YALE UNIVERSITY
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DEPOSITED BY THE

LINONIAN AND BROTHERS LIBRARY

BEIGN OF
QUEEN YICTOBIA
VOL. II

THE EEIGN

OF

QUEEN VIOTOEIA

A SURVEY OF
FIFTY YEARS OF PROGRESS

EDITED BY
THOMAS HUMPHRY WARD, M.A.
LATE FKLLOW Of EBASENOSB COLLEGE, OXFORD

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. U.

LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, & CO.
PHILADELPHL\ : J. B. LIPPINCOTT CO.
1887

B

v|Cd3Go a.

CONTENTS

THE SECOND VOLUME.

The CinowTH and Distribution of
Wealth ...
Indurtrial Association
Locomotion and Tran.'iport .
AGRIOnLTUllE . ...
The Cotton Trade and Industry
The Iron Trade and its Allied
Industries
Schools ....
A Note on Scottish Education
The Universities
Science 
Medicine and Surgery
Literature ....
Chronological Table .
Note on the New.spaper Press
Art . . ...
The Drama ....
Music 

Robert Giffcn 
J Right Hon. A. J. Mnndella, M.P.,
' and G. ITotvell, M.P.
The Editor . . . . .
Sir James Caird, K.C.B. .
John Slagg, M.P.
Sir Lowthian Bell, Bart.
Matthew Arnold ....
C. A. Fyffe 
Professor Huxley, F.R.S.
Robert Brudenell Carter, F.R.C.S.
Ricliard Garnett, LTj.D. .
Richard Garnett, LL.D.
Ricliard Garnett, LL.p. .
The Editor 
William Archer
Walter Parratt ....

PAOK 1

4.^ 83
129 153
190 23828028832238844,5495 508
5145C1 593

MAPS, ETC.

Map of London . ;  To face Title-page
Diagram exhibiting the Growth of Shipping Reoihtfred >
AS BELONGING TO THE UNITED KINGDOM, DISTINOUISIUNG '. To face paqe 110
between Sailing and Steam Tonnage . . . \

Ideal Section from Blanchland to Whitby, 02 Miles

204

THE EEIGN

OF

QUEEN YICTOEIA.

THE GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF
WEALTH.
Fifty years ago the position of the United Kingdom as introduo-
regards the production of wealth and the material comfort *'°°'
of its inhabitants, though it was even then the foremost in
the arts of peace, was altogether inferior to what it has
since become. The difference between the present time
and fifty years since might indeed be properly described
as one rather of kind than of degree. The Empire was
then much smaller in many ways than it has since become.
In India the Punjaub and other important territories since
incorporated were still independent or quasi-independent,
and the population of the peninsula admitting our virtual
suzerainty must have been a third or a half less than it
is now, while in everything which constitutes material
prosperity the people were individually inferior. Australia
at the same time was unsettled. The English dominion
at the Cape was much narrower than it is. Canada was a
thinly settled and half-rebellious province, with little sign of
the development of those possibilities of ..extension of popu-
VOL. II. B

2 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
lation and settlement in the Far West which now make it
a great dominion. But apart altogether from the question
of the Empire, which will be considered in the sequel, the
people who constitute the nucleus of the Empire at home
were by no means possessed of the resources they have
now. England, in fact, at that time had just gone through
a long and difficult period, and was only on the eve of
great economic changes, which have since been rapidly de
veloped. The great war at the beginning of the century had
taxed th6 national resources to the utmost. For many
years the Government, it was calculated, had absorbed in
taxation and loans about a third of the national income.
The debt at the end of the war was about 900,000,000Z.
sterling, a third or a fourth of the estimated property of the
country, and the annual charge for interest was 30,000,000Z.
sterling. For this and other reasons the nation struggled
on through endless difficulties for twenty years after the
war, hardly able to make both ends meet, subject to con
tinual crises and difficulties in its trade, with price? con
stantly falling, with a plague of pauperism so enormous
as to threaten to engulf the national fortunes, with con
tinual inquiries by parliamentary committees and royal
commissions as to the causes of recurring distress. The
transition in the United Kingdom from an industrial
regime, in which agriculture predominated, to one in which
manufacturing predominated, was, at the same time, in
its early stages, aiid the nation endured the miseries inci
dental to the rapid growth of a surplus population which
agriculture was insufficient to employ, and to which the
manufacturing system was yet imperfectly adapted, although
the growth of manufactures alone rendered possible the
existence of the large additional numbers. At any rate,
whatever may be the explanation of the economic history
of the country during the wars at the beginning of the

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 3
present century, and for twenty years after, there can be
no doubt that the condition of things fifty years ago, as
the matter would now be viewed, was lamentable enough.
Out of 25,650,000 of people in the United Kingdom in
1837, nearly one-third, or 8,000,000, were in Ireland, the
great majority in a state of semi-starvation, and constantly
on the verge of a calamity like the potato famine, such as,
in fact, overtook them nine years later. Of the remainder
in Great Britain the great majority were still dependent
on agriculture, or on rude labour of some kind. The armies
of well-to-do artisans and factory operatives, and of the
professional classes which have since grown up, untO then
by comparison were not. Indeed, one of the most lament
able features of the period of transition was the degradation
of a huge army of handloom weavers called into existence
by the earlier development of manufacturing skill, and then
almost immediately doomed to extinction by the further
improvements incidental to inventive progress, while as yet
there was no such growth of miscellaneous manufacturing
industry as to reduce and mitigate seriously the sufferings
of particular classes whose machinery happened to be made
obsolete by manufacturing invention. As yet railways and
steam shipping were almost non-existent, not to speak
of the thousand and one inventions in all departments
which have since been developed. In the very year, 1837,
from which the comparison begins, one of the severest
monetary crises of the century broke out, and altogether
the omens as to the condition of the people, and the
momentary outlook in industry, were anything but cheerful.
As affecting the affairs of Government more particularly,
an inelastic revenue and a deficit which could not be
grappled with were characteristic features of the early years
of her Majesty's reign, and they reflected only too faithfully
the general distress. B 2

4 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
It would be impossible in the short space at my disposal
to describe at length the successive stages of the improve
ment which has since been witnessed. Every decade seems
to have witnessed more or less important changes, and
the improvement to be recorded has taken place among
great and threatening events, which could not but have
involved huge disasters to the country unless widely ex
tending and powerful causes, making for improvement and
progress, had been at work In addition to this general
statement I need only refer to the more important circum
stances. First of all, in the decade 1837-47 came the
railway mania of 1844-45, which at any rate had for good
result a huge railway extension throughout the United
Kingdom. Simultaneously the Free-trade policy, which has
eince been the settled policy of the country, was introduced,
while the passage of the Bank Acts settled definitely and
for a long period what seemed to be interminable currency
controversies, and gave to the country a stable money.
The potato famine and the monetary crisis of 1847, followed
as they were by a year of revolution throughout Europe,
with consequent interruption to business, constituted a
sable cloud, to which the more favourable events of the
period already referred to seemed only a silver lining ; but
great as were the evils involved in these calamities, the
material changes of the period were really for the better on
the whole. The advance of Free-trade, it need hardly be
added, was itself promoted by the great industrial calamity
of the period — the potato famine.
In the next decade the conspicuous events were the gold
discoveries of California and Australia, coupled with the
rapid extension of the railway system on the Continent as
well as in England. At no earlier time had progress
appeared so great. The changes of the previous period were
apparently exercising a cumulative effect. The untoward

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH s
events of the time were the Crimean War and the Indian
Mutiny, and another monetary crisis in 1857. But impor
tant as the two former events were from their political
consequences, which have been far-reaching, their economic
influence was not to be compared with that of the potato
famine in the previous decade. The monetary crisis, again,
was by no means so serious as that of 1847.
In the next decade there was continued railway extension,
and now not merely at home and in Europe, but in India and
in other outlying parts of the world, while steam shipping
received further developments. In this decade, too, the ex
tension of telegraphs began to be important ; and just at the
end of the period suboceanic telegraphy was beginning to
be ' in sight.' The untoward event of the time was the
great American Civil War, which suspended progress in
the United States for several years, and caused a wide and
far-reaching disturbance of industry through the cotton
famine, which was one of its incidents ; this disturbance,
however, as far as England and its Empire was concerned,
being not altogether of an injurious nature. There was
also a great monetary crisis in 1866 ; but although this crisis
was important enough in itself, and was full of big events, on
account of the vast size to which the money market itself
had grown, it cannot be said, I think, to have been in propor
tion so disturbing as previous crises were. If anything, there
was even more advance in this decade than in the decade
just before.
In the next decade, 1867-77, the conspicuous economic
feature began to be the growth of the United States, which
appeared to advance so quickly as to make up for the
ground lost during the Civil War. There had, no doubt,
been a rapid railway extension all through, but now the
extension became truly colossal. Simultaneously, railway
¦extension continued throughout the world, especially in new

6 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
countries. The development of steam shipping also took a
remarkable start forward, the opening of the Suez Canal
in 1868, and other circumstances, including economies in
the consumption of fuel, which the improvement of the
steam engine made possible, giving a stimulus to steam
shipping business of an astonishing kind. One result has
been a cheapening of the real price of raw materials and
of food in the older European countries altogether without
precedent, and which has had many consequences, mostly
beneficial, but also not without drawbacks to particular
classes. Perhaps in this period the rate of advance in the
last fifty years culminated. The main untoward event
was the Franco-German War of 1870-71, but this war was
really of short duration, and did little permanent damage
directly, while momentarily it was even beneficial to the
United Kingdom, In 1873 there were severe monetary
crises throughout the world, from which, by comparison,
England escaped ; -while in 1875 there was a time of trouble
in English finance, which did not, however, culminate in
panic. Great as these financial events were, they did not
disturb industry as former monetary crises had done. The
industrial world was more strong to bear them. One
economic result or immediate sequence of the Franco -
German War, viz. the demonetisation of silver and more
extensive use of gold as standard money, is believed to have
had great effects, not altogether beneficial, which are still
being felt, mainly in a remarkable faU of money prices.
But the fact need only be mentioned here so as to complete
the history.
In the last decade of all, viz. 1877-87, not yet quite
completed, the conspicuous events have again been — exten
sion of railways, extension of steam shipping, and extension
of telegraphy, which have further increased the cheapening
of raw materials and of food already referred to. It seems

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 7
doubtful, however, whether advance has been quite so rapid
as in the two previous decades, though it has still been very
great. The great fall in money prices has disturbed busi
ness a good deal, and at any rate makes the real advance
more difficult to describe and interpret. The calamity of
the period, as far as England is concerned, has been, a long
series of bad harvests, commencing towards the close of the
previous decade and culminating in 1879. In former times
the calamity would have been of the first magnitude, and
it has still been a serious matter in many ways — mainly,
however, through the shock to the landed interests which
the bad harvests coupled with low prices have caused, and
not in the old way, through the distress and misery of the
masses. Generally, it may be said, the external events of these
fifty years have been of a kind to produce many evil effects,
and this must still have been their tendency, but the causes
for advance, conspicuously the development of railways,
shipping, and telegraphs, as well as of miscellaneous inven
tions, have been so great and powerful that the progress of
society in material wealth has, by comparison with former
periods, been astonishingly rapid and steady. The manu
facturing system in its fuller development, as compared
with the transition stage fifty years ago, appears to secure
a steadily large production ; and as compared with what
was the case under a purely agricultural regime, the country
is not only richer absolutely, but the extremes between
good and bad years are less than they were, and even the
greatest and most untoward events are less in proportion
than they were.
I propose now to examine a little in detail and under
different headings what this great advance has been.
The advance in population itself is the first point to increase
notice. An increase of the numbers of a people, if the lation.'^

8 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
quality is unchanged, is an increase of resources ; still
more, if the quality improves. The most obvious facts
prove that in both respects m this country there is enormous
advance. The population of the United Kingdom, which in 1837
was 25,650,000, is now, in round figures, according to the
Registrar-General's estimate for 1886, with an addition for
1887, almost exactly 37,000,000. The increase in fifty
years is consequently about forty-four per cent. In mere
numbers the nation is about half as much again what it
was. The advance has not been quite uniform. Twenty
years after 1837 the total had only grown to 28,000,000,
the effect of the Irish famine being in fact writ large in
these population figures. Since 1857, however, the increase
has been by leaps and bounds. In 1867 the total was nearly
80,500,000 ; in 1877 it was no less than 33,500,000 ; and
now, as already stated, it is 37,000,000, or rather more.
The more rapid advance of the last thirty years, as com
pared with the earlier years of the period under review,
thus coincides with a more rapid increase of population.
The increase of population is, moreover, chiefly in
England, and to a less degree in Scotland, while the popula
tion of Ireland has declined. England and Wales fifty years
ago held 15,000,000 of people only; now over 28,000,000.
Scotland fifty years ago held 2,500,000 only, now just
over 4,000,000. In England and Scotland, therefore,
the increase is altogether 14,500,000, or nearly 3,500,000
more than the total increase in the United Kingdom. The
difference represents the loss of population in Ireland, which
has in fact diminished from a little over 8,000,000 fifty
years ago to less than 5,000,000 at the present time. These
circumstances undoubtedly indicate an improvement in the
industrial quality of the population. Absolutely and rela
tively a poor and semi-starving class in Ireland has declined.

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 9
Their place has been taken by the artisan classes or factory
operatives in England and Scotland. It should be added,
also, that while as regards the United Kingdom generally
population hardly increased between 1837 and 1857, yet
the reason was exclusively the Irish famine. In England
and Scotland the increase was almost at as great a rate in
those years as it has since been, though in absolute amount
it is of course greater in the last three decades. The in
dustrial population of the United Kingdom has thus been
steadily increasing for half a century. At the present rate
of advance, the population of the United Kingdom will be
nearly 45,000,000 by the end of the century.
The difficulty of comparing the Census" returns as re-
¦ gards the occupations of the people is very great. But the
work has been attempted by skilled statisticians, with
results satisfactory enough as far as the present purpose is
concerned. Neither agricultural nor general ' labourers '
increase in numbers. The increase in England and Scotland,
whatever it has been, has either been in the professional or
the commercial classes, or in the higher ranks of handicraft
'or factory labour — skilled labour of some sort. In some
directions there may be less call upon the skill or intelli
gence of the individual workman than there was formerly,
but the multiplication of machinery, the increased taste for
artistic productions, and the spread of education, have all
improved the industrial quality of the population, or
necessitated the improvement. This question is not one
for figures, but the figures that are to follow would hardly
be vraisemblable if we did not allow for some such change.
It will be convenient to take next the property and Progress
income tax returns. The advantage of these returns is and
that they contain in the gross assessments a record of the *'*p^*°'^-
total income from the chief descriptions of property in the
country, as well as of the income of the salaried or wager

IO THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
earning classes as respects all income above a certain
minimum amount. As regards income-yielding property,
therefore, the returns are tolerably complete, and their
serviceability is not destroyed by the totals coniprising
income of a different nature, as that income is probably ,
connected with the income from property itself, and rises or
falls simultaneously with it, and it can, if need be, be dis
criminated from the rest. Of course in using such figures
the possibility of changes in money values irrespective of
changes in real wealth has to be considered, and this point
will not be forgotten.
The broad fact as regards these income tax assessments
is striking enough. We have no figures before 1843 for
Great Britain or before 1853 for Ireland, the income tax
having only been reimposed in Great Britain at the former
date, and only imposed for the first time in Ireland at the
latter date, f But using the figures thus obtained,' and
working back, allowing for the slow rate of increase between
1815 and 1843, we can hardly put the income which would
have been liable to assessment in 1837 at more than
270,000,000i. sterling. In 1887 the corresponding figure
may be placed in round figures at 630,000,000L The in
crease in all is 360,000, OOOZ. or 138 per cent. Per head of
the population the increase is from about lOZ. to Vll. or
about 70 per cent. If the income tax is in any way a
fair measure, the resources have increased in the proportions
stated in absolute amounts and per head. If nominal
values are more in proportion to the things they represent
than they were, the real increase . cannot of course be so
much ; but if they are less in proportion, the real increase
must be' more.y
Before discussing the latter point, or looking at things
(^ ' Viz. grogs assessments Great Britain, 1848, 251,000,000?. ; Ireland,
I 1853, 32,000,0002.

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH ii
in detail, it may be convenient to present the figures in a
different way. Subject to many qualifications, it seems
possible to fix on a nominal sum as representing roughly
the aggregate property or accumulated wealth of the people
of the United Kingdom at different times. Although such
a sum can only approximate in the roughest fashion what
the reality would appear to be if a proper valuation could
be made, yet it may be of some use in the absence of a
better figure, l Using the figures of the mcome tax mainly
as a basis, I arrived at a total of 8,500,000,000Z. as such
a nominal sum, representing the property of the United
Kingdom in 1875, the amount being equal to about fifteen
years' purchase of the income tax income, which a previous
estimate by a good authority had carried as high as twenty
years' purchase. Applying this number of fifteen years'
purchase, then, to the above income tax figures, viz.
270,000,000Z. for 1837, and 630,000,000L for 1887, we
should assign the sum of 4,050,000,000L as the capital or
property in 1837, or about 150Z. per head ; whereas the
corresponding figures at the present time would be
9,450,000,000L or about 256Z. per head, j The figures, of
course, correspond with those of the income from which
they are derived ; but stated in this form they permit of
some comparisons which could not otherwise be made. It
now becomes interesting to note that while the debt per
head fifty years ago was about 30Z. or one-fifth of the
property in the country, it is now very Uttle more than 20Z.
per head, not having been much reduced in the interval,
and this 20Z. is only about one-thirteenth of the property
in the country ! So enormous is the change made by the
advance of the last fifty years, and at any rate as far as
the debt is concerned the change must be real and not
merely nominal.
But does the increase of nominal values correspond to

12 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
the increase in real resources ? On this head the points to
be discussed presently will throw some light, as we shall he
dealing with quantities of production and trade, and not
merely with values ; but broadly it may be stated as an un
deniable and generally admitted fact that the prices of com
modities, on which very largely the nominal values of fixed
and floating capital and of property in general would depend,
are lower and not higher than they were fifty years ago. The
course of prices of the leading wholesale commodities has been
somewhat closely studied for many years. Whether we follow
Mr. Jevons's investigations, or the course of the index number
which Mr. Newmarch devised about 1860, or the index
numbers devised for imports and exports by the Board of
Trade, or the index number of Mr. Sauerbeck,' or the prices
in France as discussed by Mr. Palgrave in his memorandum
for the Trade Depression Commission, or the index number
of Mr. Soetbeer,'^ formed largely from Hamburgh prices, the
result is substantially the same — a great rise of prices
between 1850 and 1873, but a heavy fall after that date
that has brought them back, according to all but one of
the statements, to the level of 1845-50, which was the
lowest on record from the beginning of the present century
until now. Apart from these facts there is a general con
sideration of material importance in this connection. From
century to century there is a tendency for many real prices to
decline. New inventions of every kind bring new articles into
existence, while old articles are produced by new processes
which literally make the price only the barest fraction of
what it formerly was, till we have such a phenomenon as
steel selling for a twentieth of the money price it realised
not so very long ago, and sugar selling for 2dl. or 3cZ. a
pound wholesale, instead of twenty times that price only
' Jorwrnal of the Statistical Society, Sept. 1886.
» Materialien &o., Puttkammer and Muhlbrecht. Berlin, 1886.

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 13
a few centuries ago. What used to happen formerly in
centuries now happens in shorter periods ; and if leading
wholesale articles are as a rule as cheap as they were, it
follows that there must be masses of miscellaneous articles,
like steel, either not in existence fifty years ago, or produced
in greater quantities since then, which have enormously
fallen in price.^ The change in aggregate money income
and capital that has been described, therefore, represents
in all probability a less advance in resources than what has
actually taken placed It may be doubted whether at any
time during the last fifty years the rise in money income
exceeded the real progress ; but this rise in the ten years
1867-76 was about 40 per cent., or,, allowing for the in
crease of population, about 25 per cent, per head. At any
rate- an increase of 70 per cent, per head in the fifty years,
allowing for all the changes that have occurred, and for
what is known as to the course of prices in the interval,
appears to be in no way improbable. ^
The details of income tax progress confirm the tale.
When the above increase of income and property is analysed,
it is found to be very largely an increase of the assessment
for houses. In 1843 the amount of the assessment of
houses in England alone was about 36,000,000Z., and the
total for the whole of the United Kingdom on that basis
could not then have been more than about 40,000,000Z.
Now the total is 127,000,000Z. or three times the total of
fifty years ago and more, the increase altogether being
about 90,000,000Z. out of a total increase of 360,000,000Z.
in the income tax returns, or exactly one-fom-th. Rail
ways are another large branch of income tax assessments
now ; but the amount of home railways alone fifty years ago
could not have been more than 1,000,000Z. or 2,000,000Z.
sterling, so little advance had been made towards a railway
system, while now the total is 37,000,000Z. Almost the

14 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
whole of the capital invested abroad has also been an
investment of the last fifty years, having taken place partly
in connection with the continual emigration, and partly in
connection with the growth of railways in the colonies and
foreign parts in the interval. The income thus to be ac
counted for, though classed in various headings in the in
come tax returns, can hardly fall short of 40,000,000Z. or
50,000,OOOZ. sterling. Much the same may be said of the
public companies generally, which are so largely a modern
creation, and the income from which, exclusive of railways
and foreign investments already referred to, constitutes so
large a part of Schedule D. — not less, apparently, than about
60,000,000Z., almost all an increase of the last fifty years.
Very little of the increased income from property would
appear, in fact, to arise from increased nominal values only,
as might have been inferred from an excessive and dispro
portionate increase under such a heading as ' lands,' where
in fact the increase is comparatively small. As regards
capital values, again, the mode of calculation above adopted,
though for convenience' sake it is spoken of as capitalising
the whole income tax income at so many years' purchase, is
really much more detailed. It omits practically all income
from other sources than property, while the value of property
not yielding income is calculated as a certain proportion of
the value of houses.' It is easy for anyone interested, there
fore, to form an opinion as to whether the mode of calcula
tion is likely or not to exaggerate the real increase which
has taken place. The value of houses and their contents is
' half the battle.' For the bulk of the remaining estimates,
also, various tests can be applied. Anyone can see and
judge whether under these headings a general increase like
what has been described is likely or not to have occurred
' See for details my essay on ' Eeoent Accumulations of Capital in the
United Kingdom,' Essays in Finance, lat series, 4th edit. p. 161 &o.

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 15
apart from an increase in money values merely due to
monopoly or some such cause.
The next subject I propose to look at is that of revenue. Progress
Fifty years ago, as already stated, there was a difficulty in national
making two ends meet. There was a recurring deficit, and '^^''«'^^®-
Chancellors of the Exchequer found a difficulty in imposing
new taxes. This was with a revenue from all sources of
about 60,000,000Z. sterling only.' Now the revenue in round
figures is about 90,000,000Z. sterling. Nor is there any
deficit even in the worst years in any proper sense of the
word, although it has happened that the sinking fund has
been partially suspended — that is, that the reduction of the
debt, instead of being 7,000,000Z. or upwards a year, as it
usually is, has been two or three millions less. The situa
tion, in fact, is as opposite as possible to what it was.
There are endless ways in which it would be possible for the
Chancellor of the Exchequer to increase his receipts.
This last point, it may be stated, is not wholly a matter
of conjecture. For many years past an account has been
kept of the amount of revenue given away by the reduction
or repeal of taxes, and of the amount derived in the first
year from new impositions. The balance shows an excess
of reductions in the years 1838-86 amounting to no less
than 21,000,000Z. So much taxation could be reimposed
without making the taxpayer any worse off than he formerly
was. Even more taxation could be reimposed. Most of
the reductions or abolitions of taxes above referred to took
place many years ago. If the same taxes were to be re
imposed now — for instance, if the tea duty were to be raised
to a shilling, or a sugar duty were to be reimposed — the
' The figures in the finance accounts of the time appear to show a
smaller total than this ; but allowing for changes in the interval in the form
of the Budget, the figures in the text may be considered fairly correct for the
purpose of comparison with the present time. See appendix to Mr. Goschen's
Report on Local Taxation, No. 470, Sess. 1870, pp. 119-131.

1 6 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
increased or restored duty would be greatly more productive
than it formerly was. The increased margin of taxation is
thus much larger than what would appear from a bare
statement of the difference between the amounts of taxation
imposed and remitted, based on the figures of the amounts
yielded at the time the changes were made.
It should also be added that the increase of gross revenue
is not altogether an increase of the amount levied by taxa
tion, to be qualified only by the allowance that the taxation
itself is lighter, and the country is much more able to bear
it. To a large extent the increase of the gross revenue is
the evidence of a mere extension of the profitable business
of the Government. Fifty years ago the gross income of
the Post Office Department was about 1,500,000Z. only, now
it is 10,000,000Z. The difference, which is nearly one-third
of the sum by which the imperial revenue has increased,
represents a charge by the State for new services rendered,
and is not in any popular sense an increased yield of taxes.
The amount yielded by imperial taxation has in truth in
creased very little in fifty years, while taxation itself, as we
have seen, has largely declined. The great prosperity of
imperial finance in the last fifty years is thus one of the
remarkable features of the time.
What has been already said regarding the proportion of
the National Debt to the capital of the country confirms this
view of financial prosperity. But it should be distinctly
noted that although this point is not material in comparison
with the reasons already given for the reduction of the pro
portionate burden of the debt, yet the debt itself has declined
both in amount and in the annual burden of interest. Now
the debt is 740,000,000Z., involving an annual charge of
about 22,000,000Z. for interest ; fifty years ago the corre
sponding amounts were 820,000,000Z. and 28,000,000Z.
Fortunately or unfortunately, it has to be added that.

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 17
while the above are the facts as to imperial revenue, the
progress in regard to local taxation and expenditure has
been somewhat different. Here there is no doubt as to the
growth of a burden on the community. There is some
difficulty in arriving at the facts fifty years ago ; but taking
the figures of local taxation for 1843 as given in Mr.
Goschen's report on local taxation' (p. 125), it would seem
that the amount raised by local taxes in the United
Kingdom was then about 14,O00,000Z. annually, as com
pared with 43,000,000Z. or thereabouts at the present time.
Local expenditure has increased in even greater proportion,
and only does not lead to proportionately increased taxation
on account of the large amount of borrowing, a.bout
12,000,000Z. annually, that goes on. In other words, then,
local taxation has increased about 30,000,000Z. in fifty
years, and ought perhaps to have increased rather more ;
and this is a distinct set-off to the diminution of the load of
imperial taxation. But even here it has to be considered
ill at the rate of the taxes has not increased. As the growth
of the income tax assessments shows, there is a largely
increased property to bear the burden. It has also to be
considered that if the burden is new, the community gets
the benefit in better education, better drainage and sewerage,
and in gas and water, and those improvements which the
great concentration of people in large towns renders neces
sary. The taxation to some extent is a deduction from the
property in houses which the community meanwhile has
acquired. Without the improvements the property would
not be so valuable as it is.
And when all is said, putting imperial and local taxes
together, there is a great and manifest improvement
between the present time and fifty years ago. Imperial
and local revenues together fifty years ago amounted to
' See note, su'gra, p. 15.
VOL. II. C

1 8 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
about 75,000,000Z. sterling, and in round figures this was
the ' taxation.' Now the revenues together, but deducting
from the gross total the loans received by local authorities,
amount to about 135,000,000Z. sterling— an increase alto
gether of about 60,000,000Z. sterling, of which one half is
imperial and the other half local. We have seen, however,
as regards the imperial taxes, that the increase is not all
taxation in the popular sense of the word, but partly an
increase of other sources of revenue ; that the increase, what
ever it is, is an increase of the yield of taxation only, many
taxes having been repealed or reduced in the interval ; and
that, in fact, the taxation remitted in excess of the taxation
imposed amounts to the large sum of 21,000,000Z., by which
sum, and more, it would be possible to add to the taxes
without increasing the burden of the taxpayer as compared
with what it formerly was. If the burden of local taxes
has, on the other hand, increased, it has also to be consi
dered that the rate of the taxation has not increased, the
resources of the taxpayer having increased in even greater
ratio, while the increase of the burden, whatever it is, is
set off by the diminution of the imperial burden, and by
the fact that it represents very largely a mere deduction
from new property created, without which that property
itself would not have existed. In all respects, then, the
history of the nation's finances, national and local together,
corresponds to the fact of progress which the increase of
population and the increase of income tax assessments
would imply. It is altogether a prosperous finance, such
as would be looked for in a prosperous country.
Progress In a general statement like this, it might, perhaps, be
in lead
ing in- unnecessary to go farther. There is no necessity for going
into details when the general account is so good. But to
look at some of the leading industries in the concrete
strengthens the main impression, whUe furnishing proof

dustries.

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH ig
incidentally that if it were possible to deal with general
expressions of quantity, and not merely with values, the
testimony to advance would be much the same. The refe
rences on this head must, however, be brief.
Coal is plainly one of the most important things to coai.
study in this connection. It is an instrumental article,
depending for its consumption on the general prosperity of
other industries, or on the prosperity of the average house
holder. Much of the article is no doubt raised for export,
which would seem at first sight to be a different use. On
consideration, however, it appears that coal is exported
largely to be consumed in English steamers abroad, or
in factories run by English capital, so that the uses of
coal exported are much the same as the uses of the coal
consumed at home. It is still an instrumental article in
the working of English industry generally. The produc
tion of coal, then, has increased about four times in the
last fifty years. At present the total output is about
160,000,000 tons. In 1854, when the mineral statistics
of the United Kingdom begin, it was about 64,000,000
tons only ; and going back from that date to 1837, and
allowing for the rapid increase which would be occasioned
by the development of railways and machinery in the in
terval, we cannot put the figure for 1837 at much above
40,000,000 tons. Contemporary estimates were mostly
below that figure. So far as coal would be a measure,
then, the increase of income tax assessments has been less,
and not more, than the increase of the things which
constitute national wealth. The increase is 300 per cent. ;
that of the income tax assessments 133 per cent. The
increase of population, as we have seen, is less than 50 per
cent. The increase in coal was most marked between 1857
and 1867, the production in the latter year having reached c 2

20 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
the large total of 105,000,000 tons, or an increase of nearly
70 per cent, in ten years. In the following ten years the
increase was to 135,000,000 tons, or 30 per cent, only ; and
since 1877 it has been to 160,000,000 tons, or 18 per cent.
only. Of course the figure for 1887 can only be estimated,
but no probable development of trade in one year is likely
to alter the percentages of increase very much. It does not
follow from such figures that the growth of prosperity has
been at a diminishing rate since 1857. The increase in
the efficiency of coal has been, it is believed, enormous.
But it is expedient to state all the facts ; and if coal is to be
considered an instrumental article, the apparent slackening
of the rate of progress should be noted. The great increase
in income tax assessments was not between 1857 and 1867,
but in the following decade. The slower rate of increase
in these assessments in the last decade of all coincides,
however, with the slower rate of augmentation in the pro
duction of coal. Too much must not be made of this
apparent coincidence, for the reason already stated, viz. the
increased work done by the same quantity of coal in con
sequence of improvements in the engines using it, but that
there is something to be explained must be conceded to the
pessimistic observer.'
Iron. Pig iron is another instrumental article. The history is
much the same as that of coal. Fifty years ago the pro
duction was estimated at 1,250,000 tons only. Now it can
hardly be put at less than 8,000,000 tons, an increase of
about 6,750,000 tons, or about 550 per cent. Even
allowing for an under-estimate fifty years ago, the
increase would still be enormous. In 1854, when the
mineral statistics were introduced, the production was only
about 3,000,000 tons, since which the increase has been
' See Jevons on Goal Supply, p. 207 ; and First Report of Royal Com
mission on Trade Depression, p. 139.

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 21
about 5,000,000 tons, or about 160 per cent. I'he percent
ages of increase to be dealt with are enormous.'
The chief textile industries tell the same tale. The Textiles.
annual consumption of raw cotton in 1886-40, according to
Messrs. Ellison, was about 406,000,000 lbs. ; in 1881-84 it
was 1,470,000,000 lbs., an increase of 260 per cent. The
annual average is now somewhat higher. It is difficult to
obtain comparative figures for wool on account of the
difficulty of estimating the domestic clip, but the annual
consumption is placed by Mr. Porter about the year 1840
at about 200,000,000 Ibs.,^ which compares with about
400,000,000 lbs. at the present time. Mr. Porter's figure
is perhaps an over-estimate, but in any case the increase in
consumption is enormous, though less than it is in cotton.
Wool, however, has always been an important industry,
and the textile manufactures apparently should be taken
together in such comparisons, as they compete with and
depend on each other.
The linen manufacture, judging by the exports, shows
an enormous increase since 1837 — about 157 per cent. ; but
there is rather a decline of late years from a maximum
reached about the time of the cotton famine— another
reason for taking all the textile industries together.
The jute manufacture, again, is a wholly new indus-
ti-y since 1837, and exhibits an enormous development,
the annual consumption being about 4,500,000 cwts. or
500,000,000 lbs.
Per contra, the silk manufacture has greatly declined ;
but it had never possessed the importance, as far as the
employment of labour is concerned, of the other leading
textile industries.
' See Jevons on Goal Supply, p. 192 ; and First Report of Royal Com
mission on Trade Depression, p. 139.
'' See Porter's Progress of the Nation, pp. 175-76, edition 1847.

22 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
The nett result of this comparison is that, while cotton
leads the way by an enormous increase of the consumption
of raw inaterial (the increase here being quite on a par
with the increase in the production of coal and iron), yet
the increase in wool is also enormous, being about 100 per
cent. The linen manufacture also shows an increase over
the whole period, though it is not at present increasing,
while an entirely new manufacture, that of jute, has come
into existence. Silk is the only leading textile manufacture
which has declined, and it is of less importance than the
others. Generally, there is no doubt, the textile manufac
tures have increased in enormously greater ratio than the
increase of income tax assessments or of population. In
consequence of the development of manufacturing industry
also, each pound of raw material consumed probably repre
sents a much greater amount of manipulation than was the
case fifty years ago. The increase in raw material con
sumed accordingly, large as it is, does not show the whole
increase in the business done. It is no doubt quite true
that to all appearance there is no corresponding increase
in the numbers employed in these particular industries.
At the last census in England the numbers occupied in
the textile manufactures appear to have been only fifty per
cent, more than in 1841—963,000 compared with 604,000
— while, as there is little increase of any kind between 1851
and 1881, and all the apparent increase is between 1841
and 1851, it may be doubted whether the increase, such
as it is, is not apparent only and due to some change in
classification in the former years.' But it is of the essence
of progress such as has taken place that there should not
be an increase of the numbers employed in the leading
industries corresponding to the increase of production.
The advance to the present time would not be what it is if
' See Statistical Society's Journal, June 1886, p. 357.

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 23
more were not produced by the same human agency. That
the increase in the leading industries should be so enor
mous as it is, with so little increase in the numbers em
ployed, tends to confirm the notion of a real increase, in
the things produced exceeding the increase in nominal
values exhibited by the income tax assessments.
Of course it will be understood that none of these figures
are presented as in any way conclusive. The increase in
the leading industries, or in industries where machinery
can be used, may be, and no doubt is, exceptionally
great. The increase per head of other things is probably
not so great. But as far as it goes, the evidence of the
great increase of production in some directions confirms
the idea that the average increase per head is a high one.
It remains only to notice in this connection the develop- Progress
ment of English foreign trade, so important a part of the trade?'^'^
total industry. It is most easy in so doing to deal with the
exports, especially as there are no good figures for the
values of the imports before 1854. The exports, then, of
British and Irish produce have increased between 1837 and
the present time, from an average of about 45,000,000Z.
sterling, which bad not been exceeded before that for any
given quinquennial period, though there was a rapid in
crease immediately afterwards, to about 220,000,000Z. at
the present time — an increase of 400 per cent. Nor is this
increase due in any way to an increase of the prices of
certain leading articles. On the contrary, the prices of
textile and other leading articles have rather declined, while
the proportionate value of raw material imported contained
in the articles exported appears also to have declined. The
increase in particular items is in every way remarkable.
The export of coal was about 1,000,000 tons only in 1837 ;
now it is over 24,000,000 tons. The export of iron and
steel was about 200,000 tons only ; now it is over 3,000,000

24 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
tons. The export of cotton manufactures was about
600,000,000 yards, now about 4,500,000,000 yards; of
cotton yarn formerly - 100,000,000 lbs., now 260,000,000
lbs. The export of woollen and worsted manufactures was
about 6,000,000Z,, now about 18,000,000Z. ; while the in
crease in woollen yarn exported is from about 3,000,000
to 40,000,000 lbs. It would be useless to multiply items.
In almost all there is an increase of quantity compared with
which the increase of value, immense as it is, is hardly to
be taken into account. As far as foreign export trade is
concerned, the increase in business done is much more than
the increase in the values representing them.
Turning to the imports, it is impossible, as already
noticed, to go back before 1854 as regards values, since
which date, however, the increase is from about 150,000,000Z.
to 400,000,000Z. or about 165 per cent. With regard to
quantities, as far as raw materials are concerned, what has
been already stated as to the increased consumption in the
leading textile manufactures may suffice. The amount
consumed is necessarily the quantity imported less re
exports. With regard to food, again, the increase of the
imports of articles consumed at home does not, of course,
show the total increase of consumption, for which purpose
it is necessary to compare the increased imports with the
home consumption at starting. But the facts as to certain
articles not in this ambiguous category can be stated. Thus
sugar increases from about 4,000,000 to 20,000,000 cwts. or
400 per cent. Tea increases from about 35,000,000 lbs. to
180,000,000 lbs., also about 400 per cent. Tobacco increases
from about 22,000,000 to 52,000,000 lbs. or about 185 per
cent. There are other minor articles where the increase of
the imports is less ; but these are not unfair samples of the
increase of the foreign import trade.
The figures as to shipping, which is itself an important

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 25
branch of the foreign trade, are quite as significant. The shipping.
entries and clearances of shipping in the foreign trade
averaged about 1837 very nearly 3,500,000 tons per annum
each. Now the annual average is about 32,000,000 tons
per annum, or nine times the figure of fifty years ago — an
increase accordingly of 800 per cent. The increase in the
mercantile marine of the United Kingdom, by which most
of these entries and clearances in the foreign trade are
effected, as well as a large amount of other work done, is
equally remarkable. Fifty years ago (1840) the tonnage of
vessels belonging to the United Kingdom was about 2,770,000
tons only. And this was a sailing tonnage only, the ton
nage of steamers being only 88,000, a merely nominal
quantity. Now the corresponding figures in round num
bers are : saihng tonnage, 3,400,000 tons ; steam tonnage,
4,000,000 tons ; the equivalent of the whole in sailing tons,
reckoning one ton of steam shipping as equal to four tons
of sailing vessels, being very nearly 20,000,000 tons, so
that the increase in the mercantile marine in the fifty
years, measuring by efficiency, is about 600 per cent.
The figures of the foreign trade accordingly fully con
firm the idea that there is no increase of income tax values
out of proportion to the increase in the things they repre
sent. In certain directions at any rate, whatever the -
figures for the average of things in general may be, the
increase in the things represented is enormously greater
than the increase in money values.
It would be needless, accordingly, to multiply details.
There is strong reason surely for concluding that the in
crease of wealth in the country during the past fifty years,
when real things are taken into account as well as nominal
values, is even more, and cannot well be less, than the in
crease in income tax assessments. General prices, as we

26 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
have seen, .are lower and not higher than they were ; the
chief heads of increase in the income tax assessments are
not mainly in connection with property where some increase
of monopoly value has unduly swollen the valuation, but in
connection with property subject to unlimited competition ;
the leading trades of the country all exhibit even a greater
increase in business done than any increase in values — the
increase in some cases, as in coal, iron, cotton, and shipping,
and imports of tea and sugar, being truly marvellous. We
have before us accordingly in all these figures with which
we have been dealing, a real and not a merely nominal in
crease of incomes and wealth far beyond the increase of
population. To repeat the general comparison already
made — population has increased about 44 per cent, only ;
income and wealth over 100 per cent. ; and income and
wealth per head about 70 per cent.
¦Work- The distribution of this vast increase of resources has
progress, also been for the benefit of the masses of the community.
I have discussed this subject so recently in papers on ' The
Progress of the Working Classes in the last Half-Century,'
and ' Further Notes on the Progress of the Working Classes,' '
that I may be permitted to refer to them specially, and only
give here a brief summary of the argument.
The first point is, that as far as can be judged the
number of income tax payers steadily increases. People
having incomes below the income tax limit steadily pass
into the class above. The only figures available for this
comparison are those relating to the number of assessments
under trades and professions. Schedule D, this being the
only part of the income tax where there is a record of
what is presumably individual incomes. Even here the
record is not strictly of individual incomes, as partnerships
may be included, but probably no great liability to error is
' See Essays in Finance, second series, pp. 365-474.

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 27
incurred on this account in using the figures. Now, what
these figures show is that in England the number of such
assessments over 150Z. increased between 1843 and 1880
from 107,000 to 320,000, or about 200 per cent, in forty
years. The increase of population in England alone,
as we have seen, has been about 80 per cent, only in fifty
years. Since 1880, to which the above table is brought
down, there would seem to have been a further increase of
no less than 7 per cent, in the number of the assess
ments under Schedule D ; but a precise comparison, owing
to changes in the limit of assessable income, can hardly be
made. The next point is that when the increase of money wages
among the artisan classes is compared for apparently the
same labour, a large increase is shown. In a table pruited
in one of the papers just referred to,' particulars are given
of wages in sixteen instances, fifty years ago and at the
present time, in all of which there is an increase for the
most part ranging between 50 and 100 per cent, and in
some cases exceeding the latter figure. The official records
of seamen's wages beginning about 1850 show an increase
of between 50 and 60 per cent, since that time. Similarly
an estimate of wages at Manchester by Mr. Montgomery,
President of the Manchester Statistical Society, brings out
an average increase of wages in the neighbourhood amount
ing to 40 per cent, according to the method adopted by
Mr. Montgomery, but really exceeding that average when
the figures are properly examined. Other records of money
wages tell the same tale. There are no doubt some cases
where only a slight increase is shown, but the run of
the average increase appears to exceed 50 per cent. A
comparison as to agricultural labourers' wages and
as to labourers' wages generally shows further, that in
' Page 372.

28 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
the case of the rudest labour the improvement is quite to
the extent allowed for by Sir James Caird, or over 60 per
cent. And such an improvement in the cases described implies,
under the circumstances of the changes in population in
the United Kingdom in the last fifty years, a much greater
average increase than 50 'or 60 per cent. These changes
have involved an immense substitution of artisan and
highly paid labour for agricultural and other rude labour
of the lowest type. The population of Ireland has actually
diminished, while that of Great Britain has increased, and
the artisan population of Great Britain has thus been largely
substituted in the general count of the population for the
half-starved peasantry of Ireland. In Great Britain, more
over, for many years the labourers so called, both agri
cultural and non-agricultural, have remained stationary.
As artisan or skilled labour is more highly paid than un
skilled, and as labour in Britain is far more highly paid
than the labour of Ireland fifty years ago, it follows that
an increase of anything like 50 per cent, in the money
wages of artisan or factory labour in Great Britain imphes
an enormously greater increase in the money wages of the
average masses now compared with the average masses
fifty years ago. The proportion of the population receiving
earnings of the higher class has largely increased, and the
average amount of these earnings has itself increased.
Such is the general nature of the facts by which the
increase of earnings among the masses of the community
is demonstrated. If the facts are at all doubted, the doubts
would appear to arise from a failure to appreciate what was
the actual condition of the masses fifty years ago. But it
would be impossible for the facts to be otherwise. When
the facts of production and consumption are looked at, it is
found that the exchanges of the community are mainly the

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 29
exchanges of the food, clothing, and articles of common
luxury which the masses consume. Working men, in fact,
exchange with each other, or the savings of the community
are paid them as wages while they are engaged in adding
to the fixed capital. There is no large proportion of general
income consumed in useless luxury by a rich class. It
would be a good thing for themselves if working men were
the owners, more than they are, of a share of the accumu
lated wealth of the community, but the additional amount
they would thereby be enabled to spend would be very
small if they were to save as the present owners of the
property save.
The final test of wellbeing is the increase of consumption
by the masses. On this head what has been already said
in another connection regarding the increased consumption
of tea, sugar, and tobacco, should suffice. But some well-
known figures may be repeated as to the consumption per
head. The consumption of sugar in the fifty years has
gone up from about 15 to 70 lbs. per head ; tea from \\ to
4| lbs. per head ; tobacco from 0-86 to 1'40 lbs. per head ;
and so on. There is also a remarkable improvement in
houses. The annual value of houses above lOZ. rental in
Great Britain was 12,603,000Z. only about fifty years ago ;
now it is over 57,000,000Z. or between four and five times
the total of fifty years ago. It has been contended by some
working men or their friends that the increased rental of
dwelling houses only shows increased expense : it is, they
say, a drawback to the improvement shown by the rise in
money wages. But the argument as to a real improvement
being indicated is very strong. Either the increased rental
is due to a rise in the cost of building houses — which would
imply that working men connected with the building trades
obtain largely increased wages — or it implies that more
accommodation is provided ; so that the masses are really

30 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
' consuming ' more and better house accommodation per
head than they did.
To the same effect are the figures showing decrease of
pauperism, decrease of serious crime, increase of savings
bank deposits, and increase of the funds of co-operative
and building societies. The facts as to pauperism and
crime, however, need not be more than hinted at, as not
strictly belonging to the present subject. They are signifi
cant of a moral improvement in the population which need
not have followed the material improvement, but which has,
in fact, followed that improvement. With regard to savings
banks the broad fact that need be mentioned is that the
number of depositors has increased from about 430,000 fifty
years ago (1831) to 5,200,000 at the present time, while the
deposits have increased froml4,000,000Z.to over 90,000,000Z.
As has teen hinted already, saving is not the strong point
of the masses of the United Kingdom. It may be doubted
if they have saved proportionately as they ought to have
done, considering what their increased earnings have been.
But their condition absolutely in this as in other matters is
better than it was.
There could be no greater mistake than to be content in
such a question with a bald statement of figures merely. It
remains only to add, therefore, that, according to the uni
versal testimony of those who remember fifty years ago
(and these are not few), the masses of the community are
better fed, clothed, and housed than they were — immensely
better. The fact of a great rise in the scale of living
among all classes began to attract attention twenty years
ago, and is in truth one of the notorious features of the
economic history of the time. That a different impression
has got about lately in some quarters appears to be due to
an exaggerated impression of the relative mass of the resi
duum, which is n6t surprising when those who receive and

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 31
diffuse such impressions neglect to make use of the statis
tical method in dealing with facts where statistics are
absolutely necessary. In a great community like that of
England, even facts that are small relatively are likely to be
large absolutely. It may well be, therefore, that there is a
large residuum, and yet all the facts as to the masses gene
rally, as here set forth, and which must be true, or no such
progress of the nation in wealth could have taken place as
what has in fact occurred, may also be true. There is
no inconsistency between the two sets of facts. Only the
residuum, though a big fact absolutely, is not really so
very large when the great mass of the community is con
sidered. The hope of deahng with it successfully, it may
be added — though this is going a little out of my way — lies
really in the fact that it is smaller relatively than it was,
and that the nation is strong enough to feel its existence
an opprobrium and a shame, and to grapple with it in a
way it has never been grappled with before. How far the
hope is well founded may be a question, for moral evils are
peculiarly inveterate, but the nation is certainly not stag
gering under the nightmare of its residuum as it was stag
gering under the load of pauperism and connected evils
fifty years ago. The evil is still great, but it is in every
way more manageable.
It was pointed out at the commencement of this paper Progress
that, while it was intended to deal specially with the colonial
internal growth of the United Kingdom, the fact that ' this
growth was really that of the centre of a mighty empire
which had been growing at the same time, would not be
overlooked. A glance at the development of British posses
sions in their economic aspect is therefore required in order
to complete our survey.
It is difficult to realise how small in comparison with
the present time were the beginnings of empire fifty years

32 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
ago. According to the statement in M'CuUoch's statistical
account of the Empire, published about fifty years ago,' the
whole population of the British possessions, exclusive of
India, was 3,684,000, orinroundfigures just under 4,000,000.
The population of North America was about 1,250,000 only ;
of the West Indies and British Guiana, 784,000 ; of Ceylon,
just over 1,000,000 ; of the Cape, 131,000 ; and of Australia
and New Zealand, about 100,000 only. The population of
British India was reckoned at not more than 83,000,000 ; of
British India with allies and tributary states at 123,000,000 ;
and of all India at about 134,000,000. There may have
been some under-estimate in the latter figures, but not
much, I believe, allowing for the increase of population
which must have been going on in the fifty years. The
whole of the gross revenues of India were then no more than
22, 000, OOOZ., and those of the rest of the Empire must have
been quite inconsiderable. And the trade of the United
Kingdom with all these possessions, excluding India, was
represented by an export of only 12,000,000Z. annually, and
by entries and clearances of shipping amounting to about
900,000 tons each per annum. The exports to India were
under 4,000, OOOZ., and the entries and clearances of ship
ping about 200,000 tons only.
Such was the British Empire economically fifty years
ago. Now the population of the possessions exclusive of
India has grown to about 16,000,000. Australia and New
Zealand, which hardly counted before, have now a popula
tion of just about 4,000,000. The North American States
have grown from 1,250,000 to 5,000,000. The West Indies
and British Guiana count for 1,750,000 instead of 784,000
only. Ceylon has grown from 1,250,000 to 2,750,000.
The Cape of Good Hope and Natal have nearly 2,000,000.
On all sides there is immense development, all the more
' See vol. ii. pp. 518-521.

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION^ OF WEALTH 33
remarkable because so much of the increase of population,
being in Australia and Canada, is the increase of the
British race. In addition to the vast increase of a well-to-
do population at home, there has been this addition of at
least 8,000,000 to the British race in British possessions
abroad ; strictly speaking, therefore, an addition to the
governing race and nucleus of the Empire. The Empire in
India at the same time has mightily developed. The popu
lation of British India is now over 200,000,000, and of depen
dent India 55,000,000 and more, making a grand total of
260,000,000. India, in fact, in population is about double
what it was, and four-fifths of the numbers are directly
under British rule. The trade of the United Kingdom with
this Colonial Empire has lately all but reached 100,000,000Z.
of imports and 90,000,000Z. of exports per annum, the latter
almost entirely exports of British and Irish produce, and
seven times the amount of fifty years ago. The entries and
clearances of shipping at ports in the United Kingdom in
this great trade amount to about 4,000,000 and 6,000,000
tons respectively per annum, or five times the former
figure. The accounts of the possessions themselves show the
growth of the resources in a still more striking manner.
The aggregate annual revenue of these possessions exclusive
of India may be put at nearly 45,000,000Z. sterling per
annum, as compared with an amount almost imperceptible
fifty years ago. In Australia, which did not count then at
all, the gross annual revenue is now about 22,000,000Z. In
North America it is 7,000,000Z. That of the Cape is over
7,000,000Z. And so of other colonies. The amounts include
borrowing to some extent and sales of land, which are an
equivalent process, but the deductions on this head would
not alter the fact that there is an immense increase of real
revenue. VOL. II. D

34 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
The revenue of India, again, instead of being 22,000,000Z.
only, is over 70,000,000Z. ; and even making a deduction for
the fall in value of the rupee, the amount would still be
enormous. The revenue of the Empire, in fact, outside the United
Kingdom is thus over 100,000,000Z. sterling, or more than
the revenue of the United Kingdom itself, excluding local
revenues. It is to be feared the burden of taxation is
greater than in the United Kingdom. The resources are not
really greater, although the taxation is more. But the fact
of so huge a revenue being raised within the Empire, outside
the United Kingdom, and that it is mainly the creation of
the last fifty years, ought to give some idea of the economic
growth of the Empire itself. The Empire outside the
United Kmgdom might constitute a State only second in
power and resources to the United Kingdom itself. The
aggregate foreign trade of this Empire has also grown to be
enormous. The trade with the United Kingdom, as we
have seen, is about 190,000,000Z. sterling, imports and
exports together, according to the United Kingdom figures,
which agree fairly well with those of the colonies and India ;
but the whole foreign trade of this outer Empire is almost
exactly double, the imports being about 200,000,000Z. and
the exports about 220,000,000Z. In foreign trade the
colonies and India together rank nearly second to the
United Kingdom itself, and among the leading commercial
States of the world, France, Germany, and the United States.
Sum- To sum up this long review. Through times and sea-
and con- SOUS not altogether free from difficulty, and in spite of some
0 uaion. gj.ga^t economic disasters, of which the Irish famine may be
reckoned the chief, the English nation at home and abroad
has progressed in wealth and resources in the last fifty
years in a most marvellous manner. At home it has
increased in numbers between forty and fifty per cent., and

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 35
the increase has been mainly of a sort to imply a great
: improvement in industrial quality. Fifty years ago one-
third of the people very nearly were in Ireland, for the
:most part in a state of semi-starvation. Now this third
'has become little more than an eighth, and in absolute
: numbers it has dimmished from 8,000,000 to 5,000,000.
The increase of population has not only been exclusively in
Great Britain, but the increase there makes up as well for
the loss in Ireland. At the same time in Great Britain itself
the number of unskilled labourers has been stationary or
declining. The increase of the people has thus been mostly
an increase among the classes of skilled artisans and factory
operatives. As the result, not only is there a great increase
of population, but the units of the present 37,000,000, to
which the numbers have grown, are on the average far
superior in industrial quality to their predecessors of half
a century ago. The resulting increase of wealth and re
sources is enormous. Taking income tax assessments as a
test, it is found that the increase is from about 270,000,000Z.
to 630,000,000Z. sterling, or an increase in all of 360,000,000Z.
or 133 per cent. Making a rough computation from this
income, so as to arrive at a sum representing the property
of the people, the property is found to have increased as from
4,050,000,000Z. to 9,450,000,000Z. sterling. The increase
of income, according to this mode of calculation, is from
about lOZ. to 17Z. per head, and of capital from about
150Z. to 256Z. per head — about 70 per cent, increase. Rea
sons have been given for the belief that the nominal increase
thus shown corresponds to and does not exceed what the
increase in real wealth would be if units of quantity could
be substituted for units of value. There has been no rise
of prices, but rather the reverse. In the production of coal
and iron, the consumption of raw material in the leading
textile manufactures, and the growth of the foreign trade
D 2

36 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
and shipping, the increase of quantities produced and con
sumed comes out as a rule many times greater than the
increase of nominal values shown by the income tax returns
and the calculations based on them. Of course such figures
only supply data for approximating to the final result, but
they leave little doubt that in whatever directions labour
has been stationary in its product, yet on balance there has
been a great increase, which probably exceeds the increase
of 70 per cent, per head in the income tax assessments.
There is reason to believe, moreover, on independent evi
dence — on the evidence of increased money wages and the
increased consumption of articles of food, clothing, and
common luxury — that the masses of the community have
improved in their condition in a manner corresponding to
the increase of the general community in resources. The
national revenue has improved in a similar manner. Fifty
years ago the sum of 60,OOO,000Z. annually was levied with
difficulty by Parliament, and there was a chronic deficit.
At the present time 90,000,OOOZ. are raised with ease by
means of taxes which have been greatly diminished, the nett
remission in the fifty years having been in fact 21,000,000Z.
sterling, while the diminished sources of revenue bring in
3O,0OO,00OZ. more money than the undiminished resources
formerly did, and while it is also plain that if the re
pealed and remitted taxation were now to be reimposed
the annual yield would exceed greatly what appeared to be
given away. Per contra, the local burdens have increased
by an amount equal to twice the local taxes of fifty years
ago, viz. by the sum of 30,000,000Z. ; but this is no complete
set-off to the improvement in the imperial revenue, while
there has been no increase in the rate even of this local
taxation, so great has been the increase of property, and
the bulk of it really represents beneficial expenditure on the
local property itself.

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 37
While this internal growth has been going on, the growth
of the Empire outside the United Kingdom in economic
resources has been hardly less marvellous. Apart from
India, colonial population has grown from 4,000,000 to
16,000,000, and the British race included in these figures
from about 1,000,000 to over 9,000,000; so that in addition
to the 37,000,000 to which we have grown at home, there
falls to be joined another section of the governing race
abroad, amounting to over 9,000,000, and almost all an
addition to the governing nucleus within the last fifty
years. India at the same time has nearly doubled its
population, the total being now about 260,000,000, of which
fom--fifths, or nearly so, are under direct British rule. In
revenue this outer Empire, exclusive of India, raises no less
a sum than 45,000,000Z. annually, which is almost entirely
new revenue, while Indian revenue itself has grown from
22,000,000L to 70,000,000Z. In foreign trade, which was
quite inconsiderable fifty years ago, there has been just
as wonderful a transformation. The imports are now
about 200,000,000Z. and the exports 220,000,000Z. sterling
annually. This outer State, therefore, if we could look upon
it as a whole, is by itself quite equal in every way to one of
the great States of the world. Commercially and politically
it might rank with the very first States — with the United
Kingdom by itself ; with France, with Germany, with the
United States; and before Powers like Russia, Austria,
Hungary, and Italy; and it is almost all the growth of
the last fifty years. Putting the United Kingdom and
its colonies together, we are probably safe in affirming
that never at any past time, nor in the present century
of economic marvels, has there been so astonishing a
growth. It is impossible not to put the question, What are the
conditions, as to probable permanency and continuance

38 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
or the reverse, of this stupendous growth ? Putting aside
the discussion of any political circumstances, I should be
disposed to reply that, economically, I perceive no conclusive
circumstances against either permanency or continuance.
It is true that the prosperity — at least at home—is not
rooted in a highly prosperous agriculture in a way that
economists like Arthur Young considered all-important ;
that the United States and not England is now •par
excellence the agricultural country. Experience, however,
has shown that a country may now possess a vigorous
people and a progressive industry, although it imports
much food and raw materials from abroad — that such a
country is no more dependent economically on the people
from whom it imports than these people are on the country
to which they sell. The dependence is mutual in the
strictest sense of the word. The real estate of the English
people consists now in their superior industrial quality ; in
their skill and enterprise ; in their acquired capital ; in
their established system of credit ; in their huge invest
ments abroad, which insure them, as compared with foreign
nations, the free possession of much food and raw material
to start with. With such an estate, and no doubt also with
coal and iron as yet in ample profusion, there seems no
reason why the English race should not advance steadily
for many years to come. It will be their own fault if they
fold their hands and permit themselves to fall behind.
These things are specially true of the Colonial Empire. The
room for development in India and other subject colonies
is endless. Nothing has been more remarkable of late
years than the swift growth of India's foreign trade. As
regards English-speaking colonies, again, here there is at
least no lack of agricultural wealth to form the basis of
general prosperity. The Empire as a whole, in this matter,
though not the United Kingdom by itself, may come up to

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH

39

Arthur Young's test of a prosperous agriculture as the basis
of all prosperity. As the English-speaking colonies grow
faster relatively than the United Kingdom, this element
cannot fail to grow in importance, whether it is necessary
or not to the general prosperity.
It may be admitted, however, that there are clouds on
the horizon — at least, what are supposed to be clouds. A
great deal has been heard in recent years, for instance, as
to foreign competition threatening our commercial supre
macy. But this particular cloud, in the face of the past
history and the broad facts we have been dealing with, can
not be considered very threatening. It has been heard of
a great deal at any time during the last fifty years, if not
for a long period before, yet English foreign trade advances
all the same in the way we have seen. The truth is that
in this matter an ounce of common sense is worth tons of
pamphlets by British trade revivers, and reciprocitarians,
et hoc genius omne. No amount of foreign competition can
really hurt an industrious and vigorous community. If
the foreigner who competes with us is r-eally superior, he
will command a higher wage ; if he is equal only, he will
command the same wage. The fact thai he is industrious
does not take anything from us — it only affects the rate of
exchange between him and ourselves. It is quite certain
that foreign manufacturing and foreign competition must
increase. No power can prevent it. But the competition
from which individual traders suffer and against which they
exclaim is only the means after all by which exchanges are
made. In reality a prosperous foreign growth should be a
cause of gain and not loss to an industrial community like
England. I should be disposed to attach more importance to a
certain supineness and languor which appear to be creeping
in at some points. At one time, and I trust still with only

40 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
a few exceptions, English commerce had the reputation of
being democratic. Englishmen had ' go ' for any enterprise,
and the facilities for credit were such that young and
pushing men could always obtain needful capital. Now it
would seem there is less push and ' go,' or less push and
' go ' relatively to what is required. Germans, it is com
plained, are doing the hard work of foreign commerce
everywhere, and crowding out or taking the place of young
Englishmen, who do not in fact compete. English mer
chants at home, instead of buckling to hard work, com
plain of foreign bounties and foreign tariffs, and move
heaven and earth to help them instead of helping themselves.
And if the facts are according to this statement to any
extent, then English commercial decadence is at hand. Of
course they are not all true generally, but there is enough
truth in them, perhaps, to justify an appeal to aU who have
influence over youth against the indolence and shirking of
disagreeables which are too apt to grow up with the posses
sion of assured wealth. This is the real danger which a
wealthy society runs the risk of. All concerned — merchants
and workmen together — are tempted to take life too easily,
in shorter hours, many holidays, and extravagant living.
Shorter hours and holidays and high expenditure can only
be justified, however, by increased energy and skUl in actual
work. The production must continue in some form if the
wealth is not to be lost.
It is also a drawback to the position of the United
Kingdom and of the Empire generally, that, however great
the advance has been, other nations would seem to have
been relatively gaining on us. This would seem to be
especially true of the United States. Fifty years ago the
United States were a nation inferior in numbers to the
United Kingdom. They were little more than 15,000,000
of people as compared with nearly 26,000,000 in the United

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 41
Kingdom. Now they are 60,000,000— greater than we are
by numbers nearly equal to our total population fifty years
ago. The United States people, moreover, are increasing
rapidly in manufacturing as well as in agricultural re
sources. Germany is another country which has also
advanced rapidly in the last fifty years. Altogether the
world outside England is becoming greater relatively than
it was ; and although the balance is redressed a little when
we take our Colonial Empire into account, still it is not
completely redressed.
In this way, it is said, English commercial ' predominance '
is threatened. But it may be pointed out that this is no real
cloud. Predominance is not prosperity. The growth of a
country like the United States, so full of wealth and resources
of every kind, should in truth conduce to and not injure other
countries. Why should it injure them ? Its wealth makes
it naturally a better customer than before ; however Pro
tectionist its leanings, it cannot sell abroad without buying.
Very possibly, therefore, within the next generation or two,
the United States may be greater commercially and indus
trially than the United Kingdom, or even than the whole
British Empire. But Kingdom and Empire may both
flourish exceedingly, though predominance is gone.
I may add, too, though this is hardly the place to dis
cuss the point, that though English predominance is now
threatened, still even here the end is not yet, and it is not
so certain what will really happen. The United States is
approaching a more difficult time economically than the
people there have yet had to face. The special attraction
of the country to emigrants in the existence of an immense
area of virgin soil, on which an extensive agriculture could
be practised, will soon be lost. Possibly under the new
conditions the attraction of people will be towards the older
and more crowded communities just because these are the

42 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
best places for developing and carrying on manufacturing
skill, and it is no longer necessary for people to live where
their food and raw materials are grown.
In the midst, then, of the great economic changes im
pending, and which will probably render the next fifty years
even more interesting and dramatic than the last fifty, and
in which there will probably be witnessed an even greater
advance in wealth and resources among the nations of the
world than what has just occurred, it must not be assumed
that the foremost place, in spite of some appearances to the
contrary, will not remain to the United Kingdom or to the
Empire. We have many things in our favour, including
acquired position and accumulated wealth, though there is
also much against ue. In any case, if the nation is true
to itself, greatness and prosperity are assured, although a
kindred people may possibly advance even more rapidly
than we shall do ourselves. E. GiFFEN.

43

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION.
The Victorian era has been remarkable in many respects,
but in no respect has it been more remarkable than in the
development of associative effort for mutual protection and
support amongst the masses of the people. It is perfectly
true that this movement began long before the commence
ment of her Majesty's reign, but its progress was fitful and
slow ; it was hampered by prohibitory laws, and was re
garded with suspicion by the wealthy and trading classes.
The law not only did not foster and encourage the spirit of
self-help and self-reliance among the people, but strove to
repress the earlier beginnings of real associative effort ; and
when its growth could no longer be resisted, nor its aspi
rations stifled, legislators hampered it by what they were
pleased to call safeguards, lest it should end in 'revolu
tionising society,' and in destroying the ' fabric of the State.'
Before we proceed to enumerate the character and objects Bestrio-
of the various efforts to ameliorate their condition by the before
people themselves, it will be well to consider the state of the ^^^'^ "
law as regards combination and association ; and, also, the
actual condition of the people, because the latter was, to a
considerable extent, the outcome of restrictive law — the
State would not help the masses, and rendered it difficult
for them to help themselves, The ' old combination laws '
had, indeed, been repealed, by the 5th Geo. IV. c. 95 ; but
such was the ' timidity of capital,' or rather of capitalists.

44 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
that this Act was in its turn repealed in the following year,
1825. No sooner had the former Act been passed than an
outcry arose that the combinations of workmen were ruin
ing the country, and a demand was made for the re-enact
ment of the repealed statutes. A Committee of Inquiry was
appointed, and took evidence, the result being that the
accusations were disproven ; but in order to allay the clamour
the Act of 1824 was repealed, and another, the 6th Geo. IV.
c. 129, was substituted in its place. The weight of evidence
was so overwhelmingly in favour of the repeal of the old
statutes that every one of those mentioned in the Act of
1824 was repealed, but some modifications were made in
the body of the new Act, in the interest of the masters,
which led to further agitation for its repeal. Slight as the
alteration was, it was sufficient to hamper the action of the
workmen in their efforts to combine, and siibsequent pro
secutions showed that a new engine of repression was in
reserve in the shape of the conspiracy laws.
Nor was this all. The Corresponding Societies and the
Licensing of Reading-rooms Act, 39 Geo. III. c. 79 ; the
41 Geo. III. c. 30, ' An Act for the more effectually Prevent
ing Seditious Meetings and Assemblies,' reviving the 36 Geo.
III. c. 8 for a limited period only, but which remained on
the Statute-book until repealed in 1872, and numerous
other statutes or parts of statutes, were used as instruments
to prevent combination even after the so-called ' repeal
of the combination laws ' in 1824 and 1825. Many of
those enactments were primarily directed against political
meetings and societies, and the late Sir Thomas Brskine
May says of them: 'The series of repressive measures
was now complete. We cannot review them without sad
ness.' ' A new form of suppression was discovered and
applied to combinations of workmen in 1834. A few
' Constitutional History of England, ii. 330.

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 45
Dorchester labourers met and formed themselves into a
society. Acting upon the old guild method of association,
recognised by the law as perfectly legal for centuries, these
men bound themselves together by a declaration to stand
by and support each other in the endeavour to better their
condition. A prosecution was instituted under the Un
lawful Oaths Act, and six of them were sentenced to trans
portation. They were subsequently reprieved, but the fact
was never communicated to them, and several were detained
for years in a penal settlement, and one of them only read
of his reprieve by accident in the Governor's house, in an old
newspaper, while waiting for an answer to a letter he had
brought from his master.
Prosecutions under the conspiracy laws were frequent
and disastrous. Even when the prosecutors could not
obtain a verdict —and they very often failed to do so — the
men were ruined by the costliness of the prosecution, and
the societies to which they belonged were crippled for years,
and often altogether broken up. If conviction did not fol
low, men were terror-stricken at the prospect of a criminal
prosecution before a hostile judge and a prejudiced jury,
and often these men were driven into secret combination,
because the law would not recognise the legal right to
combine. The strong feeling entertained by the governing
classes against combinations at that period was made still
stronger by the preamble of the very measure which pur
ported to render them legal. In the preamble to the Act
of 1825 it is recited : ' Whereas such combinations are in
jurious to trade and commerce, dangerous to the tranquillity
of the country, and especially prejudicial to the interests of
all who are concerned in them,' &c. This expression of
opinion on the part of the Legislature influenced judge, jury,
and prosecutors in their efforts to put down combinations
of all sorts on the part of the workpeople.

46 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Prose- Many of the worst forms of persecution, carried on in the
after name of law, under the guise of criminal prosecution, took
1837. place prior to the accession of her Majesty ; but they were
continued for years after her coronation, or a reference to
them would scarcely come within the scope of this chapter,
except as showing that the influence of bad laws continues
to operate powerfully even after their repeal. In the year
when her Majesty ascended the throne there was a strike in
Glasgow, involving great suffering. In the previous year
the masters had counselled a strike against one wealthy
manufacturer, because he refused to accede to the terms
agreed upon mutually by all the other masters. The men
failed. The other masters then demanded a reduction of
from 57 to 58 per cent. The men resisted ; five were pro
secuted and convicted, and sentenced to seven years' trans
portation for ' conspiracy and illegal combination.' The
matter was brought before the House of Commons, and an
inquiry was instituted into the operation of the Act 6 Geo.
IV. c. 129 in 1838 ; some very valuable information was
elicited, by no means disparaging to the workpeople, and
the Committee separated without making any formal report.
But this one point came out clearly, namely that ' the effect
of the repeal of the combination laws upon the conduct of
strikes had been generally beneficial.' The majority of the
masters admitted the superiority of the union workmen
over the non-union workmen, and declared that ' the combi
nations had no effect upon wages.'
In the years 1847 and 1848 some very disastrous pro
secutions were instituted ; in one instance several men were
sentenced to ten years' transportation at Sheffield, but on
taking the case to a higher court the judgment was reversed.
The defence of the workmen thus prosecuted cost a vast
sum of money — in three cases alone the costs amounted to
7,658Z. 9s. It will thus be seen that 'the repeal of the

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 47
combination laws ' did not render combinations lawful, nor
were they made lawful until the year 1875. One other
point requires illustration: Nominally the law made it
legal to combine ; but the funds of the associated members
were unprotected until the passing of a temporary Act in
1869, made permanent by the Trade Union Act in 1871.
The Masters and Servants Acts also impeded free combina
tion, for under them men were nominally prosecuted for
one offence, but practically convicted and sentenced for
another. There was in reality no freedom of contract for
workpeople, no lawful right to combine, and no protection
of their associated funds. And, moreover, every associative
effort was regarded with suspicion, even when not openly
opposed. Though it is easy to conceive the pitiful and even de- state
graded condition to which the working classes were reduced working
from having no real power of peaceable combination under issyfso.
the protection of the law, few persons seem to be aware of
the intensity of their suffering, the prolonged privation which
they endured, and the distress which everywhere prevailed.
The impetus given to commerce and trade by new inventions
only intensified their misery. They saw their handicrafts
supplanted by self-acting machines, and in the depths of
their desperation they wreaked their vengeance upon the
machinery which they thought would supplant them. These
men saw only the misery of their wretched homes, the
pinched faces of their starving wives and children; and
impelled by hunger, angered by injustice, driven almost to
madness by penal laws, they broke out into rioting, to be
dispersed by the military, their leaders imprisoned, and
themselves and families driven into the workhouses of the
country. It is not possible with a few strokes of the pen to
describe the famished and wretched condition of the people

of Com
missions

48 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
— the workers at the looms, in the mines, in the fields, in
all branches of industry during the earlier years of her
Majesty's reign. With exceptions, the same description is
equally applicable during the whole of the first thirteen
years of the Victorian era. Very little real progress was
made until 1850 ; since which date the material condition
of the people has sensibly improved. During the inter
vening years, 1837 to 1850, what was there to brighten the
outlook, what to render the workers contented and happy ?
From 1837 to 1845 we have fairly ample evidence as to the
condition of some of the larger sections of the working
classes. This was the period of inquiry. The more impor
tant inquiries instituted in that period were : By ' the
Heports Select Committee on Combinations of Workmen,' 1838 ;
' Commission to inquire into the Physical and Moral Condi
tion of Children and Young Persons employed in Mines and
Manufactures,' 1840 and 1841 ; ' Reports on the Sanitary
Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain,'
and • the Local Reports for England and Wales, and for
Scotland ' (1839-43, 4 vols.), and the ' Report of the Com
mission to inquu-e into the Condition of the Framework
Knitters,' with appendices, 1845, one thick volume of 1,053
pages. There were other reports which shed a side-light
upon the various subjects more particularly dealt with in
the foregoing, such as the inquiries of the Poor Law
Board ; reports on the training of pauper children, and on
education, issued by the Committee of Council ; and con
temporary historians, pamphleteers, and the authors of
memoirs and autobiographies, covering this period.
Long extracts might be taken from various authentic
sources sufficient to fill a volume, but a condensed account
will suffice for present purposes. Taking the records in the
order of date, what do we find ? Speaking upon the relative
wages paid in 1837-38, Mr. David McWilliams, in answer

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 49
to this question, ' Do you find that, while more is spun
every year, the wages of the men are increasing every year ? '
replied : ' I find them to be decreasing every year, though the
labour is increasing alarmingly.' '
Question 2848, Mr. O'Connell : ' The hand-loom weavers
are in great distress ? ' Answer, Mr. JemmUl : ' They are
always in distress ; they are paid the lowest possible wages.'
Replying as to the wages of piecers, he said that they were
paid 2s. &d. a week, or 3s. a week, or 3s. 6i. per week, ac
cording to the size and efficiency of the boy or girl. Further
on he said : ' I can state with confidence that the families
of the hand-loom weavers are in general wretched in the
extreme, being ill-clad and ill-fed.' The conduct of the
workmen usually Mr. Jemmill considered good.
In the Report on the Employment of Women and Children Mines
in Mines and Manufactures the Commissioners say : ' We
find that instances occur in which children are taken into
these coal mines to work as early as four years of age,
sometimes at five, and between five and six, not unfre-
quently between six and seven, and often from seven to
eight, while from eight to nine is the ordinary age at which
employment in these mines commences.' ' That in several
districts female children begin to work in these (coal) mines
at the same early age as the males.' ' The nature of the
employment requires that the youngest children should be
in the pit as soon as the day commences, and that they
should not leave the pit till the work of the day is at an
end.' ' They are excluded from the light, and are always
without companions, and were it not for the passing and
repassing of coal carriages, it would amount to solitary con
finement.' ' Many of them never see the light of day for weeks
together.' ' From six years old and upwards the hard work
of pushing and dragging the carriages of coal from the work-
' Report on Combiimtions of Workmen, 1838, Question 3733, p. 275.
VOL II. E

so THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
ings to the main ways, or to the foot of the shaft, a labour
which requires the unremitting exertion of all the physical
powers which the young workers possess.' Extracts in abun
dance might be given from the evidence, in proof of each
of the foregoing statements, but space forbids. The whole
report is well worthy of careful perusal, for its facts as well
as for its conclusions. ' In Scotland the children, mostly
girls, carry the coals on their backs up steep ladders.'
One more paragraph in this famous report must be
quoted in full, as it tells its own sad tale : ' In the districts
in which females are taken down into the coal mines, both
sexes are employed together in precisely the same kind of
labour, and work for the same number of hours ; the girls
and boys, and the young men and young women, and even
married women and women with child, commonly work
almost naked, and the men, in many mines, quite naked ;
and all classes of witnesses bear testimony to the demoralis
ing influence of the employment of females underground.'
This revelation so shocked the feelings of all right-minded
people, that the first Act which was passed prohibited females
working underground any longer. The testimony as to
food and rest, especially of the poor children, is terribly
sad. 'I have known boys work the whole twelve hours
without more than a bit of dry bread to eat,' says one wit
ness, and the testimony of many others is to the same effect.
One more extract from the evidence : ' They have a little
milk or a little coffee and a bit of bread in the morning
before they go to the pit, and they will take nothing with
them but a httle bread, and perhaps a little tea, but oftener
dry bread than anything else. Their parents cannot often
get them more. They do not have meat. The parents
do not get wages enough to provide meat for the children.'
Pac- The terrible condition of the factory workers, especially
the women and children, was scarcely better. Their wages

tories.

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 51
were at starvation point, and their physical energies were
exhausted before they had arrived at the age of manhood
or womanhood. Poor, crippled, and deformed, existence
was a struggle, and a hard one, without cessation, and'
without hope. No wonder that there was destruction of
machinery, rick-burning, rioting — it was the outburst of
despair. But of all the depressed and suffering industries of The
ioaiery
the country, there was none in which the suffering was so trade.
severe and continuous as in the hosiery trade of the mid
land counties. The principal manufacture of the counties
of Leicester, Nottingham, and South Derbyshire, was
framework knitting. Men and women worked the hand-
looms in their own cottages, the children of the family
assisting in winding, seaming, and other auxiliary processes.
When fully employed the entire earnings of a fainily were
hardly sufficient to provide the barest necessaries of life.
Mr. Felkin, whose excellent ' History of the Machine-
wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufacture ' affords the most
complete and authentic record of this great industry, thus
describes their condition : ' We do not hesitate to affirm
that the actual sufferings and privation experienced during
the so-called Lancashire famine of 1863-66 were far less
than the distress in the midland hosiery district during the
interval between 1810 and 1845; where it became a long
and widely spread practice to still the cravings of hunger
in the adult by opium taken in a solid form, and by
children in that of Godfrey's cordial.' The earnings of a
man fully employed would range from 5s. to 7s. M. per
week ; women worked hard to earn half this sum. The
operatives were in number so far in excess of the demand
for their labour, that their condition may be described as
one of chronic lack of employment and chronic hunger.
Their dwellings ' were for the most part filthy, and the
E 2

52 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
abodes of discontent and misery. The children had no
scholastic education at all.'
The frightful misery endured by these wretched people,
estimated upon a careful census to number 100,000 souls,
was frequently the subject of parliamentary discussion and
legislation. There are blue-books on the subject as recent
as 1845, describing a state of things so appalling and so
dangerous that it is almost impossible to credit the esta
blished facts. A stranger visiting to-day the handsome and
flourishing towns of Leicester and Nottingham can never
reahse the squalor, misery, and discontent of which they
were the centres forty or fifty years ago. We fear to por
tray them, lest our description should seem exaggerated. A
perusal of the blue-books and of the careful historian we have
cited, will, however, satisfy the student that the sufferings
of the Midlands framework-knitters cannot be overstated.
It is not surprising that a population enduring such
privation and misery should be often turbulent and always
discontented. From 1810 to 1816 Luddism — machine-
breaking — prevailed throughout the Midlands, and Parlia
ment enacted that this crime should be punishable with death.
In 1816 six men were executed at Leicester for frame-
breaking, in the presence of 15,000 people. They died
with the firmness and courage of heroes, and were regarded
as martyrs by the sympathising spectators. Bread riots
were not unfrequent in the towns down to 1848. Strikes
accompanied with outrage were common. Misery and dis
content went hand in hand, and the relations betwixt
employer and employed were probably more embittered
than in any other industry. Thomas Cooper, in his auto
biography, relates that in 1841 in the town of Leicester he
witnessed suffering more intense and hatred of employers
more fierce than anything he had experienced elsewhere
before or since that time.

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 53
The legislation fostering, developing, and guiding asso
ciative effort may be divided into two classes : the first
group comprising the Factory and Workshops Acts, the
Mines Acts, and similar enactments, designated by Mr.
J. M. Ludlow as ' Protective Law ; ' and the second group,
comprising the Friendly Societies Acts and similar enact
ments, designated by the same authority as ' Enabling
Law.' A brief outline of each class is all that can here be
given. The earliest Act of this class dates back to 1802, but it Pro-
was very circumscribed in its character, as foreshadowed Law:
in its title, viz. : ' An Act for the Preservation of the pactor^y
Health and Morals of Apprentices and others employed ¦^°'^-
in Cotton and other Factories.' Nevertheless it laid the
foundation for all subsequent legislation, and the promoters
of it set in motion a piece of legislative machuiery which
would be more and more perfected as time went on, until
it had effected a complete revolution in the mode of con
ducting work in the factories and workshops of the world.
Further legislation was attempted in 1818, 182S, and
1831, but it proved abortive, and the evils it was intended
to remedy having been shown to be vastly extending, a
pitiful cry went up from the crushed and distressed opera
tives for further protection, such as the law only could
give. Fortunately for the operatives, they were not left
to struggle alone with the growing abuses of the factory
system. Among the first to come to their assistance was a
wealthy manufacturer in Bradford and a thoroughly Chris
tian man. It was John Wood, of Horton Hall, Yorkshire,
who first called the attention of Richard Oastler to ' the
factory system and cruelties in mills.' ' Cruelties in mills ! '
exclaimed Richard Oastler ; ' I do not understand you ; tell
me.' Mr. Wood told him all he knew. Richard Oastler
was deeply impressed, and on the morrow, early, Mr. Wood

54 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
sent for Oastler ar.d said : ' I have had no sleep to-night ;
I have been reading this book (an open Bible), and in every
page I have read my own condemnation. I cannot allow
you to leave me without a pledge that you will use all your
influence in endeavouring to remove from our factory
system the cruelties which are regularly practised in our
mills.' The pledge was given, and Richard Oastler 's name
will be for ever identified with the earlier movements of
the factory workers in their efforts to obtain the protection
of the law.
The first outcome of this solemn compact was a letter,
dated September 29, 1830, pubhshed in the ' Leeds Mercury,'
signed Richard Oastler, the editors having refused to
publish it without his full name and address, his first
intention being to sign it ' A Briton ' only. This letter
evoked a storm of abuse, and also much sympathy. On
November 22, within two months of the letter appearing, a
numerous meeting was held at the Talbot Inn, Bradford,
convened by twenty-three of the principal firms in that
town, ' for the purpose of promoting a legislative enactment
to diminish the hours of labour in worsted mills, and to
effect other regulations connected therewith.' This influen
tial meeting unanimously condemned the long hours, and
admitted fully the evils of the unregulated factory system ;
at the same time the gentlemen present gave good reasons
why, individually, they had not been able of themselves
to effect a remedy. From this date the agitation took a
definite form ; the factory operatives hailed the movement
with exclamations of joy ; the press approved the action
taken and fostered it ; and many manufacturers and other
wealthy persons rendered assistance in bringing the matter
before the pubhc and the Legislature. Some of the cotton
manufacturers of Lancashire also expressed themselves
favourable to further legislation ; but a number of mill-

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 55
owners in and around Halifax met and determined to
oppose all further legislation, embodying their views and
determination in a series of fourteen resolutions. A for
midable contest was now inevitable, and the Bill promised
by Sir John Cam Hobhouse and Lord Morpeth when
issued was found to be so emasculated as to be worthless.
Out of this fierce antagonism arose the agitation for
the ' Ten Hours a Day and a Time-book Bill,' inaugurated at
Huddersfield by a compact between Mr. Richard Oastler
and the working men of that town. Mr. Michael Thomas
Sadler now became the parliamentary champion, in the
place of Sir John Cam Hobhouse, and he introduced a
measure in the autumn of 1831 (December 15). On March
16, 1832, the Bill was read a second time, on which day the
late Lord Macaulay gave in his adhesion to the measure,
in a letter to Mr. Ralph Taylor, the Secretary of the Leeds
Short-Time Committee. The Bill was referred to a Select
Committee, composed of gentlemen of wide experience, and
broad views and much ability ; it was perhaps the most
influential and impartial that could have been selected, and
it was a large committee, so impressed was the House of
Commons with the importance of the subject.
Meetings were now held in all the chief manufacturing
centres likely to be affected by the provisions of the
measure. The largest and most impressive was held in
York on April 24, 1832. Tens of thousands of men, women,
and children marched to the Castle-yard, some thousands of
them a distance of from twenty- four to, in some instances
it is said, thirty miles to be present at the gathering. The
weary march home, amid pelting torrents of rain, on that
memorable day, is one of the many touchmg incidents m
the history of this agitation.
The evidence taken before the Select Committee dis
closed a state of things sad and terrible in the extreme.

56 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Women were chosen for wives, not for any high quality
or attribute of womanhood, but for their fecundity. The
reasons are obvious : women and children had become the
breadwinners, children kept their parents, while the men
had sunk to be mere loafers at the doors of public-houses,
or were engaged in some of the brutal ' sports ' then pre
valent among all classes of the people. Women and chil
dren were employed from 5 o'clock in the morning until 9,
10, 11, and sometimes 12 o'clock at night. The sexes were
so herded together that all sense of shame and decency
became obliterated. Medical testimony showed that the
children were physically ruined by overwork, long hours^
and exposure ; that their food was insufficient in quantity
and wretched in quality; the ventilation was bad, the
atmosphere was vitiated, and many were so maimed and
crippled that at an early age they became paupers.
In the general election of 1832, Mr. Michael Thomas
Sadler lost his seat, and the late Lord Shaftesbury, then
Lord Ashley, became parliamentary leader of the ' Ten
Hours ' movement. His first effort in the House of
Commons was frustrated by the common device of a Royal
Commission. The evidence collected by this Commission
corroborated in every essential particular the evidence given
before the Sadler Committee. The concluding paragraph
of the report was as follows : ' We are therefore of opinion
that a case is made out for the interference of the Legisla
ture in behalf of the children employed in factories.' After
many vicissitudes a measure was passed, the 3 and 4
William IV. c. 103 ; but the leaders of the Ten Hours Bill
repudiated the measure altogether. The Act was not to
come into full operation until 1836, before which time
another Act, explanatory of the foregoing, was passed, the
4 and 5 William IV. c. 1. The late Lord Shaftesbury had
declared that ' the Government Bill would prove imprac-

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 57
ticable and unsatisfactory,' and he asked, ' Was the House
prepared to say that a master manufacturer might send his
waggon to any part of the country for a load of children
like so many hogs, and bring them away from their natural
protectors, to place them unprotected among strangers ? '
The full meaning of this far-reaching question was not
apprehended at the time, but its force soon became appa
rent after the passing of the ' New Poor Law Amendment
Act, 1834.' Lord Shaftesbury saw farther than most men
on that occasion.
One of the basest conspiracies upon record was now
organised in order to defeat an honestly intended though
inadequate measure of reform. Some mill-owners endea
voured to use the Poor Law Act as a means of attracting
large numbers of children from the rural and urban to the
factory districts. The Poor Law Commissioners fell into
the trap and encouraged migration. The appendices to the
Poor Law Reports of 1835 afford ample evidence as to the
working of the system, and furnish an insight into the
mode and character of its operation. In the year 1837 it
began to bear its natural fruit. The sufferings of the
labouring men, women, and children imported into the
manufacturing districts may be seen detailed in the accounts
rendered by the Manchester agent to the Poor Law Com
missioners. The facts brought to light explain the reason
why the supporters of the factory movement opposed the
New Poor Law. Mr. Oastler says : ' It was in evidence
that the New Poor Law was intended to perpetuate slavery
in factories. The Ten Hours Bill was intended to destroy
that slavery. It was in evidence that the New Poor
Law was intended to decrease the wages of the factory
operatives. The Ten Hours Bill was, as I always believed
and maintained, calculated to increase their wages. It was
in evidence that the New Poor Law was, by the introduc-

58 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
tion of the families of agricultural labourers into the factory
districts, intended to increase the competition of labour in
factories. The Ten Hours Bill was intended and calculated
to decrease that competition. For these and for other weighty
reasons we resolved, as I think most wisely, and I am sure as
Ten Hours Bill men most consistently, to resist the passing
of the New Poor Law Bill.' In this view Mr. Oastler
never wavered, and some twelve years afterwards he reite
rated his conviction that the reasons above given were sound
and right in all respects ; and, though it is impossible to
admit that the New Poor Law was ' intended ' for this
purpose, we may agree with him that many unscrupulous
manufacturers contrived thus to work it for their own ends.
The condition of things above narrated existed at the
beginning of her Majesty's reign, and for some years subse
quently. In the session of 1836 Lord Ashley introduced a
Bill into the House of Commons ; the Government met it
by a Bill to repeal the ' thirteen year old clause ' in their
own measure. This they carried by a majority of two ; the
nominal victory was a virtual defeat, and the Government
abandoned their measure. But they promised to see that
the Act of 1833 was enforced : the magistrates practically
refused to enforce the penalties; the inspectors declared
that it was more profitable to break than to keep the law.
Popular discontent followed : a renewed attempt to pass the
Ten Hours Bill in 1838 was defeated by a majority of
eight. Other efforts also failed in the same and the follow
ing year, 1839. On March 3, 1840, Lord Ashley carried a
motion for another Select Committee, and on August 4, of
the same year, for the appointment of a Royal Commission
' to inquire into the employment of children in mines and
collieries, and in mills and factories.' Both were agreed to.
The Commission, to which reference is made previously, did
its work well, as the reports abundantly show.

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 59
Increased agitation followed, and in 1843 a measure was
introduced by Sir James Graham, but it satisfied no one
except, perhaps, its authors. In 1844 an amended Bill was
introduced, on the second reading of which Lord Macaulay
supported Lord Ashley, whose motion was defeated. The
Bm ultimately passed, 7 & 8 Vict. c. 15, 1844. This Act,
though by no means sufficient, extended and systematised
inspection ; sub-inspectors were appointed, and a central
office to which notices were to be given. Provision was made
for the prevention of accidents, for inquiring into accidents
should any occur, for compensation in case of injury ; other
branches of trade were brought under the Acts ; and the
employnient of women was assimilated to that of young
persons, and the cessation of labour in factories at 4.30 p.m.
on Saturdays was made absolute for all those regulated by
the Acts. By this statute no child was allowed to work in
a factory under eight years of age, with provisions for meals
and school attendance. Inadequate though this measure
was, it laid the foundation for other and more sweeping
reforms ; but it was not accepted, even as a compromise, in
lieu of the Ten Hours Bill by the advocates of the latter.
In the following year, 1845, 'An Act to Regulate the
Labour of Children, Young Persons, and Women m Print
Works ' was passed, 8 & 9 Vict. c. 29, by which they were sub
jected to provisions analogous to those in the Act of 1844.
In 1846 the agitation for the Ten Hours Bill was renewed.
Lord Ashley brought in a Bill on January 29. On the second
reading it was defeated by a majority of ten. Among
those who supported Lord Ashley were Lord Morpeth,
Lord John Russell, Lord Macaulay, Sir Robert Peel, Lord
John Manners, and others ; among the opponents were Mr.
Hume, Mr. John Bright, Mr. Roebuck, and Mr. Cobden.
The greatest speech delivered was that by the member
for Leeds, Mr. T. B. Macaulay, afterwards Lord Macaulay.

6o THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
A campaigning tour was subsequently arranged, when Lord
Ashley visited Lancashire, and Mr. Oastler and Mr. Pielden,
Scotland ; and everywhere the people enthusiastically sup-
'Ten ported the Ten Hours Bill. On January 26, 1847, the Bill
Bill' was again read a first time ; on February 10 came the final
isir*^' struggle and the victory — the Bill was carried by a majority
of 108, amid tremendous cheering. Efforts had been made
to divide the supporters by offers of eleven hours, but the
Ten Hours Bill men stood firm as a rock. In the House of
Lords the principal opposition came from Lord Brougham ;
but the Bill passed, by a majority of forty-two, with
out material change in any of its main provisions. It
passed its final stage on June 1, and received the royal
assent on June 8 ; on July 23 the Speaker of the House
of Commons, when addressing the Queen and the House
of Lords with reference to this measure, said : ' We have
found it necessary to place a further limitation on the hours
of labour of young persons employed in factories ; and by
giving more time and opportunity for their religious and
moral instruction, for healthful recreation, and the exercise
of their domestic duties, we have elevated the character
and conditions of a large and industrious class engaged in
manufacturing operations.' This Act was 10 & 11 Vict.
c. 29, now repealed.
The general principles for regulating labour &c. in
factories by means of legislation may be said to have been
estabhshed by the Acts already referred to. The path of
further legislation was rendered comparatively smooth,
though obstacles were raised at every subsequent step in
the same direction. Indeed, every inch of the ground may
be said to have been contested. In 1850 an Act was passed
' to Amend the Acts relatmg to Labour in Factories' (13 & 14
Vict. c. 54). So stupid were the provisions of this Act, that
children were placed in a worse position than women and

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 6i
young persons, but this defect was remedied by the 16 &
17 Vict. c. 104 ; and in 1856 another Act was passed, 19 &
20 Vict. c. 38, the provisions of which need not detain us.
In 1860 an important Act was passed, 23 & 24 Vict. c. 78,
' to place the Employment of Women, Young Persons, and
Children in Bleaching and Dyeing Works, under the Regula
tions of the Factory Acts ; ' in the year following, 1861, the
provisions of those Acts were extended to lace factories.
In 1862 further provision was made as to bleaching and
dyeing works, and in 1863, and again in 1864, the Acts were
extended to other branches of textile industries. In the
latter year, ' The Factory Acts Extension Act, 1864,' 27 & 28
Vict. c. 48, brought a whole group of fresh manufactures
and industries within the pale of legislative regulation.
In 1867 another Factory Acts Extension Act was passed,
30 & 31 Vict. c. 103 ; and in the same year was passed
' The Workshops Regulation Act, 1867,' 30 & 31 Vict. c. 146.
This statute marked a new era in protective law, and was
the starting point for an entirely new series of Acts. The
first-named Act extended the provisions of the Factory
Acts to new industries, and made inspection much more
efficient ; the second kai embraced ' domestic manufac
tures,' as well as labour in workshops or factories, and
really applied to parents as well as to employers. In 1870
commenced an entirely new series of Acts, being an incor
poration of the hitherto separate Factory Acts and Work
shops Act ; its title was : ' An Act to Amend and Extend the
Acts relating to Factories and Workshops, 33 & 34 Vict.
c. 62.' Print works are by this Act regulated similarly to
other branches of the textile trades.
In 1871 the work of consolidation was carried still
further by the 34 & 35 Vict. c. 104, by which other branches
of industry were brought under the Acts, and the work of
inspection was rendered more complete and efficient. In

62 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
1874 a further important addition was made by the enact
ment of the 37 & 38 Vict. c. 44. After three years of
agitation, Mr. Disraeli's Government found itself pledged
at the elections of 1874 to adopt a measure introduced by
Mr. Mundella in 1871, effecting most important changes in
factory labour. The age for the employment of half-time
children was raised from eight to ten years ; all the excep
tional advantages enjoyed by silk mills and other branches
of industry were abolished ; the minimum age for full-time
employment was made uniform for all factories, and was
raised to thirteen years ; and in case of the child's failure
to pass a standard of education, to be fixed from time to
time by the Home Secretary, half-time labour was to con
tinue until the fourteenth year. The hours of labour for
women and children were reduced to fifty-seven and a half
per week, and other valuable provisions for health and edu
cation were enacted. Few amongst us realise that, until this
Act came into operation twelve years ago, thousands of tiny
English children of eight years of age trudged through the
darkness of the winter mornings in our factory towns in order
to reach the mills before bell-ringing at six o'clock ; and
although Mrs. Browning's immortal ' Cry of the Children '
has been responded to by this beneficent legislation, yet there
still remains much for our country to do on their behalf.
The crowning piece of legislation, having reference to
factories and workshops, was completed and passed in 1878,
by the 41 Vict. c. 16, entitled ' An Act to Consolidate and
Amend the Law relating to Factories and Workshops.'
This important statute is divided into four parts, and con
tains six valuable schedules. It embodies the whole of the
general law relating to factories and workshops in the
United Kingdom, every section in which statute bears
witness to the desire, now almost universal, that women,
young persons, and children shall be shielded from the evils,

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 63
physical and moral, which fifty years ago were destroying
the masses of our people in all the more important
industries in the kingdom. Taking it altogether, it forms
a code of legislation for the protection of the young and of
the weaker sex unexampled in history, and not to be
paralleled in any country in the world. We cannot con
clude this branch of our subject better than in the eloquent
words of the Duke of Argyll : ' When we think for a
moment of the frightful nature of the evils which this
legislation has checked, and which to a large extent it has
remedied — when we recollect the inevitable connection be
tween suffering and political disaffection — when we consider
the great moral laws which were being trodden under foot
from mere thoughtlessness and greed — we shall be convinced
that if, during the last fifty years, it has been given to this
country to make any progress in political science, that
progress has been in nothing happier than in the factory
legislation.' The condition of the mining population was in many ,^,) ,^^^
respects even worse than that of the factory workers, as ^^^^^j^^
disclosed by the Royal Commission before referred to. But tion Acts.
the facts, until then, were not so widely known. The
miner's wife and child worked underground ; they were
located in villages and hamlets away from the busy hum
of life ; newspapers had not penetrated into their dwellings,
and no wealthy employers had taken up their cause, as in
the case of the factory operatives. The disclosures of the
Royal Commission of 1840 shocked those who, before that
time, had never given a thought to the poor miner. Some
of those disclosures seem now, by the light of present ex
periences, to be quite impossible of belief. Who can think
without a shudder of little children being harnessed by
ropes or chains, and, on all fours, like dogs chained to a
sledge, drawing the corves or trucks of coal along the narrow

64 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
passages of the mine, to the pit-bottom, and back again
for another load throughout the live-long day ? It speaks
well for the Legislature that no sooner were these facts
brought to light than an Act was passed to remedy the
evils complained of.
The first Act was passed in 1842— the 5 & 6 Vict. c. 99
— ' An Act to Prohibit the Employment of Women and
Girls in Mines and Collieries after the first day of March,
1843 ; to Regulate the Employment of Boys, and to make
other Provisions relating to Persons working therein.' This
was followed in 1850 by the 13 & 14 Vict. c. 100, ' An Act
for the Inspection of Coal Mines in Great Britain.' This
was but a temporary Act, limited in its operation to five
years, and was repealed in 1855 by the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 108,
which Act was substituted for the one repealed, and became
a permanent Act. The provisions of this statute went
farther than the preceding one, and provided for extended
powers of inspection, and for the removal of inspectors by
a Secretary of State if neglect of duty warranted such
removal. In this statute rules were laid down for insuring
the safety of the mine and of those employed therein ; and
special rules were established for each colliery — these were
to be printed for the information and guidance of owners,
overlookers, and miners.
In 1860 an important measure for the regulation and
inspection of mines was carried — 23 & 24 Vict. c. 151.
Some of its provisions apphed to all mines, others to coal
mines only. This was followed in 1862 by the 25 & 26
Vict. c. 79, which prohibited single shafts in coal and iron
stone mines, and was intended as a means for insuring
greater safety. These Acts were wider in their scope and
influence than appear from their titles and main provi
sions, for they, extended directly or indirectly to health and
morals, and to education.

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 65
In 1872 ' An Act to Consolidate and Amend the Acts
relatmg to the Regulation of Coal Mines and certain other
Mines ' was passed— the 35 & 36 Vict. c. 76 — and also in
the same year, ' The Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act,'
35 & 36 Vict. c. 77 ; the latter being amended by ' The
Metalliferous Mines Act, 1875 '—the 38 & 39 Vict. c. 39.
The Explosives Act, 1875, also affects mines, by section
59 ; and the Nuisances Act, 1875, sections 313 and 343.
The legislation enumerated has done much for the miner,
but much remains to be done. The Reports of the Royal
Commission, which sat and took evidence for seven years,
and of which the final report has just been issued, tell how
exposed the miners are to deadly gases, and accidents from
various causes, for the most part jireventible, but not yet
under proper legislative control.
The beneficial effects of the enactments referred to are
proved by the fact that the ratio of deaths per 10,000
employed has diminished with each fresh' enactment
touching the safety of mines. From 1851 to 1860 the
ratio was 4-072 ; from 1861 to 1870 it was 3-328 ; from
1871 to 1880 it was 2-353 ; and from 1881 to 1885 it was
2-008. With further legislation this proportion can be
reduced greatly. But the condition of the mining popula
tion has improved vastly since the first Act was passed for
their benefit in 1842.
To a certain extent the men engaged in the arduous (0) coai
labour of ' coal whipping ' and ' ballast heaving ' were under ^^^^^"^^
protection from 1710 to 1828-9. In 1831, 1838, 1843, and ^^^^''ers.
1845, Acts were passed for their especial benefit, a registry
office being established under the more recent Acts in the
earlier years of her Majesty's reign. In the years 1851 to
1856 new regulations were issued, and at the expiration of
those Acts the management of the office was taken over by
the Trinity House of the Port of London. The regulations
VOL. II. ^

66 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
under the before-mentioned Acts had reference to modes
of employment, payment of wages, truck, and other matters
affecting their welfare.
ndi chim- During the period under review four Acts were passed
'sweepers, having reference to chimney sweepers and chimney sweeping
— the first in 1834, the second in 1840, the third in 1864,
and the fourth in 1875. The horrors of the ' climbing-boy '
system were brought under the notice of Parliament by the
late Lord Shaftesbury, and the popular feeling aroused was
enough to carry its abolition. The legislation referred to
had the effect of improving the construction of flues, and
regulating the labour of those engaged in the occupation of
chimney sweeping.
(e)Bakers Bakers were protected to a certain extent under the Sale
hous^es!"^" of Bread Act, 39 & 40 Geo. III. c. 71, and 41 Geo. III.
c. 16 and c. 17. In 1821 a more general Act was passed,
1 & 2 Geo. IV. c. 50 ; and in 1822 a local Act, 3 Geo. IV.
c. 106 ; this metropolitan Act was extended to the country
by 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 37 in 1835. The complaint as to
the provisions of these Acts was and is that they were not
enforced, especially as regards Sunday labour. In 1863
the Bakehouses Regulation Act was passed, limiting the
hours of work and making regulations as to sanitary
conditions, and in 1878 this trade was brought under the
Factory and Workshops Act section 21 as to Sunday
labour, and sections 34, 35, and 45 as to employment and
health. Other Acts affect them, such as the Public Health
Acts, the Smoke Nuisance Abatement Act, &c. It is obvious,
however, that the bakers of London are not sufficiently
protected under any or all of these Acts, which are not
properly enforced.
ff)Britis]i Statutes for the protection of sailors were passed prior
^Imen!" to the Queen's accession. In 1833 one was passed chiefly
with the view of protecting their wages and savings ; in

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION (>7
1835 another was passed enacting certain sanitary provi
sions, and establishing a registry office for seamen. But
it was in 1844 that Sir James Graham's Act was passed,
which for many years was designated the Magna Charta of
British sailors. In 1854 the Merchant Shipping Act was
carried, all previous enactments being repealed by a separate
Act. This Act was an immense code of 548 sections, with
schedules and forms. Amendments followed in 1855, and
again in 1862, in which latter Act steamships were dealt with
for the first time ; in 1864, dealing with cables and anchors ;
in 1867, 1871, 1872, 1873, and again in 1875, all of which
statutes seek to improve the condition and insure the
safety of the British sailor.
Agricultural labourers were first dealt with in 1867, <g' "w-o-
men and
by the 30 & 31 Vict. c. 130, when the gang system was oMidren
abolished. Further legislation followed in 1873 by the in agri-
36 & 37 Vict. c. 67, by 39 & 40 Vict. c. 79, the Elemen- °'^"^'^-
tary Education Act, 1876, and in other ways by Acts of a
more general character. The repeal of the Master and
Servants Acts was a great boon to agricultural labourers.
Women and children employed in brick fields were 'h) Brick
. fields.
brought under the Factory Acts in 1871, and are now
under the Codified Act of 1878. Previous to legislation
affecting them their condition was little better than that of
the factory children in 1840.
Women and children employed on canal boats were first a) canai
brought under regulation in 1877, by 40 & 41 Vict. c. 60 ; "" ^"
this Act was amended and extended by the 47 & 48 Vict.
c. 75, and an inspector was appointed to see that the
provisions of the law are enforced.
Children employed in places of amusement are protected (j) Places
under the 42 & 43 Vict. c. 34 (1879) as regards dangerous ment."^^^'
performances, rendering the employer liable in case of
injury, &c. F 2

68 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
(k) Ap. Apprentices and hired servants are protected in various
and^do-^^ ways, and then: position is much improved by the general
^rvants. ^ffccts of legislation since 1837. As regards legal protection
they have now little to complain of.
Enabling This sccoud group of Acts, though differing from the first
^^"^- in character, is not less important in results. These, like
the preceding group, must be treated under separate heads.
(a) At the head of this series the Friendly Societies Acts
Soef"ties staud first, both as regards chronological order, and their
"^°*''- value and importance. This mode of associative effort was
recognised as early as 1793 ; and in 1795 further encou
ragement was given to such societies. Those Acts were
extended to Ireland in 1796. Further amendments were
carried in 1803, 1809 (two Acts), and in 1811. In the year
1829, by 10 Geo. IV. c. 52, ' An Act to Consolidate and
Amend the Laws relating to Friendly Societies,' those so
cieties were placed upon a tolerably secure foundation, and in
1834, by 5 Wm. IV. c. 40; the power of nomination to benefits
was conferred upon the members. The first named of these
two Acts, that of 1829, contained the germs out of which
grew other forms of associative effort, to be subsequently
dealt with. Some further amendments of the law took place
in 1831-2, 1833, and 1834, but these need not detain us.
The first Act in her Majesty's reign was passed in 1840,
the 3 & 4 Vict. c. 73, ' An Act to Explain and Amend the
Acts relating to Friendly Societies,' which was followed by
a more important Act in 1846 — the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 27. By
this Act, friendly societies were for the first time exempted
from the provisions of the corresponding Societies Acts,
&c., thus enabling the Odd Fellows, Foresters, Druids, and
other large associations to grow up under legal protection.
The 'frugal investment' clause in this Act afforded also
the first legal protection to co-operative societies. Two
other Acts were passed in 1847-8 and 1849 affectmg

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 69
friendly societies, and in 1850 the Acts were consolidated
and amended by the 13 & 14 Vict. c. 116, but as this was
a temporary Act only, it was continued in 1852, amended
in 1853 as to investments, and made permanent in 1855 by
the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 63. This Act was, in some particu
lars, a retrograde step, for the ' frugal investment ' clause
and other clauses dropped out ; but this disadvantage was
partially remedied by other Acts of an analogous nature.
During the interveniog years, between 1855 and 1875, priendiy
several Acts were passed affecting friendly societies and ^°°^®*^^^-
their members, and extending the benefits conferred in one
way and another — one in 1858, one in 1859, three in 1860,
one in 1861, two in 1863, one in 1864, one in 1866, one in
1870, one m 1873, and one in 1874. In the year 1875 the
whole of the statutory law was consolidated and amended,
and Mr. J. M. Ludlow was appointed chief registrar. The
principal Act, 38 & 39 Vict. c. 60, ' An Act to Consolidate
and Amend the Law relating to Friendly and other Societies,'
was amended hi 1876, in 1877, in 1879, and in 1882. The
value and importance of this legislation cannot be over
rated. The growth of self-help has been fostered, encou
raged, and protected.
Accurate and trustworthy statistics as to the number of
societies, of members, amount of funds, &c., are not obtain
able for the earlier years of the period under review, but it
appears that in 1837 the number of societies returned as
depositors in the savings banks was 5,791 in the United
Kingdom, the total deposits amounting to 785,109Z. ; by 1840
the total number of societies returned as depositors had
increased to 7,963, and the total deposits to 1,005, 345Z. In
1884 the total number of societies making returns to the
Registry of Friendly Societies was 5,121, and of branches
9,713, total 14,834. The total number of members at the date
of the latest returns was 4,943,039, total income 3,548,982Z.

70

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

( (b) Build
ing so-
I cieties.

Some of the 'orders,' as the larger friendly societies
having branches are called, such as the Odd Fellows, Fores
ters, Druids, &c., have an enormous number of members
and vast accumulated funds.
These were the first direct outgrowths of the Friendly
Societies Acts ; but like other friendly societies they were
in existence before legislation was effected. The 10 Geo.
IV. c. 56 (1829) directly recognised such societies, or rather
their objects, and the 4 & 5 Wm. IV. c. 40 further recog
nised such objects. The specific Act under which, for a
period of 38 years, building societies grew and prospered,
was the 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 32, passed in 1836. Some
fifteen other Acts affected them, directly or indirectly, passed
previously to the Consolidation Act of 1874, the 37 & 38
Vict. c. 42. Three or four amending Acts have passed since
that date, but none of them make any great alterations in
the principal Act.
No returns exist as to building societies previously to
the Act 1874 sufficient in any way to indicate their nume
rical strength, their income, their expenditure, or their
liabilities and assets.
The following brief table shows the growth during a
period of ten years :

Tear

Societies makingreturns

Total
number of
members

Total
receipts

Liabilities to

Assets by
mortgage.

Shareholders

Depositors

1876 1885

272
2,150

Not stated
567,594

£
7,824,442
20,800,154

£
8,262,586
33,479,246

£
4,025,275
15,385,503

£
11,793,92046,955,176

The total funds in the building societies returned for
England and Wales were stated to be 50,556, 366Z., of which
49,277,972Z. was inEngland alone. Some societies are very
large and prosperous ; others, on the contrary, are small
and stagnant. It would be interesting to know how many

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 71
persons have purchased their houses through the agency
of such societies.
Industrial and provident societies form the second group (o Co-
of Acts directly springing from the Friendly Societies Act sooTeuir
of 1846. In this Act the law affords protection to associa
tive effort in the shape of life assurance, endowment, and
insurance of property ; and directly sanctions co-operative
trading and any general purpose certified to be legal. In
the Act of 1850 the 'frugal investment' clause is re-
enacted, and enacts that the maximum payment at death
shall be lOOZ., of annuities 30Z., and sick allowance IZ. per
week. In the Act of 1852 those enactments were retained,
and the purposes were slightly enlarged provided that
the objects were stated in the rules of the societies as
certified. In 1852 was passed the first Act specifically favouring
co-operation, the 15 & 16 Vict. c. 31, ' An Act to Legalise the
Formation of Industrial and Provident Societies.' This Act
was amended in 1854 by 17 & 18 Vict. c. 25 ; in 1856 by
19 & 20 Vict. c. 40 ; and in 1862 the Acts were consolidated
and amended by 25 & 26 Vict. c. 87. In 1866 further
facilities were given for insurance of cattle, by the 29 & 30
Vict. c. 34 ; in 1867 the Act of 1862 was amended and
extended ; and in 1871 an Act to explain and amend the
law was passed. In 1876 the laws were consolidated and
amended by the 39 & 40 Vict. e. 45.
In many respects this series of Acts have had a wider in
fluence, and are destined to exercise a more powerful effect
upon society than the two series above enumerated. The
Friendly Societies Acts provided the means for alleviating
present suffering and administering to present wants ;
building societies provided homes for the industrious and
thrifty poor, and in many cases created a class of owners
of small property, who became independent thereby. But

72 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
the industrial and provident societies have created vast
business concerns, in which the holders of the capital
are mostly working men ; they have become their own
employers and managers, and share the profits, and in
numerous instances they employ others not shareholders
in the concern.
The enormous growth of co-operative effort during the
last twenty -three years will suffice to show what strides it
is making, and it may indicate the strides it is likely to
make in the future. The total sales effected in the
co-operative societies of the United Kingdom in 1862
amounted to 2,333,523Z. In 1884 the total sales amounted
to 30,424,101Z. The total sales for the twenty-three years
amounted to nearly 336,000,000Z. sterling ; the nett profits
on which amounted to nearly 27,000,000Z. sterling. The
total number of members at the close of 1884 was 897,950 ;
the total share capital was 8,646, 188Z. ; the loan capital
1,830,836Z. ; and the nett profits on this year's business was
2,723,794Z. — out of which the members spent for educa
tional purposes 19,154Z. The trade of the Co-operative
Wholesale Society, having its headquarters in Manchester,
is enormous. The number of societies holding shares in
this concern is 738, representing 507,772 members; the
share capital is 284,112Z. ; the loan capital and deposits
524,781Z. ; it has a reserve fund of 31,094Z. ; insurance
fund of 40,084Z.; the sales in 1885 amounted to 4,793,151Z.;
and the nett profits to 77,630Z. The Scottish Wholesale
had a capital of 326,169Z. in 1886 ; the sales amounted to
1,147,785Z. ; the profits to 29,304Z.
Co-operative production has not kept pace with distri
bution, but the co-operators are fast becoming their own
producers. They are largely interested in the cotton
industries, in the manufacture of boots and shoes, in
watchmakmg, hardware goods, hosiery, cutlery, woollens.

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 73
silk twist, elastic web, &c., and the principle has been
apphed with advantage to agriculture. The land and
building societies in connection with co-operation are
numerous and prosperous, and they are likely to be
formidable competitors with the building societies under
other Acts.
These also were an outgrowth of friendly societies (d) Loan
legislation, but of late years they have not stood their ^°"^ ^^^'
ground. The two Acts of 1829 and 1834 made their
purposes legal, and in 1835 an Act was passed for the
establishment of loan societies in England and Wales,
5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 23. In the following year the provisions
were amended as regards Ireland. In 1840 'An Act to
Amend the Laws relating to Loan Societies ' was passed,
3 & 4 Vict. c. 110 ; this Act was continued by various Acts,
and is now the principal Act relating to such societies.
The number of returns in 1885 was 408 : total members
41,065 ; advances to members 108,537Z. ; sums due by
borrowers 299,481Z. ; due to depositors and shareholders
321,157Z. A large number of working men's clubs are now (e)"Work-
registered under the Friendly Societies and Provident ciubs.*^^^
Societies Acts, but the returns relating to them are not
very complete.
The foregoing societies are exercising a beneficial
influence upon the working classes generally, and they
contain the germs of still further development. They
inculcate thrift, promote temperance, and train the mem
bers in habits of discipline, self-reliance, and mutual
help. As already stated, the combination laws were repealed Trade
in 1825, but trade unions were not thereby made lawful
societies. They had the right of existence, but no protec
tion for their funds or property. In 1846, by the 9 & 10 .

74 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Vict. c. 33, ' An Act to Amend the Laws relating to Cor
responding Societies, and the Licensing of Lecture-rooms,'
it was enacted that proceedings taken under the 39 & 40
Geo. III. c. 79 should only be commenced in the name of the
law officer of the Crown. This Act, precarious as its pro
visions were, gave a certain amount of negative protection,
for it restrained prosecutions on the part of employers in
moments of irritation, and it permitted the development of
such societies as the 'Amalgamated Unions,' having branches
in various parts of the country. In the same year the
Friendly Societies Act was thought to confer advantages
on the unions by protecting the funds of those which de
posited their rules with the registrar ; but this was a
fancied protection, as was discovered in 1866 and 1867,
when the funds of two societies were embezzled. However,
it helped to develop the unions, and led Mr. Gladstone
in 1861 to admit them to the privileges of the post office
savings banks as friendly societies.
The first Act which directly improved the position of
trade unions was passed in 1859, the 22 Vict. c. 34. This
amended the provisions of 6 Geo. IV. c. 129. In 1865-66
rumours of gross outrages at Sheffield, Manchester, and
Nottingham recalled attention to the unions, and led to a
Royal Commission. The object of the inquiry was doubtless
to stamp out the unions, but it led to a contrary result.
A searching inquiry unmasked the perpetrators of the out
rages, but exonerated generally the unions from all partici
pation therein. The first result of the inquiry in the shape
of legislation was a temporary Act in 1859 giving legal pro
tection to the funds of the unions, and thus bringing them
for the first time within the pale of the law.
In 1871 the Trade Union Act was passed ; this was
amended in 1876, and Acts were passed in 1875 which
removed the last vestige of illegality from the trade unions

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 75
of the country. It is strange, hut true, that these associa
tions of working men, which helped so much to improve
the law relating to all other societies, should be the last to
reap any real advantages. But so it was. They bore the
burden and heat of the battle: others reaped the spoils.
But their turn came : their action was justified by the
legislation of 1871 and 1876, and by the Acts of another
kind in 1875.
Though struggling under adverse circumstances and
under the ban of the law, they made immense strides from
1834 to 1849 and 1850. At this period a new departure
was inaugurated by the engineers, by the amalgamation of
the various branches of their trade into one consolidated
Union. This is now the largest and wealthiest Union in
the world. Other unions followed the example — the carpen
ters and joiners, the boiler makers and iron-shipbuilders,
the iron moulders, the tailors, shoemakers, the cotton
spinners, masons, bricklayers, and many more. Some of
these have branches in all the more important towns in the
United Kingdom ; and some in America and on the conti
nent of Europe.
The leading trade unions are benefit societies as well
as trade protection societies. Their scale of benefits is
more liberal than that of the friendly societies, for not only
do they pay a weekly sum in sickness, a fixed amount at
death, superannuation in old age, and compensation in case
of accidents, but they also pay a fixed amount weekly to
their out-of-work members. In this particular they are
unique. They maintain their own poor ; succour and sus
tain their sick, bury their dead, keep the aged and infirm
members, and give a lump sum of, in most cases, lOOZ. m
cases of total disablement.
Under the reign of law they have increased and are
increasing in numbers, wealth, political power, and social

76

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

The Truck
Acts.

Em
ployer'sliability in cases
of acci
dents.

influence. The engineers with 50,000 members paid for
' out of work ' in 1886 79,160Z. ; sick 29,457Z. ; superannua
tion 33,914Z. ; funerals 8,612Z. ; accidents 1,350Z. ; and in
benevolent grants to poor members 3,151Z. ; total 155,644Z.
The reserve balance is still 112,487Z. The unions have
lived down prejudice and mistrust ; they have triumphed
over legal obstruction and popular antagonism ; and now
they are quietly and diligently improving the status of their
members, and of the trades to which they belong. Through
long suffering and persecution they have won their way to
a foremost position as associations for mutual help and sus
tenance. The statute for the prevention of truck, and for payment
of wages in the current coin of the realm, was passed in
1831, the 1 & 2 Wm. IV. c, 37, but it became generally
disregarded because not rigorously enforced. The develop
ment of the railway system led to great abuses as regards
truck ; and in the mining districts and some of the manu
facturing districts the system of truck was carried on un-
blushingly. No general Act has been passed to amend the
law, but in 1872 a Commission so completely unmasked the
entire system that it almost ceased of itself for fear of the
consequences. In 1874 the Hosiery Manufacture (Wages)
Act was passed, which put an end to the stoppages in wages
in the hosiery trade. A further Act in 1883, the 46 & 47
Vict. c. 31, prohibited the payment of wages to workmen
in public-houses and certain other places. No doubt the
Truck Acts are now sometimes violated, but the systematic
disregard of their provisions has ceased.
In the year 1837 a case of considerable importance
came before the courts, the question being whether an
employer was or was not liable for the acts of his servants
in the event of any injury happening to any of them through
negligence or default on the part of others in the same

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 77
employment. Lord Abinger decided that the master was
not hable unless he was himself in fault. In another case,
from the Scotch Courts, Lord Cairns, in 1867, decided
similarly. Between those two decisions two Acts were
passed, one in 1846, the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 93, the other in
1864, the 27 & 28 Vict. c. 95, but neither of those statutes
touched the principle upon which the adverse decisions
were given, namely, ' common employment.' It is singular
that the latter Act did not deal with the matter, seeing
that a case had been before the Courts from 1855 to 1858
in which the issue had been directly raised. The decision
in the latter case led the miners to agitate for a ' Compen
sation for Injuries Bill,' and an Act was promised in 1873,
but it never saw the light.
The uncertainty of the law, and, indeed, its injustice,
was set at rest in 1880 by the passing of the 43 & 44 Vict.
c. 42, ' An Act to Extend and Regulate the Liability of Em
ployers to make Compensation for Personal Injuries suffered
by Workmen in thek Service.' This statute partakes of
the dual nature of being at once a protective and an
enabling Act. It protects by the enforcement of liability,
and it enables by the compensation afforded in case of
injury. The measure is not perfect by any means, but it
has had a most beneficial effect already by causing increased
precaution against accidents, and by awarding damages
where neglect or default has been proven.
In reviewing the history of Association, it has been Arbitra-
shown how trade unions have grown m power and mflu- concnia-
ence ; it is gratifying to know that one of the results of
their growth has been the introduction of successful efforts
for settling trade disputes by means of arbitration and
concihation. So long as workmen were isolated in their
action, no system of arbitration could avail ; when, however,
they became associated, it was found possible for employers

78 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
to deal with bodies of men, through the officials of the
union. Both parties were thus placed on a footing of
sufficient equality to be able to discuss alleged grievances,
and demands as to wages, with freedom and mutual forbear
ance. Employers were brought face to face with the men,
through their chosen representatives ; and the latter were
compelled to examine the demands of their constituents ui
all their bearings, both with regard to the general condition
of trade, and the prices ruHng in the district where the
dispute arose.
Legislation for the settlement of disputes by arbitration
existed before the commencement of this century ; it com
menced by what are known as the Spitalfields Acts. Those
Acts were, however, local in their application and effect, and
in reality did little more than provide summary methods
by which to adjudicate upon wages in magisterial courts. An
effort was made to extend the system in 1798-9 to cotton
manufactures, singularly enough under the title of ' Import,'
in the Stamp Act of that date. A more serious effort was
made in 1824, by 5 Geo. IV. c. 96, when all existing pro
visions were brought into one statute by ' An Act to Conso
lidate and Amend the Laws relative to the Arbitration of
Disputes between Masters and Workmen.' In the first year
of her Majesty's reign this statute was amended and its pro
visions extended, by 1 Vict. c. 67 ; but the method provided
in both was the same — namely, a kind of civil process in a
magisterial court for the adjudication of disputes between
masters and workpeople. In the year 1845 two Acts were
passed, one having reference to the hosiery trade, the other
to silkweavers. In consequence of a desire to effect the
same object otherwise than by quasi-legal process. Lord
St. Leonards introduced a measure, providing for the es
tablishment of Courts of Conciliation ; this was carried in
1867. In the year 1872 an ' Arbitration Act ' was passed,

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 70
Shaving a much wider scope, but for some reason or other it
!has been inoperative.
If, however, legislative enactments have done but little
towards the settlement of disputes by arbitration, or in pre
venting them, by means of conciliation, very important
results have accrued by the institution of Boards of Con
ciliation and Arbitration m various localities, and in several
large industries. And here, perhaps, it will be excusable if
the words of an independent authority are quoted as to the
introduction of the system and its working, in preference
to any remarks by the present writer. Mr. Henry Crompton
says : ' ' About the year 1830 the principle of arbitration
was advocated as the best means of insuring peace between
labour and capital. But it was not until 1860 that any
permanent system or board of arbitration came into actual
operation. The two men who have been most instrumental
in this work, and whose names will be long remembered in
connection with this movement, are Mr. Mundella and Mr.
Rupert Kettle.' ' Both Mr. Mundella and Mr. Kettle agree
that these boards ought to be voluntary, and not compulsory.
They believe that compulsion is fatal to conciliation. Some
of the trades unionists have certainly been in favour of
compulsory arbitration. But I believe that the present
compulsory legal powers have never been used by either
side to compel the other to arbitrate on any dispute. Mr.
Mundella and Mr. Kettle rely on the moral coercion which
the employers and the men can exercise over the individual
members of their respective bodies. The influence of the
employers and fair reasoning are sufficient to make any
employer, who might be disposed to disregard the decision
of the Board, see the advantage in the long run of loyally
accepting an unfavourable decision, of the Board. With
the workmen there would be great difficulty if there were
' Industrial Conciliation, by Henry Crompton, 1876, p. 19.

