli, but his own work has often been overlooked, primarily since the only record of his composition seems to be his own papers. One of his humorous songs was "O merry may the maid be that marries the miller".
Family.
Sir John succeeded his father in his title and estates in 1722. He unsuccessfully courted Susanna, daughter of Sir Archibald Kennedy of Culzean, Baronet (ancestor of the Marquess of Ailsa) and that correspondence is in the National Archives. She became the third wife of Alexander, 9th Earl of Eglinton.
He married, firstly, on 23 February 1701, Lady Margaret, eldest daughter of Alexander Stewart, 3rd Earl of Galloway who died in childbirth on 26 December that year. Her son, John, survived, but died unmarried in 1722. Sir John married again, to Janet, daughter of Sir John Inglis of Cramond, by whom he had seven sons and six daughters. He died at Penicuik House on 4 October 1755.


Johannes Christiansen

Johannes Christiansen (17 October 1850 – 5 July 1913) was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.
He was born in Askim, but moved to Skiptvet. He was deputy mayor from 1884 to 1887 and mayor from 1888 to 1889. He then quit local politics to become a police chief. Nonetheless, he chaired the local school board from 1896 to 1897 and was elected to the Norwegian Parliament in 1900, representing the constituency of Smaalenenes Amt. He only served one term.


Rodney Atkinson

Rodney Eric Bainbridge Atkinson (born 1948) is an English academic, political and economic commentator, journalist, author and businessman. He is the second eldest brother of the comedian and actor Rowan Atkinson.
Professional career.
Atkinson studied German at Newcastle University (BA Hons with distinction in spoken German) and at Durham University, where he earned an MSc in management studies in 1978 as a member of Collingwood College. He was formerly a lecturer at the University of Mainz from 1971 to 1977, and worked as a merchant banker in the City of London with Banque Paribas and Grindlays Bank and has been an occasional adviser to government ministers since 1981.
He runs his own commercial property business based in the North East of England. His 23 year old website freenations.net contains over 400 articles on political economy, Nationism, geopolitics and the campaign for withdrawal of the UK from the European Union.
Politics.
Atkinson founded The Campaign for United Kingdom Conservatism in 1994 and co-founded, with Lynn Riley, the cross-party South Molton Declaration in 1999 (re-launched as the British Declaration of Independence for the 2005 general election). He founded the Freenations (freenations.net) website in 1997. He was the Referendum Party candidate in North West Durham in the 1997 general election (5.2%) and the lead UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate for the North East Region in the 1999 European Elections (8.8%).
In 2000, he lost the UKIP leadership election, by 16 votes, to Jeffrey Titford MEP. Atkinson left UKIP shortly afterwards, along with 200 supporters, accusing the then party chairman Nigel Farage MEP and the eurosceptic journalist Christopher Booker of conducting a "dirty tricks" campaign against him. He also accused the party of being "infiltrated by extremists".
With Norris McWhirter, he laid misprision of treason charges against Francis Maude and Douglas Hurd for signing the Maastricht Treaty. The allegations were dismissed by the Crown Prosecution Service in October 1993, according to a written answer given by the Attorney General, Nicholas Lyell, on 28 October 1993.
Writing.
In 1994, Atkinson co-authored the book "Treason at Maastricht – the destruction of the Nation State", with Norris McWhirter.
Other work includes the books "Government against the People" (1985), "The Emancipated Society" (1988), "The Failure of the State" (1989), "Your country Your Democracy – the Threat from the European Union" (1990), "Europe's Full Circle" (1997), "Fascist Europe Rising" (2001) and "And into the Fire – fascist elements in post war Europe and the Development of the European Union" (2013).
Bibliography.
Recordings on CD:
Pamphlets


