UC-NRLF $B M3 D5M BRITAINS RECORD WHAT- SHE • HAS DONE FOR THE WORLD E. KEBLE CHATTERTON ^■4 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation ii http://www.archive.org/details/britainsrecordwhOOchatrich BRITAIN'S RECORD Emery tValker WILLIAM PITT BRITAIN'S RECORD WHAT SHE HAS DONE FOR THE WORLD BY E. KEBLE CHATTERTON AUTHOR OF " SAILING SHIPS AND THEIR STORY," " THE ROMANCE OF THE SHIP," " THE STORY OF THE BRITISH NAVY," ETC., ETC. LONDON: SIDGWICK & JACKSON, LTD, 3 ADAM STREET, ADELPHI All rights reserved Published igii ■i ^t* ^4, J»^« CONTENTS Prbfack page 9 Introductory ii Chapter I.— PROGRESS OF LIBERTY National Liberty — Individual Liberty — Franchise — Free Speech — A Free Press — Freedom of Thought — Britain the Champion of the Oppressed — Examples set — The Mistress of the Seas . 17 Chapter II.— SOCIAL PROGRESS Hygiene — Medicine and Surgery — Domestic Architecture — Philan- thropy — Foreign Missions — Sport — Police — Municipal Govern- ment— Education— The Post Office— The Factory Acts . . 73 Chapter III.— PROGRESS OF COMMERCE Britain's Enterprise in Colonisation — "Trade follows the Flag" — Trade Routes — Railways and Shipping — Home Industries and Manufactures — Iron, Steel, Coal — The Telegraph and Cable — Printing 108 Chapter IV.— PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING Literature— Shakespeare— Arts and Crafts — The Theatre— The Universities — The Public School System — Endowments — Science — Medicine— Research— Painting 192 Chapter V.— PROGRESS OF JUSTICE The Making of Laws — Their Administration — Trial by Jury — Assumption of Prisoners' Innocence — Right of Accused to give Evidence — The Debtors' Laws — Jeremy Bentham — International Law — Conclusion 254 Bibliography 289 Index 295 ILLUSTRATIONS William Pitt William Wilberforce T Fron FAC tispiece E PAGE 58 Dr. Jenner . 78 Sir Rowland Hill . 102 Captain Cook 124 James Watt. 150 William Shakespeare 196 John Milton 206 Sir Isaac Newton . 232 Jeremy Bentham 260 PREFACE IN attempting to present a record of what Britain has done for the welfare of the world during the length of ages it has been no easy task to compress so many incidents and facts within the confines of a volume of average size, and yet retain some of the interest which belongs to such a narrative as the rise and activities of the greatest world-power that has ever been known. What has been aimed at, however, has been to provide a clear, concise account of the indebtedness of the rest of the world to Britain, to show how this was brought about, and to leave the reader to appreciate the obvious lessons which manifest themselves from the events brought forward. Every effort has been made to present an impartial, unbiassed account, and in every case to remain unaffected by the influence of petty politics. We have arrived at a stage of progress when the full worth and immense possibilities of our vast Empire are just beginning to be appreciated at a proper estimate. In some respects it is a time of a crisis in Imperial policy, for only through the cautious and wise handling of present problems of world-wide import can we expect the future to be free of the greatest anxiety to us. If history is to have any value at all, it 9 • • • « ;-joo;.-; V: •..;•;; ..^sit^in'S record consists in showing exactly what mistakes not to repeat and in indicating the methods by which difficulties have been satisfactorily dealt with in the past. Perhaps the bare outline as narrated in this present volume may incite the reader to pursue a study of the subject in greater detail elsewhere. E. KEBLE CHATTERTON. INTRODUCTORY THERE are those who say that the special and peculiar work which for so long a period it has been the lot of Britain to perform in the progress and develop- ment of the world is now rapidly nearing its completion. Between Rome and Britain in regard to their rise and fall some keen observers do not hesitate to show that there are so many close similarities that it is impossible to allow them to pass with scant notice as merely accidents rather than essentials. If, then, it be true — and such a postu- late is by no means granted by the present writer — it is assuredly high time, in this year which sees the Corona- tion of our fifth George as King of England and Emperor of the vast British dominions beyond the seas, that a momentary halt should be made, so that we can stop to look around, to take stock as it were, to reckon up and assess all that Britain has meant in the advancement of the world, the spread of civilisation, the amelioration of communities and individuals, the inculcation of those ideals which are regarded as lofty by all serious thinkers and by all who have at heart the welfare of nations and mankind generally. But we shall enter upon our task with no national con- ceit, with no more partial bias than is inevitable from one who writes with that enthusiastic appreciation of his country's achievements which is a permissible stand- point. Strictly, to be unmoved by all that has been : :.-z ht : /•:'.,*':•,.. ; BRITAIN'S RECORD attempted and done in the past, all that to-day is still being done, and all which the future seems likely to ac- complish, would be both unnatural and rob our inquiry of part of its interest. But that is not to say that our outlook will be prejudiced. Even the greatest enemy which this country may possess at this hour cannot fail to admire the long list of benefits which have evolved from the activities of the Anglo-Saxon race in the United Kingdom and the Colonies owing allegiance to the English sovereigns. Such a person cannot help mingling his unrighteous jealousy with a permissible envy that the British nation has accomplished so much among the nations of the world. Indeed, some of those unhappy manifestations which were made on the Con- tinent during the Boer War had, I am convinced, at their foundations, when stripped of unessentials, more envying admiration of Britain's prowess and enterprise, a greater disappointment that she should take upon her shoulders so much and that the other European powers should be compelled by force of circumstances to remain as mere spectators in the great world-game. Situated as Britain is, insular and isolated geographically and temperamentally, it is inevitable that throughout her his- torical career she should have been the eternal cause of international suspicion. International relations are, after all, the reflection of human nature in the aggregate. A sister of any family who lives her life apart, choosing her own policy, doing the best for her own children, neither asking nor welcoming the interference of any other of her sisters, is in time looked upon with that curious in- terestedness which welds itself into envy and afterwards jealousy. Such an independence of spirit becomes mis- understood, misinterpreted, breeds suspicion. And if this is so in personal affairs, how less different shall it INTRODUCTORY 13 be when nations take the place of individuals? Such a condition is regrettable, but nbne the less it is natural and comprehensible. Our present inquiry, then, will be not to engage in any special pleading on behalf of one sister who has certainly done much, and perhaps has done more than her other sisters, not merely for her own children, but for those of her sisters among the nations of the world. Rather, we shall attempt to sum up, to assess at their true value such achievements as have been made, and this whilst justify- ing the policy of Britain, yet simultaneously not in a spirit of insult towards other nations, and emphatically with no priggish intent to lord it over sisters whose lot has been of a different nature. There are certain functions in connection with the pro- gress of the world which are better performed by one nation than another. This statement is too true to require for the moment any further explanation, for it is merely an instance of an economical principle — a kind of international Division of Labour. Just as in any country to some must be allotted the task of tilling the land whilst others are turning the produce into food, making clothes for the worker to wear, painting pictures for him to enjoy, making music to gladden his soul that in turn he may work the more ably, so it is with nations. There are certain races which have been peculiarly blessed with certain endowments and opportunities for special functions, and among these the Anglo-Saxon race has undeniably been allotted certain tasks, which, notwithstanding their high aims, their profound responsi- bility, the difficulties of the task,and the inevitable and un- enviable suspicion aroused in carrying out the same, have in the calm judgment of fair critics of any nationality been performed both nobly and for the general good of 14 BRITAIN'S RECORD the universe. This is not to say that had Britain failed to perform her duties they would have been left unful- filled : or that no other nation could have effected such an achievement. But, nevertheless, it remains true that, given such definite duties, Britain has not been terrified at the magnitude of responsibility, but undertaken the task with a whole-heartedness and definiteness of purpose which alone made for success. Such, then, is the general principle of our inquiry. To make use of an apt Americanism, which is as expressive as it is concise, we are not going to " throw confetti" at ourselves for the achievements which have been made : we are not about to congratulate our mother for having done her duty. Merely we wish to put certain facts on record for the purpose of forming a just estimate, in order that in looking back on what has happened in the past we may have oppor- tunity for seeing if we cannot in the future fulfil our duties more honourably and for greater universal benefit. It is indeed an interesting record, which, if it betrays the failings also that are ever incidental to all human effort, is quite worthy the study of all who are interested in progress, in the methods that are employed to fulfil special obligations. We are apt too lightly to speak of independence as if it could exist more than in a certain degree. Strictly speaking, there is no such state in the wide world as this. Neither nation nor individual is able to esteem himself independent of the efforts of others. The hermit is dependent, not merely on the present, but on the past: Those who are to come afterwards are already being made our debtors. The most powerful community or person attained such a position only by dependence on others at one time or another. Before certain ends can be obtained there must INTRODUCTORY 15 be granted certain conditions, and thus whatever achieve- ments this record may succeed in showing to have been the peculiar privilege of Britain have been in a sense quite as much dependent on other nations as on herself. For you may take a man out from a crowd of his fellows and say that he alone discovered electricity, or discovered the New World, or invented the aeroplane. To make such a statement is both inaccurate and inadequate. Before such men were able to bring their minds to the task they had to be born, to be educated, to be fed, to be clothed, to be taught the successes and failures of their predecessors, to avail themselves of the data already bequeathed to them, to make the best use of existing means on which to build their own mighty achievements. Would Edison have been able to revolutionise the world without dependence on previous scientific data ? Would Columbus have been able to find the Indies unless in the previous centuries the ship had been made a practicable vehicle for exploration purposes ? Unless the motor had been evolved by engineers would aeroplanes have suddenly become capable of flying hundreds of miles ? Independence? The word is ridiculous unless used in a comparative sense. Britain in her latter-day achievements would have been incapable had it not been rendered possible by what she had learned from earlier years from the activities both of her own country- men and of others beyond the limits of her islands. One man resolves to devote the whole of his life to the consideration of a certain scientific problem which has puzzled the world. He advances so far until almost he has arrived at the solution, when in the height of his ambition his health fails him and he expires. But taking up the threads of the inquiry his successor applies him- self to a continuation of the same task, and in course of i6 BRITAIN'S RECORD time finds what the first investigator had almost dis- covered. To whom does the honour of the achievement rightly belong ? Certainly not exclusively to the second man, for without his predecessor's help he would never have attained. So also, as we proceed through the following record, we must recollect that as a strict defini- tion international independence is non-existent, and the attainment of nations, in the present case the attain- ments of Britain, are like the achievements of the indi- vidual, both based on and conditional on the efforts, the failures, and the successes of others. With such a fact in mind we shall not, even when most tempted by the glorious occasions of duty well done, be led astray into throwing the confetti to which we just now alluded. In approaching a study such as this, which is so mani- fold in its ramifications, which lends itself to treatment under so many categories, and could be further sub- divided had we space to devote to the task, it may be as well to state that our intention is rather to form an introduction to a subject that could well fill many volumes. The writer believes that no such volume as the present has yet been attempted, but he trusts that not merely to those who are sons of Britain but to those who have been allowed to enjoy benefits to whose crea- tion Britain has so largely contributed her share, such a brief record may prove at once acceptable and interest- ing. For the rest the various authorities cited may afford some assistance to those who should feel inclined to pursue the study to greater lengths. CHAPTER I PROGRESS OF LIBERTY IN the course of centuries, as a nation progresses, as racial development advances and exhibits itself in various forms of activity, certain characteristics — well marked and indubitable — show themselves as the pecu- liar properties of that nation. To trace the exact causes and methods of this characterisation would be both interesting and profitable, but the subject is outside the scope of this volume. We must necessarily confine ourselves to actual results, and not to a number of nations, but to the Anglo-Saxon race in this island of Britain. Among all the varied national features of character which are possessed by our countrymen, there stands up conspicuously from the rest that great love of liberty which has been for so long a period a dominant influence in regulating the actions, not merely of the nation, but of the British individual. It is a character- istic so well known among Britons themselves, so readily recognised by general international consent, so deep- rooted alike in the British schoolboy and the most venerable statesman, that it would be surprising if this British characteristic had not made itself felt over those other people with whom Britons have come into contact to any large extent. Therefore, in setting forth to gain some insight into the influence which Britain has B 17 M: lH>'lC^^l EkrrAiN's record exercised over the rest of the world, we may appro- priately give chief prominence to the part which she has played in the progress of that condition which is the in- herent right of every human being, irrespective of race, colour or creed. Notwithstanding that there are many things which other nations have done and can do in a manner better than the British, yet it is undeniable that whatever else Britain has brought about for the welfare of humanity, her great work in the cause of liberty is one of the most striking sections of history. And yet we must not make any mistake over our terminology. Liberty is not licence : it is indeed anti- thetical to such a condition. Liberty is not anarchy, not exemption from the law, but the service which is perfect freedom. Every society, whether large or small, from an amateur athletic association to a great state, must have its laws, and its members must be subject to these. Without such a postulate progress is impossible and impracticable. True it is that the mere necessity of law is a reminder of fallen human nature, for if there were no sin, if every member of the universe acted as he should, the whole business of the law, whether in making, administrating, or enforcing by way of penalties, would become superfluous. But looking at things as they are, and not as they should be, it is patent to any man that without laws liberty is a mere empty expression, for the former are entirely essential to the latter. And here let us make clear another distinction. We can argue from the analogy of the private individual. A certain man sets before him the task of cultivating freedom. He aspires to be unrestrained, so he throws aside all those conventions which are by the most illustrious recognised as inviolable. He will have no respect for existing standards, he wishes to live out his PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 19 own life, irrespective of persons or institutions. What happens ? Does he become a freeman, even though he shouts most loudly that he is free? On the contrary, he becomes not independent, but a slave to his own passions ; not free, but rather a libertine. And what is true of individuals is equally capable of being asserted in regard to communities. You may get together a large and multitudinous mob, overthrow monarchy, pull down its palaces, banish or even murder the sove- reign, and yet you are not necessarily any way nearer to attaining liberty. For the secret of it all is that the freest country is that which is the most law-abiding. Those who receive the greatest amount of liberty are those which are the greatest respecters of law and order. How often does the republican from France or Northern America visiting this island bewail that, in spite of all the vain boasts of liberty, equality, and brotherhood, there is far more of the former in our land, where kings are still crowned : far more law and order, far more mutual respect, far less restraint on the freedom of the subject to act as he likes within reason, speak, write, and worship after the manner of his own instincts and convictions ! And what is true of liberty in regard to the larger issues is also to be asserted when one comes to the smaller and less important conditions of our existence, as any traveller knows full well. The general national characteristic — in the present case Liberty— filters down from the highest to the lowest, and before you have been many hours in a strange country you know fairly accurately, from the excess of officialism or the reverse, to what extent that country has claims to be called the land of the free. The mutual trust and respect as between one individual and another, the freedom from any sort of espionage, 20 BRITAIN'S RECORD quickly show how firmly the true principles of liberty and their application have been studied. Since then it is quite clear that as language must have its grammar, the arts must have their canons, even sports must be governed by their regulations, and all societies and communities of whatever kind must most certainly be governed by obedience to a code of rules, so it is with liberty. And it is just because the British nation has been blessed at once with a rare genius for making sound legislature and with a consummate respect for these legal institutions when made, that free- dom, liberty — call the condition what you will — has taken root and flourished so luxuriantly in this northern island. Liberty is dependent on good government ; and ability to govern impartially and fearlessly for the good of the whole people is our great British characteristic. Every civilised nation throughout the world knows and believes this, even though special causes prevent such an admission from being made freely. A few years ago there was no country in the two hemispheres where the subject of British rule was so venomously assailed as in the Netherlands. In the South African Museum of Dordrecht there is preserved the most amazing collection of every form of literature that contains insults to the British nation in reference to the Boer War. No scurrilous continental journal of the most despicable variety is too mean to be included, no caricature was thought too gross to secure admission into this extra- ordinary collection. And yet now, while this "literature" remains, the former bellicose spirit has entirely vanished. Why? Let me answer in the words of a Dutchman whom I encountered once in this museum, with whom I had talked of the South African War and bewailed the heavy toll of lives which that had occasioned. " Ah, sir," PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 21 he remarked at the end of our conversation, " but it is well for the Boers now that they are under the British flag." I asked him for his reasons. "Because," he answered quietly, " the British know how to ruleP And that, I think, is at the base of the respect for the British nation all the world over. The whole principle of British liberty, far from afford- ing an opportunity for licence and self-indulgence, con- sists in encouraging with discipline the fullest occasion of self-development. On the sound assumption that the individual is the person most capable of looking after his own business and interests of life, Britain allows him the widest latitude commensurate with the good of the nation as a whole. Almost as soon as the Briton comes into the world and has reached the years of discernment, he becomes acquainted with that curious combination of liberty yoked with responsibility. He finds it at once in his home life; when he leaves home he discovers that the very atmosphere of a British school is not one of grandmotherly watchfulness, still less of continental espionage. He is supposed to be an in- dividual with a keen sense of honour, to appreciate responsibility imposed upon him, and his word of honour is to be his bond. But at the same time he finds that he is given a freedom and is trusted to an extent that would seem to advocates of the continental system ridiculous and only placing temptation in the boy's way; but this British system aims at developing by practice those instincts of and respect for liberty in its purest sense. And so we might continue to trace in later life that spirit of liberty manifesting itself in the full-grown man, whether as legislating to preserve the freedom of his fellow-countrymen, or simply as the British family man who knows that he is free, that " his 22 BRITAIN'S RECORD house is his castle," a strictly private piece of territory in which is found the very apotheosis of liberty. Was it not Wagner who once remarked that the character- istics of the British were summed up in the first five bars of "Rule Britannia"? If that be true in musical sounds, so the home of the Briton stands as the embodi- ment of what is most essentially British. The danger of every kind of legislation is lest it may, whilst endea- vouring to ward off one evil, bring about a condition almost as bad ; for it is conceivable that individual energy and enthusiasm may be throttled by the exer- cising of too strict a surveillance. I believe that the British trend has been, on the whole, to preserve a happy mean between the two excesses. The object of our inquiry, however, is not as of a counsel holding a brief for the defence of Britain, but rather ours is an impartial consideration of what she has done for other countries in the aggregate. Never- theless, before one nation can afford liberty to the rest of the world she must herself have found freedom. Now national freedom comes not as some sudden heaven-sent gift, but as the result of evolution from an opposite condition. It becomes essential to our task, therefore, that we should see also how Britain passed through that evolution, the last stage of which is not even yet reached. We shall find, if we care to open our eyes, that in fighting for her own liberty Britain has not in- frequently been fighting the battles of humanity gener- ally both present and to come. Sometimes she has toiled for the cause of liberty by diplomacy, sometimes by battle. Sometimes the good which she has done has followed mediately, after the lapse of years and cen- turies ; yet again sometimes it has been immediate and instant. Not always has it been through fighting, but PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 23 by example and wholesome precedent ; yet in whatever way Britain has contributed to the spread of liberty, we must not omit to remember that at the back of that power was the British character. Because the love of freedom is so marked a character- istic of the British, it follows that the story of liberty is practically that of Britain, or at least for a long time of England. It is not possible on each particular occasion to point to a single incident and isolate that as having affected the rest of the world. Rather we must take th6 course of British liberty as a whole and not as a part, at any rate for the present ; for the influence which the British teaching of liberty has exercised on the rest of humanity has been cumulative rather than spasmodic ; and it is only after we have seen the progress of British liberty that we can fully appreciate her genius for governing which has had so marked an influence on the history of the world. The history of British constitu- tional government is the story of the evolution of personal liberty among the English-speaking people not merely in these islands, but in the United States of America and the British Dominions beyond the seas. In any account of the evolution of British liberty some regard must be paid to her unique geographical position, for the reason that by this a powerful influence is exercised in the formation of national character. Just as in the case of an individual poet his immediate en- vironment amid wild and rugged mountainous scenery will have a marked eflect on his poems, so in a wider and more universal manner will the geographical position of the country influence her own people. Insular and isolated from the rest of Europe, and especially from the great stretch of land which extends from China to the English Channel ; liable to the 24 BRITAIN'S RECORD attacks now of the Romans coming overland through Gaul, of the Danes, Saxons, Jutes, and Angles coming over across the North Sea, and later still of the Nor- mans across the narrow Channel ; sometimes con- quered, yet sometimes conquering and repelling, there developed not unnaturally a spirit of inde- pendence and a depth of character which have never been lost, and are the peculiar possession of an island race compelled for centuries to fight, and fight often, against the invaders. Add to that the intermingling with this sturdy race of the magnificent manhood of the Viking settlers as well as Normans, and it must inevit- ably follow that something above the ordinary in human nations will evolve. Subsequent history shows that to have been the case ; we should, indeed, have been sur- prised had it been otherwise. The net result of the Norman and Angevin period in English history, extending from 1066 to 1400, was the development of a system of government and the extension of this government to the people. Following the Norman Conquest we get the establishment of the feudal system, by which the supremacy of the King of England was assured. The work of unifying and consolidating the country was a crying need, and this could not even be begun except by a man who had determination and the power of organisation in himself and his successors. It was useless for the English to struggle against the Norman influence, and so they soon gave up trying. The next stage in the story of our national liberty, following the masterly and statesmanlike action in causing the survey of England, summed up in Dooms- day Book, and that which followed the suppression of the Barons, occurs with the first extension of govern- PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 25 ment to the people. Indeed, it would be more accurate to assert that with this year i loi, when Henry I granted his Charter of Liberties, giving the various privileges to the people, the evolution of liberty in this country really commenced. Under Henry II came important reforms and purer courts, followed in John's reign by the memor- able and historic Magna Charta, which gave to the subject a liberty far greater than had been obtained even from the charter of Henry 1. Eighty years later and in the reign of Edward I the cause of liberty is advanced a stage further by the summoning of the first representative Parliament, consisting not merely of the spiritual and lay peers, but of the knights of the shire and two burgesses or citizens from each borough or city considered of sufficient consequence to send repre- sentatives. Still a further advance was made two years later — 1297 — when there occurred Edward's confirma- tion of Magna Charta, with the addition of a clause forbidding taxation to be made without the consent of Parliament. So also, for a time, the cause of liberty progressed during the York-Lancastrian period, for the ascendancy of Henry IV to the throne was actually based on the consent of Parliament ; and thus gradually the power of the people was growing, so that during the reigns of Henry V and VI this power in the House of Com- mons manifested itself in the Parliamentary demands that were now made. But during the Civil War constitutional power was broken, and the restoration of Edward IV caused a distinct violation of the prin- ciple that supplies should be voted by Parliament only. But with the ending of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth we come to one of the most important chapters in the evolution of liberty. The 26 BRITAIN'S RECORD movement in Italy known as the Renaissance was essentially a liberty-movement rather than a mere awakened interest in classical literature and classical arts. In other words, the enthusiasm was on behalf of freedom ; and since it had to have a means of ex- pression somewhere, it occurred in literature and the arts ; but all the time there was in men's minds growing deep down the root of liberty, which took some time before it could manifest its flowers. Hitherto the intellectual and artistic successes of the Middle Ages had been made entirely owing to the education and control by the ecclesiastical authorities, and this sudden efflorescence had the defect of many another new movement which aimed at so consummate a change in the affairs of men. Its defect lay in the fact that it failed to keep the Aristotelian happy mean, but became a revolt, rather than a reform — a revolt against authority. At its best this liberty-movement was a questioning of accepted views and traditional in- terpretations, " the claim to judge everything," as Wake- man sums it up, " on its intrinsic merits independently of tradition," " the claim of learning to apply the test of scholarly criticism unhesitatingly to the conclusions of theology and the credentials of the Church." At its worst this movement, without moral and spiritual leadership, unguided by the officers of the Church, became synonymous with paganism and vice, as any liberty-movement that is not properly controlled must obviously become. In England the amount of actual evil brought about by this new movement was less than that which resulted on the Continent. In Italy, France, and Germany the abuses thus born were far greater and more numerous and needed a counter-movement. Though the Renais- PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 27 sance was some time in reaching our country, yet when it came it was less pagan in its effect than humanistic, and the English universities were soon to become possessed of the modern type of scholars, to whom textual criticism did not come as a species of heresy. Put briefly, the part played by England in the story of the Renaissance was not to be uninfluenced by the move- ment, but to act rather as a brake to a wheel that was running away and had been for some time out of all control. From this Renaissance there followed in direct descent in England that other movement, which is usually spoken of as the Reformation, though, in spite of some of its aims, its later results were in effect rather a de- formation. But in order to obtain a right aspect of the Reformation in England, it is wiser at the outset to keep outside of the view any religious consideration, for it was a liberty-movement before ever it was an ecclesias- tical phase. It was indeed inevitable, and the question was not would it come, but when. Under the Popes of the Middle Ages the Church in the West had become practically a universal State " with its sovereign, its law, its systems of education and administration, superior in theory and claim to those of secular States." In the persons of Innocent III and Honorius III were visible the most powerful European rulers. " But the house of the Popes was builded upon sand, and when the storm came it fell. Luther and Zwingli and Henry VIII were not the authors of the Reformation. They were merely generals who took the lead in a war which had become inevitable, if not as yet publicly declared." I assert that this liberty-movement was inevitable. It had been decreed by the fifteenth century, and in differ- ent countries the decree was carried out in varying ways, 28 BRITAIN'S RECORD but with a common determination never to allow again the establishment of a system ''which imposed by Divine sanction rules and practices of religion and morals which were repugnant to the conscience of man- kind, and were plainly due to worldly, if not sinful motives." Summed up in the fewest words, the reform in France, Spain, Italy, and parts of Germany resulted in a tacit surrender of the papal claim to interfere with secular governments; whilst in England, so thorough was the disgust at the long and sordid history of papal extortion, maladministration, and judicial corruption, that the zeal and devotion which had been extended to- wards the Pope were transferred readily to the sovereign of England so soon as an adequate opportunity was given; and by the year 1534 the breach with Rome was complete, each step of which movement had been supported by Convocation and Parliament, as well as by practically the whole of the clergy throughout the country. It came not from a desire to change the religion of England, but in order to be free — free, that is to say, from papal authority, which authority had been so greatly misused in the previous years. " Papal rule in England fell laden with the weight of its own mis- deeds at the first blast of the royal trumpet. It fell long before any change whatever was made in the religious system of the country, sixteen years before any serious change was made in the doctrine, worship, or ceremonial of the Church." 1 Thus to the national liberty-loving characteristic of Britain there came from the Renaissance an additional impetus towards the acquisition of liberty. It was during this reforming, liberty-obtaining movement that * The Reformation in Great Britain^ by H. O. Wakeman and Leighton PuUan. London, igcx). PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 29 England, in spite of certain regrettable excesses, set an example to other parts of Europe. Whereas on the Continent there were those who, having convinced themselves that all reform of the Papacy was impossible, lost heart and their faith in the Church, became pagans, or made for themselves a new theology and a new organisation, in England it was otherwise. "The English Reformation," says Wakeman, "began as a matter of policy, an affair of kings and ministers and parliaments. It concerned itself with the assertion of national liberties, with the refusal of foreign claims, with questions of legal and constitutional history, not of theology or worship," although it is necessary to add that before long this "became a matter of kingly tyranny, and seemed for the moment to lay the whole constitution of England irrevocably under the heel of the crown." The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were bristling with enthusiasm for freedom. There was a new life, a fresh invigoration which could not be quenched, as evidence of which it is but sufficient to point to the separate achievements of such dissimilar men as Colum- bus, Savonarola, Wolsey, Henry VIII, and Lorenzo de Medici. The discovery of America was a necessary sequel to this yearning spirit ; and the fact that, for a time, the English were in the fifteenth and in the early part of the sixteenth century backward in exploration expeditions may be said to be due, in great measure, to the later date at which the New Awakening spread to this country, and obtained a firm grip on both the imaginations and enthusiasms of our ancestors. What- ever else the memorable sixteenth century in English affairs may have evolved, it certainly witnessed the be- ginnings of individualism, an influence which was to 30 BRITAIN'S RECORD spread throughout the United Kingdom at a later date, to extend its sphere to the American Colonies, culmi- nating many years later in the Declaration of Indepen- dence, the latter being preceded in the seventeenth century by that singularly historic example of individu- alism, the emigration of the Pilgrim Fathers from these shores. Through the channels of later acquired colonies, and indirectly through England's influence as a universal power, this spirit of liberty, of individualism, was to be extended to other parts of the world. The year 1776 saw the Declaration of Independence, and only thirteen years later there occurred the French Revolution, which in spite of all its vicious characteristics was decidedly a liberty-movement, an impetus towards individualism. Notwithstanding that the French Revolution was a fact disapproved of by Britain (although at the first, and until after the publication of Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution^ English people were disposed to sympathise with the movement), yet British character was indirectly the cause of this revolt by having sowed the seeds of liberty freely in the early years of the six- teenth century. These seeds were to show their fruits by such acts of individualism as the execution of Charles I, the creation of the Commonwealth, and sub- sequently by the revolt by those sons of Britain, now settled in Northern America, from parental control. When once this germ of liberty had been spread over so much of the world as was already then civilised, there was no telling when and where serious liberty-epidemics might break out with unexpected virulence. It is in- dubitably from the sixteenth century that we must trace these movements, as well as the subsequent rise of Democracy and of the power of the Middle Classes ; the perfecting of a Representative Government, the PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 31 passing of the Reform Bill, the entire freedom of speech and of manner in worship ; the freedom of the Press, the Vote by Ballot, the legality of Trades Unions, and finally the present Woman's Suffrage Movement. Not- withstanding that originally these separate influences were emphatically British in the sense of being confined to Britain, yet the broad principle has extended as it were in a mighty flood, not merely to the English- speaking nations, but to most of the other civilised countries, sometimes as an example frankly admirable and to be acted upon whensoever a suitable opportunity might present itself, sometimes also by causing that close imitation which is of all forms of flattery the sincerest. To give each of these in detail would be merely to draw up a catalogue and would leave us but little space for the rest of our inquiry. But when we read of the great labour strikes on the Continent, in Germany and France, crippling for the time the strength of commerce ; or of the power of the woman suffragist in Australia or New Zealand (to say nothing of the incipient movement already in the United States of America), we must mentally refer back to the rise of liberty and individualism which England in the six- teenth and subsequent centuries nurtured. We are endeavouring, so far as lies in us, to attempt an impartial inquiry into the subject under consideration ; but when the pros and cons have been weighed, and we have frankly conceded that in most, if not all, of the ways in which this colossal liberty-movement has spread itself there have been terrible mistakes made both in the plan and its execution, yet on the principle that every- one in the sight of God is equal, that every human being is subject to the same conditions of life and death, and has a just right to be allowed the freest and fullest 32 BRITAIN'S RECORD development of his own personal endowments, this liberty-movement will be seen clearly to have had in it from the first until now the very elements of success and righteousness. During the Elizabethan times we find this love of liberty spreading from the land to the sea. The con- fines of this island were too small for the energies of the seamen, and the news which reached them of the wealth to be obtained from the New World fired their im- aginations. But there was a barrier to their liberty to be broken first. We alluded just now to the fact that the papal sway was exercised over what was prac- tically a universal State, and beyond the scope of spiritual matters. In fulfilment of this policy the Pope had drawn an imaginary line north and south through the globe a hundred leagues westward of the Azores, assigning all the territory that lay westward of that line to the possession of the Spaniards and everything east of that line to the Portuguese. If therefore that decree was respected, it signified that there was to be no admission of the English sailors and explorers into the other half of the world. Now, as everyone well knows, our ancestors did not respect that decree. They voyaged where they liked— but he would be a daring writer who would attempt to justify the many acts of piracy, pillage, and murder which the Elizabethans committed during this breaking down of Spanish opposition — and they succeeded after years of fighting during one long drama, of which the invasion by the Armada was but the climax, in winning first for Eng- land, and subsequently for the future benefit of Holland and France, the rightful liberty to settle and develop the wealth in the territory of the New World. When in a century or two from now the inevitable conflict PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 33 shall occur, as it certainly must, between the Latin races of South America and the mingled nation of North America, and the future of the vast American continent comes to be settled, it must not be forgotten how deep a debt of gratitude the Western Hemisphere owes to England for having opened the door and kept it open for the great and ceaseless crowds which have since flocked in from almost every city and village of every country in Europe. Thus, again, England in fighting her own battle for freedom fought for the rest of Europe, fought for the development and the future good of the whole world, instead of allowing the newly discovered territories to be an exclusive Spanish possession. Not once but many times during the centuries England has had to bear the accusation of being a busybody, a meddler in the affairs of other nations. If this accusation were to be enunciated to the fullest extent, it would also render itself capable of including the action of Richard when he organised on a very large scale and carried out during a long period his great Crusade with the co-operation of the French. But in the matter of politics strictly, as apart from any inspiration of religion, the action of our Henry VIII when he interfered with considerable effect in continental politics may be taken as one of the earliest and most noteworthy parts which our country has played on behalf of the cause of liberty, of a character not local but international. For the first time in European history a great alliance was formed with the object of preserving what is now so frequently referred to as the " balance of power." It was a highly important pre- cedent, and one that has been repeatedly followed since, that has caused the keenest attention of the statesmen c 34 BRITAIN'S RECORD of each century, increased the labours of diplomacy, set afoot a great deal of international mutual suspicion, and prompted important wars. The principle which under- lies the " balance of power " is simply this : when one European State is seen to be attaining such enormous power that the liberties of the other great powers are endangered, a combination of powers shall be made so that there comes into being a union of such a strength as is sufficient to counterbalance the other threatening power. At the moment of writing we have a fairly suitable instance in the rivalling combinations respec- tively of the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente in European politics in the twentieth century. Wolsey in Henry VIII's reign had thoroughly grasped the importance of maintaining some international balance, and for this reason Henry VIII joined with France to counterbalance the power of Charles of Spain. There is, too, yet another instance in the sixteenth century when England exerted herself to interfere for the sake of liberty in a matter outside her own im- mediate sphere. This occurred in the year 1585, when she made a treaty with the Netherlanders. It will be recollected that in 1581 the Dutch States had finally renounced their allegiance to Spain. Elizabeth showed her sympathy with the Dutch, in their keen longing for liberty, by despatching Leicester to their assistance; and he indeed was created by the Dutch their chief officer or Stadtholder. It is only fair to add, however, that the great hatred towards Spain had nearly as much to do with this English interest as any motive of sympathy for a nation struggling to wrench itself from harassing fetters. Earlier in this reign of Elizabeth, also, England had interfered with France in the latter's domestic affairs, and this time owing to PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 35 a matter connected with religion. Aid was sent across the Channel to the Huguenots, and with the same object also during the reign of Charles I the English navy embarked on two expeditions, though in actual results the arrangements were so badly bungled that little tangible good accrued to the Huguenots. But nevertheless England was destined to become from the seventeenth century a recognised asylum for those subjects of other countries who were discon- tented with their lot. It was during the Common- wealth that the Jews were permitted to return to England, and they have been allowed to settle here ever since. It was a little later on in this same seven- teenth century that so many of the Huguenots, highly skilled workpeople as some of them were, took refuge in England, and found a generous asylum when the revocation of the Edict of Nantes rendered their existence in their motherland impossible. And here, in passing, it is worth while to notice a curious point in connection with the Jews and our national liberty. Everyone is aware that during the Middle Ages in England they alone were the people's money-lenders, usury being forbidden by the Church to her children. They became universally hated and detested, as their rates were necessarily high consequent on the in- security of the times. But the king, in return for an annual poll-tax and by imposing on them another tax whenever the royal purse was becoming empty, protected the Jews and assisted them to obtain re- payment of their loans. Before the close of the thirteenth century, however, popular hatred against them became very great indeed, and during the reign of Edward I, after they had been accused of clipping the coin of the realm, they had to be banished ; and 36 BRITAIN'S RECORD it was this expulsion which, by depriving the king and his successors of a very serious amount of their income, added greatly to the power of Parliament and so of the people in the latter's advance towards liberty. We shall discuss the relation of English literature to the rest of the world when we come to another chapter, but whilst we are passing through the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries we must not omit to note one stage where the causes respectively of literature and liberty converge. The influence of Shakespeare to-day throughout the world, and the boast which is made in certain parts of the European Continent, especially in Germany, that our great national playwright is less appreciated in the country of his birth than by a land which has imported his plays and still presents them with so much enthusiasm, must be remembered when we find so many of his works breathing the spirit of liberty. It is a curious paradox that, despotic as was the rule of all the Tudor sovereigns, yet there had never been such a time as this, when even the most loyal of subjects was animated by this inspiration of freedom. It has been pointed out by an American writer that English spectators have always insisted on having battles, single con- flicts, murders, riots, and other impressive incidents acted out before their eyes, and not merely recounted afterwards. The most impressive plays which Shake- speare produced before the year 1601 were those plays in which the spectators' ancestors rose in rebellion against King John, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry VI, Edward IV, and Richard III. Macbeth, Brutus, and Hamlet were all regicides. A play of the deposing and killing of Richard II was brought upon the stage ^ PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 37 by Essex to encourage his unsuccessful rebellion. Shakespeare was in fact the child of his age — the age which was very much under the influence of the liberty - movement initiated by the Renaissance ; a movement, be it remembered, which, though slow in gaining a hold on England, lasted longer and was more powerful in its effects. Naturally, therefore, in the works of the poet-playwright of the age we find the contemporary characteristic reflected. And since we are mentioning Shakespeare, it is not inappro- priate to remark here that Bacon was most certainly an apostle of liberty. He blamed all attempts to interfere with the individual's conscience, he advo- cated toleration for the Jews long before it was ever granted them, although it is only fair to add that the Dutch were ahead of us in the establishment of political and religious liberty. On the other hand, England, if inferior to Holland in some respects, had made the latter her eternal debtor ; for in defeating the Armada the Elizabethans had indubitably saved Holland from being trampled under the heel of Spain. During the Stuart period the fight for liberty resolved itself into a contest between the Divine Right of the King and the Parliament. Kingly power had reached its high-water mark with the Tudors. From that time to this, if we omit merely ephemeral modifications, the tendency has been very gradually yet very surely in a democratic direction. Few things are more striking during the Stuart times than the high importance to which Parliament attained. After the regal supremacy of the Tudor sovereigns there is a kind of anti-climax ; or, to employ an entirely different metaphor, we may say that during the sixteenth century the ship of the sovereign was poised on the crest of the wave of 3S BRITAIN'S RECORD power, but that during the seventeenth it descended to the trough of the wave. The change began quite early, for the reign of James I showed that he was not allowed to consider himself above the law. Parliament was getting wonder- fully strong, and the rivalry between the sovereign and the subject was becoming acute. It is not unnecessary to accentuate all these steps in advancement, for otherwise one cannot appreciate the manner in which Britain obtained freedom for herself or for the remainder of the world. During the reign of Charles I the struggle between the Throne and the people reached its crisis, and it must be recollected that previously James had in the year 1604 endeavoured to exercise a control over the elections at the summons to his first Parliament. But the House of Commons had remonstrated against this violation of their rights, and the king had to give way. So, too, during Charles I's reign, after Sir Dudley Digges and Sir John Eliot had been sent by the king to the Tower, the Commons declined to continue business until these two were released ; whereupon Charles was compelled to give in. In 1628 came the famous Petition of Right, one of the most important liberty-documents in the history of the world. Briefly summed up, this petition, to which Charles had to give his unwilling consent, laid down that no freeman should be required to pay a tax without common consent by Act of Parliament, nor be detained contrary to the law of the land. Soldiers and mariners were not to be billeted in private houses, and commissions to punish these service men by martial law were to be revoked. A few years later, at the famous Ship-money trial John Hampden was tried in 1637, and seven out of the twelve judges decided in PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 39 favour of the king, yet the moral effect was otherwise. The fight was going on between what was constitutional and that which was not. Hampden's trial in effect dealt a fatal blow to the king. It was a case of the rights of the people against the arbitrary rule of the sovereign. Such, then, was the spirit of the age in England. But did this affect the world outside England at this time ? Most certainly it did, and in a most interesting manner. Be it remembered that just at this time the English colonial Empire was beginning, and that the men and women who were leaving the mother-country were taking with them to the new lands the keenest prejudices in favour of liberty and personal freedom. Liberty became a positive mania ; it was in everyone's mind and mouth. England was too constrained a territory for the most fanatical of the discontents, but there was the New World which the Elizabethans had a few years earlier begun to open out ; so thither they began to take themselves and to land in the new territory as people with a grievance, with a bold bias towards personal liberty and individualism, the very characteristics which were handed on by the descendants of these colonists and were crystallised in the Declara- tion of Independence of the following century: the very characteristics which to-day strike any visitor to Northern America most forcibly. If one may say so without the slightest offence, the citizens of the United States are to-day less a nation than a collection of individuals. To come in contact with a member of that republic is to encounter one in whom the personal element has been developed to an extent that is com- paratively rare in a European. And to that reason must be assigned the extraordinary success of the North American in matters of commerce. Leaving 40 BRITAIN'S RECORD out of our view the subsequent effect of the intermin- gling of emigrants from the different European nations, the citizen of the United States can trace his psychology of independence, of a strongly marked individual character, of personal reliance and confidence, right back through that highly individual seventeenth century, and further back still to the Renaissance movement in England. From this has sprung the great nation which to-day we recognise as the United States of America, with its own natural products and manu- factures, its own domestic and foreign policy, its own army and navy, and most of all, its great regard for personal liberty with a strong public opinion still highly tinged with the Puritanism of the seventeenth century brought over by the early colonials, an influence which is so evident in the fiction, drama, and other literature of that country and is so especially character- istic of the inhabitants of the New England states. The Hampton Court Conference in 1604, it will be recollected, had proved a failure. The Separatists who had disliked the settlement of religion under James crossed over to America ; for by 1607, notwithstanding the previous check to the colonising of Virginia that had been received, it was by this year firmly founded, and thus was laid the foundation of the United States. In 1620 there departed in the Mayflower another band of liberty-worshipping Puritans, to be followed later by others, so that a new nation was beginning in Northern America with all the virtues and defects of the early seventeenth-century England. Those who founded the colony of Massachusetts in 1629 did so as a refuge from Charles I's policy in regard to Church and State. Thus in its beginnings we may regard the United States as a number of communities self-exiled with a PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 41 view to obtaining that liberty both in religion and government which they professed themselves as not being able to obtain in England during the first half of the seventeenth century. This, then, is the series of circumstances which binds together England, Liberty, and America. The introduction and the publication of the Grand Remonstrance during the closing years of Charles I signified an appeal to the nation for liberty as opposed to the arbitrary actions of the king. And it was the attempted suppression of free speech in Parliament, immediately following upon this, which brought about the Civil War and eventually led to the king's execu- tion. Whatever else Charles's sad reign showed, it exhibited clearly the impossibility of Parliament acting harmoniously with the still existing ideas of kingly power. To describe Cromwell as a liberator and saviour of the people is to make a statement deficient in accuracy. In temperament and methods he was a tyrant, and yet the ■'act that England was a republic and that Holland also ^as a republic very nearly caused a union to be made Dy the two countries, separated though they are by the >Jorth Sea. Had that event been brought about, the ong and expensive Dutch Wars which so soon began night have been avoided. The establishment of the Zommonwealth caused the subjection of Scotland and Ireland, but two other matters are so heavy with import, ind not always sufficiently weighed, that we cannot ifford to delay giving to them the attention which in our present task they deserve. We refer to the two un- iuccessful constitutions of the Commonwealth entitled espectively " The Agreement of the People " of 1648-9^ md "The Instrument of Government" of 1653. Now 42 BRITAIN'S RECORD the importance of these, notwithstanding that they were temporarily inadequate as regards our own country, is that they were destined at a later date to form the back- bone of the American written constitutions. Indeed, the principles laid down in " The Agreement of the People" are those very principles on which modern democracy is based, on which it has succeeded in obtaining that liberty which it now possesses in so marked a degree. Let the following principles of this "Agreement" suffice to indicate how many years this written constitution was ahead of its time. It advocated : The Sovereignty of the People, the supreme power being vested in a single representative assembly, the executive being entrusted by an assembly to a Council of State elected for the term of one legislature. Furthermore, it aimed at bien- nial parliaments and an equitable and proportionate distribution of seats ; the extension of the right of voting and of election to all citizens dwelling in the electoral districts who are of full age and neither hired servants nor in receipt of relief; the toleration of all forms of Christianity ; the suppression of State interference in Church government ; the limitation of the power of the representative assembly by the fundamental laws em- bodied in the constitution, especially with regard to the civil liberties guaranteed to citizens. Roughly speaking, these principles have been the basis not merely for modern freedom in Great Britain, but the guiding force for the whole civilised world. After the fall of Napoleon the desire for self-government became universal. When once the people began to realise the secret of their own strength they began to set about a new order of things, and so it has gone on up to and including the recent revolution in Portugal, having in view the objects of pure government and a full oppor- PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 43 tunity for the liberty of the subject. It is not too much to assert that this desire for liberty owes a very great deal to the long contest which has gone on for centuries in England during the course of her own history. It was such deeply penetrating principles as those which appeared in this " Agreement of the People of England" that enabled the nineteenth century to witness the downfall of European despotism, and the men of Western Europe to govern themselves by a more or less universal popular suffrage that chooses its govern- ing power and dictates its own policy. Even Russia — Russia the last remnant of mediaeval despotism — has within the twentieth century begun to set her house in order. Britain was the first to lead the way in Europe for enjoying constitutional government: in other words, for giving to her subjects that liberty to which they are entitled. Within the last seventy years European government has gradually advanced on these lines, and the transition has proceeded from the government by a few individuals to the government by the people. But we have not yet done with the seventeenth century. Cromwell took the fatal step of endeavouring to govern the majority of the nation by the minority plus military force. There followed a lawless despotism. The liberty of conscience was gone, the press was muzzled, and England under the rule of major-generals was fined, imprisoned, and disarmed without the sanction of the courts. But in spite of his reign of military power, Cromwell had appointed a commission to reform the law ; and the Court of Chancery was so improved that suits in that court should be tried in the other courts until all arrears were cleared off. And, as we have already said, it was Cromwell who allowed the Jews the liberty of returning to England after centuries 44 BRITAIN'S RECORD of exile. But as illustrative of the narrowness in which the Puritan ideas of liberty were moulded, it is amusing to find that in the New England states only the Puritans themselves were allowed to vote ; no gay attire or dainty viands were tolerated in New England ; Sunday was observed in the strict Sabbatarian sense, Sabbath- breaking being punishable by flogging, and all religion, instead of being a "service of freedom" and a free, spontaneous relation, fired by the highest optimism, became a terribly narrow and strict pessimism — the most ludicrous parody, in fact, of liberty. At the same time, if we were to examine the aggregate British personal character of this year 191 1, we could not deny that the effect of Cromwellian Puritanism on our present national composition was to ingraft a personal piety, a somewhat self-willed self-confidence, an ideal of straight business dealing, a respect for method, a sense of fairness, rendering value for value received, a high standard of social morality, a freedom from bribery and corruption. Now these are just those qualities which were missing during the time immediately pre- ceding the Commonwealth, and through reaction against this strictness were again missing at the Restoration ; so that the morals of both court and people became well-nigh notorious. If it be true, as has been asserted, that the great bulk of middle-class Englishmen are the true spiritual descendants of the Puritan stock, and that it is the middle-class who in effect rule Britain to-day, then it is true that the influence of England in the seventeenth century is far from dead as a world-force. Indeed, we may frankly admit that the virtues of the Briton which have won for him admiration among other nations are chiefly those which we have just enumerated. One of the PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 45 most powerful incentives which prompts a foreigner to do business with a Britisher consists in the fact that the former knows full well that he will receive honest and fair treatment, that the contract between the two parties is no mere useless document, but a powerful bond. He knows that both good workmanship and sound material will be given him in return for his money, whether he be purchasing a " Dreadnought " for the Brazilian Navy or furniture for a German schloss. Thus the British character has created an ideal in international commerce, an ideal which tends to make for greater mutual respect, for peace, and to keep out that servitude and encroachment upon the liberties of man which are caused by the advent of war. Another striking result of the liberty-spirit of the seventeenth century was seen in the consent of Charles II to the famous Habeas Corpus Act, which, by providing that no Englishman should be kept in prison without trial, and affording facilities to him for obtaining either a speedy trial or release on bail, has certainly had a moral effect on the administration of justice in civilised countries. As representing legis- lation for the individual subject rather than for the general good of the community, considered as a whole, this Act marked another important milestone in the movement under consideration. The Triple Alliance of 1668 formed by England, Holland, and Sweden against France was with a view to preserving the liberty of Europe ; for France had taken the place of Spain by now as the most dan- gerous nation in Europe, and an adjustment to preserve the balance of power had become essential. However, everyone knows that by the secret treaty of Dover this 46 BRITAIN'S RECORD object was not attained. But a still more important event occurred in 1689 with the famous Declaration of Rights, reaffirming as it did the most important principles upon which the constitution of the country rested. This became the basis of the Bill of Rights and closed the struggle which for most of a century had been going on between the king on the one side and the people as represented by Parliament, in their fight for liberty. Up to this date the guiding force in moulding the policy of the nation had been the king ; from this date there commenced that new force which is found in the will of the Parliament. The Tudor despotism which had in a sense lingered on for so long through the reigns of James I, Charles I, Charles II, and James II was finally and effectively brought to an end by the Revolution and the Accession of William and Mary. Henceforth the reigns to follow were to be rather of Parliament than of sovereigns, of the people rather than of an individual endowed with monarchical power. The incident of the passing of the Act of Settlement in 1 701, by which a decisive choice was made in the matter of the succession to the throne, merely showed how very serious was the power which the people now possessed. In a word, then, the Revo- lution of 1688 afforded a permanent triumph to those principles for which the liberty-loving people of England had been contending with such strenuousness. What followed was a much broader freedom than had previously existed, though owing to the reaction against authority both political and religious, there set in that down-grade movement in morals which is one of the most lamentable characteristics of the later Stuart and the Georgian periods ; from which a movement of de- liverance began to be made about the middle of the PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 47 nineteenth century and still continues. No one who is conversant with the manners, the excesses, the art, the literature, the drama, as well as the politics and religion of the eighteenth century, can deny that they were each based on the grossest form of insincerity, and were lacking that discipline and those high ideals which are recognised as the essential conditions of any activity that is worth a moment's consideration. It was essential that, human nature being what it is, there should be, sooner or later, a counter-move to thwart those excesses which always follow from even the most inspired revolt against polluted authority. Just so long as human beings continue to be endowed with great passions, so long must we expect to find the most regrettable acts of folly committed in any attempts to reform misguided authority. However unbearable the existing condition of government, whether spiritual or political, may have become; however just and reasonable the revolution from that condition may have been ; it ever happens that the just aims at liberty are almost entirely obliterated by the vandalism begotten of the human mind so suddenly embarrassed by great power. It was so on the Continent when the good aims of the Renaissance degenerated into vice and paganism. It was so in England when, in the attempt to throw off Papal tyranny, liberty became both literal and metaphorical vandalism of the worst kind; when humanity could not rest content with liberty, but must insist on licence, destroy everything that was beautiful in the worship of the Church, and drive religion into the narrow channels of Puritanism, where it became transformed during later Stuart and Georgian times into insincerity and immorality. The scars which are still visible on most of our cathedrals, and the public and private scandals which became so numerous after 48 BRITAIN'S RECORD the overthrow of authority, and are recorded in con- temporary caricature and literature, are convincing evidence for those satisfied only with the most obvious testimony. So it was also with the French Revolution and its subsequent excesses, its wholesale butchery and lawless- ness, its virulent attack on religion ; notwithstanding that the inspiration which had prompted this movement was a desire for liberty, a change from the maladminis- tration of government. So also in varying degrees we find the same defects in most other important reforms on behalf of liberty, whether expressed by the recent revolution in Russia or in an industrial strike in America or elsewhere. But even amid the clashing of stubborn wills, amid the strife of reform and counter- reform, it must certainly be laid to England's credit that she has conducted her great liberty-crises with a restraint that deprives them of some of the excesses that have disgraced other nations. The Revolution of 1688, re- membering all the importance which it possessed as the final stage in the struggle of Parliament for pre-eminence, was free from those terrors which marked the French Revolution. For the recent somewhat mild but effective revolution in Portugal and the flight of King Manoel there was already an historical precedent in the revolu- tion in England and the flight of James II. As the eighteenth century advanced so did the cause of liberty in England. True it is that there was friction between the sovereign and Parliament, as, for instance when in 1746 George II declined to admit Pitt to office. It will be remembered that thereupon Pelham and his colleagues resigned ; George for a time held out, but at length he had to give way, and the ministry returned with Pitt as office-bearer. Yet again in 1757 PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 49 in spite of the royal opposition, Pitt had to be included in the cabinet and as its guiding spirit. And now before we pass on let us take a glance at what England had been accomplishing during this time for the world's liberty by means of war. We have already spoken of the net result which was caused by the Spanish wars of the sixteenth century, and shown that through English victories the New World was prevented from remaining as an exclusive Spanish possession. For century after century there has belonged to England the duty of administering the policing of the high seas. Whether or not before the time of Edward I the title of Sovereign of the Seas as applied to the king of England was formally laid claim to cannot be stated with any certainty, although in actual practice this authority had indeed been exercised. This much, however, is certain — that Edward I exercised such rights and duties. It is clear to anyone who takes the trouble to examine the Patent Rolls of that time that foreigners were only too glad to allow the English king to wield such power, and that the policing of the Narrow Seas was one of the duties of the English king. Certainly as early as 1295 the herring fishermen of Holland and Zeeland desired the help of England, just as one municipality to-day sometimes looks for the help of London's police in times of serious trouble. Early in the fourteenth century there is documentary evidence that the kings of England had been regarded as the sovereign lords of the sea. Therefore during the seventeenth century it is not surprising to find that James Fs navy was despatched to the Mediterra- nean against the pirates of Algiers, who for many years had roamed the seas, a terrible menace and hindrance to merchant shipping. Unhappily, owing to D 50 BRITAIN'S RECORD the rank condition of naval affairs at home, little or no good resulted from this expedition, but during the Commonwealth Blake went south to the Mediterranean and gave the pirates a thorough good thrashing. So also, later still, in the year 1816, under Admiral Lord Exmouth, England continued to show that the title of Mistress of the Seas, which had been hers ever since Plantagenet times, was still being merited. Algiers was even then a blot on European civilisation, and for the good of the nations had to be wiped out. Britain with the assistance of the Dutch allies caused the Dey of Algiers to surrender and brought about the release of twelve hundred Christians from their slavery and cruel treatment. Nor must we forget that one of the immediate causes of the first Dutch War during Cromwellian times was the incident on May 12, 1652, when a Dutch ship refused to salute an English man-of-war. For England had been accustomed, as an acknowledgment of her sovereignty of the seas, to compel the ships of other nations to dip their flag or lower topsail when passing an English man-of-war. And even after the years of fighting during those three Dutch Wars, and the Peace of London was signed in 1674, the supremacy of the sea was acknowledged as belonging to England by the clause that " the ships ... of the . . . United Provinces, as well men of war as others . . . meeting at sea with any of the ships of State of England . . . shall strike the flag and lower the topsail until they be passed by.'