Gustavus Conyngham

Gustavus Conyngham (about 1747 – 27 November 1819) was an Irish-born American merchant sea captain, an officer in the Continental Navy and a privateer. As a commissioned captain fighting the British in the American Revolutionary War, he captured 24 ships in the eastern Atlantic between May 1777 and May 1778, bringing the expenses associated with British shipping to a then all-time high. He has been called "the most successful of all Continental Navy captains".
Early life.
Conyngham's story begins in a typical fashion for the era. Born in County Donegal, Ireland, in 1747, he came to British America in 1763 seeking a better life. Conyngham immigrated to Philadelphia in order to work for his cousin Redmond Conyngham in the shipping industry. He abandoned school at a young age, sensing that his destiny lay not in the academic world, but on the oceans. Here he learned and perfected his seamanship skills, becoming an apprentice to Captain Henderson, who became a surrogate father to the young Gustavus. Eventually Conyngham progressed enough to be given charge over his own craft, the "Charming Peggy". When the Revolutionary War began in 1775, he immediately sailed to Europe to try to procure supplies needed for the war effort.
Escape from the British.
Because Great Britain was patrolling for any arms deals, he had arranged a transaction with Dutch traders in order to safely transfer the goods. However, he was caught in becalmed winds for too long – the British were able to find him based on a tip from a mutinous sailor. Andrew Frazer, the English official in charge of Conyngham's arrest, placed a guard on board the "Charming Peggy" and ordered her to set sail for England as soon as the winds prevailed. However, once the weather turned, Conyngham and his crew overpowered the guard and made a daring escape. Despite their best efforts though, the wind died shortly after, leaving them stranded once again. This time, instead of waiting to be captured, Conyngham sold the "Charming Peggy" to the Dutch government in order to be able to purchase a new ship when under less suspicion. However, due to corruption and embezzlement within the government itself, he was never given any profits from the sale of his ship, and was forced to find another way to accomplish his mission.
Obtaining the "Surprise".
After the loss of his ship, Conyngham headed to France, hoping to connect with an ally to the United States. It was there he met Benjamin Franklin, a man who would help him in his adventures many times in the future. They formed a lasting relationship, and Conyngham eventually awarded Franklin the nickname "the Philosopher" for his intellectual fortitude and resourcefulness. Franklin had been entrusted with several commissions of the Continental Navy, and on March 1, 1777, Conyngham was appointed as captain of the lugger "Surprise". He quickly went to work, heading towards the narrow English Channel and capturing the "Prince of Orange" and the "Joseph" within a week. The "Prince of Orange" was holding mostly mail, so he sent it to Dunkirk to be unloaded, but the "Joseph" was holding more valuable cargo such as wine and oranges, and was sent to France as a prize. Unfortunately for Conyngham, France had a treaty with England that forbade the selling of commandeered good in French ports, and when Lord Stormont, an English official, heard of Conyngham's actions he demanded that France return the "Joseph" and arrest him. Not ready to commit to a war with England, French officials bowed to Lord Stormont's demands, turning over the Joseph and calling for Conyngham's arrest. He was sent to a French prison under charges of piracy.
Success aboard the "Revenge".
Again, it was Conyngham's friend "The Philosopher" that came to his rescue. Recognizing that Conyngham was a talented sailor from his clever avoidance of the British within their own channel, Franklin set about obtaining a new ship for him. However, this was no easy task in Europe at the time – England was watching the construction of new ships and was prepared to burn any vessel they felt was being built to aid the American cause. Therefore, the ship was built as the "Greyhound", and Franklin had installed false buyers in order to further confound the English. One of the buyers, Richard Hodge, then sailed the ship into the ocean, where Conyngham boarded it and took command, renaming the vessel "Revenge".
Having more tonnage, maneuverability, and firepower than the "Surprise", Conyngham immediately set to work terrorizing British shipping with twice the ferocity of before. It was here that he earned his nickname "the Dunkirk Pirate", ignoring his written orders to proceed directly to the American coastline for logistical support and resupply and instead heading directly to Dunkirk to begin his cruise against the British. In his first cruise, he averaged one ship every three days, sinking or capturing over twenty ships during his two-month stay in the Baltic and North Sea. He then sailed to Cap Ferrol in order to resupply and replace his crew. He then headed to the West Indies, continuing to use Spain as his primary base of operations. Over the next eighteen months he captured or sunk sixty ships, causing a 10% rise in British shipping insurance rates between Dover and Calais. This brought the expenses associated with shipping to their all-time highest level, outpacing their rates even during England's wars with France and Spain. Dozens of merchants resorted to paying French and Dutch ships to carry their goods for fear of the Dunkirk Pirate's vengeance. It was reported that the King of England himself said that it would give him great pleasure to be present at the hanging of Conyngham, if he could only catch him. Even the weather could not contain him. When his ship was badly damaged by a storm in English waters, he disguised the Revenge and sailed into an English port to be repaired, reverting to his native Irish tongue to maintain anonymity. When Conyngham was offered a seventy-four gun Spanish vessel for protection against two small British ships that planned to ambush him, he "thanked him for his offer, but told him he "was not afraid of fifty of their boats", all he wished is that they might make the attempt, and if they did, they would never live to make another."
Conyngham's reign of destruction off of the English coastline only ended when he captured a ship carrying valuable wartime supplies, which he deemed worthy of an escort to American shores. He arrived in Philadelphia on 21 February 1779 with his goods in tow. It was then that his luck began to turn sour.
First return to America and imprisonment.
It is ironic that the first friendly port Conyngham had seen in years would treat him so poorly. Though the local newspapers hailed him as a returning war hero, the Continental Congress was less than pleased with his disobedience to orders and his loss of his original commission, which had been confiscated by the French during his brief stay in their prison. Adding to this, as Conyngham was not the owner of the "Revenge", it was sold at a private auction.
Nevertheless, because Conyngham had been so successful as her captain, he was again given command with orders to raid British shipping for a private profit. However, during one of his first cruises he was unable to outrun the British warship , and was taken aboard as a prisoner. As his notoriety had grown since his last capture, he was given shabby treatment by his guards. By his own report he was kept in irons until he reached prison, and was given no more than a "cold plank as my bed, a stone for a pillow". Additionally, he was not fed properly, causing him to lose fifty pounds while imprisoned on the ship en route to his English prison.
Since he did not have a commission at the time, and he was arrested on charges of piracy and sent to the prison at Pendennis Castle from which he escaped, only to be caught again and transferred to Mill Prison, Plymouth. He was kept in irons continuously at both Pendennis Castle and Mill Prison.
In fact, it was only by the watchful hand of Benjamin Franklin that Conyngham was kept from the gallows. Franklin wrote to General George Washington about Conyngham's missing commission, and Washington wrote to the British saying that if Conyngham met with the noose, he would hang six of the British officers he had captured .
However, despite these conditions, he refused to accept the invitation to leave prison by joining the British Navy. In fact, while in prison he aided in the creation of a document stating that each member who signed would not leave the American cause regardless of what the conditions could become. Conyngham was placed on trial for high treason, but before his sentence was determined and carried out he escaped. Conyngham and eleven other prisoners had broken into the prison vault allowing them to use tools to dig a tunnel extending "a considerable distance" underneath the outer wall of the prison. Had a boy's arm not been broken during the scramble for the exit, alerting the sentries, hundreds more prisoners may have escaped with him.
Escape and return to America.
After his escape, Conyngham fled to Texel Island in the Netherlands to try to find a way back to America where he could potentially receive a new ship. His spirits were high – he reported later that he was amused by the portrayals of himself as a monster that he saw displayed all over London while in disguise. He planned on making his way back to France where he could again enlist the help of his friend Benjamin Franklin, but instead met with a stroke of luck. While he was resting in Texel, John Paul Jones arrived in port after his battle with the . Jones took him aboard, and they cruised together for several months until Conyngham left the Alliance at a Spanish port in order to board a ship headed for American shores. However, it was here that Conyngham's luck ran out once again. While aboard the "Experiment" en route to America, he was recaptured by the British on 17 March 1780, and sent back to Mill Prison in Plymouth. He remained there until his release due to a political prisoner exchange. This time, he headed for Ostend, where he obtained the armed vessel Layona, which he prepared to go cruising in once again. However, he received news of a treaty, and instead boarded the , which was on its way back to his hometown of Philadelphia.
Later service and death.
In many ways, his second return to the United States earned him a colder welcome than the last. The Continental Congress refused to pay him properly for his work because of his inability to produce his commission, which had been confiscated from him by the French almost three years ago. Because Benjamin Franklin had given him an official commission, he was not merely a privateer, but an actual Captain in the United States Navy. As such, he was entitled to two-twentieths of the value of the ships he took as prizes. As he could not produce his commission, and Benjamin Franklin died before he could give proper testimony of Conyngham's commissioning, the Continental Congress refused to pay him what he was due, and instead treated him as a common privateer during his earliest and most successful raids. However, despite his quarrels with the government, he still continued to serve his country. During the Quasi-War with the French, he captained the Maria, an armed merchant vessel, bringing much needed supplies to the front lines. Towards the end of his life, he was elected to the Common Council of Philadelphia, and managed to raise thirty thousand dollars in loans from the population in order to defend the city during the War of 1812. He never allowed his quarrels with politicians to come between his commitment to his country. He died quietly in his home on 27 November 1819.
Nearly a century later, John Barnes, a retired navy captain and naval historian, acquired a cache of autographs and documents from a sale by Charavay of Paris. In the collection was Conyngham's commission from Benjamin Franklin. Barnes published his discovery in September 1902.
Legacy.
Three ships in the United States Navy have been named USS "Conyngham" for him and Conyngham Borough, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, was named in his honor.