8o THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
no trades unions. There is no way of binding men to
accept the decision of the Board, unless there are unions or
some other organisation among them that would have the
same power over them. Happily, the trades unions have
been able to discharge this function, and not for the
unionists only, but for the non-unionists as well. The
latter are very glad to avail themselves of the advantages
accruing from the established organisation of the unions ;
and the Board is, in fact, a bond of union and peace between
unionists and non-unionists.' '
The institution of such Boards began with the hosiery
trades in Nottingham, in 1860 ; then followed similar
Boards in connection with the building trades, in Wolver
hampton ; in the whole of the pottery trades of Stafford
shire ; in the whole of the manufacturing iron trades in the
North of England, the head-quarters of the Board being at
Darlington ; in many of the coal-mining districts of England,
and in several other industries in various localities. An
investigation into the working of the system by an Ameri
can led to its introduction into the mining and iron districts
at Pittsburgh, in the United States, with most beneficial
results. In France steps are being taken at the present
time to legalise the application of arbitration and concilia
tion to all the industries of France. Although no legalised
system is in force in this country, the sentiment in favour
of some general mode of dealing with trade disputes in this
way is growing. If awards are not enforced, nor enforceable
by law, there is usually a laudable loyalty in accepting the
awards, on both sides. In a few instances they have been
resisted, but always with most disastrous consequences,
the lessons of which are seldom forgotten. The entire
system of arbitration and conciliation may be summed up
in the words, ' Come, let us reason together,' and the prin-
' Industrial Conciliation, pp. 40, 41.

results.

INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 8i
ciple, when cordially accepted, cannot fail. Employers and
workmen meeting at the same Board, to discuss dispassion
ately the differences that exist, have prevented numerous
strikes and lock-outs, and the distress and suffering which
these always entail. The success of the past is an augury
of the future, and this one outcome of associative effort is
fruitful of peace in industrial pursuits.
This brief survey of the legislative measures for the General
protection of working people, and for encouraging thrift
and self-help, shows that during the last fifty years the
Legislature has not been unmindful of its duties. The
legislation has been slow, cautious — we may say, in many
instances, timid ; but each successive step has been an
advance in the right direction. No branch of industry has
been neglected ; no method of mutual help has been
altogether left out in the cold. The effects of these legisla
tive measures are scarcely realised by the present genera
tion. Only those who can remember the condition of the
people some forty or fifty years ago can realise the immense
changes which have taken place.
And much is due to that very protective and enabling
legislation, which is regarded by many as paternal in its
character, and tending to enfeeble self-reliance, and to
discourage self-help. On the contrary, the self-reliance
and the self-help of the people have developed in the
same ratio that the State has interfered to benefit them.
As the direct outcome of industrial association, springing
from the people, we have seen co-operation, both productive
and distributive, developed to an extent and managed with
an ability truly marvellous on the part of the working
i classes themselves — we have seen the establishment of
friendly societies on a scale unknown to any other country
— we have seen trades unions influencing every branch of
VOL. II. '^

82 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
our national industry — we have seen the successes of
arbitration and conciliation — and nowhere has the asso
ciative effort been so effectual, and its growth so astonish
ing, as in those very factory districts which have been the
subjects of periodic legislation.
The people are better paid ; they work fewer hours ;
they are better fed, clothed, and housed ; they are better
educated ; their habits and customs are improved ; their
sports and pastimes are no longer brutal and demoralising.
The children and women are better cared for and better
treated. The wheels of progress have gone on and on with
accelerated speed. This is a matter of encouragement, as
well as for thankfulness. The masses of the people having
now been admitted within the pale of citizenship, can if
they please still further improve their condition by means
of legislation. The future is in their own hands. They
are masters at the polling-booths — they can decide at the
ballot-box as to the measures to be passed, and the time
for their enactment. The platform, the press, and the
Legislature are open to them — if they wisely use the means
at their command, their progress in the future will be even
more rapid than in the past.
A. J. Mundella.
G. Howell.

&3

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT.
RAILWAYS, SHIPPING, POSTS, AND TELEGRAPHS.
Among the many alterations which mark the record of the The
past fifty years there has been none more noticeable than that otlhl^
which has taken place in the means of communication. Many °^^^ee.
different agents have combined to effect the improvement.
Steam and electricity have been introduced as new motor
powers, while careful organisation has enabled these forces to
produce results which had otherwise been impossible. Not
only in one but in every department of life has the change
left its subtle mark, for by it distance, once the sentence
of isolation, has been bridged over. Personal intercourse
has been promoted, fresh means of transport provided, and
facihties afforded for the quick communication of news. In
order to review the progress achieved in these various direc
tions, it will be well to begin with the introduction and ex
tension of the railway system, then to consider the advan
tages with which goods may now be transported both by
land and by sea, and ia the last place to recapitulate the
changes which have been made in the postal department,
including under the last head the telegraph and the tele
phone. (1) Railways.
The growth and extension of railways began but a very Hallways
few years before the present reign. Before the opening of ther7ign.
the Liverpool and Manchester line in 1830 there had been
G 2

84

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

The dif
ficultiesof travel'
ling.

and
trans port.

little practical proof of their value, and, indeed, until 1836
they had not been of sufficient importance to become the
subject of commercial speculation. But about that time
the country awoke to the importance of the new means
of communication, and the idea that both mdustrial pro
gress and social development would be furthered by it took
sudden possession of the pubhc mind. It is, then, from
this year, 1836, that we may date the rapid and continuous
extension of the railway system in this country.
Since the close of the Middle Ages inconvenience and
expense had made travelling the privilege of a class, whose
monopoly was but little interfered with. Though the roads
had been greatly improved, and personal security assured,
httle else had been done to facilitate communication. In
the January of 1837 the mails had to be conveyed from
Canterbury to Dover in sleighs, while on other occasions
they had been sent round the coast by steamer. In the
November of the same year the whole traffic of the north
west was interrupted by terrible floods.* It is true that, as
far as concerns the carriage of goods, the present century
showed one considerable advance, inasmuch as canals, by
supplementing the river system of the country, offered a
new means of transport. But there were grave complaints
as to their management and efficiency. The canal-owners
were despotic, and ' established a rotation by which they
sent as much or as little as suited them.' The effects were
disastrous. Merchants could get but a small portion of
their goods forwarded, and so many a mill stood idle while
the raw material required for manufacture remained in
the warehouses. Goods, for instance, conveyed across the
Atlantic in twenty-one days were often delayed for six weeks
in Liverpool before they were sent on to Manchester.^
' Annual Register, at dates.
' Francis, History of Railways, i. 78.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 85
'Canals, too, were of no use to passengers, who, it may be
isaid, could travel with little greater rapidity in the time of
George IV. than in the time of the last Stuarts. The posi
tion may be emphasised in another way. In the event of
invasion, the military forces could not have been mobilised
with more convenience or in much less time than during the
disastrous rebellion of 1745.
The events of the years from 1830 to 1837 were de- First
cisive with regard to the future of railways. It was the that°of
period of experiment. The opinion of the country was un- ^^it'^''
favourable. Sir Henry Parnell, so late as 1833, gave the 1830-37.
somewhat tentative opinion that, when the trade was alto
gether a descending one and water scarce, railways were The opinion
preferable to canals and might be constructed cheaper,* of the
while ui 1830, Lord Brougham wrote with indignation ' of
the folly of seven hundred people going fifteen miles an hour
in seven carriages.' More characteristic still had been the
expressive vehemence of the Quarterly Review of 1825,
which anticipated that people would as soon suffer them
selves to be fired off upon Congreve's ricochet rockets as
trust themselves to a machine going at the rate of twenty
miles an hour. Abroad opinion was even more discouraging.
Thiers considered steam locomotion of comparatively little
importance, as its use would necessarily be confined to short
lines in the neighbourhood of large towns. But these fore
casts were discredited by successful experiments, and in
1836 a sudden improvement in the commercial prosperity
of the country led to a readiness to invest in the new under
takings. There was something approaching to a railway
mania. Thirty-five Acts were obtained for the construction
of 994 miles of railroad,^ and so wild were the projects
afloat, that while one projector persuaded a company to try
• Parnell, On Roads, p. 107.
' Francis, History of Railways, i. 283.

busily.

86 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
sails as a means of propulsion, another seriously advocated
the employment of rockets.' But, despite these extrava
gancies, much solid progress was made, and the new year
Change of 1837 Opened with favourable prospects. Acute observers
X837. reahsed the change. The language of the country had
begun to be infected — men talked of ' getting up the steam,'
of 'railway speed,' and reckoned distances by hours and
minutes.'' ' Were they delayed an hour or two beyond the
accustomed time, they felt themselves justified in expressing
Con- impatience and dissatisfaction.' As yet, however, there
proceeds were not two hundred mUes of railroad opened,* and else
where the inconvenience of travelling was just as great as
before. But the work of extension was busily proceeding,
and, despite the stolid opposition of the landed proprietors,
the main arterial system of the country was laid down in
project if not already in process of construction. The Man
chester and Liverpool line was in active use, and the Grand
Junction, which would connect that line with Birmingham,
was to be opened that very year. In the next year the
London and Birmingham was completed. During the
Parliamentary session of 1836 Acts had been obtained for
the Great Western and the Midland Counties. South of
London railways had been sanctioned to Southampton and
Brighton ; while in the east might be seen the beginnings
of the Eastern Counties line. Most of those men whose
names were afterwards to be inseparably connected with
the history of railway enterprise were engaged on some of
these projects. Robert Stephenson was winning a second
reputation for his family. On the track of the Great
Western, Brunei was seeking to justify his theoretic pre
ference for the broad gauge. Brassey was part contractor
for the Grand Junction. In 1837 George Glyn became
• Francis, History of Railways, p. 293. ¦' Quoted Francis, i. 283.
' Hunt, xvi.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 87
chairman of the London and Birmingham Railway, while
within a few years Morton Peto was to undertake the line
through the Eastern Counties. The citizens of York were
busied with the project of the York and North Midland, for
which an Act was passed that same year, and prominent
among the promoters of which was George Hudson.
Thus the commencement of the present reign marks an second
epoch in the history of railways. The period of experiment ?hat°o^^
gave place to the period of growth and extension. exteu-
The most ample recognition of the practical utility of
the railroad, and thus of this important change, was afforded
by the Act * for the transmission of the mails in the following
year (1838). But, though public opinion was on the whole Forecasts
favourable, there was considerable incredulity as to the future.
actual results which might be achieved in the future. It
was still thought that steam power could be employed to
greater advantage on the water than on' land. ' The
prospect of travelling from the metropolis to Liverpool,
a distance of 210 mUes, in ten hours,' was regarded with
astonishment, but it was not generally anticipated that less
than half that time would be found sufficient by the next
generation. The people of Edinburgh were surprised at
receiving then- letters in thirty-one instead of fifty -five hours.
Surprise had yielded to scepticism had they been told that
before long the journey might be made in nine. There were
some, however, who do not seem to have shared in such in
credulity. ' Twenty-five miles an hour,' says one,^ ' is not
so very rapid.' If there were no stoppages, he considered
that the journey speed between two distant towns might Different
reach one hundred with perfect safety. Even among those empioy-
who were most sanguine, there were very different notions p°^e*r.^™
as to the mode in which steam might be apphed to con-
' 1 & 2 Vict., 0. 98.
2 Edin. New Phil. Journal, vol. xxiv. Edward Sang, F.R.S.E.

88 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
duct the traffic of the country.' For a long time it was
thought that the railroads might be worked to the greatest
advantage with horses, while on the other hand, when the
utility of steam. was seen, the attempt was made to intro
duce locomotives with carriages upon the ordinary roads
and amidst the general traffic.^ Within a few years several
expedients were tested and abandoned. Trains leaving
The Liverpool and Euston were drawn up the steep gradients
railway, by stationary engines placed respectively at Edge Hill and
Camden Town — a system more thoroughly adopted on the
London and Blackwall Railway, where the trains were
worked by means of a cable.* The dangers and disadvan
tages of this system were very apparent, but there was
another which obtained considerable notoriety, and which
under certain circumstances might be successfully employed.
The The railway papers of the day teemed with accounts of what
spheric is now kuown as the atmospheric system. The more ele
mentary plans, which proceeded on the principle of the
common popgun, were soon laid aside, but at length a
scheme was elaborated which had the appearance of practi
cability. It was proposed that the ' atmospheric power
should be created in a pipe, laid between the lines, and of
such a nature as to permit of the pressure being communi
cated to a carriage attached to it on the outside and yet travel
ling upon the proper roadway.'^ The power was created by
suction, and made to affect one carriage, which supplied the
place of an engine. This mode was adopted between Kings
town and Dalkey, and between New Cross and Croydon, and
it was further intended to apply it to the line between Exeter
and Plymouth. In 1845, indeed, it was advocated before a
' ' Feasibility of the Employment of Hydraulic," discussed in Railway
Register, vol. i.
^ For a description see Freyberg, p. 37.
' Clifford, History of Private Bill Legislation, i. 51.
* Railway Register, i, 23.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 89
Parliamentary Committee,' when, with the exception of
Stephenson and a few others, the engineers of the day,
including Brunei, were found to be favourable rather than
adverse to the proposal. The real objection is now clear
enough. It deprived the train of its flexibility, and made
it rather an automaton, under the control of a distant power,
than a creature almost hving and animated by immediate
human intelligence.^
The pubhc, although their attention was thus closely There
directed to the subject of railways, failed to appreciate ^atur^°
the two features, now the most prominent features of "^^^^^
their development. The intricacy of the problem intro
duced by their anomalous relationship to the State was not
even foreshadowed. Nor was there any adequate concep
tion of the magnitude of their effect on the conditions of
life, either in the total results or in the more picturesque
details. It is scarcely a matter for surprise that the former of The
these two points should have escaped notice, for the early position
conditions of the railway question were not such as to sug
gest it. Railways were far from being regarded as a
monopoly. They were rather a protest against the mono
poly of the canal companies. It was never intended that
the various companies should set up an exclusive claim to
the traffic over their own lines, for just as a canal was a
water high-road, so a railway was regarded as a high road
under particular conditions. The company owning it had
no further right than that of exacting tolls from all who
might choose to avail themselves of the conveniences which
they provided. Unfortunately, these particular conditions
went far to abrogate all the common rights which form
' Parliamentary Papers, 1845, vol. i.
^ Horses were used to draw carriages on the railroad for some time.
Pari. Papers, 1830, vol.. a. Questions 4,398, 4,038.

of the
railway.

90

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Com
mittee of
1839-40:

advisesgrant of
mono
poly over
their re
spective
lines to
the com
panies.

Committee of 1844 :

part of the definition of a high road. But even the inge
nuous naivete of that age could not tolerate for long a
scheme which would allow any one to use their own carriage
and engine, provided that they paid toll and observed the
' rule of the road.' The dim suspicion that there was some
difference in kind between a railway and a canal or highway
soon took a more definite form, and the Select Committee
which sat in 1839-40 pointed out that monopoly was inevit
able. It was quite clear that private owners could be barred
from access to the stations of the company, and would be
provided with scant facilities for their traffic. It was equally
clear that the safety of the public demanded that there should
be only one authority on each line. A private coachman
may know very little about horses ; but a private engine-
driver would know nothing at all about machinery.
But if a power of monopoly was thus granted, it was neces
sary to see that some means were provided to secure proper
regard for the interests of the public, since these might,
and often would, differ from the interests of the companies.
Some thought that the competition between canals and rail
ways would secure the necessary attention ; and such seems
to have been the opinion of the Committee, which advised
that the power of monopoly should be granted to the re
spective companies and that a careful supervision should
be exercised over the management of the various lines.'
This latter clause was of course inconsistent with the former,
and represents a lingering suspicion as to the effects of com
petition, which led them to interfere with its action despite
the rehance they professed. The legislation passed in con
sequence of these recommendations did not meet the needs
of the time, and in 1844 a new Committee was appointed.
The railway interest had then increased enormously.
Already some 2,000 miles of line were open, and the period
' Pari. Papers, 1839, vol. x.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 9I
of the great mania was at hand. Besides, another feature of
the difficulty had presented itself. Competition was not now
limited to the railway and the canal, but it was active between
the various lines. The Committee then met with the know
ledge that whatever monopoly there might be, must be a great
one, that the importance of the railway system was beyond
doubt, and that rival interests were at work. In its report
it showed the fullest recognition of these facts. It set forth
the reasons which led to the conviction, not only that inter
ference with the management of the railways was most un
desirable, but that this internal competition was both costly
and prejudicial to the public interest. The function of the
State was to be confined to careful examination of all pro
posed legislation ; and that due provision might be made
for the intelligent exercise of this power, it advised the forma
tion of a Railway Department, which might maintain such
supervision as was needed, conduct inquiries, and formulate
statistics. The essence of the report lay in a further recom
mendation! It raised the question of State purchase. Just suggests
in proportion as monopoly .was inevitable and the national purchase.
importance of railways undoubted, it was unwise to allow
the creation of further vested interests. In consequence of
this advice, a clause was provided for insertion in all
railway Bills which allowed the right of purchase to the
State within twenty-one years.'
Then came the railway mania. In the year 1844 fifty- The raii-
seven Acts were passed for 805 miles, in 1845 one hundred mania,
and twenty for 2,700 miles, in 1846— the year of climax — two
hundred and seventy Acts for 4,538 miles, and in 1847 one
hundred and ninety Acts were passed for 1,354 miles. But
there had been over-speculation. Of the 8,592 mUes sanc
tioned during these three latter years, 1,560 were abandoned
with, and some 2,000 more without, Parhamentary sanction.
' Pari. Papers, 1844, vol. xi.

92 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
The extrava,gance of the time was shown by the calculation
that from March to September 1845 over 6,000,000Z. were
expended in bringing the shares of the schemes in the
market to par.' In the money market and throughout the
country excitement was extreme, and speculation reckless.
One man was director in twenty-two companies. Three
held the same position on the boards of nineteen lines.
In two days George Hudson obtained, from various bodies
of shareholders, the approval of forty Bills, which involved
the expenditure of 10,000,OOOZ. As November 30 drew on,
by which day all schemes had to be deposited, the ex
citement rose to an extraordinary pitch. The engineers
could scarcely allow themselves rest. They began their work
of survey as soon as daybreak permitted, continued it
by torchlight, and spent the night in drawing their plans.
Still their numbers were insufficient. The most incompe
tent people were pressed into the service. ' Schoolmasters
who could not make a living, clerks who knew a book of
Euclid, became heaven-born engineers.' ^ One of them
could not set his level. Another, sent down from the
Government offices, did not know what a gradient was.
The natural result of the mania was a period of reaction
and suffering ; but yet the length of railroad open in 1850
was treble what it had been in 1844. Moreover — and this
was the most important result — the mode of locomotion
was determined, for from amongst the different theories
which had been formulated, the test of practice had singled
and con- out One. Meantime legislation had been busily carried on.
legisia- In 1845 the sale or transfer of railways was prohibited
*^°'^' except under sanction of Act of Parliament. In 1846 the
Gauge Act was passed, while in the same year the Board
' Railway Register, vol. iii.
2 Grundy, Pictures of Past Years, pp. 150, &o. Ct. Personal Recollec
tions of English Engineers, pp. 48-50.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 93
of Railway Commissioners was constituted.' There was
other legislation during the earlier years of even greater
importance, such as the series of general enactments about
the position and right of railways, contained in the Railway
Clauses Consolidation Act and the Canal and Railway
Carriers Act.
But the growth of a new and monopolised interest, which Amalgamation
had been the subject of previous warning, forced itself into and a new
public notice, and became a real and pressing danger with m°i«ee,
the spread of the system of amalgamation. In 1846 the ¦'¦^^^"
London and Birmingham, the Liverpool and Manchester,
and the Grand Junction were combined into one company.
By the end of the same year the Great Western had
absorbed six smaller lines, and through succeeding years
this work of amalgamation proceeded with equal rapidity.
The Railway Board pointed out the effect it would have in
modifying competition. A Select Committee in 1853 tried
to find some effectual means of prevention or remedy, but
all their efforts were in vain. The results expected from
competition were further impaired by the voluntary agree
ments or combinations entered upon by the various com
panies with regard to rates and fares.
Meantime, the period of twenty-one years allowed by TheCcm-
, 1 • .,r.^K r^ mittee of
the Act of 1846 was runnmg out, and m 1865 a new Com- isas.
mittee was appointed to consider the whole question. The
facts could not be blinked : the enormous influence of the new
monopoly was undoubted. Even in 1850 the capital, paid
up, amounted to 240,000,000Z. ; m 1865 it had reached
455,000,000Z. It would have been a very bold scheme that
proposed to add that amount to the National Debt. But
though the magnitude of the sum may reasonably explain
any unwillingness to venture on a measure of State pur
chase, it can hardly justify an indifference which aUowed
' These powers were transferred in 1851 to the Board of Trade.

94

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

JointCommit
tee of
1872,
which criticises.

Hecent
tendon- cies.

the period, during which such an act was possible, to elapse
without fixing upon any alternative policy. This, however,
is what occurred, and the Government of the day rested
content with having made up its mind in the negative.
The most complete criticism of past railway legislation,
and the fullest exposition of the working of the present
system, was furnished by the Joint Committee which sat in
1872. It showed clearly that competition did not achieve
the results which had been anticipated. Where there were
alternative sea routes, the rates were, it is true, consider
ably reduced, and to a limited extent a like conclusion held
good when canals afforded the necessary rivalry. But
between the various railways competition had given way
either to combination or, still more, to amalgamation. The
main system of the country lay in the hands of some few
great companies, while certain districts experienced a more
complete monopoly. On the east the Great Eastern had
no rivals. The Great Western occupied a like position with
regard to part of the west. The London and North-Western
sought to make Lancashire its own district, and the Midland
throughout part of its course had no competition to fear.
Thence it comes that the report, while beginning with the
admission that the evil predictions about the result of
amalgamation had not been fully realised, points out in
conclusion that although the permanent interests of the rail
way companies might coincide with those of the public, yet
it was by no means certain that both these would not be
sacrificed for an increased dividend.' A large bonus does
not imply a reduction in fares.
The experience of the last fifteen years has, in some
respects, illustrated, in others modified, these conclusions.
As formerly the construction of the railroad between
Liverpool and Manchester infringed the domain of the canal
' Pari. Papers, 1872, vol. xiii.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 9S
companies, so in recent years the Ship Canal has been
regarded as a protest against the monopoly by railways.
There has been a growing demand for the revision of rates.
In 1881 and 1882 Committees were appointed to consider
the subject, but they did little else than hear multifarious
evidence and recommend that additional power shojild be
given the Railway Commissioners for dealing with griev
ances and additional opportunity afforded to the public for
making complaints. Yet in one direction the lessons of
recent experience have been sufficiently definite, for, in
defiance of the alleged unity of interest between the com
panies and the pubhc, the course of the agitation consequent
on the introduction of Mr. Mundella's Bill in 1886 showed
that there was, at any rate, little recognition of such identity.
Owing to political occurrences this Bill did not come prac
tically before Parliament, but the feelings which instigated
and approved it continued in force ; a Royal Commission
was appointed, and in the present year (1887) a new Bill The
has been brought forward with much the same end in view. bui.
With the great mania began a new development in Third
railway enterprise. The first period, ending about 1836, that°of
had been the period of experiment. Then had come the "^^"''se-
second period, in which energy and skill had been chiefly
spent in extending railroads throughout the country ; while
during succeeding years the question of their management
was rendered important by the very intricacy of the in
terests thus created. It is impossible to confine these dif
ferent movements within precise limits of time, but it may
be said that the third period in the history of the railway,
that which may be pre-eminently caUed the period of
management, begins at this date, although the period of
extension continues and overlaps. The following table
shows that, though the work of construction proceeded

ment.

96

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Its chief
features.

The in
convenience of a
journey at the
begin
ning of
the reign.

more rapidly during the earlier quinquennial periods, the
efficiency of each mile of line was small in comparison with
what it afterwards became. To achieve such a change
demanded very careful organisation.

Length of line

Number of passengers

at end of each year
in miles

• Increase per cent.
of miles open

conveyed per mile
open

1837

200





1842

1,857

—

9,937

1847

3,945

58

13,017

1852

7,336

86

12,150

1857

9,094

24

15,395

1862

11,551

27

15,625

1867

14,247

23

20,201

1872

15,814

11

26,803 '

1877

17,077

8

32,180

1882

18,457

8

35,479

The alterations made during the third period display
themselves, however, most prominently in the increased con
venience and safety of travelling. At the beginning of this
reign a journey was a matter of considerable forethought
and material discomfort.
Information as to the departure of the train had to be
sought from the fly-leaves issued by the companies or the
notices contained in the advertisement sheets of the papers.
In 1839 the first ' Bradshaw Railway Guide ' was issued,
a double page of which we reproduce in facsimile from the
copy preserved in the Bodleian Library. It was a very
small volume, some four inches by three in size, and was
sold at the price of sixpence. It only contains twenty-four
pages, most of which are taken up with maps, plans of
towns, and details as to cab fares, while the railway infor
mation occupies some half-dozen pages. Three years later
the monthly guide first began to appear.
The mtending passenger had to make his way to the
station in good time, so that he might secure his seat and
' This year and after exclusive of season-ticket holders.

<5O

MUes

I.ONDON

BrannNGHAM-

SWA'ffllSSJS.

LONDON 
Harrow 
WATFORD 
BoxMooa 
B. HaupSTR&D 
THING 
LEIOnTON 
Bletchlev 
WOLVERTON 
ROADR 
BUS WORTH 
Weedo:* 
Crick 
RUGBY 
BraNDOM 
COVENTRY.... 
Hampton 
BIRMINGHAM 

8 60
S 6

10 10
10 3«
1 80

H. IS 0
8 30
8 SO
0 10
9 20
9 3^
10 0
10 16
10 30
10 55
II 5
11 is
II 45
12 6
13 20
12 35
1 0
3 0

^l <* •»

5^

11 0

11 50

13 50
1 15
3 15

• C3

13 33

3
^ 6

II 45

13 35
12 50

1 50
3 5

3 10

o E

I 0
1 45

3 U

3 50
4 5

6 10

O 6
¦o a.

B.H-
I 2 0
3060 10
2035 0
15
3065 5
2545
I 0 6
a 20
• a 35
7 0
8 0

'Hi

6 0

a 25
0 50
7157 40
7 50
S 5
8 40
0 io
lo'so

.3 .

H. H.
8 0
6 80
a 50
7 10
7 20
7 36
8 0
8 15
8 30

- ft.
1^

8 30

56

10 54

U 50

1 0

3. D.
3 8
6 0
7 0
8 0
0 a
12 0
13 0
IS a
17 8
18 6
20 8
23 0
31 a
28 0
27 a
29 a
33 6

FARES.

5e-=

3 0
4 6
a a
7 8
8 0
II 0
13 8
14 0
16 0
17 0
18 a
20 0
33 0
24 0
35 0
27 0
30 0

3 a
•1 0

7 0
9 0
10 a
11 8
13 6
14 0
15 0
17 0
18 0
30 0
21 0
23 8
25 0

Is:^

1. D.
3 0
3 0
4 6
5 0
5 6
7 a
8 8
9 a
10 a
11 a
13 8
13 6
li> 0
18 0
18 a
18 0
20 0

JAere it a Mixtd Train fron Aylabury lo London at\l a.m., and om/ram London to Aytabury at 3 p.m.
SOHDAY TRalNs.— Time, ol Deparlure, Mixed 8 a.m, Mail«9j a.m, Mixed lo WolvertonB p m, MaQ,' mixed »J p.m.
V 5^'*"? ""''" ^'° ^'™" °' *^' Half-price. Infanta in arnu, unablo to walk, free of charge— Soldiera en roMle are
enargwlunderaspecialagTeemenl.—Doga are charged for any distance not eiceeediog SO miles, Is.; 55 miles, Ss. ; 85 mile*
»«. r and tho whole distance, 4s . No doga allowed to bo taken inside tho Carriages.
Carriseeiand HarMsiboold beat tbe Slaliona a qiiarlrr of an liour before I he time of departure, «nd Ibey cannot be forwarded
oy any train unlesa there, at the least, five inmutea before ila time of departure, which time ia punctually observed, and afler the
doota are dosed no Passengers can be admitted r / i
''^".'S,'^'' '^'"A' '"iiientand delay, it is eapeciallv reqiieated thai rassengera will not leave their seats at any of the Station*,
except Wolvenon (half way), where ten minutes are allowed foe lefre.hment.
A Pawenger may claim the seat corresponding lo Ibe number on Ins Ticket, and ivhen not numbered be may take any seat not
pnvtonsly occupied.— No Oramity, under any circumsunoes. is allowed to be taken byonySerrant of the Company.
tlt". "".j""'!' ""^''°'''°'^'°" '-'"'"' *'"'°"> wlierea female is in aliendance, where relreihinents may be oblained.
•1 ^''" Trains marked with an asterisk (•) aie in conjunctiira wilh those of the Grand Junction Railway; sufficient time beiD'
allowed at the BirmiogUam Station, where rerreshmenls are provided, and wniiini; rooms, wilh (emsle altendants.

o
o

o

98 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
complete his arrangements before the doors were closed to
prevent further entrance. If he were travelling third class,
he had, in many cases, to rise before daybreak in order to
catch the solitary third-class train of the day. Arrived
at the station he gave his name to the clerk, to be written
on a large green paper ticket, for which on some lines a
metal badge bearing a number and the name of the station
was substituted. On receipt of this he had to pay his fare,
which usually was nearly twice as much as it would be
at present. Within the station things were well arranged.
There were waiting-rooms ' with newspapers on the table
and all the conveniences of the toilet.' At the junctions
these were particularly necessary, as long stoppages were
not only frequent, but usual. If his ticket were not num
bered, and his seat consequently assigned, the passenger
chose his place in the train ; but if he wished to smoke it
was to no purpose that he looked out for a smoking-carriage,
since smoking was allowed neither in the station nor in the
train.' A first-class passenger had a comfortable carriage,
but were he a great country magnate it was probable that
he would prefer to travel in his own carriage placed on a
railway truck. The second-class carriages were often only
closed at night. The third-class passengers at first were
packed into mere trucks, and it was considered a great
concession when they were placed in carriages which had
roofs, but which, with their open sides, aiforded small pro
tection against the inclemencies of the weather. If they
wanted to go froin London to Liverpool, they had to spend
two days on the journey, and even a second-class passenger
needed to sleep at Birmingham or proceed at first-class
rates. When all had entered the train the tickets were
carefully inspected. The moment of departure was a solemn
' On one line, namely, from London to Southampton, the penalty for
emoking was lOZ.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 99
one. Even then the hearts of some failed them, and they
would refuse to proceed ; others abandoned themselves to.
the dangers and unknown terrors of the raihoad with a
sense of reckless daring. The train slowly left the plat
form ; in many cases it was drawn out by a stationary
engine, and coupled with its locomotive after a temporary
halt. The journey was made at the pace usually of some
nineteen miles an hour, but in some cases of twenty-
five miles. The passengers could do nothing but look
at the scenery, and think of the new invention with its
conveniences and dangers. They crossed a viaduct and
trembled to think of the height they were at. They plunged
into a tunnel which imagination had invested with every
terror, from the certainty of a fatal cold to that of a living
burial. There were frequent stoppages if the train were not
an express ; in that case it stopped only at the first-class
stations, otherwise at nearly all, with a delay varying from
five to ten minutes in length. Occasionally a train coming
the opposite way would be met and passed to the astonish
ment, and often the alarm, of the passengers, but this did
not happen very often during the journey, for the traii:is
were run at long intervals. This infrequency it was which
prevented accident, for as there was little or no signalhng,
safety was only secured at the cost of inconvenience. At
last the terminus was reached, and the passengers dis
persed, pleased with the novelty of the journey, but re-
heved that they had escaped the perils which it involved
— competent, if they were hterary in taste, to describe
it in a book; otherwise to make it the substance of a
letter. It would be both tedious and unprofitable to simply re- nature
capitulate the various points in which unprovement has progress
been made, and it is enough to say that progress has been ^^g\^,^
developed in three chief directions. The railways of the period.
H 2

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

(1) Adop
tion of a
uniform
system.

Tie ' .uge.

Board of
Trade.

The Clearing-
house.

country have been systematised, safety has been assured,
and the convenience of passengers has been consulted.
Till 1845 each railway was an entirely separate body,
which could construct its rails on a gauge different from
that adopted by other companies. In that year occurred
what was the critical moment in what is commonly known
as the Battle of the Gauges. The line from Bristol to
Gloucester was laid down on the broad gauge. Both the
Great Western, with a gauge of 7 feet, and the Midland,
which had adopted the narrow gauge of 4 feet 8^ inches,
were anxious to secure amalgamation with the company
that owned it. The Midland won, and with its victory the
predominance of the narrow gauge was secured, to be
confirmed in the next year by Parliamentary enactment.
This was, indeed, but a single step in the process which
ordered the various railways into a well-connected system.
The appointment of the Pailway Commissioners necessarily
exerted influence in the same direction, and this influence
was strengthened by the transfer. of their powers to the
Board of Trade in 1851, and the consequent recognition of
the regulation of railways as a function of the Executive
Government. If such a uniform system were to be adopted
and fully utiUsed, it was necessary to provide some means
for meeting the difficulties which were involved in operations
based on mutual running rights and through-booking.
This want had already been foreseen. In 1841 a Clearing
house had been established, and in 1850 the Clearing-house
Act was passed which defined its functions. It was to
apportion the receipts for tickets which extended over two
or more hues, and to provide for luggage lost in a train
moving under similar conditions. Further, its aid was in
voked to determme the amount due from one company to
another for the use of roadway or siding.
The best iUustration which can be afforded of this new

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT loi
order and regularity is the growth of railway hterature. tms
Every company now provides its own time-table, and all tion'""
are systematised in ' Bradshaw,' which presents a wonderful ^"™™®'^
epitome of the intricate, but minutely adapted, means of ' Brad-
. ,. J a ' Shaw.'
communication now available. In 1839, the railway infor
mation could be contained in six pages, now it occupies
over four hundred. Then no index was necessary, now the
index is over thirty pages in length. The literary position
of the book is unique. It is the one book in which aU people
feel interest, though many profess themselves incapable of
its study. What a new world that is, of which Bradshaw
and Hendschel are the interpreters, and where the geo
graphy of the railroad has superseded in importance that
which describes the height of mountains and the courses of
rivers !
Such alterations implied, if they did not cause, an in- (2) in
crease of traffic, which would of itself add to the risk of safety of
accident. But in this second respect improvements had '^'^ii"™^*y»-
been made which not only averted the possible peril, but
even rendered travelling under the new conditions of rapidity
safer than it was in those early days when trains were
unfrequent and crossings and sidings rare. On the first
railways the system of signalling, if it may be said to have signal-
existed at all, was of a most rudimentary character. In ^'°^'
one place the whole apparatus consisted of a board, which
was turned on one side to give permission to the train to
proceed, and which at night was superseded by a bonfire of
coal. At another station the presence or absence of a
candle in a window signified to the driver whether he was
to stop or go forward.' Even in 1834 an attempted im
provement only consisted in the suspension of a lamp to
a high post. In the few years at the beginning of the
reign fresh trials were made. The engineering world was
' Our Iron Roads, pp. 274, 275.

I02 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
interested in devising some efficient method. On the Green
wich line the directors, ' by the erection of a lighthouse and
by the establishment of a code of signals,' did their best to
obviate all dangers.' Prom such small beginnings as these
was the system of lever signals brought to a perfection,
which is well illustrated by the fact that at Cannon Street
in the present day no fewer than 108 signalling operations
have to be performed every hour — that is, one in every
thirty -three seconds. But this is not the only improvement.
The block system has been introduced, whereby no train is
allowed to enter on a given length of line before it is clear.
On the Metropolitan Eailway, for instance, and owing to
the adoption of this method, trains are allowed to follow
each other at so short an interval as that of three minutes.
In foggy weather security is further assured by the constant
use of explosive fog-signals. And if the safety of the line
has been thus attended to, other means have been adopted
to bring the train more completely under the control of the
driver. The greater the speed, the more need there is of
Brakes, some efficient means of checking it. Brakes were, of course,
in use before the railways were laid, but they were not of such
a kind as could be well adapted to the new requirements, to
meet which Stephenson brought out an invention whereby
the wheels of the engine could be stopped, and other means,
such as the chain-brake, were employed to place another
portion of the train under the control of the guard. But
it was not until the comparatively recent date of 1875 that
this subject met with the consideration it deserved. In
that year trials were made at Newark with trains regulated
by different kinds of brakes, when it was proved that a train
of above the average weight, and travelling at the rate of
fifty miles an hour, could be stopped in 260 yards if fitted
with a continuous brake, while if it were furnished only
' Pari. Papers, 1839, vol. x.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 103
with the old brake it would have to go some three times
the distance before it could be brought to a standstill.
Since then, if they are to conform with the requirements of
the Board of Trade, all trains must be supplied with a self-
acting and continuous brake. In one other respect there
has been an important change. That the complete isolation
of separate compartments offered certam opportunities for commu-
the commission of crime could scarcely escape early recog- withtii"
nition.' In those instances where open cars are in use, s^ard.
and the whole train thus placed in a condition of publicity,
under the immediate supervision of the conductor, this
danger does not exist. But this system has not found
favour in England, and so other, though less effective, safe
guards have-been devised. Since 1868, and partly no doubt
in consequence of the somewhat excessive amount of public
attention directed to this subject by the sensational murder
of Mr. Briggs in a previous year, each train has been fur
nished with a means of communication with the guard,
either in the form of a cord or an electric bell. It is
true that there has been little resort to these in cases
of emergency, and almost equally true that on many
occasions all attempts to employ these means have been
ineffectual, but it is by no means improbable that the
bare possibility of their employment has precluded many
acts of violence which might otherwise have been at
tempted. It is satisfactory to find that these changes and im- The
provements have not been without result. The proper- railway
tion of deaths occasioned by causes beyond the control of '^^^'^^'
passengers, to the number of those who have travelled,
has diminished, not only steadily, but with a decrease
that has been more perceptible in later than in former
years. ' Chambers, About Railways, p. 41.

104 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Table of Passengers Killed from Causes beyond their own Control.

Tota 1 number

Annual average in proportion to

killed

number of passengers

1847-49

36

1 in 4,782,188

1856-59

64

1 in 8,708,411

1866-69

91

1 in 12,941,170

1876-79

148

1 in 23,839,030

1882-85

66

1 in 59,286,890 '

The nature of the risk may be shown in another way.
Prom a comparison between the number of accidents and
the average train mileage, it may be deduced that a man, in
order to secure his death, must begin to travel as soon as
he is born, and proceed day and night at the rate of 20
miles an hour for 466 years. Even to make the risks from
railway travelling equal to those from general causes, he
must pursue the same practice for nine years. Very few
people have time even to get injured on the railway.
I The real This would be the position of the passenger were he
I safety of j. x o
'. araiiway. exposcd whilst travelling to the ordinary risks of life.
In many cases, however, he is relieved from these; for
instance, he cannot be run down by a cab or knocked over
by a runaway horse. As the total fatal accidents from
other vehicles exceed in number the total incurred on
the railway, it is quite evident that the latter offers a
new immunity both to passengers and to officials. The
year 1885 presented a singularly fortunate record. Only
six fatal accidents happened to passengers from causes
beyond their own control. There was another mode of
locomotion which was far more dangerous. In no less than
seven instances fatal consequences followed on accidents to
the occupants of perambulators, and as these had in no
instance passed the maturity of their second year it may be
presumed that their own negligence was not in fault.
It remains to consider those alterations which have been

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 105
made with more direct reference to the convenience of the (3) in-
public. Of course, such has been the result of all improve- conv^e*-
ments in railway organisation, but in these instances the °^®'^°®-
effect has been more immediate and the utility of the change
more apparent. The two chief features of interest present
themselves, in the increase in the speed and number of
express trains and the fresh advantages offered to third-class
passengers. The English express service is unique, since the ex- (a) The
natural
presses which are to be found in other countries are not run history
with sufficient frequency to form a general service. It has English
been developing throughout the whole period. Though there ®^p'^'®^^-
were no trains in 1841 which made their whole journey
at a speed of 30 miles an hour, in 1847 some seven trains
in the day attained a journey speed of 40 miles or over.
Por some years there was gradual progress, and in 1877 it
might be said that of the long-distance trains, whether the
slow or fast, running between the most important centres,
some 3 per cent, had a speed of 45 miles, while in the present
year, on the basis of a similar calculation, 6 per cent.
travel at 45 miles or over, and in the case of other 21 per
cent, the journey speed exceeds 40 miles. The total number its
• ir^r. average.
of express trains, traversing long or short distances, is 409.'
Their average journey speed is 41f mUes and their running
average 44i. Even this furnishes but an imperfect idea its
. poten-
of the rapidity which can be attained. The following are tiaiity.
the fastest long-runs accomplished :
Grantham to London, adistance of 105^ miles, at a speed of 53|miles the hour.
Swindon to London, „ 77^ „ 53j „
The great centres are bound together in this system. The
communication between London and thirty-two towns is
' For this and following calculation see English Express Trains, by
E. Foxwell, pp. 112, 114, *c. In these two cases the calculations were made
from the tables of August 1883.

io6

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Cb) The
encourage ment of
third- classtraffic.

maintained in each case by ten or more daily expresses.
Manchester is connected with the metropolis by 42
expresses, Nottingham by . 35, Leeds by 28. Similarly,
27 expresses run between London and Liverpool, and
22 between London and Bradford, while in the case of
York there are no fewer than 20. These are only isolated
instances, and do not form an enumeration of all those
towns which have the most frequent expresses. Beyond
the limits of England, it is some satisfaction to observe,
the service continues. Between London and Edinburgh
there run 16 express trains, and between London and
Glasgow 12.
The fact that nearly all 'these trains carry third-
class passengers reveals a difference between the railway
system of the present and that which existed at the
beginning of the reign, for then third-class passengers were
considered a nuisance, and deterred from travelling by
every possible inconvenience. They had to travel with the
goods train in waggons, and were conveyed rather because
of Government regulations than from any idea that they
could be made a source of profit. Yet, notwithstanding all
the discouragements offered to third-class traffic, it in
creased until its returns were greater than those of either
first or second class. Its growing importance was recog
nised at last, and in 1872 the Midland began to convey
third-class passengers by all their trains, with so successful
a result that two years later they discontinued the use of
second-class carriages. The effect, especially of the former
step, on the entire railway system of the country has been
remarkable, and the following figures reveal the extent of
the change both before and after these events. The re
ceipts from the traffic of the various classes are calculated
per mile of the length of railway open m the respective
years.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT

107

Tear

First class

Second class

Third class

£

£

£

1858

322

879

386

1870

254

317

481

1875

284

231

779

1880

220

197

827

1884

185

105

933

summary.

Thus the third-class receipts, far from being unimportant,
form nearly 73 per cent, of the total receipts from passenger
traffic. It is very difficult to form any sufficient and definite -^ statis-
'' •' . tioal
conception of the magnitude of the change which the
means of communication have imdergone durmg the past
fifty years with consequences everywhere apparent. Com
merce and society bear its impress, but statistics represent
it inadequately and summarise results from which many
items are missing.
When Porter calculated the traffic by coach just before The in-
crease of
the rapid extension of the railways which began in 1836, travei-
he estimated it at 358,295,652 miles travelled by one ^"'^'
person.' With reference to the population of the time this
would mean that every person travelled 13 miles. The
average fare per mile was &d., and the speed might be
reckoned at 9 miles per hour. Now each inhabitant of the
United Kingdom travels 148 miles at the rate of 25 to 30
miles an hour, and at the expense of l{d. per mile. Thus
eleven times the distance is accomphshed m not quite four
times the time and at not three times the cost. Could each
man expend only as much money as formerly, he would
even then travel 52 miles. Could he not devote more time,
he could go 39 miles and save Is. Qd. But if his journey
were only 13 miles in length, he would save some 5s. and
accomplish it in half an hour. The total advantage is three-
' Progress of the Nation, p. 302.

io8

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

The
growth
of speed.

fold. He can travel farther, faster, and cheaper. If these
be taken together, the convenience offered for a journey in
the present day bears to that in the past the ratio of eleven
to one. In point of fact, each person may be said to travel
some eleven and a half times the distance that he would
have done in 1837, and to perform every mile of the
journey in little more than a third of the time and at one-
fourth of the cost formerly required.
In one respect the foregoing account fails to indicate
the full superiority of the modern system. Eor long
journeys and between important towns trains are run with
unusual frequency and rapidity. The following table, com
piled from the ' Bradshaws ' of the respective years, repre
sents the increase of speed on long-distance journeys from
the earliest times, including both fast and slow trains. The
number of stations open throughout the United Kingdom
is also added.
Table of Long-distance Trains distributed, according to their various
Speeds in percentages.

General
Number
Year
Under
20 and
25 and
30 and
36 and
40 and
46 and
for long
of
20 miles
upwards
upwards
upwards
upwards
upwards
upwards
stations
trai 113
open
1839
28
65
7
_
_
_
_
19
_
1847
12
43
33
3
5
4
—
22a
426
1857
9
22
25
22
19
3
—
26i
2,722
1867
5
20
26
25
16
8

27i
4,379
1877
7
14
21
25
19
11
3
29
5,383
1887
4
15
15
21
18
21
6
31
6,230
Thus, during the past fifty years, the average speed of
long-distance trains has risen from 19 to 31 miles. But if
express trains be taken apart, their average is 41|-. This
higher speed is rendered of greater utility by the dispropor
tionate increase of urban population. In 1837 the rural and
urban populations were nearly equal, but now nearly two-
thirds of the people dwell in towns. The fast trains on the
LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT log
Midland from London to Manchester, which stop only four
times on their route, connect populations which together
amount to between five and six millions.
These are the details of the picture ; but it is easier to Bearing
understand the change effected by the railway if we reflect changes
upon its influence on the incidents of common life. Again, °^ ^^^^'
it is necessary to notice the connection between the railway Distribu-
system and the distribution of the population. It plays popuia-
its part both as cause and as effect ; but in every instance '°^'
it has tended to give permanence to arrangements which
might otherwise have been of a temporary character, since
a railroad, when once constructed, offers enormous advan
tages and exerts an influence as a monopoly, which it is hard
to supersede. The extension of the Metropohtan Eailway
in the suburbs of London is a beacon-light to allure popu
lation. It has, of course, been the pohcy of the companies
to encourage such settlement. When the London and
Birmingham Eailway had been open seventeen years it was
found that, within a certain area between the metropolis
and Tring, the total amount expended in new buildings
was only 22,000i. A free pass was offered to all who would
build a house, and within eight years the expenditure
amounted to 240,000L
This account of the past of railways should properly be The
supplemented by a few remarks as to their probable future ; of the
but in a sketch necessarily so hmited as the present, it is
only possible to direct attention to two circumstances which
seem to foretell considerable changes.
(1) Hitherto the rate of locomotion has been measured
by the power of steam, while soon it may depend on the de
velopment of electricity.' So keenly do fire, water, earth,
and air compete and combine in the service of man.
• The electric railway between Portrush and Bushmills is six miles in
length. On the level the cars attain a speed of twelve miles an hour. The

no THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
(2) With regard to the legal position of the railways ;
the complaint of the inequality of rates is a demand for
State revision and interference. As yet the Board of
Trade does not possess sufficient power to compel the effec
tive observance of the requisitions which it makes in the
public interest. Still more important is the gradual de
crease in profits, for the working expenses tend to absorb
an ever larger proportion of the receipts. It is difficult
to see how even the call for economy can be met without
the introduction of alterations which would necessitate
immediate State control, if not State ownership.'
The im- Picturesquc though the details of passenger traffic are,
of goods it must not be forgotten that the carriage of goods forms
an important, financially the most important, function of the
railways. The goods conveyed by the railways have in
creased enormously. In 1842 they amounted to 5,129,000
tons, while in 1885 the number of tons was 257,000,000.
The receipts from their carriage now form 53 per cent, of
the total receipts, and amount to upwards of 35,000,000L,
while in 1842 they were but 1,072, 313L In like man
ner the coasting trade of the United Kingdom shows a
vast increase. In 1836 the total shipping entries and
clearances coastwise amounted to 21,100,000 tons, while
in 1885 they were 51,81.3,000, The entries alone have
risen from 10,300,000 tons to 27,031,000. As to canals,
secondary as is the part they now play in the machinery of
transport, the goods carried on them amount to quite half
as much again as in 1838. According to the scanty returns
furnished, the tonnage on the more important canals was
12,700,000 at that date, while in 1868 it was 18,000,000.
These figures show how entirely the transport of goods is
electric force is communicated by a third rail, and is not contained in tho
engine. ' Cf. Railway Administration, an anonymous pamphlet. Geneva, 1886.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT ni
dependent upon the efficiency of the railway system. If the
tonnage of the goods be distributed equally among the
respective populations at the begmning of the reign and at
the present, the weight forwarded by each person may be
said to have increased from 1 ton 6 cwt. to 9 tons.
Thus, in the consideration both of this question and of
the facilities of social intercourse, it becomes necessary to
take notice, on the one hand, of the progress of the shipping
industry, and, on the other, of the development of postal
and telegraphic communication. The carriage of goods is
affected most closely by the growth of the mercantile navy,
while the organisation of the Post Office provides, as do
railways, for communication between person and person.

(2) Navigation.
The history of merchant shipping during the past half- History
century would be important, were it nothing more than a oantiie"
record of two important changes with their consequences.
Iron-built ships have superseded wooden ships, but are
in their turn bemg replaced by those built of steel. Steam-
vessels have been introduced, and during the last twenty
years have increased so rapidly that their tonnage exceeds
that of sailing-vessels. This twofold alteration from wood
to iron, and from sail to steam, exerted a special influence
on the trade of England, since ships began to be built of
material of which she had, if not a monopoly, still the
most plentiful supply. The proximity of her coal and iron
fields gave her a peculiar advantage, which the fresh im
portance of steam power increased — with what results will
be shown farther on. So early as 1819 the steamship
' Savannah ' had crossed the Atlantic from America ; but
neither this nor other experiments seemed sufficient to
justify any extravagant hopes, for even in 1837 there were

navy.

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Voyages of the
' O-reat
Western '
and the
• Sirius *
establishthepower of
steam.

Bad con
dition of
the mer
cantile
navy.

remedied
by new
Govern
mentsuper
vision.

grave doubts as to the expediency of employing engines of
440 horse-power. It was not till the next year that the
importance and feasibility of steam communication were
established by the successful voyages made to America by
the ' Great Western ' and the ' Sirius.' Por a long time,
indeed, after this the use of steam-vessels was chiefly con
fined to coasting and passenger traffic, and the American
sailing-packets contested the Atlantic against the Cunard
Company, till the establishment of the rival Collins Company
put an end to the struggle and served as an acknowledg
ment of their defeat. Many and important improvements
had to be made, of which the greatest was formally recog
nised when, in 1843, the ' Great Britain ' was fitted with a
screw. But, despite the progress, there was much cause for
discontent in the condition of the British mercantile navy.
The Navigation Laws procured it a safe monopoly, and its
sailors consequently deteriorated in character and were
outrun in intelligence by the crews of foreign vessels.
Such, at least, is the conclusion to be drawn from the
answers received in consequence of a Poreign Office circular
of 1843, which show that the character of the English sailors
had declined, while that of the sailors of foreign nations had
improved, a circumstance which we need hardly wonder at
when we remember that there was no regular education
necessary, and no Government supervision which might
compel a regard for seamanship and skill. The creation of
a new Government department was advocated ; but this
alone would not have achieved the desired improvement,
which depended on a far more fundamental alteration in
the commercial law of the country. The strict maintenance
of the Navigation Laws was often, indeed, a matter of
considerable trouble. With regard to America considerable
relaxation had been necessary, and in other instances posi
tions of commercial hostility were compromised by com-

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 113
plex reciprocity treaties. The introduction of steam and
the rapid progress of shippmg occasioned further diffi
culties. It had become convenient for many nations to ship
their goods at ports which were not in their own territory.
On the other hand large ship companies had been formed in
which many of the shares were held by foreigners, and yet
it was declared that their ships fell under the definition of
* British.' Moreover, the instinct which had been developed
throughout the Free-trade conflicts was opposed to a system
so largely infected with the capital sins of monopoly and
restriction. So, notwithstanding the opposition of the ship
owners, who actually demanded that vessels built in the
colonies should be reckoned as foreign, a Committee was
appointed in 1847 ; and in 1849, amid prognostications of
ruin and disaster,' the Navigation Laws were repealed. By and the
i, . .. 1. . J. 1 i. 1 r t abolition
this action foreign nations were encouraged to hope tor a large of tj^g
share in the carriage of British commerce. They increased ^on^^'^'
their stock of ships, while a moderate increase took place in Laws.
England ; so that it became evident that only exceptional
causes of demand would suffice to keep all this augmented
tonnage in employment. These, in point of fact, existed.
The movements consequent on the epoch of 1848 and the
development of the British colonies combined with the gold
discoveries to create an urgent demand for shipping of all
kinds. Before this impetus had time to exhaust itself the
Crimean war gave a new opening to activity.
During these few years, however, events had been taking Tet un-
place which did not tend to assure the success of British abieposi-
shipping. The refusal of England to issue letters of British
marque led the way to the clauses agreed upon at Paris ^f^'^^^j^f
in 1856, by which privateering was aboUshed and security Crimean
granted both to hostile goods carried m neutral ships and
neutral goods carried in hostile ships, provided that such
• Hansa,rd, March 9 and 12, May 8.
VOL. II. I

114 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
goods were not contraband of war. But notwithstanding
the seemingly moderate nature of these changes the United
States refused their consent to the agreement, and this
action, in connection with their geographical position, made
it clear that in case of a general European war, in which
England might be involved, a large part of her carrying
trade would be transferred to American ships. Moreover,
after the Peace of Paris, the chief cause which had led to
the demand for ships vanished. The depression, long de
layed, was felt with redoubled effect, and the last few years
of the decade which dates from the repeal of the Navigation
Laws were a time of distress for the shipping interest. At
the time when that repeal was being urged, there had been
a demand that the burdens imposed on the British ship
owners should be removed ; and, as no such removal of
burdens had followed, it began to be asked for again. The
grievance now met not only with attention but with partial
remedy.
Satis- The next few years produced an alteration which could
ch°ange ^^t have been anticipated by the most sanguine. The Civil
fhe^^ext ^^'^ i^ America threw not only the trade but a great part of
few the shipping of the United States into the hands of England.
In 1860 the American tonnage employed in the direct trade
between that country and England was 2,245,000 ; in 1865
it had fallen to 484,000,' while the British tonnage had in
creased from 945,000 to 1,853,000. This was, of course,
not the sole result. In the general carrying trade the
Americans ceased to be our rivals. In another direction,
too, quite independent of political events, there was a further
change which was to be of the greatest advantage, for this
was the time when steamers began to supersede sailing-
vessels. In 1860 the tonnage of British steam entered and
cleared in the foreign trade was nearly 5,000,000, while in
' Stat. Soc. Journal, xxxv. 218, 219.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 115
1865 it was upwards of 9,000,000. Both in the production
and the ownership of these vessels England shows an un
usual superiority, and many of the steamships which are
owned by other nations have been produced in her yards.
Of the importance of this industry, the rapid growth of ship
building on the banks of the Tyne, the Wear, the Humber,
and the Clyde furnishes abundant proof, while the docks
of Liverpool, London, and Grimsby, to single out for notice
a few of the most prominent, show how greatly the condition
of the country is dependent on its marine supremacy.
During the period which has elapsed since the impor- Constitution of
tant events of 1849, many attempts have been made to Marine
control and direct the organisation of the mercantile navy, meut'of
The constitution of the Marine Department of the Board of ^^ade °^
Trade in 1850 furnished, as it were, an instrument for
reform. Under its auspices local Marine Boards were
established, and examinations strictly conducted. But there
were further necessities. Safety was assured neither for
passengers nor sailors. The state of emigrant ships was and sub-
peculiarly bad. This was met by the Passenger Act of legisia-
1855, while the Merchant Shipping Act of the previous year
had made definite provisions for registration and security.
Legislation" on the subject, indeed, existed already, and was
so complicated that, as one shipowner said, it was almost
impossible to despatch a ship without infringing some law.
The safety of the seamen was rightly made a matter of
public concern ; but, though this has never been denied, it
still remains for the statesmen of the present day to devise
some means which may secure that end, and yet not un
duly interfere with individual enterprise and management.
Neither Mr. Plimsoll's agitation of 1875 nor Mr. Chamber
lain's recent Merchant Shipping Bill provided such a
settlement.' • Cf . W. S. Lindsay, History of Merchant Shipping. I 2

tion.

ii6

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Table slunring Tonnage of Vessels entered atid cleared at Ports in the
United Kingdom from and to Foreign Countries and British Possessions.

Marine

In

Percen
statistics
Total
crease
British
Total steam
British steam
tage of
tonnage
per
tonnage
cent.
tonnage
tonnage
British
cent.
to total
1836
7,061,069

5,037,050

432,683
398,221
92
1846
12,415,586
76
8,688,148
72
1,319,226
1,134,608
86
1856
21,589,049
74
12,945,771
49
3,896,175
3,290,619
84
1866
31,262,450
45
21,255,726
63
10,761,413
9,484,594
88
1876
50,784,902
62
33,441,979
57
27,169,037
22,664,505
83
1885
64,281,522
27
46,389,055
39
49,509,867
39,794,162
80
and their
significance.
N.B. Increase of total shipping as above during period, 810 i^er cent.
Increase of British shipping „ „ 821 „
Table exhibiting Mode of Progress in British Shipping in decennial
periods 1830-1885.
Steam-vessels
Sailing-vessels
Average size of
Tear
Tonnage
Number
Tonnage
Number
Steam
Sailing
1836
67,697
600
2,282,053
19,788
113
115
1840
131,256
963
:i,068,529
23,808
136
129
1850
386,462
1,697
3,980,494
24,480
228
103
1866
875,685
2,831
4,903,652
20,140
309
188
1870
2,005,347
4,335
4,257,986
21,144
466
201
1885
3,973,483
6,644
3,455,562
17,018
598
203
The main features of the change which has occurred
during the past fifty years are easily discernible. Iron has
been substituted for wood in construction, and sailing-vessels
have been largely superseded by steamers. Of the tonnage
of British shipping entered and cleared at ports in the
United Kingdom in 1836, steam tonnage formed only some
8 per cent., while now it exceeds 85 per cent, of the total.
Then, indeed, of aU the steam tonnage entered and cleared
at these ports, England claimed nearly the whole; but
even now her share amounts to 80 per cent. Her position
with regard to the total tonnage returns is equally satis
factory. While they have increased 810 per cent, from
1836 to 1885, her portion has increased 821 per cent. But
these bare returns do not reveal the full nature of the
Diagram Exhibiting the Growth of Shipping Tonnage registered as belonging
to the United Kingdom.distinguishing between Sailing and Steam Tonnage.
TONS 1S361 8 9 401 23 4-56189 SOl 2345618 960113 4- 5 6 1 8 970 1 Z 3 4 5 6 0 8 9801 234-6 TONS

7,!idO,000
7,000,0006,760,0006.500,000 6,7,50,000 6000.000 5,160,0006,500,000 B.Z5O,000 spoopoo
4-,750,0OO4,500,000 4,ZS0,O004fiOO,000 3,750,000
3,500,000 3,Z5O,000
3,000,000 T/.1SO,000
1,500,000 Z:i/50,0OO%OOO,000
X 760,000
3,500,000 Z%5O,00O 1000,000 750,000
500,000Z50.000

~
"¦
—
—
"T-^
—
^
.^-
4- 4
X -/
--^
4,
'^ -¦'''
/
/
<^l
^
" -^
_
^
—
M
X
y-
- '
¦,^3_
i_ ' — "^
?'
^
X
 '' \
^
^ ^
^
/
?*^
-^
—
y"^ 
¦¦
/
^;
f
/
^3*-
 a^I 
~
~
.'¦
...
~
~
~
-
.¦'
'
""
. - ... -
.- - — -• -^
—
^
"•
--
"¦¦
7,'zao.ooo7.000,000 6,750.0006,S00;000
6,260,000
6,000,000
5,750,000 5,500,000
S,ZS0,000 5.000,000
4,750,0004,500.000 4-X50,000
4,000,000 3,750, 000
3,5O0, 000
3,160, 000
3,000, 000
Z,1S0, OOO
2,500, 000
Z,250,OOO 2,000, 000
1,750, OOO
I 500, OOO
IZSO.OOO 1000, 000
750, 000
500,000
ZSOOOO
_ OzTfe, denoting increase/ of total/ tcnrutge,
- (kirve/ dervoting increase/ or decrease/ ofsajUng tonnage/
..Gzrve/ denoting increase/ of stecan,tOTa%a,ge/
LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 117
advance that has been made. Every substitution of a
steamer for a sailing-vessel means an increase in activity,
and consequently of business. Besides, the construction of
the sailing-vessels has been improved, and they, on their
part, are able to accomplish a much greater amount of
work. Each steam ton may be said to have four times the
carrying power of a sailing ton. On such a calculation the
carrying power per ton has increased nearly two and a half
times ; and even this reckoning, though it takes into ac
count the increase in speed, does not express the additional
advantage of certainty which is assured by the employment
of steam power. Contrary winds may delay a sailing-ship
for weeks ; it must be very bad weather indeed that delays
an Atlantic steamer so much as a day.
In one way these alterations have had an effect beyond The
that of promoting commercial intercourse and extending import-
knowledge. At the beginning of the reign the sphere of B^^itish
English foreign politics scarcely extended beyond Europe, shipping.
But throughout the century, and more especially since 1837,
countries have grown into importance which lie beyond these
limits, and which, while strong in their present resources,
give promise of greater possibilities. Their institutions and
politics differ from those of the older nations. They are
democratic, and the basis of their strength is commercial. -
Were it not for the improvement in the means of commu
nication, it is quite possible that these two worlds of feeling
and of pohtics might have continued apart ; now each year
brings them more closely in contact. It is a matter of
interest to consider what will be the effect on the relative
positions of the nations if the balance of power be thus
modified. Of all European powers, England alone has a
strong stake in the New World, and every change which
facilitates intercourse is to her advantage. It strengthens
the two portions of her empire by union. It brings her

ii8

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

nearer not only to her own colonies, but to the great
Eepublic with which she has so strong a sympathy of race.

Posts in
Englandbefore
the reforms.

(3) Posts and Telegraphs.
The condition in England before the postal reforms of
1840 scarcely differed from that of a country whose Govern
ment might choose to tax conversation and to construct a
graduated scale according to the tone of voice. There was
a tax on all correspondence, and the tax was increased ac
cording to the distance at which the correspondents dwelt ;
yet there was no loud complaint against the Government
which had first claimed the right of transmission as a
monopoly, and then made its performance an opportu
nity for taxation. The grievance was in reality very great.
There was no uniformity of charge, the rates of postage
varying from \d. to Is. 8f?. The organisation of the
means of transit waS equally defective ; of two letters
posted between five and six in the evening to Wolver
hampton and to Highgate, the former would be delivered
first. Under favourable circumstances a letter might be
sent from London to Hampstead in ten hours. Some six
thousand of the letters, arriving in London by the morning
mail, had to remain in the Post Office all day for want of
the morning despatch.' There was certainly no financial
advantage gained by the continuance of this entire system,
for even the revenue from the Post Office had decreased.
Had it risen in proportion to the increase in population, it
should have amounted to half a million more than the sum
it actually reached. As a means of taxation the old postal
system produced the maximum of inconvenience and the
minimum of profit. In other respects it was positively in
jurious. Every mode of evasion was practised, and there
' Life of Sir R. Hill, p. 42.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 1:9
was an actual premium on dishonest dexterity. Letters were
smuggled by private firms, franking was manipulated as a
mode of business, and newspapers or marked letters supplied
the necessary information to a clever recipient before they
were withdrawn because of his refusal to pay postage.
Many of these points suggested themselves to the postal sir
Xlowland
reformer. Sir Eowland HiU, whose important pamphlet hui.
on ' Postal Eeform ' appeared in 1837. After showing by
a careful analysis that the expense entailed by increased dis
tance was comparatively small, and that the very heaviness
of the tax discouraged the commerce of the country, he pro
ceeded to point out the financial inutility of the postal
system, as it then existed, and concluded by recommending
the adoption of a uniform rate of postage with prepayment.
The number of letters delivered in that year may be
estimated at upwards of 80,000,000.' It is now about
1,400,000,000. The scantiness of the facilities provided
by the department may be gathered from the fact that it
was only a few years before that in London offices had
been opened at Vere Street, Charing Cross, Bow, Lombard
Street, and Southwark.
The cause of reform progressed slowly. It was en
couraged at the Treasury but opposed at the Post Office,
where the permanent officials felt so confident of its failure
that they gave every facihty for the new experiment, in order
that its defeat might be more final. In 1839 the charge
for London letters was lowered to one penny. In 1840 the
penny post was extended to the United Kingdom, and the
use of stamps introduced. Prom 1840 to 1884 no fewer
than 31,300,000,000 stamps have been issued.^
The experiment was wholly successful. There was an
' Cf. estimate in Porter's Progress of the Nation with that given by
Sir E. Hill in Postal Reform.
2 Article ' Post Office ' in Encyo. Brit.

I20 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
immediate increase in the amount of traffic, while within a
few years, thanks to the facihties afforded by the new rail
ways, the revenue proved itself amply sufficient for the
expenditure. Soon additional mails had to be provided,
and the time for posting letters was extended. In 1855
the Book Post was organised, and during the same year
letter-boxes were placed in the streets. All these changes
were made with the object of facilitating correspondence.
other But during the succeeding years such a policy was supple-
anges. ^^^^^^^ ^^y ^^(,^1^35., which aimed at extending the sphere
of the Post Office into other departments of life. In 1861
Post Office Savings Banks were established. The Money
Order Department had been officially sanctioned in 1838 ;
in 1881 Postal Orders were first issued. Further facilities
were furnished by the addition of a Parcel Postpone of the
few improvements which we have adopted from abroad, and
one carried into effect by the late Mr. Pawcett — and by the
introduction of post-cards, the latter of which changes took
place in 1870, and the former in 1883. The advantages
thus provided have been readily utilised. In 1885 the
number of money and postal orders issued was upwards of
30,000,000, while their united value was over 32,000,000Z.
Of post cards there were delivered 172,000,000, while the
number of parcels carried through the Parcels Post was
25,000,000, with a total weight estimated at over 23,000
tons.
' The In approaching the subject of telegraphy, perhaps the
1 graphs. ^<^s* obviously Striking mark of difference between the last
and any preceding fifty years, a short digression is necessary.
Despite the claims of various inventors, there are few
matters so well ascertained as the real priority attaching to
the patent taken out by Cooke and Wheatstone on July 25,
1837, for this date really marks the conclusion of the long

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 121
series of experiments by which they proved the validity of
the method they proposed to adopt.
The friends of Morse, the American inventor, asserted
indeed that he had long entertained the notion of the
electric telegraph, but this state no doubt was common to
him with many others, while it is certain that the first
official announcement of his invention was not made till
September 27 of the same year. Steinheil, on the other
hand, although he had laid a telegraph between Munich
and Bogenhausen so early as July 19, amended his sys
tem during the next few months, and finally abandoned.
it for one which was, in fact, a modification of that
adopted by Morse. The date of the patent taken out by
Cooke and Wheatstone is that of the practical introduction
of the telegraph along the railway lines of this country..
For two years they employed it between Camden Town and
Euston, and then, driven from that line, opened operations
along the course of the Great Western. Its value was but
little understood, and on the proposal to extend it to Bristol,,
so strong was the opposition among the directors, that it
seemed probable that it would be removed from the Great.
Western also.. It was, however, permitted to remain on
condition that it should be extended to Slough and that all.
railway messages should be conveyed free of charge; in
return for this its use was to be permitted the public at
the tariff of one shilling. Even then it was but little
employed, and only after the arrest of the mm-derer Tawell
through its instrumentality (1845) did the importance of
the new invention dawn upon the public mind.
More dramatic in incident are the stories which attach to' Sub-
the submarine telegraph. The history of the Atlantic cable cables.
stands almost alone as a record of enterprise, failure, and
unresting perseverance. The possibility of submarme com
munication had been rendered clear enough by the success

122 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
of the cable between Dover and Calais; but that under
taking was but insignificant compared with the proposal to
effect a communication between England and America.
Not only was the character of the bottom of the ocean un
known, but it seemed for some time uncertain whether the
distance would not preclude the successful indication of
messages by electricity. The financial difficulties of the
undertaking were easily surmounted by the support of the
two Governments and the aid of several great capitalists ;
and in 1857 the first .attempt was made, only to be defeated
by the unexpected fracture of the line. Next year, after
another abortive attempt, the cable was laid and messages
sent from one side to the other. This partial success only
heightened the dismay which was felt when the cable ceased
working on the very day appointed for its formal opening.
This failure and the incidents of the ensuing war threw
everything back, but in the long interval which elapsed
before another attempt was made the success of other
submarine Knes went far towards removing the ideas which
existed as to the unpracticability of the scheme. Political in
cidents further enforced its necessity, for in the affair of the
' Trent,' to quote the words of the Times, ' we nearly went
to war with America because we had not a telegraph across
the Atlantic' In 1865, the enterprise was renewed under
circumstances vastly more favourable, but this time the
cable broke when it had been half laid, and after ineffectual
attempts to regain its possession by grappling, the ' Great
Eastern,' employed for once in a purpose other than orna
mental, was obliged to put back for a further supply of
material- The efforts of the next year were crowned with
an entire success, for not only was a new cable stretched
right across the Atlantic, but the old cable, brought to the
surface ,and spliced, was made to supply the security of an
alternative line. This was the crowning moment in the

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 123
history of submarine telegraphy. Under the guarantee of
success thus afforded, each year has seen the connection of
new and hitherto distant countries by cable, till with a
total length reckoned at 250,000 miles, they spread on
the bed of the ocean a network of communication that
binds together nations differing widely in language, in
policy, and in interest.
The submarine telegraphs are still the property of
private companies ; the inland telegraphs now belong to
the Government. In deference to principle there was every
reason why the conduct of telegrams should be made a
monopoly ; eince the whole difference between a letter and
a telegram consisted in the mode of transmission. But the
telegraph lines had been laid by private enterprise ; they
were largely under the control of the railway companies.
In 1843 the first public telegraph was opened from Padding-
ton to Slough. By the end of 1845 there were 500 miles
of line open. But though the progress made continued to
be great, there were frequent suggestions that the telegraph
property should be acquired by th6 State. Such a change The
would, it was hoped, put an end to the frequent irregularities of'stattT
of which the public had to complain. The demand was tf^^"^^"
enforced by the able reports furnished in 1867-68 by Mr.
Scudamore on the feasibility of the project. The objection
that it would impose duties upon the postmasters for which
they would have neither time nor ability was easily disposed
of. A similar opposition had been regularly urged to every
previous change, and its complete falsification in other
instances almost amounted to an argument in favour of
innovation in this.
In private hands the telegraph system suffered from many Anoma-
of the disadvantages which had been experienced with regard InTonvt-
to the Post Office before the era of its reform. There was ^^^^^
great irregularity of carriage and an entire absence of uni- ^^'ly

124 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
formity of rates. To take a couple of chance instances, one
telegram to Southampton had taken in transmission three
hours and forty-five minutes, and another to Sevenoaks two
hours and a half. But more serious difficulties arose out
of the conditions which attended the conflicting action of
the various companies. There was great competition, and
consequent waste, in serving large centres of industry ;
¦while, on the other hand, the country districts were almost
entirely disregarded. It was calculated that, of the towns
with a population of over two thousand, 30 per cent, were
well served, 40 per cent, indifferently, while in 12 per cent.
the service was bad, and in the case of 18 per cent, there was
no service at all. It was true enough that the number of
messages, had increased; in 1855 they were 1,017,529; in
1860, 1,863,839 ; and m 1865 they had risen to 4,662,687.
Their relative proportion to the number of letters had like
wise improved. In 1855 there was one telegram to 439 letters.
„ 1860 „ „ 296 „
,. 1865 „ „ 151 „
But then in both Belgium and Switzerland, where the tele
graph service was under Government control, the proportion
was still greater.. The chief reason, of course, was that a
Government,, not considering profit in the first instance,
could cheapen the cost of messages, while as every diminu
tion of tariff tended for some time to decrease the profits
of the companies, there could be no doubt that the directors
would cultivate dividends rather than beneficence.'
The Post At last the alteration was determined on ; an Act was
assumes passod which authorised the purchase of the property and
^th^°^ rights of the companies for the large sum of 7,000,000^., and
sati^sfac- in 1870 the Post Office assumed the control of the tele-
resuits. graphs. The immediate results were gratifying. Before the
' Reports,. 1867-68, by Mr. Scudamore.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 125
change there were 2,159 offices open ; in 1871 there were
3,907 offices. Meantime the number of weekly messages
transmitted had risen from 130,000 to 214,000. Even
more striking is the progress since achieved.
In 1875 there was one telegram to 56 letters and post cards.
„ 1880 „ „ 46
„ 1885 „ „ 42
„ 1886 „ „ 40
In 1870 the possibility of telephonic communication was The
not contemplated ; but by 1880 the telephone had assumed phone.
the position which the telegraph held thirty years before,
that is to say, there were numerous private companies in
existence which owned different and sometimes rival wires.
But though a judicial decision in the autumn of that year
confirmed the suspicions that telephonic communication
formed part of the monopoly granted to the Post Office by
the Acts of 1868 and 1869, the postal authorities in this case
declined to avail themselves of their full rights, and offered
to grant licences to the various companies under conditions
calculated to secure the public advantage. As yet it must
be confessed that in the use of the telephone we are far
behind the United States, and that all that has as yet been
done is to bring the commercial houses situated in the same
town into immediate communication.
The total improvement made in the means of corre- statis-
spondence durmg the reign can be summarised in a few summary
sentences. At the beginning the number of letters was ""^^j^
some 80,000,000 ; now the number of postcards alone is ofcorre-
' spond-
172,000,000, while of letters there are 1,403,000,000. In ence.
addition, the number of telegraphic despatches exceeds
39,000,000. There are half as many messages forwarded
by telegraph now as there were letters fifty years ago, and
over twice as many post cards. If an equal distribution
be made among the population of the respective dates,

126 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
it may be said that, whereas at the earlier epoch each
person sent three letters and received three, now each sends
forty and receives forty, while, in addition, there is one
telegram transmitted per head. Yet, notwithstanding this,
the nett revenue derived from the Post Office has risen from
1,500,000Z. in 1837 to nearly 3,000,000Z. in the present year.
The past. 'VVe stand in a singular position at the present time with
regard to the past and the future. Long familiarity has
made us almost indifferent to the vast changes of the pre
ceding half-century, and, on the other hand, provision for
human convenience has been carried so far that we are
comparatively incurious as to the future. Only fifty years
ago and England was rather an aggregate of isolated
districts and disunited towns than one animated, close,
compact kingdom. Each city was dependent on the
country in its neighbourhood for food supplies, and many
a district rich in mineral or agricultural wealth lay neglected
because far from seaport or canal. Along the high roads the
coaches rolled heavily with their scant passengers and un
frequent mails, while the post-chaise with its quick rattle
sounded the prophecy of future bustle amid the quaint
provincialism of the scenes through which it hurried. Even
within the precincts of the town passengers were ill-provided
with means of conveyance, for the cabs were slow and
omnibuses rare.
The But the revolutionary hand of time has now wrought a
new unity. Although they live in different dwellings, the
inhabitants of a town have such facilities of communication
that they do not need to leave their houses, but can transact
their business by telephone. Outside, the streets are thronged
by cabs and omnibuses, and the suburbs can be reached by
steam tramcars or railways. Throughout the entire king
dom it needs but a few minutes of delay before a rapid mes-

present.

LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT 127
sage can be received by one man from another. Fifty years
ago the intelligence of a national disaster, of the death of a
sovereign, of a commercial crisis, rolled slowly through the
country like the gradual advance of the tide. Now the
statesman, as he is speaking, looks beyond the faces up
turned to his, and knows that the audience whose approval
he seeks will in a few hours be following the course of his
argument and deciding in silence upon their verdict. The
merchant, sitting in his office, can study the markets of the
world, and, after considering the news hastily transmitted
to him by telegraph, he can advise his agents to buy or to
sell, exercising a more constant control over the action of
the most distant than that which he could formerly maintain
in the case of one who lived thirty miles away. Were it
not for the numbing effect of custom, every one of us might
realise the magnitude of this recent change, as, newspaper
in hand, he reads of military events which are happening
in another kingdom, or, after glancing over the commercial
news, he turns to ascertain the result of a Parliamentary
division which took place some few hours earlier in the
morning. Then the newspaper is laid aside in favour of
letters which were posted the previous evening. Formerly,
had the correspondence been equally distributed, each person
would have written a letter once in four months, while now
he would write every nine days. But if neither telegram
nor letter suffice, he can himself travel with the utmost ex
pedition. There is no delay, and a journey of a few hours'
duration brings him, not into a new district, but into a
fresh part of the united community in which he lives. The
monopoly of localities has been weakened, if not destroyed.
London, for instance, no longer draws its main supphes
from its immediate neighbourhood. 'Fat cattle from
Norfolk, meat from Scotland and Devonshire, fish from
Scotland, Ireland, and the east and west coasts of England,

128 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
broccoli and new potatoes from the Scilly Islands, Penzance,
and the Channel Islands,' ' are thrown rapidly upon the
market. Nay, the achievements which roused the wrath
of the Eoman satirist have been a thousand times outdone ;
for while in his day the millionaire ate fish from the
Caspian, in ours the poor man lives cheaply on the mutton
of New Zealand and the wheat of Manitoba. Such has been
one of the effects of railways and steamships. They have
brought into profitable use mines and forests, quarries and
fisheries, harbours and rivers, which were previously inac
cessible.^ Manufacturing towns have grown into existence
in places where there once seemed no outlet for commerce.
The goods traffic of the country has increased till it now
exceeds by eight times its amount in 1837 ; and a man
travels eleven times as far as his father could have done at
the beginning of the reign.
It has been the age of Steam, for as yet Electricity has
only begun to exert its sway. Arago, when he heard of the
predictions made about the railway engine, besought his
countrymen ' ne point s'abandonner a des illusions meme
en matiere de locomotives a vapeur ; ' but the ' long-linked
train swept on,' and what seemed an illusion is known as a
reality. ' Railway Rates, p. 53, by Mr. Grierson.
^ Tooke, History of Prices, v. 376.

129

AGRICULTURE.
For some years previous to the Queen's accession to the Agricui-
throne the prices of agricultural produce had been com- laai^^
paratively low, chiefly from a succession of seasons favour
able to the wheat crop. The importation of foreign corn
was then extremely small, and that of meat and dairy pro
duce almost nothing. In the year following the Queen's
accession the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England was
founded, so that the whole life and progress of that society
has been co-existent with her Majesty's reign. The ques
tion of Free-trade had not arisen. • And, for seven years
longer, the potato, the chief food reliance of the poorest of
the agricultural class in Ireland and in the north-west of
Europe, continued sound.
The subiects which then seemed of chief interest to The
Royal
British agriculture are shown by the proceedings of the Agri-
committee of the Eoyal Agricultural Society, soon after its society.
formation in December 1838. Arrangements were made
by them for annual agricultural shows of farm animals,
implements of husbandry, and specimens of agricultural
produce. Correspondence with similar societies at home and
abroad was arranged. A veterinary school was projected.
Prizes were offered for essays on agricultural subjects, and
for experiments with manures. Eeports were invited on the
comparative advantages of different implements, on the
management of water-meadows, on the best varieties of
wheat for cultivation, on the keep of farm horses, on
VOL. II. K

I30 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
stall feeding of cattle, on rotation of crops, on subsoil and
trench ploughing, and on the best system of land drainage.
The first volume of the journal of the society appeared in
1840, most of the contributors to which — Philip Pusey, the
leading agricultural writer of his day. Earl Spencer,
Sir James Graham, Henry Hindley, M.P., Sir Edward
Stracey, J. E. Denison, M.P. — have passed away ; the only
two survivors now, both nonagenarians, being Lord Eversley,
and Mr. John Dudgeon, the writer of the paper on Scotch
agriculture. Mr. Pusey then estimated the quantity and value of the
English wheat crop at 13,500,000 quarters, worth, at 50s.
a quarter, 31,000,000^ The average produce he put at
26 bushels an acre, and pointed out the gain which would
be made by the addition to that average, of one bushel an
acre. He further showed that an immense impulse not
only to increased production, but to the demand for labour,
would arise by the expenditure of an additional IZ., profitably
made, on each acre of the cultivated land of this country.
The average rate of produce has since that time risen two
bushels an acre ; but, from fall of price, the money value of
the 28 bushels, in 1886, was only 6Z. 6s. an acre, while
that of the 26 bushels in 1840 was lOZ. 14s. 6(Z.
Among the subjects which then engaged the attention
of landlords and farmers, the application of special manures
to crops was beginning to attract notice. Foreign bones to
the value of 254,000Z. were imported in 1887. Nitrate of
soda was experimentally tried in 1839. Peruvian guano
soon afterwards was introduced. In 1843 I grew an ex
cellent crop of potatoes with it, in the south-west of Scot
land. The kind and mode of applying manure to each
crop became the subject of scientific study and experiment.
The Norfolk four-course system had shown signs of failure,
by the difficulty of getting good crops of turnips or clover

AGRICULTURE 131
when repeated every fourth year. In Flanders the skilful
farmers, in view of this, had extended their rotations so
that the same crop should not be repeated in less than ten,
twelve, or fourteen years. Their more intensive system had
led them earlier to notice this. Another question arose.
Could no remedy be found for leaving the land idle during
the nine months between the removal of the corn crop in
August, and the sowing of the turnip crop in the following
June ? To fill up the vacant time, rye was sown in the more
southerly counties, which was eaten in its green state on
the ground in May by sheep, as a good preparation for the
winter green crop sown in June. And vetches followed
later, to carry on the stock to the aftermaths from the hay,
the vetches to be eaten on the ground as a good preparation
for later turnips.
Economy of labour by machines was confined to a
general use of threshing machinery on all large farms.
Turnip-cutters were recommended as a saving of one-fourth
of the crop when consumed in the field, and were coming
extensively into use. Cake and corn crushers soon fol
lowed. But there was then no thought of reaping-machines,
or ' reapers and binders,' which are now becoming general.
In regard to live stock, the investigations of the Eoyal
Agricultural Society showed that the cost of feeding farm-
horses varied immensely, as much as 50 per cent, within
a few miles, from want of knowledge, economy, and care.
The earlier maturity of certain breeds of cattle and sheep,
such as the Shorthorn cattle and Leicester sheep, which
were fit for the butcher a year earlier than most other
breeds, was urged upon the attention of farmers as enabling
them to supply the market with the same quantity of meat
at 30 per cent, less cost. It was felt desirable that an
extensive plan of inquiry and experiment should be en
couraged and entered upon as the foundation for estabhshing K 2

132

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

some regular system. And to this object the labours of
the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England, with those of
the Bath and West of England Society, earlier established,
and of local societies in most English counties, have since
that time been unremittingly directed.
Scotland. In Scotland, the Highland and Agricultural Society
had long been established. The circumstances of that
country had compelled a more careful personal attention
by the landowners to the advancement of agriculture than
had yet been felt by the more wealthy landowners of
England. The law had placed upon the Scotch landowners
the direct liability of finding the money for the public
establishments of their counties, the churches, prisons,
and police. They had the determination of questions of
road-making, and, having to contribute directly a large
proportion of the county expenditure, they actively con
trolled its administration. This brought them into closer
business contact with the farmers, and recent legislation
has tended to increase this connection by the principle of
imposing all county rates in certain proportion directly on
landowners and farmers, and giving both a representation
at the same county or parish board. There is thus a better
fusion of the two interests than in England, and a readier
appreciation on the part of the landowner of the outlays
requisite on his part to enable the tenant to make the most
of the land he farms.
Ireland. In Ireland, the relation between landlord and tenant is
very different from that of England and Scotland. Many
of the greater landowners are non-resident, and previous
to the famine of 1846, the land was in a large measure in
the hands of middlemen on leases for life, with leave to
subdivide and sublet for the same time. These men had
no permanent interest in the property ; their business was
to make an income out of it at the least cost, and their

AGRICULTURE

133

intermediate position severed the otherwise natural con-'
nection between landlord and tenant. The potato famine
in 1845-46 prostrated the class of middlemen, and brought
the landlords and the real tenants face to face. But the
level which the latter had been permitted to obtain, and
the practice being that the tenant made the permanent
improvements at his own cost, led them to consider the
landowners very much as only the holder of the first charge
on the land ; and they were in the habit of buying and
selling their farms among themselves, subject to this charge,
a course which as a matter of practice was tacitly accepted
by the landowner. He had security for his rent in the
money paid by an incoming tenant, who for his own safety
required the landowner's consent to the change of tenancy.
This suited the convenience of landowners, the most of
whom had no money to spend upon improvements, many
of them non-resident and taking little interest in the
country, and dealing with a numerous body of small tenants
with whom they seldom came into personal contact. In
the north of Ireland this custom of sale became legally
recognised as tenant-right. The want of it in other parts
of Ireland produced an agitation which ultimately led to the
first Irish Land Act of 1870, and, ten years later, to the
estabhshment of a Land Court with power to fix the rent.
Circumstances have thus brought about a situation ia which
the landowner cannot deal with any freedom with his pro
perty either ui the selection of tenants or in the readjust
ment of rents. And this has arisen, in a great measure,
from the neglect, by the landlord of his proper duties, in
not himself executing those indispensable permanent im
provements which the tenant was thus obliged to undertake,
and who in this way estabhshed for himself a co-partnership
in the soil itself..
The general progress of agriculture was suddenly in-

134 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Tiie terrujited by the appearance of the potato, disease which,
famine, after a warning in 1845, spread over Western Europe with
destructive force in 1846, suddenly laying waste the pro
duce of vast tracts of country, and rendering desolate those
poor and populous districts which had become dependent
for their food on this hitherto prolific root. Ireland,
especially the western and southern counties, where the
poor population had little else to subsist upon but potatoes,
was completely prostrated. In the worst unions in these
counties twelve out of every thirteen people were wholly
dependent on the potato for their food. In a single week,
in July 1846, the promise of the potato crop was, by a
mysterious blight, destroyed. A sudden fear fell upon
Governments, both here and on the Continent, when they
began to comprehend the true nature of the calamity. The
late Sir Eobert Peel, then Prime Minister, instantly made
arrangements for the purchase in America of large supplies
of Indian corn, to be immediately shipped for Ireland,
the country in which, under Queen Victoria, there was the
most pressing danger. Then followed the repeal of the
corn laws, which saved us from the insurrections that
rapidly spread on the Continent, changing dynasties and
unsettling governments.
With the failure of the potato the agricultural system
in Ireland collapsed. The people, no longer able to trust
the root, ceased to 'conacre,' that is, to hire land from
the neighbouring farmers as potato gardens ; the farmer,
deprived of conacre labour, had no money to pay wages
in cash, and his land became unproductive ; the landlord
found his rent disappearing, while a new order of things
grew out of the confusion.
To prevent the fearful consequences of famine, immense
sums were advanced by Government for the employment of
the people of Ireland-in relief works. These were adminis-

AGRICULTURE 135
tered by the grand juries, on the understanding that the
money so advanced was to be expended in reproductive
works, and to be repaid to the Government by instalments
in a limited number of years. The pressure was so great
that it was found impossible to control the expenditm-e in
such a manner as to make it reproductive ; and vast sums
were squandered on works which could never be of any
other value to the community than that of finding employ
ment and wages for starving people for a time.
The famine brought disease and crime in its train. Effects
Infirmaries, fever hospitals, dispensaries, and prisons were famine.
filled to overflowing. The expenses of these establishments
were enormous, and raised the rates in many parts of the
country to twenty shillings in the pound of the rental. As,
by the law at that time, two-thirds of this increased rate fell
upon the tenant, many farms were abandoned, cultivation
was greatly diminished, and numerous labourers were un
employed. All the exertions of the Government were
unable to cope with a disaster so sudden and so complete.
Nearly a million people died, and such a check was given
to the progress of Ireland that, by emigration and other
wise, more than a third of the population of 1845 has since
disappeared. Whilst the increase of the population in
Great Britain continued to maintain an annual advance of
sKghtly over 1 per cent, since the census of 1841, the
number of the people in Ireland has declined in the same
period at fully the same rate. In the poorer parts of the
country the people still cling to the potato for their food.
There is no crop so uncertain, having varied in its produce,
according to season, by as much as 50 per cent, four times
in the last ten years, and to this extent, in the poorer
districts, imperilHng the people dependent upon it.
The potato famine, and the consequent free import of
foreign corn and provisions into this country, mark an

136 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
important epoch in the Queen's reign. The gold discoveries
in California and Australia happening about the same time,
gave a rapid stimulus to enterprise and improvement in
every branch of business, including that of agriculture. In
1850 and 1851 it was my duty, as commissioner for the
Times newspaper, to undertake an inquiry into the state of
agriculture in England in a time of great agricultural
depression. On looking back on that time and comparing
it with the present, there was great depression then, but
more hope than at present. Wheat is now (1886) 17 per
cent, lower in price than it has ever been for one hundred
years.
1851. In July 1851, the Prince Consort, speaking at a banquet
at the Mansion House on the opening of the first Great
International Exhibition, pointed to the duty of every
educated person closely to watch and study the time in
which he lived in order to add his mite of individual exer
tion to further the accomplishment, of the ordinances of
Providence, the foremost of which he described as the
realisation of the unity of mankind. The products of all
quarters of the globe were placed at our disposal, and we
had only to choose which was the best and cheapest for our
purposes, while the powers of production and distribution
were entrusted to the stimulus of competition and capital.
The Exhibition of 1851 was to give a true test of the point
of development at which mankind had arrived, and a new
starting point from which to direct their further exertions.
The three preceding years had been eventful for
British agriculture. Protection duties had ceased, and the
landlords and farmers of this kingdom, no longer per
mitted to lean on an artificial support, had now to rely
on their own energy and skill. In 1851 the new starting
point had been reached, and with energy and vigour the
task of increased production, to compensate for diminished

X-
hibition

year.

AGRICULTURE 137
prices, was begun. It has since been accomphshed not so
much by surpassing the best farming practice of that time,
as by a general advance throughout the country, leading
up to that higher example.
An unusual lustre was thrown on the meeting of the TheE
Eoyal Agricultural Society in 1851. Men from all quar
ters of the world flocked towards happy England to the
International Exhibition, to see with their own eyes
what it was in our institutions or our race that had raised
this country, with its narrow boundaries, to the proud
position which she held among the nations. The Eoyal
Agricultural Show of this year was held on the playing-
fields of Eton on the banks of the Thames, beneath the
walls of Windsor Castle, the abode for many centuries of
the sovereigns of England, over which floated the Eoyal
Standard of the Queen. At no previous meeting of the
society had there been so great a concourse of spectators, so
fine a field for the exhibition, or such excellent specimens
of all the best breeds of live stock in England. And never
before could their peculiarities be studied with greater ad
vantage. On the third day of the meeting the gathering
of people, favoured by the" beautiful weather, was immense.
What a contrast did these British breeds present in the
eyes of many of the foreign visitors to those to which they
were accustomed at home ! The sleek and contented Short
horn, the more sprightly faced Hereford, the handsome
Devon, had a placidity and easy, well-fed satisfaction about
them, which spoke of the green fields of England, and must
have puzzled a Hungarian magnate, accustomed to his vast
droves of white lean cattle, roaming for miles over the some
time parched plains of the Teiss, in search of their scanty
pasture. Not less astonished was the German flockmaster,
familiar with his fine-woolled but scraggy-looking sheep,
when he saw the matchless symmetry of the Southdowns.

138 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
From the new starting point in 1851, when the best
farming was exceptional, there has been little advance from
the best practice then reached. Drainage was well under
stood and was rapidly extending. The use of purchased
manures and linseed cake, in addition to the manure of
the farm and its green produce, was spreading slowly in the
better-farmed districts. Bone manure had a well-established
reputation, especially in dairy counties. Peruvian guano
and nitrate of soda, wherever tried, were found a most use
ful mode of promoting growth and increasing the bulk of
the crop.
And the literature of agriculture was not found want
ing. Foremost of all were the most readable and prac
tical essays of Philip Pusey, in nearly every number of
the journal of the Eoyal Agricultural Society, the em
bodiment of that society's motto, ' Practice with Science.'
From week to week, up to the present time, the pages of
the Agricultural Gazette, edited from its commencement
forty years ago by John Chalmers Morton, have poured
forth from the experience of practical farmers a continuous
flood of knowledge and light upon every subject connected
with agriculture. The famous' experiments of Sir John
B. Lawes at Eothamstead, as described by him and his
scientific assistant. Dr. Gilbert, in the pages of the Eoyal
Agricultural Society's Journal, from year to year, have
formed a guide to improved practice in this country, both
with crops and in the feeding of live stock.
The train was thus laid for a rapid extension of the best
practice in all parts of the country, when the strong
motive-power of personal interest should come into play.
In 1850 and 1851 the price of wheat was 39s. 4d. a quarter ;
and of salt beef and pork, 36s. a cwt. From that time
prices began to rise and continued to do so, with slight
exceptions, to 1874. The price of wheat, meat, and dairy

AGRICULTURE ,39
produce, many times between these dates, reached an in
crease of 50 to 60, and in more than one instance 100 per
cent., above that of 1851. The price and rent of land
rapidly increased in the same period, and a great stimulus
was given to land improvement, and to the extension of the
best agricultural practice. Earlier maturity in perfecting
cattle and sheep for the market, by good feeding from their
birth, added probably a fourth to the weight of home-grown
meat during the period of good prices. Landlords and
farmers shared in the general prosperity, and the wages of
labour and the bills of tradesmen increased in like fashion.
There are two capitals employed in British agriculture. Landlord
that of the landowner and that of the farmer. The first, tenant.
which is the land itself, and the permanent improvements
upon it, has hitherto been certain and safe, and therefore
yielding a small return ; the other, the live stock and crop
subject to risk of seasons, and speculative, and liable to
competition prices, requiring a much larger percentage
to cover risk. The capitalist is content with 3 per cent.
for his heretofore secure investment, which carried with
it also influence and social position. A farm worth 50Z.
an acre for the freehold, needs a further lOZ. an acre to
provide the farmer's capital for its cultivation. The land
owner is satisfied with a return of 3 per cent, on his 50Z.,
while the tenant looks for 10 per cent., for management and
risk and capital, on his lOZ. Let us suppose that the
farmer has a capital sufficient to buy 100 acres at this
price, and stock them ; he would get for his 5, OOOZ. invested
in freehold 150Z., and for his 1,000Z. farm capital lOOZ.,
together 250Z. But if he followed the custom of this
country and used the whole of his capital in cultivating
another man's land, he would with his 6,000Z. hire 600
acres, on which his return ought to be 600Z. He in truth
then trades on the capital of the landowner, practically lent

I40 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
to him at the moderate rate of 3 per cent., which he con
verts into a trade profit on his own capital of 10.
The British landlord is thus the nominal owner of five-
sixths of the joint capital embarked in agriculture, and
upon him in the end the chief weight of any disaster must
fall. But while his ownership is hampered by entail and
settlement he cannot use his position with the freedom of
absolute ownership, and is thus disabled from bearing his
share of the strain that is now pressing on the land. The
settled Land Act of the late Lord Cairns has been a partial
relief. But it is only by fee-simple ownership that a land
owner in difficult times, such as the present, can do justice
to his estate and his tenants.
In regard to tenants, recent legislation in England and
Scotland might have proved highly beneficial if its effect
had not been practically limited to the ' quitting ' tenants,
and thus to that portion of them, not one-tenth in number,
who may be described as the old, or the least prosperous
and persevering of their class.
The hopes excited by the expressed intention of the
Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone, in 1881, to deal with the
devolution of land, the transfer of land, the registry of
land, and the mode of borrowing on land, all disappeared
under the pressure of the Irish land question. It has been
assumed by an influential class of politicians that the agri
cultural system in that country can be rendered sound and
prosperous by the conversion of the landlord and tenant
system into that of cultivating ownership. And the main
part of the time of the Legislature, so far as the land is
concerned, has since been engaged towards that object, to
the exclusion of those questions which so pressingly affect
the welfare of the agricultural interests of Great Britain.
It would, however, be a great error in regard to British
agriculture, whatever may be the final decision in regard to

AGRICULTURE 141
Ireland, to take any legislative step which should tend
further to alter the well-recognised rule that the landlord
makes all the permanent outlays required, and the tenant
finds only the capital for cultivation. And it would be an
equally mistaken policy to take any course which should
diminish the landowner's interest in the continued improve
ment of his property. The landowner in this country has
two capitals in the land : the soil and all that is beneath it,
and the buildings and other permanent works made by his
capital upon it, and required for the accommodation of the
people and the stock and crop of the farmer. On good
agricultural land, worth 50Z. an acre, the land will represent
35Z. of that value, and the buildings and other permanent
works 15Z. It is seldom that the farmer can command
more capital than is needed for that fuller cultivation which
our exposure to foreign competition demands. It is there
fore most important that such measures should be devised
as will best tend to the continuous increase of production,
by giving a distinct but united interest to both landlord and
tenant in obtaining that result. The experiment being
tried in Ireland of Government advances to tenants for the
purchase of their farms might, however, with great advan
tage be offered to the larger farmers of Great Britain.
This might be done with the view of increasing the propor
tion of occupying landowners, and might be limited to those
occupiers who were prepared to pay down one-fourth of
the price.
In regard to the agricultural condition of Ireland, if Ireland
... and
there was no other objection than the inevitable mcrease Canada.
of poverty, to the principle of convertiag the poorer part
of tho country into a land of small peasant proprietors,
that would be a sufficient objection. For it is wrong to
offer inducements to poor people to stay on poor land when,
within the same dominion, there are immense regions of

142

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Bad
seasons.

American com
petition.

rich land waiting to be occupied. This island is the
nursery of nations, and great territories west and east
have been committed to our charge, upon which we may
plant the English-speaking race. The emigrant from
Ireland can in a fortnight's time be in the Canadian North-
West, where millions of acres of good land are at present open
to free settlement. The climate, though very cold for one-
thu'd of the year, is as healthy as that of the neighbour
ing prosperous American States of Minnesota and Dakota.
The country is traversed by the Canadian Pacific Eailway,
with branches spreading out on either side as access is
required by the new settlers. Every crop that is produced
here thrives there, and fruit and vegetables grow to great
perfection. Here is an agricultural country belonging to
the British people, within easy reach, ten times the extent
of Ireland, with railway access and navigable rivers, with
coal and other valuable minerals, and yet a considerable
party in the Imperial legislature is Labouring to discover
plans for retaining in the west of Ireland a population
which in small tenancies of poor land are holding their
farms not for profit but for existence, and who in most
years are in a state verging upon starvation.
After 1874, agricultural prosperity began to wane
through an unprecedented series of bad seasons. In eight
years, ending in 1882, there were only two good crops, and
among the bad was the crop of 1879, the worst of this cen
tury. During this period much agricultural capital was lost.
And there was no compensation by higher price, for the loss
of crops in Western Europe stimulated in an extraordinary
degree the extension of wheat-growing in the United States
of America. They had productive years when the crops
were deficient here. In a single year they increased their
wheat acreage by an extent equal to our total growth.
In the twenty years from 1860 to 1880 their production

AGRICULTURE 143
of wheat rose from twenty to sixty million quarters. They
could not have found an outlet for it but for the most
rapid increase of railroad communication with which it
was accompanied, and the increased demand from Western
Europe. The cost of transport fell from twopence per tqn
per mile to a farthing. The distance from which wheat
could be conveyed was thus increased eightfold. And as a
ton of meat or provisions is six times the value of a ton
of corn, and as these are yielded by the land in about that
proportion, the produce of six acres in the form of meat or
provisions can be transported as cheaply, so far as weight
is concerned, as that of one acre of corn. This formidable
and growing competition in both corn and provisions we
must now reckon with.
The long-continued period of bad crops and low prices,
added to the losses of live stock, especially sheep, in the
wet cold seasons by disease, had reduced the capital of the
farmers in this country by 30 to 50 per cent, when the
collapse of prices, beginning in 1875, feU upon them.
Their gradual but growing poverty had for several years
forced them to discontinue outlays in the maintenance of
the condition of their farms. The poor clay lands are
going out of cultivation. In the corn counties much of the
land is in this position, and considerable tracts being
without tenants are farmed by the landowners. Large
reductions of rent have been made, and where land has
from any cause been pressed for sale, the price has fallen
greatly. At no period of the Queen's reign has there been
such depression in the interests of agriculture as now
exists in the year of her Majesty's Jubilee.
On the other hand, never has there been a time In which cheap
every article of food has been so plentiful and cheap. In
the earlier years of the Queen's reign the home and foreign
supply of wheat was in the proportion of two-thirds home-

144 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
grown, and one-third foreign. In 1851 the whole supply
afforded 317 lbs. per annum to each of a population
of 27,000,000, which at the average price of the previous
ten years of protective duties amounted to 53,500,000Z.
But the total supply of 1885 gave 400 lbs. per head to a
population of 36,000,000, at a cost of 43,700,000Z. Not
only were our people, 8,500,000 increased in number, fed
with bread at a diminished cost of 10,000,000Z. sterling,
but each individual had an additional supply of one-fourth
beyond that of 1851.
The supply of animal food in 1885, as compared with
1851, increased in still larger proportion. The quantity to
each individual of the increased population was 115 lbs.
per head for the year 1885, as compared with 90 lbs. per
head in 1851. This is an increase of nearly one-third to
the supply of each person, the main part of which increase
has come from foreign countries. A result so beneficial in
the supply of bread and meat, to our ever-increasing
population, must render any return to protective duties on
food in this kingdom impossible so long as that increase
is maintained by the other successful industries of the
country. These increased supplies are coming yearly in larger
proportions from the great colonies and possessions under
the dominion of the Queen. The supply of wool from
Australia and other British possessions comprises nearly
four-fifths of the 650 million pounds grown in this country
and imported annually, nearly 'one-half of which is again
exported to the Continent. Of the foreign supply of meat
the United States still furnishes much the largest propor
tion. But, by the refrigeratory process now successfully
introduced, more than a million carcases of sheep are
already yearly brought to us from New Zealand, and laid
down in excellent condition in London, at a cost for killing.

A GRIC UL TURE 1 4 5
packing, cooling, and freight of 1\d. a pound, which on
mutton of such good quality leaves, from the price here, a
reasonable profit in the difference of the value of the carcase
there, and here, to the importer. And as there is a marked
decline in the sheep stocks of Western Europe, and no pro
bability of much increase in North America owing to the
costly keep indoors during the severity of the winter cli
mate, it is satisfactory to the British consumer that he has
the prospect of increasing supplies of good mutton from
his brethren in Australia and New Zealand.
The agricultural experiments of Sir John Bennet Lawes, sir j. b.
which have been continued for more than forty years of the
Queen's reign, have clothed ' Practice ' with ' Science,' in
many points on which the British farmer was groping for
knowledge. These experiments have been made on land on
his estate of Eothamsted in Hertfordshire, very accessible
to the agricultural inquirer. The results have been pub
lished annually, and the farm itself, with every detail of
the work both in the field and the laboratory, has been
laid open to public inspection and criticism. Wheat, barley,
and oats have been grown under a variety of manures,
plots with no manure being in every case reserved for
comparison. Eoot crops, including potatoes, have been
added. And in 1856 an important series of experiments
was commenced on grass land, which, with very little
change on each of the twenty plots, has been continued to
the present time. The experience of the past thirty years
shows that the natural produce of grass may be doubled,
and even trebled, by the continuous use of special manures.
As two-thirds of the cultivated land in this country, and all
the permanent pastures, are in grass, this series of experi
ments is of very great interest and value.
' It is quite certain,' says Sir John Lawes, ' that arable
soils are poorer than the pastures from which they are
VOL. II. ^

146 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
frequently derived, and that their fertility must be restored
to them before a fresh pasture can be said to be re-established.
It is the cost of this operation that has given rise to the
saying that " laying land down to pasture breaks a man."
The question is whether some of the cost incurred cannot
be saved. There is plenty of foul land in the country upon
which the experiment might be made. And I should be
disposed to advise those who have the misfortune to own
such land, at all events to try whether the superior grasses,
when aided by manure, will not be competent gradually to
drive the weeds out of the soil.'
In the wheat experiments it is not surprising to find,
after forty successive crops, that the soil begins to exhibit
signs of exhaustion. This has been corrected by interposing
a heavily dunged green crop, while the introduction of red
clover, at long intervals, between the corn crops is also found
to add greatly to the corn-producing power of the soil. To
attain a maximum-paying produce he finds that the land
should be dunged heavily for mangold to be followed with
wheat, or barley, or oats, for several years in succession ;
then interpose clover, and follow it with corn crops, keeping
the land perfectly clean, and manuring all the corn crops
with nitrate of soda and superphosphate. When the land
shows need of change, begin again with heavily-dunged
green crops. Successive crops of barley he finds to pay
better, and they are more certain in his climate, Hertford
shire, than either wheat or oats, and give more corn in
proportion to straw. If a heavily dunged green crop is
introduced, it is not necessary for a further succession of
years to give any other manure to the corn crops than
nitrate of soda and superphosphate. Potash (which may
be supplied by dung) is very necessary in a grass manure,
especially for clover, which, unlike corn, is injured by
ammonia. The grass experiments show that, by giving

AGRICULTURE 147
food to the plants, the strongest and best varieties appro
priate what they most need, and by the law of the strongest
put the weaker down. In the best plots the weeds almost
disappear, while on one plot to which no manure is applied
the weeds form 50 per cent, of the produce.
In the same direction the Eoyal Agricultural Society of
England, some years ago, commenced a series of experiments
on the growth of crops, and the fattening of live stock, with
a special relation to the manures applied and the food used,
and to the effect of the manures resulting from specific
kinds of food. The Duke of Bedford with great liberality
and public spirit has placed suitable land and buildings
at the disposal of the society, whose council, under the
guidance of their very able secretary, Mr. Jenkins, lately
deceased, and their consulting chemist, and their botanist,
regulate and superintend the experiments. The whole is
open to public inspection, and the results are carefully
elaborated and published in the Journal of the Society.
A most useful class of agricultural improvements has im-
been the introduction, during the Queen's reign, of im- seels^and
provements in the seed of the various kinds of corn and ^*°°'^^-
vegetables, as well as the earlier maturity and improved
character of the live stock. By careful selection, and more
recently by hybridisation, improved varieties of wheat,
barley, and oats have been introduced with much success,
and the same with potatoes, mangold, and other vegetable
crops. The improvement in sheep and cattle is even more
conspicuous. Probably one-fourth in weight of meat
brought to market has been added in these fifty years by
the earlier maturity of our live stock. What was exceptional
then has now become general. The quality of seeds of all
kinds, and of sheep, cattle, and horses, in all parts of the
country, has greatly and generally improved.
In regard to farm implements the most certain gain has

148 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Farm been in the introduction of the reaping and mowing machine.
ments. This machine, originally the invention of a Scotch clergy
man, was for many years neglected in this country, but was
improved in 1834, and perfected by Mr. McCormick in the
United States, where the crops of vast plains of wheat
could not otherwise have been handled from want of labour.
In 1848, 700 of the McCormick reapers were sold in
America, and the annual sale had grown to 50,000 in 1884.
Again introduced into this country in recent years, when
difficulties arose between employers and labourers, the
use of the reaping machine rapidly spread, and it is con
structed in this country to meet the requirements of much
heavier crops than those in America. The farmer now
reaps and gathers his corn at a great saving of cost, and
in the knowledge that at the most critical season he is
able to secure his crops with little outside help. Sheaf-
binders attached to the machine are successfully coming
into use.
The steam cultivator, first invented by the late John
Fowler, of Leeds, and much improved by his successors in
the business, has been largely employed, but as yet more as
an auxiliary than in superseding the ordinary working stock
of the farm. It is invaluable in enabling the farmer to
overtake the preparation of his land for crops during
favourable weather ; and where deep ploughing is required
to bring up fresh and to bury exhausted soil, no implement
can effect the object so cheaply and expeditiously. But it
is a costly implement, and, except on large farms of heavy
land, it is more prudent for the ordinary farmer to hire
when he requires it, than to purchase.
The variety of implements and machines now used in
English agriculture will be understood from the fact that the
number of such articles exhibited at a recent annual show
of the Eoyal Agricultural Society exceeded 6,000. Many of

AGRICULTURE 149
these were ki use in the early years of the Queen's reign,
but additions and improvements are every year being made
to them. Within recent years the system of storing in pits or Ensilage.
stacks, termed silos, green grass or fodder of any kind, has
been successfully introduced. In wet seasons for hay-
makuig this practice is found very convenient, and, though
the nutritive quality of the grass is not increased, it may
be safely preserved in this way in such seasons. Coarse
grass which could not otherwise be utilised can by this
process be turned to good account. It is claimed as espe
cially useful on dairy farms, as winter provender for cows
in milk, where green food cannot otherwise be profitably
grown. The future of the landed iaterests, and of the public The
. . - future.
in regard to the supply of food, may be briefly considered.
There are already signs of returning activity in trade, and
with a population increasing at the rate of nearly a thousand
a day, there must be a growing increase in the consumption
of bread and meat. Bread was never more plentiful and
cheap, and any return to the prices that ruled twenty years
ago can neither be expected nor hoped for, seeing the
vast change and economy in the cost of transport, and the
ever- widening fields of colonial and foreign production. In
ten years the growth of wheat in this country has declined
thirty per cent. Other kinds of corn remam much as
before. Barley meets with severe competition from Indian
corn, which, in its various uses, prevents any considerable
rise of price in barley, Oats, which are still largely grown
in Scotland and Ireland, seem likely to mamtam their
place. The dairy and market-garden system, fresh milk
and butter, veal and lamb, beef and mutton of the finest
quahty and early maturity, vegetables, and hay and straw,
are every year enlarging their circle around the seats of

I50 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
increasing populations. These are the articles which can
least bear distant transport, and are therefore likely longest
to withstand the influence of foreign competition. The
refusal to admit live cattle or sheep from any foreign
country where cattle disease is known to exist, has proved
of the utmost value as a sanitary precaution. As the
result of lower prices, the poor clay soils, which are expensive
to cultivate and meagre in yield, will be gradually all laid
to grass, or be planted, and the poorer soils of every kind,
upon which the costs of cultivation bear a high proportion
to the produce, will follow the same rule of necessity.
During the last twelve years the permanent pasture in
this country has from this cause been increased by more
than two million acres, upwards of ten per cent.
The consumption of food in this country has increased
not only in proportion to the increase in the numbers of
the people, but also with the hitherto augmenting scale of
wages. Fifty years ago the agricultural labourers rarely
could afford to eat animal food more than once a week. Of
late years some have had it every day, and, as the condition
of the rest of the people has improved in a greater degree,
the increased consumption of food in this country has been
prodigious. In addition to the whole of our home produce,
we are importing in this Jubilee year probably 140,000,000Z.
worth of foreign food. If this goes on at the same pro
gressive rate for the next twenty years, we may look
forward with confidence to adequate supplies, at moderate
prices, from the fertile soils of the Queen's colonial posses
sions in Australia, India, and North America, besides what
may come from foreign countries.
British agriculture is now undergoing the most severe
trial to which it has yet been exposed. In 1851, when
concluding the inquiry made by me in that and the previous
years into the state of agriculture in the English counties,

AGRICULTURE 151
I referred to education in its widest sense as the most
powerful aid in its further progress. Knowledge — of their
business and true interest by the landlord and the tenant,
and of the best mode of promoting his own welfare by the
labourer — was then the first requisite towards an improve
ment of their condition. The tide of prosperity had begun
by the recent gold discoveries of California and Australia,
and it continued to flow for the next twenty-five years.
During that period, from the greater prosperity of the people
and the increased consumption of agricultural produce, the
capital value of the land and of the live stock and crops
upon it were increased by four hundred and forty-five
millions sterling. The measures of a public character,
required in addition to those within the power of individual
landlords and farmers, have to a considerable extent been
accorded by the Legislature. The Settled Land Act, and
the Agricultural Holdings Acts in Great Britain, with the
Land Acts in Ireland, mark a great advance in land
legislation. But one of the most important, that of
cheapening and facilitating the transfer of land, has still
to be undertaken.
Much of the increase of capital value of the land, up to
1874-76, has since that time been lost, first by a series of
bad years unprecedented in their continuance, causing not
only diminished crops, but also heavy loss in the hve stock
through the wet and unhealthy character of the seasons.
The subsequent collapse of prices, which took place in 1885,
falling as it did upon an agricultural class already im
poverished, has completely disheartened both landlords and
tenants, and has seriously crippled their power to give
employment to their labourers. Its effects are at the same
time felt among the tradesmen in the country villages and
towns, whose business is dependent on the spending power
of the country squires and farmers. It is a remarkable

152 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
fact, illustrative of the change of the agricultural system,
naturally brought about under the influence of foreign
competition, that the home production and value of wheat
in England and Wales at the end of fifty years of the reign
of Queen Victoria, which, at the commencement, was
estimated by Mr. Pusey at 13,500,000 quarters, worth
31,000,000Z., will not in 1886 exceed one-half of that
quantity, and be worth not much more than one-third of
it in value. This clearly explains the great fall in the rent
of the wheat lands in this country, especially those of the
heavier class in the counties on its eastern side.
' Transfer- These islands are becoming every ten years less agri-
British ° cultural and more pastoral. In the last twenty years three
^^"" million acres, nearly one-seventh of land under rotation,
culture. » ./ '
have been added to the permanent pasture. This change is
likely to go on, as only the better class of lands can com
pete successfully with the products of rich and unexhausted
soils now brought so cheaply to our shores. We have still an
advantage over these in the cost of transport, which is equal
to the rent here. And to that extent British agriculture on
the good land should be able to hold its own. But the poor
clay soils, which are expensive to cultivate and small in
yield, and the poorer soils of every kind, will be gradually
laid to grass, or be planted for timber. The climate is
admirably adapted for grazing. If our manufactures and
mines continue to maintain a successful competition with
other countries, and if our population, increasing at the
rate of one thousand a day, besides sending largely to
our colonies, can find adequate employment at home, there
will still be a remunerative market for that description of
agricultural produce which can least bear the risk, and cost,
of carriage from distant countries. James Caied.

153

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY.
Before commencing my brief account of the chief events Eetro-
that have characterised the history of this important ^^^° '
industry during the past fifty years, it may be well shortly
to refer to its position at the end of the last century,
in order the better to provide an estimate of the great
changes that have taken place within comparatively recent
times. About the close of the year 1800 the cotton industry,
among all the larger industries of the country, was probably
the most backward. It had been started under circum
stances of great difficulty. The raw material had to be
imported from very distant countries, and that, too, at a time
when steam-power was unknown and the means of transit
were slow, costly, and precarious. The people of India then
possessed such aptitude and skill in the arts of spinning
and weaving that their own cotton productions seemed
almost to defy foreign competition.
It is not necessary to refer in any detail to the disco
veries and inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton,
Kay, Cartwright, and Peel, men whose names are imperish-
ably entwined with the annals of British industry, and espe
cially with that of Lancashire. These early inventors may,
however, be fairly described as the great pioneers of the
cotton manufacture, and mauily to their genius is due its
capability for future development.

1 54 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
In the inventions of Watt and the application of steam
to the various processes of cotton manufacture will, of course,
be found the primary causes of the remarkable and rapid
progress of the cotton industry. Let us glance at its earlier
condition, and the status of its workers before they came
under the all-changing influence of steam as a motive power.
In its early institution, and for many generations after
wards, the cotton manufacture, like many another infant
industry, was conducted on a semi-domestic basis ;' that is
to say, the workshops were situated in or adjoining the
dwellings of the workers, and frequently the father or head
of the family group acted as superintendent and manager
of the little manufactory, which seldom comprised more
than three or four looms. In one respect at least the
operatives of this time seem to have been specially favoured,
for many enjoyed the much-coveted allotment of land
attached to their cottages. The hard-and-fast rules of the
factory system, as to hours of labour and other matters, had
of course no part in ordering the lives and labour of these
early and, on the whole, well- circumstanced workers. Their
condition, indeed, must have been one of comfort and
independence compared with that which awaited them and
their successors.
One can well imagine what a complete change the intro
duction and consolidation of the factory system effected in
the circumstances of these people. The transition from the
quiet seclusion of the hamlet to the busthng town, from the
family workroom with its paternal head to the large factory
overlooked by exacting taskmasters, and resounding with
the rattle and whirl of machinery, formed a strange con
trast, and, as a rule, the cotton operative in the early days
of the factory system keenly felt his altered lot. Nor is
this surprising. Ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-lodged, ill-cared for,
without any educational advantages or intellectual pursuits.

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 155
his unremitting toil pursued without a ray of hope, the
best that could be said of his life was that it was short.
Indeed, such were the evils incident to the introduction of
the new order of things, coupled with the laissez-faire
attitude then assumed by the State, that they might have
caused even Jefferson himself to have questioned the sound
ness of his own dictum, that that State was governed best
which was governed least. Allowance must of course be
made for the complete changes brought about by the transi
tion from the old to the new methods of manufacture.
Experience alone could effect many of the social and
sanitary reforms that were necessary for the preservation of
health, order, and cleanliness in the workrooms and shops
of the factories. But still, after taking every circumstance
into consideration, it must be admitted that the early cotton-
lords were animated in their dealings with their workpeople,
¦ in far too many cases, mainly by motives of self-interest.
They regarded them too often as hewers of wood and
drawers of water — as so many human beings born into the
world for labour, and little else. But at length the evils of
the situation became so marked as to call for legislative
interference, and the result was the passing of various
Factory Acts, commencing with the year 1825 or thereabouts,
which had for their objects the regulation of the hours of
labour and restrictions on the employment of children and
young persons.
The introduction of these humane and sensible regu
lations must ever be associated with the name of Eobert
Owen, one of the most remarkable men of the present
century. At the age of eighteen he became a partner in a
small cotton-mill. Fortune favoured him, and he pros
pered in one lucrative concern after another, tfll he became
the head of the New Lanark establishment, which included
a farm of 150 acres and supported 2,000 inhabitants. The

156 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
mills at New Lanark were started in 1784, when Owen was
a boy, by Arkwright, in conjunction with the benevolent
David Dale, of Glasgow, whose daughter became Eobert
Owen's wife. Owen was a consummate man of business,
and, had wealth been his ruhng passion, he might have left
behind him a princely fortune. But his chief solicitude
was for the factory toilers. The library, schoolroom, and
other provisions which he made for the comfort and eleva
tion of his operatives were then almost unknown advan
tages among the working classes. He believed that labour,
to be effective, must be based upon health and contentment,
and to his suggestions are due the main features of our
present system of factory and workshop legislation. To
his name must be added those of Lord Shaftesbury, John
Fielden, and Eichard Oastler, the ' factory king ' — men
who thought and laboured for the white slave of Lanca
shire, as Wilberforce, Macaulay, and Clarkson did for the
negro.
The con- The foUowiug quotations, showing the. condition of the
the cot- cotton trade at the commencement of the present reign,
at^thTac^- ™ay not be without interest. They will, I think, support
^lal^iT ^he conclusion that, within the period treated of, greater
changes have taken place in the social and economic con
dition of the people than have occurred within any previous
period. At the accession of her Majesty Queen Victoria, the
staple trade of Lancashire was in anything but a prosperous
condition ; in fact it seems to have been suffering from one
of those occasional seasons of depression which checker the
fortunes of all great industries. It is not my duty to trace
in any detail the fiscal and other causes which must be
held accountable for the terrible state of affairs with which
our record opens. Professor Levi, in his interesting work
on the history of British commerce, thus refers to it : ' Great

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 1^7
gloom then gathered over our commerce. A panic set in
in earnest, and bankruptcies, cessation of business, depre
ciation of goods and securities, prostration of trade, followed
each other with wonderful rapidity.. At Manchester there
were 50,000 hands out of employment, and most of those
employed were working only half-time.' I may add the well-
known and independent testimony of M. Guizot as to the
condition of the manufacturing centres of Lancashke at that
time. Writing of the period 1836-40, he says : ' Bolton, a
town of the second class, near Manchester, contauiing about
50,000 people, had been thrown by the commercial crisis mto
a condition of utter misery. Out of fifty manufactories, thirty
were closed ; more than 5,000 operatives knew not where to
seek or obtain the means of subsistence. Disorder and
crime, as well as misery, increased with awful rapidity ;
nearly half the houses were tenantless, the prisons over
flowed, infants died in their mothers' arms, fathers deserted
their wives and families, striving to forget those they
could no longer maintain.' But brighter days were at
hand, and, aided by vsdser fiscal laws and freer institutions,
not only the cotton trade, but the general commerce of the
country, was destined to experience a progress and develop
ment of which the following figures, showing in a compact
form some of the chief movements in our trade dm-ing the
last fifty years, will afford some idea :
Imports.^

Proportion

Year

Total value

per head of population
of United Kingdom

£

£ s. d.

1856

174,544,154

6 3 2

1860

210,630,873

7 7 0

1870

303,296,082

9 16 9

1880

411,229,565

11 17 7

1885

370,967,955

10 4 3

The real value of imports was not ascertained till 1854.

158

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Exports.

Proportion

Tear

Total value

per head of popnljition
of United Kingdom

£

£ s. <2.

