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Edward Gibbon Wakefield, A View of the Art of Colonization, 1849

Page 54: Episcopacy is surely an essential attribute of the Church of England. Until the Association was formed which made New Zealand a British colony, nobody had proposed to establish bishoprics in new settlements: it was only in old colonies, which had made considerable progress in plain, and in which most of he sellers had become Dissenters either from the Church of England or from all religion, that bishops had hitherto been appointed. We asked for a bishop for the first settlement in New Zealand. Everybody laughed at us. We could obtain hardly any serious attention to our proposal. The Colonial Office, which hated our whole proceedings, sneered at the episcopal scheme, and at us for making it, all the more openly because the public, as far as the public thought at all about the matter, supported the gentleman of Downing street in treating us as visionary enthusiasts. On account of our scheme of a bishopric, the newspapers turned us into ridicule; public men of mark refused us their support generally; and even leading members of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, with the Bishop of London at their head, thought our proposal absurdly impracticable. We persevered, however. A length one of us, Dr. Hinds, the present Dean of Carlisle, converted the late Archbishop of Canterbury to our view.

Page 161: Meanwhile, let us mark what our present colonization is as respects religious provisions. It is nearly all make-believe or moonshine. The subject of religious provisions for the colonies figures occasionally in speeches at religious meetings, and in Colonial Office blue books; but whatever composes the thing itself—the churches, the funds, the clergy, the schools, and colleges—appears nowhere else except on a scale of inadequacy that looks like mockery. If England were twice as large as it is, and ten times as difficult to travel about, then one bishop for all England would be as real a provision for the episcopacy of our church at home as there is in upper Canada, or indeed in an of our more extensive colonies: it would not be real, but a sham provision. Let me pursue the example of upper Canada. If the one bishop is a mockery of episcopacy, still, it may be said, there are clergymen of the Church of England in sufficient abundance. I answer, there are indeed clergymen, but they are not clergymen of the Church of England. They differ from clergymen of the Church of England: they are not supported by endowments which would enable them to be the leaders, rather than the servants of their flocks; they are not otherwise qualified to lead anybody, being men of an inferior order as respects accomplishments and wisdom. The ministers of a church, whose system of  discipline is based on endowments and dignities, they have no ranks and no endowments. Men of mark or promise in the church at home would not go there: those who do go, are men of neither mark nor promise.

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Edward Bulwer Lytton, Harold the Last of the Saxon Kings, 1848

So great the assemblage of Quens and prelates, that there was small room in the courtyard for the lesser knights and chiefs, who yet hustled each other, with loss of Norman dignity, for a sight of the lion which guarded England. And still, amidst all those men of mark and might, Harold, simple and calm, looked as he had looked on his warship in the Thames, the man who could lead them all!

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Thomas Ramsaeus, The Life and Literary Remains of Barbara Hofland, 1849

She, then, after giving an account of two or three introductions at one of these clubs, proceeds to describe a scene there, which no doubt was one of actual occurrence. There were present Henry Neele, the poet,—of whose melancholy fate more will be said hereafter; Linton, the painter; Nugent, the political writer; Holland himself; and several other men of mark and likelihood:—

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James Drake, Historia Anglo-Scotica, 1703

Page 199: Shortly after they were all employed in the service at the Battle of Bawgy, which was fought on Easter Eve, wherein the English were defeated. And this fell out by the inconsiderate haste of the Duke of Clarence, who by a misrelation of an under number of the enemy, and treacherous instigation of Andrew Ferguse, a Lumbard, (a man retained by the adverse part) to whom the Duke gave too much credit, he would needs by his persuasion presently set upon the enemy, with a far inferior number, contrary to the will and advice of Sir Gilbert Umfrevile Earl of Kime, and others who earnestly labored with him, that he would have religiously observed the feast of Easter, and then when the rest of his forces were come unto him, to encounter with his enemies. But desire of his own particular glory in this action, being deluded by that Italian traitor, who promised him certain victory, would not suffer him to admit of any delay; but with great disadvantage on foot, he gave a furious charge upon the enemy, with demonstration of singular valor, until as he was remounting he was wounded in the face by Sir John Swinton, a Scot, and thrown to the ground, being the first man of the English that there was slain in this battle; there also died the Earl of Kime, Sir John Grey Earl of Tankervile, the Lord Rosse, Siri John Lumley, and divers other men of mark, and fifteen hundred common soldiers. And the Earls of Huntington and Somerset, and Thomas Belfort his brother, and divers others were taken prisoners. Of the enemies part there were also slain eleven hundred, where sundry of them were men of principal not, so that they had not much to brag of.