Radical Democratic Party (Spain)

The Radical Democratic Party (, PDR), later known as the Republican Reformist Party (, PRR), was one of the Spanish political parties that contended for power during the reign of Amadeo I (reigned 1870–73) and the First Spanish Republic (1873–74), opposing the Constitutional Party.
Background.
The party was established in 1871, after the division of the Progressive Party following the death of General Juan Prim, 1st Marquis of los Castillejos. The left wing of the party, along with the "cimbrios", monarchist faction of the Democratic Party led by Cristino Martos, organised themselves as a party under the leadership of Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla.
The party disintegrated after the 1874 restoration of the monarchy, fleeing its members to left-wing monarchist parties or to republican parties. Ruiz Zorrilla and his supporters established the Progressive Republican Party, while the faction of Martos joined the Liberal Party of Práxedes Mateo Sagasta. In 1876, the party remnants were reorganized as the Republican Reformist Party by Nicolás Salmerón.


Jared Sparks

Jared Sparks (May 10, 1789 – March 14, 1866) was an American historian, educator, and Unitarian minister. He served as President of Harvard College (now Harvard University) from 1849 to 1853.
Biography.
Born in Willington, Connecticut, Sparks studied in the common schools, worked for a time at the carpenter's trade, and then became a schoolteacher. In 1809–1811, he attended the Phillips Exeter Academy, where he met John G. Palfrey, who became a lifelong friend.
He graduated from Harvard College, (now Harvard University), with an A.B. in 1815, and an A.M. in 1818. While an undergraduate, Sparks was a member of the Hasty Pudding. In 1812, he served as a tutor to the children of a family in Havre de Grace, Maryland. A few years later he taught in a private school at Lancaster, Massachusetts during 1815–1817. Sparks also studied theology and was college tutor in mathematics and natural philosophy at Harvard College in 1817–1819. In 1817–1818 he was acting editor of the "North American Review".
He was the first pastor of the newly organized "First Independent Church of Baltimore", serving from 1819 to 1823. It occupied what became a landmark structure at West Franklin and North Charles streets. It later was known as the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore (Unitarian and Universalist) after a 1935 merger with the Second Universalist Church at Guilford Avenue and East Lanvale Street.
At Sparks' ordination by Dr. William Ellery Channing, (1780-1842), of the Federal Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts, Channing delivered his discourse on Unitarian Christianity. This later was known as "The Baltimore Sermon". It set out the tenets and some principles for the developing theology and philosophy of Unitarianism. By 1825, these principles led to the founding of the American Unitarian Association. (In 1961 a merger between two groups resulted in the modern Unitarian Universalist Association of America.)
During this period, Sparks founded the "Unitarian Miscellany" and "Christian Monitor" (1821), a monthly, and edited its first three volumes. He served as chaplain of the United States House of Representatives in the U.S. Congress at the Capitol, in Washington, D.C. from 1821 to 1823; and he contributed to the "National Intelligencer" and other periodicals.
In 1823, his health failed and Sparks withdrew from the ministry. Removing to Boston, he bought and edited in 1824–1830 the "North American Review", contributing about 50 articles to it. He founded and edited in 1830, the "American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge", which was continued by others and long remained a popular annual.
In 1825 Sparks was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1827 as a member of the American Antiquarian Society. He later served two decades as the society's secretary for foreign correspondence, from 1846 to 1866.
After extensive researches at home and in London and Paris in 1828–1829, he published "The Writings of George Washington" (12 volumes, 1834–1837; redated 1842), his most important work. In 1839 he published separately his "Life of George Washington" (abridged, 2 volumes, 1842). The work was for the most part favorably received, but Sparks was severely criticized by Lord Mahon (in the sixth volume of his "History of England") and others for altering the text of some of Washington's writings.
Sparks defended his methods in "A Reply to the Strictures of Lord Mahon and Others" (1852). The charges were not wholly justifiable, and later Lord Mahon (Stanhope) modified them.
While continuing his studies abroad in 1840–1841, Sparks discovered in the French archives the red-line map that, in 1842 gained international prominence in connection with the dispute over the north-eastern U.S.-Canadian boundary. Conflict had resulted in the Aroostook War between the State of Maine in the United States and the Province of New Brunswick in Canada.
Professorship.
Sparks was one of the American intellectuals who received French author and traveler Alexis de Tocqueville during his 1831–1832 visit to the United States. Their extensive conversations and subsequent correspondence informed de Tocqueville's best-known work, "Democracy in America".
In 1837, Sparks was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.
In 1842 Sparks delivered 12 lectures on American history before the Lowell Institute in Boston. In 1838–1849 he was the first McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History at Harvard, endowed by the will of wealthy merchant John McLean (1761-1823). His appointment to this position, says his biographer, was the first academic encouragement of American history, and of original historical research in the American field.
He was appointed in 1849 as president of Harvard College, and moved into a home on campus now called Treadwell-Sparks House. In 1853 Sparks retired on account of failing health, and devoted the rest of his life to his private studies. For several years he was a member of the Massachusetts Commonwealth Board of Education.
Death.
Jared Sparks died on March 14, 1866, in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery. His valuable collection of manuscripts and papers went to Harvard University. His private library and his maps were bought by Cornell University. He was a pioneer in large-scale collecting of documentary material on American history. He rendered valuable services to historical scholarship in the United States.
Works.
Other works by Sparks include:
He also edited the "Library of American Biography", in two series (10 and 15 volumes, respectively, 1834–1838, 1844–1847), - - to which he contributed articles on the lives of Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne, Henry Vane the Younger, Ethan Allen, spy, Gen. Benedict Arnold, explorer Jacques Marquette, explorer René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, Kazimierz Pulaski ("Count Pulaski"), Jean Ribault, Gen. Charles Lee and John Ledyard, the last a reprint of his earlier work.
In addition, he aided Henry D. Gilpin in preparing an edition of the "Papers of James Madison" (1840), and brought out an American edition of William Smyth's "Lectures on Modern History" (2 volumes, 1841), which did much to stimulate historical study in the United States.
Memorials.
Historian Francis Parkman dedicated his "The Conspiracy of Pontiac" (1851) to Sparks.
Memorial plaques and historical displays with portraits of Channing, Sparks and others are shown in the historical exhibit area of the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore (Unitarian and Universalist). The congregation commemorates the annual anniversary of "The Baltimore Sermon" of May 5, 1819, on the first Sunday in May. Their "Union Sunday" features a sermon/homily/address by an invited speaker; it is attended by the ministers and members of the Unitarian churches in Maryland, along with other visiting ecumenical members of other local Christian churches, and interested lay people.


General Wayne Inn

The General Wayne Inn in Merion, Pennsylvania is a former tavern. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976. Established in 1704, it was previously named the William Penn Inn, Wayside Inn, Tunis Ordinary, and Streepers Tavern before being renamed in 1793 in honor of American Revolutionary War hero General "Mad" Anthony Wayne, who had once stayed there.
Murder and suicide.
Executive chef Jim Webb and his business partner Guy Sileo bought the General Wayne in 1995. Webb was found murdered there in his office on December 27, 1996. Felicia Moyse, a 20-year-old assistant chef at the inn and Sileo's girlfriend, committed suicide on February 22, 1997.
Moyse had been an alibi witness for Sileo. On the night of the murder, she and Sileo left the General Wayne at the same time, driving to dinner in their separate vehicles. Sileo doubled back, killed Webb using a gun later linked to him by forensic evidence, then rushed to arrive at dinner before Moyse.
Police believe that Moyse realized her boyfriend had set her up as his alibi, and had been unable to live with it.
Police were able to prove that Sileo had killed Webb in order to receive the $650,000 () life insurance money from their partnership policies, before Webb could end their partnership and shut down the General Wayne. Sileo was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison.
Synagogue.
In 2005, the building was purchased and renovated by Chabad of the Main Line, and converted into a synagogue and community centre.
Famous people.
Famous people who visited the inn include:


Slouching Towards Gomorrah

Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline is a 1996 non-fiction book by Robert H. Bork, a former United States Court of Appeals judge. Bork's thesis in the book is that U.S. and more generally Western culture is in a state of decline and that the cause of this decline is modern liberalism and the rise of the New Left. Specifically, he attacks modern liberalism for what he describes as its dual emphases on radical egalitarianism and radical individualism. The title of the book is a play on the last couplet of W. B. Yeats's poem "The Second Coming": "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" Bork contends that the "rough beast of decadence … now sends us slouching towards our new home, not Bethlehem but Gomorrah." More directly, the title borrows from Joan Didion's "Slouching Towards Bethlehem".
Overview.
Bork first traces the rapid expansion of modern liberalism that occurred during the 1960s, arguing that this legacy of radicalism demonstrates that the precepts of modern liberalism are antithetical to the rest of the U.S. political tradition. He then attacks a variety of social, cultural, and political experiences as evidence of U.S. cultural decline and degeneracy. Among these are affirmative action, increased violence in and sexualization of mass media, the legalization of abortion, pressure to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia, feminism and the decline of religion. Bork, himself a rejected nominee of President Ronald Reagan to the United States Supreme Court, also criticizes that institution and argues that the judiciary and liberal judicial activism are catalysts for U.S. cultural corruption.
In this light, Bork advocates an amendment to the United States Constitution which would allow Congressional supermajorities to override Supreme Court controversial rulings.
Reception.
The book received a negatively critical response by "The Mises Review", which stated that "Bork's failure to set forward his arguments rigorously leads to a crucial error in his approach to constitutional interpretation" and that the "omni-competent state is, for Bork, not a monster to be dispatched but a tool to be used. Whether the state is likely to enforce the values he favors is a question he leaves un-examined".