1840

51,308,740

1 18 9

1850

71,367,885

2 11 10

1860

135,891,227

4 14 7

1870

199,640,983

6 9 6

1880

233,060,446

6 8 10

1885

213,044,500

5 17 3

Growthof the
cottontrade during
the last
fifty
years.

Since the commencement of the present reign the exports
have been more than quadrupled, and within the last thirty
years the imports have been more than doubled.
It may fairly be said that Great Britain has held her own
with other nations of the world in the cotton industry, not
withstanding the so-called protective tariffs imposed by so
many countries, and which, it should be remembered, neces
sarily impede and limit the volume of business. The fol
lowing figures show the imports of raw cotton during the
last five decades : Raw Cotton imported. lbs.
1840  592,000,000
1850  685,000,000
I860  1,390,938,752
1870  1,338,305,584
1880  1,628,664,576
1885  1,425,816,336
It has been estimated that at the present day, within an
area of thirty miles round Manchester, the population
exceeds that of the hke area round St. Paul's. A vast pro
portion of this mass of humanity is either in immediate
connection with the manufacture of cotton, or minister
ing m one way or another to its requirements — either by
bleachmg, dyeing, printing, machine-making, or otherwise
preparmg the article for manufacture and sale, or distri
buting it for consumption. The following figures give the

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 159
census returns during the last fifty years for the county of
Lancashire :
1831  1,336,854
1841  1,667,054
1851  2,031,236
1861  2,429,440
1871  2,819,495
1881  3,454,225
Before the inventions of Hargreaves, .Arkwright, and Cromp
ton, the county of Lancaster was but sparsely inhabited.
The united population of Manchester and Salford at the
commencement of the century was, in round numbers, about
87,000. At the present time the population of Manchester
with Salford is about 570,000, whilst, as we have seen, that
of the county was given at 3,454,225 at the last census.
As the increase has been most marked in the centres con
nected with the cotton industry, it seems clear that to the
influence of that industry this enormous augmentation is
attributable. A few figures may here be useful as demonstrating the
extension of the cotton trade during the last half-century.
In 1837 there were about 18,000,000 spindles.
„ 1886 „ „ „ 43,000,000
„ 1837 „ „ „ 100,000 looms.
„ 1886 „ „ „ 600,000 „
In 1837 the consumption of cotton was about 400,000,000 lbs,
„ 1886 „ „ „ 1,451,200,000 „

Number of Persons employed in Cotton Factories.

Tears

Males

Females

Total
Persons

Under
13 years
of age

Of and
above
13 years
of age

Total
Males

Under
13 years
of age

Of and
above
13 years
of age

Total
Females

1870 1874
1878 1885

23,142 33,07228,66323,904

155,255 153,948156,809 172,474

178,397 187,620185,472196,378

20,139 33,22833,26026,088

251,551 258,667264,171281,603

271,691 291,895297,431 307,691

450,087 479,515482,903504,069

i6o THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
The A sketch of the cotton industry during the last fifty
Famine, jears would not be complete without some account of the
great Cotton Famine which resulted from the American
Civil War. At that time the spinners relied far too much
upon the planters of the Southern States of America for
their supply of the raw material. The institution of
slavery, being one of those devils which would not come out
of a nation without rending it, had in the opinion of many
rendered a civil war at some time or other almost in
evitable. It was easy to predict that such a war, when it
did come, would prove disastrous to the staple industry of
Lancashire. With the view of averting such a calamity,
efforts had been made to encourage the growth of cotton in
countries other than the Southern States of America. As
far back as the year 1850 a meeting of the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce was held for the ' purpose of con
sidering whether any course was open whereby an enlarged
commercial intercourse with India could be promoted and
an increased supply of cotton obtained.' Nothing, however,
was effected. The danger was not imminent, and apathy
once more reigned supreme. A few years later, in the year
1857, the uneasiness consequent upon our obvious depen
dence upon one source of supply again reasserted itself,
and the result was the establishment of the Cotton Supply
Association, the object of which was to promote the growth
of cotton in India and other countries. But when the
note of war sounded in the great Eepublic, Lancashire
was still in complete dependence on the Confederate States
for its supply of cotton. The dreaded evil had become a
stern reality. To appreciate the force of the calamity
which now fell upon Lancashire and the surrounding dis
tricts, let us look at the imports from all the cotton
countries for 1860, the year previous to the declaration
of war.

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY i6i

The United States .

lbs.
1,115,890,608

Bahamas and Bermudas .

585,984
British West India Islands
464,800
New Grenada and Venezuela
225,120
Brazil ....
17,286,864
The Mediterranean .
Egypt ....
82,.544
43,954,004
East Indies . . . ,
204,141,168
China ....
3,920
Other countries
8,303,680
It will thus be seen that of the total amount imported,
viz. 1,390,938,752 lbs., no less than 1,115,890,608 lbs. came
from America.
In June 1861 the cotton trade was in a surfeited condi
tion. Mr. Arthur Arnold, in his ' History of the Cotton
Famine,' says : ' At the time of the battle of Bull's Eun there
was more cotton in England than at any other period of the
trade. . . . The exports of yarn and goods for the first nine
months of the year 1861 amounted to 537,969,000 lbs., less
only by 16,250,000 lbs. than the exports for the same period
of the previous year. But the total production of yarns and
goods from January to September 1861 was 779,279,000 lbs.,
of which, therefore, 241,801,000 lbs. were retained at
home. The average home consumption for this period
would be 135,000,000 lbs., so that in the first nine months
of 1861 at least 100,000,000 lbs. of yarn and goods were
added to the large stocks then remaining in the country.'
In October of this year, the first signs of distress and
disaster appeared, mills and factories beginnmg to work half-
time. Middling Orleans now rose twopence per pound, and
before the year closed, that staple was seUing at about a
shilling a pound. Lancashire's difficulty became India's
opportunity, and the hitherto neglected Surat cotton rose
in this month from sevenpence farthing to tenpence per
pound. A general conviction now spread among the com
munity that, though the crisis might be severe, it would
VOL. II. M
1 62

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

not be of long duration. The cotton-masters of Blackburn
were the first to propose a public meeting to consider the
prevalent distress, and their example was followed by several
large towns. The grey dawn of the new year of 1862
opened upon a scene of much misery and privation. Some
idea of the poverty and distress then prevailing in the chief
cotton manufacturing towns may be afforded by the figures
showing the imports of cotton for the year after the declara
tion of war and during the remainder of the famine.
Quantities of Raw Cotton imported into the United Kingdom from the
United States, India, and Egypt — which are the three Principal
Countries from which the Raw Cotton was imported dwring the Cotton
Famine.

Tears

The United States

Egypt

East Indies

1862 186318641865

lbs.
13,524,224 6,394,080
14,148,064
135,832,480

lbs.
59,012,464
93,552,368
125,493,648
176,838,144

lbs.
392,654,528
434,420,784 506,527,394
445,947,000

Average Prices for the same Period.

Tears

The United States

Egypt

Bast Indies

Per cwt.

Per cwt.

Per cwt.

£ a. d.

£ 3. d.

£ s. d.

1862

10 2 4

7 1 4

6 5 9

1863

11 5 8

10 11 8

8 18 11

1864

13 11 10

12 15 3

8 9 0

1865

9 18 6

8 16 1

6 5 7

It will be observed that American cotton, the average price
of which for the year 1860 was 3Z. Os. 4fZ. per cwt. and
for the year 1861 3Z. 12s. 5d. per cwt., had trebled in value.
During the summer of this year. East Indian cotton began
to come more prominently into demand. The average
price for this year was no less than 6Z. 5s. 9d. per cwt. ;
whereas for the year 1850 it did not command a greater
average value than IZ. 17s. per cwt. Nothing but dire
necessity could make the Indian cotton acceptable to the
large majority of spinners, that description of cotton being

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 163
of an inferior quality, short in staple, and harsh and brittle
in fibre. It was, further, altogether unadapted to machi
nery which had been designed to deal exclusively with the
fine quahties and long staples of American and Egyptian
growth. Great damage was inflicted on the fine and deli
cate appliances used m spinning and weavmg the softer
sorts of cotton ; but eventually the situation had to be
faced, and vast sums were expended in adapting the
machinery to the new order of things. So great were the
changes needed in this respect, that the alterations effected
by spuiners and manufacturers, in nearly every depart
ment of their works, amounted almost to the creation of a
new industry.
The month of May 1862 saw the establishment of two
great charitable agencies, viz. the Central Belief Committee
of Manchester and the Mansion House Committee of Lon
don — public bodies which, in spite of some mistakes, un
questionably earned the gratitude of the public for the
manner in which they discharged their self-allotted duties.
The originator of the Mansion House Committee was
Mr. W^iUiam Cotton, who first brought the subject to the
notice of Lord Mayor Cubitt. On May 16 that dignitary
was able to announce that a fund had been established
under the name of ' The Lancashire and Cheshire Operatives'
Belief Fund,' and that it had been resolved to send 1,500Z.
to the distressed districts. This was the first instalment of
the half-million sterling ultimately subscribed under the
auspices of the London organisation. A committee was
then started in Manchester, it bemg thought that relief
could be best dispensed locally ; and a conference was
summoned by the Mayor of Manchester, which resulted in
the estabhshment of the Central Eehef Committee, Lord
Derby being elected the chairman. Sir James Kay- Shuttle-
worth vice-chairman, and Mr. John WiUiam Maclure hono-
M 2

i64 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
rary secretary. In addition to these two great charitable
agencies, the Government — through the Poor Law Board —
was not unmindful of its duties, and the passing of the
Union Belief Act enabled the boards of guardians of certain
unions to obtain temporary aid to meet the extraordinary
demands for relief with which they were beset. A feeling
of satisfaction was felt throughout the whole of Lancashire
that the Poor Law Department at that time was controlled
by one who bore the honoured name of Villiers ; and on
this point the Manchester Exaininer wrote : ' If the un
employed of these districts wish for a guarantee that their
wants will not be neglected by the State in this season of
bitter distress, they have it in the fact that Charles Villiers
is the President of the Poor Law Board.'
A Public Works Act was also passed, by which local
authorities were empowered to undertake works of general
public utility. Thus another avenue for relieving the dis
tress was opened, these works being the means of providing
work for many of the unemployed. In the summer of this
year the Queen, under the title of the Duchess of Lan
caster, sent a donation of 2,000Z. to the Belief Fund, and
among the many kindly acts which must ever be associated
with the period was the terse telegram, ' From Victoria
Belief Fund to the Mayor of Manchester : For relief of
the distress we send you 5,500Z.'— a mark of colonial
sympathy which was much appreciated.
In 1863 the clouds began to lift, and the distress
decreased slowly but steadily. In December 1862 Mr.
Farnall had reported that there were 271,983 relieved
by boards of guardians. In June 1863 the number was
159,222, showing a decrease of 112,761. In the winter of
1862 the number relieved by the various boards of guardians
and the Central Belief Committee together had amounted
to a total of 506,601. In the summer of 1863 this total

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 165
was reduced to 264,014, havhig become less by 48 per cent. ;
and the acute stage of the famine might now fairly be con
sidered to have passed. The work done by these two relief
committees may be recorded as amongst the noblest of the
many noble efforts of charity that have adorned the present
reign. Up to June 1863 rehef had been afforded to the
extent of 1,974,203Z., received from the following sources :
Central Belief Fund ,  £685,035
Colonial and foreign  88,856
Sale of consignments  498
Interest on balances  6,791
Value of donations in kind  111,099 892,279
Mansion House Fund ...... 503,131
Cotton District and Liverpool Relief Funds . . 254,380
Local relief funds  283,979
Strictly local sources  40,434
£ 1,974,203
It should be mentioned that the committee of the Central
Belief Fund received, in its deliberations, the valuable
advice and assistance of Mr. H. B. Farnall, the Poor Law
Commissioner specially appointed by the Government, and
also the aid of a commissioner appointed to administer the
machinery put in motion by the Public Works Act.
Dr. Watts, of Manchester, in his book entitled ' Pacts of
the Cotton Famine,' thus estimates the losses consequent on
that visitation :
Employers'loBses, 3 years at £9,500,000 . . £28,600,000
Workpeople's „ „ £11,000,000 . . 33,000,000
Shopkeepers' losses on wages at 10 per cent. . 3,300,000
Losses on half employers' profit . . . 1,425,000
£ 66,225,000
Such are the main features of this sad period. As an
eye-witness of many of its .incidents, it is impossible for me
to withhold an admu-ing notice of the great patience and
fortitude of the distressed operatives, and their uniform

i66 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
excellence of conduct during the entire term of their priva
tions and losses.
Hiotsand It may fairly be hoped that the era of violent dis
turbances and riots has, so far as the cotton industry is
concerned, passed away for ever. The combinations and
the acts of physical disorder and revolt which marked its
early history as an organised industry had little reference
to any question of wages, but were mainly the outcome of
the misery and, it might almost be said, the oppressed and
downtrodden condition of the people. It is certain, also,
that the cotton trade has been little affected by any
restrictive action on the part of unions ; and though the
workpeople in- each of the departments have, for a long
time past, been associated in some form of vmion, the
function of those .bodies has .been chiefly directed to the
regulation of wages questions. Cotton, however, has had its
strikes and lock-outs, and on no insignificant scale. The
first, both as to date and importance, was the great strike
in Preston which took place in 1853. For forty long
weeks the cotton operatives of that town, under the leader
ship of Mr. George Cowell, held out against the em
ployers. Though assisted by contributions from Blackburn
and other manufacturing towns, the Preston spinners and
weavers suffered terrible privations ; and, as the result proved,
endured them in vain, for the masters eventually prevailed.
Many years passed, however, before the town and its in
dustry recovered from the effects of this long-continued
blockade. Compared to the great strike in Preston, those
which soon followed it at Colne and Padiham were of small
importance. But in 1861 an effort on the part of the
employers to reduce wages resulted in an extensive strike
at Blackburn, in which nearly 30,000 workpeople were in
volved. On this occasion the operatives, through their re
presentatives, suggested as one of their proposed terms of

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 167
agreement a considerable reduction in the time of working,
and, consequently, in the production of the mills. They
argued that in view of the scarcity of the material, which
was at that time severely felt, and the over-production of
goods which already existed, relief of an effective character
could only be obtained by restricting the exports to over
stocked markets by means of a substantial reduction in the
output. The same arguments have since been frequently
employed by the workpeople on occasions when a lower
scale of wages has been proposed, the object being, of
course, by present sacrifices, to produce a scarcity value for
cotton manufactures, which would result in higher prices,
and consequently higher wages. The contention on the other
hand was, that the enhanced cost of production, caused by
limited working of the factories, would not only cause still
larger losses, bnt would also operate greatly in favour of
foreign competition. The great Blackburn strike — though
involving, as usual, much suffering to the workpeople — was
happily not of very long duration, and terminated after a
few weeks' struggle in favour of a reduction of the wages.
The employers had for some time past possessed associations
of their own body, organised to deal in a combined manner
with the wages and other questions advanced by the work
people, and, in consequence of continued unprofitable trade,
a demand was made by the masters in 1877 for a reduction
of 10 per cent, on the existing scale of payment. This was
resisted, and led to a strike which extended over a large
area of North-East Lancashire. The struggle entailed
infinite loss and suffering not only on the workpeople, but
also on the shopkeepers and others dependent on the trade ;
and, after continuing the fight for two months, the opera
tives, through their delegates, proposed various terms of
settlements, including the submission of the case to arbitra
tion. These proposals were considered by the representa-

1 68 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
tives of both sides, but no agreement was arrived at.
Finally, the workpeople, under the influence of privation
and disappointment, broke out into open rioting in Black
burn, which ended in the destruction of Mr. Eaynsford
Jackson's house by fire, and many other acts as deplorable
as they have happily been exceptional in connection with such
disputes in the cotton industry. This time the masters
were again successful, and a reduction of wages was ulti
mately agreed to. It is satisfactory to record that, after
this unhappy conflict, several important disputes were
settled by arbitration between the representatives of the
masters and operatives, and thus a vast sum of waste,
misery, and ill-feeling was averted. The extensive strike
which took place in Oldham in 1885 originated, as usual,
in a demand for a reduction in wages, based upon the un
profitable condition of the trade. The proposals of the
masters were met with the now-established counter-pro
position on the part of the workpeople, to submit to a
reduction in wages only in connection with a limitation of
the production. As a matter of course, much suffering
ensued, and a compromise, involving a partial reduction,
was finally agreed to. Each successive strike has, however,
tended to estabhsh the conviction, both among employers
and workpeople, that such violent, barbarous, and wasteful
methods of settling wages disputes are unworthy the im
portance of the trade and the intelligence of those engaged
in it. The day ia probably not far distant when the peace
ful method of arbitration, which has recently gained so
much prominence, will be found effective for the adjustment
of all differences that may arise.
:improve- When the Queen ascended the throne, the factory system
machi-''^ inay be said to have been fully developed, and the machinery
nery and foj. preparing, spmnmg, and weaving cotton was established
upon principles mvented by Paul Arkwright, Hargreaves,

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 169
Crompton, and others for spinning ; and Kay, Cartwright,
and others for weaving. The leading features and principles
of these inventions are contained in the machinery of the
most modern miUs of the present day. Yet, though the
machinery requked for the processes of opening, scutch
ing, cleaning, carding, drawing, slubbing, roving, spinning,
doublmg, winding, warping, dressing, and weaving was
fairly complete in principle, it needed the most unremit
ting attention and skill on the part of the attendants. As
regards hand-mules, the work was most laborious, and
still required the spinner to effect the changes and to
perform many of the operations which are now performed
by self-actors. The machinery was in many instances of primitive con
struction and materials, and the work most required of our
mechanical engineers in the machine-making and cotton
trades was to improve, or otherwise replace and supersede,
these hand-assisted machines by automatic ones of more
suitable design, better materials, and more scientific and
accurate workmanship. In 1837 the machinery was bad in
design and faulty in construction, many parts being of
wood, and requiring not only incessant watchfulness on the
part of the workers, but in many instances the greatest
assistance m the performance of its operations. The impor
tant machines for spinning and cleaning the cotton are now
almost fireproof. They possess easy adjustability of feedmg-
tables and of rollers to the * beaters ; ' perfect construction
and forging of ' beater arms ; ' perfect balancing of ' beaters '
when finished. Woven wire is now used in the construction
of dust-cylinders, and air-tight compartments for leaf, seeds,
and waste ; there is also an arrangement for forming and
compressing cotton laps into five times the weight of the
laps formerly delivered. There are simple mechanical
arrangements for arresting the motion of the feeder, for

I70 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
stopping the machine when the lap is complete, and for
easily taking it out to supply the next machine.
The characteristics of the modern carding-machines are
strength and firmness, combined with good proportion of
parts and lightness. The framing is of suitable materials,
accurately built and joined and with planed surfaces as
bases for supporting the bearings of aU revolving parts,
whether v?ith fixed centres or with centres required to be
adjustable, vertically, radially, or laterally, as is the case in
these machines where the teeth of the cards on the cylinders,
doffers, rollers, and flats are constantly wearing, and where
the revolving surfaces are required to be close, true, and
sharp. The bearings and axles are now lubricated by simple and
cleanly means ; automatic grinding is substituted for hand-
grinding in carding engines.
The modern coiler and revolving can motions, for laying
and compressing the sliver delivered by the carding and draw
ing machines into cans, has greatly increased the contents
of the cans and eased the labour of the workpeople. The
machines are now stopped by automatic action, either when
the cans are empty or when the slivers are broken through
accident, or in case of cotton adhering to the rollers, thus
preventing waste ; also when the cans on the delivery side
of the machine are full. Electric ' stop motions ' have also
been invented, and are at some mills extensively adopted.
The combing-machine, patented in France by Heilmann,
was purchased for combing cotton in England by a syndi
cate composed of fine-spinners and machinists. It was
first used for combing cotton of long staple only ; but the
requirements of the hosiery and lace-making trades, as well
as the industry devoted to the production of sewing-machine
thread, have caused the combing-machine to be used in the
treatment of shorter staple cotton. The machine is now

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 171
employed for ' counts ' as low as thirty hanks in the pound,
where the greatest excellence in yarn is required. Although
many other machines have been invented and patented
since that of Heilmann was introduced, it still retains its
position. The improvements added to the original invention,
and the more perfect construction and accuracy of its details
and workmanship, have resulted m a machine of the highest
excellence. Differential motions and other improvements were intro
duced into slubbing, intermediate, and roving-frames more
than fifty years ago, but improved appliances in connection
with the winding have since been made in them. Very
much has also been done to these machines to enable
them to bear the increased speed of their spindles and other
duties required of them. So perfect, indeed, are they, that
all that the workers at them have to do is to watch the
machine when working, from the commencement of the set
to the completion of the full bobbin ; to remove the bobbin
when fuU, and to clean and oil the parts of the machine
when necessary.
Self-acting mules have been introduced by several in
ventors, and, amongst others, those of Eoberts, Potter, and
Smith have competed for the preference of the trade. Im
provements have been made in all these during recent years,
but ultimately that of Eichard Eoberts has been most
generally adopted. There are now many varieties of his
mule by different makers, but all contain the principles first
made successful by the genius of the original inventor.
This machine was, however, not entirely automatic, as
many of its functions had to be performed by the ' minder ; '
but latterly some of our best mechanical engineers, possess-
ino- higher mathematical knowledge and a more scientific
education, and being in almost daily intercourse with experts
in cotton-mills, have succeeded in makmg the now really

172 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
self-acting mule almost, if not quite, the most wonderful
machine in use in any trade. The attendants, minders,
&c., have now little more to do than to start the mules, when
first set in motion, by putting on the strap, stopping them
by pulling it off again at meal-times, at the end of the day,
or when the yarn spun has been wound on the spindle in
the quantity required to fill the ' cops ; ' to remove the spun
' cops ' from the spindles, and put the parts of the machine
in their original position at the commencement of the work.
The limit prescribed for this paper will not admit of an
enumeration even of the numerous improvements lately
made in the self-acting mule. It may, however, be stated
that in 1837 self-acting mules contained 324 spindles each ;
in 1856 480 spindles each, and were worked by one minder
and one piecer to a pair (960 spindles) , their united wages
being 25s. per week, and that the ordinary size of the * self-
acting mule' is now 1,080 spindles. One 'minder,' one
' big piecer,' and one ' httle piecer,' are required to work a
pair of mules of 2,160 spindles in each pair. The wages
are respectively about 36s., 14s. 3(Z., and 10s. per week ; and
the production in pounds of yarn, say from 30's to 40's,
varies from 1,760 to 1,310 lbs. per week.
The ' ring and traveher ' principle, as apphed to throstle-
spinning, was first shown in the International Exhibition of
1851, and many improvements have since been made in
these machines. They are now largely adopted by the trade
for spuming certain ' counts,' both on spools and bare spin
dles. The maximum speed of this spindle is now about
10,000 revolutions per minute, and the production of BO's
yarn is about 36 hanks per spindle, and 1|- lb. per spindle
per week.
In winding, warping, dressing, sizing, and weaving
machinery many improvements and new appliances for
saving labour have been made ; notably in arrangements of

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 173
mechanism for reversing the motion of the warp beam, and
for keeping warp threads taut during the search for broken
threads ; also for stopping these machines in case of warp
threads breaking, or in case of empty bobbins, and when
the warp beam is completed. Warp beams can now easily
be taken out and changed when full.
In the construction of steam-drying cylinders and coils
of pipes, and in arrangements of dividing-rods for enabling
one attendant to seek and pick up broken-sized threads, and
thus prevent imperfect warps bemg made, great improve
ments have been effected. Apphances also for ' letting off '
warp beams, for ' taking up ' and ' wmding on ' cloth beams,
and for weighting warp beams, so as to equalise the weight
on the warp threads as the diameter of the warp decreases
by unwinding, have been invented in almost endless variety.
In looms, self-acting revolving ' temples ' have replaced
the old and clumsy wooden hand temples. Apphances for
stopping the loom in case of empty spool or breakage of
weft thread from any cause, have been introduced and per
fected, and the calico-loom is now a very perfect machine.
Fifty years ago cotton-mills were not fireproof. The
rooms had low ceilings, were badly Hghted and ventilated,
while clumsy shafting and gearing, imperfectly guarded,
hung low overhead. The atmosphere, particularly m the
cotton-mixing, scutching, and card-rooms, was dusty and
unwholesome ; the people were emaciated and unhealthy-
looking. The mills now built vary from forty to forty -five
yards m width, and are generally built on the fireproof prm-
ciple, with lofty ceilmgs. The rooms are weU hghted and
ventilated. The gearing, shafting, and pulleys are high
overhead, well balanced, and completely guarded. The
atmosphere of the rooms is comparatively pure, and the
appearance of the workpeople has undergone a marveUous
change for the better.

174 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
At the commencement of the reign the export of machinery
was prohibited, and thus the labour market at home in the
engineering and machine trades was often greatly depressed,
whilst many of our trained mechanics left the country, after
having acquired their skill, and obtained work abroad in
establishing workshops in Belgium, France, and Switzer
land. In 1843 some of our leading commercial men and
statesmen were successful in obtaining the abrogation of
these unvdse laws, and many of our skilled artisans re
turned home to find ample work in a rapidly developing
industry. Our workshops, in the engineering and machine-
making businesses, became fully equipped ; the fuller de
velopment of the factory system and a profitable trade
created a demand for improvements in machinery, and
men of genius applied themselves to solve difficulties and to
supply the demand. There resulted a great improvement
in the workshop appliances and tools, and more accurate
and scientific methods of working prevailed. The drawing-
board superseded the rule of thumb, better patterns were
made, followed by improved moulding and casting, and
an impetus was given to all the trades concerned in the
industry. At the Exhibition of 1851, cotton machinery on a large
scale was for the first time shown to the general public,
and the whole process, from cotton-spinning to weaving
the calico, was practically illustrated. The Exhibition had
the effect of stimulating the production of new designs,
which included all the most recent improvements. Spinners
and manufacturers, who were working machinery ' which
had done well enough for their fathers ' and which they
considered good enough for themselves, saw for the first
time what was possible, and even necessary, in the future
profitable working of their industry. Large orders were
given for the new and improved machinery ; and, on the

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 175
whole, the Exhibition may be credited with having given a
considerable impetus to the trade.
Without disparaging in any way the efforts made and
the influence exerted on the trade of cotton-spinning and
weaving by the many able inventors who have devoted so
much study and genius to the subject, there is one man
whose labours during the whole of her Majesty's reign have
contributed so materially to the benefit and advancement of
the industry that his name should certainly find a place in
any record of this nature. I refer to Mr. Eichardson, of
Oldham. The necessity of a sound scienti&c education for
our skilled mechanics has always been patent to him, and he
has lost no opportunity of putting the means of obtaining it
within the reach of the young. The many appliances and
improvements introduced and developed by Mr. Eichardson,
and since generally adopted by the trade, are testimonials
to his genius in every cotton-mill in the world.
Our largest machine-workshops employed about 200 to
300 workpeople in 1837. Some of our largest establish
ments now employ 9,000 to 10,000 workpeople.
Many weavers formerly worked only one loom ; I be- ,
lieve none had more than two looms. Now, weavers manage
four, and in some cases — with the aid of ' learners ' — under
take the working of as many as six.
The important industry of Calico-printing was first caiico-
established in Lancashhe about the year 1764, and at that ^^^^ "^^'
period the product of the printer was subject to an excise of
threepence per square yard, to which sum another half
penny per yard was added in 1806. These duties were,
however, repealed on the accession of Lord Grey's Govern
ment to office, and then, for the first time since the founda
tion of the trade in England, it was permitted to enter into
competition with other kindred industries on a fair footing.
Previously to the year 1785, block-printing, aided by the

176 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
flat copperplate-printing, was the only mode of producing
the pattern.
The important improvement; supplied by the cylinder
printing-machine was first successfuUy brought into opera
tion by the firm of Livesey, Hargreaves, & Co. about 1785.
The average production of the block process was six pieces
of 25 yards each per day, employing one man and a boy,
and printing only one colour. The machine, with the same
amount of labour, will produce 200 to 500 pieces, of one or
more colours, the work being comparatively free from faults,
and effected with the accuracy and precision only obtainable
by Avell-arranged mechanical power.
The production of prints in Great Britain was, in 1750,
about 50,000 pieces per annum ; in 1794 it had risen to
1,000,000, and in 1830 to nearly 8,600,000— a progress
almost without parallel in the history of the cotton trade.
The removal of the heavy and harassing excise duty,
amounting to about 50 per cent., gave a prodigious impetus
to the industry, and the output sprang up from 8,600,000
in 1830 to about 20,000,000 pieces in 1852. The increased
demand led to rapid improvements in the speed and
efficiency of the machinery, so as to reduce the cost of
production. The number of colours capable of being placed
on the cloth was increased to three, six, ten, and even twenty,
forming an endless variety of designs, executed with mar
vellous speed and precision. These mechanical arrange
ments have now almost superseded the old system of block-
printing, which is chiefly used for large and many-coloured
elaborate designs on cretonne cloth. It may be interesting
to note some of the most important scientific discoveries
and inventions which have, within recent times, contributed
to the perfection, beauty, and success of this great branch
of our trade.
In 1845 egg albumen was first employed to fix pig-

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 177
ment colours, such as ultramarine blue. The white of
egg was dried and dissolved in water, then mixed with the
colour as a thickening. When the piece was steamed, the
albumen in the colour coagulated, thereby fixing the colour
on the cloth. Before the discovery of albumen, the brighter
shades were produced from decoctions of different woods,
such as logwood, peachwood, sapan, &c., and were called
sph-it colours. They were not fast under the influence
either of soap or light, and they possessed the further
disadvantage of occasionally rotting the cloth.
In 1854 blood albumen, made from the serum of blood,
was introduced, and, being very much cheaper, replaced egg
albumen for all but the lightest shades.
In 1856 the introduction of aniline colours gave a great Aniline
impetus to the print trade. These colours were very fashion
able, but unfortunately, after a few years, complaints were
made that they were not fast under the influence of light,
so most of them went comparatively out of use in the home
trade. A methylene blue was, however, introduced by the
Badische Aniline Company in 1877 — a colour which is fast
to both soap and light, and is now much used. Aniline
colours are much faster on wool than on cotton.
In 1856, mauve, the first aniline colour, was discovered
by Perkins. Other colours from coal-tar foUowed in quick
succession. In 1859 a colour called magenta, after the battle of that
name, was introduced, followed in 1860 by aniline blue.
In 1860 aniline black was discovered by Lightfoot. It is
the fastest and most brilhant black known, but, on exposure
to air containing sulphurous acid, has the disadvantage of
turning a greenish colour. In 1865 aniline green and saf-
franine (pink) came in, the latter very fugitive to light.
Extract of madder came generally into use in 1866. By
its means a perfectly fast prmt, with red and pinks, could be
VOL. II. N

178 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
obtained without dyeing. When the mordant is mixed with
the extract of madder, the same chemical change takes place
in the steaming- chest as was formerly effected in the dyebeck.
Hitherto the blacks, reds, and pinks had to be printed by
machine, and then the brighter colours blocked in by hand.
The advantages of the new process are that it enables the
printer to print, in the same design, pigment and aniline
colours, with black, red, and pink, thereby giving a greater
scope for variety,, besides considerably increasing the pro
ductive power of the machinery.
The year 1869 wrought a great revolution in the chemistry
of calico-printing through the discovery of artificial alizarine,
which is made from anthracine, a product of coal-tar.
Chemists had been working at this material for some years,
both on the Continent and in England. In less than five
years artificial alizarine was produced in such large quan
tities as almost entirely to supplant the natural alizarine
produced from madder. By its use printers were able to
produce the most brilliant dyed scarlet for the first time ;
and a great scope was thus afforded for new styles, especially
in those suitable for the East Indian markets.
In 1876 variety was given to the indigo discharge style
through the discovery, by a Mulhouse printer, of a process
whereby a pattern with pigment colours such as vermilion,
blue, yellow, &c. could be printed on the indigo ground.
At this time, also, the introduction of aniline scarlet almost
entirely supplanted cochineal. A method of making arti
ficial indigo was in 1880 discovered by a chemist, but it has
not met with much success, owing to its high cost and the
difficulty of working it, but efforts are now being made to
overcome those drawbacks. Eecent improvements and
appliances in the general processes of the print works have
been numerous and important. Formerly, goods had to be
hung up in a room called a ' stove,' and there subjected to

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 179
heat and moisture from two to five days before being dyed.
This process was caUed 'ageing.' In 1849 Mr. Thorn
patented a process for ' ageing ' goods by passing them
through a chamber containing aqueous vapour. The inven
tion remained hi use until 1856, when a modification of it
was successfully apphed by Mr. Crum. The new process
completed its work in fifteen minutes, as against two to five
days formerly requh'ed.
In 1875 a patent was taken out by CordeU and Mather
for continuous steaming. By means of this invention
the cumbersome process of undoing the ends of the
pieces and stitching them together agam after steaming is
avoided. The rate of wages paid to the operatives in the print
trade is higher than those of any other branch of the cotton
industry. Their occupation requires superior intelligence,
often some knowledge of chemistry, and great care and
exactness in the dehcate work.
In the industry of Bleaching very few important changes sieash-
have taken place during the last fifty years, either in the '°^'
chemistry or the mechanical principles applied to the
process. The impi:ovements effected have had relation
principally to details of machinery, for expediting and
perfecting the work, and the saving of tune and labour. In
these directions a very considerable advance has been made.
It is now nearly forty years since the old ' dash-wheel '
gave place to the more rapid and efficient washing-machine,
and the pieces of cloth are now stitched together, and passed
with great rapidity over winches, in an endless coil, from
the first stages of their treatment . to the various processes
to which they are afterwards subjected. Various inventions
have from time to time been submitted to the trade, having
for their chief object an economy in the time and cost of
the primary process of bleaching the cloth. But the most
N 2

i8o THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
recent of these, and the one which has perhaps attracted
most attention, is that known as the Mather-Thomson or
carbonic-acid process. The advantages claimed for this
invention are a saving in the chemicals and also in the
quantity of water employed, but above all an economy in
the process so great as to insure the production of cloth in
the white state in the short space of twelve hours, as
against the forty hours needed under the present system.
So far the invention above alluded to has only been tested
by a few firms, and some further experience is needed to
secure for it more general adoption.
India The development of our great Eastern Dependency, both
cotton as a producing country and as a market for our exports,
trade. -^^^ 'h%&sx most remarkable. In cotton-growing, however,
India has not made all the progress that could be desired.
Though the increase in her yield of that staple has been
considerable, and great improvements have been made in
the quality, cleaning, and packing, much remains to be
done, and a closer attention to this important subject
on the part of the authorities is most desirable. It is
only too obvious that another famine in American cotton
would find us in nearly the same position of dependence
as that which we occupied on the last deplorable occasion.
The quantities of raw cotton imported from India into the
United Kingdom are as follows : lbs.
1840  77,011,839
1850  118,872,742
I860  204,141,168
1870  341,467,728
1880  207,061,120
1885  145,130,048
The value of the cotton manufactures imported into
India in the year 1884-85 was 24,557,834Z. ; that of the raw
cotton exported from India in the same year was 13,286,367Z. ;

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY l8i
that of cotton twist, 2,441, lOlZ. ; and that of cotton goods,
896,928Z. The vast population of India, numbering with the
Native States over 250 millions, together with the relations
of this mass of humanity to our own Government, render
the dependency not only at present the most important,
but in the future the most hopeful market for our cotton
trade. Already we export to her about one-fourth of our
cotton productions, which is only a supply of about 2s. per
head of her population. There is ample justification for
the belief that, with full attention to the development of
her resources and due regard to the welfare of her people
under an economical and efficient system of government,
both the prosperity of the country and the purchasing
power of its inhabitants are capable of an infinite growth.
The duties which had been imposed by the Government
of India on the importation of cotton goods and fabrics into
that dependency had always been regarded with dislilie by
the Lancashke cotton trade, on account of then- protective
character, the unfair advantage afforded by them to the
Indian millowners, and the grievance they inflicted on the
native consumer of imported cottons. The agitation for
the abolition of these imposts had, however, been steadily
resisted both by a section of the Indian officials and also
by some economists in this country. It was urged that to
India belonged the sole right to decide how her taxation
should be imposed, and that the tax on the importation of
British cottons, even though it might foster a native
industry, was less objectionable than other methods of
raising revenue which would probably take its place. The
duties which had been imposed in the year 1873 yielded
about 800,000Z. per annum, and were the constant subject
of agitation on the part of the Manchester Chamber of
Commerce and the commercial bodies throughout Lanca-

182 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
shire. Frequent appeals were made both to the Indian
and Home authorities to abolish these objectionable duties,
and promises were from time to time obtained for their
remission so soon as the condition of Indian finance should
be thought to justify such a step. Years passed away,
however, and nothing was effected, but the agitation gained
force as it was seen that the flourishing industry which was
growing up in Bombay would ere long constitute a vested
interest, which would render the hopes of the repealers still
more difficult of attainment. In the year 1878, there being
some small or apparent surplus in the Indian budget, the
first step was taken in the remission of the duties, and
T-cloths, shirtings, and domestics made from yarns not
finer than 30's were admitted free. In 1879 a further step
was taken by the remission of duty on all grey cloths made
from yarns not finer than 30's. These concessions were far
from satisfying the Lancashire demand for complete free
trade and equality for all manufactures under the same
Government, and the agitation continued with unabated
vigour. In 1881 an influential deputation from the Man
chester Chamber of Commerce waited on Lord Hartington,
then Secretary of State for India, to urge the abolition of
the duties which still remained on certain classes of grey
goods, and also on bleached, dyed, and printed fabrics ;
and in May 1882 the efforts of Lancashire were crowned
with success by the total abolition of all the remaining
duties.
The Though anything approaching to a dogmatic treatise on
silver question, the question of Currency is far beyond the scope of my
present undertaking, so great has been the influence on the
cotton trade of the fluctuations in the relative value of silver
during recent times that it would be umpossible to pass
over the subject without notice. A Eoyal Commission has
been specially appointed to consider and report on the

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 183
question ; to this body, therefore, and to the numerous
private and pubhc authorities who are now eagerly discuss
ing the problem, I shall refer the reader for conclusions as
to the soundness respectively of the bimetalhc and mono-
metaUic systems.
It could hardly be expected that the great disturbance in
the relations and distribution of silver — which began with
the demonetisation of that metal by Germany in 1873, and
was quickly followed by the suspension of its free coinage
in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy— could be with
out effect in markets such as India and China, which not
only provide enormous custom for the manufacturers of
Lancashire, but whose money transactions are almost
entirely effected through the medium of silver.'
Whether these serious disturbances are destined to con
tinue or to have only a temporary influence on the cotton
trade of Lancashire, whether they are capable of adjustment
by the operation of natural causes or only by legislative
action, I shall not here discuss. I think, however, it will
hardly be disputed that, coincident with, and possibly in
consequence of, the great fall m silver exchange, there has
been an enormous development in the manufacturing esta
blishments of India. Bombay now almost rivals some of the
large manufacturing towns of Lancashire in the size and
equipment of its cotton-mills. There are in that city alone
some seventy mills fitted with the best machinery and appli
ances, in many cases earning profits superior to those ob
tainable in England. Already those establishments have
deprived Lancashire entirely of her trade in some large
classes of cloth and yarn formerly exported to India, while
they are proving formidable competitors in the markets of
' The fluctuations in the price of bar silver in London, between 1859 and
1885, ranged from 62f to 47i ; the value of the rupee varying in the same
period from 2s. 0-325i. to Is. 7'308(Z. ; while in 1886 the quotations fell as
low as 42, and the intrinsic value of the rupee to less than Is. Sd.

1 84 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
China and Japan. From whatever cause a return to a
steadier level of exchange may arise, it will certainly be
hailed with satisfaction both by British merchants and
bankers, whose ventures and operations have of late years
been conducted under conditions of uncertainty with which
neither prudence nor foresight have enabled them success
fully to cope.
Commer- In 1860 the cotton trade of England entered on entirely
treaties, n^w relations with France, and indeed with the Continent
generally, through the Commercial Treaty negotiated by
Mr. Cobden. Previous to that date most of the staple
products and manufactures of this country were practically
excluded by the French custom-houses ; but under the
conventional tariff provided by Mr. Cobden's treaty, a con
siderable business sprang up between the two countries.
The attempts made by the Enghsh Government in 1881
to renew and improve the conventional tariff, through the
negotiation of fresh treaty arrangements with France,
were unsuccessful. In May of that year a new general
tariff was promulgated by the French Government, appli
cable to all nations, under which many important changes
were made in the old tariff. Those alterations related both
to the classification of the duties applicable to cotton tissues
and yarns, and provided in most instances a considerable
increase of the duties. Both the principles and operation of
Mr. Cobden's treaty have been subjected to much criticism
even on the part of staunch advocates of Free-trade, and
it has been urged by some authorities that the transaction
gave countenance and support to the principle of retalia
tion. Mr. Cobden, however, claimed the right to advance
in the direction of Free-trade unfettered by economic
formulas ; and, though the result of his great work of 1860
has been disappointing in some respects, it has certainly
produced many exceUent results. Each recent commercial

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 185
treaty has recognised the ' most favoured nation ' principle,
and thus every fresh reduction of duty has been shared by
the confederation of European nations concerned in the
system of treaties. By this means such countries as Eng
land, France, Holland, Belgium, the Zollverein, Austria,
and Italy, have eliminated the principle of monopoly and
exclusive privilege, each one enjoying any reduction of duty
made by another, and thus forming a network favourable
to the final abandonment of commercial restrictions. The
trade between England and France alone shows a very con
siderable increase under the influence of the arrangements
inaugurated by Mr. Cobden, our exports of cotton manu
factures having risen from an almost nominal amount to
the following sums in 1885 : £
Cottons entered by the yard . . . 877,371
„ at value .... 170,639
Cotton yarns  830,806
Total  £1,878,876
The Factory and Workshops Act of 1878 practically Factory
embodies factory legislation as it exists at the present time, tili! ^"
That Act repeals, either wholly or in part, the previous
enactments bearing on the subject, beginning with the
earliest legislation in the year 1802 down to the various
Acts relating to factories and workshops passed in the years
1867, 1870, 1871, and 1874. It is, in fact, a consolidation
Act, in addition to being an amending Act. Its chief pro
visions may be shortly summarised as follows :
• 1. Factories and workshops shall be kept in a clean and
healthy condition, and the sanitary arrangements generally
shall be under an inspector, who, for the purpose of seeing
that they are properly carried out, has power to employ,
when inspecting, a medical officer of health, inspector of
nuisances, or other sanitary officer.

i86 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
2. Arrangements are made as to the fencing of ma
chinery, and where machinery is dangerous and not
ah-eady fenced, the inspector shall serve a notice on the
occupier of the factory requiring him to fence it. Should
the occupier deem it inexpedient to comply with the notice
of the inspector, the matter can be referred to arbitra
tion. 3. Eestrictions are placed on children, young persons,
and women cleaning machinery while in motion.
4. Important provisions are made as to the hours of
labour for children, young persons, and women. In textile
factories the hours for young persons and women are limited
to twelve hours a day, except on Saturday, when they are
to stop at either one or half-past one, according to the
length of time allowed for meals. On every day except
Saturday two hours at least must be allowed for meals,
and on Saturday not less than half an hour. The work
ing of children in textile factories is limited to the system
of employment either in afternoon and morning sets, or of
employment on alternate days only.
5. Provisions are made as to the education of factory
children, and no young person can be employed in a
factory under the age of sixteen, unless a certificate of fit
ness for employment has been granted by the certifying
surgeon of the district.
6. Special provisions are made for the protection of chil
dren, young persons, and women engaged in factories where
wet-spinning is carried on.
7. In print, bleaching, and dyeing works, the period of
employment and the time allowed for meals are the same
as in the textile factories.
Whatever may have been the fluctuations and vicissi
tudes during the past half-century in the fortunes of the
masters, merchants, and others engaged in the higher

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 187
grades of the cotton trade, there can, I think, be no doubt condi-
as to the steady improvement which has taken place in the ^^
condition of the workpeople. Not only have their wages °°era^
considerably advanced, but this advance has been accom- tives.
panied by a substantial reduction in the hours of labour,
and m many cases by a higher purchasing power for their
money in relation to important necessaries.
Undoubtedly the cotton operative of to-day, as com
pared with his fellow of fifty years ago, lives better, is bet
ter housed and better clothed. Of course the educational
advantages enjoyed by his children since the j)assage of the
great measure of 1870 are immeasurably greater than
formerly existed. Not alone has the leisure time of our
workpeople been extended, but their opportunities of em
ploying it pleasantly, healthfully, and usefuUy have been
equally amplified. Cheap and rapid means of locomotion
now place a great variety of distant and attractive scenes
within easy reach of the working classes. The free libraries,
the science and art classes, the excellent courses of the City
and Guilds of London Institute, and latterly the technical
schools, which in towns like Manchester, Oldham, Preston,
and other large manufacturing centres, have been founded
for the instruction of artisans in the sciences and arts
which underlie their industries, constitute a mass of advan
tages to which the workman of 1835 was almost a stranger.
It remains for us in the future to build on this fair founda
tion, especially in emulating some of our Continental rivals
in the further organisation of secondary and technical
schools, and thus insure to our operatives the fuU advan
tage of those natural gifts which render them beyond com
parison the best workmen in the world. It is not sur
prising that, under the influences above enumerated, the
social habits of our working population have experienced a
marked change for the better. Drunkenness and pauperism

earnings.

1 88 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
have diminished, and the figures relating to crime, espe
cially among the juvenile population, are more favour
able, while habits of thrift show a strong and substantial
growth.
Their Any attempt to estimate the increased earnings of the
workpeople could only result in an approximation to the
facts of the case, for there is variety in the wages, even of
the same industry, in various districts. Nor can the earn
ings of the present time be fairly measured by any former
standard, for the altered speed of machinery, combined with
the great extension of labour-saving appliances, has enabled
the workman of to-day to produce infinitely more than
formerly as the return of his wages. The important inven
tions which came into use between 1840 and 1850 had the
effect of greatly increasing the number of looms that each
weaver could attend to, and since the accession of Queen
Victoria the actual earnings of weavers have probably
increased more than forty per cent. This increase does not,
of course, represent higher pay for a given amount of work,
but the increased effectiveness of the machinery and work
men combined.
In the spinning and carding departments the advance
in wages was delayed between 1846 and 1856 through the
influx of Irish labour, consequent on the potato famine.
Those poor people were glad to enter the mills and commence
at once to earn wages ; but, during the last thirty years, the
percentage of increase in the earnings in those departments
has been considerable. Taking factory labour as a whole,
it may safely be said that each worker turns out twice as
much work as he did fifty years ago, and that he earns about
fifty per cent, more in consequence of the increased pro
duction. It must not be forgotten that wages rose with
great rapidity after the repeal of the Corn Laws. As a
result both of recent legislation and the action of the

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 189
workpeople themselves, the hours of labour in the cotton
textile industries have undergone a reduction of about
twenty per cent., and, as I have before stated, with the
effect of producing an increased rather than a diminished
output. I have already alluded to the great improvement in the Their
nourishment of our workpeople ; indeed, the food, especially
in regard to flesh meat, which was thought sufficient fifty
years ago, would not be tolerated now. Both as to food,
clothing, and nearly every necessary of life, the co-operative
stores and societies, which' have now become universal in
the manufacturing districts, have helped the workpeople
to obtain their supplies on the most favourable terms ; and
the building societies have helped them, in a vast number
of cases, to become owners of their own dwellings. While
it cannot be questioned that, within recent years, certain
articles of everyday consumption have become considerably
cheaper, there are others which have sustained little altera
tion, and in the important item of meat the position of the
purchaser is much less favourable than it was between 1840
and 1850. It must be further borne in mind that the
cotton operative is now not only a large and regular con
sumer of meat, but also of many other articles which in the
early part of the reign would have been regarded as luxu
ries; and this greatly increased demand has, of course,
direct relation in many cases to the advance m price.
Whether we prefer to attribute this movement to the
increased purchasing power of the sovereign or to the fall in
the price of commodities, the fact remains that, in a list of
necessaries and even of luxuries almost too numerous to
detail, the position of our workpeople has undergone a
marvellous change for the better. Professor Levi gives
the following figures as to the purchasing value of the
sovereign :

igo

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Year

Plour

Beef

Butter

Coal

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

1840

115

86

24

198

1850

190

93

32

280

1860

145

44

25

235

1870

163

40

18

255

1880

173

39

21

300

It may also be interesting to note, from the following
table, the remarkable manner in which the consumption of
meat, and also of bacon, hams, &c., by our workpeople has
affected the imports :

Imports

1850

I860

1870

1880

1886

Oxen, bulls, cows i
and calves 1
Sheep and lambs
Bacon and hams

No.
66,462
143,498 cwt.
352,461

No.
104,569
320,219 cwt.
326,106

No.
202,172669,905 cwt.
567,164

No.
389,724941,121 cwt.
5,334,648

No.
373,078750,886 cwt.
4,058,454

The returns of the Post Office and Trustee Savings
Banks cover only a portion of the period under review, and
the use of those institutions is doubtless shared by the
class of domestic servants and many others besides the
industrial populations ; but it cannot be doubted that the
latter class, by their improved habits of economy and thrift,
have done much to swell the returns which, even in the last
five years of comparative depression, show such encouraging
results. In 1836 the deposits paid into the Manchester and £ j. a.
Salford Savings Bank amounted to . . 101,112 18 11
In 1846 they were  193,009 8 11
.. 1856 „  263,041 11 5
.. 1866 „ ....'... 346,999 1 6
.. 1876 „  362,207 17 8
.. 1886 ,  614,791 13 5
These figures show a remarkable increase during the
last ten years, several of which are reputed to have been

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 191
times of severe depression in the cotton manufacturing
districts. Co-operation may probably be regarded as the most signi- Co-opera-
ficant movement now at work among the industrial classes.
Carlylc has given his testimony to its importance by de
claring that, ' This that they call organisation of labour is,
if well understood, the problem of the whole future for all
who would in future govern man.' The movement is essen
tially a modern one, having sprung into existence in the
lifetime of the present Sovereign. Its original prmciple
was the division of the entke profits among the actual
producers. But this plan of division has been greatly
altered, and the joint-stock principle has been largely em
ployed, with the effect of establishing many important
manufacturing companies. In and around the town of
Oldham these companies are numerous and flourishing.
In the cotton-spinning industry 'Oldhaih Limiteds' have
become standard institutions, and no doubt the day is
not distant when, not only in the cotton but in many other
large staple industries, the manufacture wiU pass more
and more into the hands of the workpeople themselves,
who will be able to organise, direct, and conduct it without
the aid of the wealthy capitalists, thus becoming practically
their own masters and employers. Whatever prejudice
may exist concernmg these co-operative companies, there
can be no doubt that they have weathered the wave of
depression through which we have recently been passing
remarkably well. The testimony of the late Lord Derby
as to the usefulness of these societies and of the quahties
which they call forth is valuable, proceeding as it does
from an eminent statesman, and one who had a practical
acquaintance with the cotton districts. He said: 'The
societies known by this name comprise provision and
clothing stores and flom- miUs, which are conducted on

192 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
co-operative principles ; but cotton manufactories called co
operative are generally, if not universally, joint-stock com
panies of limited liability, the capital of which has been
subscribed in small shares chiefly by workmen in the cotton
district, and which are often built and conducted with the
aid of loans. They have arisen out of motives which do
the highest honour to the operative classes.'
Foreign j^ would hardly be reasonable to expect that, in the
loompeti- '' '-
tion. midst of the great progress and development of our own
cotton trade and manufacture, our Continental and Ameri
can rivals would remain stationary ; nor have they done so.
The maritime position of England, her cheap and abun
dant coal supply and well-trained labour, together with the
enterprise and ability of her merchants and manufacturers,
have given her a long start in the race, and one of which
she need not, and probably never will, lose the advantage.
But that she has no monopoly under these advantages is
proved by the rapid strides which Continental countries have
made in recent years, not only towards supplying their own
requirements, but to some extent towards becoming com
petitors with us in neutral markets.
The consumption of raw cotton has increased —
In England from 1,101 millions of lbs. in 1870 to 1,404 in 1880
„ the United States „ 530 „ „ „ 961
„ Germany „ 260 „ „ „ 390 "„
„ Prance „ 250  , 340 „
„ Other countries „ 239 „ „ „ 649
These figures should, however, be considered in connec
tion with the fact that the English production per spindle
is higher, and the average fineness of our productions greater,
than is the case, with few exceptions, on the Continent.
Our Continental neighbours certainly strive, and in some
cases successfully, to protect their own markets against our
goods by the imposition of duties ; but that very expedient

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 193
must render it difficult for them to compete in neutral
markets with our commodities, produced under the cheap
ening and stimulating influence of our Free-trade system.
There seems no evidence to show that the recently developed
industries of the Continent are seriously threatening us in
distant markets ; but they nevertheless impose on us the
necessity of increased economy in various departments, the
production in many cases of larger quantities at smaller
profits, and the adoption to the full of every possible
educational, scientific, and mechanical advantage enjoyed
by our rivals.
It would be inconvenient to burden these pages with the
infinite variety and number of statistics which would be
necessary to illustrate fuUy the manifold developments of
our import and export trade in cottons during the period
under review. Some impressions may, however, be gathered
from the following short table showing the increase in the
value of cotton exports between 1830 and 1885 :
Value of Cotton Yams and Manufactures of all descriptions exported.
1830  :fi 19,428,000
1850  28,257,401
1800  52,912,380
1870  71,410,131
1880  75,564,056
1885  70;976,887
The changes which have taken place in the methods of Eeduo-
conductiag this enormous trade are many and various, go's" and
Perhaps the most noticeable feature of recent years is the ^^l°l
nearer approach of the producer to the consumer through
the reduction of intervening expenses and agencies. In
many cases the cotton spinner and manufacturer of to-day
deals directly with the cotton producer on the one hand,
and with the merchant shipper on the other ; and in nearly
aU cases the old charges for brokerage and agency have
VOL. II. 0

194 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
experienced considerable reduction. Fifty years ago the com
missions charged for selling cotton goods m India, including
guarantee of sales and discount on remittances, amounted
to from 8| per cent, to 5 per cent., to which was added about
2^ per cent, for sundry charges for landing, stormg, and
* Godown ' rent. These are now reduced to a total of about
4 per cent., though the downward tendency of the latter
charges was checked by the Indian Mutiny. The charges
for packing and shipment have also been diminished by
\\ per cent, or 2 per cent. ; while the opening of the Suez
Canal, and the consequent development and competition in
steam transit, have produced a marveUous economy of cost
and time on the old system of shipment. Mr. Goschen
has observed that the carriage of a ton of goods sent
from Manchester to Bombay, including the railway fare to
Liverpool, the Suez Canal dues, and the freight, is now
little more than the price of a second-class ticket from London
to Manchester. The shortening of the voyage by the sub
stitution of steamers for sailing vessels, and the adoption of
the Suez Canal route instead of the old route round the Cape
of Good Hope, has reduced the time taken in the delivery of
goods from the warehouse to the port in India from six or
seven months to about six weeks ; which is equivalent to a
diminution of about 1\ per cent, if the additional rent and
insurance under the old system, added to the loss of interest,
be taken into calculation. The increase of telegraphic
communication, and recently to some extent the use of the
telephone, have tended to destroy the old custom of keeping
large stocks of goods stored in the warehouses of Man
chester or in the ' Godowns ' in India, and sales are often
made in Calcutta or Bombay of goods which have yet to be
manufactured, and even bleached or dyed, in Lancashire.
The ' Banians,' or native dealers, now send to England a
considerable number of direct orders, and several of the

THE COTTON TRADE AND INDUSTRY 195
principal ' Banians ' have their own agents and representa
tives in Manchester, who ship direct to their orders.
The settled government at home, together with the ConcUi-
rapid advance in the freedom and efficiency of our insti- ^'°^'
tutions during her Majesty's reign, have contributed much
to the success of the cotton trade as well as to the general
commercial progress of the country. Enterprise has been
fostered, and a remunerative field afforded for inventive and
mechanical skill. Our command of capital, the capability
of our merchants, and the unparalleled efficiency of our
workpeople have combined to place our cotton industry in
the very forefront of the world's commercial organisations.
Nor must it be forgotten that the humid climate of England
lends itself in a special manner to the successful manipula
tion of the fibre. With such advantages, natural and ac
quired, the great forward march of the cotton trade during
the last fifty years may not be altogether surprising. It is
not unreasonable to anticipate that, through the mainten
ance and development of those happy conditions which have
hitherto waited on its progress, the future history of this
branch of our commerce and industry will be one of con
tinued pre-eminence and success. JouN Slagg.

o 2

196 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

THE IRON TRADE AND ITS ALLIED
INDUSTRIES.
Short In the middle of the last century the manufacture of iron
Si*ot°ory in Great Britain was all but entirely extinguished. Had
statistics ^^^^ calamity not been averted, the reign of Queen Victoria,
instead of having been marked by the progress which has
pre-eminently distinguished it, might not have greatly
differed from the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In a volume
intended, among other subjects, to mark the march of
industry and its influence on society during the last half-
century, some account of what has been done for and with
iron could not properly be omitted.
Fifty years ago the quantity of crude or pig iron pro
duced in Great Britain was about 1,120,000 tons. Of this
about 235,000 tons was required for the various articles
sent out of the country either in the form of the raw or of
the manufactured metal. The balance, added to 25,000 tons
of imports, makes a total of something like 910,000 tons,
which represented the consumption of the inhabitants of
the British Isles for 1837. Taking their population to have
been 26,000,000, we have about 78 lbs. of pig iron used
for each inhabitant during the year in question.
The foreign iron imported consisted chiefly of malleable
bars of superior quality, made exclusively by means of
charcoal. It was used principally in the manufacture of
steel for cutlery, &c. — an art in which Sheffield durin"

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 197
the last two or three hundred years has achieved a world
wide reputation. Practically, therefore, this imported iron,
so far as competition with our home produce was con
cerned, might almost have been regarded as an entirely
different metal from that of British manufacture. Such,
however, was the unwillingness of our ancestors to receive
any article of foreign origin, that the Sheffield steel industry
was crippled at one time with an import duty on its raw
material amounting to nearly 8Z. per ton. Before the end
of 1848, and since then, iron of all descriptions has been
admitted free of any payment to the national exchequer.
Under our Free -trade policy the unimpeded importa
tion of iron has grown to proportions so considerable that it
now amounts to nearly one-half of what was the entire con
sumption of the country in 1837. In other words, it is now
equivalent to more than 420,000 tons of the metal in its
crude form of pig. Coincident, however, with this increase
of our dependence on other nations for a portion of the iron
we use, our exports have risen in a still more marvellous
manner. To provide for this section of our trade, not
far short of 5,000,000 tons of pig iron was absorbed in
1882. At the same time, our home consumption, instead
of remaining at 78 lbs. per head of our population, at which
it stood fifty years ago, is now nearly 290 lbs. To meet these
additional demands, the annual production of pig iron in
Great Britain rose from a httle above 1,100,000 tons in 1837
to about 8,500,000 in 1882.
While the iron manufacturers of our own country were
adding so largely to their establishments, other nations
were far from being idle. The recorded figures we possess
are not sufficiently ample to enable us to estimate the exact
dimensions of the iron trade at the beginning of the period
we are describing. Approximately, however, the two rows of
figures below will give a pretty fair idea of the growth of

1837

1883

1,120,000

8,500,000

300,000

4,600,000

1,330,000

7,900,000

198 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
the world's make of pig iron between 1837 and 1883, which
latter year has never yet been surpassed.
United Kingdom .
United States ol America .
Other nations of the world .
Total .... 2,750,000 21,000,009
Extend- It is, of course, needless to say that no increase in the
oti^on. population of the world in the last fifty years can account for
the enormous additional production of iron which has taken
place during the same period. Such being the fact, we are
naturaUy led to conclude that the metal in recent times has
either been apphed to fresh uses or its consumption for
purposes which are not new has been extended beyond any
thing known in the previous history of the world. The
present communication will tend to show that both these
causes have been concerned in the increase referred to.
Improve- For an explanation of this great change, it would occur
processes, to most minds to ask whether some important ameliorations
in the processes for obtaining iron had not permitted its
application to purposes from which a high price would have
excluded it.
One of the objects of this narrative will be to answer
such a question, and to point out the manner in which
newly developed fields of iron ore, assisted by greatly
improved means of transport, have conduced to lower the
cost of the metal.
Changes Let US first disposc of the facilities afforded to con-
.oiiron. sumers by a reduction in the market value of the com
modity. As is well understood, iron enters into consumption
under its three forms of cast iron, steel, and wrought iron.
It would, however, be inconvenient to occupy much space here
with figures ; and as pig iron is now and has long been con
sidered, except under exceptional circumstances, an indis-

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 199
pensable stage of the manufacture, we will confine our
attention to it as a comparison of value.
Table shaming Average Selling Prices of Ordinary Pig Iron for Fifty
Years, over Periods of Five Years.

Periods ending

1841

1840

1851

1866

1801

1866

1871

1876

1881

1886

Price per ton .

s.d.
77 0

X. d.
63 6

s.d.
61 7

J. d.
64 11

s.d.
60 6

s.d.
46 8

J. d.
40 9

s.d.
76 11

s.d.
43 3

s.il.
36 2

Owing to great irregularities in the demand, it is not
in the nature of things that violent fluctuations of values
should not occasionally occur in an article like pig iron.
This happened in 1845, and again in 1873, when that
made in Scotland was sold at 5Z. 10s. in the former and
at 7Z. 5s. in the latter year. Other descriptions of iron
were correspondingly affected during the years in question.
It is evident, however, that the figures given above
indicate, on the whole, a continuous decline since 1837 in
the price at which pig iron could be purchased ; indeed,
durmg the last months of 1886, Cleveland metal was
bought at 6s. per ton below the named average price of
the year.
It must not be inferred from what has preceded that
the reduction in the market price of pig iron was always a
consequence of a diminution in the cost of manufacturing
it. A sudden increase m the demand has, from time to
time, given rise to an extension in the productive powers
not only of our own but of other nations. On this demand
subsiding, as has happened at various periods in the history
of the trade, the powers of supply exceeded the requirements.
During the eight years ending 1879 the make of the world
fluctuated between 13,439,000 tons and 14,689,000 tons,
the average of the whole being 13,950,000. The make was
forced up to 18,077,000 tons in 1880, and reached 21,063,000

200 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
tons in 1883. This was in excess of what was needed, and
consequently stocks, which in the United Kingdom in a
healthy state of trade averaged about 500,000 tons, ran up
to 1,809,000 tons in 1884. Hence the low prices which
have prevailed for the last few years.
Changes The circumstances which originally determined the site
of our ironworks have undergone considerable changes in
recent times. A century and a half ago the position of
the ore was the chief guide in the selection, because it was
rare that woods to supply the charcoal and water to furnish
the power were at any great distance from the intended
mine. The county of Sussex affords a case in point, until
there, as well as in other localities, the exhaustion of the
forests reduced the smelters to great straits for want of fuel.
It was the dearth of charcoal that threatened the existence
of the British iron trade in 1740, when the annual make
fell to 17,350 tons. From this fate it was rescued by the
perseverance of Abraham Darby, who succeeded, where Dud
Dudley had failed about a century before, in smelting with
pit-coal. One hundred years ago Great Britain produced 68,300
tons of pig iron, of which 53,800 tons was made with coked
pit-coal. For this quantity 85 blast-furnaces were employed
to do the work now capable of being performed by three
furnaces of modern construction.
Water-power, used for driving the blowing and other
machinery needed in the process, was liable to interruption
from frosts in winter and droughts in summer. From this
state of dependence on the seasons, the steam-engine of
James Watt afforded a perfect relief towards the end of last
century. Darby's labours and those of Watt had the effect of
transferring the blast-furnace from woodland districts to
the vicinity of the coal-pits, where, in many cases, the clay

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 201
ironstone of the carboniferous formation, as well as the fuel,
could be had at a moderate price.
Such was the position of the iron trade about the time
at which the present history commences, when less than
1,250,000 tons of pig iron represented the make of the
kingdom for the year 1839. It was produced in the localities
given below at the average rate of 64 tons per week from
each furnace : Tons
Wales  487,080
Staffordshire  364,413
Shropshire  80,940
Derbyshire  34,372
Yorkshire, West Biding .... 52,416
Gloucestershire  18,200
Northumberland and Durham . . . 13,000
Lancashire (charcoal) .... 800
Scotland  196,960
Total  1,248,781
As a means of transport in those days, canals were Trans
port,
largely employed ; but had it been necessary to contemplate mode of,
any approach to the present output of iron, the capacity of
this mode of inland navigation would, in all probability,
have been speedily exceeded. In a perfectly level country,
canals might no doubt have been constructed on a suffi
ciently large scale to accommodate the traffic. Such a
condition as we are supposing is, however, not easily met
. with in Great Britain ; and to pass over an elevated ridge
of country, locks are needed, which require to be supplied
with water to raise as well as to lower the loads passing
over them. For such a volume as would be necessary for
conveying the traffic of a large ironmaking district, added
to the ordinary demands, not even a river having the water
shed area of the Tees would suffice. As matters now stand,
its powers, for domestic and manufacturing purposes alone ^
have to be supplemented by the construction of large storing-

in 1837.

¦ways.

202 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
reservoirs, in which the floods of the wet seasons are
gathered in reserve for the times when little or no rain is
falling.
Bail- From what in many cases would have been an insur
mountable impediment to the development of such an iron
trade as that which has located itself on the banks of the
very river just named, a road of the metal produced by its
aid has afforded all the necessary accommodation. This
mode of transport had, as is well known, been in use long
before the establishment of the blast-furnaces and roUing-
mills of Cleveland, but in a form little able to meet modern
requirements. To this position iron roads only rose after
the improvements introduced into the locomotive. These
improvements, the rapid generation of steam being the most
important, have enabled engineering science to compress
within the very compact space of a railway engine, machinery
equivalent to 600 to 700 horse-power.
In 1834, or nearly ten years after the opening of the
Stockton and Darlington Eailway — the first public under
taking of the kind in the world — its passenger trains consisted
of a single carriage drawn by one horse. In it an average of
14 persons were conveyed on each journey, 950 being the
total weekly number. Out of this germ has grown an in
stitution on which, in the United Kingdom alone, have been
transported in one year nearly 700,000,000 human beings,
190,000,000 tons of merchandise, and close on to 80,000,000
tons of minerals.
Causes of Amid the revolutions which have taken place in the
changesof loca- Circumstances connected with the manufacture of iron in
the British Islands, we cannot feel any surprise at vast
changes being apparent in the different localities in which
it has been followed during the past half-century. As the
figures already given are sufficiently con-ect for our purpose,
they will be contrasted with those of 1882, which latter

lities.

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 203

was the year of the largest produce of pig iron we have known
in this kingdom.

North -Eastern district of England, embra--|
ciug Northumberland, Durham, and North I
Elding of York  J
Scotland ....
Wales and Monmouthshire
Staffordshire
Cumberland and Lancashire
Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire,
Derbyshire .
Shropshire .
West Hiding of Yorkshire
Wiltshire .
Worcestershire .
Forest of Dean .

Total  1,248,781

and Notts

1839 Tons
13,000
196,960
487,080364,413 800
nil
34,372
80,94052,410 nil nil
18,200

1882
Tons
2,712,6011,120,000 987,572523,244
1,742,180 466,761372,650 80,475
321,430 52,991
150,770 nil
8,536,680

The changes which have taken place are, in reality, much
more considerable than a mere inspection of the quantities
of iron as set forth in these two columns would indicate.
On this head, however, a httle further explanation will be
found at page 207 and following pages.
The most remarkable change perceptible in the two Horth-
sets of figures just given is that of the North-Eastern distllc?
district, the production of iron there having risen from ^^^I^"
13,000 tons in 1839 to 2,712,601 tons m 1882. The
existence of ore in connection with the geological measures
which form the Yorkshire coast between Whitby and the
mouth of the Tees had been long known, for it was gathered
in detached jiieces on the beach so far back as 1745, for tho
purpose of being smelted at a small furnace which had
lieen built near Chester-le-Street, in the county of Durham.
It was, however, not until 1836 that a regular seam of the
mineral belonging to the lias measures was opened out a few
miles from Wliitby in the valley of the Esk, the produce
so obtained being conveyed by the sea to the Tyne, and
subsequently to the Tees. In the next ten or twelve years

204 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
several furnaces were erected in Northumberland and Dur
ham, in order to smelt the ironstone of the carboniferous
formation. By means of this ore and that brought from
Whitby, the make of pig iron in the North-Eastern district
was raised to about 150,000 tons so early as 1850.
It was in that year that the bed of ironstone worked
near Whitby was traced by Mr. John Vaughan to the
neighbourhood of Middlesbrough, where, being within easy
reach of the Durham coal-field, extensive smelting works
were speedily erected. The result has been the rapid
creation of the largest ironmaking district in the world,
preceded by a speedy abandonment of all the ironstone pits
which had been commenced in the two more northern
counties. There are other conditions required, besides the mere
possession of a cheaply wrought bed of ironstone, to enable
a country to produce iron and place it in the markets of the
world to the extent which has marked the progress of
Middlesbrough. These conditions, in what is now known
as the Cleveland district, will be best understood by a short
account of the geology of those portions of the counties of
Durham and Yorkshire from which the minerals necessary
for the manufacture of pig iron are obtained.
cieve- An imaginary line drawn from Blanchland in the
geology, county of Durham in a south-easterly direction, and reach
ing the sea near Whitby, would have a length of about sixty
miles. The cliffs on the coast near this town, and from
there to the north towards Saltburn, are composed of lias
rocks. The strata upon which the lias formation rests are
those of the new red sandstone, and following them come
in succession the magnesian limestone, the carboniferous
rocks, and the mountain limestone. This enumeration
comprises the geological ages which concern the subject of
this communication.

Ideal Section from Blanchland to Whitby 62 Miles.

SoTn.zon,ta2/ScaIe'I0Miles, and/ J^ticaL ScaZe/ ZOOOIiet/ io an/^^zdv.

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 205
In the event of the above-named deposits retaining the
thickness on the coast which they have been ascertained to
possess inland, the upper surface of the mountain limestone
would be nearly 7,000 feet below the sea-level. There is
further abundant evidence to show that the strata composing
these formations must originally have occupied a horizontal
position, so that, had no change taken place in this respect,
the coal would have been in a situation entirely beyond
reach by any mining appliances with which we are ac
quainted. Happily for the commercial prosperity of the
locality, this part of the earth's crust, in the direction of
our imaginary line, has at some period of its history under
gone a mighty alteration in the matter of level. It would
appear — either by a depression of its eastern or an elevation
of its western boundary, or by both movements combined —
that the different rocks composing it, rise as we leave the
coast in a western direction towards Blanchland. This will
be easily understood by means of a diagram on which the
relative positions of the various formations are set out.
From this it will be perceived that the present surface cuts
off the continuation of a portion of the strata, a result which
is ascribed to the action of water or ice. The effect of this
latter change — or denudation, as it is called — brings the
western portions of the lower members of the group within
easy reach, by means of pits or other well-known mining
contrivances. At an intermediate point between the ex
tremities of our line it is intersected by the Tees, which has
been selected as a convenient point for the minerals to
meet — i.e. the limestone and coal from the west and the
ironstone from the east, the river itself affording the means
of exporting the produce of the furnaces.
For the. purposes of navigation by such vessels as are Tees'
now in common use, nature left art a good deal of work ment.
to perform on the Tees. Its sinuous course had to be

2o6

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Changes in popu
lation of
Cleveland

straightened to enable a modern steamer to pass without
simultaneously striking both banks of the river. The main
stream almost lost itself in a wilderness of mud presented by
its wide estuary at low water. To remedy these defects the
current had to be confined within training walls, rock and
clay had to be dredged to obtain the necessary depth of
water, and enormous breakwaters have been and are being
built of scoria from the iron furnaces. The result has been
a river navigable by vessels of the largest size and the ex
clusion of the waves from the North Sea, amid which in
former times many a fine ship and many a brave man
prematurely ended their lives.
As the effect of the introduction of so large an amount
of labour on the population may not be without its interest,
the following figures are given bearing on this question.
They commence with the census year of 1851, and end
with that of 1881, between which two dates the discovery
and development of the Cleveland ironstone near Middles
brough may be said to have taken place.

1851

1881

Increase

Population of Darlington ....
„ Stockton-on-Tees .
„ Middlesbrough
Population of North Biding, exclusive of
Jliddlesbrough 
Men employed in coal mining and limestone •,
quarrying for iron-making in the county
of Durham, estimated at 20,800 men ¦
and boys, considered equal to a popula
tion of souls— say  )
Total 

12,45210,172 7,631
207,588

35,100
41,015 55,288
290,972

22,64830,84347,657 83,384 52,000

237,843

422,375

230,532

The North Biding of Yorkshire, with the exception of
the iron industries of Cleveland, being agricultural, the
increase of population of this division of the county is
entirely set down to the growth of the iron trade. From

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 207
the nature of the data the calculation must necessarily only
be regarded as one of an approximate character.
We can scarcely take leave of Middlesbrough without
a reference to the name of Pease. To the grandfather of
the present generation, and to his sons, is mainly due the
construction of the Stockton and Darlington Bailway. This
undertaking was begun at a time when grave doubts were
entertained respecting the commercial success of conveying
passengers and merchandise by means of this comparatively
untried system of transport. The town of Middlesbrough
itself owes its birth to the same men who listened favourably
to the assurances of a son of Tynesido — George Stephenson
— in respect to the future of the locomotive engine. We
have now the third generation of the family of Pease,
and its members occupy a front rank among those engaged
in work rendered possible by the establishment of railway
communication .
Cleveland has been chosen to illustrate the rapid growth
of a district possessing unusual capabilities for producing an
article in such general request as iron. In these respects
this corner of Yorkshire can perhaps claim precedence over
every other locality in the world. At the same time there
are other parts of the kingdom which, as may be inferred
from the lists of ironmaking centres given at page 203, have
advanced to a position of great importance, second only to
that of Cleveland.
As the first example, the hematite ore found in Cumber- otherdistricts;
land and Lancashire may appropriately be taken. Unlike than
the ironstone of North Yorkshire, which occurs in a regular landf'
bed, extending over two or three hundred square miles, the
ore of the two western counties just named occurs in de
tached veins and in deposits known as pockets, both being
very irregular and uncertain in point of extent and capacity
for yielding the mineral. Notwithstanding this, for many

2o8 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
years past the mines of Cumberland and Lancashire have
produced considerable quantities of an ore containing 55
per cent, of iron, instead of 30 to 32, like that of Cleve
land. In 1855, according to the Government returns, the
output was 537,616 tons, but this was almost entirely
smelted in furnaces at a distance, principally in South
Wales and Staffordshire. The total make of pig iron
during the year in question, produced at home, was only
16,000 tons. Bailway communication with the east coast,
soon after 1855, afforded an unlimited supply of fuel, which
raised (in 1884) the weight of pig iron made to 1,561,000
tons, and the quantity of ore worked to 2,595,000 tons.
Within the period just named a large and well-built town
has sprung up on a barren plain of sand, superior in many
respects to the iron metropolis of the east coast. Like
Middlesbrough, Barrow-in-Furness is governed by a muni
cipal council and is represented in Parliament by its own
member. For this position Barrow owes much to the
great landowner of the district, the present Duke of Devon
shire, who has been a patriotic promoter of the industries
of the town and neighbourhood. The great iron and steel
works of the place, in which the duke is largely interested,
is one of the largest and most complete in the world.
It embraces fourteen blast-furnaces, Bessemer converters,
making above 6,000 tons per week of steel ingots, and con
tains a rail mill of unusual strength and capacity.
Scotland will always occupy a conspicuous and honour
able place in any history of the progress of the iron trade.
The annual make in this portion of the kingdom probably
did not, at the beginning of the present century, exceed
10,000 tons. In the year 1800, David Mushet discovered
the famous Black-band ironstone near Glasgow, which,
however, was but sparingly smelted during the ensuing
twenty-five or thirty years. In 1828 the total make of

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 209
Scotch pig iron did not exceed 30,000 tons. This was a
memorable year for the iron industry of Scotland, for
during it Neilson patented his discovery of the hot-blast,
by means of which, and the extended use of Black-band,
Scotland rose rapidly to the first rank as a producer of the
cheapest-made pig iron in the world. In 1839 the output
was nearly 200,000 tons, from which figure it steadily
advanced until 1860, in which year it nearly touched
1,000,000 tons. Ten years afterwards the make almost
reached 1,250,000 tons, a quantity which has never been
exceeded. On the contrary, since 1870, the make has been
on the decline, so that it stands now just at about the same
point as it was in 1860. This change in the fortunes of
the Scotch iron trade is partly due to the more cheaply
wrought Black-band being exhausted, and partly to the
great competition offered by the large extension in the make
of Cleveland pig iron.
Wales, including Monmouthshire, has always occu
pied a somewhat peculiar position as an iron-producing
locality. In its best days there was rarely raised above
one-half the ore required for the pig iron produced in
this part of the kingdom. The deficiency was made up
chiefly by importations from Cumberland, Lancashire, and
the Forest of Dean, assisted by the forge and mill scoria
from the malleable iron works on the spot. The erection of
malleable iron works in Cleveland, and particularly of rail
mills, was speedily felt in Wales. In consequence, the
native ironstone raised in 1865 was very little more than
one-fourth of what it was in 1855, viz. 485,000 tons, instead
of 1,665,520 tons. In the course of time, Bessemer steel
began to be somewhat extensively introduced as a material
for rail making, and this branch was gradually extended in
the Principality. With this extension, the ore raised in
Wales declined until it may now be regarded as an aban-
VOL. II. ^

210 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
doned industry, for in 1884 the produce of the native mines
was only 95,000 tons. Wales was thus early in the field as
a manufacturer of steel rails. Competition, however, for the
hematite ores of Cumberland and Lancashire was, as we
have already seen, set up by the establishment of extensive
smelting works in these two counties. Fortunately for
Wales, a cheap supply of ore can now be obtained from foreign
mines, chiefly from those near Bilbao in Spain. In 1870
the total quantity of this mineral imported into the United
Kingdom was 208,000 tons ; in 1882 this had increased
to 3,282,000 tons, of which the South Wales works are the
largest consumers.
For many years Staffordshire occupied a much more
conspicuous place as an ironmaking centre than it does
now, for it has gradually declined in importance during the
last twenty years. This change has been caused by the
great expansion of the iron trade in the North Biding
of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Northamptonshire, which
two latter counties contain ironstone resembling, in cheap
ness of cost and in quality, that obtained in Cleveland. The
numerous industries, however, which grouped themselves
around and at Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and gene
rally in what is known as the Black Country, have provided
a considerable local outlet for the produce of the Staf
fordshire ironworks, which still preserves for the county
a position of no small importance in our national iron
trade. Sheffield and its neighbourhood is classic ground in
connection with the manufacture of steel. It owes this,
not to any natural facilities for the manufacture of iron in
its first stage of pig, but to the early settlement of steel
makers in the town and its vicinity. Having regard to
the raw material — bar iron — being brought from Bussia
and Sweden, it may appear extraordinary to find so very

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 211
important an industry as that of steel settling itself nearly
sixty miles from Hull, which is its natural seaport.
It is said that foreign iron was first used about three hun
dred years ago in Sheffield in the manufacture of steel. If
so, it is very likely that British iron, made direct from the
ore by means of charcoal, was employed before the Sheffield
makers began to import foreign iron, brought in the first
instance from Denmark and Spain. In either case the
existence of woods capable of furnishing charcoal, coupled
with an extraordinary abundance of water power for driving
the tilt hammers, no doubt greatly influenced the choice of
this town as a suitable site for the manufacture of steel.
Besides these considerations, it must be remembered that
the article itself, in its crudest forms, bore such a high price
in the early history of the trade, that the cost of carrying
the bar iron from the seaboard might be of comparative
unimportance. This source of expense is now greatly cur
tailed in its amount by the construction of a canal and a
railway, and in the meantime there has grown around
Sheffield a crowd of works for working up the steel made in
the vicinity into the numerous articles in common use.
With these advantages, there seems no likelihood of Sheffield
having to fear much competition in the manufacture of files,
cutlery, springs, &c.
When it had been demonstrated that steel could be
manufactured by a more simplified process than any
hitherto in use, Sheffield was the natural place towards
which the introduction of the newmethod, to be hereafter
mentioned, should gravitate. Some time after its appli
cation, the product, from its high cost, was confined to
objects for which steel alone had previously been employed.
If occasionally it was used for rails instead of puddled iron,
this only happened when the small quantity so required was
exposed to extraordinary wear. Thus in 1870, when iron
p 2

212 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
rails were being sold at 11. per ton, those of the new steel
were charged \ll. 10s., or 13Z. 10s. above the price of the
hematite pig from which they were made. Of course, at any
such price, the Sheffield makers could afford to pay the
carriage on the metal from Barrow or Whitehaven, and
convert it into rails at a good profit. In six years — i.e.
in 1876 — the price had fallen to 3Z. 12s. above that of pig,
in which year the make of ingots was about 240,000 tons.
From this quantity it steadily rose as the price was lowered,
until the quantity of steel ingots has reached, in the
United Kingdom alone, 1,750,000 tons per annum. To
such perfection, indeed, has the new process and rolling
machinery been carried, that steel rails have been sold at
72s. 6(i., or 32s. &d. above the price of hematite pig.
Long before the trade arrived at this condition, un-
remunerative as it is even in the best situated works,
Sheffield could no longer compete except for such rails as
may be required at no great distance from that town. As
an indication of this change in the character of the trade,
Messrs. Cammell & Co., of Sheffield, have recently removed
one of their steel rail mills to the neighbourhood of Mary-
port.
Three A casual reference has been made to the three forms of
lorms . •. • 1
of iron, iron as it IS known in commerce, viz. cast iron, steel, and
tion o?' wrought iron. In order to describe with sufficient clearness
the improvements which have been introduced into the
processes connected with its manufacture, a few of the
properties and modes of producing these three forms will
be briefly given.
Cast iron is the product obtained by smelting the ore in
the blast-furnace. It is fusible at moderate temperatures
and expands slightly at the moment it becomes solid, two
properties which fit it admirably for being run into moulds.
It is comparatively brittle when cold, presenting when

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 213
cooled and broken an open crystaUine fracture. The metal
owes these qualities chiefly to a small quantity of carbon ab
sorbed from the fuel during the smelting process. Besides
carbon, pig iron always contains silicon, generally phos
phorus, and usually minute quantities of other substances.
The blast-furnace is supposed to date from the fifteenth Biast-
century; by whom and where invented is not exactly
known. There is, however, no doubt that it was the
gradual development of a furnace, two or three feet high,
in which wrought iron was produced direct from the ore.
Long before this history commences, its dimensions had
reached what was then considered a point of finality ; hence
its performance had, for some time, not been marked by
any substantial improvement. It is true that in 1828 Neil-
son made known the fact that heating the blast to 600° F.,
by passing it through hot iron pipes before it entered
the furnace, greatly reduced the quantity of fuel required
to produce a given weight of pig iron.
It was maintained that at works in Scotland where,
previously to the introduction of Neilson's system, eight
tons of coal had to be consumed per ton of metal produced,
the weight required after its application was reduced to two
and a quarter tons or thereabouts. It is, however, now well
known that the actual saving due to heating the air did
not amount to one-third of what was claimed for it, the
remainder being the result of other changes introduced at
the same time. Into these, however, there is not space to
enter here. So late as 1837 the value of this invention was
far from being generally recognised, and a large proportion
of the pig u-on still continued to be made with cold air. This
plan was gradually superseded by the hot-blast, by which the
weekly production of the blast-furnaces rose from less than
100 tons to 150, and in some cases to 200 tons, with a
consumption of something like two and three-quarter tons

214 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
of coal, previously coked — or, including that required for the
blowing-engine and heating the air, say three and three-
quarter tons.' At this figure it stood until the improve
ments introduced by the Middlesbrough smelters about the
year 1863. These consisted in doubling, and in some in
stances in quadrupling, the size of the furnace and in raising
the temperature of the blast from 600° to 1,000° F.
The function of the fuel in the blast-furnace has a two
fold character — partly calorific and partly chemical. By
the action of the first, fusion of the metal and scoria is per
formed, and the ore is heated to fit the oxide of iron it
contains for the chemical action required to reduce it to the
metallic state. This increase of temperature in the ore and
its deoxydation are effected by the hot gaseous matters as
they rise through the upper zone of the furnace ; but the
reducing power they exercise is exhausted before complete
combustion of the gas takes place. The gas, thus only
partially burnt, ignites when it reaches the air, and was the
cause of the blazing volume of flame which in former years
marked the ironmaking districts of the country. This gas,
still containing combustible matter, is now conducted to
the boilers and hot-air stoves, by which an annual saving
of about 6,000,000 tons of coal has been made on the pig
iron produced in the United Kingdom alone.
By the increase in the temperature of the air, by utihsing
the waste gases and by increasing the size of the furnace,
the produce was raised from 200 to 500 or 600 tons per
week, and the consumption of coal, all included, was re
duced from three and three-quarters to two tons of coal
per ton of iron. More recently the air has in some cases
been heated, in stoves of fire-brick, to 1,200° or 1,500°, but
' This was the quantity of fuel req^uired to smelt such ore as that of the
Cleveland district. In the case of richer ores, such as the Scotch Black-
band, &c., the consumption was something less than the weight just named.

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 21^
the economy of fuel by this additional temperature has
been small compared with that effected by Neilson and, after
him, by the Middlesbrough ironmasters. On the other
hand, the weekly produce has been improved to the extent
of 50 to 100 tons per week by the 200° to 500° in the heat
of the blast, got in the manner just described. Where very
rich ores are treated, as in the United States, as much as
60,000 tons a year, or even more than this quantity, has
been run from one furnace, part of which extraordinary make
is no doubt due to the use of this more highly heated ak.'
The idea of utilising the combustible gas which escaped
fi-om the blast-furnace is of French origin, dating so far
back as 1814. It was, however, only when George Parry in
South Wales simplified its application, about 1850, that its
use began to become general.
It may be remarked, in districts where the nature of
the coal permits it to be used in the raw state, that the
furnace gases contain traces of ammonia. A very bold
attempt has been made at the Gartsherrie honworks, near
Glasgow, to pass the enormous volume of gaseous matter
which escapes, through condensers, in order to intercept the
ammoniacal vapour. With the results obtained the owners
of this establishment express themselves satisfied. The
subject is referred to in this place on account of the great
value of certain compounds of ammonia for agricultural
purposes. A French invention, known as the Simon Carves, has
been applied in two cases in the county of Durham to coke
ovens ; the object being also to intercept the ammoniacal
salts which are formed in the process of coking.
Steel occupying an intermediate position in point of
' Since writing the above, the author has been informed by his friend
Mr. Andrew Carnegie, that the furnace F at the Edgar Thomson Steel
works, near Pittsburg U.S.A., made in four weeks 7,577 tons of 2,240 lbs.

2i6 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
¦Wrought the carbon it contains between cast and wrought iron, might,
iron, on that account, be next spoken of. In practice, however,
it is found more convenient to rid the iron, as it exists in
pig metal, of as much of its foreign ingredients as possible.
Carbon disappears with the rest, and afterwards the exact
quantity of this last-mentioned substance is restored so as
to constitute steel. We shall, therefore, first say a few
words on wrought iron, the process of producing it being,
as may be inferred, a preliminary one to that of getting
steel. A passing allusion was made to an ancient mode of
obtaining wrought iron direct from the ore in a low hearth,
known as a Catalan fire. This plan had the recommenda
tion of affording a purer iron than could be obtained by
the blast-furnace, followed by the subsequent process known
as that of puddling, and it further appeared to possess the
additional advantage of simplicity. Many trials, in conse
quence, have been undertaken to reinstate a nearly obsolete
practice, although it had been displaced very many years
ago by the blast-furnace, when the latter was greatly in
ferior in point of efficiency to the furnaces of the present
day. Eventually all these attempts have been abandoned,
and the blast-furnace bids fair to remain for all time an
indispensable implement in the manufacture of iron.
Cast iron, however valuable for being run into moulds,
is useless where great strength and malleability are required.
To obtain a material having these properties, it is necessary
to expel those substances which have entered into combina
tion with the metal during the smelting of the ore. At
first this separation was carried out in a Lancashire fire,
as it is called, similar in dimensions and form to that used
for obtaining malleable iron direct from the ore. In it the
pig iron was melted with charcoal or coke, the combustion
being maintained by a current of compressed air. After

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 217
fusion the blast was continued, when, by its penetrating the
molten iron, the carbon and most of the silicon and phos
phorus were expehed, and the result was a spongy mass of
wrought iron. The process is an expensive one in fuel,
labour, and waste of metal, but the product obtained was
one of such quality that it continues to be the method
employed for making the highly esteemed bars imported
into this country from Bussia and Sweden.
Such was the method of obtaining wrought iron when
Bichard Cort, a native of England, invented the puddling-
furnace. In it the pig iron is melted, after which the
workman stirs up the liquid metal to expose it to the action
of the fire and of the oxide of iron which is always present.
As the carbon, &c., are removed, the malleable iron appears
in the form of granules, which the puddler collects by means
of his tools into four or five separate pieces known as
puddled balls. Each of these weighs about one hundred
weight, and, after being placed under a steam-hammer, it
is rolled into a rough bar of different dimensions according
to the purpose for which it is intended. Six charges or
thereabouts constitute a day's work for two men, and the
weight obtained is about 25 cwts., produced by the com
bustion of about the same quantity of coal. The puddling-
furnace, afterwards somewhat modified by S. B. Eodgers,
continued from the latter part of the last to the middle of
the present century to be the instrument by which practi
cally all the malleable iron in the world was eventually
made. We shall soon see in these pages that this office
is no longer exclusively performed by the furnace of
Cort ; indeed there are not wanting those who foretell
that the time is approaching when it will disappear
from our forges. Whatever the future may bring, let it
not be forgotten that in the puddling-furnace we have had
the means of producing malleable iron sufficiently good and

2i8 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
sufficiently cheap to have achieved those industrial triumphs
which have been dependent on this metal for their success.
Before proceeding to say a few words on the nature of
steel, the reader may be reminded of the welding power
possessed by wrought iron, by virtue of which rare property
two pieces, on being suitably heated, may be joined together.
This union is so complete, when well done, that the point
of junction is as strong as any other portion of the bar.
steel. If to the wrought iron obtained from pig iron in the
manner described, a small portion of the carbon is restored,
we have steel varying in hardness according to the extent
of such restoration. Hardness and fusibility are promoted
by additions to the carbon, softness and power of welding by
its partial withdrawal. Steels of certain composition vary
in the degree to which they are capable of receiving the
valuable property of temper. By this is meant the power
they possess of being hardened to different degrees by being
heated to different temperatures and suddenly cooled. It
is this faculty which enables cutlery and edged tools of
steel to receive and retain their sharpness beyond that of
any material with which we are acquainted. Steel also
owes its great and enduring elasticity to its tempering, so
that the hair-spring of a chronometer, by which its time
keeping is regulated, will make millions upon millions of
oscillations without its powers of resilience being sensibly
impaired. In the matter of strength, cast iron is the weakest of all
the forms of the metal ; wrought iron is much stronger,
but it is steel which is capable of bearing the heaviest
load without fracture. The following figures represent the
breaking weight in tons, when hung at one end, of a bar
having a sectional area of one inch :
Cast iron Wrought iron Steel
6 to 14 tons 20 to 30 tons 28 to 60 tons

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 219
The methods of making steel are so numerous that any
reference to even some of the principal ones must be very
brief. A simple plan consisted in exposing the molten cast iron
in a low fire under the same conditions as when wrought
iron is made in the manner still pursued in Sweden and
Bussia. Such exposure was arrested when the carbon re
maining was enough to constitute steel.
The principle of partial decarburisation has also been
applied to the puddlmg-furnace, the product being known
as puddled steel.
Cast and wrought iron were melted together in crucibles,
in proportions calculated to give steel of any desired com
position as regards carbon.
For producing an article of the highest class the process
known as that of cementation is the one pursued. For this,
pig iron made from the purest ores smelted with charcoal is
converted into malleable iron m the Lancashire fire, char
coal also being the fuel employed. The product is carefully
hammered, and the bars so obtained are exposed to a pretty
high temperature for about ten days in fireclay chests filled
with charcoal. At the end of that time the iron has
absorbed the needful amount of carbon, and the steel thus
made is fit for being welded or melted in crucibles to form
cast steel. To effect this fusion as much as four tons
of coke were required for one ton of steel, but the quantity
of fuel now consumed has been much reduced by the use
of the Siemens plan of burning gaseous fuel with heated
air. The cementation process is also applicable to irons of
inferior quality to that referred to above.
In 1856 a paper was read before the British Association
* On the Manufacture of Iron and Steel without Fuel.' Prom
this communication we learnt that it was possible to obtain

220 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
several tons of wrought iron in a state of perfect fusion,
without the aid of any heat beyond that produced by the
combustion of a portion of the pig iron from which it was
made. The paper in question was contributed by Henry
Bessemer, and the process it described was that now so well
known in connection with his name. The difference between
the process he described and any of those in previous use
lay in the manner in which the air used was introduced into
the liquid cast iron. Whenever it had been sought to remove
the carbon, &c., from pig by means of compressed air, so as
to obtain wrought iron or steel, the current was directed
downwards into the melted metal. The bottom of the
Bessemer converter, as it is called, is perforated by several
openings, through which a very much larger volume of air
was made to pass upwards through the iron than was
possible when the blast was made to descend.
We have already seen how the old Lancashire fire used
for obtaining wrought iron was displaced by the puddling
furnace of Cort, in which, by the exhausting labour of two
men, about 25 cwts. represented a day's work. For this,
a weight of coal equal to that of the iron produced was
consumed in the operation. A century later we return to
the blast, which is made to perform the mechanical work of
the puddler, but with such rapidity that ten or twelve tons
of pig are converted in about fifteen minutes.
Elevation of temperature is a result of quick combustion,
and this, in the Bessemer process, is so violent that we have
several tons of molten wrought iron obtained without any
fuel beyond that required for blowing the air through the
liquid mass. It must not, however, be supposed that this
result was achieved without many obstacles having been
encountered. It was speedily discovered that only pig iron
of the purest class, rarely met with in commerce, was ca
pable of being treated successfully in a Bessemer converter.

process.

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 221
This difficulty was surmounted by Mr. R. P. Mushet dis
covering that the addition of metallic manganese corrected
the defects in iron and steel obtained from the less pure
kinds of pig. But, even with this additional precaution, it
was found that no metal containing above one part of phos
phorus in one thousand was suitable for the new process.
It unfortunately happened that of the ores found in the Basic
United Kingdom a very small proportion only afforded a
product sufficiently free from phosphorus for making steel.
Thus the pig iron got from ironstone of the lias or from
the coal formations often contains 1 to 1| per cent, of
this element, and was, in consequence, quite unfitted for
use in the Bessemer converter. By the joint efforts of
several metallurgists ' this evil has also been successfully
dealt with, by what is now well known as the Basic process,
in which the phosphorus is transferred during the act of
conversion from the iron, by means of lime, to the slag
which is formed.
Now phosphorus constitutes, as is well known, an
indispensable element in animal as well as in vegetable
organisms, hence the necessity of returning to the soil
substances containing this element, to make good that
which is withdrawn by the crops it grows.
We have in the liassic ironstone phosphorus assimilated
during life by a low type of animal beings, at an early period
of the history of our planet. Countless milhons of these
were buried in the torrents of ferruginous mud brought
down to the sea, which served for their feeding-ground.
The phosphorus they derived from its waters is now reap
pearing in the pig iron obtained from the sedimentary iron
' Mr. Thomas, ¦who was associated with Mr. Gilchrist, Mr. Snelus, Mr.
Windsor Eichards, and Mr. Martin, received the Bessemer Gold Medal from
the Iron and Steel Institute for the services they rendered to this important
invention.

222 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
ore in which the remains of these prehistoric animals were
embalmed. Here it has been a source of infinite trouble to
our iron manufacturers, for which the basic process has
provided a remedy. In addition, there is now a further
prospect of relief by the promise that the phosphorus,
instead of being a source of loss, will, in the slag to which
it has been transferred in the basic process, be useful as
a fertiliser of the soil.
The molten steel obtained from a Bessemer converter is
poured into an iron mould, from which it is removed after
being sufficiently solidified. While still red-hot it is usually
taken direct to a furnace, where it remains a short time, and
is then rolled into a rail or other object for which it may be
required. Indeed, for some articles, the heat evolved during
the active combustion in the converter is sufficient to permit
the steel being rolled into the finished bar direct from the
ingot mould. Thus, instead of the repeated heating and
cooling, involving use of coal and waste of iron, in the older
method of conversion by puddling, the pig is brought in the
molten state from the blast-furnace to the new converter.
It is there blown into steel, and, with at most one reheat
ing, we have the finished bar, greatly superior in strength
and durability to the ordinary puddled iron.
Taking rails, for the purpose of comparing the economy
ot the two modes of manufacture, it may be assumed that
the labour in the Bessemer process is very little more than
one-fourth, and the coal consumed does not exceed one-fifth,
of that required for the production of the ordinary wrought
iron. It is only right to observe that the economy effected by
the Bessemer process itself has been largely assisted by
improvements in the machinery devised in later years.
Hot ingots weighing a ton each, and vessels containing ten
tons or more of molten steel, are moved with ease and

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 223
expedition by hydraulic power, first practised by Sir W. G.
Armstrong. It is, however, in the rolling-mill itself that
the most marked changes have been effected. Mills are to
be found consisting of three steam-engines placed one in
front of the other, and capable, if required, of exerting
a united force equal to that of 9,000 horses. An ingot,
weighing 20 to 25 cwts. is run from the ingot-mould
or from the heating-furnace, as the case may be, to
the first pair of rollers. All the engines are on the
' reversing ' principle devised by Mr. Ramsbottom. The
mass of steel is taken hold of by the rollers, and after each
pass the engine is moved in the opposite direction, so that
the metal is drawn backwards and forwards until the rolling
is completed. When the work at one set of rolls is finished,
the elongated bar is received on a series of iron cylinders at
the floor level, by which, when set in motion by steam, it
is transferred with great rapidity to the succeeding mill.
There the rolling is continued, and from it the now greatly
extended steel is passed on to the last pair of rolls, from
which it issues as a railway bar 130 feet in length, drawn
out from an ingot 6 feet long in three and a half minutes.
The rail is then cut into lengths of 30 feet by circular saws,
to and from which it is moved by the aid of ingeniously
constructed mechanical arrangements.
Such is the power and completeness of the rolling
machinery now in use that there are instances of nearly
400 tons of rails having been turned out in twelve hours by
one mill of the character just described.
Fifty years ago the largest iron boiler-plates which could
be rolled measured 9 feet by 3 feet, and weighed 5 to 7
cwts. Now iron of this description is turned out 13 feet by
10 feet, weighing 15 to 18 cwts. Still more striking is the
present power of producing armour-plates for protecting
the sides of our war steamers. These are made as large

224 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
as the thin plates just mentioned, but, instead of about
three-eighths of an inch, they measure 19 inches in thick
ness, and weigh when finished 48 tons. To manufacture
such plates as these, furnaces to heat masses of metal,
machinery to move them to the rolling-mill, and rolls to
extend them have to be sufficiently powerful to deal with
54 tons, which is the weight of the rough block of iron or
steel required to give a finished armour-plate of 43 tons.
In even such a brief description of the machinery used
in our ironworks as that just given, it would be an over
sight not to mention the well-known steam-hammer of
James Nasmyth. They who have witnessed its action in
forging a coil weighing 50 tons, used in modern ordnance,
cannot fail to have been impressed with its immense power
and ingenuity of construction.
There are to be found certain authorities who declare
that the Bessemer process, wonderfully rapid as is its
action, is now so completely under control that the pro
duct is almost, if not quite, equal in quality to the finest
descriptions of cutlery steel. Against this assertion we
have the fact that a larger quantity than ever of steel is
produced at Sheffield by the old and more costly method
of cementation, in which expensive malleable iron made
exclusively by charcoal continues to be the material em
ployed. There are others who are equally confident that, for
purposes where a material of a perfectly uniform quality is
required, the less expeditious process known as the ' open
hearth ' must be employed. This operation is conducted in
a reverberatory furnace devised by Messrs. Siemens Brothers,
in which, by the combustion of heated gaseous fuel burnt
with heated air, a temperature sufficiently intense to fuse
malleable iron can be excited. The use of steel obtained in
this way is growing in its extent. Thus in 1879 there were

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 225
produced 834,511 tons of Bessemer ingots against 175,000
tons made in the open hearth. In 1885 the quantities
were 1,304,127 tons of the former, and 583,918 tons of the
latter. It may be mentioned that it is from steel made on the
open-hearth principle that the bridge, having spans of
1,730 feet, for crossing the Firth of Forth is being con
structed. It was, it is understood, chosen for the reasons
given in the previous paragraph.
There is no doubt that the superior malleability of steel Prices^of
permits its being manipulated with greater ease than is the
case with iron. A boiler-plate of steel can be readily rolled
35 feet long by 9 feet wide, whereas the chances are that
most iron would often exhibit defects in any attempt to pro
duce a plate of these dimensions. Nothing shows the rela
tive facility of manipulation during manufacture of the two
materials better than the prices at which they can be
supplied. The best West Yorkshire plates of iron for loco
motive boilers of the larger dimensions cost 25L to 30Z.
per ton. Of steel even larger plates than can be made of
iron are sold at present for 9Z. per ton.
There is another circumstance, besides its greater
strength, connected with the manufacture of steel, which for
many purposes confers upon it a great advantage over iron
made in the puddling-furnace. Practically every article we
use of ordinary malleable iron has been built up out of a
number of the small bars rolled from the puddled balls
obtained in the manner already described. No doubt the
welding property of the metal renders it possible to unite
two pieces of it in the most perfect manner, but the inter
position of oxide of iron, always formed when iron is heated,
renders the welded mass very liable to give way at the
points of union. This defect is particularly noticeable in
the case of rails which are exposed to shocks of a very
VOL. II. Q

226

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Limit of
economy.

Foreign labour.

violent character. From this objection steel is entirely
exempt, because the ingot, run as it is from a perfectly
liquid material, is entirely devoid of anything of the nature
of a weld.
If anyone were to venture on the prediction that the
manufacture of iron or steel had almost reached the ulti
mate limit of economy, he would incur the risk of being
reminded that experience in other industries had often
proved the rashness of such opinions. In the branch we are
considering, the assertion perhaps rests on safer grounds
than some former prophecies of this kind. Each item in
every stage of the process, from smelting the ore to the
finished bar, has been very carefully studied, and the actual
quantity of heat involved in its accomplishment has been
pretty accurately ascertained. In like manner the amount
of heat capable of being excited by the combustion of the
fuel is now well understood. This, with the knowledge it is
believed we possess of the nature of the chemical action of
the blast-furnace, enables us to calculate the possible margin
for any further reduction in the quantity of coal consumed.
From this information it has been computed that the
margin is only a very small one — probably, at the outside,
not exceeding 5 cwts., beginning with the ore and ending
with the ton of finished steel. On the other hand, the
large production of a Bessemer pit, and the great weight of
work turned out by such a rail-mill as that described in
these pages, have so reduced the cost of labour as to leave
little room for much further economy.
It is often asserted that lower wages enables foreign
countries, other conditions being equal, to produce iron and
steel more cheaply than can be done in Great Britain. Any
advantage in this direction enjoyed by other nations, for the
reasons given in the previous paragraph, is greatly reduced
in importance, and is more than met by the greater proximity

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 227
lof our coal and ore, and by the greater convenience of export
afforded by our insular position.
Reference has been made in the present article to the Distri-
quantity of pig iron produced in the United Kingdom and onroS.
in the world at large. When we are told that the weight of
the former is 8,250,000 and the latter 21,000,000 tons,
few people realise the meaning of those large numbers. It
may assist those who desire to form an idea of the dimen
sions of such masses of metal to be told that the iron
made in Great Britain would form a cube of 351 feet on
a side, while that of the world at large would be contained
in one of 472 \ feet. The latter would therefore be equal to
a bar 12 inches square, having a length of 19,996 miles,
or if run into a sheet one inch in thickness, it would cover
an area of 45^ square miles.
An inquiry having for its object the knowledge of what
becomes of all the iron which is made would be an interest
ing study. Unfortunately, the extent to which it can be
carried, for the want of the necessary statistics, is very
limited. Firstly, as regards the consumption of iron among
different nations, all that can be given under this head is the
weight of new iron supplied. In addition to this, however,
there are large quantities of old metal returned to the works
for remanufacture. Leaving this out of the account, and
dealing only with the new, we have at all events a standard
which will serve us as a comparative test.
If we assume the population of Europe in 1884 to have
been 348,180,000, the annual consumption, according to the
journal of the British Iron Trade Association, was supposed
to vary among different nations from 23 lbs. to 287-53 lbs.
per head — the latter being that of the United Kingdom.
The 50,152,000 inhabitants of the United States requked
270-92 lbs. per head. Q 2

228 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
The population of the British possessions, numbering
11,465,079 persons, exclusive of India, consumed 121*40 lbs.
each, while the British-India territories, containing 31 per
cent, of the inhabitants of the globe, only used 2-40 lbs. per
head. The remainder of Asia, representing 517,161,000
people, managed to live with less than half a pound —
i.e. -49 lb. per annum.
South America and its islands, with 45,459,000 persons,
used 13-5 lbs. per head ; and Egypt, having 5,517,000
inhabitants, required 7'55 lbs. per individual.
The total population of the world— say, 1,424,680,000
persons — consumed, for the year we are considering (1884),
32-33 lbs. per head.
Con- When we turn our attention to the specific objects for
sumption
by rail- wliich the iron consumed in the United Kingdom is required,
we can only deal, and that often in only a very approximate
fashion, with some of the larger sources of demand. The
first of these is for railways, in respect to which it is not
too much to say that but for iron this mode of transport
would have been an impossibility. This opinion is based on
the fact that we know of no other substance in nature suffi
ciently abundant and possessing the necessary properties
wherewith a railway and its various appliances could have
been constructed. It has been computed that, for the road
itself as it exists at the present day in our own country,
there has been worked up between 10,000,000 and 11,000,000
tons of pig iron, and for the locomotives, carriages, and
waggons about 6,000,000 tons more, together 16,000,000
to 17,000,000 tons.
The violence of the shocks to which the materials forming
the permanent way and rolling-stock of railways is exposed
is such that the annual quantity of iron to be replaced is
very considerable. To make good the loss of weight due to
wear and that incurred in remanufacture on the railways of

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 229
the United Kingdom, probably about 300,000 tons of pig
iron are annually consumed. The actual amount, however,
has undergone and is undergoing very considerable modifica
tion owing to the extended use and greater durability of
steel. As an example of the former, it may be mentioned
that in 1873 there were made in Cleveland 325,000 tons of
iron rails, and in 1879 only 7,000 tons. When it is remem
bered that the same change was going on elsewhere, and that
1,000,000 tons represents the annual rail-making capacity
of Great Britain alone, the importance of this alteration in
the nature of its iron trade will at once be understood. At
present the manufacture of iron rails may be regarded as
an obsolete industry, but there is every hope that the dimi
nished demand for rails, arising from the greater endurance
of steel, may be met by the wooden sleepers on which they
are laid being replaced by metal.
Passing from conveyance on land to carriage on water, iron for
a ship may be likened to a long girder which must have buUding.
strength lo resist the violent strains to which the vessel is
constantly exposed when in motion and frequently when in
a state of rest. It is very long since any doubt could have
been entertained that a ship might have been built of iron
much better able to resist those strains than could be
expected from a ship built of wood. Nevertheless, it was
only a little before 1830 that Wilham Fairbairn built a few
iron canal-boats, and not till that year that he launched
three small steamers for the coasting trade. The progress
of this new industry, however, moved slowly, for it was
1836 or 1837 before he commenced the building of iron
vessels as a regular busmess. Thirteen years after this, viz.
in 1850, out of 132,800 tons of shipping built in that year,
120,000 tons continued to be constructed of wood. Soon
after this period kon gradually grew in favour, so that in
1882 there was only about the same amount of wooden

230 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
tonnage constructed that there had been of iron in 1850.
In consequence, however, of our extended commerce, as
sisted by our cheap iron, by the use of the screw-propeller,
and by great improvements in our marine-engines, the
shipowners of Great Britain have become carriers for almost
the whole world. To such an extent has our mercantile
fleet increased, that there were launched in the year 1883
no less than 1,116,555 tons of shipping, and the iron con
sumed in the hulls and machinery during the seven years
ending 1884 was close on 4,000,000 tons.
Not only is an iron vessel much stronger than one of
wood, but it is much lighter, and able, in consequence, within
a given space, to carry a heavier cargo. Steel being still
stronger than iron, a less weight is required, and a ship of
the former has a still better carrying capacity than one of
the latter. In consequence of this difference, and of the
diminishing cost of steel, this material is growing in favour.
Thus, in 1878 the steel tonnage built was only 4,470, in
1883 it had increased to 166,428 tons.
To compare wood and steel, Mr. James Laing, of Sunder
land, has kindly furnished the writer with the weights of
material used in building the hull of the ' Duncan Dunbar '
in 1857. They were as follows : Tons
Iron knees, bolts, pillars, diagonal strappings, Ac. . . 130
Copper sheathing  25
¦ Timber of various kinds, finished weight , . . 895
¦Weight when launched  1,050
The weight of a hull of steel of the same external dimen
sions as the above would be : Tons
Iron used, 45 tons; steel, 500 tons— total . . .545
Wood for decks, cabins, Ac, tanks, cement, &o. . . 175
¦Weight when launched  720
Difference  33q

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 231
As a result of this difference of weight, the steel vessel
would carry 2,200 tons of deadweight against 1,870 tons
capable of being conveyed on the wooden ship. Besides
this advantage, the sides of the former ship are so much
thinner than the other that it contains 4,000 cubic feet
more internal space.
The magnetised bar of steel in the mariner's compass, iron for
tele-
and the correct time-keeping insured by the elastic pro- graphs
perties of the same metal in our chronometer springs, have °'
rendered incalculable service to the science of navigation.
By means of these two instruments, a tolerably accurate idea
of the position of a ship can be obtained in the absence of
all other means of observation. Out of Oersted's discovery
of the deflection of the magnetic needle by a current of elec
tricity has grown the electric telegraph. For it Mr. W. H.
Preece, of the Post Office, estimates that the wires in use in
the United Kingdom amount to 50,150 tons, and Mr. John
Pender gives 400,000 tons as the weight of the 1,714,000
miles of overhead telegraphic whe of all nations. Roughly
speaking, this gentleman considers there are in the 107,000
miles of submarine cable now in use 200,000 tons of iron.
These undertakings represent a capital of 51,725, 500L,
or, including the land service, no less a sum than nearly
90,000,000Z. sterling.
Iron free from carbon is also susceptible of being mag
netised so long as the exciting cause is present, but this
property disappears the instant the source capable of exciting
magnetism is withdrawn. It was this principle which was
made use of in the telephone as originally constructed. A
disc of soft iron, placed near a magnet, was caused to vibrate
by the human voice, and the vibrations were transmitted to
a second disc of iron by means of a conducting wire. These
secondary vibrations produced sound-waves, and thus con
veyed the voice of the operator at the one end of the wire

232

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

¦Wire
ropes.

Iron for
pipes.

Tinplates.

to him who was listening at the other. This
invention has been greatly increased in power by supple
menting the magnetic by an electric current when a suit
able conductor is employed. The Telephone Exchanges of
Liverpool and Manchester, and of Edinburgh and Glasgow,
are in constant communication. Still more remarkable is
the fact that a conversation has been successfully carried
on between New York and Chicago, a distance of about
1,000 miles.
With the demand for wire for telegraphic purposes,
its substitution for hempen ropes, its use for fences and
other objects, it has been estimated that the weight of iron
and steel converted into this form alone is not short of
500,000 tons a year.
The extent to which gas has been employed for illumina
tion, and the necessity of bringing water from long distances
for the accommodation of large populations in our towns,
have necessitated the extensive use of cast-iron pipes for
the distribution of these two requirements of civilised life.
To provide for them it has been calculated, upon the best
data at our command, that in the United Kingdom as
much as 500,000 tons of pig iron are consumed in its pipe
foundries. Of this quantity one-half is required at home,
and the remainder is exported over sea.
The property possessed by kon to take and retain a
coating of tin fits it admirably for purposes where strength
combined with lightness and a certain amount of resistance
to corrosion are desired. Hence the suitability for the so-
called tinplates for many household purposes, for packing
cases, and particularly for the conveyance of preserved
meats, fruits, &c., now so largely imported into Europe
from the United States. In 1885 the exports from the
United Kingdom of tinplates, chiefly for America, was
close on 300,000 tons, or nearly three times what it was

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 233

twelve or fifteen years ago. Before long we may expect
the total make of tinplates in the world to reach 500,000
tons a year, which means sufficient to cover an area of
nearly fifty square miles.
It may be convenient now to close this necessarily iron of
imperfect account of the uses to which iron is put, by an mng!'^
approximate estimate of the purposes to which it is applied arsposai
in the Onited Kingdom. Five years, ending with 1884, °*'-
have been selected as being those of the largest makes.
Approximate Weight of Pig Iron to produce variotis Articles consumed
in the United Kingdom (1 = 1000).

1880

1881

1882

1883

1884

Construction of new railways .
Eenewals of old railways, loss in
remanufacture ....
Additional rolling-stock, new .
Eenewals of old rolling-stock, loss
in remanufacture ....
Total for railways . .
Shipbuilding 
Gas and water pipes, supposed
Tinplates, supposed
Architectural works — Machinery ]
for home use, domestic purposes, [
for telegraphs, for fencing, &o. . J
Pig iron exported as such, or that re- \
quired for rails, bars,c!i!0., exported I
or consumed in Great Britain for ["
machinery for exportation . J

131 9052
160

8490
100160

161 90
40
160
451703250 75
1,964

6690
40
160
356860250 75
1,981

149 90
92
160

433 390250 75
2,097

434579 250 75
2,138

491 611
250 75
2,136

3,245
4,332

3,476
4,404

3,503
5,002

3,522
4,663

3,563
4,054

7,577

7,880

8,505

8,185

7,617

with iron.

Little ha.s purposely been said in the course of this Labour
sketch of the iron industry of the United Kingdom of a L'^ction
purely commercial character. Nevertheless enough has
perhaps been advanced to satisfy the reader of its vast
extent in this respect, and of its national importance in
affording employment to great numbers of miners, smelters,
and people engaged in converting the crude metal into

234 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
wrought iron or steel. Considered from the labour point
of view in the ironworks themselves, we are standing only
on the threshold of any estimate we may attempt to form
of its real magnitude. This we only begin to realise
when we approach the workshops in which the metal has
to be converted into those articles which fit it for actual
use. In some rare instances, the amount of workmanship
expended in the manner just referred to is very trifling.
Annually there are consumed in the United Kingdom about
300,000 tons of railway-chairs, which are usually sold at
about 55s. per ton when pig iron costs 40s., leaving thus
only 15s. for the expense of conversion.
Cast metal pipes are another large item in the in
dustrial application of iron ; but here, with pig at the price
just named, the increase of value is about doubled — i.e. gas
and water pipes are sold at something like 4Z. per ton.
Articles like stove-grates used -in domestic fireplaces weigh
but little, and receive little labour beyond that incurred in
running the iron into moulds, and are sold at from three
to four times the price of the metal employed. Kitchen-
ranges are worth nearly five times the price of the iron
entering into their construction. ,
For shipbuilding as much as 500,000 tons of wrought
iron and steel have been used in one year. If we assume the
value to be2,500,000Z., the mere wages for constructing the
hull will amount to something above one-half the cost of
the metal used.
A vessel carrying about 2,000 tons is propelled by an
engine and boilers weighing 165 tons. The value of the
finished machinery placed in the vessel will probably be
about ten times that of the raw materials as received from
the ironworks.
Again, a locomotive engine and its tender costs in the

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 235
market about 60L per ton, which is about nine times the
value of the metal used in its construction.
A self-acting mule, containing 1,000 spindles, costs from
210Z. to 250;., and weighs about six tons. The iron used is
of an expensive character, but we shall be within the mark
in supposing the finished machine is sold for five times the
cost of the materials used in building it.
Needles — familiar objects of domestic consumption — are
made from steel wire, which is delivered to the manufacturers
by the wire-drawers.
Messrs. Henry Millward & Sons, of Redditch, have en
abled the author to give analogous figures for the staple
trade of their town — namely, needles and fish-hooks.
Common needles, such as are exported to China, are
made from Bessemer steel wire, costing the manufacturer
about OOL per ton, the steel billets from which this wire
is produced being worth about 4Z. to hi. The finished
article sells for 260L The delicate instruments used for
fine work are made from wire costing 2s. 6d. per lb., or more
than the needle which suffices for the Chinese, while the
needle for home use sells at 5,600Z. per ton. In the manu
facture of fish-hooks, the wire used for the production of the
finest costs 336L per ton, while the hooks themselves sell
at the rate of 14,000Z. to 15,000L per ton.
Probably the most expensive form in which iron is sold
is for the steel hair-springs in watches and timepieces.
It is needless to say. the consumption is very limited in its
amount, for it would require nearly forty millions of the
former to weigh one ton. The retail value of this quantity
would be about 400,000L, or above three times the price of
gold. The main-springs of timekeepers are a coarse and in
expensive article compared with the more delicate instru
ment just named, for they only bring about 6,000L per ton.
With all our agricultural implements of iron, with every

236 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
article of clothing produced in a large measure by machinery
made of metal, with our means of artificial lighting, as well
as the water we require brought to our dwellings in iron
pipes, with our transport on land performed on roads of
iron and on sea by ships of the same material, with wind
and water as moving powers almost entirely displaced by
the steam-engine, it may well be asked whether the inha
bitants of the United Kingdom have not reached their maxi
mum point of home consumption of the metal we are descri
bing. The figures given in these pages, indeed, countenance
the belief that any future extension of the demand for iron
in this country will be chiefly that required by any increase
that may take place in our population. On the other hand,
foreign nations are constantly adding to their demands
for a metal in constant requisition by peoples, who are
following our example in extending home industries. This
want of iron was formerly, and continues to be, largely
addressed to the ironmasters of Great Britain ; but while
the world's requirements have largely increased in late
years, the quantity exported from this country, as may be
seen in the table recently given, has declined. This arises
from the greatly increased production in the United States,
in France, and in Germany as compared with our own.
Thus between 1870 and 1883 the make of pig iron in Great
Britain rose from 5,963,000 to 8,529,000 tons, while that
of all other nations, from 5,602,000 tons in the former year,
became 12,534,000 tons in the latter. This means that
while our increase was 43 per cent., that in other countries
amounted to 223 per cent.
It is no secret that this greater activity in the foreign
iron trade has been mainly promoted by the heavy duties
directed against the importation of British iron. It is
better that it should be so than that the decline of our
export trade should arise from Nature having been less

THE IRON TRADE AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 237
lavish in her gifts to us than she has been elsewhere, or
that we are less skilful in utilising our opportunities than
our foreign competitors are in turning theirs to good
account. As much as this, indeed, has been said upon
some occasions in comparing the progress of the iron
manufacture in Great Britain with that of other countries,
but the record of the origin of the improvements contained
in these pages gives no countenance to such an opinion.
When a branch of industry has reached the position
claimed here for the iron trade, its votaries have no alterna
tive but to turn to the lessons of science for inspiration.
Mr. Huxley, one of our greatest living teachers, has recently
warned us of the 'dangers of dropping astern for want of
the education which is obtained elsewhere in the higher
branches of industry and of commerce.' The captains who
led the forces in the iron trade were formerly as open to
criticism in this respect as those of any other company in
the industrial army. It is, indeed, well within the recollec
tion of the writer when, to use the learned professor's words,
the ironmasters ' looked askance at Science.' The figurative
' flirtation ' he speaks of between Science and Art already
approaches to an 'intimacy,' which bids fair to ripen into
a firm alliance. If so, then in any fresh departure from the
old trodden ways we may hope to see our iron manufactures
advancing side by side with those of any other nation.
Lowthian Bell.

238

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

SCHOOLS.

First grants
for ele
mentary schools.

