Why Lord Shelburne on that occasion was set aside, will perhaps always remain a mysterious passage of our political history, nor have we space on the present occasion to attempt to penetrate its motives.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

It consists of red, tough clayey mud, with minute linear cavities; it is marked with faint horizontal shades of colour; it includes a few pebbles, and rarely a minute particle of shell: in one spot, the dermal armour and a few bones of a Dasypoid quadruped were embedded in it: it fills up furrows in the underlying gravel.
— from Coral Reefs; Volcanic Islands; South American Geology — Complete by Charles Darwin

I am supposing a wild case, that if there should be any person already receiving a monstrous pension out of this kingdom, who was instrumental in procuring this patent, they have either not well consulted their own interests, or Wood must[17] put more dross into his copper and still diminish its weight.
— from The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 06 The Drapier's Letters by Jonathan Swift

Elias, the new pastor, had labored long and faithfully in this place, and refused a most pressing call from Mardin, though in worldly things it was much more desirable.
— from History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume II. by Rufus Anderson

"The Honorable Peter M. Boyer arrived last night," said the papers, "and received a magnificent public dinner at the —— Hotel.
— from Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 22, September, 1878 by Various

The ferocious animal immediately left its prey and rushed at Mrs. Pentry with open mouth, seizing her left arm in its jaws, crunched it, and then, rising on its hind legs, gave her a terrible hug.
— from Woman on the American Frontier A Valuable and Authentic History of the Heroism, Adventures, Privations, Captivities, Trials, and Noble Lives and Deaths of the "Pioneer Mothers of the Republic" by William Worthington Fowler

Such was the state of public feeling during the summer and autumn of 1696; and therefore it was that hardships which, in any of the seven preceding years, would certainly have produced a rebellion, and might perhaps have produced a counterrevolution, did not produce a single tumult too serious to be suppressed by the constable's staff.
— from The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 4 by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

There is very clear evidence of this last fact; for when they found [Pg 240] they could not by any means enter our said town of Paris, like madmen they gallopped off for the town of Beaumont-sur-Oise, belonging to our very dear and well beloved son and nephew the duke of Orleans, now prisoner in England, and on their march seized horses from the plough, and robbed and made prisoners every traveller they met.
— from The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Vol. 04 [of 13] Containing an account of the cruel civil wars between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy, of the possession of Paris and Normandy by the English, their expulsion thence, and of other memorable events that happened in the kingdom of France, as well as in other countries by Enguerrand de Monstrelet

I shall, however, continue at Birmingham if possible , and resume all my pursuits, in which case I must thank you for a fresh stock of retorts , tubes, etc., etc., etc.
— from Joseph Priestley by T. E. (Thomas Edward) Thorpe

I shall leave the Doctor's "birth, parentage, and education," to the biographers who have treated of the subject; and introduce him as a singular character, and a willing instrument in the hands of faction, and as one that contrived to confound the State, rouse the passions, and raise a mob Page 399
— from Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century; Vol. 1 (of 2) Including the Charities, Depravities, Dresses, and Amusements etc. by James Peller Malcolm