* Thus the high seas and the Narrow Seas were regarded as a kind of separate state under the sovereignty of England. It is to the credit of England that she has exercised for the liberty of other nations her duty of keeping this sea-state decently governed. PROGRESS OF LIBERJY 51 We stated on an earlier page that our nation, because of certain characteristics, had been peculiarly fitted for the preservation of the world's liberty. At various times in the history of European politics, Spain, Hol- land, and France have each, at different times, risen to such considerable power as to threaten the peace of Europe. It will be seen that to England fell the duty of crushing these powers just when they were at their strongest. It was England that destroyed Spain, it was England that after three long wars humbled Holland. Then came France, and her too England beat, but not without a mighty struggle, which began as far back as 1689 and lasted till 1815, and included battles by sea and land. By the victories — not to mention many others — at the Nile, Trafalgar, and Waterloo, England saved not merely herself, but Europe. The Battle of the Nile effectually stopped Napoleon from obtaining Egypt and India. In the words of Admiral Lord Hood, that battle alone " preserved from anarchy, distress, and misery the greatest part of Europe." Napoleon was threatening Europe like a modern Alexander. England and Waterloo gave him his quietus, and by the common European consent it was to the British island of St. Helena that he was banished to remain till death gave him release. He who had been an international terror ; who had made and unmade kings, regulated at his pleasure the destiny of nations ; who for so long a time was as invincible as he was despotic, the greatest enemy to liberty that ever sat on a throne, fell a prey to England, which had already done so much for the cause of liberty. The man, whose vast influence has never known a parallel, had captured the control of the French people after they had thrown aside all decent government in the hope of their being able to obtain 52 BRITAIN'S RECORD liberty. Deceiving them with false ideas of democracy, affecting a zeal for liberty, he was becoming all the time a shameless and intolerable despot, squandering their lives and money. It is indeed one of the paradoxes of history that Napoleon, the most selfish of despots, did more to overthrow European despotism than the greatest liberty-fanatic. For everywhere he sowed broadcast over Europe principles which were nothing if not revolutionary, and when he fell the desire for self- government had crept over Europe. But Britain alone was enjoying that constitutional government which the rest of Europe had begun to desire. Those free institu- tions which were to some extent existing in Britain were to become the rights of other Europeans. The nations of Europe were to win back their inherent right of self-government, and in this struggle they had before them the example of Britain with the good results which the latter had obtained. What followed? The Spanish possessions in America successfully asserted their independence, wearied with the despotism under which they had existed for so long. And here let us draw attention to at least one way in which Britain helped to accentuate the freedom of these Spanish colonies, which every year are advanc- ing faster and faster towards immense wealth and power. During these long wars which England had been obliged to carry on against the French and Spanish during the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth century the numerical size of our navy had reached extraordinary figures. When there- fore peace at length came there was a great surplus of British naval officers. Longing for employment, they proceeded to the former Spanish colonies in South America and helped the latter to build j up PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 53 their navies, and so to make independence from Spain something certain and definite. This point is one that is too often overlooked, and though the action of these British officers was not officially British, yet the influence taken in the aggregate most certainly was. True to her task of policing the seas, Britain in the nineteenth century sent expeditions against Mediter- ranean corsairs, against the pirates of Borneo, China, the Persian Gulf, as well as the slave dhows of Eastern Africa; and to this day the ships flying the White Ensign are still actively engaged in policing the two last-mentioned waters. Greece, too, was anxious to shake herself free from Turkish oppression, and it was England, together with France and Russia, that in 1827 enabled her to become established as a free state. During the second half of the eighteenth century a great awakening was occurring in England which was characterised by the great industrial change in our land, especially in the towns of Northern and Midland England, the south of Scotland, and the north-east of Ireland. With great commercial success came great wealth, and with wealth power. So it came about gradually that the liberty of the people received a fresh impetus. Thus it followed that the most important legislation was destined to be granted, and to continue that movement which had been going on now for so many centuries. To such men as Robert Owen, whose life is covered by the dates 1771 and 1858, the cause of liberty owes very much, and not merely in this country, but in the continent of Europe generally, although by no means has the full strength of such an influence been yet felt abroad. A real 54 BRITAIN'S RECORD apostle of freedom, he set before him the ideal of improving the intelligence, the health, and the happi- ness of factory operatives, and the general betterment of their condition. He aimed at enlarging the personal freedom of the artisan, and his pamphlet, published in 1 813, entitled A New View of Society, in which he advocated universal education as the remedy for poverty and crime, enlightened continental no less than British public opinion. It spread its influence to America, where the mental atmosphere was par- ticularly suited to such doctrines. Amid all the many difficulties to-day which occur in adjusting the relations between labour and capital, there are those experts who firmly believe that the best solution — perhaps the only solution — consists in the adoption of some principle of co-operation. As the century advances and these labour struggles become acute with the progress of liberty, it would seem almost inevitable that the co- operative plan should be employed as the rule rather than the exception. Indeed, it is but the logical result of the movement which began to advance so rapidly in this country during the early years of the sixteenth century. We must remember, therefore, that one of the first to start this co-operative idea was a Britisher, Robert Owen. In spite of certain practical drawbacks which are inevitable, some sort of profit-sharing arrange- ment as between employer and employee is not merely equitable, but likely to increase the output of an industrial company, on the obvious principle that most men will always work with better results when they are working directly for their own interests. Another important name to bear in mind at this period of which we are speaking is that of Jeremy Bentham, who was born in 1748 and died in 1832. He PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 55 was the author of a History of the Criminal Law, and it is well to recollect that he was the first, or at least one of the first, to advocate women's suffrage, the Savings Bank idea, a cheap postage, the collection of statistics, and to modify the punishment of crime in the direction of causing a reformation of character. He was also extremely anxious to have the repressive usury laws altered. When we come to look into the actual results obtained, we find that his legal writings had an immense effect on the legislation of both his own and various other countries. Sir James Stephens declared that Bentham's practical influence was comparable only to that which Adam Smith exercised in the domain of commerce. The voting by ballot was only one of the subsequent reforms with which Bentham's name will ever be con- nected, and it was as far back as the year 18 17 that he advocated giving the suffrage to every man and woman who could read, but such suffrage must exist together with the secret ballot. Perhaps the fairest way of regarding this man's work is to assert that he sowed the seeds for his friends to reap a rich harvest subsequently in extending the liberty of the individual both in Britain and elsewhere. Nor must we omit the name of Lord Byron, who after his whole sad and unbridled existence had been devoted so extensively to licence gave his life to help the Greeks to obtain their freedom. In literature, too, such men as Walter Savage Landor and Percy Bysshe Shelley were fanatics on behalf of liberty. It might be truer if we reckoned Shelley as a kind of literary anarchist, revolt- ing against most forms of authority. Nevertheless these five men, Owen, Bentham, Byron, Shelley, and Landor, succeeded in waking up their own countrymen, caused them to contrast the wrongs they were suffering with the 56 BRITAIN'S RECORD rights which they were entitled to possess. It is not always possible to assign the cause to the effect, espe- cially now, when we have arrived at an age that has acquired the reading habit more than ever in the course of history. Affairs in the nineteenth and twentieth cen- turies have moved more quickly not merely because facilities of transport are greater, but because of the in- creased output of newspapers and books, which have en- abled the advocate of any policy to reach a wider public. Consequently if a man writes a work on behalf of freedom, or even revolution, and publishes the same either in book form or through the medium of the press, there is no limit to the circle of his readers. His doctrines may cause a revolution in South America, may sow seeds of dissatisfaction in India, or incite a certain movement on the Continent. Even when the mere account is given in the barest newspaper narrative it may afford a precedent for a similar move on the Con- tinent. Therefore the progress of liberty in Britain during the important eighteenth and nineteenth cen- turies cannot have failed to have been the indirect cause of similar movements abroad. " Each generation," says Mr. Robert Mackenzie in his volume entitled The Nine- teenth Century^ "passes on to the next the treasures which it inherited, beneficially modified by its own experience, enlarged by the fruits of all the victories which itself has gained. The rate of this progress, as the eye of man deciphers it, is irregular and even fitful. Now it seems to pause, and the years seem to repeat themselves unalterably. Now it bursts forth in sudden ameliorations, in the violent overthrow of evils which had been quietly endured for generations. But the stagnation is only apparent. All the while there is a silent accumulation of forces whose gathered power will, PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 57 in Heaven's own time, reveal itself to the terror and the joy of man." In Britain the spirit which had driven out the Stuarts was not dead. Despotism was not to be suffered, but the contest was now not between republicanism and monarchy, but between despotism and constitutionalism. The people were too strong to be resisted, still less to be omitted from the consideration that was due to them. And so there follows a long list of results springing directly from this liberty-movement. In no respect is there a more striking instance of this liberty-feeling than the abolition of the slave-trade. And since England had in the past taken so prominent a part — to her discredit — in encouraging this industry, it was but fitting that she should have distinguished herself at a later date by bringing about its abolition. Every reader of history is aware that the sixteenth century was noted for the multitude of slaves in Europe. In the Mediterranean galleys of Spain and Italy they rowed the heavy oars chained to their benches as in classical times. When English sailormen were taken as prisoners they, too, frequently for years were condemned to perform such a service, and the cruelties and harsh treatment meted out to them make the blood boil in any lover of freedom. The fact was that physical labour, owing to this multi- plicity of slavery, was so cheap that there was no value set upon it. And, as I have explained in another volume dealing with a different subject altogether, it was this cheapness and vast resources of human labour that kept back industrial progress and delayed all labour-saving devices for generations. Who needed steam when slave- power was so readily at hand ? Who was prompted to invent any mechanism for personal convenience when so many hundred men were ready at hand to do all that 58 BRITAIN'S RECORD was then needed ? Indeed, it was only in the eighteenth century, only after the seeds of liberty were beginning to spring up and there was growing up side by side an increasing regard for the value of human life, that the capabilities of steam began to be discovered and em- ployed. Man realised that he was inherently entitled to liberty. It was his by very right. He was more than a draught animal, and so he began to use his ingenuity to seek out some ingenious devices in order to save his own physical work. The locomotive, the steamship, and motor-car are all examples of this in the sphere of trans- port j the manufacturing machinery, the typewriter, the mechanical adder, the telephone are instances of this same ideal put into execution after years spent in per- fecting the same. Had the doctrine of human respect been inculcated earlier, had there been a more wide- spread desire to preserve life rather than to exter- minate it, most of our modern improvements would have reached us long years ago. However, for our- selves we may indeed feel entitled to self-congratula- tion that no nation has done more for the world, for prolonging life by saving its physical strength, than Britain. It is pleasant to think of this rather than of that year in Elizabeth's reign when Hawkins inaugurated the slave-trade between Western Africa and the Spaniards in South America, making rich profits there- from, in spite of serious opposition. Nor must we for- get that even in Queen Anne's time, when war was ended and the Peace of Utrecht was signed, one of the clauses gave to England in the Spanish- American colonies the valuable monopoly of the slave-trade. That was in 17 13, and before the great movement had begun to have much impetus. But seventy-two years l-.'jiery Walker WILLIAM WILBERFORCE PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 59 later there followed the impeachment of Warren Hastings on his return from India, and the feeling which had prompted this led also to an inquiry into the existing horrors of the slave-trade. Two years later an association was formed for its abolition. Al- though this end could not be attained forthwith, yet in 1788 a bill was passed for the better regulation of slave-ships, so that the next year, owing to the en- thusiasm of Wilberforce, Fox, and Burke, resolutions were introduced condemning the slave-trade itself, and in 1807 an Act was passed prohibiting this trade. Notwithstanding that from this date slavery had been prohibited, yet the sugar plantations of the West Indies had continued to be worked by slaves. How- ever, Britain by an Act in 1833 caused the slavery to cease from August of 1834, and compensation to the extent of ;£^20,ooo,ooo was awarded to those who had owned these slaves. It will be recollected that as a step between slavery and entire freedom the slaves were to continue to work for their masters for four years as apprentices. We referred just now to the Spanish colonies in South America. When in the year 1822 they threw off their dependence on their mother -country, Britain, through the mouthpiece of Canning, who was then at the Foreign Office, declared that no European power should assist Spain to reconquer their former posses- sions. Britain fully and entirely recognised their independence. It is thus that South Americans must ever feel a debt of gratitude towards Britain in having assisted them in the cause of their liberty. So also in 1826, when Spanish and French troops proposed to enter Portugal for the purpose of overthrowing the Portuguese constitution, Canning forbade this action and 6o BRITAIN'S RECORD British troops were despatched with such promptitude that the threat was withdrawn. It was in the year 1823, when Huskisson was Presi- dent of the Board of Trade, himself an enlightened follower of Pitt's commercial policy, that the British nation and the world generally was benefited by re- ducing the duties on wool and silk, to the common benefit of exporter, manufacturer, operative, and con- sumer. In other words, the principle of liberty and freedom which was prevalent in other spheres was now being employed in matters commercial to bring about Free Trade. The old Navigation Acts forbade goods to be brought into Britain except in British bottoms, or, in the case of European countries, in the ships of that country from which the goods were imported. But now that our country was desirous to extend her overseas trade, and especially with America, these navi- gational restrictions were greatly modified, and thus a greater sphere of liberty was afforded for the ex- change of wealth between Britain and the nations of the world. In effect there followed a great impetus to trade, to the great advantage of both importer and exporter. Personal liberty also progressed, for in 1824 the arbitrary acts forbidding working-men to combine for higher wages or to emigrate were repealed. The wages of the Spitalfields weavers were no longer fixed by magistrates, and all laws were repealed that con- trolled the combinations of either masters or workmen. The criminal laws had already been improved and some protection afforded to children working in factories. So too in matters of religion the liberty of the individual was to be advanced. As far back as the reign of William and Mary the Toleration Act had PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 61 been passed, which allowed freedom of worship of Protestant Nonconformists ; but it was not till after Canning's death, and the Duke of Wellington became Prime Minister, that on the motion of Lord John Russell the Test Act was repealed and Nonconformists were admitted to full political rights, although for the next thirty years Jews were kept out of Parliament. But in 1829 another step towards making the subject entirely free in matters of religion was taken by re- moving the disabilities which Roman Catholics were still compelled to undergo. Instead of being com- pelled to take the necessary oaths, they were now allowed to make a declaration that they would do nothing to injure the English Church or State, but remained excluded from holding such offices as Regent, Lord Chancellor, and Viceroy of Ireland. This more modern spirit of British tolerance of the tenets and opinions of others is one of the virtues of our nationality that are admired by foreigners to an extent that can scarcely be exaggerated. As at least a counsel of perfection, this principle of living and letting live, of holding the faith or a political opinion with charity and a spirit of respect, is certainly an influence in the right direction. Wherever the Anglo-Saxon people wander over the world and settle down this toleration ideal so surely goes with them. In itself commendable, it is but a species of the whole class of typically British aims which are included under the designation of liberty. " During many years," ^ says Mr. Mackenzie, " the chosen occupation of the British people had been to rescue Europe from the despotism which Napoleon sought to establish. . . . Napoleon was the great enemy of Europe, and his overthrow must be effected before ^ The Nineteenth Century^ fifteenth edition, London, 1909. 62 BRITAIN'S RECORD good in any solid or enduring form could be enjoyed by the European people. In this belief a generation of Englishmen had been educated. The war engrossed their thoughts to the exclusion, for the time, of domestic interests. To interfere with the pursuit of the common foe by any complaint of individual wrong or assertion of individual right, was an impropriety which no well-conditioned citizen was expected to commit." And yet the necessity of reform in our representative system had been recognised even fifty years before the battle of Waterloo by Lord Chatham. The importance of the subject in regard to the rest of the world may readily be appreciated, when we point to the fact that the people of England had but little influence and no authority over their government : consequently both foreign and domestic policy, both commerce and war, were entirely out of the hands of the people. Two- thirds of the House of Commons were appointed by peers or other persons of influence and affluence, every great nobleman having a number of seats at his own disposal. Consequently the voice of the British Parlia- ment was not necessarily the voice of the British people. There were existent intolerable and illogical political abuses — as, for instance, the case of Old Sarum, which returned two members but had not one single inhabitant, or the instance of as many as three hundred members being returned by only a hundred and sixty persons. Such a state as this was not freedom by a representative government : it was an oligarchical despotism. The House of this country must needs set itself in order. It did, but by the unhurried steps which are so peculiarly a British characteristic. The Reform Bill of 1832 has been called the greatest PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 63 political fact of the nineteenth century in regard to the British people. But it is more than that : it is one of the most important liberty-documents in the history of the world, and is worthy, in importance, to be placed alongside Magna Charta. It has even been called a revolution : so it was, just as the Renaissance was a revolution against effete ideals, just as the Reformation was against polluted authority. The Reform Bill severed the last chain which bound England of the Nineteenth Century to the Middle Ages. It was the final and complete cleavage between a modified form of slavery or servitude and those free conditions which allow the development of each individual member of the nation by giving him a share in the government. It was based on the fact that all men are equal in the sight of the law, that all men, irrespective of accidents of birth and lineage, of name or wealth, are alike equally entitled to protection both as to their lives and their property. But before 1832 this was not so; for legislation was concerned with the creation of special privileges for favoured classes. To come to actual details, the Reform Act bestowed the privilege of the franchise in towns upon occupants who paid a rental of ten pounds ; in counties upon those paying a forty-pound rental. It disfranchised fifty-six English boroughs with a population under two thousand and returning one hundred and eleven mem- bers, whilst thirty boroughs with a population under four thousand and returning each two members were reduced to one member. Twenty new boroughs received each one member, twenty-two received two members each, the county members were raised from ninety-four to one hundred and fifty-nine. Scotland received an addition of eight borough members. 64 BRITAIN'S RECORD But the passing of the Reform Bill (and with it were banished the bribery, corruption, and intimidation that had been so universal in little boroughs which could easily be bought up or made to submit) was only a part of a general scheme on behalf of liberty, so other reforms followed. There were a number of evils that required attention. Education had been sorely neg- lected by the State, but now in the 'thirties the Government began to do its duty slowly. Previously it had been wickedly maintained that the ignorance of the people was essential to ensure the necessary obedi- ence to the country's laws. But now there was another nail hammered into the coffin of serfdom. To-day education in Great Britain is free in ninety-nine per cent of the schools, whilst in Scotland and Ireland it is entirely free, and this ideal has been followed in no small measure by Austria-Hungary, by Italy, by Hol- land and other European countries, to the great good of international liberty and the advancement of the world. In 1834 came the Poor Law Amendment Act, followed next year by the Municipal Corporation Act, which enabled the election of town-councils to be made by ratepayers. From the town-councils in turn were elected the mayor and aldermen. This Act was essentially another step towards full liberty, for it gave to the towns a self-government in their own affairs which was highly beneficial. But yet, notwithstanding the removal of religious barriers and many a hindrance to the liberty of the individual, and the extension of the franchise, the Press of this country was still fettered. Newspapers, which have had such a profound effect on the politics of the world, spreading those ideals which are so sacred to our countrymen, performing an immense work on behalf PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 65 of liberty, and generally reflecting British public opinion for the benefit of other countries, have taken so impor- tant a position in the affairs of the country to-day, that it seems almost incredible that they should have toler- ated such obstacles as they did in the early part of the nineteenth century. The British Press by its integrity, its freedom from corruption, its sane and sober stand- point even in times of great bewilderment, its respect for the personalities of those from whom it differs, the reliability of its correspondents, the impartiality of its financial articles, its determination to get at the truth in matters of fact, to assist the cause of the oppressed and destitute irrespective of nationality, in times of earthquake, massacre, plague, or misrule, has obtained for itself an imperishable reputation in the work it has done on behalf of the world's liberty. To-day it creates rather than reflects popular opinion as existing in the United Kingdom and Ireland. But before ever this could become possible, the duty on paper, which added one-fourth to the cost of publication, had to be removed ; the iniquitous tax of three shillings and sixpence on each advertisement — a tax which was even worse in New York than in London — had to be done away with, together with a tax of fourpence for a stamp on each copy. There were in those days also fines or imprison- ment threatened to those who should publish or sell any periodical costing less than sixpence, and containing " news, intelligence, occurrences, and remarks and obser- vations thereon, tending to excite hatred and contempt of the government and constitution of the country as by law established, and also to vilify religion." Such language was only worthy and admirably expressive of the pompous insincerity which ruled the age. But in the teeth of these threats many an unstamped periodical 66 BRITAIN'S RECORD 1 was circulated, and in 1836 the duties for the stamp and on the advertisements were reduced and subsequently abolished. Thus what were in fact taxes on knowledge and the liberties of the subject were once and for all time banished. From that has developed the wonder- fully able and complicated service of newspapers, magazines, and weeklies. In some instances the United States have led the way with new ideas, but for the most part the lead has been given by Britain, and followed by the enterprise of the French, the Germans, and every civilised country in the world, who all owe to the enter- prise of the British Press, both in respect of ideals and methods, more than we have room to deal with in these pages. As a sequel to the Reform Bill and expressive of the desire for further liberty came the Chartist agitation. The six points of the Charter are worthy of note owing to their very democratic nature; for this embraced universal suffrage, annual Parliaments, vote by ballot, abolition of property qualification for a seat in the House of Commons, payment of members, and equal electoral districts. Some of the principles of Chartism have since been embodied in British law. Thus the suffrage is almost universal, we have adopted voting by ballot long since, and property qualification has been abolished. Leaving aside the unfortunate riots and violent methods which were adopted in connection with Chartism, but have nothing to do with the subject before us, we cannot emphasise too thoroughly the fact that this agitation sprang from sympathy with the sufferings of the people, and hoped by better legislation to remove the barriers which still remained to liberty. For ten years, from 1838 to 1848, the agitation for this freedom was wonderfully virile. The spirit of liberty PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 67 became revolutionary and manifested itself by meetings everywhere, and incitements to insurrection. In London alone two hundred thousand men had to be enrolled to preserve the peace of the country, and the Bank, Post- office, and other public buildings had to be fortified and garrisoned. Abroad the spirit manifested itself in re- volutions which occurred in almost every European capital. In France the government of Louis Philippe was overthrown and a republic established instead. So also in Italy, Germany, and Austria there were similar disturbances. Everywhere the war was going on between liberalism and despotism. The Hungarians asserted their independence of Austria, and Italy laid the foundation for her future unity. Presently the fruits of this widespread liberty-agitation were seen in Austria by the granting of parliamentary government; Garibaldi freed Sicily and Naples, Sardinia absorbed one Italian State after another, until the peninsula of Italy became a united whole and Victor Emmanuel was crowned king of Italy in 1 86 1. In Spain the liberty-movement showed itself by dismissing her queen and organising her government based on universal suffrage. In England a step further was taken by giving to all householders in towns a vote, and a partial redistribution of seats was made. Thus by the year 1870 Western Europe was free and self-governing. How far Britain had contri- buted her share in bringing about this end cannot be exactly stated. But that she was partially responsible IS unquestioned ; for the agitation on behalf of liberty at home, as we have seen, was both continued and con- siderable. When subjects of other nations saw how step by step British subjects were obtaining every one of the reforms for which they clamoured, they them- selves took heart and pressed on till they succeeded in 68 BRITAIN'S RECORD transferring the governing power from despotism to a representative constitution. To-day the European nations have a decisive voice in the making of their own governments. Only Russia, still steeped in medLaeval- ism, hung back. But from the year 1905 she changed her character from being an absolute hereditary mon- archy to a constitutional hereditary monarchy, and an elective State Council, called the Duma, came as the result of revolution and terrible bloodshed ; yet it will be many a year before Russia has reformed herself to the extent of other European countries. But Britain has been put to great cost more than once in engaging in war during the nineteenth century on behalf of others. Just as she had destroyed the Turkish fleet to secure the independence of Greece, so she sent her fleet and bombarded Acre to restore the dominion of Turkey over Syria. Her Chinese wars have been carried on for the purpose of obtain- ing for the white man an entrance into China in order that he might be able to carry on trade. The war with Russia from 1854-6 was carried on for the pro- tection of Turkey. So also when twenty years later the Russians invaded Turkey and seemed to be about to seize Constantinople, Beaconsfield, by despatching a British fleet thither, made it perfectly clear that Britain would oppose any Russian occupation of that city. Presently the matter was settled by the Berlin Treaty. In spite of much that can justly be said in criticism of our interference with the affairs of Egypt, Britain certainly repressed the military revolt which had over- thrown the Government, and the Khedive was restored. Later, thanks to Kitchener, the power of the Mahdi was broken, and the Sudan began to yield to civilisa- PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 69 tion and good government. Education and the develop- ment of the country are now in progress, thanks to Britain. Whatever criticisms may be brought forward in regard to Britain's domination of Egyptian affairs, at least it can be said that besides the above benefits she has preserved the peaceful use of the Suez Canal, and kept it open to the great benefit of the trade between Europe and the East. One has no wish to hurt the susceptibilities of others, nor to suggest un- likely possibilities ; but we may reasonably ask, sup- posing any other great power than England had been able to obtain such a hold over Egyptian affairs, would this all-important canal have remained inviolate for the passage of the world's traffic ? Would there not in all probability have been a blockage as soon as inter- national complications arose? The Boer War ended in 1902, and though victory at length came to the British, after thousands had perished on both sides, yet by the incorporation of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State as part of the British Empire, and by the rapidity with which they have been given self-government, shall we not say with the Dutchman of Dordrecht, to whom we alluded earlier in this chapter, that it is well for the Boers that they yielded, because the obedience which they are compelled to pay to British authority is so small that it amounts practically to entire liberty ? Granted that the South African War was inevitable, is there any nation in the world other than Britain that would have treated its vanquished with such fairness, with such a regard for liberty ? In India, too, notwithstand- ing the growing nationalist movement which fore- shadows approaching danger, the Home Government, instead of dealing in any high-handed manner, agrees 70 BRITAIN'S RECORD to regard the feeling for liberty and to grant certain measures of self-government, though the time is at present far from ripe for bestowing on them that full responsibility for which the natives are so zealous. One of the most striking series of events which already have characterised this twentieth century has been the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. That it was possible for a yellow race, after having beaten the Chinese, to give such a thrashing to a great European nation both on land and sea, and as conditions of peace to obtain so much independence and power, must be partially laid to Britain's credit. The Japanese possess an ability to assimilate, and adapt themselves to, Western methods which is positively brilliant. They have long since made themselves eternal debtors to Europe, but to Britain especially they owe much. In our shipyards they learnt how to build their own vessels. Before that British labour and British yards provided them with the vessels with which to fight. British naval officers taught them the uses and methods of a modern navy. And thus we could continue to adduce many another instance. There are victories which Britain has won for the cause of liberty by methods less stressful than brutal warfare. It is not always possible to live peaceably with all men, yet it is an ideal to be aimed at. In this respect the late King Edward VII was well entitled to the name of the Peacemaker. During his short reign there was by kingly tact removed all existing prejudice between France and England, between Russia and England likewise. The effect of the entente cordiale was to banish that hostile feeling which is inimical to the spirit of liberty. In connection with the Hague Conference Britain has played her part side by side PROGRESS OF LIBERTY 71 with the other powers in regard to the propagation of international peace. True it seems to any thinking man that of all the barbaric survivals from a bygone age war is the most unfortunate. The arts of dip- lomacy and the ability of arbitration would in any ideal condition of things make war become an effete institution. But, as men and things still are, such an aim is not capable of being realised. Nevertheless when the complete civilisation of the world has been effected, perhaps by the universal consent of nations the need for armies and navies will vanish. Until then Britain may be allowed to continue the great work which she began centuries ago of spreading that glorious spirit of freedom wherever opportunity pre- sents itself. We have in the foregoing pages shown the evolution of liberty not merely in this country, but the effect which British public opinion has exerted on the rest of the world. On the whole Britain obtained her domestic reforms by peaceful methods rather than by violent revolutions : by a gradual method of creating public opinion, obtaining the chance of giving voice to these opinions through the medium of Parliament. From that step there remained merely a question of perfecting the machinery by causing the Parliament to be representative as well in fact as in name. It is because Britain has studied the welfare of her subjects, has usually listened attentively to their wants, and endeavoured, when practicable, to accede to their reasonable requests, studied the importance of public health and the general conditions of living, that she has had little need for those revolutions which have so often stained France and other countries. It is because she has been more or less always liberating 72 BRITAIN'S RECORD herself since the dawn of the sixteenth century that she has been such a means of aiding countries to obtain liberty, whether it be independence of other nations, or by example indirectly causing representative govern- ment to take the place of despotism ; whether by clearing the sea of pirates, or opening wide the door into America and China for the whole world to engage in imports and exports ; whether in restoring freedom to slaves, or in preserving that balance of power which used — much more than to-day — to be thought an essential to peace. The love of fair play, toleration, freedom of action within certain limits ; the respect for authority and institutions ; the ability to take a calm and dispassionate view of affairs in times of excite- ment ; the willingness to agree to differ — these are the well-known traits of the British character that have caused Britain to be recognised as the land of liberty, the safest of asylums both for the political refugee and the exiled continental monarch compelled to fly from the threats of his revolutionary subjects. May the day be far distant when Britain shall cease to think as highly of this precious liberty-possession as she has done in the past ! If such a day should arrive, it will be to the great loss not merely of all those over whom the Union Jack flies, but of all who have at heart the maintenance of peace under honourable conditions. Such briefly, then, is Britain's record in her contribu- tion to the world's liberty. Let us pass on now to see what she has done for the social progress of the world. CHAPTER II SOCIAL PROGRESS WHEN we come to examine the good work which Britain has wrought in regard to the social pro- gress of the world, we find our task no less interesting than in the last chapter. And following the lines laid down therein, we must needs remember again that the benefits to the whole world effected by our country have resulted sometimes mediately, sometimes also immediately. For example, in a certain decade Britain evolves an improved method of sanitation. The years go on, and this idea remains typically and exclusively British, until perhaps in a certain month a terrible and devastating epidemic decimates one corner of Europe. The authorities, goaded by popular opinion and anger, take counsel together and begin to find the best means of sanitation. They are advised to look across the Channel to England, and in the end the methods of reform are based on those principles which have been established for so many years by Englishmen that the latter have long since ceased to think about them. But the foreigner institutes this system which to him is entirely novel, the general health of the community improves, the epidemics cease to recur, and the general welfare of the people has been benefited. Here, then, is the case of a benefit accruing mediately. But it is not always that Britain has worked for the good of the world in this manner, as we shall show 73 74 BRITAIN'S RECORD during the course of this chapter. A brilliant invention in the method of manufacture, or the component parts of any required commodity, may have brought about forthwith an entire revolution in that particular industry. The net results have at once, without any need for arguing, been seen to afford a better article at a lower cost and to ensure greater convenience than existed previously. The reader has only to cast his eyes on the most ordinary utensils of domestic use, and this will be obvious to him. But as we shall deal presently with so many concrete instances, let us illustrate our point by a purely abstract idea, by imagining a certain article which has not yet been devised, for which it is said there is and has been for a long time a great demand. How often does not one read in the newspapers of a fatal accident occurring through poison ? By the mistake of the patient himself or his friends, or perhaps even of the dispenser — and such incidents are not imaginary — the contents of a bottle containing poison have in mistake been substituted for the prescribed mixture. All sorts of reasons have been brought forward at the inquests for the mistake. Perhaps the room was in darkness, or the bottles were of similar size and shape : but, whatever the cause, no one has yet devised such a bottle as would immediately convey to the touch a conviction that it was none other than the poison-bottle. He, then, who invents such a bottle would forthwith, and with a minimum of delay, bring about a benefit to the universe. You may do good to a person as you may to a community. You may perform this act, or series of acts, either by compulsion of the latter or otherwise. If this last is the course employed you may achieve your end by example, by influence, by encouragement, SOCIAL PROGRESS 75 by assistance moral or practical. For example, you may compel people to be vaccinated and so minimise the chance of a small-pox incursion, or you may give to a community thus afflicted with disease a few thou- sand pounds to erect a hospital to cope with the epidemic. Whatever else Britain is or is not, she is essentially a nation of practical people, and her sound and sensible level -headedness has usually prevented her from rushing into wild-cat schemes, nor has she wasted her time in absurd and impractical theories. Instead of sitting down and bemoaning the unhealthy condition of our east-ends, instead of impractically pity- ing the poor, we have begun to demolish the slum- regions, to erect model dwelling-houses in their place, to help the poor to help themselves by education both primary and technical, by a Whitechapel picture gallery or a chain of libraries, by parks and other open spaces, and by providing what are popularly known in the metropolis as additional " lungs for London." It is this very practical spirit which has animated all British activities for universal good, and if one looks always at the resulting benefits without pausing to seek the motives, one is apt to lose a large part of the im- portance of the matter under consideration. And yet it is not merely as a community that Britain has brought out benefits for the other communities of the world. Though the British are anything but a nation of individuals, yet such is the regard with which every Briton is esteemed, that wherever he goes he carries with him certain unmistakable characteristics. Of his love of liberty and fair-play we have already spoken. Let us now in passing call attention to the great crusade for personal cleanliness which is both consciously and unconsciously waged by every English- 76 BRITAIN'S RECORD man in every foreign country. It is a well-known joke against him in every hotel of the civilised world out- side the United Kingdom that he must not be deprived of his bath. It is almost a part of his religion, and the actual result is seen in the improved ideals which have followed from his travel-crusades into every corner of the globe where there is room for modernity to slip in. The United States, France, and Germany have almost given up laughing at the Britisher's " fad." Their old hotels are improved on these lines, their modern ones are designed with this view, and their own exponents of health remind them that this influence, though British, was for all that beneficial and proper. It is, indeed, in matters of hygiene, and in most of the things that make for general good health, that Britain has made the wide world to be her eternal debtor. Let us first run very briefly over the part which she has played in medicine and surgery, for it is more convenient to class these under the category of social progress with which so intimately they are con- nected, and without a sound knowledge of these two invaluable studies, no plan for improvement in matters of health can be worth considering. It was not always that England was the teacher of the world in these matters. At different times both France and Holland were our superiors in knowledge. Modern medicine only begins from about 1720, and modern surgery about another thirty years later. But even before that date our countrymen had not been utterly idle in their work. By 1628 Harvey had discovered the important fact of the blood's circulation ; and it was Hodges, a London citizen, who in 1665 effected so much additional knowledge by making a post-morten examination of a plague patient. And there were other valuable contributions to the SOCIAL PROGRESS 77 science and art of healing which England made in the seventeenth century, and which cannot be reckoned as of little import. For instance, Bennet published in 1654 an important work on consumption, and already in 161 8 the Royal College of Physicians gave a great impetus to pharmacy by the publication of Dispensatories or Pharmacopoeia. In these present days of enlightenment it is ludicrous to find how steeped in ignorance were the so-called experts at that time. There was supposed to be some strange connection between the sun and moon in their operation on the diseases of the human body. What the Renaissance had already done in the sphere of liberty it had scarcely begun to perform in medicine and surgery, and since independent research was even yet in its infancy, but a kind of blind and servile obedience to dogma existed, it was hardly likely that matters would progress. What was required was that the subject should be treated in a reasonable manner and not according to rule of thumb. Harvey's discovery, just mentioned, opened the eyes of those concerned, caused the overthrow of effete ideas, and enabled medicine to be reconstructed on a physiological and scientific basis. So also in the same century- Thomas Willis (1622-75) did much to help on the science of nervous diseases and of diabetes. Thomas Sydenham (1624-89) dealt another blow to mediaevalism by investigating the natural history of disease and the relations which exist between disease and the weather. Indeed, it must be frankly recognised that his influence on European medicine was considerable. To him was due the introduction of better ways in treating small- pox and fevers generally. In short, Sydenham gave to the world's primitive knowledge of medicine a new 78 BRITAIN'S RECORD method of study which in future years was to have increasingly better results. And thus we come to the eighteenth century, from the middle of which date so many of the modern move- ments in all forms of intellectual activity, that to-day are approaching perfection. Such men as Pitcairn, Cheyne, Freind, Cole, Mead, Radcliffe, and others advanced the world's knowledge of medicine further yet. Mead, for instance, obtained some valuable know- ledge regarding the effects of poisons. Matthew Baillie (1761-1823) was the first writer of a systematic work in any language on morbid science. And now that the Renaissance spirit was admitted and the old untenable ideas were being discarded one by one as enterprise achieved unheard-of results, the cause of practical medicine was being rapidly advanced. Diphtheria and neuralgia were being carefully investigated by John Fothergill (1712-80); the epidemics of fevers by John Huxham ; the prevention of small-pox by vaccination, which superseded the dangerous inoculation of 171 7, was being effected by Dr. Jenner. In the treatment of infectious diseases Jenner's influence throughout the civilised globe has been enormous. We must remember that the mistaken custom of inoculation against small- pox had been adopted from Constantinople as far back as the year 171 3, though not practised in our country till four years later. But Jenner's cowpox vaccination entirely swept away this method. There is not a town or city in the civilised world where Jenner's discovery has not saved many a human life, and if British medical men had never contributed anything more than this to the health of the world, our country would still be deserving of every gratitude in saving human lives by the thousand rather than permitting them to be cast Emery Walker DR. JENNER SOCIAL PROGRESS 79 away through the ravages of a dangerous and disfiguring disease. Side by side with the acquisition of medical know- ledge there was growing up during the second half of the eighteenth century a more humanitarian spirit. Hygiene began to be considered in England seriously. Human life was something worth preserving. Partly as a direct result of that liberty-movement which we considered in the last chapter, the class prejudice was very slowly, but no less surely, in a state of being removed. Even soldiers and sailors were at last deemed worthy of consideration. And to Sir John Pringle is due every gratitude for his Observations on the Diseases of an Armyy a work that was translated into most Euro- pean languages, and became the standard authority. So also every sailor-man, regardless of nationality, must needs hold Pringle*s name in respect, for as he had succeeded in improving military hygiene, so he was able to improve those disgusting conditions which were prevalent on shipboard. Notwithstanding the fact that the science and art of naval architecture had gradually improved during the years that followed the Middle Ages, it is remarkable that a like improvement in the conditions of the crew was still very much wanting. Scurvy was frequently rampant until Pringle devoted his attention to the matter, and the soundness of his methods was amply and convincingly tested by the famous explorer. Captain Cook, in one of his long voyages. Britain had thus for the good of the world shaken off mediaevalism in medicine and surgery, and a new school was thus capable of being founded, its main aim being that of obtaining knowledge by actual research. And thus the nineteenth century was fully ripe for 8o BRITAIN'S RECORD Hunter to add to the world's knowledge of anatomy and obstetrics. The more scientific method of studying diseases enabled Robert Willan to deal with the diseases of the skin in a more profitable manner. William Charles Wells, by his investigations in the alteration in the urine, assisted to bring about the discovery, by Richard Bright, at a later date, of what is now known as " Bright's disease " the whole world over. But need we enumerate each and every instance where the researches of British medical men have throughout the nineteenth and the first decade of the twentieth centuries continued to do so much in order to alleviate the sufferings of humanity ? It has been said that both art and science have no nationality, that their subjects are the whole world, that their limits of authority are marked by no arbitrary lines. But it may be said that in reckoning up all the varied efforts which Britain has expended to minimise human suffering she has a record which is unique. Think of her wonder- fully-equipped hospitals, and the work which day and night they have done, and are doing. " I think,'* remarked an observant American to me once, " that the most wonderful thing about this London of yours is its hospitals. That those institutions should be mostly sup- ported by voluntary contributions is to me marvellous." Think of the great work which was begun by that noble woman, Florence Nightingale, who so recently passed away. The spirit of nursing is not exclusively a British possession. No one would wish to narrow human kindness to such limits. But it is especially our endow- ment. Until the Crimean War, who thought of doing what Florence Nightingale did ? And from her, even in the few decades which since have passed, we may look down ranks and ranks of silent-footed, white- SOCIAL PROGRESS 8i aproned, capable women, whose skill and care have shown that British womanhood has something of which the world may well be proud. What country has done so much in regard to instruc- tion in ambulance work, in rendering first aid to the injured, in the perfection of surgical instruments, in the use of chloroform and anaesthetics, in the more humane treatment of the insane ? To-day the valu- able researches which are being annually made by our medical experts will have the most important beneficial effects on the health of the universe presently. Of these we may mention especially such studies as are concerned with consumption, cancer, bacteriology, radiology. Again, how slightly does the world realise all that Britain is doing for it just now in regard to two diseases which certainly are peculiar to countries out- side the United Kingdom ? Take the case of Malta fever, which is being most carefully studied by our experts, and with such good results that, whereas in the year 1905 — I give the latest figures as afforded by Sir David Bruce — there were in the Army alone in that island 643 cases, and a like number in the Navy, these numbers had, thanks to careful study of the cause and effects, dwindled down to 147 in the year 1906, the next year to only eleven, the following year to five, the next year to one, and last year there were no cases at ill. It was found, in spite of the most foolish opposi- tion, that the disease was traceable to goat-milk. So, ilso, with regard to that African disease known as jleeping-sickness. Everyone has heard of the sad havoc ;o human lives which is worked by the tsetse fly. A Sleeping-Sickness Commission was sent out from Eng- and in 1908 to Uganda, and the matter investigated on ;he spot with that thoroughness and practical manner F 82 BRITAIN'S RECORD of method which are so characteristic of our nation. Five years earlier, when the toll of human life was very heavy, when as many as 200,000 out of 300,000 natives were thus brought to death, when in one island alone 18,000 out of a population of only 22,000 perished, our countrymen had found it difficult to convince these natives that this fatal disease was caused by the fly, and that if they would only remove from the fly area they would ipso facto arrest the sickness. But at last the black man understood, removed the inhabitants from the lake-shore and islands, with the result that not a single new case of sleeping-sickness was contracted in Uganda proper. Nor must we omit in this connection to men- tion the work which is being done by the (British) Tropical School of Medicine. It is often said that an Englishman's home is his castle. But it is something more than that. No one appreciates so much as the foreigner all that has been done by the Englishman to make his home a place of comfort. It is for this reason that English furniture, English sanitary arrangements, English domestic architecture and decoration are so much admired abroad. The movement really began in the sixteenth century, during the reign of Elizabeth. It was an interesting epoch in more senses than one. Your Englishman had now begun to roam across the seas, to discover new territory, to exchange his rolls of cloth for gold and silver, to come back from his half-piratical, half-trading expeditions with more money than he had ever seen or his little town had ever possessed. Thus there arose in that time almost as many proportionately self-made men as came to affluence through the great industrial movement of the nineteenth century. Now, in the sixteenth century there were practically no SOCIAL PROGRESS 83 opportunities for investing their money, unless