I HAVE to speak of the progress of schools in England
during the present reign, and I begin with elementary
schools — schools for the great bulk of the people.
The first grant of public money for these schools dates
from 1883, four years before the accession of her Majesty.
This grant was administered by the Treasury, and was not
accompanied by the right of inspection. The first rudiments
of an Education Department appear in 1839, the third
year of her Majesty's reign. On the 13th of February, in
that year, Lord John Russell laid upon the table of the
House of Commons a letter which he had addressed by her
Majesty's command to Lord Lansdowne, the President of
the Council. The letter began as follows :
' My Lord, — I have received her Majesty's command to
make a communication to your lordship upon a subject of
the greatest importance. Her Majesty has observed, with
deep concern, the want of instruction which is still observ
able among the poorer classes of her subjects. All the
inquiries which have been made show a deficiency in the
general education of the people, which is not in accordance
with the character of a civilised and Christian nation.'
The letter goes on to mention the want of qualified
teachers, better methods of instruction, and adequate in
spection of the schools ; it then touches on the ' wide,
or apparently wide, difference of opinion with respect to

SCHOOLS 239
religious instruction,' and on the difficulties which this
difference creates, and concludes as follows :
' On this subject I need only say, that it is her Majesty's
wish that the youth of this kingdom should be religiously
brought up, and that the rights of conscience should be
respected.' In pursuance of this letter, a Committee of Council
on Education was appointed on April 10, 1839, consist-
,ing of the Lord President and four other of the Queen's
Ministers. The Committee took over from the Treasury
the superintendence of the application of any sums voted
by Parliament for the promotion of public education. But
it established, as a condition of its grants, the right of in
spection, and it appointed inspectors. It is the beginning,
therefore, of our Department of Public Education.
Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth was, m fact, its founder, sir
Pie it was who did most to interest Ministers in the effort shuttie-
to be made for bringing State help to schools for the ^°^ '
people, and who chiefly devised the plans of proceeding.
Sir James Shuttleworth, as I shall throughout call him,
although m 1839 he did not yet bear that name, has never
had full justice done to him. This doctor of medicine (in
1839 he was Dr. Kay), who in his professional practice for
some ten years observed closely the condition of the labour
ing population in great cities — -Edinburgh, Dublin, Man
chester — and who became convinced that for the barbarism
which he found there the school was the natural and true
cure, that this cure would conquer barbarism slowly but
would conquer it in the end, was a most remarkable man.
lie was not a man of high cultivation, and he was not a
good writer. I am told that he might easily have become
a powerful speaker, and I can weU believe it ; but he was
not in Parliament, and his work was not to be done on
the platform. As an administrator, when he had become

240 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Secretary to the Committee of Council on Education, he did
not attract by person and manner; his temper was not
smooth or genial, and he left on many persons the impres
sion of a man managing and designing, if not an intriguer.
But the faith in popular education which animated him was
no intriguer's passion. It was heroic, it was a gift planted
by nature, and truly and earnestly followed, cultivated, and
obeyed. And he who had this clear vision of the road to
be pursued, had a clear vision also of the means toward the
end. By no other means than those adopted by him could
a system of public education have been then introduced
in this country. Moreover, in laying out popular education
he showed in general an instinct wonderfully sound — he
grasped the subject more thoroughly, made fewer mistakes,
than any of his successors. He was, too, a religious man,
though both Church and Dissent distrusted him. He sin
cerely desired to make religious instruction a power in
schools ; he believed as firmly as Butler, that of education
what is called information is really the least part. Only,
the problem how at present to supply an effectual religious
instruction seemed to him simpler than it is. As to pro
grammes of secular instruction, he had acquired full know
ledge of what was done in the good schools established on
the Continent, and he applied this knowledge judiciously.
I have already said that he did not attract, that he had
faults ; that both the clergy and the sects disliked and dis
trusted him. The general public was indifferent ; it needed
a statesman to see his value. Statesmen like Lord Lans
downe and Lord John Russell appreciated him justly ; they
followed his suggestions, and founded by them the public
education of the people of this country. When at last the
system of that education comes to stand full and fairly
formed, Shuttleworth will have a statue.
The Reformation did not in England, as in Scotland

SCHOOLS 241
and on the Continent, create a system of elementary schools, sunday-
The endowed schools founded in the reign of Edward VI.
and Elizabeth were ill adapted to meet the wants of the
poor, and, being ill-managed and without any effective
supervision, became more and more unserviceable as time
went on. Even the catechetical instruction of the children
of the poor, for which provision is made by the 79th Canon,
had come in the eighteenth century to be much neglected.
Towards the end of that century, however, a movement in
religion awakened a new sense of responsibility, and Sunday-
schools were founded. They were of invaluable service. Up
to 1839 a large part of the population owed to these schools
not only their religious instruction, but their power, whatever
it was, to write and read. The promoters of the Sunday-
school, having seized the fruitful idea that the school is an
inseparable element of the organisation of a Christian con
gregation, were naturally led to give more extension to this
idea, and to institute the day-school. In the early years of
the present century the National Society and the British and
Foreign School Society were founded, in order by association
to obtam the means of better reaching the end in view. The
National Society was to promote schools in connection with
the Church of England, and in which the catechism and doc
trines of that Church were taught ; the British and Foreign
School Society was to offer to all Protestant congregations
a common school, where the Bible was read, but no cate
chism admitted.
From that time forward until 1839 these great societies Condi-
were the chief and almost the sole agents for improving the lower
popular education m this country. Probably even before
they existed there were scattered over the country a certain
number of good schools, created and maintained by the zeal
of individuals. But certainly from the time when the two
societies came to reinforce individual efforts, schools of high
VOL. II. E

242 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
merit were brought into existence. I am sure that my
memory does not deceive me as to the merit of certain
National schools which I remember to have seen in my
youth. They were thoroughly good schools, schools which
would be called good even now. Later I have visited, as an
inspector, British schools which did not avail themselves of
the annual grants from Government, and had remained
therefore British schools of the old-fashioned type; some of
these, too, I found to be thoroughly good schools, with
certain merits of their own which modern schools do not, I
think, reproduce. But undoubtedly the monitorial system,
which all these old schools had to employ, required almost a
man of genius as head teacher to work it profitably. More
over, the means at the disposal of the great societies and of
individual promoters of education were wholly insufficient.
Immense and formidable gaps in the supply of schools pre
sented themselves ; whole regions were in a state of ignorance
and barbarism, and there was no power of reaching them.
Riots and rick-burning in the agricultural districts, sedition
and outrage in the manufacturing towns, compelled attention
to the neglected condition of the people. Inquiry followed
inquiry ; the returns given were in many cases inaccurate
and misleading, but enough of the truth became visible to
prove the urgent need for some action on the part of the
Government. I have myself heard from those who, before
the Reform Bill, visited Lancashire to inquire into the
state of the manufacturing population, that in the town of
Oldham they found it a common practice for men to run
races through the streets naked, and in another large town
they found that less than one hundred, of all the children
of school age there, were at school.
But no one has drawn so striking a picture as Sir James
Shuttleworth himself of the parents and scholars with whom,
in London, the agricultural counties, and the manufacturing

SCHOOLS 243
districts respectively, the schools, when the Government first
took them in hand, had very frequently to deal. The picture
of the London ' street Arab ' is famihar, and I need not here
repeat it. Of the parents in the pauperised rural counties
of the South of England he says :
' They were in a state resembling helotry. They were
largely dependent on the poor-rate. There were few or no
schools. The population was ignorant and demoralised ; it
had the craft of the pauper, or of the pensioner on parochial
doles, of the poacher and the squatter on the common.'
And he says of the children, even those who attend some
school :
' The very early labour of the children on the farms,
and the interference of successive harvest and seed-time,
make school attendance so brief, and interrupt it by such
long intervals, that the child's poor capacity for school-work
and his learning are subject to constant drawbacks. More
over, there is no help at home. His parents, though they
may be skilful in farm work, are unlettered, and in all
other respects ignorant.'
Most striking of all is the picture of the school-children
of immigrant families feeding the manufacturing districts
of the northern counties :
' A family enters a manufacturing village ; the children
are at various school ages, from seven to eleven. They
probably have never Hved but in a hovel ; have never been
in the street of a village or a town ; are unacquainted with
common usages of social life ; perhaps never seen a book ;
are bewildered by the rapid motion of crowds, confused
in an assemblage of school-children. They have to be
taught to stand upright, to walk without a slouching gait,
to sit without crouching like a sheep-dog. They have to
learn some decency in their skin, hair, and dress. They
are commonly either cowed or sullen, or wild, fierce, and
E 2

244 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
obstinate. They are probably classed with scholars some
years younger than themselves. They have no habits of at
tention ; the effort of abstraction required to connect a sound
with a letter is at first impossible to them. Their parents are
almost equally brutish. They have lived solitary lives in
some wild region, where the husband has been a shepherd,
or hind, or quarryman, or miner, or turfcutter, or has won a
precarious livelihood as a carrier, driver of loaded lime
ponies, or poacher. The pressing wants of a growing
family have induced them to accept the offer of some agent
from a mill. From personal experience of many years, I
know that such children as these form a large portion of
the scholars whom the schools of the cotton and woollen
districts have to civilise and Christianise.'
"Want of The half-time system in factories, and the rule that no
good
teachers, child under eight shall be employed in them, date from
about the same time as the formation of the Committee of
Council on Education. Without them the school could have
produced little effect on a population such as that which
has just been described. But there was another hindrance
to the work of the school which half-time Acts could not
touch — a hindrance prevailing not in the manufacturing
districts only, but all over England — the want of good
teachers. There were no training-schools ; almost the only
teachers whom the Committee of Council found at its dis
posal in 1839 were ' either untrained men who, from some
defect of body or health, had been driven from the rougher
struggles of life and muscular toil ; or self-taught Sunday-
school teachers, trained for three or six months in some
central model school '—such, for instance, as the British
and Foreign School Society had established in the Borougli
Road. The Treasury grant of 20,000L a year, from 1833 to
1839, was distributed through the National Society and

SCHOOLS 245
the British and Foreign School Society, for the purpose of opposi-
building schoolhouses, and for that purpose only. When thTpro-
the Committee of Council was formed, the grant, of the ^"rmai
same amount as before, was meant to provide also a school.
system of inspection for schools, and to provide, above all,
a normal school for the training of teachers, with a model
or practising school attached to it. The system of inspec
tion was established, and has been in operation ever since.
The projected normal school met with keen opposition from
the bishops and clergy of the Church of England, and was
abandoned. Students of different rehgious confessions were
to have been combined in it, and the religious instruction
was to have been of two kinds, general and special — the
general instruction to embrace all the students, and to be
given by the headmaster of the school ; the special to be
given by the clergy and ministers of religion, at hours set
apart for the purpose, to members of their own confession.
It was at once assumed that the Government proposed to
extend this plan of combined religious instruction to all the
elementary schools of the country. In the storm which the
Church raised, the newly launched Committee of Council
very nearly suffered shipwreck. It escaped, however, but it
had to throw overboard its projected normal school. It
continued to distribute its grants through the two great
societies, as the Treasury had done ; securing, however, that
guarantee of inspection for which the Treasury had neither
established the means nor formulated the demand.
The third regulation of the Committee of Council's Govern-
Minutes, presented to Parliament in 1840, was as foUows : spection.
' The right of inspection will be requked by the Com
mittee in aU cases. Inspectors authorised by her Majesty will
be appointed from time to time, to visit schools to be hence
forth aided by public money ; the inspectors will not interfere
with the religious instruction or discipline or management

246 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
of the schools, it being their object to collect facts and in
formation, and to report the result of their inspection to the
Committee of Council on Education.'
Much apprehension was felt lest the interference of the
new inspectors should be vexatious, and the instructions to
them were judiciously drawn so as to allay these apprehen
sions. The inspectors were to be careful to explain to
school-managers that the object of the Government was not
to supersede them, but to co-operate with them ; not to
control them, but to afford them assistance ; to assist them
in efforts for school-improvement in which they might want
aid. 'You are in no respect,' the inspectors were told, ' to
interfere with the instruction, management, or discipline
of the school, or press upon the managers any suggestions
which they may be disinclined to receive.'
As a proof of the sincere desire to work harmoniously
with the managers, the Government undertook to appoint
different classes of inspectors. The authorities of the
Church of England desired that the inspectors should
examine into the religious instruction of schools, and report
upon it. This was agreed to, and the Government under
took to appoint no inspector of Church of England schools
in whom the archbishops had not confidence, and to retain
no inspector from whom that confidence had been with
drawn. Moreover, the inspector's report on the discipline
and instruction was to be in duplicate, one copy of it for the
Committee of Council and one for the archbishop of the pro
vince. Only clergymen were appointed as inspectors of
Church of England schools. The British and Foreign School
Society preferred that the inspectors of their schools should
not examine into the religious instruction given there. These
schools were therefore inspected by laymen ; but here,
again, the Committee of Council undertook to communicate
to the Society the name of any 'proposed inspector, and not

SCHOOLS 247
to press his appointment if he did not possess the Society's
confidence. A Minute of 1839 declared that, if a school in England
applying for aid were not in connection with either the
National Society or the British and Foreign School Society,
the application would not be entertained, excei^t under
special circumstances. In the schools of the two societies
there was religious instruction ; and it was held that no
school could be admitted to aid in which the Bible was not
read. With this condition Wesleyan, Catholic, and Jewish
schools could of course comply ; and, as time went on, these
schools were admitted to aid. Secular schools, which could
not comply with this condition, were excluded.
The opposition of the bishops had prevented the esta- The first
blishment of a State normal school, yet a normal school school.
was indispensable. The indefatigable man who was found
ing our public education determined to start a normal
school himself, and to show how such an institution worked.
In conjunction with his friend Mr. Edward Carleton Tufnell,
who not long ago closed a long life of pubhc-spirited labour,
he took at Battersea the manor-house by the Thames,
which is now known as the oldest and most distinguished of
Church of England tramkig-schools. The name of Mr.
Robert Eden, afterwards Lord Auckland, at that time vicar
of Battersea, should be remembered as that of a helper in
the good work. It was his cordial encouragement which
drew to Battersea the founders of the traming-school, and
he placed his parochial schools at their disposal as practis
ing schools for the students.
' The design was at first merely to provide a supply of
trained teachers for workhouse schools. In these schools
the rudiments of the pupil-teacher system, a system which
was found at work at this time in Holland, had already
appeared. The emergence of the first Enghsh pupil-teacher

248 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
deserves record. A good schoolhad been formed in the
Gressenhall workhouse in Norfolk. The master of this
school, an active and intelligent man, fell ill. Among his
scholars was a forward lad called William Rush, who had
risen rapidly to the top of the school. When the master
suddenly fell iU, this boy of thirteen years old took, of his
own accord, the charge of the school, carried forward the
prescribed routine, not only of the schoolroom, but of the
school garden and workshop as well, and with such success
that the guardians were summoned to see. They authorised
Rush to continue his work, and invited Sir James Shuttle-
worth, who as Dr. Kay was then employed in Norfolk to
administer the new Poor Law, to visit the school. Dr. Kay
came, and, having seen the boy's work, engaged him to
remain as appointed assistant to the master, who soon
recovered. Rush was afterwards moved to the School of
Industry at Norwood, for the sake of the ampler teaching
and training to be obtained there, and afterwards to
Battersea. Meanwhile the hint had been taken, and pro
mising boys engaged as apprentices in several workhouse
schools. Work began at Battersea in February 1840. The first
pupils were brought there from Norwood — boys like Rush,
who were thought likely to form a class of serviceable
apprentices. In a year's time their number grew to twenty-
four. Friends of the founders aided the new institution
by sending to it boys in whom they were interested, and
paying 20L a year towards their support. But, besides the
pupil-teachers, there was a smaller class of young men, sent
in the same way by benevolent persons wishing to train
them to be schoolmasters. The number in this class
amounted at the end of the first year to nine.
Sir James Shuttleworth lived in the house, and super
intended the whole working of the new institution. Two

SCHOOLS 249
I departments were formed, for each of which a master was
I appointed. The life of the pupils was to be plain, and the
work was to be both bodily and mental ; how plain the life,
and the work how severe, let the training-school students
of to-day learn with awe :
' The whole school rose at half -past five. The household
work occupied the pupil-teachers altogether, and the students
partially, till a quarter to seven o'clock (there were no
servants kept except a cook). At a quarter to seven they
marched into the garden and worked till a quarter to eight,
when they were summoned to prayers. They then marched
to the tool-house, deposited their implements, washed, and
assembled at prayers at eight o'clock. At half-past eight
they breakfasted. From nine to twelve they were in school.
They worked at the garden from twelve to one, when they
dined. They resumed their labour in the garden at two,
and returned to their classes at three, where they were en
gaged till five, when they worked another hour in the garden.
At six they supped, and spent from seven till nine in their
classes. At nine evening prayers were read, and immediately
afterwards they retired to rest.'
The meals were ' frugal or even coarse ; it was thought
desirable that their diet should be as frugal as was consis
tent with constant activity of mind and some hours of steady
and vigorous labour, and that it should not pamper the
appetite by its quality or its variety.'
This severe regimen was found trying by several weakly
pupils at first, but presently they were braced and invigo
rated by it. ' They rapidly gained strength ; the most deli
cate soon lost all their ailments.'
Both in the management and in the instruction of the
Battersea school was felt the influence of the normal and
orphan schools of Switzerland, and of the admirable men — •
Pestalozzi, FeUenberg, Vehrli— who had worked in them.

250 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Of these men or their methods Sir James Shuttleworth had
made a close and careful study, with the happiest fruit for
his own plans. To prepare him for laying out the in
struction for the future teachers of popular schools, he could
not have come under better influence than Pestalozzi's. A
Pestalozzian he always remained.
He and Mr. Tufnell, with the aid of some subscriptions
from friends of thek scheme, had borne the expense of the
training-school during its first year. But he had solicited
permission from the Government to have the periodical
examinations entrusted to the newly appointed inspectors of
schools, and he had always hoped that when his normal
school was started and doing work, the Government would,
if not adopt it, at least aid it.
The expectation was not disappointed. The Committee
of Council granted in 1842 the sum of 1,000L towards the
expenses of the Battersea Training School, and in the fol
lowing year a further sum of 2,200L to enlarge and improve
the school premises. To this second grant was attached the
condition that satisfactory arrangements should be made
for the future support of the institution'. Its founders had
meanwhile made an important change in their plan. They
had come to the conclusion that boys could not with advan
tage be framed in a normal school, had raised the age of
admission, and proposed henceforth to train adult students
only. But the school had grown until it required for its
maintenance resources greater than those of its original
founders. At the same time, they felt that their original
design of training masters for workhouse schools only
might with advantage give place to the wider design of
supplying with teachers the elementary schools of the
country. Accordingly, with the consent of the Govern
ment, they made over, at the end of 1843, the Battersea
.Normal School to the National Society, in whose hands

SCHOOLS 251
it has ever since remained. The founders of the school
retired from its management.
But they had accomplished a great work. Their example
had speedily been foUowed. The British and Foreign School
Society established a normal school in connection with
their model school in the Borough Road ; the Church esta
blished others ; and Great Britain, which at the date of
the Battersea experiment did not possess a single normal
school, could show eight normal schools four or five years
after it.
Meanwhile the reports of the inspectors drew attention Defects
to the defects of the elementary schools, although, the Par- mentary
liamentary grant being then in aid of building only, they ^° °° ^'
had no power to bring help towards the maintenance of
schools and the improvement of thek teaching. They gave
advice and recommendations to managers which the mana
gers had no means for following ; the reports, however, made
it manifest that progress was impossible unless something
more was done. The number of school-houses had con
siderably increased since 1833, but they were in general ill-
furnished, ill- warmed, ill-supplied with books and apparatus.
Above all, the condition of the teacher was deplorable. ' He
has often an income very little greater than that of an
agricultural labourer, and very rarely equal to that of a
moderately skilful mechanic. Even this income is to a
great degree contingent on the weekly pittances paid from
the earnings of his poor neighbours, and liable to be reduced
by bad harvests, want of employment, strflces, sickness
among the school-children, or his own ill-health.' He had
monitors for his assistants; but 'the monitors usually
employed are under twelve years of age, some of them as
young as eight or nine, and they are m general very igno
rant, rude, and unskilful.'
In 1843 the Government of Sir Robert Peel attempted

252 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Religious to deal with the education of at least the manufacturing
cuities. districts. Sir James Graham's famous education clauses
in the Factories Act provided for the establishment and
support of schools in those districts. The religious instruc
tion was to be that of the Church of England, but the
exemption of Dissenters' children from this instruction, at
the parent's wish, was secured. Now came the turn of the
Dissenters to stop the way, as the bishops had stopped it
in 1889. A fierce agitation was raised against the prefer
ence to be given to the Church of England. Mr. Henry
Dunn, the acute and accomplished secretary of the British
and Foreign School Society, who took part with great energy
in that agitation, told me himself that what he had seen of
tempers and motives while prosecuting it had so shocked
him that he had registered a vow never to be induced to
take part in a religious agitation again. The Whig leaders
of the Opposition behaved well. The clauses could have
been carried, but the fire which had been kindled over them
would have continued to rage around the schools which
they were to estabhsh. No friend of education could like
such a prospect. The Government therefore withdrew the
clauses, and as the bishops had triumphed in 1839, so the
Dissenters triumphed in 1848.
Solely concerned for the school, perfectly incapable of
sacrificing it to the interest of either Church or Dissent,
Sir James Shuttleworth took note of the situation, and of
the possibilities created by it. There were extreme men
on both sides who could not be conciliated. There were
Dissenters who argued that the school was a rehgious
institution, that the State could not touch religion without
profaning it, and that with the school, therefore, the State
should have nothing to do. On the other side, the attitude
of Archdeacon Denison and men like him is well known.
I myself once received a letter from a clergyman, then

SCHOOLS

253

trustee of a school which I proposed to visit on account of
a building grant made to it some years previously, who told
me that he ' would never permit an emissary of Lord John
RusseU, or any other Turkish Bashaw, to enter the school.'
But there were a great many worthy people on both sides
who were concerned that the cause of popular educa
tion should suffer a check, perhaps a little ashamed that
it might be said that the check was owing to their religious
disputes. The great body of promoters of Church of
England schools were in this case ; so were the majority
of the Wesleyans and of the supporters of the British and
Poreign School Society.
The Parliamentary grant for school building and school
inspecting had risen in 1846 to 100,000L By the Minutes
of that year the Government of Lord John Russell, who
had now returned to office, took a great and decisive step
in advance. It was determined, instead of striving to
establish schools of a new kind, to try a system capable of
adapting itself to schools of the kind already existing, so as
to encourage voluntary contributions for their support, to
stimulate the activity of their management, and to promote
their efficiency by rendering it one of the conditions on
which aid should be awarded.
Sir James Shuttleworth had now become Secretary to
the Committee of Council on Education, and the Minutes
of 1846 were his work. An arrangement for aiding existing
schools must of necessity benefit Church schools principally,
because these were by far the most numerous. The Dis
senters had not forgotten their recent victory. In the
session of 1847 the new Minutes were attacked with great
acrimony. Macaulay made a celebrated and highly rhetorical
speech in their favour. A most vigorous speech by Mr.
Bright against them deserves preservation, as a specimen
both of his powers as a speaker and of the temper of poll-

254 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
tical Dissent. Mr. Bright was very indignant at being asked
' to aggrandise a Church by whose act his forefathers had
languished in prison.' But the author of the Minutes
had judged the situation rightly, and they were carried by
a majority of 325.
Pupil- The points of weakness to which the Minutes of 1846
addressed themselves were the teachers and the monitors.
As to the monitors, it had been observed that schoolmasters
succeeded in making monitorial schools efficient exactly in
proportion as they were enabled by local circumstances to
retain the monitors beyond the age of thirteen, or were
permitted by the trustees to pay them a small weekly
stipend, giving them at the same time the advantage of
some separate instruction. By the Minutes of 1846 boys
and girls of thirteen could be engaged for five years as
pupil-teachers, with a stipend from the Government rising
from lOZ. a year to 20Z., and with daily separate instruction
from the master and mistress, an instruction to which the
Government attached a gratuity.
The training-schools were suffering because the supply
of candidates for admission was poor in quality and in
sufficient in quantity. In the pupil-teachers they would
have a natural supply of better prepared candidates. To
enable the pupil-teacher to enter them, the Minutes of
1846 offered scholarships of 25Z., to be supplemented by a
further payment of 20Z. at the end of the first year's resi
dence in the training-school if a certificate examination
were then passed successfully, 25Z. at the end of the second
year, and SOL at the end of the third, on the same condition.
Four-fifths of the expense of the student's first year at the
traming-school would thus, it was calculated, be defrayed
by the Government, and one-half of his expense in the
years followmg. Here was help indeed to the struggling
training-schools.

SCHOOLS 255
Not only had monitors been mefficient and normal
schools suffering, but the salaries of schoolmasters and
schoolmistresses had been in general miserably Ioav. The
Minutes of 1846 offered to students who, after passing the
certificate examination, became teachers, a grant in aug
mentation of their salary varying from 15L to 30L a year,
according to their degree of merit in the examination.
But this augmentation grant was accompanied by the con
ditions that the managers should pro'vide its recipient with a
house rent-free, and with a further salary equal to twice the
amount of the grant. Thus not only did the Government
in itself better the teacher's position, it obliged the managers
also, on their part, to better it.
These provisions were such as to secure a supply of
better-instructed and better-paid teachers in the future.
Meanwhile, however, the actual teachers would have been
unaffected by them. But it was added, as an incentive to
actual teachers to improve their qualifications, that un
trained teachers might be admitted to an examination for
certificates corresponding with those granted in the normal
schools, and that the augmentation grant annexed to such
certificates would be extended to these teachers also.
We have thus in the Minutes of 1846 a source of
improvement of monitors, normal schools, and teachers.
The Minutes likewise improved the fittings and material
of the elementary school by stipulating that a school which
received grants should be weU furnished and well supphed
with books and apparatus.
There were other provisions in the Minutes of 1846,
provisions for very real needs of any complete system of
popular education — for pensioning teachers, for establish
ing school gardens, school workshops, school kitchens,
and laundries— which either failed of realisation or were
reahsed but imperfectly. The provisions for the institution

2 56 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
of pupil-teachers, for the support of training-schools, for
the augmentation of teachers' salaries, were realised fully ;
and the good done by them, and which to this day continues
to operate, cannot be exaggerated.
Everybody can understand the utility of supporting
training-schools and of bettering the position of teachers.
The system of pupil-teacher apprenticeship has now many
adversaries. Yet the institution of this system was un
doubtedly the grand and chief merit of the Minutes of 1846.
It provided a class of efficient schoolmasters and school
mistresses more quickly than they could have been provided
in any other way ; it interested the population in the schools,
it caused the teacher's profession to be generally regarded
as a promising one, instead of as a refuge for the poor, the
halt, and the maimed. I will add that the English school
master has proved himself to have a remarkable aptitude
for managing boy helpers, and not by any means an equal
aptitude for managing adult helpers. Of course the intro
duction of the adult assistant was a necessity which soon
made itself felt, and the pupil-teachers, moreover, were too
numerous, were chosen at an age when their vocation could
not clearly be discerned, and were not weeded, as they ought
to have been, when after two or three years a youth's want
of vocation became apparent. Had Sir James Shuttleworth
not been forced by the failure of his health to leave the Edu
cation Department before the Minutes of 1846 had been five
years in operation, he would, I am convinced, have seen the
danger in his pupil-teacher system and have provided
against it. As it was, all the pupil-teachers, bad and good,
once caught in the scholastic net, were as a rule kept there,
and drawn to land finally in the training-school ; many
issued from it unserviceable teachers, who had been un
serviceable apprentices long before they entered it. But
the abolition of the system would be a real misfortune. In

SCHOOLS 2t,7
point of fact, in spite of the attacks upon it, it is extending ;
what is to be desired is that it should be maintained for
those who prove to have a genuine vocation, and that others
should after a time be strictly eliminated.
Sir James Shuttleworth's work in 1846 was a truly
statesmanlike one ; he did all that was possible at the time.
This, however, is in itself no great achievement ; but what
he did was not only possible to be done at the time, it
was likewise destined to grow and to bear much fruit
in the future. Throughout the country, moderate Church
men and moderate Dissenters were, in general, favourable to
the new work ; the working population, for whose especial
benefit the improved schools would act, began to feel interest
in them. But the grant grew. It had begun at 20,000L
in 1833 ; in 1846 it had grown to 100,000L The Minutes
of that year caused it to swell much more. Opponents pre
dicted with horror that it would rise to a million and a half.
Three years after the Minutes appeared there were 681
certificated teachers, and 3,580 pupil-teachers ; ten years
later, in 1859, the number of certificated teachers had risen
to 6,878, of pupil-teachers to 15,224.
The appointment of the Commission ' to inquire into The
'¦ '- Duke of
the present state of popular education in England,' com- wew-
monly known as the Duke of Newcastle's Commission, was commis-
duo to the apprehensions caused by the rapid growth of the ®^°'^-
Parliamentary grant. The Commission reported in 1861.
By a large majority, the Commissioners decided on recom
mending the continuance of pubhc aid on an unreduced scale
to both normal and elementary schools. They enounced the
opinion, however, that the actual system of grants was too
complicated and that it threatened to become unmanage
able by the central office, and they proposed to transfer to
the local rates a considerable part of the charge. The grant
then stood at about three-quarters of a million. The Com-
VOL. II. s

2 58 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
missioners proposed to lay on the county rates a charge
calculated at 428,000L a year for the present. Moreover,
they had convinced themselves that insufficient attention
was paid to junior classes in elementary schools ; that the
teachers were tempted to be too ambitious, and to concen
trate their attention on a showy upper class, while the bulk
of the scholars were comparatively neglected and failed to
acquire instruction in 'the most necessary part of what
they came to learn,' reading, writing, and arithmetic, in
which only one-fourth of the school-children, it was alleged,
attained any tolerable knowledge. But the Commissioners
thought that, even under the present conditions of age and
attendance, it would be possible, if the teachers had a strong
motive to make them bring the thing about, for at least
three-fifths of the children on the books of the schools — the
three-fifths who were shown to attend one hundred days and
upwards — ' to read and write without conscious difficulty,
and to perform such arithmetical operations as occur in the
common business of life.' To supply the teachers with the
requisite motive, therefore, the grant from the county rates
was to take the form of a capitation grant, dependent on
the number of scholars who could pass an examination in
reading, writing, and arithmetic.
The The Vice-President of the Education Department in
Code!^ 1861 was Lord Sherbrooke, then Mr. Lowe, an acute and
brilliant man to whom pretentiousness with unsoundness
was very distasteful and contemptible. The permanent
secretary was one of the best and most faithful of public
servants, the present Lord Lingen, who saw with apprehen
sion the growth of school grants with the complication
attending them, and was also inclined to doubt whether
Government had not sufficiently done its work, and the
schools might not now be trusted to go alone. These power
ful officials seized upon the statements and proposals of the

SCHOOLS

259

Commissioners, and produced, as a consequence of them,
the Revised Code. But they went far beyond the Commis
sioners. The training-schools were to lose their lecturers'
salaries, the stipends of pupil-teachers and the augmentation
grants of masters and mistresses were to be discontinued ;
everything was to be capitation grant, dependent on the
ability of the individual scholars to pass an examination in
reading, writing, and arithmetic, an examination for which
they were to be arranged in four groups according to their
age. The system of bounties and protection, said Mr. Lowe,
had been tried and had failed ; now another system should
be tried, a system under which he would promise that
popular education, if not efficient, should at least be cheap,
and if not cheap, should be efficient.
There was a great outcry. It was said that, if the
Government grant had increased, so had voluntary contri
butions ; the one-third of the cost of popular education
which the State contributed had called forth two-thirds
from local and private sources to meet it, and this resource it
was now proposed to discourage and endanger. The im
proved schools had been but a dozen years at work ; they
had had to civilise the children as well as to instruct them ;
reading, writmg, and ciphering were not the whole of
education ; people who were so impatient because so many
of the children failed to read, write, and cipher correctly
did not know what the children were when they came to
school, or what were the conditions of the problem which
their educators had to solve. Sir James Shuttleworth main
tained that, so far from its being true that all the children
who had been at school for one hundred days and upwards
in the year preceding the examination ought to be able to
pass in reading, writing, and arithmetic, only those of them
who had attended more than two years were fit subjects for
the examination proposed. s 2

26o

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Defects
of the
Revised Code.

The impossibility of preparing the bulk of the children
to pass the examination proposed was no doubt exaggerated.
We have seen what can be accomplished in this line by
preparers. On the other hand, I have always thought that
the Commissioners, finding in the state of the junior classes
and of the elementary matters of instruction a point easy
to be made and strikingly effective, naturally made it with
some excess of energy and pressed it too hard. I knew the
English schools well in this period between 1850 and 1860,
and at the end of it I was enabled to compare them with
schools abroad. Some preventible neglect of the junior
classes, some preventible shortcoming in the elementary
instruction, there was ; but not nearly so much as was ima
gined. What there was would have been sufficiently met
by a capitation grant on individual examination, not for the
whole school, but for the children between seven or eight
years old and nine or ten, a grant which would then have
been subsidiary, not principal. General * payment by
results ' has been a remedy worse than the disease which
it was meant to cure.
The opposition to Mr. Lowe's Revised Code of 1862 so
far prevailed that it was agreed to pay one-third of the
Government grant on attendance, and but two-thirds on
examination. Moreover, the grouping by age was aban
doned, and the arrangement of the children in six classes,
or standards, as they have come to be called, was substituted
for it. The teacher presented the child in the standard for
which he thought him fit ; he must present him the next
time, however, in a standard above that.
The capitation grant on attendance was four shillings ;
that on examination was twice that amount, one-third of
which was forfeited for a failure in reading or writing or
arithmetic. This latter grant has governed the instruction
and inspection of our elementary schools ever since. I have

SCHOOLS 261
never wavered in the opinion — most unacceptable to my
official chiefs — that such a consequence of the Revised Code
was inevitable, and also harmful. To a clever Minister and
an austere Secretary, to the House of Commons and the
newspapers, the scheme of ' payment by results,' and those
results reading, writmg, and arithmetic, ' the most necessary
part of what children come to school to learn ' — a scheme
which should make public education ' if not efficient, cheap,
and if not cheap, efficient ' — was, of course, attractive. It was
intelligible, plausible, likely to be carried, likely to be main
tainable after it had been carried. That, by concentrating
the teacher's attention upon enabling his scholars to pass
in the three elementary matters, it must mjure the teach
ing, narrow it, and make it mechanical, was an educator's
objection easily brushed aside by our public men. It was
urged by Sir James Shuttleworth, but this was attributed
to a parent's partiality for the Minutes of 1846 and the Old
Code founded on them — a code which the Revised Code
had superseded. But the objection did really occur to him
and weigh with him, because he was a born educator, and
had seen and studied the work of the great Swiss educators,
Pestalozzi, FeUenberg, Vehrli. It occurred to me because
I had seen the foreign schools. No serious and well-informed
student of education, judging freely and without bias, will
approve the Revised Code. In other countries no such plan
is followed. It is said that the State must have the security
of such a plan, when State aid to schools rises so high as it
has risen in England ; but in France, where the State is
taking upon itself almost the whole charge for the popular
schools, no such plan is adopted or contemplated. That is
becau.se the serious and well-informed opinion of educators
has more influence on school regulation abroad than it has
inEngland. In England it has little or none. The uneasiness
and resistance of the teachers, hampered by a false system,

262 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
will at last perhaps give the ' purchase ' for upsetting the
Revised Code which the opinion of educators is too weak
here to supply. Meanwhile our schools, with many merits,
are undeniably less intelhgent than those of the Continent ;
and this their inferiority is due in great part, although not
entirely, to the Revised Code.
Mr. Por- A far more real fault of the system on which the Duke ¦
EiJ? of Newcastle's Commission reported than its alleged neglect
mentary gf i^^ iunior classcs was its failure to meet more than
Educa- •' T, 1 T ±
tion Bill, partially the needs of the country. It reached not more
than half of the children requiring education. The Revised
Code did nothing to make good the old system's deficiencies
in this respect. It dropped the proposal of the Newcastle
Commission to throw on the rates a part of the public charge
for schools, and kept the whole of it on the Consolidated
Fund. During the eight years which followed the revision
of the Code, several attempts were made to introduce a
general system with support from the rates, but without
success. At last, in February 1870, Mr. Forster produced
his Elementary Education Bill. He proposed no interference
with the existing aided schools. But he asked for powers
to ascertain what in each locality was the supply of efficient
elementary schools in proportion to the wants of the popu
lation, and, where the supply was deficient, to require the
borough or parish where this was the case to make good
the deficiency. The new schools needed were to be pro
vided out of the rates, and a school board was to exercise
the functions which in voluntary schools appertain to their
promoters and managers. Mr. Forster at first intended
that the town councils and vestries should nominate the
school boards, and that these should have the power both
of aiding existing schools and of appointing at their dis
cretion, subject to a conscience clause, the religious instruc
tion in the new Board schools. Compulsory attendance,

SCHOOLS 263
to which Mr. Forster had until lately been opposed, the
school boards were to have the power of establishing by
by-laws, if they thought fit.
The speech of Mr. Forster in introducing his measure,
and the measure itself, made a most favourable impression,
and at first all seemed going smoothly. Presently a storm
sprang up. Dissenters and secularists seized upon the
provisions enabling school boards to aid existing schools
and to admit in Board schools what religious instruction
they might think proper. Undoubtedly these provisions
would in many cases have led to the establishment and
support of Church of England schools out of the rates.
To many this seemed intolerable ; and, in resisting a pro
vision favourable to the Church of England, the further
question was raised whether in schools supported by public
money there ought to be any religious instruction at all.
The country would not at that time have accepted —
I doubt whether it would accept now — a system of secular
public schools. As to the special religious instruction of
Church of England schools, it is not, in my opinion, their
best and most attractive feature. I prefer, it is true, the
management and personal influences of a good Church school
to those of a good Board school. In secular instruction I
think the two kinds of school are about equal ; but I have
always thought that the Biblical instruction which the school
boards have adoj)ted, with some improvement, from the old
British schools, was the religious instruction fittest on the
whole to meet the deskes of the population of this country
and to do them good. To promote, in preference to such
an instruction, the teaching of the catechism and special
doctrines of the Church of England in elementary schools,
was certainly not Mr. Forster's desire. But he was a man
with a feeling heart and great fairness of mind ; he was
deeply sensible of the labours and sacrifices of the clergy

264 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
for popular education, and if the localities chose to mark
their sense of these by establishing Church schools, he
would have permitted them.
Credit In truth, if there is a class in English society whose
^he *° record in regard to popular education is honourable, it is
clergy. ^j^^ clergy. Every inquiry has brought this out. I will give
only one illustration, but it is an illustration indeed. The
Newcastle Commission investigated the sources from which
a sum of 4,518L raised for schools in a particular district was
derived. It appeared that the main contributors were the
landowners and the clergy; the contributions from other
sources were trifling. The landowners contributed 5L 6s.
per head, their rental from the district being estimated at
650,000L a year. The clergy contributed ten guineas per
head. The Newcastle Commission, with facts like this before
it, did full justice to the clergy. ' The landowners as a class,'
the report of the Commission adds, ' especially those who
are non-resident (though there are many honourable ex
ceptions), do not do their duty in the support of popular
education ; and they allow others, who are far less able to
afford it, to bear the burden of their neglect.'
The clergy, therefore, well deserved consideration from
Mr. Forster, and perhaps the best arrangement would have
been one by which Church schools should have been aidable
by rate, but a larger and simpler religious instruction
given in them than at present. To admit a solution of
this kind neither the clergy nor their adversaries had then
moderation enough. The battle raged fiercely over Mr.
Forster's Bill ; he showed admirable skill and patience,
and without them would never have saved it. lie admitted
several changes. The aid from the Parliamentary grant to
voluntary schools was continued, but these schools had to
submit to what is called ' a time-table conscience clause,'
assigning the religious instruction to the beginning or the

SCHOOLS 265
end of the school-time, and enabhng the school-children to
be withdrawn both from that and from the Sunday-school.
In the new schools to be aided from the rates rehgious
instruction might be given, but with the same ' time-table
conscience clause ' in force ; and in the religious instruction
of these schools no religious catechism or distinctive formu
laries Avere to be used. The school boards were not to be
nominated by the town councils and vestries, but elected
by the ratepayers. These changes in Mr. Forster's original
plan are none of them to be regretted ; the great object of
his Bill, to provide means for supplying the whole country
with efficient schools, and for filling them, was attained.
Mr. Forster too, like Sir James Shuttleworth, deserves
the praise of having discerned and done what was possible
to be done at the time, and what would grow and bear
much fruit in the future. Por the extension of our popular
instruction, he was able to do much more than Sir James
Shuttleworth. He made this instruction for the first time
national. He had also a high estimate of the teacher's call
ing, was the sincere well-wisher and friend of the teachers;
they have gratefully recognised him as such, and he fully
deserves their gratitude. But Mr. Forster was not, like Sir
James Shuttleworth, a born educator, an earnest student
of methods and problems of education ; neither was he a
Minister like Guizot or Wilhelm von Humboldt, with a
philosophical mind trained and interested to weigh all
questions of teaching, and well fitted to judge and decide
them. The false direction given by the Revised Code to
teaching, Mr. Forster did not correct; 'payment by results'
he left as he found it. I doubt whether he even took its
faults and fallacies into his mind at all. Other and great
work for popular education, however, he found to do, and
he did it with his might.
Hitherto throughout this sketch I have designedly been

266 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
very sparing of figures ; but now, in order to show what
has been accomplished since Mr. Forster carried his Edu-
, cation Act in 1870, to figures I must have recourse. The
Newcastle Commission reported that in 1860 the annual
public grants promoted the education of about 920,000
children, while they left unaffected the education of
1,250,000 others of the same class. The public grant was
at that time about 750,000L, and, to meet this sum voted
by Parliament, there were raised by voluntary contributions
and school-fees 1,250,000Z.
In 1870, when Mr. Forster's Act was passed, there were
in average attendance in day-schools aided by public
grants 1,152,389 children. Fifteen years later, in 1885,
there were in average attendance 3,871,325. There were
12,467 certificated teachers in 1870 ; in 1885 there were
40,706. It is calculated that 20 per cent, of the population are
children of a class and age to require elementary schools.
The public schools in 1870 were sufficient for only 8-75 of
the population ; in 1885 they were sufficient for 18-18 per
cent. But the annual Government grants, which in 1860 were
about 750,000Z., and of which the imagined possible rise
to 1,500, OOOZ. caused dismay, had risen in 1885 to nearly
3,000,000L Rates, which are but another form of public
aid, produced 1,140,964L Voluntary contributions and
school-pence produced over 2,500,000Z. We have a total
expenditure, in 1885, on public elementary schools, of more
than 6,500,OOOZ., of which more than 4,000,000L are from
Parliamentary grants and from rates.
The proportion of public to private aid has indeed
wonderfully changed since the Newcastle Commission re
ported in 1861. It was then estimated that, of the expendi
ture for the support of public elementary schools, one-third

SCHOOLS 267
was supphed by the Parliamentary grant and the remaining
two-thirds came from voluntary contributions and school-
fees. Sir James Shuttleworth thought that he saw his
way to the establishment of a constantly increasing propor
tion of private support, a constantly diminishing proportion
of public. ' The force,' he said, ' which will ultimately
transform the whole, Avill be the result of education itself.
"Wlien the people know that they have even more interest in
the education of their children than their rulers themselves
have, they will more and more take charge of it. They now
bear two-thirds of the burden ; but that third which they do
not pay has given value to what before was of little worth,
and has thus created a transient power destined to pass from
the Government into the hands of those who will take the
charge. The transference of administrative power to the
local managers and the parents, will attend the gradual as
sumption by them of the payment of pupil-teachers and of
the whole of the stipends of the certificated teachers, con
sequent on the effects of education on some generations of
parents and on the middle classes.' But all calculations
were changed by the nation's resolve in 1870 to provide at
once efficient popular schools for the whole country. It ia
remarkable, not that the amount of private support from
fees and subscriptions should not now be larger than it
is, but that with rates and a national system it should still
be so large.
Although 20 per cent, of the population are supposed
to be subjects for the elementary school, there were in
average attendance there, in 1885, only 12-26 per cent.
The attendance will become better than this; but this,
compared with the attendance in 1870 (but 5-5 per cent.
of the population) , and compared with Avhat is found else
where, affords plenty of cause for satisfaction. The number
of juvenile criminals, moreover, has diminished and is

268 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
diminishing ; it is impossible not to connect this diminution
with the growth of schooling.
There had been established in England arid Wales, up
to the beginning of April in last year, 2,208 school boards.
The powers of school boards to enforce attendance were
given by the original Act. Extensions of that Act have
provided for the appointment of a school attendance com
mittee for every borough and parish in which a school
board has not been elected.
'Pay- Ever since the establishment of the Revised Code in
results.' 1862, attempts have been made to palliate the evil effects
of ' payment by results,' of concentrating the teacher's
efforts upon the securing of the greatest possible number
of passes in the three elementary matters. By no Vice-
President have such attempts been so zealously prosecuted
as by Mr. Mundella. Of the Government grant, a consider
ably larger proportion than formerly now depends upon the
average attendance ; plans have been devised for obtaining
more uniformity in the inspectors' judgments of 'results; '
grant-earning matters other than the three elementary
matters have been multiplied, and more latitude in the choice
of them given to the school-managers. By the ' merit-grant,'
the encouragement of results more general than those
which are measured by the other grants has been attempted.
Unfortunately, the whole system is vicious, and the truly
useful Minister will be he who, instead of patching it,
clears it away. To support your popular schools by ap
praising so many matters at so much each, then setting
your inspectors to appraise the amounts earned by the
children's performance, adding the totals and paying to the
school the sum given, is fatal to instruction, fatal (though
that is a much smaller matter) to inspection. It is a plan
prohibitive of a good programme of study, and productive
of mechanical teaching. A boy who leaves a town school

SCHOOLS 269
in Germany has in his school course been taught eleven
or twelve matters, whereas an English boy leaving a like
school has been taught but six or seven ; and all the
German boy's matters of study, except perhaps handwriting,
have in general been better taught than the English boy's.
Ours is a plan, I repeat, which no serious educator would
entertain, and it has been entertained here because we have
no provision whatever for bringing the influence of serious
educators to bear permanently upon our school legislation.
Mr. Mundella, however, has shown by his utterances Neces-
respecting technical and secondary instruction that his technical
thoughts are moving on the line which alone will conduct ^°^°°^^-
us to fruitful reforms. Technical schools are needed, and
in elementary schools manual training should be given ;
yet it is undesirable to bestow in the elementary school too
much prominence on this training, to turn the elementary
school itself too much into a technical school. The tech
nical school is, in fact, a secondary school, to follow the
elementary school, after some manual training has there
. been acquired. But our secondary instruction is a chaos ;
unless, therefore, we organise the technical school within the
sphere of our primary instruction, which is not desirable,
we have no means of organising at all. Mr. Mundella sees
the difficulty ; he sees that there are problems of instruction
for primary schools which we can only solve by having
public secondary schools. There are problems of expense
also. The school-rate for London was in 1885 over eight-
pence in the pound, for the whole of England and Wales
over sixpence-halfpenny. Mr. Forster, in introducing his
Bill in 1870, estimated that the rate could not exceed three
pence. The cost for each Board school child in London was,
in 1885, 3Z. 7s. lOJcZ.; in England as a whole, 2L 6-'!. 1\d.
This is a very heavy rate of charge. If necessary, it must
be continued ; but the question is. How far is it necessary ?

270 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
We shall never know, so long as our elementary education
stands as at present isolated, our one service of public
schools. Then only can the expense of our primary schools
be rightly adjusted, when an organic connection between all
our schools, primary, intermediate, and higher, supplies us
with a scale of proportion for expense, as well as with a
graded series of means for teaching.
Secondaey Schools.
iDefective The first year of her Majesty's reign found English ele-
I second- t. . r.
ary edu- mentary education a chaos ; the fiftieth finds it, with what
ever imperfections of detail, at any rate a national system.
But English secondary education, likewise a chaos when
her Majesty's reign began, remains a chaos still.
I have said so much on this subject that I prefer now
to let any one rather than myself speak of it. The invalu
able report of the Schools Inquiry Commission of 1865
sums up thus the state of secondary schools in England :
' There is no public inspector to investigate the educa
tional condition of a school by examination of the scholars,
no public board to give advice on educational difficulties, no.
public rewards given directly to promote educational pro
gress except those distributed by the Science and Art
Department, hardly a single mastership in the gift of the
Crown, not a single payment from the central government
to the support of a secondary school, not a single certificate
of capacity for teaching given by public authority pro
fessedly to teachers in schools above the primary schools.
In any of these senses there is no public school and no public
education for the middle and upper classes. The State
might give test, stimulus, advice, dignity; it withholds
them all.'
This account holds good to the present day. If we had

SCHOOLS 271
accurate and complete information of the supply and quality
at the present time of our secondary schools, such as they
are, we should have taken the first step towards intro
ducing order into their chaos, and should be on the way to
improvement. But we have not. Let me recount the
principal data we have, and the conclusions to be gathered
from them.
In 1837, the first year of the present reign, the Charity
Commission concluded its inquiries, begun in 1818, into
the charitable trusts in England and Wales. In 1842 a
digest of the reports of this Commission was published.
It showed 705 endowed grammar schools at that time
in England and Wales, and nearly 2,200 other endowed
schools which the Commission designated as ' non-classical.'
No further classification of the endowed schools was given,
and no estimate of their state of instruction.
In 1862 nine of the 705 grammar schools were subjected public
to a very thorough inquiry by the Public Schools Commis- Aot?° ^
sion, of which Lord Clarendon was chairman. Two other
great secondary schools not classed among endowed schools
answered so fully questions addressed to them by the Com
mission, that of eleven chief secondary schools we may be
said to have acquired, through the report of the Commis
sion of 1862, sufficient information. The schools were
Eton, Winchester, Westminster, Harrow, Rugby, Shrews
bury, Charterhouse, St. Paul's, Merchant Taylors', Marl
borough, and Wellington. Seven of the eleven became
in 1868 the subject of an Act of Parliament — the Public
Schools Act — which, in conformity with recommendations
of the Commission, altered their constitution and esta
bhshed for them new governing bodies.
All the eleven schools, however, were previously in the
public eye — were known and important, attracted much
interest and criticism. In this way they gave a sohd

272

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Lord Taun
ton's Commission,

guarantee. About twenty others might be added to them
which gave a guarantee not so imposing, but perhaps
adequate — the guarantee of a considerable, though more
restricted, interest and publicity. All these schools gave
guarantees, and were undoubtedly the best secondary schools
of the country, and schools doing very good work. Dr.
Arnold's son is not the fittest person to enlarge on what
Dr. Arnold accomphshed at Rugby before his death in 1842,
and on the fruit so widely borne by his labours. The spirit
in which many a chief teacher, and many and many an
assistant teacher, have striven to do their duty in our great
public schools during the last forty years, and not in our
oldest and greatest schools only, but also in schools such as
Clifton, the City of London, Repton, Uppingham, cannot be
too highly honoured, or the good done by such labours be
too highly prized. Still, the schools in question must all
be regarded as points, more or less bright, emergent from
a general darkness. Unillumined, around and beyond them,
lay chaos ; and unillumined, after the report of the Claren
don Commission, it still continued to lie.
A far more important Commission M'as that of 1865,
of which Lord Taunton was chairman, and in which the
masculine character, strong sense, and thorough experience
of Dr. Temple, now Bishop of London, exercised, I think,
and most happily and usefully exercised, a leading influence.
This Commission had to deal with the schools between the
nine of the Clarendon Commission and the elementary
schools — with the real body and mass, therefore, so little
observed and known hitherto, of our secondary education.
The report, published just twenty years ago, in 1867, is a
mine of valuable information and sound and judicious com
ment. Twenty years have elapsed since it appeared, and
nobody reads Blue-books ; but if that report — or, at any
rate, the first, second, third, sixth, and seventh chapters of

SCHOOLS 273
it — could be republished now as an ordinary book, at the
price of sixpence or a shilling, it would, I believe, have a
wide circulation and do great good.
The Schools Inquiry Commission found that, of the en
dowed schools designated as ' non-classical ' by the Charity
Commission, a certain number were secondary schools, and
that the endowed secondary schools of the country were
therefore nearly eight hundred in number. Into the con
dition of all of these, except the reserved nine, they inquired
fully. The proprietary schools they found to be m number
about eighty, and they inquired fully into the condition of
these also. Finally, of the numerous private schools exist
ing throughout the country, and amounting, it appeared,
to more than ten thousand in number, they examimed
specimens. It is calculated that about twelve and one-half in every
thousand boys of our population ought to be attending
secondary schools. As the population stood in 1865, the
Schools Inquiry Commission estimated the number of boys
coming within the scope of their inquiry at about 255,000.
The number of boys in England and Wales at the present
moment who require secondary schools would, at the same
rate of calculation, be about 320,000.
The report of the Schools Inquiry Commission ap
peared at the end of 1867. The Commissioners reported
that the secondary schools, 'whether pubhc or private,
which are thoroughly satisfactory, are few in proportion to
the need.' As to the endowed schools, ' there are few
endowments applicable to secondary education which are put
to the best use, and very many which are working to little
or bad use.' Moreover, ' in at least two-thirds of the towns
in England there is no public school at aU above the primary
schools, and in the remaining third the school is often insuf
ficient in size or in quality.' Proprietary schools have in
VOL. II. 1'

274 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
certain places been established to meet the need felt, but
though * educationally they have very largely succeeded,
commercially the majority have not succeeded.' Whatever
their success, they, hke the endowed schools, educate but
comparatively few of those requiring secondary education.
' The total number of boys in endowed and proprietary
schools for secondary education appears to be 52,000. If
the total number of boys requiring secondary education be
255,000, nearly 80 per cent, of the whole are educated in
private schools, or at home, or not at all.' In fact, the im
mense majority of these are brought up in private schools.
But ' the state of the private academies, though not wholly
without hopeful features, is lamentably unsatisfactory.'
There are ' excellent private schools of the more expensive
sort,' but ' we find a rapid deterioration as we descend in the
scale of price, and most of those which we should reckon
as belonging to the third grade are quite unequal to the
task which they have undertaken.' On the whole, the
Commissioners sum up thus : ' The result of our inquiry
has been to show that there are very many English parents
who, though they are wiUing to pay the fair price of their
children's education, yet have no suitable schools within
their reach where they can be sure of efficient teaching,
and that, consequently, great numbers of the youth of the
middle class, and especially of its lower divisions, are in
sufficiently prepared for the duties of life, or for the ready
and inteUigent acquisition of that technical instruction the
want of which is alleged to threaten such injurious con
sequences to some of our great industrial interests. We
believe that schools, above most other institutions, require
thorough concert among themselves for their requisite
efficiency ; but there is in this country neither organisation,
nor supervision, nor even effective tests to distinguish the
incompetent from the truly successful ; and we cannot but

SCHOOLS 275
regard this state of things as alike unjust to all good schools
and schoolmasters, and discreditable and injurious to the
country itself.
The Commissioners recommended a plan for bringing
about the resettlement of educational trusts, so many of
which were ' working to little or bad use ; ' for bringing
about, also, that supervision, those effective tests for distin
guishing the incompetent schools and teachers from the
capable, and, with time, that general organisation and
concert, which they considered so desirable for English
secondary schools, and so grievously lacking to them. They
had in view an organisation of secondary schools in three
grades — the third and lowest to carry the scholar to the
age of fourteen, the second to the age of sixteen, the highest
to the age of eighteen or nineteen. ' The most urgent
educational need of the country,' they said, ' is that of good
schools of the third grade.'
In my opinion, the Commissioners erred in treating these
third- grade schools as establishments for secondary educa
tion, and I suppose every one well acquainted with German
schools must have shared that opinion. The Commissioners
might very properly have insisted on the need in elementary
education of such schools, but they should not, I think, have
imported them into secondary. However, the Elementary
Education Act and its developments have now made it
sufficiently clear that to elemenUry education the third-
grade schools belong, and I believe that in official schemes
dealing with endowments for secondary instruction the
third-grade school now rarely or never appears.
With this single exception, the views and recommenda- The En-
• 11 J. T -ic\fr\ L\ dowed
tions of the Commissioners were excellent, in 1869 the schools
Endowed Schools Act provided for the resettlement of
educational trusts by a Commission which has since been
blended with the Charity Commission. An Endowed T 2

276 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Schools Act No. 2 was to have provided for the supervision,
the testing, the gradual co-ordering of our secondary schools.
This Bill was dropped, and all the projected machinery
of educational council, provincial authority, inspectors,
examiners, disappeared. Ten years later, in 1879, Sir
Lyon Playfair introduced a Bill for registering teachers
engaged in intermediate education. To be on the register,
future teachers must, after the Bill had become law, submit
to an examination ; and here, for the future at any rate, was
an effective test for distinguishing the incompetent froin
the qualified teacher. But this Bill likewise was dropped.
What has been gained, then, since the Schools Inquiry
Commission reported in 1867, has been a very extensive
resettlement, for the benefit of secondary education, of
charitable trusts. Many additional endowed schools, with
schemes adapting them to present local wants, have thus
come into existence. Proprietary schools, likewise, have
multiplied considerably. The ten thousand private schools
of 1867 may also undoubtedly be taken to have multiplied,
although information in regard to this entke class of schools
is greatly wanting.
secon- Those who find in all our history for the last fifty years
educa- nothing but glorious progress, and cause for jubilee, will say
that, during that time, the immense development of the
industrial and commercial energies of the country has been
accompanied by the spread of modern studies and natural
science in our secondary schools ; that there is hardly now
a provincial town of importance without its college of science
or school of art ; that the City guilds are powerfully aiding
the movement ; that companies provide day-schools for both
girls and boys ; that the examinations of the College of Pre
ceptors ever since 1854, the Oxford and Cambridge local
examinations ever since 1858, have afforded to our secondary
education the tests and supervision requisite.

tion im.
proved

SCHOOLS 277
But whoever is not carried away by the torrent of jubilee, but stui
whoever has well observed our secondary schools and com- leflc-
pared them with those of the Continent, knows that we have "''^-
indced broken up our old type of secondary instruction, but
not yet founded a new one of any soundness and worth ;
that our provision of secondary schools is utterly incoherent
and inadequate ; that the local examinations supply us with
neither, the tests nor the supervision really requisite ; that
the bulk of the middle class in this country is worse edu
cated than the corresponding class in Germany, Switzer
land, Holland, Belgium, or even the United States ; that it is
brought up on an inferior plane, in schools both of lower
standing and worse taught. The reason why no effective
remedy is applied to this serious evil is simply, as I have
often said, because the upper class amongst us do not want
to be disturbed in their preponderance, or the middle class
in thek vulgarity. People call this an epigram ; alas, it is
much rather a scientific formula truly and closely sum
marising the facts. That many who cling to their pre
ponderance or to their vulgarity, cling to them uncon
sciously, makes no difference. Their action is the same,
and its hurtful consequence.
I ask myself what seems at present possible in this great Eegistra-
work of which Parliament and the nation so httle grasp the teachers.
scope and importance, the work of reforming our secondary
education. I think it might be possible to get powers to
ascertain, as was done for elementary education in 1870, the
actual supply and its character. It would also be possible,
I think, to carry a Registration Bill like Sir Lyon Playfair's,
or even a better one. By that Bill every existing teacher
was to have been recognised for the purposes of registration ;
it would be sufficient, surely, if every existing teacher over
fifty years of age were so recognised. But younger teachers
should not be so recognised ; they should either produce

cation.

278 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
their titles or pass an examination. If we abstain from
bearing hardly on old practitioners, the public mind is ripe,
I cannot but believe, for admitting that, in general, just as
an apothecary ought not to practise without being registered
and supplying proof of competency, so neither ought a
schoolmaster. With more doubt I add, that it might be
possible also to constitute the College of Preceptors, under
proper conditions, as a public normal school for secondary
teachers — the true function for that useful College, and a
most valuable and far-reaching one.
ueed of a I liavc spoken on this subject of middle-class education
otEdu!'^ much and often. By too great persistency the advocate of
a cause may indispose the public to it, and I would avoid
that danger. Probably I shall never return to the subject
again ; let me for the last time, therefore, insist on the
mischief to be cured and on the impossibility of curing it by
makeshifts and half-measures. Uneasiness is felt as to the
,state and prospects of our industry, trade, and commerce ; the
lilame is commonly thrown on defects of the working-class,
and a remedy is by many people thought to lie in giving to
this class more of technical instruction. The instruction of
our elementary schools does indeed require, as I have said, to
become more intelligent ; but this will not be accomplished
by making it more technical. Let the child have good
primary schooling, with the rudiments of manual training,
till the age of thirteen ; let the technical school, for those
who are fit to profit by it, come later. But the failure,
after all, and the menace to the future of our industry and
commerce, lies far more in the defects of mind and training of
our middle class than of our lower— yet to those defects hardly
any one will as yet open his eyes. The middle class in
England has merits which the middle classes elsewhere do
not possess ; but it has peculiar disadvantages, and its dis
advantages are at this moment very prominent. It has not

SCHOOLS , 279
the training which local government affords to the corre
sponding classes abroad, and it has a school-education
markedly inferior to theirs and formative for good neither
of the mind nor of the character. Its religion has done
much for it, its schools have done little or nothing.
Unformed itself, it exercises on the great democratic class,
rismg up beneath or rather around it, no formative influence ;
and this class, too, loses means of training both natural for
it and most wholesome. May we live to see the coming of
a state of things more promising ! Throughout the country
good elementary schools, taking the child to the age of thir
teen ; tlicn good secondary schools, taking him to sixteen,
with good classical high schools and commercial high
schools, taking him on further to eighteen or nineteen ; with
good technical and special schools, for those who require
them, parallel with the secondary and high schools — this is
w4iat is to be aimed at. Without system, and concert, and
thought, it cannot be attained : and these, again, are im
possible without a Minister of Education as a centre in
¦which to fix responsibility, and an Educational Council to
advise the Minister and keep him in touch with the ten
dencies, needs, and school-movement of the time. May the
founding of such a system signalise the latter years of her
Majesty's reign, as the founding of public elementary
instruction has signalised its earlier years !
Matthew Arnold.

28o THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

A NOTE ON SCOTTISH EDUCATION.
The last fifty years have been as eventful in the history of
Scottish as of English education ; but the progress which they
mark has been based upon a different foundation, and has
followed different lines. Down to the year 1888 England owed
everything to voluntary effort ; from 1838 downwards that effort
was met by a contribution from the State ; only in 1870 did the
State establish a law by which the work which voluntary effort
failed to overtake was . imposed as a necessary task upon each
locality ; only in 1880 did compulsory attendance become uni
versal. Bnt when the State began to make a contribution to
Scotland, also in 1833, she found there a very different state of
things. Even before the Reformation there were statutory provisions
in Scotland on the subject of education, and most of the religious
houses had schools attached to them. But as in England, so in
Scotland, it was the Reformation which marked the chief advance.
The rapacity of the Scottish nobles left few of the Church endow
ments available for education, and perhaps this very lack of
resources prompted greater energy in supplying their place. The
First Book of Discipline, promulgated by the Presbyterian Church
in 1560, pronounced that there should be a teacher of the elements
in every parish, and a ' Latin school ' in every town, while the
larger towns were to have ' a college for logic, rhetoric, and the
tongues.' This decree of the Church Assembly did not, of course,
possess legislative force, and it is difficult to say how far its
proposals were realised. It was not till 161G that the Privy
Council, by a decree, imposed upon each parish the burden of
supporting a school, and this decree was not ratified by Parlia
ment till 1633. The disturbances of the next sixty years pre
vented any real progress being made, and it was not till 1696,
after the Revolution settlement and the Presbyterian Church
were secure, that the national Scottish system of education was
founded by statute law. This statute imposed upon the heritors

SCHOOLS 28 1
(or landowners) of each parish the duty of supporting the parish
school, and gave to the presbytery, or ecclesiastical court of the
district, the power of enforcing this law by proceeding to establish
a school at the expense of defaulting heritors. After the lapse of
more than a century, the statute of 1803 extended soniowliafc the
provisions of the law on the same lines ; and between this and
1833, the Church spent much voluntary effort upon the task of
filling up the wide gaps left by the statutory pro-vision.
When the State came to the help of the localities in 1883, it
thus found a national system in operation. The assessment
levied upon the heritors was of the nature of a local rate, and in
most of the towns a contribution from the pubhc funds (or
Common Good) was devoted to the maintenance of a burgh or
grammar school. In the earlier years of the grants in aid, the
help which they gave was, in Scotland, sought chiefly for the
establishment of colleges for training teachers. Many of the old
parochial teachers, whose freehold tenure of office and security
from interference gave them a position, not lucrative, indeed,
but independent, were educated in the Scottish universities ; but,
besides the parish schoolmasters, it was necessary to provide
teachers of a humbler class. The Church had endeavoured to
do this from her own resources, and the normal or practising
schools of the Church in Edinburgh and Glasgow had, indeed, .
served as types to be followed in England ; but the work was too
costly to be carried on without State aid.
The public grants were therefore applied, in the earlier years,
partly to these training colleges, established under the auspices
of the Church of Scotland and (subsequently) of the Free Church,
and partly in helping to build schools for localities which the
statutory provision left destitute. It was in 1846 that annual
grants were given to Scotland under the same Minutes of the
Privy Council which applied to England. These grants were
paid if, on the visit of an inspector deputed by the Education
Department of the Privy Council, the school was found to be
generally efficient. Such inspection was a new and, even in its
modified form, not always a very popular institution. Many of
the parish schoolmasters were unwilling to be enrolled in the
ranks of certificated teachers, and, from a consciousness either of
their dignity or of their inefficiency, they often chose to dispense
with State aid rather than to accept State inspection.

282 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
For some years the operation of the State was tentative and
partial, and it affected rather those schools which lay outside of the
national system than those which were created by statute and
supported by local assessments. The new arm of inspection was
of narrow range, and the inspectors were rather commissioners
for purposes of inquiry and advice, than officers charged witli
the minute gauging of results. It was in 1862 that the Revised
Code, with its principle of payment by results, was introduced by
Mr. Robert Lowe (now Lord Sherbrooke). If it was greeted with
dislike in England, its reception in Scotland was not one whit
more cordial. But, while in England it was attacked by the
supporters of denominationalism, as a breach of the treaty which
they maintained to have been made between themselves and the
State, the grounds of attack in Scotland were chiefly, if not
entirely, educational. It was confidently asserted that it would
prove the ruin of the parochial schools ; that it would lower the
standard of education by making the grants depend only upon a
narrow pass in elementary subjects ; that it would degrade the
moral tone and educative functions of the school, and substitute
for all higher influences the mechanical cram necessary to reach
a low level of uniformity.
But there was another principle of the Revised Code, accepted
without complaint in England, which was repudiated with abso
lute unanimity in Scotland. This was the provision that grants
should bo paid only to schools for the cliLLdren of parents ' who
supported themselves by manual labour.' Circumstances made
tliis a natural arrangement in England. In the first place, llio
higher classes appeared in England to be fully provided for in the
great public schools, with their ample endowments for the rich,
and in the grammar schools, in almost every town, for those of
moderate means. But, in the second place, the restriction to the
poor was an almost necessary condition of a grant which came to
supplement only charitable effort, as in England. In Scotland,
on the other liand, both the national tradition, bred of poverty,
which had mixed all classes in the parish schools, and the fact
that the national system was statutory, and not charitable, ren
dered any such restriction altogether inapplicable.
The resistance to the Revised Code in England was overcome ;
ill Scotland it was invincible. So far as examination was con
cerned, the conditions of that Code were, indeed, apphed, but the

SCHOOLS 283
results did not affect the payments, and an examination upon
which no grants depended was not a very severe ordeal. Nothing
short of complete failure, implying such mefficiency as would
probably have been detected by the most cursory inspection,
wifcliout individual examination, could deprive the teacher of liis
grant, which was a personal payment to himself. lie could with
hold from examination any children as to whose attainments he
was doubtful ; and strictures passed upon the elementary work of
the school, while they did not affect his salary, might be palliated
by an appeal to the excellent appearance of a few selected boys.
By successive suspensory Minutes, the operation of the Revised
Code in Scotland was kept within these limits for the next ten
years. The interval was avowedly one in -which proposals for further
progress were ripening. There was much that was admirable in
the old Scottish system of parish schools. In these all classes
mixed. The education given was a national inheritance, for
which they were indebted to no charity, and to accept which
implied no obligation. The teacher was in many, perhaps in
most, cases, a man who, if he had no great professional skill, had
attainments sufiicient to prepare a promising pupil for the uni
versity, and these schools often served as the ladder through
which the poorer might reach eminence. The preponderating
Ijrevalence of Presbyterian tenets, identical for all educational
purposes amidst the minute distinctions of Scottish sects, made
the religious difficulty a small one ; and even the small Eoman
Catholic community was provided for by a conscience clause
which operated by usage in all parish schools. The grant in aid,
with the statutory assessment and the school fees, provided for
the teacher an income which, if it was small, was valued for its
security. If inspection was somewhat lax in its conditions, the
popular appreciation of the advantage of education was perhaps a
sufficient guarantee for general efficiency.
But good as it was, the system required expansion. It did
not meet the growing requirements of the large industrial towns.
It left wide gaps, both in towns and in outlying districts, which
were covered only by the unorganised and casual efforts of
benevolence, sometimes guided by sectarian rivalry more than by
educational zeal. If the religious difficulty was absent from the
teaching, it was operative as regards school management. The

284 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
rank and file of the children, again, were too apt to be neglected
for the benefit of a selected few. And, lastly, however good
might be the supply of schools, there was no power to compel
parents who were neglectful to give their children the advantages
which they offered. All these evils were made evident by the
Commission of Inquiry which, under the presidency of the Duke
of Argyll, sat almost concurrently with that in England, and
which reported in 1867. Out of about 500,000 children of school
age, the Commission found that more than 90,000 were at no
school at all, and of about 400,000 at school only about one-half
were at schools whose efficiency was tested by inspection. Efforts
were accordingly made from time to time to legislate. The
English Bill blocked the way in 1870 ; and finally, in 1872, Lord-
Advocate Young passed an Education Act which revolutionised
the Scottish national system.
Unlike the English Act, that Act provided not for elementary
education only, but for the better education of ' the whole people
of Scotland.' It regulated not only the parochial, but the burgh
or grammar schools. It contemplated a close connection between
the universities and the schools, and specially enjoined the
maintenance of a standard of education as high as had hitherto
prevailed. But it was distinguished from the English Act not only in its
aim and scope, but also in its machinery and in the powers
wliich it conferred. School boards, with the power of levying
rates for the establishment of public schools, were not to be
fortuitous, but universal. These boards, as in England, were to
be elected by the ratepayers, on the ' cumulative ' vote principle —
an arrangement more satisfactory, perhaps, as regards the repre
sentation of minorities than as regards educational efficiency.
In these boards the parish schools, as well as the burgh schools
in towns, were vested by the Act. Upon the school board was
to rest the whole responsibihty for school provision, except in
so far as voluntary energy might be willing to supply a gap, or
provide for denominational needs. Every Board school was to
be open necessarily to inspection ; and while in every inspected
school a conscience clause was necessary, the religious teaching,
even in public schools, was (subject to that clause) a matter in
which each school board was supreme, without any restriction as
to the use of religious formulas. The Education Department was

SCHOOLS 285
authorised to give aid to the boards in providing the accommoda
tion immediately required, but thereafter the boards were to make
that provision from local resources, raising loans for the purpose
on the security of the rates. Por the guidance of school boards
in tlie original provision of schools, a Board of Education -vvas
maintained in Edinburgh for six years. On its demise, there
remained only the local authority, represented by the school
boards, and the central and grant-distributing authority, repre
sented by the Scotch Education Department of the Privy Council.
The compulsory power was not introduced, tentatively and
partially, as in England, but was vested in each school board,
and thus made as universal as the school boards.
Since the Act of 1872 two Education Acts have been added
to the Scotch Statute-book — those of 1878 and 1883. They
relate chiefly to matters of detail — the adjustment of relations
between school boards ; the conditions of exemption from school
attendance, which are fixed by statute, and not by by-laws as in
England ; and the regulations which affect the higher class
schools under school boards. They do not modify any of the
leading principles upon which the Act of 1872 was based.
With the new Act, and the vastly increased burden which it
placed upon the public exchequer, the adoption of the principle
of payment according to results, embodied in the Revised Code,
was considered to be inevitable, and, accordingly, it was adopted
in the Scotch Code of 1873, by which, as modified from year to
year, the action of the Scotch Education Department in the dis
tribution of grants has since been determined.
As to the results of this Act, it was inevitable that some of
the benefits of this older system should be lost ; and opinions
will vary as to the compensation which is to be found in the
completeness of the new system, in the opportunities which it
gives for reaching a class too likely to be neglected, and in its
provisions for testing efficiency. Those who most dislike the
system of payment by results may see in it an influence degra
ding to education ; and others may fear that the new arrangements
may become mechanical from their very complexity. But, on the
other hand, there are obvious advantages to be found — in improved
accommodation, in the wider interests resulting from represen
tative management, and in the enormously increased attendance.
Of 500,000 children, the Commission of 1867 had found that

286 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
about 200,000 were at inspected schools. In 1873 there were
about 280,000, so that the mere passing of the Act had given a
stimulus. But since then the progress has been very remarkable.
There are now very nearly 600,000 names on the school registers,
with an average attendance of 450,000, or about 75 per cent, of
the number on the registers. The standard of education, so far
as that can be judged from the test of examination, has risen so
that 70 per cent, of the children who are over ten years of age
pass the fourth or a higher standard, while a few years ago the
percentage attaining that standard was less than the half of 70
per cent. If the function of the old parish school is not com
pletely performed under the new system, it is still possible to
point to more than 60,000 children who are annually presented
for examination in such higher subjects as Latin, Greek, and
mathematics. The cost of providing schools, since the Act of 1872, hasreached
above 3,000,000Z. sterling, and of this nearly 600,000Z. has been
defrayed from the Parliamentary grant. During the same period
the total cost of maintaining schools has been about 10,O0O,000Z.
The annual cost is now about 1,000, OOOZ., of which about
400,000Z. comes from the Parliamentary grant, something less
than 300, OOOZ. from fees, and a little more than 200, OOOZ. from
local rates. The deficit is supplied from contributions and endow
ments. It may be doubted whether the advance in secondary educa
tion has kept pace with the progress to be recorded with respect
to the ordinary schools, aided by Parliamentary grant. The
secondary schools are scantily endowed, and complaints are
made that their proper sphere is encroached upon, by the grant-
earning schools, on the one hand, and by the universities on the
other. The latter have no compulsory entrance examination,
and open their doors to students whose previous education has
been no more than elementary. School boards can, indeed, aid
these secondary schools from the rates, and have sometimes done
tliis with no niggard hand ; but they may often dread an expense
which falls altogether upon one loeahty. The best resource for
improving the higher education must be found in the proper
application of the educational endowments, whose original pur
poses have become obsolete. These in Scotland have been
estimated to amount to nearly 170,000Z. a year. A Commission

SCHOOLS 287
of Inquiry investigated these in 1872, and in 1878 an Executive
Commission was appointed which revised the administration of
such trusts as voluntarily had recourse to their aid. Since
1882 a new Commission has been dealing more stringently with
the remainder ; and when this work is completed, and the func
tions of the universities are revised under impending legislation,
it will be possible to judge to what degree the provision for
secondary education is deficient, and in what way Scotland must
apply her efforts in this direction, if she is to maintain her tradi
tional reputation for educational activity.

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICIORIA

THE UNIVERSITIES.
Observers accustomed to the system and the regularity of
centralised States on the Continent have often noticed with
some surprise how in England institutions of an old, and
even an obsolete, type are allowed to continue in existence
after others more in accordance with the needs of the time
have sprung up by their side. Revolution has never
cleared the ground ; corporations are powerful ; the public
indulgent or illogical. And so it happens that while the
creating or reforming work of an epoch of change abroad
may be expressed almost by figures and dimensions, in
England we have to tell how one feature or another of some
venerable but narrow edifice is made tolerable for modern
use ; how the designs of a middle time are developed or
enlarged ; and in what form the workmen of our own day
have in their turn added to the inheritance of the past.
True of English institutions generally, this is peculiarly
true of our Universities ; and in order to describe what the
present reign has done for these foundations, we must rather
fill in a series of groups on the canvas than examine reports
of numbers and statistics.
Oxford It may be doubted whether any so-called learned
in tho . r- ¦
18th society, professing at the same time to be an educational
century. i,q([j^ gygj. gg^j^jj lower than the University of Oxford in the
last century. There were no doubt throughout the worst
times some few men who privately pursued study ; but

THE UNIVERSITIES 289
when this has been said, all has been said. The University
and the Colleges neither taught, nor maintained discipline,
nor examined. The professors had, with rare exceptions,
ceased to lecture ; there was no examination for degrees ;
there were no distinctions for merit. Within the Colleges
the fellowships were with some few exceptions appropriated
to persons born in particular localities, or educated at par
ticular schools, or connected by descent with the founder :
moreover, the great majority of Fellows were bound to be
clergymen. The scholarships were in part attached to schools,
the remainder were usually bestowed by favour, as pieces of
private patronage. In some cases, as at New College, the
nomination to a school scholarship carried with it the cer
tainty of a College scholarship and fellowship ; such nomi
nations were therefore sought as soon as a child was born,
and the Fellow of New College was in fact appointed in his
cradle. Every undergraduate on matriculation was compelled
to subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles and to declare himself
a member of the Church of England. The University was
thus closed to Nonconformists. Most of those who came
up, came with the view of taking Orders, and the Uni
versity was regarded both within and without as in the
main a training place for the clergy. But the instruction
given amounted to little or nothing; life was loose and
coarse, and at the end of three or four years' residence a
man might take his degree and go away with no more
knowledge than he brought up with him. Among the
resident Fellows there was scarcely a pretence of learning or
of the love of it. They were dull, often hard-drinking men,
who had gained their posts without exertion, and held them
without profit to themselves or others, waiting for the time
when a College living should enable them to marry and to
devote their days to domestic ease.
It was at the beginning of the present century that light
VOL. II. u

290 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Reforms began to break in upon these dark places. It was felt to
iloolTd be a scandalous thing that the University should give its
^^^'^' degrees -without any examination ; and the first step in
reform was the establishment of an examination for the
B.A. degree, accompanied by the publication of the names
of the twelve men who had most distinguished themselves.
This rudimentary separation of the sheep from the goats
soon afterwards developed into the Honour Lists in Classics
and Mathematics ; and from this time the spirit of emula
tion, though working in a comparatively narrow circle and
under many discouraging conditions, brought back to Oxford
elements of vitality which had been absent for generations.
Peel, Keble, Arnold, Whately, Milman, adorned the early
class-lists. Ere long the better Colleges began to think of
opening their fellowships to general competition. Whether
there existed any authority but the Legislature which could
legally alter the existing statutes, with their antiquated
preferences and restrictions, was more than doubtful. Two
Colleges, however, took the law into their own hands. Oriel,
throwing open its fellowships, made itself the home of a body
of men of whom many were destined to leave their mark on
English life. Balliol, opening its scholarships as well as
its fellowships, gained an educational pre-eminence which
it retains to this day. Beyond this reform did not far
extend. The Tractarian movement, which began soon
after 1882, gave indeed a certain stimulus to learning,
but it was primarily to learning of a theological kind.
Under Newman's auspices men set themselves to study the
Fathers or to edit Lives of the Saints. They passed
laborious hours ; and the more fortunate among them were
like persons digging for archaeological remains who accident-
aUy come upon a mine ; for in their researches into Church
history they stumbled upon the rich store of historical
interests and historical research generally. It is indeed

THE UNIVERSITIES 291
little more than a paradox to say that the important group
of Oxford writers, from Froude to J. R. Green, who have
done so much for the history of England, were a product
of the Tractarian movement. The spirit of inquiry into
mediaeval history was in the air a generation earlier, and it
extended over all Western Europe, as the names of Ranke,
Guizot, and Sir Walter Scott will suggest. But the Trac
tarian movement no doubt gave to it a pecuhar stimulus,
and led men to be readers who would not have become so
without theological interests.
At the accession, therefore, of Queen Victoria, Oxford
had indeed risen some degrees above the low-water mark to
which it had sunk under the Georges. Men of eminence
were not wanting to it. Its studies, however, were still
narrow, its constitution radically bad, its usefulness re
stricted to members of the Church of England, its spirit
exclusive and ecclesiastical. Cambridge was in somewhat cam-
better case. It had never fallen so low as its rival. From tefo^fe^
the middle of the eighteenth century, if not earlier, its ¦'^^^''-
Mathematical Tripos or Honour List had powerfully sti
mulated one most important study, and supplied, though
within a narrow range, a thoroughly genuine test of merit.
Its fellowships were for the most part free from restrictions
as to place of birth or education ; and, though each College
filled up vacancies from among its own younger graduates,
the choice within these limits almost invariably fell on
those who had taken the best places in the University class-
lists. In 1825 the Classical Tripos was established, and
from that time the ' dead languages ' became a recognised
avenue to distinction and reward. As at Oxford, there were
among the residents some men of great talent and reputa
tion. Whewell, Thirlwall, Hare, could hold their own
against any visitors from London. Nor was Cambridge
quite so heavily weighted with theological fetters as its
u 2

292

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Internal
reforms,1837-50.

Royal Commis-sions,
1850 and
1852.

rival. The Nonconformist was indeed debarred from taking
his degree, but he was allowed to go through the under
graduate course, and to take honours. There was less of
ecclesiastical prejudice and intolerance than at Oxford,
though enough to cause some unpleasantness to a Noncon
formist student. Manners were in most of the smaller
Colleges extremely rough, and worst perhaps among the
seniors. There was scarcely any teaching worthy of the
name ; and though the men competing for higher places
in either Tripos worked day and night, the standard of the
Pass degree was still, as at Oxford, so low that an ordinary
schoolboy of fifteen could have passed it with a few weeks
of reading. In the general activity which belonged to the epoch fol
lowing the Reform Bill, the shortcomings of the Universi
ties did not escape attention. Demands for a public inquiry
were raised in the House of Commons and elsewhere ; but
the nation had at that time more pressing business on its
hands, and it was not until the second decade of the present
reign that any strong public feeling was aroused on the ques
tion of University reform. The governing bodies of Oxford
and Cambridge had now become conscious that changes
must be made. Cambridge established new Honour Lists
for Law, for Natural Science, and for Moral Science;
Oxford passed a comprehensive statute creating a school of
Physical Science, and one of Law and Modern History com
bined, and also breaking up the long period of the student's
idleness by requiring him to pass an examination, called
Moderations, when half-way through his course. If, however,
these changes were intended to avert the intervention of
Parliament, the hope was not fulfilled. In 1850 Lord John
Russell appointed a Royal Commission for the purpose of
holding an inquiry into the ' state, discipline, studies, and
revenues of the University and Colleges of Oxford.' Two

THE UNIVERSITIES 293
; years later a similar Commission was appointed for Cam
bridge. The reports of the Commissioners were followed
by legislation, to which one at least of the Universities
owes its delivery from shackles against which, without ex
ternal help, its own best elements would have struggled in
vain. Parliamentary Blue-books are not generally held to be TheCom-
lively reading ; yet the reports of the Oxford and Cambridge at work.
Commissions contain page after page of matter which the
least academic reader will scarcely pronounce dull. There
is indeed a considerable difference between the two reports.
The Cambridge Commission, whose principal members were
Sir John Herschel, Dr. Peacocke, Dean of Ely, and the
present Lord Derby, had no doubt less to complain of ; but
its work is marred by a certain unctuousness of tone, and
by an obvious desire to make things pleasant for everybody.
The Oxford report is, merely taken as a piece of exposition,
greatly superior to its counterpart. ¦ The Commission in
cluded some singularly able men : among them. Dr. Tait,
then Dean of Carlisle, afterwards Primate ; Dr. Jeune, then
Master of Pembroke, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough ;
Dr. Liddell, now Dean of Christ Church ; and Professor
Baden-Powell. The secretary was the Rev. A. P. Stanley,
afterwards Dean of Westminster, assisted by Mr. Goldwin
Smith. From the beginning to the end of the report there
runs a tone of resentment and indignation against the de
fenders of abuses, which breaks out occasionally into telling
sarcasm, and which culminates in the declaration — truly
remarkable as coming from a body in which there were
only two laymen to six clergymen — that all clerical re
strictions ought to be abolished. But if the language
of the Oxford Commission was vehement, the constituted
authorities of the University had mainly themselves to
thank for it. While individuals freely gave the evidence

294 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
that was asked of them, the governing bodies, both of the
University and of the Colleges, generally refused to answer
any inquiries, and sent back to the Commission the opinion
of Mr. Bethell, Counsel to the University, and other lawyers,
that the Commission had itself been illegally and unconsti
tutionally issued. Dr. Gaisford, Dean of Christ Church,
declined even to acknowledge letters ; Dr. Routh, President
of Magdalen, then in his ninety-sixth year, replied that he
was not aware that he had misused his College revenues,
and closed the correspondence with the abruptness of a man
who had no time to waste upon trifles ; Dr. Philpotts, Bishop
of Exeter, as Visitor of Exeter College, not only hectored
the Commission on his own behalf, but informed them that
he had warned the members of the society over which he
was set that they could not, without guilt of perjury, answer
the inquiries addressed to them.
Report ! It was in the department of finance alone that this offi-
oxford cial obstruction caused any real difficulty to the Commis
sioners, or impaired the completeness of their work. Copies
of the statutes refused at headquarters were easily procured
from the British Museum, and on all that related to studies
and discipline abundant evidence was given by men of every
shade of opinion. Fortified with a convincing body of
testimony, the Commissioners sent in their report to her
Majesty. They pointed out, in the first place, that the
existing governing body of the University, consisting of the
Heads of the Colleges assembled in the Hebdomadal Council,
was thoroughly unfitted for its work. The Heads were
described in the most uncomplimentary terms ; they were
too often effete, incompetent old gentlemen, who had got
their places by jobbery or management, and who had
lost all touch with the higher educational or literary in
terests around them. A new governing body required to
be created, and this the Commission desired to draw from

Commis
sion.

THE UNIVERSITIES 295
the persons actively engaged in the work of the Uni
versity. Passing on to the inquiry how far the University
fulfilled its duties towards the nation at large, the Commis
sioners showed that in spite of its noble endowments, and
in spite of the immense increase of the population, Oxford,
once so thronged, now scarcely drew to it three hundred
students a year, of whom almost all belonged to the wealthier
classes or were intended for the clerical profession. One
cause of this paucity of numbers was the rule, first intro
duced by Archbishop Laud's statutes of 1629, that every
student must belong to some College or Hall. College life,
even when not extravagant, was not easily made economical ;
nor was there any sufficient reason for limiting the number
of students by the accommodation that could be provided
within College walls. The Commission therefore suggested
not only that individuals should be permitted to open private
Halls for the reception of students, but that the ancient
custom of admitting undergraduates to the University with
out their becoming members of any College or Hall whatever
should be revived. They strongly condemned the subscrip
tion to the Thirty-nine Articles required at matriculation, and
recommended that it be forthwith abolished.
The next section of the Commissioners' report was de- studies,
and sys-
voted to the studies of the University. They mentioned tem ot
with approval the statute of 1850, establishing the schools uon!"°'
of Modern History and Natural Science, and confined them
selves to the suggestion that certain modifications should
be made in this scheme, that a museum with laboratories
and lecture-rooms should be built, and that various boards
of studies should be established, which it is not necessary
to enumerate here. They urged, and with good reason,
that if the new studies were to be seriously pursued, it was
essential that they should be allotted their fair share of
rewards. Mathematics had been nominally on a level with

296 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
classics for half a century ; but, inasmuch as fellowships
had scarcely ever been given for mathematics, this study
had never taken any real root. On the subject of the in
struction given at Oxford, the Commissioners spoke with great
frankness. Professorial teaching— that is, the teaching given
by the University as distinct from the teaching given by
the Colleges — had become almost extinct. Though occa
sional public lectures of great interest had been given by
Dr. Arnold and others, it was a novelty to most persons to
hear that there ever had been, or that there was any need
for, a system of instruction independent of the classes of
the College Tutor. The Heads indeed, in a letter to the
Duke of Wellington, had described the cessation of pro
fessorial teaching as a 'temporary interruption.' The
interruption, however, had been the rule and not the ex
ception for a century and a half. Professorships had become
sinecures : they were for the most part poorly endowed ;
and in the absence of all central organisation their holders
had neither the duty nor the opportunity of exercising any
systematic influence upon the studies of the place. The
College Tutor, who had superseded all the old public
teachers, was not an inspiring person. Eesponsible, with
two or three colleagues, for the supply of instruction
to all the undergraduates of his college, whatever their
difference in knowledge, capacity, or aim, his classes were
a weary round of drudgery and routine, where, year after
year, the duller men were put through their drill, and the
abler men endured unspeakable boredom. The Tutor him
self had seldom much interest in his work. Forbidden to
marry, destitute of prospects within the University itself
from the paucity of professorships and similar appoint
ments, he looked forward to his College living as the only
real end of existence. ' You are anxious to get a fellowship
now,' said the father of the late Mark Pattison to his son ;

thF universities 297
' believe me, you will be a thousand times more anxious to
get rid of it some years hence.'
For this unsatisfactory state of things the Commission Proposed
saw a remedy in the revival and extension of the professor- tfon°of "
ships of the University. Funds now wasted in the main- ^e^tity
tenance of an excessive number of unprofitable Fellows teaching.
might be employed in maintainkig in the University a body
of men really eminent in learning, and devoted to the career
which they had chosen. The professors, rationally selected,
adequately paid, emancipated from clerical and other re
strictions, and bound by the tenure of thek office to the
performance of certain duties, would not only represent in
themselves the highest intellectual life of the University,
but would influence and inspirit all those subordinate
grades from which in due time their successors would be
drawn. The professor at an English University should be
something more than a conduit-pipe to convey the learning
of others : he should be a spring of fresh knowledge, adding
to the mental wealth of his time, and fertihsing fields far
beyond those immediately surrounding him. In order that
thought and study should not be unduly sacrificed to in
struction, a body of University lecturers should exist by
the side of the professors, reheving them of a part of their
educational duties where these were heavy. The condition of
celibacy, to be retained in the case of ordinary Fellows, might
be abolished in the case of those who were either professors
or University lecturers. When therefore the latter became
fairly numerous, a career would be opened to men of learn
ing which at present Oxford could not offer. Instead of
surrendering himself to the service of dunces, until a College
living should enable him to marry and to forget his Latin
and Greek altogether, the Tutor would, if so disposed, find it
to his advantage to follow some branch of study in a serious
spirit ; while the better division of labour would save him

298 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
from the necessity of having to teach a multitude of things
indifferently. To realise this scheme in its completeness, two
things would, however, be necessary. In the first place, a
large number of fellowships must be suppressed, or appro
priated to University teachers ; and, in the second place, the
ascendency of the most ignorant among the pupils in Col
lege lectures must be tempered by the establishment of a
matriculation examination, conducted by the University
itself, and enforcing a better standard than that which now
satisfied the inferior colleges.
Principle Excellent as these recommendations were, they were
com^^'^ perhaps not of such vital importance to the future of
petition. Oxford as the simple and emphatic declaration of the Com
mission that the principle of open competition must hence
forward be applied to fellowships and scholarships. The
paralysing effect of local preferences and restrictions, and of
the absurd privileges attaching to founders' kin, was demon
strated by a comparison of the open with the close Colleges.
Oriel and Balliol, with their scanty resources, had outshone
all their rivals ; Magdalen, with revenues of 23,000Z. a year,
had become a sort of hospital for incurables. The latter
College, which from its wealth and its splendid buildings
ought to have been the foremost in the University, was
indeed an example of everything that was worst. Not only
were the old local restrictions in full force, but, in defiance of
the tenor of its statutes, appointments to fellowships and
scholarships were made to depend upon personal favour ;
' a disgrace and abuse,' continued the Commissioners,
' peculiar to Oxford. At Cambridge such elections are said
to be unknown; in Oxford they are happily confined to
certain colleges.' Passing beyond the example of the sister
University, where each College chose from among the best
of its own members, and saving the rights of Wales at Jesus
College, the Commission recommended that all fellowships,

the universities 299
except those appropriated to professorships and similar
offices, should be thrown open to general competition among
all members of the University. With the view of rendering
University education more generally attainable, they proposed
that the number of scholarships should be largely increased
and thek value augmented. These also were, in the great
majority of cases, to be thrown open ; where, however,
scholarships were attached to particular schools, and the
school had a sort of joint proprietary interest with the
College, existing arrangements might to some extent con
tinue. The Commission completed its work with a recom
mendation that the University and the Colleges should in
future have poAver to alter their statutes with the consent
of some public authority ; and that the obsolete and objec
tionable oaths, by which in most Colleges the Fellows had
been bound to resist any alteration of the statutes and to
withhold aU information as to the affairs of their society,
should be declared illegal.
The report of the Commission on the University of Report of
Cambridge followed on the whole the same lines. The ^^idge™"
abuses that called for animadversion were fewer in this Uni- *^?":
mission.
versify ; on the other hand, there was the same complaint
of the total absence of central organisation, of the unfitness
of the Heads as the leading authority in the University, and
of the bad quality of the instruction usually given. The
latter appears to have been even worse than at Oxford, if
we may judge from the fact that recourse to private tutors
had become all but universal among men who wished to
learn anything. The Commission made the same general
recommendations as those above described : the establish
ment of a representative council, the extension and remo
delling of the professoriate, with various boards of studies ;
the improvement of the material appliances for scientific
instruction and research ; and the removal of most of the

30O THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
remaining restrictions upon fellowships and scholarships,
which indeed were insignificant in comparison with those
at Oxford. In one respect the Cambridge Commission
was distinctly in advance of its predecessor. Relying upon
insufficient evidence, the Oxford Commission had concluded
that it would be useless to attempt to establish a medical
school in a comparatively small provincial city. The
Cambridge Commission, better informed as to the statistics
of the medical schools on the Continent, maintained that
the attempt ought to be made. Experience has justified
their conclusion, and the medical school at Cambridge is
at this day a flourishing reality.
Legisia- It was at the moment when the Crimean war was
i854on breaking out that Lord John Russell introduced into
Oxford. Parliament the measure framed by the Government of
that day upon the report of the Oxford Commission. The
Bill fell short of the recommendation of the Commis
sioners in not abolishing the subscription to the Thirty-
nine Articles at matriculation, and in removing clerical
restrictions only where three-fourths of the Fellows of a
College were already in Orders. In most other respects it
embodied the reforms proposed in a fairly adequate form.
It was, however, a measure of extreme complexity. Its
earlier clauses created a new Council and a new Congrega
tion as the governing bodies of the University ; empowered
the opening of private Halls ; and laid down the principle
of open competition for fellowships and scholarships. Its
later clauses had for their object the extension of the pro
fessoriate, and the establishment of an increased number
of scholarships and exhibitions out of College revenues.
For this purpose the Bill proposed to create an execu
tive Commission, which, in combination with the Colleges,
should draw up new statutes regulating the disposal of
their endowments and devoting a portion of them, not ex-

THE UNIVERSITIES 301
ceeding one-fifth, to University purposes. The Bill was not
seriously opposed on its second reading ; on reaching Com
mittee every clause raised a struggle. The Government,
on the whole, carried its points ; but so slow was the pro
gress made that, before half the clauses had been reached.
Lord John Russell announced that the Government must
strike out the elaborate directions which were to govern the
executive Commission, and substitute for them an arrange
ment which practically left it to the Colleges themselves to
draw up their new statutes, reserving to the Commissioners
little more than a power of approval or rejection. In its
passage through Committee and through the House of Lords,
the Bill, so amended, underwent some changes for the worse
and some for the better. Mr. Heywood carried against the
Government an amendment abolishing the theological test
at matriculation ; and a later vote, which was stated to have
been gained by surprise, abolished it in the case of all lay
degrees. The House of Lords insisted on undoing this vote
in relation to the M.A. degree, but left the B.A. degree open
to Nonconformists. It had not been intended by the
Ministry, when the Bill was introduced, that the abolition
of tests should in any way enter into the discussion. After
the considerable victory, however, which had been gained
by the friends of religious equality in the House of Commons,
it became evident that the complete opening of the endow
ments as well as the honours of Oxford to those who were not
members of the Church of England was now only a question
of time. The Bill became law in the summer of 1854, and the The
executive Commission then began its work. Its composi- c^ml^*'^®
tion was distinctly inferior to that of the Commission of "^ssion.
Inquiry ; and indeed there would have been little advantage
in placing very eminent men upon a body which was liable
to have its conclusions overruled by the vote of a majority

302

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Effect of
these changes.

Cam
bridge.

Aboli-
¦ tion of
¦ tests.

of two-thirds in any College. The statutes which now'
came into being were satisfactory in so far as they embodied
the principle of open competition, and largely increased the
number and value of scholarships; but the obligation to
take Holy Orders was retained in the case of many fellow
ships, and the expectation that the Colleges would of their
own free will devote any large portion of their revenues to
University purposes proved entirely illusive. It was only in
some exceptional cases that the Colleges assented to any
such appropriations, and in consequence the ideal profes-*
soriate remained nearly as far off as ever. Nevertheless a
new and a healthy epoch in the history of the University
had now commenced. Men who were in earnest felt that
the old power of inertia and jobbery was broken, and that
the future lay with themselves. Science manifested a
vigorous youthful appetite, and clamoured for its observa
tories and museums. The Heads consoled themselves with
University sermons ; a throng of energetic young men,
victorious in competition, descended like bkds of prey
upon the sleepy common-rooms. New books were studied,
new ideas canvassed ; and gradually, while the number of
students largely increased, there grew up even in the most
benighted of the Colleges little bands of ardent persons to
whom the one thing intolerable was the Toryism and the
clericalism of the fading regime. At Cambridge, which was
dealt with by Parliament on the same principles t-wo years
after Oxford, the revulsion from the old to the new seems to
have been far less exciting and sudden.
Twenty years passed before the Legislature again found
it necessary to review the internal affairs of the two Univer
sities. In the meantime, however, the abolition of reli
gious tests was repeatedly brought forward in the House
of Commons ; and after passing that House half a dozen
times, was at length, in the year 1871, carried through the

THE UNIVERSITIES 303
House of Lords. The power given by Parliament to the
Colleges to alter their statutes, with the consent of the Privy
Council, led to some further useful changes being made in a
few cases, as the shortcomings of the system established in
1854 came into view. Competition had done much, but it
had not done everything. It was found that a majority
of the young men who gained open fellowships left the
Universities after a year or two of residence. They had no
intention of taking Orders and waiting for livings ; the new
offices which would have held out to them some fairly good
prospects as students or teachers had not as a matter of
fact been created ; and thek position, as regarded any Further changes
permanent settlement in life, was therefore worse than that seentobe
of the easy-going clergymen who had preceded them. They gary. "
naturally sought new callings before it was too late ; and
the consequence was that the government of the Colleges
seemed likely to fall into the hands of a succession of mere
lads on their way to the Bar or the editorial desk. Nor,
if they remained at the Universities, did the men who
had most distinguished themselves in examinations always
prove competent teachers. When the old danger of jobbery
had passed away, it was felt that a power of appointment,
to be exercised under certain stringent conditions, might
advantageously supplement the system of competition.
Such a power of appointment might also enrich the Colleges
with the membership of persons of eminence in literature,
art, and science, who would not dream of submitting to
examination. There was growing up, both in the Universi
ties and elsewhere, a strong feeling that independent study
and research, as distuict from active educational work,
deserved much more ample provision than had hitherto
been made for them. It was not so much the fault of the
earlier Commissions as of those who had imperfectly carried
out their plans that in this respect the Universities had so

304 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
little made good their deficiencies. Other changes were also
seen to be inevitable. Celibacy could no longer be main
tained. It had been granted a reprieve in 1854, but with
misgivings ; and the whole spirit of the time now decisively
condemned it. A raid upon sinecures was also in contem
plation. Macaulay, to whom it is said that non-resident
fellowships owed their escape from extinction at the hands
of Lord John Russell, was no longer alive. The misuse of
these endowments would in some instances have needed
a stout defender ; and a general and very reasonable
opinion had grown up that, except in cases where some
recognised study was pursued, the enjoyment of a non
resident fellowship ought to be limited to six or eight
years.
: Legis- Thus a further course of legislation was seen to be
i of 1877. necessary, in part to facilitate changes already in progress,
in part to overcome resistance where this could not be
overcome from within. As a preliminary measure, an
inquiry into the revenues and financial prospects of the
two Universities was held in 1872 by a Commission
headed by the Duke of Cleveland. Materials, the want of
which had given indefiniteness to earlier schemes of re
organisation, were thus accumulated ; and in 1876 Lord
Salisbury, who was in a large measure conversant with the
views of the latest school of reformers, introduced Bills for
the better management of the two Universities. These
Bills Were withdrawn in order to be succeeded in the follow
ing year by a single measure embracing both societies. The
main purpose in view was the strengthening of the central
authority in each University ; the enforcement of system ;
the subordination of lesser corporate interests to the needs
of the whole. Two executive Commissions were created, on
which each College was allowed to be represented while its
own affairs were being dealt with ; no power, however, was

THE UNIVERSITIES 305
given to the Colleges, as in 1854, to override or obstruct
proceedings which were not accordmg to their mind. The
work of the Commissions proceeded slowly, but without
much friction. Elaborate schemes were drawn up, by
which each College was compelled to contribute part of its
income to the University. New professorships were esta
blished, the duties of the old ones more strictly regulated.
Prize fellowships were, as a rule, distinguished from Avork-
ing fellowships, and made tenable for a limited time.
Restrictions on marriage were almost wholly abolished ; the
power of appointment without examination was largely
granted ; and many of the Colleges received the right of
bestowing their fellowships upon men doing good Avork in
literature, art, or science, even if hitherto unconnected with
the Universities and pursuing their labours at a distance.
One additional reform, which perhaps was not foreseen by
Lord Salisbury, dates also from this time. Clerical fellow
ships were almost entirely abolished. The general election
of 1880, though it did not break off the action of the Com
missions, was powerfully felt by them within twenty-four
hours of the first declaration of the polls. It would have
been vain to present to the new House of Commons sta
tutes weighted with ecclesiastical privilege ; and the clerical
headships and fellowships, which had hitherto found in
fluential defenders on at least one of the Commissions, now
sank unmourned. In the course of the next two years
the long and much interrupted labours of the two Com
missions were brought to a conclusion, and the statutes
which they had drawn up became the new code of law for
the Universities and the Colleges.
The completion of the first fifty years of her Majesty's
reign brings us therefore to the close of a period of legis
lation which has to a great extent transformed the system
and the constitution of our two ancient seats of learning.
VOL. II. ^

3o6

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

The re
sults of
this legis
lation cannotyet be
judged.

Changes
recently effected.

This legislation stands complete before us ; the changes
accompanying and resulting from it are not yet to be
summed up. A later generation will decide to what extent
the promises and the hopes of the last thirty years have
been fulfilled ; whether the science of the Universities is to
be a thing ennobling and elevating the mind of man ; whe
ther their literature and their scholarship shall adorn, not
cumber, our national treasure-house ; whether, in addition
to the comparatively easy task of opening a career to great
talent springing from humble homes, they shall in any
degree advance us in the solution of that far deeper human
problem, how the lives of the broad mass of the ungifted
and the unambitious may be redeemed from barrenness,
and occupations which are now servitude may be relieved
by a companionship with noble thoughts and things. All
this lies in the future ; it may, however, be well to note
some of the actual changes in the present state of the
Universities as compared with their condition fifty years
back. In the first place, the number of students has been
greatly increased — on an accurate comparison, probably not
less than threefold, though the older lists are filled out with
names which would not now be included. The conception
of the Universities as mainly a training place for the clergy
is extinct. All legal restrictions excluding persons not
members of a privileged religious body have disappeared.
By the admission of students who are not connected with
any College or Hall, the cost of a University education has
been reduced practically to that sum on which a person
may be able to support himself, living where he chooses
within a certain radius ; and although the ' unattached '
student necessarily remains without the comradeship and
other indefinable advantages of College Hfe, the means of
instruction are open to him abundantly, and he is almost
certain at some time of his career to have the opportunity

THE UNIVERSITIES 307
of making acquaintance and friendship with men of high
merit and reputation. The range of studies has been
greatly enlarged, more especially in the domain of the
natural sciences. The highest kind of instruction is more
largely given ; the ordinary work of tuition much better
performed. Institutions and appliances for study, whose
very names were unknown fifty years ago, have sprung up
in abundance. Museums of Natural History, Observatories, M"-
Laboratories, diversify the scene with forms of architecture
as novel as the sciences which they represent. EndoAvment
has been freely granted in departments of knowledge where
none existed before. On the whole, it may be said that, re
garded as schools for the completion of a good education on
the English type, the Universities are enormously superior
to what they were. But even from this point of view there
is something that still calls aloud for correction. By the
side of the men who turn to good account the opportunities
offered them, there exists the great mass of idlers sent up
merely for social or conventional purposes, who drag down
the educational level in many of the Colleges, and perpetuate
a tradition of almost childish self-indulgence and devotion
to amusement. The Pass degree, though somewhat better
than of old, is still a very poor affair. Statute may folloAv
statute ; but until there arises a sufficiently strong body of
opinion among the authorities of the Colleges, no adequate
reform will be made from within ki this direction. If
hundreds of men are admitted who up to nineteen have
only learnt how to enjoy themselves, they, and not the
examiners, will set the standard of the Pass degree. By
one very simple enactment Parhament might indeed cure
the evil at a stroke. A Bill consisting of a single clause,
requiring that every undergraduate of Oxford or Cam-
bridf^e should have passed the matriculation test at London
University, would do more good than the uistitution of
X 2

3oS THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
countless Boards of Studies. Nor could it with decorum be
opposed ; for resistance would amount to a confession that
in the Avealthier UniA^ersities the earliest examination of the
student may be stiU, like his latest, a sham, whilst at the
University of London it is a reality.
Is there To the Ordinary parent who in the time of William III.
less.onn- sent his son to Cambridge, the most interesting matter was
fup'e"-^^^ no doubt the education which his son would receive ; to
riority p ourselvcs it sooms more interesting and more important
that Cambridge should then have had among its members Sir
Isaac Newton. And perhaps even in this brief survey it
may be proper not wholly to pass over the question whether,
in the changes which the Universities have gone through
during the last fifty years, the higher forms of individual
mental activity have become more or less common, and
more or less vigorous, than they Avere before. Genius in
deed baffies pursuit ; but in the energies which, while they
fall short of genius, are yet inferior to this alone, the influ
ence of surrounding conditions is usually to be traced, and
Ave can distinguish to some extent the circumstances which
have strengthened or impaired their development. Ineffective
as the Universities were at the beginning of this reign, they
Avcre certainly not wanting in men of note. There appear
to have existed both at Oxford and Cambridge groups,
numericaUy small, within which the contact of mind with
mind was vivid, incessant, and stimulating. The best men
were, as a rule, httle occupied with education ; they had
time to think and to read ; and their very superiority to the
ignorant herd about them gave them a certain daring and
confidence in themselves. They were original rather than
learned ; and after the long torpor that had preceded them,
they threw themselves with a certain youthful fervour into
the speculation, the theology, the literature of their own
new world. Among those who have grown up under the

THE UNIVERSITIES 309.
reformed conditions of University life, who are at once more
indebted to an educational system and more absorbed in
it, this strong individual power seems to be rarer. There
is abundant industry, but little of great merit is produced.
Most of the work that Avill outlive our oAvn time is the work
of men now old, or nearing old age ; the generation last
risen to manhood at the Universities has not to any great
extent risen above what may be called a high general average
of performance, either hterary or scientific. One cause of
this is probably to be found in the predominance of merely
educational aims and interests, and the excessive labour
and attention given to the training and supervision of
pupils, which in some Colleges is carried to an extent
injurious to the pupils themselves. Time is consumed
in endless alterations and readjustment of the educa
tional machinery, which may perhaps, in a time of tran
sition, be unavoidable, but which to an outsider appear
unspeakably trivial and barren. Oxford in especial is
familiar with careers of great promise which have ended
in little more than a bustling about from one committee
room to another and a round of attendance upon Boards
of Studies. It would seem too as if death had robbed
both Universities of an unusually large share of those
Avho would have been their strength in our own day. In
Clifford and Balfour the scientific interests of Cambridge
had representatives whose worth was known far beyond its
OAvn schools ; in Professor T. H. Green, Oxford lost a man
of true philosophic genius and nobly impressive character.
That successors worthy of these and of others whose loss is
but too severely felt may not be wanting to the Universities
in the immediate future, is the earnest desire of those to
Avhom their best interests are dear.
This notice of the older Universities may be concluded
by the bare mention — our space allows no more — of three

3IO

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Local examina tions.

Uni-versityExten sion.

Education of
-women.

The Uni
versity of
London.

important movements by which they are noAV extending the
sphere of their action.
1. The system of local examinations, conducted by a
University Board, by which every school in the kingdom
can get a test of the efficiency of its Avork and the progress
of its scholars. Though this system is far from supplying
the place of a proper organisation of secondary instruction,
it gives a test and a stimulus to many thousands of boys
and girls of the middle classes every year. The Oxford and
Cambridge Schools Examination Board, a later foundation,
does similar work for the higher schools.
2. The so-called University Extension, an ill-chosen
name for courses of lectures given by members of the Uni
versities in populous places. These lectures are, especially
in the north of England, awakening great interest among
the working classes, who will sometimes walk miles to attend
them. The lecturers also give advice as to the books that
should be read, and otherwise endeavour to open to men of
labour the world of intellectual interests.
8. The education of women. While at the London
University women may take degrees, both at Oxford and
Cambridge lectures are given to which women are admitted.
They may enter for several of the examinations of the
Universities, though they may not take degrees. Colleges
and Halls for women-students have been established at both
places ; and Girton and Newnham, Somerville and Lady
Margaret, have become flourishing institutions.
We must now pass on to the University of London.
It was in the reign of George IV. that the project was
formed, by Brougham, Campbell, and others, of establish
ing in London an institution where the highest education
should be attainable, and where the theological restrictions
Avhich excluded whole classes from the . older Universities
should not exist. Capital was raised by the issue of shares;

THE UNIVERSITIES 311
I a site in Gower Street was purchased, and the building now
dmown as University College was opened in 1828 to students
in Arts, Law, and Medicine. In order to keep entirely free
from theological difficulties, instruction was not given in
divinity, nor were religious services held. So far the under
taking had been a private one ; it was now, however, deter-
mmed to apply to the Crown for the power of granting
degrees, except in theology. Great opposition to this was
raised by the College of Surgeons and other corporate
bodies as well as by the Universities ; and it was not until
the year 1835 that an address was carried in the House of
Commons praying the Crown to grant the charter which
was sought by the association. In the mean time King's
College, London, had been founded, in order to supply, on
the principles of the Church of England, the religious in
struction and offices which were wanting at Gower Street.
Having regard to the interests of this institution as well as
to other circumstances, Lord Melbourne's Ministry decided
that it would be better to create a distinct corporate body
to fulfil the functions of a University in examining and
conferring degrees, while affiliating to it the two rival
Colleges and many other institutions throughout the king
dom. This view was accepted by the original association,
which received its own separate charter as London Uni
versity College, and has continued from that time to be a
teaching institution. The University of London, as de- ^^^°^
signed by the Government, was incorporated by a charter sity made
° ¦' . distinct
authorising thirty- six distinguished persons therein named from
to act as a Board for conferring degrees, after examination, xjni-
in all subjects except divinity. There was attached to the ^^^"^
charter a hst of affiliated Colleges — that is, of institutions
whose students might present themselves for examination.
It was not mtended that the mere capacity to pass an
examination should entitle any person to receive a degree

312 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
from the University : a course of previous systematic edu
cation was required at one of the affiliated Colleges, in the
list of which it was intended that additional ones should
from time to time be included.
The Uni- The first year of Queen Victoria saw the first examina-
LondJn° tious Conducted by the University of London, and for the
1837 to ^®^* twenty years its operations continued on the lines
1887. marked out by the original charter. Its headquarters,
after some migrations, were fixed at Burlington House. In
1858 an important change took place. The restriction of
the right of obtaining degrees to students educated at the
affiliated Colleges excluded hundreds of meritorious persons
who had studied privately or in other schools ; and it was
moreover found that the certificate of the privileged Colleges
Avas in some cases given on the strength of a merely nominal
membership. It was therefore determined that the existing
limitations should be removed, and the examinations of the
University be thrown open to all the world, with the sole
exception that medical candidates were required to have
passed through one of the recognised schools of their pro
fession. The effect of this change was very great. The
number of candidates presenting themselves increased be
yond all expectation, rising, between the years 1858 and
1885, in the case of the matriculation examination, from
299 to 1,900, and in the B.A. examination from 72 to 339.
Moreover, through the abolition of the system of affiha-
tion, the University gained a general influence over all the
schools in the kingdom. Its matriculation test, which was
far severer and far broader in its requirements than that of
most of the Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, became
recognised as a standard of proficiency not only in the edu
cational world itself, but in the entrance to various profes
sions and callings. It became therefore, instead of a mere
preliminary to the other examinations in the University of

THE UNIVERSITIES 313,
London, a sort of certificate, qualifying the youth who was
leaving school for admission to the career that might lie
before him, and it thus enabled the University of London
to influence school education more powerfully than it could
ever have done if those alone had presented themselves
for the first examination who intended subsequently to pro
ceed to degrees. The system of local examination now
estabhshed by Oxford and Cambridge has, from this point
of view, been no more than an enlargement and generalisa
tion of the work originally performed by London. It may
be added that since 1888 all London examinations and
degrees have been open to men and women on equal terms.
When a University has but one function to fulfil, the London
only question that can be asked about it is whether it fulfils sity as an
this function well. As an examining body, the University ing™odV.
of London, though it has received much criticism, far sur
passes Oxford and Cambridge. It is better in the prelimi
naries, and it is better at every stage upwards from these
to the highest. The mass of men who, in the absence of
any matriculation test imposed by the older Universities
themselves, gain admission to the inferior Colleges, would
certainly be discomfited if they were to present themselves
for matriculation at Burlington House. The graduate of
Oxford or Cambridge who, after taking his B.A. degree, is
alloAved to proceed without any further examination, and on
the mere payment of successive fees, to the Master's degree,
would be horrified to find that at London he must pass an
examination of increasing severity at each step upwards.
Not that there is occasion to attribute to the newer Univer
sity any innate intellectual or moral superiority over its
elders. It can no more suffer from the peculiar infirmities
of Oxford and Cambridge than a skeleton can suffer from
gout. The true time for comparison Avill not arrive until
in London the examining body becomes, as elsewhere,

314

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

The
"VictoriaUni-versity.

Founda
tion and
expansion of
Q-wensCollege.

identical with the teaching body, or dominated by it. There
is, indeed, something chilling and forlorn in the spec
tacle of .a University which offers no training of its own,
which gathers to it no glad troops of youth, which is the
home of no one learned man, which ceases even to have
any concrete existence between the recurring throes of
examination. The project of making the University of
London not only an examining but a teaching body has
naturally arisen among some of the worthiest of its mem
bers. This project is as yet scarcely before the public. In
its realisation the one thing to be feared will be the im-
perilment of that absolute freedom from all corporate, local,
and financial interests which has up to this time given to
the University of London, in spite of all defects, the autho
rity of an intellectual tribunal, and made it in its influence
upon education a national power.
It remains for us, passing over the not very eventful
chronicles of Durham, to add a brief notice of the Victoria
University, which has just risen in full orb above the busy
homes of industry in the North- West. Plans for the esta
blishment of a system of higher education had been made
at Manchester from time to time since the end of the last
century ; but little resulted from these until, in the year
1846, Mr. John Owens, a merchant of that city, bequeathed
property amounting to about 100,000L for the endowment
of a College at Manchester which should furnish instruction
in all the branches of science and learning usually taught
in the English Universities. The college was opened in
1851. For the first seven years its prospects were not
hopeful. Its standard of education, it was said, was too
high; it supplied something for which there existed no
demand in Manchester ; if students were to be obtained, it
must be reduced to the level of an ordinary school. Against
these suggestions of faint-heartedness the trustees and the

THE UNIVERSITIES 315
staff of the College remained firm. Convinced that the
existence of a place of hberal education in the midst of a
vast commercial and manufacturing industry would sooner
or later make the need of a liberal education felt, they
applied themselves with admirable perseverance and saga
city to the correction of Avhat was amiss in their work, to
the improvement of their organisation, to the study and
introduction of new means of serving the pubhc and ful
filling the large design of their founder. The reAvard came
in due time. From the year 1860 the number of students
steadily increased. Manchester began to take an interest
and a pride in its College ; and in a few more years such
was the groAvth both in the educational work itself and in
the confidence of its friends that the existing buildings Avere
condemned as totally insufficient, and an appeal was made
to the public for 150,000Z. in order that buildings adequate
to the needs of the College might be constructed. The
Natural History Society and the Medical School of Man
chester negotiated for an amalgamation with the College ;
and with a just sense of the great future now opening out
it was determined by the friends of higher education to
introduce into Parhament a measure enlarging Mr. OAvens'
trust, which had hitherto been in private hands, into a
great public corporation, suitable at some future time to
occupy the position of a University for the North of England.
The Bill was carried through Parhament ; the new corporate
body, still keeping the first founder's name, succeeded to
the trustees ; the refusal of two successive Governments to
assist the work from the public funds only stimulated local
generosity and zeal. Donations of ample magnitude poured
in ; and on October 7, 1873, the new buildings were throAvn
open. The Avork of the College now expanded in every
direction. Scarcely was one professorship founded than
another Avas seen to be necessary ; and, in spite of repeated

3i6 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
moments of financial pressure, there has seemed to be a
noble contest between the College and the public, which
should ask and which should give the most. At length, in
the year 1878, the charter of a University, with power of
granting degrees, was sought. Opposition was made by the
Yorkshire College at Leeds to that part of the scheme which
limited the University to a single College and gave to it the
Uni- name of a Lancashire town. In deference to the just pride
charted of Yorkshire, it was accordingly determined by Government
1880*^'*' t^^t ^^ University should bear no local name, but that of
Victoria, and that the right of admission should remain
open to such other Colleges as might thereafter satisfy the
requirements of the charter. Owens College was recog
nised as the centre and headquarters of the University;
and although it has found one companion in University
College, Liverpool, it need fear no rivalry in its position as
intellectual centre of the North of England. Its foundation
has done honour to all who have borne part in it, and will
rank high among the educational efforts that cast a lustre
on this reign. If in the older studies it may still yield the
palm to Oxford and Cambridge, an unbounded future hes
before it as the home of a great medical school, and as
the natural training place of those who shall carry into
the manufacturing and the mining industries of England
not only the results of the latest scientific discovery, but the
larger and more liberal habit of mind which it is the aim of
all true University education to impart.
charae- No greater contrast can be imagined than that which
/ootch ^ at the begmning of this century existed between the Scotch
and the English Universities. In Scotland the Universities
were essentially popular institutions. They were not eccle
siastical bodies, nor framed mainly for the education of the
clergy. They had in no respect been organised or modified
with reference to the means, or pursuits, or habits of the

Univer sities.

THE UNIVERSITIES 317
aristocracy. Their system was that of a general plan of
education by means of professors' lectures, at which students
of every rank of life could attend, without being required
to enter any collegiate body, or to submit themselves to
any discipline outside the class-room, or even to profess
any intention of going through a regular course of study
or proceeding to a degree. The Universities included
students of every variety and description : men advanced
in life, who attended some of the classes for amusement, Or
to recall the studies of early years, or to improve themselves
in professional education originally interrupted; persons
engaged in manufacture or industry, who expected to derive
aid in their pursuits from new applications of science to the
arts ; young men not intended for any learned profession,
or even for a regular course of University education, but
sent for one or more years to College in order to carry their
education farther than that of the schools before their entry
into practical life. All persons might attend any of the
classes in whatever order or manner might suit their own
views or inclinations ; and so thoroughly popular and
national were the Universities that, in families of the
middle ranks of life, it was a common, if not indeed a
usual, thing for one or more of the sons to go to College
for a longer or a shorter time ; while even from the hum
blest homes poor lads would make their way to the classes
of Dugald Stewart or Chalmers after they had finished
labouring with their fathers in the harvest-field.
The Scotch Universities were in fact higher schools for They
the people rather than seats of advanced study. Not that ^®^
their best men were inferior to those of the English Uni- schools
^ for the
versifies ; on the contrary, they far surpassed them. But people.
there existed the apparent anomaly of professors of Euro
pean reputation engaged in giving instruction to boys of
fifteen, and to persons who, though older, had the rudiments

3i8 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
of their subjects to learn. Double and incompatible objects
Avere imposed upon the Scotch Universities by the absence
of a system of upper or intermediate schools. They had
at once, with extremely insufficient resources, to educate a
troop of schoolboys, and, as Universities, to keep up a high
level in their philosophy and scholarship. Their educa
tional work was imperfectly performed because the professor
was without assistants, and might have hundreds of lads in
his class. In some subjects, as in Greek, the low attain
ments of the pupils necessarily dragged the teacher down ;
in others, as in philosophy, the teacher might keep to his
own level, but, though he might then inspire, he could
hardly train or discipline the minds of his pupils. Great
as was the work effected by the Scotch Universities in
raising the general intelligence and mental tone of the
nation, it was impossible for them to be seats of learning
on a large scale, as Oxford and Cambridge, supported by
the public schools of England, might and ought to have
been. The Medical School of Edinburgh, which rose to
eminence during the eighteenth century, was perhaps that
department in which high scientific knowledge and a tho
rough system of instruction were most happily combined.
Absence When, in the third decade of this century, public atten-
piete°™' tio'^ '^^s directed to certain defects of the Scotch Universi-
T^d^^ °*^ ties, no one denied the great and substantial services they
were rendering ; no one thought of comparing their short
comings with the gross and crying abuses of Oxford and
Cambridge. It was, however, seen that their whole system
was too loose and superficial. Without excluding from the
classes persons who had come only for a short period, it
was still possible that there should be a systematic course
of study for those who could go through it, and that the
Universities should exercise functions beyond the mere pro
viding of public lectures. In consequence of the degree in

THE UNIVERSITIES 319
Arts not being necessary for persons entering into the
Scotch ministry, this degree had in the last century become
almost obsolete. Candidates went through the prescribed
attendance at lectures, and received a certificate, beyond
Avhich nothing was required. Degrees in Arts were occa
sionally conferred by the Universities on the request of
persons desirous to have them, or as matter of compliment;
but there was no examination, nor was the degree itself
held in any repute. Thus there was nothing in the regula
tions of the Universities to enforce any complete course of
study, nor, in the case of a student who had gone through
it, was there anything to connect him with the University
in his future life, unless he actually became a professor.
The absence of fellowships and other rewards for learn^
ing was indeed a misfortune which only the liberality of
founders and benefactors could remedy ; but even without
these endowments the Universities might establish degree-
examinations and confer distinctions upon those who passed
them most successfully. Courses of study might be de
fined ; and by a change in constitution the whole body of
graduates of each University might be granted such share
in its government and privileges that the attainment of a
degree would become, as in England, an object of desire.
All this was pointed out in the report of a Commission Report
on the Scotch Universities which was presented to Parlia- mis^"n
ment in 1831. A measure based on the report of this ¦'-^^^-
Commission was introduced by Lord Melbourne in 1887,
but it encountered strong opposition and was dropped.
The disruption of the Established Church of Scotland in
1843, and the reform of the English Universities, subse
quently revived public interest in the matter ; and in 1858
the Government of Lord Palmerston resumed the work that
had been broken off twenty-one years before. A Bill was Legisia-
carried through Parhament which gaA'e to each of the four i^g^g°^

320 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Scotch Universities the same general constitution, and
appointed a Commission to draw up the necessary statutes
and ordinances for their internal organisation, keeping in
view the recommendations made in the report of 1831.
The governing body of each University, except in the case
of Edinburgh, had hitherto been composed of the principal
and professors, an arrangement of great simplicity, but one
Avhich had defects in working. These learned persons had
iiot always been free from causes of contention with one
another, and at Glasgow they appear to have administered
the College property very injudiciously. It was now resolved
by Parliament, in conformity with the views of the first
Commission, that in each University, while the principal
and professors, under the title of Senatus Academicus,
transacted all ordinary business, their decisions should be
subject to the review of a University Court, consisting of
the Rector and certain assessors, nominated in part by the
professors, but not selected from their body. The graduates
Avere to form the General Council of each University, a body
entitled to be consulted on certain matters by the Senatus
and the Court, and vested with the right of electing the
Chancellor. The election of the Rector was given to the
students, partly on the ground that there ought to be
some direct representation of the students' interests on the
University Court, and partly from a generous belief that
the students would be benefited by the presence among
them at least once in the year of the eminent person on
whom they might set their choice. The Rectorial addresses
have made this part of the noAv constitution of the Scottish
Universities familiar to thousands to whom the very name
of the Senatus Academici and General Councils created by
the same Act are unknown.
Changes The Legislature had thus drawn up certain constitutional
after
1858. outlines ; it remained for the executive Commission of 1858

THE UNIVERSITIES 321
to recast the internal system and organisation of the Scotch
Universities ; to arrange their courses of study ; to institute
their examinations for degrees, where those had not been in
the mean time instituted by the Universities themselves ;
and generally, while keeping in view the peculiar function
of the Scotch Universities in offering, as it were, open
house to every one, of whatever age or condition, possessed
of an appetite for learning, to provide the best possible
entertainment and the completest possible service for those
who were to be not the casual visitors but the inmates and
hereafter the co-proprietors of the mansion. The work of
the Commission appears to have been well done, and to
have harmonised Avith the efforts already being made with
in the Universities themselves. The aims defined by the
Eeformers of 1831 have been in a great measure attained :
instruction is greatly improved ; degrees are far more sought;
and not the least striking proof of the increased power and
popularity of the Universities is seen in the endowments
which they are now year by year receiving kom the gene
rosity of individuals.
In this respect England and Scotland tell indeed the
same tale. In the early days of University reform, it was
the stock argument of the opponents of State interference
that endowments would no more be forthcoming if founders'
wills were overruled. Never has experience more convin
cingly declared in favour of common sense against folly.
The stream of public liberality, scarcely trickling at the
beginning of the century, now seems to be sweUing to the
goodly dimensions of olden times ; and the thirty years
that have passed since Parhament laid its reforming hand
upon the Universities of Great Britain have brought to them
ampler gifts and more important new foundations than the
two preceding centuries.
C. A. Fyffe.
VOL. II. ^

322

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

SCIENCE.

