Volume 17 Issue 5 May 1967

Parliament initially became troubled by the working classes 'thundering at the gates'. Curiously, writes Paul Adelman, it was the Conservative Party that benefited from Russell’s Reform Act.

From her post as governess to a prosperous middle-class Russian family, writes Stephen Usherwood, a gifted young Englishwoman watched the gradual development of the Revolution.

Metternich and Benckendorff, who played leading roles on the European scene, first met under very different circumstances; P.S. Squire describes how they were both attached to a charming French actress.

David G. Chandler offers a study in fact and fiction about a famous Napoleonic campaign.

Tzykanion, or polo, formed part of the ritual of life at the court of the Emperors in Constantinople. Expertise on horseback, writes Anthony Bryer, was one of the requirements of Imperial dignity.

E.A. Smith describes how, immediately after the Seven Years’ War, the young Earl Fitzwilliam became a grand tourist of Europe in the eighteenth-century style.

The Nok people of Nigeria were smelters of iron but also agriculturalists. The culture they founded may have a deep effect on the ancient history of Africa.

Derek W. Lawrence portrays 1769 as a fateful year for the world: Napoleon and Wellington were both born in it; and James Watt took out a patent for his momentous steam-engine.

George Woodcock outlines how, by about 515 B.C., architects, sculptors, goldsmiths and silversmiths were assembled from all quarters of the Persian Empire to build a new capital, Parsa, which the Greeks called Persepolis.

Thanks to his gift of foresight, aided by his natural intelligence and a flair for improvization, Themistocles carried through a long-term programme, aimed at making his native city a great imperial power. By Stephen Usher.