Joachim Philip

Joachim Philip was a Grenadian planter and revolutionary, and a member of the prominent free-coloured (mixed-race) Philips family. He was a leader of Fédon's rebellion; Philip held the rank of captain in Julien Fédon's forces and delivered Fédon's ultimatum to the British forces in St. George's. He survived the end of the rebellion but was captured in Petit Martinique eight years later and executed.
Early life.
Joachim Philip was the son of Jeanette, a formerly enslaved woman, and her husband Honore Philip, a French baker turned planter. Honore and Jeanette had eight children — Magdalen, Susannah, Judith, Honore, Michel, Joachim, Nicholas-Regis and Jean-Baptiste Louis. Joachim Philip and his brothers Honore and Louis trained as carpenters while his youngest brother, Nicholas-Regis was a stone mason by training.
When Honore died in 1779 he left property to his children, his two brothers, François and Jean-Pierre, and his mother. When Jeanette died in 1788 she left more property to their children across Petit Martinique, Carriacou, and the main island of Grenada. In November 1794, to settle a court judgement against him, Joachim was forced to sell his property on Petit Martinque and relocated to a family property in Gouyave.
Fédon's rebellion.
In 1795, less than six months after he was forced to dispose of his plantation, Joachim Philip joined Julien Fédon in his revolt against British rule. Fédon made Philip a leader in the uprising with the rank of captain. On the night of March 8, while Fédon led an attack on the town of Grenville, Philip and Etienne Ventour attacked the town of Gouyave. The town was looted and the white male population was taken prisoner by the rebels, but the only injury was a man who shot himself in the wrist with a captured pistol. This was in contrast to Grenville, where the rebels killed most of the white population.
On March 4 Philip and Charles Nogues, another free coloured planter, entered the capital, St. George's, under a flag of truce. They were escorted through the town by the militia through a hostile crowd which threatened to lynch the rebels. The militia had to restrain Philip's sister, Susannah, who otherwise would have "torn him to pieces" according to reports. Philip and Nogues informed the council that the rebels had captured the governor, Ninian Home, and delivered an ultimatum from Fédon which demanded that the British surrender the island and a proclamation from French Republican leader Victor Hugues in Guadeloupe which threatened the death of two British officers for each republican killed by the British.
When the British launched a failed attack on the rebel stronghold at Belvidere, Fédon's plantation, Philip was "in the thick of the fighting" while his brother Nicholas-Regis, who had also joined the rebels, took a lead role in the execution of the British prisoners.
Later life.
After the failure of the rebellion, Joachim Philip was among the 400 people named in the bill of attainder. He survived for another eight years in hiding before he was captured on Petit Martinique in 1803. He was brought to St. George's, tried, and executed by hanging in Market Square.


Civic Party

The Civic Party (CP) is a pro-democracy liberal political party in Hong Kong. It is currently chaired by barrister Alan Leong and holds 21 seats in the District Councils.
The party was formed in 2006 on the basis of the Basic Law Article 45 Concern Group, which was derived from the Basic Law Article 23 Concern Group that rooted in its opposition to the proposed legislation of the Article 23 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong. Mainly composed of leading barristers, the party first contested in the 2007 Chief Executive election with Alan Leong unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Donald Tsang elected by the Election Committee.
The Civic Party joined the League of Social Democrats (LSD) in the "Five Constituencies Referendum" campaign in 2010 to pressure the government to implement the universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and Legislative Council in 2012 over the constitutional reform package. In the 2012 Legislative Council election, the party took an aggressive electoral strategy, which resulted in winning six seats and overtaking the Democratic Party in vote share.
In light of the rise of localism, the Civic Party speeded up its rejuvenation and localisation after its candidate Alvin Yeung defeated Edward Leung of the Hong Kong Indigenous in the 2016 New Territories East by-election, which Yeung became the party leader later in the year. The party received a largest victory by winning 32 seats in the 2019 District Council election in the midst of the citywide anti-government protests.
In July 2020 after Beijing installed the national security law on Hong Kong, three of the five Civic incumbent legislators, Alvin Yeung, Kwok Ka-ki and Dennis Kwok were barred from running for re-election and subsequently unseated, which resulted in the mass resignations of the pro-democracy legislators, leaving the party with no representation in the legislature for the first time and Yeung's resignation as party leader.
Party beliefs.
The party is considered part of the pan-democracy camp in the Legislative Council. The party's objectives are:
During the 2008 Legislative Council election campaign, candidates from the party also called for the introduction of a statutory minimum wage and a competition law.
History.
Founding.
The Civic Party was founded on 19 March 2006 as a coalition of six incumbent members of the Legislative Council. Four of them, Audrey Eu, Alan Leong, Ronny Tong and Margaret Ng were barristers, who had already cooperated as an informal bloc called the Article 45 Concern Group, reflecting their efforts to realise universal suffrage with Article 45 and 68 of the Hong Kong Basic Law. They were joined by two other incumbents, the then functional constituency Legislative Councillors Mandy Tam (Accountancy) and Fernando Cheung (Social Welfare), as well as a number of pan-democratic academics. Political scientist Professor Kuan Hsin-chi became the first Chairman of the Civic Party and Audrey Eu the first Leader of the party. At the time of formation, the party was holding six seats in the Legislative Council, making it the fourth largest party.
The Article 45 Concern Group was transferred from the Article 23 Concern Group launched in 2002 opposing the legislation of the Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23. The barristers rose to fame as the issue escalated to a full-scale civil movement in the mid summer of 2003. Alan Leong and Ronny Tong were both able to elected to the Legislative Council in the geographical constituency direct elections in Kowloon East and New Territories East respectively.
Audrey Eu leadership (2006–2011).
2007 Chief Executive bid and 2008 LegCo election (2006–2008).
The Civic Party's first electoral test was its decision to run Alan Leong in the March 2007 "small circle"
Chief Executive election, challenging incumbent Donald Tsang. The party and its ally actively fill candidates running in the 800-member December 2006 Election Committee Subsector elections and won more than 100 seats. Leong's winning sufficient nomination votes to enter the race was viewed as a breakthrough in what previously had been seen as an entirely Beijing-orchestrated process. However a safe margin in the Election Committee to assure Donald Tsang re-election, Leong eventually lost by 123 to 649 votes as a result. In the November 2007 District Council elections, the party contested 42 constituencies. Five incumbents now under the Civic Party flag were re-elected, and three rookies picked up new seats.
With a slate of widely respected legislators projecting an image of competence and ability, the Civic Party went into the September 2008 Legislative Council elections heavily favoured, with some pundits predicting they would take over as the flagship of the pan-democratic movement from what at the time seemed to be an ailing Democratic Party. However, the party's results failed to match pre-election predictions. Ronny Tong only took the sixth out of seven seats in his constituency, Alan Leong the final seat. While the Civics won a new seat for District Councilor Tanya Chan by placing Audrey Eu after Chan in the candidate list in Hong Kong Island, Mandy Tam's internal battles with Accountancy functional constituency (FC) cost Tam her seat. In addition, Fernando Cheung's decision to give up his Social Welfare FC seat in favour of running in the New Territories West geographic constituency (GC) proved disastrous. Finally, Kowloon West GC candidate Claudia Mo found herself under fierce attack by League of Social Democrats (LSD) chairman Wong Yuk-man, which the Civics believe cost Mo the election. As a result, the Civic Party dropped one seat in total, while retaining the three seats in the geographical constituency and one seat in the Legal FC and also gaining a new seat in Hong Kong Island, but losing two seats in the Accountancy and Social Welfare FCs.
The Civic Party's 2008 electoral performance led most observers to conclude the party needed to rectify its weakness at the grassroots. At the party's 6 December internal elections, Professor Kuan Hsin-chi was re-elected chairman and Audrey Eu remained as Party Leader. Vice-Chairman Fernando Cheung and Treasurer Mandy Tam, however, resigned to take responsibility for their defeats. While Alan Leong replaced Cheung as vice-chairman, Cheung's duties as party strategist were picked up by Secretary-General Kenneth Chan Ka-lok. Tanya Chan was elected Chairman of the "Young Civics", the party's youth wing.
Newly elected Civic Party Secretary-General Kenneth Chan suggested that the party should transformed from the elitist "barristers' club" image of the "blue-blooded" squad of barristers to a proper political party which could expand their base or groom the next generation of leaders for the party.
"Five Constituencies Referendum" Movement (2009–2011).
The party was member of the Alliance for Universal Suffrage which consisted of all the pro-democracy groups to strive for the 2012 universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and Legislative Council. In response to the electoral reform package proposed by the government, the party joined hand with the League of Social Democrats, which belonged to the relatively radical wing the pan-democracy camp, to launch the "Five Constituency Referendum" by having five legislators resigning and participating in a territory-wide by-election to demand genuine universal suffrage. The claim of by-election as referendum expectedly received serve attacks from the Beijing government and the pro-Beijing camp in Hong Kong as unconstitutional. The Democratic Party refused to join the movement and sought for a less confrontational way to negotiate with Beijing. The election turnout showed with only 17.7 percent of the registered voters voted despite Alan Leong and Tanya Chan were re-elected. After the by-election Chairwoman Audrey Eu was invited by the Chief Executive Donald Tsang to a televised debate over the reform package. Audrey Eu was widely perceived to have scored an overwhelming victory over Tsang in the debate, yet the reform package was ultimately passed with the support of the Democratic Party despite Civic Party voted against it.
Alan Leong leadership (2011–2016).
2011/2012 elections (2011–2014).
In January 2011 party leadership elections, there was first changes at the top for the five-year-old party. Alan Leong took over from Audrey Eu as Party Leader uncontestedly, while Kenneth Chan beat Professor Joseph Cheng by an 11-vote margin after a heated campaign that saw some complaining about the fairness of the contest. Chan campaigned on a platform that was endorsed by most of the party veterans. Alan Leong denied the speculations of any intra-party factional struggle.
In the 2011 District Council elections, the Civic Party was hammered by the pro-Beijing media due to its close ties with the legal advisers on the lawsuit of the right of abode for foreign domestic workers who represented one such Filipina. The party was greatly disadvantaged by this as many HK residents fear granting Filipinos permanent residency would affect them. The party received great defeat in the election with only seven out of 41 candidates were elected. Party leader Alan Leong blamed the pro-Beijing camp's vast resources as the cause of defeat.
The 2012 Legislative Council elections were held on 9 September 2012. Civic Party won a seat in each geographical constituency, five seats in total, and a seat in Legal functional constituency. These six seats made the Civic Party the second largest political party in Legislative Council and stood side by side with the Democratic Party as the largest pro-democratic party, though the popular votes gained by the Civics in the geographical constituency surpassed the Democrats. The party was blamed for its electoral strategy by putting heavyweights Audrey Eu and Tanya Chan in New Territories West and Hong Kong Island to attract too many votes at the expense on the other pan-democratic parties. Although both Eu and Chan received about 70,000 votes in their constituencies, they failed to get re-elected and the seats went to pro-Beijing candidates Leung Che-cheung and Wong Kwok-hing which made the pro-Beijing camp controlled the majority of the seats in those constituencies despite fewer votes.
Post-Umbrella Revolution (2014–2016).
On 22 June 2015, few days after the historic legislative vote over the 2015 Hong Kong electoral reform, Ronny Tong announced that he would quit the Civic party that he co-founded, adding that he noted the line the Civic Party had taken since the end of 2009 had deviated from its founding values. He would also resign from the Legislative Council as he said it was inappropriate for him to retain his seat in the legislature because he stood for election as a Civic Party member.
In the 2015 District Council election, the Civics won total of 10 seats, although legislator Kenneth Chan failed to win a seat in South Horizons East.
In Legislative Council by-election to fill the seat left vacant by Ronny Tong, Alvin Yeung, a young barrister defeated Beijing-loyalist Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) candidate Holden Chow and localist Hong Kong Indigenous candidate Edward Leung Tin-kei, receiving 160,880 votes.
In the September's Legislative Council general election, the Civics retained all their six seats with Tanya Chan replaced Kenneth Chan in Hong Kong Island and Jeremy Tam took over retiring leader Alan Leong's seat in Kowloon East.
Alvin Yeung leadership (2016–present).
On 1 October 2016, as Alan Leong retired from the Legislative Council, he has also stepped down from the post of Party Leader, and the Executive Committee of the party appointed Alvin Yeung as the acting party leader. Yeung officially became the party leader in November, with Leong succeeding Audrey Eu as party chair. On 14 November 2016, the party's legislator Claudia Mo resigned from the party citing differences over localism and other issues which left the party five seats in the council.
In the 2019 District Council election, the Civic Party won 32 seats.
Structure.
The party is managed by the twenty-member Executive Committee, headed by the chairman and Leader. It has five District Branches, and a youth branch known as the Young Civics.
The admittance of any new ordinary member must be backed by two existing ordinary members or founding members. In addition, a prospective member must complete local branch work for one year before being inducted as an ordinary member.
The party leading figures are:
Leadership.
Overall Structure.
The Civic Party operates with a dual-leadership model, with a Leader and a Chairperson. In general, the Leader is an elected legislator who leads the party within the Legislative Council, while the Chairperson is typically not a legislator so that he or she may focus on the overall development of the party.
Representatives.
District Councils.
The Civic Party has won 33 seats and currently holds 21 seats in 10 District Councils (2020–2023):