Robert-Martin Lesuire

Robert-Martin Lesuire (1737, Rouen - 17 April 1815) was a French writer. Several of his works are forerunners of crime fiction - a French dictionary of the subject states that "by the richness of his themes, he inspired a number of writers of popular crime novels in the 19th century". He was also a member of Rouen's Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts.
Life.
He was from a nephew of the enameller Pierre-André Le Suire. On leaving college, he became reader to the Infante of Spain in Paris, following him to Italy before visiting England. Towards the end of the French Revolution he was made professor of legislation at the école centrale in Moulins but lost that position when lycées were set up. On returning to Paris, he wrote to order for booksellers in order to make a living.
Quérard wrote of Lesuire that:
His first novel "Les Sauvages de l’Europe" ("The Savages of Europe", 1760) was a burlesque satire of England in which two young Frenchmen, Sansor and Tintine, who enthusiastically travel to England, thinking it more democratic than France. However, they suffer all sorts of misadventures and discover nothing but abominations - inhabitants halfway between man and beast, riots, hangings, hypocrisy, corruption, ever-present Francophobia and appalling food. Finally they adjudge it an island of savages and return to France, vowing never to return. The book saw some success and was translated into English and re-published in France.
His most famous novel remains "L'Aventurier françois" ("The French Adventurer", 1782), which Quérard calls a "cluster of incoherent follies", adding that in his opinion it "delighted frivolous readers" until the issue of the third set of books in the series, at which point the public lost interest. It narrated the adventures and extraordinary travels of Grégoire Merveil, including his discovery of a subterranean people of old criminals. Accused of murder, he had to make his own inquiries to discover and confound the real murderer. "Le Crime" (1789) tells of the imprisonment of the young man César de Perlencour who is released from jail and falls into the hands of a curious secret society, the "Société souterraine" or underground society. That character returned and was found innocent in his next novel, "Le Repentir" (1789).
He left behind several manuscripts, several of which are erotic or pornographic. Emile Queruau-Lamerie owned manuscripts of songs by Lesuire and his friends. Lesuire gave Laval library () a manuscript of a play and to Louis Garnier, an architect in Laval, a manuscript of his four-volume novel entitled "L'Aventurier Français".


Liberal Reformist Party (Romania)

The Liberal Reformist Party (, PLR) was a centre-right liberal political party in Romania founded on 3 July 2014 by Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu. In February 2014 the National Liberal Party (PNL) split from the Social Liberal Union alliance with the Social Democratic Party and later in July 2014 joined the European People's Party (EPP) group in the European Parliament. Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, along with almost 30 MPs, left the PNL to establish a new liberal party in Romania, intending to become the Romanian member of ALDE and the Liberal International. The party's first congress was held on 1–2 August 2014. On 19 June 2015 the PLR merged with the Conservative Party (PC) to form the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE).
Controversies.
Tăriceanu has been accused by President Băsescu of interfering with justice in Dinu Patriciu's benefit.
On 24 January 2006, Monica Macovei, then Minister of Justice, made public a meeting with Tăriceanu which took place 7 months before (in June 2005), and to which Tăriceanu invited Dinu Patriciu. Patriciu complained to Macovei about alleged procedural problems regarding his case. Macovei accused Tăriceanu of interfering with justice. On 20 February 2006 Tăriceanu declared on TVR1:" I recognise my fault. I didn't act correctly. But I didn't influence justice."
Elena Udrea recalled that, while she was Presidential Counsellor, she saw a note written by Tăriceanu. In a few days President Băsescu found the note and made it public, saying that "The Prime Minister suggested to me a partnership, but, unfortunately, with our oligarchies". The note was about a complaint from Petromidia about the 27 May procedure problems:
Dear Traian, 1. I send you annexed a document released by Petromidia, regarding the ongoing investigations.2. If you have the opportunity to speak at the Prosecuting Magistracy about the subject?
In May 2007, Patriciu won a lawsuit against the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), which illegally tapped his phones for two years. He received from SRI 50,000 RON as moral prejudice.
Electoral history.
Presidential elections.
Notes:
1


John Munnelly

John Munnelly (died 18 October 1941) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. A farmer, he was a County Councillor before being elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo North constituency at the 1937 general election. He was re-elected at the 1938 general election. He died in October 1941 during the course of the 10th Dáil but no by-election was held for his seat.


