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This article examines Newcastle upon Tyne as a case study for the concept of a ‘long eighteenth century’. It is argued that from the late seventeenth century until the 1830s the town, despite some social tensions, demonstrated considerable continuity in terms of its political, social, and economic structure. This gave Newcastle stability and cohesion, but allowed limited economic development and increased prosperity. It became a thriving cultural centre and a ‘polite society’ emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the case of a Victorian schoolteacher who claimed mystical experiences, including ecstasy, the stigmata and mystical espousals. Rather than attempt retrospectively either to prove or disprove these claims, the author seeks to discover where contemporaries drew the line between the natural and supernatural. Reactions shown to the schoolteacher in the 1870s and 1880s by priests, teachers, religious and doctors suggest that clear-cut oppositions between the rationalist and credulous were uncharacteristic of the time. The more common position was to find both atheism and internally consistent Christian theology inadequate and to prefer an idiosyncratic blend of the two. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In addition to the well-known foreign missionary activities of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century churchmen, this same period saw campaigns of active proselytization within Britain. Whether couched in terms referring to 'religious revival' or 'home mission' it had the same aim as foreign mission activity, namely to effect religious change. This paper explores the way in which the religious changes associated with these campaigns affected the landscape of the lead-mining districts of the North Pennines in northern England. A repeating cycle of preaching first outdoors, then indoors and then in purpose-built structures can be recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

French liberal economists share a very surprising reading of Bentham's theory. In this paper, we underline the method according to which these economists understand Bentham's utilitarianism: they consider that utilitarianism deals with 'utility' but disregards justice. Such an interpretation appears when they tried to oppose the 'French school' and 'English school' of economics as well as when they discussed the foundation of property rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism is presented for the novel "Villette" by Charlotte Brontë. The heroine is an Englishwoman teaching English on the European Continent at a school based on Continental norms and the Roman Catholic church. She initially denounces the Continental way of life as duplicitous and enslaving against the English model of liberty, openness and fair play. Her ideas change. The article notes that national identifications themselves are products of imagination subject to change.

This article takes paganism to mean the use of images and ideas from the ancient pre-Christian Mediterranean world. It explores two varieties of paganism in operation in England during the closing decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth: one based in literature, the other based in intellectual debates and early socialism. While the former has previously been discussed by scholars, the addition of the latter adds a new dimension to the examination of paganism during this period. These two varieties of paganism, in their own ways, negotiated versions of paganism specifically designed to cater for the spiritual and human aspirations of the radical Victorians and Edwardians who imagined them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]