Page 277: When all things touching the marriage and other agreements were done and finished, the ambassadors of Scotland took their leave of the King of England, and with great rewards departed towards their own country. After which time, great preparations were made in England, for the conveying of the Lady into Scotland, and likewise great provision there for the receiving of her. The 16th day of June following, King Henry having most sumptuously furnished his dear and eldest daughter for her journey, traveled himself in person with her, as far as Colyweston in Northamptonshire, where the Countess of Richmond his mother then lay, and after certain days spent there in pleasure and solace, he took his leave of his daughter, and gave her his blessing, with fatherly counsel and exhortation, and so consigned the guard and conduct of her person into Scotland, and the delivery of her there to the King her husband, principally to the Earls of Surrey and Northumberland, and to such ladies and gentlewomen as were by him appointed for her attendance. And so this fair young lady at the age of 14 years was conveyed, and attended on with a great company of Lords, Ladies, Knights, Esqs., and Men of Mark, until she came to the Town of Berwick, from whence she was conveyed to St. Lambert’s Church in Lammermoor, within Scotland, where King James attended by the principal of his nobility, received her at the hands of the Earl of Northumberland, and conveyed her to Edinburgh; where, the next day after her coming thither, she was with great solemnity married unto him in the presence of all his nobility, to the great comfort and joy of all that were present.

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Allan Cunningham, The Cabinet Gallery of Pictures by the First Masters of the English and Foreign Schools, 1834

The scene of this picture is the outer and inner room of guard: it is composed of three distinct grapes, all differing in character and yet united in duty, and forming a perfect whole. The men of the remotest group are huddled round the fire, and though their backs are towards us we can see that they are smoking and drinking and engaged at cards. Games of chance are the delight of soldiers. The second or central group is composed of three soldiers—men of mark no doubt in their regiment, for they stand in grave deliberation, and are either discussing the plan of the next campaign or lamenting the lack of discipline and love of drink and gaming in their comrades. Those of the third or foreground group are engaged on the game which gives the name to the picture. Two of them seem wily citizens, or are more probably members of the Commissariat: the other two are officers, one of whom holds a small flagon in his hand while the other is remonstrating with his opponent in the game, and by his clenched hands and serious visage seems to be on the point of losing it. The varied expression and light and shade and handling of the work are all masterly, and show on what grounds the reputation of the painter has been established.

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Felix M’Donogh, The Hermit in Edinburgh, 1824

Strange bodies are transported in night coaches the other side the Tweed, and “’Tis better to lie drunk than dead,” says the song; and so would say anyone condemned to be packed up in the same vehicle with the chance customers of a road, be its length ever so short. The drover remained motionless; not so the tongue of Miss Annie M’clash. She fished for, and found out by birth, parentage, and education, in a few minutes, and even went so far as to enquire about my property. In return, she named a sore of rich relations of her own, and at least as many men of mark—a Knight, a Baron of Exchequer, a Colonel, a Captain of a man-of-war, a Minister (of the kirk), an Ex-provost of half a century back, a Sheriff of inverness, and, lastly, her cousin, a writer. From these family records, she brought me into ancient history; and seemed as well acquainted with Julius Caesar and his descent into Britain, as if she had been one of the party. She then monopolized all the conversation by a monologue on the history of her own kintry—detailing the private biography of Robert Bruce as circumstantially as if it had been an affair of yesterday, and explaining the enmity betwixt he Bruces and Baliols with no small degree of intelligence. It was evident that she had read a great deal; and it was as clear ha she dd not hide her “talent under a bushel.” From Scripture she passed rapidly, but loquaciously, to the Douglas cause, of which I saw no end until our arrival, when probably she might have brought me before the inner or outer house, and secured me by the button until I heard all; but a pert London rider, who was in the opposite corner, affronted her, and so put an end to her discourse. Having heard her called Miss, on being put into the carriage, and contemplating the lines of age, which seemed to mock a bay-wig in full and flowing curls upon her forehead, he asked her by way of hoax, “Pray, Ma’am, was you never married?” She blushed blue, smiled, and replied, “Sc nonsense! (making w long syllables of the word)—Wh ye ken better, fr ye hard my uncle’s servant-lass ca’ me Miss.” “Very much a miss,” muttered the would-be-wit to himself; “but would you like to marry an Englishman?” “Why,” looking girlish-like, “I dinner think that I should shoot (suit, so pronounced) an Englishman.” “I hope not, Ma’am; that would be deadly bad.” “Suit, ye pronounce it in the south,” resumed she, a little flustered by this incivility: “what I mean is that I am unco’ fond of hame, and a plain-spoken body, so that your braw Englishman would think the like of me quite an incumbrance.” “Not a bit, Ma’am; you might be very useful,” answered he very flippantly: “we Englishmen are grave, silent fellows, and you could talk for your husband, provided you would only allow him to think for himself.”