Robert Surcouf

Robert Surcouf (12 December 1773 – 8 July 1827) was a French privateer who operated in the Indian Ocean between 1789 and 1801, and again from 1807 to 1808, capturing over 40 prizes. He later amassed a large fortune as a ship-owner, from privateering, commerce, illegal slave trade, and as a landowner.
Surcouf started his career as a sailor and officer on the slave ships "Aurore", "Courrier d'Afrique" and "Navigateur". Having risen to captain, and in spite of the prohibition of slave trading by the National Convention in 1793, he engaged in the business himself as a captain on "Créole". He then captained the merchantman "Émilie", on which he engaged in commerce raiding despite lacking a letter of marque. He preyed on British shipping, capturing the East Indiaman "Triton", before returning to Île de France in the Indian Ocean, where his prizes were confiscated. He then returned to France, where he obtained prize money from the government.
Returning to the Indian Ocean, Surcouf captained the privateers "Clarisse" and "Confiance", raiding British, American, and Portuguese merchantmen. He captured the East Indiaman on 7 October 1800. Returning to France, he was awarded the Legion of Honour and settled as a ship-owner.
He briefly returned to the Indian Ocean in 1807 on the custom-built "Revenant" before returning to France. There, he armed privateers and merchantmen. His privateers led successful campaigns against British trade in the Indian Ocean and disastrous ones in the English Channel, except for "Renard". This cutter achieved fame in her very costly victory over on 9 September 1812 which exploded after repulsing French attempts at boarding. There were many casualties. After the Bourbon restoration, he organised fishing expeditions to Newfoundland and amassed a considerable fortune. He died in 1827 and is buried in a graveyard at Saint-Malo.
Career.
Youth.
Robert Surcouf was born 12 December 1773 in Saint-Malo to a family of ship-owners. His father, Charles-Ange Surcouf de Boisgris, was the grandson of Robert Surcouf de Maisonneuve, who had captained the privateer "Aimable" during the reign of Louis XIV. On his mother's side, Robert was a distant relative of René Duguay-Trouin. When his parents sent him to Dinan college to become a priest, he fled at age thirteen to enlist on the merchantman "Héron", which shuttled between Saint-Malo and Cadiz.
On 3 March 1789, he enlisted as a volunteer on the 700-ton "Aurore", under Captain Tardivet, a slave ship bound for India. "Aurore" sailed to Pondicherry and ferried troops bound for Isle de France. On her next journey, seeking to purchase slaves on the Horn of Africa, "Aurore" was wrecked in the Mozambique Channel, drowning 400 black slaves chained in the orlop. Tardivet chartered the Portuguese "San Antoine" in October 1790 to return to Port-Louis, but had to divert to Sumatra because of the weather, and only returned to Port-Louis in late 1790, on a French ship via the French colony of Pondicherry. Promoted to officer, Surcouf enlisted on the "Courrier d'Afrique", another slave ship, bound for Mozambique under Captain Garnier. Captain Tardivet then brought him over as Lieutenant on his new ship, "Revanche". On "Revanche", Surcouf made several expeditions off Madagascar.
Surcouf enlisted as a helmsman on the French Royal Navy's 20-gun fluyt "Bienvenue", under Lieutenant Haumont, bound for France. "Bienvenue" arrived at Lorient on 2 January 1792, where Surcouf discovered the political changes France had undergone in the wake of the French Revolution.
After six months, Surcouf enlisted as a lieutenant on the slave ship "Navigateur", under Captain Lejoliff. She departed on 27 August 1792 for Mozambique before sailing to Isle de France, where Surcouf was informed on his arrival of the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars.
Rising to the rank of captain, Surcouf took command of the brig "Créole", a four-gun slave ship. He departed Isle de France on 3 June 1794 for a journey off Africa and Madagascar, and engaged again in slave trading, even though it had been prohibited by the National Convention and the Assembly of Île Bourbon. Upon his return to Isle de France, agents of the Committee of Public Safety inspected "Créole" for evidence of slave trading, but left empty-handed as Surcouf had already sold his slaves. When British naval forces arrived to blockade the Isle de France, he served as an auxiliary ensign on the 40-gun frigate "Cybèle" and participated in the inconclusive Action of 22 October 1794.
Cruise of "Émilie" and capture of "Triton".
In the spring in 1795, Surcouf took command of the 180-ton, privateer schooner "Modeste", renamed "Émilie", with a 32-man crew and four 6-pounder guns, armed by Malroux and Levaillant. Governor Malartic refused to provide a lettre de marque and ordered "Émilie" to go to the Seychelles to purchase tortoises as food for Isle de France.
