A collection of out-of-copyright and rare books from the Cambridge University Library and other world-class institutions that have been digitally scanned, made available online, and reprinted in paperback.
A collection of out-of-copyright and rare books from the Cambridge University Library and other world-class institutions that have been digitally scanned, made available online, and reprinted in paperback.
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Eliza Wigham (1820–99), Scots philanthropist and champion of women's rights, was raised as a Quaker, and from an early age was involved in fundraising and other support for the abolitionist cause in the United States. She published this short book in 1863, with the aim of countering pressure on the British government to support the Confederacy by describing 'the frightful reality of scenes daily and hourly acting in the United States … a complication of crimes and wrongs and cruelties, that make angels weep'. She takes the story of the American abolitionist movement from its beginnings in Philadelphia in 1775, through the founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, to the present state of hostilities between the north and the south. Interwoven with this narrative are stories of individual hardship and cruelty that make harrowing reading, and justify the use of the term 'martyrs' in the book's title.
Captain Coram's Foundling Hospital was opened in London in 1741 for 'the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children'. Hogarth was a governor of the hospital - he donated several pictures, including his portrait of Coram - as was Handel, whose famous performances of his oratorio Messiah were given there from 1750 to raise funds. John Brownlow (1800–73), himself a foundling, became secretary of the hospital from 1849 until his retirement. He introduced improvements to the children's education and was a staunch defender of the hospital, refuting criticisms often levelled in the nineteenth century that taking in illegitimate children simply encouraged neglect. This brief account, building on his 1847 Memoranda, or, Chronicles of the Foundling Hospital (also reissued in this series), covers Coram, early supporters, the institution's paintings - which formed the first public art gallery in London - and the care of the foundlings.
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913), the founder of structuralist linguistics and pioneer of semiotics, began his career as a scholar of Indo-European languages (his early study of the Proto-Indo-European vowel system is also reissued in this series: ISBN 9781108006590). In 1880, Saussure was awarded a doctorate from the University of Leipzig for this study, which appeared in print in 1881. He published almost nothing more during his lifetime. Earlier Indo-Europeanists had noted the almost complete absence of the genitive absolute from Classical Sanskrit texts. Saussure argued that it must have been a feature of colloquial speech, as it appears in formulaic expressions in less 'purist' Sanskrit texts, as well as in Pali. He analyses different forms of the construction, and lists nearly 500 examples, many from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The thesis is also of interest as it reveals Saussure's early approach to problems of syntax.
Washington Allston (1779–1843) was considered by many at the time to be the greatest painter yet produced by the United States. After four years at Harvard, where he made an impression with his poetry, he went to London and became a pupil of the artist Benjamin West. On a tour of the continent, he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Rome, painted his portrait and became his firm friend. After a period at home, during which he married, Allston returned to London, and through Coleridge met Wordsworth, Southey, and the earl of Egremont, the great patron of artists, especially J. W. M. Turner. In this environment of intellectual and artistic experiment, Allston created paintings on religious, literary and historical topics, with an emphasis on landscape and contrasts of light and dark. This 1893 biography by his nephew and pupil Jared Bradley Flagg (1820–99) throws light on the artist, his works, and his milieu.