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Ben Jonson, Catiline: His Conspiracy, 1674

Cicero: Thou cadets, e’re while, into this Senate. Who Of such a frequency, so many friends, And kindred thou hast here, saluted thee? Were not the seats made bare, upon thy entrance? Rifs’ not the consular men? and left their places, So soon as thou sat’st down/ And fled thy side, Like to a plague, or ruin? Knowing, how oft   They had been, by thee, marked out for the shambles? How dost thou bear this? Surely, if my slaves At home feared me with half th’ affright and horror, That, here, thy fellow citizens do thee, I should soon quit my house, and think it need too. Yet thou darkest tarry there? Go forth, at last; Condemn thyself to flight, and solitude. Discharge the Commonwealth, of her deep fear. Go; into banishment, if thou thou waitest the word. Why dost thou look? They all consent unto it. Dost thou expect the authority of their voices, Whose silent wills condemn thee? While they sit, They approve it; while they suffer it, they decree it; And while they are silent to it, they proclaim it. Prove thou there honest, I’ll endure the envy But there’s no thought thou shouldst be ever he, Whom either shame should call from filthiness, Terror from danger, or discourse from fury. Go; I intreat thee: yet, why do I so? When I already know, they’re sent afore, That tarry for thee in arms, and do expect thee On the’ Aurelian way. I knew the day Set down, ‘twixt thee, and Manlius; unto whom The silver eagle too is sent before? Which I do hope shall prove to thee as baneful, As thou conceives it to the commonwealth. But, may this wise, and sacred Senate say, What meanest thou Marcus Tullius? If thou knowest That Caitline be looked for, to be chief Of an intestine war; that he is the author Of such a wickedness; the caller out Of men of mark in mischief, to an action Of so much horror; prince of such reason; Why dost thou send him forth? Why let him escape? This is, to give him liberty, and power: Rather, you shouldst lay hold upon him, send him To deserved death, and a just punishment.

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François Guizot, On the Causes of the Success of the English Revolution of 1640-1688, 1850

Richard Cromwell really wished to put an end to the country’s agitations and his own by treating immediately with the King. He was not deficient in sense or honesty, but he had neither ambition nor greatness of mind. His father’s career and destiny, of which he had been a sharer, had excited in him a feeling of fatigue rather than of confidence. He did not believe in the recurrence of a similar success in his own case, nor did he find himself capable of bearing a similar burthen. But neither was he a man to take a final and unalterable resolution in so weighty a matter. He was undecided and weak, overwhelmed with debts, and looking out on every side for the issue of what was pending. He continued the sport of a fortune the vanity of which he felt, and the instrument of men inferior to himself in understanding.

Some solution of the present state of things was absolutely necessary. All the men of mark or influence who had brought about the revolution, or whom the revolution had raised into notice, had been repeatedly put to the proof. Though their attempts to govern the country had not been thwarted or obstructed by any external obstacle or national resistance, none of them had succeeded. They had destroyed each other. They had all exhausted in these fruitless conflicts whatever reputation or whatever strength they might otherwise have preserved. Their nullity was completely laid bare. Nevertheless, England was still at their mercy. The nation had lost, in those long and melancholy alternations of anarchy and despotism, the habit of ruling, and the courage to rule, its own destinies. Cromwell’s army was still in existence, incapable of forming a government, but overturning everyone that did not please it. It was a stranger to political parties, a soldier highly respected by the army, a faithful servant of the Parliament and Cromwell, and of even Richard Cromwell at his accession, who perceived that there was but one conclusion of this anarchy possible, and endeavored to lead his wearied country to that goal without conflict and without convulsion.

