Sparks Commentary

“In the most pure democracies of Greece , many of the executive functions were performed, not by the people themselves, but by officers elec...

“The French people solemnly proclaim their attachment to the Rights of Man and the principles of national sovereignty as defined by the Dec...

“Sparta, Athens , Rome, and Carthage were all republics; two of them, Athens and Carthage, of the commercial kind. Yet were they as often...

“It shall be lawful for the Queen, with the advice of the Privy Council, to declare by proclamation that, on and after a day therein appoi...

“ … That [the] said Country or Dominion of Wales shall be, stand and continue for ever from henceforth incorporated, united and annexed ...

Note: This is a different series from  “Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire” (which is made by the BBC). There aren't too m...

“It is well known that in the Roman republic the legislative authority, in the last resort, resided for ages in two different political b...

" ... these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES ; that they are absolved from all allegiance ...

"We, the Japanese people, acting through our duly elected representatives in the National Diet, determined that we shall secure for o...

“... t here was not one single hide, nor a yard [endnote] of land, nay, moreover (it is shameful to tell, though he thought it no shame t...

"Had the Greeks, says the Abbe Milot, been as wise as they were courageous, they would have been admonished by experience of the nece...

One of the basic facts about China today is that most of it is communist - the part that most of us hear about. Thus, it surprises some p...

"As from the fifteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, two independent Dominions shall be set up in India , to be kn...

" ... the said kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland shall, upon the first day of January, which shall be in the year of our lord on...

"That the Two Kingdoms of  Scotland and England  shall upon the first day of May next ensuing the date hereof and forever after be  U...

"That the two Kingdoms of  England and Scotland  shall upon the First day of May which shall be in the year One thousand seven hundre...

"The great historian Edward Gibbon was right when he said that the story of the fall of the Empire was ' simple and obvious '...

"The history of the ancient Greeks is one of the most improbable success stories in world history. A small people inhabiting a count...

"It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the advice of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council, to declare by proclamation ...