Recent industrial pro
gress

caused
by the
increase of phy
sicalscience.

The most obvious and the most distinctive feature of the
History of Civilisation, during the last fifty years, is the
wonderful increase of industrial production by the ap
plication of machinery, the improvement of old technical
processes and the invention of new ones, accompanied by
an even more remarkable development of old and new
means of locomotion and intercommunication. By this
rapid and vast multiplication of the commodities and con
veniences of existence, the general standard of comfort has
been raised ; the ravages of pestilence and famine have
been checked; and the natural obstacles, which time and
space offer to mutual intercourse, have been reduced in a
manner, and to an extent, unknown to former ages. The
diminution or removal of local ignorance and prejudice, the
creation of common interests among the most widely sepa
rated peoples, and the strengthening of the forces of the
organisation of the commonwealth against those of political
or social anarchy, thus effected, have exerted an influence
on the present and future fortunes of mankind the full sig
nificance of which may be divined, but cannot, as yet, be
estimated at its full value.
This revolution — for it is nothing less — in the political
and social aspects of modern civilisation has been preceded,
accompanied, and in great measure caused, by a less
obvious, but no less marvellous, increase of natural know-

SCIENCE 323
ledge, and especially of that part of it which is known
as Physical Sciencs, in consequence of the application of
scientific method to the investigation of the phenomena of
the material world. Not that the growth of physical science
is an exclusive prerogative of the Victorian age. Its present
strength and volume merely indicate the highest level of a
stream which took its rise, alongside of the primal founts
of Philosophy, Literature, and Art, in ancient Greece ; and,
after being dammed up for a thousand years, once more
began to flow three centuries ago.
It may be doubted if even-handed justice, as free from Greek
fulsome panegyric as from captious depreciation, has ever dieevai
yet been dealt out to the sages of antiquity who, for eight
centuries, from the time of Thales to that of Galen,
toiled at the foundations of physical science. But, without
entering into the discussion of that large question, it is
certain that the labours of these early workers in the field
of natural knowledge were brought to a standstill by the
decay and disruption of the Roman Empire, the conse
quent disorganisation of society, and the diversion of men's
thoughts from sublunary matters to the problems of the
supernatural world suggested by Christian dogma in the
Middle Ages. And, notwithstanding sporadic attempts to
recall men to the investigation of nature, here and there, it
was not until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that
physical science made a new start, founding itself, at first,
altogether upon that which had been done by the Greeks.
Indeed, it must be admitted that the men of the Renais
sance, though standing on the shoulders of the old philo
sophers, were a long time before they saw as much as their
forerunners had done.
The first serious attempts to carry further the un
finished work of Archimedes, Hipparchus, and Ptolemy,
of Aristotle and of Galen, naturally enough arose among
T 2

324 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
the astronomers and the physicians. For the imperious
necessity of seeking some remedy for the physical ills of
life had insured the preservation of more or less of the
Avisdom of Hippocrates and his successors ; and, by a happy
conjunction of circumstances, the Jewish and the Arabian
physicians and philosophers escaped many of the influences
which, at that time, blighted natural knowledge in the
Christian world. On the other hand, the superstitious
hopes and fears which afforded countenance to astrology
and to alchemy also sheltered astronomy and the germs of
chemistry. Whether for this, or for some better reason,
the founders of the schools of the Middle Ages included
astronomy, along with geometry, arithmetic, and music, as
one of the four branches of advanced education ; and, in
this respect, it is only just to them to observe that they
were far in advance of those who sit in their seats. The
schoolmen considered no' one to be properly educated unless
he Avere acquainted with, at any rate, one branch of phy
sical science. We have not, even yet, reached that stage
of enlightenment.
I'urther In the early decades of the seventeenth century, the
after"°^ men of the Renaissance could show that they had already
put out to good interest the treasure bequeathed to them
by the Greeks. They had produced the astronomical
system of Copernicus, with Kepler's great additions ; the
astronomical discoveries and the physical investigations of
Gahleo ; the mechanics of Stevinus and the ' De Magneto '
of Gilbert ; the anatomy of the great French and Italian
schools and the physiology of Harvey. In Italy, which had
succeeded Greece in the hegemony of the scientific world,
the Accademia dei Lyncei and sundry other such associa
tions for the investigation of nature, the models of all subse
quent academies and scientific societies, had been founded ;
Avhile the literary skill and biting wit of Galileo had made

Renais sance.

SCIENCE 325
the great scientific questions of the day not only intelligible,
but attractive, to the general public.
In our own country, Francis Bacon had essayed to Francis
sum up the past of physical science, and to indicate the
path which it must follow if its great destinies were to be
fulfilled. And though the attempt Avas just such a magni
ficent failure as might have been expected from a man of
great endowments, who was so singularly devoid of scien
tific insight that he could not understand the value of the
work already achieved by the true instaurators of physical
science ; yet the majestic eloquence and the fervid vaticina
tions of one who was conspicuous alike by the greatness of
his rise and the depth of his fall, drew the attention of all
the Avorld to the ' new birth of Time.'
But it is not easy to discover satisfactory evidence that The
the ' Novum Organum ' had any direct beneficial influence of his
on the advancement of natural knowledge. No delusion ™ethod.
is greater than the notion that method and industry can
make up for lack of motherwit, either in science or in
practical life; and it is strange that, with his knowledge
of mankuid. Bacon should have dreamed that his, or any
other, ' via inveniendi scientias ' would ' level men's wits '
and leave little scope for that inborn capacity which is caUed
genius. As a matter of fact, Bacon's ' via ' has proved
hopelessly impracticable ; while the ' anticipation of nature '
by the invention of hypotheses based on incomplete induc
tions, Avhich he specially condemns, has proved itself to be
a most efficient, indeed an indispensable, instrument of
scientific progress. Finally, that transcendental alchemy—
the superinducement of new forms on matter — which Bacon
declares to be the supreme aim of science, has been wholly
ignored by those Avho have created the physical knowledge
of the present day.
Even the eloquent advocacy of the Chancellor brought

326 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
no unmixed good to physical science. It was natural
enough that the man Avho, in his better moments, took ' all
knowledge for his patrimony,' but, in his worse, sold that
birthright for the mess of pottage of Court favour and
professional success, for pomp and show, should be led to
attach an undue value to the practical advantages which
he foresaw, as Roger Bacon and, indeed, Seneca had fore
seen, long before his time, must follow in the train of the
advancement of natural knoAvledge. The burden of Bacon's
pleadings for science is the ' gathering of fruit ' — the im
portance of winning solid material advantages by the in
vestigation of Nature and the desirableness of limiting the
application of scientific methods of inquiry to that field.
Hobbes. Bacon's younger contemporary, Hobbes, casting aside
the prudent reserve of his predecessor in regard to those
matters about which the Crown or the Church might have
something to say, extended scientific methods of inquiry to
the phenomena of mind and the problems of social organisa
tion ; while, at the same time, he indicated the boundary
betAveen the province of real, and that of imaginary, know
ledge. The ' Principles of Philosophy ' and the ' Leviathan '
embody a coherent system of purely scientific thought in
language which is a model of clear and vigorous English
style. At the same time, in France, a man of far greater
Des scientific capacity than either Bacon or Hobbes, Rene Des-
cartes, not only in his immortal ' Discours de la Methode '
and elsewhere, went down to the foundations of scientific
certainty, but, in his ' Principes de Philosophie,' indicated
where the goal of physical science really lay. HoAvever,
Descartes was an eminent mathematician, and it would
seem that the bent of his mind led him to overestimate the
value of deductive reasoning from general principles, as
much as Bacon had underestimated it. The progress of
physical science has been effected neither by Baconians nor

SCIENCE 327
by Cartesians, as such, but hymen like Galileo and Harvey,
Boyle and Newton, who Avould have done their Avork just as
Avell if neither Bacon nor Descartes had ever propounded
1 their views respecting the manner in which scientific inves
tigation should be pursued.
The progress of science, during the first century after For a
Bacon's death, by no means verified his sanguine prediction p'^grest
of the fruits which it would yield. For, though the revived 7"^"^°".'
and rencAved study of nature had spread and grown to an
extent which surpassed reasonable expectation, the prac
tical results — the ' good to men's estate ' — were, at first,
by no means apparent. Sixty years after Bacon's death,
Newton had crowned the long labours of the astronomers
and the physicists, by co-ordinating the phenomena of molar
motion throughout the visible universe into one vast system ;
but the ' Principia ' helped no man to either wealth or com
fort. Descartes, Newton, and Leibnitz had opened up new
worlds to the mathematician, but the acquisitions of their
genius enriched only man's ideal estate. Descartes had laid
the foundations of rational cosmogony and of physiological
psychology ; Boyle had produced models of exj)erimentation
in various branches of physics and chemistry ; Pascal and
Torricelli had weighed the air ; Malpighi and GroAV, Ray
and Willoughby had done work of no less importance in the
biological sciences ; but weaving and spinning were carried
on with the old appliances ; nobody could travel faster by
sea or by land than at any previous time in the world's
history, and King George could send a message from London
to York no faster than King John might have done. Metals
were worked from their ores by immemorial rule of thumb,
and the centre of the iron trade of these islands was still
among the oak forests of Sussex. The utmost skill of our
mechanicians did not get beyond the production of a coarse
watch.

328 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
The middle of the eighteenth century is illustrated by a
host of great names in science — English, French, German,
and Italian— especially in the fields of chemistry, geology,
and biology ; but this deepening and broadening of natu
ral knowledge produced next to no immediate practical
benefits. Even if, at this time, Francis Bacon could
have returned to the scene of his greatness and of his
Uttleness, he must have regarded the philosophic world
which praised and disregarded his precepts with great dis
favour. If ghosts are consistent, he would have said, ' These
people are all wasting their time, just as Gilbert and Kepler
and Galileo and my worthy physician Harvey did in my
day. Where are the fruits of the restoration of science
which I promised ? This accumulation of bare knowledge
is all very well, but cui bono ? Not one of these people is
doing what I told him specially to do, and seeking that
secret of the cause of forms which will enable men to deal,
at win, with matter, and superinduce new natures upon the
old foundations.'
Its recent But, a little later, that growth of knowledge beyond
me°' °" imaginable utilitarian ends, which is the condition precedent
of its practical utility, began to produce some effect upon
practical life ; and the operation of that part of nature we
call human upon the rest began to create, not ' new natures,'
in Bacon's sense, but a new Nature, the existence of which
is dependent upon men's efforts, which is subservient to
their wants, and which would disappear if man's shaping
and guiding hand were withdrawn. Every mechanical arti
fice, every chemically pure substance employed in manu
facture, every abnormally fertile race of plants, or rapidly
growing and fattening breed of animals, is a part of the noAV
Nature created by science. Without it, the most densely
populated regions of modern Europe and America must
retain their primitive, sparsely inhabited, agricultural or

SCIENCE 329
pastoral condition ; it is the foundation of our wealth and the
condition of our safety from submergence by another flood
of barbarous hordes ; it is the bond which unites into a
solid political Avhole, regions larger than any empire of anti
quity ; it secures us from the recurrence of the pestilences
and famines of former times ; it is the source of endless
comforts and conveniences, which are not mere luxuries,
but conduce to physical and moral well-being. During the
last fifty years, this noAV birth of time, this new Nature
begotten by science upon fact, has pressed itself daily and
hourly upon our attention, and has worked miracles which
have modified the whole fashion of our lives.
What wonder, then, if these astonishing fruits of the tree These
of knoAvledge are too often regarded by both friends and ottentoo
enemies as the be-all and end-all of science ? What wonder ^ardedt"
if some eulogise, and others revile, the new philosophy for
its utilitarian ends and its merely material triumphs ?
In truth, the new philosophy deserves neither the praise for scien-
of its eulogists, nor the blame of its slanderers. As I have search
pointed out, its disciples were guided by no search after
practical fruits, during the great period of its growth, and it
reached adolescence without being stimulated by any roAvards
of that nature. The bare enumeration of the names of the
men Avho were the great lights of science in the latter part
of the eighteenth and the first decade of the nineteenth cen
tury, of Herschel, of Laplace, of Young, of Fresnel, of
Oersted, of Cavendish, of Lavoisier, of Davy, of Lamarck,
of Cuvier, of Jussieu, of DecandoUe, of Werner and of
Hutton, suffices to indicate the strength of physical science
in the age immediately preceding that of which I have to
treat. But of which of these great men can it be said that
their labours were directed to practical ends ? ¦ I do not call rarely
to mind even an invention of practical utility which Ave owe to'^practi-
to any of them, except the safety -lamp of Davy. Werner ""^^ ^°'^^'

330 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
certainly paid attention to mining, and I have not for
gotten James Watt. But, though some of the most im
portant of the improvements by which Watt converted the
steam-engine, invented long before his time, into the obe
dient slave of man, were suggested and guided by his
acquaintance with scientific principles, his skill as a prac
tical mechanician and the efficiency of Bolton's workmen
had quite as much to do Avith the realisation of his projects.
but in- In fact, the history of physical science teaches (and we
by love caunot too carefuUy take the lesson to heart) that the
ledge?^ practical advantages, attainable through its agency, never
have been, and never will be, sufficiently attractive to men
inspired by the inborn genius of the interpreter of nature, to
give them courage to undergo the toils and make the sacri
fices which that calling requires from its votaries. That
which stirs their pulses is the love of knowledge and the
joy of the discovery of the causes of things sung by the old
poets — the supreme delight of extending the realm of laAV
and order ever farther toAvards the unattainable goals of
the infinitely great and the infinitely small, between which
our little race of life is run. In the course of this work,
the physical philosopher, sometimes intentionally, much
more often unintentionally, lights upon something which
proves to be of practical value. Great is the rejoicing of
those who are benefited thereby; and, for the moment,
science is the Diana of all the craftsmen. But, even while
the cries of jubilation resound and this flotsam and jetsam
of the tide of investigation is being turned into the wages
of workmen and the wealth of capitahsts, the crest of the
wave of scientific investigation is far away on its course
over the illimitable ocean of the unknown.
Far be it from me to depreciate the value of the gifts
of science to practical life, or to cast a doubt upon the pro
priety of the course of action of those who follow science

SCIENCE 331
m the hope of finding Avealth alongside truth, or even wealth
alone. Such a profession is as respectable as any other.
And quite as little do I desire to ignore the fact that, if in- it is, in
dustry owes a heavy debt to science, it has largely repaid a*s^suted'
the loan by the important aid Avhich it has, in its turn, ren- ^^^^^^^^^
dered to the advancement of science. In considering the '^prove
^ ments.
causes Avhich hindered the progress of physical knoAvledge
in the schools of Athens and of Alexandria, it has often
struck me ' that where the Greeks did Avonders Avas in just
those branches of science, such as geometry, astronomy,
and anatomy, Avhich are susceptible of very considerable de
velopment Avithout any, or any but the simplest, appliances.
It is a curious speculation to think what Avould have become
of modern physical science if glass and alcohol had not
been easily obtainable ; and if the gradual perfection of
mechanical skill for industrial ends had not enabled investi
gators to obtain, at comparatively little cost, microscopes,
telescopes, and all the exquisitely delicate apparatus for
determining weight and measure and for estimating the
lapse of time with exactness, Avhich they noAV command. If
science has rendered the colossal development of modern
industry possible, beyond a doubt industry has done no
less for modern physics and chemistry, and for a great deal
of modern biology. And as the captams of industry have,
at last, begun to be aware that the condition of success in
that warfare, under the forms of peace, which is knoAvn as
industrial competition lies in the discipline of the troops
and the use of arms of precision, just as much as it does
in the warfare which is called Avar, their demand for that
discipline, which is technical education, . is reacting upon
science in a manner which will, assuredly, stimulate its
' There are excellent remarks to the same effect in Zeller's Philosophie
der Oriechen, Theil II. Abth. ii. p. 407, and in Eucken's Die Methode der
Arisioielischen Forschtmg, pp. 138 et seg.

332 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
future growth to an incalculable extent. It has become
obvious that the interests of science and of industry are
identical ; that science cannot make a step forward without,
sooner or later, opening up new channels for industry ; and,
on the other hand, that every advance of industry facilitates
those experimental investigations, upon which the growth of
science depends. We may hope that, at last, the weary
misunderstanding between the practical men who professed
to despise science, and the high and dry philosophers who
professed to despise practical results, is at an end.
Nevertheless, that which is true of the infancy of phy
sical science in the Greek world, that which is true of its
adolescence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
remains true of its riper age in these latter days of the
nineteenth century. The great steps in its progress have
been made, are made, and Avill be made, by men who seek
knoAvledge simply because they crave for it. They have
their weaknesses, their follies, their vanities, and their
rivalries, like the rest of the world ; but, whatever by-ends
may mar their dignity and impede their usefulness, this
chief end redeems them.' Nothing great in science has
ever been done by men, whatever their powers, in whom
the divine afflatus of the truth-seeker was wanting. Men
of moderate capacity have done great things because it
' Fresnel, after a brilliant career of discovery in some of the most
difficult regions of physico-mathematical science, died at thirty-nine years
of age. The following passage of a letter from him to Young (written in
November 1824), quoted by Whewell, so aptly illustrates the spirit which
animates the scientific inquirer that I may cite it :
' For a long time that sensibility, or that vanity, which people call love
of glory is much blunted in me. I labour much less to catch the suffrages
of the public than to obtain an inward approval which has always been the
mental reward of my efforts. AVithout doubt I have often wanted the spur
of vanity to excite me to pursue my researches in moments of disgust and
discouragement. But all the compliments which I have received from
MM. Arago, De Laplace, or Biot, never gave me so much pleasure as the
discovery of a theoretical truth or the confirmation of a calculation by
experiment.'

SCIENCE 333
animated them ; and men of great natural gifts have
failed, absolutely or relatively, because they lacked this one
thing needful.
To anyone who knows the business of investigation True aim
practically. Bacon's notion of establishing a company of Method
investigators to work for 'fruits,' as if the pursuit of °ea7eii.
knowledge Avere a kind of mining operation and only re
quired well-directed picks and shovels, seems very strange.'
In science, as in art, and, as I believe, in every other sphere
of human activity, there may be Avisdom in a multitude of
counsellors, but it is only in one or two of them. And, in
scientific inquiry, at any rate, it is to that one or two that
we must look for light and guidance. NeAvton said that he
made his discoveries by ' intending ' his mind on the sub
ject ; no doubt truly. But to equal his success one must
have the mind which he 'intended.' Forty lesser men
might have intended their minds till they cracked, without
any like result. It would be idle either to affirm or to deny
that the last half-century has produced men of science of
the calibre of Newton. It is sufficient that it can shoAV a
few capacities of the first rank, competent not only to deal
profitably with the inheritance bequeathed by their scientific
forefathers, but to pass on to their successors physical
truths of a higher order than any yet reached by the human
race. And if they have succeeded as NoAvton succeeded, it
is because they have sought truth as he sought it, with no
other object than the finding it.
I am conscious that in undertaking to give even the Progress
briefest sketch of the progress of physical science, in all its i8°37 to
branches, during the last half-century, I may be thought to ^^^'^•
' ' Mtoorable exemple de I'impuissance des reoherches collectives appli-
qufies a la d^oouverte des v6rit6s nouvelles I ' says one of the most distin
guished of living French savants, of the corporate chemical work of the old
Acad6mie des Sciences. (See Berthelot, Science et Philosophie, p. 201.)

334 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
have exhibited more courage than discretion, and perhaps
more presumption than either. So far as physical science is
concerned, the days of Admirable Crichtons have long been
over, and the most indefatigable of hard workers may think
he has done well if he has mastered one of its minor sub
divisions. Nevertheless, it is possible for anyone, Avho has
familiarised himself with the operations of science in one
department, to comprehend the significance, and even to
form a general estimate of the value, of the achievements of
specialists in other departments.
Nor is there any lack either of guidance, or of aids
to ignorance. By a happy chance, the first edition of
Whewell's ' Plistory of the Inductive Sciences ' was pub
lished in 1837, and it affords a very useful view of the state
of things at the commsncemsnt of the Victorian epoch.
As to subsequent events, there are numerous excellent
summaries of the progress of various branches of science,
especially up to 1881, which was the jubilee year of the
British Association.' And, with respect to the biological
sciences, with some parts of which my studies have fami
liarised me, my personal experience nearly coincides with
the preceding half-century. I may hope, therefore, that
my chance of escaping serious errors is as good as that of
anyone else, who might have been persuaded to undertake
the somewhat perilous enterprise in which I find myself
engaged. There is yet another prefatory remark which it seems
desirable I should make. It is that I think it proper to
confine myself to the work done, without saying anything
about the doers of it. Meddling with questions of merit and
priority is a thorny business at the best of times, and, unless
' I am particularly indebted to my friend and colleague Professor Eiicker,
F.B.S., for the many acute criticisms and suggestions on my remarks re
specting the ultimate problems of physics, with which he has favoured me,
and by which I have greatly profited.

SCIENCE 335
in case of necessity, altogether undesirable Avhen one is deal
ing with contemporaries. No such necessity lies upon me ;
and I shall, therefore, mention no names of living men, lest,
perchance, I should incur the reproof which the Israelites,
who struggled with one another in the field, addressed to
Moses — ' Who made thee a prince and a judge over us ? '
Physical science is one and indivisible. Although, for The aim
practical purposes, it is convenient to mark it out into the aicai ^'
primary regions of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, and to ^°'^'^°^'
subdivide these into subordinate provinces, yet the method
of investigation and the ultimate object of the physical in
quirer are everywhere the same.
The object is the discovery of the rational order which the dis-
pervades the universe ; the method consists of observation ot the
and experiment (which is observation under artificial condi- orde^of
tions) for the determination of the facts of nature; of *'^^"^'^^-
' • verse.
inductive and deductive reasoning for the discovery of their
mutual relations and connection. The various branches
of physical science differ in the extent to which, at any
given moment of their history, observation on the one
hand, or ratiocination on the other, is their more obvious
feature, but in no other way ; and nothing can be more
incorrect than the assumption one sometimes meets with,
that physics has one method, chemistry another, and bio
logy a third.
All nhvsical science starts from certain postulates. One it is
based
of them is the objective existence of a material world. It on pos-
is assumed that the phenomena which are comprehended
under this name have a ' substratum ' of extended, impene
trable, mobile substance, which exhibits the quahty known
as inertia, and is termed matter.' Another postulate is
' I am aware that this proposition may be challenged. It may be said,
for example, that, on the hypothesis of Boscovich, matter has no extension,

tulates,

336 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
the universality of the law of causation ; that nothing
happens without a cause (that is, a necessary precedent
condition), and that the state of the physical universe, at
any given moment, is the consequence of its state at any
preceding moment. Another is that any of the rules, or
so-called 'laws of nature,' by which the relation of pheno-.
mena is truly defined, is true for all time. The validity
of these postulates is a problem of metaphysics ; they are
neither self-evident nor are they, strictly speaking, demon
strable. The justification of their employment, as axioms
of physical philosophy, lies in the circumstance that ex
pectations logically based upon them are verified, or, at
any rate, not contradicted, whenever they can be tested by
experience.
and uses Physical science therefore rests on verified or uncon-
the^es. tradicted hypotheses ; and, such being the case, it is not
surprising that a great condition of its progress has been
the invention of verifiable hypotheses. It is a favourite
popular delusion that the scientific inquirer is under a sort
of moral obligation to abstain from going beyond that
generalisation of observed facts which is absurdly called
' Baconian ' induction. But anyone who is practically
acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who
refuse to go beyond fact, rarely get as far as fact ; and
anyone who has studied the history of science knows that
being reduced to mathematical points serving as centres of ' forces.' But
as the ' forces ' of the various centres are conceived to limit one another's
action in such a manner that an area around each centre has an individuality
of its own, extension comes back in the form of that area. Again, a very
eminent mathematician and physicist — the late Clerk Maxwell— has declared
that impenetrability is not essential to our notions of matter, and that two
atoms may conceivably occupy the same space. I am loth to dispute any
dictum of a philosopher as remarkable for the subtlety of his intellect as for
his vast knowledge ; but the assertion that one and the same point or area
of space can have different (conceivably opposite) attributes appears to me
to violate the principle of contradiction, which is the foundation not only
of physical science, but of logic in general. It means that A can be not-A.

use of an
hypothesiseven
-when¦wrong.

SCIENCE 337
almost every great step therein has been made by the
' anticipation of Nature,' that is, by the invention of
hypotheses, which, though verifiable, often had very little
foundation to start with ; and, not unfrequently, in spite of
a long career of usefulness, turned out to be wholly erro
neous in the long run.
The geocentric system of astronomy, with its eccentrics Fruitful
and its epicycles, Avas an hypothesis utterly at variance Avith
fact, Avhich nevertheless did great things for the advance- *^®^'^
° " even
ment of astronomical knowledge. Kepler was the wildest ^iid
of guessers. NeAvton's corpuscular theory of light was of
much temporary use in optics, though nobody now believes
in it ; and the undulatory theory, which has superseded the
corpuscular theory and has proved one of the most fertile
of instruments of research, is based on the hypothesis of
the existence of an ' ether,' the properties of which are
defined in propositions, some of which, to ordinary appre
hension, seem physical antinomies.
It sounds paradoxical to say that the attainment of scien
tific truth has been effected, to a great extent, by the help of
scientific errors. But the subject-matter of physical science
is furnished by observation, which cannot extend beyond
the limits of our faculties ; while, even within those limits,
Ave cannot be certain that any observation is absolutely
exact and exhaustive. Hence it follows that any given
generalisation from observation may be true, within the
limits of our powers of observation at a given time, and yet
turn out to be untrue, when those powers of observation are
directly or indirectly enlarged. Or, to put the matter in
another way, a doctrine which is untrue absolutely, may,
to a very great extent, be susceptible of an interpretation
in accordance Avith the truth. At a certain period in the
history of astronomical science, the assumption that the
planets move in circles Avas true enough to serve the purpose
VOL. II. z

338 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
of correlating such observations as Avere then possible ; after
Kepler, the assumption that they move in ellipses became
true enough in regard to the state of observational astronomy
at that time. We say still that the orbits of the planets
are elHpses, because, for all ordinary purposes, that is a suffi
ciently near approximation to the truth ; but, as a matter
of fact, the centre of gravity of a planet describes neither
an ellipse or any other simple curve, but an immensely
complicated undulating line. It may fairly be doubted
whether any generalisation, or hypothesis, based upon
physical data is absolutely true, in the sense that a mathe
matical proposition is so ; but, if its errors can become
apparent only outside the limits of practicable observation,
it may be just as usefully adopted for one of the symbols
of that algebra by which we interpret nature, as if it were
absolutely true.
The development of every branch of physical knowledge
presents three stages which, in their logical relation, are
successive. The first is the determination of the sensible
character and order of the phenomena. This is Natural
History, in the original sense of the term, and here nothing
but observation and experiment avail us. The second is the
determination of the constant relations of the phenomena
thus defined, and their expression in rules or laws. The
third is the explication of these particular laws by deduction
from the most general laws of matter and motion. The last
two stages constitute Natural Philosophy in its original sense.
In this region, the invention of verifiable hypotheses is not
only permissible, but is one of the conditions of progress.
and Historically, no branch of science has followed this
Ssist-" order of growth ; but, from the dawn of exact knowledge
observl- *o the present day, observation, experiment, and specu-
perimTnt, ^^^^"'^ '^^^^ S°°^ ^^^^ ™ \-^a.nA; and, whenever science
and has halted or strayed from the right path, it has been,

SCIENCE 339
either because its votaries have been content with mere snecuia-
unverified or unverifiable speculation (and this is the com
monest case, because observation and experiment are hard
Avork, Avhile speculation is amusing) ; or it has been, because
the accumulation of details of observation has for a time
excluded speculation.
The progress of physical science, since the revival of Recogni-
learnmg, is largely due to the fact that men have gra- tJ^g"°^
dually learned to lay aside the consideration of unverifiable truths in
recent
hypotheses ; to guide observation and experiment by veri- times,
fiable hypotheses ; and to consider the latter, not as ideal
truths, the real entities of an intelligible Avorld behind
phenomena, but as a symbolical language, by the aid of
which nature can be interpreted in terms apprehensible by
our intellects. And if physical science, during the last fifty and con-
years, has attained dimensions beyond all former precedent, progress.
and can exhibit achievements of greater importance than
any former such period can show, it is because able men,
animated by the true scientific spirit, carefully trained in
the method of science, and having at their disposal im
mensely improved appliances, have devoted themselves to
the enlargement of the boundaries of natural knowledge in
greater number than during any previous half-century of
the Avorld's history.
I have said that our epoch can produce achievements in The
physical science of greater moment than any other has to great
shoAV, advisedly ; and I think that there are three great m^ntl^
products of our time which justify the assertion. One of Doc-
^ . . triues of
these is that doctrine concerning the constitution of matter (n moie-
which, for want of a better name, I will call ' molecular ; ' constitu-
the second is the doctrine of the conservation of energy ; mau°er,
the third is the doctrine of evolution. Each of these Avas gg'j.°°^'^^
foreshadoAved, more or less distinctly, in former periods of ofenergy,
...,,„ ^ • ,^ (3) evolu-
the history of science ; and, so far is either from being the tion.
z2

34°

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

outcome of purely inductive reasoning, that it would be
hard to overrate the influence of metaphysical, and even of
theological, considerations upon the development of all three.
The peculiar merit of our epoch is that it has shown hoAv
these hypotheses connect a vast number of seemingly inde
pendent partial generalisations ; that it has given them that
precision of expression which is necessary for their exact
verification ; and that it has practically proved their value
as guides to the discovery of new truth. All three doc
trines are intimately connected, and each is applicable to
the Avhole physical cosmos. But, as might have been
expected from the nature of the case, the first two groAV,
mainly, out of the consideration of physico-chemical pheno
mena ; while the third, in great measure, owes its rehabilita
tion, if not its origin, to the study of biological phenomena.

(1) Mole
cular
constitu tion of
matter.

In the early decades of this century, a number of
important truths applicable, in part, to matter in general,
and, in part, to particular forms of matter, had been ascer
tained by the physicists and chemists.
The laws of motion of visible and tangible, or molar,
matter had been worked out to a great degree of refinement
and embodied in the branches of science knoAvn as Mecha
nics, Hydrostatics, and Pneumatics. These laws had been
shoAvn to hold good, so far as they could be checked by
observation and experiment, throughout the universe, on
the assumption that all such masses of matter possessed
inertia and were susceptible of acquiring motion, in tAVO
ways, firstly by impact, or impulse from without ; and,
secondly, by the operation of certain hypothetical causes of
motion termed ' forces,' which were usually supposed to be
resident in the particles of the masses themselves, and to
operate at a distance, in such a way as to tend to draw any
tAVO such masses together, or to separate them more widely.

SCIENCE 341
With respect to the ultimate constitution of these masses. The t-wo
the same tAvo antagonistic opinions which had existed since as to
the time of Democritus and of Aristotle were still face to '^'^*'^'^-
face. According to the one, matter Avas discontinuous and
consisted of minute indivisible particles or atoms, separated
by a universal vacuum ; according to the other, it was
continuous, and the finest distinguishable, or imaginable,
particles were scattered through the attenuated general
substance of the plenum. A rough analogy to the latter
case Avould be afforded by granules of ice diffused through
Avater ; to the former, such granules diffused through
absolutely empty space.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, the chemists
had arrived at several very important generalisations re
specting those properties of matter Avith Avhich they Avere
especially concerned. However plainly ponderable matter
seemed to be originated and destroyed in their operations,
they proved that, as mass or body, it remained indestructible
and ingenerable ; and that, so far, it varied only in its
perceptibility by our senses. The course of investigation
further proved that a certain number of the chemically
separable kinds of matter were unalterable by any knoAvn
means (except in so far as they might be made to change
then- state from solid to fluid, or vice versa), unless they
Avere brought into contact with other kinds of matter, and
that the properties of these several kinds of matter Avere
ahvays the same, whatever their origin. All other bodies
Avere found to consist of two or more of these, which thus
took the place of the four ' elements ' of the ancient philo
sophers. Further, it was proved that, in forming chemical
compounds, bodies always unite in a definite proportion by
weight, or in simple multiples of that proportion, and that,
if any one body Avere taken as a standard, every other
could have a number assigned to it as its proportional com-

342

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Reasser- tion by
Dalton of
atomic
theory.

The real
value of this
hypo thesis;

it predi
cates the
existence of units of
matter.

bining weight. It was on this foundation of fact that
Dalton based his re-establishment of the old atomic hypo
thesis on a new empirical foundation. It is obvious, that if
elementary matter consists of indestructible and indivisible
particles, each of which constantly preserves the same
Aveight relatively to all the others, compounds formed by
the aggregation of two, three, four, or more such particles
must exemplify the rule of combination in definite propor
tions deduced from observation.
In the meanwhile, the gradual reception of the undu
latory theory of light necessitated the assumption of the
existence of an ' ether ' filling all space. But whether this
ether was to be regarded as a strictly material and con
tinuous substance Avas an undecided point, and hence the
revived atomism escaped strangling in its birth. For it is
clear, that if the ether is admitted to be a continuous
material substance, Democritic atomism is at an end and
Cartesian continuity takes its place.
The real value of the new atomic hypothesis, however,
did not lie in the two points which Democritus and his
folloAvers would have considered essential — namely, the in
divisibility of the ' atoms ' and the presence of an inter
atomic vacuum — but in the assumption that, to the extent
to Avhich our means of analysis take us, material bodies
consist of definite minute masses, each of which, so far as
physical and chemical processes of division go, may be
regarded as a unit — having a practically permanent indi
viduality. Just as a man is the unit of sociology, without
reference to the actual fact of his divisibility, so such a
minute mass is the unit of physico-chemical science — that
smallest material particle which under any given circum
stances acts as a whole.'

' ' Molecule ' would be the more appropriate name for such a particle.
Unfortunately, chemists employ this term in a special sense, as a name for

SCIENCE 343
The doctrine of specific heat originated in the eighteenth
century. It means that the same mass of a body, under the
same circumstances, ahvays requires the same quantity of
heat to raise it to a given temperature, but that equal
masses of different bodies require different quantities. Ulti
mately, it was found that the quantities of heat required to
raise equal masses of the more perfect gases, through equal
ranges of temperature, were inversely proportional to their
combining weights. Thus a definite relation was established
betAveen the hypothetical units and heat. The phenomena
of electrolytic decomposition showed that there was a like
close relation between these units and electricity. The
quantity of electricity generated by the combination of any
tAVO units is sufficient to separate any other two which are
susceptible of such decomposition. The phenomena of
isomorphism showed a relation between the units and
crystalline forms ; certain units are thus able to replace
others in a crystalline body without altering its form, and
others are not.
Again, the laws of the effect of pressure and heat on
gaseous bodies, the fact that they combine in definite pro
portions by volume, and that such proportion bears a simple
relation to their combining weights, all harmonised with
the Daltonian hypothesis, and led to the bold speculation
known as the law of Avogadro — that all gaseous bodies,
under the same physical conditions, contain the same
number of units. In the form in which it was first enun
ciated, this hypothesis was incorrect — perhaps it is not
exactly true in any form ; but it is hardly too much to say
that chemistry and molecular physics would never have
advanced to their present condition unless it had been
assumed to be true. Another immense service rendered by
an aggregation of their smallest particles, for which they retain tbedesigna.
tion of 'atoms.'

344 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Dalton, as a corollary of the new atomic doctrine, was the
creation of a system of symbolic notation, which not only
made the nature of chemical compounds and processes
easily intelligible and easy of recollection, but, by its very
form, suggested new lines of inquiry. The atomic notation
was as serviceable to chemistry as the binomial nomencla
ture and the classificatory schematism of Linnseus were to
zoology and botany.
In bio- Side by side with these advances arose another, which
like also has a close parallel in the history of biological science.
of mofe- If ^^ '•mi^' of ^ compound is made up by the aggregation
cuiar Qf elementary units, the notion that these must have some
struc- J '
ture. sort of definite arrangement inevitably suggests itself ; and
such phenomena as double decomposition pointed, not only
to the existence of a molecular architecture, but to the
possibility of modifying a molecular fabric without destroy
ing it, by taking out some of the component units and
replacing them by others. The class of neutral salts, for
example, includes a great number of bodies in many ways
similar, in which the basic molecules, or the acid molecules,
may be replaced by other basic and other acid molecules
without altering the neutrality of the salt ; just as a cube of
bricks remains a cube, so long as any brick that is taken out
is replaced by another of the same shape and dimensions,
whatever its weight or other properties may be. Facts of
this kind gave rise to the conception of ' types ' of molecular
structure, just as the recognition of the unity in diversity of
the structure of the species of plants and animals gave
rise to the notion of biological ' types.' The notation of
chemistry enabled these ideas to be represented with pre
cision ; and they acquired an immense importance, when
the improvement of methods of analysis, which took place
about the beginning of our period, enabled the composition of
the so-called ' organic ' bodies to be determined with rapidity

SCIENCE 345
and precision.' A large proportion of these compounds
contain not more than three or four elements, of Avhich
carbon is the chief ; but their number is very great, and
the diversity of their physical and chemical properties is
astonishing. The ascertainment of the proportion of each
element in these compounds affords little or no help toAvards
accounting for their diversities ; widely different bodies being
often very similar, or even identical, in that respect. And, in
the last case, that of isomeric compounds, the appeal to
diversity of arrangement of the identical component units
was the only obvious Avay out of the difficulty. Here,
again, hypothesis proved to be of great value ; not only
Avas the search for evidence of diversity of molecular struc
ture successful, but the study of the process of taking to
pieces led to the discovery of the way to put together ;
and vast numbers of compounds, some of them previously
knoAvn only as products of the living economy, have thus
been artificially constructed. Chemical Avork, at the present
day, is, to a large extent, synthetic or creative— that is to
say, the chemist determines, theoretically, that certain non
existent compounds ought to be producible, and he proceeds
to produce them.
It is largely because the chemical theory and practice
of our epoch have passed into this deductive and synthetic
stage, that they are entitled to the name of the ' Ncav
Chemistry ' which they commonly receive. But this new
chemistry has grown up by the help of hypotheses, such as
those of Dalton and of Avogadro, and that singular concep
tion of ' bonds ' invented to colligate the facts of ' valency '
or ' atomicity,' the first of Avhich took some time to make
its way ; while the second ffell into oblivion, for many years
' ' At present more organic analyses are made in a single day than were
accomplished before Liebig's time in a whole year.' — Hofmann, Faraday
Lecture, p. 40.

346 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
after it was propounded, for lack of empirical justification.
As for the third, it may be doubted if anyone regards it as
more than a temporary contrivance.
But some of these hypotheses have done yet further
service. Combining them with the mechanical theory of
heat and the doctrine of the conservation of energy, which
are also products of our time, physicists have arrived at an
entirely new conception of the nature of gaseous bodies
and of the relation of the physico-chemical units of matter
to the different forms of energy. The conduct of gases
under varying pressure and temperature, their diffusi-
bility, their relation to radiant heat and to light, the
evolution of heat when bodies combine, the absorption of
heat when they are dissociated, and a host of other mole
cular phenomena, have been shown to be deducible from
the dynamical and statical principles which apply to molar
motion and rest ; and the tendency of physico-chemical
science is clearly towards the reduction of the problems of
the Avorld of the infinitely little, as it already has reduced
those of the infinitely great world, to questions of me
chanics- '
In the meanwhile, the primitive atomic theory, which
has served as the scaffolding for the edifice of modern
physics and chemistry, has been quietly dismissed. I
cannot discover that any contemporary physicist or chemist
beheves in the real indivisibility of atoms, or in an inter
atomic matterless vacuum, 'Atoms ' appear to be used as
mere names for physico-chemical units which have not yet
been subdivided, and ' molecules ' for physico-chemical
units which are aggregates of the former. And these in
dividualised particles are supposed to move in an endless
' In the preface to his Micanique Ghimique M. Berthelot declares his
object to be ' ramener la chimie tout entire . . . aux m^mes principes
m^caniques qui r^gissent d6jA les diverses branches de la physique.'

SCIENCE 347
ocean of a vastly more subtle matter — the ether. If this
ether is a continuous substance, therefore, aa'o have got
back from the hypothesis of Dalton to that of Descartes.
But there is much reason to believe that science is
going to make a still further journey, and, in form, if not
altogether in substance, to return to the point of vieAv of
Aristotle. The greater number of the so-called ' elementary ' Elementary
bodies, noAV knoAvn, had been discovered before the com- bodies
mencement of our epoch ; and it had become apparent
that they were by no means equally similar or dissimilar,
but that some of them, at any rate, constituted groups,
the several members of which were as much like one another
as they were unlike the rest. Chlorine, iodine, bromine,
and fluorine thus formed a very distinct group ; sulphur
and selenium another ; boron and silicon another ; potas
sium, sodium, and lithium another ; and so on. In some
cases, the atomic weights of such allied bodies Avere nearly
the same, or could be arranged in series, with like dif
ferences between the several terms. In fact, the elements
afforded indications that they were susceptible of a classifi
cation in natural groups, such as those into which animals
and plants fall.
Recently this subject has been taken up afresh, with fan into
a result which may be stated roughly in the following series.
terms. If the sixty -five or sixty-eight recognised ' ele
ments ' are arranged in the order of their atomic Aveights
— from hydrogen, the lightest, as unity, to uranium, the
heaviest, as 240— the series does not exhibit one con
tinuous progressive modification in the physical and che
mical cliaracters of its several terms, but breaks up into
a number of sections, in each of which the several terms
present analogies Avith the corresponding terms of the other
series.

348 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Thus, the whole series does not run
a, b, c, d, e,f, g, h, i, k, &c.,
a, b, c, d. A, B, c, D, a, ^, 7, S, &c. ;
so that it is said to express a periodic laiv of recurrent
similarities. Or the relation may be expressed in another
way. In each section of the series, the atomic Aveight is
greater than in the preceding section, so that if iv is the
atomic weight of any element in the first segment, w + x
will represent the atomic weight of any element in the
next, and tv + x + y the atomic weight of any element in the
next, and so on. Therefore the sections may be represented
as parallel series, the corresponding terms of Avhich have
analogous properties ; each successive series starting with
a body the atomic weight of Avhich is greater than that
of any in the preceding series, in the folloAving fashion :

d

D

s

c

c

7

b

B

yS

a

A

a

to iu-\-x w-\-x-{-y
This is a conception with which biologists are very
familiar, animal and plant groups constantly appearing
as series of parallel modifications of similar and yet dif
ferent primary forms. In the living world, facts of this
kind are noAV understood to mean evolution from a common
prototype. It is difficult to imagine that in the not-living
Thepos- Avorld they are devoid of significance. Is it not possible,
iofa nay probable, that they may mean the evolution of our
form oT ' elements ' from a primary undifferentiated form of matter ?
matter. Fifty years ago, such a suggestion would have been scouted
as a revival of the dreams of the alchemists. At present,
it may be said to be the burning question of physico-
chemical science.

SCIENCE 349
In fact, the so-called ' vortex-ring ' hypothesis is a very
serious and remarkable attempt to deal Avith material units
from a point of vieAV which is consistent Avith the doctrine
of evolution. It supposes the ether to be a uniform sub
stance, and that the ' elementary ' units are, broadly
speaking, permanent Avhirlpools, or vortices, of this ether,
the properties of which depend on their actual and potential
modes of motion. It is curious and highly interesting to
remark that this hypothesis reminds us not only of the
speculations of Descartes, but of those of Aristotle. The
resemblance of the ' vortex-rings ' to the ' tourbillons ' of
Descartes is little more than nominal ; but the corre
spondence between the modern and the ancient notion of a
distinction betAveen primary and derivative matter is, to a
certain extent, real. For this ethereal ' Urstoff ' of the
modern corresponds very closely Avith the irpmrr] vXt] of
Aristotle, the materia prima of his mediceval folloAvers ; Avhile
matter, differentiated into our elements, is the equivalent
of the first stage of progress towards the saxurr] v\t), or
finished matter, of the ancient philosophy.
If the material units of the existing order of nature are
specialised portions of a relatively homogeneous materia
prima — which were originated under conditions that have
long ceased to exist and which remain unchanged and
unchangeable under all conditions, whether natural or arti
ficial, hitherto known to us— it follows that the speculation
that they may be indefinitely altered, or that neAV units
may be generated under conditions yet to be discovered, is
perfectly legitimate. Theoretically, at any rate, the trans-
mutability of the elements is a verifiable scientific hypo
thesis; and such inquiries as those which have been set
afoot, into the possible dissociative action of the great heat
of the sun upon our elements, are not only legitimate, but
are likely to yield results which, whether affirmative or

350 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
negative, will be of great importance. The idea that atoms
are absolutely ingenerable and immutable ' manufactured
articles ' stands on the same sort of foundation as the idea
that biological species are ' manufactured articles ' stood
thirty years ago ; and the supposed constancy of the ele
mentary atoms, during the enormous lapse of time measured
by the existence of our universe, is of no more weight
against the possibility of change in them, in the infinity of
antecedent time, than the constancy of species in Egypt,
since the days of Eameses or of Cheops, is evidence of their
immutability during all past epochs of the earth's history.
It seems safe to prophesy that the hypothesis of the evolu
tion of the elements from a primitive matter will, in future,
play no less a part in the history of science than the atomic
hypothesis, Avhich, to begin with, had no greater, if so great,
an empirical foundation.
The old It may perhaps occur to the reader that the boasted
progress of physical science does not come to much, if our
present conceptions of the fundamental natm-e of matter are
expressible in terms employed, more than two thousand
years ago, by the old ' master of those that know.' Such
a criticism, however, would involve forgetfulness of the
fact, that the connotation of these terms, in the mind of
the modern, is almost infinitely different from that which
they possessed in the mind of the ancient, philosopher. In
antiquity, they meant little more than vague speculation ; at
the present day, they indicate definite physical conceptions,
susceptible of mathematical treatment, and giving rise to
innumerable deductions, the value of which can be experi
mentally tested. The old notions produced little more
than floods of dialectics ; the new are powerful aids towards
the increase of solid knowledge.
Everyday observation shoAVS that, of the bodies which

and the
new atomic
theory.

SCIENCE 351
compose the material Avorld, some are in motion and some (21 cou-
are, or appear to be, at rest. Of the bodies in motion, some, tion of
like the sun and stars, exhibit a constant movement, regu- energy.
lar in amount and direction, for which no external cause
appears. Others, as stones and smoke, seem also to move
of themselves when external impediments are taken aAvay.
But these appear to tend to move in opposite directions :
the bodies Ave call heavy, such as stones, doAviiAvards,
and the bodies we call light, at least such as smoke and
steam, upAvards. And, as Ave further notice that the earth,
beloAV our feet, is made up of heaA'y matter, while the
air, above our heads, is extremely light matter, it is easy
to regard this fact as evidence that the lower region is the
place to which heavy things tend — their proper place, in
short — while the upper region is the proper place of light
things ; and to generalise the facts observed by saying
that bodies, which are free to move, tend towards their
proper places. All these seem to be natural motions, de
pendent on the inherent faculties, or tendencies, of bodies
themselves. But there are other motions which are arti
ficial or violent, as Avhen a stone is thrown from the hand,
or is knocked by another stone in motion. In such cases
as these, for example, when a stone is cast from the hand,
the distance travelled by the stone appears to depend partly
on its weight and partly upon the exertion of the throAver.
So that, the weight of the stone remaining the same, it looks
as if the motive power communicated to it were measured
by the distance to Avhich the stone travels — as if, in other
Avords, the poAver needed to send it a hundred yards Avas
twice as great as that needed to send it fifty yards. These,
apparently obvious, conclusions from the everyday appear
ances of rest and motion fairly represent the state of opinion
upon the subject which prevailed among the ancient Greeks,
and remained dominant until the age of Gahleo. The

352 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
pubhcation of the ' Principia' of Newton, in 1686-7, marks
the epoch at which the progress of mechanical physics had
effected a complete revolution of thought on these subjects.
By this time, it had been made clear that the old generalisa
tions were either incomplete or totally erroneous ; that a
body, once set in motion, Avill continue to move in a straight
line for any conceivable time or distance, unless it is
interfered with; that any change of motion is propor
tional to the ' force ' which causes it, and takes place in the
direction in which that ' force ' is exerted ; and that, Avhen
a body in motion acts as a cause of motion on another, the
latter gains as much as the former loses, and vice versa.
It is to be noted, however, that Avhile, in contradistinction
to the ancient idea of the inherent, tendency to motion of
bodies, the absence of any such spontaneous poAver of
motion was accepted as a physical axiom by the moderns,
the old conception virtually maintained itself in a noAV
shape. For, in spite of Newton's well-known warning
against the ' absurdity ' of supposing that one body can act
on another at a distance through a vacuum, the ultimate
particles of matter were generally assumed to be the seats
of perennial causes of motion termed ' attractive and re
pulsive forces,' in virtue of which, any tAvo such particles,
Avithout any external impression of motion, or intermediate
material agent, were supposed to tend to approach or re
move from one another ; and this view of the duality of
the causes of motion is very widely held at the present
day. Another impor cant result of investigation, attained in
the seventeenth century, was the proof and quantitative
estimation of physical inertia. In the old philosophy, a
curious conjunction of ethical and physical prejudices had
led to the notion that there Avas something ethically bad
and physically obstructive about matter. Aristotle attri-

SCIENCE

353

butes all irregularities and apparent dysteleologies in nature
to the disobedience, or sluggish yielding, of matter to the
shaping and guiding influence of those reasons and causes
Avhich were hypostatised in his ideal ' Forms.' In modern
science, the conception of the inertia, or resistance to change,
of matter is complex. In part, it contains a corollary from
the law of causation : A body cannot change its state in
respect of rest or motion without a sufficient cause. But,
in part, it contains generalisations from experience. One
of these is that there is no such sufficient cause resident in
any body, and that therefore it will rest, or continue in
motion, so long as no external cause of change acts upon it.
The other is that the effect which the impact of a body in
motion produces upon the body on which it impinges depends,
other things being alike, on the relation of a certain quality
of each which is called ' mass.' Given a cause of motion of
a certain value, the amount of motion, measured by distance
travelled in a certain time, which it will produce in a given
quantity of matter, say a cubic inch, is not always the
same, but depends on what that matter is — a cubic inch
of iron will go faster than a cubic inch of gold. Hence, it
appears, that since equal amounts of motion have, ex hypo-
thesi, been produced, the amount of motion in a body does
not depend on its speed alone, but on some property of the
body. To this the name of ' mass ' has been given. And,
since it seems reasonable to suppose that a large quantity
of matter, movmg slowly, possesses as much motion as a
small quantity moving faster, ' mass ' has been held to
express ' quantity of matter.' It is further demonstrable
that, at any given time and place, the relative mass of any
two bodies is expressed by the ratio of thek weights.
When all these great truths respecting molar motion, or
the movements of visible and tangible masses, had been
shoAvn to hold good not only of terrestrial bodies, but of all
VOL. II. ^ A

354 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
those which constitute the visible universe, and the move
ments of the macrocosm had thus been expressed by a
general mechanical theory, there remained a vast number
of phenomena, such as those of light, heat, electricity,
magnetism, and those of the physical and chemical changes
which do not involve molar motion. Newton's corpuscular
theory of light was an attempt to deal with one great series
of these phenomena on mechanical principles, and it main
tained its ground until, at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, the undulatory theory proved itself to be a much
better working hypothesis. Heat, up to that time, and in
deed much later, was regarded as an imponderable substance,
caloric ; as a thing which was absorbed by bodies when they
were warmed, and was given out as they cooled ; and which,
moreover, was capable of entering into a sort of chemical
combination with them, and so becoming latent. Eumford
and Davy had given a great blow to this view of heat by
proving that the quantity of heat which two portions of the
same body could be made to give out, by rubbing them to
gether, was practically illimitable. This result brought
philosophers face to face with the contradiction of supposing
that a finite body could contain an infinite quantity of
Meoha- another body ; but it was not until 1843, that clear and
theory Unquestionable experimental proof was given of the fact
that there is a definite relation between mechanical work
and heat ; that so much work always gives rise, under the
same conditions, to so much heat, and so much heat to so
much mechanical work. Thus originated the mechanical
theory of heat, which became the starting point of the
modern doctrine of the conservation of energy. Molar
motion had appeared to be destroyed by friction. It was
proved that no destruction took place, but that an exact
equivalent of the energy of the lost molar motion appears as
that of the molecular motion, or motion of the smallest par-

of heat.

SCIENCE

il'i

tides of a body, which constitutes heat. The loss of the
masses is the gain of their particles.
Before 1843, however, the doctrine of the conservation Earlier
of energy had been approached. Bacon's chief contribution proache

es

to positive science is the happy guess (for the context shows doTtrile
that it was little more) that heat may be a mode of motion; °f °°iis^^-
Descartes affirmed the quantity of motion in the world to
be constant ; Newton nearly gave expression to the com
plete theorem ; while Eumford's and Davy's experiments
suggested, though they did not prove, the equivalency of
mechanical and thermal energy. Again, the discovery of
voltaic electricity, and the marvellous development of know
ledge, in that field, effected by such men as Davy, Faraday,
Oersted, Ampere, and Melloni, had brought to light a
number of facts which tended to show that the so-called
' forces ' at work in light, heat, electricity, and magnetism,
in chemical and in mechanical operations, were intimately,
and, in various cases, quantitatively, related. It was demon
strated that any one could be obtained at the expense of any
other ; and apparatus was devised which exhibited the evo
lution of all these kiods of action from one source of energy.
Hence the idea of the ' correlation of forces ' which was the
immediate forerunner of the doctrine of the conservation of
energy. It is a remarkable evidence of the greatness of the pro
gress in this direction which has been effected in our time,
that even the second edition of the ' History of the Induc
tive Sciences,' which was published in 1846, contains no
allusion either to the general view of the ' Correlation of
Forces ' published in England in 1842, or to the pubhcation
in 1843 of the first of the series of experiments by which
the mechanical equivalent of heat Avas correctly ascertained.'
' This is the more curious, as Ampere's hypothesis that vibrations of
molecules, causing and caused by vibrations of the ether, constitute heat, is
A A 2

356 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Such a failure on the part of a contemporary, of great ac
quirements and remarkable intellectual powers, to read the
signs of the times, is a lesson and a warning worthy of
being deeply pondered by anyone who attempts to prognos
ticate' the course of scientific progress.
What I have pointed out that the growth of clear and definite
this doc-
trine ia. viev^fs respecting the constitution of matter has led to the con
clusion that, so far as natural agencies are concerned, it is
ingenerable and indestructible. In so far as matter may
be conceived to exist in a purely passive state, it is, imagin
ably, older than motion. But, as it must be assumed to
be susceptible of motion, a particle of bare matter at rest
must be endowed with the potentiality of motion. Such a
particle, however, by the supposition, can have no energy, for
there is no cause why it should move. Suppose now that it
receives an impulse, it will begin to move with a velocity
inversely proportional to its mass, on the one hand, and
directly proportional to the strength of the impulse, on the
other, and will possess kinetic energy, in virtue of which it
will not only continue to move for ever if unimpeded, but if
it impinges on another such particle, it will impart more or
less of its motion to the latter. Let it be conceived that
the particle acquires a tendency to move, and that never
theless it does not move. It is then in a condition totally
different from that in which it was at first. A cause com
petent to produce motion is operating upon it, but, for
discussed. See vol. ii. p. 587, 2nd ed. In the Philosophy of the Inductive
Sciences, 2nd ed., 1847, p. 239, Whewell remarks, d propos of Bacon's defini
tion of heat, ' that it is an expansive, restrained motion, modified in certain
ways, and exerted in the smaller particles of the body ; ' that ' although the
exact nature of heat is still an obscure and controverted matter, the science
of heat now consists of many important truths ; and that to none of these
truths is there any approximation in Bacon's eseay.' In point of fact.
Bacon's statement, however much open to criticism, does contain a distinct
approximation to the most important of all the truths respecting heat which
had been discovered when Whewell wrote.

SCIENCE 357
some reason or other, is unable to give rise to motion. If
the obstacle is removed, the energy which was there, but
could not manifest itself, at once gives rise to motion.
While the restraint lasts, the energy of the particle is
merely potential ; and the case supposed illustrates what is
meant by potential energy. In this contrast of the potential
with the actual, modern physics is turning to account the
most familiar of Aristotelian distinctions — that between
Bvva/jbis and ivspjeia.
That kinetic energy appears to be imparted by impact
is a fact of daily and hourly experience :: we see bodies
set in motion by bodies, already in motion, which seem to
come in contact with them. It is a truth which could have
been learned by nothing but experience, and which cannot
be explained, but must be taken as an ultimate fact about
which, explicable or inexplicable, there can be no doubt.
Strictly speaking, we have no direct apprehension of any
other cause of motion. But experience furnishes innumer
able examples of the production of kinetic energy in a body
previously at rest, when no impact is discernible as the
cause of that energy. In all such cases, the presence of a
second body is a necessary condition ; and the amount of
kinetic energy, which its presence enables the first to gain,
is strictly dependent on the relative positions of the tAvo.
Hence the phrase energy of position, which is frequently
used as equivalent to potential energy. If a stone is picked
up and held, say, six feet above the ground, it has potential
energy, because, if let go, it will immediately begin to move
towards the earth ; and this energy may be said to be energy
of position, because it depends upon the relative position
of the earth and the stone. The stone is solicited to move
but cannot, so long as the muscular strength of the holder
prevents the solicitation from taking effect. The stone,
therefore, has potential energy, which becomes kinetic if it

358 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
is let go, and the amount of that kinetic energy which will
be developed before it strikes the earth depends on its posi
tion — on the fact that it is, say, six feet off the earth, neither
more nor less. Moreover, it can be proved that the raiser
of the stone had to exert as much energy in order to place
it in its position, as it will develop in falling. Hence the
energy which was exerted, and apparently exhausted, in
raising the stone, is potentially in the stone, in its raised
position, and will manifest itself when the stone is set free.
Thus the energy, -withdrawn from the general stock to raise
the stone, is returned when it falls, and there is no change
in the total amount. Energy, as a whole, is conserved.
Taking this as a very broad and general statement of the
essential facts of the case, the raising of the stone is intel
ligible enough, as a case of the communication of motion from
one body to another. But the potential energy of the raised
stone is not so easily intelligible. To all appearance, there
is nothing either pushing or pulling it towards the earth, or
the earth towards it ; and yet it is quite certain that the
stone tends to move towards the earth and the earth towards
the stone, in the way defined by the law of gravitation.
In the currently accepted language of science, the cause
of motion, in all such cases as this, when bodies tend to move
towards or away from one another, without any discernible
impact of other bodies, is termed a ' force,' which is called
' attractive ' in the one case, and ' repulsive ' in the other.
And such attractive or repulsive forces are often spoken of
as if they were real things, capable of exerting a pull, or
a push, upon the particles of matter concerned. Thus the
potential energy of the stone is commonly said to be due to the
' force ' of gravity which is continually operating upon it.
Another illustration may make the case plainer. The
bob of a pendulum swings first to one side and then to the
other of the centre of the arc which it describes. Suppose

SCIENCE 359
it to have just reached the summit of its right-hand half-
swing. It is said that the ' attractive forces ' of the bob for
the earth, and of the earth for the bob, set the former in
motion ; and as these ' forces ' are continually in operation,
they confer an accelerated velocity on the bob ; until, when
it reaches the centre of its swing, it is, so to speak, fully
charged with kinetic energy. If, at this moment, the whole
material universe, except the bob, were abolished, it would
move for ever in the direction of a tangent to the middle of
the arc described. As a matter of fact, it is compelled to
travel through its left-hand half-swing, and thus virtually to
go up hill. Consequently, the ' attractive forces ' of the bob
and the earth are now acting against it, and constitute
a resistance which the charge of kinetic energy has to
overcome. But, as this charge represents the operation of
the attractive forces during the passage of the bob through
the right-hand half-swing down to the centre of the arc,
so it must needs be used up by the passage of the bob
upwards from the centre of the arc to the summit of the
left-hand half-swing. Hence, at this point, the bob comes
to a momentary rest. The last fraction of kinetic energy
is just neutralised by the action of the attractive forces, and
the bob has only potential energy equal to that with which
it started. So that the sum of tHe phenomena may be stated
thus : At the summit of eitlier half-arc of its swing, the bob
has a certain amount of potential energy ; as it descends
it gradually exchanges this for kinetic energy, until at
the centre it possesses an equivalent amount of kinetic
energy ; from this point onwards, it gradually loses kinetic
energy as it ascends, until, at the summit of the other half-
arc, it has acquired an exactly similar amount of potential
energy. Thus, on the whole transaction, nothing is either
lost or gained ; the quantity of energy is always the same,
but it passes from one form into the other.

36o THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
To all appearance, the phenomena exhibited by the
pendulum are not to be accounted for by impact : in fact,
it is usually assumed that corresponding phenomena would
take place if the earth and the pendulum were situated in an
absolute vacuum, and at any conceivable distance from one
another. If this be so, it follows that there must be two
totally different kinds of causes of motion : the one impact
— a vera causa, of which, to all appearance, we have con
stant experience ; the other, attractive or repulsive ' force ' —
a metaphysical entity which is physically inconceivable.
Newton expressly repudiated the notion of the existence of
attractivi') forces, in the sense in which that term is ordinarily
understoc d ; and he refused to put forward any hypothesis
as to the physical cause of the so-called ' attraction of gravi
tation.' At) a general rule, his successors have been content
to accept the doctrine of attractive and repulsive forces, with
out troubling themselves about the philosophical difficulties
which it involves. But this has not always been the case ;
and the attempt of Le Sage, in the last century, to show
that the phenomena of attraction and repulsion are suscep
tible of explanation by his hypothesis of bombardment by
ultra-mundane particles, whether tenable or not, has the
great merit of being an attempt to get rid of the dual
conception of the causes of motion which has hitherto
prevailed. On this hypothesis, the hammering of the ultra
mundane corpuscles on the bob confers its kinetic energy,
on the one hand, and takes it away on the other ; and
the state of potential energy means the condition of the bob
during the instant at which the energy, conferred by the
hammering during the one half-arc, has just been exhausted
by the hammering during the other half-arc. It seems safe
to look forward to the time when the conception of attractive
and repulsive forces, having served its purpose as a useful
piece of scientific scaffolding, will be replaced by the deduc-

SCIENCE 361
tion of the phenomena known as attraction and repulsion,
from the general laws of motion.
The doctrine of the conservation of energy which I have
endeavoured to illustrate is thus defined by the late Clerk
Maxwell :
' The total energy of any body or system of bodies is a
quantity which can neither be increased nor diminished
by any mutual action of such bodies, though it may be
transformed into any one of the forms of which energy is
susceptible.' It follows that energy, like matter, is in
destructible and ingenerable in nature. The phenomenal
world, so far as it is material, expresses the evolution and
involution of energy, its passage from the kinetic to the
potential condition and back again. Wherever motion of
matter takes place, that motion is effected at the expense
of part of the total store of energy.
Hence, as the phenomena exhibited by living beings,
in so far as they are material, are all molar or molecular
motions, these are included under the general laAV. A living
body is a machine by which energy is transformed in the
same sense as a steam-engine is so, and all its movements,
molar and molecular, are to be accounted for by the energy
which is supplied to it. The phenomena of consciousness
which arise, along with certain transformations of energy,
cannot be interpolated in the series of these transforma
tions, inasmuch as they are not motions to which the
doctrine of the conservation of energy applies. And, for
the same reason, they do not necessitate the using up of
energy ; a sensation has no mass and cannot be conceived
to be susceptible of movement. That a particular molecular
motion does give rise to a state of consciousness is experi
mentally certain ; but the how and why of the process are
just as inexplicable as in the case of the communication of
kinetic energy by impact.

362 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
When dealing with the doctrine of the ultimate constitution
of matter, we found a certain resemblance between the oldest
speculations and the newest doctrines of physical philoso
phers. But there is no such resemblance between the ancient
and modern views of motion and its causes, except in so far as
the conception of attractive and repulsive forces may be re
garded as the modified descendant of the Aristotelian con
ception of forms. In fact, it is hardly too much to say that
the essential and fundamental difference between ancient
and modern physical science lies in the ascertainment of the
true laws of statics and dynamics in the course of the last
three centuries ; and in the invention of mathematical
methods of dealing with all the consequences of these laws.
The ultimate aim of modern physical science is the deduc
tion of the phenomena exhibited by material bodies from
physico-mathematical first principles. Whether the human
intellect is strong enough to attain the goal set before it
may be a question, but thither will it surely strive.
(3) Evo The third great scientific event of our time, the rehabili
tation of the doctrine of evolution, is part of the same
tendency of increasing knowledge to unify itself, which has
led to the doctrine of the conservation of energy. And
this tendency, again, is mainly a product of the increasing
strength conferred by physical investigation on the belief
in the universal validity of that orderly relation of facts,
which we express by the so-called ' Laws of Nature.'
The growth of a plant from its seed, of an animal from
its egg, the apparent origin of innumerable living things
from mud, or from the putrefying remains of former organ
isms, had furnished the earlier scientific thinkers with
abundant analogies suggestive of the conception of a corre
sponding method of cosmic evolution from a formless ' chaos '
to an ordered world which might either continue for ever

SCIENCE 363
or undergo dissolution into its elements before starting on Earlystages
a new course of evolution. It is therefore no Avonder that, of this
from the days of the Ionian school onwards, the view that ^°'^^'
the universe was the result of such a process should have
maintained itself as a leading dogma of philosophy. The
emanistic theories Avhich played so great a part in Neoplato-
nic philosophy and Gnostic theology are forms of evolution.
In the seventeenth century, Descartes propounded a scheme
of evolution, as an hypothesis of what might have been the
mode of origin of the world, while professing to accept the
ecclesiastical scheme of creation, as an account of that which
actually was its manner of coming into existence. In the
eighteenth century, Kant put forth a remarlsable specula
tion as to the origin of the solar system, closely similar
to that subsequently adopted by Laplace and destined to
become famous under the title of the ' nebular hypothesis.'
The careful observations and the acute reasonings of
the Italian geologists of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries ; the speculations of Leibnitz in the ' Protogsea '
and of Buffon in his ' Theorie de la Terre ; ' the sober and
profound reasonings of Hutton, in the latter part of the
eighteenth century ; all these tended to show that the fabric
of the earth itself implied the continuance of processes
of natural causation for a period of time as great, in rela
tion to human history, as the distances of the heavenly
bodies from us are, in relation to terrestrial standards of
measurement. The abyss 6f time began to loom as large
as the abyss of space. And this revelation to sight and
touch, of a link here and a link there of a practically infinite
chain of natural causes and effects, prepared the way, as
perhaps nothing else has done, for the modern form of the
ancient theory of evolution.
In the beginning of the eighteenth century, De Maillet
made the first serious attempt to apply the doctrine to the

364 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
living world. In the latter part of it, Erasmus Darwin,
Goethe, Treviranus, and Lamarck took up the work more
vigorously and with better qualifications. The question of
special creation, or evolution, lay at the bottom of the fierce
disputes which broke out in the French Academy between
Cuvier and St.-Hilaire ; and, for a time, the supporters of
biological evolution were silenced, if not answered, by the
alliance of the greatest naturalist of the age with their
ecclesiastical opponents. Catastrophism, a short-sighted
teleology, and a still more short-sighted orthodoxy, joined
forces to crush evolution.
Lyell and Poulett Scrope, in this country, resumed the
work of the Italians and of Hutton ; and the former, aided
by a marvellous power of clear exposition, placed upon an
irrefragable basis the truth that natural causes are com
petent to account for all .events, which can be proved to
have occurred, in the course of the secular changes which
have taken place during the deposition of the stratified rocks.
The publication of ' The Principles of Geology,' in 1830,
constituted an epoch in geological science. But it also
constituted an epoch in the modern history of the doctrine of
evolution, by raising in the mind of every intelligent reader
this question : If natural causation is competent to account
for the not-living part of our globe, why should it not
account for the living part ?
By keeping this question before the public for some thirty
years, Lyell, though the keenest and most formidable of the
opponents of the transmutation theory, as it was formulated
by Lamarck, was of the greatest possible service in facilitating
the reception of the sounder doctrines of a later day. And,
in like fashion, another vehement opponent of the trans
mutation of species, the elder Agassiz, was doomed to help
the cause he hated. Agassiz not only maintained the
fact of the progressive advance in organisation of the

SCIENCE 365
inhabitants of the earth at each successive geological epoch,
but he insisted upon the analogy of the steps of this pro
gression with those by Avhich the embryo advances to the
adult condition, among the highest forms of each group.
In fact, in endeavouring to support these views he went a
good Avay beyond the limits of any cautious interpretation
of the facts then known.
Although little acquainted with biological science, Whe
well seems to have taken particular pains with that part
of his AVOrk which deals with the history of geological and
biological speculation ; and several chapters of his seven
teenth and eighteenth books, which comprise the history
of physiology, of comparative anatomy and of the palastio-
logical sciences, vividly reproduce the controversies of the
early days of the Victorian epoch. But here, as in the case
of the doctrine of the conservation of energy, the historian
of the inductive sciences has no prophetic insight ; not
even a suspicion of that which the near future was to bring
forth. And those who still repeat the once favourite ob
jection that Darwin's ' Origin of Species ' is nothing but a Darwin
new version of the ' Philosophie zoologique ' will find that,
so late as 1844, Whewell had not the slightest suspicion
of Darwin's main theorem, even as a logical possibility.
In fact, the publication of that theorem by Darwin and
Wallace, in 1859, took ah the biological world by surprise.
Neither those who were inclined towards the ' progressive
transmutation ' or ' development ' doctruie, as it was then
called, nor those who were opposed to it, had the slightest
suspicion that the tendency to variation in living beings,
which all admitted as a matter of fact ; the selective influ
ence of conditions, which no one could deny to be a matter
of fact, when his attention was drawn to the evidence ; and
the occurrence of great geological changes, Avhich also was
matter of fact ; could be used as the only necessary postu-

366 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
lates of a theory of the evolution of plants and animals
which, even if not, at once, competent to explain all the
known facts of biological science, could not be shown to
be inconsistent with any. So far as biology is concerned,
the publication of the ' Origin of Species,' for the first time,
put the doctrine of evolution, in its application to living
things, upon a sound scientific foundation. It became an
instrument of investigation, and in no bands did it prove
more brilliantly profitable than in those of Darwin himself.
His publications on the effects of domestication in plants
and animals, on the influence of cross-fertilisation, on
flowers as organs for effecting such fertilisation, on in
sectivorous plants, on the motions of plants, pointed out
the routes of exploration which have since been followed
by hosts of inquirers, to the great profit of science.
Darwin found the biological world a more than suffi
cient field for even his great powers, and left the cosmical
part of the doctrine to others. Not much has been added
to the nebular hypothesis, since the time of Laplace, except
that the attempt to show (against that hypothesis) that
all nebulfB are star clusters, has been met by the spectro
scopic proof of the gaseous condition of some of them.
Moreover, physicists of the present generation appear now
to accept the secular cooling of the earth, which is one of the
corollaries of that hypothesis. In fact, attempts have been
made, by the help of deductions from the data of physics,
to lay down an approximate limit to the number of millions
of years which have elapsed since the earth was habitable
by living beings. If the conclusions thus reached should
stand the test of further investigation, they will undoubtedly
be very valuable. But, whether true or false, they can have
no influence upon the doctrine of evolution in its application
to living organisms. The occurrence of successive forms
of life upon our globe is an historical fact, which cannot be

SCIENCE 367
i disputed ; and the relation of these successive forms, as
I stages of evolution of the same type, is estabhshed in various
I cases. The biologist has no means of determining the time
i over which the process of evolution has extended, but accepts
tlie computation of the physical geologist and the physicist,
whatever that may be.
Evolution as a philosophical doctrine applicable to all and
phenomena, whether physical or mental, whether mani- pi^'io-
fested by material atoms or by men in society, has been
dealt with systematically in the ' Synthetic Philosophy ' of
Mr. Herbert Spencer. Comment on that great under
taking would not be in place here. I mention it because,
so far as I know, it is the first attempt tO deal, on scientific
principles, with modern scientific facts and speculations.
For the ' Philosophie positive ' of M. Comte, with Avhich
Mr. Spencer's system of philosophy is sometimes compared,
though it professes a similar object, is unfortunately per
meated by a thoroughly unscientific spirit, and its author
had no adequate acquaintance with the physical sciences
even of his own time.
The doctrine of evolution, so far as the present physical
cosmos is concerned, postulates the fixity of the rules of
operation of the causes of motion in the material universe.
If all kinds of matter are modifications of one kind, and
if all modes of motion are derived from the same energy,
the orderly evolution of physical nature out of one sub
stratum and one energy implies that the rules of action
of that energy should be fixed and definite. In the past
history of the universe, back to that point, there can be no
room for chance or disorder. But it is possible to raise
the question whether this universe of simplest matter and
definitely operating energy, Avhich forms our hypothetical
starting point, may not itself be a product of evolution

368

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

from a universe of such matter, in which the manifestations
of energy were not definite — in which, for example, our laws
of motion held good for some units and not for others, or for
the same units at one time and not at another — and which
would therefore be a real epicurean chance-world ?
For myself, I must confess that I find the air of this
region of speculation too rarefied for my constitution, and
I am disposed to take refuge in ' ignoramus et ignorabimus.'

other
achieve
ments in
physical science.

Physics and
chemistry.

The execution of my further task, the indication of the
most important achievements in the several branches of
physical science during the last fifty years, is embarrassed
by the abundance of the objects of choice ; and by the diffi
culty which everyone, but a specialist in each department,
must find in drawing a due distinction between discoveries
Avhich strike the imagination by their novelty, or by their
practical influence, and those unobtrusive but pregnant
observations and experiments in which the germs of the
great things of the future really lie. Moreover, my limits
restrict me to little more than a bare chronicle of the events
which I have to notice.
In physics and chemistry, the old boundaries of which
sciences are rapidly becoming effaced, one can hardly
go wrong in ascribing a primary value to the investiga
tions into the relation between the solid, liquid, and gaseous
states of matter on the one hand, and degrees of pressure
and of heat on the other. Almost all, even the most re
fractory, solids have been vaporised by the intense heat of
the electric arc ; and the most refractory gases have been
forced to assume the liquid, and even the solid, forms by the
combination of high pressure with intense cold. It has
further been shown that there is no discontinuity between
these states — that a gas passes into the liquid state through
a condition which is neither one nor the othei:, and that a

SCIENCE 369
liquid body becomes solid, or a sohd hquid, by the inter
mediation of a condition in Avhich it is neither truly solid
nor truly liquid.
Theoretical and experimental investigations have con
curred in the establishment of the vieAv that a gas is a body,
the particles of which are in incessant rectilinear motion at
high velocities, colliding Avith one another and bounding
back Avhen they strike the Avails of the containing vessel ;
and, on this theory, the already ascertained relations of
gaseous bodies to heat and pressure have been shown to be
deducible from mechanical principles. Immense improve
ments have been effected in the means of exhausting a
given space of its gaseous contents ; and experimentation
on the phenomena which attend the electric discharge and
the action of radiant heat, Avithin the extremely rarefied
media thus produced, has yielded a great number of re
markable results, some of Avhich have been made familiar
to the public by the Gieseler tubes and the radiometer.
Already, these investigations have afforded an unexpected
insight into the constitution of matter and its relations
with thermal and electric energy, and they open up a vast
field for future inquiry into some of the deepest problems of
physics. Other important steps, in the same direction,
have been effected by investigations into the absorption of
radiant heat proceeding from different sources by solid,
fluid, and gaseous bodies. And it is a curious example of
the interconnection of the various branches of physical
science, that some of the results thus obtained have proved
of great importance in meteorology.
The existence of numerous dark lines, constant in their
number and position in the various regions of the solar
spectrum, was made out by Fraunhofer in the early part
of the present century, but more than forty years elapsed
before their causes Avere ascertained and their importance
VOL. II. B B

370

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

The
spectro scope.

Electricity,

recognised. Spectroscopy, Avhich then took its rise, is
probably that employment of physical knoAvledge, already
Avon, as a means of farther acquisition, Avhich most im
presses the imagination. For it has suddenly and immensely
enlarged our power of overcoming the obstacles which almost
infinite minuteness on the one hand, and almost infinite
distance on the other, h ive hitherto opposed to the recogni
tion of the presence and the condition of matter. One
eighteen-millionth of a grain of sodium in the flame of
a spirit-lamp may be detected by this instrument; and,
at the same time, it gives trustworthy indications of the
material constitution not only of the sun, but of the farthest
of those fixed stars and nebulse which afford sufficient
light to affect the eye, or the photographic plate, of the
inquirer. The mathematical and experimental elucidation of the
phenomena of electricity, and the study of the relations of
this form of energy with chemical and thermal action, had
made extensive progress before 1887. But the determina
tion of the influence of magnetism on light, the discovery
of diamagnetism, of the influence of crystalline structure
on magnetism, and the completion of the mathematical
theory of electricity, all belong to the present epoch. To
it also appertain the practical execution and the working
out of the results of the great international system of
observations on terrestrial magnetism, suggested by Hum
boldt in 1886 ; and the invention of instruments of infinite
delicacy and precision for the quantitative determination of
electrical phenomena. The voltaic battery has received vast
improvements ; while the invention of magneto-electric
engines and of improved means of producing ordinary
electricity has provided sources of electrical energy vastly
superior to any before extant in power, and far more con
venient for use.

SCIENCE 371
It is perhaps this branch of physical science Avhich
may claim the palm for its practical fruits, no less than for
the aid Avhich it has furnished to the investigation of other
parts of the field of physical science. The idea of the
practicability of establishing a communication between
distant points, by means of electricity, could hardly fail to
have simmered in the minds of ingenious men since, well
nigh a century ago, experimental proof was given that
electric disturbances could be propagated through a wire
tAvelve thousand feet long. Various methods of carrying
the suggestion into practice had been carried out with
some degree of success ; but the system of electric tele
graphy, which, at the present time, brings all parts of
the civilised world within a few minutes of one another,
originated only about the commencement of the epoch
under consideration. In its influence on the course of
human affairs, this invention takes its place beside that of
gunpowder, which tended to abolish the physical inequalities
of fighting men ; of printing, which tended to destroy the
effect of inequalities in wealth among learning men ; of
steam transport, which has done the like for travelling men.
All these gifts of science are aids in the process of levelling
up ; of removing the ignorant and baneful prejudices of
nation against nation, province against province, and class
against class ; of assuring that social order which is the
foundation of progress, which has redeemed Europe from
barbarism, and against which one is glad to think that
those who, in our time, are employing themselves in fanning
the embers of ancient wrong, in setting class against class,
and in trying to tear asunder the existing bonds of unity,
are undertaking a futile struggle. The telephone is only
second in practical importance to the electric telegraph.
Invented, as it were, only the other day, it has already
taken its place as an appliance of daily life. Sixty years
B B 2

372 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
ago, the extraction of metals from their solutions, by the
electric current, was simply a highly interesting scientific
fact. At the present day, the galvano-plastic art is a great
industry ; and, in combination with photography, promises
to be of endless service in the arts. Electric lighting is
another great gift of science to civilisation, the practical
effects of which have not yet been fully developed, largely
on account of its cost. But those whose memories go back
to the tinder-box period, and recollect the cost of the first
lucifer matches, will not despair of the results of the appli
cation of science and ingenuity to the cheap production
of anything for which there is a large demand.
The influence of the progress of electrical knowledge
and invention upon that of investigation in other fields
of science is highly remarkable. The combination of elec
trical with mechanical contrivances has produced instruments
by which, not only may extremely small intervals of time
be exactly measured, but the varying rapidity of move
ments, which take place in such intervals and appear to
the ordinary sense instantaneous, is recorded. The dura
tion of the winking of an eye is a proverbial expression
for an instantaneous action ; but, by the help of the re
volving cylinder and the electrical marking-apparatus, it is
possible to obtain a graphic record of such an action, in
which, if it endures a second, that second shall be sub
divided into a hundred, or a thousand, equal parts, and the
state of the action at each hundredth, or thousandth, of a
second exhibited. In fact, these instruments may be said
to be time-microscopes. Such appliances have not only
effected a revolution in physiology, by the power of analys
ing the phenomena of muscular and nervous activity which
they have conferred, but they have furnished new methods
of measuring the rate of movement of projectiles to the
artillerist. Again, the microphone, Avhich renders the

SCIENCE

373

minutest movements audible, and which enables a listener
to hear the footfall of a fly, has equipped the sense of hear
ing with the means of entering almost as deeply into the
penetralia of nature, as does the sense of sight.
That light exerts a remarkable influence in bringing Photo-
about certain chemical combinations and decompositions ^''"'^^^

as an

was well known fifty years ago, and various more or less ment^of
successful attempts to produce permanent pictures, by the science.
help of that knowledge, had already been made. It was
not till 1839, however, that practical success was obtained ;
but the • daguerreotypes ' were both cumbrous and costly,
and photography would never have attained its present
important development had not the progress of invention
substituted paper and glass for the silvered plates then
in use. It is not my affair to dAvell upon the practical ap
plication of the photography of the present day, but it is
germane to my purpose to remark that it has furnished
a most valuable accessory to the methods of recording
motions and lapse of time already in existence. In the
hands of the astronomer and the meteorologist, it has
yielded means of registering terrestrial, solar, planetary,
and stellar phenomena, independent of the sources of error
attendant on ordinary observation ; in the hands of the
physicist, not only does it record spectroscopic phenomena
Avith unsur]3assable ease and precision, but it has revealed
the existence of rays having powerful chemical energy, or
beyond the visible limits of either end of the spectrum ;
while, to the naturalist, it furnishes the means by which the
forms of many highly complicated objects may be repre
sented, without that possibility of error which is inherent
in the Avork of the draughtsman. In fact, in many cases,
the stern impartiality of photography is an objection to its
employment : it makes no distinction betAveen the im
portant and the unimportant; and hence photographs of

374

THE R'EIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Astro
nomy,

its rela
tion to
geology.

dissections, for example, are rarely so useful as the work of
a draughtsman who is at once accurate and intelligent.
The determination of the existence of a new planet,
Neptune, far beyond the previously known bounds of the
solar system, by mathematical deduction from the facts of
perturbation ; and the immediate confirmation of that deter
mination, in the year 1846, by observers who turned their
telescopes into the part of the heavens indicated as its place,
constitute a remarkable testimony of nature to the validity
of the principles of the astronomy of our time. In addition,
so many new a steroids have been added to those which were
already Imown to circulate in the place which theoretically
should be occupied by a planet, between Mars and Jupiter,
that their number now amounts to between two and three
hundred. I have already alluded to the extension of our
knowledge of the nature of the heavenly bodies by the em
ployment of spectroscopy. It has not only thrown wonder
ful light upon the physical and chemical constitution of the
sun, fixed stars, and nebulse, and comets, but it holds out
a prospect of obtaining definite evidence as to the nature of
our so-called elementary bodies.
The application of the generalisations of thermotics to
the problem of the duration of the earth, and of deductions
from tidal phenomena to the determination of the length
of the day and of the time of revolution of the moon, in past
epochs of the history of the universe ; and the demonstra
tion of the competency of the great secular changes, known
under the general name of the precession of the equinoxes,
to cause corresponding modifications in the climate of the
two hemispheres of our globe, have brought astronomy into
intimate relation with geology. Geology, in fact, proves that,
in the course of the past history of the earth, the climatic
conditions of the same region have been widely different,
and seeks the explanation of this important truth from the

SCIENCE 375
sister sciences. The facts that, in the middle of the Tertiary
epoch, evergreen trees abounded within the arctic circle ;
and that, in the long subsequent Quaternary epoch, an
arctic climate, with its accompaniment of gigantic glaciers,
obtained in the northern hemisphere, as far south as
SAvitzerland and Central France, are as Avell established as
any truths of science. But, Avhether the explanation of
these extreme variations in the mean temperature of a great
part of the northern hemisphere is to be sought in the
concomitant changes in the distribution of land and Avater
surfaces of Avhich geology affords evidence, or in astro
nomical conditions, such as those to which I have referred,
is a question Avhich must await its answer from the science
of the future.
Turning noAV to the great steps in that vast progress bio-
which the biological sciences have made since 1837, Ave sofeuces.
are met, on the threshold of our epoch, with perhaps the
greatest of all — namely, the promulgation by SchAvann, in
1839, of the generalisation knoAvn as the ' cell theory,' The
the application and extension of which by a host of theory.'
subsequent investigators has revolutionised morphology,
development, and physiology. Thanks to the immense
series of labours thus maugurated, the following funda
mental truths have been established.
All living bodies contain substances of closely similar Funda-
physical and chemical composition, which constitute the truths
physical basis of life, knoAvn as protoplasm. So far as our biished.
present luiowledge goes, this takes its origin only from pre
existing protoplasm.
All complex living bodies consist, at one period of their
existence, of an aggregate of minute portions of such sub
stance, of similar structure, called cells, each cell having its
OAvn hfe uidependent of the others, though influenced by
them.

376 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
All the morphological characters of animals and plants
are the results of the mode of multiplication, growth, and
structural metamorphosis of these cells, considered as
morphological units.
All the physiological activities of animals and plants —
assimilation, secretion, excretion, motion, generation — are
the expression of the activities of the cells considered as
physiological units. Each individual, among the higher
animals and plants, is a synthesis of millions of sub
ordinate individualities. Its individuality, therefore, is
that of a ' ci vitas ' in the ancient sense, or that of the
Leviathan of Hobbes.
There is no absolute line of demarcation between animals
and plants. The intimate structure, and the modes of
change, in the cells of the two are fundamentally the same.
Moreover, the higher forms are evolved from lower, in the
course of their development, by analogous processes of dif
ferentiation, coalescence, and reduction in both the vege
table and the animal worlds.
At the present time, the cell theory, in consequence of
recent investigations into the structure and metamorphosis
of the ' nucleus,' is undergoing a new development of great
significance, which, among other things, foreshadoAVS the
possibility of the establishment of a physical theory of
heredity, on a safer foundation than those which Buffon
and Darwin have devised.
sponta- The popular belief in abiogenesis, or the so-called
genera- ' Spontaneous ' generation of the lower forms of life, which
pr°oved^ was accepted by all the philosophers of antiquity, held its
ground doAvn to the middle of the seventeenth century.
Notwithstanding the frequent citation of the phrase, wrong
fully attributed to Harvey, ' Omne vivum ex ovo,' that
great physiologist believed in spontaneous generation as
firmly as Aristotle did. And it Avas only in the latter part

e^

SCIENCE

277

of the seventeenth century, that Eedi, by simple and well-
devised experiments, demonstrated that, in a great number
of cases of supposed spontaneous generation, the animals
Avhich made their appearance owed their origin to the ordi
nary process of reproduction, and thus shook the ancient
doctrine to its foundations. In the middle of the eighteenth
century, it was revived, in a new form, by Needham and
Buffon ; but the experiments of Spallanzani enforced the
conclusions of Eedi, and compelled the advocates of the
occurrence of spontaneous generation to seek eA'idence for
their hypothesis only among the parasites and the lowest
and minutest organisms. It is just fifty years since ScliAvann
and others proved that, even with respect to them, the sup
posed evidence of abiogenesis Avas untrustAvorthy.
During the present epoch, the question, whether liA'ing
matter can be produced in any other Avay than by the
physiological activity of other living matter, has been dis
cussed afresh with great vigour ; and the problem has
been investigated by experimental methods of a precision
and refinement unknown to previous investigators. The
result is that the evidence in favour of abiogenesis has
utterly broken down, in every case Avhicli has been properly
tested. So far as the lowest and minutest organisms are
concerned, it has been proved that they neA'er make their
appearance, if those precautions by which their germs are
certainly excluded are taken. And, in regard to parasites,
every case which seemed to make for their generation from
the substance of the animal, or plant, Avhich they infest
has been proved to have a totally different significance.
Whether not-living matter may pass, or ever has, under
any conditions, passed into living matter, without the
agency of pre-existing living matter, necessarily remains
an open question ; all that can be said is that it does not
undergo this metamorphosis under any known conditions.

logy.

378 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Those who take a monistic view of the physical world may
fairly hold abiogenesis as a pious opinion, supported by
analogy and defended by our ignorance. But, as matters
stand, it is equally justifiable to regard the physical world
as a sort of dual monarchy. The kingdoms of living
matter and of not-hving matter are under one system
of laws, and there is a perfect freedom of exchange and
transit from one to the other. But no claim to biological
nationality is valid except birth.
Morpho- In the department of anatomy and development, a host
of accurate and patient inquirers, aided by novel methods
of preparation, which enable the anatomist to exhaust the
details of visible structure and to reproduce them with geo
metrical precision, have investigated every important group
of living animals and plants, no less than the fossil relics
of former fauns and florte. An enormous addition has
thus been made to our knowledge, especially of the lower
forms of life, and it may be said that morphology, however
inexhaustible in detail, is complete in its broad features.
Classification, which is merely a convenient summary
expression of morphological facts, has undergone a cor
responding improvement. The breaks which formerly
separated our groups from one another, as animals from
plants, vertebrates from invertebrates, cryptogams from
phanerogams, have either been filled up, or shown to have
no theoretical significance. The question of the position
of man, as an animal, has given rise to much disputation,
with the result of proving that there is no anatomical or
developmental character by which he is more widely dis
tinguished from the group of animals most nearly alhed to
him, than they are from one another. In fact, in this par
ticular, the classification of Linnasus has been proved to
be more in accordance Avith the facts than those of most of
his successors.

SCIENCE 379
The study of man, as a genus and species of the animal Anthro-
Avorld, conducted with reference to no other considerations
than those which would be admitted by the investigator of
anv other form of animal life, has given rise to a special
branch of biology, knoAvn as Anthropology, Avhich has grown
Avith great rapidity. Numerous societies devoted to this por
tion of science have sprung up, and the energy of its devotees
has produced a copious literature. The physical characters
of the various races of men have been studied with a
minuteness and accuracy heretofore unknown ; and demon
strative evidence of the existence of human contemporaries
of the extinct animals of the latest geological epoch has been
obtained. Physical science has thus been brought into the
closest relation with history and with archseology ; and
the striking investigations which, during our time, have
put beyond doubt the vast antiquity of Babylonian and
Egyptian civilisation, are in perfect harmony Avith thp
conclusions of anthropology as to the antiquity of the
human species.
Classification is a logical process which consists in
putting together those things which are like and keeping
asunder those which are unlike; and a morphological
classification, of course, takes note only of morphological
likeness and unhkeness. So long, therefore, as our morpho
logical knowledge was almost wholly confined to anatomy,
the characters of groups were solely anatomical; but as
the phenomena of embryology were explored, the like
ness and unhkeness of individual development had to be
taken into account ; and, at present, the study of an
cestral evolution introduces a new element of likeness
and unhkeness which is not only eminently deserving of
recognition, but must ultimately predominate over all
others. A classification Avhich shall represent the process
of ancestral evolution is, in fact, the end Avhich the labours

38o THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
of the philosophical taxonomist must keep in view. But
it is an end which cannot be attained until the progress of
palaeontology has given us far more insight, than we yet
possess, into the historical facts of the case. Much of the
speculative ' phylogeny,' which abounds among my present
contemporaries, reminds me very forcibly of the speculative
morphology, unchecked by a knowledge of development,
which was rife in my youth. As hypothesis, suggesting in
quiry in this or that direction, it is often extremely useful ;
but, when the product of such speculation is placed on a level
with those generalisations of morphological truths which are
represented by the definitions of natural groups, it tends
to confuse fancy with fact and to create mere confusion.
We are in danger of drifting into a new ' Natur-Philo-
sophie ' worse than the old, because there is less excuse for
it. Boyle did great service to science by his ' Sceptical
Chemist,' and I am inclined to think that, at the present
day, a ' Sceptical Biologist ' might exert an equally bene
ficent influence.
Physio- AVhoso wishos to gain a clear conception of the progress
of physiology, since 1837, will do well to compare MuUer's
' Physiology,' which appeared in 1835, and Drapiez's edition
of Eichard's ' Nouveaux Elements de Botanique,' published
in 1837, Avith any of the present handbooks of animal and
vegetable physiology. Miiller's work was a masterpiece,
unsurpassed since 'the time of Haller, and Eichard's book
enjoyed a great reputation at the time ; but their successors
transport one into a new world. That which characterises
the new physiology is that it is permeated by, and mdeed
based upon, conceptions which, though not wholly absent,
are but dawning on the minds of the older writers.
Modern physiology sets forth as its chief ends : Firstly,
the ascertainment of the facts and conditions of cell-life in
general. Secondly, in composite organisms, the analysis of

logy.

SCIENCE 381
the functions of organs into those of the cells of which
they are composed. Thirdly, the explication of the pro
cesses by which this local cell-life is directly, or indirectly,
controlled and brought into relation with the hfe of the
rest of the cells which compose the organism. Fourthly,
the investigation of the phenomena of life in general, on the
assumption that the physical and chemical processes which
take place in the living body are of the same order as
those which take place out of it ; and that whatever energy
is exerted in producing such phenomena is derived from
the common stock of energy in the universe. In the fifth
place, modern physiology investigates the relation betAveen
physical and psychical phenomena, on the assumption that
molecular changes in definite portions of nervous matter
stand in the relation of necessary antecedents to definite
mental states and operations. The work which has been
done in each of the directions here indicated is vast, and
the accumulation of solid knoAvledge, which has been effected,,
is correspondingly great. For the first time in the history
of science, physiologists are noAv in a position to say that
they have arrived at clear and distinct, though by no means
complete, conceptions of the manner in which the great
functions of assimilation, respiration, secretion, distribution
of nutriment, removal of waste products, motion, sensation,
and reproduction are performed ; while the operation of the
nervous system, as a regulative apparatus, which influences
the origination and the transmission of manifestations of
activity, either within itself or in other organs, has been
largely elucidated.
I have pointed out, in an earlier part of this chapter, that Practical
, „ . ,1 , ,1 , value of
the history of all branches of science proves that they must physio-
attain a considerable stage of development before they yield dlf-'^^^
practical ' fruits ; ' and this is eminently true of physiology. °°^e'^y-
It is only within the present epoch, that physiology and

382 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
chemistry have reached the point at which they could offer
a scientific foundation to agriculture ; and it is only within
the present epoch, that zoology and physiology have yielded
any very great aid to pathology and hygiene. But, within
that time, they have already rendered highly important
services by the exploration of the phenomena of parasi
tism. Not only have the history of the animal para
sites, such as the tapeworms and the trichina, which
infest men and animals, with deadly results, been cleared
up by means of experimental investigations, and efficient
modes of prevention deduced from the data so obtained ;
but the terrible agency of the parasitic fungi and of the infi-
nitesimally minute microbes, Avhicli work far greater havoc
among plants and animals, has been brought to light. The
' particulate ' or ' germ ' theory of disease, as it is called, long
since suggested, has obtained a firm foundation, in so far as
it has been proved to be true in respect of sundry epidemic
disorders. Moreover, it has theoretically justified prophy
lactic measures, such as vaccination, which formerly rested
on a merely empirical basis ; and it has been extended to
other diseases with excellent results. Further, just as the
discovery of the cause of scabies proved the absurdity of
many of the old prescriptions for the prevention and
treatment of that disease ; so the discovery of the cause of
splenic fever, and other such maladies, has given a neAv
direction to prophylactic and curative measures against
the worst scourges of humanity. Unless the fanaticism of
philozoic Fentiment overpoAvers the voice of philanthropy,
and the love of dogs and cats supersedes that of one's neigh
bour, the progress of experimental physiology and pathology
win, indubitably, in course of time, place medicine and
hygiene upon a rational basis. Two centuries ago England
was devastated by the plague; cleanliness and common
sense were enough to free us from its ravages. One century

SCIENCE 383
since, small-pox AA'as almost as great a scourge; science,
though working empirically, and almost in the dark, has
reduced that evil to relative insignificance. At the present
time, science, Avorking in the Hght of clear knowledge, has
attacked splenic fever and has beaten it; it is attacking
hydrophobia with no mean promise of success ; sooner or
later it will deal, in the same way, with diphtheria, typhoid
and scarlet fever. To one who has seen half a street swept
clear of its children, or has lost his own by these horrible
pestilences, passing one's offspring through the fire to
Moloch seems humanity, compared with the proposal to
deprive them of half their chances of health and life
because of the discomfort to dogs and cats, rabbits and
frogs, which may be involved in the search for means
of guarding them.
An immense extension has been effected in our knoAV- scientific
ledge of the distribution of jilants and animals ; and the tion.
elucidation of the causes Avhich have brought about that
distribution has been greatly advanced. The establishment
of meteorological observations by all civilised nations, has
furnished a solid foundation to climatology ; Avhile a groAving
sense of the importance of the influence of the ' struggle for
existence ' affords a wholesome check to the tendency to
overrate the influence of climate on distribution. Expedi
tions, such as that of the ' Challenger,' equipped, not for
geographical exploration and discovery, but for the purpose
of throwing light on problems of physical and biological
science, have been sent out by our own and other Govern
ments, and have obtained stores of information of the
greatest value. For the first time, we are in possession of
something like precise knowledge of the physical features of
the deep seas, and of the living population of the floor of the
ocean. The careful and exhaustive study of the phenomena
presented by the accumulations of snoAv and ice, in polar and

384 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
mountainous regions, which has taken place in our time,
has not only revealed to the geologist an agent of denuda
tion and transport, which has slowly and quietly produced
effects, formerly confidently referred to diluvial catastrophes,
but it has suggested new methods of accounting for various
puzzling facts of distribution.
paiseon- Palseontology, which treats of the extinct forms of life and
their succession and distribution upon our globe, a branch
of science which could hardly be said to exist a century
ago, has undergone a wonderful develojiment in our epoch.
In some groups of animals and plants, the extinct repre
sentatives, already knoAvn, are more numerous and impor
tant than the living. There can be no doubt that the
existing Fauna and Flora is but the last term of a long
series of equally numerous contemporary species, which
have succeeded one another, by the sIoav and gradual sub
stitution of species for species, in the vast interval of time
which has elapsed between the deposition of the earliest
fossiliferous strata and the present day. There is no reason
able ground for believing that the oldest remains yet ob
tained carry us even near the beginnings of life. The
impressive warnings of Lyell against hasty speculations,
based upon negative evidence, have been fuUy justified ;
time after time, highly organised types have been discovered
in formations of an age in which the existence of such forms
of life had been confidently declared to be impossible. The
western territories of the United States alone have yielded
a world of extinct animal forms, undreamed of fifty years
ago. And, wherever sufficiently numerous series of the
remains of any given group, which has endured for a long
space of time, are carefully examined, their morphological
relations are never in discordance with the requirements of
the doctrine of evolution, and often afford convincing evi
dence of it. At the same time, it has been shown that

SCIENCE 385
certain forms persist with very little change, from the oldest
to the newest fossiliferous formations ; and thus show that
progressive development is a contingent, and not a neces
sary result, of the nature of living matter.
Geology is, as it were, the biology of our planet as a Geology.
Avliole. In so far as it comprises the surface configuration
and the inner structure of the earth, it answers to mor
phology ; in so far as it studies changes of condition and
their causes, it corresponds with physiology ; in so far as
it deals with the causes which have effected the progress of
the earth from its earliest to its present state, it forms part
of the general doctrine of evolution. An interesting con
trast between the geology of the present day and that of
half a century ago, is presented by the complete emancipa
tion of the modern geologist from the controlling and per
verting influence of theology, all-powerful at the earlier
date. As the geologist of my young days wrote, he had one
eye upon fact, and the other on Genesis ; at present, he
Avisely keeps both eyes on fact, and ignores the pentateuchal
mythology altogether. The publication of the ' Principles
of Geology ' brought upon its illustrious author a period of
social ostracism ; the mstruction given to our children is
based upon those principles. Whewell had the courage to
attack Lyell's fundamental assumption (which surely is a
dictate of common sense) that we ought to exhaust Imown
causes before seeking for the explanation of geological phe
nomena in causes of which we have no experience. But
geology has advanced to its present state by working from
Lyell's ' axiom ; and, to this day, the record of the stratified
rocks affords no proof that the uitensity or the rapidity of
' Perhaps I ought rather to say Buflon's axiom. For that great naturalist
and writer embodied the principles of sound geology in a pithy phrase of the
Thiorie de la Terre : ' Pour juger de ce qui est arriv6, et mSme de ce qui
arrivera, nous n'avons qu'i examiner ce qui arrive.'
VOL. II. C C

386 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
the causes of change has ever varied, between wider limits,
than those between which the operations of nature have
taken place in the youngest geological epochs.
An incalculable benefit has accrued to geological
science from the accurate and detailed surveys, which have
now been executed by skilled geologists employed by the
Governments of all parts of the civilised world. In geology,
the study of large maps is as important as it is said to be
in politics ; and sections, on a true scale, are even more
important, in so far as they are essential to the apprehen
sion of the extraordinary insignificance of geological per
turbations in relation to the whole mass of our planet. It
should never be forgotten that what we call ' catastrophes,'
are, in relation to the earth, changes, the equivalents of
which would be well represented by the development of
a few pimples, or the scratch of a pin, on a man's head.
Vast regions of the earth's surface remain geologically un
known ; but the area already fairly explored is many times
greater than it was in 1837 ; and, in many parts of Europe
and the United States, the structure of the superficial
crust of the earth has been investigated with great minute
ness. The parallel between Biology and Geology, which I have
drawn, is further illustrated by the modern growth of that
branch of the science known as Petrology, which answers
to Histology, and has made the microscope as essential an
instrument to the geological as to the biological investigator.
The evidence of the importance of causes now in opera
tion has been wonderfully enlarged by the study of glacial
phenomena ; by that of earthquakes and volcanoes ; and by
that of the efficacy of heat and cold, wind, rain, and rivers
as agents of denudation and transport. On the other hand,
the exploration of coral reefs and of the deposits now taking
place at the bottom of the great oceans, has proved that, in

SCIENCE 387
animal and plant life, we have agents of reconstruction of a
potency hitherto unsuspected.
There is no study better fitted than that of geology
to impress upon men of general culture that conviction of
the unbroken sequence of the order of natural phenomena,
throughout the duration of the universe, which is the great,
and perhaps the most important, effect of the increase of
natural knowledge.
T. H. Huxley.

c 0 2

388 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

MEDICINE AND SURGERY.
Intro- I HAVE been asked to write a brief account of the progress
duotion. ^j medicine and surgery during the reign of her Majesty
the Queen.' That progress has been so vast in its amount,
and has been brought about by improvements in so many
matters of detail, as well as by the establishment of so
many -principles, that no one could hope, except after
years of labour, to compose a history of it which should be
at once symmetrical in its proportions and complete in its
extent. Fortunately, no such undertaking is required on
the present occasion ; but only that I should set down, in
a manner intelligible to non-medical readers, the chief
advances which have been made in the application of
science to the arts of restoring health and of promoting
longevity. From what pains, which our ancestors were
compelled to suffer, have we obtained exemption ; and from
what maladies, which proved fatal to them, have we the
means of protecting ourselves? If the replies to these
questions could be given in all their fullness, they would
constitute a record which no other department of human
activity could surpass, and which, in all probability, no
other could approach.
statistics. Some appreciation of what has been done may possibly
be obtained from a statement of aggregate results. Lord
' Partly from the fear of accidentally omitting some who have claims to
be remembered, and partly in deference to a feeling which is universal
among the members of the higher ranks of the medical profession, I have

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 389
Macaulay, in his description of England under the Stuarts,
tells us that in the year 1685, Avhich was not accounted
sickly, more than one in twenty-three of the inhabitants
of the capital died ; but that when he wrote, say in 1845,
only one inhabitant of the capital in forty died annually.
In the middle of 1885 the estimated population of London
was 4,083,928 persons, and the deaths registered during
the year were exactly 80,000; so that, in the space of
forty years, the average annual metropolitan mortality was
reduced from the death of one inhabitant in forty to that
of one in fifty-one, a reduction not very far short of that
of the previous one hundred and sixty years, and effected
notwithstanding the opposing influence of an enormous in
crease of population. In the five years from 1838 to 1842,
London had an average population of 1,840,865 persons,
and an average annual mortality of 2,557 in every hundred
thousand. In the five years 1880 to 1884, London had an of
average population of 8,894,261, and an average annual ^""'^o''-
mortality of 2,101 in every hundred thousand. If the rate
of mortality in the second of these periods had been the
same as in the first, 17,328 people would have died in the
metropolis in each of the five years, who, as events actually
occurred, were preserved alive.
It is not possible, either for London or for the country
generally, to compare the mortality of the time of her
Majesty's accession with that of the present day, because
the necessary materials do not exist. The Act which pro
vided for civil registration came into operation a few weeks
after her Majesty ascended the throne, and 1838 was the
first complete year in which its provisions were carried out.
The best course which circumstances permit is to compare
abstained from any mention of the names~of ^.living practitioners. The
names of the dead have been mentioned freely, and also those of official
persons who are not practitioners.

and navy,

390 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
two periods, say that from 1838 to 1847 with that from
1876 to 1885.
Of Eng. The mean annual death-rate for England and Wales,
wates?*^ from 1838 to 1847, was 22-16 per thousand ; and the mean
annual death-rate from 1876 to 1885 was 20-07 per thousand.
If the mortality in the latter period had been as high as in
the former, the deaths would have been more numerous
than they were by over half a million, or, to sjieak precisely,
by 550,191. In the year 1885, taken alone, the death-rate
for England and Wales was 19*0 per thousand, which, on
an estimated population of 27,000,000, implies that the
deaths were less by 48,900 than the average annual number
during the decennium which the year in question brought
to a close.
Of army While such has been the diminution of mortality for the
whole nation, the diminution for the naval and military
services, both in peace and war, has been even more remark
able. The earliest figures to which I have access for the
Navy relate to the year 1859, in which, among a force of
52,825 men, there was a death-rate of 16-7 per thousand.
This was pronounced by the authorities to be ' most satisfac
tory,' as compared with the figures for the preceding year,
and was a great improvement on those of earlier times.
During the ten years 1875-84, the average annual naval
death-rate was 9-63 per thousand ; and the rate for 1885,
on a force of 46,670, was only 7-04 per thousand. The
average annual mortality in the Foot Guards, between the
years 1826 and 1846, was 20-5 per thousand, or more than
double that of the total male population within the same
hmits of age ; and this excess was chiefly due to the in
sanitary state of barracks and guard-rooms. In the year
1884, the mortality among the Foot Guards was 8-27 per
thousand, or 1-96 per thousand below that of all males of
corresponding ages, but was 2-94 higher than that of all

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 391
arms in the United Kingdom for the same year, and 0-74
higher than that of all arms for the ten years 1874-88.
In the Crimean war, exclusive of men killed in action, we
lost 1,761 from wounds and 16,297 from disease; 10 per
cent, of the whole invading force having died from disease
in the single month of January 1856. In Egypt, in 1882,
from July 17 to October 19, out of an average strength
of 13,013, Avith 7,590 admissions into hospital, there were
only 79 deaths from wounds and disease ; and, out of 1,500
cases of inflamed eyes, not one man lost his sight. In
1885, between March 1 and May 14, there were only 17
deaths among the Suakim expedition of 9,944 men, with
2,047 admissions to hospital ; and in the first Suakim ex
pedition, from February 15 to April 6, 1884, with an average
strength of 4,018, and with 814 admissions to hospital,
there Avere no deaths at all. In India, the annual average
mortality of British troops, which had previously been
about 69 per thousand, was reduced in ten years, by the
adoption of the recommendations of the Sanitary Commis
sion of 1860, to about 17 per thousand ; and the number
of men constantly sick from about 10 to about 5 per cent.
of strength. It would be very satisfactory, if the necessary data Difficulty
could be supplied, to distribute the total saving of life under °^i^^'
different headings, and to show by what means it has been results
" ' *' between
brought about. A definite proportion must be attributable preven-
. ,• 1 tive and
to preventive medicine, and a definite proportion to cura- curative
tive medicine ; but it is impossible to say what these pro
portions are. The earlier returns of the causes of death
Avere often inaccurate ; and, even now, they are not entirely
to be relied upon. We have no means of ascertaining what
has been the actual prevalence of any form of disease, or of
determuiing whether a diminished mortality has been due
to the occurrence of a smaller number of cases or to a

difficulties.

392 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
lessened death-rate among those which have occurred.
The diminution of mortality from typhoid fever, for
example, may probably be referred to both these causes,
and partly also to a more correct discrimination of typhoid
from other kinds of iUness; but there are no materials
from which even to infer the share of each cause in the
production of the general result.
other Besides these obvious difficulties there are others, arising
from the fact that the saving of life has been unequal among
classes who, it would be thought, could hardly fail to be
equally influenced by the causes to which the improvement
must be attributed. There has, generally speaking, been
a greater diminution of mortality among females than
among males ; and the diminution has been greater among
children and young persons than among persons of riper
years. There has even been an increase of mortality among
males at the later age periods (after 85), and among females
between the ages of 55 and 75. How far these conditions
may be due to the comparatively premature death, as
adults, of some who would previously have died as children,
and who, although preserved, have not been preserved
to attain longevity ; how far to differences of habit, of
education, or of employment ; and how far to the stress
of modern life, are questions which must be answered by
the statisticians of the future. We cannot avoid perceiv
ing that these questions exist, or that some of them may
hereafter come into prominence ; but the materials for
replying to them are not noAV in our possession. It is
none the less true that medicine has, during the last ten
years, saved more than half a million of lives in Eng
land and Wales in excess of the saving which it effected be
tween 1888 and 1847 ; or that it effected a saving, smaller
indeed, but still considerable, in each of the three inter
mediate decades ; and these facts afford a sufficient founda-

MEDICINE AND SURGER\ 393
tion for the claim of activity and usefulness which I have
advanced. It being impracticable to assign the respective shares of Pre-
preventive and of curative medicine in the production of the medicine.
general result, it will be admitted that, so far as this nar
rative is concerned, the former is entitled to precedence.
It has been developed, in the course of fifty years, from
a collection of vague hypotheses and sanguine hopes into
an active force in daily and beneficent operation.
It is probable that all primitive races have attributed causa-
disease to the displeasure of supernatural beings ; and this ^ise

ase.

belief has been fostered by many priesthoods, partly from
genuine assent, and partly, perhaps, from other motives.
In ancient communities which attained a high degree of
learning and civilisation the primitive belief Avas often
superseded by a more reasonable one ; but this, generally
speaking, was confined within narrow circles, and did not
reach the ignorant and the vulgar. Much of the law of
Moses was evidently dictated by his desire to preserve the
health of the people under his command ; and it may there
fore be inferred, not only that he had acquired, as part
of ' the learning of the Egyptians,' some insight into the
principles of sanitary science, but also that he knew the
uselessness of communicating these principles to his fol
lowers in any other form than as rules, independent of
reason, which were to be obeyed without question as divine
commands. The superstition which Moses turned to good
purpose constitutes a powerful agency even in our own
time ; but, notwithstanding its continued existence, we
may beheve that an approximately accurate conception of
the nature of disease has at length been very generally
attained. It will now, I apprehend, be conceded by all educated Natural
persons that illness and death are hnks in a chain of natural ttoi.""^*"

394 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
phenomena, and that their causes, although often concealed
from us by want of knoAvledge, are always related to some
thing which has gone before, either in the life of the indivi
dual or in the lives of his progenitors. If a soldier falls in
battle, when under the fire of the enemy, we infer that he
has been struck by a bullet ; and if a civilian falls a victim
to typhoid fever, Ave infer that he has inhaled or swallowed
a particle of the poison of the disease. We know that, if
we had stopped the firing in the one case and the liberation
of the poison in the other, the soldier and the civilian
would no longer have been exposed to a danger which, if
permitted to continue, must necessarily prove fatal to some
individuals. If a man so lives, either from choice or neces
sity, that the demands upon his tissues are more than they
can sustain, and that waste exceeds repair, we know that
he will die sooner than if his life were more correctly
ordered. We cannot foresee when or how the end will
come, because we cannot tell what kind of force will first
present itself for his extinction ; but we know that the
event is sure, by whatever steps it may be brought about.
We know that if, Avhen himself weakened or diseased, the
man becomes a parent, his offspring will be liable to inherit
his disease or his weakness ; and we are acquainted Avith
two courses of events, one of which will frequently occur.
Either the family, in successive generations, Avill suffer less
and less from and will ultimately overcome the inherited
disease, or the disease will gain ground and eventually ex
tinguish the family. We do not yet know how these events
are determined, nor can we explain how it is that inherited
disease or weakness may pass over a generation, or even
two or more generations, and may ultimately reappear ;
but we are none the less familiar with such occurrences as
matters of experience.
Such views as these were held by a few people, not only

MEDICINE AND SURGERY

395

in 1837, but even in much earlier times, when they rested
on imperfect evidence. But it was the custom fifty years
ago, among the great majority of the Enghsh middle classes,
to take no heed of the sanitary condition of the places in
which they lived and brought up their children, and to
attribute not only the occurrence of disease, but also its
issue in each individual case, to the direct personal will of
the Creator of the universe. With such a state of opinion
there could be little hope of improvement.
The first step towards a much-needed reform was taken
by the Poor Law Commissioners, who in 1838, and again
in 1889, presented to the Government reports from phy
sicians on preventible causes of disease in the metropolis.
In the last-named year, and in consequence of these reports,
the House of Lords addressed the Crown, praying that an
inquiry might be instituted as to how far similar causes of
disease were in operation in other parts of England and
Wales ; and the Poor Law Commissioners were directed to
undertake this inquiry. Assistant-commissioners were ap
pointed to visit various districts, and in 1840 the investi
gation was extended to Scotland. A report, drawn up by
Mr. Edwm ChadAvick, C.B., was presented to Parhament on
July 9, 1842, and, together with the reports of the assistant-
commissioners, was immediately published. These reports
proved that the time had come when measures for the
sanitary improvement of the people could no longer be
neglected ; and, after the usual delays, they led, in 1848,
to the passage of Acts which form the basis of all modern
sanitary legislation.
At the time when these Acts were framed, the hopes of
sanitary reformers were fixed upon the attainment of a
higher degree of national cleanliness, and their knowledge,
or even their imaginings, did not go beyond the conception
that dirt and overcrowding were causes of disease. The

Sanitary
neglect
fifty yearsago.

First step
to-wardsreform.

Inquiry
by Poor
La-w
Commis sioners.

Legis lation.

Expecta tions of
sanitary re
formers.

396 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
differentiation of the various kinds of dirt on the one hand,
or of the various diseases on the other, scarcely entered
into their calculations. The returns of the Eegistrar-
General, then beginning to become available, speedily
showed a diminution of mortality in places in which
increased cleanliness had been obtained ; and it was felt
that the new ' General Board of Health ' had fairly com
menced a great and beneficial national undertaking.
Medical In the meanwhile, the Acts had empowered local autho-
heaith. rities in certain places to appoint ' medical officers of
sdmou. health,' and the City of London led the way by so ap
pointing Mr. John Simon, F.E.S., one of the surgeons to
St. Thomas's Hospital, and already highly distinguished
as a scientific pathologist. Mr. Simon early saw that
contagious emanations proceeding from the sick must con
sist of definite particles, since they obeyed the laws of
definite particles and no others ; and that these particles
must differ among themselves, being in every case peculiar
to the disease which alone produced them, and which
alone they could reproduce. He saw that this doctrine, if
established, would greatly increase the definiteness and the
success of measures of sanitary reform ; and he diligently
pursued any lines of investigation by which its correctness
might be tested. In 1857, being appointed chief medical
officer to the Privy Council, he became able to carry out
his researches on a more extended scale, and with the help
of skilled coadjutors ; and the same opportunities were con
tinued to him when his office was merged in that of chief
medical officer to the Local Government Board, which he
held from 1871 until his retirement from the public service
in 1876. In the course of his long official life, he succeeded
in estabhshing all the main points for which he had con
tended, and also in indicating methods by which the public
health might be improved in an extraordinary degree.

improvements.