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John Kemble Chapman, The Court Theatre and Royal Dramatic Record, 1849

This we take to be the province of the great actor. He is called upon to work out the great truths of the poet; and the requirements for such a task can rarely be found except in persons who have obtained the benefit of a liberal education, who have studied the principles of their art thoroughly, and have learned in their intercourse with the best classes of society, the grace, the ease, the refining habits, the dignified deportment that add such a charm to the glowing eloquence or the polished wit of the dramatist. Unfortunately, however, the multitude have been too apt to look upon the child of Thespis as a mere mimic of manners, and a mechanical creator of amusement; whilst the directors of the populace, who knew better, kept up the delusion for obvious purposes. As for the actor himself, he resembled a machine, who worked as he was directed, without a due knowledge of his own importance. Considered as a mere plaything, he began to think the same himself; and thus, from the earliest periods of histrionic history, we never find its professors viewed as men of mark in society, or mixing in public affairs of any description. What added to the moderation of their own estimate of themselves was their cognizance of the fact that the sublime doctrines they enunciated did not emanate from themselves, and that they merely parroted the sentiments of others. They had no hall, no college, no school wherein to meet, as had the professors of law, divinity, and physic; they were left, unaided and undirected, to aid in the working out of the deepest problems in human nature; the high-born and wealthy too frequently looked down upon them—the self-righteous condemned them; yet all the while the maligned actors were unostentatiously teaching the graces as the poet taught the sterner duties of existence—exalting, correcting, and civilzing the world wherever they appeared. Under such circumstances, we can scarcely wonder at the profession of an actor not being held in that respect to which it was justly entitled. Men and women, however, of high intellectual attainments and unblemished moral character have been found, who, despising the conventional prejudices against the stage, made it their profession, and ennobled and dignified it by their genius and their virtues. They have been flattered, courted, and caressed by the titled and wealthy of the land; but they still belonged to a profession which had no fixed status in society—an art which opened to its followers no path by which they might arrive at a recognized and honorable position as the reward of their labors. The priest who best enunciates the dogmas of theology has a mitre in view—the lawyer looks forward to the bench and the woolsack—the young solider sees stars, medals, and a general’s commission in the distance—the physician can count upon wealth and honors—even the “little scrubbed” London ‘prentice feels his heart beat proudly when he passes the Mansion House, and reflects that he may one day, by skill and perseverance, attain to the dignity of the Civic chair. Why, then, should not the actor reap some similar reward? He repeats the finest thoughts and the first lessons in the world, and to do so effectually is constrained to study Nature under every aspect. The call upon his abilities is consequently little less imperative thant hat upon the powers of the clerical orator or the legal pleader. As chief external agent in the progress of improvement, he therefore is entitled to aspire to the highest honors belonging to such exertions. These have hitherto been denied him; but times are now altered, and the actor will shortly enter the lists with the rest of his fellows. The Queen has placed herself in the van, the Press brings its artillery to support the movement, and the actor has but to vindicate his rights to acquire his patent of privilege, and wipe out forever the neglect of ages.  

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Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1909, 1911

Page 605: Hemphill, J.C., ed. Men of mark in South Carolina; ideals of American life; a collection of biographies of leading men of the state. v. IV. Washington, D.C., Men of mark pub. co. 441 p. ports.

Page 606: Mudge, James. Methodist men of mark. Meth. Rev., XCI (Jan.) 42-59.

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Frank Curson, Lays and Legends of the West, 1846

But the gallant few, who remained the sole relic of the once triumphant and numerous army, now not more than a thousand in number, still kept their enemies at bay. They lay encamped round the Chapel of Saint Eloys at Heavitree, where their chiefs were assembled in Council. The gold Sir Thomas Pomeroye, the last of one of the noblest names in Devon, was seated on a rude bench at the head of the group. Near him stood Lethbridge, the peasant of Sampford, who had wrought the first deed of blood in this perilous contest, and in close neighborhood, in earnest gesticulation were the artizan leaders—the gigantic Hammond, who in every battle had wielded with fatal force his murderous smith’s hammer, Maunder and Underhill, the representatives of the Exeter Mechanics, Seager who had led the village clubmen into the field, and Ashridge, whose band of smugglers had done good service in the cause. But others were there, of more name and note. The Governor of St. Michael’s Mount, and the Mayor of Bodmin, Berry and Winneslade, and Coffin, all men of mark, gave their best aid to the rude Council, whilst, with one or two other ecclesiastics, the Vicar of St. Thomas stood at the right of Sir Thomas Pomeroye, showing by his fiery eye and compressed lip that he was as ready as ever to shout the battle hymn in the front of the dauntless Catholics. In the center of the group, almost the only merchant remaining in the camp, stood Geoffrey Arundel, his hair a thought thinner and grayer, as the head ben forward to catch the orders falling from the lips of Pomeroye.

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Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1910, 1912

Men of mark in Maryland; Johnson’s Makers of America series, biographies of leading men of the state. v. II. With an introductory chapter on the Growth of Maryland, by Lynn R. Meekins. Baltimore, Washington and Richmond, B.F. Johnson. 428 p. ports. …… Osborn, N.G., ed. Men of mark in Connecticut; ideals of American life told in biographies and autobiographies of eminent living Americans. v. V. Hartford, Conn., William R. Godspeed. 568 p. ports.