they cared to fit out other expeditions to trade again with foreign lands. But there were plenty of parvenus who preferred to " let the sea alone," and to refrain from investing their hard-gotten savings in such risky con- cerns. Therefore, having practically no other opportu- nities, they spent large sums of money in luxuries and amusements. Economists do not hesitate to remind us that such is the tendency of our fallen nature that a man's inclination is not to spend his acquired wealth in profitable concerns, but in satisfying his own pleasures. So it was that many of those delightful old Elizabethan houses, which still exist in our land, were built. The old remaining gloomy castles of the Middle Ages were now transformed by the Elizabethans into stately palaces, Gothic style of architecture being thus replaced by the then modern ideas. Thus the better-class houses became well supplied with glass windows, with chim- neys, stoves, tapestry, sheets, pillows, pewter platters, and table-knives. And in this connection let us add tobacco, which was soon to follow. There are to-day countless thousands who rejoice that an Englishman found out for the rest of the world the joys which centre round a fragrant tobacco leaf But the luxuries did not confine themselves to furniture and the like. Choice kinds of meat were used freely, there was a larger variety of taste, thanks to having experienced all sorts of pleasant foods through meeting with Spaniards and other frequenters of the sea. For the same reason foreign wines began to be imported in large quantities, nearly a hundred different kinds being now brought from abroad. Brit- ish brewing, so famous in the Middle Ages, and so frequently mentioned by Shakespeare, was in Eliza- 84 BRITAIN'S RECORD bethan times a highly prosperous industry. Elizabeth also caught the spirit of the age and devoted much of her attention to dress. Indeed, it is said that at her death she left three thousand gowns behind her. Her subjects became so extravagant that the Queen actually issued an order prohibiting the wearing of excessive apparel. Notwithstanding that fashions have changed many times since then, it is still the pride and boast of the British tailor that, according to foreign agreement, no one in the world can make men's clothes with such skill. In the regard which Britain has paid to the housing of its poor, to the demolition of unsuitable dwellings, to the proper paving of its streets in comparison with the thoroughfares of many a foreign city ; in regard also to the matters of public sanitation and hygiene generally, to the healthy conditions of our prisons, factories, and workshops, the prevention of river pollution, the spread- ing of contagious diseases, the supply of pure water, the compulsoriness of vaccination (unhappily since repealed), Britain has influenced the whole sphere of civilisation with such wholesome ideals. It was the Act of 1722 which provided for the erec- tion of workhouses in our country, and during the second quarter of that century, thanks to the new humanitarian spirit at work, there were as many as sixty of these houses of public relief in working order. There may be defects in the working of England's Poor Law system, but there is certainly much for other countries to learn from, both in plan and especially regarding administration. One does not nowadays think of England as being an agricultural country. But that is because such great industrial developments have taken place within so brief a space of time and SOCIAL PROGRESS 85 with such success. But up to about 1750 it must be remembered that England was certainly an agricultural country, and during that century did much to improve the science and art of agriculture. To this day British manufactured agricultural implements are deemed by many foreigners to be the best of their kind, as one may see by examining our exports. One of the most remarkable experiences with which the British traveller is confronted when abroad is the great regard with which Dickens is still esteemed. His delight in the bright side of life, his sympathy with human suffering, his powerful protest against oppression and cruelty, have not been exhibited in his writings without good effect. In our own country it was very greatly owing to his Little Dorrit, to Pickwick, and Nicholas Nickleby that there was brought about the abolition of imprisonment for debt in the year 1869. Incidentally we might remark that it was Dickens* pamphlet on " Sunday As It Is "^ which did much for the later adoption (on Sunday, March 24th, 1896) of the opening of our museums and art galleries on Sunday afternoons, a reform which has done much for our fellow-citizens as contrasted with the narrow dullness of the early Victorian times. Both Carlyle and Dickens are to be reckoned among social reformers by methods other than revolution. It is no conceit, no self-laudation to claim that the British nation has contributed to the welfare of the world by its high tone and the sober morality of its public opinion. That is not to say that it has not produced as notorious rascals and humbugs as any other nation. But there is a curious antithesis between an individual and a number of individuals who in the aggregate compose a crowd. To illustrate what I 86 BRITAIN'S RECORD mean, let me bring forward the point which Mr. A. B. Walkley, the well-known dramatic critic of the Times^ so amusingly made clear in one of his lectures before the Royal Institution a few years ago. He re- minded us that "a crowd as a crowd is virtuous and generous : for we are all on our best behaviour in public. Hear the gallery at the theatre of melodrama hiss the villain. Yet it is fairly long odds that some of them have robbed their employers, and that others will go home to beat their wives." Thus a crowd, as differentiated from the individual, has a personality of its own which may or may not harmonise with the character of the individuals composing it. What I am anxious to emphasise is the fact that nowhere in the world is there to be found a higher sense of duty, a clearer consciousness of the claims of social life, or of the seriousness of obligations coupled with a willing- ness to discharge those obligations, than is found among the inhabitants of Great Britain. This spirit manifests itself in the public opinion which is so clearly observed by any foreign visitor to our shores before he has had many days of intercourse with our fellow-citizens. It comes out in the contemporary press, in any crisis that may arise. The witticism of the American who de- clared that " you can fool all the public for part of the time and part of the public for all the time, but you can never fool everyone always " is applicable in the present instance. Britain as a nation may, and certainly has, pursued the most mistaken policy for years together, and a large number of her inhabitants who ought to know better pollute thought and action all the time ; but taken as a historic whole, the general public opinion of Britons has been on the right side — has benefited the universe, whether directly or indirectly. SOCIAL PROGRESS 87 If it is true that the value of manners lies in the fact that they afford the highest protection to morals, then we have reason for being proud of those manners and customs which have raised our national life, and inci- dentally other nations. " Manners makyth man " has been the motto for years of one of the most precious educational foundations of our country, and the same sentiment has trickled through into most grades of our community. In the most delicate acts of courtesy perhaps the French, by reason of their natural brilliance, can surpass us. But for sincerity in refinement, for good breeding, for dignity coupled with integrity, for his easy manners, for his self-control and restraint, the world knows that the Englishman holds the record. The foreigner finds this English trait in the Englishman's business house and in that most sacred of British institutions, the Englishman's home. He acknow- ledges, too, that the best business methods are the British, and so he sends over the Channel his sons to learn for a few years the ways and customs of a big business house in London or the provinces. England has thus become a kind of business university for the world. There has arisen out of the interest which was taken in the poorer parts of our great cities a very valuable and essentially British institution. It is because the British are a practical nation that this originated and has since been copied in the United States. The object aimed at is to bridge over that deep gulf which exists between the poor and the educated classes. The principle involved is that those who have enjoyed certain intellectual endowments and other privileges of exist- ence have laid on them the obligation of aiding by personal service those whose lives, by reason of their 88 BRITAIN'S RECORD surroundings, their poverty, and toil, are passed in a far less congenial manner. What I refer to are those social settlements, consisting of associations of men and women of education and some leisure who take up residence in the East End, who by their own personal influence, sometimes by their religious influ- ence, as well as by organising their recreations, have done and still do so much to raise the inhabitants of the slums from lives of degradation and vice to become decent, competent citizens. The inauguration of this settlement idea belongs to a young man who in his thirty short years of life accomplished so much. An Oxford man of distinction, the son of the most distinguished ear-specialist of the day, Arnold Toynbee started this idea, which sprang from the bottom of a heart full of compassion for his fellow-men. The hall which was established by Canon Barnett in the year 1885 in the East End stands as his memorial and the embodiment of Toynbee's idea. Since then the sym- pathies of young men at both Oxford and Cambridge have been exhibited in similar methods, for there is both an Oxford House and a Cambridge House, and other university missions in the East End of London. No one who has any knowledge of these institutions can deny that, regarded even exclusively as moral and philanthropic agencies, they are doing much for struggling humanity. And here is another instance where the enterprising example of Britain has been followed in different parts of the globe. There are settlements now, many in number but similar in nature, which have since sprung up in America, the European continent, India, and even Japan. In America women's settlements are more numerous than over this side of the Atlantic, but in both continents there is being SOCIAL PROGRESS 89 carried on a large amount of beneficial work by pro- viding medical dispensaries, district nurses, workrooms for needlewomen, and hospitals for women and children. Passing on to a vastly different subject, but one that certainly belongs to this chapter, everyone is aware that the barbarous custom of duelling still obtains on the Continent, and that no foreign Government has yet succeeded in getting this abolished. For a long time this difficulty existed in our country, and as far back as the eighteenth century it was made a capital offence, though it was not until the year 1844 that duelling was discredited by the British Government. It would be well if this example were to be followed by other countries, and all insults to personal honour atoned for, if not by personal explanations, at least by the medium of the law courts which exist for that and like pur- poses. There are already signs visible that before long some alteration will be made abroad and this relic of a bygone age swept away. And when the agitation shall become more powerful, its supporters will point to England as having already brought about a just pre- cedent for the rest of the nations to follow. I am anxious, so far as possible, to avoid saying anything in these pages which may injure the feelings of those who may disagree with any of the conclusions at which I have arrived. There is no subject in which one is more likely to find oneself at variance with one's reader than in the sphere of religion. Therefore, in making any attempt to estimate the work which Britain has done for the world under this heading, I confess that I find myself confronted with no easy task. In the present unhappy divided state of Christianity, it is conceivable that where some may agree that British missions have been beneficial, others may differ. But 90 BRITAIN'S RECORD as this volume represents no attempt to write a history of ecclesiastical matters, but rather an effort to sum up actual results, we shall confine ourselves strictly to that investigation. We are concerned, indeed, in this volume less with the achievements of men as the adherents to one form of theology or another than as sons of Britain. And we may divide British missions to foreign lands as coming under three classes. Firstly, those who recognise the supremacy of Rome in matters of religion ; secondly, those who, while claiming to be members of the Church in England, owe no allegiance to Rome ; and thirdly, those who, professing themselves Christians, acknowledge no obedience either to Rome or Canterbury. Their one common meeting -point is found in the belief in Christianity, and acting on this belief they have sent forth to all parts of heathendom men and women to spread Christianity. Long years before ever the British despatched their missions to alien lands, the Portuguese had made their way to distant parts, sending their missionary priests to teach Christianity. The Far East received its first Christianity from the Jesuit Fathers. Practically, British Christian missions date only from the nineteenth century, although the Pilgrims to New England in the early seventeenth century took with them a narrow, puritanical species of religion. A Nonconformist effort was chronologically the first great missionary effort. Through the enthusiasm of a young man named Carey, of Kettering, just as the eighteenth century was coming to a close the Baptist Missionary Society was formed, and he himself went out to the East, and within twenty years he and his companions had translated the Bible into twenty-one Indian languages. In the year 1799 the Church Missionary Society was founded with the SOCIAL PROGRESS 91 especial object of taking Christianity to Africa and the East, and it remains the most important missionary agency of the Church of England. Such distant parts as Labrador, South Africa, Bengal, China, the Pacific Islands, Japan, Australia, West Africa, East Africa, Uganda, Central Africa, what do not they owe to the civil- ising influence of Christianity which Britons brought to them? Considered as a force in advancing social pro- gress, these missionaries have uplifted heathens and savages from unspeakable vices — from cannibalism, from offering human sacrifices ; and instead taught them in- dustries, educated them, taught them how to use their recreations. In China the British missions came de- termined to stamp out as far as they could the use of opium. In India the mischievous delusion of caste has been assailed, the debasement of Indian women has been alleviated by education, and thus an opening formed for the entry of Western civilisation. Notwithstanding the lamentable mistakes which the English have made out there in ways which need not now be discussed, the educational progress in the teeth of the greatest diffi- culties has been great, and at last the native mind is rousing itself from the profitless slumber of bygone ages. The self-denying work of such associations as the Church Missionary Society, the Cowley Fathers, and the Oxford Mission to Calcutta have shown that Britain has, at the very least, endeavoured to realise the serious weight of responsibility which weighs on her shoulders owing to having become possessed of a vast Indian Empire. So also in Africa, thanks to the Church Missionary Society, to the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, and other associations, the work of advancing social progress, of freeing mankind from degradation and heathenism, has gone on. Nor must 92 BRITAIN'S RECORD we in this connection omit to refer in passing to the great pioneer work of that distinguished explorer Dr. Livingstone. It would be invidious to single out the great names of men who have left ambition and the comforts of home to go out and live, often to die, not for a blind, irrational fanaticism, but in the fulfilment of a plain but profound duty — to take a part in the share of the work which has fallen on the shoulders of the greatest nation in the world. Here again British public opinion, the aggregate influence of the national crowd, have had much to do with this impetus, so that some of the best all-round men that ever emerged from our glorious public schools and universities have been con- tent to alienate themselves from home surroundings and to throw in their lot with a community of blacks. So many mistakes have been made, the net results accruing from the money and efforts employed have not always been so clearly obvious ; there has also been so much diffidence at home in the actual necessity of the work undertaken ; that the materialist is apt to forget that in the annals of these missions are found the lives of gigantic heroism and devotion to duty, men who would have become illustrious in any walk of life, men who were born leaders of men, entitled to be called great by every right, whether intellectual or moral. Had they chosen the Bar, politics, or continued their brilliant university careers, in many cases as dons, they would have assuredly risen to the very loftiest heights open to them. Instead, they have been content to go where duty called them, and to show that in yet another sphere of activity the sons of Britain are ready to be- come servi servorum for the good of the world. We pass next to speak of the great lead which Britain has taken as a nation of sportsmen. We all of SOCIAL PROGRESS 93 us know the old joke about the sad way in which an Englishman takes his pleasures. But those days are passing, if not past, although the Briton can never possess that natural endowment which makes the Latin races so spontaneously gay in their recreations. Now the principles of British sportsmanship are indicative of British character. He has no desire to win unless he can win fairly. If he loses he can do so in a cheerful, manly fashion. Trickery, bribery, stealth are happily comparatively rare in British sports and pastimes. This love of the open air — a real, healthy, and wholesome enjoyment of legitimate excitement pursued not for itself, but as a means to an end — the aim being to retain a sound mind in a sound body — has never been so conspicuously manifested as in our countrymen by any nation since the days of Greece and Rome. The spirit is engrafted in the days of youth, from the first term at school, and it is only extinguished with life itself. Abroad the value of this British ideal is now being realised. The wife of a distinguished continental professor once bemoaned to the present writer that by way of recreation there was but little for her son to do but waste his time in caf^s. " You English," remarked the anxious mother, " are wonderful in the things you do," and she was scheming, as women will, in the cleverest way to steer her son's enthusiasm into the channel of one of our greatest British sports. One hears so often the sad and avoidable cases in Germany, where the boy or girl, having little encouragement for physical recreation, over-develops a young and pliant mind with excessive study, fails in his or her examina- tion, becomes morbid, and commits suicide. But that condition of affairs is beginning to give way before the introduction of British ideals, and there will be many a 94 BRITAIN'S RECORD foreigner who will grow up thankful for our influence. We have no space to run through the whole category of sports, nor to emphasise the fact that it is entirely owing to Britain that cricket is played in such climates as Africa, India, and Australia possess ; nor to note the steady advance which is being made in France in foot- ball ; nor to indicate the influence which British oars- manship at Henley has had on Dutch and Belgian rowing, to say nothing of the interest which is taken year by year in the United States concerning our great annual University Boat Race, and the impetus which British rowing styles and boats have in times past had on similar sport in America. But perhaps there is no sport so typically British as that of yachting. Although the germ of this was imported in the late seventeenth century from Holland, yet it was not till after the Crimean War that we allowed the fascination to have its chance. From England, Scotland, and Ireland it has spread to the United States, to France, to Ger- many, and other countries of Europe. The wealthy inhabitants of South America are deeply indebted to us not merely for the general regulations of the sport, but most frequently for the very craft in which they race. Until quite recently, German yachting was literally a British importation sailed in British hulls, often manned by British seamen handling British sails and gear. Spain, once a great sea-power, is just beginning, thanks to British designers, builders, and instruction, to form a nucleus of yachtsmen. And if one should ask the question. Has not British golf- enthusiasm done something for the world? let it be a sufficient answer that one of the first acts of a Britisher compelled to be exiled in some distant land is to go out and make a rough survey of his immediate neigh- SOCIAL PROGRESS 95 bourhood in order that he may have at his disposal the finest h'nks obtainable. If there are no links, then he will soon make a cricket pitch ; and failing that, he will make the country a kind of private shooting preserve. It is not surprising that occasionally the foreigner wonders whether or not the Britisher ever takes himself seriously. Akin to this must be mentioned the great and admir- able movement which was introduced into our national boyhood since the ending of the Boer War. General Baden-Powell, in setting afoot the institution known as the Boy Scouts, did something not only for our present boyhood and future manhood, but, as is evidenced by the successful manner in which the scheme has been taken up since by the United States and Germany, he has largely benefited other portions of the globe. The nobility of playing the man, of being chivalrous, of succouring those in need, of being strictly truthful and honourable — these very virtues of which we Britons are so justly proud can well be inculcated into the youth of every nation throughout the world. In the shortest time the Boy Scouts have done wonders, but it is far too soon to show the deep significance of the movement which time alone can manifest. With the motto "Be Prepared" there is dealt at once a deathblow to the sloth and self-indulgence which eat out the heart of youth like canker. It is indeed one of the most powerful levers at work in regard to national and international social progress. The reader may perhaps recollect that when the disastrous and overwhelming earthquakes a few years back occurred at San Francisco and Kingston, when besides many lives there were lost hundreds of build- ings, it was found that by far the greatest part of the 96 BRITAIN'S RECORD insurance had been laid with British offices, and not with American or other foreign societies. This fact was commented on at the time, and is significant of the high esteem which is felt for British reliability. When a man insures against a calamity he is like an investor who puts by for a rainy day, but he insists on being certain beyond all doubts and rumours that when and if the smash should come there will be forthcoming that recompense for which he has been providing in the years of prosperity. It is owing to the high moral tone and business integrity of our countrymen that by far the largest percentage of insurance is transacted with British companies. Modelled by drastic and severe British legislation, guided by directors and officials whose names are beyond suspicion, carried on with meticulous caution, possessing a reputation for settling all due claims in the minimum of time, our insurance societies occupy for the good of the world's thrift a position which is shared with no other nation. There is an absence of that frenzied finance which spells ruin and destroys mutual trust, upsets the balance of business, and leads to financial disgrace and ruin. So also in a different manner your English club has set a standard which is aimed at by the most respect- able clubs in the world. Clubs, of course, are of far greater antiquity than the British Government itself; yet with their own ideals, their dignity and their exclu- siveness, they have set the standard for the best clubs in foreign countries on which to model their own institu- tions. The territory known in London as clubland has no adequate counterpart in any other city in the world, and to the foreigner the peculiar character which is possessed by Piccadilly, St. James's Street, and Pall SOCIAL PROGRESS 97 Mall is one of the striking features of our metropolis. The comparatively recent establishment of women's clubs in London — as apart from mere athletic associa- tions — at one time regarded as a daring novelty but now bereft of any wonderment, has been duplicated in France and the United States. It is merely an in- stance of the great movement which is going on for the liberation of women from the chains of conventional mediaevalism, for permitting them to have the enjoy- ment of certain rights which have long remained denied to them. One of the standard subjects of discussion which never seems to weary the public of the United States is the expressed admiration for the police of England, and in particular of London. On the Continent, where the power of militarism is so strong, it is inevitable that this spirit should be reflected in maintaining peace and order among citizens of their own countries. But in Great Britain the mutual respect which exists between police and public is unique, and brings about the most satisfactory results in maintaining internal peace and order. They do these things not so well abroad, although in the slow reform which is going on in the New York police system the improvements are based, after due observation and study, on those principles which have been long in use in England. The authori- tative controlling of traffic by the London policeman, the humane consideration with which the police treat their prisoners, sometimes in the most trying circum- stances, the absence of the military sword as employed by the German police, and the rare use of the truncheon in comparison with the American : the freedom from bribery, blackmailing, and bullying which are the curse of other countries' police system : the lack of irritating G 98 BRITAIN'S RECORD spying and inquisitorial methods which obtain in Paris — these are but instances of the excellent example which has been set by Britain, an example which, judging by the number of visits that are paid by the heads of foreign police and the improvements which subsequently follow in those countries, is having a sound effect on the social progress of the world. There used to be a saying in the earlier part of the nineteenth century, that what Oxford thought to-day, the rest of the country would think to-morrow. One may legitimately employ the analogy, and suggest in at least matters affecting social progress, with cer- tain exceptions, that what England does to-day will soon be adopted by the other progressive powers. I can- not illustrate this tendency better than by quoting the following statement made this year by a German pro- fessor. He was referring to the matter of the Daylight Saving Bill, which, at the moment of writing, has not yet become British law. " What saddens me a little about the whole affair," remarked Professor D. Eduard von Engel, of Berlin, " apart from the envious feeling that I did not think of the proposal myself, is the regret that it did not at least start in Germany. The English supporters of this gain in sunshine have clearly shown their national characteristics. An hour more daylight in summer means an hour longer for sport in the open air. . . . When England has once stolen the blessings of more sunlight, all other countries will soon follow." And here, I think, is exhibited pretty accurately the position which Britain occupies in regard to other coun- tries in her advancement of social improvement. Our modern legislation has raised the condition and tone of the nation ; it has brought contentment where revolution was sprouting; it has given the poor better houses in SOCIAL PROGRESS 99 which to live, better drainage; given him Factory Acts, and generally improved the conditions of work ; allowed him every facility for his own self-advancement — in short, helped him to help himself and become a profitable member of a community. If he has a grievance he may betake himself to Hyde Park, gather round him a crowd of his enthusiasts, even march in procession through the streets not hindered by the police, but per- mitted their protection. He may harangue the mob, and even preach the most despicable socialism from the steps of the monument which commemorates the great sea-hero who died in helping to save England and Europe from Napoleonic tyranny. He may pour out bitterest invectives against the police or peerage, Parlia- ment or Press, persons and institutions, but he will not be arrested unless he steps beyond the widest limits which have been set down for the conservation of order. Is there any such social privilege allowed to its people in the other countries of the world ? We will not say any monarchical country, still less one where there yet exists a strain of despotism, but in the most republican of republics. Such social advantages have just this lasting benefit — they prevent the formation of secret societies by allowing an outlet for agitation in public. In the end, either the required reform is obtained by legislative methods, or the agitation dies for want of support. It is owing to this that anarchism, which has been a Continental disease for many years, cannot take root in our own country. There is no soil suitable here for its essential nourishment. The advantages that have followed from municipal government in this country are clearly evident. The maintenance of the condition of our roads is superior to that of any other nation, and the municipal authorities loo BRITAIN'S RECORD have not merely kept up the fine roads which traverse our countryside and towns ; they have brought them to even a better condition of utility. The Education Act of 1902-3 gave to the local authorities a larger amount of control over the higher education, although there are certain doubtful results that always follow in the wake of decentralisation. Under local control also come the fire brigades, which, as a service, can- not be surpassed by that of any other country, if indeed it can be equalled. In the manufacture of fire-engines and the devising of improvements there- with connected, Britain may certainly claim to lead the world. It would be impossible to give here a list of all the charitable and philanthropic societies which annually carry on their good work not merely locally, but inter- nationally from Britain. Such excellent institutions as the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, another for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Boys' Brigades, which aim at inculcating self-discipline into the boys who might easily otherwise become hooligans ; police-court missionaries and societies for befriending prisoners, all of which, though doing only a part of what the community owes to the individual, are by no means to be despised by reason of the principles which they illustrate. With the advance that has occurred in British educa- tion has grown up side by side a chain of free libraries in every town and city, paid for out of the rates, and existing as a means of education and intellectual recrea- tion. Indeed, the Library Act of 1850 did more to break down the artificial barriers between class and class than any other democratic legislation. In the British Isles there are about five hundred parishes and SOCIAL PROGRESS loi districts in which the Library Acts have been adopted. The net result of these manifests itself in less than one generation, in the education of the individuals and the general diffusion of knowledge, the quickening of mental activity, and the inculcating of a keen, vivid interest in the events of the day as set forth in the monthly, weekly, and daily journals, to say nothing of the number of books which are taken out daily from these lending libraries. In actual practice, however, it is regrettably found that fiction occupies by far the greatest amount of demand. But chiefest of our libraries must be reckoned the British Museum Reading Room, founded in the year I735> which in the world's social progress since then has played by no means an inconspicuous part. As a great national storehouse of knowledge ; as a bridge along which the thoughts of the illustrious dead may pass across time to the living, it cannot be lightly valued. But it is not merely for Britons that this gigantic library exists with its couple of million books and more ; it is unique. Not even the Bodleian Library, Oxford, with its 7CX),ooo volumes, nor the Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris), nor the Konigliche Bibliothek (Berlin), plays the same part of international usefulness to students of all civilisations in pursuit of knowledge. The number of visits of foreigners from all parts of the world is very large. To them its vastness of literature has proved of incalculable value, containing as it does even the books of most recent publication. It has been and still is one of the greatest aids to British and foreign knowledge and authorship. It has been well said that no country in the world possesses such rich archives of the past as England. The amount of data which are preserved in the manuscript-room of the British Museum and in I02 BRITAIN'S RECORD the Public Record Office is of the utmost value for posterity and international history. Nor must we forget the important role which our country has played in connection with the history of the post office. And in this respect, again, it is not merely ourselves that we have benefited, but the rest of the civilised nations, by increasing the facilities of com- munication and commerce. It will be remembered that in 1837 Rowland Hill made the daring suggestion that all the existing rates of postage should be forthwith abolished, and that instead there was to be a uniform rate of one penny, regardless of distance, prepayment being made by means of stamps. No one was more opposed to this revolution than the postal authorities themselves. But it was essential that some sort of reform should come ; for both the population and the country's commerce had within the past two decades increased so enormously that increased facilities for communication were crying needs. As it remained, the postal rates were excessive, so that the poor were prac- tically prohibited from making use of the service. Even for commerce these high charges were a great hindrance from doing greater business. As an example, it may be mentioned that even for the short distance between Brighton and London the cost was eightpence. Of course, there were means of illegally circumventing these difficulties — as, for instance, sending letters by means of carrier. Members of Parliament, as well as peers, being allowed to send their letters franked, the abuse crept in of soliciting from such dignitaries a number of franks to enable one's own letters also to be despatched free of cost. Thus it came about that after Rowland Hill's scheme had been approved by a Committee of the House of Emery Walker SIR ROWLAND HILL SOCIAL PROGRESS 103 Commons it eventually, in 1839, became law. What followed was, in regard to the United Kingdom and abroad, another step ahead in favour of democracy, for it freed the poorer people from being deprived of those conveniences which were possessed by peers, members of Parliament, and their friends. It gave a great fillip to business and to the despatch of newspapers. And gradually this most excellent British example was followed by every civilised State. As part of this same important scheme, but of more recent date, came the establishment of the penny postal service between Great Britain and her colonies, which is one step nearer to the establishment of a universal penny postage throughout the world. At present the absurd anomaly remains that, whereas one sends a letter from London to India for one penny, it costs twopence-halfpenny to send it merely across to Calais. Most certainly the amount which the British post office has done for the progress of the world is so great that it is almost incalculable. With its further details of utility at home, with its savings banks encouraging thrift, and its wonderful organisation in collecting, delivering, and despatching of the country's mails, we have not space here to deal. But when we pass on to another chapter we shall have the opportunity of speaking of the relation between the post office, the telegraph, and the transmarine cable, as well as the employment of wireless telegraphy. One of the most beneficial pieces of legislation was that belonging to the year 1843, because it represents yet another determined effort to do the duty which is owed to the weak and suffering — the very people who most need help, but are unable to do much for them- selves. A Parliamentary Commission had shown what iniquitous cruelties were being inflicted on women and 104 BRITAIN'S RECORD children of tender years by their being employed in mines and collieries. It was bad legislation to allow these conditions to continue, quite apart from the injustice. For it meant that the future descendants of these poor creatures would come into the world lacking those physical possessions which are essential to good health and to carry out the duties of good citizenship. There- fore it was with practically no opposition that both Houses of Parliament passed a measure prohibiting women from working in mines, and children also until they were ten years old. Even then the latter were to work only a limited number of hours. Officials were appointed by the Government to see that this regula- tion was carried out. And, as a further development of these measures, there followed Mr. Asquith's Factory Act of 1895, by which overtime for women was reduced, whilst it was abolished for young persons. Sweeping sanitary reforms were also included. The penalties which are rightly inflicted upon those who are found selling food unfit for human consump- tion, on those whose scales and measures, whether for selling coal or other commodities, are falsely notified in favour of the vendor, the appointment of women fac- tory inspectors — these are but some of the many reforms which have sprung up within comparatively recent years. Indeed, as we look back over the pages of history, it would almost seem as if centuries and cen- turies of the world's existence had been almost inactive compared with the results which have accrued during the last hundred and sixty years. One was accustomed not long since to hear on every hand references to our " wonderful nineteenth century " ; and, indeed, such an expression is justified. It has beein rightly said that in order to appreciate fully and fairly the value of the SOCIAL PROGRESS 105 nineteenth century one must compare it, not with the eighteenth, the sixteenth, or the beginnings of the Re- naissance : one must go back right as far as the Stone Age before we find anything comparable to the new conditions of life which have evolved. What has hap- pened in the first decade already of the twentieth century is but the further development of that which was well begun in the last century. Notwithstanding that historical judgment to be accurate requires dis- tance, yet one may safely say that even centuries hence the period from, say, 1750 to 1910 will have been one of the most extraordinary progress in the evolution of man. It has been a period which has enabled him to become an active unit and not a mere slothful mortal. He has not been satisfied with remaining just a consumer ; he has shown the wonderful development of which he is capable, that he can overcome many of those tough problems which are set him by the laws of nature. When we bear in mind that duty which man owes to himself and to his fellow-men of doing the best with the endowments of which he is possessed, of extracting from the earth all its treasures for the general welfare of mankind ; and when we look back over time and see so vast an amount of this progress can be squeezed into the last century and a half; we may, as the human race, feel generally proud to have lived in part of that time, and to have borne even our own infinitesimal share. Still more proud may we legitimately feel as Britons that our nation has been permitted to carry out so much of this magnificent work of progress, and in a manner that is by the consent of nations worthy of being copied and duplicated. It is no conceit for us to say so much. It is not a boast, but rather a rejoicing that our country has risen to such heights of usefulness. io6 BRITAIN'S RECORD The future may no doubt have its own surprises for the world, and the task of performing these great works may pass from Britain to some other nation. But the fact remains that the future is ever dependent on the past ; and without the general quickening of life and thought which came soon after the eighteenth century was ushered in, and developed such a pace during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, whatever wonders there may be revealed in the years to come cannot be reckoned as separate phenomena, but as part of one grand scheme spanning centuries. Of this movement in whose years we are still living, it was but natural that we should first investigate the progress of liberty, for until man had freed himself he could do nothing for the community. Until he had obtained a clear set of ideals, the child of civilisation was as one groping in the darkness knowing not which way to turn. It was only when he had definitely found his freedom that he was able to do his best work for his fellows, to improve their lot in labouring and living. Thus have we considered social progress next in order. But whilst he is free he must work, and so we shall proceed to examine the part which he has played in the progress of commerce, of science and learning, the arts and crafts, and so on. We shall see how far British life and thought have entered into this scheme, and not merely that, but in the preservation of that balance amid the affairs of men which we are accustomed to speak of under the heading of justice. We shall find that just as Britain has made the world its debtor in regard to liberty and social progress, so it is with regard to these other matters. The secret of pure water is to ensure first that it emanates from a pure source. The secret of social progress is to see that the home — the SOCIAL PROGRESS 107 basis of all society — is good and wholesome. It is no exaggerated statement to suggest that it is just because there is such sanctity about the British home that we have been able to do so much towards the amelioration of social matters. As soon as that standard begins to be allowed to drop, so quickly will this social power be lowered. To have succeeded for so long in so high a cause is indeed a keen incentive to go ahead with this special sphere of progress. " What man has done, man can do," says the old proverb. What has to be done, can be done, we may reply, and if so, since Britain has done so well in the past, let her not hesitate to perform again in the present and the future. CHAPTER III PROGRESS OF COMMERCE WE shall now address ourselves to the considera- tion of the means by which Britain has con- tributed to the production, distribution, and exchange of the world's wealth. She has done more than nurture a nation of shopkeepers : she has encouraged some of the greatest industries which have ever been developed anywhere. Perhaps she has not always been in the forefront in regard to invention ; but she has possessed a positive genius for taking hold of an invention, developing it, improving it, and putting it to the greatest utility. Somewhat cautious and deliberate in her attitude towards novelties, she has usually begun by ridiculing them and distrusting them, then stopped to inquire if there is anything deserving of attention ; and as soon as she has been convinced that they are desir- able, she has done everything to aid their development and to make up for lost time. We have excellent instances in two such matters as the automobile and the aeroplane Neither of these creations can be said to belong to our country by invention, although as soon as Britain had roused herself and realised that it was her duty to turn her attention to such things, she did so with a will, and forthwith developed a speed for adapta- bility that surprised those not fully acquainted with the national characteristics. The contrast is best seen if compared with the Gallic temperament. With that io8 PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 109 brilliance of mind, that sparkling genius which is so unmistakably theirs, they were ahead of us for a long time in the science of naval architecture. The celerity with which their inventors leapt to the front in the earlier stages of the aeroplane was wonderful. But after it has reached a certain advancement the Gallic temperament seems to lose its first enthusiasm like dulled emotions. There is no live impetus remaining, and so, after so many brilliant flashes of genius, the light goes out, and Britain, both with regard to naval architecture and aeroplanes, keeps the lamp of genius burning steadily. Looked at in its broadest sense, it is just that manifestation of the international principle of division of labour to which we alluded at the outset of this volume. It is essential that there should be this inventive ability, yet it is none the less essential that there should be some steady, sober enthusiasm which will enable the development to go along quietly and effectively. It is the latter which tells in the long run for the good of the universe ; it is that work which Britain has most surely achieved in regard to the world's material prosperity. For just as not always the most brilliant youth at school, nor the university man who goes down covered with academic honours, contributes the most solid good to the community in after years, but rather the man of average ability and all-round attainments, whose faculties have been well exercised and developed : so it is with countries or nations. For instance, it is not much good to make an important scientific discovery unless it is possible sooner or later to employ that discovery for the good of the human race. Now before there can be any commerce to develop, :ertain conditions must necessarily be allowed to exist. First of all, it is not enough that there should be terri- no BRITAIN'S RECORD tories to allow of mutual trading, but these territories should be found and made to learn of each other's existence. So it comes to this, that the basis of inter- national commerce is seen in discovery. That at once brings in the importance of transport. If the people bent on finding new lands wished to get thither, there were before the advent of air-craft only two possible ways — by land or by sea. But since ours is an island country surrounded by sea, it followed that some sort of ship was essential if our forefathers were to wander abroad. The development of the ship, therefore, became of primary importance, and not until this had attained such a state of seaworthiness and size as to carry crew and cargo across the ocean, was the foundation of inter- national trade or discovery in any way advantageous. It is scarcely necessary for me here to detail again the development of the ship which has been the means of spreading Christianity and civilisation, of finding " new and unheard-of lands " (as our forefathers used to allude to them), and of opening up trade routes between those discovered countries and our own. We must con- tent ourselves with remarking that, inasmuch as civili- sation came earlier to the inhabitants of Southern Europe, so the craft of the shipwright developed sooner, so the ship more quickly attained such a size as was demanded by cargo and ocean. Therefore it is not to be wondered that the Phoenicians had circumnavigated Africa, that Genoa and Venice built and sent to sea great ships, that Spain and Portugal achieved such his- toric tasks as the discovery of a sea-road to India and the finding of America, and that the names of the Cabots, of Vasco da Gama and of Columbus stand out for all time with such prominence. But as soon as England was given a chance — as soon PROGRESS OF COMMERCE iii as she had begun to work on the inventions of other maritime nations — the Vikings of the north, and the Portuguese, Spanish and Italians of the south — she advanced so rapidly in adapting these foreign ideas that by the time of Elizabeth she had outstripped her tutors, and no nation could build the like of her ships for traversing the ocean. At the same time that this technical skill had advanced, there was ready at hand that sea-enthusiasm, that fire of freedom, that zeal for adventure, that envy of the Spaniard which we referred to in our first chapter. And, as the accumulation of years, there was also ready for the ships, as soon as they were launched and fitted out, a certain amount of seamanship and navigation, crude, yet as good as any to be found elsewhere. In this spirit, then, with holds well filled with the products of that typically English mediaeval trade, woollen goods, they set forth to find "new and unheard-of" markets for their bales of cloth, and to bring back in their stead such rich metals, spices, fruits, and other commodities that were to be obtained from the countries the other side of the sea. Thus, as yet another instance of our national character- istic already emphasised, the English, notwithstanding that they came on to the sea in the quest of discovery long years after the people of the South, yet became in the shortest time the greatest navigators and discoverers of all. Consider the attempts which our countrymen made in the reign of Edward VI to find a north-east passage, and their successful efforts in opening up trade with Russia. Consider the voyage of Drake round the world in Elizabeth's time, or, many years later, of Anson also circumnavigating the globe. Think of all those perilous voyages round Cape Horn to the Pacific, the efforts to find the north-west passage, and the extra- 112 BRITAIN'S RECORD ordinary achievements on the sea of such men as Frobisher, Davis, and many another. Even the Spanish, with all their years of experience and knowledge, with all their art of navigation and shipbuilding, were left leagues behind. In that glorious treasure-house in which Richard Hakluyt, the famous Elizabethan, collected under one title all " the principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation," will be found the clearest evidence of the seafaring activities of our forefathers up to the end of the sixteenth century. " I have not included within the compass of things onely done in these latter dayes," he writes in his Epistle Dedicatorie to the English Commander-in-Chief who directed the fleet of the Armada, " as though little or nothing woorthie of memorie had bene performed in former ages : but mounting aloft by the space of many hundred yeeres, have brought to light many very rare and worthy monuments, which long have lien miserably scattered in mustie corners." Now among those earlier voyages of discovery which the English nation per- formed, there were many to Iceland, the Orkneys, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, innumerable voyages across the Channel and North Sea, but they were practically all confined to northern Europe, until Richard I's ships undertook that long voyage to the Mediterranean, of which already we have spoken. But after that there follows a long interval until the sixteenth century. By the second decade of that epoch, the trade which had been going on for a long time between England and such Mediterranean ports as Genoa became extended to the Levant. " Divers tall ships " of London, Southampton, and Bristol used to go out to the Near East loaded with cotton and woollen goods, returning home with silks, PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 113 various kinds of wines, sweet oils, Turkey carpets, pepper, cinnamon, and other spices. But always there was a great danger lest the Algerine pirates should waylay these vessels, especially in a calm, and capture both goods and crew. But even before Britain had opened up, for mutual good, this trade between the East and herself, she had done much to develop the overseas trade of Northern Europe. If we are to believe Tacitus, the Port of London was, as far back as the time of the Emperor Nero, famous for the number of merchants who flocked here to do business. The Venerable Bede, who died in the year 734, remarks that London was a "mart town of many nations." The fact was that London was a kind of objective or northern terminus for continental traders, whether from Rome, Gaul, or Germany. It was, so to speak, the market of the north, whither flocked the great European merchants, and as all markets are for the encouraging of trade, so London, even in such early days, was already doing much for the commerce of such part of the world as was discovered, which practically amounted to Europe. William of Malmes- bury, writing in the twelfth century, states that not far from Rochester there stands the noble city of London, abounding with the riches of the inhabitants, and frequented by merchants of all nationalities, and espe- cially from Germany. London was a very useful market to them, because whenever the annual corn supply of England had fallen short the foreign corn merchants could readily find a demand for their harvests. So also Bristol, even by that same century, was doing a good trade with Norway and Ireland. Moreover, during the Middle Ages there were various agreements entered into between the English sovereigns 114 BRITAIN'S RECORD and foreigners to encourage commerce between the latter and the former's subjects. Henry II, for instance, made such an arrangement with the Emperor of Ger- many. It was nothing short of what we have seen recently evolve between the United States and Canada — a kind of reciprocity agreement for the safe transit of trade. In the first year of his reign John also granted a safe-conduct to all foreign merchants of any nation whatsoever, to pass and repass with their mer- chandise to England. Henry III arranged a trade treaty with Haquinus the King of Norway, to allow the merchants of both countries " to go, come, and return to and from both our dominions." It was the same English sovereign who released the merchants of Cologne " from the payment of those two shillings which they were wont to pay out of their Guildhall at London." They were also given, sundry other privileges for the further encouragement of trade between us and themselves — as, for instance, the permission to them to do business at all fairs throughout the kingdom. And this charter of Henry III was at a later date confirmed by Edward I. In the reign of Henry III a charter was similarly granted to the citizens of Lubeck, allow- ing them to sell and traffic "according as they shall think expedient," and Henry's subjects were not to molest them in any way. A great fillip to European commerce was given by Edward I's charter of 1303. It is too long to quote here, but some of its characteristics are worth noting because they show how great an inducement was held out to continental merchants, to develop international trade both for the good of the foreigner and "the service of our kingdom." " We have special care," reads the charter, " for the good estate of all merchants of the PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 115 kingdoms, lands, and countries following: to wit of Almaine, France, Spain, Portugal, Navarre, Lombardy, Florence, Provence, Catalonia, of our duchy of Aquitaine, Tholosa, Caturlune, Flanders, Brabant, and of all other foreign countries and places by what name soever they be called." All merchants from these lands were to be allowed to enter England with their merchandise in safety and security " without paying wharfage, pontage, or pannage." When they returned at the end of their visits, these foreign traders were to be allowed to take back with them any of the English products they had purchased, excepting that they might not take them to such countries as were then at enmity with England, nor in any case might they take out with them wines from England unless with the King of England's special favour and licence. They were to be allowed to lodge in the various English cities, boroughs, and towns ot England where the fairs were held, and if any disagree- ment arose between them and the English merchants in respect to a bargain, then it was to be tried according to the local usages and customs of the fair. And in the event of any complaint being made by these foreign merchants, then the English bailiffs and officers of all fairs were instructed to give speedy justice from day to day without delay. Every opportunity was to be afforded them of recovering their just debts, and having once paid the king's customs they were not to be harassed with other levyings. With such fair and honourable conditions as these, who could wonder that foreign commerce with England was a great source of attraction for the continental merchants ? One of the oldest industries of England — perhaps the oldest of all — is the herring fishery. It is certain that long before the Norman Conquest the herring ii6 BRITAIN'S RECORD fisheries of Great Yarmouth formed an important trade, but there is evidence that this industry was also much indulged in by other countries whose coast touched the North Sea. In the time oi Henry IV these peaceful fishermen of different nationalities had to suffer great hardships, for whilst employed on their fishing grounds they were frequently attacked by pirates, who ruthlessly captured the fish already obtained and made off with whatever portions of the ships' furniture they fancied. Similarly, if they came across a merchant ship making her way loaded with cargo on the North Sea, they would stop her and relieve her of her freight. So many complaints were made at the time that, for the good of both English and Prussian merchants, Henry IV arranged with the Master-General of Prussia for the mutual protection and understanding of such ships. For instance, if any of the goods or merchandise of the Prussians should be captured at sea by English pirates and then be brought into an English port, the harbour authorities were bound, even on suspicion, to arrest and keep in safe custody those goods until such time as they should be demanded by their lawful Prussian owners, when they were to be handed back to the latter. We must remember that when those seaport towns of Germany and the Baltic banded themselves together for mutual trading interests, and formed perhaps the strongest mercantile corporation of the world under the title of the Hanseatic League, England was one of its best customers, if not the very best. Eighty- five towns, including Lubeck, Hamburg, Amster- dam, and Dordrecht, were included therein. They possessed at one time the pick of the world's shipping, and many a time did the English kings purchase some of their finest craft. It was partly the trade between PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 117 the Hanseatic League and the Mediterranean, but especially between the above-mentioned ports and England, which enabled Hamburg and Amsterdam and Dordrecht to attain the importance which they now possess in the world, although since the newer port of Rotterdam sprang up Dordrecht has lost much of its pristine importance. The Hans towns were united to England by so many bonds of commerce, by such thoroughly fair and reasonable trade-treaties, were afforded such justice and recompense whenever irregu- larities had arisen in the course of business, and through their master expressed themselves so satisfied with the treatment meted out to them, that one cannot easily exaggerate the indebtedness which they owed to England for centuries, and indeed still owe to us for having assisted them so much in the past. It may interest the reader to know that the London agency of this Hanseatic League existed until quite recently, and their offices were only demolished to make room for the present Cannon Street Railway Station. In short, England afforded a very fine mart for those countries which had goods to dispose of. Spain sent her figs, raisins, dates, wines, liquorice, her wax, her iron. Portugal came with her salt, and hides, and wine. Prussia sent her beer and bacon, copper, flax, and bow- staves. The Genoese brought cargoes of silk, black pepper, and went back with our woollen cloth of all colours. The Venetians despatched sweet wines and spicery, and " grocer's ware." Flanders also had her cloth to sell. But Flemings, if yee bee not wroth, The great substance of your cloth at the full Yee wot ye make it of our English woll, commented a contemporary English rhyme. ii8 BRITAIN'S RECORD And so the progress of commerce in the Middle Ages went on between ourselves and the other nations of Europe. During the unhappy Wars of the Roses inter- national trade as regards ourselves was naturally at a standstill, as it always is during a civil war. But after that Europe was too small a place for English enthu- siasm. It began when Henry VII of England issued letters patent to John Cabot and his three sons " for the discoverie of new and unknowen lands," " to sail to all parts, countreys, and seas of the East, of the West, and of the North, under our banners and ensignes, with five ships of what burthen or quantity soever they be, and as many mariners or men as they will have with them in the sayd ships, upon their own proper costs and charges, to seeke out, discover, and finde whatso- ever isles, countreys, regions or provinces of the heathen and infidels whatsoever they be, and in what part of the world soever they be, which before this time have bene unknowen to all Christians ... to set up our banners and ensignes in every village, towne, castle, isle, or maine land of them newly found." True, the Cabots were Venetians, but their ships and crews were English, and when after setting forth from Bristol, in the year 1497, they crossed the Atlantic and ''dis- covered that land which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24 of June, about five of the clocke early in the morning," for "not long after that Chris- topher Columbus had discovered the Islands and con- tinent of the West Indies for Spaine, John and Sebastian Cabot made discovery also of the rest from Florida northwards to the behoofe of England." It was not yet that England had any deep-sea navigators, although she had plenty of coasting seamen. But the Venetian Cabots were as good navigators as even Spain pos- PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 119 sessed, and when three savages were brought back to England by Cabot from " Newfound Island," there was something concrete to fire the imaginations of our ancestors, and to make them go out and lay the foun- dations of what has since become the vast British Empire, with all its commercial trade, development, and internal prosperity. Presently English seamen applied themselves so diligently to the science and art of ocean navigation, to the study of " sea-cardes " (charts), that they had no need of Venetian or Spanish pilots. The world of seas was theirs to wander over, and away they went with Drake and Hawkins to the Spanish Main to inaugurate illegal business with the Spanish colonists, plundering towns where opposition met them, capturing Spanish treasure-ships, bringing into Dartmouth their spoils of precious metals, but in particular, through capture of the carack San Felipe by Drake off the Azores, they found from the ship's papers those invalu- able, long-kept secrets of the East Indian trade. The European nations had been driven to seek a new route to India, for the eastern end of the Mediterranean had been rendered unbearable by the cruelty and extortion of the Turks, who had taken Constantinople in 1453. That had prevented traders from using the overland route to India, and it was with a view to finding a sea- route to that country that the voyages of Columbus and Vasco da Gama were directed. The latter, in the same year that Cabot had discovered the American mainland, had doubled the Cape of Good Hope and made the Indian shores. For ninety years the Portuguese kept to themselves the knowledge of the Indian trade until Drake captured the carack. English trade with India soon followed Drake's exploit, and in 1600, just before Elizabeth's death, the East India Company, which no BRITAIN'S RECORD lasted for so many years, was formed. Various Eliza- bethan expeditions to South America, in addition, brought back not merely commodities new and strange to England, but the knowledge that there were rich lands only waiting to be developed for commerce. Raleigh, who, more than any other Englishman, saw the importance of founding a colonial empire, made every effort, with his half-brother Sir Humphry Gilbert, to begin by colonising North America. Gilbert's expedi- tion of 1578 was a failure. In 1583 he and Raleigh organised a joint expedition which took possession of our first colony Newfoundland, but Gilbert was wrecked and drowned, and the survivors returned home. In 1584 and the following year two other expeditions were sent to settle