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 397
The original sanitary legislation, under the guidance of Effects of
the experience gradually gained of its beneficial effects, was ^*'"'*'^''^
from time to time extended and enlarged in various ways ;
and fresh and important powers were conferred upon the
Privy Council in 1858. Seven years afterwards, Mr. Simon
instructed Dr. Buchanan, then one of the medical inspectors
of the Privy Council, and now chief medical officer of the
Local Government Board, to ascertain the results which
had been produced in several parts of England by various
improvements. Dr. Buchanan's investigations were con
ducted in the course of 1865-66, and he visited twenty-five
towns, selected, after consultation with the Local Government
Act Office, as being places where structural sanitary works
had been most thoroughly done and had been longest in
operation. The towns were not chosen for any j)reviously
ascertained improvement in the health of their inhabitants,
and they contained an aggregate population of 606,186
persons according to the census of 1861. The improve
ments effected in these towns had been various and
variously combined, but they chiefly consisted of improved
drainage, improved water supply, improved paving and
scavenging, the better removal of refuse, and the preven
tion of overcrowding. Wherever sanitary works of adequate
character had been sufficiently long completed for their
results to be displayed. Dr. Buchanan found such diminu
tions in the death-rates from all causes as 16, 18, 20, and
in tAVO instances even 32 per cent. The death-rates from
typhoid fever had been reduced in a more marked degree
than the death-rates generally, the reduction ranging from
52 to 75 per cent, in nine towns, and from 38 to 48 per
cent, in ten others — a result which seemed to depend upon
the purification of air, water, and earth from the emana
tions given off by decaying organic matter. A similar and
nearly equal reduction in the mortality from consumption,

398

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Connec
tion be
tween differentcausesand dif
ferentdiseases.

ranging in eleven towns from 20 to 49 per cent., was found
to be connected with the degree in which the sanitary works
had produced an increased dryness of the subsoil.
In this way, while a general connection between sani
tary improvements and diminished mortality was rendered
obvious, and a special connection between particular kinds
of improvement and the diminished mortality from parti
cular diseases was also rendered obvious, the latter element
in the case had been brought into prominence in two
different directions. In 1849, Dr. Snow show.ed that a
localised outburst of cholera in the metropolis, which de
stroyed 616 lives in the vicinity of Golden Square, had been
caused by drinking the polluted water supplied by a single
pump ; and, in 1857, Dr. William Budd showed that typhoid
fever was not in any sense a product of filth, but a product
of contagion, which, constantly emanating from sewers,
cesspools, middens, and sources of water-supply contami
nated by them, was yet always to be traced back, through
the sewer, cesspool, or midden, to the infected person whose
excretions had been received by it. Confirmatory evidence
was soon obtained with regard to both diseases : with regard
to cholera by the researches of Mr. Netten Eadcliffe into
the history of a limited outbreak at Theydon Bois, and
into that of an extensive one which was produced by a dis
tribution of infected water by one of the metropolitan com
panies ; and, with regard to typhoid, by several analogous
investigations of the precise circumstances of limited out
breaks. Some of the latter were found to be connected
Avith a particular source of milk supply ; and, in these
instances, the passage of typhoid poison into a cesspool,
and percolation from the latter into the well which furnished
the water admittedly used for ' rinsing the pails,' and possibly
also for dilution, was in every case clearly established.
Such evidence as the foregoing was sufficient to convince

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 399
all instructed physicians or pathologists of the correctness Differ-611C6 bS"
of Mr. Simon's main proposition, that the contagia of tween
different diseases are essentially different in their nature, °°'^*''^'°'-
and that the measures which are eminently protective
against one may be absolutely useless against another.
The corollary of this conclusion is that the first step towards
obtaining protection against any disease is to get behind
its obvious manifestations to its essential phenomena and
its life-history. For this purpose, the medical inspectors
of the Privy Council or Local Government Board, under the
direction of Mr. Simon, were employed in all parts of
England in investigating, with unremitting diligence and
rare acumen, the actual facts of local epidemics of all kinds ;
and researches of a still more delicate character, requiring
all the resources of the microscope and of the laboratory,
were conducted with a view to determine the actual nature
and cause of each infectious disease, and the conditions and
limits of its communicability. M. Pasteur had shown that
some of the most fatal diseases of the lower animals Avere
associated with the growth of minute living organisms
(bacteria) in their tissues ; that these bacteria might be
reproduced by cultivation, either in the animal body or
upon suitable materials external to it ; that, when intro
duced into a healthy body by inoculation, they might
set up the form of disease ordinarily associated with their
presence ; and that their properties might be so modified
by different methods of cultivation as either to increase or
diminish the virulence of their activity. In the latter case
they might produce the characteristic disease in so mild a
form as not to be dangerous to the life of the infected
person or animal, but yet, presumably by the exhaustion
of their own pabulum within the system, to afford protection
against future attacks. A protective influence, with which
we Avere practically famihar as displayed in the results of

400 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
vaccination, was thus shown to rest upon a far-reaching
principle.
; Re- The researches of M. Pasteur, and the brilliant success
; of kl'^^^ which followed his protective inoculations against the
Pasteur, malignant anthrax of cattle, were sufficient to induce many
: Bacteria, observers to enter upon a search for specific bacteria in a
great variety of diseases. The search is an exceedingly
difficult one, the bacteria themselves being of extreme
minuteness, and differing from each other by characters
which may easily be mistaken, or to which undue signifi
cance may be assigned. It has been conclusively shown
that some diseases are traceable to these organisms, but
attempts to trace others to them have so far ended in
failure. It is believed by those best qualified to express
an opinion that the varieties of bacteria are extremely
numerous, that they play an important and hitherto un
appreciated part in the economy of nature, and that the
best antidotes to those which are injurious may possibly
be found in the operation of others. The whole question
is only beginning to take shape and outline, and it would
be useless to attempt to forecast conclusions which may
hereafter be attained. Among the diseased conditions in
the causation of which bacteria seem to hold a prominent
place, must be mentioned some of the consequences of
septic (or putrefactive) poisoning by accidental or designed
inoculation. It is extensively believed that such inoculation
may be produced by the presence in the atmosphere, and
hence by the introduction into wounds, of bacterial germs ;
especially when, as in hospitals, the atmosphere is exposed
to contamination by matters proceeding from the bodies of
the sick. The most recent researches, however, rather indi
cate that the injurious effects of germ inoculation, and of
the consequent bacterial growth, are not so much due to
the mere presence of these bodies, or to any direct influence

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 401
which they exert, as to chemical changes in the blood which
they serve to originate, and which may afterwards be con
tinued independently of them.
It has long been known that the recently dead human Poison-
body may contain something which is capable of producing, ductTof
when inoculated upon the healthy, dangerous or fatal iU- position
ness ; and that this noxious character may be destroyed by
the further progress of decomposition. The conditions of
such occurrences have lately been elucidated by chemical
investigations into the nature of the poisonous products
found in the dead body ; and we are believing, at all events
provisionally, that these products belong to the class of alka
loids, and that they are the results of processes which occur
also during life. In other words, the expenditure of force Of living.
•'n living is attended by the formation of substances which
are poisonous, but which are constantly removed by being
burnt off by the oxygen which enters the blood in respira
tion. It is probable that overcrowding, by diminishing
the supply of oxygen for each individual, may tend, by
interfering with the destruction of these poisonous products,
to bring about a state of lowered vitality and of diminished
power to resist infection. There is also reason to believe
that its effects may be carried still farther, and that typhus
fever, which is always liable to break out among underfed
and overcrowded communities, may be developed within
the first victims by self-poisoning, although it wiU after
wards spread by contagion. Typhus is the gaol fever of the
Middle Ages, and its last important appearance in the
United Kingdom was in Ireland during the famine conse
quent upon the failure of the potato.
The reforms which were the outcome of the legislation Limitedutility of
commenced in 1848, and the chief results of Avhich, as sanitary
then apparent, were described by Dr. Buchanan twenty ^°''^^-
years ago, were accomphshed by works of construction
vol. II. ^ °

4oi THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
undertaken by local and non-medical ' sanitary authorities,'
and carried out, of course, by architects, engineers, and
surveyors. These gentlemen, although wanting the medical
knowledge which discriminates between different diseases,
were deeply impressed by the diminished mortality and
improved health which followed their proceedings, and, in
too many instances, fell into the error of supposing that
they had mastered the whole field of sanitary science, that
doctors were no longer required for its advancement, and
that a pure and protected water-supply, sound and dry
pavements, properly constructed soAvers, and well-built
dwellings with sufficient cubic space, comprised everything
necessary to preserve the health of a community. These
things were, indeed, of high importance. They afforded
protection against the dissemination of disease through
certain channels ; they diminished the death-rate from
typhoid fever, contagious diarrhceal maladies, and con
sumption ; and they rendered the population better able to
resist any injurious influence to which they might be ex
posed. But, notwithstanding the wide range and the
beneficial character of their effects, these reforms, if they
had stood alone, would have left the prevalence of many
Medical common maladies undiminished and uncontrolled. Por-
ment of tunatcly for the country, such an abortive result has been
Council in great measure prevented by the medical department
iTocai ^^i^^ '^^^ attached, in the first instance, to the Privy
Govern- Council, and afterwards to the Local Government Board.
mentBoard. The inspectors of this department, the staff-officers of a
new army of sanitary workers, under the guidance of
their successive chiefs, have offered for the acceptance of
every sanitary authority in the kingdom a mass of informa
tion gained from the experience of the country at large ;
often gained in processes of search as to the origin of local
epidemics, and as to weak places in local sanitary defences ;

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 403
and they are to be credited with having organised that
system of protection against cholera which, Avithout sub
jecting the healthy to restraint and without recourse to
the absurdities of quarantine, has sufficed to keep Great
Britain scatheless. The same inspectors have lately been
charged with the duty of seeing how far the national
defences are in readiness ; and, although too many flaAvs
were discoverable by their practised eyes, they report so
much of amendment as to enable us to hope that foreign
pestilences may henceforth prove harmless to our country.
It is true of nearly every infectious disease that the Dis
infections matter which it produces is thrown off from the contagia
bodies of the sick chiefly, if not entirely, through a single ^fte ^^'
definite channel. In the case of typhoid fever, cholera, channels.
and the infectious diarrhceal maladies, this channel is the
intestinal canal ; and the diseases are mainly spread by
the intestinal discharges. These, in former times, were
constantly so disposed of that they either percolated into
wells or watercourses, or became dried and were distributed
through the atmosphere. The architect or the engineer,
acting under medical guidance, and by means of Avell-
constructed sewerage arrangements and protected water
channels, may do much to prevent these discharges from
inflicting injury, but the knowledge of the physician is
required va. order still further to diminish danger. The
discharges themselves should be chemically disinfected
before they are taken away from the sick chamber ; and
physicians have gained in recent years much knowledge of
valid disinfection, and are gaining more.
Besides the foregoing group, there are other forms of Diseases
epidemic disease current in England, notably scarlet fever, these
diphtheria, measles, and hooping-cough, each of which is areTn-"^^
productive of a large mortality. The causes of the two '^^°^^
former, although noAV more than surmised, are hardly fully
D D 2

404 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
known ; while the causes of the two latter, and the methods
of dissemination of all, may almost be described as un
known. ' Sanitary measures,' as understood by architects
and local authorities, have no manifest influence upon
them. As regards communication from person to person,
diphtheria appears to be capriciously and uncertainly in
fective ; the other three are highly infective. In all of them
the nature and channels of discharge of the infective material
are unknoAvn, and tlie chief agency Avhich can be employed
to prevent their diffusion is the isolation of the sick. But,
in the common condition of ignorance about sanitary mat
ters, it is hardly possible for an epidemic of scarlet fever,
of dijihtheria, of measles, or of hooping-cough to occur
anywhere without a bitter complaint of the state of the local
drainage, or of the existence of a local ' bad smell,' being
made by some enthusiastic non-medical sanitarian ; and
it is generally useless to tell such a complainant that, as
far as is known to physicians, bad drainage and bad smells,
however objectionable on other grounds, have no discover
able relation to the prevalence of the malady. It has been
almost proved, during the last two or three years, that
Milk as diphtheria has been produced by drinking the milk of a
oi-'dii^h- cow affected by a disease which in that animal is of an
thena, unimportant character ; and so lately as last year scarlet
fever was even more certainly traced to a similar origin.
It has long been known that scarlet fever often follows some
given source of milk-supply ; but, in these instances, it has
frequently happened that the sellers or carriers of the milk
Avere the first persons to suffer, perhaps only in a slight
degree, and that they were active in the work of preparation
and distribution while still infective, so that they were
supposed ±0 be themselves the means by which the disease
was conveyed to the families of purchasers. It was also
conjectured that scarlet fever, hke typhoid, might be com-

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 405
municated through the medium of the Avater used for dairy
purposes ; but a difficulty was placed in the way of accept
ing this conjecture by the fact that no undoubted example
of the conveyance of scarlet fever by the agency of water
could be traced. Mr. Power, of the Local Government
Board, has lately conducted investigations which seem to
prove that scarlet fever may be produced by drinking the and of
milk of cows with ulcerated udders, the secretion from lover.
which has fallen into the pails; so that presumably the
cows, and neither water adulteration nor the persons of the
distributors, have been. the sources of some very destructive
epidemics. If this be fully established, it will rank among
the greatest discoveries of the Jubilee year. During the
period between 1851 and 1880 scarlet fever annually de
stroyed the lives, in England and Wales, of an average of
854 persons for every million living, which proportion, on
the estimated population of the kingdom, would mean a
total of 543,000 deaths in the thirty years, mostly among
young persons, with prospects of life and usefulness before
them. It is not too much to say that each death would
mean twelve illnesses, many of them with injurious conse
quences of lifelong duration, and that each illness would
cost a pound — an estimate which roughly sets the pecuniary
loss inflicted upon the nation by scarlet fever iii thirty years
at over six millions sterling, without considering the anxiety
and suffering of parents and relatives. To know the cause
of all this misery would imply the power of preventing it
in the future.
The prospect thus afforded, and the high probability isolation,
that both scarlet fever and diphtheria are produced by the pTovirion
diseases of coavs, furnish a striking illustration of the folly of
resting upon the so-called ' sanitary measures ' Avhich can be
carried into effect by persons not possessed of medical know
ledge, and Avhich are only useful against particular forms

4o6 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
of disease. Notwithstanding the manifest value of public
cleanliness, the pursuit of it is sometimes regarded as an
excuse for the neglect of precautions at least equally im
portant — such, for example, as the isolation of the sick.
The necessity for isolation in diseases which are infective
through unknown channels has long been pointed out by
physicians, but is hardly understood by the community ; so
that both law and custom permit freedoms which are in
compatible with the general safety. Much has been done
to diffuse knowledge on this subject, but much remains to
do ; and many, who are convinced of the necessity of isola
ting infectious disease Avhen it occurs among their neigh
bours, hold the belief less firmly when members of their own
families are the sufferers. The use of public conveyances
by infected persons is only nominally forbidden ; while
schools, laundries, and workshops are not yet placed under
any sufficient control, and frequently become centres from
Avhich contagion may radiate. The recent provision of
ambulances for the conveyance of infected persons is an
important step in the right direction, and can hardly fail to
exert a beneficial educational influence.
Small- The case of small-pox stands apart from that of other
infectious diseases, on account of the protection afforded by
vaccination ; and it is therefore desirable to mention the
steps by which this protection has been extended. Prior
to 1840, persons who were not paupers, and who wished
their children to be vaccinated, had to pay a medical practi
tioner for the performance of the operation, and to trust to
him for its being performed safely and effectually. In 1840
vaccination was provided gratuitously, apart from parochial
relief, and this state of things continued until the end of
1853. From 1854 to 1871 vaccination was declared to be
obhgatory, but was not enforced; and from 1872 to the
present time it ha.s not only been obligatory, but has been

pox and
vaccina tion.

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 407
SO far enforced that only some five or six per cent, of births
are now left unaccounted for. At the same time, the
medical inspectors of the Privy Council, or of the Local
Government Board, have been very successful in raising the
previously accepted standards of quality and efficiency. For
the last few years about three-quarters of a million of children
have been vaccinated every year, and the deaths registered
as consequent upon vaccination have been about fifty annu
ally. These deaths, as far as can be ascertained by careful
inquiry, have mostly been due to blood-poisoning through
the scratch, and hence to some form of what is called
pytemia, septicaemia, or erysipelas ; possibly due in some in
stances to the use of an unclean vaccinating instrument ;
possibly in some to a constitutional peculiarity on the part
of the vaccinated child; and in some, it can hardly be
doubted, to accidental inoculation with septic matter after
the child had returned to its home. During the same period,
the deaths registered among children under one year old
from pysemia, septicaemia, erysipelas, and blood-poisoning,
independent of vaccination, have amounted to about five
hundred annuaUy. In other words, for every vaccination
scratch which has led to any of these disasters, ten acci
dental injuries have done the same thing.
With regard to the influence of vaccination in preventiog influence
. • • ii i? ofvacci-
smah-pox, that influence is very conspicuous m the case ot nation
children and young people, for whose protection the law is
chiefly operative, and is also conspicuous, but in a less
degree, in the case of adults. During the first decade of
the Queen's reign, in a population roughly of sixteen
millions, the deaths registered as from small-pox in England
and Wales amounted to 11,462; and during the last decade,
in a population roughly of twenty-six millions, to 9,855, or
half what they would have been if the former proportion
had been maintained. It has been shown that the mor-

4o8 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
tality among children, in the metropolitan epidemic of 1881,
would, if it had been in accordance with former experience,
or with that among the unvaccinated, have exceeded the
on actual mortality by 12,000. In the same year, the deaths
^^^' from small-pox among the relatively few unvaccinated
children of London are stated by Dr. Buchanan to have
been very nearly ten times as many as those among the
twentyfold larger number of vaccinated children, the rate
of mortality in the two classes differing as 200 to 1. It
will probably be correct to say that the protection afforded
by vaccination does not endure so long as that afforded by
small-pox, but that the former can always be renewed by
revaccination. The law provides for the safety of infants,
who cannot protect themselves, but is somewhat inconsistent
on in allowing adults to catch and to spread small-pox at their
pleasure. In Germany the latter freedoms are no longer
permitted, and revaccination is enforced. It is noteworthy
that the small-pox mortality of recent years has been almost
entirely metropolitan, and that in the provinces the deaths
from the disease have fallen to very insignificant numbers.
Hydro- It 18 noccssary to mention, as a proceeding analogous
to vaccination, the means by which M. Pasteur hopes to
confer immunity from hydrophobia. The principle on
which his treatment rests is that of producing by inocula
tion a change which renders the subject of it no longer
susceptible of the operation of a particular virus. It would
be impossible at present to speak with entire confidence
about the probable future of the process; for something has
still to be learnt as to the degree of attenuation in which
the inoculated matter should be applied, and as to other
details. So far, although the experiments have not been
free from misadventure, the results have been such as to
encourage hope that the anticipations of the illustrious
French savant wiU prove to have been well founded.

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 409
In addition to the gains already described, great progress Indus-
has been made, chiefly through researches conducted by maladies.
medical inspectors of the Local Government Board, in our
knowledge of maladies due to conditions peculiar to certain
industries, and of means by which the workers in these in
dustries may be protected. The inhalation of dust in various
forms has been shown to be productive of lung disease ; the
handling of the hides or wool of diseased animals to have
been a cause of fatal malignant pustule ; and the use of
noxious materials — lead, phosphorus, and others — has been
found to produce injurious consequences of various kinds.
Against these evils, in the majority of instances, methods of
protection have been devised.
The continuous advancement of preventive medicine has General
occasioned the saving of a large sum of human life, much of pre-
of it, no doubt, of a highly valuable description ; but it meVoine.
may reasonably be asked whether this saving has been an
unmixed gain to the community. I have pointed out the
possibility that some who are saved from dying in child
hood may yet not be saved to attain longevity ; and this
may mean the existence amongst us, during a period long
enough for them to propagate their kind, of a greater number
of weakly or diseased organisms than could have been found
at former periods of our history. It is possible that the
country may have uses for the greater quantity of young
adult life which it thus obtains ; even though every such
individual, after reaching manhood or womanhood, may
die sooner than the average of survivors when the former
rates of mortality prevailed. It is difficult to say whether
the national interests would be best served, in the long run,
by permitting feeble organisations to perish in childhood, or
by giving them such chances as prolonged life and better
surroundings may afford of ultimately, in themselves or
their descendants, outgrowing their original weaknesses.

4IO THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
The same problem overhangs much which passes muster for
philanthropy ; and the question often arises whether bene
volence to the individual may not be cruelty to the race. It
is probably, in the present state of knowledge, insoluble.
Eetro- The progress of sanitary reform has not been without
gression. drawbacks, nor without at least one retrogression of a
grievous character. Speaking generally, it may be said that
all legislation for the improvement of health has been edu
cational, based in the first instance upon the learning of
specialists ; and that experience of its effects has gradually
instructed many who were at first unconvinced of its utility.
No law can be useful which is far in advance of public
opinion ; but, when its necessity is apparent to experts, it
is well that it should be in advance in some degree, so that
it may exert the educational influence referred to. A law
which fulfils these conditions will find a few people earnest
in supporting it, and the mass of the community at first
indifferent, but in time converts. Under a popular system
of government it is often difficult to maintain the desired
advance, because the making of laws is dependent upon
professional politicians, who, by the exigencies of party
strife, are frequently brought more or less under bondage
to fools. My ideal of a typical fool is that he is ' wiser in
his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.'
Persons of this character, who fancy themselves able to
decide offhand upon profoundly difficult and intricate
questions which they have never studied, and which, if they
studied them ever so diligently, they would be unable to
understand, constantly vex the souls of instructed sani
tarians by frivolous objections to necessary measures, or
by opposition to laws which are working for the public
good. Sometimes their objections rest upon principles which
are in themselves sound, but which have no applicability to
the matter in hand ; sometimes upon unfounded assertions ;

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 411
sometimes upon the feeblest form of what is commonly
described as ' sentiment.' By dint of persistent clamour at
contested provincial elections, such persons lately prevailed
upon the House of Commons to condemn legislation which,
although it had been limited to certain garrison towns, had
in a foAv years sufficed greatly to check, even among their
civil populations, the spreading of contagious diseases Avhich
inflict greater evils than any others, and which mainly
spring from the most profound moral degradation. In order
to satisfy electioneering claptrap, this beneficent legislation
was abandoned, and hundreds of a semi-criminal class, who
had been placed under restraint as much for their own
good as for that of the public, were compelled to return to
their former existence upon the streets, and were permitted
to diffuse without hindrance a malady which of all others
is the most wide- spreading and the most far-reaching in
its effects, which destroys thousands of lives, which passes
from husband to wife, which descends from parent to child,
which produces blindness, deafness, ugliness, foolishness,
and everything that is hateful, and which is not ahvays
wholly extinguished even after the lapse of many generations.
We are now threatened with a similar clamour against the
vaccination laws ; and in a balanced state of political parties
there is too much reason to fear that such a clamour might
be effectual. It behoves all who desire tlie welfare of their
country to raise their voices against any relaxation of exist
ing safeguards against disease. Our laws, as they stand,
are far in the rear of what practical medicine declares to
be necessary ; and not only should a determined resistance
be opposed to any weakening of our defences, but an effort
should be made, whenever domestic legislation becomes
possible, to strengthen those which we possess. For this
purpose two things are mainly necessary — first, the notifi
cation to local authorities of the occurrence of any form of

412 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
contagious disease ; and, secondly, the recognition of the
principle that no person has any right, in the name of
liberty, to inflict upon others injuries from which they are
unable to protect themselves, and for which, in the nature
of things, it is impossible for them to obtain redress.
Curative Passing on now from the consideration of preventive to
me cine. ^^^ ^^ curative medicine, the progress made during the
last fifty years has been such as to be unexampled in the
history of the human race ; and the difficulty of describing
it is much enhanced by the extent to which it has followed
the convergence of light, from many different quarters, upon
each problem which has successively presented itself for
solution. In the Middle Ages, the responsibility of treating
the sick rested upon physicians, who, when they thought
mechanical interference necessary, sent for a surgeon to
carry out the instructions which he received. The surgeon,
Avhen he had done this, retired from the case, leaving his
medical colleague in possession. As time went on, and as
surgeons rose from the position of handicraftsmen, they
not only took a constantly increasing share in the manage
ment of cases to which they were called, but even the entire
management of many of them ; and, at the time of her
Majesty's accession, it would not have been difficult to
define, with an approach to accuracy, the respective pro
vinces of the two divisions of the medical profession. The
Phy- physician might have been described as a person whose
chief occupation was to treat the maladies of internal organs
by the aid of drugs ; the surgeon, as a person whose chief
occupation was to treat the maladies of external organs by
the aid of local applications or instruments. A few diseases,
such as those affecting the skin, occupied ground which was
more or less debatable ; but, on the whole, the line between
medicine and surgery could be drawn with sufficient distinct
ness. Of the two forms of special practice which then existed.

sicians.

Surgeons.

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 4x3
the diseases of the eye had fallen into the hands of surgeons,
the diseases peculiar to the female sex into those of phy
sicians. With the progress of science and the growth of Their
. ^ gradual
physiology, the former arbitrary divisions began to overlap fusion.
each other, until to-day they are almost effaced in theory, and
are only held apart in practice by customs which may al
most be described as survivals. Instrumental or operative
interference has been freely extended to internal organs ;
and the success of operations is so much governed by
general conditions that no surgeon is fit for his duties
unless he be also a competent physician. The diseases
of the eye remain in the hands of surgeons, and the
surgical resources for dealing with them have much in
creased in number and importance ; but the resources of
medicine have increased in a proportionate degree, and the
ophthalmic surgeon must be thoroughly acquainted with
the combinations and uses of drugs. The diseases of the
female sex remain chiefly in the hands of physicians, but
many of these physicians have become the boldest and most
successful of operators, and may be said to practise surgery
rather than medicine. New forms of specialism have arisen,
some of them certainly advantageous, others doubtfully so ;
but each one, as a rule, dealing with the diseases of some
single part, and each one requiring a combination of medical
and surgical knowledge, inasmuch as any region which a
specialist may favour must be liable to suffer sometimes
from a disease amenable to drugs, sometimes from one
Avhich requires an operation. Surgeons no longer describe
physicians as their ' unhandy brethren,' and physicians
who adhere to the old traditions of their vocation constantly
find it necessary to obtain the assistance of a surgeon, no
longer as an operator charged to carry out the orders which
he receives, but as a learned and skilful coadjutor whose
judgment is held in as much esteem as his dexterity.

414

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

First step
towardsimprovement of
curativemedicine.

Harvey.

The first step along the road of medical progress Avas in
the direction of increased knowledge concerning the altera
tions which are produced by or which constitute disease.
The time is not far distant when the physician was content
to observe symptoms, with little or no acquaintance with
the morbid processes or physical changes underlying them.
His remedies, therefore, were mainly directed to the relief
of symptoms, and he had learnt, either from his teachers
or from experience, that such and such symptoms might
often be relieved by such and such methods. Other sym
ptoms he interpreted as having a fatal tendency ; and, if he
Avere a wise and observant man, he became skilful in the
interpretation of variations in the state of a patient from
day to day, and in the alteration of his remedies in accord
ance with them. He was then, in the best sense of the
word, ' experienced.' His trained faculties were quick to
recognise any evidence of improvement or of retrogression ;
and he had seen symptoms of a threatening character pass
away under the employment of means which, in a case
apparently of like kind, he was prepared to employ again.
His ' opinion ' about the prospects of recovery, or about the
methods by which it might be promoted, was often extremely
valuable ; but it was truly described as an ' opinion ' — that
is to say, it was ' a persuasion of the mind, without proof
or certain knowledge.'
It is manifestly difficult to select a starting point from
which to begin the description of an advance which for
many years has been continuous. Such a starting point,
however, in relation to rational as distinguished from
empirical medicine, may be found in Harvey's great dis
covery of the circulation, a discovery which paved the way
to a knowledge of the uses of the heart, the lungs, the
arteries, and the veins, and of the part played by the blood
in the sustentation of vital force. It is worthy of note

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 415
that this discovery was a result of experiments upon living
animals, and that it could have been made and verified in
no other manner. The whole fabric of modern medicine,
or the whole difference between the prospects of a sick
man to-day and his prospects two hundred years ago, rests
absolutely upon vivisection.
It must have been known from the dawn of observation Aven-
that the contents of any cavity would modify the sound '^"^^'"'
Avhich was returned when its walls were struck ; and, in
1762, Avenbrugger applied this knoAvledge to the discovery
of the nature of the contents of the cavities of the human
body. He was followed by Piorry, who, in a work pub- Piorry.
lished in 1828, laid down definite rules for the conduct of
' percussion ; ' and who showed that by its means the
state of the lungs, and of certain of the abdominal organs,
might be investigated with some approach to exactness. In
the meanwhile, Laennec, who first wrote in 1819, had dis- Laenneo.
covered that the sounds produced by the actions of the heart
and lungs would afford evidence of a still more trustworthy
kind. He invented the stethoscope to facilitate listening,
and to assist in the precise localisation of the sounds ; and
he ultimately left the art of auscultation, and the poAver of
dirawing conclusions from what was heard, at a point from
which it has not since very materially advanced, except as
regards the interpretation of the sounds of the heart. The
practice of auscultation was introduced into England by
Dr. Thomas Davies, assistant physician to the London Dr.
Hospital, who, on account of his stethoscope, was known
among the poor of the east of London, who attended the
hospital as out-patients, as ' the man Avith the horn.' Dr.
Davies' chief work on the subject appeared in 1835, and
attracted much attention in the profession. It is said that
Sir Charles Locock, some time physician accoucheur to
her Majesty, was greatly interested in the new method of

4t5

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

¦Blffects of
ausculta
tion and
percus sion.

Sir
CharlesBell.

examination, and, at the same time, that he was not a little
sceptical as to its utility. In order to resolve his doubts,
he went incognito to Dr. Davies as a patient, and sub
mitted his own chest to examination. The result convinced
him, and he became an assiduous learner of the art.
By the time when her Majesty ascended the throne,
auscultation and percussion were taught in all English
schools of medicine, and were systematically practised at
the bedside. They enabled physicians to determine the
presence or absence of inflammation of the lung substance
or of its investing membrane, the presence or absence of the
deposits which are the immediate causes of consumption, and
the daily progress of either malady. Inflammation of either
the investing or the lining membrane of the heart, and
alterations in its valves or orifices, could also be discovered ;
so that the condition of the great organs of the chest
cavity, instead of being concealed, could be ascertained by
a moderate exercise of skill and patience. The satisfaction
of mind attendant upon the recognition and treatment of
diseases of the chest speedily led to a desire to obtain
similar information about those of other regions. The
possession of exact knowledge in one department of the
healing art, and the daily recurring experience of the value
of the guidance which this exact knowledge afforded, fur
nished a powerful stimulus to endeavours to widen its
domain. In the year 1821, Sir Charles Bell contributed to the
Eoyal Society his demonstration of the nature of the func
tions of the spinal cord — namely, that its anterior columns
or portions give origin to the nerves Avhich call muscles into
motion, while its posterior columns receive the nerves which
minister to sensation. His researches directed the attention
of other investigators to the structure and functions of the
nervous system; and, in 1837, Dr. Marshall Hall discovered

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 417
the « reflex ' function of the spinal cord. This means that Dr. Mar-
when an impression is conveyed along a sensitive nerve to h^u!
one of the posterior columns, the resulting stimulus may
be * reflected ' or turned back, through an anterior column
and along a motor nerve, and may call a muscle or a group
of muscles into activity, without the intervention of either
volition or consciousness. At this point the inquiry was
taken up by Dr. W. B. Carpenter, who devoted himself for Dr. oar-
many years to the physiology of the nervous system, but p®'^'®''-
whose work, excellent as it was, led him to erroneous con
clusions for want of the control Avhich might have been
afforded by experiment. Dr. Carpenter did much to popu
larise the study of the functions and diseases of the nervous
system among the profession ; but it was not until after his
activity in this direction had ceased that his errors were
corrected, and the deficiencies of his teachmg Avere made
good, by experiments upon living animals. The knowledge
thus gained has lately been rendered sufficiently definite to
admit of application for the relief or cure of disease, a part
of the subject to Avhich it will be necessary to return here
after. The researches of Dr. Bright, published in 1887, had Dr.
shown that certain forms of kidney disease were attended ^^^
by the presence of albumen in the secretion of the affected
organs, and it had long been known that in diabetes sugar
was removed from the system through the same channel.
The attention of physicians soon began to be directed
to other variations in the secretion, and to the mforma-
tion which these were calculated to afford. Dr. Golding '^^- Goid-
ing Bird.
Bird, by a work published in 1845, gave a great stimulus
to this kind of research ; and a chemical and microscopical
examination of urine now forms an ordinary part of the
duties of every medical practitioner. By this means much
light has been thrown upon the chemistry of many vital
VOL. II. E E

4i8

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Tempe
rature.

"W-under- lich.

Specula.

Mirrors.

processes, and information is obtained which is of the highest
value in the recognition and treatment of disease.
It was long taught by physiologists that the temperature
of the blood was almost uniform, and that the manifest heat
of skin by which many diseases are attended was no more
than skin deep. Barensprung and Traube, in 1850 and
1851, showed this view to be erroneous ; and Wunderlich,
who commenced the use of the thermometer soon afterwards,
published in 1868 an important volume on the subject.
Two years previously Dr. Compton had stated his belief,
founded upon more than five thousand temperature observa^
tions in hospital, that the thermometer was not calculated to
be of great assistance in private practice ; but the manufac
ture of registering instruments of sufficient delicacy at once
changed the aspect of affairs, and the clinical thermometer
is now an essential part of the equipment of every physician
and surgeon. It constantly gives the first warning of danger,
and the first sign of improvement.
The desire for precise information as to the state of
internal organs led, about 1840, to the invention of various
forms of specula — contrivances for dilating natural orifices,
and for rendering it possible to inspect parts which must
otherwise have remained concealed from view. It is re
markable that, in this direction, human inventiveness had
traversed the same ground in former ages, and that instru
ments resembling some of the modern specula have been
found in the houses of Pompeii.
The application of solar or artificial light to the explora
tion of the cavities of the body was first attempted by Dr.
Warner and Mr. Avery, who, about 1845, constructed many
ingenious instruments for this purpose, all of them resting
upon combinations of mirrors, or of mirrors and prisms,
by which light might be directed around corners without
material diminution, and reflected back again to the eye of

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 419
the obserA'er. The use of such instruments required not
only considerable dexterity on the part of the physician or
surgeon, but also much quietness on the part of the patient ;
and they made no great way in the profession. They were
almost forgotten when, in 1855, a throat mirror, or ' laryngo- Laryngo-
, scope.
scope,' which afforded a view of the vocal cords, and even
of the cavity of the larynx, was invented by Seiior Manuel
Garcia, a professor of singing. This instrument, which
was improved in 1859 by Dr. Czermak, of Pesth, was in
troduced into London in 1862, and revealed for inspection
and treatment many previously unsuspected forms of throat
disease. It enabled surgeons to see and to remove diseased
growths springing from the vocal cords ; and, by rendering
the movements of the cords visible, it led to a better knowledge
not only of their natural functions, but also of certain forms
of paralysis to which they are exposed, sometimes from
disease of the brain, sometimes from pressure upon their
nerves by aneurysms or other swellings within the chest.
An early effect of improvements in methods of research,
and of gains in accuracy of knowledge, was the detection
of real differences between many forms of illness which
are somewhat alike in their obvious manifestations, and
which, up to a certain period, were confounded with one
another. This effect was not limited to cases in which the
new methods of research were immediately apphcable, but
extended over a wider area, as a result of the cultivation of
habits of close and careful observation. For example, Sir
Thomas Watson, in 1843, declared that ' there is no line of
genuine distinction between continued fevers. They run
insensibly into each other, even the most dissimilar of them,
and are traceable often to the same contagion.' The exist
ence of such a hne between ' typhus ' and ' typhoid ' had,
however, been asserted in 1836 by Lombard of Geneva,
and again in 1840 by Dr. A. P. Stewart ; and, m 1849, an

420 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
eminent living physician completed their work, and proved
the two to be different diseases, arismg from different
causes, pursuing different courses, and subject to different
methods of propagation and transmission. The ascertain
ment of facts as distinguished from symptoms led also to
modifications of prevailing methods of treatment, perhaps
in no instance more remarkably than in the general aban
donment of the once common practice of taking blood from
the arm. This proceeding, Avhich in a large number of
cases affords immediate relief to difficulty of breathing or to
other forms of suffering, and which was highly valued as
long as the sensations of the patient were the chief guides
of the physician, was discovered, when the essential nature
of morbid processes was carefully studied, to afford tempo
rary comfort at the frequent cost of permanent injury.
It is thought by some that the abandonment of bleeding
has been too complete ; for there are probably few prac
titioners under fifty who have either performed or wit
nessed the operation. Other modifications of treatment
have arisen from a more complete knowledge of the in
fluence of drugs upon healthy and diseased action ; and
chemistry has kept pace with medicine by providing drugs
of greater and more exact potency, as well as of less cum
brous and more agreeable form, than any which were
available even twenty years ago. The introduction of the
needle syringe, for administering medicines by injection
under the skin, may be also noted as having marked a
distinct advance in the means by which curative agencies
can be brought into operation.
The^d^s^' Wliile the science of medicine, distinctively so called,
covery of was thus advancing towards the attainment of more exact
aneesthe- n , j ,i
tics. knowledge, the science of surgery was revolutionised by a
single great discovery. Sir Humphry Davy, the discoverer
of ' laughing gas ' — or, as it is technically called, ' nitrous

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 421
oxide ' — occasionally inhaled this substance for the relief of
pain, and suggested, in a memorandum which was pub
lished in 1839, that its uses in this direction might be
extended. The suggestion seems to have been scarcely
noticed until, in 1844, some not very successful experiments
with the gas were made by Mr. Horace Wells, a dentist of
Connecticut. But, towards the latter end of 1846, another
American dentist, Mr. Morton, succeeded in producing in
sensibility to pain by the inhalation of ether, and he ex- Ether.
tracted a tooth without the knowledge of the patient. On the
16tli of October in the same year. Dr. Warren, of Boston,
U.S., made an incision some inches in length upon an ether
ised patient, Avhose consciousness of pain, although much
lessened, was not destroyed ; and, on the folloAving day, Dr.
Hayward, of the same city, removed a tumour from the
arm of a woman without giving her pain. An amputation
above the knee, and the removal of a portion of the lower
jaw, were performed under similar conditions ; and, on the
17th of December, a report of these cases, and of the
manner of administering the ether, reached this country.
On the 19th, the late Mr. Liston operated painlessly upon
two etherised patients ; and, in a few days, intelligence of
the new discovery was almost universally diffused.
The reception accorded to ether varied with the tempera- itsrecep-
ments of different persons. In April 1847 Sir John Forbes Engia'^d.
spoke of the discovery as a * matchless and priceless one,'
which might, nevertheless, be attended by compensating
evils ; while many surgeons were outspoken in their con
demnation of it, and could with difficulty be prevailed upon
to use it in their operations. Many predicted that it would
be only a nine days' wonder, soon to be abandoned ; and
cases in which evil results were said to have followed its
lemployment were brought before medical societies and put
;in circulation. But patients requiring operation were

422 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
determined to avail themselves of insensibility, and even the
most reluctant practitioners were compelled to swim with
the stream. Before the end of 1847, Punch contained a
notice of ' an old-fashioned surgeon,' who described opera
tions under ether as ' senseless operations.'
The ether which was then attainable was often impure or
imperfectly prepared, and its use was attended by many
disadvantages ; while there was much to learn with regard
to the best methods of administration to different patients.
Before the middle of 1847, Sir James Simpson had given
it to women in childbirth, and his experience of its effects
induced him to try experiments, upon himself and others,
with other chemical preparations of a somewhat analogous
Chioro- character. From among these he finally selected chloroform
form. as the best and most convenient, and for many years it
was employed almost universally, although bichloride of
methylene and a few other agents acquired now and then
some temporary reputation.
Its dan- When the operations performed under chloroform could
be numbered by thousands, it became manifest that the
anaesthetic itself was in some cases a source of danger,
chiefly by paralysing the action of the heart ; and enough
deaths were recorded to show that the mortality attributable
to the inhalation might be placed at perhaps one death
among three or four thousand cases. In some places, aiid
in the hands of some administrators, this proportion was
exceeded, and the fact that chloroform was not a perfectly
safe agent became known by degrees both to the pubhc and
the profession. On the other side of the Atlantic, where
some fatal cases had occurred, a feehng arose that ether
was safer than chloroform, and the former was largely re
stored to favour. The necessary skill in its administration
and regulation had been gained, it could be obtained pure
in any quantity, and it was said that no deaths were distinctly

gers.

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 423
traceable to its influence. In some American hospitals the Partial
abandonment of chloroform was even enjoined by rule, and ether.
in England ether superseded it to a great extent.
In the meanAvhile, the use of nitrous oxide gas had been uitrous
remtroduced as a ready means of producing insensibility °^^ ^'
to pain for short periods, especially for dental operations ;
and it was found that gas and ether might be advantageously
combined in general surgery — the gas to produce insensi
bility, the ether to maintain it when produced. For some
purposes, and for some persons, chloroform is still the best
anaesthetic, although gas and ether are somewhat more
safe, and are applicable to the majority of patients and of
operations. The question what anaesthetic to employ is
one which should be decided by the surgeon ui every case.
It is sufficient for the pubhc to know that declared weak- Beiative
ness, or even structural disease, of the heart is no barrier tages."
to the use of chloroform ; that the cases in which its action
upon that organ has proved fatal have usually been those
of persons in apparent health, requirmg some trifling opera
tion ; and that, generally speaking, few people take it better
than those who fancy that something in their condition is
prohibitory of its use. The mortality which it occasions is
so small as to place no difficulty in the way of its em
ployment, whenever this is desirable on other grounds.
The use of anaesthetics has changed the whole aspect of Effect of
surgery. Prior to 1847 operations were few in number, tics.
and were almost hmited to the amputation of limbs,
the removal of cancerous and other tumours, the resec
tion of a few of the larger joints, cutting for stone, and
the ligature of main arteries for aneurysm. The pain ^^p^^.^-
suffered by the patients was so horrible as to tax severely pain.
the endurance of the bravest and strongest, and to depress
seriously, and often beyond recall, the powers of life. Death
from ' shock ' Avas by no means uncommon, the patient sink-

424 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
ing in a few hours from the effects of the suffering which he
had undergone. The writer well remembers, as a medical
student, turning sick and faint at the agonies which he was
called upon to witness ; and it was a point of honour with
operators in those days to abbreviate such agonies as much
as possible, and to cultivate speed in operating as the highest
and the most valuable form of dexterity. Nothing was
attempted which could not be done quickly, and an amputa
tion in the hands of a practised surgeon had almost the
appearance of a feat of legerdemain. For the separation
of the lower limb above the knee, of course not including
dressing, twenty seconds has been known to suffice; and
forty seconds was regarded as a period of time which no one
was justified in exceeding.
In pre- When anaesthetics were employed, it came to surgeons
haste. as a kind of revelation that they need no longer be in haste ;
and they utilised this knowledge in making a leisurely exa
mination of the parts about which they were employed.
The progress in this direction was gradual. Tumours were
removed slowly and carefully, and hence more completely
and effectually than before; and amputation, which had
been almost the sole resource in many of the incurable
affections of joints, began to be superseded by the removal
of the parts actually diseased. Such gradual changes of
method were generalised by Sir William Fergusson under the
• Conser- name of ' conservative surgery,' and it became an accepted
surgery, principle that nothing should be taken away which it was
possible to leave with safety. Hence, in a large proportion
of cases, the surgeon was enabled to cut out the diseased
part-^the hip-joint, the knee-joint, or the ankle, the shoulder
or the elbow — and to leave a member which might regain
considerable strength and usefulness.
Difflcui- Among the difficulties which impeded the performance
bieecUu™. 0^ Operations of this ' conservative ' character, one of the

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 425
most troublesome arose from the effusion of blood during
their course, by which the appearance of the parts Avas ob
scured, leaving the precise boundaries of disease to be ascer
tained by touch, Avith only imperfect assistance from the
sight ; BO that, in using the knife in the vicinity of impor
tant structures, it was difficult to avoid wounding them.
This difficulty was overcome by pressing the blood out of
the affected limb by an elastic bandage commencing at the
extremity and firmly applied. When this bandage has been
carried high enough, it is unwound from the extremity
upwards sufficiently far to expose the diseased part to the
surgeon, but is retained higher up until the operation is
completed and the dividedvessels are secured. The parts on
which the operation is performed are for the time rendered
bloodless, and every organ and tissue is clearly seen as it is
laid bare. The same method has been employed to save
blood in the performance of amputations upon feeble persons.
The blood contained in the part to be removed is first
squeezed out of it, and the only haemorrhage will be the
oozing that may occur, when the bandage is relaxed, from
vessels which are too small to require individual ligature.
Prior to the use of anesthetics, the subjects of operations subjects
were carefully selected, and were chiefly persons of sound ration?"
constitution and strong will, whose conditions, apart from
the cause of the operation, were favourable to recovery.
But, notAvithstanding, almost every operation was followed
by Avhat was called ' surgical fever,' and,; even in the most surgical
successful cases, the surgeon never expected his patient to
be quite well, except for the presence of a wound, during
the whole of the healing process. There would almost
always be some quickening of the pulse towards evening,
some thirst, some restlessness, and, as was first discovered
when attention was paid to the indications of the ther
mometer, some increase of the heat of the body, often

426 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
preceded by chills and followed by perspiration. In cases
Avliich pursued a less favourable course, the surgical fever
ran high. In some instances it assumed a malignant type,
and the patients sank under it ; in others it was followed
by the formation of abscesses in various parts, and was then
described as pyaemia, which also usually led to a fatal ter
mination. It was rare indeed for extensive wounds to heal
by what is called ' primary union ' — that is to say, by direct
agglutination without the formation of discharge — and dis
charge, whenever formed, speedily became offensive. The
removal of the dressings from an amputation or other
large surgical injury was attended by an escape of foetid
liquid, formed at first by the decomposition of blood which
had oozed from the surfaces of the wound, and ultimately
by secretion from these surfaces under the name of matter.
In some cases and situations, chiefly where the wounded
were crowded together, as in military hospitals after a
battle, or in civil hospitals in which sanitary precautions
were neglected, the discharge was apt to become more
profuse and more foetid than usual ; the wounds fre
quently assumed an unhealthy aspect, and these condi
tions led on to erysipelas, gangrene, and death. After
anaesthetics were employed, there being no longer any
fear of pain to stand in the way of consent, it became a
recognised principle to give to each patient every possible
chance; and, partly also on account of the less formid
able character of the resulting mutilations, operations
increased enormously in number. For some years the
success which attended them did not increase in an equal
ratio, and surgical mortality became very large. The
causes of this mortality were chiefly the conditions asso
ciated with the more severe forms of surgical fever ; and
these were described coUectively as ' hospitalism,' because,
although they were met with also in private practice— that

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 427
is, when there was only a single patient in a house — they
were certainly more frequent in hospitals, or wherever the
operation cases were numerous. The chief forms of ' hos
pitalism ' were ' hospital gangrene,' ' pyaemia,' ' septicaemia,'
and ' erysipelas,' all regarded as results of ' blood-poisoning.'
The blood and other fluids of the animal body, and gene
rally all the solids and liquids which are called, from their
chief constituent, ' albuminous,' are prone to speedy putre
faction as soon as they cease to be integral parts of a hving
structure. Their decomposition requires the presence of
atmospheric air, and is promoted by a high temperature,
or by the presence of material m which decomposition has
commenced. In a wound, the albuminous liquid yielded
by oozing is kept at the temperature of the body, and
the decomposition of this liquid would constantly begm
before the time for the first dressing had arrived. In a septic
hospital ward, when the wound is opened, it is brought tion.
into contact with air, which may itself be a carrier of
the products of decomposition from other wounds, or of
albuminous material of some other kind in a state of com
mencing change, not to mention the infinite possibilities
of inoculation from sponges or other appliances, or from
the fingers of dressers or nurses. It has been found, as
the result of experiments, that the inoculation of decom
position, if it may be so described, produces a more active
poison than any decomposition which is spontaneous, and
also that the increase of virulence thus produced is steadily
progressive. An animal poison may be cultivated, so to
speak, in successive patients, until it becomes as deadly
as that of the rattlesnake. On these grounds it was
assumed that the aggregation of many wounded persons
produced an atmosphere unfavourable to aU of them —
that the patients, in effect, poisoned not only each other,
but the very rooms in which they lived ; and it was gravely

428 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
proposed that the hospitals of the future should be cheap
temporary buildings, which might be destroyed by fire as
soon as they were saturated with contagion from the in
mates. When excessive surgical mortahty began to attract
attention, it became manifest that certain wards in some
hospitals, and even the occupants of certain beds, were
more exposed to danger than others ; and, in the case of
one metropolitan institution, that the occupant of a particu
lar bed was doomed to almost certain death. This bed, as
it turned out, was close to a window which overlooked
a dirty dust-heap, the particles from which found easy
access to the ward.
Drain- -^ Suggestion once put forward with some appearance of
woun^ds authority, to the effect that hospital mortality increased
directly as the size of the building and the number of
patients which it received, was speedily shown to be founded
upon the examination of an insufficient number of in
stances ; and, for a long time, little more was known about
the causes of the various putrefactive diseases than the
fact that they seldom occurred after wounds to which no air
was admitted, or when, by carefuUy contrived drainage, all
fluids were removed as fast as they were secreted. The former
condition was fulfilled in the so-called ' subcutaneous ' sur
gery ; that is, when deep parts were divided by a narrow
knife introduced through a very small skin opening — a mere
puncture — the proceeding being so conducted as to exclude
air both during the performance of the operation and sub
sequently. The wounds made in this manner heal, and
the divided structures unite, with great readiness ; but the
method is of limited applicability, and its use is almost con
fined to the division of tendons for the cure of deformities.
The method by drainage was based upon the observed fact
that wounds which had an opening at their lowest point, by
which all discharges escaped as soon as formed, were more

MEDICINE AND SURGERY • 429
favourably situated for recovery than those in which dis
charges could collect. A depending opening was hence re
garded as a thing to be secured whenever possible, and has
been secured of late years, in almost all cases, by the inser
tion of tubes with perforated sides, which afford a quick and
easy outlet for fluids. Such tubes are sometimes made of
india-rubber, and require to be removed when they have
done their work, sometimes of materials which themselves
undergo solution and absorption in the wound.
The removal of the disgrace of excessive mortahty from ' Anti
septic'
surgery was commenced in March 1865, when an eminent surgery.
living surgeon introduced the ' antiseptic ' method into the
Glasgow Infirmary, from whence, in principle or in detail,
it has spread over the civilised world. The attention of
the originator of this method had been directed to Pasteur's
researches on milk fermentation ; and he came to the con
clusion that putrefactive changes in wounds might be due to
the introduction of bacterial germs, and that, if these germs
could be excluded, uninterrupted healing might be ex
pected to occur. In order to effect his object, he introduced
the plan of operating under a cloud of spray, charged Avith
some chemical agent which was supposed to be a ' germi
cide ; ' the hands of the operator and his assistants, together
with all instruments, sponges, and appliances, being also
cleansed by chemical means, and kept moist with the solu
tion employed for the purpose. When the operation was
completed, and the wound was closed, the spray was not
withdrawn until a chemically prepared and impermeable
dressing had been applied. By this course, surgical fever
Avas often entirely avoided ; and when the time came for
the dressing to be removed, which was not done until after
the lapse of a longer period than had formerly been custom
ary, both the removal and the renewal were accomphshed
under spray ; and it was constantly found that the Avound

430

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Carbolio
ispray.

AWaterspray.

was free from offence, and that very little discharge had
proceeded from it. In this way, the prompt and perfect
union, which even in former times had occurred occasion
ally, was obtained in the great majority of operations, as
well as in wounds which were the effects of accidental injury.,
The system thus described was caUed the ' antiseptic ' or the
' aseptic ; ' and it was taken for granted by many that the
germ hypothesis was a sound one, and that the introduc
tion of germs which were suspended in the atmosphere,
otherwise likely to happen as an ordinary event, could by
the indicated measures be securely guarded against.
The chemical agent most commonly employed in spray
was carbolic acid, concerning which there was from the
first much doubt whether its effects on bacterial germs
would really be destructive, unless it were present in such
quantities as to render the air containing it irrespirable by
human lungs. In some cases, indeed, it actually was applied
with such liberality as to injure, or even to kill, the patient
by carbolic acid poisoning. Alarmed by such occurrences,
some surgeons diminished the proportion of acid which the
spray contained, and then, finding that their cases did as
well as before, omitted the acid altogether, using only a
spray of water, and finally abandoned this, the employ
ment of which, while it presumably was not important, was
attended by many inconveniences. As a rule, those who
pursued this course retained the chemical purification of
instruments and the elaborate cleanliness which antiseptic
surgery had introduced. It was soon found that the suc
cess gained under these conditions did not fall short of
that which followed strict adherence to the original sys
tem ; and many surgeons have now laid aside antiseptics
altogether, and are obtaining results which others who
use antiseptics have not on the whole surpassed. In cer
tain foreign countries, Avhere antiseptic surgery has been

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 431
pursued with extreme fervour, and has been carried to
lengths which provoke a smile, no greater success has been
obtained than in England by less rigorous measures. In
some continental hospitals, surgeons who, a few years ago,
Avould have thought the ordinary personal cleanliness of
an Englishman extravagant, and who were probably un
acquainted with the nature and uses of a nail-brush, now
not only wash themselves before operating after the manner
of the actor who blackened himself all over in order to play
Othello, but they enforce similar observances upon their
assistants, and drench with carbolised spray even the hap
less spectators, whose clothes, it is said, may carry unsus
pected stores of germs in the textures of which they are
composed. The germ hypothesis has in this country adherents Germ
whose opinions are entitled to respect, but it appears to me thesis.
to be not proven, and more likely to be abandoned than to
be confirmed. If atmospheric air is loaded with ' germs ' in
the way sometimes described, it is, difficult to explain the
prompt healing of wounds which was not unknown, even
in toAvn hospitals, before antisepticism had been thought of.
In certain injuries, notably in fractures of a rib with wound
of a lung, it is not uncommon for the air inhaled by the
patient to pass into and distend the connective tissue of his
body; but I have never heard of any instance in which such
an accident occasioned any of the phenomena of septicae
mia. I am mj'self inclined to look upon these phenomena
as being chiefly due to absorption of, or to inoculation
with, animal matter in a state of decomposition or change
and to attribute the improved results of antiseptic surgery
almost entirely to the prevention of such inoculation, a
prevention brought about by the absolute and chemi
cally completed cleanliness of the hands and instruments
employed. The results in question have, in most cases.

432 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
surpassed those previously attained in precise proportion
to the prior uncleanness of the hospital into which the
system was introduced ; and the evidence now attainable
does not seem to me to sustain the germ hypothesis, but to
enforce the necessity of so conducting an operation that no
decomposing matter can be conveyed into the wound, either
by human hands or by any of the instruments or materials
employed. The shoulder of a knife, the eye of a needle, the
fibre of a ligature, the finger-nails of the surgeon or of an
assistant, are all places in which such decomposing matter
may obtain a resting-place, and from which it may find
entrance into a wound ; and I am myself indifferent about
the admission of air, so long as I am certain of the free
dom of the instruments and other accessories from decom
posing matter. Such freedom may be insured by a final
cleansing in various chemicals, of which none is better
than absolute alcohol. It should be stated that decomposing
albuminous matter generally swarms with bacteria, pro
bably of many varieties, and it may be that these are the
chief causes of the commencement of putrefactive change.
Liga- A source of irritation after the operations of an earlier
period was the method once followed of closing divided
arteries by stout silk ligatures, the ends of which were left
protruding from the wound. These ligatures cut through
the internal coats of the vessels on which they were placed,
and eventually cut through the external coats also, and
became detached. They seriously retarded the healing pro
cess, which could not be completed until they were witli-
draAvn ; and their separation was sometimes attended by
dangerous or fatal bleedmg. Even under the antiseptic
method, a wound cannot unite as long as it contains silk
threads ; and hence the adoption of this method called for
better ways of securing arteries than those which had pre
viously been in use. Twisting the divided vessel, com-

tures.

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 433
pressing it by the introduction of a needle, which could
be withdrawn as soon as its purpose had been fulfilled, and
other plans, were tried with more or less advantage ; but
that Avhich has now superseded all others is the use of liga
tures composed of some animal material, Avhich undergoes
absorption within the body. The arteries are tied, the
surfaces of the wound are brought into perfect apposition,
healing occurs, and the ligatures disappear without pro
ducing irritation and without leaving a trace behind.
Under the use of soluble ligatures, perfect drainage. Exten sion of
accurate coaptation, and absolute cleanliness, either with or the dc-
Avithout the spray and other special ' antiseptic precautions,' surgery.
the mortality from surgical operations has been diminished
in an extraordinary degree, and the success attending them
has in like measure been increased. The great cavities of
the body are freely explored ; organs which until lately it
Avould have been thought dangerous to touch are noAv exa
mined, and, if found diseased, are removed. The kidneys,
the liver, the spleen, and the greater part of the intestinal
canal have been brought within the domain of surgery ; and
two specially remarkable victories over disease have been
won, the fruits of the first of which have already been
rendered completely accessible to the public, while those of
the other and more recent one are likely soon to become so.
Women are subject to a form of internal tumour called ovarian
tuQiours.
'ovarian,' which, if left to itself, is always fatal. It
usually occurs in middle age, and the average duration
of Hfe, after it is discovered, is four years, much of Avhich
time would be spent in suffering and weakness, and in the
anticipation of the inevitable end. The almost accidental
removal of an ovarian tumour was accomplished by Dr.
Houston, of Glasgow, in 1701 ; but the suggestion that such
operations should be frequently undertaken appears to have
been first made by John Bell, the great Edinburgh teacher
VOL. n. ^ F

434 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
of the close of the last century. The operation Avas first
performed, as a direct result of Bell's teaching, in 1809, by
Dr. Ephraim McDowell, of Kentucky, who had attended
Bell's lectures, and who took the first opportunity of carry
ing his suggestion into practice. Lizars, in 1825, was the
first to perform the operation in this country, and Dr.
Granville, in 1827, was the first in London. The first
successful operation in London was performed by Mr.
Walne, in November 1842 ; and the first successful opera
tion in a London hospital by Mr. Caesar Hawkins, at St.
George's, in 1846. During the next eleven years the opera
tion was frequently repeated, especially in Manchester ; but
the resulting mortality was so great that the proceeding was
scarcely thought to be legitimate. The disease was, indeed,
invariably fatal, but it Avas of uncertain duration ; while
the deaths which followed the operation were its imme
diate, direct, and visible results. The mortality exceeded 50
per cent, of the cases, and surgeons might well hesitate to
recommend so great a risk to their patients. A woman
who was not certain to die in less than ten or a dozen years,
even although she might die sooner, could hardly be re
commended, for the sake of a doubtful prospect of cure, to
submit to a proceeding which was attended by so much
danger. Partly, perhaps, for this very reason, the cases
operated upon were mostly those in which a fatal result of
the disease itself was clearly imminent, in which the con
stitution was already broken, and in which, therefore,
the hope of a favourable issue was proportionately small.
It can hardly be a matter for surprise that Sir William
Lawrence, in concluding a debate upon the subject at the
Eoyal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London in 1850,
asked whether the operative attempts already made could
be continued ' without danger to the character of the pro
fession.'

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 435
In 1857, Avhen the question was much where Sir William
LaAvrence had left it, the removal of ovarian tumours Avas
taken up by an eminent living surgeon, who set himself to
ascertain what Avere the chief risks of the operation, and by
Avhat means they might be overcome. Constantly watching
for the tendency to death, and as constantly trying to
obviate this tendency by observing and counteracting its
causes, he improved the methods of procedure alike in
principles and m details, and for m:.ny years obtained a
steadily decreasing rate of mwtality. Since 1857 he has
operated 1,171 times. Of the first 1,000 patients, 768
recovered and 232 died, showing a mortality of 23-2 per
cent. Of the last 171 cases 22 have died, showing a mor
tality of 12 per cent. During the last nine years, from
January 1878, he has operated Avith more or less adherence
to antiseptic methods ; but, as if to shoAV that the diminu
tion of mortality has been due to other causes, his pre
viously unapproached success has been surpassed by that
of a provmcial surgeon who does not use antiseptics, and
Avho, between June 1884 and the end of January 1887, has
removed 251 ovarian tumours with only two deaths. The
same surgeon has had a total of 590 cases, with 16 deaths
among the first 62, and, after a modification of procedure,
with 19 deaths among the last 528. It was calculated by
Lord Selborne that the successful removal of an ovarian
tumour might be expected to add twenty-nine years to the
life of the patient ; and, on that basis, the two operators
referred to have added those years to the lives of 1,472
women, or a total of 42,688 years in all. The example thus
set has been followed in every civilised country, as well as
by many other operators in our own ; and the disease, once
so deadly, is now regarded as one for which, indeed, an
operation is required, but which the operation only excep
tionally fails to cure. It is, of course, more frequently suc-
F F 2

surgery.

436 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
cessful in some places and in some hands than in others ;
but the percentage of death which follows it is now extremely
insignificant. There is no other application of human skill
and knowledge which has been attended by so brilliant a
result.
Brain Next to this in order, but far more recent in time, is
modern brain surgery. I have mentioned in an earlier page
that the labours of those who first sought to discover the
functions of different parts of the brain Avere rendered futile
by the want of experiments on living animals ; and, as soon
as such experiments were conceived with sufficient knowledge
and conducted Avith sufficient skill, they revealed much
Avliich was previously not only unknown, but even unsus
pected. Dr. Carpenter arrived at the conclusion that the
hemispheres of the brain were the seats of ideation ; but
experiments have shown that they contain the originating
centres of many kinds of movement, and that different por
tions of them call forth the movements of different groups of
muscles. By researches of this kind, it was discovered that
irritation or disease of the motor area governing a particular
limb may occasion convulsions commencing in that limb ;
and it was but a step farther to determine that convulsions
commencing in different parts of the body might indicate
disease of corresponding parts of the brain. By foUoAving
out the clue which was thus afforded, it has been rendered
possible to point to the spot in which the brain, in certain
cases, is irritated or diseased, and the skull can then be
opened and the part explored. The first operation of this
kind was performed in 1885, and a tumour was found and
removed. The patient lived long enough to show that he
had derived great benefit, but died soon afterwards of some
casual illness. Since then, twelve operations of a similar
character, with only one death, have been performed at
the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic in

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 437
Queen Square, and a few less successfully at other places,
all the operators having been guided by symptoms to the
correct localisation of brain disease. In several of the
cases, tumours have been removed, one of them weighing
over four ounces, and some of the patients have been cured
of most distressing maladies. The method is still in its
infancy, and it is probable that many brain tumours Avill
always be inaccessible to the surgeon ; but there can be no
doubt that the power of useful interference will be con
stantly increased, and that much which would noAV be
thought impossible will in time be habitually accomplished.
Quite lately, at the same hospital, it has been shoAvn that
the space between the brain and its investing membranes
can be drained, and the brain to some extent relieved from
fluid pressure, by an opening in the sheath of the optic
nerve behind the eye ; and this operation, which as yet has
been performed once only, will, there is reason to hope,
have a field of future usefulness.
Among special departments of the healing art, the ophthai-
first place must be given to that which deals with the medicine
diseases of the eye, and which includes optics, as well as surgery.
medicine and surgery. The construction of the eye conceals
its deeper parts from view ; and, in relation to these, nothing
was gained from the various contrivances of Mr. Avery<
But, in 1847, Mr. Charles Babbage invented an instru
ment by which the interior of the eye was rendered visible.
Unfortunately, he took his invention, to a surgeon who failed
to appreciate its value, and who said it would be of no
practical utility; on which Babbage laid it aside as a
useless toy. Four years later. Professor Helmholtz arrived
at a somewhat different solution of the same problem, and
sent his contrivance to Albrecht von Graefe, Avho at once
set to work to utilise its revelations. The instrument of
Helmholtz scarcely afforded sufficient illumination, and

438 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Professor Euete improved upon it by a reproduction of that
of Babbage, Avhich was thus re-invented in Germany, and
Avhich speedily underwent various trifling modifications.
The oph- The new instrument was called an ' ophthalmoscope,' and
sooo?."" it brought, for the first time, living nerves and their blood
vessels into view. The nerves were directly continuous with
the substance of the brain, the blood-vessels with those of
its circulation ; and hence the ophthalmoscope soon began
to render important service in the mvestigation of diseases
of the brain, and also, strange as it may seem, in those of
the kidneys. Besides this, it displayed many previously
unsuspected conditions in the eye ; and thus, not only by
what it revealed, but almost as much by the impulse which
it gave to accurate examination, it revolutionised oph
thalmic medicine and surgery. The diseases and disorders
of the deeper parts of the eye, at the time immediately
prior to the invention of the ophthalmoscope, were less
knoAvn and less understood than any others ; and it would
not now be too much to say that they are better understood
than any others. The changes which attend them can be
seen, under brilliant illumination and considerable enlarge
ment, in every stage of their progress ; and they have been
studied, for the last five-and-thirty years, with the most
unremitting diligence and care. Among the principal re
sults which have been attained, the folloAving are especially
noteworthy :
Besuits. A common disease called ' glaucoma,' which formerly
always proceeded to complete and hopeless blindness, has
been discovered to depend upon over-distension of the eye
ball by its contained fluid, and to be, in the great majority
of instances, curable by a timely operation.
Many cases in which there is incapacity to use the sight
for more than a short time, and which produce inability to
folloAV various calHngs, have been shown to depend upon

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 439
faults of shape of the eyeballs, and to admit of rehef by
properly adapted spectacles.
The condition called ' myopia,' or ' short sight,' has
been shoAvn to depend upon elongation of the eyebaUs ; and
the chief causes of this elongation, the tendency of badly
lighted and badly fitted schoolrooms to produce it, and the
modes of prevention, have been clearly established.
Partly from the advantage afforded by a passive eye,
which was obtained by the administration of ether or chloro
form, and partly from methods of procedure suggested by
better knowledge of the organ, the success of the operation
for the removal of senile cataract, which probably did not
reach 50 per cent, of the cases fifty years ago, has noAV been
raised to about 96 per cent. The usefulness of the restored
vision has also been increased by improvements in the
necessary spectacles. The last Avmter exhibition of the
Society of British Artists, at the Suffolk Street Gallery,
contaiaed two paintings Avliich were produced after recovery
from a cataract operation.
The operation for the cure of squint, Avhich was first
performed by Dieffenbach in 1839, and by Mr. Bennett
Lucas in 1840, m neither case with any comprehension of
the true nature of the condition to be remedied, has been
placed upon a basis of certain knowledge and rendered
uniformly successful.
Towards the close of 1884, the resources of ophthai- cocaine
mic surgeons were increased by the discovery of the pro
perties of cocaine, Avhich possesses the power of temporarily
destroying the sensibiUty to pam of the part to which it is
applied. This power is better displayed in the eye than
elsewhere, on account of the rapid absorption which occm-s
through its delicate skm ; and by its means any operation
upon the eye, whether for glaucoma, cataract, squint, or of
whatever kind, may be rendered as painless as cutting the

440

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Diseasesot
-women. Child
birth.

other
special
isms.

finger-nails, without interference with consciousness and
without the production of any constitutional effect. The
use of ether or chloroform, although it greatly facilitated
ophthalmic surgery, and was in a high degree conducive to
its improvement, was attended by serious disadvantages ;
while that of cocaine, which affords the same benefits,
seems to be free from any kind of objection. The highest
value of the drug is in rendering operations painless, but
it has also a wide range of usefulness in the treatment
of many affections of the eye for which no operation is
required. The diseases peculiar to women, other than ovarian
tumours, have derived their full share of benefit from the
progress of the half-century ; and great practical advance
has been made in the management of difficult childbirth.
The lives of mother and child are now constantly saved in
circumstances in which, fifty years ago, one or both would
have been sacrificed; and in this country much has been
done to diminish the proportion of difficult cases. The
health-preserving legislation already described, and the
character of the food consumed by the English labouring
classes as compared with those of continental countries,
have largely contributed to extinguish rickets and other
diseases of the skeleton, which are frequent causes of dis
tortions on which the most serious forms of impeded child
birth depend. The introduction into the lying-in room of
the principles of antiseptic surgery in their true character,
as cleanliness carried to perfection, has saved the lives of
many mothers and the eyesight of many children, and has
reduced the mortality in lying-in hospitals, which were
once periodically visited by deadly pestilence, to that which
obtains among the general population.
Of other special branches of practice, considerations of
space forbid me to speak at length. Aural and dental

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 44*
surgery have been greatly improved, and both are likely
to retain their separate characters. Of the rest, it seems
to me that many are calculated to serve some temporary
purpose, to promote the study of a disease on wliich new
light has been thrown, or the employment of a new method
of research ; and that, when either of these purposes has
been fulfilled, the special branch may with advantage be
absorbed into the stream of ordinary professional work.
The use of the stethoscope was a specialism fifty years ago ;
it now forms part of the daily duty of every practitioner.
The application of improved medical and surgical know- skuied
. . nurses,
ledge in the sick-room has been greatly facilitated by the
education and training of professional nurses : a work which
was commenced by Miss Nightingale as one consequence of
the lessons taught by the Crimean war. These nurses now
form a numerous and invaluable body of public servants,
discharging their important and arduous duties with an
amount of care and self-devotion of which it would be
difficult to speak too highly.
The reader who has followed me thus far will hardly have Part
played
failed to notice that the part played by England and her bysng-
people in the advancement of medical science has been
greater, not only than that of any other country, but than
that of all other countries put together. In the way of
preventive medicine we stand absolutely alone ; a few
continental researches being just of sufficient value and im
portance to iUustrate the height of our pre-eminence. In the
way of curative medicine, the modern temple of iBsculapius
may be said to rest upon three discoveries which have con
stituted epochs — upon the discovery of the circulation, the
discovery of the functions of the spinal cord, and the
discovery of reflex action — and all of these are Enghsh.
The application of cleanhness to surgery is English. The
employment of antesthetics is American. France may claim

442 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
auscultation and the stethoscope ; Germany, by an unhappy
accident, the ophthalmoscope. In all countries there have
been felicitous applications of knowledge, suggestions which
have lightened the difficulties of surgery, and between
Avhich it would be impossible to institute comparisons ; but
it may be questioned whether the whole of them are not
outweighed, in value to the human race, in the relief of
suffering and in the preservation of life, by the one English
achievement of the successful removal of ovarian tumours.
B.e- It will be felt, moreover, by all who are acquainted with
stricted aids to the facts in this regard, that there is no other civilised
gatfo^n!" country in which the labours of those who have made medi
cine what it is have been so slenderly encouraged by any
form of public help or recognition. Many continental
cities support laboratories and professorships, which afford
leisure and opportunity for forms of scientific research of
the highest value, which are not, in any direct sense,
remunerative to those who are engaged in them, and which
in England can only be pursued, under impediments from
silly legislation, amid the anxieties of early struggles for
subsistence, amid the cares and fatigues of practice, or with
the diminished physical and mental energy incidental to
the decline of life. The scanty and inadequate rewards or
honours which have been bestowed upon physicians and
surgeons have seldom fallen to those who were in the van of
scientific progress ; unless, by a coincidence which fortu
nately has not been too uncommon, they were also the per
sonal advisers of the great. The master of sanitary science,
the organiser and for years the official head of a system of
public health preservation which is without equal in the
Avorld, the philosopher whose teaching has saved the lives
of hundreds of thousands of our people, whose name is a
household word wherever preventive medicine is studied,
and whose writings form the classical literature of the

MEDICINE AND SURGERY 443
subject to Avhich much of his life has been devoted, this
man has been suffered to retire from the public service of
his country with the pension of a meritorious clerk, and
Avith no other privilege or distinction than that of being
styled a Companion of the Bath !
It Avould be unjust, after glancing at the labours by which General
practi-
medical science has been increased, not to say something tioners.
about the persons by whom the fruits of those labours have
been diffused. In the reign of Queen Victoria women have
for the first time been permitted to hold a place among the
ranks of authorised medical practitioners. The first to
acquire this privilege was Miss BlackAvell, who graduated in
America prior to the passing of the English Medical Act of
1858, and who, having been in this country, was permitted
to register. The first Enghsh lady doctor was Miss Garrett,
since better known as Mrs. Garrett-Anderson, who com
menced her studies in 1861, obtained the licence of the
London Society of Apothecaries in 1865, and the M.D.
degree of the University of Paris in 1870. More recently,
a special medical school for women has been established in
connection with the Eoyal Free Hospital, and fifty-five
women, of whom two have died, have obtained qualifica
tions. Of the survivors, eleven are in India, one is in
China, and one in Africa. There are at present sixty-one
students at the school ; twenty-three of whom are prepare
ing for the University of London, five for the King and
Queen's University of Ireland, and the rest for the Scotch
or Irish CoUeges. The demand for the services of medical
women in this country has probably been less than was
expected ; but in India a wide field of usefulness is open to
them. With regard to men, the lapse of fifty years has
Avitnessed an enormous improvement in all that relates to
preparation for their duties. At the beginning of the
century, the education of the representatives of the noAV

444 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
numerous and important class called ' general practitioners '
was lamentably defective. In 1815, after the Eoyal CoUege
of Physicians had declined the task, the Society of Apothe
caries undertook to superintend a reform, and to provide an
examination in medicine which the law might recognise as
affording a valid qualification to practise. The standard of
this examination has been judiciously raised from time to
time ; and the Society, by the operation of the Medical
Act of 1886, will be entitled, after July 1, 1887, to confer
a valid qualification in surgery as well as in medicine.
In 1861 the College of Physicians instituted a medical
examination for general practitioners ; but the licence
thus given is as yet held by only a comparatively small
number of persons, and it is mainly as a consequence of the
Tlie action of the Society of Apothecaries, coupled with that of
of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, that the Queen's Jubilee will
Apothe caries, find, in every part of her Majesty's wide empire, medical men
who are fully prepared to undertake any responsibility which
can legitimately be imposed upon them, who have been
trained in the best traditions and in the widest knowledge of
their calling, whose tenderness and humanity have become
proverbial, and who, content with the modest pittance which
is frequently all they can obtain, shrink from no hardships,
no fatigues, and no dangers which the perils of others may
require them to encounter.
Eobert Beudenell Cartek.

445

LITERATURE.
The age of Queen Victoria is as justly entitled to give name
to a literary epoch as any of those periods on which this
distinction has been conferred by posterity. A new tone of
thought and a ncAV colour of style are discernible from about
the date of the Queen's accession, and, even should these
characteristics continue for generations Avithout apparent
break, it will be remembered that the Elizabethan age did
not terminate with Elizabeth. In one important respect,
however, it differs from most of those epochs which derive
their appellation from a sovereign. The names of Augustus,
Lorenzo, Louis XIV., Anne, are associated with a literary
advance, a claim to have bequeathed models for imitation
to succeeding ages. This claim is not preferred on behalf
of the age of Victoria. It represents the fusion of two
currents which had alternately prevailed in successive
periods. Delight and Utility met, Truth and Imagination
kissed each other. Practical reform awoke the enthusiasm
of genius, and genius put poetry to new use, or made a new
path for itself in prose. The result has been much gain,
some loss, and an originality of aspect which would alone
render our Queen's reign intellectually memorable.
Looking back to the eighteenth century in England, we
see the spirit of utility entirely in the ascendant. Intellec
tual power is as great as ever, immortal books are written
as of old, but there is a general incapacity not only for the

446 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
production, but for the comprehension of works of the
imagination. Minds as robust as Johnson's, as acute as
Hume's, display neither strength nor intelligence in their
criticism of the Elizabethan writers, and their professed
regard for even the masterpieces of antiquity is evidently
in the main conventional. Conversely, when the spell
is broken and the capacity for imaginative composi
tion returns, the half-century immediately preceding her
Majesty's accession does not, outside the domain of the
ideal, produce a single work of the first class. Hallam, the
elder Mill, and others compose, indeed, books of great value,
but not great books. In poetry and romantic fiction, on
the other hand, the genius of that age reaches a height
unattained since Milton, and probably not destined to be
rivalled for many generations. In the age of Victoria we
witness the fusion of its predecessors. The ends of the
eighteenth century were sought by the methods of the
early part of the nineteenth ; but whereas the spirit of re
construction had then been only represented by a solitary
Coleridge or Shelley, and by one prophet of a new dispensa
tion, Bentham, nearly every writer of mark was now to be
pressed into the cause.
To fix the precise beginning of a literary era is a
difficult problem. Works instinct with the deepest spirit
of the Victorian age had been published under William
the Fourth. But, apart from the obvious convenience of
dating the era named after our Queen from the beginning
of her reign, the first positive indication of the new
aspect in which familiar things were beginning to appear
exactly concurred with her accession. Queen Victoria had
reigned eleven days when, on July 1, 1837, the Westminster
Review came forth with an essay by John Stuart Mill — the
foremost representative of the utilitarian element in the
spirit of the age — on Carlyle's ' History of the French Eevo-

LITERA TURE 447
lution,' the most concentrated expression of its poetry and
imagination. It began, ' This is not so much a history as
an epic poem, and notwithstanding, or even in consequence
of this, the truest of histories.' These memorable Avords
proclaimed the essential identity of truth of fact and truth
of imagination, and also the alliance which had come to
pass between men of fact or reason and men of poetic sensi
bility. This was to be the note of the time. We shall find
the measure of the influence of poetry and fiction to be that
of their applicability to the problems of human existence ;
on the other hand, the votaries of science will be found re
sorting to bold imaginative generalisations, Avhile historians
are equally intent on amassing facts and on giving them life.
Hence the literature of the age was destined to be ardent,
animated, emphatic ; its faults were to be found in the
direction of over-picturesqueness, and failure in mental
sanity and steady balance. Deriving its stimulus from
Avants universally experienced, it was to be a democratic
literature, Avith more eminent names than supreme names,
but with the promise of wide popularity and influence for
any by whom its aspirations should really be interpreted.
The intellectual glories of her Majesty's reign could only
have been foretold by one gifted with insight below the
surface of things. The actual aspect at her accession AA'as
not encouraging. The great burst of poetry had exhausted
itself, and impassioned prose had not yet taken its place.
The great lights were extinct or dim. Scott and Bentham
had been dead five years, Coleridge three ; WordsAvorth,
Southey, Moore, Campbell, and Eogers lived, but wrote no
more. Leigh Hunt was yet to write much charming
criticism, and Landor and De Quincey were still at their
best, but evidently incapable of further development.
Tennyson was known enough to be ridiculed, and BroAvn-
ing not at all. Carlyle's ' Sartor Besartus ' had ' excited

448 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
universal disapprobation ' in the readers of the magazine
Avhich gave it a refuge, and Mill's blow for his ' French
Eevolution ' was still to be struck. Mill himself, with
Macaulay and Thackeray, wrote merely in periodicals.
Dickens, however, had just shown with what suddenness,
and from what unexpected quarters, genius may spring to
light. Bulwer and Brougham were, at all events, displaying
extraordinary productiveness. Hallam had just surveyed
the literature of modern Europe, and Whewell had made
himself the historian of the inductive sciences, for which
Herschel, in his ' Preliminary Discourse,' might almost be
said to have legislated. Jeffrey and Sydney Smith were
resting on their laurels, but the latter was always ready
for a battle. Disraeli, Marryat, Miss Martineau had esta
blished solid claims to attention in their special fields.
Austin had laid the foundation of a reformed jurispru
dence, and Lockhart had just begun to publish the most
charming of biographies. The general mass of literature,
nevertheless, seems to us now poor, insincere, and tainted
with the sickliness of the coterie. Yet encouraging symp
toms were not wanting. The abuse of venal puffery, which
had reached an unexampled height, had in a measure
cured itself. The reduction of the newspaper stamp (1836)
had increased the number of readers and the inducement
to read. The good effects of the great outburst of excellent
cheap literature about 1830 were beginning to be per
ceptible. Such undertakings as ' The Pictorial History of
England ' showed the extension of the circles to which
serious literature might appeal. The character of reviews
was undergoing a change, formal notices of books were
giving place to monographs on subjects which the books
merely served to introduce, and were often wrought to a
very high degree of literary excellence. But, more than
all, problems were pressing upon the public judgment and

LITERA TURE 449
the public conscience which compelled the pen to be invoked
as the alternative to the sword.
The arrangement of so varied a series of incidents as the
literary events of the reign of Queen Victoria is a matter of
considerable difficulty. If a merely chronological sequence
is adopted, the reader Avill be bandied about from one subject
to another, and will be unable to gain a comprehensive view
of any. At the same time, accurate chronology is a matter
of first-rate importance. The best method, on the whole,
Avould seem to be to remit chronology to a general table at the
conclusion, and follow the four great streams of history, philo
sophy, poetry, and fiction in their leading writers, beginning
from the first event in each, after the Queen's accession, which
can be regarded as serving to mark an epoch. It Avould be
undesirable to dwell too long on any of these subjects to the
exclusion of the rest. We therefore propose to proceed at
first only to 1858, the year in which the first subject born
under her Majesty's reign would attain his majority, that in
which India was brought under the direct authority of the
CroAvn, and immediately preceding those publications of
George Eliot and Darwin by whose influence the latter part
of the Victorian era is coloured as distinctively as the
earlier part is coloured by Tennyson and Carlyle. It will
then be necessary to turn back and notice such books and
literary events as do not fall under any of the above four sec
tions ; and the second part of the reign will be treated in the
same manner as the first. The most convenient epochs of
commencement, taken from the points of departure indi
cating that a new spirit is actually in the ascendant, are per
haps, for history, the pubhcation of Mfll's review of Carlyle
above referred to, July 1837— for philosophy, the publica
tion of Whewell's ' Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences,'
May 1840 — for poetry, the appearance of Tennyson's col
lected poems, 1842 — for fiction, the completion of ' Oliver
VOL. II. G G

450 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
TAvist ' (the first work of fiction written by Dickens under
the reign of her Majesty), 1888. Minor branches of intel
lectual activity need no exact chronology, and some very
important ones are treated elsewhere in this volume, or
excluded by its plan. Science, in its physical and philo
logical aspects ; art, pictorial, plastic, or musical ; divinity,
apart from ecclesiastical history ; and the acted drama, do
not here concern us. The exclusion of such works as
NcAvman's ' Apologia ' and ' Ecce Homo ' from our survey is
to be regretted, but is evidently imperative.
A Avord may here be said in anticipation of a probable
remark that a survey of English literature alone must be
very partial and insular. It may be urged that it ought
to be considered in its relation to the literature of the
civilised world. Were this true to the fullest extent, there
would still be no space for any further information than
the announcement of such obvious facts as the indebtedness
of Carlyle to Pichte, of George Eliot to Comte, and of
Matthew Arnold to Goethe. In fact, however, the direct
obligations of the literature of our age to foreigners are not
extensive. The writers named, superficially the most in
debted, are essentially among the most original we possess.
We have followed our own course, neither much influenced
by, nor greatly influencing, the Continent. Foreign litera
ture has played an important part in creating the environ
ment to which, in Spencerian phrase, we have had to adjust
ourselves ; but there has been no such powerful and evident
action as Italy exerted in the days of Elizabeth or France
at the Eestoration. The only noticeable exception to the
truth of this remark is the existence of a small but active
and influential school of avowed disciples of Auguste Comte.
In endeavouring to depict the changes of thought which
have affected the conception and composition of history

LITERATURE 451
during the Victorian epoch, especial account must be taken ciiarac-
of three principal factors, the biographical, the documentary, of yic-
and the statistical. We strive to realise the chief person- history.
ages ; Ave resort to letters and State papers for the secret
springs of action and the raw material of narrative; Ave
employ statistical research to learn how it fared with the
masses of humanity outside the court and the camp.
These tendencies were to a considerable degree united in
the first great historian who made his mark on the Victorian
era, Thomas Carlyle, ' and each is represented by one of cariyie.
his principal books. He was, indeed, no statistician, for
statistics tend to fatalism, which doctrine Carlyle, in his
' Sartor Eesartus,' had referred to the inspiration of the
Everlasting No. But his 'French Eevolution,' published 'French
just before the commencement of the reign, is a history tion.'
Avhose hero is the People. It could not have been other-
Avise ; Carlyle could not write without a hero, and, unless
he could have accepted Napoleon, the Eevolution afforded
him no other. By this great work he gave an immense
impulse to that habit of thought which regards mankind
in the mass as the proper subject of the historian, no less
than of the moralist. Yet, in his next book, he espouses
the opposite view. ' Hero Worship ' (1840) is the apotheosis ¦ Hero
of the personal element in history. ' The history of Avhat ^°l',
man has accomplished in this world is at bottom the history
of the great men who have worked here.' Apart from its
inculcation of this grand half-truth, the book is memorable
as a protest against low views of history and the sentiment
expressed in the saying that no man is a hero to his valet.
When, however, Carlyle selected a special great man as
his hero, he found himself compelled to defer to the genius
of his age, and become a documentary historian. The
authentic image of Cromwell could not be restored other-
Avise, insomuch that, in his ' Letters and Speeches of Oliver
a o 2

452

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

' Letters
and Speeches
of Oliver
Crom--Hrell.'

Froude, ' History
of the
Tudors.'

Macaulay.

Cromwell' (1845), Carlyle, considerably against his will,
gave the example of a history depending for its value upon
documents. Three more eminently epoch-making books
were never written by the same man, and each has given
a distinct impulse to history. Some time nevertheless
elapsed before any writer of genius came forward as
Carlyle's disciple in history. At length (1856), Mr. Froude
undertook a more arduous task in his ' History of England
under the Tudors.'' It Avas more difficult to revise history
by the aid of innumerable State papers than to print Crom-
Avell's utterances with a commentary. Mr. Froude failed
mainly from want of sound judgment; but if his work did
not greatly elucidate the age of Henry VIII., it adorned
the age of Victoria by its singular beauty of style.
The most brilliant and popular historian of the day
Avas no disciple or even admirer of Carlyle ; and yet Mac-
aulay's history of the English Eevolution (1848-60) is sub
stantially a work in Carlyle's manner. It resembles the
' History of the French Revolution ' in so far as it deals
even more with the currents of national feeling than with
individual action : it is imbued with the spirit of ' Hero
Worship ' in the author's loyalty to his Cromwell, William
III. The superficial dissimilarity of style cannot conceal
the substantial identity of aim. Both authors labour for
effect, but by opposite methods. Carlyle might fairly be
called the Rembrandt of history, and Macaulay its Rubens.
Though ii characteristic production of the age, Macaulay's
history had httle influence upon contemporary thought.
He has no pretensions to the character of a philosophical
historian, though few works answer better than his to the
definition of history as philosophy teaching by example.
He had no new evangel to announce, and the maxims
enforced by his unrivalled advocacy were not at the time
seriously impugned. His turn will come in the day of

LITERATURE 453
revolution, when his pages Avill be resorted to for argu
ments and examples of traditional, legal, and constitutional
methods of dealing Avith a political crisis. For the moment,
his reputation is beneath his desert. Dull men AviU not
believe that so briUiant a writer can be sound ; Avhile the
splendour of his diction, and, it must be added, his habit
of exaggeration for rhetorical effect, blind even judicious
readers to the massiveness of his common sense.
Macaulay's work forms a connecting link between the Minor
new school of history and the old. Passing over books so rians.
manifestly inadequate as Lord Mahon's ' England ' and
Alison's ' Europe,' so confessedly limited in scope as
Smyth's brilliant lectures on the French revolution, and
Miss Martineau's able compendium of the ' History of the
Thirty Years' Peace' (1849-50), or so entirely beneath the
standard of historical dignity as Burton's otherwise meri
torious ' Plistory of Scotland,' we find the older school of
narrative chiefly represented by a group of classical his
torians. Greece enlisted in her service one of the most
powerful minds of the age, and one of the most refined.
Bishop Thirlwall certainly rivalled Gibbon and Macaulay in
mental calibre, and the inferior reputation of his ' History of Histories
Greece' (1834-47) is one proof among many of the supreme and'^"'''"'
importance of striking diction. But still more powerful
causes concurred. Writing for a cyclopaBdia, he inevitably
worked with a feelmg of constramt ; and, though he cannot
have underrated the difficulties, he seems to have imperfectly
reahsed the grandeur of his undertaking. Hence he is
ahvays a Uttle beloAV his subject, and a httle below himself ;
he dehghts and instructs, but he does not satisfy. Grote's
history, on the other hand (1846-55), is one of the most
remarkable monuments ever raised by the pure unselfish
enthusiasm of scholarship. It is PhilheUenism incarnate,
and the noblest form of mtellectual passion, that expends

Rome.

454 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
itself not only in rapture but also in effort. Grote's loA'er-like
affection for Greece carries him into every recess of history,
and he leaves none unenlightened by every ray that know
ledge and industry can contribute. The great recommenda
tion of his book to the student is also its great defect as a
work of art. Investigation impedes narrative ; the reader,
continually summoned to exercise his judicial faculties, can
but rarely release his imagination or yield himself to emotion,
and the writer's well-deserved fame is a mixture of that of
the historian and of the critic. Thomas Arnold, the third
member of this group, wanted no qualification of an historian
)mt leisure. He wrote admirably, he realised vividly, he
sympathised with human actors, and apprehended human
institutions — but he was the head-master of a great public
school. Throughout the first two volumes of his ' Roman
History ' (1838-48) he felt overshadowed by his master
Niobuhr, and the volume which fully disclosed his powers
was cut short by his premature death. Plis history was
united to Gibbon's by the labours of Long and Merivale,
patterns respectively of severe and of elegant scholarship ;
but the popularity of Mommsen's greatwork, now thoroughly
naturalised among us, stands in the way of English historians
of republican Rome, though space is still left for the sceptical
criticism of a Cornewall Lewis ( ' On the Credibility of
Early Roman History ' ) . Gibbon also found a direct imitator
in the Victorian age in the person of his editor, Milman.
The ' Decline and Fall ' was evidently the prototype of the
latter's ' History of Latin Christianity ' (1854-55), a lumi
nous, orderly, impartial view of a vast subject, perhaps
not as yet sufficiently explored to form the theme of an
a,uthoritative history. In a succession of sterling histories,
Finlay supjilemented the work of Gibbon as respects the
modern Greeks, and brought their story down to his own
day.

LITERATURE 455
Biography, that history in httle, also underwent con- Bio-
siderable modifications in the period under review, partly ^'^^^'^•
arising from the demand for the gratification of a minute
curiosity, partly from the growing disinclination of bio
graphers to mterpose themselves between their hero and
their pubhc. This feeling particularly contributed to give
shape to Stanley's ' Life of Arnold ' (1844), which may
be regarded as the representative biographical book of
the period. The gain to knowledge was great, the advan
tage to literature questionable, for the less the biographer
endeavours to impart artistic form to his material the
more he declines from the rank of author to that of editor.
Lord Campbell's ' Lives of the Chancellors ' (1846) showed
how entertaining a bad and careless biography could be ;
and Carlyle's 'Life of Sterling' (1851) p;:oved that master
pieces of biography could still be written on the old plan ;
gossip seemed not out of place in Miss Strickland's ' Lives
of the Queens of England' (1840). For the rest, the un
exampled accumulation of particulars has provided the
present generation with fuller information respecting its
great men than any previous generation ever enjoyed, and,
when the time for a general sifting of nineteenth-century
literature shall have arrived, may yet afford posterity the
materials for biographies of really classic execution. Such
work of this kind as the present age can show was mostly
made possible by the tendency of reviews to substitute
essays for criticism, which produced admirable cabinet
portraits by Macaulay, Carlyle, and others of less note.
Among the numerous pubhcations of diaries, that of
Moore's by Lord John Russell and Haydon's by Tom
Taylor (both in 1858) were the most remarkable.
Another sub-department of history, pohtics, rarely Politics.
attains to historical dignity. No Burke or Junius, or even
Cobbett, adorned the age of Victoria. Parhamentary elo-

456

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

' Past and
Present.'

Histo.
rical societies.

Official
despatches.Archaeology.

quence does not fall within our province ; views of society
founded on statistics, such as the useful publications of Kay-
Shuttleworth and Laing, do not rank as literature ; and,
but for Fonblanque's reprinted articles (1837), and Her
man Merivale's and E. G. Wakefield's essays on Colonisa
tion (1840 and 1849), the first period of the reign would be
almost barren, if Carlyle's ' Past and Present ' (1848), with
its precursor ' Chartism ' (1889) and its sateUites the
' Latter-Day Pamphlets ' (1850), did not seem on the whole
referable to politics. ' Chartism ' is an enlarged review
article, the ' Latter-Day Pamphlets ' are very gusty and
smoky. The harmonising in ' Past and Present,' however,
of the truth there is in individualism and the truth there
is in socialism, is an achievement only possible to the
deepest insight and the highest genius. The wonderful
reproduction of a bygone epoch in the chapters devoted to
Abbot Samson is an illustration of the value of another
historical movement of the time, the publication of ancient
records and chronicles. Carlyle would not have heard of the
abbot but for the pubhcation of ' Joceline de Brakelonde ' by
the Camden Society — a body formed Avith this object in
1888, and which, though not always sufficiently discrimi
nating, has done and is doing excellent work. Many similar
societies co-operated with more or less effect, and private
pubhcations of documents were numerous, the most im
portant being the edition of Nelson's despatches by Sir
Harris Nicolas, and of Wellington's by Colonel Gurwood
(both in 1844). Archaeology, the science which unites history
with art, was enriched during this period by books ranking
at the head of European hterature in their respective sub
jects — Wilkinson's 'Ancient Egyptians' (1837), Dennis's
'Etruria' (1848), and Mr. C. T. Newton's account of his
discovery of the Mausoleum.
The same dkection that we have remarked in the history

LITERATURE 457
is, on the whole, foUoAved by the philosophy of the period— a Phiio-
tendency to get rid of abstraction and convention, to con- genOTaT
cern itself with human interests and aim at practical results,
and, as a means to that end, to resort to methods accessible
to the ordinary understanding. Its watchword is given in
a remark of Professor Masson's, ' Nothing is more notable
than the extent to which philosophy has of late passed into
cosmology.' It is not merely that physics have gained
students at the expense of metaphysics, but that meta
physical inquiries have been more and more conducted by
physical methods. Metaphysic has become psychology,
and psychology has been based on physiology. Biological
discovery has been the principal instrument of progress,
and the names to be chiefly recorded in connection with it
are Darwin and Herbert Spencer. The first important
philosophical movement of the reign had seemed to point in
another direction The ideas imported by Coleridge from
Germany had been adopted by the ablest thinkers of
Cambridge, once the stronghold of the experience-philosophy
of Locke. In May 1840, Whewell, soon to become Master Asrhe-weii.
of Trinity College and the leading resident member of the
University, published his ' Philosophy of the Inductive
Sciences,' in which he affirmed the conclusion that ' our
knowledge contains an ideal element, and this element is
not derived from experience.' In Oxford, on the contrary,
opinion was silently revolutionised in the opposite direction
by the introduction as a text-book of MiU's 'Logic' (1843). Mill's
•^ o \ / 'Logic.'
The movements of both Whewell and MUl neverthe
less bore within them the germs of faUure, at least as
regarded their own age, for Science had become the arbiter
of opinion, and neither could be cordially accepted by
scientific men. Science, admitting no other test of truth
than experience, is constitutionaUy indisposed to an intui
tional philosophy ; and, although Mill rejected intuition, he

458

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Spencer
and Bain.

Evolu tionary
theory.

followed Hume in denying any demonstrable connection of
cause and effect, a connection assumed by every experi
mental philosopher. Science had, accordingly, to create a
philosophy of her own. The want was supplied by the
efforts of two remarkable thinkers — Bain, author of ' The
Senses and the Intellect,' with its sequel, ' The Emotions and
the Will,' and Herbert Spencer, at first distinguished as a
writer on social subjects, but whose ' Principles of Psycho
logy ' (1855), with his subsequent ' First Principles ' (1862),
is the most characteristic embodiment of the English philo
sophical thought of its age. Bain's works were remarkable
for their investigation of mental phenomena by the light of
nervous anatomy, thus tending to make philosophy an exact
science ; Spencer's for their application of the governing idea
of the age, evolution. This weighty word, though already
familiar to biologists— see especially Eichwald, ' De regni
animalis limitibus atque evolutionis gradibus ' (1821) — was
first pronounced in its philosophical sense, so far as hitherto
ascertamed, by Professor Nichol in 1850, but merely as the
running title to a page of his ' Architecture of the Pleavens.'
Spencer employed it deliberately in a communication to the
Leader newspaper in March 1852. To him belongs the
distinction of having first given philosophical currency to
the ideas which Darwin, who had been working quietly on
his own line since his return from his voyage in 1836, was
to disseminate far more widely and verify by investigation
in the field of actual phenomena. To Spencer we are in
debted for the philosophical presentment of the subject, and
in particular for the generalisation, based on the observa
tions of many physiologists, of the hereditary transmission
of faculties and propensities, by which the controversy be
tween the theories of intuition and experience has been
finally adjusted. Ideas, it is now admitted, are innate in so
far as the predisposition to receive ideas of a particular de-

LITERATURE 459
scription is born Avith every individual. The celebrated com
parison of the infantine mind to a sheet of blank paper is
entirely fallacious. But ideas are not innate in the sense of
being naturally inherent in the mind, but have been derived
from its physical progenitors, upon whose individual ex
perience their complexion depends. This settlement of an
immemorial controversy by an appeal to physiology was
well calculated to facilitate the transition of metaphysics
into physics ; and during the period of which we are treating,
ere reaction had been provoked by the materialising ten
dency of doctrines grounded on biological observation, mere
philosophical speculation, at no time highly congenial to the
positive character of the Englishman, remained in a very
languid state. Sir William Hamilton's doctrine of the
' Relativity of Thought,' enunciated in his collected essays Meta-
(1852) and his edition of Reid (1846), was indeed destined ^ ^^^°^'
to excite vehement controversies, especially in the depart
ment of theology; but these belong to a later period.
Professor Ferrier's ' Institutes of Metaphysics ' (1854)
attracted little notice, but have survived him. The history
of philosophy was advanced by the same writer's briUiant
lectures on the early Greek philosophers, and popularised History
by G. PI. Lewes's compendium (1845-46), afterwards sophy.""
much enlarged. This confessedly superficial book further
marks an era as containing the first serious recognition of
Comte, whose ' Positive PhUosophy ' was shortly afterAvards
adapted for English readers by Miss Martineau and Lewes
himself. Logic took a great step in' advance by Boole's two epoch- Logic.
making books, ' The Mathematical Analysis of Logic ' (1847)
and 'An Investigation of the Laws of Thought' (1854),
aiming to combine logic with mathematics, as Spencer and
Bain combined metaphysics and physiology. De Morgan
effected much in the same direction. Sir WiUiam HamUton,

46o

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Political economy.

Sociology.

Relationof Vic
torian poetry to
that of
the pre
ceding age.

his distinguished follower Mansel, and others also made
important contributions to logic.
In political economy the most remarkable works Avere
M'CuUoch's (1849) and Stuart Mill's (1848), the latter of
which was very generally accepted as the crowning of Adam
Smith's edifice. The reaction against it belongs to a later
date. Mr. Herbert Spencer's study of Malthus produced
a most remarkable criticism, ' A New Theory of Population
deduced from the General Law of Animal Fertility ' (1852),
in which the limitations of the law established by Malthus
were pointed out.
As previously observed, Auguste Comte is perhaps the
only foreign writer who has profoundly affected English
literature during our age. A new development of research,
clumsily but conveniently entitled ' sociology,' is his especial
creation. A considerable proportion of the books written
during the early Victorian period may be described as the
raw material of sociology, for never were social questions
more assiduously investigated. Comte, however, raised
these inquiries to the dignity of a science, which was in
augurated in England by the ' Social Statics ' of Herbert
Spencer (1850).
That alliance of imagination with practical aims which
we have remarked in the history and philosophy of the
Victorian age is, as a rule, equally characteristic of its
poetry, but there is no such apparent break of continuity
with the best literature of the preceding generation. The
highest poetry being in its nature prophetic, and the first
quarter of the nineteenth century in England having been
one of the most remarkable of all poetical eras, the work
of the next fifty years was naturally prefigured by it, and
Tennyson and Browning appear the heirs of Wordsworth
and Coleridge, SheUey and Keats. Whatever, notwith
standing, is most truly characteristic of the culture and

LITERATURE 461
thought of the first Victorian period is impersonated in
Lord Tennyson, and the posterity that may wish to learn the Tenny-
maturest judgment of the most refined circles in his day
will find no source of information comparable to his poems.
The Queen's accession found him silently framing for him
self that theory of life demanded from him by Stuart Mill,
the most judicious critic of his early writings. By 1842 he
was able to publish the two volumes (' Poems, chiefly Lyrical')
by which every marked tendency of the age is represented,
in which every order of mind can find something peculiarly
its own, and which, nevertheless, is throughout perfect har
mony and organic unity. In ' The Princess ' (1847) he
touched the most serious temporal question of the day, and
in ' In Memoriam ' (1850) he gave the best reply it loiew to
the question which is eternal. In ' The Idylls of the King '
(1859) he afforded the strongest proof possible of his identi
fication Avith the spirit of the age by producmg a Victorian
epic in the guise of an Arthurian one ; while, by a singular
contrast, the strength of ' Maud ' (1855) is not in the re
ferences to the national contest with Russia, its professed
theme, but in the purely lyrical passages. The canto begin
ning ' I have led her home ' is the highest poetical flight of
the author and the age.
If the varied and sometimes conflicting tendencies of the Robert
time are reflected by the Laureate, its master-passion is ing.
incarnated in Robert Browning. Browning is essentially
the poet of man. He can make poetry of anything, so long
as it concerns a human being. In a dramatic age he would
have been a great dramatic poet, but the conditions of his
time, unfavourable to this kind of excellence, have led him
to devise dramatic situations rather than complete plays,
and to cast his best thought into intense, impassioned
monologues. During the earher years of the Queen's reign,
nevertheless, he essayed dramatic composition in the remark-

462 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
able series of plays quaintly entitled ' Bells and Pome
granates ' (1842-46). Particular passages in these have
not been surpassed by him or by others ; but the superiority
of his art when working in freedom from every conventional
restraint, was proved in ' Men and Women ' (1855) — fifty
wonderful human portraits, or glimpses of portraits — the
best, but by no means the largest portion, of the extraordinary
series which a life devoted to poetry has been employed in
producing. On the peculiarities of style which heighten
his originality while limiting his sphere of influence, this is
E. B. not the place to enlarge. His gifted wife, Elizabeth Barrett-
ing°^^' Browning, though altogether exceptional in her learning and
attainments, nevertheless represents average womanhood
in Victorian poetry. Plowever peculiar and mystic the
expression, the sentiment invariably bears the stamp of the
sensitive and cultivated English lady of the nineteenth
century. It foUoAvs that her genius is mainly lyrical.
The so-called ' Sonnets from the Portuguese,' treating of
emotions strictly personal to herself, are her best work. Her
attempt at a nineteenth-century epic, ' Aurora Leigh ' (1857),
though displaying more mental power than any of her
writings, is too faulty in construction to be durable. Faulti-
ness of construction was indeed the besetting sin of the
poetry of that day. Even the work of true poets, like
PhUip James BaUey (' Festus,' 1839) and Sydney DobeU
('Balder,' 1853), seems a string of simUes. The evil Avas
checked by a very remarkable piece of criticism, the preface
Matthew to the Collected poems of Matthew Arnold (1853). Mr.
Arnold had practically shown by his previous publications
(' The Strayed Reveller,' 1849, ' EmpedoclesonEtna,' 1852)
the immense gain of symmetrical construction and chastened
expression. Beautiful as is most of his poetical work, it is
not too much to affirm that this memorable essay laid
Enghsh literature under still deeper obhgations. Except,

LITERA TURE 463
indeed, in his purely narrative poems, such as the stately
and pathetic epical episodes, ' Sohrab and Eustum ' and
' Balder Dead,' Mr. Arnold appears either as a teacher or
a learner. He is an academical poet, reflecting the mental
attitude of the most cultured minds of his time, and also
their obligations to antiquity and such moderns as Words
worth and Goethe. The cosmopolitanism of a very brilliant
writer, the Earl of Lytton, is of a more unrestrained kind, Eari of
at home in every literature, but owing most to contempo
raries such as Hugo and Heine. Mr. Coventry Patmore, Coventry"Pfl \ mors
on the other hand (' Angel in the House,' 1854-56), is no
child of his age, and might almost pass for a poet of the
seventeenth century. Had it been otherwise, his poetical
treatment of English domestic life might have suffered
from too exclusive an association with everyday concerns.
But the pregnant style and subtle thoughts embalm the
familiar matter, and the poet attains his aspiration of
' saying things too simple and too SAveet for words.' To
gether with the writer who has lived to see his ex
quisite ' lonica ' prized at their worth, he constitutes a
link with those who stiU adhered to the classical, or at
least the Wordsworthian tradition of poetry. They were AVords-
not numerous, or in general remarkable, although some of achooL
the best sonnets in the language were composed between
1830 and 1848 by Hartley Coleridge, who, hke Milues and
Trench, Moultrie and Aubrey de Vere, mainly drew inspira
tions from Coleridge and Wordsworth. Arthur Hugh
Clough, the bard of honest doubt, showed humour in ' The ciough,
Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich,' startling force in 'Dipsychus ' suiwer,
and other fragments, and elsewhere a subtlety which made ^^i^"y.
him the favourite poet of speculative minds. Henry Taylor
produced meritorious dramas, but no second 'Philip van
Artevelde.' Mrs. Norton in some measure represented the
traditions of Byron. R. H. Home (' Orion,' 1843) mani-

464

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Hood and
Barnes.

Irishpoets.

Fiction in
general.

Dickens,

fested more affinity to Keats and Shelley. In his satirical
'New Timon' and his epical 'KingArthur,' Bulwer exhausted
the resources of talent without attaining the results of
genius. Barham's ' Ingoldsby Legends ' were a masterpiece
of metrical fun ; and with his ' Lays of Ancient Rome ' (1842)
Macaulay won a. great triumph in a narrow field. One of
Emily Bronte's lyrics was sublime, and all her verse was
poetry. Two distinguished men stood aloof. Hood, who
under George IV. had written in an ornate style, and had
since vied with Barham as a humourist, now melted aU
hearts by ballads of artless simplicity. William Barnes
(first publication 1844), by far the best rural poet South
Britain ever had, followed no model but nature. Lastly,
a group of Irish bards won distinction in descriptive and
lyrical poetry, but manifested little sensitiveness to the
special influences of the nineteenth century. The one most
in harmony Avith the general spirit of contemporary poetry
was William AUingham, an artist in verse as well as a singer
(' The Music-master,' ' Day and Night Songs,' 1855). Davis
and his fellow-minstrels of the ' Nation ' were merely singers,
but their political verse was full of spirit and fire. An inter
mediate position was occupied by Sir Samuel Ferguson,
whose ' Forging of the Anchor ' ranks among the finest
ballads of the period.
In the age of Victoria, fiction has more and more
assumed the place from which the drama has fallen, and
become the mirror and the censor of contemporary manners.
It has, consequently, been more affected than any other class
of literature by the general tendencies of the age. Every
novel is necessarily in some degree a work of imagination ;
and there are few of very considerable note in the Victorian
period which the pressure of circumstances has not inspired
with something of the utilitarian spirit as well. The pro
gressive change may be observed in the writings of Dickens,

LITERA TURE 465
too well knoAvn to require enumeration or special descrip
tion. The attack on the Fleet Prison m 'Pickwick,' for
instance, is merely incidental; that on the Court of
Chancery in ' Bleak House ' is the foundation of the book.
It must, however, be admitted that Dickens became a
teacher not solely to meet the exigencies of public feeling,
but also as a substitute for the buoyancy of animal spirits
which upbore him so triumphantly until the completion of
'Martin Chuzzlewit' (1844), and faUed him so signally
afterwards. Thackeray, who next grasped the sceptre of Thacke-
contemporary fiction by the publication of ' Vanity Fair ' ^'^^'
in 1846, is, on the other hand, a conscious critic and pro
fessional satirist. As Dickens's novels celebrate the free
exuberant vigour of English life, Thackeray's criticise its
weaknesses and expose its affectations. In ' Vanity Fair '
(1846), ' Pendennis ' (1850), and ' The Newcomes ' (1855) he
is to the age of Victoria what Addison and Steele were to the
age of Anne — its painter ; not like his disciple, Anthony
Ti'oUope, its photographer. His own temperament deeply
influences his pictorial handling : to assume the absolute
accuracy of his pictures would be like inferring, from the
too exclusive study of some modern painters, that the men
and women of the Victorian epoch invariably lived in rooms
hung with yellow.
For a corrective to Dickens's genial unveracity and
Thackeray's exaggeration of satire we must look to a
new order of writers, who, learnmg from Dickens to multi
ply the resources of fiction by resort to a lower social
stratum, and sharing Thackeray's aversion to the shams Social
and conventions of the higher, united abhorrence of evU ment
to faith in good. Mrs. GaskeU's ' Maty Barton ' (1849) tt^t^^
and 'Ruth' (1853), Miss Mulock's 'John Halifax' (1857),
and Charles Kingsley's 'Yeast' (1851) and ' Alton Locke '
(1850), may be accepted as representatives of this class.
VOL. II. H H

466 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Equally remote from Dickens's sentiment and Thackeray's
sarcasm, they treated social problems sometimes in a bitter
and indignant, but mainly in a hopeful spirit, and rendered
fiction more distinctly than ever a moral teacher and
an instrument of legislative progress. WhUe Thackeray,
conscious of having accomplished his mission as a delinea
tor of contemporary manners, sought an asylum in the
eighteenth century ('Esmond,' 1852, ' The Virginians,' 1858),
Kingsley carried the spirit of the nineteenth century into the
Bulwer. past ('Hypatia,' 1853, 'Westward Ho,' 1855) ; audBulwer, re
versing Thackeray's practice, abandoned the historical novel,
of which he had given brilliant examples in ' The Last of the
Barons' and 'Harold,' for pictures of contemporary life.
The form of ' The Caxtons ' (1848), ' My Novel ' (1853), and
' What will he do with it ? ' (1858) is borrowed and affected ;
but few books are richer in the ripe genial wisdom of an
accomplished man of the world. Another form of novel
Disraeli, received a remarkable development at this period. Benjamin
Disraeli, subjective as Byron, had himself been the involun
tary hero of all he wrote. The ambitious boy who had
dreamed in ' Vivian Grey ; ' the half-poet, possessing the
' vision ' but wanting the ' faculty,' who had rhapsodised in
' Contarini Fleming ; ' the dandy, who had sketched fashion
able society in ' Henrietta Temple,' was now the party
chief. ' Coningsby ' (1844) was the most brilliant criticism
of the antiquated and insincere element in the politics of
the day ; ' Sybil ' (1845) propounded the author's favourite
idea of the aUiance of the aristocracy and the artisans ; the
Oriental projects of ' Tancred ' (1847) would seem wholly
visionary if the author had not lived to realise some of them.
The special department of Irish fiction was ably occupied
by Charles Lever, almost the only member of Dickens's
school who is still read, and by William Carleton. Lever
Irish
novelists, gavc Irish humours, but Carleton truly depicted Irish life.

LITERATURE 467
Even fhe mass of circulating library fiction felt the influence
of a more earnest time, and, if exhibiting little absolute
merit, Avas at aU events less silly and vapid than of old. A
few writers stand apart : Robert Landor, whose romances
are classical in every sense; the Baroness Tautphceus,
whose ' Initials ' combined exquisite observation Avith the ex
citement of narrative ; Charlotte and Emily Bronte, whose Bronts
intense natures found utterance in impassioned diction ^^^^^
and situations of thrilling power ; and George BorroAv, who 2°"°^-
alone among Victorian novelists possessed the secret of
compelling belief in romantic incidents by matter-of-fact
handling. The truth of ' Jane Eyre ' (1847) is psycho
logical, that of 'Lavengro' (1851) external; but they are
equally irresistible in illusive poAver.
The four principal divisions of intellectual labour here
imperfectly described, are of course very far from com
prising aU the manifestations of hterary activity during
the period under revicAV. No department, perhaps, was so
Avidely cultivated and influential as that of criticism, which
eludes detailed examination from being diffused through
a multitude of periodicals. The more important features
of periodical literature will be more conveniently glanced
at in another place. Generally speaking, critics may be criti-
said to have been aiming at the point of view of the °'^™'
Coleridges, Hazlitts, and De Quinceys of the preceding
generation, and to have gained very considerably in insight
and earnestness. One very great writer, Ruskin, developing Ruskin.
hints already given by Shelley and De Quincey, shoAved what
criticism may be when united Avith a poetical temperament.
The appreciation of his aesthetic teaching belongs to
another department of this work; but literature no less
than art responded to his passionate demand for abso
lute veracity and his assertion of the substantial one
ness of utility and beauty. The most vital portion of this
H 11 2

468 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
teaching was adapted from Carlyle, but the unequalled
splendour of Ruskin's diction recommended him to many
whom Carlyle repeUed. Along with the critical dithyrambics
of ' Modern Painters ' and ' The Stones of Venice ' may be
named another development of picturesque authorship,
Litera- idealised travel — a weary business in incompetent hands,
t"ave°. but delightful in such examples as Kinglake's' Edthen '(1844)
and Borrow's ' Bible in Spain ' (1843). Ordinary traA^els
abounded as now, and as now exhibited every degree of merit
and demerit. Two came to rank as classics. Darwin's
' Voyage of the " Beagle " ' will long remain the model of
the scientific traveller, incomparable for its ardent yet tem
perate passion for truth and the power of effortless word-
painting. Layard's discovery of Nineveh was the most
brilliant stroke that a traveller ever made, and a less able
account of it than the explorer's (1849) would claim a per
manent place in literature. Miss Martineau's ' Eastern
Life, Present and Past' (1848), and Chorley's 'Music in
Germany ' are remarkable examples of didactic travel under
taken for a special purpose.
Free The aids to literary culture in which this period was
prolific — such as the free library system established in
1850 by Mr. Ewart's Act — hardly belong to this subject
except in so far as they exerted a direct stimulus upon
Lectures, authorship. Such was, in a certain measure, the case with
the wide diffusion of lecturing, which, by bringing Emerson
to England in 1847, acquainted popular audiences with the
remarkably pure and spiritual form which the idea of
culture had assumed across the Atlantic. The rhetorical
art also had powerful representatives in W. J. Fox and
George Dawson ; on the whole, however, literary oratory
has not been widely influential in this country, and has
tended more and more to connect itself with education
in the narrower sense.

LITERATURE 469
Literature derived substantial encouragement from a Copy-
legal enactment, the Copyright Act of 1842. In 1839 "s^* ¦*-=*-
Carlyle had petitioned that literary pirates might be pro
hibited from stealing for sixty years, ' after which, unless
your honourable House provide otherwise, they may begin
to steal.' The term was deemed too long in the interests
of public policy, and, after a brief controversy between
Talfourd and Lord Mahon on the side of the authors,
and Macaulay on the side of the public, the question Avas
eventuaUy settled by an Act determining the period of pro
tection at forty-two years. The overthroAv of the system of Book-
high retail prices and the introduction of liberal discounts ^i^^®''^'
in 1852 should also be recorded as circumstances highly counts.
encouraging to the diffusion of literature.
Nor must the naturalisation of American literature be Ameri-
left unnoticed. This will probably be one day regarded as rature. "
the most importantof all incidents in English literary history,
taking its destinies out of the hands of domestic cliques and
coteries, and indefinitely expanding both the area of its
influence and the agencies by Avhich it is to be moulded for
the future. For the time it added to the circle of popular
domestic writers two of undoubted genius, Emerson and
HaAvthorne, and one of less native power, Longfellow, who
seemed commissioned to remedy the most serious defect
of the poetry of the day — the absence, generally speaking,
of any element appreciable and enjoyable by the masses.
Thanks mainly to him, contemporary poetry did not cease
to exist for circles not insensible to the charm of verse
because their culture did not enable them to appreciate its
very highest manifestations. It is much to be desired that
his example of perfect simplicity and transparency should
produce its full effect. The value of what is generally Diffusion
comprehensible must rise in proportion as the English En^fsh
language advances toAvards its probable destiny of becom- la^^isuage.

470 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
ing a universal means of communication among the nations
of the earth.
Modifica- The transition from the earlier to the later period of
sp°irit'of Queen Victoria's reign is accompanied by a modification
utera-"^" of mental attitude and atmosphere. Tennyson is no longer
ture. iijg truest representative of the era, the spirit of which is
more perfectly expressed by the most serious and purpose
ful of novelists, George Eliot. There is less faith, hope,
and imagination ; more earnestness, system, and' science.
This may be partly ascribed to the disappointment of over-
sanguine expectations from political reform, partly to the
increasing perception of the magnitude of social evils, partly
to the succession of calamities — the Crimean war and the
Indian mutiny, the death of the Prince Consort, and the
cotton dearth, which saddened while they exalted the spirit
of the nation — but chiefly to the growing preponderance of
the scientific view of life.
The great intellectual event of the age, dividing its
chronology as Avith a watershed, was the publication of
Influence Darwin's ' Origin of Species ' in 1859. The influence of
winiaii f^is work was quite independent of the acceptance of the
theory. author's theory in the special field of biology. It firmly
established a new method of regarding society, no less
than nature, which controUed thought in every department.
The absolute sway of Law, long proclaimed by science, was
brought home to the man of ordinary culture, and all laws
seemed reducible to the one principle of Evolution. The
noblest teaching of the preceding era found itself corro
borated. Carlyle's scorn of formulas and paper constitu
tions was justified, since nothing could come into existence
but from an antecedent germ ; Buskin's identification of
utility and beauty was confirmed, for all beauty Avas shown to
be an adaptation to a useful end. Whatever Avas serious in

LITERATURE A7i
contemporary thought profited, whatever was merely capri
cious crumbled aAvay. It destroyed much in which the un
trained imagination had delighted, and its substantial conso
lations brought with them grave joy not unallied to sadness.
The resort for arguments and illustrations to the natural
Avorld also tended for a time to invest the doctrine with
a more materialistic aspect than properly belonged to it.
Some consciousness of error in this direction may perhaps
be detected in the latest utterances of the chief thinker of
the reigning school, Mr. Herbert Spencer, whose former spe- j^^^-ct
culations, noAV that Darwinism had become the prevalent speuoer.
biological doctrine, wore the aspect of fulfilled prophecies.
His ' First Principles ' (1862) , the first number of a philo
sophical series designed to be all-embracing, is the most
characteristic bequest of the Victorian age to posterity.
With all Mr. Spencer's efforts, however, psychology was
still far from an exact science, and his triumph contained
the germs of reaction. The transformation of metaphysics
into psychology seemed to many to involve a further passage
into biology. Such Avas the view of Lewes (' Physical Basis Mate-
of Mind ') and Maudsley (' Mind and Brain ') . This Avas not "'^li^™-
a conclusion in Avhich mankind could generally acquiesce,
and metaphysics revived in their turn. WhUe MiU (1863)
Avas endeavourmg to deal a final bloAV at the intuitional
philosophy in the person of Sir Wilham Hamilton, HamUton's meta-
theory of the relativity of human knoAvledge, invoked by p^^^^^^-
theologians to disable human judgment in the region of
the supernatural, excited a controversy which at least
showed in how wide a field the choice yet lay betAveen
metaphysics and agnosticism. At a later period Coleridge's
philosophical bequest was tardily administered by his exe
cutor, Joseph Henry Green ; and Thomas HiU Green, in the
act of editing the philosophy of Hume, subjected it to acute
criticism. A school of Oxford Hegehanism, continually

472

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Ethics.

James
Mar tineau
and H.
Sidgwick.

rising in importance, OAves its being to this able thinker,
so prematurely snatched away.
After all, however, the philosophy of evolution professed
by Spencer remained the characteristic philosophy of the
reign of Victoria, and the only one whose promulgation
was attended by momentous consequences. It was carried
by its author into politics and morals. ' The Data of Ethics '
(1879) subjects moral action to an analysis yielding some
thing different from the old utilitarianism, on which the
emotional though clear-headed Stuart Mill had already
sought to refine. Mr. Justice Stephen's defence of the
original phase of the doctrine is an interesting example of
the way in which opinion is governed by temperament. In
ethics, as in psychology and sociology, Mr. Spencer is our
only great systematic writer ; but the age produced one
golden manual on a special department, one penetrating
critic, and one dignified judge. Mill's ' Liberty ' (1859) is
to general freedom of thought and conduct Avhat Milton's
' Areopagitica ' had been to the liberty of the press. Mr.
Matthew Arnold strove to reconcile philosophers Avith theolo
gians, and thinkers with practical men, in his ' Literature
and Dogma' and writings of a similar tendency. Dr.
Martineau, the champion of intuitive ideas, of the innate
moral sense, of the freedom of the will, of everything an
tagonistic to the reigning views, familiar throughout a long
life with all ' types of ethical theory,' mustered and judged
them all in the book thus entitled (1885) : a work unap
proached by any contemporary in austere yet seductive
beauty of language and sentiment.- SidgAvick's ' Methods
of Ethics ' (1874) was another masterly investigation of the
various sanctions of morality that have obtained among
men. Ethical problems were also canvassed in delightful dia
logues by WiUiam Smith (' Thorndale,' ' Gravenhurst '), and
treated in a highly suggestive if mystical manner in J. H.

LITERATURE 473
Hinton's ' Mystery of Pain ' and Avith chilling good sense in
W. R. Greg's 'Enigmas of Life' (1873). The novel and
unwelcome phenomenon of pessimism was analysed by
James Sully. Sir Arthur Helps, the universally acceptable
author of ' Friends in Council,' though distinguished in
many fields, may, on the Avhole, be classed with ethical
Avriters. English philosophic thought Avas perhaps more deeply study of
affected in this than in the former period by the influence phiio-
of antiquity and of the Continent. Grote, who had retired ^°^ ^'
from political life to write the ' History of Greece,' Avithlike
devotion consecrated his latter days to a great Avork on
Plato, embracing a number of collateral topics, and another
on Aristotle, which unfortunately remains a fragment.
LoAves wrote on Aristotle's physiology and Sir Alexander
Grant on his ethics, and Plato became better knoAvn than
heretofore by the dissertations accompanying Mr. Jowett's
translation. Kant's metaphysic, just re-enthroned in
Germany, was made more accessible to England by Mahaffy
and Caird, Avhile his ethics were popularised by Miss PoAver
Cobbe (' Essay on Intuitive Morals'). Pollock expounded
and Martineau criticised Spinoza, and Dr. J. H. Stirling
sought to impart the 'Secret of Hegel' (1865). Of all
foreign influences, however, the most important Avas that
exerted by Comte, whose dogmatism and despotism offended school.
the best tendencies and traditions of the English mind, but
who was nevertheless felt as a leaven working in intellects as
little disposed to submit to his absolute guidance as Mill
and Herbert Spencer. His strength lay, perhaps, in his
systematising spirit, which was found useful in dealing with
the accumulating mass of knoAvledge. Sociology, his espe
cial creation, owes much to Harrison, Beesly, and others
who, under his inspiration, occupied themselves with the
adjustment of the differences betAveen capital and labour.

474

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Historians of
intellect: Buckle,
Lecky, Leslie Stephen.

Charac
teristics of his
torians.

Record Office
publica
tions.

The influence of his example was also discernible in Buckle's
remarkable but fragmentary ' History of CiviHsation in
England' (1858), a work singularly effective in style,
Avhich faUed of permanent influence mainly through the
author's ignorance of the theory of evolution. He had
grasped too hastUy at conclusions derived from mere
statistics, and died ere he could remodel his book by the
light kindled while its composition had absorbed him.
Less ambitious in conception and brilliant in execution,
Lecky's ' History of Rationalism ' (1865) and ' History of
European Morals ' (1869) are of more durable worth. The
noiseless growth of new ideas, and the transitions, imper
ceptible in origin, startling in result, from one region of
thought to another, have ncA'er been exhibited Avith equal
power. Mr. Leshe Stephen's 'English Thought in the
Eighteenth Century' (1876), a truly learned work of the
same class, is a rare instance of candid appreciation not
withstanding Avide difference of opinion.
Writers of Buckle's class form a conA^enient connecting
hnk between abstract thinkers and historians. The historical
movement during the latter part of the Victorian epoch
corresponds to the movement in philosophy. The tendency
is to exact research at the expense of literary quality.
Narrative, dramatic, and pictorial poAver, though not ab
sent from the historians of the day, are not their most
characteristic gifts or their chief titles to distinction. It Avas
a natural consequence of this disposition to base history on
original research that chief attention should be bestowed
on the country whose records were most accessible — the
United Kingdom itself. The opening of the Record Office
to historical research (1858) was the natural sequel of tho
rescue and rearrangement of the records themselves twenty-
five years earlier, and the stream of invaluable publica
tions, especially calendars of State papers, which rapidly

LITERATURE 475
proceeded from the Record Commissioners, powerfully en
couraged the now dominant antiquarian school of history.
This was especially influenced by two leading minds. Bishop stubbs
Stubbs, the great constitutional historian of England (1874), mau^''^^'
and Mr. E. A. Freeman, who, though not in those days
holding a professorship, might be regarded as the English
representative of the professorial class of historian pre
dominant in Germany. His ' History of the Norman Con
quest ' (1867), Avith the companion work on William Rufus, is
the most characteristic and influential production of his
school. It is, moreover, the work of a real historian, not of
a mere historical critic, one endowed with a sense of art and
symmetry, and' able to paint a battle or a man. Its defects
are those incident to the author's position as a pioneer in the
field of history. He is compelled to argue Avhile he narrates,
and half his book reads like a commentary on the other
half. The serA'ice, nevertheless, which he and Dr. Stubbs
have rendered by instilling juster views of mediaeval history,
redeeming periods full of life and * movement from the
reproach of stagnation and barrenness, and especially by
exhibiting the continuity of all history, can never be oA^er-
estimated. His disciple, J. R. Green, attempting a school- Green.
book, produced a literary masterpiece, though his ' Short
Plistory ' had both to be expanded and to be jiurged of many
errors before, as 'The History of the English People,'
it became a model of what condensation can effect. In
his ' Making of England,' Green showed remarkable power
of painting the external conditions that influence the life
of a people. Other labourers in the field of early British
history are so numerous that we can barely name Sir F.
Palgrave's unfinished Anglo-Norman history, Pearson's
volumes on the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods, and
Skene's ' Celtic Scotland.' The works of Guizot, Thierry,
Lappenberg, Pauli, and Ranke were naturalised among us

476

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Gardiner.