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Richard Z.S. Troughton, Nina Sforza, 1840

Spinola [gaily]: I thank thee, Doria. In so nice a matter, The will enacted parallels the deed, Shall I so score it against thee? Doria: Do thy pleasure. Spinola [aside, walking away]: (And if I do not so, Heaven prosper thee!) Dorato: I have been thinking, if it please my Lord— But else I’m dumb, and have no voice at all— Being put to thought by this his sore distress; That if some score or so of men or mark; By which I understand substantial men; Or, as I should say rather, men of means; Should join, or as it were— Doria: Have done! have done! (Prithee, Bizzaro, take away this drone. I can but just endure him in my mirth: But when I’m sick, or sad, his senseless hum Helps me the wrong way forward. Take him off.)

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United States Congressional Serial Set, 1905

Men of mark in every walk of life were there; prominent men in the civil government of the city that had honored him, men prominent not because of place or office, but because of native character and consequent influence, but, above all, the men whose only claim to distinction was that by honest toil they earned an honest reward. They were there, his employees, the men who while they called Robert Foerderer master delighted to call him also their fellow, and who left their worships to bring their sorrowing tribute to his memory. In this particular case the only question with respect to labor and capital was as to how the representatives of labor should pay their highest tribute to the representative of capital. In the case of Robert Foerderer and his men, to his honor be it said, labor and capital knew no cause of quarrel.

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John Cameron, Discourses, 1840

The law given by Moses passing into action in the lives of the old Hebrews, gave to the theocracy those bards and warriors whose words and deeds, thousands of years after the Jewish polity has passed away, the best of us can find a lesson in to profit by. It was to the life-giving vitality of the law that the Hebrews owed the duration of their distinct self-subsistence as a nation, until the time when Christ came to enfranchise all men into equal rights and immunities. By the law were formed Joshua and Gideon and David, Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah and Jeremiah, men who could “act and comprehend,” who could speak out fearlessly “the word of the Lord that came unto them,” or lead on the tribes into the battlefield. These sleep with their fathers, their acts are chronicled, and after some generations there arise others like unto them, men of “mark and likelihood,” to proclaim by heroic action the validity and authority of the law, to rescue the temple from description, to put their foot upon the neck of the oppressor, and to crown her who “sate solitary among the nations” with the wreath of victory. This race too goes down into the dust, and henceforth there is no health in the nation, the law is lost in endless strifes of words, and for “hearts resolved and hands prepared,” we have discerning of the coming of better times from the redness of the political horizon, and for the command which he who runneth may read, there is the subtle commentary, which for elucidation needs a commentator, and extinction in a cloud of traditions of the light from heaven, that should have lighted every man. This is the age of the conventional, and if we carry ourselves in thought to Judea, and stand in the streets of the Jewish capital, what kind of men such an age can make for us we can both hear and see. What their refinements upon the “Book of the Law” are to the book itself, their life is as compared with the life commanded by the law, or its manifestation in the lives of those devoted men in whom the spirit of the law working heroically put forth what vital power there was in it.

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Journal of the Proceeding of the 31st Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Tennessee, 1829

Two of those who assisted me at my consecration to the office of Bishop, a little more than twenty-five years ago, have, in the wisdom of God, been called from the scene of their earthly labors to enter upon the realities of the eternal world. I refer to the decease of Bishops H.U. Onderdonk and G.W. Done. They were both of them, emphatically, men of mark, and have left an abiding impress of their individual character upon their respective fields of labor.

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John Marston, Old English Plays v. 2: History of Antonio and Mellida, 1814

Catzo: I’ll stop the barrel thus; good Dildo, set not fire to the touch-hole. Dildo: My rage is stopped, and I will eat to the health of the fool, thy master Castilio. Catzo: And I will suck the juice of the capon, to the health of the idiot, thy master Balurdo. Dildo: Faith, our masters are like a case of rapiers, sheathed in one scabbard of folly. Catzo: Right Dutch blades. But was’t not rare sport at the sea battle, whilst rounce robble hobble roared from the ship sides, to view our masters pluck their plumes and drop their features, fer fear of being men of mark. Dildo: ‘Slud, (cried Signior Balurdo), Oh, for Don Bessicler’s armor, in the Mirror of Knighthood; what coils here? Oh, for an armor cannon proof! Oh, more cable, more feather beds, more feather bed,s more cable, till he had as much as my cable hatband, to fence him.