Books with author Charles W. Chapman

This history volume was published in 1902.From the Preface:There are several general histories of the decline and fall of the Roman Republic, dealing with its political and constitutional aspects. This little book is not a history, but a series of studies of the leading men of the century, intended to show the importance of the personal element in those miserable days of storm and stress. It is thus, I think, that their true meaning is best brought out. It is a pleasant duty to express the gratitude which I owe to my friend Mr. J. Wells, of Wadham College, for having been good enough to read through my proofs, and to make a great number of valuable suggestions, which I have done my best to carry out. I have also to thank the Authorities of the British Museum Coin-Room (and especially Mr. G. F. Hill) for the kindness with which they aided me in selecting the Roman coins for my three plates of illustrations. C. OMAN. Naples, April, 1902. Excerpts:The details of the sporadic and never-ending wars in Spain. Macedonia, and the Hellenic East, which cover the period B.C. 200-140, hide the unwritten history of the most important changes in the social and economic con- ditions of Italy. In B.C. 200 Rome was still in the main a city-state of the old type, though she had already begun to acquire important transmarine domains. She was still a self-supporting agricultural community, feeding herself on home-grown corn. Moreover, she might still be described as a narrow-minded purely Italian town, little affected as yet, either in blood or in thought, by external influences. The elder Cato, with all his hard practical common sense, his stolidity, his passion for the life of the farm, and his contempt for the foreigner, was the typical Roman of that generation. By the last years of his old age he had seen a new world grow up, and complained that he was living in a city which he no longer under- stood. ....................................................................................Tiberius-Gracchus is one of the most striking instances in history of the amount of evil that can be brought about by a thoroughly honest and well-meaning man, who is so entirely convinced of the righteousness of his own inten- tions and the wisdom of his own measures, that he is driven to regard any one who strives to hinder him as not only foolish but morally wicked. The type of exalted doctrinaire who exclaims that any constitutional check that hinders his plans must be swept away without further inquiry, that every political opponent is a bad man who must be crushed, has been known in many lands and many ages, from ancient Greece down to the France of the Revolution. But in Rome such a figure was an exception ; the stolid conservatism, the reverence for mos majorum, the dislike for abstract political specu- lation which marked the race, were against the develop- ment of such a frame of mind. The reformers of the past had been content to work slowly, to introduce changes by adding small rags and patches to the constitu- tion7~or by inventing transparent legal fictions, which gained the practical point, while leaving the theory of the law that they were attacking apparently untouched.Be sure to look for other history books by Charles Oman for your Kindle.

The Roman world, in short, was badly governed and badly defended the provinces were steadily decreasing in wealth and resources from the moment that they were annexed. And since Italy and Rome herself were—as we shall see—tending to internal decay, though certain individual Romans and Italians were drawing huge profits from the newly acquired empire, the whole Mediterranean world seemed doomed to retrogression and collapse. It is possible that the Republic might have been demolished, if there had arisen against it any really formidable and well-equipped enemy. But the outer world was singularly destitute of strong men at this period. Jugurtha and Mithradates, in spite of all the trouble that they gave, were very third-rate personalities. And the one truly dangerous foe that marched against Rome during the last century of the Republic—the Cimbri and Teutons—represented mere brute force unguided by brains and strategy. At the last moment, when they had actually passed the Alps, they were annihilated by a general who possessed the art of improvising and handling a great army. It is curious to speculate what might have happened if not Marius, but some imbecile Optimate of the type of his predecessors Mallius and Caepio, had been in command at Aquae Sextiae or on the Raudian Plain. But Europe escaped the premature coming of the Dark Ages, and the black cloud of barbarism from the north having passed away, the men of the later Republic were left free to work out their own problems in their own unhappy way, in sedition, conspiracy, civil war, and proscription, till the coming of that great personality who showed the way—a bad way at the best—out of the hopeless deadlock into which Rome had fallen. But ere Julius Caesar appeared there were not one but many Romans who saw well enough that the Roman world was out of joint, and tried, each in his more or less futile fashion, to set it right. With some of these statesmen it is our task to deal. Their successive biographies show well enough the course of the whole history of the later Republic; there is no gap between man and man; Sulla as a boy may have witnessed the violent end of Gains Gracchus Julius Caesar as a boy did certainly witness and well-nigh suffer in the proscriptions of Sulla. The seven lives between them completely cover the last century of Rome’s ancient regime...