Otherhisto
rians of
England.

Indian andcolonial
history.

Ancient
history :
Hodgkin,Coote,
EaTvlin-

by translations. The history of the Tudors has been under
going reconstruction at the hands of the late Professor
BreAver and others, some of whom seem to have substituted
faith in mendacious ambassadors for Mr. Fronde's faith
in mendacious documents. The period of James I. and
Charles I. has happily fallen into the hands of a very eminent
historian, who to the sagacity and impartiality of a Ranke
unites profound insight into the currents of national feeling
('England under James I. and Charles I.,' 1888). Mr.
Gardiner's one defect is that he is more successful in laying
bare the springs of action than in portraying the actors. The
same remark applies to Mr. Lecky, who, however, writing
the history of eighteenth-century England, found a subject
appropriate to his peculiar talent when called upon to de
scribe the condition of Ireland at the time. Fcav passages
of recent historical Avriting are more masterly or more
deeply instructive. The literary gifts of Kinglake, the his
torian of the Crimean war, would have amply sufficed to
hand his book doAvn to posterity. Unfortunately, the most
briUiant parts are the least relevant, and the necessary is
everyAvhere encumbered with the superfluous. Prolixity is
more or less imputable to all historians of modern England
except Mr. Cory, a pattern of pregnant brevity, Mr. Spencer
Walpole, and Mr. Justin McCarthy. Mr. Fronde's ' English
in Ireland ' provoked Avarm controversy. Kaye's history of
the Afghan war is classical ; but the marveUous story of the
Indian Mutiny, though ably condensed by Mr. T. Plolmes,
has as yet found no adequate narrator on a fitting scale ;
and Mr. Rusden's gigantic accumulations for Australasian
history are the quarry of the future.
Ancient history, though extensively studied, has of late
years afforded material for but one very important English
Avork. Mr. Hodgkin's ' Italy and her Invaders ' (1880), stUl
in progress, has shown that the episodes of the ' Decline and

LITERA TURE 477
Fall ' admit of fuller treatment at the hands of an accom
plished scholar endowed with the historic instinct, and that
there is room for such a one even by the side of Gibbon.
Mr. Coote's ' Romans in Britain ' is on the borderland
between history and archaeology. The early volumes of
Canon Rawlinson's series in the ' Seven Great Monarchies
of Antiquity ' labour under the inevitable defect of being
based upon materials in process of continual augmentation,
and as yet imperfectly understood. This does not apply
to his valuable monographs on the Parthian and the
Sassanian dynasties. Mr. Bosworth Smith has written the
history of Carthage with lucid brevity and som.e partiality. .
Professor DoAVson's edition of Sir H. Elliot's translations of
the native Indian historians is a work of great extent
and value, and Colonel Osborn and Sir W. Muir have eluci
dated the confused story of the caliphs.
Foreign nations have of late taken such exceUent care History
of their own history, and their languages are so generally foreign
understood in England, that the inducement to write of
them has been greatly diminished. Carlyle's biography
of Frederick the Great (1858-65) and Professor Seeley's
biography of Stein (1879), however, are histories of unusual
mark ; and Mr. Fyffe, treating of modern Europe in a yet
unfinished history, renders a service by superseding the
wholly inadequate work of AUson. Mr. Bryce's essay on the
' Holy Roman Empire ' (1878) was a luminous exposition of
a subject which Mr. Freeman had already done much to
elucidate. Ecclesiastical history, in this instance so inter- Eccie-
. siastical
twined with civil history as hardly to be separable, received history.
a valuable addition in Canon Creighton's impartial ' History
of the Papacy during the Period of the Reformation'
(1882). Under Mr. Creighton's auspices also England
has for the first time acquired, in the English Historical
Review, a journal for the discussion of historical questions.

478

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Historical and
archaeo
logical
journals.

Biography.

an institution of long standing on the Continent. Classical
and Biblical studies already possessed similar organs in the
journals of the Hellenic Society and the Society of Biblical
Archaeology, whose proceedings have proved important auxi
liaries to history.
No period abounded more than this in excellent bio
graphies, but, from causes previously stated, few were
qualified to take an independent place in the history of
literature, apart from the importance of the subject. One
such book was produced by Mark Pattison, before whose
sight the life of Casaubon lay clear in its simple outline,
unembarrassed by a superfluity of material. The book is a
gem ; and Sir George Trevelyan's ' Life of Macaulay ' is
another. Lewes's ' Life of Goethe,' Hamerton's ' Five
Famous Frenchmen,' and Morley's lives of Voltaire, Rous
seau, and Diderot are also distinguished from the mass of
biography by their condensed treatment, which in the case
of the first-mentioned was carried too far. Forster spoiled
the lives of Dickens and Landor, and was arrested by death
as he seemed about to succeed better with Swift. Among
the numberless excellent biographical works composed on a
larger scale. Sir Theodore Martin's 'Life of the Prince
Consort,' Masson's Milton, Bosworth Smith's Lord Law
rence, and Dowden's SheUey may be selected for special
mention. Mr. S. Smiles made a special department of the
lives of engineers and heroes of the working class ; and Sir
J. W. Kaye of Indian commanders. No modern biography
consisting chiefly of original documents can compare in
interest with the journals of General Gordon. In ' Our
Life in the Highlands ' her Majesty herself gave her subjects
an example of the simple and graceful treatment of the
details of everyday life. Artistic biography was best repre
sented by Gilchrist's ' Life of Blake,' and Tom Taylor's and
C. R. Leslie's ' Life of Reynolds.' The most important Avork

LITERATURE 479
in collective biography was Hook's 'Lives of the Arch
bishops of Canterbury.' Autobiography, the most fasci- Autobio-
nating form of biographical narrative, was enriched by the
incomparably vivid reminiscences of Carlyle and the candid
and manly self-portraiture of MiU ; an autobiography by
Mr. Ruskin, more discursive but less detailed, is noAV
in course of publication. Publications of diaries were
numerous. Two, the ' Greville Memoirs ' and Crabb
Robinson's ' Diary and Reminiscences,' afforded endless
delight to the lovers of history and literature, the latter
of whom also profited by the publication of Macvey Napier's
correspondence as editor of the Edinburgh Review. The
general tendency to prolixity was partially counteracted by
the taste for abridgments conveying the substance of an
author's life and work, which produced such masterly mono
graphs as Morley's Burke, Morison's Gibbon, Jebb's Bentley,
Colvin's Landor, HaseU's Calderon, and many others.
Politics produced much writing but little literature. Politics.
except Sir G. C. Lewis's ' Essay on the Formation of Opi
nion ' (1844) and ' Methods of Observation and Reasoning
in Politics ' (1852) ; and numerous detached essays, some,
like MiU's and Cairnes's on the American Civil War, of a very
high character. Seeley's ' Expansion of England ' struck
a chord that vibrated through the nation. MiU's ' Sub
jection of Woman ' was the most remarkable contribution
to phUosophical politics. In the higher departments of
general jurisprudence and constitutional history. Sir Henry Juris-
Maine and Sir Erskine May produced standard works of the dence.
highest importance, and the origin of social institutions
was ably investigated by Lubbock, Tylor, McLennan, and
other writers. No epoch-making work appeared in political Political economy,
economy, although the growing dissatisfaction Avith the
established system of MiU, as represented after his death by
Fawcett and Cairnes, produced a number of mmor books

48o

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Travels.

Literaryhistory.

and essays, of which Ruskin's later writings were the most
remarkable. Opinion on this subject, as well as on logic
and economics in general, was greatly modified by the
researches of W. S. Jevons, whose general tendency may be
defined as the application of mathematical principles to the
mixed sciences, but whose premature death prevented him
from thoroughly systematising his conclusions. Bagehot,
Courtney, R. I. Palgrave, Giffen, and Goschen took rank as
the highest authorities on finance.
Works of travels were innumerable, and the importance of
many explorations, and the personal interest attaching to
such explorers as Livingstone, Burton, Baker, and Vambery,
made them independent of mere literary criticism. ' The
Voyage of the "Bacchante " ' (1885) is an ample record of
an undertaking conceiA^ed in a truly princely and imperial
spirit. Sir Charles Dilke'a ' Greater Britain ' (1868) taught
many to realise for the first time the greatness of the empire.
Palgrave's ' Travels in Arabia ' (1863) unite the charm of style
to the charm of adventure. Tennent's ' Ceylon ' (1850) is one
of the most exhaustive accounts ever given of any country.
Bates's ' Amazons ' (1863) is a pattern of zoological travel,
and WaUace's ' Malay Archipelago ' (1867) made an era in
natural history by its masterly discrimination of the Asiatic
and Australian regions.
In this period the history of literature seemed a less
attractive subject than formerly, a circumstance chiefly to
be explained by the extent to which the subject was treated
in periodicals. The most extensive and important under
taking in this department was undoubtedly Symonds's
'Itahan Renaissance' (1875-86), a blending of literary,
artistic, social, and political history. Henry Morley's history
of English literature is unfortunately incomplete. Gosse's
literary essays and lectures occupy the borderland between
literature and biography. Matthew Arnold took the first

LITERATURE 481
rank among the judges as distinguished from the historians Criti-
of letters. Bagehot excelled in literary portraiture and °'^™'
Pater in finish of style. Minor critical studies, frequently
reprinted from periodicals, were numberless, and a mass of
refined intellectual observation was gradually accumulated
by accomplished Avriters, of whom Myers, Mmto, Hamerton,
Dowden, Saintsbury, and W. M. Rossetti may be taken as
types. The history of science was chiefly represented by
Miss A. B. Buckley's ' Short History ' (1876) and Miss
Agnes Gierke's ' Astronomy of the Nineteenth Century '
(1885). Professors Huxley and TyndaU are remarkable
instances of natural philosophers whose masterly style has
secured for their writings almost universal circulation, but
they hardly fall within our scope. The science of biblio- Biblio
graphy has been greatly advanced by its Panizzis and ^"^"^^ ^'
Bradshaws, by the foundation of the Library Association,
and by the example of America ; and its importance becomes
more generally recognised day by day. The most remark- classical
able performance in the criticism of antiquity was Glad
stone's Homer, but rather as a monument of the classical
enthusiasm of a busy statesman than as a serious contribu
tion to the study of Homeric problems. Homeric translation
received its canons from Matthew Arnold's lectures (1862),
and in his essay on Celtic literature (1868) the same critic
gave a luminous exposition of the causes which make English
poetry to differ from that of the other Teutonic races.
Finally, although philology as a science is not within our phiio-
province, it must be remarked that the labours of a long ^°^'
Ime of scholars have brought both comparative philology
and the special study of the English language to a point
vastly in advance of that which they occupied in 1887.
Nothing like a complete view of the literary press can be Literary
attempted within our hmits, but a few leading facts may be ^'^^^^¦
glanced at. At the Queen's accession, as already intimated,
VOL. II. I I

482

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Modifi
cationsin re
viewing.

Improved tone of
criticism.

a change was passing over the old quarterly review, mainly
occasioned by the wider diffusion of literary curiosity and
the increased intellectual pace of the age. The judgment
of a quarterly on a new book had, in general, long been
forestalled by the nimbler weeklies, some of which, such
as the AthencRxtm, Spectator, and Examiner, enjoyed an
authority fuUy equal to that of any review. The result
was to discourage close literary criticism and to encourage
essays like Macaulay's, for which the book named at the
head of the article merely afforded a pretext, or collections
of anecdotes strung on the thread of the nominal object of
the notice. This tendency has naturally increased with the
increased urgency of the circumstances that created it ; and
in general the object of a reviewer in one of the great
quarterlies is now less the criticism of a book than the
support or attack of a particular view, the exposition of
some subject in which he himself is proficient, or the simple
provision of entertaining reading. The weekly literary
press itself is not fast enough for the demands of the age,
and finds its province encroached upon by the daily papers,
one or two of which have a distinctive literary character,
while the others can now afford reviews from the great
enlargement of their space. Competition stimulates the
bad habit of reviewing from advance sheets, detrimental to
conscientious criticism in more ways than one. In general,
however, the tone of reviewing is immensely improved since
the Queen's accession, when puffery and venality were
notoriously prevalent. At present the venal journal is
nearly extinct, and its praise serves to warn readers away
from worthless books. The change is in great measure due
to the stern integrity of the elder Dilke, the first efficient
editor of the Athenmum; and even more to the growth
of the provincial press, where literature is by no means
neglected, and which renders large masses of readers inde-

LITERATURE 483
pendent of metropolitan coteries. The question of signed
articles has been much debated. In the opinion of the
present Avriter the general adoption of such a practice would
go far to destroy independence of criticism. It is probable
that the staffs of most journals are too limited. It says
much for the stability of English institutions that her
Majesty's jubilee finds the Edinburgh and the Quarterly,
Avhich had outlived a generation before her accession,
still flourishing and influential. This is probably in
great measure OAving to their connection with the chief
political parties, for the Westminster, representing a less
organised section of opinion, has never been established on
an equally solid basis. Blackiuood, the model of consist
ency in politics, is still a leading organ of opinion ; Avhile
Eraser, long the most brilliant of magazines, has been
unable to resist the competition of the shilling and sixpenny
periodicals. These represent a new development which com
menced with the Cornhill in 1859 ; and which, though ex- innova-
tremely useful as a medium of wholesome and often superior periodi-
literature, certainly has not tended to promote the higher rature^"
criticism. Macmillan's Magazine, however, must be ex
cepted from this remark. The imitation of the Revue des
Deux-Mondes in the Fortnightly Review (1865) gave birth,
after a considerable interval, to a new class of review,
admitting all opinions indifferently to its pages, and thus
providing an acceptable substitute for the pamphlet, now
almost entirely out of date. Glancing at the weekly press,
we find the Athenmum and Spectator flourishing Avith
scarcely any change of the position they occupied in 1837,
and see the Saturday Review in place of the Atlas and
Examiner, while the Academy supplies the want which
formerly existed of a weekly journal devoted to scholarship.
The attempts to establish other high-class journals of a
more or less literary complexion have been very numerous, 1 1 2

484 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
but they have been almost invariably failures, and London,
at the head of ths Avorld as respects the quality of its
journalism, is proportionally inferior to every continental
Provin- capital as regards the quantity. The provincial noAvspaper
press of Great Britain is by far the best in the world, and
has deprived the metropohs of much of its political influ
ence ; but the periodical literature of the counties is in
other respects quite insignificant. One department of
iiius- journalism has been created during the present reign, the
tratednews- illustrated newspaper, the Avide circulation of which in the
^^^° ' colonies is an additional tie with the mother country, and
Avhich has supplied the model for similar publications
throughout the world. Another most interesting develop
ment is the special correspondence which, in the hands of
a Bussell or a Forbes, shapes present opinion and future
history. Two descriptions of periodical in vogue in 1837 have
totally disappeared — ' the annual,' except as a Christmas
supplement to magazines, and the novel in penny weekly
numbers, which has been partly absorbed into the lower
periodical literature, partly driven out of the field by the
extreme cheapness of reprinted novels. ' Parlour Libraries '
and ' Railway Libraries ' were at one period an important
feature in popular literature, but the stream has become too
copious to be confined with such limits.
Diction- Some literary undertakings of the time are sufficiently
Pbiio- important to deserve special mention. The great ' English
s°o^'°e1;y. Dictionary' of ,the PhUological Society, orighiated in a
paper 'On the Deficiencies in our Enghsh Dictionaries,'
read to the Society by Archbishop Trench in November 1857.
The plan was fully ;arranged in August 1858, but the pre
mature death of its superintendent, Herbert Coleridge,
caused it to languish until 1879, when it was taken up by
the Director of the Society, Dr. Murray, Avhose labours it
may be confidently anticipated wiU by the end of the century

LITERATURE 485
have given the English nation a fuUer and better dictionary
of its native speech than is possessed by any other nation
in the world. The 'Dictionary of National Biography,' 'Diction-
commenced in 1885 under the editorship of Mr. Leslie Sronai
Stephen, and of which nine volumes had been published by gr°phy >
the end of 1886, is also an undertaking hitherto unparalleled
in any other country. Although theology is necessarily
excluded from our survey, it is im'possible to pass over the
revision of the Authorised Version of the Scriptures, the Revised
result of many years' labour by two companies of revisers, of tnT'^
representing almost aU English Protestant churches, and f^^^^"
aided by suggestions from America. The revised New
Testament was pubhshed in May 1881 ; the Old Testament
in 1885. Shakespeare, the other great source of ideas that shake-
have become universal property, has. throughout the whole ^p®^''^-
of Queen Victoria's reign been the object of research and
commentary that Avould have exhausted any other author,
but have only served to show that Shalcespeare cannot be
exhausted. From the history of literature the transition is easy to smaii
poetry, which in the latter part of the Victorian half-century tion"of "
has presented several peculiar features. Foremost among modem
them is to be noted the intense appreciation of the poetry of poetry.
the past, and in one or two well-marked instances of contem
porary poetry also, co-existing with a general indifference
to a mass of excellent verse whose merit was fully recognised
in literary circles. The music of O'Shaughnessy, the dra
matic intensity of Augusta Webster and Mathilde Blind,
the cultivated form of Lang, Bridges, and Gosse, the
feeling of Mary Robinson and Philip Bourke Marston,
the spirituality of George Macdonald and Dr. Hake, the
mysticism of Roden Noel and Dora Greenwell, the versatile
vigour of Buchanan, the grace of Locker and Courthope,
the humour of Calverley and Austin Dobson, were recognised

mg.

486 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
indeed, but brought no such celebrity as might have been
obtained by less meritorious efforts in other fields. Yet the
age was in no way insensible to poetry. The poetry of the
past, especially Wordsworth's and SheUey's, exercised a
decided influence on opinion, and the living bard selected
for most distinguished favour was precisely the one whom
it might have been thought most difficult to appreciate.
Brown- AU the peculiarities of Mr. Browning's mind and manner
are combined in ' The Ring and the Book ' (1868), both in
length and intellectual power the most considerable poetical
achievement of the age. Its intense spirit of humanity
overcame all the impediments to popularity which its scale
or its abstruseness might have raised ; and by a long series
of compositions, as repugnant to the taste he found as con
genial to the taste he created, Mr. Browning has continued
to subject the public to tests generally eliciting a favourable
Tenny. response. The equally remarkable vitality of the Laureate
has been exhibited less by affluence of production than by
the startling energy of some detached poems. If ' Enoch
Arden ' (1864) merely maintained the high level from which
the supplementary ' Idylls of the King ' might be thought to
decline, ' Lucretius ' (1869) displayed a masculine dignity,
' Rizpah' (1880) a pathos, and the two ' Northern Farmers '
a humour not previously manifested by the author. Yet if
the master was as great as ever, the pupils were few.
Edwin Arnold and Lewis Morris may be numbered among
them, but, in general, young poets were manifestly influenced
by a new school which might be regarded as a reaction
against the Tennysonian, repudiating the latter's intimate
connection with modern life, and presenting a theory of art
for art's sake to which it found itself unable to adhere. Its
principles and methods may almost be summed up in the
statement that two of its three masters had been pre-
Raphaelite painters. Dante Rossetti wrote as he painted.

son.

LITERATURE 487
aiming by the greatest possible expenditure of labour to Pictorial
obtain the most purely artistic result. The end justified Bos°8etti,
the means. Some, not aU, of his sonnets may be censured ^i"!^'
as too pictorial, and thus deficient in the grave simplicity of ^"'''re
thought befitting the sonnet ; but as a writer of baUads, some
of quite epical proportion, he is absolutely unrivaUed, and
his lyrics either exhibit the novel effect of an Itahan graft
upon English literature or are entirely without pattern or
precedent. The very exquisiteness of his poetry never
theless limited the sphere of his influence on the world at
large, Avhich he had ample power to have moved if his
aesthetic conscience would have permitted. The same can
not be said of WiUiam Morris (' Jason,' 1867, ' The Earthly
Paradise,' 1868-70), in whom Chaucer and Keats seemed
to have revived so long as he was contented to remain
' the idle singer of an empty day,' but whose recent espousal
of the Socialist cause proves at least that this position is
not easily tenable in an age like ours. Mr. SAvinburne, the
third leading member of the group, has always sought
to combine aesthetic Avith popular aims ; but the high claims
of his political and philosophical poetry rest upon the
SAving and rush of versification, the vigour and vehe
mence of diction, the grand musical effect, clashing and
chiming like some great cataract, far more than upon the
reiteration of a few unfruitful and unoriginal ideas. Mr.
Swinburne's mastery of form is especially shown in his
reproductions of the spirit of the Greek drama (' Atalanta
in Calydon,' 1864, ' Erechtheus,' 1876), by far the greatest
achievements of the kind in our language. Poverty of ideas
cannot be imputed to Christina Rossetti, but the bulk of her Christina
poetry, rich as it is in music and colour, is fitter for the
cloister than the hearth. In ' Goblin Market,' however, she
was able to clothe her mystic thought m an objective shape,
and, AvhUe displaying aU her wonted lyrical charm, to give

488 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
an insight into natures beyond the confines of humanity, a
power also evinced in Cardinal Newman's nearly contempo
rary ' Dream of Gerontius.' A more renowned authoress
likeAvise rests her claim to poetic immortality on one master-
George piece. George Eliot's ' Spanish Gypsy ' (1868) is too ob-
'and* viously a work of reflection, and the dramatic form spoils
Edwin a, fine romance. But m the ' Legend of Jubal ' (1870)
Arnold. the authoress found a subject which called all her most
characteristic qualities into exercise — wisdom, large-hearted-
ness, gentle irony, heartfelt compassion. The poetical
form is also most happily chosen ; the grand heroic couplet,
laden but not overladen with noble thought, sweeps on
with accumulating power to the most affecting of cata
strophes. A more recent poem, Mr. Edwin Arnold's
' Light of Asia ' (1879) , though not original in form, first
impressed the English mind with the moral beauty of
Buddha's teaching.
other Tennyson and Browning were not alone among the
IbUi'^^'^" surviving poetical representatives of the first part of the
poets. reign. Matthew Arnold and Coventry Patmore, indeed,
were far too chary of their song, but the little we received
from the former was of the old quality, and the latter's
' Unknown Eros ' and ' Amelia,' rich in dignified thought,
notably extended the domain of English versification.
Aubrey De Vere's ' Foray of Queen Meave ' proved the
steady progress of his powers. The Earl of Lytton's
' Orval' (1869), a remarkable work too little noticed, intro
duced the modern Polish school of mysticism to England ;
and if his ' Chronicles and Characters ' (1868) too faithfully
reflected Victor Hugo, the author was entirely himself in
'Fables in Song' (1874) and 'GlenaverU' (1885). ' Michael
Field ' and ' Ross Neil ' wrote good dramas for the closet,
not unapt for the stage under more auspicious circum
stances. Miss Ingelow and Miss Procter reproduced some

LITERATURE 489
of the characteristics and gained much of the popularity
of Longfellow. James Thomson and Alfred Austin occupy
exceptional places among the poets of the time : the former
as a most powerful representative of the reckless Bohe-
mianism and bitter revolt of an important section of the
Avorking class, the latter as the almost solitary standard-
bearer of the school of Byron.
Metrical translation has been exceedingly active during Poeticai
the reign of Queen Victoria. The enumeration of excellent iati"^nL
versions would be endless, but perhaps only two, executed
on totally opposite principles, have become indestructibly
incorporated with English literature — Rossetti's transla
tions of the sonnets of Dante and his circle, facsimiles of
the originals in form and spirit, and Fitzgerald's translation
of Omar Khayyam, where the spirit remains but the letter
is given to the winds. This is also the case in his version
of Calderon, which, equally -with McCarthy's, deserves high
commendation. Munro's Lucretius, Jebb's Sophocles,
Butcher and Lang's ' Odyssey,' and Lang's Theocritus,
have proved the adequacy of English prose to render the
highest classical poetry.
If the aim at human improvement did not control the Earnest-
fiction of the day so completely as some other branches of action.
literature, it was stiU the leading object of by far the
greatest and most influential novelist. By no mind save
Darwin's has the latter portion of the Queen's reign been
so deeply impressed as by George Eliot's, and it is to the
credit of the age that it should have consented to receive
its choicest amusement from the same source as its best
instruction. It is, indeed, George Eliot's chief defect to be George
overconscious of her mission. In no novelist of equal
genius, perhaps, has the artistic element been so over-
poAvered by the ethical, which must tell against her Avith a
posterity occupied by other problems than hers. Her best

490 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
monument will perhaps be not so much any particular work
as that astonishing width of intellect which falsified all
previous experience, and showed the folly of dogmatically
prescribing bounds to the capacities of woman. One of her
works, notwithstanding, must always be the guide of those
who would know the provincial England of our day.
' Middlemarch ' is Nature herself. If merit is to be judged
by perfection of execution, this depressing work sets George
Eliot higher than the mingled pathos and humour of
' Adam Bede ' and ' The MiU on the Floss,' the dignity of
' Romola,' or the moral enthusiasm of ' Daniel Deronda.'
' Silas Marner ' alone, as delightful in subject as ' Middle-
march ' is the reverse, fully sustains comparison as a work
of art. Next to ' Middlemarch ' the future student of nine
teenth-century England will derive his best material from
Anthony Aiitliony TroUope, scarcely a painter, but a matchless
photographer. George Eliot exhibits the world to her
reader ; TroUope thrusts his reader straight into the middle
of it. Unfortunately, he learned the trade of novel-Avriting
too well, and realised Samuel Butler's ingenious fiction of
the men who became the slaves of their own machines. It
must be owned that the circumstances of the time were
greatly against him. Never was there more temptation to
rapid writing, rehashing of incident, and sensational stimu
lus. The three-volume system injured novels in one way,
publication in magazines in another. Considering these
circumstances, and the fact that novels, more than any
other class of books, must depend upon the general taste,
the merit of the fiction of the day is creditable both to the
Leading Writers and the age. It is impossible within our limits to
novelists. j_ ii , t i. • • i
enumerate the host ot vivid painters of contemporary
manners, in the van of which stand writers so remarkably
gifted as Mrs. Oliphant and Mrs. Anne Thackeray Ritchie,
WiUiam Black, Blackmore, and Besant. We can only

LITERATURE 491
aUude to the undiminished vitality of DisraeH ('Lothair,'
1870, 'Endymion,' 1880), and spare a few more words for
tAVO figures standing decidedly apart. Nature designed
George Meredith for a great writer of serious comedy, a George
compeer of Congreve. The incompatibUity of hterary merit ^?h?"
Avith dramatic success in our day drove him to the novel,
Avhich he peopled with the characters of the stage. Pie
paints and dresses for artificial light ; hence the apparent
want of nature, which disappears on a fair consideration of
his aim. No modern novelist demands so much inteUect
from his readers or gives them so much of his OAvn. What
pith and sparkle are to him, an extraordinary delicacy of
observation is to Thomas Plardy, who has made more of a Thomas
fcAV square miles of Dorsetshire than many other novelists ^^ ^'
have been able to make of the great metropolis.
Although the bent of the time was decidedly towards Romance
the novel of observation and manners, romance Avas not
AA'ithout its representatives. Wilkie Collins excelled in the
contrivance of effective situations, and Charles Reade could
both depict a bygone society and turn the romantic element
of modern life to skilful account. Mr. Shorthouse's ' John
Inglesant,' though a romance of the past, is fully in harmony
with the introspective character of modern sentiment.
Picturesque in description, powerful in incident, it is yet
an eminently subjective book, charged with the gold and
dross, the gains and illusions, of a hfe rich in experience.
Pater's ' Marius the Epicurean ' transfers modern feeling to
classic ground. Mr. Clark Russell painted nautical, and
H. R. Haggard African adventure. Several writers laid the
theatre under contribution ; ' Maxwell Gray ' the pulpit ;
Geoi-ge Gissing the street ; Grant Allen and James Payn
everything. Meadows Taylor admirably depicted the man
ners of Hindustan ; H. S. Cunningham, those of the Anglo-
Indians. Poetical fiction is represented by Richard Jefferies

492 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
and Mathilde Blind and Oliver Madox-Brown and Frederika
Macdonald; fanciful fiction by Samuel Butler and F. Anstey.
R. L. Stevenson, carrying the art of thrilling with genuine,
and amusing with burlesque horror beyond any contem
porary novelist, has giA'en his works the further distinction
of a perfectly classical style. Olive Schreiner's ' Story of a
South African Farm ' is a work of extraordinary power.
.Juvenile One feature of the age must not be forgotten, the ex-
fiction. tensive employment of first-rate ability upon juvenile fiction.
Few contemporary books have impressed so large and sus
ceptible a public as ' Tom Brown's Schooldays.' Archdeacon
Farrar's tales of school life come next in influence. ' Alice
in Wonderland,' and its sequel, rank among the most truly
original works of our day, and the achievements of Mrs.
EAving and Mrs. Molesworth are not far remote from genius.
Early manhood and AVomanhood also had their special
delineators and instructors, among whom Miss Yonge was
the most influential and the most productive.
The retrospect of fifty years of Victorian literature is, in
the main, encouraging and satisfactory. Foav will peruse
the record of beloved books and bright names in the ap
pended chronological table without a sentiment of pride
that in their days so much should have been achieved
by the pen in one country, and that country their OAvn.
Almost every entry suggests some tangible gain, or at least
some brilliant display of the energy of the human mind.
Brilliancy is, indeed, the distinguishing characteristic of the
first thirty years of the reign. During the later period
historical accumulation and philosophical generalisation gain
ground, and many symptoms, from the futile demand for
' a noAv synthesis ' down to the increased attention given to
bibhography, betray a conviction that knowledge requires
to be clarified and systematised. We seem to be not

LITERATURE 493
SO much developing the existing literature as laying the
foundation of a literature to come ; or, to vary the metaphor,
a stratum of ideas may be in process of deposit in which
the groAvths of a neAv age Avill strike root. To forecast the
nature of these groAvths Avould imply an accuracy of political
and social foresight Avhich has not been granted to man.
One prediction alone seems reasonable, that the human
feeling which has so largely inspired the literature of the
present Avill continue to prevaU more and more in the future.
This tendency by no means implies the disappearance of
Avorks of high imagination ; for it is precisely those poets of
the nineteenth century whose themes are apparently the
most remote from ordinary apprehension that have proved
the most influential. But it undoubtedly encourages the
treatment of the realities of human life ; and it may be that
the genius of the literary artist will for some time to come
find its most attractive fields in history and biography, when
the recent accumulations of material shall have been in some
measure classified ; and in the novel, which has escaped the
doom denounced by Carlyle of banishment to the nursery, by
becoming an agency of social amelioration, and which, effete
in many of its departments, has in this special province
enormous resources as yet untouched, and only awaiting the
divination of genius to spring to light. It must be hoped
that this increase in width and range may prove compatible
with the wholesomeness and purity which have throughout
been the appropriate characteristics of the literature of the
reign of Queen Victoria.
Few write excellently without some stimulus, and the
most potent impulse is commonly the hope of fame. It is
natural to inquire how the Victorian era will appear in the
eyes of posterity. Its reputation may possibly fall short
of its desert. The great secret of its strength, its adapta
tion to the wants of its own day, must faU it before an

494 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
audience yet unborn. From this avenue to oblivion there
is but one escape, the embodiment of thought in a perfect
form. Of all literary virtues perfection of form is the
most alien to our age and our race. The Englishman is by
nature more solicitous about the matter than the manner of
his discourse. Rightly deeming external polish an insuf
ficient compensation for internal emptiness, he often forgets
that good matter deserves good manner. The circumstances
of the age, besides, are singularly unfavourable to the ela
boration of classical AVork. Its need has been too imperious,
the incentive to rapid production too alluring, the popular
appreciation of style too lukewarm. The disclosure of
archives, the birth of statistical science, the discovery that
history must be more than a record of public transactions,
have encumbered historians with precious but unwieldy
material ; insatiable curiosity has laid the like burden on
biography ; the three-volume system grafts an excrescence
on almost every fiction. Few, like Tennyson and Rossetti,
have polished more diligently than they have written ; or,
like Darwin, have deposited the germ of a library in a book.
Diffuseness is the reigning literary vice. Never has plausible
prophecy been more signally falsified than the prediction,
uttered early in the century, that ere long no writer would
be read who could not do for language what the cotton-
press did for cotton, compress a page into a sentence.
Whether this prediction is ever fulfilled or not, it is certain
that posterity will have too many urgent problems and too
many insistent writers of its own to spare much time for
its predecessors, save those who can serve it as models, and
it may well be that its interest in a diffuse and unsymme-
trical literature will be mainly historical. The Victorian
era is far too important a link in the chain of human
development to be dropped, and its historian will not
lament a lack of material. Its literature is remarkably

LITERATURE 49S
copious, and remarkably sincere. From none can a more
accurate report be obtained how men lived and, more
important, how they felt and thought. Apart from this
species of posthumous vitality, in no way to be disdained,
it may be the destiny of our leading minds to live mainly
in the direction which, by moulding their own generation,
they have given to the generations to come. They may
fulfil as well as partake the aspiration of one of the greatest
among them for the fellowship of a ' choir invisible ' —
Breathing as beauteous order that controls
With growing sway the growing life of man.
R. Gaenbtt.

496 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
It ia impossible within our limits to make the least approach
to a complete catalogue of interesting or remarkable books and
literary events during the reign of her Majesty. All that can
be done is to record those which have most noticeably contri
buted to the intellectual development of the age, or expressed
its leading tendencies. An exception must be made in favour of
some works of imagination which cannot, perhaps, be strictly
said to have done either, but which it would be impossible to
overlook. Scientific works can only be mentioned when treating
of subjects connected with the general culture of the time, and
many of the highest technical importance have necessarily re
mained unnoticed. The same remark applies to the great mass
of meritorious histories, biographies, and works of travel, those
only being mentioned which made a very distinct addition to
knowledge or powerfully impressed the public mind. The
latter is the only admissible criterion in the case of philosophical
and speculative literature. Legal and theological books have
been introduced only when absolutely classical or of great
historical interest. The minor works even of Avriters of distin
guished genius have been omitted. In the case of living
novelists, but few of whom it has been possible to include, the
first book has been recorded, or in some instances the most
celebrated or typical of the author's work. Translations have
only been entered when supplying the absence of any English
work of equal authority, or when entirely naturalised, or brought
out simultaneously on the Continent and in England. The date
of the first edition has been given as that of publication, except
in a very few instances when the book has been practically
rewritten. In the case of books published at considerable in
tervals, the date of the first volume has alone been given, with
an occasional exception in favour of works of special importance ;
but the date of completion has usually been preferred when books
have been published in monthly parts. Great care lias been
taken to record republications in collected editions, indicating
that an author has obtained a permanent place in literature ;
reprints from reviews, however, have not been inserted unless
the writer has acquired celebrity by other pubhcations. False
dates have been rectffied as far as possible.

LITERATURE

497

1837
Carlyle's French Revolution i-)ublished
Lockhart's Life of Scott published
Southey's Works collected
Carlyle lectures on German Literature
Hallam, Introd. to Lit. of Europe
Kemble translates Beowulf
Pictorial Hist, of England commenced
Brougham, Statesmen in Time of
George III.
AVilkinson, Ancient Egyptians
Nichol, Architecture of the Heavens
H. Martineau, Society in America
Pickwick completed
Landor, Pentameron
Browning, Strafford 1838
Record Office reconstructed
Camden Society established
Carlyle lectures on Hist, of Literature
Bentham's AVorks collected
Sartor Resartus first pub. in England
Lane translates Arabian Nights
Milman edits Gibbon
Gladstone, Church and State
Arnold, History of Rome
Merle d'Aubign^'s History of the
Reformation first translated
Lyell, Elements of Geology
Porter, Progress of the Nation
Oliver Twist
Death of L. E. Landon, Oct. 15
t839
Journal of Statistical Soc. commenced
Darwin investigates Origin of Species
Carlyle lectures on the Revolutions of
Europe
Carlyle's Essays collected
Shelley's Poetical AVorks collected
Blake's Poems edited by Wilkinson
Sydney Smith's Essays collected
Voyage of ' Adventure ' and ' Beagle '
Murchison, Silurian System
Kemble, Codex Diplomaticus .iBvi
Saxonici VOL. II.

Forster, Statesmen of the Common-
wealth
Donaldson, New Cralylus
Lewis, On the Romance Languages
Nicholas Niokleby
Bailey's Festus
Bradshaw'sRailway Guide commenced
1840
Parker Society founded
Carlyle lectures on Horo-AVorship
Mill retires from Westminster Review
Shelley's Prose Works collected
Ranke's History of the Popes trans
lated
Coleridge, Confessions of an Inquiring
Spirit
Whewell, Phil, of the Induct. Sciences
Milman, History of Christianity to
Theodosius
Strickland, Lives of the Qns. of Engl.
Dickens, Master Humphrey's Clock
Browning, Sordello
Death of Madame d'Arblay, Jan. (J
1841
Shakespeare Society established
Tauchnitz's Engl. Reprints com
menced
Tracts for the Times discontinued
Punch founded
Keats's Poems collected
Emerson's Essays first pub. in Engl.
Moxon prosecuted for publishing
Queen Mab
Mill corresponds with Comte
Carlyle's Hero-Worship published
Latham, Enghsh Language
Isaac Disraeh, Amenities of Literature
Borrow, Gipsies in Spain
Browning, Bells and Pomegranates,
No. 1
Deaths of —
Thomas Barnes, editor of Times,
May 7
Blanco White, May 24
Theodore Hook, Aug. 24
K K

498

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

1842
Copyriglit Act passed
Philological Society founded
Darwin, On Coral Reefs
Brougham, Political Philosophy
Alison's History ol Europe completed
Madame d'Arblay, Diary
AVordsworth, Early and Late Poems
Tennyson, Poems, chiefly Lyrical
Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome
Herbert Spencer first writes
Deaths of —
Sir Charles Bell, April 28
Dr. Arnold, June 12
AV. Maginn, Aug. 20
1843
AVordsworth Poet Laureate
Ray Society founded
Penny Cyclopedia completed
Macaulay's Essays collected
Liddell and Scott, Greek Lexicon
Mill, Logic
Carlyle, Past and Present
Ruskin, Modern Painters
Borrow, Bible in Spain
Dickens, Christinas Carol
R. H. Home, Orion
Deaths of —
Southey, March 21
John Allen, April 3
John Murray, .Tune 27
.John Foster, Oct. 15
1844
Vestiges of Creation
Smith, Diet, of Classical Biography
.Jeffrey's Essays collected
Wellington's Despatches published
Nelson's Despatches published
Lord Hervey's Memoirs, ed. by Croker
Lives of the English Saints
Stanley, Life of Arnold
May, Treatise on the Law of Parliament
Home, New Spirit of the Age
Kinglake, Eothen
Disraeli, Coningsby

Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit
Elizabeth Barrett, Poems
Barnes's first rural poetry
Deaths of —
Beckford, May 2
Campbell, June 15
Cary, Aug. 14
Sterling, Sept. 18
1845
Encyclopiedia Metropolitana compl.
Penny Magazine discontinued
Southey's Poetical Remains published
Clinton, Fasti Romani
Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell's Letters
and SiJceches
Campbell, Lives of the Chancellors
Brougham, Men of Letters and Science
Lewes, Biographical History of Philo
sophy
M'CuUoch, Literature of Pol. Economy
Bopp's Comparative Grammar trans.
Jameson, Memoirs of the Early
Italian Painters
Ford, Handbook of Spain
Darwin, Voyage of a Naturalist
Disraeli, Sybil
Deaths of —
Sydney Smith, Feb. 22
Hood, May 3
Barham, June 17
1846
International Copyright enacted
Useful Knowledge Society founded
Hakluyt Society founded
Sir H. Eawlinson deciphers cuneiform
inscriptions
De Morgan's first researches in logic
Reid edited by Sir William Hamilton
Grenville Library bequeathed to the
nation
Foreign Quarterly Review discont.
Dickens edits Daily Neius
Landor's AVorks collected
Last number of Bells and Pomegranates
Grote, History of Greece
Burton, Life of David Hume

LITERA TURE

499

Humboldt's Cosmos trans, by Sabine
Ulrioi, The Art of Shakespeare, trans.
First number of Vanity Fair
Death of John Hookham Frere, Jan. 7
1847
Bolin's Libraries commenced
Emerson lectures in England
Thirlwall's Hist, of Greece completed
Layamon's Brut ed. by Sir F. Madden
Boole, Mathematical Analysis of Logic
Friends in Council
C. Bronte, Jane Eyre
E. Bronte, Wuthering Heights
Mrs. Linton's first novel
Landor, Hellenics
Tennyson, Princess
Deaths of —
Sharon Turner, Feb. 13
Chalmers, May 31
John AValter, chief proprietor of
Times, July 28
1848
Professor Max Miiller settles at Oxford
Macaulay, History, vols. i. and ii.
Layard, Nineveh
Smith, Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Antiquities
Weld, History of Eoyal Society
Mill, Political Economy
Foss, Judges of England
Lord Houghton, Life of Keats
H. Martineau, Eastern Life
Dickens, Dombey and Son
Bulwer, The Caxtons
Mrs. Gaskell, Mary Barton
Deaths of —
Isaac Disraeli, Jan. 19
Sir H. Nicolas, Aug. 3
Captain Marryat, Aug. 9
1849
Commission of Inquiry into British
Museum
Browning's Poems first collected
H. Martineau, History of the Thirty
Years' Peace

Campbell, Lives of the Chief Justices
Green, Lives of the Princesses of Engl.
Disraeli, Life of Lord George Bentinck
Stephen, Essays in Ecoles. Biography
Southey, Life and Correspondence
Wakefield, Art of Colonisation
M'CuUoch, Political Economy
Lewis, Influence of Authority in
Matters of Opinion
Mabinogion trans, by Lady C. Guest
Bronte, Shirley
Miss Mulock's first novel
Arnold, Poems by ' A.'
Deaths of—
Hartley Coleridge, Jan. 6
T. L. Beddoes, Jan. 20
Maria Edgeworth, June 21
Ebenezer Elliott, Dec. 1

1850
' Evolution ' first used in a philo
sophical sense
Tennyson Poet Laureate
Free Libraries Act passed
Notes and Queries established
Household Words established
Wickliffe's Bible edited by Forshall
and Madden
Merivale, History of Roman Empire
Mure, History of Greek Literature
Spencer, Social Statics
Leigh Hunt, Autobiography
Dickens, David Copperfield
Thackeray, Pendennis
Kingsley, Alton Locke
Wordsworth, Prelude
Tennyson, In Memoriam
Browning, Christmas Eve and Easter
Day
Deaths of —
Jeffrey, Jan. 26
Wordsworth, April 23

1851
Fees abolished in Record Office
Beddoes's Poems collected K K 2

500

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Palgrave, Hist, of Engl, and Normandy
Stephen, Lectures on Hist, of France
Kaye, Hist, of the War in Afghanistan
Carlyle, Life of Sterling
Bailey, Theory of Reasoning
Wilkinson, Human Body in Relation
to Man
Ruskin, Stones of Venice
Mrs. Jameson, Legends of the Madonna
Borrow, Lavengro
Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Windows
Deaths of —
Mrs. Shelley, Feb. 1
Joanna Baillie, Feb. 28
1852
Differences between Publishers and
Booksellers adjusted
Westminster Review, new series
Bulwer's Poems collected
Thackeray, Esmond
Tennyson, Ode on Death of Duke ot
Wellington
Arnold, Empedocles on Etna
Deaths of —
Moore, March 25
Sara Coleridge, May B

1853
Comte's Positive Philosophy con
densed by Miss Martineau
De Quincey's AVorks collected
AAThewell, Plurality of Worlds
Layard, Discoveries in Nineveh and
Babylon
AVallace, Travels on the Amazon
Hay don. Autobiography
Moore, Diaries and Correspondence
Dickens, Bleak House
Bulwer, My Novel
C. Bronte, Villette
Kingsley, Hypatia
Mrs. Gaskell, Ruth
Mrs. Gaskell, Cranford
Reade, Christie Johnstone
Miss Yonge, Heir of Eedclyffe

Landor, Last Fruit off an Old Tree
Arnold, Poems
Deaths of —
F. W. Robertson, Aug. 15
Mrs. Opi^, Dec. 2
1854
Philobiblon Society established
Eighth ed. of Encyclopiedia Britannica
Smith, Diet, of Classical Geography
Bunsen, Christianity and Mankind
Milman, Hist, of Latin Christianity
Boole, Laws of Thought
Patmore, Angel in the House
Deaths of —
Talfourd, March 13
Professor AVilson, Ajiril 3
James Montgomery, April 30
Lockhart, Nov. 25

1855
Thackeray's Miscellanies collected
Oxford and Cambridge Essays com
menced
National Reviezo founded
Macaulay, History of England, vols.
iii. and iv.
Lewis, Credibility of Early Roman
History
Grote's History of Greece completed
Helps, Spanish Conquest of America
Spencer, Principles of Psychology
Bain, The Senses and the Intellect
Burton, Pilgrimage to Mecca and
Medina
Lewes, Life of Goethe
Thackeray, The Newcomes
Kingsley, AVestward Ho
TroUope, The Warden
Tennyson, Maud
Browning, Men and AVomen
Deaths ol —
Miss Mitford, Jan. 10
Archdeacon Hare, Jan. 23
Charlotte Bronte, March 31
Samuel Eogers, Dec. 18

LITERA TURE

501

1856
First Edition of Men of the Time
Saturday Revieto established
Mrs. Browning's Poems collected
Brougham's Contributions to Edin
burgh Review collected
Masson's Essays collected
Southey's Correspond, ed. by Warter
Froude, History of England from
Wolsey to Elizabeth
Stanley, Sinai and Palestine
Deaths of —
Sir AV. Hamilton, May G
Hugh Miller, Dec. 23.

1857
New Reading-room at British Museum
Carlyle's Works collected
Spedding's Edition of Bacon commncd
Walpole's Letters edited by Peter
Cunningham
Finlay, Greece under Foreign Dominion
Livingstone, Missionary Travels
George Eliot, Scones of Clerical Life
Dickens, Little Don-it
Kingsley, Two Years Ago
Reade, It is Never Too Late to Mend
John Halifax, Gentleman
Tom Brown's Schooldays
Deaths of —
John Mitchell Kemble, March 2G
Douglas Jerrold, June 8
John Wilson Croker, Aug. 10
1858
Dickens's AVorks collected
Carlyle, Frederick the Great
English Dictionary projected by Philo
logical Society
State Paper Office opened to the public
Chronicles and Memorials of English
History commenced
Calendars of State Papers commenced
Prof. Eawlinson translates Herodotus
Buckle, Hist, of Civilisation in England
Bain, The Emotions and the Will

Muir, Life of Mahomet
Masson, Life of Milton
W. Morris, Defence of Guenevere
Deaths of —
George Combe, Aug. 14
Richard Ford, Sept. 1
1859
Darwin, Origin of Species
MiU's Essays collected
Collected edition of Bulwer's Novels
Cornhill Magazine commenced
Macmillan's Magazine commenced
MiU, On Liberty
Masson, Life of Milton
Edwards, Memoirs of Libraries
MtQler'a Hist, of Greek Literature
translated
Tennent, Ceylon
George Eliot, Adam Bede
Thackeray, Virginians
George Meredith, Ordeal of Richard
Feverel
Tennyson, Idylls ot the King
Fitzgerald, Trans, of Omar Khayyam
Deaths ol —
Hallam, Jan. 21
Lardner, April 29
Leigh Hunt, Aug. 28
Sir James Stephen, Sept. 12
De Quincey, Deo. 8
John Austin, Dec. 17
Macaulay, Dec. 28
i860
English Cyolopasdia
Essays and Ee views
Qood Words commenced
Hook, Lives of the Abps. of Canterbury
MiU, On Representative Government
TyndaU, Glaciers of the Alps
George BUot, Mill on the Floss
Wilkie Collins, AVoman in White
Patmore, Faithful for Ever
Deaths of —
Sir W. P. Napier, Feb. 12
Mrs. Jameson, March 19

502

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Prof. H. H. Wilson, May 8
G. P. R. James, May 9
Ebenezer Jones, Sept. 14
Dr. Croly, Nov. 24
Bunsen, Nov. 28
i86i
Domesday Book facsimiled by Sir H.
James
Arnold's Essays collected
Macaulay, History, vol. v.
May, Constitutional Hist, of England
Maine, Ancient Law
Max Miiller, Lectures on Science of
Language
Stanley, Eastern Church
Mill, Utilitarianism
Lewes, Aristotle
Smiles, Lives of the Engineers
M. Arnold, On Translating Homer
Rossetti, Early Italian Poets
Palgrave, Golden Treasury
George Eliot, Silas Marner
Dickens, Great Expectations
Eeade, The Cloister and the Hearth
Deaths of —
J. W. Donaldson, Feb. 10
Mrs. Browning, June 29
Sir F. Palgrave, July 6
A. H. Clough, Nov. 13
1862
The Prince Consort's Speeches coUctd
Spencer, First Principles
Colenso, Pentateuch Critically Examd.
Darwin, Fertilisation of Orchids
Newton, History of Discoveries at
Halicarnassus
Professor Rawlinson, The Great
Ancient Monarchies
Hardy, Materials of English History
Hunter, Rural Bengal
Thackeray, Philip
Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret
Mrs. Browning, Last Poems
Christina Eossetti, Goblin Market
Deaths of —
Edward Gibbon Wakefield, May 16

H. T. Buckle, May 29
Sheridan Knowles, Dec. 1
1863
Smith, Dictionary of the Bible
Sir Henry Taylor's Poetical Works
collected
Lyell, Antiquity of Man
Huxley, Man's Place in Nature
Speke and Grant, Discovery of Sources
of Nile
Bates, Amazons
Kinglake, Invasion of the Crimea
Freeman, Hist, of Federal Government
Gardiner begins History of James I.
Gilchrist, Life of Blake
Gervinus on Shakespeare translated
George Eliot, Eomola
Miss Thackeray, Story of Elizabeth
Mrs. Oliphant, Chronicles of Carling-
ford
George Macdonald, David Elginbrod
Deaths of —
Sir George C. Lewis, April 13
Archbishop Whately, Oct. 8
Thackeray, Dec. 24
1864
Early English Text Society founded
Shakespeare Tercentenary
National Revieio discontinued
Statesman's Year-Book commenced
Henry Morley, English Writers before
Chaucer
Kaye, History of the Sepoy Mutiny
Newman, Apologia
Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of
Painting in Italy
Jameson, History of our Lord in
Works of Art
Munro's translation of Lucretius
Tennyson, Enoch Arden
Swinburne, Atalanta in Calydon
Deaths of —
W. J. Fox, June 3
Nassau AV. Senior, June 4
Professor Ferrier, July 10
C. W. Dilke, Aug. 10

LITERATURE

503

Landor, Sept. 17
M'CuUoch, Nov. 11
1865
Fortnightly Review commenced
Seeley, Ecce Homo
Carlyle's Frederick completed
Grote, Plato
Mill, On Plamilton
Mill, On Comte
Green, SpiritualPhUosophy (Coleridge)
Stirling, Secret of Hegel
Lecky, History of Eationalism
Tylor, Early History ot Mankind
Lubbock, Prehistoric Times
Long, Decline ot the Roman Eepublic
Palgrave, Travels in Arabia
Leslie and Taylor, Lite of Sir Joshua
Reynolds
Fergusson, History of Architecture
Browning, Dramatis Personaj
Swinburne, Chastelard
Lewis Carroll, Alice in AVonderland
Deaths of —
Isaac Taylor the elder, June 28
W. E. Aytoun, Aug. 4
Sir W. E. Hamilton, Sept. 2
Mrs. Gaskell, Nov. 12
1866
Carlyle delivers Inaugural Discourse
at Edinburgh
Clarendon Press Series commenced
Collier's Eeprints commenced
Contemporary Review commenced
Duke of Argyll, Reign of Law
Baker, Albert Nyanza
George Eliot, Felix Holt
Swinburne, Poems and Ballads
Deaths of —
T. L. Peacock, Jan. 23
WheweU, March 6
Keble, March 29
G. L. Craik, June 25
1867
Mill delivers Inaugural Address at St.
Andrew's

Publication of Scottish Records under.
taken
Tourgueneff first translated into Engl.
Freeman, Hist, of the Norman Conq.
Burton, History of Scotland
Stoughton, Eccles. Hist, of England
Roberts and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene
Fathers
Pattison, Suggestions on Academical
Organisation
Miiller,Chips from a German Workshop
Arnold, Celtic Literature
Deutsch, Essay on Talmud in Quar
terly Review
Darwin, Fertilisation of Orchids
Morris, Jason
Deaths of —
Sir A. Alison, March 25
Sarah Austin, Aug. 8
r868
The Queen, Leaves from a Journal ol
our Life in tho Highlands
Eobert Browning's Poetical AVorks col
lected
Clough's Works collected
Arber's English Eeprints commenced
Darwin, Variation of Plants and
Animals
Dilke, Greater Britain
Milman, Annals of St. Paul's
Stanley, Westminster Abbey
Browning, The Ring and the Book
George Eliot, The Spanish Gypsy
Morris, The Earthly Paradise
Cardinal Newman, Poems
Owen Meredith, Chronicles and
Characters
Deaths of —
Sir D. Brewster, Feb. 10
Lord Brougham, May 7
Dean Milman, Sept. 24
1869
Historical Manuscripts Commission
instituted
Palestine Exploration Fund instituted

504

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Hai'leian Society founded
Publication of Academy commenced
Publication of Nature commenced
Arnold's Poetical AVorks collected
Froude's Essays collected
Defoe's unpublished Works ed. by Lee
Gladstone, Juventus Mundi
Lecky, History of European Morals
Mill, Subjection of Woman
Arnold, Culture and Anarchy
Masson, Recent British Philosophy
Manning, Ancient India
Wallace, Malay Archipelago
Crabb Robinson, Diary
Blackmore, Lorna Doone
Deaths of —
Sir H. Ellis, Jan. 15
AV. Carleton, Jan. 30
Sir Emerson Tennent, March C
1870
Ancient Classics for English Readers
commenced
Disraeli's Novels collected
Lubbock, Origin of Civilisation
Huxley, Lay Sermons
Newman, Grammar of Assent
Arnold, St. Paul
Galton, Hereditary Genius
Lord Dalling, Life of Palmerston
Disraeli, Lothair
Rossetti, Poems
Deaths of —
Rev. A. Dyce, May 15
Mark Lemon, first editor of Punch,
May 23
Dickens, June 29
Professor Conington, Oct. 23
1871
Anthropological Institute established
Historical Society founded
English Dialect Society founded
Ruskin's AVorks partially collected
Elwin and Courthope's edition of Pope
Jowett translates Plato
Berkeley's AVorks edited by Eraser

Darwin, Descent of Man
Wallace, Contributions to Theory ot
Natural Selection
Tylor, Primitive Culture
Maine, Village Communities
TyndaU, Fragments of Science
Euskin, Pors Clavigera
Forster, Life and Times of Dickens
Black, A Daughter of Heth
Besant and Rice, Ready Money Morti-
boy
Browning, Balaustion's Adventure
Swinburne, Songs before Sunrise
Deaths of —
Robert Chambers, March 17
De Morgan, March 18
Sir J. Herschel, May 11
Grote, June 18
Dean Mansel, July 30
Babbage, Oct. 18
1872
Society of Biblical Archieology founded
International Scientific Series comncd
Tennyson's AVorks collected
Monier AVilliams, Sanscrit Dictionary
Grote, On Aristotle
Freeman, Growth of the English Con
stitution
Froude, English in Ireland
Stanley, How I Found Livingstone
Memoirs of Baron Stockmar
Morley, Voltaire
Arnold, Literature and Dogma
George Eliot, Middlemarch
S. Butler, Erewhon
Deaths of —
H. F. Chorley, Feb. 15
F. D. Maurice, April 1
Charles Lever, June 1
Albany Fonblanque, Oct. 13
Sir John Bowring, Nov. 23
1873
Palajographical Society founded
Records of the Past commenced
Mill, Autobiography
Spencer, Descriptive Sociology

LITERA TURE

50s

Greg, Enigmas of Lite
Stephen, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
Bryoe, Holy Eoman Empire
Pater, Studies in the History ol the
Renaissance
Morley, Rousseau
Bulwer, Parisians
Deaths of —
Bulwer, Jan. 18
Sedgwick, Jan. 27
Sir F. Madden, March 8
Charles Knight, March 9
John Stuart Mill, May 8
1874
Martin, Life ol the Prince Consort
New Shakspere Society founded
Milton edited by Masson
Mill, Essays on Nature and Theism
Farrar, Life of Christ
Sidgwick, Methods of Ethics
Lewes, Problems of Life and Mind
Jevons, Principles of Science
Cairnes, Political Economy
Stubbs, Constitutional Hist, of Engl.
J. E. Green, Short History of England
Greville Memoirs
Livingstone, Last Joumals
Swinburne, Bothwell
Lytton, Fables in Song
Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd
Deaths of —
Herman Merivale, Feb. 8
Agnes Strickland, July 13
Sydney DobeU, Aug. 22
B. AV. Procter, Oct. 4
1875
Ninth edition of Encyclopaedia Britan
nica commenced
Comte's Positive Polity translated
AVordsworth's Prose AVorks coUected
Peacock's Works coUected
Dobell's Works collected
Arber edits Eegisters of Stationers' Co.
Pepys' Diary edited by Bright
Maine, Early Institutions

Holyoake, History of Co-operation in
England
Symonds, Renaissance in Italy
Pattison, Life of Casaubon
A. W. AVard, History of English Dra
matic Literature
Dowden, Shakespeare, his Mind and
Art
Deaths of —
Kingsley, Jan. 23
Finlay, Jan. 26
Sir C. LyeU, Feb. 22
Sir A. Helps, March 7
Professor Cairnes, July 8
Sir F. B. Head, July 20
Bishop Thirlwall, July 27
Lord Stanhope, Deo. 24
1876
Gladstone, Homeric Synchronism
Lord Houghton's Poems collected
Forman edits Shelley
Spencer, Principles of Sociology
Essays on Endowment of Research
AVallace, Geographical Distribution of
Animals
Stephen, History of English Thought
in the Eighteenth Century
Skene, Celtic Scotland
Trevelyan, Life of Macaulay
George Eliot, Daniel Deronda
Swinburne, Erechtheus
Deaths of —
John Forster, Feb. 1
Harriet Martineau, June 27
Sir J. AV. Kaye, July 24
E. AV. Lane, Aug. 10
1877
Library Association founded
Publication of Nineteenth Century
commenced
Smith and AVace, Dictionary of
Christian Biography
Thomas, International Numismata
Orientalia
Green, History of English People
May, Democracy in Europe

5o6

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Huxley, Physiography
Butler, Life and Habit
Mackenzie Wallace, Eussia
Schliemann, Mycenfe
Miiller, History ot Sanscrit Literature
Blades, Biography of Caxton
Autobiography of Harriet Martineau
Morris, Sigurd the Volsung
Patmore, Unknown Eros
Deaths of —
John Oxenford, Feb. 21
Walter Bagehot, March 24
Mrs. Norton, June 15
1878
Folk Lore Society established
Index Society established
Hibbert Lecture instituted
English and Foreign Philosophical
Library commenced
English Men of Letters Series comncd
AValpole, Hist, of England since 1815
Morley, Diderot and the Encyclopedists
Patmore, Amelia
Deaths of —
Sir T. D. Hardy, June 15
G. H. Lewes, Nov. 30
1879
Sacred Books of the East series comncd
Hellenic Society founded
Grove, Dictionary of Music
Dr. Murray undertakes Philological
Society's Dictionary
W. IC. Clifford's Essays collected
Patmore's Poetical AVorks collected
Barnes's Poems collected
Farrar, Life of St. Paul
Froude, Life of Cassar
Seeley, Life of Stein
McCarthy, History of our Own Times
Escott, England
Spencer, Data of Ethics
Pattison (Mrs.), Eenaissance of Art in
France
Browning, Dramatic Idyls
Arnold, Light of Asia

Deaths of —
C. Appleton, editor of Academy,
Feb. 1
J. S. Brewer, Feb. 16
C. J. WeUs, Feb. 17
W. Howitt, March 3
AV. K. Clifford, March 4
Sir A. Panizzi, April 8
George Long, Aug. 10
J. T. Delane, editor of the Times,
Nov. 22

Gladstone's Essays collected
Schliemann, Ilios
Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders
Fyffe, History of Modern Europe since
1815
Duft'y, Young Ireland
Report on the Voyage of the 'Challenger'
AVallace, Island Life
Pollock, Spinoza
Newton , Essays on Art and Archeology
Murray, History of Greek Sculpture
Lord Beaconsfield, Endymion
T. H. AVard, English Poets
Tennyson, Ballads
Thomson, City of Dreadful Night
Deaths of —
PlanohS, May 29
Tom Taylor, July 12
George Eliot, Deo. 22

Revised Version of New Testament pub.
Printed Catalogue of British Museum
Library undertaken
Catalogue of Ancient MSS. in British
Museum
Anecdota Oxoniensia commenced
Tauchnitz Series attains the two-
thousandth volume
Imperial Gazetteer of India
Jowett translates Thueydides
Carlyle's Reminiscences
Freeman, Hist. Geography of Europe
Green, The Making of England

LITERA TURE

507

Trevelyan, Life of Fox
Morley, Life of Cobden
Lyell, Life of Sir Charles Lyell
Huxley, Science and Culture
Tylor, Anthropology
Shorthouse, John Inglesant
Jefferies, Wood Magic
R,ossetti, BaUads and Sonnets
Swinburne, Mary Stuart
Deaths of —
Cariyie, Feb. 5
Lord Beaconsfield, April 19
Dean Stanley, July 18
George Borrow, July 30
John Hill Burton, Aug. 10
E. J. Trelawney, Aug. 13
W. R. Greg, Nov. 15

Fraser's Magazine discontinued
Longman's Magazine established
Payne translates Arabian Nights
Saintsbury edits Dryden
Knight edits Wordsworth
John Morley edits Emerson
Creighton, History of the Papacy
Seeley, Natural Religion
Darwin, On Earthworms
Freeman, Reign of William Eufus
Halliwell, Outlines of Life of Shake
speare
Froude, Life of Carlyle
Martineau, Spinoza
Bain, Lives of James and J. S. Mill
Stevenson, New Arabian Nights
Anstey, Vice-Versd
Deaths of —
T. H. Green, March 26
D. G. Eossetti, April 9
Darwin, April 19
James Thomson, June 3
Prof. Balfour, July 19
Jevons, Aug. 13
1883
Clark Lectureship founded
Schliemann, Troja

Isaac Taylor, The Alphabet
Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum
Gardiner, History of England under
James I. and Charles I.
J. E. Green, Conquest of England
Lecky, Hist, of England in 18th Cent.
Rusden, History of Australia
Rusden, History of New Zealand
Seeley, Expansion of England
Life of Lord Lytton, by the Earl ot
Lytton
Letters of Jane AVelsh Carlyle
Deaths of —
J. E. Green, March 7
William Chambers, May 20
E. Fitzgerald, June 14
J. P. Collier, Sept. 17
1884
Tennyson raised to the Peerage
English Dictionary of the Philological
Society, edited by Dr. Murray
Professorship of Classical Archseology
at Oxford
Forman edits Keats
Sir Alexander Grant, History of Uni
versity of Edinburgh
Brewer, Reign of Henry VIII.
Croker, Correspondence and Diaries
Froude, Life of Carlyle in London
Euskin, Pncterita
Deaths of —
A. Hayward, Feb. 2
T. Chenery, editor of the Times,
Feb. 2
E. H. Home, March 13
Mark Pattison, July 30
Sir Alexander Grant, Bart., Nov. 30
1885
Revised Version of the Old Testament
Diet, of National Biography comncd.
Professorship of English Language
and Literature at Oxford ,
BuUen edits the Early Engl. Dramatists
Burton translates Arabian Nights
Schliemann, Tiryns

5o8

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Gordon, Journals at Khartoum
Cross, Life of George Eliot
Memoirs of Mark Pattison
Maine, Popular Government
Martineau, Types of Ethical Theory
T. H. Green, Philosophical AVorks
Beddoe, Races of Great Britain
Ball, Story of the Heavens
Gierke, History of Astronomy of the
Nineteenth Century
Tennyson, Tiresias
Earl of Lytton, GlenaverU
Pater, Marius the Epicurean
Deaths of —
H. A. J. Munro, March 30
Lord Houghton, Aug. 11
1886
English Historical Review founded

Asiatic Quarterly Revieio founded
Cassell's National Library commenced
Rossetti's AVorks collected
Tennyson, Looksley Hall Sixty Years
After
Gardiner, Hist, of the Great Civil War
Seeley, Short History of Napoleon
Stubbs, Historical Essays
Cruise of the ' Bacchante '
Froude, Oceana
Dowden, Life of Shelley
Harrison, Choice of Books
Deaths of —
James Fergusson, Jan. 9
H. Bradshaw, Feb. 10
Sir Henry Taylor, March 27
Archbishop Trench, March 28
Lord Famborough (Sir T. E.
May), May 17
Sir Samuel Ferguson, Aug. 15

LITERATURE 509

A NOTE ON THE NEWSPAPER PRESS.
Pew, if any, institutions have developed with greater rapidity
under our Queen's reign than the newspaper press, and one of
the greatest impulses which it has received from any legislative
act nearly coincides with the date of her accession. In 183(5
the stamp on ncAvspapers was reduced from fourpence to a
penny. Within the year intervening betAveen this measure and
her Majesty's accession, 61 new papers Avere established and
8,000,000 additional stamps used, a sufficient augury of the
extended influence to which journalism was destined. Even
then it was a giant, whose greatness the deepest minds Avere fore
most to appreciate. ' There is no Church, say est thou ? ' speaks,
or rather (for lack of a publisher) soliloquises, Carlyle in 1831.
' The voice of Prophecy has gone dumb ? This is even what I
dispute ; but in any case, hast thou not still Preaching enough '.>
A Preaching Friar settles himself in every village : and builds
a pulpit, Avhich he calls NeAvspaper. Therefrom he preaches
what most momentous doctrine is in him : and dost not thou
listen, and believe ? ' While Carlyle was thus Avriting, Lord
Lyndliurst Avas saying to Greville : ' Why, Barnes ' (then editor of
the Times) ' is the most powerful man in the country ! ' The
highest intellects, the most eminent public men, had worked for
the press. Coleridge had at one time guided the Morning
Post; at a later period he had pleaded for the oppressed factory
children in many leaders. Leigh Hunt and De Quincey had
edited newspapers for several years. Brougham's connection with
the press was so notorious that he was caricatured scribbling
newspaper articles in furious haste at two o'clock in the morning.
The effects of giving a wider audience to so much power could
not but be momentous.
Perhaps the best idea of the press as it existed shortly before

5IO THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
the Queen's accession may be derived from three articles in the
Westminster Revieio (Nos. 3, 19, 23). From these Ave learn
that, in 1829, 308 newspapers were published in the United
Kingdom, of which 55 appeared in London, 37 in Scotland, and
59 in Ireland. Thirteen of the London papers were dailies,
with a united circulation of 40,000 copies, or less than one-sixth
of the present circulation of the Standard. One-fourth of these
copies were circulated by the Times. They had 900 advertise
ments among them. The improved printing-machines printed
2,800 copies within the hour, which was thought miraculous.
A hand-machine for an evening paper cost 000 guineas. Parlia
mentary reports were seldom taken in shorthand, ' from the im
possibility of finding room for all that a member says.' There
Avere, of course, no daily papers out of the metropolis. The first
newspaper printing-machine had just been imported into Scotland.
Edinburgh was rich in good newspapers ; but ' the Irish press
may be said to reflect the real condition of the country, full of
politics, and almost destitute of capital and commercial enter
prise.' The circulation of the Dublin press Avas but little larger
than twenty years before, and the advertisements had fallen
off one-half. On the whole, taking the press of the United
Kingdom all round, the Reviewer could certify that ' its tendencies
were for good, and to good, and its influence undoubtedly on the
side of truth, prudence, and virtue.' The mitigation of the
oppressive taxes on newspapers was vigorously advocated by the
Westminster, and the agitation bore fruit, as we have seen, in
the reduction of the stamp duty in 188G. In 1832, the advertise
ment duty had been reduced from 3s. 6d. to Is. 6d., and within
six years the number of advertisements rose from 783,000 to
1,315,000. As the reduction of charge to advertisers strictly
corresponded to the reduction of taxation, the revenues of ncAVS-
paper proprietors from this source were nearly doubled.
In 1839, London had 94 papers — 7 morning, 5 evening, 82
Aveekly and miscellaneous ; 25G were pubhshed in the provinces,
including Wales, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands ; 59
in Scotland ; and 70 in Ireland. The Times circulated 1,090,000
copies during the three months of April, May, and June —
more than twice as many as any other paper. The Chronicle
Avas next, with 630,000 copies. Pour provincial papers circu
lated more than 100,000 copies during the time : ihe Man-

LITERATURE 511
Chester Guardian (semi-Aveekly), the Leeds Mercury, Stamford
Mercitry, and Northern Star, wbicli, as a Chartist organ, had
readers in every part of the country. It should be added that
these statistics Avere not ahvays strictly trusfcAVorthy, it being a not
uncommon trick of struggling newspapers to order a large number
of stamps just before they expected the return to be published,
that their circulation might for the time appear larger than it
really Avas.
In the last quarter of 1848, London has 13 daily and 104
Aveeldy papers. There are 235 provincial (a falling off since
1839), 70 Scotch, and 72 Irish. The circulation of the Times has
risen to 1,550,000 copies for the three months, and its nearest
competitor, the Herald, only issues 412,000. The circulation
of every daily paper, morning or evening, but the Times, lias
fallen off. Among the Aveeklies, tAVO ncAV types appear, destined
to be very important — the illustrated paper and the raihvay paper.
Four provincial journals use more than 100,000 stamps during
the period — the Manchester Guardian, and the Leeds, Liverpool,
and Stamford Mercuries.
The year 1846 is remarkable in the history of the press for
the first experiment in cheap daily journalism by the foundation
of the Daily News, and for the establishment of Mitcliell's
' Newspaper Press Directory,' by means of which the statistics of
the press can henceforth be accurately folloAved. Mitchell gives
the number of newspapers existing at the commencement of 1846
as 550 ; but many publications requiring stamps, and hence
enumerated in the returns to Avliicli Ave have hitherto referred,
must be omitted from his list. A useful table gives the number
of papers established in any year since 1660, by which it appears
that the press had taken a considerable start since 1843.
Forty-nine papers had been founded in 1845, and 22 in the
first two months of 1846 only. ' Acriterion,' remarks the com
piler, ' of rapidly advancing civilisation, increased intelligence, and
extended commerce.'
We shall best appreciate the progress of this remarkable move
ment, so faithfully interpreted by Mr. Mitchell or his author,
by taking a long step in advance to the year 1875, when the
materials for an estimate are compendiously afforded by Mr.
Plummer's excellent article in the ' Companion to the British
Almanac' Changes had occurred in the interim which had

512 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
given a greater stimulus to newspaper enterprise than any
accession to national prosperity could have done. The advertise
ment duty had been abolished in 1853, the stamp duty in 18f 5,
the paper duty in 1861. In 1875 there were 325 papers published
in London, 1,300 in the provinces, 149 in Scotland, and 137 in
Ireland. The increase had been chiefly in English provincial
papers, Scotch papers having only increased by seven since 1863,
and Irish papers having actually decreased by three. But the
English provincial papers had risen from 600 to 1,300. 'The
increase,' says Mr. Plummer, ' is most marked in the agricultural
districts, where the purchase of the local paper seems to have
become habitual in most labouring-class families.' A still more
remarkable fact was the vast development of professional and
industrial papers, and of district and parochial journals, both
classes having, almost without exception, sprung into existence
Avith the abolition of the taxes on knowledge. The effect of this
measure may be seen from the fact, that while between 1846 and
1851 the number of papers throughout the country had only
increased by 12, between 1851 and 1861, the decade of reform,
it nearly doubled, rising from 563 to 1,102. In 1880 the total
number of newspapers, in the strict sense of the term, Avas
estimated by the Quarterly Review at 1,376. Mitchell, for the
same year, returns 1,737, which shows how estimates may vary
according to the standard employed. There were 137 daily papers
published out of London. Before the abolition of the stamp
duty there bad not been one.
At the beginning of 1887, the number of newspapers published
in the British Islands is given by Mitchell's ' Newspaper Press
Directory ' as 2,135 : 435 of them were published in the metro
pohs, 1,351 in the provinces, 191 in Scotland, and 158 in Ireland.
The abolition of the stamp duty has, of course, long rendered it
impossible to obtain any authentic data for the respective circula
tion of these journals, but there can be no doubt that ncAvspaper
circulation, taken as a whole, is continually on the increase.
The literary characteristics of the British press at the
present day, including the employment of special correspon
dents, haive been glanced at in our chapter on the literature
of the Victorian epoch. Its ever-growing political and social
importance, and the consequent increase of the duties and
responsibilities of its conductors, are so plainly in the sight of

LITERATURE 513
everyone that it would be a waste of time to expatiate upon them.
To dAvell upon certain checks and drawbacks to this influence
would take us into the forbidden regions of poUtical controversy ;
nor can we here discuss the legitimacy of some recent develop
ments of journalism, nor their compatibility with the ideal of an
upright and high-minded press. It must suffice to suggest, that
a journalist who desires to be powerful must take care how he
renders himself the slave either of a political party or of his own
crotchets ; and that an increase of circulation is not necessarily
the same thing as an increase of influence. The prodigious im
provements in press machinery Avould require a chapter to them
selves. Some recent developments, however, admit of brief
remark. They are, the establishment of central agencies by
which the same news, sometimes of semi-official character, is
supplied to many newspapers at once ; the alteration by wbicli
the metropolitan correspondence of the leading provincial news
papers now consists of a number of paragraphs contributed from
different sources, instead of being the composition of a single
writer ; the morning ncAvspaper trains, which, by compelHng
the London papers to go to press at a comparatively early hour,
frequently leave ' the House still sitting as we go to press ; '
and the publication of fiction, sometimes of a high class, as a
recognised department of many proAuncial journals. One more
very gratifying feature must not be omitted — the consolidation of
journalism into a profession, largely by the help of the Newspaper
Press Fund, and the consequent growth of friendly feeling and
esprit de corps to a degree that, combined with the generally im
proved tone of public taste, has almost abolished the Eatan-
swillian amenities which, scarcely exaggerated by the satirist,
amused the readers of ' Pickwick ' at the beginning of her
Majesty's reign.
R. G.

VOL. II. L L

514 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

ART.
At the moment when these words are written there has
just been opened at Manchester an exhibition which tellS
far better than any written pages the history of the art of
the Queen's reign. There have been brought together some
two thousand paintings, drawings, architectural designs, and
works of sculpture which cover the whole period from the
days when Turner was painting his ' Old Temeraire ' down
to the days of the last Academy. The story told by the
Manchester Exhibition is a story, we will not say of
wonderful progress, for progress in art is a matter on
which it is extremely difficult to pronounce dogmatically,
but of wonderful and increasing activity. England has in
this department shared to the full the remarkable move
ment which has been witnessed all over Europe and
America during the last fifty years. The growth of wealth,
the increase of the leisured class, the subtle influence
exercised upon life by the general widening of ideas, the more
direct influence of the writings of various men of genius,
with Mr. Ruskin at their head, have combined to increase
enormously the demand for works of art ; and with this
positive encouragement to the artists there have come all
the increased facilities afforded by organisation, by improved
opportunities for study, and so vast a change in the social
position of artists that, whereas fifty years ago a young man
of talent was commonly dissuaded by his friends from

ART 515
embracing the profession, the danger is noAV that he should
be too much encouraged to enter it.
In the year of the Queen's accession, of the multitudinous Art and
societies which noAv annually exhibit in London four were 1837.
fairly flourishing, whUe the provincial societies hardly
existed, and even Edinburgh had to wait till the next year
before the Royal Scottish Academy was incorporated by
royal charter. In London the Academy Avas holding its
sixty-ninth exhibition. The Water-colour Society had been
in existence for thirty-three years, and six years before the
New Society of Painters in Water-Colours, afterAvards to be
called the Institute, had broken away from it. The Society
of British Artists was beginning to prosper in Suffolk Street ;
it had been founded fourteen years, and ten years later was
to receive a charter of incorporation.
If we ask who were the artists exhibiting and Avhat Avere The
the pictures of the year, we find a number of honoured names
and a number of names Avliom time, le seul classijicateur
impeccable, has deposed from their pride of place. Sir
Martin Shee was President of the Academy; the keeper
Avas William Hilton, a man of lofty aims unrealised ; and
Turner, then sixty-two years of age, Avas not only assiduously
painting visions of beauty which were yearly becoming more
and more unearthly, but, strange as it may sound, held the
post of Professor of Perspective and — more curious stiU, did
Ave not know how businesslike this dreamer was^the
post of Auditor. Among their colleagues were Sir WiUiam
Beechey, the last depositary of the traditions of Sir Joshua ;
Augustus Callcott and Clarkson Stanfield, Avhom the
public seemed disposed to prefer to Turner ; WiUiam
Collins, one of the soundest and most graceful artists of
his day ; and Charles Eastlake, more of a scholar than a
painter, and soon destined to serve his country more
successfully as Director of the National Gallery than as a
L L 2

5t6 the reign of QUEEN VICTORIA
creative artist. Mulready had been for twenty years an
Academician and was at the height of his popularity, and,
though most of his best works had been painted, he had
not yet given to the world the two charming pictures
' Eirst Love ' and ' The Sonnet,' which now hang at South
Kensington. Charles Eobert Leslie was in his prime ;
three years before he had returned from his brief sojourn
in America and had flung himself with energy into the task
of wedding literature and art in his pictures illustrating
Shakespeare and Cervantes. Two great men of the older
generation, Wilkie and James Ward, were still working ;
with what power and artistic knowledge the great Scotch
artist still handled his brush is admitted by everyone who
saw his ' commanded ' picture of ' The Queen's First
Council ' when it hung at Burlington House last winter.
EdAvin Landseer, who had been elected an Associate in
1826 and an Academician in 1831, when he was but twenty-
nine years of age, was doing his best work ; for this was the
year of ' The Shepherd's Grave,' and of the still more
famous picture ' The Shepherd's Chief Mourner.' These
are the most eminent of the Academicians of the day, and
of the Associates it is worth while to mention the names of
two excellent artists who never were very popular, George
Arnald and J. J. Chalon, and of two who were perhaps
more popular than they deserved, Daniel Maclise and F. E.
Lee. In the next year the list was to be increased by the
names of David Roberts and Richard Westmacott ; and in
1840 by those of Thomas Webster, whose death at a ripe
old age took place but a year or two ago, and of Sir
Charles Barry, already famous as the architect of the neAv
palace at Westminster. Chantrey, Gibson, and the elder
Westmacott were the leading sculptors of the day ; whUe
among the Associate engravers we find the names of
Charles Turner, who had worked for Alderman Boydell, and

ART 517
of Samuel Cousins, who died, fuU of years and honours,
but yesterday.
Though these were the men who may be taken as the
more or less official representatives of English art at the time
of the Queen's accession, the survey Avould still be very in
complete if it rested here. Much of the oU-painting of the
day, even that done by ' eminent hands,' was undoubtedly
and deplorably bad; Avas such as to give a cruelly apt
handle to the severe criticisms of any trained Frenchman
who might have the enterprise and the patience to walk
through an English gallery ; but in another branch of art
Ave wore then without a rival in Europe. Our great school
of water-colour was flourishing and supreme. A critic of AATator-
authority, Mr. Walter Armstrong, in a survey that he has 1837!"^ ^^
recently written of the painting of the reign,' has taken
the trouble to collect the names of the principal artists who
Avere Avorking in water-colour at the time of the Queen's
accession, with the dates of their birth and death, and from
this list we may be allowed to borrow a few names. Turner
had still fourteen years of life before him, and Avhile in oil-
colour his hand or his eye seemed to have lost something
of its mastery, or his judgment to have begun to mislead
him as to the limits of what painting could do, in Avatcr-
colour he was just as true as ever, and almost more
magical. On a screen in the Manchester Exhibition there
hang no less than fifteen of his draAvings, all admirable,
and many of them supreme, and of these none was executed
before the year 1837. They include the three Righis — the
' Red Righi,' the ' Blue Righi,' and another — a fine ' White
haven ' and a superb 'Land's End,' the beautiful 'LoAves-
toft,' which was engraved in -the England and Wales series,
and the ' Chain Bridge over the Tees,' Avhich Avas repro
duced in Whitaker's ' History of Richmondshire.' These
' Art Journal, June 1887.

5i8 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Avere the drawings to which Turner was giving his leisure,
and if time and the sunlight spare them they will continue
to do as much for his fame as any of his pictures can do.
But beyond and besides Turner there were working a whole
group of men who, it has been truly said, ' but for the
modesty of their work, would by this time be famous all
over Europe.' To what shall we attribute it that they are
not, while everybody who cares for modern art, whether he
dwells in Berlin or in Florence, in Vienna or Amsterdam,
is familiar with Corot and Decamps ? To the fact, as M.
Charles Blanc says, that the English are always asserting
themselves, and that France 'is the only people in the
world which holds itself cheap ? ' ^
Daviii Cox was fifty-four years old at the Queen's acces
sion, and was doing his very best work, unless indeed his
best work was painted later still ; George Barret, the date
of whose birth is not known, can hardly have been the
junior of Cox, since he exhibited at the Academy in the
year 1800 ; and Peter de Wint, who alone perhaps is
Avorthy to be ranked with those two as a water-colour
painter, was of just the same age, and had twelve more
years to live. Copley Fielding was fifty; the veteran John
Glover, whose best days were long over, was seventy ;
J. D. Harding, to whose instructions two generations of
water-colour painters owe a heavy debt, was not forty, and
was to paint for twenty-five years more; James Holland
was thirty-seven, and for another thirty-three years was
to exhibit, in Avater-colour and in oU, Venetian subjects,
English landscapes, and flower-pieces, Avhich, moderately
appreciated in his own day, are now earning for him
high posthumous fame ; William Hunt, the poet of fruit
and floAvers, the masterly delineator of rustic childhood
and old age, was forty-seven, and Avas for another twenty-
' Charles Blanc, Les Tr&sors d'Art a Manchester, Paris, 1857.

ART S'9
five years to remain one of the glories of the old Water-
Colour Society. John Frederick Lewis, equally at home
in water-colour and in oil, was but thirty-two, and stood
at the beginning of a career in which he was to shoAV
himself a master of colour, and, if we may quote without
adopting Mr. Ruskin's panegyric, ' was doing work which
surpassed in execution everything extant since Carpaccio ; ' '
William Muller, a colourist also, and at some moments a
rival of the great Constable, was but twenty-five, and was
to close a short life of promise only eight years later ;
Samuel Prout, the contemporary of Cox, was ' according to
his strength doing true things with a loving mind ; ' and
John Varley, five years older, and not equalling at this late
date the rich, expressive work of his earlier years, Avas still
exhibiting. Two painters, Avhom many of their contemporaries Haydon
believed to be great, Avere nearing the close of their career.
One was Benjamm Robert Haydon, the friend of Keats and
of many another poet and man of letters, and himself an
artist Avho, if he had lived in a society where the discipline
of sound tradition and of a trained opinion was more
easily to be obtained than in London, might have done
great work. Thirty years before he had been one of the
first to recognise the beauty of the Elgin marbles, and,
inspired by them with a love for the ideal and the grand,
he produced many a picture from classical history or from
the religious history of Christendom. But his portion was
to alternate unprofitable fame with the debtor's prison. In
1822, in 1830, and in 1835 he was in gaol, and, by way of
a croAvning disappointment, he was not chosen to aid in
that great scheme which was expected to do so much
for art in England, the decoration of the new House of
Commons. From his diary, the work of a disappointed
' Notes on the Pictures in tlie Royal Academy, 1876.

520 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
man of genius, we see how heavUy these continued dis
couragements weighed upon his mind ; and after frequently
giving expression to his pain in language as strong as
Barry's without Barry's bitterness, he faUed any longer to
continue the fight. On June 26, 1846, he wrote in his
diary, ' God forgive me ! Amen. Finis. " Stretch me no
longer on the rack of this rough world " — Lear,' and then
committed suicide. Recently for some years his large
picture of ' The Raising of Lazarus ' was hung on the
staircase of the National Gallery; but it only needed a
comparison between this picture, bold in conception but
conventional in its types, and in its execution totaUy with
out distinction, and the great rendering of the same subject
by Sebastiano del Piombo, to see how entirely beyond the
scope of the English school of that day Avas any composi
tion in the Grand Style. The other painter to whom we
are referring was WiUiam Etty — a man who, having passed
through a youth of struggle scarcely less painful than that
of Haydon, had at last attained both fortune and fame. He
Avas born at York in 1787 ; his first picture was hung in
1811, and ten years later he was celebrated, and his picture
of Cleopatra was sold at what then seemed to be the con
siderable price of two hundred guineas. Both before and
after this latter date he travelled in Italy, steeping himself
in the colour of Veronese and Titian, and giving to the city
of Venice the second place in his heart after his dear
native city of York. At forty he became an Academician,
and from this time forward his pictures were regarded by
the educated opinion of his time as among the greatest of
modern Avorks of genius. A paragraph in a newspaper of
the year 1847, two years before his death, records that
' Messrs. CoUs and Wass have bought (on speculation) Etty's
picture of " Joan of Arc " for two thousand five hundred
guineas,' a fact Avhich should be borne in mind when it is

ART 521
said that the painters of that day never obtained high
prices. The beauties indeed of Etty's work Avere manifest ;
their defects were not likely to be harshly judged or per
haps perceived by a generation accustomed to the slipshod
execution, incorrect draAving, and theatrical composition
Avhich then passed muster in England. People saw Avith
perfect truth that Etty in his best Avork was a master of
flesh-painting such as the world, and not the English
school alone, had very seldom seen before ; they admired
Avith a justifiable admiration the lovely colour of his
' Bathers ' and of his dancing girls; they saw that at his
best the texture of flesh in Etty's pictures would hold its
own beside the similar work of Rubens. They cared but
little that his compositions were forced and his drawing
often detestable, that his faces were without expression
and his heads joined to their bodies by impossible necks.
Etty's fame during the early portion of the Queen's reign
is a very interesting phenomenon, and none the less
because it contributed not a little to the pre-Raphaelite
revolt. His current paintings, writes Mr. Holman Hunt,
of the period of about 1844, ' were cloysome in their rich
ness and sweetness, and his forms Avere muddled and even
indelicate in the evidence they bore of being servilely
copied from stripped models who had been distorted by the
modiste's art.' ' He was painting classic subjects with the
taste of a Parisian paperhanger,' adds the same stern
critic ; and it must be owned that even if Etty himself
scarcely deserves this severe judgment, the evil effects of
his example are pretty evident in the Books of Beauty of
the day. Men were taught to look for beauty ' at the
expense of truth and manliness ; ' but the teaching was
bringing about a natural reaction.
It was about ten or eleven years after the beginning of
the reign that the vague spirit of unrest Avhich was then

522 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
The pre- abroad in almost every department of life throughout
ite move" Europo began to make itself felt in English art. Eighteen
ment. years before, the Revolution of July had overturned the
Legitimate monarchy in France, and the popular uprising
had been accompanied by a literary and artistic movement
of immense significance. Victor Hugo and George Sand on
the one side, and on the other, first Delacroix and then
the landscape painters Corot, Rousseau, and their fellow-
workers, had given varied expression to the modern revolt
against conventionality and stereotyped forms. We in
England had had our literary revolt a generation earlier in
the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge, of Shelley and
Keats. But in art we moved more slowly, and it was not
till the early years of the present reign that old traditions
and academical dullness received the necessary shock which
Avas the prelude to new life in art. So much has been
Avritten of late years of the pre-Raphaelite movement, for
the benefit of those who do not remember its early days,
and with the older generation the recollection of its
struggles and controversies is so vivid, that any minute
account of it here would be superfluous. The outcome of
it is written at full length in the works of Mr. Ruskin, and
the details of it, as embodied in the artistic biography of one
of the foremost actors, has lately been told by Mr. Holman
Hunt.' Moreover, the present generation has had an un
rivaUed opportunity of tracing its history, and of observing
its influence as it was afterwards developed and affected by
other influences, in the exhibition which was held last
year of the works of Sir John MUlais. Mr, Holman Hunt
has described how the definite formation of the Pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood arose in 1848, and may be dated
from the meeting of three young and struggling artists —
' 'The Pre-Eaphaelile Brotherhood; a Fight for Art,' Contemporary
Review, 188G.

ART 523
himself, Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti— at MUlais's
house, where there happened to be a book of engravings of
the frescoes in the Campo Santo at Pisa. ' MUlais, Rossetti,
and myself,' he writes, ' were all seeking for some sure
ground, some starting point, for our art which would be
secure, if it were ever so humble. As we searched through
this book of engravings we found in them, or thought we
found, that freedom from corruption, pride, and disease for
Avhich Ave sought. Here there was at last no trace of decline,
no conventionality, no arrogance. Whatever the imperfec
tion, the whole spirit of the art was simple and sincere — was,
as Ruskin afterwards said, " eternally and unalterably true."
Think Avliat a revelation it was to find such work at such a
moment, and to recognise it Avith the triple enthusiasm of
our three spirits ! ' The three young Brethren who then
and there determined to associate themselves in a new
effort were all of them remarkable men. Mr. Hunt de- Hoiman
scribes himself as a steady and even enthusiastic Avorker ;
patient determination has always been the note of his
character, and at that date it carried him through more
than the proverbial difficulties which are wont to beset a
young and ambitious artist in his days of struggle. What
Millais was and is we know— a man endowed, to use Mr. MiUais.
Plunt's words, with ' a rare combination of extraordinary
artistic faculty with an amount of sterling English common
sense,' and possessed moreover, at the time, by a spirit of
generous enthusiasm that formed that moral basis of his
genius. But the most original of the three, the man of
the quickest and most independent insight, and of the
greatest initiating force, was undoubtedly Rossetti. The Eossetti.
son of an English mother and of the weU-known Italian
professor and commentator upon Dante, this youth went
about our nineteenth-century London Avith the thoughts
and feelings of a Florentine of the later middle age. So

524 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
much has been said and written about him since in 1870 he
Avas induced to publish his poems, and since after his
death the Royal Academy collected and displayed the
pictures which he would never consent to exhibit in his
lifetime, that we may be excused from dwelling on him at any
length ; on the marvellous memory which enabled him to
declaim to his favoured little audiences page after page of
poetry — poetry gathered from the Italians of the thirteenth
century or by hundreds of lines from ' Sordello ' and
' Paracelsus ' — on his scorn for little social conventions, on
his belief in the power of art to awake a soul in the English
millionaire. But here is Mr. Hunt's analysis of what may
be called the central position in Rossetti's philosophy ; and
this it is well worth while to quote, for it tends to explain
the special form which pre-Raphaelite art took in England :
' The studying of poetic schools had never led him to
profess any respect for natural science or to evince any
regard for the remote stages of creative development or the
lower steps of human progress. He regarded such studies
as altogether foreign to poetry. The language used in
early times to describe the appearances of nature he
accepted as the exclusive and ever-sufficient formulae. The
modern discoveries of science therefore had no charms for
him ; neither had the changed condition of the people who
were to be touched by art any claim for special considera
tion. They had no right to be different from the people of
Dante's time, if I may use my own words to epitomise his
meaning.' Each of the three young painters had done a good deal
of work before 1849, but it is from the May of that year
that we may date the beginning of pre-Raphaelitism viewed
as an influence upon English art. In that year Rossetti
exhibited ' The Girlhood of Mary Virgin ' at the Hyde
Park Gallery, Holman Hunt ' Rienzi ' at the Academy, and

ART 525
Millais, as a pendant to this latter, the now famous picture
of ' Lorenzo and IsabeUa,' surely one of the most marvel
lous works ever achieved by a lad under twenty years of
age. This last has lately been thought worthy of purchase
at a high price by the Corporation of Liverpool for their
public gallery ; for since 1849 we have at least developed an
historical sense in matters of art, and, whether we agree
Avith the theory of a picture or not, we know when it has
fine qualities, and we know when it represents an epoch in
art-history. But to the men who held the position of pro
fessed critics at that time the first law of criticism as we
now understand it was unknown. They never cared to get
at the artist's point of view. They were content to dispose
of the ' Lorenzo ' as ' affected ' and the ' Christ in the
House of His Parents,' which foUowed in the next year, a s
' reA-olting.' Among the pre-Raphaelite Brethren were preseiitly en
rolled three more artists and one writer — James Colhnson,
F. G. Stephens, Thomas Woolner, and William Michael
Rossetti — while outside there gradually arose a little band
of sympathisers. Mr. Ford Madox-Brown, an older man
than any of the group, held aloof from actual member
ship, but his work exercised no little influence upon the
Brethren. A few months after the exhibition of the
pictures we have named it Avas determined to found a
literary organ for the Brotherhood, and the result Avas that
little magazine which is now so much prized by collectors,
' The Germ : Thoughts towards Nature in Poetry, Literature, ¦ The
and Art.' A short preface announced that ' the endeavour
held in view throughout the writings on art avUI be to
encourage and enforce an entire adherence to the sim
plicity of nature, and also to direct attention as an auxUiary
medium to the comparatively few works which art has
yet produced in this spirit.' The Germ, though it con-

Germ.'

Euskin.

526 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
tained such poetry as Rossetti's ' Blessed Damozel,' only
lived through four numbers. It was one thing to influence
a few artists, who in their turn and in their time should
spread the new principles widely among those who cared
for art, and quite another to command instantaneously a
large literary audience.
Mr. But though the public could not appreciate The Germ,
they could not fail to be touched and deeply moved by
another literary influence which preceded, accompanied,
and followed the pre-Raphaelite movement. In another
chapter something has been said of the general literary
qualities and value of the work of Mr. Ruskin, but his
special effect upon art is so important that a few words
upon it become imperative. The ' Graduate of Oxford '
stUl lives, and from his beautiful home on the banks of
Coniston he writes from time to time what is read as
widely as the first copies of ' Modern Painters ' were read,
though mainly by a different class. But not again can the
glow of emotion be felt with which the receptive minds of
forty years ago welcomed the volume, afterwards developed
into five, in which the ' young man eloquent ' described the
ideal of the painter, and showed how Claude had missed
and Turner realised it.' It is difficult to summarise a great
book in a sentence, or in a page, but Mr. Ruskin's teaching
is perhaps less difficult to describe than that of many other
critics and philosophers. The foundation of it is moral,
and is identical with Carlyle's, for Carlyle, whom Mr.
Ruskin has often called ' my master,' had a powerful
influence upon him. To speak and do the truth ; to walk
humbly in the presence of nature, to reverence everything
except claptrap and convention, this was the basis of Mr.
' Modem Painters first appeared in 1845, in one vol. 8vo ; 2nd edit.
1846 ; 3rd edit. 1846, in two vols, royal 8vo. Three more volumes (illus
trated) followed in 1856 and 1860. The Seven Lamps of Architecture
appeared in 1849 ; The Stones of Venice, 3 vols. 1853.

ART 527
Ruskin's doctrine, as of Carlyle's. What gave it its special
application was more or less an accident. The young man,
Avhom nature had endowed with keen artistic sensibUity,
had been brought across Turner, and his father, a wealthy
man, had been induced by him to buy Turner's drawings.
Thus he had been led to study Turner, both his character
and his art, with unusual care, and, deeming that the great
artist Avas not rightly valued by his contemporaries, espe
cially by the writers in the newspapers, he wrote what
was meant to be a pamphlet, but what became first one
volume and then five, in Turner's defence. What began
with the criticism of one man grew into a philosophy of art.
A keen though wayward intelligence, a genuine delight in
Turner's work and in that of many of his contemporaries,
and a gift of eloquence unrivalled among English prose-
Avriters of that or perhaps of any age, combined to give Mr.
Ruskin a position of great influence. Thousands of readers,
Avhen they rose from his volumes, began to look on Nature
Avith new eyes. They may, in many cases, have fancied
they saw in her what there is not ; but they were at least
taught to look and to reverence. The unquestionable truth
that Mr. Ruskin's influence on the artists themselves has been
but partial and passing suggests that something Avas funda
mentally wrong in his artistic theories ; but it does not alter
the fact that his writings, by their stimulating quality, by the
manner in which he seemed to probe nature and art to the
bottom, have been of immeasurable service to his generation.
As regards the pre-Raphaelites, Mr. Ruskin did much
to secure them a fair hearing. He wrote tAvo letters to the
Times in 1851 in defence of their pictures in the Academy
exhibition; and the professed critics had henceforth to
justify their attacks on the new manner. In the same year
he wrote a pamphlet which he called ' Pre-Raphaelitism,' and
in which, with much that was not very relevant, he showed

528 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
the essential Tightness of the method in which the young
Millais and Holman Hunt were approaching art. He had
long since advised young artists, he said, ' that they should
go to Nature in aU singleness of heart, and walk with her
laboriously and trustingly, having no other thought but to
penetrate her meaning, rejecting nothing, selecting nothing,
and scorning nothing.' How an artist is to avoid selection
the writer did not explain, but he saw his advice taken, to
the best of human ability, in the ' Two Gentlemen of
Verona ' and in the ' Ophelia.' But he gave up the cause
of the extreme pre-Raphaelites a few pages farther on,
where he warned the painters that ' there are certain quali
ties in drawing which they miss from over-carefulness ' —
the qualities, that is to say, of boldness, mastery, and
breadth. They, or at least the chief of them, soon came
to see this as clearly as the critic ; and the work of Millais
after 1860 showed that the lesson had been learnt.
Effects of The work of the pre-Raphaelite movement has in the
BaptuTei- niain been accomplished, and the influences now chiefly
mfi^°^^ acting upon art are of an opposite tendency. But it has
left its mark upon many of the greatest artists of our day.
It is responsible for much of the exquisite art of Mr. Burne-
Jones, and Mr. W. B. Richmond's early pictures are full .
of it. Mr. Watts, the noblest ideal painter that England
has ever seen, would scarcely have done the work that he
has done had it not been for the serious severity that was
introduced into English art by the Brotherhood. Even
in the supremely scholarly work of Sir Frederick Leighton
we may see a development of pre-Raphaelitism ; and, in
another field, we may say that Avithout it English decora
tive art would hardly have witnessed the revival brought
about by Mr. William Morris.
The next great influence upon English art came from
without, and has had its effect not so much upon schools

ment

ART 529
of painting or upon the works of individual painters as Tb.e
upon the general artistic education of the country. In a Consort
country like England the Court, though it may set the tone Exhibi-
in certain departments of life, has naturally much less X85i.°
influence upon a matter so widespread as the national arts
than is the case in most foreign countries. But in the
twenty years that followed 1840 a new condition, more
important than many people were aware, was introduced
into England. A man of fine intelligence, great practical
tact, extraordinary power of work, and remarkable strength
of wUl came to occupy the position next the throne. We
are accustomed to find the character and influence of the
Prince Consort misunderstood through courtier-like exag
geration on the one side, and through the survival of an
old jealousy on the other ; and this misunderstanding,
though principally to be found in the estimates of his
political position, is also commonly extended to estimates
of his influence upon the arts. It may be admitted that
upon painting he had no direct influence, and indeed it
could hardly be expected that one whose taste approved Cor
nelius and Winterhalter should awake much response among
English artists or amateurs. But on the development of
industrial art, and on the contemporary extension of a love
for beautiful things as such throughout the whole educated
classes of the country, his influence was very great indeed.
He gave the push that was wanted. The Great Exhibition
of 1851 was his doing, and though we may shudder at the
recollection of what that exhibition revealed as to the state
of English design and decoration at the time, it was no
light achievement to bring together such conclusive evi
dence of our weakness as well as of our strength.
Several events of the next decade bore remarkable i850-6o.
evidence to this new development of a national interest in
art. Among them may be mentioned the reorganisation of
VOL. II. M M

S30 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
the National GaUery, the establishment of the Science and
Art Department, with its headquarters in the newly founded
and rapidly growing museum at South Kensington, and the
National Exhibition of Art Treasures held at Manchester in
1857.
The The National GaUery, although founded some thirteen
GaUery. yoars before the Queen came to the throne, can only be said
to have assumed any very great importance during her reign.
It was on April 9, 1838, that the building in Trafalgar
Square was opened to the public, the pictures which
belonged to the nation having till then been exhibited at
the house in Pall Mall where Mr. Angerstein, whose collec
tion forms the nucleus of the GaUery, had lived. Every
year saw some remarkable additions ; in 1837 we note the
acquisition of Murillo's ' Holy FamUy ' and of Constable's
'Cornfield,' the latter a gift from a group of Constable's
admirers ; in the next year Lord Farnborough's bequest of
Dutch pictures ; in the next the purchase of Raphael's ' St.
Catharine.' At short intervals came Sir Joshua's ' Angels'
Heads,' a gift from Lady William Gordon, Rembrandt's
' Jewish Rabbi' and Bellini's 'Doge Loredano ' (1844), and
in 1847 the great bequest of Mr. Vernon, consisting of no
less than a hundred and fifty-five pictures of the British
school. Unforturfately, far too many of these last pictures
exemplify the least excellent side of the English art of the
epoch. How invaluable might that bequest have been had
Mr. Vernon been more moderate in his admiration for
Leslie and Maclise, and have substituted for the greater
number of their pictures a few fine Sir Joshuas and a
collection really representative of the noble Norwich school
of landscape! In 1855, on the report of a School Com
mittee of the House of Commons, the administration of the
Gallery was reorganised — none too soon — and Sir Charles
Eastlake, a painter of great taste and well acquainted with

ART 531
Italian art, was appointed Director. From that time addi
tions of immense value have been annually made to the
Gallery ; in 187G, after Eastlake's daath, the multitude of its
possessions made it necessary to enlarj^e the building, and a
number of noAV rooms were added from the designs of Mr.
B. M. Barry. Still the increase Avent on, and at the moment
Avlien these words are Avritten the public is waiting with
some impatience for the opening of yet more rooms which
Avill relieve the principal gallery from the necessity under
which it has long laboured of bsing cumbered with screens.
When these buildings are completed — and their completion
is now a question of months or even weeks — it will be seen
even more readily than it is seen at present that little by
little Ave have, during the jiast thirty years, raised our Gallery
from one of the second or third order to one that will com
pare with any of the galleries of Europe. The purchase of
the late Sir Robert Peel's collection enriched the nation
Avith some seventy Dutch and Flemish pictures of the first
importance. The Italian rooms have grown in wealth
from year to year until there is now no great Italian name
unrepresented, while such a purchase as that of Raphael's
' Ansidei Madonna ' from Blenheim for the gigantic sum of
70,000L (almost exactly the price paid for the whole Peel
collection) has shown the determination of Parliament to
pay even unprecedented prices for the possession of real
masterpieces. It is unfortunate that this grant should
have been made subject to the condition that the ordinary
annual grant Avas to be suspended for a time — a piece of
ill-judged economy which deprives Sir Frederick Burton of
the opportunity of securing many a bargain for the nation,
and that too at a moment when the faU iii agricultural
prices is compeUing many of the old English famihes to
sell their artistic possessions. It is unfortunate also that
the development of the English side of the GaUery has not
M M 2

532 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
quite kept pace with that of the foreign side. We have had,
indeed, such bequests as those of Mr. Vernon, Mr. Jacob
Bell, and of Turner, but to depend on bequests is to depend
on chance, and the representation of the English school in
an English National Gallery cannot be said to be adequate,
so long as the Gallery contains no first-rate lady's portrait
by Reynolds, and no first-rate work of Crome, Cotman,
Vincent, HoUand, Cox, or William Muller.
Man- The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition, held in 1857,
ArTTr^ea- ^^^ ^^ event of great importance in the history of art in
^''^^ England. Organised in part with the view that it would
tion, lead to the establishment of a museum of industrial art in
the industrial capital, it rapidly developed into a display of
the most priceless treasures, and was to the art Avorld of
Europe the first revelation of the wonderful artistic wealth
of the private collections of England. If the local patriotism
of Lancashire helped in one Avay to assure the success of
such an exhibition which then was an entire novelty, it was
largely seconded by the patriotism of wealthy owners
throughout the country. The great houses seemed to
compete for pre-eminence in art, and the newer collectors
entered into rivalry with them, with the result, to use the
words of a French critic ' by no means too favourable to
England, that ' you might have imagined a palace of glass
in which were gathered together the great gallery of the
Louvre, the Cluny Museum, the Cabinet of Medals, and the
hidden stores of the Cabinet of Engravings,' and with these
such a collection of armour, of Etruscan vases, of miniatures
and enamels, of historical portraits, and of the artistic
products of the East as it would be impossible to find else
where in the world. No school of painting was unrepre
sented by its greatest masters : Italian, German, Flemish,
Dutch, French, Spanish, English, aU might here be judged
' Charles Blanc.

ART 533
more thoroughly and enjoyed more fully than in any
European gallery, except perhaps the Louvre ; while in all
the other departments of fine art the collection was of an
importance which no one had foreseen, and which amazed
every connoisseur who visited it. Nowadays we are over
done with exhibitions, but thirty years ago displays of this
kind Avere new. The effect of the Manchester Exhibition
Avas great and far-reaching. On the artists themselves it
may have had but little direct influence, for artists are
only affected by the works of great masters when they live
among them and spend a long time in studying or copying
them ; but it spread the regard for art into many quarters
Avhere it had not been entertained before. It sent up the
price of pictures. It taught multitudes of working men
what fine things had been done in the world by human
hands. It set a fashion for art exhibitions which has
gone on increasing to the present time. It gave a powerful
stimulus to the growth of the South Kensington Museum
and its branches throughout the country.
The beginnings of that great organisation now caUed The
the Science and Art Department are to be found a little and Art
earher than the Queen's accession. In 1835 a Select ment^*
Committee of the Plouse of Commons was appointed ' to
inquire into the best means of extending a knowledge of the
arts and principles of design among the people (especially
the manufacturing population) of the country ' ; and as a
result there was constituted in 1837 what was caUed a
Council of the Government School of Design, with its head
quarters in Somerset House. The movement grew ; in 1842
a Director was appointed, who had under his supervision
certain provincial schools as well as the central school in
London, and theoriginal grant of 1,500L a year had expanded
to 15,000L Nine years later the great Exhibition of 1851
was held, and when it Avas over the Prmce Consort took

534 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
up with energy the question of developing, on the one hand,
the art teaching of the country, and, on the other, the
formation of the central museum, which was to contain
examples of everything that was best and finest in human
handiwork. In 1852 the Department of Practical Art was
established, with Mr. Henry Cole as its head, and next year
this Avas transformed and enlarged into the Science and Art
Department, which, after being for three years under the
control of the Board of Trade, passed in 1856 under that of
the Lord-President and the Vice-President of the Council.
At the same time Parliament voted 10,000i!. for transferring
the Department from Marlborough House to South Ken
sington, Avhere were soon installed the possessions which had
as yet been bought or given, including what the Government
had bought at the sale of the Bernal Collection (1858) at
prices which may drive the modern collector to despair.
Gifts poured in, beginning with that of the Sheepshanks
Collection of English pictures and drawings, a gift which
was foUoAved by those of Mrs. Ellison in 1860, of Mr. Towns-
bend in 1868, of the Dyce CoUection in 1869, of Mr.
William Smith's water-colours in 1871 and 1876, of Mr.
John Forster's library in the same year, and, four years
later, by the immensely valuable bequest of French fur
niture, porcelain, &c., by Mr. John Jones. With these are
to be' reckoned the purchases that have been largely
made in all departments of industrial art, and the forma
tion of the large and very complete art library, at a total
cost of nearly 500,000L sterling. Not all the possessions
of the Museum are kept at South Kensington; a great
number of them are lent to the branch museums, which
have a more or less direct dependence upon the Department,
at Bethnal Green and at Nottingham and several other
toAvns. It must not, however, be supposed that the work of the

ART 535
Department is confined to the organisation of one or many
museums. On the contrary, it organises the teaching of
elementary art, and in many cases of art that is not elemen
tary, throughout the country, besides doing similar work in
respect of natural science. It has its own ' National Art
Training School,' at South Kensington, for the training of
teachers for schools of art. It directs the teaching of draw
ing in every elementary school, and it has estabhshed a wide
system of examination. Over 800,000 children in the public
elementary schools learn drawing under its auspices ; in 200
schools of art there were, in the year 1885, 36,960 students,
and in 488 art classes 23,410 students ; the work of the
Department, including science as well as art, costing the
country about 400,000L a year.'
From the work of the Science and Art Department the Artteaching
transition is easy to the general system of art teachmg, in inEng-
its higher branches, which obtains in England. The
great difference between this country and France in the
matter of art training is to be found in the fact that here
the atelier system has never really taken root. Everybody
remembers the training that Clive Newcome went through
under the eminent Mr. Gandish, of Soho, and what Clive
did then has been done by many another young artist,
down to the time when Frederick Walker attended the
evening classes in Leigh's school, in Newman Street, after
he had spent his day in copying Greek marbles in the
British Museum. But in England these ateliers have
generally been conducted by masters who, whatever else
they were, were not great artists. In France it is almost
as incumbent upon a great man to have a studio full of
pupUs as to paint pictures ; and in a catalogue of the
Salon every artist's name is given as eleve de Gerome, de
' These figures are taken from an article by Mr. Gilbert Bedgrave in the
Art Journal, June 1887.

Schools.

536 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Bonnat, de J-P. Laurens, or what not. Whatever the
good and evil of such a system, it does not prevail here,
and it is only lately that one single artist of the first rank,
Mr. Herkomer, has ventured to introduce the Continental
system, and to set up a school of his own at Bushey. The
plan which is followed here is, generally speaking, that of
schools attached to the great art institutions of the country,
The especially to the Eoyal Academy. The Royal Academy
Academy Schools, which have existed since the beginning of the in
stitution, and which among other uses have given occasion
to many admirable Presidential addresses from the days of
Sir Joshua downwards, now afford instruction to a large
number of pupils, male and female, who may there study
all the higher branches of art — painting, sculpture, and
architecture. But though permanent assistant teachers are provided,
the schools have this peculiarity : that they are directed in
turn by the various Academicians, who each for his week or
month takes the supervision of the classes. Whether this is
the best method of instruction is a question which is now
being warmly debated, and upon which it would be pre
sumptuous for any but an artist to give an opinion. The
artists themselves take different views, and while some
declare strongly for the French system, others of great
authority regard the English method as the best, and
as affording to the student not only abundant facilities for
work but a sufficiently methodical training. It may be
stated, however, that of late years a choice of methods has
been afforded to students, for whUe on the one hand the
Water-colour Institute has established schools of water-
colour painting on the model of those of the Academy, the
Slade School, founded by the munificence of the late Mr.
Felix Slade, has afforded during the last fifteen years the
opportunity of workmg on a different plan to many hun-

ART 537
dreds of students. At one time the Director of the school
was Mr. Poynter ; it is now the distinguished French artist
M. Legros, who appears to have relinquished the practice of
his art in favour of teaching.
We have thus been led into what may seem a digression Art in
from the story of the English school of painting. Return- •^^^^"^^•
ing to it, and to the point at which Ave left it, we find three
significant events taking place within two years which may
be taken as in their different ways landmarks in the history
of Enghsh art. In 1853 MiUais, then just four-and-twenty
years of age, was elected Associate of the Royal Academy ;
in 1855 Copley Fielding died ; and in that year a number
of English pictures appeared at the Paris Exhibition and
made a sensation. The first event marked at once the
official recognition of the leading pre-Raphaelite painter,
and to a certain extent the modification on his part of
his earlier manner. The second marked practically the
end of that great period of English water-colour art when
the school Avas led by what Mr. Ruskin has called ' the
great primary masters of the trade.' The third event
marked the first conscious attempt of the English school
of painting to take its place with the schools of the Conti
nent, and at the same time may be said to have first opened
the door to that French influence upon English art which
is now so manifest in every exhibition. MiUais had in
1850 horrified the critics, and tried the faith even of those
Avho saw promise in the new school, by his ' Christ in the
House of His Parents ; ' in 1851 he had been as archaic as
ever, but more brilliant, in ' The Return of the Dove to the
Ark ; ' in 1852 he had painted the first of his popular
pictures, the famous ' Huguenot,' with its magnificent
execution and its subject of which the pathos touched every
heart. Opposition, which wavered in the presence of this
picture, broke down before the work of the next year, that

538 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
MiUais ' Order of Release ' which soon, in the engraving, disputed
A^E.A. the palm of popularity with the most favourite works of
Landseer. The election of the brilliant youth was thought
quite natural after such a success, and from this time it
ceased to be uncommon for young painters to send works
to the Academy which showed some traces of that con
scientious handling of detail, that preference for exact
imitation over facile generalisation, which had been taught
by the painter of ' The Christian Missionary ' and by the
writers in The Germ. But in the work of the painter who
had succeeded in winning this triumph for his principles
a subtle change was beginning to be visible, and from the
date of ' The Order of Release ' there might year after year
be traced some slight departure from the old method, until
his pictures gradually assumed the breadth and freedom
Avhich have been their dominant qualities for the last
eighteen or twenty years. ' Truth of external fact,' which
had been the aim of the young pre-Raphaelites, gave way
to ' truth of impression ; ' the artist came to see that as all
art must of necessity imply selection, and as it is hopeless
for the painter to attempt to rival the multitudinous variety
of nature, his work may be as true when it is done with
the broad sweep and dashing execution of Velasquez as
when done with the patient minuteness of Van Eyck.
Death of The death of Copley Fielding, President of the old
Fielding. Water-colour Society, marks, as we have said, another
epoch. Turner had preceded him to the grave by four
years, Peter de Wint by six years, whUe David Cox sur
vived him, and died in 1859 ; and all these were greater
men than he. But Fielding was by his official position the
most prominent representative of water-colour art, and his
method was perhaps more definitely characteristic of tho
English school than that of any of the three artists we have
named. Turner was above and beyond aU schools ; Cox

ART 539
and De Wint might both of them have made a great name
in France, but Fielding in his strength and weakness was
purely English. Without the force of genius or either the
power or the wish to strike out new lines for himself, he
carried on with exquisite skiU the methods that he had
learnt in his youth, untU in his hands the very light of
noonday was transferred to the paper, and the Enghsh
landscape shone under a transparent sky. By him and,
to a less extent, by his fellow-workers, if Ave may quote the
words of one of Mr. Ruskin's later Oxford lectures, ' the
skill of laying a perfectly even and smooth tint with abso
lute precision of complex outline was attained to a degree
Avhich no amateur draughtsman can have the least concep
tion of. . . . Then further on such basis of well-laid primary
tint the old water-colour men were wont to attain their
effects of atmosphere by the most delicate Avashes of trans
parent colour, reaching subtleties of gradation in misty
light which were wholly unthought of before their time.
In this kind the depth of far distant brightness, freshness,
and mystery of morning air with which Copley Fielding
used to mvest the ridges of the South Downs, as they rose
out of the blue Sussex champaign, remains, and I believe
must remain, insuperable, while his sense of beauty in the
cloud-forms associated with the higher mountains enabled
him to invest the comparatively modest scenery of our own
island — out of which he never travelled — with a charm
seldom attained by the most ambitious painters of Alp or
Apennine.' For all this Fielding and his colleagues were never in the • The old
proper sense of the term appreciated in their lifetime, and ^^our
their drawings sold for prices which would now be scorn- ^^^'
fully refused by third-rate members of insignificant
societies. David Cox in 1845 sold his large drawings for
nineteen guineas apiece, and his famous oil-picture called

540 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
' The Skylark ' was bought from the Birmingham Exhibi
tion of 1849 for 40L Ten years later, in the year of Cox's
death, this picture was resold to Mr. Mayou for 50L, and in
Mr. Mayou's possession it remained till 1872, when he sold
it to Mr. Nettlefold, its present owner, for 2,300L' Similar
stories are told of most of the best work of that group of
artists by old collectors; and it is common enough for
drawings by De Wint now to bring eight or nine hundred
guineas which in his lifetime he sold as a regular thing for
fifty or sixty. It is not, then, surprising that artists found
it difficult to live by the practice of their art alone ; and to
men like these three it was commonly a necessity to seek
their main support through teaching. The amenities of
social life were not for them ; if they saw anything of the
cultured class, the class of gentlemen, it was on a footing of
anything but equality. Occasionally a man of fashion or
family would invite them, but it was, as in De Wint's case,
only in the way of business — to set them some task, to get
them to draw scenes in the neighbourhood, and meanwhile to
treat them with just that kindness that a well-bred aristocrat
shows to a dependent. To decide whether it was a bad
thing, this severance of classes, which made the artists
associate almost exclusively with each other, which made
David Cox — ' old farmer Cox ' as his friends called him —
remain to the end of his days as rustic as his pictures, and
De Wint alternate between roughness to his equals and
deference to the great, is a question which will be answered
according as we regard the great social changes of the
past fifty years to have brought good or evU in their train.
At all events, things are different now. The fashionable
portrait-painters have indeed been always men of fashion ;
Landseer moved as an equal among the men for whom he
painted the animals that they fondled and the animals that
' David Cox : A Biography, by AViUiam Hall, p. 258.

ART 541
they shot ; but Landseer and the portrait-painters held an
exceptional position. Now, with the growth of wealth, the
rise of prices, and the competition that has existed for the
last thirty years among the buyers of pictures, the artist's
position has changed, and the danger for a man of talent
is not that he should starve, but that rapid prosperity
should lead him to forsake or to debase his art.
The second event of the year 1855 was, as we have stated, English pictures
the appearance of a number of English pictures on the walls in Paris,
of the Paris Exhibition. They made a considerable im
pression, though not so deep as was made by those which
Avere shoAvn twelve years later in the Exhibition of 1867, and
again in 1878. Moreover, the impression was mutual, for
the English painters followed their pictures to Paris, and
were able to compare them on the spot with the works of
their French brethren. From this moment Ave may date
the beginnings of that French influence on English art
which is now one of the striking features of the time, and
Avhicli in fact may be set down as one of the three formative
influences that have made English contemporary art Avhat
it is, the other two being the pre-Raphaelite movement and
the example of Frederick Walker and George Mason.
In one of the rooms at the Manchester Exhibition there Fre-
are now gathered together a score of the rare works of A?vaiker
these two men, both of them cut off in their early prime ' — Mason.
' The Harvest Moon ' of the one and ' The Ploughers,' ' The
Vagrants,' ' The Lost Path,' and ' The Sunny Thames ' of
the other. All these have been made widely known of late
through Mr. Macbeth's beautiful etchings, but it is neces
sary to see the pictures themselves if one would estimate
the influence which the two idyllic painters have had upon
' G. H. Mason, A.E.A. died 1872 ; Frederick A?Valker, A.E.A., and G. J.
Pinwell died 1875, which year was also the date of the death of Alfred
Stevens.

542 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
the subsequent art of England. Both had technical faults
in abundance ; neither was perfect as a draughtsman, and
Mason's drawing was often unquestionably bad ; but both
had a sense of the inner realities of rural nature for which
we look in vain in the pictures of any of their predecessors.
It has been said that Walker had ' a special power of draw
ing from reality some secret of beauty that escapes common
observation ; ' ' it may be added that he had a knowledge
of peasant character in which Millet alone surpassed him,
while he saAV in rustic life an element of happiness and
grace which Millet never admitted, and that he was ever
recognising that ' good gigantic smile o' the brown old earth '
which seems hardly to have existed for the Norman peasant-
painter. Under these, and a number of influences too subtle
for analysis, has been formed the very various but still
remarkable school of painters whose names are now so
familiar. Because they are familiar, we need not dwell
upon them. Any competent notice in a newspaper — and
every newspaper now strives to have competent notices of
the exhibitions — will say what there is to say of the work
of these men, and will point to the choice and varied work
of Leighton and Poynter, to the portraits of MiUais, HoU,
and Ouless, to the classical scenes of Alma Tadema, to the
brilliantly painted dramatic scenes, historical or domestic,
of Orchardson, to the animal-painting of Briton Riviere, to
the landscapes and cattle-pieces of Davis, to the landscapes
of Alfred Hunt and Alfred Parsons ; and, in another scale
and key, to the noble ideal pictures of Watts, to the exqui
site archaisms of Burne-Jones, and to the portraits of the
younger Richmond. These painters have now established
themselves beyond cavil or question ; as have such workers
in Avater-colours as North and Albert Goodwin, as Mrs.
' Comyns Carr, Essays on Art, p. 214.

ART 543
AUmgham and Sir James Linton. What is not yet so
established, though it is a sign of the times that is full of
interest, is the growth that may be observed of a school of
younger men on whom the Parisian atelier and the landscape-
painting of Corot and Rousseau have cast a powerful spell.
The exhibitions of the transformed ' Society of British
Artists ' and of the ' New English Art Club ' are as yet the
special homes of this influence; but no exhibition of the
Academy, or even of the Grosvenor GaUery— which after its
opening in 1870 was for many years devoted to the cause
of Mr. Burne-Jones and his followers — is now without
striking examples of it. How far it wiU go, and what will
be its permanent effect upon English art, none can say. As
yet it shoAVS itself chiefly in three things : in the cultivation
of extreme technical dexterity, in an avoidance of ' pretti-
ness ' which threatens sometimes to develop into a horror of
beauty, and in a preference of the whole to the parts — of
the total ' impression ' to truth of detail.
Of all forms of art that which was in the most deplor- Souip-
able condition at the time of the Queen's accession was
sculpture. Two or three men of talent were working : Sir
Francis Chantrey had five years to live; Edward Hodges
Baily, a pupil of Flaxman, was fifty years of age ; and John
Gibson, if we are to claim any credit for a man who lived
more than half his life at Rome, was producing graceful
groups and figures in the manner of Canova. Besides
these there was scarcely a man who either in theory or
practice showed the least understanding of the capacities of
what is perhaps the noblest of the arts. It would be to go
beyond the permissible limits of this chapter if we were to
enter upon a discussion of the cause of that hopeless state
into which English sculpture had fallen, or, to state the
matter with perhaps more accuracy, of the reasons why
sculpture had never risen in this country above a condition

ture.