Greg Lindsay

Gregory John Lindsay AO (b. 1949) was until 2018 the Executive Director of the Australian think tank the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS), which he founded in 1976 when a young mathematics teacher in the western suburbs of Sydney. CIS has become influential in Australia and New Zealand.
Biography.
Lindsay initially studied agricultural science at the University of Sydney, but found that this was not his real interest and instead obtained secondary teaching qualifications in mathematics at Sydney Teachers' College. A short four-year stint at Richmond High School coincided with further study at Macquarie University in philosophy culminating in graduating with a BA majoring in philosophy in 1977. The CIS's first public events were also held at Macquarie in October 1976 and in April 1977.
He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2003 for his contribution to education and public debate.
In 2006 he was elected President of the Mont Pelerin Society for a two-year term at its general meeting in Guatemala. He was elected to the Council of Macquarie University for a term from 1 January 2008.


Independent Democratic Serb Party

The Independent Democratic Serb Party (, Самостална демократска српска странка; abbr. SDSS, СДСС) is a social democratic, socially liberal and pro-european political party representing the Serb minority in the Republic of Croatia.
History.
It was formed in 1997 led by Vojislav Stanimirović. In the 2003 Croatian parliamentary election, it beat its main rival, the Serb People's Party (SNS), taking all three seats reserved for Serb representatives in the Croatian parliament.
After the elections, the Independent Democratic Serb Party made an agreement with the winning Croatian Democratic Union led by Ivo Sanader in which they agreed on fulfilling several Independent Democratic Serb Party demands such as refugee return, strengthening of national equality, judicial reform and cooperation with neighbouring countries. In the 2007 Croatian parliamentary election, they retained their three seats in the Parliament of Croatia.
In the Cabinet of Ivo Sanader II, their member Slobodan Uzelac received the position of vice-president of government. In the 2011 Croatian parliamentary election, they again won all three seats for Serb minority lists in the Parliament.
In the 2015 and 2016 Croatian parliamentary elections, the SDSS also held all of 3 Serb national minority seats in the Croatian Parliament, continuing to support the HDZ-led government of Croatia.
The party participated in 2019 European Parliament election in Croatia, winning 2.66% of votes. After the 2020 parliamentary election, SDSS member Boris Milošević received the position of Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia, in charge of social affairs and human and minority rights, within the Second Cabinet of Andrej Plenković, representing national minorities in Croatia.
Electoral performances.
European Parliament.
For the 2014 European Parliament election, the Independent Democratic Serb Party joined the centre-left SDP-led Kukuriku coalition. The coalition eventually won 4 out of 11 Croatian seats in European Parliament, with SDSS received no seat.
In 2019 the Independent Democratic Serb Party ran independently for the first time in a European Parliament election. Although there were speculations that the SDSS might leave the ruling coalition with HDZ, its leader Milorad Pupovac confirmed that the SDSS will remain a part it, following a meeting with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. Campaign was marked by SDSS jumbo posters with inscription "Do you know what it is like to be a Serb in Croatia?" in which a word Serb was written in Serbian Cyrillic (). University of Zagreb professor Dejan Jović was second on the list, just behind party leader Milorad Pupovac. As it was expected by campaign leaders, the jumbo posters were target of widespread nationalist vandalism and destruction which underlined the issue of ethnic intolerance and discrimination.
Self-definition.
The SDSS is a democratic party of liberal and social democratic orientation, but in the present circumstances, it is also a Serb national party. Political goals:


Louis Henry Scipio, Count Duroure

Louis Henry Scipion, Count Durore (1763–1822) was a French revolutionary and English radical.
Background.
Duroure was born in Marseilles on 26 February 1763. Louis Alexandre, Count Duroure, an Anglo-French soldier, claimed to be his father. Duroure also claimed that his mother was Hon. Henrietta Child, widow of Hon Josiah Child, younger brother of John Tylney, 2nd Earl Tylney, of Wanstead House, and daughter of Robert Knight, Lord Luxborough and later Earl of Catherlough. Mrs. Child had died three days after the child's birth and Duroure returned to Lord Luxborough's house in London with the child, and Mrs. Child's body in a coffin, claiming that they had been married and that the child was theirs. Lord Luxborough (who had known nothing of the marriage or of his daughter's pregnancy) took them in and presented the child to the world as the legitimate child of his daughter's marriage to Duroure.
Upbringing.
Duroure was bi-lingual, so it appears that he was educated both in France and England. He may have spent some time in Martinique, for it is said that he accompanied Rose de la Pagerie (Empress Josephine) on her voyage to France in 1779. He later claimed to have studied at Oxford. His reputed grandfather, Lord Catherlough, died in 1772, leaving his property to his illegitimate children. Duroure was to have the income on £3000 at his majority. When his half-brother, Josiah Child, died in 1775, Duroure's guardians claimed Mrs. Child's fortune for him. They seem to have been unsuccessful in establishing their claim, for Lord Bolingbroke (the next heir) took possession of the two houses in Park Lane and Albemarle Street that had belonged to Mrs Child. In 1780, Duroure's guardians purchased a commission for him in the Royal Horseguards Blue.
Arrest and English Imprisonment.
As a lieutenant in the Horseguards, Duroure was said to have caused "much notice about town." Then, in 1784, he attempted to elope to France with the wife of a lawyer of his acquaintance. They were unable to gain a passage and were finally tracked down by the lady's husband to a "bagnio" in Leicester Fields. A pistol was fired at the lawyer as he tried to gain admittance and Duroure was brought to trial at the Old Bailey. His lawyer Thomas Erskine (later Lord Chancellor) got him off on a technicality but the next day he was arrested for debt. He remained in Newgate Gaol until September 1789.
Revolutionary career.
The day after his release, Duroure gained access to his mother's Park Lane house — which Lord Bolingbroke had already sold to a Mr. Jones — and lived there for the next two years. When his claim was finally brought before Lord Chief Justice Kenyon at the Surrey Assizes in June 1791, it was ruled that he was barred from inheriting his mother's property because he had been born abroad of a foreign father. Despite the ruling, he seems to have remained well off. Soon after this, he left for Paris where he was active in the section Faubourg Montmartre. At the end of October 1792, as Scipion Duroure, he was elected to represent his section on the General Council of the Paris Commune, where he had responsibility for the royal family in the Temple Prison. He was a witness to the last testament of Louis XVI. He was elected a Vice President of the Commune and in February 1793 was further elected First Commissioner of Finance. At the end of May 1793, he was one of the members of the Revolutionary Council that made its headquarters in the Archbishop's Palace and demanded the arrest of the Girondin leaders in the Convention. He was appointed to interrogate Roland, but Roland managed to escape. He was a close colleague and friend of Rene Hebert — standing sponsor at the lay baptism of Hebert's daughter — which made him vulnerable when Hebert and Robespierre fell out. Fabre d’Eglantine’s revelation of a ‘foreign plot’ in October 1793 was aimed at men liked Duroure. In early March 1794 he and his colleagues from the Section Mont-Marat (so renamed after Marat's murder) marched on the Convention to demand food for the people of Paris, but he found himself denounced, arrested and sent to the Saint-Lazare prison with the other Hébertists. It is not clear how he escaped execution. In September 1794, after the end of the Terror, he was released.
Last Years of the Revolution.
Duroure seems to have returned to England for a brief while, though d'Amat says that he was serving as a town councillor in Avignon in 1795-6. During the Directory's attack on royalists and Jacobins in September 1797, he was again arrested. After his release, he continued to involve himself with revolutionary politics. During the brief Jacobin revival of the summer of 1799, he was a member of the "Réunion d'amis de l'égalité et de la liberté", which had its headquarters in the "Salle du Manège" of the Tuileries, and was thus known as the "Club du Manège". However, with Bonaparte's "coup d'etat" of December 1799, Duroure was among those proscribed as a "dangerous agitator" and condemned to deportation to Guyana. There is no record of his arrest. He seems to have fled to England, where he spent the rest of his life.
Later career.
By now Duroure seems to have lost much of his fortune. He settled in London and was linked to the world of radical publishing through Sir Richard Phillips. He was an admirer of Cobbett's "Grammar of the English Language", which he translated into French, though Cobbett believed he had changed too much of it. He also translated Phillips' work on the English jury system as "Des pouvoirs et des obligations des jurys". According to Francois-Xavier de Feller in his "Biographie Universelle", Duroure was also working on an edition of the philosophical works of his great uncle, the 1st Lord Bolingbroke, and on the family letters of his grandmother, Lady Luxborough, but nothing appeared. He died in Arundel Street, London on 24 September 1822. Michaud in his "Biographie Universelle" says that his illegitimate son died on the same day and that it was thought that they had been poisoned. He was buried with his reputed mother (Mrs Child, otherwise Countess Duroure) at Ullenhall in Warwickshire after a funeral which was "ridiculously grand, the hearse all covered with coats-of-arms, not much to the satisfaction of the family, who doubted his really being the Countess' son" His funerary hatchment still hangs in Wootton Wawen church.
In fiction.
In 2013, Bernadette Ramillier published her historical novel "La Vie Aventureuse de Scipion du Roure, 1759-1822". Apart from taking his name and an approximation of his dates, it is only loosely based on Du Roure’s life. He also features in another historical novel by Catherine Hermary-Vieille, "Merveilleuses" (2012) as the lover of Rose de la Pagerie, later the Empress Josephine. "Une immediate attirance avait rapproché les deux jeunes gens, ils avaient des souvenuirs communs, un caractère insouciant, de l’opportunisme, un temperament sensuel". She picks up the tradition that Duroure spent some of his youth in the West Indies and was one of Josephine’s many lovers.