"Émilie" departed on 3 September 1795 with a "congé de navigation" authorising her to defend herself, but not to take prizes as a privateer. The next day, she made a port call at Saint-Denis before cruising to Mahé. At Sainte Anne Island, two large British ships chased him, but he was able to evade them by sailing through the reefs, at night.
Surcouf then decided to sail to the Mergui Archipelago to load a rice cargo. On 8 December 1795, while in transit, cruising off the Ganges Delta, Surcouf captured his first prize, the ship "Penguin", loaded with lumber, on which he detached a prize crew under Lieutenant Péru before sending her to Isle de France.
On 19 January 1796, Surcouf met the pilot ship "Cartier" leading two merchantmen, the "Russel" and "Sambolasse", through the Ganges delta. He attacked and captured them, finding the merchantmen to be carrying rice. After detaching prize crews, Surcouf transferred his command, along with his remaining 22 crew members and "Émilie"s four guns, to "Cartier", which (according to Ambroise Louis Garneray) he renamed "Hasard". Surcouf then sent "Émilie", under Lieutenant Croizet, together with his prizes, to Isle de France.
On the night of 28 January, Surcouf captured the 12-gun "Diana", loaded with 6000 bags of rice. The next day, "Cartier" met a 26-gun Indiaman, "Triton", armed with 12-pounders and a 150-man crew; having decided to attack, and recognising only too late the overwhelming superiority of his opponent, Surcouf, feeling threatened and unable to flee, decided to board her with his 26 men. After haranguing his men, he approached under a British flag, before hoisting French colours at the very last moment and launching a violent assault. In the ensuing 45-minute battle, "Triton" suffered 5 wounded and 10 killed, including her captain, Captain Burnycat, and the first officer, Picket; The prisoners were transferred to "Diana", which Surcouf released against a 30,000 rupee ransom.
Surcouf returned to Ile de France with his prizes, where he arrived on 10 March 1796, although "Hasard" was captured by HMS "Victorious" on the journey back. As "Émilie" had been armed as a merchant rather than a privateer, the Prize court seized her prizes and sold them for the benefit of the State, although their capture was declared to be legal. Surcouf returned to France to claim his prize money, and on 3 September 1797, the government finally granted him 660,000 francs, of which he only received 80,000.
Cruise of "Clarisse".
In early 1798, after 14 months in Paris, Surcouf took command of "Clarisse", a 14-gun privateer brig armed with four 12-pounders, ten 8-pounders, and manned by a 120-strong complement. He departed from Paimboeuf, Nantes, in February 1798, this time with a proper lettre de marque. During the journey to Isle de France, "Clarisse" chased a British slave ship, which escaped after one of her shots cut off "Clarisse" 's foremast tops. Surcouf captured a British brig South of Cape of Good Hope, which surrendered after a warning shot was fired, on which he sent a prize crew under Captain Dujardin, and arrived La Réunion on 5 December.
In early 1799, Surcouf sailed to the city of Susoh in Aceh, on Sumatra, where he found two 20-gun merchantmen anchored in the harbour, in the process of loading pepper; "Clarisse" dropped anchor close by and opened fire, after which Surcouf sent his older brother Nicolas to head a 20-man board party on "Clarisse" 's boats and board the largest of the ships, while he boarded her with "Clarisse" from the opposite side; assaulted from two sides, she surrendered after a 30-minute battle. The other ship cut her anchor and attempted to flee, but the boats of "Clarisse" overhauled and captured her without resistance, most of her crew being ashore. Surcouf returned to Île de France with his prizes in June.
On 16 August, "Clarisse" departed Isle de France for another cruise; she sailed to La Réunion carrying despatches of Malartic to the governor. She then cruised to Java to procure water, where she arrived on 27 September. On 1 October, Surcouf captured a Danish merchantman, which he sent away under Lieutenant Fonroc; on 4 November, the Portuguese merchantman "Nostra Signora de la Conception" carrying 116 000 piastres; on 6, a British ship laden with a salt; and on 11 November, the 20-gun "Auspicious", with a cargo worth 1,032,580 francs.
Surcouf sailed to Mergui to purchase food and free his prisoners, and put to sail on 10 December. En route, he met the fellow French privateer "Malartic", under Jean Dutertre; soon after, the privateers met a British frigate, 38-gun frigate HMS "Sybille", which gave chase and which Surcouf managed to outsail by throwing eight guns overboard, along with various other implements.