Edward Marcus Despard (1751 – 21 February 1803) was a Protestant Irishman Irish-born British colonel turned revolutionary, executed for High Treason.****....summary from wikipedia..............................................................................................In the volume entitled "Colonel Despard and Other Studies",Sir Charles Oman has gathered eleven essays that wereoriginally written for English magazines or for the RoyalHistorical Society. The subjects range from legendaryin the Treaty of Versailles. Sir Charles makes all time andspace his province, as indeed he should, and wherever hecan find, matter that is of pure story interest or of significantimplication he stakes his claim and sets out to cultivate theground. Of the difficulties of the modern historian (whynecessarily modern, we do not understand) he has a rather full discussion, whose point appears in this paragraph: The practical man of the world would like to regard history asa string of facts, and he cannot see why the deductions fromthese facts should vary according the the temperament andthe point of view of the writer who manipulates them. Historicalfacts, however, cannot be boiled down into a syrup equallygrateful and satisfactory to all consumers. The decoctionwhich one man will find to be exactly the nourishment re-quired for the maintenence of his spiritual and political equili-brium will be declared by another man to be rank poison:The historian mest be prepared to dind himself denouncedas a purveyor of mischievous mental provender. Perhaps hemay achieve the honor of being equally blamed from bothsides, because he has struck some middle line of thoughtacceptable to neither.The author is quite right in saying that you cannot eliminatethe personality, of the historian from history, and that he isbound to write history as he sees it, which may be an entirelydifferent point of view from that of another equally good andhonest historian. The honest writer and interpreter of historyis he who frankly admits that factand takes it into account.That is not only true, but desirable, for history would be a dullpage if it were a mere tabulation of proven points withoutcomment or characterization. But in the quoted paragraphthe choice of 'figurative' language was unfortuante, for itimplies a point of view which we do not believe was intended.One man's meat is another man's poison, it is true. But what has that to do with it? Are we to believe that he wouldhave us regard history as a concentrated mental food pillthat is to be administered as mental health may seem torequire? The need of the consumer is not in question here.But the qualifications and the limitations of the middlemanare matters not to be forgotten or side-tracked. They arefundamental in interpreting and understanding the story ofthe past. The articles on the Unfortunate Colonel Despard,Arthur Thistlewood, and Basil of Cappadocia are historicalaccounts of figures little known to most of us. The first twobelong, along with Lord Carteret, to the brilliant failures ofhistory. If they had not failed, they night have turned the courseof political history for years. Because they did fail, they arenearly forgotten, but to those who remember their story, theirintrepid pursuit of an end gave their picturesque lives dignityand a kind of heroism.

BETWEEN the 20th of August, 1809, when Robert Craufurd’s Light Brigade withdrew from the Bridge of Almaraz, to follow the rest of the British army across the mountains to the neighbourhood of Badajoz, and February 27, 1810, when part of that same brigade was engaged in the first skirmish of Barba del Puerco, not a shot was fired by any of Wellington’s troops. This gap of over six months in his active operations may appear extraordinary, and it was bitterly criticized at the time. Between August and March there was hard fighting both in the south of Spain and along the north-eastern frontier of Portugal; but the British army, despite many invitations, took no part in it. Wellington adhered to his resolve never to commit himself again to a campaign in company with the Spaniards, unless he should be placed in a position in which he could be independent of the freaks of their government and the perversity of their generals. Two months’ experience of the impracticability of Cuesta, of the deliberate disobedience of Venegas, of the fruitless promises of the commissary-general Lozano de Torres, of the insane demands and advice sent in by the Central Junta, had convinced him that he dare not risk his army in a second venture such as that which had led him to Talavera. If he were made commander-in-chief by the Spanish Government, and granted a free hand in the direction of the Spanish armies, matters would look different. But there was at present no chance whatever that he would receive such a mark of confidence. Only a small minority of the leading men at Seville could endure with patience the idea of a British commander-in-chief. Wellington himself had long dismissed the project—which Frère had broached in the spring—as impracticable...