at the mouth of the Chesapeake river, and the colony of Virginia was founded; but in 1586 the colonists returned home, and in spite of other expedi- tions sent out, it was not till after Raleigh's imprison- ment that the project of again colonising Virginia was taken up by a body of merchants and others who called themselves the Virginia Company. Not till the year 1607 di^ the project succeed, when the famous Captain John Smith led an expedition, and thus the second English colony was formed, the first stone which was to build up the future United States of America, and pre- sently there was to begin that never-ceasing stream of emigrants from England and other parts of Europe to the North American mainland. Let us sum up, then. By the beginning of the seven- teenth century England had already made vast con- tributions to the cause of the world's commerce. She had become the finest shipbuilder in the world. She was already possessed of the finest seamen and naviga- tors and marine fighting men. She had formed an PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 121 extensive commercial connection with the countries 01 Northern Europe. She had welded the closest trading bonds with the Mediterranean, and formed various Levant companies, such as the Smyrna Company, the Turkey Company, and so on, most of these having their head-quarters in London, or if not in London, at any rate Bristol. She had smashed the power of Spain and Portugal, thus leaving the Spanish Main anything but a mare clausum. She had opened up trade with India, wrested the secrets of that trade from Spain ; she had explored the coast-line of North and South America on the Atlantic side and partly on the Pacific. She had landed her men and had a look in at many of the ports, seen the nature of the natives and the country's products. One of her sons — Drake — had been right round the world. Newfoundland had become our colony; the mainland of North America had begun to be peopled by English emigrants. The first streaks of red which to-day mark modern maps to indicate British possessions were being laid on. The night was past, the day of big things was at hand. The Middle Ages had vanished like a dream, fading into things forgotten at the coming of light. That half of the world which had been ignorant of the other half had already got into communication with it. Not Spain nor Portugal, not Venice nor Genoa was to be the centre of the world from which all lines of commercial activity radiated, but England and London. Trade was to flow backwards and forwards between England and the world. True, there were those checks which we referred to in our chapter on the Progress of Liberty. The Dutch Wars of the seventeenth century had to be fought out to prove the mastery of England in the world. When that point had been settled France arose 122 BRITAIN'S RECORD to contest the same issue, and after the struggle had stretched over many years, and occasionally Spain had come on to the scene once more and lent a weak hand, at last England was again pre-eminent. Even the break with the American colonists and the Declaration of Independence made no real difference in principle. Geographically, the United States are not English, and never will be again. But in language, in most of their ideals, in manners and habits, and a thousand things besides, they are most certainly English. Such, briefly, is the contribution which England had made to the world's commercial progress by the first decade of the seventeenth century. She had, so to speak, taken a knife and cut open the world to show to herself, and everyone who cared to look, its wonderful contents. Or, to speak without metaphor, she had already begun to teach the world the rudiments of advanced commerce, at the same time inculcating her own commercial ideals. She had taught the world what vast possibilities the globe contained and for so many centuries had remained undeveloped. It is, indeed, wonderful, when we contemplate the map ot the world, to realise that from that little kingdom situated so lonely in the North European sea there should have evolved so much, such power over the rest of the world. It is yet another proof of the truth that what counts is not territory nor wealth, but the human element. The most valuable possession of a country is not its funds, its art treasures, nor its historic monuments, but its men who made her to be what she has become. To me it seems as if you could divide English history into two parts. Up to about the end of the sixteenth century England was reaching forth to obtain her hold on the world. From that time she has PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 123 been engaged in making that hold secure. Up till the beginning of the seventeenth century she had been a follower rather than a leader. Ever since then, omit- ting the Dutch and French and smaller wars as mere phases and ephemeral events, she has been teaching the world to repeat three words, and from much repetition to understand finally their meaning. The world has at last come to realise that her mistress was right, and that the child was less wise than the teacher. It is able now to articulate the phrase, " British : therefore best." But we have not yet done with the work which our country has performed in opening the world for com- merce. Before commerce can be world-wide, the whole of the world capable of trading must be found. And there was still much to be explored, much to be developed by England before the trader could come along. We all know perfectly well that trade follows the flag, but the flag must go first in the procession. As a result of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and the first years of the nineteenth centuries, England did much towards the completion of her great colonial project of Empire, the beginnings of which had been witnessed by the obtaining of Newfoundland, the settling in Virginia, the founding of the East India Company, and, under Cromwell, the seizure of Jamaica. We have neither room nor intention to sketch here an account of those wars which dragged on after Holland had been given her quietus. Bit by bit the map of the world was being painted with more dabs of red, until by the time that George III ascended the throne England possessed the following territories : — In Europe she held Minorca and Gibraltar. In America she had wrested Canada from the French. She also possessed New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, 124 BRITAIN'S RECORD the American Colonies, Jamaica, Barbados, and a handful of other West Indian islands. In Asia she was in possession of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. In Africa she held St. Helena, a very convenient place at which to touch for vessels bound from England to Calcutta. But presently, as everyone knows, we were to lose the American Colonies and Minorca ; but during the French war we gained Malta and Heligoland in Europe, whilst in the New World we obtained Trinidad, Tobago, and British Guiana. By the year 1815, in India we had become masters of large tracts of land on the Ganges and Southern India, as well as the island 01 Ceylon ; and indirectly we were rulers of everything south of the Himalayas, excepting Scinde, the Punjab, and Nepaul. By peaceful means we had secured a claim to Australia and New Zealand, and already our colonists had begun to settle in New South Wales and Tasmania. Nor must we omit to refer to the invaluable marine surveys and discoveries made by Captain Cook, his discovery of the Sandwich Islands, his hydrographic work off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland, his proof of the non-existence of a southern continent, his endeavour to find a passage round the north of America, the valuable geographic and astronomical data which were collected from his voyages. Need we detail how from small beginnings India became an integral part of the British Empire, how Australia and New Zealand became peopled with English emigrants, how British rule spread to the west, south, and east of Africa, how her influence became established in Egypt and the Soudan ? Every reader knows that during the twentieth century Britain's policy has enabled her to expand and strengthen our Empire in South Africa. The Boer War had to be fought, but it is past and done with now. Emery IValker CAPTAIN COOK PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 125 As a result of that war the South African map was given a little more British red, and our colonies in that part now consist of Natal, which has enjoyed responsible government since the year 1893 ; the Orange River Colony, which was annexed in 1900 and acknowledged the British sovereign in 1903 ; the Transvaal, annexed in 1900, and granted representative government in 1907 ; Cape Colony, which we took from the Dutch in 1795; and Rhodesia, a "sphere of British influence" under the British South African Company. To-day the outlook for South Africa, though not without problems and difficulties, is that of a united South Africa, differing in non-essentials and agreeing so to differ, but united in fundamental principles and enjoying the privileges and prestige of the British flag. Already in 1836 the first colonisation of Australia had taken place ; in 1839 New Zealand was also first permanently colo- nised, and in the same year Aden, the Gibraltar of the Red Sea, passed to the British dominion. With the acquisition of these colonies during the space 01 some centuries three results have followed ot the highest importance. Firstly, it has come about that they have been afforded the fairest and most equitable rule instead of being ground under the heel of despotism or militarism, as most certainly would have happened had other European Powers but England obtained them. Secondly, arising from this relation to England — the mart and clearing-house of the world — there has been cemented the closest of business ties, to the general good of the colonies themselves, their development, and the new market which is thus opened not merely for goods from the mother country, but all the big nations of the world having commodities to exchange. Thirdly, this bond of union has drawn numbers of emigrants 126 BRITAIN'S RECORD from Britain to the colonies, often with capital, brains, and at any rate physical labour to develop their agricul- tural possibilities, their mineral resources, their fisheries, shipping, or other industries. Far from entering a state of oppression when they received the light yoke of British rule, the newly-formed colonies have found that they became possessed of better conditions — better rule, better justice, better means of acquiring wealth and maintaining over-seas trade. One may pause a moment and imagine whether such good results would have accrued to all these vast territories had, say, Russia or a modern Germany obtained possession of them and ruled them instead of Britain. Would they have enjoyed either despotism or militarism ? Would they not have been continually plotting or revolting ? Would not trade with them have been greatly endan- gered, if not entirely at a standstill ? Would their natural products have been so well developed, or that feeling of loyalty and contentment, which springs from good government, been there to hold out encouragement to progress when bad times occur, and earthquake or hurricane blasts the hearts of the struggling inhabitants ? The answer is in the negative. Everyone knows this as surely as he knows anything at all. England was predestined for this work, and the commercial world knows how deeply indebted it remains to her. There is no greater enemy to trade than that wars and rumours of wars or revolutions should arise. There is no greater incentive to trade and to the investment of capital than to be assured that the country is settled, and its inhabitants are happy and well satisfied with their government. Their lot is such that they go about developing their land with enthusiasm. Capital is pouring in as fast as they want it for further develop- PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 127 ments ; their products, whether bananas or frozen meat, gold or corn, find ready markets wherever such com- modities are acceptable, regardless of preference towards the home country. In return there come back to the colonies, by way of exchange, better implements for their work, improved domestic appliances and safe- guards of health, even luxuries for the workers them- selves. And so the British colonies have gone on. Britain has aided them with men, money, and by instituting regular connections of sailing or steamship lines, thus facilitating the communication between the mother and her daughter colonies. Is there anything left that a good mother has omitted to perform ? Incidentally the possession of these vast acres of colonies has been for the good of Britain. The population of our country was, in the days prior to the great commercial expansion and industrial move- ment, greatly in excess of the means for a livelihood which Britain provided. Because employment was limited and often scarce, so wages were comparatively low, as they must always be when the demand is less than the supply : and there was a scarcity of food. But it was not till about the year 181 5 that the obvious solution to the difficulty was found in emigra- tion. By that date the long-drawn-out European war had brought matters to a crisis, and all this poverty and misery could be tolerated no longer. But since there was now peace there came a stream of emigrants to British colonies from the mother land, a stream that actually increased in size until as many as seven and a quarter millions of people had within the next sixty years alone found their new habitations the other side ' of the ocean. By about the middle of the nineteenth century there was a rise in the respect for those colonies 128 BRITAIN'S RECORD whither Britain for a time despatched her convicts. The honest colonists not unnaturally protested, so the convict establishments were abandoned, and there was a still stronger incentive than ever for emigrants to go out and try their luck in a distant country while not forfeiting the protection of the British flag. The extension which our country has made in her colonial empire is without precedent. When one con- siders that she exercises rule over about one quarter ot the globe, that she herself is in size one of the smallest of her possessions, and that in the American continent alone she owns three million and a half square miles of what assuredly will presently be the richest territory anywhere, one begins to realise what exactly Britain's place in the universe is. Canada in itself is a magni- ficent and mighty empire, whose resources have as yet scarcely been tapped. And yet it is but a part of the huge British Empire. We can gain at a glance some idea of what Britain means as the commercial power of the world if we just look, by way of imagina- tion, at the possibilities which could accrue assuming this vast complex Empire were to unite more closely in one trade-treaty to their mutual benefit and the exclu- sion of other interests. Think what it would mean to the commerce of other nations, assuming such a treaty were on the whole deemed advisable. I am not seek- ing to advocate protection, nor indeed expressing any opinion. My object is merely to suggest the power which lies behind the Empire, a power which, if it were deemed well, could be made to cripple the trade of the world without ever firing a shot or withdrawing an ambassador. Whether or not such a course would be found in the long run to be advisable ; whether it might not lead to serious possibilities, we need not stop to PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 129 inquire. Expressed in modern terms, Britain has in her hands the ability to create the most extensive and gigantic trust which was ever conceived by the wit of man. Let it at once be laid to her credit thas she has not abused that power, nor crippled the in- dustries of other nations by shutting her own colonial ports to their ships and goods. Within the most recent years the importance of Imperialism has begun to be reckoned with. There has been born a desire for colonies and motherland to draw more closely to each other, and there is so much for mutual good in this imperial idea that it is possible that before many years have elapsed we shall see something done, some vast- reaching arrangement made which will mean a kind ot optestas Britannica contra mundum. There is absolutely no precedent for such an occurrence, and its results would be, both for commerce and matters generally, of such profound import that one scarcely dares conjure up the actual results that would accrue. Only this we may safely prophesy — that the peace of the world would be less likely to be endangered, and that in consequence the free development of the earth's products would be allowed to go on unhindered. If Britain has made mistakes in the past with reference to her colonies, she is not so conceited as to fail to realise that they were errors of judgment. Such a series of incidents as led to the loss of our American colonies and the founding of the United States will never be allowed to occur again. That old pompous, selfish, narrow-minded spirit which flourished during the eighteenth century is now as dead as the dodo. There is far too much common sense at work nowadays, there is so much more knowledge of affairs and men through travel and education : finally, there is far too I30 BRITAIN'S RECORD keen a democratic feeling and a bond of human sym- pathy ever to suffer the bullying and political mis- management of even one insignificant colony. On the contrary, the greatest consideration is paid to the colonies, to study their interests as far as may be possible, and for the general welfare not merely of themselves as individuals, but as integral parts of the whole British Empire. In short, whether it be as the discoverer, founder, and developer of colonies on the biggest scale ever seen, or in such acts as the opening of China for the merchants of the world to come in and trade ; or again, as the centre of the financial world, with its markets, clearing-house, and the home of most of the steamship lines ; Britain, apart altogether from her importance as a consumer and importer oi over-seas commodities, has a relation to commerce which is unique, that is of such a peculiar nature that almost it is impossible to estimate it without losing sight of some of its most valuable features. We may pass on now to a consideration of the means of transporting both commerce and people from place to place, and we shall see in what manner Britain has contributed her share towards the matters desired. It is not of much avail to know that somewhere leagues across the ocean there are lands rich with gold and all sorts of valuable and tradeable commodities unless you can have the necessary mechanism for bringing these commodities from the places where they are found to the markets where they can be sold. For this purpose you require transport for both land and sea. You may very probably require a railroad from the gold mine to the coast ; you will need a harbour to be made by com- petent engineers after due survey. You will need a continuous fleet of shipping to carry your gold and PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 131 other products of the land to the distant market. You may require all sorts of machinery for the tilling of the soil, the extracting of the precious metals, the loading of the ships from the quays, and a thousand other details. Now all these very necessary articles come to mankind not as a sudden gift from heaven, but only as the result of invention, the application of years of study and experiment. Someone had to evolve them. In this evolution has Britain again caused the world deeply to be indebted to her by her invention and improvement of those things which are essential to the welfare of the world's commerce ? The answer is em- phatically in the affirmative. We spoke some pages back of the part which Eng- land played in the history of sixteenth-century dis- covery through the advance she made in seamanship, navigation, and shipbuilding. Presently she was to be eclipsed for a while during the great prosperity of the Netherlanders, when the latter had become such volu- minous shipbuilders, such ocean-carriers, that they were known as the " wagoners of the sea." But the Dutch Republic had its rise and decline. Then France, with its hereditary scientific insight, began to design superior ocean ships to anything that ever had been seen or sailed. But before very long England had appreciated this application of science to the art of shipbuilding, and banishing all rule-of-thumb, soon found that she could build quite as fine ships as ever France sent into the water. So before the final apotheosis 01 the sailing-ship was seen in the gallant three-deckers of war or, later, the swift tea-clippers of trade, Britain had shown that as she had led the world in other matters, so she did in the matter of shipbuilding, the means of communication between the distant parts of the world 132 BRITAIN'S RECORD and her own ports. But the sailing-ship had scarcely been able to reach her state of perfection than she was seen to be doomed, for there was at hand the beginning of the steamship regime. Now it is always a difficult matter to state exactly where originality in the matter of invention begins, and where the inventor leaves severely alone the data which he has derived from the labours of other men. In the matter of the steamship the issue is a little complicated, because though Eng- land did not give the first practical steamship to the world, yet she was then building the finest ships, and she was the first to give to the world the steam-engine that was to propel the ship. And though the American, Fulton, was the first to cause the steamship to go for a long distance (up the Hudson and back), yet his engine and many of his data had come from England, and already he had seen a Scotch steamboat, the Charlotte DundaSy steaming along a British canal. Therefore in the bring- ing forth of the first steamships — the most valuable means of transit which to-day exists — Britain's share was far from inconspicuous. But it was after Fulton's historic success, and he had shown what possibilities lay in steamcraft, that Britain set her mind to advance this new type to the best of her ability. Excepting for the rivalry from German firms in recent years and a tem- porary competition on the part of the Americans quite early in the establishment of transatlantic steamship service, Britain has from the year 1838 been the leader of the steamship movement. What has she done ? She had so far evolved the steamship that by the year men- tioned she was to have the satisfaction of knowing that not one but four had crossed from British waters in safety to America, so that two years later the Cunard, the first steamship line, was founded, and the royal PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 133 mails were carried across the Atlantic in the Cunard Britannia. From that year to this the British impetus in steam-shipping has been paramount. Many different steamship lines have sprung up in British ports carry- ing on a regular service with all the principal ports of the world, linking markets to the regions of raw pro- ducts, accelerating trade, bringing to the new lands thousands and thousands of emigrants, and doing this with continually improving comfort to the passengers, with an extraordinary degree of safety considering the amount of mileage covered. The high ideals which have been continually raised and as continuously obeyed by the British steamship lines have moulded the whole of the world's steamship line development. As the Cunard, the White Star, and other lines com- peted in friendly rivalry against each other there was given a wonderful incentive to naval architects, to ship- builders, and everyone connected with marine engineer- ing. England had taken up naval architecture where France had left it, had founded the Institution of Naval Architects in the year i860, and through the experi- ments and profound knowledge of such men as Scott Russell and Froude had advanced the science innumer- able stages beyond any other nation. There arose the new development of building ships not of wood — the only material which had contented the shipbuilding of all ages since the coracle type had been discarded — but first of iron and subsequently of steel. Powerful ship- building corporations such as at Belfast and on the Clyde sprang up, the propelling machinery became more perfect and more powerful each year, the size of the ships themselves becoming too big for many a har- bour, until to-day we have our Mauretanias and Olympics and the rest. Thanks to the invention of an English 134 BRITAIN'S RECORD farmer, the paddle-wheel of Fulton gives way to the propeller. Thanks to English genius, the propelling- engines continue to advance until they culminate in the Parsons turbine. The single propeller gives way to twin screws, they are surpassed by triple and quad- ruple screws. The accommodation internally is im- proved until it becomes as luxurious afloat as on shore. The devices to ensure the safety of ship and passengers whilst on the high seas go on improving until it be- comes difficult to devise anything more. And all this has come from British genius and labour for the annihila- tion of space between Europe and the most distant country whence cargoes and people ever embark. If Britain had never fought for centuries for the world's liberty, if she had done nothing to heal the sufferings of others, contributed naught to the work of colonisation, done nothing for art and literature, never lifted her hand to abolish slavery, nor smashed the tyrannical Napoleon, she would have remained for all time famous and admirable for having brought into such perfection that wondrous creature we call the steamship. For she conferred such a boon on commerce as never before had been granted. All the time she was building ships of wood to be propelled by sails she was doing that which had been done for at least eight thousand years. But when she began to build of iron or steel mammoth creatures to travel by steam's aid as many miles an hour as the Elizabethan sailing-ships covered in six, she was doing something for which there was absolutely no precedent whatever. One has no conception of the part which Britain still plays in commerce until one realises that nearly one half of the world's shipping is British owned and built, and that a great part of the rest is British built. And even those who to-day build PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 135 their steel steamships owe to Britain most of their knowledge in this art. How else would Germany and Japan have become able to do what they can to-day in this respect ? Thus again do we affirm that our mother has been teacher as well as leader. So, also, with regard to the creating oi navies and of the types of warships. " The wooden walls ot Eng- land " in the days of the sailing-ships have long since passed into an historic expression. True, England did receive her inspiration in the matter of the ironclad type from France; but with her accustomed adaptability our mother soon grasped the value and problems of the new conditions and improved on the Gallic idea. And so she has gone on ever since. She got away from the mediaeval manner of mounting the guns in port-holes ; she improved the standard type of gun, made it shoot further, made it of unprecedented size ; and even if she got her idea of the torpedo-boat from France and the submarine from America, she again adapted herself so readily to such novel departures that she has outstripped the inventors themselves and all other nations. As if this were not enough, and a thou- sand other details besides for which we have no room here to discuss, she astounded the world only a few years back by creating in the Dreadnought a new standard of battleship, a fighting unit which has made half the extant navies to be obsolete at one stroke, and compelled the most drastic changes to be undertaken speedily. What has this to do with commerce, do you ask ? It has everything, for the reason that those trade routes, those " sea-lanes " which are frequented day by day by the great commerce-carriers, would be impass- able except the steam warships were ready at hand to protect the right of way. And as it has been in the 136 BRITAIN'S RECORD larger issues, so with the smaller ones. No country has done so much for marine survey, for finding out the lurking dangers of submarine shoal or rock. No nation has ever done so much towards an efficient system of buoys, lighthouses, and lightships, all marked on the most carefully prepared charts, thus saving thousands of ships from becoming wrecked. No nation has exercised such a care as British legislation has brought about to prevent ships being overloaded or proceeding to sea in an unseaworthy condition. It is well known that when a British bottom becomes too unfit for British service there is always a foreigner ready to buy her and to go on trading with her until one day the ship is posted as missing, and remains so for the rest of time. It has been well said by a thoughtful writer, that the commercial supremacy of England is so overwhelming that we scarcely admit any foreign nation to the hon- ours of comparison. If we add up all the goods which are exported from all the foreign countries of the world, we shall find that about one-half of these comes from England alone, and that our exports are equal to one- third of those of all the rest of the world. But it was not till after the middle of the eighteenth century that commerce got a chance. For whilst at home the trans- port facilities were bad enough, they were quite as bad, if not worse, abroad. In those days British roads were so bad and so few that intercommunication between our towns was strictly limited. In Lancashire, for in- stance, it is said that travelling could only be carried on with the greatest danger, so bad was the condition of the roads, whilst in winter the means of all com- munication was almost entirely suspended. Thus it happened sometimes that large towns were practically PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 137 starving for want of meat and grain, whilst the farmers no great distance away were unable to bring their produce to market. In such a condition of affairs the encouragement to international commerce was utterly absent for two reasons. Firstly, there were no means of getting the produce to ports ; secondly, the Briton had become so accustomed to his isolation in the absence of transport facilities that he was shut up in a little world of his own that was bounded by the limits of his own town or village. There was no incentive for him to wander beyond those limits, no- thing to fire his imagination, except the occasional return of a sailor relative. He grew his own food, his own flax or wool. His women-folk did their share with the spinning-wheel. He lived, worked, and died in the same village where he was born, and the rest of the world had scarcely the remotest interest for him. The Romans had given to our country practically all the roads that were of the slightest use, but they had been designed with a view to making the route as direct as possible, and without much regard for gradient. It seems almost incredible that for hundreds and hundreds of years our forefathers should have remained content with this Roman legacy, and allowed even these to get into such a condition of neglect that all travelling was restricted either to pedestrians or on horseback. If any goods at all had to be transported, they must necessarily be carried on pack-horses. But presently, with that newer renaissance of the early eighteenth century which we have had occasion already to refer to more than once, there came an improvement. Stage wagons and coaches demanded that the improvement of the roads should be taken in hand. This improvement was effected between 1775 138 BRITAIN'S RECORD and 1800 by two men, Thomas Telford and John Loudan Macadam, by whose efforts Britain herself became their debtors ; the roads were improved beyond anything before imagined, the flow of commerce was allowed its freedom, the exchange of wealth was rendered easy not only between inland town and seaside port, but indirectly over-seas trade profited because of the greater incentive thereto. In time, also, abroad the new British ideals in road-making were adopted for the more important thoroughfares, and thus again Britain in reforming herself was reforming the world. To-day the motorist as he rushes along the great high roads with such smoothness and absence of friction may well bless the name of Macadam. Indeed, had not this ingenious Scotsman lived when he did, the advent of the automobile might have been delayed : certainly the motor-car, with its delicate adjustments, its dependence on an even road-surface, would have possessed a very limited sphere of utility. The excel- lent surface of our British roads is truly to the foreign visitor still one of the most striking of our national characteristics. Indeed, Macadam has left behind a new word in the languages of the world, and had he not been able to bring about his great road -reform after years of study and experiment, the transport of commerce, the development of British domestic and foreign trade would doubtless materially have been delayed. Directly as a result of his improvement, the stage-coach multiplied and internal travel was acceler- ated. Until the year 1836 stage-coaches continued to improve until the coming of the railway took away most of the demand for them. But in the first half of the nineteenth century England was to improve upon the heavy, clumsy coach which was generally used by PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 139 the wealthy, and to give yet another word to the vocabulary of the world's transports. A great sensa- tion was caused about the year 1838 by the building ot a new road vehicle under the personal direction of Lord Chancellor Brougham. Instead of the old, lumbering coach, a small closed, one-horse carriage was put on the London streets, and this " brougham " led to a com- plete change of design in carriages not only in our own country, but also on the Continent. It caused the old stage wagons (with their canvas hood, their broad wheels bound with four or five iron tyres and drawn by eight or ten horses, a reminiscence of which is still to be seen in the South African journeyings over the veld) to become obsolete in England and on the Continent ; it made the coach to be suitable less for the town and city than for the carrying of mails between one town and another. Since that time we have improved on even Macadam's system, so that in those portions of the Continent, America, and other parts of the world where British modern methods have not been followed, the condition of the road-surface strikes the British tourist as amazing. The evolution of the railway is not without interest, and the part which England has played in that con- nection has been very great indeed. For not only has she thus accelerated the development of the transport of her own goods on their way to foreign countries, but since it is recognised that one of the greatest civilising factors of modern times is the railway, she has made every country of the world deeply obliged to her. So soon as a railway is constructed across even a sparsely populated continent, so quickly there will flock little communities to settle at different points along the line wherever the land is able to yield its produce. Think I40 BRITAIN'S RECORD of what the railways stretching across the great Ameri- can continent have done for both the United States and Canada, linking up the Pacific to the Atlantic, touching all the chief sources of supply, bringing into existence within the quickest space of time towns, factories, and trade. Consider how the railway has annihilated space, made the land journey from Calais to the Sea of Japan to be not the mere product of an ingenious novelist's imagination, but to be achieved by a concrete trans- Siberian line. To-day, with the construction which is going on to join the Persian Gulf to the Dardanelles, the South Atlantic to the South Pacific via the Andes, Cairo to Cape Town, it is almost impossible to estimate the supreme value that must accrue from this means of transport in the future development of the world. In the past it has conferred the greatest of boons: in the future, who shall dare to suggest the limitations with which it shall be possessed? Here again British enterprise, invention, and manufacture will be held in grateful remembrance by all who appre- ciate the advantages of civilisation and commerce. And yet, as we said in our introduction, invention is not so much an incident as a series of incidents. The railway system is one of the finest instances of this assertion, even if we limit the study strictly to the achievements brought about by British brains, capital, and labour ; for the idea of the railroad is earlier than the railway engine. For years it had been recognised that by using longitudinal lines the haulage of goods could be rendered less difficult, for the obvious reason that friction would be reduced almost to a minimum, and power thus economised. Even as far back as the year 1650, in England, the laying of longitudinal timbers on the road was employed in the district of Newcastle in PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 141 connection with the coal industry. But though the friction was small, yet obviously there remained a certain amount, and so the wood wore gradually away. In 1767, therefore, plates of cast iron were substituted at Coalbrookdale, with the result that the friction was thereby considerably lessened and consequently the power of haulage required was less great. Wooden wheels were used, and so shaped that they were pre- vented from running off the rails ; but in 1734 cast iron wheels with a single inner flange were being substituted, and were in use near Bath, Whitehaven, and Newcastle. The invention of the narrow iron edge rail was made by William Jessop, but the rapid wearing of both his rails and wheels caused the necessity of having a wider surface than had first been deemed essential. All sorts of British improvements continued to make the rail- road safer and generally better. The T-sectioned rail came into use about 1820, and finally steel was substi- tuted for iron. We have not space to follow the in- genious improvements effected by such men as Joseph Locke, Adams, and others, but must now turn from the railroad to the locomotive. For the one was as essential to the other as the engine to the steamship. Many years before the advent of railway locomotion, however, steam-propelled road carriages had been brought into use. But it was reserved for Trevithick to construct the first steam-propelled road carriage which could travel more quickly than any horse-drawn vehicle. That was in the year 1804. Other inventors up to about the year 1834 followed this lead and made steam coaches, but all advance in this direction was arrested by the Act of Parliament which permitted the imposi- tion of heavy tolls on carriages propelled by machinery. But, at the same time, the railway system had achieved 142 BRITAIN'S RECORD so much success, and had gained so great an amount of confidence with its superior capabilities of speed, that the fast road carriage was abandoned, until many years later the motor-car came into being. With the steam traction engine we are not concerned immediately, for notwithstanding all the improvements which Britain has effected therein, yet it was the actual invention of Joseph Cugnot, a French military engineer. Such an introduction must suffice, then, before we proceed to see how the union of utility came about between the railroad and the railroad engine. The first commercially successful locomotives date from about the year 1813, and were employed in the north of England, of British manufacture. It was a year later that George Stephenson finally set at rest the question as to whether the locomotive and railroad were to become a commercial revolution. For he showed conclusively that the locomotive could develop a speed much greater than the fastest racehorse had ever ac- complished. We need not go on to describe step by step all those important advances and improvements which followed in the course of time. It is sufficient to say that the railway became an established system necessary for all civilised and progressive nations. It rescued from stagnation the most inaccessible corners of the United Kingdom. It awakened towns, cities, and villages which had been enjoying their long sleep ever since mediaeval times. The inhabitants roused themselves, began to think and to do. The desire for travel was born in them. They longed now to wander all over the world and to see its sights, since the steam- ship and the railway had made travel not a hardship but a pleasure. The construction of railways proceeded at such a pace in practically every country, that com- PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 143 mercial intercourse was now fully freed from those restraints which for centuries had held it back. It was now that distant lands and our own colonies began to increase in estimation ; it was thus that even the most remote village of Northern America began suddenly to have a value to the rest of the world. Distance was no longer an insurmountable obstacle. If there were commodities to be found anywhere, the railway and the steamship would bring them to the markets of Europe. Britain by her work in connection with the steamship and railway had led the way ; the other nations were following as quickly as they could. All sorts of curious results ensued. The old idea of the self-satisfied, self-contained, self-supporting communities was to receive its death-blow. There ensued a greater exchange of wealth, and the principle of division of labour was made use of on all hands. Communities which had dwelt apart from each other for such ages now began to intermingle. Presently the countrymen flocked to the towns, there to find better employment ; all sorts of prejudices began to be broken down as travel extended and isolation became a dead letter. A wider outlook on life was being taken as new ideas came through the observation of new people and sights. In short, this great British aid to the progress of transport had begun to weld the inhabitants of the world into one homogeneous whole ; to unify them, not to separate them, as they had existed for untold numbers of years. As a result of the steamship and the railways of the world the life and thoughts of our time have been quickened amazingly. Everywhere there is the desire for speed ; the world is no longer content to sit still. It must be up and doing, and what it has to do it does quickly. As a result of this British enterprise the 144 BRITAIN'S RECORD exchange ot thought, ideas, commerce, and people between one nation and another has been made possible on a large scale. It has all happened so recently, so rapidly, and with such enormous conse- quences, that we can scarcely weigh their full value. Who can tell, for example, what will ensue ethnologi- cally from the future completion of the trans-African Railway, or politically from the Bagdad Railway with its keen rivalry of the Suez Canal ? Or perhaps, in that far distant day when the Japanese may wish to send their yellow troops pouring into Europe, how great a value will there not be set upon the trans-Siberian Railway? We have seen so much in so short a time proceed from parallel longitudinal lines of steel or iron with locomotives steaming along them, that scarcely any eventuality that might arise could evoke greater surprise than in the past. As in other means of transport, Britain has made the most valuable contributions to the good management and administration of all railway systems, and the de- mand in many a foreign country for British brains to manage local railroad systems still continues. In de- vising signalling arrangements, Britain has contributed much to the railways of the world. The familiar vertical shaft, capable of being rotated from below through ninety degrees, carrying on that shaft both signal and lamp, was a British invention. So also is the sema- phore arm, which is now in almost universal use. The inventor was Sir C. H. Gregory, and it dates from 1841. With the invention of the telegraph we shall have some- thing to say on another page ; but it is pertinent here to remark that the employment of the electric telegraph in the regulating of railway traffic was advocated and tried as early as 1837 by Sir W. F. Cooke, and in 1851 PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 145 Mr. C. F. Walker introduced the highly important modern device of electric bell signalling, by means of which system a definite distance is ensured between the trains on the same line, and this led to the well-known block system of working. Other examples of British ingenuity for the greater safety of the public which travels on railways might also be adduced. We alluded just now to the precursors of the rails, and we showed how that wooden ways were used for the haulage of traffic before ever the locomotive and the passenger train came into being. And we made it further clear that such improvements in transport originated in Britain. But it is none the less curious that the street tramway, which combines the features of the early wooden and later plate way with those of the railway, is of much later invention, and is not British, but American. The reason lies in the fact that owing to the nature of the soil and the scarcity of stone in America the roads had been very troublesome, so lines were laid and tramcars brought into use as early as 1832 between New York and Haarlem. But it will readily be conceded that practically the whole idea originated in England, and that the American tramway was but a modified development of those other " ways " — wood and iron — which had sprung from British in- genuity. By i860 the first street tramway was laid in England, at Birkenhead, and since that time our country has been glad to avail herself of the electric tramways to connect the big towns and cities with the outlying villages and suburbs. Passing now from the larger forms of transport, we come to see what Britain has done for the cycle industry. The forerunner of the bicycle was the hobby-horse, and this was invented not by a British K 146 BRITAIN'S RECORD subject, but in France. That was in the year 1818, and the following year it was introduced into England by a Long Acre coachbuilder. But working on this idea Britain did most certainly become the author of the bicycle proper. Indeed, so useless was the hobby- horse, since its only means of propulsion was when the rider's feet touched the ground, or its own weight sent it coasting down-hill, that in a few years it was prac- tically obsolete. But in 1840 a Dumfriesshire black- smith named Kirkpatrick Macmillan developed it into a rear-driven treadle bicycle, but though this did not become popular, the tricycle did. In 1866 a French- man fitted cranks to the front wheel of a bicycle, and this "velocipede" was introduced into England the following year and became the first popular bicycle. The next year England began to improve the details of the bicycle, and showed her accustomed power of adapta- tion, for in 1868 a Mr. Cooper patented a wire-spoked suspension wheel ; and two years later Mr. Starley patented the well-known arrangement of tangented spokes, and in 1873 produced about the first machine which embodied most of the features of the " ordinary " bicycle so familiar to many in the days of their youth. In 1879 Mr. H. J. Lawson constructed a rear-driven geared bicycle, and from that there followed, in 1885, the familiar "safety" bicycle, thanks to Mr. Starley, who commercially introduced it and is the recognised father of the bicycle. Thus there arose in Britain a new industry: thus there was born a new means of adding to her reputation, for British bicycles were recognised the world over as the best. And notwith- standing the fact that cycling had a comparatively short life as a means of recreation — and the advent of the motor did much to kill it — yet for short distances it PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 147 is still a most useful and much employed means of transport. Finally, another important British inven- tion brought about, in 1888, the pneumatic tyre, which was introduced by Mr. J. B. Dunlop in Dublin. The universal effect which this invention has had on the bicycle and motor-car throughout the world is too obvious to need any demonstration. Indeed, it is not too much to say that the motor-car and the taxi-cab would not have received such encouragement unless this air-cushion had been already put on the market. In no sphere could we find the British characteristic of adaptability more faithfully illustrated than in the internal combustion motor. In origin this engine be- longs to France, but within recent years, ever since the Act of 1896 did away with the man walking ahead of a mechanical road vehicle and holding in his hand the red flag, so that automobiles were exempted from the existing restrictions as to speed, British engineers have shown that when once put to it they could manufacture motors as good as France. There are many high-grade British types of motor-cars on the market to-day, and these are exported to all parts of the world. In regard to the marine motor, though Britain has had to learn much from both France and America, she has recently shown yet again that she can compete with the best even if she has started a little late in the contest. As to the future, the progress has been so thorough in so short a space of time that her position in the motor world will be in the front rank. Not merely does this apply to cars and boats, but to the great ship of the future — the motor-driven liner and war-craft. Indeed, the next years will show the most striking advance. So also with that newest of all means of transport, the airship. Britain again lagged behind at the start as 148 BRITAIN'S RECORD she did in the manufacture of motor-engines. But speedily, both in regard to airships and aeroplanes, she roused herself the moment there was need for hurry. And already she has taught herself within the shortest space of time the art of making aeroplanes, dirigibles, and the special type of motor-engines for the same. Perhaps it is true that she has not done much for the science and art of aviation as yet, but she has done something, as the wonderful flights of Mr. Grahame White in America have shown. She has also con- tributed very large sums of money by way of prizes to encourage the new method of navigating the air ; but what may prove the most important contribution of all, is the recently formed " Air Office " on the banks of the Thames, where the most instructive data are being collected for the advancement of aerial navigation. Thus have we reviewed in turn the different varieties of transport employed by the human race for the dis- tribution and exchange of the world's wealth ; and we have endeavoured to note precisely the share that belongs to Britain in assessing the amount of honour due to the various nations. We followed the section dealing with discovery and exploration with that of transport for the reason that as the link — the bridge, if you like — which joins one country to another it was most natural that it should be placed in this order. But when countries have thus been brought into com- munication with each other, it is the industries of both parties that are destined to benefit each other. It is fitting, therefore, that we should now proceed to inquire into the degree of benefit which Britain has conferred on the world by means of her industrial activity. And yet British industrial pre-eminence belongs only to quite recent times, and in no case to that period PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 149 which was prior to about 1750. It would, indeed, be more accurate to say that it was the work of the nine- teenth century which enabled Britain to occupy the first place among industrial nations. And until after those methods of transport were improved our indus- trial ability remained undeveloped and useless. The interest of the country was concerned not with its internal development, but with the continental wars. The arts of peace so far had been afforded no chance of showing their value and importance. It was only from the time following the battle of Waterloo that any serious improvement began to be made possible. And yet those long wars were inevitable. They were an obvious sequel to the Middle Ages, to the defeat of Spain and of Holland. They were very necessary in order that it might be settled for the future which nation should have European supremacy. So long as this matter remained undecided, and there was ever a possibility of war recurring at any time, so long would uncertainty delay the progress in industrial matters which alone can come with peace. Up to a certain time the industries which England was pursuing were rather of foreign origin than of our own nationality. It is true that she developed them, and improved them by means of such revolutionary manufacturing methods that they almost took on a new nature. But, nevertheless, Britain had again to distinguish herself rather by assimilating other people's ideas and improving upon these than by making entirely new inventions. Even the ancient wool trade of England had been derived from Flanders. Already by the seventeenth century calicoes were reaching us from India. The French and Italians taught us silk- weaving, France and Holland paper-making, the Vene- 15© BRITAIN'S RECORD tians glass manufacture. From France we learnt cotton-printing, from Holland the bleaching and dyeing of cloth, from the same country the industry of the British potter. In mediaeval times whenever ships were being built the country had to send to Spain for the iron out of which to make the anchors. And it seems incredible in the light of our modern development to be reminded that until about the middle of the eighteenth century two-thirds of the iron which our country used were imported from abroad. We shall see presently how the awakening in England came about and these conditions became altered. The trade in woollens, cotton, silk, and linen had been kept back for the reason that there were no mechanical inventions to facilitate the manufactures. Coal was being extracted from the ground, but in such compara- tively small quantities that its potentialities proved that it was not appreciated as a commercial asset. And there burst upon the world the realisation that that element which was wont to be despised so that a proverb contained the expression " as weak as water," was found, when heated to boiling point, not to be weak, but the most powerful agency under the control of man. We have not room here to trace the interesting history of steam evolution back to the time of Hero of Alex- andria. We must skip many a century until we find, in 1663, Edward Somerset, second Marquis of Worcester, publishing, after long study, his description of An Admirable and most Forcible Way to Drive up Water by FirCy and in that year he obtained protection by Act of Parliament for his " water-commanding engine." Thomas Savery, another Englishman, followed with his so-called " fire-engine " constructed in 1698, which con- sisted of an apparatus for the " raising of water and Emery JValier JAMES WATT PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 151 occasioning motion to all sort of mill works, by the impellent force of fire." Whether or not S a very was indebted to the labours of the noble Marquis we cannot say ; but certainly the former was the first person who ever utilised fuel as a practical means of performing mechanical work. The necessity for the drainage of mines created an immediate demand for such engines, and Savery made and erected a number of engines for such a purpose. But a still greater advance was made by another Englishman, Thomas Newcomen, who before the year 171 2 had succeeded in perfecting his "atmo- spheric engine," which was an entire advance on any mechanism which had preceded it, and it is from this engine that the modern steam engine is directly de- scended. For sixty years Newcomen's engine remained as the only satisfactory engine for draining mines, es- pecially in the northern coal districts of England and in the Cornish mines. But all that the Marquis of Worcester, Savery, and Newcomen had accomplished was as nothing compared with the results which were to be obtained by James Watt (1736-18 19). For he proved himself by his inventions to be the possessor of the key which unlocked the bolts that had enslaved industry for so long. What he did was to revolutionise steam-power, to control it, and lead it in such a way that it became the most useful servant of man. It was the last stage in the inventions which were to abolish the slavery of mankind as a species of superior draught- animal. In short, that which Watt brought about was to make the "fire-engine" a commercial and practical essential to all industrial progress. The old type of engine had been not closely enough related to its work ; the result was that there was a great wastage of both fuel and steam. After the delay of several years Watt 152 BRITAIN'S RECORD was introduced to Matthew Boulton, founder of the Soho Engineering Works, Birmingham, and in 1769 Watt's invention was patented. The next aim of this inventor was to find some method of obtaining a rotary movement from his engine so that its sphere of usefulness should not be restricted to the work of draining mines. His ingenious mind eventually brought about the patent so well known as the " sun and planet gear," which converted the vertical motion into one that was rotary. He it was, too, who introduced into machinery the familiar fly-wheel, so that the impetus of the engine might be maintained after the first impulsion had been expended. Thus Britain gave to the world the invention of the rotary steam-engine, from which have followed so many and such strange creations, such modifications of our existence, that it is no exaggeration to affirm that in importance the discovery of steam-power has been every bit as momentous as that memorable day in the early history of the world when man discovered the possibilities that lay in giving an edge to his stone implement, thus allowing him to hew down trees, carve for himself all sorts of useful objects, and to cut his way through the obstacles of nature. What has happened from Watt's inventions? Not merely the stationary engine for driving all sorts of machinery in manufacture; not merely the locomotive, but the steam- ship. Had it not been for Watt, should we have had these acquisitions as soon as we did? Little could Watt realise all that his inventions meant — how that a new and mighty force was being thrust into the hands of civilisation, commerce, and travel. It was one of the most impressive incidents in the world's history when Watt was able to set going the first PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 153 rotary engine. Until that day the steam-engine was of scarcely practical value except for mines, and those textile manufactures that we alluded to just now remained in pretty much the same undeveloped con- dition in which they had always been since the earliest times. But now all was to be changed by the possibilities of rotary steam-power. The beginning of a mechanical revolution had already set in. All sorts of improve- ments in industrial machinery followed. About the time Watt was working on his inventions Hargreaves had invented the spinning-jenny; then followed, two years later, Arkwright's frame, and six years later still Crompton's mule. Finally, in 1787, Cartwright's in- vention brought about the power-loom. Thus, for the cotton industry alone, steam mechanism increased the efficacy of each workman by as much as two hundred- fold. Cotton goods began to be manufactured at an unheard-of rate, and those who had financial interests in that industry were well rewarded. But such a difference had been made by this revolution that the demand for the raw material of cotton was greater than the supply. The world had so suddenly and enthusiastically appreciated the utility and cheapness of British cotton fabrics that for a time, until improved American inventions permitted it, America was unable to supply sufficient quantities of the cotton fibre free from its clinging seeds. But eventually a New England mechanic brought about this improvement so essential to American cotton progress, with the result that our own cotton imports from North America were rapidly increased to hundreds of millions of pounds of cotton. Thus it was, then, that Britain became possessed of the most perfect appliances in connection with the 154 BRITAIN'S RECORD spinning and weaving of cotton. No other country in the world showed that she had the power to bring about such improvements and to work up such a magnificent industry. Indeed, the rate at which Britain's cotton manufacture grew has been un- paralleled in the history of the world. Ten or eleven years ago, besides supplying the wants of Great Britain and Ireland, our national cotton goods were exported to other countries to the extent of over seventy-three million pounds sterling. Such figures indicate but slightly the work which British mechanism has done for commerce. But as the steam-engine had done so much for the cotton trade, so it did as regards woollen goods. Indeed, the improvements effected were second only to those connected with cotton. Consequently, the amount of raw wool imported, and that of woollen manufactures exported, soon began to reach amazing figures. It was clear that the world demanded these commodities, and Britain was rapidly supplying them. And as with cotton and wool, so in regard to linen did the new methods have their influence. At last the linen trade adopted the power-loom : in fact, every branch of the textile trade became completely altered by Watt's efforts. But with all this demand for machinery there came also a totally unprecedented desire for iron and coal in large amounts. We referred above to the fact that Britain actually used to be content with importing most of her own iron. But now the coming of the industrial epoch altered all that. As soon as attention was given to the subject, not only was it found that Britain contained enough iron for her own uses in response to the largest industrial demand that could be PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 155 expected, but in fact she was able to export large quantities to foreign countries instead of importing from them. To-day she brings forth from her own more of this metal than all the iron-fields of the other countries put together. To provide fuel for all these innumerable steam-engines that were now in use, it became necessary to develop the coal-mining industry in a way that it had never before been dealt with. Britain's contribution to the world's commerce in respect of coal is just this : she annually raises to the ground as many million tons each year as are raised by the rest of the countries put together. The steamship proposition is entirely dependent on the coal supply, and the im- portance with which such commodities as Welsh coal are regarded by the marine engineer, no matter what his nationality may be, is indicative of the worth of one section of British produce in relation to the world's carrying trade. To come to smaller details, it is only right in passing to call attention to the important in- ventions such as the miner's safety-lamp which British mining has brought about for the good of the world's mining generally. Mining engineering in all its depart- ments, from sinking a shaft to keeping it ventilated, is indeed indebted to the skilful invention that is British. Owing to this enormous and far-reaching wave of in- dustrialism, to the increase of manufactures, to the greater wealth that poured into our country partly owing to much greater exports, and partly to the in- fluence of free trade, there followed in our country a greater need for gold and silver coinage. Thus Britain created a demand for the precious metals of such countries as could bring them forth. Thus the dis- covery of gold in California in the 'forties (when the great rush Westwards was made) and of Australia later 156 BRITAIN'S RECORD on, as well as in the Klondike and South Africa, found ready and appreciative markets, not merely in our own country, but wherever this industrial awakening had spread, and the gold and silver standards were em- ployed. As the democracy increased in the wealth ob- tained from these home industries the standard of living rose, luxuries became more numerous, and much more money was spent on jewellery and plate. The purchas- ing power of the people during the nineteenth century had increased enormously. Such commodities as tea and sugar, foreign bacon, foreign cheese and butter and eggs, foreign wheat, foreign wines, began to be used by the inhabitants of our country in such large quantities that a very important and considerable trade was de- veloped, to the great benefit of those countries across the seas which were able to export such products for our use. Thus, whilst it was primarily to the advantage of her own inhabitants that this industrial awakening brought wealth, yet in an indirect manner it was con- ferring good on most other nations of the world by de- veloping new channels of commerce, and making Britain to be the best market in the world for their peculiar products. It is because Britain is not able to grow her own foods, because she is catholic in her tastes irrespec- tive of food-stuffs, because she has such vast industries to maintain, that she is the best individual customer the world ever