On 1 January 1800, "Clarisse" captured a large rice-laden merchantman, the British "James". On 3 January, she detected two American 16-carronade ships forming a line of battle; although "Clarisse" lacked the eight guns sacrificed to escape "Sybille" and 60 of her men detached on her various prizes, Surcouf engaged. "Clarisse" raked the rear-most ship, the "Louisa", and boarded her, while simultaneously firing a broadside on the other ship, "Mercury", which attempted to rescue her mate. Nicolas Surcouf led a 30-man boarding party to seize "Louisa", while "Mercury" escaped. "Clarisse" could not give chase, her bowsprit having been destroyed in the collision with "Louisa". Nicolas Surcouf took a prize crew and sailed "Louisa" back to Port Louis.
"Clarisse" continued her patrol, capturing the ships "Catherine", "Haderbux", "Anna Maria", "Nostra Signora de la Cruz", "Louis", "Janna", "Notre Dame de Bon Succès" and "Albion", before sailing back to Isle de France with her prizes. She arrived in early February 1800.
Cruise of "Confiance" and capture of "Kent".
In May 1800, Surcouf took command of "Confiance", a fast 18-gun brig from Bordeaux, with a 150-man complement; the competition with Dutertre for the captainship of "Confiance" almost degenerated into a duel, and Governor Malartic had to intervene to prevent it, stating that such a confrontation would be "an English victory". The sailor and painter Ambroise Louis Garneray, future biographer of Surcouf, enlisted at this time.
In late April 1800, "Confiance" cruised off Sunda Strait, where she captured an American ship; she then left the strait to avoid the frigate , which was known to cruise in these waters, and sailed to the Seychelles. There, he escaped a British ship of the line and a frigate, and sailed on to cruise the Bay of Bengal.
On 19 September, "Confiance" captured "Prize", from Calcutta, which had stored eight of her ten guns in her hold to improve her stability. "Prize" was sent off to Mauritius on the next day with an 85-man prize crew. Surcouf then steered for Ganjam, where he captured three smaller ships.
On 7 October 1800, off Sand Heads, near Calcutta, "Confiance" met the 40-gun East Indiaman "Kent", of 824 tons burthen, under Captain Robert Rivington. "Kent" had rescued the crew of another ship, "Queen", destroyed by fire, and therefore had an exceptionally large complement of 437 men, including her passengers; 300 of them were soldiers and sailors; Surcouf managed to board his larger opponent and, after over an hour and a half of battle across the decks of the ship, seize control of the "Kent".
The British had suffered fourteen killed, including the captain, and forty-four wounded, while the French suffered five killed and ten wounded. The privateers were then granted one hour of free pillaging on "Kent" before Surcouf restored order; however, the female passengers were strictly protected and sentries were placed in front of their apartments. Amongst the prisoners were General Frederick St. John and his wife, Arabella Craven.
The first officer of "Confiance", Joachim Drieux, was sent on "Kent" with a 60-man prize crew, while her passengers were released on a merchantman that Surcouf stopped a few days later. "Confiance" and "Kent" arrived at the Rade des Pavillons in Port-Louis in November. The capture of "Kent" became a sensation, and the British Admiralty issued a reward for the capture of Surcouf.
After her return to Ile de France, "Confiance" was armed as a merchantman "en aventurier" with an 89-man crew and loaded with colonial goods for her return to France. On the journey, Surcouf still managed to capture a number of ships, notably the Portuguese "Ebre", with eighteen 12-pounder carronades and a 60-man crew; he released her against a ransom of 10,000 piastres and after exchanging her greatmast with that of "Confiance".
Upon her return, "Confiance" ran into the British blockade and was chased by a frigate; Surcouf managed to evade her by throwing overboard all but one of her guns, his boats, anchors, chains and even components of his masts. He eventually arrived at La Rochelle on 13 April 1801.
In France, Navy Minister Truguet attempted to enrol Surcouf in the Navy as an auxiliary officer, which he declined. Hennequin states that Bonaparte himself offered him the rank of Captain and the command of two frigates, which Surcouf declined for fear of losing his freedom of action, and awarded him a Sabre of honour. Surcouf was awarded the Legion of Honour at the founding of the Order, on 19 May 1802.
On 28 May, in Saint-Malo, he married Marie Blaize, who had been his fiancée for two years; over the course of their marriage, they had five children together. Around 1805, Surcouf started to arm privateers in Saint-Malo in partnership with his father-in-law Louis Blaize de Maisonneuve, notably "Caroline" which captured four ships in the Indian Ocean under Nicolas Surcouf; "Marsouin"; and "Confiance", which took two prizes under Joseph Potier.
Cruise of "Revenant".
After a five-year retirement, in early 1807, Surcouf ordered the 18-gun "Revenant", a privateer which he had built on his own specifications. On 2 March, he departed Saint-Malo with a 192-man crew to cruise off Bengal. On 9 March 1807, while en route, off Madeira, "Revenant" captured the British slave ship "Aun", of sixteen 12-pounders, recently departed from Liverpool, which Surcouf let go for a ransom, after throwing her guns overboard, wetting her gunpowder and destroying some of her sails.