Excerpt from Practical Motor Boat Handling, Seamanship and Piloting: A Handbook Containing Information Which Every Motor Boatman Should Know, Especially Prepared for the Man Who Takes Pride in Handling His Own Boat and Getting the Greatest Enjoyment Out of Cruising, Adapted for the Yachtsman Interested in Fitting Himself TThe International Rules govern navigation on waters which do not come within the jurisdiction of any particular country; for example, navigation on the high seas beyond what is technically known as the three-mile limit comes under the jurisdiction of the International Rules. These rules were drawn up at a conference of a number of the maritime nations of the world held about 1890. The various nations which were represented by delegates at this conference agreed to certain uniform and standard regulations, which should govern the ships of their nations on the high seas. They adopted and agreed to abide by the regulations which have been in force since this conference.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. III (ILLUSTRATED) : Sep. 1809 - Dec. 1810 by Charles OmanThis, the third volume of the History of the Peninsular War, covers a longer period than either of its predecessors, extending over the sixteen months from Wellington’s arrival at Badajoz on his retreat from Talavera (Sept. 3, 1809) to the deadlock in front of Santarem (Dec. 1810), which marked the end of Masséna’s offensive campaign in Portugal. It thus embraces the central crisis of the whole war, the arrival of the French in front of the Lines of Torres Vedras and their first short retreat, after they had realized the impossibility of forcing that impregnable barrier to their advance. The retreat that began at Sobral on the night of Nov. 14, 1810, was to end at Toulouse on April 11, 1814. The armies of the Emperor were never able to repeat the experiment of 1810, and to assume a general and vigorous offensive against Wellington and Portugal. In 1811 they were on the defensive, despite of certain local and partial attempts to recover their lost initiative. In 1812 they had to abandon half Spain—Andalusia, Estremadura, Asturias, La Mancha, and much more,—despite of Wellington’s temporary check before Burgos. In 1813 they were swept across the Pyrenees and the Bidassoa; in 1814 they were fighting a losing game in their own land. Rightly then may Masséna’s retreat to Santarem be called the beginning of the end—though it was not for a full year more that Wellington’s final offensive commenced, with the investment of Ciudad Rodrigo on Jan. 8, 1812.[p. iv]The campaign of Bussaco and Torres Vedras, therefore, marked the turning-point of the whole war, and I have endeavoured to set forth its meaning in full detail, devoting special care to the explanation of Wellington’s triple device for arresting the French advance—his combination of the system of devastation, of the raising of the levée en masse in Portugal, and of the construction of great defensive lines in front of Lisbon. Each of these three measures would have been incomplete without the other two. For the Lines of Torres Vedras might not have saved Portugal and Europe from the domination of Napoleon, if the invading army had not been surrounded on all sides by the light screen of irregular troops, which cut its communications, and prevented it from foraging far afield. Nor would Masséna have been turned back, if the land through which he had advanced had been left unravaged, and if every large village had contained enough food to subsist a brigade for a day or a battalion for a week.The preparations, the advance, and the retreat of Masséna cover about half of this volume. The rest of it is occupied with the operations of the French in Northern, Eastern, and Southern Spain—operations which seemed decisive at the moment, but which turned out to be mere side-issues in the great contest. For Soult’s conquest of Andalusia, and Suchet’s victories in Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia only distracted the imperial generals from their central task—the expulsion of Wellington and his army from the Peninsula. Most readers will, I think, find a good deal of new information in the accounts of the siege of Gerona and the battle of Ocaña. The credit due to Alvarez for the defence of the Cata[p. v]lonian city has never been properly set forth before in any English history, nor have the details of Areizaga’s miserable campaign in La Mancha been fully studied. In particular, the composition and strength of his army have never before been elucidated, and Appendices V, VI of this volume consist of absolutely unpublished documents.

Title: The Ocean Waves. Travels by land and sea.Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.The HISTORY OF TRAVEL collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This collection contains personal narratives, travel guides and documentary accounts by Victorian travelers, male and female. Also included are pamphlets, travel guides, and personal narratives of trips to and around the Americas, the Indies, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:++++<Source Library> British Library<Contributors> Chapman, Charles; <Original Pub Date> 1875.<Physical Description> 323 p. ; 8º.<Shelfmark> 10498.c.20.

Between the 20th of August, 1809, when Robert Craufurd’s Light Brigade[1] withdrew from the Bridge of Almaraz, to follow the rest of the British army across the mountains to the neighbourhood of Badajoz, and February 27, 1810, when part of that same brigade was engaged in the first skirmish of Barba del Puerco, not a shot was fired by any of Wellington’s troops. This gap of over six months in his active operations may appear extraordinary, and it was bitterly criticized at the time. Between August and March there was hard fighting both in the south of Spain and along the north-eastern frontier of Portugal; but the British army, despite many invitations, took no part in it. Wellington adhered to his resolve never to commit himself again to a campaign in company with the Spaniards, unless he should be placed in a position in which he could be independent of the freaks of their government and the perversity of their generals. Two months’ experience of the impracticability of Cuesta, of the deliberate disobedience of Venegas, of the fruitless promises of the commissary-general Lozano de Torres, of the insane demands and advice sent in by the Central Junta, had convinced him that he dare not risk his army in a second venture such as that which had led him to Talavera. If he were made commander-in-chief by the Spanish Government, and granted a free hand in the direction of the Spanish armies, matters would look different[2]. But[p. 2] there was at present no chance whatever that he would receive such a mark of confidence. Only a small minority of the leading men at Seville could endure with patience the idea of a British commander-in-chief. Wellington himself had long dismissed the project—which Frère had broached in the spring[3]—as impracticable.

There are many famous wetlands in the world that have been deemed important for the homeostasis ofthe biosphere and accorded some form ofprotected status in view of the richness of their flora and fauna. T}1e Pantanal, located almost directly in the center ofthe South American continent, is among the largest such wetlands in the world. It is, in fact, the largest wetland that is still in a nearly natural state and has not been extensively modified by man for agriculture. The extent of the region covered by flood waters at the end of each rainy season varies from year to year, sometimes considerably, so estimates of the exact area it occupies have varied enormously. The size of the 2 2 Pantanal has been reported to be between 80,000 km (Bonetto, 1975) and 250,000 km (Tundisi and Matsumura-Tundisi, 1985). The most co~on1y accepted estimates at the present time are approximately 130,000 to 140,000 km , supported by estimates made from Nimbus-7 satellite observations (Hamilton et al. , 1996). However, Por (1995) suggested that the area extending into Bolivia and Paraguay has not been satisfactorily 2 surveyed, leading him to accept the figure of 200,000 km as the area of the entire Pantanal, ineluding all of its extensions. The main reason for the year to year variation in the extent of the flooding is the considerable difference in timing of the rainfall on the watershed.