Battle of Czarnowo

The Battle of Czarnowo on the night of 23–24 December 1806 saw troops of the First French Empire under the eye of Emperor Napoleon I launch an evening assault crossing of the Wkra River against Lieutenant General Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann-Tolstoy's defending Russian Empire forces. The attackers, part of Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout's III Corps, succeeded in crossing the Wkra at its mouth and pressed eastward to the village of Czarnowo. After an all-night struggle, the Russian commander withdrew his troops to the east, ending this War of the Fourth Coalition action. Czarnowo is located on the north bank of the Narew River north-northwest of Warsaw, Poland.
Several other actions occurred during the same week. On the 23rd, Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières defeated a probe by Prussian troops at Bieżuń. On 24 December, an action occurred at Kołoząb and Sochocin where Marshal Pierre Augereau's VII Corps attempted to cross the Wkra. The French managed to secure a foothold on the east bank, forcing Major General Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly's Russian defenders to retreat. On Christmas Day, part of Marshal Michel Ney's VI Corps drove the Prussians from Soldau (Działdowo), forcing them to retreat north toward Königsberg. The Russians, however, were full of fight and two sharp battles occurred on 26 December.
Background.
At the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt on 14 October 1806, Napoleon administered a terrible beating to the principal Prussian armies. On a single day, the French captured 25,000 Prussian soldiers, 200 guns, and 60 colors. In subsequent operations the French inflicted crippling defeats on their adversaries at Erfurt, Halle, Prenzlau, Pasewalk, Stettin, Lübeck, Magdeburg, and Hamelin.
In early November, Davout sent General of Division Marc Antoine de Beaumont's 2,500 dragoons to scout east of the Oder River. Napoleon ordered his brother General of Division Jérôme Bonaparte to protect his southern flank by operating against Glogau (Głogów) in Prussian-held Silesia. Wishing to deny Warsaw to the approaching Russian army, Napoleon decided to secure a position on the east bank of the Vistula River before winter weather forced a stop to the campaigning season.
In December, the Prussians were able to field only 6,000, plus the garrisons of Danzig (Gdańsk) and Graudenz (Grudziądz). Field Marshal Mikhail Kamensky led the Russian army in Poland, which numbered about 90,000 men in two wings led by Generals Levin August, Count von Bennigsen and Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden (Buxhöwden). By now, Kamensky was showing clear signs of his mental and physical unfitness to command.
Buxhöwden, who outranked Bennigsen, led the 5th Division under Lieutenant General Nikolay Tuchkov; the 7th Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Dmitry Dokhturov; the 8th Division of Lieutenant General Peter Kirillovich Essen; and the 14th Division led by Lieutenant General Heinrich Reinhold von Anrep. Buxhöwden's divisions were veterans of the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805 and were under strength. In total, therefore, his wing had 29,000 infantry, 7,000 cavalry, 1,200 gunners, and 216 artillery pieces.
Bennigsen commanded the 2nd Division of Ostermann-Tolstoy, the 3rd Division led by Lieutenant General Fabian Gottlieb von Osten-Sacken, the 4th Division under Lieutenant General Dmitry Golitsyn, and the 6th Division commanded by Lieutenant General Alexander Karlovich Sedmoratski. The nominal strength of Bennigsen's force was 49,000 infantry, 11,000 regular cavalry, 4,000 Cossacks, 2,700 artillerymen, 900 pioneers, and 276 guns. Of these, between 55,000 and 60,000 were available for mobile operations.
The Russians fielded an army of 18 divisions in 1806. Each division consisted of six 3-battalion infantry regiments, ten squadrons of heavy cavalry, ten squadrons of light cavalry, two heavy foot artillery batteries, three light foot artillery batteries, and one horse artillery battery. With 14-gun foot batteries and 12-gun horse batteries, each Russian division theoretically controlled 82 field pieces. The heavy batteries were generally made up of eight 12-pound cannons, four heavy howitzers, and two light howitzers. The light batteries were similarly mustered but with 6-pound instead of 12-pound cannons. Horse batteries were exclusively made up of 6-pound cannons. Five divisions under General Johann Michelson faced the Ottoman Turks in Moldavia. The 1st Imperial Guard Division of Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia was stationed at Saint Petersburg, while four additional divisions formed a reserve army in the interior.
Napoleon pressed forward with Davout, Augereau, Marshal Jean Lannes' V Corps, and Marshal Joachim Murat's Cavalry Reserve. As the French advanced, Bennigsen withdrew his troops from the Vistula. Murat occupied Warsaw on 28 November and Napoleon began turning the city into a center of operations. Buxhöwden's wing was still several marches to the rear and Bennigsen desired to join his colleague before facing the full strength of the French army. As the French crossed the Vistula in early December, Bennigsen had a change of heart and tried to retake his former position on the east bank. By now, Napoleon's second wave of corps was arriving and, after a few clashes, Bennigsen decided to pull back behind the Wkra after all.
After peaking during the whirlwind campaign west of the Oder, the morale of the French troops hit a new low point in Poland. The bad weather and approaching winter made Napoleon's troops very reluctant to continue the campaign. The Polish roads went from deep mud to frozen ruts as the weather grew colder. The emperor was forced to dispense a bonus in pay and extra shirts and shoes for his soldiers. Even so, French military discipline grew worse. At this time, Napoleon first used the term, "les grognards" (the grumblers), to describe his troops.
Napoleon determined to mount an offensive. Led by Murat's cavalry, Davout, Augereau, and Lannes would drive north from Warsaw. From Thorn (Toruń), Ney, Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte's I Corps, and Bessières would push east to turn the Russian right flank and separate General-Leutnant Anton Wilhelm von L'Estocq's Prussians from their allies. Marshal Nicolas Soult and the IV Corps would provide the connection between the two forces.
Two major cavalry formations were in existence. Murat's I Cavalry Corps included Beaumont's 3rd Dragoon Division, General of Division Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty's 1st Cuirassier Division, General of Division Louis Klein's 1st Dragoon Division, General of Division Nicolas Léonard Beker's 5th Dragoon Division, and General of Brigade Édouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud's light cavalry brigade. Bessières' short-lived II Cavalry Corps comprised the 2nd Dragoon Division under General of Division Emmanuel Grouchy, 4th Dragoon Division led by General of Division Louis Michel Antoine Sahuc, 2nd Cuirassier Division commanded by General of Division Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul, and the light cavalry division of General of Division Jacques Louis François Delaistre de Tilly. The II Cavalry Corps was established on 16 December and dissolved on 12 January 1807.
Battle.
On the morning of 23 December, Napoleon personally observed the Russian position near the point where the Wkra emptied into the Bug-Narew. Near its mouth, the Wkra split into two branches, forming a low, swampy island. Davout's troops had occupied the island since the night of 20 December. Davout had three infantry divisions under Generals of Division Charles Antoine Morand, Louis Friant, and Charles-Étienne Gudin de La Sablonnière. Napoleon decided on a night attack and drafted very detailed orders. Because of the high quality of Davout's generals and officers, the emperor's orders were carefully carried out.
Opposite the French, Ostermann-Tolstoy held the east bank of the Wkra with nine battalions, two squadrons, one regiment of Cossacks, 14 guns, and six light guns. The Russian 2nd Division included three infantry brigades. Major General Nikolai Mazovsky led the Pavlovski Grenadier and Rostov Musketeer Regiments, Major General Alexander Yakovlevich Sukin commanded the Petersburg Grenadier and Jeletzsky Musketeer Regiments, and Major General Ivan Andreievich Lieven directed the 1st and 20th Jager Regiments. The complement of 48 guns was made up of two 12-pound foot batteries and two 6-pound horse batteries. Major General Peter Petrovich Pahlen led the cavalry brigade which included the Little Russia Cuirassier, Courland Dragoon, and Soum Hussar Regiments, plus the Malakov and Sissoiev Cossacks.
Morand's division assembled on the island, Friant's troops were slightly farther north at the village of Pomiechowo, and Gudin's soldiers held a bridgehead to the west near Modlin. At 7:00 PM Morand deployed his troops into three columns, each headed by one battalion. Supported by artillery firing grapeshot, the French "voltigeur" (light) companies boated across the Wkra. The voltigeurs took covering positions on the east bank while engineers quickly built three bridges. Once the bridges were completed, Morand's troops swarmed across. The 17th Light Infantry Regiment and three squadrons of cavalry were among the first units across. General of Brigade Claude Petit led a task force from Gudin's division across the bridge nearest the Bug-Narew and moved up the Wkra's east bank. Morand's attack was a success and the Russians were quickly hustled out of their positions on the east bank.
The 17th Light rushed forward and drove the Russians out of Czarnowo. However, their opponents soon rallied and recaptured the village from the French. There was a lull in the action as Morand brought reinforcements up. He sent forward the 30th Line Infantry Regiment, one battalion along the banks of the Bug-Narew to attack on the right, a second battalion in a frontal attack, while the third battalion moved through a pine woods on the left. Ostermann-Tolstoy's troops also repelled this assault. Afraid of losing his heavy artillery, the Russian commander sent his to the rear. The French continued their attack and eventually seized Czarnowo, then deployed east of the village.
Meanwhile, with the help of six guns on the west bank of the Wkra, Petit's 400 men cleared the Russian redoubts opposite Pomiechowo. They were first charged by Russian cavalry, which they drove off. Davout sent some of Gudin's troops to assist and Petit hung onto the redoubts, despite being attacked by Russian infantry. At 4:00 AM, Ostermann-Tolstoy issued orders for retreat while maintaining his attacks on Petit. With the help of three late-arriving Russian battalions and four squadrons, the Russians withdrew in good order to the east.
Friant's troops were ordered forward at 4:00 AM. Arriving on the field soon after, they took over the pursuit from Morand's exhausted men. Together with Davout's light cavalry under General of Brigade Jacob François Marulaz and a dragoon regiment, Friant's soldiers hounded the Russian retreat. The French captured three enemy guns at Nasielsk and drove their opponents into some nearby woods. The Russians fought back hard, keeping Davout's troops from advancing farther than Nasielsk that day.
Ostermann-Tolstoy admitted losing 500 men, but a work by Alexander Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky stated that 853 Russians were killed and wounded, including three generals wounded. Davout reported losing 807 casualties. The French suffered particularly heavy losses in officers. Historian David G. Chandler estimated losses as 1,400 on both sides. Digby Smith asserted that French casualties were 16 officers and 830 men, while the Russians suffered 41 officers and 1,360 men casualties and five guns captured. Smith's total included 500 prisoners.
Bieżuń, Kołoząb, and Soldau actions.
On 19 December Bessières advance guard, which consisted of Grouchy's dragoons, seized Bieżuń. Anxious to regain control of the town, L'Estocq sent two infantry regiments, a regiment of dragoons, two regiments of hussars, and horse artillery battery to recapture it. This force arrived at Bieżuń on the 23rd to find that Grouchy had been heavily reinforced by Bessières' II Cavalry Corps, plus infantry and artillery. Leading his division, Grouchy attacked the Prussians and drove them back toward Soldau. The 2nd Dragoon Division included the 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th, 13th, and 22nd Dragoon Regiments plus three horse artillery pieces. Major Karl Anton Stephan de La Roche-Aymon led the Prussian units bearing the brunt of this action, which were half of the "Towarcys" Uhlan Regiment, the "Schleiffen" Grenadier Battalion, and a horse artillery battery. Trapped against a swampy forest, 500 of the Prussian infantry and five guns were captured. French losses were described as light, while the number of Prussians killed and wounded was not reported.
As the main action at Czarnowo faded away at dawn on 24 December, Augereau attempted to force a passage of the Wkra to the northwest. Kołoząb is about northeast of Plonsk while Sochocin is northwest of Kołoząb. The VII Corps commander had two infantry divisions and two cavalry brigades on hand. Augereau ordered Jacques Desjardin's 1st Infantry Division and Milhaud's cavalry to seize the crossing at Kołoząb, while sending Étienne Heudelet de Bierre's 2nd Division and General of Brigade Pierre Watier's cavalry to take Sochocin.
The Russian commander, Barclay de Tolly, deployed three battalions and three squadrons at Sochocin, three battalions and two squadrons at Kołoząb, and three battalions to hold the wooded area between the two villages. The bridges at both places were burnt and the Kołoząb crossing was defended by 12 artillery pieces. Heudelet's attack failed when his soldiers were unable to rebuild the bridge under heavy fire. Frustrated at the failure of his first attempt, he ordered a second attack which resulted in further losses.
Desjardin's assault enjoyed better luck. He spread the 16th Light Infantry Regiment along the west bank opposite Kołoząb. Under the 16th's covering fire, the grenadiers of the 2nd Battalion of the 14th Line Infantry Regiment picked their way across the incompletely destroyed bridge to seize a foothold on the east bank. Though counterattacked by Russian infantry and hussars, the grenadiers held on until reinforced. The French forced back their opponents and captured six guns. Meanwhile, General of Brigade Pierre Belon Lapisse took a task force downstream (south), surprised the bridge guard at Pruszkowo, and successfully crossed. After this success, Augereau marched Heudelet's division to the Kołoząb crossing. Milhaud aggressively pursued the Russians and captured the baggage train of the 2nd Division. Augereau reported losses of 66 killed and 452 wounded, almost equally divided between his two divisions. Russian losses are not reported.
Also on the 24th, Ney bumped into a Prussian rear guard under Oberstleutnant Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bülow at Górzno and pushed it back. Bülow joined La Roche-Aymon's detachment and the two continued falling back. Ney sent General of Division Jean Gabriel Marchand's division ahead toward Soldau and Mława while holding the other division at Górzno. On 25 December, Marchand with two regiments attacked the single Prussian battalion at Soldau and drove it out of the town at 2:00 PM. The rest of his division, which had taken a roundabout path through Mława soon arrived. L'Estocq attacked Soldau at about 5:00 PM, but was unable to break into the town despite hand-to-hand fighting. He retreated north to Neidenberg (Nidzica), breaking contact with the Russian army.
Marchand commanded the 27th, 39th, 69th, and 76th Line Infantry Regiments, eight battalions, and 12 guns in two foot artillery batteries. Out of a total of 6,000 troops, the French suffered 220 casualties, including General of Brigade François Pierre Felix Vonderweidt. L'Estocq's troops, which belonged to General-Major Christoph Friedrich Otto Diericke's brigade, included 3,000 men in four battalions and eight 12-pound guns. The units involved were the "Rüchel" Infantry Regiment # 2 and the "Schöning" Infantry Regiment # 11. Prussian casualties were not reported, though Ney claimed to have inflicted 800 casualties on his enemies and captured two guns and one color.
The French pressed eastward and encountered the Russians in two major actions on 26 December. At the Battle of Pułtusk, Bennigsen with 40,600 troops fought 26,000 French under Marshal Lannes. Golitsyn and 9,000 Russians fought off Augereau's 16,000 French at the Battle of Gołymin.


Minas Republican Party

The Minas Republican Party (, PRM) was a Brazilian political party founded on 4 June 1888 and active during the First Brazilian Republic. It represented the republican ideology of the agrarian elite of the state of Minas Gerais.
It was initially controlled by politicians of Sul e Sudoeste de Minas until Artur Bernardes moved its control core to the Zona da Mata. Its executive committee (the "tarasca") was very powerful and took all the major decisions.
As with all Brazilian parties of the time, the PRM was abolished at the advent of the Estado Novo.


Tom Brabazon

Tom Brabazon is an Irish politician and former Lord Mayor of Dublin. A Dublin City Councillor since 2003, he was elected Deputy Lord Mayor in 2019, and was elected Lord Mayor in February 2020 following his predecessor Paul McAuliffe's election to Dáil Éireann. His term as Lord Mayor ended on 29 June 2020.
Brabazon was co-opted to Dublin City Council in 2003 following the abolition of the dual mandate and was re-elected in 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019.
In 2015, Brabazon was criticised for comments in "Northside People" on childbirth and gender quotas, but later withdrew and apologised for the remarks.


