If the produce of domestic can be brought there as cheap as that of foreign industry, the regulation is evidently useless.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

The secret zeal and ambition of the Turkish prince aspired to reign in Egypt under the name of the Abbassides; but the restoration of the suppliant Shawer was the ostensible motive of the first expedition; and the success was intrusted to the emir Shiracouh, a valiant and veteran commander.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

The pithy conciseness of the brackish tongue renders it eminently useful on duty.
— from The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by W. H. (William Henry) Smyth

[Pg 31] veyed with a view to ascertaining the magnitude of the undertaking, and the amount of the collateral which it would be necessary to raise in England, upon the endorsed bonds, to push the work through to a successful conclusion.
— from Skookum Chuck Fables: Bits of History, Through the Microscope by R. D. (Robert Dalziel) Cumming

But it remains true, that when he tried to represent a character totally different from himself, the result is either unreal or uninteresting.
— from Byron by John Nichol

It is said that “the railroads in Egypt use mummies for fuel; and on wet days the engineers are heard frequently to cry out?: ‘These plebeians won’t burn worth a cent; hand me out a king!’
— from A Baptist Abroad: Travels and Adventures of Europe and all Bible Lands by Walter Andrew Whittle

That day was a hard one owing to rough ice encountered upon the lower Gravel River, and the two alternated frequently between breaking trail and working at the gee-pole.
— from Snowdrift: A Story of the Land of the Strong Cold by James B. (James Beardsley) Hendryx

While steps were taking to bring this force into the field, a last essay was made to render its employment unnecessary.
— from The Life of George Washington: A Linked Index to the Project Gutenberg Editions by John Marshall

Eglise & la purger de toutes perturba | tions & remettre icelle en une seule foy & | donner prosperité a nostre Roy en tous | ses affaires & luy prolonger la vie a la gloi | re & sanctification du nom de Dieu à l’avan | cement & manutention de la religion Catholique | & courone de France & sil adve | noit (que Dieu ne vueille) que quelques | uns par une effrenee volonté entreprins | sent contre l’intention de sa dicte maie | sté d’user d’emotions, iniures, detractions | contre ladicte religion Catholique, vio | lences sacrileges, invasions, conventicules, | à l’effect dessusdict, batteries, meurtres, | pilleries d’Eglise, rouptures d’aultelz | images, croix, & choses dediees au servi | ce divin.
— from The Wars of Religion in France 1559-1576 The Huguenots, Catherine de Medici and Philip II by James Westfall Thompson

The statements Mills and Jones are such as to render it entirely unnecessary to resort to the hypothesis of any kind of tetanus, much less to that of strychnine, in accounting for the death of Cook.
— from The Most Extraordinary Trial of William Palmer, for the Rugeley Poisonings, which lasted Twelve Days by Anonymous

We do not doubt that this restraint is equally unwelcome to many of the School Board and citizens of the city, but as a corporation they are involved, and perhaps they are doing the best they can under the circumstances.
— from The American Missionary — Volume 33, No. 07, July, 1879 by Various