had. And it is for this reason — this bond of commerce — that she is bound so closely to all the great manufacturing nations with ties so strong that it is with difficulty that war can sever the connection. However great may be the lust for power in any rival nation, it is largely curtailed and controlled by the traders and manufacturers who have no wish to see their products suddenly bereft of their principal market, in exchange PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 157 for the problematical gain of international revenge or the gratification of jealousy. Reckoned, then, as a means of cementing nation to nation for the promulga- tion of peace, Britain's mission under the guise of trade has been highly efifective. For after the first blast of passion has swept by there comes a moment of quiet- ness when the international traders put their heads together to influence their respective governments. Is war worth while ? they ask. What are we going to gain by it all? And during these delays the white heat of mad fury cools down, and when international anger has vanished the work of the diplomats brings about adjustment of the imaginary evils, a treaty may per- haps be formed, and, if anything, there follows a greater impetus of international trade as a reactionary force. Because iron is found in such large quantities in this country, because also it is capable here of being turned into such useful manufactures that they are indispen- sable to man, Britain has contributed an astounding share to the development of this industry, and from her both Germany and the United States have learnt much as to methods of extraction and manufacture. Although to the French belongs the credit of having been the first nation to invent the ironclad, as well as, later, of being the first to recognise the advantages of mild steel for shipbuilding, yet it is Britain and Germany which have done more than any others to develop and improve steel armour for warships, and it is Britain pre-eminently which has advanced the building of ships of steel. If, indeed, one were to subtract from the world's know- ledge of iron and steel all that Britain had taught there would be very little information left that was likely to be of any real value. And when we consider that in all kinds of transport, whether train, tram, motor, ship, 158 BRITAIN'S RECORD or aeroplane, there is no sort wherein steel or iron is not employed ; when we consider how these two com- modities have forced themselves into our lives as essen- tials — whether made up into knives for the table or grates for the fire — one begins to form some vague but inadequate idea, firstly of the meaning of the mechanical age, secondly of the influence which has been exerted by Britain in connection therewith. To attempt to go through all the industries one by one that have become in one way or another indebted to Britain would be a thankless and impossible task. We could easily require more pages than there are in this book for that subject alone. But since we have been able to demonstrate the most important manu- factures which our country has caused to progress for the universal good, so now we may pass on to consider what part she has played in regard not merely to actual manufacture as to inventions and the adaptations of inventions. And here, again, through limitations of space, we cannot consider each and every invention, great and small, but at least we can have regard to some of the most important — important, that is, both in their own nature and the results which they effected sooner or later. With some of these we have already dealt in the course of our story, but there are other inventions belonging to Britain's credit which are most intimately connected with the advance of commerce. Sometimes it has been that one of our own countrymen has been first with the bare, crude idea, and left it at that to be worked out in subsequent years by others of perhaps a different nationality. More frequently, as we have remarked above, the exact reverse has been the case. Let us begin with the telegraph. Already, in 1745, PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 159 William Watson had shown that the telegraph was going to revolutionise the world, when in the presence of some members of the Royal Society he caused a shock of electricity to pass across the Thames on West- minster Bridge, the circuit being completed by making use of the river for one part of the chain of communi- cation. From that step the temptation easily came to use in connection with the electric current some sort of dial to indicate letters of the alphabet. In 1812 Francis Ronalds constructed a successful telegraph, the indication being by means of pith balls in front of a dial. This was exhibited at Hammersmith, but the British Government would not take it up. Foreign scientists now were applying themselves to a study of electricity, and William Fothergill Cooke, who had long been studying electrical communications, had the benefit of continental knowledge relating to this subject explained to him by Munck. Cooke returned to England in 1837, and together with Professor Wheatstone took out a joint patent for the first electric telegraph, which was laid down on the London and Blackwall Railway, and the following year these two inventors had obtained a patent for further improvements, which rendered it possible, not only for the two termini to hold communi- cation, but for any number of intermediate stations as well. So successful was this improved telegraph that it was adopted in 1839 on the Great Western Railway. Originally the telegraph had been used by the railways for their own private uses, including signalling, but before long this new invention was found so valuable that the public were allowed to make use thereof In 1840 Wheatstone patented his electro-magnetic tele- graph, although another illustrious Britisher had already been the first to elicit the electric spark from the i6o BRITAIN'S RECORD magnet. By means of Wheatstone's invention the multiplication of any number of " telegraph clocks " was rendered possible by connecting them with one govern- ing chronometer. This enables noon at Greenwich to be indicated at various ports and towns every day with abso- lute precision. The exact depth of indebtedness which is owed to Cooke and Wheatstone may be accurately gauged by the remark that to them is due the practical in- troduction of the electric telegraph as a useful commercial undertaking. To-day the telegraph means so much for commerce that it would be impossible for modern con- ditions of life and activity to go on without it. Just to take two instances. Supposing the laws of nature were to-morrow suddenly to be modified, what would happen to the Stock Exchange and all the offices thereon de- pendent, both metropolitan and provincial, if the elec- tricity ceased to operate ? Business would be severely crippled, if not entirely at a standstill. A sudden boom in stocks and shares might come and go without any effect reaching those at a distance until it was too late to be of any use. And consider what sort of a news- sheet next morning your daily paper would be. A certain amount of local news would certainly be therein, some more would have come in from the provinces through the medium of the trains. But as to the foreign news, Scotch and Irish intelligence, there would be nothing except what might be obtained through re- course to the old-fashioned use of carrier pigeons. Thus when we read of the part which British elec- tricians played in the evolution of the telegraph we begin to realise something of the gratitude which commerce owes to them. It is interesting to remark that the first newspaper report sent by means of electric telegraph appeared on PROGRESS OF COMMERCE i6i May 8, 1845, in the Morning Chronicle^ detailing the proceedings of a meeting held at Portsmouth the pre- vious evening. The first game of chess as played by electric telegraph occurred a month later between the South- Western terminus and Gosport ; the method em- ployed was by numbering the squares of the chess- board and the men. In telegraphing the moves the electricity travelled backwards and forwards for most of ten thousand miles during the event. And thus there began the first of those interesting chess-by-telegraph games, which occur still between London and America. Last year all the world was interested in the arrest of a murderer travelling in a British ship. It will be re- collected that this arrest was brought about owing to the use of wireless telegraphy. But it must not be for- gotten that even in the year 1845 the electric telegraph which was laid between Paddington and Slough stations on the Great Western Railway was employed for a similar purpose. A certain John Tawell disappeared, and was suspected of having murdered one Sarah Hart. He was known to have started by train from Slough on the evening in question, and before he had time to complete his journey, the telegraph was employed to despatch a complete description of the suspected man, with the result that policemen looking for him at Paddington found him, arrested him, and his identifica- tion was established. To the modern newspaper reader this seems a very commonplace incident, but in those days the telegraph was literally in its infancy. How- ever, the two above instances, the one modern and the other old, are indicative of the employment of man's ingenuity for the carrying out of justice. But to return to the older telegraph with wires. Wheatstone continued to add various improvements to L 1 62 BRITAIN'S RECORD make the now popular telegraph of greater utility, and we may content ourselves with referring to the instru- ment which records the telegraphed message in printed letters. In the case of important press telegrams this is a great convenience, as it saves time when even minutes and seconds are precious to the sub-editors. But since the land telegraph had shown itself so useful, Britain was anxious to extend its scope to join up her neighbours and so in time to be linked up with the whole world. The net result of this British pioneer work in telegraphy has been most interesting. By em- ploying the hidden forces of nature it has overcome nature. That is to say, Great Britain has been con- stituted by nature an island, disjointed from the main- land of Europe, with no means of communication except the sea. But by merely joining the two with wires, the character of an island, at least as regards intercommunication, disappears. So it came about, then, that before long Dublin be- came connected with London, and so with Calais via Dover; and America developed its own telegraph system, as also did every progressive country of the world. It was therefore a perfectly easy transition for the imagination to suggest that the submarine cable should be ushered into service. But for the sea the difficulty was to make the electric wires insulated : yet the superintendent of telegraphs to the South-Eastern Railway had already begun to think about the matter through having to perfect a wire covered with gutta- percha for use in tunnels where there was much damp- ness. In the meantime Jacob Brett, of Hanover Square, had patented his " Subterranean and Oceanic Printing Telegraph." He and his partner obtained the right to establish an electric telegraph between France PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 163 and England, the line taken being along the bed of the sea between Dover beach and Cape Grisnez. The ship Goliath was employed for the purpose, and the cable was successfully laid ; but within a week the sharp rocks off Grisnez, together with the motion of the water, cut the cable in two. It is important to bear in mind the fact that one can scarcely overrate the properties of gutta-percha in connection with the submarine cable : and it must be remembered that Britain has occupied the fore- most place in appreciating its value for this work. It was first employed in electrical experiments by Fara- day for its high insulating power. When, therefore, the next attempt was made, in 185 1, to lay the cable between Dover and Calais it was covered with gutta- percha. The great success of this link joining England to the Continent by means of a British-made connec- tion led to the linking-up of Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Hanover, Denmark. But before the close of 1855 the desire for a much greater scheme — the joining-up of North America (via Newfoundland) with the west of Ireland and so with England — was set on foot. And here let it be said- at once that, in spite of the fact that both the British and American Governments encouraged this project, yet, when first the Atlantic Telegraph Company was formed, nearly the whole of the capital of 350 thousand-pound shares was subscribed for in this country in a few days, the cable being made at Birkenhead, the engineer-in-chief being Sir Charles (then Mr.) Bright. I mention these facts to make it clear that this was thoroughly a British concern. I do not propose distracting the reader's attention with the interesting and eventful delays which occurred before the two continents were joined up at i64 BRITAIN'S RECORD last. What is important to remember is, that when, in 1866, Europe was finally united to America, as it had been for a briet period in 1858, it was owing to the marvellous skill of such Britons as the future Lord Kelvin (then Professor Thomson), who was electrician in the work ; to the patient persistence of British sailors and scientists; to the British steamship Great Eastern (of notorious memory), and to a British-made cable, that such an epoch-making achievement was rendered possible. The difficulties which had to be overcome, the series of disappointments that occurred, the infinite skill, care, technical knowledge, and perseverance that were essential during a singularly trying time in the trough of the broad Atlantic, were such, that, when finally the two ends were joined and the first telegram flashed across the bed of the ocean, the result was no mere victory, but a magnificent triumph of mind over matter. What has been the result of this colossal work, which still in this twentieth century remains as marvellous as it was to the last generation ? It has riveted the United States to England and Europe. It has affected for good the financial markets of both countries. It has increased voluminously their mutual trade. It has enabled the newspaper press of both countries to reflect day by day the life of both the Old World and the New. It has prevented crises because it has accelerated the transmission of information, giving an entirely new aspect to a difficult problem. It has aided the steam- ship service ; it has made the deep, broad Atlantic to be a barrier only in name. It has, with the still more modern wireless telegraphy, put the crowning stone to the arch which was begun when Columbus first set about making that bridge which was to connect the PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 165 two hemispheres. Looked at in a different h'ght, this wonderful means for transmitting news has had an effect on the lives of the two countries by the ceaseless exchange of ideas and events. It has enabled messages of sympathy to be flashed between the two great nations in time of terrible disaster or the death of any of their illustrious sons. In its work of cementing friend- ship, building up commerce, transmitting interesting facts of the daily lives of both nations, the Atlantic cable has done and is doing a right noble work in the propagation of peace and happiness. Let us be supremely thankful that Britain was allowed to con- tribute so much of her brains, capital, and enterprise to so important a venture. Let us rejoice that whilst the other great nations of the universe have one by one since linked up the distant ramparts of the earth, it was our privilege to lead the way and to overcome the obstacles, and to amass the necessary data. Since those early days when the submarine telegraph was first laid, the oceans have had many a pathway laid across their beds by the cables of commerce. No one could deny that, like a good mother, Britain has worked very hard in this matter to keep in touch with her colonial children. It has certainly been well for her, but it has been even more beneficial to her dominions over the seas. These " links of empire," as they have been so well described, are no imaginary, sentimental bonds. They are of the greatest strength, and must be reckoned of the utmost value by those who would take stock of such matters. Even within the most recent years, Britain has made the most amazing progress with her over-seas telegraph, so that to-day it is all but complete. Let us illustrate this statement by actual facts and comparisons. At the i66 BRITAIN'S RECORD time of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, when Her Majesty's gracious message was despatched far and wide, there were many servants of the State engaged in watching over the progress of the newly- acquired colonial possessions and British Protectorates to whom the deep-sea cables did not reach. It is true that these colonial officers did receive the message within a remarkably short time, but it was despatched only part of its long journey by telegraph. In those days, only fourteen years ago, the Falkland Islands, New Guinea, St. Helena, Fiji Islands, Central Africa, Uganda, British Honduras, had to employ the post to carry the royal message. For in the case of St. Helena the message had to be despatched by letter from Teneriffe, for the Fiji Islands from Sydney, for Central Africa from Mozambique, for Uganda from Zanzibar, for British Honduras from New Orleans. But to-day — 191 1, the year of the Coronation of George V — only two of this list still remain unlinked up by telegraph. These are the Falkland Islands and New Guinea. The former will have received their royal message by telegraph to Monte Video, whence the next steamer departing carries the tidings to these, the most southerly British possessions. The message to New Guinea will have been telegraphed out to Australia, and thence transmission made to Thursday Islands, where a steamer carries it to Port Moresby. We are accustomed to take so many things for granted, to fail to realise the extreme value of certain passing events, that we need to remind ourselves that since Queen Victoria's reign no less than a hundred and sixty thousand square miles of territory have been added to the British Empire in South Africa alone, and that in that region there are five million and more PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 167 of British subjects. Nowadays, instead of sending the message from Mozambique through the low country to Blantyre, the royal message would be transmitted to the Governor of Nyassaland via Zomba or Blantyre over the inland Cape-to-Cairo line via Salisbury in Rhodesia. As regards the British East African Pro- tectorate, a telegram can be sent to Nairobi via Mombasa very speedily, and thence to Entebbe in Uganda. From Mombasa a triple telegraph line runs along the railway to the rail head at the Victoria Nyanza. There at present the railway stops, but the telegraph line continues in a north-westerly direction to Wadelai on the Nile, where the telegraph ends ; but when the pioneering work has enabled the deep swamps between Wadelai and Gondokoro to be nego- tiated, the lines will be joined and communication will be carried on overland from Mombasa to Cairo. It will be observed that Gondokoro is at present the southern end of the line running from Cairo. Already the section from the Cape has its temporary terminus at Ujiji, which is in German East Africa, 3250 miles from Cape Town, but before very long a junction will be effected in Uganda; and so soon as Wadelai and Gondokoro are linked up the north will be connected with the south of the great African continent. When this day arrives we shall be able to contemplate an event which is scarcely less memorable and historic than the joining of Ireland to Newfoundland. Indeed, the whole trend of science as applied to the service of mankind has been to lessen inconvenience, to accelerate human thought, to blot out such a consideration as physical distance, to save human labour, or at least to employ it in the most profitable ways. When at the end of time the opportunity arises i68 BRITAIN'S RECORD for the summing up of all that British energy, foresight, and skill have done in this respect, surely she will stand as a race apart, as a nation which did not despise her powers, but used them to the full in no selfish spirit, and as one who is deeply conscious of the heavy trust committed to her, as one who has been deter- mined to make the best of golden privileges. The achievements of ancient Greece, Rome, even the great Phoenicians and brilliant Egyptians, cannot surpass what Britain has done in, say, a century and a half. It has been well said that if you would wish to appreciate the full splendour of a Gothic cathedral, with its colossal characteristics, it is not much good to stand but a few yards away from its buttresses ; you must get right away from it, perhaps across a river to the line of hills beyond, and then the full perfection of its symmetry, the real worth of its dignified grandeur impress the eye with true wonder. And so in much the same way it is with the glorious results which have fallen to the activities of Britain. So much has been accomplished in so masterly a manner and within so small a space of time, that we who are living so near to these events cannot adequately appreciate their exact meaning. It will be at once the pride and pleasure of those who come after us to regard these happenings in the only manner to which they are entitled. For ourselves we must remain content that we have lived in an age which is not less illustrious than that century when the great Elizabethan dis- coveries were made and the first fruits of our colonisa- tion were barely evident. To-day the little Admiralty station at Ascension and the now garrisonless post at St. Helena are in direct call with London by submarine telegraph, the connection PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 169 being made at St. Vincent. But in the year 1897 this was not so. The Eastern Telegraph Company's cable was completed two years after, running to Cape Town, and on its way thither it caused the linking up of these lonely islands. So also Mauritius was connected up in the year 1901 with Durban and thus with Britain, and there is also a cable station at the Seychelles Islands. The cable runs from Mauritius to Cocos Islands — the reader will find the matter quite simple on referring to his atlas — an isolated group in the Indian Ocean, through which messages for Australia proceed. Here wireless telegraphy has recently been installed, thus enabling communication to be made within a radius of a couple of hundred miles with ships running between Colombo and the West Australian ports. In the lonely expanse of the Pacific another cable has picked up a British possession since the Diamond Jubilee, for the Fiji Islands have been, so to speak, rescued from their aloofness and brought into the confi- dence of Europe and Britain. By means of the station at Suva, Whitehall can talk to the Governor of the Fiji Islands, for the Pacific cable stretches from Suva in a southerly direction first to Norfolk Island, whence it cuts across to join the Australian continent at Brisbane. The last of the British colonies thus to be linked up was British Honduras. Nowadays, instead of having to send messages by mail steamer across the Mexican Gulf from New Orleans, they are despatched from the Mexican town of Frontera over a land wire to Belize, the capital of the colony. And with this actual improvement which has been made through contact by wire there has been developing, side by side, a series of technical improvements. Better instruments have been invented both for receiving and I70 BRITAIN'S RECORD despatching messages. In the newer cables copper conductors have been fitted of a larger capacity than was possessed by the older types. To-day telegrams can be and are transmitted at much higher speeds than fifteen years ago. The importance of this is immediately manifested the moment a new colony attains importance and greater value. When it becomes essential to flash long and urgent Government messages during a local crisis, or when a native rising in a neighbouring colony is imminent and British warships are requisitioned, then is the time when the value of these improved electrical methods becomes appreciated more than ever before. If there should follow an important war and troops are sent thither, the long official despatches have to be cabled home after a battle, to say nothing of the much longer accounts which are handed in by the numbers of press war correspondents representing the journals of the world. No one could deny that Britain has, to the utmost of her power, helped forward the world's commerce by means of her telegraph and cable. It was as far back as 1868 that the State acquired by purchase all the telegraph lines of the kingdom. Before long she had extended this internal system so that every village in the country began to enjoy the privilege of communi- cation with the rest of the globe. Is it not wonderful to realise that Fiji, for instance, is able to talk to a remote Scotch village as easily as that village can speak to its nearest telegraph office ? And the nation- alisation of internal telephones which is already taking place at home is but following in the wake of the telegraph. As with the latter, so it has been possible for some time to speak from the provinces of England to France. Every night of the year in at least one PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 171 London newspaper office Paris rings up the editorial department of the great * daily,' and its correspondent sends verbally across the Channel the day's news ready for the issue then about to go to press. It thus becomes possible for the reader to be informed of the French news with the utmost saving of time and trouble. If Britain has not done as much for the telephone as Edison in America, as regards the inception of this invaluable instrument, yet she has shown her keen appreciation of the same by her wide adoption of it, by her endeavour to increase its suitability to the service of her own children. And as much may be said for her work in connection with electric light. As regards that still more wonderful invention known as wireless telegraphy, it is true that Chevalier Marconi was born in Italy, and that his first experiments were carried out at Bologna. But it is legitimate for Britain to claim this wondrous invention to be included in her own record. For, firstly, Mr. Marconi's mother was Irish, and the most momentous experiments in con- nection with this telegraphy were made in British territory. It was through the latter that the final tests were given to an incredulous world. The convincing experiments that were made in our motherland between Penarth and Weston, the Isle of Wight and Poole, between the South Foreland lighthouse and the East Goodwin lightship, and at last, in March of 1899, the incident of the first wireless message between England and France, and the subsequent adoption and en- couragement by the British Admiralty — all show the close relation which exists between the evolution of the Marconi telegraph system and Britain. The speedy adoption of this new apparatus by British steamship lines, by Lloyd's, and the fact that in 1901 the first long- 172 BRITAIN'S RECORD distance signals were received across the Atlantic Ocean from Poldhu, Cornwall, to St. John's, Newfound- land — a span of over 2CXX) miles ; the subsequent establishment of wireless communication between Canada and England ; the part which British ships, notably H.M.S. Duncan^ played in some of the early experiments ; the financial interest which our business men have taken in this revolutionising system, with the head offices of the company, not in Italy, but in London — these items are indicative of the essential fact that Britain and the marvellous progress of wireless tele- graphy must be spoken of together. We all know that, as a result, this Anglo-Italian invention has saved more than one ship and its human freight from absolute disaster ; that it has afforded the greatest protection to commerce from the perils of the sea ; that it has, together with the new invention of the submarine bell, caused some of the dangers of navigation in a fog to vanish, with a commensurate lessening of the proba- bilities of accident to valuable commercial ships carrying equally valuable specie and cargo. It has enabled the Cunard Company to publish a daily journal on their Atlantic steamships, giving the most important news items from Europe and America ; it has enabled more than one criminal to be arrested ; it has also rendered service alike to the travelling financier anxious to be kept in touch with his broker, and to the anxious relative hastening to the sick-bed of a dying sufferer. In the next naval war, as was evidenced by the recent Russo-Japanese hostilities, and has been clearly seen from our own naval manoeuvres, this wireless telegraphy will play a part that will make the strategy and tactics of Nelson more nearly approximate to the days of the Elizabethans than even the advent of steam and armour- PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 173 plates have done. So enormous is the possibility of "wireless," so easy (comparatively speaking) is it to instal, that the bonds of commerce which have been welded so closely by the submarine cable are likely to be made even tighter yet. To-day it is not merely the liner and the battleship which are fitted with this link to the shore, but it is the steam tramp, the submarine, and the steam yacht as well. Nay, more : it has been found possible for the aeroplane, while aloft above the earth, to maintain communication with the land. With all this development so mightily encouraged by Britain, we cannot but feel proud that the greatest nation of the world has again been permitted to assist progress. We have not space to go through, one by one, a list of the great British inventors who have by their work brought such useful benefits to the world generally. The high standard of British workmanship is recognised everywhere, and when it is allied with British ingenuity, the result is not a little pleasing to all who are con- cerned in our nation's advancement. Bramah, the inventor of the patent lock, who was the first to construct machines for working in iron ; Nasmyth, by whose invention of the steam hammer more has been done than anything else to revolutionise the art of work- ing in iron ; Whitworth, by whose ingenious machine variations of even one-millionth part of an inch have been measured ; Watt, who created the recognised standard of so many "horse-power" to designate the capacity of an engine — these and many other inventors have all helped forward the part which their nation as a whole has done to make the world's commerce generally more satisfactory. The Nasmyth steam hammer alone has contributed much to the world's shipbuilding — to 174 BRITAIN'S RECORD take just one instance alone. It can crack an eggshell or a nut as easily as it can forge the massive anchors or armour-plates for a modern Dreadnought. Apart altogether from the control which it allows to be exercised over its movements, it has effected a vast saving of time, and so of money, for every community which uses it ; and this regardless altogether of the fact that it has made for superior manufacture. Since we are discussing the subject of commerce, we may pertinently refer in passing to one or two matters which are intimately concerned with commerce. We have already considered the great influence which British shipping has had on the development of the world's trade. But there are certain points which in this connection are worthy of mention at this juncture. It is of little avail that the world possesses great commercial possibilities and even the most powerful steamships, unless these ships can be navigated with safety whether on their long voyages or short. Now, I submit that no country in the world, either by legislation or actual invention, has done so much as Britain to make for the safety of her cargo- and passenger-carriers by sea. The Board of Trade has been prompt to insist that vessels are provided with an adequate supply of life-belts and ship's boats in case of accident befalling them. The effect of the Plimsoll mark, in spite of certain drawbacks which you will find to be criticised in certain interested quarters, has been indubitably for good. Ships leaving British ports are not allowed to put to sea in an unsea- worthy condition, and there are other regulations too numerous here to mention. Now all this super- vision is on the right side, and tends to the saving of ships and men's lives. But these stringent regulations are not all to be found in other countries. A ship that PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 175 has been in England condemned as unfit for sea and now suitable only to be transformed into a coal-hulk until such time as she may drop to pieces, may not infrequently find a purchaser from the other side of the North Sea ; and presently, sailing under a Scandinavian or Danish flag, she may be encountered even years after, still working out her leaky existence in the timber trade, until during the height of a winter's gale she becomes the prey of the sea and disappears out of sight of land. She is never seen again, but a bit of wreckage picked up about that time indicates that she had tried for too long a time to wrestle against Nature when long since she ought to have entered her period of retirement. Perhaps other countries may be less strict as to the amount of cargo that a ship may legitimately carry, and thus the British shipowner may complain that he competes with the alien at an unfair advantage. But the lives of ships and the safety of their crews are not less valuable than the mere accumulation of profits. And yet there are still those who say that England is not a democratic country, nor has regard to the less favoured members of her community. As compared with the United States, for instance, the regulations which England insists on regarding her excursion steamers, stipulating that a right number of life-belts, rafts, and boats, etc., shall be carried in proportion to the number of passen- gers, are of the strictest. Such a wholesale disaster as that which happened a few years ago to an American excursion steamship, when lives were lost by the score through inadequate life-saving articles on board, could never occur in our country. And no one with any appreciation of the true fitness of things could accuse Britain of being in any way fussy or grandmotherly; for is it not one of the foremost duties of the State that she 176 BRITAIN'S RECORD should protect the lives of her subjects? Indeed, in many a respect this British influence has been manifestly seen in the steamships owned by continental firms anxious to maintain a reputation for being up to date, regardless of the more indulgent rules which are imposed by their own Governments. Few men ever contributed so much in so short a space of time to marine science as the late Lord Kelvin, who, as Professor Thomson, acted as electrician to the first successful Atlantic cable we discussed just now. Apart altogether from such inventions as the mirror galva- nometer and siphon recorder in connection with subma- rine telegraphy, he invented that well-known improved mariner's compass which is now so readily recognised for its perfection by every shipping nationality, and is the standard compass of the Navy as well as all the principal vessels of the mercantile marine, that we may pause for a moment to consider this British invention which has had such immense influence on the world's ships that carry the world's trade. Lord Kelvin possessed, apart from other of his excep- tional abilities, a peculiar faculty for dealing with nauti- cal problems, and as long as ships continue to navigate the ocean at high speeds, so long will they continue to be indebted to this great son of Britain. Until his fertile mind was turned to a consideration of such matters a this, the compass used by mariners was not all that could be desired by a long way. Now a good compass card should be sensitive in smooth water and sufficiently steady in rough weather. At the same time it should be capable of being accurately compensated for the errors due to the magnetism of the ship. Lord Kelvin was able to obtain these results by causing the card to be made extremely light. This he brought about by PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 177 throwing the weight as much as possible to the circum- ference of the card, and by using short, light magnetic needles, which allow of an accurate correction of the compass by means of correctors in the binnacle. The compass bowl itself is supported by a metal elastic suspension, which cuts off the vibration of the engines from the bowl and the card. The binnacle is furnished with receptacles for correctors for heeling and other errors. There is an azimuth mirror provided for taking bearings, and this, when it is required for use, is placed on the compass bowl, and by its means accurate bearings of celestial and terrestrial objects can be obtained both by day and night for fixing the ship's position. We have neither the wish nor the intention of leading the reader into a by-path away from the main subject of our story. But before we proceed with another important invention which Kelvin gave to commercial shipping, we may be allowed to explain in the fewest words what is meant by "heeling-error." It will be enough for our purpose to remark that since a vessel is nowadays built of iron or steel — and practically the former is no longer used — it must follow that when a steamship heels over through wind or sea, the iron or steel causes a compass error by attraction of the ship's metal side. This heeling-error, if not corrected, may have the most serious results on a ship's navigation — may even put her many miles out of her reckoning, and cause her to pile up on the very rocks she was hoping to avoid. The correction is made by means of a magnet or magnets placed in the central tube of the binnacle below the centre of the compass. The heeling-error should be corrected before the ship goes to sea by the aid of some instrument for measuring vertical magnetic force. What is known as Lord Kelvin's vertical force M 178 BRITAIN'S RECORD instrument is used for this very purpose, and it consists of a magnet supported on a horizontal axis and mov- able in a vertical plane, and there is a small counterpoise on one end of the magnet which can be moved nearer to or further away from the axis so as to make the needle horizontal. It was Lord Kelvin, also, who invented the deflector for measuring the magnetic directive force acting on the compass needles in order to correct the compass when the bearings of the sun, stars, or landmarks cannot be obtained. But there is yet another contribution to the ship of commerce which this same giant of invention brought about, and which must have been observed by many a reader who has voyaged on a modern liner. Everyone is familiar with the use of the common lead and line by which sailors find the depth of the sea below the ship and thus are assisted in ascertaining their posi- tion. In the days of the old sailing-ships, when a vessel moved through the water at a comparatively slow pace, the ordinary lead and line were not yet obsolete. But this is an age of ocean greyhounds, when every minute is valuable in hurrying the mails across from conti- nent to continent ; when the steamship tears along at twenty-five knots, nor can afford to stop to cast the lead. Lord Kelvin, by his ingenious sounding machine, did away with a tedious operation that used to involve the employment of the whole watch. Indeed, by this British invention it is actually easier to obtain accurate soundings in any depth up to a hundred fathoms than it is to heave the ordinary hand-log. Kelvin's sounding machine consists of a wire drum mounted on an iron frame. The wire, which consists of three hundred fathoms of galvanised steel-wire, is coiled on a drum PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 179 which is so mounted that it can revolve independently of the axle, or may be clamped to the axle and caused to rotate with it. The machine is placed at the stern of the ship with a fair-lead pulley fixed to the rail so as to allow the wire to run over. The wire drum having been released so as to allow the wire to run out, the sinker descends rapidly to the bottom of the sea, but so soon as it touches the bed of the ocean the brake is applied which clamps the drum to the axle. The winding in of the wire again is then proceeded with, and an indicator shows the amount of wire that has run out. A recorder goes down with the sinker and gives the actual depth. Thus, by this instrument your hurrying liner with her mails, bullion, and busy pas- sengers can continue on her way without having to ease her engines once. We have no room to deal with the other wondrous measuring instruments nor the valuable tables which Kelvin produced for facilitating navigation. It is sufficient that we have indicated to some extent a bare outline of the indebtedness that is owed by foreign as well as by British steamship companies to one of the most brilliant personalities who ever enjoyed the right of being called a Briton. So also is the world's commercial shipping indebted to the fine and noble example of Britain in regard to the matter of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. For not only has this association helped to salve foreign ships and British ships in difficulties around our own coasts, to say nothing of the many thousands of valuable lives, but so much has the idea been admired by the great mercantile powers that it has been copied abroad, to the great benefit of all those concerned. The in- ventor of the lifeboat was certainly a Briton, and the credit was due to William Wouldhave, who, born at i8o BRITAIN'S RECORD Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1748, designed the first boat that would neither capsize nor sink. It was as a result of witnessing the wreck of a ship on the Herd Sands at South Shields that a number ol gentlemen undertook to provide such a boat, which was built by Henry Greathead. The first boat was completed in 1789, and did service until 1830. She never lost a single hand, but saved hundreds of lives, and was the first craft ever to be called a lifeboat. The date 01 this beginning 01 an important movement will not be escaped by the reader, who already, during the course of this volume, cannot have failed to be struck by the number of in- tensely important activities which originated in this country after the middle of the eighteenth century had once been passed, after the powerful tentacles of the Middle Ages had at last been utterly cast aside. From the interest of the gentlemen just mentioned there sprang into existence the Tyne Lifeboat Society, which to this day is still a separate organisation. But it was the beginning of great things, for it begat one of the most famous charitable institutions the world has ever seen — the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. When we consider that this has saved — I give the figures made up to the end of the year 1909 — no fewer than 48,627 lives from the unspeakable horrors of the deep, that it was founded in the days when money was diffi- cult to obtain because Britain was still poor in wealth ; when we realise, too, that noble-hearted men gave their generous support to a project that could not bring them a penny back in return, we feel proud that the word British is able to be written over this fine undertaking. It is still to the credit of the living members of our country that their voluntary contributions support an undertaking that is distinguished by the bravery ol PROGRESS OF COMMERCE i8i Britain's best of possessions — her self-sacrificing men of the sea. Nor have we room for more than a brief mention of certain other matters connected with the sea. That deadly creature which in time of naval war may sink battleship or liner — the Whitehead torpedo — is of British origin. But of greater general use may be mentioned the science of meteorology, which has been advanced largely by British observation. Everyone is familiar with the weather forecast published in each issue of our daily journals. But few people stop to realise that the clerk of the weather is a series of living, human individuals who devote their time to this study for the good not merely of our own, but of other nations. A whole fleet of British or foreign small coasters may be about to put to sea from one of our ports, when the hoisting of the north or south cone through information flashed from the London Meteorological Ofiice announces the approach of a gale. Forewarned is forearmed, and the fishing or trading vessel has no right to complain of being taken by surprise if she is caught out. So also farmers, by a new meteorological development, can now be advised by telegraph that during the next few days there is every probability of settled weather remaining. The crops which have been waiting to be gathered in may be harvested forthwith to the great relief of the husbandman. It is not generally known that anyone may send a telegram prepaid for a reply to any port of the United Kingdom asking for a weather forecast of the next twenty-four hours. There are not wanting instances when so valuable a privilege has been worth many times the cost of asking for the same. Yet another essential friend to the mariner is the barometer, which foretells the weather that is to be, 1 82 BRITAIN'S RECORD and has been the means of many a ship of all nationali- ties taking shelter before it was too late. Now, although this instrument owes much in its evolution to Galileo and Torcelli, yet the latter, when he died in 1647, left his great discovery not yet complete, so the invention was taken up, amongst others, by Boyle in England. But it was reserved for Sir Henry Englefield to construct a barometer expressly for the purpose, not of acting as a weather-glass, but of measuring the elevations of mountains. How valuable this has been since to climbers, surveyors, and nowadays to aeroplanists soar- ing up into the heavens may well be realised. All that is essential apart from the barometer is to know, firstly, the latitude of the mountain, the height of the barometer when starting from the foot of the mountain, and lastly the height of the thermometer at the higher station. By arithmetical calculation the difference of the levels of the two stations may then be ascertained. The atmosphere is densest near the surface of the earth, because it has to support the weight of the whole column of air above it, which, because it is very com- pressible, compels it to occupy less space. This law ot decrease in pressure being known, its application is made use of in the measurement of mountains, for the barometer will indicate an inferior pressure on the summit than at the base, in proportion as it is high. It is to the same Robert Boyle, a son of the Earl of Cork, whose chemical experiments date from the year 1646, that the thermometer was greatly assisted in its evolution, and the idea of employing mercury for the purpose of measuring degrees of heat by its expansion is supposed first to have occurred to Dr. Halley, although he did not employ it, owing to the range of its expansion being much less than that of alcohol. PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 183 We may now leave these scientific achievements and pass on to another development of a totally different kind, one in which Britain in the past has played a most impressive part, and to-day continues so to do. We allude to the art of printing, and although, like many other of our accomplishments, it is rather an importation than a home product originally, yet here is just one more instance where Britain has accepted the ideas of others, applied herself to their further development, and so improved the same beyond the stage which others had arrived at. Fleet Street, from the first in- troduction of printing into England, has been the cradle of this art. Certainly as far back as the year 1502, Wynkyn de Worde, who was Caxton's assistant, was established at " the Signe of the Sunne " as a printer. And there is still carried on to this day, the business of a well-known law printer and publisher close to Temple Bar, on about the same identical spot where Richard Tottel carried on a like business in the time of Henry VIII. It is true that for a long time English printers were supplied with type from the Dutch and other continental foundries. But early in the eighteenth century William Caslon, prompted and assisted by William Bowyer, established the "Caslon" foundry, which not only obtained pre- eminence for English types and put an end to the demand for those from abroad, but actually led to the supply of the best offices on the Continent. Thus did our country return thanks for the art she had learned from abroad. Caslon had made considerable improve- ments on the Dutch types then in use, and the name " Caslon " is to-day anything but unknown among the craft of printers. But an eminent founder of Bir- mingham, John Baskerville by name, pushed Caslon's i84 BRITAIN'S RECORD improvements yet further. Indeed, such great pains did he take with the work, that it was not until he had spent upwards of £600 that he could get a single letter that satisfied him. Before he was able to make a profit he had expended thousands of pounds. Nevertheless, the final form of these types was excellent and of great beauty, so that after his death they were secured by a literary society of Paris, who used them for printing some of the best editions of their classics. It is hardly too much to claim for Baskerville that he laid the founda- tion for that much improved typography which was to come with the nineteenth century. We have seen that the introduction of the steam- engine completely revolutionised all the manufactures of our country that could possibly be affected by this in- vention. We have noticed that the employment of steam in the service of the manufacturer led to a much greater amount of production, to the consequent in- crease of trade and wealth. As it was with cotton and woollen and iron goods, so the steam-engine was to alter utterly the conditions of the printing trade. To- day all over the world the thousands of journals and other publications would be impossible to be produced were it not practicable to employ the steam-printing presses, or, their later development, electrically-driven machines. The effect has been everywhere to diffuse knowledge and learning, to make people think and act more quickly and in greater numbers, to take a greater interest in other communities : in short, to do away with racial and physical barriers. Very extensively indeed has this change been brought about by British example and enterprise, so that to-day there is scarcely a small town or suburb that has not at least one organ of public news. But the improved art of printing as PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 185 soon as newspapers were relieved of the oppressive taxes, and the journals began to have a responsible circulation, also commenced to attract a new factor in the aid of commerce, a factor that has been more developed during the last ten years than ever before. What I allude to is press advertising, which is nowadays recognised by every progressive manufacturer as abso- lutely essential for his manufactures, unless his is of such a special nature that some more subtle form of advertisement must be substituted. When it was realised that the newspaper was a dominant power among people, that every issue was read and carefully perused by many hundreds or thousands of the public, its position as an advertising medium was in every way superior to that of the town-crier and the bell-man. Even as one looks back on the news-sheets of a century ago, one finds that all sorts of advertisements were in- serted for all sorts of ends. To-day, when the conduct of an enterprising journal is so costly, it is essential that the revenue from advertisements should be both regular and immense ; otherwise no paper could carry on its work as a remunerative business. One is not anxious to disown the fact that the United States have set us the lead in the art of progressive advertising in recent years, as in many forms of journalism ; but the fact remains that had it not been for the steam-engine these methods and brilliant ideas would have been use- less. And it is to Watt and other British inventors that the credit must finally be attributed for inaugurating a new order of things. As a result, what have we ? There are not merely the great daily organs of both the metropolis and the provinces, the most powerful agents next to Parliament itself; but there are shoals of magazines of all sorts, and cheaper reprints of the 1 86 BRITAIN'S RECORD classics for those who have the mind but not the money for higher-priced books. Side by side with the improve- ments in printing machinery there was, thanks to the spread of universal education, springing up a ready- made public of such a vastness that the imagination had not previously contemplated. The steam-printing enterprise has, in fact, been one of the greatest weapons for liberty that democracy ever possessed. It is at once able by the media of ink and paper to reflect public opinion, and to create or lead it. It can fan the national flame of passion into the blaze of war. It can over- throw ministries, incite revolutions, put down injustice, bring crimes to their punishment, obtain relief for the oppressed, create a demand or assist supply. So gorgeous in its strength has it become within such a short time, that it is almost tyrannical in its might. But before we proceed to watch the evolution of the British steam printing-press, let us notice another im- portant discovery which is really essential to the successful employment of the former. Without an improved method for inking the types by means of rollers, steam machine-printing could never have been generally adopted. Printing ink was formerly laid upon balls made out of sheepskin stuffed with wool. The balls were dabbed against each other until the ink was evenly spread over their surface. With these two the ink was applied to the type made up into "formes" until all the letters were adequately covered with the ink. Of course, such a process was very laborious, and wasted a great deal of valuable time. But it was a British inventor named Foster who entirely altered this method. He began to do away with the balls, and to make rollers by the intermixture of glue, treacle, tar, and isinglass. This composition PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 187 retained all the requisite qualities of softness, elasticity, and readiness both to receive and impart the ink. So valuable was the idea that it is still universally em- ployed, as doubtless many a reader is aware. Indeed, without this asset it is difficult to see how the steam printing-machine could ever have come to perfection. As early as the year 1790, a Mr. W. Nicholson had taken out a patent for a printing-machine, the essentials of which were that the type was to revolve against another cylinder covered with soft leather. The type received its supply of ink from another cylinder, to which the inking apparatus was applied, and the paper was printed by pressing it between the type and the cylinders. However, it is only fair to add that this machine was never employed ; but a German presently turned his attention to the cylindrical form of machine- printing demonstrated by Nicholson, and eventually the foreigner produced a machine able to provide a thousand impressions an hour. This machine was set to work in April of 181 1, and three thousand copies of part of the New Annual Register were successfully printed by this means. The name of the German was Konig, and Mr. Walter, the proprietor of The Times ^ gave him a contract for two large machines to print his journal; so on November 28, 18 14, The Times informed its readers that for the first time any news- paper was printed by the application of steam-power, working iioo copies per hour. Thus it was a com- bination of British invention, British enterprise, and German adaptation which gave the required impetus to steam printing for journalism. Before very long the machines were greatly improved and simplified by Messrs. Applegarth and Cowper, which were so great an advance on the Konig stage that they became 1 88 BRITAIN'S RECORD exceedingly popular. Applegarth, at later dates, also combined in one large machine four of the single machines, all being driven simultaneously by steam. Four places were available for feeding the machine with paper ; there were four printing cylinders, and four places where the sheets were to be delivered after being printed. This brought about an increase in the machine's output, for it could turn out 4500 sheets hourly, printed on one side. Applegarth further im- proved the machine by abandoning the principle ot placing the type on a plane-table and the reciprocating motion. He constructed a machine in which the type was placed on the surface of the cylinder of large dimen- sions, which revolved on a vertical axle, with a con- tinuous rotary motion. And The Times was the first to adopt this great improvement in newspaper print- ing. There are also many other ingenious improve- ments which have been made more recently, both by British and American inventors. Machines driven by steam-power, for " printing on the flat," used in bringing out magazine and book-work, are extensively employed and their results are scarcely inferior to that of the hand-press. In this connection we must mention the firm of Messrs. Napier and Son, whose steam-press was the first to print the Bank of England notes by using electrotypes instead of steel plates. The process of stereotyping, by which all the letters forming a page of type are cast into one piece of type-metal from a mould taken of the page, is now so important and essential a feature in the production of the daily newspaper that it is well to remember that this also was a British invention, the art having been first practised by William Ged, of Edinburgh, in 1725. Within recent years British firms have vied with PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 189 each other in producing their journals, magazines, and books in the most artistic and tasteful manner. To this day there is no better nation of bookbinders than ours, a craft that has been developed along the most serviceable and yet beautiful lines. If there are certain features of printing and publishing which can be excelled in America and on the Continent, yet these are compara- tively few compared with the achievements of Britain. Indeed, it frankly may be conceded by the most virulent enemy of our nation, that Britain has done the major part of the inventing and necessary enterprise for the good of the world's literature and journals. The best that other countries can offer us in this respect bears undisguisedly the marks of British influence. When we contemplate the annual output of British presses, paper-makers, bookbinders, and allied trades, and con- sider the thousands and millions of readers to whom the finished product comes to instruct or edify, we cannot say that Britain as a world-force is lagging behind. The steam printing-press has done enormous work in spreading the English language over the wide area of the world, and with the advent of British literature there comes also a comprehension and desire for British ideals. This enterprise in printing and publishing has further given an incentive to authorship. The more books are read the greater will the number of authors become : not merely because the demand is greater, but because man cannot rest content with being a consumer. The time comes when he gives back some of that knowledge which all those years he has been accumulating. He aspires to be a creator. Thus briefly we have sought to encompass within the space at our disposal a rapid review of the work I90 BRITAIN'S RECORD which has been accomplished by Britain in the im- portant domain of commerce. And it has been deemed fit and proper that to this section of our inquiry into " Britain's Record " a greater amount of attention should be paid than to any of the other chapters. For in considering material matters the accumulation and exchange of wealth are paramount. The arts cannot flourish in a poverty-stricken country, any more than a poor nation can afford to go to large expenditure for the sake of developing whatever new colony or in- dustry may invite attention at the time. The duty of Britain has apparently been, through many a century, the teaching others the alphabet of commerce, whether in the detail of business administration, organisation, down to actual book-keeping; or in its wider and grander sense of discovering vast lands that only needed the European to find what unspeakable stores of wealth are lying ready to be extracted from the ground, whether by the art of agriculture or the shaft of the miner. With a catena of such facts before us as have been gathered together it is surprising even to a Briton to find how little, comparatively speaking, has been done by others for the commercial world. Here is a nation which has not confined her attention to one sphere. She has been no mere un- reasoning enthusiast for liberty, although she has done more for liberty than all the other countries. She has indeed shown her all-round gifts by a ceaseless labour to develop the fruits of the earth, to put these to the widest possible uses, to devise the most suitable machinery for their adaptation, and to invent the most serviceable forms of transport, so that these commodities may be carried everywhere for the enjoyment of those who care to use them. And it has not been so much a PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 191 matter ot luck that all this has been effected. For chance cannot continue to act for such a length of time. The real explanation is to be found in the British character with its dogged determination, its healthy optimism, its almost unfathomable powers of resource. It is such qualities as these which have made Britain to be the leader of the universe : made her sons to be at once Kings of the Sea as well as Kings of Commerce. CHAPTER IV PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING OUR attention is now to be devoted to the con- sideration of the measure of indebtedness which the world in general owes to our mother nation in regard to the sciences and arts, the literature and learn- ing which are such essential features of any civilised community. No sooner has a nation wrenched itself away from barbarism and been allowed such an exten- sion of peace as is indispensable for the development ol her mental prowess, than she begins to care less for the things of war than for those lighter considerations which appeal to the minds and senses rather than to physical strength. The lust for blood is replaced by a desire to give and receive pleasure. And so in this chapter we propose to lay aside all such destructive movements as are entailed by war. We shall watch no great struggles for liberty either of nations or persons. The only kind of freedom that shall attract us for the present is that of the individual trying to deliver himself from his own ignorance. We shall not now have to be limited by those barriers which confine commerce, nor consider any problems of internal policy. But we shall betake ourselves to a study which is more international than any other, or rather let us say that science, art, and learning, like 192 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 193 human nature, belong exclusively to no nation, but are the indications of civilisation as a whole. We need hardly begin our study at a date prior to the end of the fifteenth century, when England had begun to feel the vivifying influence of the Renaissance, which came from Italy as a warm southern wind. Already before about the year 1480 many an English- man had travelled to Italy in response to her magnetic Renaissance, in order to study the classics on whom the scholars, who had been driven from Constantinople by the Turks, were lecturing in the Florentine schools. Thus gradually the new learning spread to England, as a kind of liberty movement in literature. No longer were the classics of Greece and Rome to be sealed books. The new English scholarship had come back with the keys of knowledge, and presently English learning was to have access to the literature of the ancients by means of translations. It was thus that the mould was now being formed for the English literature of the future, and the whole of Elizabethan and later English writing bears the obvious signs of Roman and Greek influence as it reached us via Italy. To take no other instance than Shakespeare, there is a kind of priggish consciousness apparent in his plays and sonnets : the self-consciousness of a newly acquired knowledge, but as proud of this as the child who is just beginning to form his acquaintance with its first foreign language. Though the psalter and certain other parts of the Bible had been translated as far back as the thirteenth century, yet its first complete rendering into English was begun by Wycliffe about the year 1380. His trans- lation " was a book which had as much influence in fix- ing our language as the work of Chaucer." But in the N 194 BRITAIN'S RECORD centuries prior to this there is little that is conspicuously outstanding, with the exception of that great monument of our prose the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, of Bede's Ecclesi- astical History, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, that could cause the world's literature to-day to feel indebted. For during the Middle Ages, was it not the case that England was highly indebted to French literature for its influence, just as in language and architecture and other details after the Norman Conquest had been effected ? English prose may fairly be said to begin with Bede of the seventh century, whose long life of toil gave to the world forty-five works, the fame of these being destined soon to spread over the whole of intellectual Europe. To-day that vast sphere of English-speaking peoples throughout the two hemispheres owes to Bede every gratitude for the fact that his was the first effort to make English prose a literary language, for his last work was a translation of St. John's Gospel. After the death of Bede Northern literature began to decay, and learning drifted to the south of England. Not at Whitby now, but at Winchester ; not Bede, but King Alfred made the English tongue the medium for teach- ing the English people history, philosophy, law, and religion. There were monastic schools for the youth to be taught, and he presided over a school at his own court. Whether or not he worked at the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the latter is the first history of any Teutonic people written in their own language, " the earliest and the most venerable monument of English prose." It is true also that Britain is partially responsible for one of the oldest and most popular romances that still exist. For it was Geoffrey of Monmouth who, by paraphrasing history and allowing the employment of his own imagination, composed twelve short books PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 195 which included the history of King Arthur and his Round Table. But Geoffrey's Latin prose was translated by another Geoffrey into French verse. In France these historical legends were added to by Breton legends. They were enriched with the jewels of French romance and came back to England as the work of a Norman. It was Walter Map, a friend of our Henry II, who took up the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and added to those legends the Quest of the Graalzvid Morte d Arthur, But to return to the sixteenth century. We find that the bigotry of the Reformation movement in England had killed for a time the renaissance of learning, but it did much for the work of translating the Bible into English. It has been said of William Tyndale's translation of the New Testament that it " fixed our standard English once for all, and brought it finally into every English home," for " Tyndale held fast to pure English." Rogers added a translation of the Apocrypha, and made up what was wanting in Tyndale's translation from Chronicles to Malachi out of Coverdale's translation. It was this Bible which, revised by Coverdale and edited and re-edited as Cromwell's Bible of 1539, and a year later as Cranmer's Bible, was used in every parish church in England ; spread to Scotland, and made the Lowland English more like the English of London ; passed over to Ireland, went (after its revision of 161 1) to New England with the Puritan Fathers, fixing the standard of English in America. Indeed, there is many a word or expression to-day employed by the North American which is far more the English of the early seventeenth century than it is " Yankee." A citizen of New York, for instance, who has had to call in a physician, will not 196 BRITAIN'S RECORD say that he is " ill," but *' sick," like the people in the Bible of the Authorised Version. This Authorised Version, whatever its defects may be, stands as the embodiment of English prose belonging to a time when our language was free from pollution and the degrading influence of haste. Indeed, if we would wish to sum up in one sentence the greatest contribution which our country has made to the literature of the world we could not answer with greater accuracy than to say that it falls under three heads — firstly, the translating of the Bible into the English language of dignity ; secondly, the compilation of the Book of Common Prayer. " Based," as Wakeman describes it, " upon the services which had behind them fifteen hundred years of Chris- tian thought, translated into deep and rich English with rare taste and delicacy, strengthened by the best pro- ducts of contemporary learning, and brought into close dependence upon the authority of Holy Scripture, the Book of Common Prayer has slowly but surely won its way into the hearts and minds of Englishmen. . . . Even over those who repudiate its public use it exercises a benignant if unacknowledged sway." And thirdly, we must include the works of William Shakespeare. I think that it is indisputable that these three volumes have had more influence on the style of English litera- ture and the standard of English prose throughout the world than any other works that ever were read. These have together formed a standard — a canon — by which the modern deficiencies of our complex language are shown by no means inconspicuously. They have had a sober, steadying influence for cen- turies, and yet it has been the soberness of a classical building and not of an architecture that is little better than a mere dwelling for thought. In America, both kmery IValktr WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 197 the United States and Canada ; in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and in many another country where Christianity is being taught, there has been propagated the full nobility and ornate beauty of the English tongue before it came from out of the time of the Golden Age. In recent times two associations, named respectively the British and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Society, have by their dis- tribution of over a hundred million copies of the Scriptures in the English language considerably assisted to spread not merely our national " vulgar tongue," but the language of a period that was rich in quality if not in actual quantity of words. We referred just now to the influence which the Renaissance was to have on our national literature. During the time of Henry VIII and the later Tudors, Virgil, Cicero, Ovid, Demosthenes, and many a Greek and Latin play had been translated. It is because such perfect standards were employed that English literature of the Elizabethan period has been so mag- nificent. And because masques, pageants, and inter- ludes of all kinds were wont to be played whenever there was the smallest excuse, the art of play-writing sprang up with a remarkable suddenness. Literature of some sort became the fashion, and especially when at last it was realised that to write for the public con- sumption was no longer a disgrace. Criticism began with Sidney's Art of Poetrie^ and this volume made a new step in the creation of a dignified English prose. So, too. Lord Bacon's efforts gave to the world perhaps the greatest incentive to correct methods in essay- writing which it had then received. There has been one characteristic of English literature which is worthy of note, and is so expressive of the 198 BRITAIN'S RECORD nature of her own children. It has in modern times extended its influence to other countries, and still flourishes in our own country. I refer to what may rightly be termed " travel books." It began, surely, when Hakluyt, in the year following the Armada, published those fascinating Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation. It was the great call of the sea, so audible in Elizabeth's time, set down in print. It was and is the great epic of English seamanship. It was to come out at a later date in Purchases Pilgrimes^ and later still in Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe^ all of which are world classics. As for land travel, the Elizabethan influence was still cast over the early seventeenth century when such volumes as Coryat's Crudities, describing his travels in France and Italy, and Wotton's Letters from Italy were printed and given to the world. It was an age of adventure and voyage, and ever since those fine Elizabethans yielded to the temptation it has never left our literature. Those highly coloured volumes, covered with gallant heroes, and shrieking with exciting braveries, that you buy at Christmas time for your own sons are indeed the lineal descendants of Hakluyt's, Swift's, and Defoe's adventurous narrations. The influence of English poetry is far from negli- gible. It has spurred drooping hearts to patriotism, to gallantries, to virtue, regardless of nationality. There- fore we must not forget that Spenser's Faerie Queen, which was the first great ideal poem that our fore- fathers had ever produced, was also to be the source of all our modern poetry. I submit too that for its poems of patriotism England has set a standard for the nations of all time. The Elizabethan period and the time when we were at war with France and Spain PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 199 were exceptionally prolific in such productions. Per- haps in our love poems we have by reason of the temperature of our blood not reached that passionate fervency which is the privilege of the Latin races. But in their pastoral simplicity some of the Elizabethan love lyrics have a temperate sweetness that is essen- tially English and admirable. Between the years 1587 and 1620 England was at the height of its new literary success. Dramas, poems, scientific works, histories, and fiction were poured out during that time. Indeed, England was the only country in the world which at that time was still benefited by the Renaissance. In Spain and Italy the movement had been met by the Counter-Reforma- tion and largely arrested. We shall pass on presently to speak of Shakespeare and his work for England, but before so doing we may conveniently sum up the general effect which Elizabethan life and literature had on the world. Firstly, it gave a melody, beauty, brilliancy, vivacity, originality, and a spirit of adven- turous activity to the sphere of the intellect. It developed poetry and the drama to the fullest extent, and lastly, as we have already demonstrated, it be- queathed to posterity that grandeur and sober dignity of expression which is the admiration of all people of taste and culture. It was the Elizabethan influence which has made our literature to-day to become such a wondrous power the whole world over. As the im- pulsive, fiery spirit of the late sixteenth century manifested itself in voyages of discovery, in the privateering expeditions, in the acceleration of com- merce, so it was bound to exhibit itself in the contemporary literature. It was an age teeming with boldness and adventure and independence. It 200 BRITAIN'S RECORD delighted to take great risks, to endeavour something which hitherto had not been attempted. And this same spirit comes out when it is turned to the things of the mind rather than of physical force. Beaumont and Fletcher, Shakespeare and others are instances in drama; Gilbert and Harvey in science; Bacon and Sidney in literature. An American writer has been keen enough to observe that in England our literature has always been more cheerful, healthy, and practically useful than in the case of any other country. And I suggest that it is in great part owing to the adventurous Elizabethan precedent that this is so, notwithstanding that for a time Puritan- ism brought our high optimism under a cloud. The twentieth, even more than the nineteenth century, has shown how strong, joyous, glorious, and sunny literature can become through the sheer delight in living among those things which convey aesthetic pleasure. It comes out indeed, not merely in the actual authorship, but in the very format of the book which contains the written word — in its binding, printing, paper, and illustra- tions. Now literature is but the expression of personal and general thought Therefore when we find this riotous delight expressed in the literature of any period we know that it is but the reflection of the contemporary mind. If we see it manifested in but one writer or a few we may rightly suspect that this joy exists only locally. But when, as in the case of the Elizabethans, we observe this feeling on all hands we know that it was something more than local or peculiar to a set of individuals. And there are few influences so infectious as enthusiasm, few appeals to which the human soul responds with such spontaneous readiness. There is, then, every reason for PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 201 gratification that the age we speak of came when it did. Is not Shakespeare's work full to overflowing with this riotous spirit? Do not his characters exude this in- fectious optimism ? Is it not the very atmosphere of youth — a youth that is revelling in its own strength and freedom, exulting in that liberty which had come with the New Learning and all its possibilities ? Surely it is because our great national playwright carries his en- thusiastic optimism across the stage into the auditorium every time his works are presented that his popularity shows as few signs of dying out abroad as here in the country of his birth. We all know the old proverb which runs * laugh and the world laughs with you.' That is the reason why the supply of humour is ever unequal to the demand : that is why the optimist is ever a welcome guest. That is why William Shakespeare has long since become one of the immortals of the literature of all time in any country. The influence of Chaucer and of Dickens has been great, but that of the Stratford poet has been greater still. Grace and gaiety, feeling and expression, pathos and sympathy, poetry and dramatic force — these are all there in their right place, in the printed page or in the spoken word. There is a freshness as of the morning, a portraiture not of types but of individuals, a humanity and humour — but above all an irresponsibility which is obsessing. The Eliza- bethan drama has been called the glory of the world's literature, but Shakespeare is the main cause of that effulgence. It began with Marlowe, but it wanted a Shakespeare to bring it to its brilliancy. Hamlet^ Othello, Macbeth, and so on were written in his later years, when time the avenger was seen in the near distance approaching scythe in hand. But the Comedy of Errors y A Midsummer Night's Dreaniy All's WelltJiat 202 BRITAIN'S RECORD Ends Welly are bubbling over with the frolicsomeness of youth and self-confidence. It has been pointed out that Shakespeare had but little Latin and less Greek ; but it has also been demon- strated that his is the purest English, and that out of every five verbs, adverbs, and nouns which he employs four are Teutonic. He belongs certainly to a place among the first half-dozen of the world's greatest writers, and in Western literature he is not unworthy to be placed side by side with Dante, Virgil, and Homer. Even during his lifetime it is possible to trace his influence spreading through the European continent. Germany, France, Italy, and Russia one by one yielded to his due recognition, at first by acting his plays in native versions, and later by the issue of translations. The latter were begun in Germany, at least, as early as the year 1740. About the same time Voltaire, in France, exhibited in his own dramas the Shakespearean influence which was due to a visit to England. Nevertheless, Voltaire was far from accepting Shakespeare as a genius, since he described him as a barbarian, in the dunghill of whose works were concealed pearls. And these strictures, though they certainly stimulated the study of our poet in France, were rejected by later critics only gradually. It is in Germany that there has always been the greatest reverence for Shakespeare, and the complete version of his plays by Schlegel and Tieck still holds the field as one of the most remarkable instances ot successful translation. In criticism the subject ol Shakespeare attracted the greatest German writers, Goethe and Heine : while in textual and biographical study it is no exaggeration to say that Germany has done more on Shakespeare's behalf than his own countrymen have effected. Although a few years ago PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 203 there was quite a Shakesperean revival in London, which spread to the provinces, yet it is a fact that the number of his performances that are seen in his own country are fewer than occur each year in Germany. Of his thirty-seven plays no fewer than twenty-eight are on the recognised lists of the standard German theatres, the total number of representations averaging almost three per diem : and this, not only in the large towns, but in the provinces as well. But Italy, Russia, Holland, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Spain — in fact, all Europe has fol- lowed suit in providing their readers with complete translations. In the United States, needless to say, Shakespeare is included in the theatrical repertoire as well as in Australia and elsewhere. His vogue has long since reached Japan and India, where a number of his plays have been acted in many of the various dialects in the native theatres. " So mighty a faculty," says Dr. Sidney Lee in his admirable estimate of Shakespeare, "sets at naught the common limitations of nationality, and in every quarter of the globe to which civilised life has penetrated Shakespeare's power is recognised. All the world over language is applied to his creations that ordinarily applies to beings 01 fiesh and blood. Hamlet and Othello, Lear and Mac- beth, Falstaff and Shylock, Brutus and Romeo, Ariel and Caliban are studied in almost every civilised tongue as if they were historic personalities, and the chief of the impressive phrases that fall from their lips are rooted in the speech of civilised humanity. To Shakespeare the intellect of the world, speaking in viders accents, applies with one accord his own words : * How noble in reason ! how infinite in faculty ! in apprehension how like a god ! ' " 204 BRITAIN'S RECORD Francis Bacon's Advancement of Learning is recog- nised as pure literature. The impulse which such of his works as the Novum Organum gave to research was immense. Scientific inquiry was being aroused in England, and William Harvey (already referred to) was lecturing on the Circulation of the Blood in i6 15, whilst Robert Boyle, the chemist, and John Wallis, the mathe- matician, and others, were preparing the way for Newton, to whom we shall refer presently. Nor must we omit to make mention of Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, for it is symbolic 01 the am- bitious and adventurous spirit of the times ; but it is in importance not confined to England, since here for the first time history was being considered as a whole and not merely in regard to England. And all this time England was quietly maintaining the sacred flame of literature and the taste for literary things. For consequent on the increased wealth that was already coming into England, men were able to set up libraries in those fine Elizabethan mansions which they now built for themselves. And it was during the reign of James I, that Sir Thomas Bodley established the famous Bodleian Library, Oxford, one of the most valuable possessions which the world still owns. In the same reign too, that which is now the Cottonian Library, and forms part of the British Museum contents, was founded by Sir Robert Cotton. Thus there was being nurtured that sincere delight in books so that at the proper time there should be at hand suitable material for England's literary prosperity in later centuries. But before we pass further on in our story, it is fitting to estimate the relation which Milton bears to the rest of the world. John Milton was born in 1608 and died in 1674. His Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 205 are not local but world classics. In him was seen the Dante of the north, an artist of conspicuous merit, with a style as majestic and stately as the forces of nature. In him were summed up the learned influences of the Renaissance in England. He it was who began the poetry of pure natural description. Indeed, if there is room for another name on that tablet of fame which includes the names of Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare, it is that of Milton. The seventeenth century, following so closely the Elizabethan Golden Age, is for the most part dull and like an anti-climax which suddenly follows the earlier acts of an intense drama. But there were a few men such as Milton, Dryden, Bacon, Jeremy Taylor, Hobbes, Clarendon, who kept up what has been aptly described as the " stately march of English literature." And of all these the greatest is the first-mentioned : for Milton stands head and shoulders above his contemporaries, for his genius is both international and eternal. A great scholar in more languages than his own, well ac- quainted with the great classical models, his work was more finished if less spontaneous than that of the artists of Elizabeth's reign. Although the quality oi the best of his lyric verse is exquisite, yet his predilection was rather for epic and blank verse. It is indeed in prosody that his power is most clearly exhibited and his influence most strongly felt. It is not inaccurate to suggest that in Milton there is exhibited whatever there is to be admired in that negative condition known as Puritanism. That he is a recognised power in the world is most clearly shown by the interest which has been taken in his productions. For his complete works have been rendered into French German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Swedish. 2o6 BRITAIN'S RECORD There are six translations of Paradise Lost into French, whilst separate works of this sober genius have ap- peared in Dutch, Danish, Welsh, Armenian, Bohemian, and Icelandic — not to mention the many renderings of scholars into the classical languages. Puritanism, by reason of its disregard for enthusiasm, by its almost disrespectful attitude towards humanity, as well as its illogical and narrow exclusiveness, was bound to end in starvation. The age in which we live to-day is emphatically averse from Puritanical ideals. Puritanism never had a more eloquent son than John Milton, but for Puritanical fervour, simplicity, and sincerity, for its popular symbolism, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress occupies a high place in this kind of world's literature. Its spirit of reverence and austere religion has for centuries made a deep impression on the hearts and minds of men and women, although it may be doubted if either Milton or Bunyan remains the religious force they were previously. But for its clever and ingenious character-painting, its imagery and inventiveness, its literary strength and dramatic in- tensity, the Pilgrim's Progress has had just reason for its popularity. For most of two centuries and a hall it has held its own, not merely in this country, but in America and on the Continent. Indeed, it is not till we recollect that it has been translated into eighty different languages that we begin to suspect its full hidden power. During the seventeenth century the progress of science was being advanced by a small but distinguished knot of enthusiasts who were wont to meet in one another's houses. And from this there emerged, after the Re- storation, the Royal Society, which still to-day occupies a unique position among the learned bodies of the Emery Walker JOHN MILTON PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 207 world. Of course, the Civil Wars had set back all the intellectual advance, as they always do. But so soon as there was peace in the land and a more settled policy, learning began to have its opportunity and to avail itself of the same. The science of astronomy, the art of experimental chemistry, medicine, vegetable physi- ology, botany, zoology — even mineralogy — were now taken in hand as serious studies. Nor must we forget that at this time lived Isaac Newton, whose name is famous in the history of intellectual achievement. It was in the year 1671 that he had laid his theory of light before the Royal Society, and in the year preceding the Revolution he had established his proof of the theory of gravitation. Nor, for their social value, must we omit reference to such contributions as Milton's tractate on education, or Thomas Hobbes' treatise the Leviathan^ which de- clared that the origin of all power was in the people, and that the end of all power was for the common weal. For herein was the sowing of those seeds of liberty which have sprung up and flowered in so many different varieties, as we saw in our first chapter. So also John Locke, in his Civil Government^ was the ardent champion of democracy. His position in a different kind of literature — metaphysics — is assured by his Essay Concerning the Human Understandings which is a classic, not only with us, but in Germany. Indeed, it has been rightly said that Locke did as much for the true method of thinking as Bacon had done for the science of nature. The reader is already familiar with the position which has been stated more than once in these pages to the effect that a nation may influence the world not necessarily directly, but indirectly, and after the lapse of 2o8 BRITAIN'S RECORD time. In no case is it more difficult to trace effect back to cause than in the case of literature and philosophy. A man writes a book and dies. He has sown theories, adduced certain opinions, and they may not be appre- ciated by his contemporaries because he had the mis- fortune to be living ahead of his time. But a later age justly values his conclusions at their proper worth, ex- pands his system, builds on it and develops perhaps a newer philosophy thereon. Therefore in considering the works of such men as Hobbes and Locke, it is not enough to say that they were of their own century or their own country. The winds of liberty and in- tellectual progress have taken up these seeds, wafted them across the sea to the Continent and America, dropped them in the rich furrows of fruitful soil, where, after being forgotten and hidden for years, perhaps even centuries, they have suddenly sprouted, borne glorious fruit, and thus benefited the world long ages after. Thus it is most unsatisfactory to separate literature and learning into separate national sections. At the best, international boundaries are but artificial and arbitrary barriers. Humanity is universal, cannot be restrained by these means, and declines to recog- nise their very existence. True, in the case of an island race, such as ours and the Japanese, thought cannot so easily flow backwards and forwards, for the reason that all communication is more difficult. But so soon as sufficient civilisation has been attained and intercommunication is accelerated, so quickly will the cosmopolitanism of human thought begin to manifest itself There is no better instance of this proposition to be found than in those international labour con- ferences, or strikes, or other mental activities, such as the Hague Peace Tribunal, or those conferences which PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 209 are held by scientists, irrespective of geographical boundaries, on the subject of hygiene; or, again, in the case of international art exhibitions. It is just when we get deep down to those matters which are of most concern to humanity as humanity that we realise that the human race is superior to the mere nation, that humanity itself is on a higher plane than politics, that flesh and blood are of mightier import than all the treaties that were ever made. We have but little space to dilate on the work of Addison and Steele in bringing the periodical essay to such perfection. Immediately, the influence of Addison's essays in the Spectator was to improve the manners and morals of the age, to raise the standard, too, of literary criticism. Mediately, such literary outcome has had a potent effect on the moulding of British journalism, and thus on the journalism of America, the English-speaking races generally, and, indeed, of all foreign journalistic standards. Addison, by these essays, was the means of popularising litera- ture, and thus was preparing the way for the time when everyone should read books and journals as the most natural thing in the world. That extraordinary industrial awakening which oc- curred in our country about the middle of the eigh- teenth century had its counterpart in the awakening and growth of literature, so that in many a respect there is a close parallel between the Renaissance of the fifteenth century and that of three hundred years later. At the time of which we are about to speak the news-sheets had begun to affect largely the affairs of the day. The movement had received its initiative during Cromwellian times with such publications as the Mercurius Politicus^ and the like. Literature was no o 2IO BRITAIN'S RECORD longer to be confined to books now that under George the Third the Press claimed the right to criticise the conduct of public personages. As there was growing up a powerful industrial democracy, so there was already begun a kind of literary democracy. In looking at this gradual evolution of the British Press from oppres- sion to liberty we must regard it not so much as an interesting phase of the life of an island nation, but rather we must watch the battle being fought between the newspaper Press and the power that would wish to throttle it. The scene of the battlefield is by chance Britain, but on its result is staked the independence of the world's Press that is so soon to flourish. The fact that the British newspaper won for itself the right to freedom created a precedent for the rest of the civilised world. To-day the newspaper has become perhaps the most powerful organ of liberty which democracy could wish for. There is scarcely a library in all the English-speaking countries which does not contain at least one copy of Samuel Johnson's famous Dictionary of the English Language. It stands for all time as a monument of industry and skill. But Johnson was something more than a great lexicographer ; he was the "first of the modern literary men who, independent of patrons, live by their pen and find in the public their own pay- master." In other words, he was another of those apostles of liberty who were fighting for a principle and a pre- cedent. In the whole history of international history Dr. Johnson is not so much a writer as a personality: an influence even more by means of his conversations than by his authorship. From now onwards, we find the world's indebtedness to British literary activity be- coming greater and greater. Such products as Gold- PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 211 smith's Vicar of Wakefield^ Bos well's Life of fohnson. Sir Joshua Reynolds' Discourses on Paintings Hume's History of England, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution: and in plays Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, and Sheridan's Rivals and the School for Scandal — all these have been the enjoyment and model of civilised nations other than the English people. Sir Joshua's Discourses are remarkable in that they are the first literary expressions of British art. Indeed, at a time when painting elsewhere seemed to have exhausted its resources and lost all spontaneity, England for the first time advanced into the arena, and under Reynolds, Hogarth, and Gainsborough began to enjoy a Renaissance coincident with that of industry and literature. Hume's is our first literary history. Gibbon's monumental work gave to history both a new model and a new impulse, and he remains even to this day, by the consent of all nationalities, the greatest historian of the eighteenth century if not of all time. Adam Smith by his theory that labour is the source of wealth, and that to allow absolute freedom to the labourer to go about his own business is the best means of increasing the country's wealth, set going a new train of thought. He is the father of the science of Political Economy, essentially a British product, and since developed by other writers, chiefly British and American. It was Adam Smith who inaugurated the idea of Free Trade, which has had such a potent influence on the world's commerce. He looked into the relations of capital and labour as a scientist might examine a specimen under the microscope, and he systematised the subject in such a manner for the first time, that his work will ever 212 BRITAIN'S RECORD remain of inestimable value. Of the influence of Burke's Reflections on the minds of the English people, and their subsequent action in regard to France, we have already spoken in another chapter. It infused into the English nation a great horror of the principles which actuated the Revolution. As such, this volume is to be regarded as something more than ephemeral. We alluded just now to the rise of the British Press. Between the years 1773 and 1793 the Morning Chronicle^ the Times^ the Morning Posty and the Morn- ing Herald were started. " When men like Coleridge and Canning began to write in them," says Mr. Stopford Brooke, " the literature of journalism was started." It is from the year 1728 that there began the first of those series of dictionaries of knowledge, which we call " cyclopae- dias," and are so characteristic of our national thorough- ness. This style of volume has since become no mere peculiarity of Britain. The sincerest art of flattery has enabled the example to be followed by Germany, France, and other countries. It was toward the end of the century also that the great literary reviews such as The Edinburgh^ The Quarterly, and Blackwood's were estab- lished. Already in another chapter we have had need to mention the name of Jeremy Bentham, and here again in passing we need only to remind the reader that Bentham's ability as an author gave to the world his chief works within the domain of law. Ricardo, Malthus, and John Stuart Mill were writing on political economy, and so also had Bentham done. But the latter founded the philosophy of jurisprudence, invented a scientific legal vocabulary, and to his enterprise we owe practi- cally all recent legal reforms. In biography such works as Southey's Life of Nelson^ and Lockhart's Life of Scott^ have a value and interest PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 213 that are not confined to England ; for different reasons they are common to the whole world. In history such works as Lingard's History of England^ Hallam's Europe during the Middle Ages and Constitutional History of England ; Macaulay's, Milman's, John Richard Green's works, the historical literature of Froude, of Bishop Stubbs and Bishop Creighton, more recently of Lord Acton (and especially his planning of the Cambridge Modern History) — these represent not mere narration, but that combination of discrimination, research, judicial assessment, and lofty diction which are the recognised distinctions of this brilliant school of British historians. On the whole, for impartiality, for scholarship, for " fine literature," the work of these our modern British histor- ians has not been equalled by anything that ever came out of France, Germany, or America. There is no country in the world that has stored up in its archives such priceless records of the past and of such antiquity, and modern ability has shown that it knows well how to appreciate these inestimable possessions and to clothe them in fresh attire. It is time now to address ourselves to a consideration of English fiction in regard to the rest of the universe. The English novel came into the world through the work of Samuel Richardson. His Pamela was not merely the first English novel, but has even been deemed the earliest European novel of the modern kind. That was in the year 1740. Not narrative in treatment, but containing a set of letters between imaginary people, it was a novel of sentiment with a distinct aim in the direction of morality and religion. The second English novel was Fielding's Joseph Andrews, which advanced this new literary achievement a step further. Then followed Richardson's Clarissa^ also written in the form 214 BRITAIN'S RECORD of letters, of which a recent critic, himself one of the most gifted of our present-day novelists, Mr. Arnold Bennett, has estimated the value in the statement that it is " the first and greatest of all realistic novels of any- period or country." " It stirred as absorbing an interest in France," says Mr. Stopford Brooke, "as it did in England." " Take care," said Diderot, " not to open these enchanting books, if you have any duties to fulfil." Britain, therefore, with all her commercialism, has indeed laid even France under a load of obligation. But it is Fielding's Tom Jones which is the English model of the novel. Until this latter appeared, no novel possessing a real plot had been published in English. In the pro- ductions of Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett were laid the foundations on which subsequent British novelists have built up so spacious a fabric within a little more than a century and a half. And apart altogether from the influence exerted on French literature, this has meant also the imparting to the North American novel- ists the rules and form on which they have based their own school of fiction. After the French Revolution the English novel began to receive impetus. Mrs. Radcliffe introduced the romantic novel ; Jane Austen and others were depicting the society of the early nineteenth century. But it was reserved for Walter Scott to raise " the whole of the literature of the novel into one of the great influences that bear on human life." Because of his sympathy with human nature, Scott has become, not the exclusive enjoy- ment of the British nation, but of all who appreciate litera- ture : enjoyed by Goethe as well as by modern Germans, by the colonial pioneer in the loneliness of the back- woods, and by the modern devourer of the library book- stall. Scarcely any English nineteenth-century novelist PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 215 after Scott has made a general impression throughout Europe, for the Victorian idols were of clay, and though Europe knew this the British nation refused then to recognise this fact. " Shakespeare and Scott," sums up Mr. G. K. Chesterton in one of his epigrammatic essays, "are certainly alike in this, that they could both, if literature had failed, have earned a living as professional demagogues. The feudal heroes in the Waverley Novels retort upon each other with a passionate dignity, haughty and yet singularly human, which can hardly be paralleled in political eloquence except in Julius CcBsar^ Sir Walter Besant once wrote the following opinion. " I am inclined, however, to think that a few of the nineteenth - century novelists will never be suffered to die, though they may be remembered princi- pally for one book — that Thackeray will be remem- bered for his Vanity Fair, Dickens for David Copper- fieldy George Meredith for The Ordeal of Richard Feverely George Eliot for Silas Marner, Charles Reade for The Cloister and the Hearth^ and Blackmore for his Lorna Doone" Certain it is that these books have had a wide circle of appreciation among foreign peoples. Whether or not posterity will estimate them in the same degree as the nineteenth century is a problem which time alone can settle. Dickens, for the same reason as Scott, will most certainly live on : for his humanity and sympathetic insight, for his extraordinary intensity and the wide range of his creative genius. It is indeed true that very few writers have become responsible for the creation of so large a portrait gallery as Dickens. The popularity of Dickens abroad, whether on the American or the European continent, is amazing. To the Dutch he is as one of their own 2i6 BRITAIN'S RECORD nation ; and so we might go through the whole inter- national category. Dickens's importance in the world's literature seems rather to be increasing than otherwise. His fame rests, says Mr. Thomas Seccombe, not on his inordinate gift of observation, but on " his sympathy with the humble, his power over the emotions, and his incomparable endowment of unalloyed fun. To contemporaries he was not so much a man as an institution, at the very mention of whose name faces were puckered with grins or wreathed in smiles. . . . And his influence . . . gave what were then universally referred to as 'the lower orders ' a new sense of respect, a new feeling of citizenship. ... He did for the whole English- speaking race what Burns had done for Scotland — he gave it a new conceit of itself." Mr. Chesterton has, in one of his amusing and amazing feats of literary gymnastics, remarked that Thackeray " belongs to Queen Victoria, as much as Addison belongs to Queen Anne, and it is not only Queen Anne who is dead " ; whereas Dickens, " in a dark, prophetic kind of way, belongs to the developments. He belongs to the times since his death, when Hard Times grew harder, and when Veneering became not only a member of Parlia- ment but a Cabinet Minister, the times when the very spirit and soul of Fledgeby carried war into Africa." If we look through the vista of English poetry I think we shall find that in its devotion to and praise of nature it is unsurpassed by any continental verse. Scenery — sea and sky, and hills and valleys, winds and shadows — this and man's relation thereto, and all that men feel when so brought in contact, has been the work of such poets as James Thomson, Gray, Wordsworth, William Blake, Cowper, and others. But PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 217 it is a curious reflection for us that in the list of British writers who have influenced the world, Lord Byron holds a position after Shakespeare that is shared only with Dickens. As to whether Dickens or Byron is on the whole the more universally popular abroad is a debatable point. Perhaps the truth lies in the asser- tion that whereas Byron has about reached the climax of his popularity, the fame of Dickens continues to increase. Great as was the effect of Byron's extra- ordinary popularity over the literature of his own country, yet it was at least as great on those of the other great European countries, and modern literary Greece reveres his name and work too keenly to forget him for generations to come. The development of the Romantic school in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain was very largely owing to Byron's work. Even to-day the Englishman abroad is constantly surprised at the estimation in which Byron is universally held and at the acquaintance with his poetry exhibited by those who in their turn fail to understand how his own countrymen can neglect him so signally. Byron did not invent forms, but he imported into English poetry a manner which its intensity, picturesqueness, and emo- tion render cosmopolitan ; and this fact helps to explain the ready acceptance of his poetry in all European languages, to say nothing of its rendering in Hebrew, Hindustani, and even Esperanto ! In considering what Britain has contributed to the enrichment of the world's literature, one has to remem- ber that it is conceivable that some who were considered of high standing and influence as judged by British literary critics have not always been appreciated in other countries to the same extent. Nor does it necessarily follow that only those English authors have 2i8 BRITAIN'S RECORD influenced the rest of the world whose work has been rendered into foreign languages. Nevertheless, on the whole, it is a fair statement to make that those English authors whose work has not had a vogue at home have failed in any great measure to influence the universe. But whatever else may be true in this connection we may safely assert that owing to the fact that we have by conquest and colonisation obtained for the sphere of the English language one half of the whole world, by that means we have caused the widening of the channel for the passage of English literature of all sorts. Thus to-day the author who writes his work in the English tongue is appealing to the largest audience which any writer ever has appealed to. It is thus, in the simplest of ways, capable of assertion that through its literature Britain at this moment probably influences with its ideals more people in the aggregate than writers of any other nationality. And this is independently of all translations. The outlook for the future, with the English tongue dominating the United States, Canada, Africa, Australia, and elsewhere, is that so long as our country continues to produce great thinkers of its own it will ever be listened to by an audience that is practically world-wide. One hears complaints at times that there is too great an over-production in the British book market. But before very long Canada, Africa, and Australia will have so far completed their advance in pioneering and development that their present taste for literature will increase. There will then be added to the sphere of publishing a much larger area. In course of time in these respective countries there will grow up their own separate, indi- vidual sections of literature, but even then it will be impossible for them to escape from British influence. PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 219 British thought, British methods, and British ideals. Till then the books and thoughts of British writers, as well as of America, are spreading the influence of the Anglo-Saxon race. Among the more modern British authors, Tennyson has remained for half a century as the summit of con- temporary poetry in the language of the Anglo-Saxons. As an idyllist his reputation is internationally fixed and sure. For his French Revolution, if for nothing else, Carlyle is also an " international." Cardinal Newman's Apologia will be esteemed as long as there remain those who revere the purity and majestic dignity of English prose. Of living English writers it were best not to offer a suggestion. But it may be put forward that posterity will agree that Kipling more than any other British writer has extolled imperialism, patriot- ism, and manliness. His appeal is essentially to the Anglo-Saxons all over the world. To the Latin races he can scarcely offer much that is tempting or likely to be appreciated by them. To such different men as Addison and Matthew Arnold, how much does not the world of literary criticism owe ? In the sphere of art and applied art, who shall venture to limit the value to be set upon the work of Ruskin and William Morris ? The principle common to both is the interdependence of art and morality. Looked at merely as the husband and tutor of art — the " master " as he was so often termed by a large band of willing disiples — Ruskin did a vast work for the art of nations. Omitting for the present his intimate connec- tion with the Pre-Raphaelite movement at home, there has never lived one who did more to call attention to the inestimable art treasures which exist in Italy, and the Italians reverence his name with a commensurate 2 20 BRITAIN'S RECORD gratitude. He was able to extract sermons from those historic stones, sermons which, if not a little dogmatic and even autocratic, were none the less invaluable and helped the world to realise in a manner it had never previously contemplated that there were more beautiful things in existence than many suspected. His whole mission was to lead people to admire sincerity in beauty, to relish whatsoever is pure and noble, and as a moral teacher he was a moulder of character, an inspirer of man, no less than an art critic who had the courage to stand resolutely firm and denounce the existing defects of what posed as art. One hears it said nowadays that Ruskin has already become an extinct volcano. It would be truer to affirm that though the literal work which it was Ruskin's to accomplish ended with his life, yet the principles that he implanted are flowering still in many shapes. That his mission was essential, coming as it did after an age notorious for the insincerities of its conventionality, no one to-day could honestly deny. In England he gave a new impetus to art — exercised a controlling, guiding influence. Abroad, his teachings have, especially in America, been absorbed with an en- thusiasm scarcely inferior to that of his own country- men. Italy, the United States, and Britain especially •remain his debtors. But the whole domain of art, irrespective of national boundaries, has felt his mag- netism and been roused to enthusiasm. Led by William Morris, the arts and crafts of our country, which, to quote Morris's own words, had " been sick unto death," began to take on a new lease of life. To-day we are able everywhere to witness the results. It has been not merely in design and colour of one or two articles, but generally in those applied arts which in the least degree lend themselves to improvement. PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 221 Textiles, decorative painting, wall-papers, metal-work, stone and wood carving, furniture, stained glass, table glass, printing, book-binding, mural-painting, dyeing, embroidery, lace-work, book illustrations and book decoration, inlaid work, architecture — these have all come under the Morris spell and been left the better therefor. The lack of beauty in modern life was to be regarded not as a misfortune, but almost as a crime — certainly as reprehensible negligence. The eighteenth century and part of the nineteenth was, as Morris him- self suggested, "quite unconscious of its tendency towards ugliness and nullity." Germany, Austria, Britain, America, have all been influenced by this art movement. In the wares displayed in our shops, in the disposition of our newer houses, in the furniture, the upholsteries, in the printed page of our better-class books, in modern jewellery, and especially in all departments of needle-work, this Morris movement has exhibited itself in no uncertain manner. It has brought beauty into many a home that had excluded it for many a year ; it has been sincere and reasonable, and therefore it has succeeded, not only in England, but elsewhere. We turn now from art and literature to note, if any, the benefits which Britain has conferred on the world's drama. Of course, pre-eminently Shakespeare occurs to the mind, of whom already we have spoken, so that we need not be delayed now. In spite of the years that have since passed, he remains in his lonely glory as the one British dramatist who has left the impress of his work on the nations of the world. The Elizabethan drama, owing to the nature of the stage on which it was enacted, was a rhetorical and not a picture drama, as to-day. When spectators lined the sides of the stage and the latter was merely a platform for elocution rather than for acting, it 2 22 BRITAIN'S RECORD was not likely that our country would evolve anything to offer to other nations, especially as the same stage conditions obtained in France and generally on the Continent. Of our Restoration drama, with its indecen- cies, the less said the better. All through those years, even down to the middle of the nineteenth century, the rhetorical platform drama went on in this country with its effete ideals. There was no originality of technique either for actor or dramatist. It was only after the stage had ceased to project so far into the auditorium that the picture-play had a chance. And when I say " picture- play," I mean not necessarily one that is distinguished less for its own value than for the wealth of its dressing. I mean that kind of play which is created by the stage that withdraws itself, so to speak, from the audience ; so that in listening to the actors we are in the spirit of those who watch the dornestic affairs of a family with one of the four walls removed for our gaze. Those very qualities which are essential for the creation of dramatic art have been withheld from us as a nation. Perhaps we are, compared with the Latins, of too self-conscious a nature ; perhaps it is not allowed to a commercial and great colonising nation to do equally well in this subtle and difficult art. " For full fifty years before theatres began to multiply in London," says Mr. A. B. Walkley, " they were numerous in Paris, and their number steadily increased." Outside Shakespeare we owe so much to the French drama — in ideas, in construction, in theme — that we have so little to boast of. " It is impossible even to think of the early Victorian theatre," says the same keen critic, " without a yawn, so * unidea'd ' was it, so ephemeral, so paltry, and jejune." True it is that T. W. Robertson came along with his plays such as Caste and the picture-stage began to be employed intelligently PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 223 in England, with all rhetoric and other effete conventions omitted. But time has not judged the Robertsonian drama as kindly as its contemporary judgment. And so we could continue to go through the list of successful English plays which have been produced since then. There is, however, a little that Britain has done for the international theatre. Both Pinero and Barrie have been presented abroad, in Paris, and Pinero in Germany as well. But it could scarcely be claimed that they have taken root among the other dramatists that are enacted abroad. Perhaps the one British author, apart from Shakespeare, who is appreciated as much if not more both on the Continent and in America, than here, is Mr. Bernard Shaw, whose plays, nevertheless, are less drama than a series of brilliant dialogues. Instead of address- ing himself to the emotions, as is the true office of drama, he appeals to the intellect, to the cold reason. In this respect, therefore, he goes away from drama itself and approaches more nearly to the prevailing Teutonic nature. Long before London had begun to recognise Mr. Shaw as worthy to be placed in the regular programme of any West End theatre, New York was singing his praises loudly. Thus, here was the curious incident of a British dramatist being, so to speak, intro- duced to his own country by a foreign nation. But though, as yet, it is we who are indebted to the world and to France especially, Mr. Shaw's individuality has had the effect of creating a school of playwrights which is now growing up and seems destined to win for our national theatre some of the glory which has been conspicuously absent for so great a time. The next quarter of a century may in every probability witness the rise of a sincere and admirable British drama, some- thing to be as proud of as in the days of William 224 BRITAIN'S RECORD Shakespeare. It has taken time for the old-fashioned conventionalities, with which our theatre has been enslaved so long, to be thrown aside. But there are unmistakable signs that originality and freshness of treatment are being grafted on to our national drama; and this at a time when French dramatic invention seems to have begun to wane. Looking at the subject of the theatre in another way, it is undeniable that North America, as well as our colonies, especially Australia, are deeply indebted to us, not merely for sending over some of our best plays, but our best actors and actresses. In America there can scarcely be said to be any natural dramatic output of the country as yet, notwithstanding that there are a few American playwrights. But in two points Britain has made her contribution to the world of the theatre. Firstly, she has led the way in the matter of good scenery and adequate and artistic dressing which a play should receive : though perhaps she has done this at the expense of drama itself. Other nations have certainly taken lessons from British methods of pro- duction and stage management. Secondly, Britain has developed that extraordinary thing which we locally but erroneously call the "pantomime." There is nothing of its kind on the Continent, and though isolated efforts have been made to implant this in the United States, it has died away for lack of suitable soil. Perhaps also we might go on to add that the development of the British music-hall (another mis- nomer), and of the type of play known as musical comedy, has been also particularly British, although it has been copied in most of its essentials abroad. And even in these very British institutions there are PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 225 appearing signs of imminent change. But it is most chiefly in the scenic effects, the mounting, the careful provision for the comfort of the audience in the audi- torium, that we can legitimately lay claim to having profited the world's theatrical section, though our dramatic criticism, which includes such writers as Hazlitt and others, is not to be dismissed so lightly. But in the cause of learning and science Britain has done much. There is no nation that can boast of such an excellent educational system, that endeavours on sensible grounds to develop both mind and body. There is no country that in the past has given such rich endowments for the encouragement of education and scholarship. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are in a thousand ways unrivalled by any others. They have been in certain essential respects the models on which America and the Colonies have fashioned their academies of learning. From all parts of the globe the white man and the black have come to our great national seats of learning, and found in them the kindliest of mothers, to whom for ever after they have owned a debt of the deepest gratitude. These ancient institutions have trained many of the world's most useful and distinguished men for the tasks they were destined shortly to fulfil. They have sent forth from their bosom those great pro- consuls who have had the administration of our vast colonies. They have sent to India and elsewhere the representatives of British justice. They have trained diplomatists, law- givers, administrators, advocates, missionaries, whilst at home among the long list of brilliant statesmen whose ability has dominated foreign policy, or inspired wars and other world movements, a very large percentage of these men have acknowledged 226 BRITAIN'S RECORD the profound indebtedness which they owe to their alma mater. They have given scholars of every branch of learning to enrich the world's storehouses of know- ledge ; there has gone forth a magnificent procession from their portals, and the world far and wide acknow- ledges that Britain has indeed given of her best. By the benefactions of liberal-minded men and women, those who are poor in this world's goods but rich in intellect, have been enabled to avail themselves of the scholarships, and thus to hand on their training to others. Nor must we be unmindful of that singularly interesting founding of Colonial, American, and German scholarships owing to the far-sightedness and generosity of our great Empire-maker, Cecil Rhodes. Here has been thus started a unifying effect with intellectual development as its basis. " No men," remarked the American Consul-General recently at a dinner of Rhodes scholars in Oxford, " no men can do as much as the Rhodes students to interpret England and America to each other, and to confirm and strengthen the friend- ship now existing between the two countries." And in this assertion most people will be found to meet in agreement. Thus our two oldest Universities have done, and still are doing, no small part of the world's work. Of the British public schools we have already spoken, and in additional to these must be mentioned the chain of grammar schools, technical and board schools, which stretches from one end of the country to another. The principles of British education are acknowledged to be the soundest of any nation, and if we desire actual proof, is it not to be found in the men they have produced in the past as the world's leaders of men, in the youths now being educated to become the fathers of Britons no PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 227 less illustrious ? There is now no need for ignorance : no excuse. Free education is to be obtained and is com- pulsory. When that is said there is every opportunity, by means of inexpensive literature, by innumerable museums and art galleries, by free, or at least cheap, lectures, to continue the progress that has already been made. There may be defects of our system, but in spite of these the world still regards the British standard as something deserving of being imitated. It has been said that our public schools are deficient in their power to make our youth intellectual giants, and the reader is probably familiar with the satire, that, though Eton boys might not learn much Latin or Greek, yet they left school with the firm impression that there actually were such languages. That is the difference between our own and continental educational ideals. For education consists neither in abundance of knowledge nor the ability to reach a certain examination standard, but rather in the developing of mind and body, acquiring the virtues alike of obedience and leadership, so that in turn they may become good citizens themselves no less than the leaders of men. We need not quote again the fable of Wellington and the relation of the school play- ing-fields to the battlefield, but the importance which in our country we pay to school sports is based on something higher than mere athletic achievement. They are but means to the end, the preservation of the body whilst the mind and character are passing through their most critical period of life. To an Englishman physical exercise is as essential as the oxygen of the air, and but for his attention to open-air recreation in his earlier days, he would be unable to carry out the arduous duties which later life imposes. In the past, learning and science of our country were 228 BRITAIN'S RECORD tutored and developed by the Church in this land. They were, indeed, for a long time an ecclesiastical monopoly, and to this influence we owe the foundation of our Universities and some of our older schools. But after the advent of the Renaissance spirit and the development of the Universities in England, our national learning became gradually secular. To the English mind there was to come a mental discipline, an ana- lytical attitude towards life, a method of keen criticism, together with a sharpening of the powers of reason : and out of this was to emerge clear thinking and a brighter brain. If less romantic in character than the people of the Mediterranean, the English were more liable to appreciate the intellectual discipline, which, indeed, has in the ensuing centuries borne such wonderful fruit. Scholasticism had paved the way for the advance of knowledge that was to give to England her special place in the universe of learning. Dean Colet's founda- tion of St. Paul's School set on foot a complete change, its aim being to unite religion with sound learning. Some of the statutes which Colet drew up at its found- ing in the early sixteenth century are indicative of the thought of that time. " The children shall come into the school at seven of the clock both winter and summer, and tarry there until eleven : and return again at one of the clock and depart at five. In the school, no time in the year, they shall use tallow candle, in nowise, at the cost of their friends. Also, I will they bring no meat nor drink, nor bottle, nor use in the school no break- fasts, nor drinkings, in the time of learning, in nowise. I will they use no cockfightings, nor riding about of victory, nor disputing at St. Bartholomew, which is but foolish babbling and loss of time." The studies for the boys were Erasmus's Copia^ Lactantius, Prudentius, and PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 229 a few other such authors. " All barbary, all corruption, all Latin adulterate, which ignorant blind fools brought into this world, and with the same hath distained and poisoned the old Latin speech, and the veray Roman tongue, which in the time of Sallust and Virgil was used — I say that filthiness and all such abusioUy which the later blind world brought in, which more rather may be called Bloterature than Literature, I utterly banish and exclude out of this school." We referred just now to the British grammar schools. Such have been established in the colonies on British models, and it is conceivable that when continental education is reformed and Britain again is looked to as the right standard in such matters, these institu- tions may find their counterpart in countries other than our colonies. During the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Elizabeth, such schools as these were especially founded in our country, and the work which they accomplished during those centuries which have passed, has had its influence, not only on Britain, but in many a portion of the globe where Britons have wandered. For instance, let us suppose a Frenchman and an Englishman find themselves in a distant corner of the world. It matters not what their own special work may be, whether in education or administration. Your Frenchman has been educated in a Parisian lycee. He has absorbed certain ideas during his youth which a British boy would shun. The system of scholastic espionage is utterly abhorrent to our educational methods ; in France it is by no means unknown. Thus, though in each of the men under consideration, youth has long since passed, yet those lessons and ideals which are acquired at a time when one is most receptive will still modify the actions of the boy now 230 BRITAIN'S RECORD grown old. Education and educational principles count for very much in the formation of character. Aristotle, centuries ago, emphasised the important fact that habit results from a number of actions. And it is equally true that a man's spontaneous actions spring from the formed habit. If your Frenchman has been educated to include the spying system as a legitimate and ordinary procedure, then he will doubtless treat the natives over whom he has been placed in the same way. But they will not learn to love him. The Britisher, on the contrary, may be fooled sometimes through his credulity, but in the long run he will find that his trust will be reciprocated. And this arises from the educa- tion which he has received at home, whether in public or grammar school. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that the spirit which prevails in our British schools, the trust which is imparted and expected, the common- sense methods and general reasonableness are some of the most valuable factors in the great work which Britain has done and is doing. In the mind of the foreigner there is deep rooted the greatest respect for all that British education means. Otherwise how should it be that sons of foreign potentates and the foreign aristocracy should come over to England and pass through the preparatory and public schools, military academies, universities or Inns of Court, of our land? And yet this perfecting of our educational system has taken time. It is like the story of the American visiting Oxford, who marvelled at the perfect condition of the grass in one of the college gardens. He came upon the gardener a few yards away and asked him how it was that this college sward was so velvety and green, so even and regular, whereas in Cincinnati he had PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 231 never succeeded in obtaining such pleasing results. The gardener replied that it was merely the result of time, and that no doubt the American turf in Cincinnati would become as satisfactory if it was attended to for the next few centuries. All that is admirable in our British educational methods can be ascribed to time and attention. It is the same in gardens as it is in the school and University ; in the art of teaching and building up of character during the stages of youth Britain leads the world. In the United States there are perhaps certain details which could well be adopted by us, but too often the results are but disappointing, so that education becomes with them merely a pose, something objective rather than a natural part of the person himself. During the reign of Elizabeth, was born Bacon, who has been well described as "a born philosopher who mistook himself for a man of science." But he it was who certainly did succeed in devising and expounding a system which prepared the way for modern scientific methods. What he insisted upon was the experimental principle as against the intellectual dogmatism and superstition of his age. It was not enough that a cer- tain fact should be stated : it might be true or it might not. To Bacon the normal channel of knowledge was experiment. And, following this method, Britain has done an incalculable good for the progress of learning and science. Without this system we should have remained in ignorance about a thousand matters. Medi- cine would have remained in its crudity, we should have known but little of chemistry and less of physical science. Those wonderful discoveries which have sprung from a better knowledge of sound, light, and heat would have remained nature's secrets. Indeed, 232 BRITAIN'S RECORD the pivot of progress may be said to have been placed in that great sixteenth century. During the seventeenth century deductive reasoning and inductive inquiry, together with a stricter examina- tion of those ancient records, which in many cases are the only foundations of belief, caused all true know- ledge to increase in a manner unprecedented. Scholar- ship assisted erudition, and new experimental sciences were born. Thus we get that brilliant galaxy of in- tellectual stars which include Locke, Hobbes, Gilbert, Harvey, Boyle, and Newton. Thus we get, as already related, the foundation of the Royal Society, the fellow- ship of which is still the envy of many an ambitious foreigner. And so it went on until, by the end of the seventeenth century, the whole of intellectual England had changed, not merely its own appearance, but that of the Continent. Science and philosophy had become indebted to Newton and Locke : learning to Bentley and others. The second half of the eighteenth century will ever be memorable as having seen the application of phy- sical research and mechanical invention to industrial purposes. What important results to the whole world were effected we have already seen in this volume. At the same time the pursuit of pure science was not being neglected by Britain. We must never forget the great names of Herschel in connection with astronomy, Cavendish and Priestley in chemistry, and Black too ; nor Hunter in his work for anatomy and physiology. We treated Adam Smith as an author just now ; but not only has his work caused the birth of an entirely new science, but one which has done more for the happiness and prosperity of humanity during the last hundred and twenty years than any other, unless we Ettury Walker SIR ISAAC NEWTON PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 233 mention the name of Jeremy Bentham. Not merely has it set the whole intellectual and commercial world thinking and appreciating problems in a new light, but it has caused professorships and university examinations to take cognisance of this British development, and even to start schools of economics in which again Great Britain has led the way. Not only that, but a new kind of literature has sprung up with various branches of political economy as its theme. But though, as we have chronicled in another sec- tion, the early nineteenth century was characterised by that extraordinary scientific movement, and the appli- cation of steam to both land and marine locomotion brought about in the shortest space of time such im- portant world-results, yet it was not until the 'fifties that science began to advance in earnest. However, so soon as it gathered impetus it went ahead at a great pace. As we said in our introduction, there is no such thing as absolute independence. The basis of even the most wonderful invention was laid by the efforts of that inventor's predecessors. And so the discoveries of the British physicist have laid the foundations for the engineering triumphs of Britain, America, France, and Germany. In the same way, partly by invention, partly by preparing the way for such inventions, partly also by improvements on the inventions made, Britain has assisted the world in its employment of electricity whether for the transmission of sound, the illumination of houses, streets, ships, public buildings, trains, and so on, or in its application for the purpose of loco- motion. Among the scientists of the world there are names of Britons which stand out like beacons to show the way towards truth. But of these I suggest there are none 234 BRITAIN'S RECORD more conspicuous than those of Darwin, Huxley, and Kelvin. Of the last mentioned we have spoken on another page, and we might also include the name of Herbert Spencer for his system of philosophy, though it is doubtful if the adjective " popular " could be attributed thereto. But Darwin, by the publication of his Origin of Species, marked an epoch not merely in British philosophy nor British literature, but in the whole history of human thought, regardless entirely of nationality. Profoundly has he affected all studies of mankind, whether moral, physical, intellectual, or spiritual. When he gave to the world his doctrine of Evolution, he was imparting a new influence and impetus to history, ethics, economics, and psychology. It set going an entirely new train of thought ; it roused the most violent antagonism. It was translated into both French and German, it was published in America, it set the whole thinking world agog. But from it there has sprung another science — the science of Comparative Theology, which brought the methods of scientific inquiry to bear upon the history of religion and the religious instincts in man. As a philosopher, Darwin is no less than in his capacity as a naturalist one of the most stupendous personalities of the nineteenth or indeed any other century. As a world-influence we have not even now ceased to feel the full force of the movement which he started going. During the nineteenth century immense progress was made by Britain in all branches of science, and these still continue with such startling results that we should require all the pages in this book to deal with them in any adequate manner. Silently the study and laboratory of British genius have revealed to the world much that it had never suspected, drawn back the curtain, so to speak, PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 235 and caused us to open our eyes in amazement. Chemistry has developed the data which already it possessed ; physiological science has progressed owing to the aid of the microscope. And here let us remark that Britain has rendered vast service to the world by her share in the perfection of this invaluable instrument which is being brought into use more and more each day. We must remember the names in this connection of Dr. Hooke, of Sir David Brewster, Dr. Goring, Pritchard, Dr. Wollaston, Coddington, Tulley, Professor Barlow, Herschel, Lister, and others. Even as far back as 1672, Isaac Newton had described to the Royal Society " A Microscope by Reflexion," which consisted of a con- cave spherical speculum of metal with an eye-glass that magnified the reflected image of any object placed between them in the conjugate focus of the speculum. It was the opticians of Britain who developed the manufacture of these instruments, and the results to science and criminology have been infinite. The micro- scope has revealed the hidden luxuriance of the ocean, thrown a new light on animal life in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, and has revolutionised medical evidence in murder trials where stains of blood have been adduced either for or against the prisoner. The comparative anatomist uses it to determine from the structure of the teeth, the form, habit, and class of animals which lived and have become extinct on our earth for thousands of years. It is employed in most countries for the detection of adulteration in food. And here again this innovation is British, I fancy ; for in the year 1850 Dr. Hassall read to the Botanical Society his paper on the adulteration of coffee. And all the world over the name of Lord Lister will remain famous for his discovery of the antiseptic system 236 BRITAIN'S RECORD of treatment in surgery. Such an achievement has meant a colossal boon for humanity. Before he intro- duced this, about forty years ago, nearly 50 per cent of the operations performed proved fatal ; not through the surgeon's knife, but owing to the inflammation and poisoning of the wound which set in afterwards. The immediate result of his work has been an extra- ordinary falling off in the mortality following operations. Therapeutics and sanitation have progressed in like manner, owing to the construction and application of the germ theory of disease ; and the laws of heat, light, and magnetism and electricity, thanks to the industry and natural genius of our British scientists, have been investigated and brought many steps nearer to that stage where complete knowledge is attained. We have no room to enter upon an inquiry as to the wonderful results which have accrued from British learned societies. But among those which have given a very strong impulse as well as a system to scientific inquiry, we may mention the British Association, the Royal Society, and the Royal Geographical Society. By such invaluable institutions as the British School at Athens, the British School at Rome, and the Egypt Exploration Fund, as well as the explorations in Babylonia, the history of the past and its present-day interpretation have been so wonderfully enriched that posterity will owe to our nation more than it can ever repay. The work, for instance, which Rawlinson performed in connection with the interpretation of the famous Rosetta Stone, is one of the most wonderful achievements in the whole history of learning. I think it was Commander Peary of the United States Navy, the discoverer of the North Pole, who remarked that no nation in the world has done so much for Polar PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 237 discovery. For generations Britain has sent ships and men both to the Antarctic and Arctic. In more recent times, Franklin, McClintock, Markham, Scott, and Shackleton, have continued to carry on that great work which Britain has done in connection with scientific exploration. This is no place to discuss the question of the utility of these expeditions. Whatever adds to the body of scientific knowledge cannot be useless. Because it may not be possible in this year or next to put to practical use the data which have been gathered, is no argument against such projects as these. " All art is useless," wrote a cynic some years ago. But none the less, who would banish it from our midst? History shows us that it may take years, genera- tions, perhaps even centuries, before the data amassed can be employed for the benefit of mankind. Who knows but that some day these Arctic and Antarctic materials may not be employed for some of those benefits in the service of man ? In the meantime it was necessary that some nation should be collecting these facts. Britain has never wanted the men who have been willing to leave home, families and comforts, for the pure pursuit of knowledge. That such expeditions have been made possible indicates that the Eliza- bethan spirit of discovery has not yet died out. If and when it should, then one of the finest qualities of the British nation will have ceased to exist. The system of standard time differs in certain parts of the world. But the meridian of Greenwich has been the recognised standard, not merely for England, Belgium, Scotland, Wales, Holland, but for Por- tugal and Spain. France was accustomed to employ the meridian of Paris as her standard, but whilst these pages were being written she has put back her clocks 238 BRITAIN'S RECORD nine minutes twenty-one seconds, and adopted the Greenwich standard. And this leads one to consider for a few moments the relation of England to the discovery and improvement of that handmaid to science, the telescope. It was Roger Bacon who conceived the idea of the telescope, although there is no actual proof that he carried his project into reality. However, it remains undeniable that he de- scribes a telescope, and asserts that by its means a small army could be made to look large, and that the sun and moon could be made to descend to all appear- ance down below. Dr. Dee in his Preface to Euclid's Elements, 1570, after speaking of the skill necessary to discover the numerical strength of an enemy's army at a distance, says that by the use of perspective glasses a captain may wonderfully help himself to this end. After Sir Isaac Newton had discovered the refrangibility of light, it was found that the aberration about the focus of a lens was many hundred times greater than could be accounted for by the form of the glass. In the telescope which Newton eventually evolved, and was examined by Charles II and presented to the Royal Society in 1 671, we have the first reflecting telescope that was ever made. Other Englishmen continued to improve on this idea, as, for instance, Gregory and Hooke, Bradley, who about the year 1720 was Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, the latter having succeeded in reducing the inconvenient size in which they were then made. Herschel also in 1789 had effected still greater improvements, and it is reported that the very first moment that his telescope was directed to the sky a new body was added to the solar system, namely the sixth satellite of Saturn. In less than a month after, the seventh satellite was also discovered. After PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 239 Herschel came John Ramage, an Aberdeen merchant He was followed by Faraday, who superintended an improvement in the glass. Lord Rosse's great reflect- ing telescope startled the world by reason of its magnitude and power. By the gift of the great North- umberland telescope to Cambridge the planet Neptune was discovered by Professor Challis before a German scientist had observed it. And since then Britain has continued to improve this ingenious instru- ment as well in design as in manufacture. By this means knowledge has been collected which formerly had been deemed impossible or undreamt of In fact, prior to the advent of the telescope the earth was thought to be the only planet which had sun to light it by day and moon to shine upon it by night. By means of this invention to the production of which Britain has contributed, vast worlds have been dis- covered, thousands of celestial bodies have been de- tected and surveyed, some of the greatest mysteries of the universe have been illumined, and the wonders of nature made to appear even more wonderful still. In the science of eugenics Britain is beginning to benefit the world in a new way, and the recent benefac- tion of the late Sir Francis Galton, who was formerly chairman of the Kew Observatory Committee and of the Meteorological Council, as well as one of the pioneers of the means of identification by the finger- print method, will enable the establishment and endow- ment of a professorship of eugenics. By eugenics is meant the science of those agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial faculties of generations, both physically and mentally. And before long it is expected that the University of London will have begun to collect materials bearing on this new 240 BRITAIN'S RECORD science, have organised a library and laboratory, obtained from amassed data important conclusions and generally extended the eugenic knowledge by pro- fessional instruction, public lectures, and publications, no less than by means of experimental and observa- tional work. From a central office private individuals as well as public authorities will be provided with information on the laws of inheritance in man and the conclusions as to social conduct which follow from such laws will be urged. There are those who insist that Britain is rapidly on the down-grade: but when we find that in so many incidents of this kind, such public-minded benefactions and foresight are exhibited, it seems a sufficient refutation of the pessimists. In- deed, it would seem assured that the valuable statistics and general conclusions which will accrue from this new science must be to the great good not merely of the Anglo-Saxon race in all parts of the globe but of all the races inhabiting the world, so soon as they attain such a degree of civilisation as to be capable of appreciating the gifts of any science. Modern science has done so much to improve the well-being of humanity. Even quite recently we have seen the advent of the electric furnace, the discovery of the X-rays, of radium, and the new theory of the con- stitution of matter. The discovery of the important principle of the Conservation of Energy is one of the comparatively recent triumphs. It was Joule of Man- chester who first showed that heat and mechanical energy are mutually convertible, and that no matter what its intermediate stages may be, a given quantity of heat always corresponds to the same amount of energy. Whether the energy be electricity, light, chemi- cal action, or the powers of nerve or muscle, the law of PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 241 conservation always applies. It guides the theorist no less than the practical engineer, and there is no telling how much this fact may affect the progress of the future. It was another Britisher, John Dal ton, who announced the atomic theory, or " Laws of Combining Proportion." By this, science was enriched by one of its grandest conceptions. This theory teaches the important fact that elements or ingredients which form a chemical compound are always united in it, and in the same pro- portion by weight. For instance, water is a compound of oxygen and hydrogen, and the amount of these two elements is always definite. It matters not whether the water comes from the rivulet that trickles down from the hills, from the snow which melts at the appearance of the sun, whether it comes from hail or a shower of rain, from the dew of the morning — it invariably contains eight parts of oxygen to one of hydrogen. Now this principle was discovered by Dalton only after long experiment and observation. A series of careful and accurate analyses were afterwards made by a Swedish chemist which bear out in the surest manner the profound wisdom of the British scientist. One of the most startling discoveries was that of Sir Humphry Davy, by which it was found that from crude potash, and a little later, from common soda, new metals could be extracted. They were named by Davy potas- sium and sodium respectively. Here was an instance of a wide-world wonderment. No one had ever beheld these metals before : they had remained hidden, yet so near to sight. By means of the electric current, also, Davy discovered other metals — barium, calcium, mag- nesium, boron, and strontium. It was Davy also who was the first to discover and describe electric light. He Q 242 BRITAIN'S RECORD discovered that when two pointed pieces of carbon were joined by wires to a powerful battery and brought into contact for a moment and then separated for a short distance, a kind of flame and a brilliant light were pro- duced between the points of the pieces of carbon. From this discovery how much greater convenience in illu- mination has not the world obtained? Electric light has become so universal, has shown itself so convenient, that it has long since made itself to be indispensable. It has made ocean travelling to be less unpleasant by the abolition of the paraffin lamp. For signalling pur- poses, for lighthouses, for a ship's side, and mast-head, lights : for the railway carriage, for the interior of the automobile no less than for the illumination of the streets, theatres, public buildings and private houses the electric light has shown itself to be clean, reliable, and a real benefit to mankind. When we avail our- selves of its clear rays how little do we stop to realise with any gratitude that it is indeed a British invention, even though some of the improvements are not only British but American and German ? After the second decade of the nineteenth century the knowledge of electricity spread wonderfully, and already we have seen the use to which Britain put it in connection with the telegraph and submarine cable. And it was another Briton — Faraday — who discovered that a wire carrying a current would rotate round the pole of a magnet. Afterwards there followed his dis- covery of induction, which showed that when a current is started in a wire a temporary current is induced in a neighbouring wire, and that a magnet thrust into a coil of wire generated a current in the same. Fara- day's discovery of induction led to the creation of the dynamo, the motor, the electric clock, and many PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 243 another historic invention with which we are all well familiar. The wonderful work which British engineers have performed in creating reservoirs and laying out an ingenious system of irrigation in Egypt must not be forgotten. The result has been in every way beneficial in the highest degree, as those who have examined this arrangement testify. Neither bridges of exceptional height and span, nor trans- American railroads, nor the difficulties of the Manchester Ship Canal, have daunted the heart of the British engineer. It was only by a combination of British optimism and the skill which is based on scientific knowledge and actual experience which have made so many schemes — too numerous here even to set down — to bear such wonderfully profitable results : profitable, that is, not merely in finance, but in that gain to the world's development and the con- venience of man which can hardly be measured in figures and statistics. When a ;^4,ckx),ooo contract had to be given out for the section of a railway in Chili last year it was a British firm which received the commission, for the world knew that reliability plus ability plus organisation would thus be secured. Nor has Britain been slow to demonstrate to the world the valuable utility of reinforced concrete. She has given practical proof of this method of construction by em- ploying it in her newest large buildings, but the widest spanning arch of ferro-concrete was opened last year at Auckland, New Zealand, the main span being no less than three hundred and twenty feet. Again, in the matter of building floating docks, Britain is decidedly pre-eminent. Otherwise it would not be deemed worth while to incur such risks and expense as to build them in our country and then tow them across the broad 244 BRITAIN'S RECORD Atlantic to South America. Similarly also, the vast sewage schemes which are employed to the benefit of our large towns and cities, the arranging of a pure water supply coming perhaps very many miles to the town where it will be consumed, the ingenious methods which have to be employed for the protection of our coasts against erosion, the invention of the Parsons turbine which has revolutionised the whole of steamship locomotion — these are but some of the achievements of British engineering, the proofs, if you like, that it is capable of performing practically any task that the most difficult of nature's problems could adduce. And the immediate future will see that British engineering will bring about yet another revolution in the ocean ship by the advent of the internal-combustion engine for even the biggest liners and warships. We must pass now from the domain of science and engineering to consider another sphere. And it is when we come to reckon up the work which Britain has effected in the realm of Art that at last we may confess to a feeling of keen disappointment. Whilst she has contributed largely to the progress of the world's liberty, its social welfare, its commerce and its justice, its learning, education, science, yet in Art she has been wondrously sluggish. It is true that during that period when the Romans occupied England the native crafts- men beautified the houses of the Roman invaders. It is true, also, that after the Norman Conquest the separate arts of missal painting and embroidery became advanced to a state almost of perfection. Centuries before the French and Flemings taught us newer methods the English loom was being employed. In the carving and decoration of our magnificent cathedrals and churches the best work of which our ancestors were PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 245 capable was manifested. No one who has any feeling for beauty and dignity can deny that thrill of exultation as he finds himself face to face with those glorious Gothic buildings which grace our cathedral cities. But we must not take too much credit for all this ; certainly not in regard to the whole world. For Gothic was not of British origin. Its very name shows that. And splendidly though our ancestors built after this style, yet the inspiration was French. It was not our fathers who gave this style to the world, but their neigh- bours. It is true also that the art of fresco painting in England, employed in the service of religion, was as beautiful and good as that of Tuscany. But, as ever happens, wars came as the greatest enemy to art, for above all things art and war cannot ever go hand in hand. So it was that the long drawn out war with France and the unhappy Wars of the Roses stifled the budding flower of art in our country, although sculpture, by reason of its immediate relationship to architecture, was a little more fortunate. And then we come to the time of the Tudors, when peace was restored and England began to wake up after its mediaeval night- mare. Painting had to be restored into England, for it had become a lost art. There was no such thing as an English school as there was a Florentine or Umbrian or Dutch. So from Italy, from the Low Countries and from Switzerland, painters came to teach us what we needed. And thus we find the story of English paint- ing for at least a couple of centuries is practically that of an alien art practising in our midst. Holbein and Vroom and many another in the sixteenth, Van Dyck and Van der Velde and others as well in the seven- teenth century did much to foster art, but it was not 246 BRITAIN'S RECORD British, even though they settled for a time in our country. In architecture the work of Inigo Jones and Chris- topher Wren is historic, and yet who would say that their art was British ? St. Paul's Cathedral is magnifi- cent, but was it not a more or less faithful copy of St. Peter's, Rome? Is a copy the superior of the original in any art ? And then, during the eighteenth century, though already the art of mezzotint engraving had become so peculiarly English that it was abroad spoken of as la manure Anglaise^ yet it had really been imported from Utrecht. The beginning of the eighteenth century found England artistically in the very slough of despair — as far removed from influencing the world as was ever possible. Architecture was no longer a natural development, sculpture was as dead as the dodo, painting was still an alien art, and merely a copying art at that, with little or no originality. During Elizabethan times domestic architecture had certainly received a breath of originality. The mediaeval castle had given way to the manor house, and internal comfort was studied by those who had recently enriched themselves. One of the first aims of the wealthy parvenus of the sixteenth century, as it is still in the twentieth, was to build a fine mansion, grand and im- pressive. And some of the most charming examples of British architecture are still to be found among those fine old country houses which have been handed down to us from the time of Queen Bess. Nor must we forget that in such artistic triumphs as ceramics, English design and handicraft have expressed them- selves. Such names as " Wedgwood," " Crown Derby," "Worcester" are known all over the civilised world. At the same time I fancy this china- making can be PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 247 traced back to a Dutch rather than a British influence. So long as England was under that dreary, depressing influence which existed between the end of the Eliza- beth age and the dawn of the nineteenth century, art was no art at all ; its finest efforts were at best clever imitations. Commonplace, insincere attempts were made in architecture as in painting. But it is with the advent of Hogarth that the long slavery of tradition received the first blows which were to sever the past from the future. In fact, there was no such thing as the beginning of an English school until Hogarth came on to the scene. We have but little room here to form an accurate estimate of his art. That must be pursued elsewhere. But what he did may fairly be summed up as follows. He came at the end of a period of insincere and degraded art — a period which in its turn had been preceded by sheer vandalism. For when under foreign tutelage art had begun to grow slowly, and some of the attempts in previous centuries were beginning to be revived, there had come down, like the furious blasts of biting winds, firstly the deathly storm of Protestantism, and afterwards the chilly breath of Puritanism. Hogarth, though not altogether free from the influences of his time — and how many artists ever are? — laid the foundation for a genuine British school which to some extent and in divers manners has cast an influence on the world of art — that is to say, in respect of landscape and portrait painting. He was working for posterity in that he was attacking the erroneous conventions into which art had fallen. Before you can build up a sound fabric you must first clear away the false foundations of the old building; and that is what Hogarth began to do. Reynolds and others who followed, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites, 248 BRITAIN'S RECORD simply built upon the new foundation and endeavoured to erect a building worthy of a great nation deserving of international respect. Yet again, then, we have another instance of that extraordinary recuperative power which our nation has ever possessed. It may sink almost to death's door in any department of activity, and yet when it is most sick it is nearest to the beginnings of better things. Portrait painting in England had sunk very low. Only the imitations of Van Dyck were in any way worthy of regard. And then there came two men of national origin, Reynolds and Gainsborough, who became not merely two of the greatest portrait painters of Britain, but are still among the greatest portrait painters of any country and of any age. Their esteem, no less than their influence abroad, is too obvious to need any elaborating here. Of Reynolds' literary contribution to the technique of art we have already spoken. But we must recollect also that Gainsborough was not merely such a great master of portrait painting ; he was also the first genuine interpreter of English landscape. Indeed, no European landscape painter of his time was so near to nature or regarded her with so simple and sincere an affection as Gainsborough. And even in two other branches of painting Britain was able to do something quite as well, and perhaps better than any other nation. In the art of water-colour painting and of miniature painting she occupied a sphere of her own. The latter especially is peculiarly British, and the best miniature painters have been of British nationality. The in- fluence of British water-colour art may be summed up thus. Inasmuch as water-colour painting was a more direct method, it enabled nature to be depicted PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 249 in a much easier manner ; and by the addition of natural facts, thus obtained, there was exerted a strong influence over the works of the oil-painter, causing him to adopt a truer and fuller interpretation of nature. Constable broke away from some of the gross in- sincerities of art. Who has not examined the works of the older school of British landscapists and remarked the fact that, in spite of nature's work, the convention existed of painting grass at all times brown ? It was natural, therefore, that Constable should, by his dis- regard for conventionality, offend the connoisseurs of his day. And it is an important fact that from the influence of Constable there may be traced the rise of the French school of Impressionists. It is interest- ing to note that after all the centuries of oblivion into which British art should have been condemned, after all it had owed to continental influence, it should actually attain such importance as to cast back a potent influence on another nation's art. But chiefest of all landscape artists of Britain must be mentioned the name of Turner. Because of his fidelity to the principle of interpreting nature not as a copyist, and certainly not as a conventionalist — in short, depicting it as it appeared to him, through his own eyes — he attained such a success as is contained not by the boundaries of Britain, but only by those of international art generally. In Turner there is the nice combination of personality and subject; the two are interwoven. As such he stands as a master for all time for any national art. But unless Ruskin had taught the British as he taught the Italians the worth of their art possessions, it is doubtful if Turner would ever have achieved such estimation. It was Whistler who emphasised the fact that there 250 BRITAIN'S RECORD was no such thing as English art. " We might as well talk of English mathematics," he is reported to have said. In the early days, whatever of art we possessed was through the teaching and done on behalf of the Church. To-day there certainly exists a British school. It has its school of portrait painters, its landscapists, its Norwich, Newlyn, and other schools. The work of Burne -Jones, Rossetti, Holman Hunt, Watts, Ford Madox Brown — are not these distinctly marked as British? In our marine artists Britain is pre-eminent. Turner and Clarkson Stanfield, E. W. Cooke, Somer- scales, Wyllie, and others have done for sea painting what no other nation excepting the Dutch school of the seventeenth century have done. And in this category may be included the work of Napier Hemy, Stanhope Forbes, and the Cornish school. It is notable that marine art springs only from a maritime nation. Neither Italy nor Spain ever produced a school of sea painters, and France but rarely depicts the sea in art. The two greatest maritime nations, Holland and Britain, have done more for the depiction of ships and the sea than all the nations of the earth put together. In the art of portrait painting such British artists as Millais, Watts, Sargent, and others have done much which is admired and esteemed abroad, though the glories of Reynolds and Gainsborough still stand out for all time. As to water-colour painting, the examples by David Cox, Cotman, Turner, and Cozens need no further praise than to assert that they are scarcely less appreciated abroad than at home. This is no place to enter upon a dissertation as to the merits of the principle " art for art's sake." British art has been severely criticised for its devotion to the story- picture. If the latter is a legitimate phase of art, then it PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 251 must be admitted that Britain has done more for this than any other nation. And so in another art-branch has Britain led the way. When after the introduction of improved methods of printing and reproduction the magazines began to multiply in number, there grew up in our land a coterie of clever black-and-white artists. The founding of Punch in 1841 enabled such men as Leech, Doyle, Tenniel to show that art is not confined to the brush or the chisel. George Cruikshank's draw- ings are to be reckoned with this work, and since that time the number of British black-and-white artists has become legion. Until the arrival of the American black- and-white artists there was no work of such a kind which could compare with the British. It has led the way on the Continent as well as in America. British black-and-white work is essentially sui generis. In regard to that other art, music, British ballads have not ceased to be composed. Perhaps no nation as ours has produced so many patriotic songs. But not yet have we produced a school of British Opera, although the Gilbert and Sullivan light operas have created a precedent which no one has followed. Within the last decade, however, there has been manifested a marvellous awakening in our country in respect for music, so that the future is filled with hope. But this much may be said of both painting and music : if Britain has lagged behind, if she has not contributed in actual creations and influence what might be expected of her, at least she has shown by her patronage of the arts that she is far from inappreciative of them. Like the young Etonians already referred to, she is firmly convinced of the exist- ence of art, and she will soon do something more than this. By her private patronage, by the amount of financial and moral support which she extends towards 252 BRITAIN'S RECORD public picture galleries and the Opera house, by her academies and schools of music, she is fostering such a love for the arts as must inevitably, sooner or later, bring forth the most abundant and appreciable fruit for the enjoyment of all nations. That the time may be very near is the hope of every British art enthusiast. Such, then, must suffice for our survey of British art in its various branches. Such must be our brief con- sideration of the part which our country has played in the department of science and learning. It is not always the case that kings of commerce should also be leaders of learning. But enough has been said in these preceding pages to show that the two forms of activity can proceed hand in hand. Commerce must indeed come first, for without financial support there can be no leisure for the pursuit of those matters which are not concerned with finance. Inas- much as man is neither wholly material nor wholly spiritual but a mingling of the two, so both commerce and the sciences and arts are essential for his welfare. You can no more regard one class as indispensable than you can regard the other. We have now seen what Britain has done in the cause of Liberty ; we have noted the main characteristics of her work on behalf of Social Progress, we have seen her extraordinary work in the department of commerce, we have seen her struggling to distinguish herself in science and learning. But there is yet one other section of activity in which she has benefited the world, in spite of her isolation, and to the consideration of her advancement of Justice we must now begin to address ourselves. For so long as human nature continues to be what it is, laws are a necessary evil. Like manners, they are a protection of morals. Fallen PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING 253 man is more prone to become a law-breaker than a law-keeper. He is likely to exceed the bounds of liberty, to thwart social progress by selfishness, to be dishonest in commerce. In science and learning he needs both guidance and discipline. In short, for the good of the community, there must needs be maintained both justice itself and a pure administration thereof But there must be something more than that law which is internal and domestic. International Law is essential for the good of the progress of the world. Let us now see, then, how far Britain has done her duty in this respect. CHAPTER V PROGRESS OF JUSTICE A GREAT British lawyer has defined law as the sense of justice taking form in peoples and races. Now it is generally agreed by lawyers, independent of nationality, that perfect as the legal system of Rome was, the English legal system is every bit as perfect. No other European system, other than the German, can in any way compare with ours. Now here we have a highly interesting fact, and one that is suggestive of certain conclusions. Is it because the English nation is an island race, or is it owing to the fact that the Teutonic element is there deposited ? Perhaps it is owing to both these matters that we have succeeded as a matter of centuries and reigns in building up a body of laws and an administration thereof that are indeed unique. In spite of the strong Roman influence which has been exerted on our system, yet historically the English law is independent of Rome. It has even been so far asserted by legal experts that Roman law is actually not of the essence of English law. But as a result of the work of generations of lawyers and judges there has been built up such a system as is ingenious in character, logical in tone, original in nature, and marked by a spirit of emphatic reasonableness. Elsewhere in this volume we have already seen some- thing of the development of English law in its relation 254 PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 255 to the liberty of the people, and it is not necessary that we should again traverse that ground. You may regard a civilised nation as one of three entities. She may be considered a society, or a polity, or as a State among States. A nation begins by being a body of individuals who, on the principle that union is strength, band them- selves together for their mutual support and protection against the forces of Nature, against the ravages of wild animals, and whatever other common enemies there may be. Now there is thus created by this aggregation of individuals quite another personality different from the individual, just as we saw on a previous page that the crowd in the gallery of a theatre may be all undesirable, evil-living people, and yet with one accord they will hiss the villain of the melodrama who murders the beautiful heroine. Now in the case of the community which we are considering, it becomes essential that this personality should exhibit itself by exerting an administrative influence over the aggrega- tion of individuals. Thus the community has two natures, as it were, the one of each separate member of that community, the other as the collected body of those individuals. It is the same to-day, is it not? Parliament is supposedly the literal representation of so many thousands of individual voters. But as soon as this assembly gets together and forms itself into a ruling force, it takes on a character of its own. It becomes something more than a mere echo of the voter's voice. Thus it is that the community in its early stages decides that it must formulate a body of laws for its own welfare. We may take it that as soon as any body of men unite together for any purpose whatsoever it becomes absolutely necessary that some set of regula- 256 BRITAIN'S RECORD tions should be drawn up. It is so even with the most amateurish debating society or athletic club ; it is so even if a number of thieves or anarchists unite together. There must be some settled policy, some mutual disci- pline for the good of the society as a whole. The community, then, draws up a certain number of rules which we call laws ; and with the advent of law and government the policy is born. But other nations also have been approaching civilisation in the same way. They also have decided among themselves that they must have laws and government. They begin to trade with one another, to exchange their wealth, and thus for the mutual welfare of nations it becomes essential to create an international law, just as it was necessary for the individual citizens to have their communal order. There must be some sort of understanding, for instance, between neighbouring maritime nations as to the rights of fishing ; otherwise there will be ceaseless wrangling and probably war. There must be an arrangement also to regulate the right of entering foreign ports and harbours, the rates of customs duties, the use of the local markets in those foreign countries, permission to attend the fairs and to trade with the inhabitants. There must be allowed the right of safe conduct to merchants coming from abroad and a safe return guaranteed. Otherwise international trade is pro- hibited, and cannot exist except with grave peril and so with increased cost. It is no idle boast when we claim for Britain that in the creation and enforcing of her domestic and inter- national laws she has, with certain exceptions, established a commendable example to the world. Her ideals have been in many an instance so sound that they have been followed by other communities. Those who PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 257 have come under the influence of these British laws have acknowledged the fairness and reasonableness thereof. In the evolution of our judicial system we have earned a reputation among other nations for positive fairness. The high ideals of the English bar are above suspicion : they are as nearly perfect as human effort can ever expect they should become. Only whilst this volume was being written there occurred a clear instance of the high esteem in which our Courts are regarded. It happened that a dispute occurred between a French and a German firm in regard to a matter of maritime interest. Neither party was able to come to terms. A German ship had gone ashore on the French coast, and a French ship had rendered assistance to the latter. When it was decided to proceed to law to settle the dispute as to the value of the services rendered, the matter was referred not to a French nor to a German tribunal, but to the British Admiralty Court, and it was remarked by counsel in the course of the hearing that no greater compliment could be paid to our judicial system than that such a selection as this should be made by two foreign firms of ship- owners. And this may be taken as a visible recog- nition of the fact that English law is confined in its influence not to the limitations of our own territory, but, on the contrary, spreads its effect over all other civilised communities. How it has affected the legal system of the United States we have already shown. And to this day whenever an agitation is set on foot in that country for an improvement — not a lowering in standard — of that nation's laws, it is the English system that is regarded as its standard. There is hardly ever an important murder trial involving endless delay and unnecessarily protracted legal processes and disputes, 258 BRITAIN'S RECORD but the Press of Northern America comments on the superior methods which obtain under the British judicial system of justice. Therefore, as a canon of justice, as a desirable ideal, the British system of internal justice exercises still and has exercised an effective power over the world, apart altogether from its international laws and treaties. Since, further, it is the case that about one half of the world is dominated by British influence, and that wherever we have colonies the British system of justice, adapted only for local peculiarities and necessities, comes in force, it follows that our judicial ideals have been the cause exerting the very greatest results if we were to take the trouble of reckoning up the effect of each single judicial finding. The English have been regarded as characteristically a law-abiding race. But this arises not from the fact that they are too cowardly or half-spirited a race to dare to break the law ; rather it is because the laws of England have been so reasonable, so obviously designed for the community, that lawlessness has been rarer than in many another country. That statement is true speak- ing generally, but as we shall see presently, up to a certain date our legal system, though superior to that of contemporary nations, was yet lacking owing to its partiality to a certain section of society and an in- adequate regard for the less favoured individual. We have no room to give here a brief synopsis of the evolution of our national laws. Such an attempt would be impossible : the subject is far too vast and intricate, and goes beyond our scope. What the Norman and Angevin kings brought about was a centralising influence on the existing English laws, particularly in respect of the three great systems of Dane Law, Mercian Law, and Wessex Law. There is indeed a unity PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 259 and cohesion in the English laws to-day, a fixity of ideal both in the laws themselves and their methods of administration that is remarkable. In England the Statute Law is found in the Acts of Parliament, and nothing else is law until pronounced so to be by the Courts. The English Criminal Law in relation to attacks upon public order, the abuses of public authority, acts which are injurious to the public in general, attacks upon the persons of individuals or their rights, attacks upon the property of individuals, may not be absolutely perfect, but it is about as perfect as human power could make it and superior to that of other nations. The English legal system, remarks Holdsworth, maintains its connection with the law- courts more closely than any other nation, and this arises from the fact of its long development upon its own lines. By reason of its isolated geographical posi- tion it has scarcely been affected by continental influ- ence, and has had to work out its own salvation without external help. English jurisprudence has been founded on the decisions in reported cases, and this dependence upon reported cases is a notable characteristic of English practice. In certain instances England has led the world in her legislative reforms, as, for example, in the matter of copyright. In virtue of her Act of 1709, 8 Anne, c. 19, she became the first great nation to legislate for the rights of authors, and it would be possible to quote many another instance of her enterprise. In such sections as the Law of Evidence, Social and Labour Legislation, Company Law, the Law of Landlord and Tenant, Bankruptcy Law, English law has something to be proud of in comparison with what other countries have done in this respect. 26o BRITAIN'S RECORD It is to England that there belongs the credit of having produced the greatest practical law reformer of any age or country. This was Jeremy Bentham, of whom already we have had occasion to speak, and shall speak again presently. Now Bentham was the severest critic of our then existing system, and indeed no contemporary critic of any nation's legal system at any period of her life ever possessed so strict and impartial a censor. Nevertheless, Bentham himself admitted that if you were to go through the whole of Europe and were to ransack all the libraries of the juris- prudential systems of the several political states, and then add together the results, you would not then be able to compose a collection of cases the equal in variety, in amplitude and clearness of statement, to that afforded by the collection of English reports of adjudged cases. Coming from such a quarter as that we may indeed be proud, for Bentham was no mere English legal reformer ; he was a man of international fame, as we shall see later on in this chapter. We alluded just now to the influence which England has had on the United States in respect to her legal system. It may be here said in definite terms that the Common Law of Britain constitutes most of the legal system in actual use in the United States, or is being superimposed upon that country's system. And not merely in America, but in India and the Colonial Empire generally is this statement true. Indeed, if you were to bundle together the English and the Roman law, you would be able to govern the legal relations of the whole world in so far as it is civilised. And as the British Empire continues to expand, as British influ- ence more and more spreads itself, so simultaneously must the British legal system advance also. Great as Efnery Walker JEREMY BENTHAM PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 261 Rome was, mighty as was her influence, perfect and extensive as were her laws, yet the influence of the laws of England on the intellectual habits and ideas of man has been no less than those of Rome. Situated, as we said just now, in her geographical isolation, separated by the sea from the European continent, she has had to solve her own legal problems in her own way unaided. From about the middle of the eighteenth century, or a couple of decades later, the power of the State in this country has gradually in- creased over the habits of the citizen, and the result has been the throttling of many an abuse by causing certain actions to be regarded by the State as crimes and punishable as such. The voice of the community has been indicated by the very wide influence and the special character of the Parliamentary power. For in our country the influence of Parliament over judicial law is omnipotent. Hence it follows that the national law and the ideals of the community approximate so closely. Hence also the judicial caution which exists in the interpretation of the statutes and the desire to keep as strictly as possible to the literal meaning of the statutes. It is, further, a characteristic of the English judicial system to follow absolutely the precedents set by every tribunal of higher rank. We have seen in another chapter that after the means and methods of transport had become improved in this country and the great industrial awakening had come, there was also introduced both the desire and facilities for foreign travel. The insular exclusiveness of our country, the narrow-mindedness of its inhabitants began to be broken down. As men voyaged to other countries and became acquainted with their systems, it was recognised that England was not all perfect, but that 262 BRITAIN'S RECORD there were many things which she could learn from other peoples. English Law, like the English people, had been content to be exclusive, but after the tempta- tion to travel had been introduced and the barrier of insulation had been broken down, suggestions and improvements were made to the general welfare of all concerned. To-day this same principle has continued, for the British Government collects from its agents abroad the requisite information for the solution of certain problems which have had to be faced and dealt with in other countries. We have had instances recently of this information being sought from Germany ; and, of course, there are others. Again, with that increased facility of communication came, as we have seen, in- creased trade. Now international commerce is founded on something more substantial than mere sentiment. As laws are essential for any separate nation, so they are for the relations between nation and nation. Thus it became the duty of inquiring into the laws affecting contracts in those countries with whom it was desired to open trade relations, so that the British trader should know beforehand what risk he was likely to run in respect of his commodities — whether, in fact, he would have to incur all the trouble and expense of transmitting his goods to the other side of the world, but be unable in the end to obtain his remuneration therefor. So there also grew up a mutual understanding, which we call international law, for the regulation of both trade and other problems, as, for instance, the matter of extradition, when a criminal has fled from justice to another country and remains there defying his pursuers. The general effect of this increased international com- munication has been to lessen the distinctions existing in the laws of one nation and another, so that in all PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 263 countries the tendency is now for the legal principles to be homogeneous. And if we remember in this con- nection that all the while British legal ideals are becom- ing more and more recognised all over the world, we are able to obtain some just estimate of the degree of influence which the British legal system now exercises. In the administration of justice in England the jury system has for centuries played such an important part that it is permissible here to pause a moment and consider its origin. During the time the struggle with Becket had been going on, in the twelfth century, Henry II had been busy reforming the administration of justice in the shire-moots or county courts. Since the Conquest, the sheriff had presided over the court of his county; but in the year 1166, Henry began the practice of regularly sending two or more judges from the Curia Regis to sit in the county courts. These justices in eyre^ i.e. justices on journey, as they were called, arranged their work in regular circuits, and these underwent but little change down to quite recent times. Now when the county court met, twelve knights from each " hundred " and four men from each township presented to the judges such men as were notorious robbers, murderers, or receivers of such. These men were then ordered by the judge to be put to the ordeal. Should they be found guilty they were punished by hanging or otherwise; but even if they were found innocent by the ordeal it was thought that they must be good-for-nothing fellows, and so they were ordered to leave the country. The body of sixteen men formed a kind of Grand Jury, who pre- sented persons believed to be criminals to the judges, but their guilt or innocence was decided by the ordeal. 