Fort Klock

Fort Klock, a fortified stone homestead in the Mohawk River Valley of Upstate New York, was built c.1750 by Johannes Klock, and is a good example of a mid-18th century fortified home and trading post, seeing use during the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War The fort is located at 7203 Route 5 roughly two miles (3 km) east of the Village of St. Johnsville, New York. Fort Klock is part of a complex that includes the historic homestead, a renovated Colonial Dutch Barn, blacksmith shop, and 19th-century schoolhouse. The site is maintained by Fort Klock Historic Restoration and is open seasonally as a living museum. The fort was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1972.
Description and history.
Fort Klock is located between New York State Route 5 and the Mohawk River, two miles east of the village of St. Johnsville. The fort is a single-story stone structure, built in an L shape and set in part on bedrock, and in part on a stone foundation. The walls are quite thick (typically ), with numerous loopholes through which defenders could fire. There are two chambers on the main floor, their walls finished in plaster. Bedrooms are located in the attic spaces. A door on the east side provides access to the basement, which is divided into two chambers, separated by a heavy stone wall. One of these has a small spring-fed pool.
The house was built in 1750 by Johannes Klock, replacing an older structure built on the same site. Klock used the building as a frontier residence and trading post for dealing with local Native Americans. In 1776, Klock further fortified the premises, building a wooden stockade around the building. Klock was an active partisan in the American Revolutionary War, serving in the local militia at the 1777 Battle of Oriskany. The surrounding area was repeatedly raided by British-led Native Americans between 1778 and 1782, actions in which many houses, barns, and crops were burned. In October 1780, one of these raiding bands was confronted by state militia in a field just to the west, in what is now known as the Battle of Klock's Field.
The property was occupied by Klock descendants until the 1950s, at which time it was abandoned and declined. It was restored by a local nonprofit organization (now Fort Klock Historic Restoration), which was given the property by the last Klock owners in 1973.
Other Fort Klock.
There were two distinct places referred to as Fort Klock during the Revolutionary War: Johannes' house and the home of his brother, Conradt Klock, located in Reimensnyders Bush or Glen's Purchase to the north of Little Falls, New York. The Klock Forts were but two of the plethora of fortifications in the central and upper Mohawk Valley, built to resist raids from the British and their allies.


Thomas Bradford

Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Bradford (1 December 1777 – 28 November 1853) was a British Army officer.
Military career.
Bradford was commissioned as an ensign in the 4th (The King's Own) Regiment of Foot in October 1793 without purchase He took part in the suppression of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the Buenos Aires Expedition of 1806 as well as the battle of Vimeiro in 1808, battle of Corunna in 1809 and battle of Salamanca in 1812 during the Peninsular War. He commanded a Portuguese division at the Battle of Vitoria, the Battle of San Sebastian and the Battle of the Nive, all in 1813. For his service in the Peninsular he was awarded the Gold Medal with one clasp.
He became General Officer Commanding the 7th Division of the Army of Occupation in France in 1815, Commander-in-Chief, Scotland in 1819 and Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army from 1825 to 1829.
He was then Colonel of the 94th Regiment of Foot (1823–29) and, after returning to England, Colonel of the 30th Regiment of Foot (1829–46).
He exchanged the Colonelcy of the 38th Foot for that of the 4th (The King's Own) Regiment of Foot in 1846, a position he held until his death in 1853.
Family.
He married Mary, the daughter of James Atkinson of Newcastle. His eldest son, James Henry Hollis Bradford, later changed his surname to Atkinson in compliance with the will of one Ralph Atkinson. His brother, Lieutenant-colonel Sir Henry Hollis Bradford, was also a distinguished soldier wounded at Waterloo.
Sources.


Theodore Hutson Benedict

Theodore Hutson Benedict (March 13, 1821-June 14, 1885) was an American politician.
Benedict, second son of General James and Deborah (Coles) Benedict, was born in New York City, March 13, 1821. He was for more than two years of his Yale College course a member of the Class of 1839. His father's death in July, 1841, left him the master of large wealth, and enabled him to devote himself to foreign travel, to literary culture, and to the care of the family estate at Tarrytown, N. Y., where he resided through life, unmarried.
He entered politics as a Whig, and by his personal popularity overcame a Democratic majority in his district, and was elected to the New York State Legislature in 1850. In 1851 he declined, on account of the condition of his health, a nomination to the New York State Senate; and in 1852 he was a member of the convention which nominated General Winfield Scott for the US Presidency. Later, his delicate health prevented him from active participation in politics.
He died in Tarrytown, June 14, 1885, in his 65th year.


Mons Espelid

Mons Espelid (22 April 1926 – 16 March 2009) was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party and dentist.
He was born in Askøy as a son of manager Ivar Espelid (1880–1946) and teacher Gudrid Eidnes (1883–1959). He was a brother of Ingrid Espelid Hovig and through her a brother-in-law of Jan Inge Hovig.
He was a member of the Parliament of Norway from 1981–1985, where he sat in the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. He was mayor of Askøy from 1975 to 1977 and from 1979 to 1981, and deputy mayor from 1978 to 1979.


Carl Wilhelm Hartmann

Carl Wilhelm Hartmann (3 July 1880 – 25 June 1957) was a Norwegian public prosecutor, judge and politician.
Hartmann was born in Kongsberg to physician Carl Christian Andreas Hartmann and Marie Sophie Sylow Thorne, and was a brother of Paul Ernst Wilhelm Hartmann. From 1928 to 1930, he served as mayor of Skien. He was elected representative to the Storting for the period 1931–1933 under the Liberal Party.
Hartmann died on 25 June 1957.


Third Republic of Vietnam

The Third Republic of Vietnam, () abbreviated as the DTVNCH, also referred to its former name as the Provisional National Government of Vietnam (), is a claimed government in exile, headquartered in Orange County and other Little Saigon communities. The organization aims for an anti-communist Vietnam.
History.
The Provisional National Government of Vietnam was formed by former soldiers and refugees from the former South Vietnamese regime on 21 October 1990 and was officially founded on 16 February 1991, led by Prime Minister Dao Minh Quan, who was elected by the representatives of three generations of Vietnamese diaspora in the United States. He succeeded Mr. Nguyen Tran who was elected as Prime Minister previously.
In November 2018, Prime Minister Quan Minh Dao was reelected as the new President of the newly created "Third Republic of Vietnam". The inauguration ceremony was held at the base in Adelanto and at the Hilton Hotel. Participants came from numerous countries, including Australia and Vietnam. During the ceremony, the US government's staff gave speeches and expressed hope that the newly elected President would work closely with the US.
Activities.
In January 2018, the government in exile was labeled by the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security as a "terrorist organization", claiming the group was responsible for plans to commit "acts of terrorism and sabotage, and assassinate officials."
People affiliated with the organization have been arrested and convicted in Vietnam of "operations to overthrow the people's administration". Citing that the Third Republic of Vietnam aims to overthrow the government, and linking them to an arson at a police facility and a bombing at an airport, officials have charged several dozen political activists, resulting in prison sentences of up to 14 years.
Outside of Vietnamese media, there is very little coverage of the organization or their alleged connection with terrorism. The communist Vietnamese government routinely jails activists, including US citizen Michael Nguyen in July 2018 while on vacation with his family. He was accused of planning a protest at an APEC event in 2017, and was recently sentenced to 12 years in prison. The U.S. Embassy spokesman in Hanoi stated the DTVNCH is not designated as a terrorist group by the US Department of State.
Political views.
Quan Minh Dao has always expressed opposition towards the current Vietnamese government, seen notably in his letter to a California court:


Christian Friedrich von Otto

Christian Friedrich von Otto (26 October 1758 – 8 September 1836) was a Württemberger official and politician.
Life and career.
Otto was born on 26 October 1758 in Dettingen unter Teck, as the son of a Protestant minister. After attending high school in Stuttgart, he studied law with Carl Christopher Hofacker (1749–1793) at the University of Tübingen. Later, he moved to the University of Strasbourg and focused on the Supreme Court in Colmar with French law. This helped him prepare his dissertation, and in 1780 he obtained his doctorate and worked as a lawyer.
Secretary of the Duke.
In 1786, he became secretary of Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg. In 1792, he was appointed Minister and assessor of the court. He later established the Kingdom of Württemberg. After 1806, he took over the Police Department of the Upper Württemberg and the Regional Economics College.
Napoleonic Wars.
During the Napoleonic Wars, he added the position of Commissioner-General for supply of foreign troops. This included the management of financial and material logistics and the hospital system. In 1811, he became Head of the Local Government and a member of the newly established Württemberg State Council. In 1814 he acquired the Grand Cross of Civil Merit Württemberg, which was connected with German nobility. In 1815, he took care of the financial compensation of the troops stationed in France the Württemberg army and the army of the Grand Duchy of Hesse by the French Treasury. In 1818 he acquired the Order of the Crown (Württemberg). He died in Stuttgart on 8 September 1836.


Lars Aspeflaten

Lars Aspeflaten (15 July 1924 – 7 February 2010) was a Norwegian barrister and politician for the Liberal Party.
Early life and World War II.
He was born in Bamble, and grew up there.
During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany he joined Milorg in 1941. He had to go into hiding for some time, and also had to flee to Sweden. During the liberation of Norway in 1945 he served as personal bodyguard of the acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Sven Arntzen.
Post-war career.
After the occupation's end he graduated in law from the University of Oslo in 1947. He then worked as a secretary for Karl Evang in the Norwegian Directorate for Health before being hired as deputy judge in Tinn and Heddal District Court. He also served as acting district stipendiary magistrate () for some time. He participated as a judge in the legal purge in Norway after World War II, and at his death he was known as one of the few surviving judges from this special period. In 1951 he changed job to lawyer; from 1962 he was a barrister with access to work on Supreme Court cases. He worked out of Brevik and Porsgrunn, and was a prolific defender in Skien and Porsgrunn District Court.
Aspeflaten was also involved in politics, and served as a deputy representative to the Parliament of Norway from Telemark during the term 1954–1957. In total he met in ten days of parliamentary sessions. In 1973 he stood for election for the Liberal People's Party. He was a member of Bamble municipal council for twenty years and Telemark county council for twelve years.
Aspeflaten was married for the last sixty-one years of his life. He died in February 2010.