Surcouf arrived at Île de France in June, slipping past the British blockade and capturing several ships on the journey. During the subsequent campaign, which was to be his last, Surcouf captured 16 British merchantmen, partly because they tended to strike their colours as soon as they realised their opponent was Surcouf.
The arrival of Surcouf at Isle de France did not go unnoticed: the authorities and the population reacted with enthusiasm, while British insurance companies on Calcutta doubled the reward for his capture, which amounted to one rupee lake, or 250,000 francs. On 3 September 1807, "Revenant" departed to cruise off Bengal. On 25 September, she captured the British 12-gun "Trafalgar" carrying 10,000 bags of rice, and the 14-gun "Mangles", carrying 11,000; on the 27th, the 12-gun "Admiral Applin", with 9,500 bags of rice; on 1 October, the 1-gun "Suzannah", with 5,500 bags of rice; on the 19th, the wood-laden "Success", which was burnt; on the 30th, the 12-gun "Fortune", which carried no cargo and was sunk; on 15 November, the Indian "Macauly"; on 18 December, the British 10-gun "Sir William Burroughs"; on the 30th, the Portuguese "Oriente"; and on 6 January 1808, the Arab "Jem lab Dim". Surcouf sent these with prize crews to Isle de France, and then returned himself on 31 January 1808.
When a British captive officer taunted Surcouf with the words "You French fight for money while we fight for honour", Surcouf replied "Each of us fights for what he lacks most".
Surcouf then gave command of "Revenant" to his first officer, Joseph Potier. After a short cruise, Potier returned with a 34-gun prize of the Portuguese East India Company, the "Conceçáo de Santo Antonio", captured after a one-hour fight.
On 4 July 1808, General Charles Decaen, governor of Isle de France. requisitioned "Revenant". She was renamed "Iéna", and commissioned under Lieutenant Morice, with "Lieutenant de vaisseau" Albin Roussin as second officer. Surcouf had an altercation with Decaen but had to renounce his ship. He eventually purchased "Sémillante", which he renamed "Charles". Returning with this vessel to Saint-Malo, he arrived on 4 February 1809.
Late life.
From 1809, Surcouf went into business as ship-owner, and over the years, he equipped a number of privateers: , under Pelletier; "Dorade"; "Biscayenne"; "Édouard"; "Espadon"; "Ville-de-Caen"; and his last, , under Leroux. The British captured all the privateers sent into the Channel, with the exception of "Renard". Surcouf also built the brig "Fantôme" at St. Malo in 1809. Surcouf dispatched "Fantôme" to Isle de France (Mauritius) in the Indian Ocean on her first voyage where the brig took three prizes but was captured by the British in 1810 and commissioned into British service as HMS "Fantome".
In January 1814, Surcouf was made a colonel in the National Guard of Saint-Malo. During the Hundred Days, he served as a chief of Legion and maintained order. He resigned after the Battle of Waterloo and became a merchant, arming 19 merchantmen and establishing business with Newfoundland.
Between 1814 and 1827, Surcouf organised over 116 commercial expeditions. In 1815, Surcouf engaged in slave trade, commissioning the ship "Africain" to ferry slaves from Gabon. "Africain" conducted another slave trading journey in 1819. Four other expeditions are also suspected of having been slaving runs: that of "Marie-Anne" in 1819, "Adolphe" in 1820, and in 1821 "Victor" and "Adolphe", under René Decaen and with Désiré Surcouf as first officer, which sailed under the pretence of sailing to Isle Bourbon (now Réunion), but actually to ferry slaves to Cuba and Philadelphia.
Surcouf died on 8 July 1827, and was buried in Saint-Malo graveyard with military honours. His tomb features a globe showing the Indian Ocean and an anchor, with the epitaph:
Legacy.
Five ships of the French Navy were named after Surcouf: a steam aviso (sloop); an armoured cruiser; a submarine cruiser, which at the time of her launch the largest submarine in the world. The submarine joined the Free French Naval Forces during the Second World War and disappeared mysteriously after liberating Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Surcouf was a large fleet escort destroyer, which was severely damaged in a collision with a Soviet ship and the modern stealth frigate, one of the first stealth combat ships.
A number of legends have grown around Surcouf, he is often stated to have been made a Baron of the Empire, which is untrue. Another legend states that Surcouf had thrown overboard gold seized on "Kent" but "Kent" did not carry gold.
There is a tale that in 1816, Surcouf challenged twelve Prussian officers to a duel and defeated all of them except for the last, which he let go "to tell in his country how a former soldier of Napoleon fights"; this story is a fabrication.


