Lorenzo Sabine (1803 77) worked as a trader, in customs and for the Treasury Department before he was elected to the United States Congress in 1852. This work, published in 1847, is a series of biographical sketches (some very short, others extensive) of the American Loyalists those men and women who took the British side during the American Revolution. The alphabetically arranged biographies are preceded by an essay in which Sabine describes the background to the War of Independence, examining geographical and economic as well as political factors. He argues that the documentary evidence...

Little is known of the true origins of the French adventurer Victor-Antoine-Claude Robert, Count de Parades (1752 86). He arrived in Paris in 1778, just as the Franco-American alliance, which guaranteed French military support to the United States against Great Britain, was being signed. Parades was determined to join the French Army, but lacking the connections to do so, offered his services as a spy. He travelled repeatedly to England, visiting ports and fortifications to gather confidential information. First published in 1791, this work provides a detailed account of Parades' adventures...

Nathaniel Wraxall (1751 1831) worked for the East India Company before becoming an MP in 1780. He travelled extensively in Europe and moved in royal and diplomatic circles, collecting anecdotes which later made their way into several popular travel narratives and memoirs that were to bring him great fame. In this work, published in two volumes in 1799 and using an epistolary form, Wraxall gives his impressions of a number of European courts that he visited in the late 1770s. In Volume 1 the author gives a personal account of the tragic destiny of Queen Caroline Matilda of Denmark (the sister...

Nathaniel Wraxall (1751 1831) worked for the East India Company before becoming an MP in 1780. He travelled extensively in Europe and moved in royal and diplomatic circles, collecting anecdotes which later made their way into several popular travel narratives and memoirs that were to bring him great fame. In this work, published in two volumes in 1799 and using an epistolary form, Wraxall gives his impressions of a number of European courts that he visited in the late 1770s. Volume 2 describes Poland as a country in decline, and discusses the historical background to its present condition. He...

This 1912 book by Angus Hamilton (1874 1913), a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, is an account of the British military expeditions to quell uprisings among remote tribes in north-eastern India in 1911 12. Famous for his earlier books on Afghanistan, the problems of the Middle East, and Somaliland, Hamilton gives a full account of the various phases of the 'Abor expedition' which resulted in a crushing defeat of the local tribes. The book begins with a survey of the geography of the area, and a description of the Abor people, explaining the turbulent background to the murder in March...

Soldier and military historian L. W. Shakespear (1860 1933), published this book on the north-eastern frontier of India and its tribes in 1914. He had served in the Assam Military Police Force, and this book, which is illustrated with photographs taken by the author, is 'an attempt to produce something useful and readable at least for those who care about that little known but very interesting corner of India'. The work begins with a review of the archaeology and history of the area, and is particularly concerned with the ethnography of the various border tribes, such as the Kachari, Ahom and...

Henry Thoby Prinsep (1792 1878), a colonial administrator who reached the highest rank in the East India Company and its successor, the Council of India, published this Code of Practice in 1866: the third edition of 1869, reissued here, was necessitated by new legislation in that year. (Prinsep's earlier work, Origin of the Sikh Power in the Punjab, is also reissued in this series.) In the preface to this work, written as a guide for local magistrates and administrators, Prinsep states his intent to present, in a convenient form, all the rules of procedure in the criminal courts of British...

Written by General Sir George St Patrick Lawrence (1804 84) of the British Indian Army, this 1874 book is a memoir of his long and active service in India. The son of a distinguished officer in the army of the East India Company, he arrived in India in 1821, and was a participant in all the major military encounters of the period, including the Anglo-Afghan Wars, where he was involved in the 'Cabul disaster' and later narrowly avoided execution as a hostage, the Anglo-Sikh wars, and the Indian Mutiny, during which he and his family survived great danger. Lawrence, whose health had been...

In this 1822 work, Lieutenant Adam White (1790 1839) of the Bengal Native Infantry reviews the state of India under British rule, presenting arguments for and against colonisation, the activities of missionaries and the freedom of the Press. He also discusses the Indian Army and its recent activities in Nepal and against the Mahrattas, as well as the civil government. He explains in his preface that, having spent twelve years in India, he had no plans to write a book and had not collected any material for it, but a chance reading of Prinsep's account of Warren Hastings' administration changed...

The Yorkshire-born barrister, banker and economic historian Frederic Seebohm (1833 1912) first came to attention with his work on the Reformation intellectuals Colet, Erasmus and More. In this work, first published and then reissued in 1883, Seebohm's focus is on the agrarian history of medieval England, with special reference to problems of early land tenure and the social system that developed from it. Seebohm stresses the continuity between Roman settlement and English villages, and he regards the manor, whose lands were cultivated by serfs, as the original form of landed property among...