Chronology of battles and events of the Finnish War

This is a chronology of battles and events of the Finnish War (1808–1809). The dates are according to the Gregorian (Western European) calendar. Russian sources might refer to Julian calendar dates.


Dagny Bang

Dagny Kristine Bang (8 June 1868 – 11 August 1944) was a Norwegian physician and politician for the Liberal Party. She was among the first physicians in Norway, and was also a proponent for women's rights.
She was born in Christiania as a daughter of shipmaster Kristian Andersen og Karoline Larsen, but was adopted together with her sister by professor Cathrinus Bang (1822–1898). In July 1901 she married teacher Ivar Andreas Refsdal (1872–1937), a son of politician Anfin Larsen Refsdal.
She took her examen artium at Ragna Nielsen School in 1888, enrolled in medicine studies at the Royal Frederick University and graduated with the cand.med. degree in 1896. Bang was the sixth women to graduate in medicine in Norway. She was a medical candidate at Rikshospitalet before starting a private clinic in 1897. She was also physician at Vaterland Primary School from 1899 to 1933. She continued her studies, in gynecology and dermatology with several study trips abroad, and was a certified specialist in the latter subject from 1912.
Bang was a board member of the National Association for Women's Suffrage from 1898 to 1902 and the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights from 1908 to 1910. After the 1907 Norwegian local elections she served two terms as a deputy member of Kristiania city council. She was a co-founder and board member of the Kristiania Liberal Party Women's League. Together with Louise Isachsen and Kristine Munch, among others, she was a co-founder of the Medical Women's Association in 1921, an organization she later chaired for four years. In 1935 she founded the Norwegian branch of Open Door International.
Bang was eventually struck with cancer. She underwent treatment, among others at the Karolinska Hospital in Solna, where she died in August 1944.


We Still Hold These Truths

We Still Hold These Truths is a 2009 non-fiction political history book by Matthew Spalding, who was Director of American Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He is now the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government at Hillsdale College and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C., campus. As Vice President for Washington Operations, he also oversees the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship and the academic and educational programs of Hillsdale in the nation’s capital.
In November 2009, the book reached number two on the "Washington Post" non-fiction bestseller list.
We Still Hold These Truths is also the title of a 2004 non-fiction political history book by Ronald L. Hirsch, a retired non-profit executive, lawyer, and consultant.
Overview.
Spalding's focus in the book is the United States' "first principles", his belief that those principles have been betrayed by the American Left, and his plan for how conservatives can work to restore the vision of the Founding Fathers. Spalding takes the reader through the earliest days of American history to the present, demonstrating these principles were understood by the Founders and shaped the U.S. national identity.
According to Spalding, the erosion of these principles began with the Progressives of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who believed in centralization, bureaucracy, relativism and a lack of absolute truths, and who, Spalding writes, sought to undermine the vision of the U.S. Constitution's framers. Spalding calls today's liberals "pimps for the new progressivism," inspired by New Dealers and proponents of the Great Society. Spalding also writes that recent Republican electoral victories and the successes of the Tea Party demonstrate that Americans still believe in the vision outlined by the Founding Fathers, and that a debate over the Constitution has been given new life everywhere from law schools to the federal government.
The book's foreword is written by conservative commentator William Bennett, who writes that "We Still Hold These Truths" "makes a clear and compelling case for America's principles as an enduring source of real, practical guidance for today explaining how we got so far off track, and laying out how to get our nation back on course."
Hirsch has a very different reading of those principles found in our founding documents. This is not as surprising as it may appear, for as Hirsch says in his book, “in [the Declaration’s] interpretation lies the core of both the Liberal and Conservative ideologies that have run through American political life and the tension between them.”
Hirsch looks at the words of the Declaration and finds an all-embracing, profoundly Liberal, statement of the equality of all people and that all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And that, as stated in the Declaration, the role of government is to secure these rights. Hirsch then goes on to use the Declaration of Independence as a touchstone to examine nine key areas of government policy.
Ironically, just as Spalding feels that Progressives eroded the founding principles, Hirsch believes that, “our nation stands at a crossroad. There is a radical Republican movement afoot to fundamentally alter the balance that our system has struck between private rights, the public good, and government. The issue is not simply big versus small government, high versus low taxes. At risk is the heart of our democracy, our historic values.”
Hirsch states that current Republicans focus solely on rights of the individual, quite divorced from their responsibilities as citizens and from the rights of others and the common good. Since the Declaration states that all men are created equal and all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the system can only work if one says that each person has this liberty "so long as" it does not harm others or impinge on the rights of others. This last proposition is in fact the basis for all government laws and regulation, whether of individuals or corporations.
Reception.
The book received positive reviews from conservative-leaning reviewers, including "The Weekly Standard", "National Review" and "The Washington Times", and reached No. 2 on the "Washington Post"s non-fiction bestseller list. According to columnist Cal Thomas, Spalding's book offers a "long-range strategy" for conservatives "if they want to save the country from the long-term consequences of what many call 'socialism.'"
As a self-published book, Hirsch's "We Still Hold These Truths" has received no newspaper reviews. However, it has received acclaim and endorsement from a variety of sources, the most notable being:
"The 2004 presidential election has the potential to be one of the most important in decades. Every fundamental question of national values and national policy is up for debate - or should be . . . . Ron Hirsch's "We Still Hold These Truths" is a systematic and serious effort to make that debate as clear and valuable as it can be. Agree or disagree with his specific conclusions, the questions he is asking are the right ones for the public this year." —James Fallows, National Correspondent, "The Atlantic"
Another type of recognition came from a group of citizens from Wisconsin who paid for the publication of a speech by Ron Hirsch, “Fighting for the Soul of America,” based on the book, in the Ozaukee Press, October 28. 2004


Sheares brothers

The Sheares Brothers, Henry (1753–98), and John (1766–1798) were Irish lawyers and republicans who were members of the Society of United Irishmen, who died in the 1798 rebellion.
Early lives.
The Sheares brothers were the sons of Henry Sheares, a liberal banker from Cork who also sat in the Irish Parliament for the Borough of Clonakilty. Henry attended Trinity College Dublin, bought an officer's commission and then studied as a lawyer, being called to the bar as a barrister in Michaelmas term, 1790. John had qualified as a barrister in Michaelmas term, 1789. Their father had died in 1776, leaving a large income of £1,200 p.a.
Politicisation in Paris.
In 1792 the brothers went to Paris and were swept away by the popular enthusiasms of the French revolution. They met leaders such as Brissot and Roland, both of whom were to be executed in 1793. In particular they witnessed the introduction of the guillotine, on which 1,400 were to die in 1792. On the boat from France to England they met Daniel O'Connell (then a student) who was disgusted by the increasingly bloodthirsty nature of the revolution. O'Connell remained an advocate of non-violence thereafter.
United Irish.
They joined the United Irish movement on their return to Dublin in January 1793, when it was still legal. However, France declared war on Britain (and by extension, on Ireland) in February 1793. The Society's initial aims of securing 1) Catholic Emancipation and 2) universal suffrage were unsuccessful, amounting to the administration's 1793 Relief Act. Its stance became more radical, and in turn the Irish administration feared a group inspired by France, banning it in 1794. The Sheares brothers principally organised the movement in Cork, while continuing with their legal careers. A Mr. Conway, one of their keenest members in Cork, informed the administration of their activities. During 1793 the brothers also joined the Dublin Society of the United Irishmen, where another spy, Thomas Collins, passed on their names. Their two other less famous brothers had enlisted in the British army and were killed in action. On the arrest of most of the United Irish "Directory" members in March 1798, John was chosen as a replacement on the approach to the outbreak of rebellion. His main act at this point was to decide on the date - 23 May.
Arrests.
The Directory fatally stayed in Dublin, where the United Irish had less support. Already quietly betrayed by Conway and Collins, John also befriended Captain Warnesford Armstrong from County Down, who claimed to be a busy member of the party there. John never checked this, and Armstrong informed the authorities of the brothers' whereabouts, also appearing as a witness in the ensuing trial. They were arrested on 21 May and indicted on 26 June. (Christina, Lady Longford sets her 1942 play 'The United Brothers' in the drawing room of Lady Steele (Maria Verity widow of Sir Parker Steele Bt of Hampstead, Co Dublin) at 11 Merrion Square, Dublin, she had prevented John Sheares from marrying her daughter Maria Steele who later tried to save the brothers.
Executions.
Inevitably the brothers were tried on 12 July, as the rebellion was at its height, and were hanged, drawn and quartered on 14th. The presiding judge was Hugh Carleton, 1st Viscount Carleton, the Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, who was much criticised for taking the case, as the boys' father, a close friend, had appointed Carleton their guardian. Their lawyer was John Philpot Curran who, with Sir Jonah Barrington, obtained a stay of execution in the hope that Henry would recant, but the brothers were already dead. They were buried at St Michan's nearby. Visitors are brought to their coffins on a tour of St. Michan's vaults.
John's speech from the dock was later much quoted, including his justification:
Family.
All four Sheares brothers died in the 1790s, but Henry's daughter Mary went on to marry the Revd. Piers Butler in 1823. Their sister Jane Sheares married Henry Westropp and had issue.


Gerd Benneche

Gerd Benneche (1 December 1913 – 26 March 2003) was a Norwegian jurist, journalist, non-fiction writer and politician for the Liberal Party.
She was born Bergen, and is the mother of Sissel Benneche Osvold. She worked for the newspaper "Dagbladet" from 1959 to 1980. In 1974 she was awarded the Narvesen Prize. She headed the Norwegian Press Association from 1975 to 1979. She served as a deputy representative to the Parliament of Norway from Oslo during the term 1958–1961.
She was a member of the Norwegian UNESCO commission, a board member of Riksteatret and the Norwegian Data Inspectorate where she served as deputy chair from 1986 to 1990.