Pro Moldova

Pro Moldova () is a centre-right political party of the Republic of Moldova. It was founded and is currently led by Andrian Candu, the former president of the Parliament of Moldova.
History.
Pro Moldova first appeared on 20 February 2020 as a parliamentary group. This happened due to internal disagreements in the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM), which caused six deputies to leave the party. These were Andrian Candu, Sergiu Sîrbu, Vladimir Cebotari, Eleonora Graur, Grigore Repeșciuc and Corneliu Padnevici. Candu became the president of the group, while Sîrbu was appointed as the party secretary. Eight days later, on 28 February, the deputy Gheorghe Brașovschi left the PDM and joined to the group.
Months later, more deputies would join the group. The first of them was Ruxanda Glavan, who abandoned the PDM and joined to Pro Moldova on 1 May. She would be followed on 8 May by Elena Bacalu and Oleg Sîrbu, both from the PDM as well, after Candu made an appeal to the opposition to form an antigovernment alliance. Even more deputies from the PDM would join later; Vasile Bîtca and Ghenadie Verdeș did on 18 May, then Angel Agache on 9 June and Eufrosinia Grețu on 17 June.
On 22 June, Pro Moldova was registered as a political party, describing itself as "a modern centre-right party, which fights for a prosperous and fair Moldova for everyone".
In the day of 30 June, the deputy from the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) Ștefan Gațcan joined the party due to the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic in Moldova by the ruling PSRM-PDM coalition. This encountered heavy pressure from the other members of the coalition. In fact, after this, he was harassed by two socialist deputies and filed a complaint for the pressure they tried to exert on him. Following this, Gațcan disappeared, spreading rumors that he had been kidnapped. It was later found that he had withdrawn the complaint, and on 7 July, he was found in Iași, Romania. Finally, on 9 July, he went to a meeting in the Moldovan Parliament and announced that he would continue to support the PSRM-PDM coalition.
Days later, Candu said that he still considered Gațcan a deputy of Pro Moldova, as there continued to be one request from him to join the party but not one to withdraw it. Candu tried to contact Gațcan to clarify the situation to no avail, explaining that this was probably because he was not having an easy time due to the previous incidents.
On 1 September, Candu announced that he would run for the 2020 Moldovan presidential election. He also accused Igor Dodon, who was the President of Moldova at the time, of "having exceeded his powers". However, on 18 September, the Central Election Commission of Moldova rejected Candu's request to be registered for the election for failing to meet the required minimum number of signatures from each district, which was 600. Furthermore, on 3 October, the Supreme Court of Justice of Moldova declared that the appeal filed by Candu regarding this decision was "inadmissible", confirming that he could not participate in the presidential election. Candu said this was a "reconfirmation of loyalty to the regime of Dodon" by the judiciary and that "we believe it was a desperate act by the government for fear of the power of Pro Moldova".


Party for the Open Society

The Party for the Open Society (, SOS) is a minor social liberal political party in the Czech Republic.
The party origins were in the Civic Movement (), a liberal group founded in 1991 within Civic Forum. In 1993 the party was renamed the Free Democrats (). After poor results in local elections in 1994, the party merged with the Liberal National Social Party (LSNS) to become the Free Democrats-Liberal National Social Party (). The merged party again returned poor results in parliamentary elections in 1996, and amid political disagreements over the nationalist views of ex-members of the LSNS, many Free Democrats left the party in 1997, forming the Party for the Open Society in 1998, with 120-150 members.
The party's political programme places highest importance on sustainable development. At the 2006 parliamentary elections, several SOS members were candidates on Green Party lists, but none were elected. In 2006 the SOS had local organisations in four of 13 regions in the Czech Republic, and in Prague. SOS did not stand any candidates in the 2010 parliamentary elections, instead urging its supporters once again to support the Green Party.
SOS also supports the Club of Committed Non-Party Members and other liberal parties. The independent senator Soňa Paukrtová was nominated for re-election by SOS, and was re-elected on 28 October 2006.