264 BRITAIN'S RECORD However, we pass over into the thirteenth century, and find that in the year 121 5, Innocent III at Rome for- bade the use of the ordeal, so the latter became re- placed by a little or petty jury, which consisted of twelve men and sworn, who were taken from the neighbourhood where the crime was committed, and were thus supposed to know the facts of the case. If they did not agree others were added, until twelve arrived at a verdict of guilty or otherwise. But later on the additional jurymen were allowed only to give evidence before the original twelve, who gave the verdict on the evidence of the witnesses, as is done to this day. Since the petty jury was a substitute for the ordeal, the prisoner could not speak in his own defence, though to-day he may give witness on his own behalf Until quite modern times he could not even call witnesses, but that too we have improved. Nevertheless, it was assumed that he was innocent until the jury were convinced that he was guilty. And herein we find the great difference between the system of trial as it is in France and that which obtains still in our own country. Abroad the institution of the examining magistrate has happily no counterpart in England. The duty of the former begins by supposing that the prisoner is not innocent, but guilty, and as those who are familiar with con- tinental practice are aware, the accused is subject to a series of bullying incidents, cruel and insulting, in order that, if possible, the wretched prisoner may convict himself out of his own mouth. The observer of con- temporary events in our own country is horrified every time a cause dlebre in France, reported in the columns of our own newspapers, reveals again the mediaeval barbarism which still lingers on in a neighbouring PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 265 country. And a few years ago the London playgoer had the full force of this objectionable procedure brought vividly home to him by the production of that powerful play, La Robe Rouge. Occasionally on these occasions, when extreme publicity is accorded them, one finds continental opinion turning in the direction of England with a sigh, followed by the desire that matters should be regulated there as justice is here administered. Without wishing to emphasise that matter any further, we can but feel some pleasure that the principle in our country still obtains in regard to giving the prisoner every advantage, and the tendency of recent legislation has been in the direction of allow- ing the prisoner even the very utmost consideration. It is not merely that, but both by the judge and the prosecuting counsel the accused is, except in rare instances, treated with a consideration that he does not always deserve. But we have digressed from our main argument. The improved method of holding the County Courts was introduced by the Assize of Clarendon in 1166, and was further advanced by the Assize of Northampton ten years later. It was during this Henry's reign also that an important change was made in the manner of conducting the trial of civil cases. In older times, in England, these cases had been decided by the oaths of persons who were in possession of the facts of the case. The Normans, however, introduced the trial by battle, so that the questions should be decided by force. Whoever won the combat won also the case. It was obvious that such a method was thoroughly unfair, and in every way unsatisfactory, so therefore the plan was introduced of deciding such cases by the oaths of a jury composed of sworn men. This, then, was the 266 BRITAIN'S RECORD civil jury, and it is to be distinguished from the grand and petty juries of criminal cases. We have been inclined to say so much about the jury as it plays a most prominent part in our system, and is calculated to play an even greater part in future im- provements of continental judicial arrangements. But we must pass now to the nineteenth century, for it is within that period and the first decade of the present century that most of the legal reforms have taken place. In fact, if we were to examine all the advance which has been made, all the reforms which are so momentous in regard to our British law, we shall find that an alto- gether preponderating portion of them belong to this modern period. Perhaps as much as two-thirds of the invaluable qualities of our legal system belong to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. And before we commence to look at these wise improvements which have for the most part won such admiration from the whole civilised globe, let us remember that really English law was, at the end of the eighteenth century, almost barbaric in some of its items. The penal code was still mediaeval in its harsh and grotesque severity. In the eighteenth century the law had to be endured, although occasionally illogical but merciful jurymen came to the rescue of prisoners. As an instance of the gross harshness that obtained, let us remember that it was a capital offence to steal from a person any article of the value of a few shillings : as if that could be possibly put on the same equality as the guilt of murder. In the year 1800 also there were no sewers, no inspectors of nuisances, no medical ofificers of health, no Local Boards of Health, no vaccination, no parish councils nor district councils. There were no County PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 267 Councils, district surveyors, School Boards, Burial Boards, there was no Sanitary Legislation, and there were but few hospitals, no policemen, and little local government. And then the changes began, changes which have revolutionised the whole of our existence, and enabled at least some attempt to be made in the direction of fairness. Already in the year 1800, Sir Samuel Romilly began to work for an alleviation of the harsh penal code. He passed away, and in the meantime Sir James Mackintosh took up the task, so by the year 1820 sundry merciful improvements began to be made. Poaching ceased to be a capital offence, unless the crime had been committed by night. Twelve years later and the progress of improvement had continued. Cattle stealing at last ceased to be a capital offence, and so also forgery. The horrible and revolting practice, which ought long since to have been confined to the habits of savages, of beheading the slain criminal, dissecting his body and hanging it in chains, was abandoned. Previously the counsel for a prisoner under trial for felony, was, except in Scotland, not allowed to address the jury on his client's behalf: but this injustice was also removed. And so we might go on enumerating the previous legal wrongs and the improvements which now replaced them. To-day, as a result of the sweeping changes that were made in our system during the nineteenth century, both bribery and corruption have become practically extinct. The franchise has been extended almost to the verge of manhood, our food and drink are analysed by Government officials, the general health of the community has improved, and the death-rate decreased. The results mainly date from the passing 268 BRITAIN'S RECORD of the Reform Act of 1832. It used to be said that there was no such country as England where so many actions were punishable by hanging, but it is now many years since England reformed herself in this as well as other matters. Indeed, this wave of English mercy has spread far beyond the shores of England. It has reached the Continent, touched America, and extended even to the colonies and other communities. Prominent among the improvements which England instituted during the nineteenth century was that of prison reform. In this respect she has given the lead to many other nations. In olden days the prevalence of gaol fever was notorious, and many died as a result. To-day in England the greatest care is taken of both the health and morals of prisoners awaiting trial or undergoing sentence. As a result we have now fewer prisons and fewer prisoners. Previous to the year 1800 contracts were not assign- able : to-day they are. The laws concerning usury were harsh and unbearable : to-day they have been amended immensely in favour of the debtor. Money-lenders are compelled to register themselves as such, and a harsh and unconscionable bargain can be set aside by the judge, and sometimes is, or the excessive rate of interest is mitigated. The Merchandise Marks Act of 1887, the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, and the Margarine Act — these have had an iriiportant bearing on English life, and have set a standard which is worthy of being copied by other nations as well. Among all the tricks and dishonest subterfuges of commerce, few can be so despicable as food adulteration. The Fatal Accidents Act of 1846 enabled the family of a man who had been killed in a coach accident to have redress. Prior to this, only if from the accident he PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 269 received merely injuries could relief be sought from the coach proprietor. Should the passenger be killed by the overturned coach his family received nothing. The Law of Libel also underwent an improvement during the nineteenth century. For it now allowed the full liberty to public writers to comment on the conduct and motives of public men. Thus it could be pleaded, as very often to-day it is pleaded in such actions, that there were privileged occasions, whereas in the year 18 18 publishers and authors would have been fined and imprisoned for their temerity. The legal system in connection with title deeds and conveyancing was improved and simplified. As a result of the dawn of English industrialism and of the number of joint stock companies which were formed, it became necessary to promote special legis- lation to deal with them. And the part which England has played in this respect has had an important influence on international trade, for it has facilitated commercial enterprise, encouraged finance and invest- ment, and enabled British capital to be invested in every corner of the globe. It has enabled new mines to be worked, new railways to be laid down, steamship lines to be formed, large quantities of native labour to be employed ; in fact, generally assisted in the develop- ment of new territories, and not necessarily those which were under British rule. In the year 1800 there was no Bankruptcy Court in this country, for bankruptcy was regarded not as a misfortune, but as a crime. If a man were hopelessly in debt, then it was not deemed advisable to give him his liberty so that he might at least have a chance of benefiting his creditors. Instead he was kept in prison. It was Dickens in his Pickwick and Little Dorrit 270 BRITAIN'S RECORD who did much to bring about the necessary reform, and finally, in the year 1869, imprisonment for debt was entirely abolished. This was an instance of the gradual manifestation of British humanity which was going on, but we shall see it even more clearly manifested, if we consider briefly the nineteenth-century legislation which has been carried on in behalf of those who for some reason or other are penalised in their competition with the strong. And first of all we may call attention in passing to the consideration which British legislation has shown for " infants." We may begin by referring to the Chimney Sweepers Act, by which any person who compels or allows any child or young person under the age of twenty-one to ascend or descend a chimney, or enter a flue for the purpose of sweeping or cleaning the same, or for extinguishing fire therein, is liable to a penalty not exceeding ;^io, or to an imprisonment not ex- ceeding six months. And the burden of proof as regards the age of the young person is upon the defendant. Under this heading must also be mentioned the Mines Acts, the Factories Acts, the legislation against what are known as "baby-farmers," the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, the Children's Dangerous Performances Acts of 1879 and 1897, the Selling of Intoxicating Liquors to Children. By the Pawn- brokers Act of 1872, if a pawnbroker takes an article in pawn from any person appearing to be under the age of twelve he is liable to a penalty not exceeding j{^io. So also the Betting and Loans (Infants) Act of 1892 rightly aimed to prevent minors at school or university from receiving circulars from bookmakers. Under the Shop Hours Act of 1892 it was enacted PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 271 that no young person shall be employed in or about a shop for a longer period than seventy-four hours a week, including meal times. So also lunatics were provided with better protection than they had previously received. Visitors in Lunacy were appointed in the year 1845, ^^^ to-day it becomes essential to have a licence if more than one lunatic is kept in the same house. No person shall be received and detained as a lunatic in an institution for lunatics, or as a single patient, unless under a reception order made by the judicial authority mentioned in the Act ; and no relative of the person applying for the order, or of the lunatic, or of the husband or wife of the lunatic, shall be capable of making the order. The person presenting the order must be at least twenty-one years of age, and must have seen the alleged lunatic within fourteen days of presenting the petition. In olden days there undoubtedly were occasions when persons were wrongly and basely put away. And there was the most cruel treatment of those who were actually lunatics. To-day the necessary reforms have been made, and many a sad abuse has been abolished. For every asylum there must be a visiting committee ap- pointed annually by the local authority consisting of not less than seven members. In London we have a Central Asylums Board. With no intentional disrespect, we pass from lunatics to married women. The status of the married woman in our country has been materially improved, whereas in the year 1800 they possessed scarcely any rights at all. To-day they have rights almost equal to those of the husband. The Married Woman's Property Acts of 1870, 1874, 1882, 1893 have given her a position which was never contemplated even in the eighteenth 272 BRITAIN'S RECORD century, let alone the Middle Ages. She can enter into contracts as if she were a spinster. She can hold or dispose of her real or personal property as if she were unmarried. She may carry on a trade separate from that of her husband. If she lends money to her husband and he becomes bankrupt, she can prove for the amount in bankruptcy, but all other creditors of the husband must be satisfied before she can receive anything out of the estate. If she recovers damages in an action, the sum recovered is her separate property. In regard to foreign marriages, the English law is that a marriage is valid if it is valid by the law of the country where it is celebrated, provided it does not contravene any express prohibition of the English law. All marriages between parties of whom one at least is a British subject, solemnised in any foreign country, are as valid as if the ceremony had been performed in England, provided they were celebrated by or before a marriage officer. When the marriage has been solemnised and registered under the Act, in the official house of a British ambassador, or consul, or on board one of His Majesty's ships, it cannot be impugned on the ground of the want of authority of the marriage officer. Those who are not members of the Church of England have been enabled to profit by the Toleration Act of 1813, by the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, by the Catholic Emancipation Act. Roman Catholics and Jews enjoy their perfect freedom, there are no religious tests at the Universities, and there has been passed the Burial Laws Amendment Acts. The re- lations between landlord and tenant have been made fairer. By the Conveyancing Act of 1881, certain general words have been better defined. For instance. PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 273 the " conveyance of a manor " is made to include and convey with the manor " all pastures, warrens, com- mons, mines, minerals, quarries, furzes, woods, fishings, etc." Under 48 & 49 Vict. c. 72, "in any contract made after the passing of the Act for letting for habita- tion by persons of the working classes, a house or part of a house, there shall be implied a condition that the house is at the commencement of the holding in all respects reasonably fit for human habitation." By the Agricultural Holdings Act of 1883, a landlord cannot distrain for rent of a holding when more than one year has elapsed from the time the rent is due. The working classes have also largely benefited by reform in legislation. Such measures as the various Factory and Shop Hours Acts, the Employer's Liability Act, the Workmen's Compensation Act, the Artisan and Labourers' Dwellings Acts, the Housing of the Working Classes Acts, and the Merchant Shipping Acts are evidence of this reform. No longer are un- seaworthy ships, heavily insured in the hope that they may founder, allowed to put to sea. Nor may " crimps " entice sailors to mortgage their wages in advance, as was permitted in the days of some years back, when the sailing-ship era was still in vogue. Foreign ships, by the Merchant Shipping Act of 1896, whilst they are within any port in the United Kingdom, are brought under the British load-line, grain-cargo, and the life- saving appliances regulations : and power is given to the Board of Trade to detain in any port in the United Kingdom any foreign ship which is unsafe by reason of defective hull, equipments, or machinery. After the last day of the year 1907, no seaman is allowed to be engaged on board a British ship at any port in the British Islands, or on the continent of Europe, between s 274 BRITAIN'S RECORD the River Elbe and Brest inclusive, unless he satisfies the superintendent or other ofiicers, before whom he is engaged, that he possesses a sufficient knowledge of the English language to understand the necessary orders which may be given him in the course of his duties. The food scale of seamen has been improved, certifi- cated cooks must be carried on foreign-going ships, relief and repatriation for distressed seamen, and sea- men left behind, abroad, are attended to, and legislated for ; and when the master of a ship has to disrate a seaman, a statement is to be entered in the official log, and the seaman furnished with a copy of the entry. Facilities are afforded for seamen remitting any wages due to them. An increase in the space for the crew has been made, and generally the lot of the sea- faring man has been improved. In another chapter we have already said something in reference to Trades Unions. We may now amplify what we remarked on that occasion. At one time these combinations were regarded as illegal in our country, for it was thought that they were contrary to public policy. They were accordingly treated as conspiracies in restraint of trade. From the reign of Edward I to the reign of George IV, as many as thirty or forty Acts were passed which aimed at preventing the organising of labour. But it was the rise of industrialism in the eighteenth century, and the consequent revolution which took place in labour, that caused the organising of labouring men to spring into an importance which had never previously been suspected. Unable to combine together for their own interests legally, they did so secretly, so to crush this the Act of 1800 was passed, the penalty being three months' imprisonment as a maximum, or two months' hard labour. But after a PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 275 select committee had been formed to inquire into the questions affecting masters and men, an Act was passed in 1824 which freed both parties from such restric- tions as regards the rates of wages and the hours of working. But the following year the Act of 1825 declared that the previous Act had not been found effective, and that such combinations as it legalised were injurious to trade and commerce. There followed the Act of 1859, which provided that no person should be deemed guilty of " molestation " or " obstruction " by reason merely of his endeavouring peaceably to persuade others to abstain from work in order to obtain the rate of wages or the altered hours of labour agreed to by him and others. For a time trade unions, nevertheless, continued to be unlawful, though not necessarily criminal associations. But to-day all this is altered, and it is as legal for the artisan to combine with his fellows as it is for the masters to ally together. It is no vain boast that British habits are less incon- siderate for the welfare of our dumb friends than is often the case abroad. And nineteenth-century legislation has done much to free animals from unnecessary suffer- ing. Bear-baiting and cock-fighting have been sup- pressed in our country in contradistinction to the existence of bull-fighting which still continues in Spain. A merciful manner of slaughtering animals has been introduced, and by the Act of 1849 ^o^ the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, if any person is found guilty of ill-treatment to any animal he shall be sentenced to a fine not exceeding £S' By the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1854, it is forbidden to use dogs for drawing carts, trucks, barrows, etc., on the public highway, under a penalty of forty shillings for the first offence, and £$ for every subsequent offence. In this reform, England 2 76 BRITAIN'S RECORD again set the lead, for, as any tourist knows, the practice of employing dogs for drawing milk-carts and the like is still in vogue in Holland and Belgium. No one who has witnessed the breaking in of dogs for this purpose, or noted the effect which it has on the animals, will regret that our country wisely adopted such a reform. Similarly we have also passed such measures as the Wild Birds Protection Acts and the Wild Animals in Captivity Protection Act. In short, the general legisla- tive policy of England has been to do away with ill- treatment to animals unable to protect themselves, and it is permissible for a horse, that has been mortally in- jured in the street, to be destroyed on the spot by a policeman, so that the wretched animal may be put out of his sufferings and released from unnecessary pain. That such laws as these should ever have been passed in the barbaric age preceding the nineteenth century is in- telligible to all who are familiar with the tone of mind in the Georgian times. The quality of mercy, both in regard to mankind and his animals, was of great tenuity. And we may justly pride ourselves that Britain has, within a hundred years, brought about such drastic and essential improvements which are worthy to be copied by those other nations which have not yet arrived at such a condition. No country save Britain has done so much for the cause of legal education. No country can boast of such an array of illustrious legal talent as is presented by the English bar. But most of all may we congratulate ourselves on the tone which runs through the adminis- tration of both our civil and criminal law. There is now an absence of brow-beating of prisoners, there is less bullying of witnesses, except when there is every reason to suspect that they are perjuring themselves. The aim PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 277 of a British counsel for the prosecution is not to secure the conviction of the prisoner, but to assist the court in eh'citing truth, and the influence of the judges is tended in this direction. This is in notable contrast to the continental methods, and especially to the part played by the examining magistrate abroad, to whom we referred just now. The traditions, the unwritten laws of the learned profession of the law in this country are so lofty, are preserved with such care, their infringe- ment is punished with such severity, that there is little chance of British justice or its administration becoming corrupt. It follows from this that whether a man is prisoner, plaintiff, or defendant, he can rely on having the utmost amount of justice accorded to him that human effort can possibly provide. The English law knows no such delays in its criminal trials as the notorious Thaw case in the United States. There is no inane waste of time as in other cases, where the plea of insanity is put forward with the sole object of saving a sane man from capital punishment. English criminal law is administrated with the least delay. It is prompt but not hasty. It is severe and impartial to the last degree. If a witness is in fear of intimidation his aggressors are equally promptly punished, and the witness is afforded such protection as he requires. Since the year 1868 public executions in this country have been abolished, and the loathsome pandering to sensationalism has been for ever swept aside. The passing of the Obscene Publications and Advertisement Acts, the Corrupt Practices Act and similar laws have all been in the direction of an ameli- oration of the morals of the nation, although it is perfectly well known that no nation, even with the best judicial system in the world, could ever be made moral 278 BRITAIN'S RECORD by Acts of Parliament. So also the Gaming and Lottery Acts have done away with practices in England which are, nevertheless, tolerated in some parts of the Continent. There are signs, however, that the British standard is beginning to be followed, and that our lead in such matters as these is about to be followed for the public good abroad. The English law of evidence prohibits the admis- sion of what is termed " hearsay evidence," by which is meant that kind of evidence which does not derive its value solely from the credit given to the witness himself but rests also on the veracity of some other person. A witness must confine himself to what is within his own knowledge, both as to things said and things done. Confessions are admissible if free and voluntary. But if a confession is made on an inducement held out by some one in authority over the accused, such confession becomes inadmissible. During the nineteenth century, which effected so much that is noteworthy in the changes of our law, a large number of new offences were created. We might mention, for example, the obtaining of securities by false pretences, frauds perpetrated by attorneys, agents, bankers, trustees, etc., and the falsification of accounts, and the offences named under the Official Secrets Act. As we have stated more than once in the course of this volume, no one more than Jeremy Bentham (who lived from 1748 to 1832) has been productive of great reforms in our legal system. It has been well said that the age of Bentham appropriated the gains which had been won, but not secured, under the rule of Edward I, Henry VIII, and Cromwell. At the risk of repeating certain statements again, we would call attention to the fact that Bentham advocated PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 279 vote by ballot, a proper system of public prosecution ; he caused the simplification of the forms of statutes, he gave a powerful impulse to the work of codification, to the abolition of arbitrary rules which excluded from the cognisance of the juries facts, which it was essential that they should know. He advocated the doctrine that no class of witnesses should be regarded as incom- petent, and that no species of evidence should be ex- cluded. But it is the Criminal Law especially which bears the traces of his influence ; and what he did for the English law he thus indirectly did for the Colonies and, to some extent, America. But Bentham's influence on the world generally was so great that we can scarcely measure it even approxi- mately, and it is not yet dead. His Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation was trans- lated into French, German, and Spanish. So also his Science of Morality. His Book of Fallacies was the basis of M. Dumont's Traits des Sophismes Politiques, His Essay on Political Tactics was first published in French, and he addressed several of his works to the French nation, by whom he was immensely appreciated. For instance, we might quote his work entitled /. B. to his Fellow Citizens of France on the Houses of Peers and Senates^ published in the year 1830, two years before he died. We might mention also his Draught of a New Plan for the fudicial Estab- lishments in France of 1 790. Spain and Portugal alike came under his influence, and amongst other incidents illustrative of this we might allude to his Three Tracts Relative to Spanish and Portuguese Affairs, dated 1821. He contributed valuable articles on Mohammedan rule, he zealously worked for the Emancipation of the Colonies, he wrote 28o BRITAIN'S RECORD tracts on the subject of the Poor Laws in French, to say nothing of the work which he performed in translating a great deal from the writings of foreign authors. M. Dumont wrote no fewer than five works which were based on Bentham's principles, and these volumes were published in London, Paris, and Brussels. There is also a Spanish translation in fourteen volumes, and a Portuguese translation as well. We might call attention in passing to the Territorial Waters Jurisdiction Act of 1878, which may be read in connection with what we have said on another page in reference to Britain's part as Mistress of the Seas. By this Territorial Waters Act of which we now speak, it is enacted that the Sovereign's jurisdic- tion extends, and has always extended, " over the open seas adjacent to the coasts of the United Kingdom . . . to such a distance as is necessary for the defence and security of such dominions." But before we pass on to consider the matter of Inter- national Law we might draw attention to the Reforma- tory and Industrial Schools Acts, and to the First Offenders Act of 1887. Under the latter a person convicted of larceny, or false pretences, or any other offence punishable with not more than two years' im- prisonment, and supposing that no previous conviction has been proved against him, may be released on probation of good conduct if the court sees fit so to do. The Borstal system of teaching young prisoners a trade whilst under detention is also an excellent method of causing good to emerge from evil. Such reforms as the Classification of Prisoners in Prison Act, the English law respecting the power of arrest, the appointment of a Director of Public Prosecutions in 1879 must also be borne in mind. But PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 281 t is not so much the single Acts which we have been able to quote, nor many another for which we have no room here to discuss, which are so important to remember, as the principle which is at the back of all these. The motto of the English Criminal Law is that the certainty of punishment is even more effective than severity. A man may commit a murder thirty years ago, but the lapse of time will not enable him to escape the gallows as soon as he has been found guilty. He may embezzle a thousand pounds and lose himself in some distant country, but he will not be forgotten, and every effort will be made to effect his capture. It is the knowledge of this which acts as a powerful deterrent of crime. Romilly, Mackintosh, Bentham, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Brougham, Lord Denman, Lord Campbell — these and others we may well have reason to remember for their work as law reformers, but at the back of these we must not forget that there was that large mass of humanity with the influence of public opinion which only required to be roused before it became conscious of the existing abuses. ** We have no gag- ging laws," said a distinguished English counsel some years ago ; " we possess the right of free speech and the right of holding public meetings, and the Press is abso- lutely free. . . . We are protected by impartial laws and the purest administration of justice." But what we have obtained for ourselves we have endeavoured to put into practice in our dealings with other nations. We cited the case just now of a thief escaping to a foreign country to avoid arrest in ours. For a time it was possible for him to remain in certain territories and to snap his fingers at the British authori- ties. But now that is altered. Britain has led the way 282 BRITAIN'S RECORD to a mutual understanding of nations in respect to the handing over of an alleged criminal. To this end the Extradition Acts of 1843, relating to ourselves and France, as well as the United States, were passed, and there was legislation also in 1870 and 1873. We have now established treaties with every civilised country for this purpose of maintaining justice, and for en- forcing that principle of the certainty of punishment. At one time it was customary — as, for instance, in the days of Dr. Johnson — to refer to Britain as "the common sewer of Paris and Rome," and even if we have been far too lenient and foolishly sentimental in allowing hordes of worthless aliens to enter our coasts, yet the metropolis is no longer a kind of international cesspool where criminals may expect to be left un- molested. The Fugitive Criminals Act of 1881 was passed so that an application of this principle might be made to Britain and the colonies. The part played by Britain in the evolution of Inter- national Law is by no means unimportant: and it is interesting to note that the very word " international " was coined by Jeremy Bentham. So far as possible, Britain has recognised the legal systems existing in other countries, but practically the whole body of the English doctrine regarding private International Law has been evolved in the nineteenth century, and it is generally the outcome of the British Courts. Before the nineteenth century it is true that England had done but little for this law, yet that was because she was too occupied with her insularity and the maintenance of that characteristic. But after the year 181 5 the English' began to travel more, became even the greatest travel- lers of the world. Commerce spread and demanded that International Law should be allowed to go ahead. PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 283 England and America, it may be stated, have interested themselves in the subject very largely, and have de- veloped their international jurisprudence side by side. The incidents of the Alabama and Trent cases are still in the memory of many people. In the case of the latter, the important international point arose as to whether a neutral ship forfeited its nationality. The English Government asserted, and still maintains, that the principles applicable to contraband goods cannot be applied to envoys on behalf of a belligerent country, whilst these envoys are in course of travel to a neutral state by a neutral ship in the ordinary course of trade. The Alabama case was on a different footing. It will be recollected that in the year 1861 war broke out between the North and South of North America. In regard to this war England and the European states preserved a spirit of neutrality. But in spite of this official policy, a cruiser named the Alabama was built at Birkenhead for the Southern States and permitted to leave the Mersey. This act was looked upon by the Northerners as a breach of our neutrality, and the greatest irritation was aroused. It was not until the year 1872 that Mr. Gladstone's Government allowed the matter to be submitted to arbitration, and as a result, we were compelled to pay the sum of three million pounds and more in damages. In the year 1893 there were signs that the Behring Sea difficulty might lead to serious issues, but again by means of arbitration the problems were finally over- come. Next to America, England has, during the nineteenth century, been more closely connected with international arbitration than any other nation. Since the year 18 15 she has been a party to about one-third of all the international arbitration that has been carried 284 BRITAIN'S RECORD on during this intervening space of time. In the cause of peace Britain has been placed in a position at once of difficulty and peculiarity. She has had to maintain armaments of sufficient strength to protect the vast coast-line of her islands and her dominions over the seas. She has had to make it certain that her trade routes would not be interfered with, and that especially her food supplies would have their routes left free. Accordingly, by certain critics, she has been severely handled. But at the same time it is essential to bear in mind the nature of her conditions of existence, and that, in fact, by being a party to a number of general con- gresses which were held for the purpose of lessening the horrors of war, by her share in the Hague Peace Conferences, she has actually been an agent — a power- ful agent — for peace and its promotion. Whenever possible she has sought peace and resorted frequently to arbitration instead of rushing madly into war. To this day she is still going on, as in the past, determined to stamp out the slave-trade and all its attendant vices. It cannot be said that from this enforcement of ele- mentary justice she really profits financially. What she is doing is really the duty of the civilised world ; but it must some day all be reckoned up in the long list of the benefits which Britain has done for the world generally. The whole range of the British law is so vast, so complicated, so intricate, that it is impossible in a short chapter to indicate every single incident of good for which, in the cause of justice, Britain has been mainly or wholly instrumental. What we have aimed at has been to show the principles which have animated British policy in the realm of justice. Perhaps because of her Teutonic nature she has been more PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 285 fitted to take a calm, sober, and impartial view of things that affect her, than perhaps might be said of the Latin nations. Above we have adduced so many instances to show alike the way in which she has exhibited this spirit at home and in her relations with other nations. We have laid stress on her internal law reforms because they are bound sooner or later to affect other nations as materially as they have our own. Underlying them all has been that disinterested aim of supreme fairness, and we may not inappropriately present the following trial as well illustrating this British policy of justice. The reader must go back in his mind to those times when the approaches to our towns and cities were the favourite resort of dangerous highwaymen. In the trial of Everet v. Williams, a suit was instituted by one highwayman against another for an account of their plunder. The bill stated the following facts : that the plaintiff was skilled in dealing in several commodi- ties, such as plate, rings, watches, etc. The defendant applied to him to become his partner, and they both entered into a partnership whereby it was agreed that they should equally provide all sorts of necessaries such as horses, saddles, bridles, and equally bear all expenses on the roads as well as at taverns, inns, alehouses, markets, and fairs. The plaintiff and the defendant proceeded, it was alleged, jointly in the said business with good success on Hounslow Heath, where they dealt with a gentleman for a gold watch. Afterwards the defendant told the plaintiff that Finchley, in the county of Middlesex, was a good and convenient place to deal in, and that commodities were very plentiful at Finchley, and that it would be almost clear gain to them. Thither they accordingly went and dealt with several gentlemen for divers watches, rings, swords, 286 BRITAIN'S RECORD canes, hats, cloaks, horses, bridles, saddles, and other things. It was alleged that about a month after- wards the defendant informed the plaintiff that there was a gentleman at Blackheath who had a good horse, saddle, bridle, watch, sword, cane, and other things to dispose of, which he believed might be had for little or no money. They accordingly went thither and met the said gentleman. After some small discourse they dealt for the said horse and the other articles, and thereafter the plaintiff and defendant continued their joint dealings together at several places, as for instance Bagshot, Salisbury, and Hampstead, to the amount of ;6^2000 and upwards. The rest of the bill was in the ordinary form for a partnership account. But the bill was dismissed with costs to be paid by the counsel who signed it, and the solicitors for the plaintiff were attached and fined £s^ apiece. The plaintiff was hanged at Tyburn in Feb- ruary, 1729-30, and the defendant was hanged at Maidstone in the year 1735. One of the solicitors was in the same year, 1735, convicted of robbing, but was reprieved and only transported. Such, then, is the record which we have to present on behalf of Britain. It is a record of which any nation might well be proud, and the achievements that are hers will continue to be told even in those days to come when the New Zealander will be seen sketching the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral, and the glory that was once Britain's has passed elsewhere. But when we ask ourselves the plain question as to what is the cause of this long series of British achievements, the answer is found in two reasons. Firstly, it is the human element which counts in the long run. Material wealth, valuable PROGRESS OF JUSTICE 287 mines, a powerful army or navy, the universality of the suffrage — ^these are all of secondary value in com- parison with the human motives and human ability and character at the back of these. Taken in conjunction with the right kind of humanity, such items as these will advance a nation a very long way, but in them- selves they are valueless. It is then, firstly, to the sterling British character that our country has done what she has both for herself and the other nations of the earth. But, secondly, we must concede that there is some- thing about the character of an island race which makes for progress. It has been so, apparently, in regard to our own country, and it has been in reference to the Japanese. In many a way there is a close analogy between the two. Perhaps it is that this isolation which is a condition of an island makes for the develop- ment of that independence and self-reliance which are the very basis of national progress. But whatever the cause may be the results are evident. In his Romanes lecture, delivered before the University of Oxford last year, Mr. Roosevelt, the former President of the United States, made reference to the analogy between the British and Roman Empires. " Comparison," he said, " is often made between the Empire of Britain and the Empire of Rome. The Em- pire of Rome is the most stupendous fact in lay history. But this is merely another way of saying that the nearer the source the more important becomes any deflection of the stream's current. In the world of antiquity each great empire rose when its predecessor had already crumbled. On the contrary, the great expansion of England has occurred, the great Empire of Britain has been achieved, during the centuries that have also seen 288 BRITAIN'S RECORD mighty military nations rise and flourish on the conti- nent of Europe. The Empire of Britain is vaster in space, in population, in wealth, in wide variety of pos- session, in a history of multiplied and manifold achieve- ment of every kind, than even the glorious Empire of Rome. England has peopled continents with her children, has swayed the destinies of teeming myriads of alien race, has ruled ancient monarchies, and wrested from all comers the right to the world's waste spaces, while at home she has held her own before nations each of military power comparable to Rome at her zenith." Is it too much to hope, seeing what her record has been in the past, that in the future the tablets of history will bear records of achievements no less worthy of herself, no less beneficial to other nations ? The British nation has effected so much that the world will expect and be content only with the best that she can give. Will she do it? That depends on the British people themselves. FINIS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL. THE following list, while not pretending to be a complete bibliography, may yet serve as suggesting channels of study for those interested to find further detailed information in connection with many of the points raised in the preceding pages : — Smiles' "Lives of George and Robert Stephenson," "Lives of the Engineers," " Industrial Biography," " Life and Labour," " Invention and Industry," " Men of Invention." Booth's " Life and Labour of the People of London." Johnson's " Rise of English Culture." Traill and Mann's " Social England." " Cambridge Modern History." Litchfield's " Life of Tom Wedgwood." Long's " Enghsh Literature : its History and Significance." Bosworth's " History of the British Empire." Dodd's " History of the British Colonies." Baines' " Forty Years at the Post Office." Paine's " Rights of Man." Holland's " Liberty in the Nineteenth Century." " Dictionary of National Biography." Bentham's " History of the Criminal Law of England " (together with his other books and pamphlets). Buckle's " History of CiviHsation." Holyoake's " History of Co-operation." Holland's " Sketches of the Progress of Freedom." Hill's " Liberty Documents." Hosmer's " Short History of Anglo-Saxon Freedom." Wakeman and PuUan's " Reformation in Great Britain." T 289 29© BRITAIN'S RECORD Wakeman's " History of the Church of England." Mackenzie's ** The Nineteenth Century." Hill's "Life of Rowland Hill." Rowland Hill's " Post Office Reform." Grierson's " Railway Rates, English and Foreign." Acworth's ** Railways of England." Leslie's "Life of Constable." Chesneau's " La Peinture Anglaise." Goschen's " Foreign Exchanges." Thorold Rogers' " Six Centuries of Work and Wages." „ „ "History of Agriculture and Prices." Nicholls' " History of English Poor Law." Carter's " History of English Legal Institutions." "A Century of Law Reform." Jex-Blake's " History of Medical Education of Women." Simon's " History of English Sanitary Institutions." Markham and Scott Keltie's *' Review of British Geographical Work During the last loo Years." Kay's " Social Condition and Education of the People," Bayard's " Individual Freedom." Campbell's "The Puritan in Holland, England, and America." Holland's " Imperium et Libertas." Von Humboldt's " Sphere and Duties of Government." Traill's " Central Government." Gooch's "Annals of Politics and Culture." Toynbee's "Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of the Eighteenth Century in England." Fitchett's " How England saved Europe." Cunningham's " Growth of English History and Commerce." Stubbs' " Select Charters and other Documents." Humphry Ward's " Reign of Queen Victoria/' McCarthy's " History of our Own Times." Fortescue's " Governance of England." Walpole's " Foreign Relations." Prothero's " Pioneers and Progress of English Farming." Jenkyns' " British Rule and Jurisdiction beyond the Seas." BIBLIOGRAPHICAL 291 Jenks' " Parliamentary England." Blauvelt's " Development of Cabinet Government in England." Fordham's " Evolution of Local and Imperial Government." Burnley's " Story of British Trade and Industry." Spencer's " English Sociology." Holdsworth's " History of English Law." Wilshere's " English Constitutional History." Hecker's " Short History of the Progress of Woman's Rights." Cuningham's "Growth of English Industry and Commerce during the Early and Middle Ages." Cuningham's " Outlines of English Industrial History." Du Cane's " Punishment and Prevention of Crime." Canet's ** La Liberte de Conscience." Lieber's "On Civil Liberty and Self-Government." Hill's " History of Diplomacy." Low and PuUing's " Dictionary of English History." Canning's " British Power and Thought." Seligman's " Economic Interpretation of History." Finnemore's " Social Life in England." Ellis's " Study of British Genius." Emerson's " English Traits." Kwith's " Origines de la Civilization Moderne." Bourne's " History of Modern Europe." Lindsey's " Student's Note-book of European History." Paston's '* Side-lights on the Georgian Period." Browning's " Evolutionary History of England." Kinley's "Money: a Study of the theory of the Medium of Exchange." Maitland's "Justice and Police." Hearn's " Government of England." Guizot's " Histoire de la Civilisation en Europe." Clodd's " Pioneers of Evolution." Debidour's " Histoire Diplomatique de I'Europe." Boxall's " Anglo-Saxon : a study in Evolution." Reich's " History of Civilization," „ " Foundations of Modern Europe." 292 BRITAIN'S RECORD Reich's " Success Among Nations." Robinson's "Introduction to the History of Western Europe." Buxton's " Makers of Europe." Newland's " Short History of Citizenship." Stoddard's " Evolution of the English Novel." " Encyclopaedia Britannica." Grant's " Newspaper Press." Webb's " History of Trades Unions." Seeley's " Expansion of England." Colquhoun's " China in Transformation." Chamberlain's " Foundations of the Nineteenth Century." Molesworth's "History of the Reform Bill." Paterson's " Liberty of the Press." Mario's " The Birth of Modern Italy." Cramb's " Reflections on the Origin and Destiny of Imperial Britain." Gneist's " History of the English Constitution." Wallace's " The Wonderful Century." Walker's " Money in its Relations to Trade and Industry." Oilman's " Profit Sharing between Employer and Employee." Stephens' " History of English Criminal Law." Stevens' " Dawn of British Trade in the East Indies." Jevons' " State in Relation to Labour." Timbs' "Wonderful Inventions." Hodgetts' " Greater England." Brown's " Story of Africa and its Explorers." Anderson-Morshead's "History of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa." Griffiths' " Chronicles of Newgate." Fyffe's " Modern Europe." Chalmers' " Local Government." Green's "Short History." Bonwick's " Romance of the Wool Trade." Leigh's " Cotton Spinning." Wallis's " Ceramic Manufacture." Mead's " Coal and Iron Industries of the United Kingdom." BIBLIOGRAPHICAL 293 Galloway's " Steam Engine and its Inventors." Meyer's *' History of Chemistry." Arago's " Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men." Garnett's " Heroes of Science." Lodge's " Pioneers of Science." Gierke's "Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century." Stephens' " Commentaries on the Laws of England." Stopford Brooke's " English Literature." Jeans' " Creators of the Age of Steel." Burnley's " Fortunes Made in Business." Craik's " History of British Commerce." Pollock's " Land Laws." Craik's " State in Relation to Education." Traine's ** History of English Literature." INDEX Accidents, Fatal, Act, 268 Act of Settlement, 46 Actors, 224 Adams, Wm. Bridges, 141 Addison, Joseph, 209, 219 Advertisement duty, 65 Advertising, press, 185 Aeroplane, the, 15, 108, 148 Africa, the telegraph in, 167 Agreement of the People, the, 41 Agricultural holdings, 273 Agricultural implements, 85 Air Office, 148 Airships, 148 Alabama case, 283 Alfred, King, 194 Algiers, pirates of, 49, 113 Aliens in England, 35, 282 Ambulance work, 81 America, discovery of, 29 ; the Elizabethan seamen, 32 ; the future of the continent, 33 ; in- dependence of the Spanish pos- sessions in, 52, 59 ; the Cabots and discovery of, 118 America, cable to, 163 ; effect of, 164 American Bible Society, 197 American Colonies, founding of the, 120 ; loss of the, 129 American constitutions and Com- monwealth documents, 42 American Independence, 30 Anaesthetics, 81 Anarchism, 99 Anatomy, 232 Angevin period, the, 24 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle^ 194 Animals, protection for, 275 Anson, Lord, in Antarctic exploration, 236 Antiseptic surgery, 235 Applegarth and Cowper, Messrs. 187 Arbitration, International, 283 Architecture, 246 Arctic exploration, 236 Arkwright, Sir Richard, 153 Armada, the, 32 Armour for warships, 157 Arnold, Matthew, 219 Art, British, 211, 244 et seq. Art, war and, 245 Artists, black-and-white, 251 Arts and crafts, 220 Ascension, telegraph to, 168 Astronomy, 232 Asylums Board, 271 Athens, British School at, 236 Atlantic Telegraph Co., 163 Atomic theory, 241 Austen, Jane, 214 Austria and Hungary, 67 Authors, 189 Automobile, the, 108, 147 Babylonia, 236 Bacon, Francis, Lord, 37, 197,204, Bacon, Roger, 238 Baillie, Matthew, 78 Bankruptcy, 269 Baptist Missionary Society, 90 Barnett, Canon S. A., 88 Barometer, the, 181 Barrie, J. M., 223 Baskerville, John, 183 Battle, trial by, 265 Becket, Thomas ^, 263 Bede, the Ven., 113, 194 Behring Sea case, 283 Belfast, 133 Bennet, Christopher, 77 295 296 BRITAIN'S RECORD Bennett, Mr. Arnold, on Richard- son's Clarissa^ 214 Bentham, Jeremy, 54, 212, 233, 260, 278-80 Besant, Sir Walter, on nineteenth- century novelists, 215 Bible, the English, 193, 195, 196 Bicycle, the, 145 Bill of Rights, 46 Birkenhead, first street tramway, 145 Birmingham, Soho Engineering Works, 152 Blackwood's Magazine, 212 Bleaching and dyeing, 150 Board of Trade and life-saving apparatus on ships, 174 Bodleian Library, 204 Boer War, Continental insults to Britain, 20 Boers, Britain and the, 69 Bookbinding, 189 Books, 189 Borstal system, 280 'Qosvtt\V& Johnson y 21 1 Boulton, Matthew, 152 Bowyer, Wm., 183 Boy Scouts, 95 Boyle, Hon. Robert, 182, 204 Boys' Brigades, 100 Bradley, Prof. James, 238 Bramah, Joseph, 173 Brett, Jacob, 162 Brewing, 83 Bribery and corruption, 267 Bridges, 243 Bright, Sir Charles, 163 Bright, Richard (" Bright's disease"), 80 Bristol, 113 Britain, Envy and suspicion of, 12 ; opportunities and responsibilities, 13 ; and liberty, 17 ; influence of geographical position, 23 ; first in constitutional government, 43 ; and the sovereignty of the seas, 49 ; and inventions, 58 ; and European freedom, 67 ; and international peace, 70 ; progress in nineteenth century, 105 ; and inventions, 108 ; and ships, 1 1 1 ; early trade, 113 ; and commerce, 120 ; her colonies and empire, 123 ; and shipbuilding, 131 ; commercial supremacy, 136 ; in- dustrial pre-eminence, 148 ; as a market for foreign produce, 156 ; and iron and steel, 157; her achievements, 168; and the com- mercial world, 190; character, 191 ; and literature, 217 ; and the arts, 252 ; and law, 256 ; cause of achievements, 286 ; com- parison with the Roman Empire, 287 British and Foreign Bible Society, 197 British Association, the, 236 British Museum, loi *' British : therefore best," 123 Brooke, Rev. Stopford, on Richard- son's Clarissa^ 214 Brougham, 139 Bruce, Sir David, 81 Bunyan, John, 206 Burke's French RevolutioUy 21 1, 212 Business methods, 87 Byron, Lord, 55, 217 Cabots, the, no, 118 Calicoes, 149 Cambridge House, 88 Cambridge University, 225 Canada, 128 Canning, George, 59 Capital and labour, 21 1 Capital punishment, 267 Carey, William, 90 Carlyle, Thomas, 85, 219 Cartwright, Edmund, 153 Caslon, William, 183 Catholic Emancipation, 61 Caxton, William, 183 Ceramics, 246 Challis, Prof. James, 239 Character, British, 191, 230, 287 Charitable societies, 100 Charles I, 30, 35. 3^ Charles II, 45 Charlotte Dundas, steamboat, 132 Charter of Liberties, 25 Chartist agitation, the, 66 Chaucer, 193 Chemistry, 232, 235 Chess by telegraph, 161 INDEX 297 Chesterton, Mr. G. K., on Shake- speare and Scott, 215 Cheyne, John, 78 Children, legislation on behalf of, 270 Chilian railway, 243 Chimney sweeps, 270 China, Britain and, 68, 130 Christian missions, 90 Church Missionary Society, 90 Civil War, the, 41, 207 Cleanliness, personal, 75 Clothes, 84 Clubs, 96 Clyde shipbuilders, 133 Coaches, stage, 138 Coal, ISO, 155 Cole, William, 78 Colet, Dean, 228 Cologne, merchants of, 114 Colonial penny postage, 102 Colonies and Empire, British, de- velopment, 123 ; equitable rule of, 125 ; business ties, 125 ; emi- grants, 125 ; and a trade treaty, 128 ; linked up by telegraph, 166, 168 Columbus, no, 118 Commerce, Foreign, with England, 114; England and the world's commerce, 120; International, 262 Commodities, foreign, 156 Commonwealth, the, 41 Companies, Joint Stock, 269 Compass, Lord Kelvin's, 176 Concrete, reinforced, 243 Conservation of energy, 240 Constable, John, 249 Conveyancing, 269, 272 Cook, Captain, 124 Cooke, Sir William F., 144, 159 Cooper, Mr., and bicycle wheel, 146 Co-operation, 54 Copyright, 259 Coryat^ Crudities^ 198 Cotton, Sir Robert, 204 Cotton machinery, 153 Cotton-printing, 150 County Courts, 263, 265 Coverdale, Miles, 195 Cowley Fathers, the, 91 Cricket, 94 Crimean War, 68 Criminals, reform of, 280 Crompton, Samuel, 153 Cromwell, Oliver, 41, 43 Crowd, personality of a, 86 Cugnot, Joseph, 142 Cunard Line, 132, 172 Cycle industry, 145 Cyclopaedias, 212 Dalton, John, 241 Darwin, Charles, 234 Davis, John, 112 Davy, Sir Humphry, 241 Daylight Saving Bill, 98 Debt, imprisonment for, 85, 270 Declaration of Right, 46 Dee, Dr., 238 Defoe's Robinson Crusoe^ 198 Democracy, the, and higher stan- dard of living, 156 Dickens, Charles, 85, 215, 270 Diderot, D., on Richardson's Claris sa^ 214 Discovery, geographical, no Disease, 77 Docks, floating, 243 Doomsday Book^ 24 Dordrecht South African Museum, 20 Drake, Sir Francis, in, 119 Drama, the, 221 Dramatic criticism, 225 Dreadfioughty 135 DuelUng, 89 Dumont, M., 280 Duncan^ H.M.S., and wireless tel^raphy, 172 Dunlop, Mr. J. B., 147 Dutch, treaty with the, 1585, 34 Dutch Republic, the, 131 Dutch Wars, the, 41 » 5° East India Co., 119 Eastern Telegraph Co., 169 Edinburgh Review ^ The^ ill Education, neglect of, 64 ; the Education Act, 100; the edu- cational system, 225 et seq. ; free education, 227 ; the Church and, 228 ; character, 230 298 BRITAIN'S RECORD Edward I, 25, 35, 114 Edward IV, 25 Edward VII, 70 Egypt, Britain and, 68 ; engineering works in, 243 Egypt Exploration Fund, 236 Electric bell signalling, 145 Electric furnace, 240 Electric light, 171, 242 Electricians, British, and the tele- graph, 160 Electricity, 233, 242 Elizabeth, Queen, 34, 84 Elizabethan architecture, 246; houses, 83 ; literature, 197, 199 ; voyagers, 32 Embroidery, 244 Emigration, 125, 127 Engine, internal combustion, 244 Engineering, 243 Englefield, Sir Henry, 182 English language, fixed by English Bible, 195 ; influence of Shake- speare, 196, 202 Engraving, mezzotint, 246 Erosions, coast, 244 Essayists, the, 209 Eton, 227 Eugenics, 239 Europe, England and the peace of, 51 ; and constitutional govern- ment, 52 Everet v. Williams, 285 Evidence, law of, 278 Evolution, 234 Executions, public, 277 Extradition, 262, 281 Factory Act, 1895, 104 Factory inspectors, women, 104 Faraday, Michael, 163, 239, 242 Farmers and weather forecast, 181 Feudal system, the, 24 Fielding's Joseph Andrews^ 213 ; Tomjoties, 214 Fiji Islands and the telegraph, 169 Finger-prints, 239 Fire brigades, ICX5 Food unfit for consumption, 104 ; food adulteration, 268 Foods, 83 Foster and printing rollers, 186 Fothergill, John, 78 France, England and the power ot, 51 ; the Gallic temperament, 108 ; telegraph to, 162 ; trials in, 264 Free speech, 281 Free trade, 60, 155, 211 Freedom. See Liberty Freind, John, 76 French Revolution, the, 30, 48 Fresco painting, 245 Frobisher, Sir Martin, 112 Froude, Wm., 133 Fulton and the first steamship, 132 Gainsborough, Thos., 211, 248 Galileo, 182 Gallic temperament, the, 108 Galton, Sir Francis, 239 Gama, Vasco da, no, 119 Gaol fever, 268 Garibaldi, General, 67 Ged, Wm., 188 Geoffrey of Monmouth, 194 George II, 48 George III, 123 Germany and Shakespeare, 202 Gibbon's Roman Empire^ 211 Gilbert, Sir Humphry, 120 Gilbert and Sullivan operas, 251 Glass manufacture, 150 Gold and silver, 155 Goldsmith, Oliver, 211 Golf, 94 Gothic buildings, 244 Government, good, a British char- acteristic, 20 ; and liberty, 23 ; the desire for self-government, 42 Grammar schools, 226, 229 Grand Remonstrance, the, 41 Great Eastern^ the, 1 64 Great Western Railway and tha telegraph, 159 Greathead, Henry, 180 Greece, freedom of, 53 Greek and Latin classics, 193, 197 Greenwich time, 237 ; by electric clocks, 160 Gregory, Sir C. H., 144 Gregory, James, 238 Gutta percha as insulating material, 163 INDEX 299 Habeas Corpus Act, 45 Hague Peace Conferences, 70, 284 Hakluyt's Voyages^ 112, 198 Halley, Dr., 182 Hampden, John, 38 Hampton Court Conference, 40 Hanseatic League, 116 Haquinus, King of Norway, 114 Hargreaves, James, 153 Harvey, William, 76, 204 Hassall, Dr., 235 Hastings, Warren, 59 Hazlitt, Wm., 225 "Heeling-error,'* 177 Henry I, 25 Henry H, 25, 1 14, 263 Henry IH, 1 14 Henry IV, 25, 116 Henry V, 25 Henry VI, 25 Henry VII, 118 Henry VIII, 33 Hero of Alexandria, 150 Herring fishery, 115 Herschel, Sir Wm., 238 Highwaymen, trial between, 285 Hill, Sir Rowland, 102 Historians, British, 213 Hobbes' Leviathan^ 207 Hodges, Nathaniel, 76 Hogarth, Wm., 211, 247 Holland, England and the power of, SI ; and Spain, 34, 37 Home, the British, 107 Honduras, British, and the tele- graph, 169 Hooke, Robt., 238 "Horse-power," 173 Hospitals, 80 Houses, 82 Housing of the poor, 84 Huguenots, the, 35 Hume's England^ 211 Hunter, John, 80 Huskisson, Wm., 60 Huxham, John, 78 Huxley, T. H., 234 Hygiene, 76 ; military and naval, 79 Imperialism, 129 Impressionists, 249 Independence and character, na- tional, 24 India, beginnings of trade with, 119 ; and liberty, 69 Individual, liberty of the, 21 Individualism, beginning of, 29 Induction, 242 Industrial movement, the, 53 Industrial progress, 149 "Infants " under the law, 270 Ink, printing, 186 Institution of Naval Architects, 133 Instrument of Government, the, i6S3, 41 Insurance, British, 95 International dependence, 15 International law. See Law Inventions, 108, 131 Inventors, British, 173 Iron, imported, 150 Iron trade, 155 Iron and steel manufacture, 157 Ironclads, 157 Island race, an, and progress, 287 Italian unity, 67 Jamaica, 123 James I, 38 James II, 48 Japanese, the, 70, 287 Jenner, Edward, 78 Jessop, Wm., 141 Jesuit missions, 90 Jews, the, in Britain, 35, 37, 43 John, King, 25, 114 Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 210 Jones, Inigo, 246 Joule, James P., 240 Journalism, influence of Addison on, 209 Judicial System. See Law Jury system, the, 263-6 Justice, administration of, 276 Kelvin, Lord, 164 ; compass and other inventions, 176 et seq, ; as scientist, 234 King, supremacy of the, 24 ; the Divine Right of the, 37 Kipling, Rudyard, 219 Knowledge, taxes on, 66 300 BRITAIN'S RECORD Labour, organisation of, 274 Labour laws, 60 Lancashire roads, 136 Landlord and tenant, 272 Landor, Walter Savage, 55 Landscape painting, 248 Law, Cromwell and the reform of the, 43 ; definition of, 254 ; the English legal system, 254 ; Eng- lish and Roman law, 254 ; purpose of law, 255 ; influence of English law, 257, 260; its former partiality, 258 ; statute law, 259 ; criminal .law, 259 ; Parliament and judicial law, 261 ; reforms of the law, 266 et seq. ; its administration, 276 ; Bentham and the legal system, 278 Law, International, 256, 262, 282-4 Laws and liberty, 18 Lawson, Mr. H. J., 146 Legal education, 276 Levant trade, 1 12 Libel, 269 Liberty, British love of, 17 ; law and, 18 ; the liberty movement, 30 et seq. ; spread of, from Eng- land, 39, 56 ; personal liberty, 60 Libraries, 204 ; public libraries, 100 Life-saving apparatus on ships, 174, 175 Lifeboat, the first, 180 Lifeboat Institution, the, 179 Lighthouses, etc., 136 Linen trade and power loom, 154 Lister, Lord, 235 Literature, Britain and, 217 Literature, English, Greek and Roman influence on, 193 ; the Renaissance and, 193 ; French influence, 194 ; travel books, 198 ; Elizabethan influence, 199 Livingstone, Dr., 92 Local government, 266 Locke, Joseph, 141 Locke's Civil Government^ 207 ; Human Understandings 207 Lockhart's Scott ^ 212 Locomotive, the, 142 London, early trade of, 113 London and Blackwall Railway, first telegraph, 159 London Meteorological Ofl&ce, 181 Lubeck, trade with, 114 Lunatics, 271 Luxuries, 83 Macadam, John L., 138 Mackintosh, Sir James, 267 Macmillan, Kirkpatrick, 146 Magna Charta, 25 Malta fever, 81 Malthus, T. R., 212 Manchester Ship Canal, 243 Manners, good, 87 Map, Walter, 195 Marconi, Chevalier, 171 Marine painting, 250 Marine survey, 136 Marriages, Foreign, 272 Matter, constitution of, 240 Mauritius and the telegraph, 169 Mead, Richard, 76 Mechanical age, the, 158 Medicine and surgery, 76 et seq. Mediterranean trade, 112 Metals, new, 241 Meteorology, 181 Microscope, the, 235 Mill, John Stuart, 212 Milton, John, 204-6, 207 Mine drainage engine, 151 Miner's safety lamp, 155 Mines, women and children in, 103 Miniature painting, 248 Mining engineering, 155 Missal painting, 244 Missions, foreign, 89 Money-lenders, 268 Morals and legislation, 277 Morals, Stuart and Georgian, 46 Morning Chronicle y The, 161, 212 Morning Herald y The^ 212 Morning Posts They 212 Morris, Wm., 219, 220-1 Morte cT Arthur y 195 Motor, internal combustion, 147 ; the marine, 147 Motor-cars. See Automobile Mountains, measurement of, 182 Municipal Corporation Act, 64 Municipal government, 99 Music, British, 251 INDEX 301 Music-hails, 224 Musical comedy, 224 Napier and Son, Messrs., steam- press, 188 Napoleon, England and, 51, 61 Nasmyth, James, 173 Nation, influence of, on humanity, 207-9 Naval architecture, 133 Navies, 134 Navigation, 1 1 1 ; Lord Kelvin's inventions for, 176-8 Navigation Acts, 60 New England Puritans, 44 New York Police, 97 Newcomen, Thomas, 151 Newfoundland, 120 Newman, Cardinal, 219 Newspaper stamp, the, 65 Newspapers, development of, 66, 209, 212; and the telegraph, 160 Newton, Sir Isaac, 207, 238 Nicholson, W., 187 Nightingale, Florence, 80 Nineteenth century, progress in the, 104 Norman period, the, 24 North-East Passage, ill North- West Passage, 1 1 1 Novel, the English, 213-6 Novelists, nineteenth century, 215 Nursing, 80 Opera, British, 251 Ordeal, trial by, 263 Owen, Robert, 53 Oxford House, 88 Oxford Mission to Calcutta, 91 Oxford University, 225 Painting, 245, 247 et seq. Pantomime, 224 Papal rule in England, 28 Paper duty, 65 Paper-making, 149 Paris, telephone to, 170 Parliament, first representative, 25 ; taxation and supplies, 25 ; Parliament and liberty, 37 ; and Charles I, 38; and the law, 261 Peace, International, 70 ; peace and national mental development, 192 ; Britain and peace, 284 Peary, Commander, and British Polar discovery, 236 Penal code, the, 267 People, the sovereignty of the, 42 Petition of Right, the, 38 Pharmacy, 77 Philanthropic societies, 100 Physical exercise, 227 Physical research, 232, 233 Physiology, 232, 235 Pilgrim Fathers, the, 30, 40 Pinero, Sir A. W., 223 Pirates, North Sea, 1 16 ; Algerian, 49, 113 Pitcairn, Wm., 76 Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 48,62 PlimsoU mark, the, 174 Poetry, English, 198, 216 Polar exploration, 236 Police, British, 97 Police-court missionaries, icx) Political economy, 211, 212, 233 Poor Law system, 64, 84 Portrait painting, 248^ 250 Portugal, 59 Portuguese, the, and trade with India, 119 Portuguese Revolution, the, 48 Post Office, the, 102 Potassium, 241 Pottery, 150 Powell, Gen. Baden, 95 ** Power, the balance of," 33 Prayer-book, the, 196 Pre-Raphaelites, the, 247 Press, liberty of the, 64 Pringle, Sir John, 79 Printing, 183 ; steam-engine and, 184 ; a weapon for liberty, 186 ; cylinder machines, 187 ; effect of the steam press, 189 Printing rollers, 186 Prison reform, 268 Public opinion, 85, 86 Public Record Office, 102 Punchy 251 302 BRITAIN'S RECORD Purchas's PilgrimeSy 198 Purchasing power of the people, nineteenth century, 156 Puritanism, 200, 205, 206 Puritans, the 40, 44 ; influence of, on British character, 44 Quarterly Review^ Thty 212 Radcliffe, John, 76 Radcliffe, Mrs., 214 Radium, 240 Railroads, 243 Rails for roads, 141 Railways, 139 ; effect of, 142 ; systems, 144 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 120; History of the Worlds 204 Ramage, John, 239 Rawlinson, Sir Henry, 236 Reform Bill, the, 62, 268 Reformation, the, and liberty, 27, 29 Reliability, British, 96 Religious liberty by legislation, 272 Renaissance, the, and liberty, 26 ; its influence, 193 Restoration, the, 44 Reviews, the literary, 212 Revolution, the, 1688, 46, 48 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 211, 247, 248 Rhodes scholars, 226 Ricardo, David, 212 Richard I, 33, 112 Richardson, Samuel, 213, 214 Roads, 100, 136 Robertson, T. W., 222 Roman roads, 137 Rome and Britain compared, 11, 287 Rome, British School at, 236 Romilly, Sir Samuel, 267 Ronalds, Francis, 159 Roosevelt, Theodore, on Britain and Rome, 287 Rosetta Stone, 236 Rosse's, Lord, telescope, 239 Rotary motion, 152 Rowing, 94 Royal Geographical Society, 236 Royal National Lifeboat Institu- tion, 179, 180 Royal Society, the, 206, 232, 236 Rule, British, 21 Ruskin, John, 219, 220 Russell, John Scott, 133 Russia and freedom, 43 ; and representative government, 68 Russo-Japanese War, 70 Sailors, health of, 79 St. Helena and the telegraph, 168 St. Paul's Cathedral, 246 St. Paul's School, 228 San Felipe^ the, 119 Sanitation, 73 Savery, Thomas, 150 Scenery in poetry, 216 Schools, 225 ; monastic, 194 ; public, 226 Science, advance of, 233 ; in the service of man, 167 Scientists, 233 et seq. Scott, Sir Walter, 214 Screw-propeller, 134 Sculpture, 245 Seas, policing of the, 49, 53 Sewage, 244 Shakespeare, Wm., 36, 193, 196, 201-3 Shaw, G. Bernard, 223 Shelley, Percy B., 55 Sheridan, Richard B., 211 Shipbuilding, Britain as leader in, 131 Ship-money, 38 Ships, development of, no; sea- worthy, 136, 174 Sidney's Art of Poetrie, 197 Signalling, railway, 144, 145 Silk-weaving, 149 Slavery, abolition of, 57 Sleeping-sickness, 81 Smallpox, 78 Smith, Adam, 211, 232 Smith, Capt. John, 120 Smollett, T. G., 214 Social settlements, 87 Social progress, practical, 75 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 100 INDEX 303 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 100 Sodium, 241 Sounding machine, Kelvin's, 178 Southey's Nelson^ 212 Sovereignity of the seas, 49 Spain, England and the power of, 51 Spencer, Herbert, 234 Spenser's Faerie Queen ^ 198 Spitalfields weavers, 60 Sport, 92 Stamps, postage, 12 Starley, James, 146 Steam and the steam-engine, 58, 150,233 Steam-engine and printing, 184 Steam-hammer, 173 Steamships, Britain and, 132, 134 Steel for ships, 157 Steele, Richard, 209 Stephenson, George, 142 Stereotyping, 188 Stock Exchange and the telegraph, 160 Submarines, 135 Soudan, the, 68 Suez Canal, 69 Sunday opening of museums, etc.. Surgery, antiseptic, 235 Surgical instruments, 81 Swift's Gulliver's Travels^ 198 Sydenham, Thomas, 77 Tacitus, 113 Tawell, John, 161 Telegraph, the, 158; improve- ments, 169; nationalisation, 170; and railway traffic, 144; in the pursuit of fugitives, l6l ; sub- marine cables, 162 ; develop- ments, 165 Telegraphy, wireless, 161, 171 ; its development and possibilities, 172 Telephone, the, 170 Telescope, the, 238 Telford, Thomas, 138 Tennyson, Lord, 219 Territorial Waters Act, 280 Test Act, 61 Thackeray, Wm. M., 216 Theatres, 222 Theology, comparative, 234 Thermometer, the, 182 Thomson, Sir Wm. See Kelvin, Lord Time, standard, 237 Times ^ The, 212 ; printing of, 187 Tobacco, 83 Toleration Act, 60 Torcelli, 182 Torpedo, the Whitehead, 181 Torpedo-boats, 135 Tottel, Richard, 183 Toynbee, Arnold, 88 Traction-engine, 142 Trade, early British, 113; early international, 1 14 ; the industrial awakening and foreign trade, 156; influence on international peace. Trades unions, 31, 274 Traffic control by London police, 97 Tramways, steel, 145 Transport, 130, 136, 143, 148 Travel, effects of, 143 •'Travel books," 198 Trent case, 283 Trevithick, Richard, 141 Tricycle, the, 146 Triple Alliance, the, of 1668, 45 Tropical School of Medicine, 82 Turbine, Parsons, 134, 244 Turkey, Britain and, 68 Turner, J. M. W., 247, 249 Tyndale, Wm., 195 Tyne Lifeboat Society, 180 Typefounding, 183 Typography, 183 Tyre, the pneumatic, 147 United States, the, and indepen- dence, 39 ; and puritanism, 40 ; and liberty, 41 ; English in lan- guage, etc., 122 ; and British law, 257, 260 Universities, the, 225 Universities' Mission to Africa, 91 University settlements, 87 Usury, 268 304 BRITAIN'S RECORD Virginia, founding of, 120 Voltaire, Shakespearean influence Walker, Mr. C. F., 145 Walkley, Mr. A. B., 86 Wallis, John, 204 War and trade, 126, 156 ; and art, 24s Warships, 135 Water-colour painting, 248, 250 Water-supply, 244 Watson, Wm., and the telegraph, 159 Watt, James, 151, 173 Weather forecasts, 181 Weights and measures inspection, 104 Wells, Wm. Charles, 80 Wheatstone, Professor, 159 Whistler, J. M. W., 249 Whitby, 194 White, Wm. Grahame, 148 Whitworth, Sir Joseph, 173 Willan, Robert, 80 William III, 46 William of Malmesbury, 113 Willis, Thomas, 77 Winchester, 194 Wines, S3 Wolsey, Cardinal, 34 Woman's suffrage movement, 31 p Women, employment in mines, 104 ; factory inspectors, 104 ; rights of married women, 271 Women's clubs, 97 Wool trade, 149 ; machinery and the 154; woollen goods, ill Worcester, Marquis of, and the steam-engine, 150 Worde, Wynken de, 183 Workhouses, 84 Working - classes, legislation for, 273 Wotton's Letters from Italy ^ 198 Wouldhave, William, 179 Wren, Sir Christopher, 246 Wycliffe, John, 193 X-rays, 240 Yachting, 94 ' * Yankee " and English language, I9S Yarmouth, Great, 1 16 WILLIAM BRBNDON AND SON, LTD. PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH a>o.#^v--*&^j.'-i STAM1.ED beX °^TE .'33 YC 29' c INTERIM REPORT INTERUBRARY LOAN REQUEST According to the A.LJI. 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