544 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
for which mediocrity would be too good a name. For the
great works of sculpture there can indeed never be a large
demand in England. Rain, fog, and coal-smoke are a
sentence of ruin to out-of-door sculpture in London, and no
city where out-of-door sculpture cannot be favourably seen
and judged offers a fair field to this difficult and delicate
art. But we have our limited opportunities, and that
even these are enough to develop a healthy and a fairly
flourishing school, assuming the existence of training for
the artists and a moderate amount of educated intelligence
in the public, is proved by the state of sculpture now as
compared with what it was fifty years ago.
Foley. When the history of Victorian art comes to be written
at length, a large space will have to be assigned to the work
of John Henry Foley. He was born in Dublin in 1818, but
Avas of English race ; his training was received first at the
schools of the Royal Dublin Society, and then at those of
the Royal Academy. In 1840 he exhibited the group, ' Ino
and Bacchus,' which attracted much attention and brought
him commissions ; also his portrait busts and statues, of
which that of Hampden was the first, revealed an intelligence
of the sculptor's art which until then had been unknoAvn in
England. Foley seemed to be able to throw off instinctively
the shackles of convention, and, while retaining a true artistic
feeling for the ideal elements in character, he succeeded
in coming close to life. His greatest works are the eques
trian statue of Sir James Outram at Calcutta — the very
model of what such a statue should be — and Sidney
Herbert, in front of the War Office, one of the few London
statues which will stand comparison with the great works
with which the sculptors of France have adorned the streets
of their capital. Foley had, as was natural, very consider
able influence. He did not die till 1874, and long before
that time a generation had arisen capable of appreciating

ART 545
him and of providing him Avith worthy pupils and fol
lowers. Another, and perhaps a greater, man Avhose name will be Alfred
identified Avith the sculpture of the Queen's reign Avas Alfred
Stevens, the maker of that magnificent Wellington memorial
Avhich, after a lamentable official history, is now hidden
aAvay in a side chapel of St. Paul's. Stevens Avas a profound
student of the Italian sculptors of the Renaissance, but he
interpreted their Avork with a modernness of spirit and with
an intelligence of the conditions of modern life which en
titles him to be regarded as their equal and not their imi
tator. The story of his great Avork is discreditable to the
nation ; he Avas worried, hindered, and starved by officials
Avho neither kncAV how great a man he was nor how difficult
and, of necessity, costly such a work should be. Fortu
nately, however, it was practically finished before the
. sculptor died ; and, though it is placed in the position
which says little for the artistic feeling of those in authority,
there it is, the greatest work of architectural sculpture that
this country has ever produced, and perhaps the greatest
that has been produced in Europe since the sixteenth
century. Of the sculptors who are now working in England, at scuip-
least eight or ten are men of high distinction. Of the older
generation we have Mr. Boehm, justly the most popular
sculptor of the day, whose statue of Carlyle (now on the
Chelsea Embankment) is worthy of its subject; we have
Mr. Woolner, who began life as one of the Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood, and who has always retained that combination
of dignified poetical feeling Avith refined manipulation which
marked his early work ; we have Mr. Armstead, learned
and accomplished ; and we have the President of the Royal
Academy, Avho is sculptor as well as painter. Younger than
these are Mr. Brock, a pupU of Foley's, and a whole group
VOL. II. N N

546 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
of men, the product of the combined influence of the
sculpture of the Renaissance and of modern Paris. Of
these Mr. Hamo Thornycroft has been longest before the
world ; his classical statues, the marble ' Artemis ' and the
bronze ' Teucer ' first won him public and official recog
nition, and he has repeated those successes in a different
field — in the pair of life-sized statues, * The Mower ' and
' The Sower,' which represent types of English rural life
with the veracity, and with more than the grace, of Millet.
An artist Avhose success is still more recent is Mr. Alfred
Gilbert, the last elected Associate of the Academy. Unlike
most of the young sculptors of the day, he worked for
several years in Rome ; but the influences that formed him
Avere very different from those which had formed Gibson
and the men of his generation. Mr. Gilbert is far removed
indeed from the prettiness of Canova : he is a true child of
the Renaissance ; he deals with classic story, with Northern
fairy tale, or with modern reality in the spirit, and with
something of the strength, of Michael Angelo. Mr. Onslow
Ford, Mr. Stirling Lee, Mr. Havard Thomas, and some
other men rapidly coming to the front, have been more
affected by French influence ; and the youngest of all, Mr.
Harry Bates, has, under the teaching of our own Academy
Schools, fostered a love for the best Greek types in a
manner full of promise for his future.
Archi- No branch of art has shown greater activity during the
^ ¦ reign of Queen Victoria than architecture, and none, it may
be added, displays more unquestionable improvement. We
cannot indeed say even now that England possesses a
national architectural style, but she is coming nearer to it
than has been the case for many generations. We have
had in this country great architectural periods : in church
building the periods from the thirteenth century to the
days of the triumph of the so-called Perpendicular style ; in

ART 547
domestic architecture the Tudor period ; in the architecture
of great public buildings in the days when Inigo Jones and
Christopher Wren produced their works of genius ; and
again in the region of domestic architecture during the
period when the influence of Wren Avas crossed by the
influence of Holland and Flanders and produced those
houses which are noAv vulgarly known by the name of
Queen Anne. But at the time of the accession of Queen
Victoria the national architecture was a chaos. The models
that had come doAvn to us from the Renaissance had been
degraded and abused ; Gothic architecture was misunder
stood, and the imitation of Greek architecture, which had
been in vogue for some short time, had been found to be
monotonous and not easily adaptable to the daily uses of
life. The early period of the Queen's reign Avas the period The
par excellence of the Gothic revival. The two Pugins by revival.
their practical achievements, and Rickman and others by
their Avritings, brought about the first indispensable condition
of such a revival ; they shoAved people what Gothic architec
ture really Avas, and that it was something very different
from what Horace Walpole had imagined it to be. The
younger Pugin, says a distinguished modern architect,
must be regarded as the real reviver of Gothic, and ' his best
AVork, notably St. Augustine's at Ramsgate, possesses more
of the essential elements of Gothic than much that has
been based on larger experience and fuUer knowledge.' '
The seed sown by Pugin fell upon ground that had been
well prepared ; or, to change the metaphor, his work was
but one symptom of the general revolutionary fever through
which the most active and eager minds were passing at the
moment. As has been said a thousand times, Ave have to
regard the Tractarian movement, the Romantic movement
in literature, and the Gothic movement in architecture as
' BasU Champneys, Art Journal, June 1887. N N 2

548 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
so many branches of the same tree, as the common results
of a discontent with stagnation, convention, and corruption,
and of a general desire to find in the history of a purer and
a simpler time a remedy for the evUs and imperfections of
the present. With the wider aspects of that movement Ave
are not here concerned. Let it suffice to say that in archi
tecture it had the plain and simple result of sending a
number of intelligent students back to the original autho
rities, of leading men to travel, to draw, and to investigate,
and, as a consequence, to substitute for the strange jumble
which passed for Gothic in the early years of the century
the learned and careful reproductions of Street and Gilbert
Scott.
Charles Evoii during the first half of the reign, however, Gothic
Barry. architecture did not have it all its own way. The leading
architect of the day, if Ave may give that title to Sir Charles
Barry, produced indeed his chief building, the neAV Houses
of Parliament, in a late and highly decorated Gothic style,
but his real genius lay much more in the direction of Italian
architecture. In 1882 he had built the Travellers' Club in
Pall Mall, which internally at least impressed both learned
and unlearned as an admirable and a beautiful building.
He repeated this success on various later occasions, his
masterpiece in this style being BridgeAvater House. But
though the Renaissance thus held its ground for public and
private palaces, no one after Pugin ventured to build a
church that did not express one or other type of Gothic. It
is scarcely necessary even to indicate the mass of work of
this kind that has marked the Queen's reign, a period
which has had no rival in modern times for its activity in
church building, and in which the various religious bodies
have seemed to strive against one another for this end.
The best known name in the architecture of the reign is
that of Sir Gilbert Scott, who, both as a builder of churches

ART 549
and as the official restorer of cathedrals, has left his mark GUbert
more Avidely than any other man. He was a learned
student of Gothic forms, but accuracy in him overpoAvered
originality. His original work has too much the air of a
copy of some type bequeathed by a far-off century, and
in his restorations he was deficient in that sense of
historical development which no man who has authority
over an ancient building ought to be without. The second
great Gothic architect of the reign Avas Mr. G. E. Street, street.
the designer of a multitude of churches and of those Law
Courts which are more satisfactory to lovers of the
picturesque than to the lawyers and suitors Avho have to
use them. Mr. Street, hoAvever, was a man of far more
versatile mmd than Sir Gilbert Scott, and, as his books
shoAv, his real interest lay rather Avith the Italian and
Spanish forms of Gothic than with the Northern forms ;
while Mr. Burges, one of the most inventive of modern
architects and designers, was as strongly influenced by
the forms of French Gothic. Among the distinguished
architects with Gothic predilections Avho are stiU working
amongst us, it may suffice to mention Mr. J. L. Pearson,
the architect of Truro Cathedral and of several churches in
London and elsewhere ; Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, the archi
tect of the Manchester Town Hall, of the Natural History
Museum, and of a very large number of other public
buildings ; Mr. Bodley, who has built the exquisite church
at I-Ioarcross, the new buildings at Magdalen College, Oxford,
and several other buildings of the highest excellence ; Mr.
Butterfield, the architect of Keble College, and of AU Saints,
Margaret Street ; and if late Jacobean is to be included, Mr.
T. G. Jackson, the buUder of the new Exammation Schools
at Oxford- Even in church architecture Gothic has thus by no
means remained at the point Avhere Sir GUbert Scott left

550 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
it. He and his immediate predecessors did an indispen
sable work ; they showed what were the principles on
Avhich the old architects had proceeded. But if Gothic Avas
to be naturalised again in this country, it was equally in
dispensable that it should not rest m the condition of a
mere echo or repetition of the past. The men Avhom we
have just named are among the chiefs of those who have
shoAvn that Gothic architecture, at least in ecclesiastical
and collegiate buildings, is capable of being developed and
Domestic adapted to the uses of modern England. StUl more re-
tecture. markable has been the development which recent years
have Avitnessed in domestic architecture. Here, too, the
Gothic revival had a powerful effect, and for many years,
and in many parts of the country, architects trained in the
school of Pugin, or of Mr. Ruskin, did their best to house
nineteenth-century English families in dwellings where the
Avindows and the gables were suggested by Chartres, or
Nuremberg, or Venice. The result Avas hardly satisfactory,
and it is as much to the inconvenience of ultra-Gothic
modern houses as to any other cause that we have to
attribute the despairing dulness of the ordinary domestic
toAvn architecture of thirty and tAventy years ago. People
saAV that it was impracticable to build modern streets after
the fashion of the thirteenth century, and they took refuge
in the sombre stupidity which is embodied in the streets of
South Kensington. It is said to have been Mr. PhUip
Webb who first showed what might be made out of a
combination of some Gothic elements with what has been
called the vernacular style of the early eighteenth century.
' He boldly adopted,' says Mr. Basil Champneys, ' tho
mode of fenestration of this style, which he endeavoured
to combine with Gothic construction and with a free and
picturesque character of gable and chimney.' Mr. Webb
is less known to the general public than another archi-

ART 551
tect of very original talent, Mr. Norman ShaAV, avIio
has done so much to make this admirable noAV architec
ture popular. Of Mr. Shaw's work it is enough to mention
several of the houses on the Chelsea Embankment, the
Albert Hall Mansions, and the offices of the Alliance In
surance Company at the bottom of St. James's Street. With
his name and Mr. Webb's may be grouped those of Mr.
Champneys, Mr. J. J. Stevenson (the author of a Avell-
known treatise on domestic architecture), and Mr. Ernest
George, Avho in different ways, and each with his own
individuality of manner, have combined to form a school
of domestic architecture interesting, convenient, and
beautiful. A volume would scarcely suffice to tell the story of the ' Biack
artists Avho have AVorked in what is called black and Avhite -wiiite.'
during these fifty years, whether as designers or as engravers
and etchers, or as both. Sir John Millais, in a recent speech
to the students of an art school, pointed to the excellence
and abundance of book illustration as one of the artistic
features of our day ; and he might fairly have extended his
observation to the Avorks in black and white that are
produced not for books, but for the decoration of the
house. Never has there been such an abundance of
good Avork done in those directions as is being done
at the present moment in England, in America, and in
France. This is not the same thing as saying that our best
men in all these departments are equal to the best men of
the past. We have admirable mezzotint engravers, but
none of them has yet quite equalled the masterpieces of
Dickinson and John Raphael Smith ; we have no longer
the briUiant school of line engraving which existed Avhen
Braudard and Willmore rendered the pictures of Turner
with such unrivaUed dehcacy of hand; we have etchers
without number, but hardly a Rembrandt or a HoUar. In

552 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
this, as in many other departments of art, Avhat distinguishes
this age above all others is the combination of good Avork-
manship and abundant quantity. Everybody seems to
want some kind of art work, and the supply is at hand for
everybody.
Book Tije list of distinguished artists who have illustrated
illusira- "
tion. books during the reign, or who have worked for that which
so much distinguishes our time, the illustrated press, is a
long one, and we must be content to mention bnt a few of
the names it contains. For some years after the Queen's
accession Turner continued to do occasional Avork for the
publishers ; such as his beautiful illustrations to Whitaker's
' History of Richmondshire,' for example. Where he led
others followed, and for a dozen years after 1887 it was
the fashion for publishers to illustrate ' Landscape Annuals '
and other works with steel engravings after artists good and
indifferent. But the book illustrations most Avorthy of
notice at this period are of a different kind ; they are the
illustrations which shoAved English art in an aspect for
which it has ever since Hogarth's day been celebrated.
Humorous design, passing sometimes into tragedy and
sometimes into farce, found its exponents in a whole series
of artists — George Cruikshank, Richard Doyle, Hablot
Browne, John Leech, Thackeray, and many more, down to
the men who continue to delight us week after Aveek and
cruik- Christmas after Christmas. Cruikshank Avas forty-five
shank. '^
years of age in 1887, and had been indefatigably Avorking
since his boyhood. To an earlier generation he had been
known as one of the most effective defenders of Queen
Caroline ; to the generation then living he was to become
stUl better known as the illustrator of ' Sketches by Boz,
'Oliver Twist,' of the 'Miser's Daughter,' and 'Old St.
Paul's.' Cruikshank has noAV taken his place, it AA'ould seem
permanently, among the British iUustrators of books Avhose

ART 553
Avork is prized for its OAvn sake, and ' Cruikshankiana ' have
become a recognised department of the collector's activity.
His independence of mind, his wealth of quaint fancy, his
poAver of realising the grim and terrible, have secured this
place for him, though his career Avas so long and his work
so superabundant that a distinction has to be draAvn betAveen
Avhat he did in his prime and what he did before and after.
Hablot BroAvne, Avho Avorked under the name of ' Phiz,' Avas 'puz.'
atone time Cruikshank' s rival in popularity; but though
we OAve to him the Ulustrations of a great number of the
Avorks of Dickens, including all but the early chapters of
' PickAvick,' regard for the creator of the types of Sam Weller
andMra. Gamp must not induce us to place ' Phiz' as an artist
higher than the second or thhd rank. A higher place is
claimed by the charming talent of Richard Doyle, ' Court Bichard
Painter to the Queen of the Fairies,' as he has been called.
He it was that designed the cover of Punch ; and in fanciful
iUustration of the sort, filled Avith the floating or dancing
forms of fairyland, his talent continued to the end to find
its happiest exercise. But during the first ten years of
Mr. Punch's career Doyle worked assiduously in another
direction, employing his ever- varying humour and his quick
pencil in delineating in his OAvn charming fashion the
' Manners and Customs of y® Englyshe,' Avhether in the
series of drawings so entitled or in other Avays. Sometimes
he consented to illustrate other people's books— Thackeray's
' Newcomes,' for example, and Ruskin's ' King of the Golden
River ' ; while, as Ave Avere reminded when his Avorks came
to be sold after his death, his hand was at other times
busy Avith exuberant inventions of his oAvn, Ulustrating
either the Avorld of men or the world of fairies. John
Leech Avas a few years older than Doyle, and for a consider- Leech.
able time Avas his colleague on the staff of Punch. There
for twenty-three years, from 1841 to the time of his death

554

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Calde- cott.

Living artists.

in 1864, he produced week after Aveek those delightful sketclies
of contemporary life, humorous, full of character, and based
upon the minutest observation, but always genial, kindly, and
pure, which gave him a place not only in the art history of
the time, but in the affections of his contemporaries. Of
other artists who have passed aAvay it is only necessary to
mention under this heading the names of Frederick Walker,
G. J. Pinwell, and Randolph Caldecott. Of the general
work and influence of Walker we have already spoken,
but Caldecott, who died at an early age in 1886, worked
almost entirely for the engraver, though the great im
provement recently made in colour-printing enabled him
to publish his charming designs in the colours in Avhich he
droAV them. His especial talent lay in restoring for us the
quainter elements of the England of our great-grandfathers,
especially of rural England, Avith its humours of the hall
and the hunting-field. These and cognate subjects Caldecott
droAv with the eye and hand of a thorough artist, and wilh
a genial sympathy with which no one was so richly endowed
as he. The activity of living artists in the illustration of books
and periodicals is unbounded. Sir John Millais, indeed, has
nOAV ceased to draw for the engraver, but tAventy-five or
thirty years ago he produced many drawings for Once a
Week, Good Words, some of the novels of TroUope, &c.,
Avhich, with the work of Frederick Walker, contributed not
a little to the general improvement of book illustration.
Punch continues to delight us weekly with the nobly draAvn
cartoons of Tenniel ; with the admirable, if sometimes too
elaborate, scenes from the pencils of Du Maurier, Avho has
established a unique position as the chronicler of the foibles
of ' society ; ' with the strong and masterly sketches of
Charles Keene, with the brUliantly fanciful vagaries of
Linley Sambourne, and Avith the rollicking fun of Harry

ART 555
Furniss. In other illustrated papers a Avhole school of
artists are at work, among Avhom tAvo of the most vigorous
are Mr. Caton Woodville and Mr. Frederick Barnard. Men
like Mr. EdAvin Abbey — a young American settled among
us — show by their monthly contributions to the magazines
Avhat a wealth of artistic ability is noAV lavished upon illus
tration ; and as Christmas comes round, the children, not
only of the United Kingdom, but of the Continent and of
America, are constantly delighted Avith the entrancing
quaintnesses of Miss Kate Greenaway and the classico-
medisBval fancies of Mr. Walter Crane.
If this is the state of the case with regard to the Engrav- ing.
draughtsmen and designers, much might also be said on the
subject of the engravers, and of the history of the various
methods of reproduction which have found favour Avith the
public during our time. While every kind of legitimate
engraving, using the word which includes etching, has
flourished at different periods of the Queen's reign, that
reign has been marked off from all previous ages by the
invention and development of the new art of photography.
To this Ave may return presently, but meantime a Avord
must be said about engraving in the more lawful sense of
the term. Fifty years ago the mode that was most in
favour Avas line encraving, as it was understood by the ,T^®
"^ ° ¦' line en-
great school of landscape engravers that had groAvn up gravers.
around Turner. Men like Pye, the two Brandards, Goodall,
Cousen, and Willmore — many of Avhom, strange to say,
learnt their exquisite art in the smoky atmosphere of Bir
mingham— had brought the manipulation of the burin and
the steel plate to a degree of perfection which had never
been Avitnessed before and Avhich probably wUl never be
witnessed again. They Avorked under Turner's eye in the
reproduction of his 'Rivers of France,' his 'England and
Wales,' his draAvings Avhich illustrated Scott and Rogers,

556

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Mezzotint.

Samuel
Cousins.

and the rest ; and in translating his Avater-colours, or his
oil-pictures in the case of the larger plates, they rivalled
the delicacy and the subtlety of the master himself. But
it Avas impossible, unfortunately, that such Avork should
long compete with broader and cheaper methods, and
Avith the death of Turner it may be said that the line en
graving of landscape almost disappeared. A foAV engravers,
hoAvever, continued to work in line in the reproduction of
subject pictures, especially George Doo, Avho lately died at
a great age, and Lumb Stocks, his fellow- Academician,
Avho still lives among us. Few of the Avorks of this last
class can be said to rival the productions of foreign
engravers, such as Raphael Morghen and Desnoyers ; but
an Englishman expects better things when he turns to
his countrymen's productions in mezzotint. Unfortunately,
during the greater part of the reign, and in fact until
Avithin the last year or two, much of what has passed
under this name has not been legitimate mezzotint at all,
but a composite kind ; and the rest, being printed from
steel and not from copper, has been Avithout the beau
tiful softness which characterises the works of the great
English masters of the last century. The most distinguished
AVorker in this field, the veteran Samuel Cousins, only died
the other day at the great age of eighty-six, having continued
almost to the date of his death a career of active Avork Avhich
began when he was a boy of thirteen. Cousins's finest plates
date from long before the Queen's accession, but there is still
a great demand for proofs of his many Avorks after Land
seer, and of those interesting productions of his old age
Avhich, beginning with ' The StraAvberry Girl,' did so much
to foster the revived passion for the Avorks of Sir Joshua.
Very recently a few young men have risen among us with
the poAver and the will to work the old mezzotint method
, exactly in the manner in Avhich it Avas Avorked a century ago.

ART 557
They have found here and there a publisher Avho does not
shrink before the prospect of limiting the issue of a plate,
and by Avorking on the copper according to the plan of the
Watsons and Valentine Green they are beginning to produce
engravings Avhich Avill bear comparison Avith those of the old
engravers. But the most remarkable feature of the time Avith Eevivaiof
regard to the development of Avhat are commonly called the etching.
graphic arts is undoubtedly the recent revival of etching.
Even thirty years ago this beautiful art can hardly be said
to have existed in England. Noav the print-shops are full
of its productions ; there is a Avhole flourishing society of
painter-etchers — that is to say, of etchers who invent their
OAvn subjects ; Avhile of the men who use the etching-needle
to reproduce the compositions of others, the name is legion.
The causes of this change are manifold, but a feAv may be
specially mentioned. The publications of the Etching Club
from 1844 onwards interested only a small class, and
cannot be said to have contributed much to the popularity
of etching. It was in France that the revival had its
origin, expressing itself first in the admiration felt by artists
for the genius of Charles Meryon. The etchers who may
be said to have first transplanted the neAA'ly revived art in
its most admirable form to English ground Avere Mr.
Seymour Haden and Mr. Whistler, the former of whom
issued a series of plates in 1866 ; and then came Mr.
Hamerton's book ' Etching and Etchers,' and the founding
of the periodical called The Portfolio. These two publica
tions did much to introduce to the notice of English amateurs
the works of the new school of French aquaf artistes, and to
stimulate the efforts of English artists in the same direc
tion. In a short time the names of Rajon, Bracquemond,
and Waltner, of Chauvel and Brunet-Debaines, took in the
estimation of English coUectors the place of Toschi and
Desnoyers ; and all the young English artists began to etch.

5s8 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
For original work we have nothing that has surpasssed the
achievements of the two men named above ; but in the
department of etching, which is occupied with the transla
tion of pictures into black and white, the primacy, as far
as this country is concerned, seems to have been secured
by Mr. R. W. Macbeth. His large plates after the works
of Frederick Walker, Mason, and Pinwell have met with
very great success, and have had the indirect effect of
renewing and perpetuating the influence exercised by that
interesting group of painters.
Bhoto- It remains to say something about the effect of photo-
and art. graphy upon art. There are indeed other aspects in Avhich
the bearings of the new discovery have been of the greatest
importance ; for on the social side photography has done
much to preserve the sense of kinship among the scattered
members of English families all over the world ; and on
the scientific side it has done much, and is annually doing
more, in the way of recording phenomena that are some
times invisible to the human eye. It has had, moreover, a
special bearing upon art. At first, when in the year 1889
Daguerre introduced the daguerrotype, and Fox Talbot the
chloride of silver process, the modern developments of
photography were as little suspected as those infant pro
cesses themselves had been expected twenty years before.
Now by successive improvements the methods of photo
graphy itself have reached the most marvellous perfection ;
and, as one consequence, miniature painting is almost a
lost art among us. But what is most interesting to us at
the present moment is the series of adaptations of photo
graphy that have lately been made for the purpose of repro
ducing works of art. It would require a technical treatise
to explain the various methods in which photography is
now pressed into this service— methods the very names of
which are a terror to all who value some kind of purity in
language. Albertype, heliotype, collotype, photoglpytic,

ART 559
stannotype — these are various titles under Avhich some of
the processes for combining photography Avith engraving
are noAV knoAvn, Avhile autotype is a term now appropriated
to the system of carbon-printing, which in the hands of the
Autotype Company has become so popular. The others
may be generally described as methods by Avhich a gelatine
plate Avith the picture photographed upon it is made to
take the place of an ordinary lithographic plate ; and from
this mere description it may be guessed hoAV greatly the
work of reproducing pictures is cheapened by such a method.
More difficult and costly is the process known as photo
gravure, cheaper forms of Avhich are now coming into use
under the names of klicotype, photo-aquatint, &c. Photo
gravure is a process partly mechanical ; but in it, after
the photographer has done his Avork, the aid of the skilled
engraver has to be called in, and the plate to be worked
upon by a careful hand. It is after this last process has
been gone through that those Avonderful photogravures
are produced which have of late years been so seriously
threatening the existence of the mezzotint engraver.
At the begmning of this chapter we hesitated to say General
whether the record of the art of fifty years was a record of advance.
progress or not. It can hardly, hoAvever, be seriously
doubted that the advance has been a real one ; that the
popular understanding of art is at least somewhat greater
than it was ; that our artists knoAV more and do better than
their fathers before them. Each senior Academician will
confess that AVork Avhich in his youth would have won a
medal at the Academy Schools Avill not now do much more
than secure admission for a student. Each of the public
exhibitions Avhich, not only in the month of May but all
the year through, abound in London, displays a quantity of
Avork Avhich at least shoAvs that those who have produced it
have learnt their grammar; and the foreigner who now enters

56o THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
an English gallery is not perpetually shocked by those
solecisms in drawing and composition Avliich made him
wonder a generation or tAvo ago whether art could ever
exist in England outside the Avorks of one or tAvo men of
genius. Our portrait-painters are the equals of any in
Europe ; nay, it would be difficult to find, even among the
great portraits of the past, any that have for vigour and
veracity surpassed the best Avorks of Millais and HoU. For
the rest, we cultivate — as is our national wont — a score of
styles ; we decline to be bound by one set of traditions, or
to be moved by any single influence, and the same gallery
AA'hich contains the dramas of Orchardson and the brilliant
technique of Alma Tadema contains also the noble visions of
Watts, and those shining illustrations of a world that is
not ours by which Mr. Burne-Jones has conquered the
admiration of his age. We have never had sculptors so
many or so good as now. We have never shown such a
combination of originality and learning in architecture. In
the lesser arts of life— though these, in proportion as they
depend on the favour of the many, are especially liable to
the national vice of A'ulgarity — the progress that the last
half-century has seen has been simply astonishing, and the
mode of house-decoration Avhich twenty years ago Avould
have marked a man out as affected and eccentric is noAV re
cognised, by the public that claims to be educated, as the
expression of a rational taste. In a word, art has kept pace
Avith the growth of knowledge. Upon the literature of art in
aU its forms immense research has been expended, and,
by means of exhibitions and the popular press, Avhat Avas
formerly only known to a few experts or not known at
all is now so accessible ' that he may run that readeth.'
If art ever had a chance in the history of the world, it has
it now. We cannot call genius into existence, but at least
it may be said that, whenever artistic genius chances to
arise in modern England, it Avill find its fit environment.

56i

THE DRAMA.
When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1887 the Patent
Enghsh stage was still subject to the monopolies established and* ^^^
at the Eestoration. The Patent Theatres, Drury Lane and h^useJ'
Covent Garden, asserted the sole right to perform Avhat was ^'^ ^^^'^'
called the legitimate drama, though the Haymarket shared
this privilege during the summer months. As a matter of
fact, the monopoly did not rest upon the patents granted to
KilligreAV and Davenant at the Restoration, but rather upon
the Lord Chamberlain's habit of enforcing, under Walpole's
Act of 1737, the long prescription enjoyed by the old
theatres. Walpole's Act gave his lordship the right to
license playhouses Avithin the liberties of Westminster, and
under it he licensed the Haymarket for ' the legitimate,' the
Lyceum and the St. James's for musical performances, and
the Olympic and Adelphi for ' burlettas,' defined (by any
one rash enough to attempt a definition) as plays containing
' not less than five pieces of vocal music in each act.' All
other metropolitan theatres were actually illegal. The local
magistrates could grant only music and dancing licenses,
which might cover ballets, pantomimes, and equestrian per
formances, but could not possibly extend to dramatic repre
sentations. Accordingly, Astley's, the Surrey, the Victoria luegai
(formerly the Coburg), Sadler's WeUs, the Queen's Theatre *'^«^*^«s.
in Tottenham Street, and the City of London, the Pavihon,
and the Garrick Theatres in the East End, aU existed on
VOL. II. 0 0

562

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

6&7
¦A^-iot. cap. 68.

Population and
play houses- then and
now.

sufferance, and adopted absurd subterfuges— such as keeping
a piano tinkling throughout every performance — in the
attempt to legalise their position. I should add that the
Strand Theatre, within the Lord Chamberlain's domain, was
carried on in flagrant defiance of his authority. During
the ten years between 1880 and 1840, the injustice of this
chaotic state of matters was rapidly becoming unbearable.
The Patent Theatres played the dog in the manger, suffer
ing the legitimate drama to moulder on the shelf while they
relied upon melodramas and 'tame wild beasts,' yet loudly
asserting their privileges whenever the minor houses
attempted to trespass on the legitimate domain. ' At
present,' writes P. G. Tomlins in 1840, ' three theatres alone
can perform any of the productions of our fine regular
drama, while the Avhole sixteen may perform Jack Sheppard.'
A Parliamentary committee which sat in 1832 probed these
absurdities to the bottom, and reported strongly against
the monopoly system; but theatrical free trade was not
established until 1843, by an Act which at the same time
gave to the Lord Chamberlain the power of licensing
theatres practically throughout the metropolitan district,
and unfortunately confirmed the right of censorship vested
in him by Walpole's Act. It is by this Act, to all intents
and pm-poses, that the theatres are to this day governed.
We thus find that in or about 1887 London, Avith a
population of less than 2,000,000, possessed sixteen theatres,
or seventeen if we count the Italian Opera House. In 1887
the population and the theatres are both approximately
doubled in number. It should be added that a swarm of
large and showy music-haUs— the flaunting offspring of the
humble ' cider- cellars ' and ' coal-holes ' of fifty years ago —
noAV compete actively with the theatres, while classical and
other concerts enjoy a vogue at that time undreamt of. In
spite of all this competition, hoAvever, there can be no doubt

THE DRAMA 563
that the stage is to-day far more prosperous, financially
speaking, than it Avas at the commencement of her Majesty's
reign. Large fortunes are now made both by managers
and actors ; then, popular actors who had studiously
refrained from dabbling in management would occasion
ally retire on a competence, but management was almost
always disastrous. The Patent Theatres ruined lessee after
lessee, and the minor houses, though they now and then
enjoyed spells of good fortune, were seldom largely or con
tinuously remunerative. Financially, then, free trade has
more than justified itself; in other respects it has not,
perhaps, Avorked all the wonders predicted by its cham
pions. So much for the legal status of the stage at the com
mencement of our period ; let us now look more closely into
its artistic condition.
In 1887 the Age of the Kembles had come to an end. Actors :
The by-
and the reign of Macready was at its height. TAventy-five gone
years had passed since Mrs. Siddons's retirement from fiTouT*'
the stage ; twenty since John Philip Kemble's. It was
five years since Charles Young's last appearance ; and
four since Edmund Kean, a pitiable wreck, had broken
doAvn at the phrase ' Othello's occupation's gone,' and had
been led off the stage by his son Charles, then struggling into
repute. Charles Kemble, youngest of the great family —
an excellent Romeo, Mark Antony, and Faulconbridge —
bade farewell to the stage in 1836, only a few months before
the Queen's accession. Of the comedians, Munden, with
his ' wonder-working face,' retired in 1824 ; the versatUe and
irrepressible EUiston died in 1831 ; the elder Mathews died
in 1835 ; AvhUe Liston, the incomparable, remained on the The
stage untU weU on in 1887. At the head of his profession, i^g"^^
as I have said, stood WUham Charles Macready. He first ^^^^ :
Tra-
appeared in London in 1816, the year before John Kemblc's sediaus.
0 o 2

564 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
retirement. Charles Kemble then remarked of him, ' That
young man will be a great actor one of these days ; ' where
upon the great John Philip replied ' Con quel viso, Charles ! '
His visage was not the only difficulty with which he had to
contend, and it was by sheer doggedness that he conquered
his position. His method was eclectic, combining Kemble's
long-drawn declamatory thunder with Kean's flashes of
lightning. He redeemed his physical defects and mannerism
by his great power, his irresistible tenderness, anda cultivated
intelligence such as no other English actor, not even
Garrick, has possessed. When the Queen came to the
throne, he was planning his first managerial campaign at
Covent Garden, which commenced in the autumn. Charles
Kean was at this time in the provinces, gathering strength
for a new and successful advance upon London in the follow
ing year. Next to Macready among ' legitimate ' actors, but
at a long distance, stood John Vandenhoff, James Wallack,
and E. W. Elton. James Anderson made his first London
appearance in 1836, Samuel Phelps in 1887. Early in
1836 Helen Faucit had sprung at one bound into fame, and
now shared with Fanny Kemble, Ellen Tree, and Mrs.
Warner the first position among serious actresses. Mrs.
Come- Glover and Mrs. Nisbett were at the height of their reputa
tion. Mrs. Stirhng had been four years on the stage, and was
rapidly rising into note. Among the most popular come
dians of the day were Mr. and Mrs. Keeley ; Mr. and Mrs.
Yates ; Madame Vestris, who had passed the middle of her
career, and Charles Mathews, whose life as an actor had
barely commenced ; Dowton, great as Sir Anthony and Dr.
CantweU ; the low comedians Wright and Reeve, and the
buffoon Paul Bedford ; Benjamin Webster and Buckstone,
both newly risen into fame ; T. P. Cooke, the British Tar of
the popular ideal ; and the Irish actor, Tyrone Power, idolised
but ill-starred. The depression of the drama was clearly

dians.

THE DRAMA 565
not to be attributed to any lack of individual talent in its
interpreters. Dramatic literature, on the other hand, was at a low Dramatic literature
ebb. The ghost of the romantic drama stalked the stage, in i837.
decked out in threadbare frippery, and gibbering blank verse.
No one had as yet reflected that though Shakespeare might
be for all time, his forms and methods were evolved to suit
the needs of an age quite different from ours. His marvel
lous vitality induced in actors a declamatory habit, and led
the public to conceive an archaic and inflated jargon the
necessary mark of serious drama. Whatever was least
essential to Shakespeare's greatness was conscientiously
imitated ; his ease and flexibility of diction, his subtle
characterisation, and his occasional mastery of construction
were all ignored. Laboured rhetoric, whether serious or
comic, was held to be the only ' legitimate ' form of dramatic
utterance. This was literature — all else was mere melo
drama and farce.
Sheridan Knowles was the Shakespeare of 1837- Poetioplay-
Virginius had made him famous in 1820, and The Hunch- wrights.
hack, in 1832, had placed him on the summit of popularity.
Copious rhetoric, artificial but theatrically-telling humour,
and a fine fluency of execrable verse, were the qualities
which gained him his repute. He wrote worse at some
times than at others, but I knoAV of no scene in his sixteen
plays that shows either dramatic inspiration or literary
grace. A worthy follower of Knowles was G. W. Lovell,
whose first play. The Provost of Bruges, was produced by
Macready in 1836. His vigorous drama Love's Sacrifice
still holds the provincial stage. In 1836, too, Talfourd
and Bulwer made their maiden essays — Ion, and the un
successful Duchesse de la VaUiere. Talfourd had poetic
feeling and moral elevation, but his style Avas over ornate,
and his construction feeble. He never repeated the unlooked-

566 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
for success of Ion. Bulwer, by far the most modern play
wright of his day and class, knew the value of action and
situation. Had he known the value of sincerity in senti
ment and sobriety in diction, his plays might have lived,
not only on the stage, but in literature. The production of
Strafford a few weeks before the Queen's accession placed
' Robert BroAvning, writer of plays,' on the list of stage poets.
His neglect of action, his contempt for theatrical effect, and
his excessive nimbleness of thought, with its concomitant
jerkiness of elliptical expression, rendered it clear to
Macready, as it must be to everyone who realises the
unalterable conditions of the theatre, that his plays, Avith
all their merits, could never be popular. The three which
found their way to the stage seem all to have produced the
same effect — interesting the few, bewildering the many. Of
all the poetical plays of this period, Leigh Hunt's Legend
of Florence is probably that in which dramatic and
literary qualities are most happily blent. The character of
Agolanti is drawn with a subtlety not unworthy of Browning ;
and the design of the piece, though it lacks vigour, is clear
and graceful. Gerald Griffin's posthumous play Gisippus
is the crude work of a young man, but shows power which
culture might have developed. R. Zouch Troughton's Nina
Sforza, on the other hand, lacks both power and skill.
Westland Marston, whose career began in 1842 with The
Patrician's Daughter, a work of unsound and inflated style,
in time threw off the worst faults of the bombastic school,
and might be called the Ponsard of his period were there any
Victor Hugo to oppose to him. The unacted and unactable
dramatists, who published their five-act tragedies with pre
faces railing against the monopolist managers, are too
numerous and insignificant to be mentioned. Henry Taylor,
Avho published Isaac Comnenus in 1827, and the noble
Philip van Artevelde in 1834> held wisely aloof from the

THE DRAMA 567
stage. Repose and distinction, not fire and energy, were
his chief qualities, Avhich were mhrored in his refined but
rather sluggish verse. When Macready, toAvards the close
of his career, placed a mutUated version of the first part of
Philip van Artevelde on the stage, the experiment proved
a failure. The dramatist who, amid all the pseudo-
Shakespeareans, possessed by far the largest share of the
true Elizabethan spirit, did not make his way to the stage
at all. I mean E. H. Home, whose Cosmo de' Medici belongs
to 1837, and his Death of Marloive to the following year.
The lower drama (so-called) was less dull than the The
higher, but its literary merit was not great. Eight years drama.
had passed, in 1887, since Douglas Jerrold's Black Eye'd
Susa7i set the fashion of nautical melodrama, which was
still being busily purveyed for the minor houses. Jerrold
himself Avas turning out light pieces by the dozen, full of
Avitty dialogue, but slight in motive and conventional in
structure. Planche had already written for Madame Vestris
and others several of his graceful and witty extravaganzas,
which are to their successors as Tenniels to Rowlandsons.
He was also busily producing little comedies and dramas,
for the most part, like himself, of French ancestry. Stirling
Coyne, Maddison Morton, Charles Mathews, and John
Oxenford were writing and adapting comedies, comediettas
and farces by the score ; while Buckstone, Bayle Bernard,
and Fitzball dealt largely in melodramas as well. The
prices of these productions ranged from 21. or 3L to
60Z. or 701. Buckstone, who was certainly as Avell paid
as any writer of his class, seems never to have received
more than 101. for a three-act drama. It should be noted,
too, that, until the Dramatic Authors Act of 1833, stage-
right had no statutory protection, and that, even after the
passing of that Act, little was to be got out of the country
theatres, now so rich a source of revenue.

568

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Three
periods.

The Queen's reign may conveniently be divided into
three periods : the Macready period, from 1837 to 1851 ;
the Kean and Phelps period, from 1851 to 1865 ; and the
modern, or Bancroft and Irving period, from 1865 to 1887.
In the first of these periods the rhetorical drama, at
which we have just been glancing, was still predominant ;
in the second, we had fallen more completely under the
sway of France, and Tom Taylor and Dion Boucicault Avere
our Scribe and D'Ennery ; in the third, some of us venture
to hope that we are gradually shaking off this foreign
dominion, having profited in the meantime by the lessons
it has taught us.

Firstperiod,
1837-51.

Mac-ready at
Ccvent
Garden,

Macready's management at Covent Garden commenced
September 30, 1887, and lasted untU July 16, 1889. His
company included Phelps, Vandenhoff, Anderson, Elton,
G. Bennett, Meadows, and Bartley ; Helen Faucit, Mrs.
Warner, Mrs. Glover, and Priscilla Horton. In his two
seasons he produced A Winter's Tale, Hamlet, Macbeth,
Otiiello, Lear, Coriolanus, Romeo and Juliet (playing Friar
Laurence), As You Like It (playing Jaques), Jidius Ccesar,
Henry V., Henry VIII., Cymbeline, and The Tempest.
The principal non- Shakespearean productions were : The
Bridal (a version oi The Maid's Tragedy), Venice Preserved,
Werner, The Two Foscari, Virginius, William Tell, The
Hunchback, and Ion. In the first season two new plays
met with great success : Knowles's Woman's Wit, and
Bulwer's Lady of Lyons, which Avas produced without the
author's name. It was acted thirty-three times during the
first season, and twenty-nine times during the second, when
its popularity was, if possible, surpassed by that of the
same author's Richelieu. Most of the Shakespearean plays
were ' revived ' — a term ridiculed as pretentious by Mac
ready's detractors — with an elaboration of scenery and

THE DRAMA 569
costumes which Buhver described as ' at once gorgeous and
severe.' Some of the ' revivals ' were highly successful. The
Tempest, for instance, Avas played fifty-five times, to an
average receipt of 230L' a night. An influential chque
of literary friends, including Bulwer, Talfourd, BroAvning,
Dickens, and Forster gave Macready the heartiest support.
Buhver made him a free gift of The Lady of Lyons, and
Stanfield, who painted a panorama for one of his panto
mimes, returned half of the 300Z. sent him in payment.
Yet, with all this help, and with little effective opposition at
Drury Lane, the undertaking resulted in loss, due mainly
to the exorbitant rent demanded for the theatre. Macready's
disappointment was solaced by a banquet, at which the
Duke of Sussex presided, and Bulwer, Monckton Milnes,
Dickens, Forster, and Lalor Shell Avere present. Tavo ^nd at
years later Macready was again tempted into manage- ^^J
ment, this time at Drury Lane, Avhich he opened Decem
ber 27, 1841. He 'protected' the auditorium from the ' im
proper intrusion' which had hitherto been a scandal to
public decency, and on the stage he pursued the liberal
tactics by which he had earned respect at Covent Garden.
His company was much the same as before, with the addi
tion of the Keeleys, Compton, Ryder, Mrs. Nisbett, and
Mrs. Stirling. Again he managed to carry on for two
seasons, and no more. He produced with special care. The
Mercliant of Venice, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You
Like It, Mu£h Ado, and King John, besides going through
his usual repertory. His successful novelties were, Gerald
Griffin's Gisippus, and Westland Marston's first play. The
Patrician's Daughter. KnoAvles's Secretary and Browning's
Blot in the 'Scutcheon were unsuccessful novelties, and a
' The prices were : Boxes, 5s. ; pit, 2s. M. ; lower gallery, is. 6i. ; upper
gallery, Is.

570

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

AW-ebster at the
Haymarket.

careful revival of Marino Faliero produced little effect.'
Despite some languid patronage from the Court, Macready
found it impossible to ' bring the fashion ' to the theatre,
and his audiences, though sympathetic, were not numerous
enough to enable him to bear the heavy burdens imposed
on him. He retired from management June 14, 1843,
making his last bow amid ' mad acclaim.' His comment
in his diary is, ' I could have wept to think of all these
efforts and expenditure come to nothing.'
Benjamin Webster's management at the Haymarket
commenced June 12, 1887, some ten weeks before Mac
ready's at Covent Garden. Macready himself was Webster's
first star, and his second was Phelps, Avho made his first
appearance in London, August 28, in the part of Shylock.
The great success of the season was Knowles's Love Chase,
in Avhich Strickland, Elton and Webster, Mrs. Glover and
Mrs. Nisbett took part. During the four following seasons
— the Haymarket was still a summer theatre — Macready
¦was the chief attraction, seconded, as a rule, by Miss
Faucit, Mrs. Warner, Mrs. Glover and Phelps. Talfourd's
Athenian Captive was the novelty of 1838 ; Bulwer's Sea
Captain succeeded, in spite of ridicule, in 1839 ; in 1840
Talfourd's Glencoe and Bulwer's Money were produced ; and
in 1841 Troughton's Nina Sforza. Money was incompar
ably the greatest success of this period. Macready's Alfred
Evelyn was ' amazingly bright and telling, the forced gaiety
being as natural to the man as appropriate to the character.'
Helen Faucit played Clara Douglas ; Priscilla Horton,
Georgina Vesey ; Mrs. Glover, Lady Franklin ; Webster,
Graves ; Walter Lacy, Sir Frederick Blount ; Wrench, Dudley

' Whole operas, such as La Sonnambula and Der FreyschUtz, were
presented as after-pieces. Acis and Galatea and Comus were put on with
great elaboration, and many farces and light comedies (such as Jerrold's
Prisoner of War) were produced.

THE DRAMA 571
Smooth ; and David Rees (a fine comedian, Avho died early)
made a great impression as Stout. D'Orsay superintended
the dresses, Charles Mathews having set the fashion of
punctiliousness in modern costume on the stage. Charles
Kean and EUen Tree, who in 1842 became his wife, played
several engagements under Webster's management, with
varying fortune. Their chief successes were in KnoAvles's
Rose of Arragon (1842), LoveU's Wife's Secret (1848), and
Westland Marston's Strathmore (1849). Madame Vestris
and Charles Mathews, in the interval between their Covent
Garden and their Lyceum managements, appeared fre
quently at the Haymarket. It was here that they produced
Used Up and Jerrold's Time Works Wonders. Planche, too,
was for several seasons attached to the theatre, producing,
among other things. The Golden Fleece, with Madame
Vestris as Medea and Mathews as the Chorus ; an adaptation
of The Birds of Aristophanes; and a most successful
arrangement of The Taming of the Shrew, after the manner
of the Elizabethan stage, with Strickland as Christopher
Sly, Mrs. Nisbett as Katharina, Webster as Petruchio, and
Buckstone as Grumio. For the rest, the theatre subsisted
largely upon Buckstonian farces and comic dramas, most
of them freely borrowed from the French, and upon
revivals of English classic comedy. The bill was often
inordinately long, two five-act comedies, or a farce, a
tragedy, and a three-act comedy, being quite a moderate
evening's entertainment. When Mr. J. L. Toole made his
first appearance (July 22, 1852) the performance was
not over untU two in the morning. This year was further
notable for the first appearance of Mr. Barry Sullivan (as
Hamlet), and the production of Masks and Faces, by Charles
Reade and Tom Taylor, in which Webster played Triplet,
and Mrs. Stirling Peg Woffington. In the following year
(March 14, 1853) Webster's management came to an end,

572 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
and Buckstone reigned in his stead. In his farewell speech
Webster stated that, in the sixteen years of his management,
he had paid to authors nearly 80,000L — by no means a
large sum according to the present scale of dramatic values.
Mathe-ws On Macready's retirement from Covent Garden in 1839,
Vestris Madame Vestris and ¦ her husband, Charles MatheAvs, were
oVmpio tempted away from the little Olympic where, since 1831,
' the genius of gentility had presided.' ' Madame ' was the
first manageress on the English stage, and under her reign,
says F. G. Tomlins, ' one-act farces, satirising solecisms in
gentility and violations of elegance ; two-act vaudevilles,
with French sentiment and Spanish intrigue ; mythological
and semi-poetical pieces [by Planche], adapted to the display
of voluptuous forms and captivating action, were the stock
at Covent productions.' At Covent Garden more solid elements were
^^' necessarily added to this bill of fare. Shakespearean
comedy was a favourite dish. The management opened,
September 30, 1839, with Love's Labour's Lost ; and, in the
course of its three seasons, the Merry Wives was acted forty-
five times, A Midsummer Night's Dream, sixty times, while
other classic comedies, from Shakespeare to Sheridan, were
frequently performed. Of new plays the most noteworthy
were Leigh Hunt's Legend of Florence, a success of esteem ;
Knowles's Love, a great success ; and, greatest success of all,
the first work of a young writer named Mr. Dion Bouci
cault, the now famous London Assurance. Planche, faithful
to the Vestris standard, acted as ' Superintendent of the
Decorative Department,' and produced several bright
extravaganzas ; while light pieces of the Olympic school, new
and old, French and English, were always in the biU. The
result is thus summed up by Mathews : ' The first season
was — sowing ; the second — hoeing ; the third — owing ; '
or, in other words, bankruptcy, with debts to the amount of
80,000L Nothing daunted, however, the buoyant pair soon

THE DRAMA 573
made another venture. They took the Lyceum, hitherto and at
an ill-starred house, and from October 18, 1847, until March Lyceum.
24, 1855, they carried on the management, battling with
ever-increasing difficulties. They relied chiefly upon light
pieces freely adapted from the French, often by Mathewshim-
self. G. H. Lewes's Game of Speculation (Mcj-cadet) may
stand as an example of .their more serious efforts, whUe 5oa;
and Cox remains an immortal type of the farce of the period.
Planche's extravaganzas, too, with William Beverley's
scenery, were very popular ; but nothing availed to stem
the tide of disaster. Mathews again became bankrupt, and
the death of his wife — ' the best actress that ever sang, and
decidedly the best singer that ever acted ' — foUoAved a year
later. The Adelphi, during the opening years of the Queen's The
reign, was under the management of Frederick Yates, ' the
English Lemaitre,' who placed his chief reliance upon hot-
and-hot adaptations of Dickens's novels, then in the first
flush of popularity ; upon Irish drama, with Tyrone Power ;
nautical drama, with T. P. Cooke ; and melodramas and
farces of the Buckstonian type, of which Jack Sheppard was
one of the most famous. Yates himself, his wife, Mrs. Keeley,
0. Smith, Wright, Paul Bedford, and, occasionally, Buck
stone were the leading members of the company. On her
husband's death in 1842, Mrs. Yates assumed the manage
ment, until, in 1844, Webster became lessee, and Madame
Celeste, 'the gazelle-eyed Celeste,' queen of melodrama, acted
as ' directress.' She continued the Yates policy with success,
Buckstone's Green Bushes and Flowers of the Forest, and
Webster's Belphegor being legendary triumphs of her reign.
On Webster's retirement from the Haymarket in 1858 he
joined Madame Celeste at the Adelphi, of which he retained
the management for over twenty years.
The Princess's Theatre, first opened with promenade

574 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
The concerts in 1840, Avas devoted to dramatic performances,
fe"s's. under the management of J. M. Maddox, from December,
1842, onwards. Opera and burlesque were at first the
staple fare, but between 1844 and 1850 Macready, James
WaUack, Edwin Forrest, Miss Cushman, MatheAvs and
Madame Vestris, Mrs. Stirling, Fanny Kemble (Mrs. Butler),
CresAvick, Mrs. Warner, Compton, and Oxberry appeared
from time to time on its boards. Here Macready, in 1846,
produced Avith some success The King of the Commons, by
the Rev. James White, and in the following year the arrange
ment of Philip van Artevelde mentioned above. Maddox
was a man of small talent for management, and in 1850 he
transferred the theatre to Charles Kean, whose management
forms the leading feature of our next period.
Mac- But we have yet to take leave of Macready. So early as
retire'-^ 1849 he Commenced a desultory series of farcAvell perform-
ment. ancos at the Haymarket, where he last appeared as King
Lear, February 3, 1851. Drury Lane, however, AA'as
naturally chosen as the scene of his final farewell. Since
he left it, in 1848, the great theatre had undergone the
management of Bunn and of M. JuUien, the promenade-
concert impresario, who excited a storm of patriotic indigna
tion by venturing to introduce a French company in Monte-
Cristo. It had now passed into the hands of James
Anderson. At Drury Lane, then, on February 26, 1851,
Macready made his last appearance on the stage, playing
Macbeth, as he tells us, with ' a reality, a vigour, a truth,
a dignity,' he never before attained. His parting address
was brief and dignified, and the fervour of the crowded
theatre was intense. He was probably right in saying that
up to that time * no actor had ever received such testimony
of respect and regard in this country.' The inevitable
public dinner foUowed, Sir E. L. Buhver in the chair ; and
then the strenuous, thoughtful, and richly-endowed actor,

THE DRAMA 575
the morose and self-torturing, but upright and Avarm-hearted
man, Avithdrew into the privacy in which the remaining
twenty-tAvo years of his life Avere spent.
To trace the history of our second period Ave must go second
back some way into our first. No sooner had free trade 185.-65.
in the drama been established by the Act of 1848, than
Samuel Phelps and Mrs. Warner determined to shake off
' the yoke of inauspicious stars ' at the Patent Theatres, and
establish a playhouse of their OAvn. They chose Sadler's Pheips at
Wells, an old suburban theatre Avhich had fallen into sad -weiis.
disrepute, as the scene of their operations. Securing an
active business partner in T. L. Greenwood, they opened
their campaign. May 27, 1844, Avith Macbeth. It is said
that they originally intended to rely upon melodrama, and
that Shakespeare was a mere afterthought. Be this as it
may, he proved the right man in the right place, and for
eighteen consecutive seasons the standard of ' the legitimate
drama ' waved over merry Islington. In 1846, Mrs. Warner
retired from the management, and GreenAvood in 1860;
but untU March 15, 1862, Phelps maintained this most
gallant battle in English theatrical history, indomitably
snatching success out of the very jaws of failure. In these
eighteen seasons he i^roduced thirty-one out of the thirty-
seven plays of Shakespeare. The omitted six Avere Titus
Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida, Richard II., and the three
parts of Henry VI. Shakespeare's text Avas in all cases
freed from eighteenth-century improvements, a purgation
which even Macready had left very incomplete. All the
plays were acted and mounted with care and completeness,
and the taste and ingenuity displayed in the staging of such
difficult Avorks as A Midsummer Night's Dream and Pericles
wrung praise even from grudging critics. Not only Shake
speare, but Webster, Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger,

576 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Otway, Macklin, Goldsmith, Sheridan, and many other
classic playwrights found a place in the repertory ; while of
the moderns, Milman, Shell, Knowles, Talfourd, Leigh
Hunt, Bulwer, Browning, W^estland Marston, James White,
and Tom Taylor, all had their turn. Louis XI. was the
only adaptation from the French admitted to the Islington
stage, unless we refer The Fool's Revenge to Victor Hugo
rather than to Tom Taylor. In most of these. plays Phelps
himself took the leading part. He was at his best in
characters which demanded humour or intensity rather
than physical grace. In these he was masterly, in all he
was competent. He humanised and educated his sub
urban audiences, and he earned the respect of all inteUigent
men.
Charles It -was Sometimes asked Avhy Phelps did not remove to
!Kean at
the a West-end theatre, and there repeat his experiment under
ee"?s. happier auspices. His own explanation was that he feared
failure, and felt no disposition to ' act off the stage ' as well
as on. The field was thus left free for Charles Kean, who
opened the Princess's with Twelfth Night, September 28,
1850. During the first season Keeley was his partner, but
from 1851 until he gave up management, August 29, 1859,
Kean reigned alone. His Shakespearean productions were
— Twelfth Night, Hamlet, As You Like It, The Merchant of
Venice, Henry IV. (pt. i.), The Merry Wives, King John,
Macbeth, Richard III. (Gibber's text), Henry VIII., A
Winter' s Tale, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard II.,
The Tempest, King Lear, Much Ado, and Henry V. All of
these were carefully, and some very gorgeously, placed upon
the stage, the more important productions being elucidated
by an archaeological ' fly-leaf ' issued with the programmes.
Kean, says Mr. Godfrey Turner, had this advantage over
Macready, that he came to power just when the pre-
Raphaelite movement was making itself felt, and when the

THE DRAMA 577
' false, mannered, lifeless presentments draAvm by Maclise
from the masquerade Avarehouse were being swept from
recollection by Millais and Holman Hunt.' He was inferior
to Phelps in taste and poetic feeling, but he had much
greater means at his command. Compared with Mr. Irving,
he seems to have cared more for processional pageantry,
and less for rich solidity of presentation. As an actor he
Avas not great in Shakespearean parts. It Avas in melo
drama that he shone, and his chief personal successes were
in Boucicault's adaptation of The Corsican Brothers (1852),
of Faust and Marguerite (1854), and of Louis XI. (1855).
Among the other productions of his management were
Westland Marston's Anne Blake, Jerrold's St. Cupid and
Heart of Gold (despite the memorable feud between Jerrold
and Kean) , Reade and Taylor's First Printer, and a splendid
revival of Sardanapalus. His wife was, of course, the main
stay of his enterprise, and his company included at different
times the Keeleys, the Wigane, Wright, Bartley and Harley
(Avho both died in 1858), Meadows, Ryder, Fisher, and Car-
lotta Leclercq. Miss Kate Terry first appeared on the stage
under Kean's management in 1851, Hermann Vezin, Dion
Boucicault, and Miss Heath in 1852, and Miss EUen Terry
in 1856. His retreat from management was of course
signalised by a banquet, got up by his brother Etonians, at
which Mr. Gladstone occupied the chair.
This period was one of drear decadence at the Patent The
Theatres. Covent Garden, then in the hands of Anderson, theatres.
' the Wizard of the North,' was burnt down after a masked
baU on March 5, 1856. Drury Lane, in 1852, found a show
man-manager in E. T. Smith, at a rental of 8,500L a year, in
place of the 10,200Z. paid by EUiston thirty years before.
From Hamlet to horsemanship, nothing came amiss to
Smith. The 'unparalleled tragedian,' G. V. Brooke, a
robustious actor of Shakespearean parts, who met his end
VOL. II. P P

578

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Buck stone at
the Hay
market.

"Webster at the
Adelphi.

heroically in the loss of the ' London,' Avas one of his most
attractive stars. Charles Mathews, Barry Sullivan, and
Miss Glyn played under his management, and E. L. Blan-
chard commenced the series of yearly pantomimes which
has been continued to the present season. Prom this time
forAvard the two patent houses Avere largely dependent upon
the seasons of opera— English, German, and Italian — for
which their vast proportions fitted them. Covent Garden,
indeed, rebuilt and re-opened in 1858 as the Royal Italian
Opera House, may now drop out of our record.
The Haymarket, though fairly prosperous under Buck-
stone's management, was not at first fertile in novelties.
Here, in 1853, Helen Faucit produced Browning's Colombe's
Birthday ; and here, in 1855, William Farren the elder,
most finished of comedians, took his faroAvell benefit. Tom
Taylor's Overland Route may stand as a type of the light
pieces contributed by him and such writers as Stirling
Coyne and Palgrave Simpson to the repertory ; Avhile
tragedy and melodrama gradually became rarer and more
rare on the Haymarket boards. In 1861 E. A. Sothern,
an English actor who had made a name in America, enrap
tured London by his performance of Lord Dundreary in
Our American Cousin, which ran for 477 nights. It Avas
followed by other pieces, such as T. W. Robertson's David
Garrick and Westland Marston's Favourite of Fortune,
specially adapted to the peculiar talent of the actor. At
the Adelphi, French melodramas, such as The Marble Heart
(1854) and Janet Pride (1855), and Enghsh imitations, such
as The Dead Heart, by Watts Phillips, were relieved by
broad farces and burlesques of the boisterous and word-
twisting style which was now beginning to supersede the
refined manner of Planche. The chief success of the period
was Boucicault's legendary Colleen Bawn, which ran for
281 nights, and was followed by The Octoroon, from the

THE DRAMA 579
same pen. At the Olympic, the genius of one actor, The
Frederick Robson, dominated almost the whole of this period. Kobson.
He made his first appearance in 1853, attracting attention
by the intensity of his Shylock in F. Talfourd's burlesque
of The Merchant of Venice, and confirming his reputation
by his Desmarets in Tom Taylor's Plot and Passion.
Robson Avas the Edmund Kean of extravaganza. His
merit, and it amounted to genius, lay in ' his rare poAver of
combining tragic passion and real hints of the terrible Avith
ludicrous burlesque.' His most remarkable performances
Avere the YelloAV DAvarf in Planche's extravaganza, Medea
in R. Brough's burlesque. Daddy Hardacre, and Sampson
Burr in Oxenford's Porter's Knot. Robson Avas seconded
at the Olympic by Alfred Wigan (a most accomplished
actor, especially of French characters), Mrs. Stirling, Miss
Herbert, &c., Avho appeared in Tom Taylor's Still Waters
Run Deep, Retribution, A. Sheep in Wolf's Clothing, and
other more or less notoAVorthy and more or less original
plays. In 1863 Tom Taylor's Ticket - of - Leave Man
[Leonard) commenced its run of 406 nights ; and in the
followmg year (August 12, 1864) Robson died. At the.
Princess's the retirement of Charles Kean Avas followed, in
1860, by the appearance of the French actor Charles Fechter The
in Ruy Bias. Despite his ' impossible accent,' his ' fair- oe"?s:
haired impassioned Hamlet, the very pride and pearl of fechter.
poetry,' took London by storm ; but his OtheUo was much
less successful. He made no further Shakespearean experi
ments, but, on entering upon management at the Lyceum The
in 1863, fell back upon French melodrama. The Duke's
Motto, Bel Demonio, &c. Since the close of the Mathews
management nothing of much note had occurred at the
Lyceum, except the first appearance of Miss Marie WUton
(1856) in a revival of Belphegor, by Charles Dillon, and the
production of Falconer's Irish drama Peep o' Day (1861),
p p 2

Lyceum.

580 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
which almost rivalled the Colleen Bawn in popularity. The
The St. St. James's, an unlucky house, was for long devoted to
James s. yQy^}jf^i prodigios (the Bateman chUdren) and French and
German plays, but at last developed into a comedy theatre
of good repute, under the management first of Mr. Alfred
The Wigan, then of Miss Herbert. The Strand Theatre, after
Strand. ^^ evcntful but Very undistinguished career of some twenty-
five years, found its vocation in 1858, when, under the
management of Miss SAvanborough, it became the special
home of modern burlesque— the burlesque of the Broughs,
Talfourd, Byron and Halhday, as opposed to that of Planche.
Here it was that Miss Marie Wilton established her fame ;
and with her we pass to our next period.
Play- But first a word as to the playwrights of the period
^"he ^ "we are leaving. Of Jerrold, Marston, Planche, and Oxen -
period. fQj,jj J 1[lg^,Ye already spoken. Tom Taylor possessed dra
matic instinct without inspiration. His best plays were
careful, workmanlike, effective productions, but mechanical
in humour and pathos, and, when he soared into metre, of
wonderfully wooden versification. He Avas far from being,
as was often alleged, deficient in originality. He borrowed
his methods from France, and some of his motives — ten out
of a hundred, he himself tells us — but even in his adapta
tions he showed plenty of inventive skill. What he lacked
was intensity of imagination and spontaneity of humour.
His collaboration was of the greatest value to Charles Reade,
restraining, oddly enough, the excessive theatricality in
which that fervid genius was apt to indulge in writing for
the stage. The career of Dion Boucicault has extended over
almost the whole of the Queen's reign, but the middle period
was that of his greatest activity. He has been called ' the
adaptive Mr. Boucicault,' but to him, too, the epithet is
something of an injustice. If he has adapted much, he has
also invented much. His mastery of stage effects and expe-

THE DRAMA 581
dients is unrivaUed on this side of the Channel. A little
more intellectual seriousness and artistic concentration
might have made of him a great dramatist. As it is he
has done a marvellous quantity of adroit and entertaining
work. In dialogue, his Irish humour is inexhaustible and
delicious ; but when he drops the brogue his wit is apt to
be artificial. The other playwrights of the period — such
as Stirling Coyne, a writer of all-Avork, Watts Phillips, a
melodramatist, and Palgrave Simpson, a personal pupil
and imitator of Scribe — do not call for detailed notice.
George Henry Lewes busied himself a good deal about the
stage, but, after the failure of a play named The Noble Heart
at the Olympic in 1850, he seems to have dealt solely in
adaptations. Miss Marie Wilton and Mr. H. J. Byron rose together Third
into popularity at the Strand Theatre. From 1858, when \sQ5-iii.
Charles Dickens was enchanted with Miss Wilton's Pippo in
Mr. Byron's burlesque The Maid and the Magpie, untU 1865,
when they entered into partnership to establish a second
Strand in Tottenham Street, actress and author had alike
been confirming their hold upon the public. In the paths The
of comic journalism, meanAvhilo, Byron had encountered genora-
and helped to the front two men who were destined to have *8°^°^
no small influence on the history of the stage — Mr. T. W.
Robertson, an obscure actor and unsuccessful playwright,
and Mr. W. S. Gilbert, an almost briefless barrister.
Cambridge had contributed Mr. F. C. Burnand to the light
brigade of parodists, and Oxford Mr. Robert Reece. Thus
a new generation of wits and rhymesters was gathering
strength in the early eighteen-sixties, while the provincial
stock-companies, now things of the past, were maturing a
new generation of actors and actresses. Mr. Bancroft,
Mr. Hare, Miss Madge Robertson, and Miss NeUson made

theatres.

582 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
their first London appearances' in 1865 ; Mr. IrA'ing, Mr.
Kendal, Mr. John Clayton, and Mr. Charles Wyndham in
1866. These tAvo years, then, brought to the capital the
managers (present or past) of the Prince of Wales's, the
Lyceum, the Haymarket, the Court, the St. James's, the
Criterion — all the theatres, except the Princess's, which haA'e
taken a leading jiart in the so-called theatrical revival.
The It was Avith no design of regenerating the stage that
I'pizics of
AVaies's Mr. Byron and Miss Wilton opened the Prince of Wales's
comedy" Theatre in April 1865. They~ intended to rely upon
burlesque and the lightest of comediettas; but the great
success of Mr. T. W. Robertson's comedies soon remoA'ed
burlesque from the bill and Mr. Byron from the manage
ment. From November 1865, until his death in 1871, Mr.
Robertson retained almost exclusive possession of the Prince
of Wales's stage. Ours, Caste, Play, School, and M.P. Avere
produced and reproduced Avith ever increasing success.
The theatre was redecorated from time to time and con
verted into a luxurious little boudoir. Each play was
more carefully and sumptuously staged than its predecessor,
and a minutely modern style of acting was cultivated.
Society flocked to see itself reproduced, or rather ' taken off,'
and the stalls ^ gradually encroached upon the pit. After
Mr. Robertson's death Mr. and Mrs: Bancroft continued
for five years to apply their peculiar methods to English
plays, old and new, before they Avere driven to seek fresh
matter in France. They revived with success Money, The
School for Scandal, and Masks and P'aces. They failed
with The Merchant of Venice, Avhich nevertheless brought
Miss Ellen Terry into fame. They produced Mr. Wilkie
' That is to say, their first appearances of any note. Some of them had
appeared and quickly disappeared in earlier years.
- Said to have been first introduced by Bunn at Drury Lane in 1833,
but not generally adopted until very much later.

THE DRAMA 583
CoUins's Man and Wife, and Mr. Gilbert's Sweethearts. At
last, in 1876, the home supply failed, and they turned to
Sardou. Peril and Diplomacy eclipsed all previous suc
cesses, and established a tradition to Avhich the Bancrofts
clung, perhaps, too faithfully. In these tAvo plays Mr. and
Mrs. Kendal served under the Bancroft banner. In
Taylor and Dubourg's New Men and Old Acres, and in
]\Ir. Gilbert's fantastic comedies, they had brightened the
declining days of Buckstone's management at the Hay
market. Then they had helped Mr. Hare, a seceder The
from the Prince of Wales's, to convert the Court Theatre
into a similiar home of comedy ; and thence they passed to
the Prince of Wales's itself. The celebrated production of
Diplomacy brought together on one stage the Bancrofts,
the Kendals, and Messrs. Clayton and Cecil. From this
point the stream of modern comedy may be said to branch
forth into a delta. The Kendals returned to the Court,
and soon migrated Avith Mr. Hare to the St. James's, Thest.
Avhere their management has been fruitful of noteworthy
events. Messrs. Clayton, and Cecil succeeded them at the
Court, after an interregnum during which Mr. Wilson Bar
rett made his first appearance as a metropolitan manager.
The Bancrofts themselves removed in 1880 to the Hay- The Hay-
market, Avhich, since the retirement of Buckstone, had
been for the most part ha the hands of the American come
dian, Mr. J. S. Clarke. They rebuilt the theatre, entirely
suppressing the pit, and carried it on untU they retired from
management in 1885. Their exclusive trust in revivals and
adaptations from Sardou has subjected them to some re
proach ; but, even if they can reasonably be accused of a
certainly timidity, that does not lessen the great positive
services they have rendered the stage.
While icomedy was thus putting forth new strength and
cultivating new methods of attraction, tragedy, in a different

5 84

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Drury
Lane.

Mr.Irving
{ at the
' Lyceum.

sphere, was following its example. At Drury Lane, indeed,
from 1866 onwards, Mr. F. B. Chatterton, aided from time
to time by Phelps, Barry Sullivan, Anderson, Miss Faucit,
and Miss Wallis, was Ulustrating his famous maxim that
' Shakespeare spells ruin and Byron bankruptcy,' and was
dragging out a precarious career with the aid of Halliday's
spectacular adaptations of Scott, and Boucicault's Formosa
and The Shaughraun. In the cast of Formosa, however,
there appeared an actor Avho had risen into note at the St.
James's and the Queen's Theatres, and who Avas destined
before long to disprove the manager's maxim, so far as
Shakespeare was concerned. From Drury Lane Mr. Henry
Irving passed to the Gaiety, and thence to the Vaudeville,
where he established his reputation by his performance of
Digby Grant in Mr. Albery's comedy of Tiuo Roses. This
procured him an engagement at the Lyceum, which had
passed through several vicissitudes since the end of Fechter's
management, having witnessed the production of such very
diverse pieces as Westland Marston's Life for Life and
Herve's Chilperic. It had noAV been taken by Mr. H. L.
Bateman, an American manager, who opened his campaign,
September 11, 1871, with Mr. Irving as a leading member of
his company. In the following November Mr. Irving's
Mathias in 21ie Bells took all London by surprise, and hence
forward his career was one of almost uninterrupted success.
InMr. WiUs's plays of Charles I. and Eugenie Aram he created
the title parts, and then, in Richelieu, successfully braved
comparison Avith the great actors of the past or passing
generation. His appearance as Hamlet Avas now expected
with intense interest. It took place on October 31, 1874,
and finally assured his position. The play ran for 200 nights
— far longer than any previous Shakespearean production.
This protracted run, however, had a bad effect upon Mr.
L-ving's style, and his next performances, Macbeth and

THE DRAMA 585
Othello, met with much less favour. The production of
Tennyson's Queen Mary, though on the whole a failure,
brought Mr. Irving a personal success in the part of
PhUip II. In Richard III. he recovered the ground he had
lost in Macbeth and OtheUo. Two striking melodramatic
successes followed — the double part of Dubosc and Lesurques
in The Lyons Mail, and Louis XI. After her husband's
death in 1875 Mrs. Bateman managed the theatre ; but
on December 30, 1878, Mr. Irving took the management He as-
into his own hands, engaging as his chief supporter Miss m^age-^
Ellen Terry, who, since her performance of Portia at the ™®'^*-
Prince of Wales's, had won fresh laurels at the Court in
New Men and Old Acres and in Mr. WiUs's Olivia. Mr.
Irving's management opened with Hamlet, Avhich was
foUoAved by the Lady of Lyons and the Hon Chest. Stage
decoration, somewhat neglected under the Bateman rule,
Avas now studiously elaborated. The Merchant of Venice
(1879) led the way for other Shakespearean revivals —
Othello (with Mr. Edwin Booth), Romeo and Juliet, Much
Ado, and Tivelfth Night — each of Avhich has eclipsed its
predecessor in scenic splendour. The Corsican Brothers
and Mr. WiUs's Olivia have also been elaborately revived ;
Tennyson's tragedy of The Cup has been produced, the
second act set in a stage-picture of the rarest beauty ; and,
lastly, a version of Faust has been placed on the stage
Avith extraordinary profuseness of decoration. Financial
success has foUoAved all Mr. Irvmg's undertakings, with
a faithfulness unprecedented in the history of English
management, and the vogue of the Lyceum does not show
the shghtest tendency to decline.
The Princess's, before it came under the management of The
Mr. Wilson Barrett, went through many adventures. It oe"?s.
Avas the scene of some noteworthy productions, but it never
remained long in the same hands. Between 1864 and 1880

586

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

TheOlympic.

The
Adelphi. nrury
Lane.

New
theatres.

it saw the production of Westland Marston's Donna Diana ;
Boucicault's Streets of London, Arrah-na-Pogue, and After
Dark ; Charles Reade's It's Never too Late to Mend, and his
adaptation of Zola's L'^sso?ftmotr, entitled Drink ; Mr. WiUs's
first play The Man o' Airlie, and his Mary Queen o' Scots
and Jane Shore. It was thus associated mainly with stirring
and sensational plays, so that Avhen Mr. Wilson Barrett took
the reconstructed theatre in 1881, he adhered to its tradi
tions in devoting it to modern melodrama. He did good
service in bringing Mr. G. R. Sims and Mr. H. A. Jones to
the front, the former Avith The Lights o' London, the latter
Avith Tlie Silver King, written in collaboration Avith Mr. H.
Herman. His departures from the path of melodrama
have not been so fortunate. His revival of Hamlet was in
telligent but not remarkable, while his production of Lord
Lytton's Junius resulted in disaster. On the other hand,
Mr. Sydney Grundy's tragedy of Clito, a vigorous piece of
Avork, met Avith some favour. The Olympic, under the
ostensible management of Mr. Henry Neville, for some time
maintained its position with such plays as Tom Taylor's Lady
Clancarty, and Oxenford's adaptation of The Tivo Orphans,
but has for several years lain under a cloud of unpopularity.
The Adelphi has passed through several hands since the
retirement of Benjamin Webster in 1874, but has on the
Avhole kept up its reputation for stirring melodrama. Drury
Lane, under the management of Mr. Augustus Harris, Avhich
commenced in 1879, has taken a new lease of life, and has
become the chosen home of mechanically sensational melo
drama varied by pantomime of superlative spectacular mag
nificence. Scarcely a year has passed during this period Avith-
outmaking at least one addition totheroUof West-end theatres.
The Queen's Theatre Avas opened by Alfred Wigan in 1867 ;
but, though it Avasthe scene of some important productions,
such as Tom Taylor's Jeanne d'Arc and 'Twixt Axe and

THE DRAMA 587
Crown, it did not prosper, and after some ten years or so
ceased to exist. The Globe and the Gaiety — the latter a
theatre-of-all-AVork, but chiefly dedicate to the ' sacred
lamp of burlesque,' — were opened in 1868, the Charing Cross
Theatre (now Mr. Toole's) in 1869. The VaudevUle, Avhere
Mr. Albery rose into note, and where Our Boys ran for four
years and a quarter, dates, with the Opera Comique, from
1870. In 1871 Miss Litton opened the Court Theatre.
The Criterion, the Palais Royal of London, Avas opened in
1874. Since then we have seen the Savoy, the Comedy,
the Avenue, the Prince's (noAv the Prince of Wales's), and
the Empire added to the list, and this enumeration is by
no means exhaustive, even as regards tho West End. It
should be noted that several of these theatres have been
given up mainly to the form of entertamment loosely de
scribed as opera-bouffe, Avhich came into existence about opera-
the beginning of our present period. It Avas in 1865 that °" ®"
Planche adapted Offenbach's Orphee aux Enfers for the
Haymarket, and the extraordinary success of The Grand
Duchess of Gerolstein foUoAved tAvo years later at Covent
Garden. Since then the vogue of opera-bouffe, though iioav
and then seeming to decline, has on the Avhole maintained
itself. The Avitty, though sometimes hcentious, French
librettos have invariably been vulgarised in the process of
adaptation, and often brought down to the level of our
indigenous burlesques ; so that the increase of theatrical
activity Avhich we OAve to French comic opera is scarcely a
subject for rejoicing. Out of evil, hoAvever, good has come,
for the graceful and witty musical extravaganzas of Mr.
W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan have no doubt sprung,
by Avay of reaction, from opera-bouffe.
The increased popularity of the theatre has been piay-
accompanied, some of us Avould fain believe, by an im- ^"he *
provement in the average quality of dramatic authorship. ^^^-

588 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
If no Avriter of the first mark has habitually worked for
the stage, we have at least a considerable number of
workmanlike playwrights, Avho take their calling seriously
and are not without literary aspirations. Lord Tennyson's
dramatic experiments are to be regarded as symptoms or
consequences of the dramatic revival, rather than as con
tributory causes. Had he turned his attention earlier to
the stage, and studied its conditions, he might probably
have achieved success ; but when his genius' was at its
prime the stage offered him no temptations. Our other
poetic playwright, Mr. W. G. Wills, has chanced on some
powerful scenes in the course of his industrious career, but
is too haphazard a playwright and too poor a poet to hold
an enduring place on the stage or in literature. Mr. W. S.
Gilbert's original humour and quaint inventiveness are
combined with a care for literary finish which gives all his
Avork a value of its own. Mr. A. W. Pinero has a gift of
humour not unlike Mr Gilbert's, but less fantastic, while
his invention is even more fertile ; but he, like Mr. Gilbert,
is too apt to import his OAvn peculiar quaintness into
serious work. Mr. Albery's early plays gave evidence of a
poetic wit which has unfortunately been frittered away in
adaptations, not always of the worthiest order. Mr. Sydney
Grundy's constructive ingenuity and crispness of expression
lead us to expect more from him than he has hitherto done.
Mr. H. A. Jones has proved himself a competent playwright
and has shown a desire, Avhich may one day become a
power, not only to invent and construct but to observe and
think. Mr. G. R. Sims is a facile melodramatist and farce-
writer ; and Mr. Herman Merivale has done one or two things
BO remarkably well that one cannot but hope he may yet
do something still better.
A word must be said of the foreign actors who have
figured largely in the theatrical history of the past fifty

THE DRAMA 589
years, and especially of the past twenty-five. Long before Foreign
the Queen's Accession French companies had frequently on the
visited London. The theatre in Tottenham Street, which ^"ge^^
afterAvards became tho Prince of Wales*, was for some time
their headquarters. Frederic Lemaitre, for instance, first
appeared on the English stage at that little playhouse.
The St. James's Avas afterwards the recognised home of
French acting ; but the great Rachel played at Drury
Lane, under E. T. Smith's management. Her rival,
Ristori, was a frequent visitor from 1856 onwards ; and
Italy has sent us two other actors of genius in Ernesto
Rossi and Tomaso Salvini, whose Othello took the town by
storm in 1875. From America we have had Charlotte
Cushman, Joseph Jefferson, Edwin Booth, and Mary
Anderson — all remarkable artists in their Avay. Madame
Modjeska, too, though by birth a Pole, came to us from
America. German actors, such as Emil Devrient and
Kulm, have appeared from time to time, and the ' Gesainmt-
gastspiel ' of the Meiningen company at Drury Lane in
1881 was a revelation in scenic art. Of infinitely greater
importance, however, was the visit of the whole Comedie
Fran9aise ' to the Gaiety in 1879. Apart from the facti
tious vogue of Madame Sarah Bernhardt, the dignity and
completeness with which this great company presented its
remarkable repertory certainly opened the eyes of many
thinking people to the worthier possibilities of dramatic
art, and potently aided the theatrical revival.
In treating this ' revival ' as an accomplished fact, I The ¦ the-
may seem to beg a quite unsettled question. All I mean is revival'
that, during the past twenty years, the theatre has occupied
a larger place in the national consciousness, and has drawn
' A portion of the company appeared at the Opera Comique during the
civil war of 1871, but though their artistic success was great, their visit
passed almost unnoticed by the general public.

-how far
genuine.

causes.

590 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
much larger sums from the public pocket, than during the
earlier portion of' the Queen's reign. This will scarcely be
questioned ; more than this I do not allege. The ultimate
Its causes of the revival I cannot pretend to determine. No
doubt it is partly due to the gradual decay of the old
Puritan prejudice against the theatre — a prejudice which
noAV survives chiefly in the ineradicable habit of holding
dramatic art, not necessarily sinful, but essentially
friA'olous. The railway system, too, with the consequent
flocking of provincial sightseers to London, is said to have
contributed greatly to the prosperity of the metropolitan
stage. But this cuts two Avays. Comparative statistics
are not easily obtainable, but I believe that the growth of
theatrical enterprise in the provinces has kept pace Avith the
groAvth of population ; and the increased facility of loco
motion takes London to the country at least as much as it
brings the country to London. The old stock-companies
have utterly passed away. Every successful novelty is iioav
promptly presented in facsimile to provincial playgoers by
means of touring ' combinations,' often organised and sent
out by the London managers. Even the East-end and
transpontine playhouses, though they still nourish a declin
ing school of melodramatists, are verging toAvards the
condition of provincial theatres, supplied Avith West-end
plays by travelling companies. This centralisation of
theatrical life of course tends to enrich a certain number of
metropolitan speculators, but it would be a mistake to attri
bute the general increase of prosperity in the theatrical
Avorld of London solely, or even largely, to the influx of
country cousins. If it could be proved that the country
theatres lose what the London theatres gain, this Avould
explain the revival, or rather explain it aAvay. The fact is
quite otherwise, and we are no nearer than before to an
effective explanation.

THE DRAMA 591
We can scarcely be Avrong, I think, in recognising the its start-
old Prince of Wales's and the Lyceum as the theatres in points.
Avhich the revival first manifested itself. At the Prince of
Wales's the externals of modern life were reproduced Avith
photographic faithfulness, Avhile Robertson's ' cup-and-
saucer ' comedies, thin and trivial as they Avere, perhaps
came nearer than any earlier plays to a reproduction of the
everyday manners and speech of society. At the Lyceum
the poetical and romantic drama Avas interpreted Avitli sub
tlety rather than vigour, and with a total abandonment of
the old declamatory methods. At both theatres a great
and ever-increasing luxury of mounting and costume
ministered to the cravings of a generation devoted to the
lust of the eye and the pride of life. At both theatres the
art of ' character-acting ' — the new art, it may almost be
called — Avas strenuously cultivated. The old classification
of actors as tragedians, light comedians, walking-gentlemen,
' juveniles,' low comedians, and so forth, had broken doAvn.
The leading actors of the new generation came under none
of these categories. Mr. Irving's finest performances placed
him practically in the class of character-actors, along Avith
Mr. Hare, Mr. Bancroft, Mr. Cecil, and younger men such
as Mr. Mackintosh, Mr. Beerbohm Tree, Mr. Brookfield,
and Mr. Willard. Character-acting, then, which may be its
defined as mimetic realism, the minute and unconventional flaturls
'reproduction of observed idiosyncrasies, is to be regarded ^a'lis'm
as the distinguishing feature of this period. Combined Avith ^^^ ^'^^-
° " _ . racter-
luxury of scenic illustration, it met a demand and begot an acting.
increase of appetite. This statement, however, brings us
no nearer the solution of the problem, unless we can ana
lyse the intellectual and social conditions which produced
so marked a demand at the particular period from Avhich
the revival dates. I cannot here attempt such an analysis ;
indeed the time for it has perhaps scarcely come. Madame

592 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Vestris had long ago given great attention to stage
furnishing, the Wigans had cultivated a quiet and unex-
aggerated style of acting — why was it reserved for the
Bancrofts to secure lasting success by these methods, and
to start so many others on the same path ? Macready
and Charles Kean, again, were careful of archaBology, and
dealt in ' scholarly ' revivals — why has it been reserved for
Mr. IrA'ing to find in archseology and scholarship the strings
to a Fortunatus purse ? These are questions which the
sociologist of the future may one day answer, jierhaps when
our boasted ' revival ' is a thing of the past. The decline of
the present mummery-mania — so scoffers have called it —
may enable us to discern more clearly the causes from
which it has arisen. At the same time one cannot but
hope that the financial revival, such as it is, may prove
permanent, and may give scope for another revival, as yet
scarcely making itself felt, which shall replace the living
drama among the most honourable and honoured forms of
English literature. .-^.^ William Aecher.

593

MUSIC.
Music has had a full share in the life and movement so
characteristic of the last half-century, and this not in one
branch but in all.
Before tracing briefly the progress of each department,
it may be well to sketch the prominent features of music in
England at the date of the Queen's accession.
In 1837 Mendelssohn paid his fifth visit to this country, Music in
1837
and produced his oratorio ' St. Paul.' Sterndale Bennett
was rapidly establishing his claim to the foremost position
among English composers since Purcell. In London the
Philharmonic Society gave excellent performances of orches
tral works, and introduced to the English public many new
symphonies and overtures. The Sacred Harmonic Society
devoted itself with success to the efficient production of
oratorios and choral music. The concerts of Antient
Music called attention to the wealth of beauty to be found
in the neglected writings of the Elizabethan composers
and others. In the country, the three choirs of Worcester,
Gloucester, and Hereford gave their annual festival. Norwich
also had a triennial gathering. The Birmingham Festival
had already taken rank as the most important musical
event of its year. Manchester had its Gentlemen's Con
certs, and in 1837 was founded the Bristol Madrigal Society,
which recently gave its Jubilee concert, and which with the
Madrigal Society of London has had a large share in keeping
up the knowledge of and taste for old English music.
VOL. II. Q Q

594 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Notwithstanding these signs of vigorous musical life, it
cannot be said that music was flourishing in this country.
The art was cultivated without system and criticised with
out intelligence by the average Englishman. The Eoyal
Academy of Music was in the early and struggling stages of
its long and honourable career. No other institution for
the scientific training of students existed. Ladies' schools
sent out their pupUs, after ' finishing ' lessons, to play
feeble airs with variations, or at best to mangle the three
or four sonatas of Beethoven which had become popular.
Few men would venture to engage in such an effeminate
pursuit. Public schools ignored it altogether. At the
Universities, degrees in music were given without examina
tion, and on the strength of an exercise by no means always
written by the candidate. The best music was difficult
to procure, and so expensive as to make its possession
in ,any quantity impossible for the general public. Ex
cept in London, a complete oratorio or a symphony was
rarely heard. The cathedrals were asleep, and, with in
sufficient choirs, performed languid music to scanty con
gregations. The Musical World of January 6, 1837, gives the follow
ing account of a service in St. Paul's Cathedral :
' A few days since, an anthem by Dr. Hayes was under
going the semblance of a performance. The choir present,
representing the six Vicars-choral, were Mr. Dando, Mr.
WiUing, both counter-tenors, and Mr. Pinsent. The bass,
not being, we suppose, an essential part of a chorus anthem,
was omitted. Of course the organ with its thunder-stop
carried aU before it. Whether the worthy trio sang or not
Ave cannot accurately determine. If they did they very
Avisely let the sounds come from their lips —
So softly, that hke flakes of feathered snow
They melted as they fell.

MUSIC 595
To one of Dr. Wesley's most famous anthems is
appended a note, that it was composed for an Easter Day
service in Hereford Cathedral, when only the boys and a
single bass voice were available.
Forty years ago, Charles Kingsley in ' Yeast ' describes
a service in St. Paul's Cathedral. ' The afternoon service
was proceeding. The organ droned sadly in its iron cage to
a few musical amateurs. Some nursery-maids and foreign
sailors stared about Avithin the spiked felon's dock Avhich
shut off the body of the cathedral, and tried in vain to hear
what was going on inside the choir. As a wise author — a
Protestant too — has lately said, " the scanty service rattled
in the vast building like a dried kernel too small for its
shell." The place breathed imbecility and unreality and
sleepy life in death, while the whole nineteenth century
went roaring on its way outside.'
Parish churches in towns stUl left the psalms to be said
alternately by clerk and people. Country churches were
often Avithout music of any kind. Hymn-books had not
come into general use, and the ' new version ' of the psalms,
already 150 years old, was sung with the aid of a barrel-
organ or with the grotesque assistance of a 'cello, flute,
and bassoon. Organs were few. A graphic description
of the Church service at this period, too well knoAvn for
quotation here, may be found in the first pages of George
Eliot's • Amos Barton.'
Musical hterature was smaU in quantity and poor in
quality. The ordinary newspaper hardly noticed music at
all. The Harmonicon, a well-conducted monthly periodical,
died in 1833, and the Musical World had not yet esta
blished its position. The history of the art was buried in
the ponderous volumes of Burney and HaAvkins. At this
time music Avas not recognised by the State, and the small
grant of 5001. to the Royal Academy did not begin until
Q Q 2

596

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Absence of training schools.

1864. Grants to elementary schools for music Avere not
given until 1872.
In this brief revieAV of musical affairs the most serious
feature is undoubtedly the lack of good training-schools.
The Royal Academy was utterly unable to cope Avith the
vast amount of musical ignorance. Only in the last two
decades has any serious attempt been made to supply this
want. And yet the English race, though not at this time
musically creative, had a natural power of apj^reciation and
of intelligent performance not surpassed by that of any
other people. In 1840 the Committee of Council on Educa
tion inquired into the condition of vocal music as taught in
children's schools, and in 1841 published a prefatory minute
on this subject. John HuUah and Sir James Shuttleworth
(Secretary of Education) Avent to Paris to inquire into
AVilhem's method of teaching singing. The Committee of
Council prescribed times to be given in schools to the prac
tice of vocal music ; they also encouraged the commence
ment of singing classes for teachers under Mr. HuUah.
In 1843 the training colleges came under inspection, and
music was included in the curriculum of studies. From
1843 to 1860, 25,000 persons passed through Mr. HuUah's
classes. In 1850 the Tonic Sol-Fa system of teaching singing,
based upon key relationships, began to attract public notice
under the energetic advocacy of the Rev. John Curwen, and
its wide popularity is noAv beyond dispute. Eighty per
cent, of school chUdren taught by note learn on this system,
and its extensive use is shoAvn by the fact that 39,000
copies of ' The Messiah ' in that notation have been sold.
The success which attended these efforts encouraged the
Government to offer gi-ants for singing, which were first
introduced with the Code for 1874. In the first year the
schools received about 90,000L under this head. In 1885-86

MUSIC 597
the Parliamentary grant for singing was about 130,000^.,
exclusive of the expenses of inspection.
Of the higher musical education, the Royal Academy Esta-
has until recently been the only instrument, and under menVof
the enlightened direction of Crotch, Cipriani Potter t''?:'°*»e
^ schools.
(1882-59), Charles Lucas, Sterndale Bennett, and Mac-
farren, it has done invaluable work in spite of crippled re
sources and insufficient encouragement. Many of our chief
musicians OAve their early training to it. First and foremost
are Sterndale Bennett, the Macfarrens, Arthur Sullivan,
and Joseph Barnby, among many others. The Academy
has also educated a large number of the principal singers,
instrumentalists, and teachers. In 1878 the National
Training School was founded, under the direction of Mr.
(now Sir Arthur) Sullivan. After some years of good work
an attempt was made to establish a really national school
by the fusion of this institution with the Royal Academy,
but the result was a failure. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales,
Avith characteristic earnestness, then initiated a scheme for
the Royal CoUege of Music. An influential meeting was
held in St. James's Palace on February 28, 1882, over
which the Prince of Wales presided. The meeting was also
addressed by the Duke of Edinburgh, Archbishop Tait, Mr.
Gladstone, and others. Funds were soon coUected which
Avould Avarrant the foundation of fifty scholarships, in addi
tion to several others founded by private munificence. Sir
George Grove, to Avhom the literature of music owes so
much, was appointed director, and in 1883 the CoUege Avas
formally opened with an efficient staff of teachers, which noAv
includes Messrs. Pauer, Franklin Taylor, Barnett, Holmes,
Henschel, Visetti, Blume, Stanford, Parry, Bridge, and others.
The College is subjected to a searching examination every
year by experts unconnected with it. Already many of its
students are honourably fiUing important posts, but it is of

598 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
course as yet too early to gauge the work. The rapid rise
of the Guildhall School of Music is also a remarkable fact,
and clearly shows the need of such institutions. This school
began in 1880 with 62 pupils ; in 1886 it numbered 2,500
pupils with 90 professors. Admirable buildings have been
provided for its use on the Thames Embankment. Trinity
College and other private schools too numerous to mention
have also done good service. In addition to these organisations
for teaching, examinations are held in all parts by the Royal
Academy and by Trinity CoUege. The College of Organists
holds twice a year an examination for its diplomas of asso-
ciateship and fellowship. The large number of candidates
and the comparatively few successes are evidences, on the
one hand, of the value attached to the distinction, and of the
severity of the test on the other. AU the chief organists of
the kingdom in turn serve as examiners.
The Public Schools could hardly escape the general
spread of musical cultivation, though it is not until within
the last twenty years that much has been done. Fifty
years ago the art was discouraged by the masters and
despised by the pupils. The music-teacher, when he existed
at all, shared Avith the French master the gibes of the boys.
Noav, though there is no excessive enthusiasm to report,
the head master is not usuaUy in active hostility. Chapel
services in many places are bright and hearty. School
orchestras and school choral societies give really good
concerts. ' House ' singing competitions are held, and
in many ways music is encouraged. Uppingham School
may be said to have so far produced the best result, but
nearly aU the large schools are working Avell. As might be
expected, this state of things has sensibly raised the stan
dard at the Universities. The Cambridge University Musical
Society, under Dr. Stanford, has slioAvn remarkable energy
in producing Avorks of importance not hitherto knoAvn in

MUSIC 599
this country. The Oxford University Musical Club has
devoted itself to chamber music, and has had a powerful
influence in cultivating a taste for the best works in this
class. Almost every college in both Universities has its
own society, its OAvn concert, and its own chapel choir.
On Sundays at the least some attempt is made to break the
dullness of a read service. Music aldegrees are now given
after severe and searching examination only, and some
evidence as to general education is now required.
The increased musical activity of the last twenty-five Musical
years has created a thirst for information on all subjects ture.**'
connected Avith the art, from acoustics to the smallest bio
graphical details concerning the great composers, a thirst
which has been satisfied by works of the highest value. It
must be confessed that the most useful additions to musical
literature have been translations from the German. After
the preliminary gropings of many able men, the theory of
sound has at last been established upon an unassailable basis
by the labours of Helmholtz. His gi-eat Avork, ' The Sensa
tions of Tone,' has been admirably translated into English
by Mr. Alexander Ellis, and his views have been popularised
by Professor TyndaU, Mr. Sedley Taylor, and by Dr. Pole in
his ' Philosophy of Music' Theories of harmony are less
indebted to foreign sources. The system of Alfred Day,
published in 1845, enthusiastically adopted and expounded
in several books by Sir George Macfarren, and the Avorks by
Goss, Ouseley, and Stainer, are probably at least as original
and as near the truth as any to be found among French or
German Avriters.
The first successful attempt to interest the general
public in the history of music was made by John HuUah,
Avho delivered a course of lectures at the Royal Institution
in 1861, Avhich were afterAvards published. These lectures,
though simUar in arrangement to the history of KiesoAvetter

6oo THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
(translated by Robert Muller and published in 1847), are
in their main features strikingly original, and give to a
general view of musical history a surprising life and in
terest. Since then we have ' The History of Mysic ' by Emil
Naumann, translated by F. Praeger, and Mr. Rockstro's
history which made its appearance last year. Musical
biography has been greatly enriched by the translation of
Spitta's life of Bach (Clara Bell, and FuUer Maitland), of
Jahn's life of Mozart, of the lives of Schubert, Berlioz,
and others. In addition to these, the letters of Mozart,
Beethoven, and Mendelssohn have appeared in an English
dress. Carl Engel's works on the ' Music of the Most
Ancient Nations' and on National Music deserve honourable
mention. The ' Dictionary of Musical Terms,' edited by Stainer and
Barrett, and published in 1876, supplied a great want, and
is still useful, though superseded noAv to some extent by the
much more complete ' Dictionary of Music and Musicians,'
edited by Sir George Grove, to which all the most eminent
authorities have contributed. This work, in addition to a
mass of information upon almost every conceivable musical
subject, contains an admirable series of lives of the principal
musicians, each in bulk almost equal to a separate volume,
and in research and grasp of the subject far ahead of any
thing before attempted in this country.
The newspapers have not failed to adapt themselves to
the evident requirements of the age, and noAV every paper
of importance in London or the provinces has on its
staff a competent musical critic. Noav works and new
performers are judged with unfailing keenness and in most
cases with great freedom from bias. Music has had its OAvn
organs during all the period we have under review — the
principal being the before-mentioned Musical World ; the
Dramatic and Musical Revieiu, commenced in 1843 ; the

MUSIC 6ol
Musical Examiner, edited by J. W. Davison ; the JSIonthly
Musical Times (Novello), Avhich has proved the most stable
of all and is in vigorous life at this time ; the Musical
Standard, and noAV again the Musical World.
An account of musical literature would not be complete
without some mention of the analytical programmes so
common now, which make concerts so much more instruc
tive and interesting to the unlearned listener. According
to Sir George Grove, the first attempt in this direction
was made in 1841 by Mr. Thomson, Professor of Music
in the University of Edinburgh, for the concerts of the
Professional Society in that place. These have gradually
grown into the shape we know so well in connection with
the Monday Popular Concerts, the Crystal Palace Concerts,
and the Richter series. The chief Avriters have been J. W.
Davison, Sir George Macfarren, Herr Pauer, and Sir
George Grove.
The publication of music itself has well kept pace Avitli Pubiioa-
^ '- tion of
the increased demand. music.
In 1840 the Musical Antiquarian Society commenced
the issue of works by the composers of the Madrigalian
era — Byrd, Wilbye, Weelkes, Gibbons, Purcell, and others.
In many cases scores of these compositions Avere only ob
tained by copying out the single parts.
The Motett Society, founded in 1847 by William Dyce,
followed on the same lines, but did not confine itself to the
works of English writers — Palestrina, Lasso, Croce, Vittoria,
and others appearing side by side with TaUis, Bedford,
and Farrant. In this case all the compositions were
sacred. The PurceU Society, founded in 1876, issued two
numbers only, the ' Yorkshire Feast Song ' and ' Timon of
Athens,' and then coUapsed. There is now some prospect
of its revival. These publications were too expensive to
become popular, but they have been largely drawn upon in

6o2 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
later and cheaper collections. Of these it may perhaps
be sufficient to name HuUah's 'Part Music' and Henry
Leslie's' Choral Music,' both admirably edited and both
cheap. The Bach Choir Magazine, edited by Otto Gold-
schmidt, has rescued many valuable works from oblivion.
The great music-publishing house of Novello has taken the
lead in providing cheap music. J. Alfred Novello, the
son of Vincent Novello (himself the editor of PurceU' s
Sacred Music), was the first person to discover that music
could be supplied in large quantities at a low price, and
that the necessary demand might be created by bringing
out cheap editions of standard works. Type-printing of
music, Avhich first came into use in 1846, helped largely
to diminish the expense. In that year ' The Messiah ' and
' The Creation ' were issued in sixpenny numbers. Now a
large number of oratorios may be bought complete for
one shilling. To the same enterprising house is due the
attempt to abolish the custom of pricing sheet-music at
twice its real value at least. The music-sellers could then
(and in some instances now) obtain seven copies of a piano
forte piece or a song at the price of one. This was simply
an underhand way of increasing the insufficient fees paid
for music lessons. Messrs. Novello marked a reduced price
on their music, which did not alloAV of more than a reason
able profit to the distributor.
In 1846, too, octavo editions were introduced by the same
firm, who publish nearly all their oratorios, anthems, and
service books in that shape. Other houses have helped in
this good cause. Boosey's ' Musical Cabinet Series ' and
Chappell's Musical Magazine may be mentioned in this
connection. With the powerful aid of Peters of Leipzig
and Litolff, the best music has now been brought within
the reach of aU. Even full scores which, from the limited
demand, were the most expensive of all, have been made

MUSIC 603
accessible. One instance of this extraordinary change in
price may be quoted as an example. The organ works of
Mendelssohn Avere published in this country at a guinea and
a half ; they may noAV be had, beautifully printed, and with
the addition of the three preludes and fugues for the same
instrument, for fifteen pence.
The manufacture of musical instruments has made improve-
great progress during the last half-century. The most ™stoi.°
popular of all, the pianoforte, has been increased in com- "^^^*^-
pass, enriched in tone, and strengthened in construction to
resist the demands made upon it by the enlarged concert-
rooms and the severe handling of modern public performers.
It is now estimated that 40,000 pianos are made annuaUy
in this country, nearly all in London, and, though many
of these are exported, this loss is more than made up by
the import of German and American instruments. After
the piano no instrument is so extensively used as the
harmonium. It is of French invention, and may be said
to be noAV during this reign. In spite of its fatiguing and
even harsh tone, the harmonium, with which Ave may in
clude the American and the Mustel organs, has a value of
its OAvn. It is inexpensive, portable, keeps Avell in tune,
and supplies the place of an organ in many churches and
schools Avhich could not afford money or space for a larger
instrument. The organ itself has had its poAver doubled, its variety
of tone largely extended, by the invention of many new
and beautiful stops, its mechanisms improved, so that the
additional AVork throAvn upon the player by increased size
has been more than neutralised, and its compass changed to
the German arrangement. Upon the old G organ it Avas not
possible to play the fugues of Bach. Engines for blowing,
made necessary by the increased demand for Avind, have
been invented, moved by AA'ater and gas. By means of the

6o4 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
pneumatic tubular transmission of Willis, and the electrical
invention of Bryceson, the instrument can now be controlled
at any distance from the player. This aggrandisement of
the organ, so to speak, has not been an unmixed good.
Increased power has been obtained in many cases at the
expense of sweetness of tone, and the tendency has been to
make the instrument a mere caricature of the orchestra.
Organs have multiplied past counting during the last fifty
. years. Now almost every church and Dissenting chapel
possesses one. Concert halls, such as the Albert Hall, St.
George's Hall, Leeds ToAvn Hall, have enormous instru
ments, and even the conservative churches of Scotland
have given way, and have introduced the ' kist o' whistles '
into their service. Other instruments have been brought
under better control by various ingenious inventions : those
belonging to the wood wind by Boehm's system ; brass
instruments by valves and other contrivances, which,
though facilitating execution, have not always had a good
effect upon the quality of tone.
The orchestra itself has been increased in size in order
to meet the requirements of the enlarged concert-rooms,
and, it may here be said, that for perfect music things
have been running too large for some time past ; the line
may perhaps be drawn at the point Avhere the number
of stringed instruments makes a doubled wind band a
necessity.
Church Turning now to Church music, the writer has been
music. favoured by the personal recoUections of the Bishop of
Chichester and Mr. Gladstone as to the state of religious
music early in this century. The bishop says : ' My
memory goes back to the first decade of this century. The
singing was limited to the performance of the new version
of the psalms, two portions of which were commonly sung
at each service. The musicians Avere some four or five of

MUSIC 605
the notables of the parish, the village clerk acting as pre
centor, and the singers, of about the same number and the
same class, all Avere ranged in the front of the western
gallery. The instruments chiefly in request Avere bassoons,
hautboys, flutes, clarionets, and sometimes a violoncello or
double bass. Psalms and canticles Avere read alternately
by minister and people, the people bearing their part far
better than is iioav usual. In towns, owing to the existence
of schools, the singing Avas often done by young girls in
their charity school dresses to the accompaniment of a
barrel-organ. As schools Avere established in villages, the
old choirs, with their varied accompaniments, made Avay for
the shrill voices of the female children. The change Avas
not popular, for the singers, with all their faults, Avere liked,
and the musicians were no less admired.'
The bishop, after remarking upon the greater musical
talent shown in Lancashire and West Yorkshire, gives a not
quite unfavourable account of the music in St. George's
Chapel, Windsor, and Winchester Cathedral, though the
superannuated lay clerks impressed him, and at Winchester
the feebleness and irreverence of the minor canons. He
also complains of the removal of the old SAveet-toned organs
for the modern harsh-sounding instruments.
Mr. Gladstone remembers Sunday services Avithout a
note of music. There can be no doubt that in 1837 the
Church service was in a deplorable state. A writer in the
Christian Remembrancer of 1841 says : ' Nothing is left us
but the Avretched substitute of the solitary voice of a priest
on the one part, and the voice of a clerk on the other, aided
by the Avhisperings of the few worshippers who have courage
enough to break silence.'
The barrel-organ, though it might grind out a hymn tune,
could not accompany chanting. Even the heterogeneous
band in the Avestern gaUery, though it might help in an

6o6 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
anthem, Avas unable to adapt itself to the mixed recitation and
measure required by a musical setting of the psalms. The
quickened spu-itual life of the Church made a fuller musical
expression of its services a necessity. Without the organ
this was impossible. Now, scarcely a village church but
has its organ or harmonium. We have quoted a graphic
account of the service in St. Paul's Cathedral in 1887.
Much later than this, the writer remembers Avhen ten
years old playing at a service in the same cathedral,
which was not much more efficient. The magnitude of the
change may be seen by any person Avho cares to attend
the Sunday service in St. Paul's now. The vast and
reverent crowd which gathers under the dome to listen to
the magnificent musical service and the eloquent sermon is
proof sufficient of the altered state of things. Even the
weekday services are noAv attended by more people than
could have been accommodated in the old choir before the
removal of the screen. So far as the cathedrals are con
cerned, the first sign of life was the commencement of nave
services. These were begun on the first Sunday in 1858, at
Westminster Abbey, at the earnest instigation of Archbishop
Tait, then Bishop of London. Now most of the cathedrals
have followed this good example, and in addition to regular
Sunday services, at special seasons, such as Advent and
Lent, Bach's Passion Music and Spohr's ' Last Judgment '
have been given, with greatly enlarged voluntary choirs,
and in many cases with orchestral accompaniment. Many
parish churches have been stirred into like activity.
In 1856 an event of great importance to Church music
took place. The first meeting of Associated Church Choirs
Avas held in Lichfield Cathedral. It would be difficult to
exaggerate the influence of this new movement on the
musical services of town and country churches. The ' Official
Year-Book of the Church of England for 1887 ' records the

MUSIC 607
names of 79 such associations. In one festival, that of
the Salisbury Diocesan Choral Association, no fewer than
220 choirs took part, with 2,200 voices. It Avill be readily
understood that after joining in such a festival the choirs
would not Avillingly return to a dull service in their own
churches. The manner in which music gradually over
spread the Church service is a little curious and characteris
tic of the English people. First, the hymns only were sung.
Then the Te Deum and canticles were added, then the
versicles and responses, afterwards the psalms ; but even
now, in deference to the prejudice of old-fashioned people,
the psalms are read at morning service in many churches,
and chanted only in the evening. The highest act of
worship, the celebration of the Holy Communion, was the
last to receive musical expression, and there are yet many
Church people to whom such treatment is distasteful.
Undoubtedly the hymns are the most popular part of
the musical service, and during the last fifty years an
enormous number of hymn-books has been published. Of
these, ' Hymns Ancient and Modern ' is the most Avidely
used, and some years ago 20,000,000 copies had been sold.
It is undoubtedly the High Church party which has
exercised the strongest influence upon Church music. To
them we owe the determined revival of the plain song. To
them also must be attributed the exclusion of the female
voice from choirs. There are not wanting signs that here
too the Avhirligig of time brings in its revenges. Girls and
women are again helping to lead the services, and the old
fiddlers and clarionet-players would have been soothed to
know that the orchestra would again make its appearance
in the Church with even greater numbers. The first
orchestral service of importance is said to have been the
performance of Bach's Passion Music in Westminster
Abbey, under the conductorship of Mr. Joseph Barnby.

6o8 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Such events are increasingly frequent both in cathedrals
and in parish churches. The service in Dissenting places
of worship does not give the same scope to musical treat
ment, and, though performances of oratorios are not un
common in chapels, the regular Sunday services cannot be
said to have shown much improvement. Almost every
town chapel now contains aii' organ, and many can boast
instruments of enormous size, but their use is someA\diat
limited.
: Musical We have already spoken of the great festivals which
festivals. ^^^^ \ie\^ at the beginning of the reign. Of these the
Birmingham, NorAvich, and Three Choirs Festivals are
still in full life. Nor must Leeds be forgotten, which in
augurated its new Town Hall in 1858 with a four-days'
festival under the direction of Sir Sterndale Bennett ; after
an interval of thirteen years the second Avas given, and it
has now established itself as a triennial event. The last
two, under Sir Arthur Sullivan, have placed this musical
gathering on a level even with the Birmingham Festival.
GlasgOAv and Bristol also hold successful meetings. Perhaps
no musical performance has excited such widespread inte
rest as the Handel Festival, designed to commemorate the
centenary of the composer's death in 1759. After a pre
liminary and most successful trial in 1857, the great
gathering took place in 1859 in the central transejit of the
Crystal Palace, the only building capable of accommodating
orchestra, chorus, and audience of such colossal proportions.
The band numbered 460, the chorus 2,700, and the aggre
gate audience amounted to 81,319. ' The Messiah ' and
' Israel in Egypt,' with the Dettingen Te Deum and a mis-
ceUaneous selection, were the works given. So successful an
enterprise could not faU to be repeated, and every third year
has seen a simUar gathering, generally with augmented
forces. Sir Michael Costa conducted aU the festivals until

MUSIC 609
the last, which was under the baton of Herr August Manns,
the well-knoAvn conductor of the Crystal Palace Concerts.
If we turn to ordinary concerts, a glance at the average concerts.
programme fifty years ago and now will show the much
more serious purpose with which music is presented to the
public at this time. We have already spoken of the
Philharmonic Society, and no praise could be too high for
its courageous efforts to bring out the best works, new and
old. It is pleasant to record that, under the guidance of
Sir Arthur Sullivan and an able committee, the society is
still full of life. The ' Concerts of Antient Music ' were con
tinued for some ten years of the reign, and doubtless excited
the desire, now so prevalent, to know more of old music.
The programmes, though mainly consisting of excerpts
from larger works, as was perhaps inevitable, are of the
greatest interest and show the widest research among hid
den musical treasures- It was the custom in this society
to place each concert under the patronage of some distin
guished man, who chose the programme for the evening ;
and it is interesting to find that Prince Albert undertook
this duty on no less than ten occasions. The music chosen
by him maybe found appended to Sir Theodore Martin's Life,
and the selection gives ample proof of the Prince's extensive
acquaintance with the music of aU schools. Prince Albert
also chose the music for many Philharmonic concerts. The
Sacred Harmonic Society, after half a century of good work,
has recently been dissolved and its fine library handed over
to the Royal College of Music. Mendelssohn and Spohr con
ducted some concerts of this society, and all the important
choral works Avere worthily given by it.
In 1849 was founded the Bach Society, which must not
be confounded Avith or eclipsed by the Bach Choir con
ducted by Otto Goldschmidt. Early in this century, Samuel
Wesley and Charles Horn, to their lasting credit, were acute
VOL. II. "^ R

6io THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
enough to discover for this country the transcendant genius
of John Sebastian Bach, but their influence upon general
opinion was not great, and it is no doubt owing to the
enthusiasm of Mendelssohn, heartily shared by Sir Stern
dale Bennett, that we owe the first general recognition of
his true position among composers. To the Bach Society
belongs the great honour of first performing in public in
this country the St. Matthew Passion Music. This took
place on April 6, 1854, and was conducted by Sir Sterndale
(then Dr.) Bennett. Later the first eleven movements of
the B minor Mass and the Christmas oratorio were given
under the same direction. The society was dissolved in
1870, but in 1875 another association, of amateurs mainly,
Avas formed under the name of the Bach Choir, directed by
Mr. Otto Goldschmidt. The new society, though not eon-
fining itself to the compositions of Bach, still made the
production of his music its chief motive, and at the first
concert in 1876 gave the first complete performance of
the great B minor Mass. This gigantic work has since
been repeated several times, once on a large scale in the
Albert Hall, and has made a profound impression. The
Bach Choir has also given the ' Missa Papse Marcelli ' of
Palestrina, the German ' Requiem ' of Brahms, and many
other works of importance then little known. It may here
be said that after ten years Mr. Goldschmidt resigned his
conductorship, to the great regret of the society, which is,
however, still prospering under the able direction of Dr.
C. V. Stanford. The most remarkable series of concerts
given during the half-century is undoubtedly the ' Monday
Popular Concerts ' of chamber music. The series began on
February 14, 1859, under the direction of Mr. S. Arthur
Chappell, and on April 4 of this present year the 1,000th
performance was given. Two performers, Messrs. Ries and
Piatti, who played at the first concert, appeared also at the

MUSIC 6ii
last, and during the whole period the enterprise has been
under the direction of Mr. Chappell. Such a record is
quite unmatched in musical history, and it would be difficult
to exaggerate the effect of these concerts upon the cultiva
tion of music in England. The musical taste of the country
has been partly led by and partly reflected in the pro
grammes, and it is interesting and instructive to notice the
rise and decline in public favour of prominent composers ;
but of this we shaU have more to say. Though it canilot
be said that before 1859 chamber music was unknown in
England, it was little appreciated by the public. Doubtless
Mr. John Ella with his Musical Union, commenced in 1845,
and ' Musical Winter Evenings,' established in 1850, prepared
the way ; but the influence of his concerts Avas confined
within much narrower limits. Almost every player of note
has appeared at the Mon,day Popular Concerts. It would
be impossible to give a complete list. Among the chief
may be named — for the piano, Madame Schumann, Marie
Krebs, Charles Halle, Hans von Biilow ; violin, Joachim,
Wilhelmj, Madame Norman Neruda. Piatti has almost
monopolised the 'cello. The Crystal Palace Saturday Con
certs have done for orchestral music work quite as im
portant as that done for chamber music by the Monday
Popular Concerts. This admirable series was commenced
in 1855, and more firmly established in 1860. Its educa
tional value has been very great. From the first the music
has been under the direction of the present gifted conductor,
Mr. Manns, who has, with the invaluable sympathy and co
operation of Sir George Grove, introduced to the English
people a large number of unknown and new works of the
highest interest, in addition to the constant and careful
performance of classical compositions. LoA'^ers of Schubert
and Schumann especially owe a debt of profound gratitude
to the promoters of these concerts, for it was here that
E E 2

6i2 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
many of their finest works were first presented in this
country. The Crystal Palace would have deserved well of
the English people if it had done nothing else than foster
and maintain its efficient orchestra. Choral music has also
been given, but it is mainly by its instrumental perform
ances that the Crystal Palace has acquired its well-earned
fame. In 1855 Henry Leslie formed the choir which bore his
name, and which was for many years the finest exponent of
unaccompanied part music. In 1878 this choir gained the
first prize at the international competition of choirs in Paris.
In 1879 Hans Richter paid his first visit to London and
conducted some orchestral works. Since then his concerts
have been among the most important events of the musical
season, nearly always including a Beethoven symphony
and some extract from a Wagner opera ; they have also
introduced the symphonies of Brahms, rhapsodies of Liszt,
&c. Nearly all this elaborate music is conducted by Herr
Richter from memory with wonderful verve, and with
catching enthusiasm.
Choral About a quarter of a century ago Mr. Barnby, who had
SOC16 iJ16S> earned his reputation as organist and director of music at
St. Andrew's, Wells Street, and St. Anne's, Soho, formed his
famous choir. Among its most notable achievements may
be mentioned the revival of 'Jephtha' and 'Theodora,' the
first adequate performance of the great St. Matthew Passion
of J. S. Bach, given also in Westminster Abbey under the
same direction. Mr. Barnby also conducted the London
Musical Society, which was the first to produce Dvorak's
' Stabat Mater ' and many neglected choral works of
Schumann. Mr. Barnby's chief work has been as con
ductor of the Albert Hall Choral Society, to which he was
appointed after it had been under the baton of Gounod for
one year. His chorus here of 850 voices is now probably

MUSIC 613
unequalled anywhere. With this and a band of 160 per
formers, Mr. Barnby has brought out almost every AVork
of importance from ' The Messiah ' down to ' Parsifal.' So
great is the popularity of the society that in its last season of
ten concerts the aggregate attendance amounted to 87,000.
In addition to the resuscitated Sacred Harmonic Society
under Mr. Cummings, London possesses a large number
of choral and orchestral associations of which it would be
impossible to give even the names. The musical activity
of the country is fairly shown by the list of such bodies
in London and the provinces, a list which, though not
complete, occupies 28 pages of the ' Musical Directory.'
For music in the provinces, no person has done as much
as Mr. Charles Halle. His fine orchestra has not only
kept Manchester well abreast of musical progress, but has
visited every town of importance in the North of England. To
Mr. Halle belongs the credit of the first performance of Ber
lioz's 'Faust' and of Schumann's Requiem. Afeature of great
importance in modern music is the introduction of recitals,
chiefly of pianoforte music. The term is said by Grove to
have been first used in connection with a performance of
Liszt's in the Hanover Square Rooms in 1840. It was
adopted by Mr. Halle, Avho gave to such performances ad
ditional importance by presenting the Beethoven Sonatas
in chronological order. Pianoforte music from the earliest
times has been given on the same chronological plan. Now
the custom has been followed by every great pianist down
to Rubinstein and Pachmann.
The great improvement in military bands must not pass
without remark, nor the increase in the number of brass
bands in the North of England. Doubtless the visits of
foreign bands to this country and the competitions at
various Exhibitions have done much to arouse emulation
and to stimulate activity.

6x4

THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA

Operatio
music.

Social
music.

Within the limits at our disposal it would be impossible
to give even in the baldest outline the fortunes of the Opera
during the last fifty years. The main feature is the decay
and almost death of Itahan opera. Weber, Meyerbeer in
his later works, Gounod, and Wagner have at least made
the Bellini and Donizetti school, with its trivialities and
want of earnestness, quite unbearable. At the beginning
of the period we have under review, English operatic com
posers were by no means neglected. Balfe, Wallace, and
Loder won considerable fame, and their works were success
fully given not only in this country but abroad. Even now
some of the best are occasionally given ; but they live
mainly through a few attractive songs. Now again English
composers are coming to the front — Mackenzie, Goring
Thomas, and Stanford among others.
So far as this department of music is concerned, the
most conspicuous triumph has been won on the lower level
of comic operetta. For some years now, London has never
been without some work from Mr. Gilbert and Sir Arthur
SuUivan. ' Pinafore,' ' Patience,' ' The Pirates of Penzance,'
' lolanthe,' the ' Mikado,' and now ' Euddigore,' have pro
vided the nation with unfailing amusement. The libretti
generally contrive to bring out some prevailing folly, are
written Avith great skill and fitted to exquisite music, with
melodies so natural and flowing that it is difficult to believe
they are original. With dainty orchestration, perfect
mounting, and good acting, these operettas have thoroughly
deserved their popularity, and the only regret is that such
good workmanship should be bestowed upon trivial themes
of ephemeral interest.
Social music has made great advances during the fifty
years. If, as we have said, it was considered effeminate for
a man to play at all, half a century since it would have
been thought at least unfeminine for a woman to play the

MUSIC 615
violin, much more the 'ceUo or double bass. Now ladies
play them all, and even the clarionet and oboe, without
exciting much remark. Lady Folkestone conducts an
orchestra consisting exclusively of ladies. The piano no
longer monopolises drawing-room music. Not only is there
greater variety in the instruments, but the music is of a
much higher class. A weU-played string quartette may
now often be heard in society. In pianoforte music the
operatic air embroidered with semiquavers has given place to
Bach, Beethoven Chopin, Schumann, Sterndale Bennett, with
infinite advantage to the art. The transcriptions of Thalberg
and Liszt, though fuU of most delicate effects and present
ing great temptations to the virtuoso, have noAV almost
vanished from the concert-room and the salon. Of the
feeble works of later writers in the same style it is difficult
to speak with patience. The choice of songs, too, shows
evidence of the great improvement in the appreciation of
real merit. This is not to be wondered at when we re
member that fifty years ago the great song- writer, Schubert,
was unknown. In addition to his six hundred songs we
have now those of Schumann, Mendelssohn, Franz, Jensen,
Brahms, Rubinstein, not to speak of our own Sterndale
Bennett, Hatton, Smart, and living English writers too
numerous to mention. Even here, however, change has
not been all to the good — the inanities of the songs of fifty
years ago were better than the fervid folly of some that
may be heard now.
In composition, English music has made a great ad- Com-
vance, and almost entirely during the present reign. From
the time of PurceU to the accession of Queen Victoria,
English composers, though producing much excellent work,
confined themselves within a narrow range. Church music
absorbed a very large part. Glees, the one exclusively
English possession, had long been brought to perfection, and

6i6 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
it may here be said that the present neglect of this branch
of vocal music is much to be regretted. It is true that
English Avriters have almost continuously produced so-
called operas and cantatas, but it is by their smaller works
they will live. Precisely at the commencement of the
period we have under review, English composers began to
challenge criticism in wider fields, and to Sterndale Bennett
belongs the honour of the change. His orchestral over
tures, symphonies, concertos, cantatas (sacred and secular),
church music, chamber music, not only won general accept
ance at the time both in England and in Germany, but
they still hold their own in spite of severe competition, and
show no signs of becoming antiquated. Classical in form
and clear in construction, his music has refinement without
weakness, and grace without sentimentality. The estima
tion in which he was held by German musicians was con
clusively shown by the offer which was made to him in
1853 of the Conductorship of the Gewandhaus Concerts at
Leipzig. The chief work of Sir Henry Bishop was done before
1837, but he lived until 1855, and in 1848 was made Pro
fessor of Music in the University of Oxford. The operas
of Balfe and Wallace have already been spoken of. Mr.
Rockstro, in his ' History of Music,' says truly that the
unexampled popularity of Mendelssohn undoubtedly deterred
many English musicians from trying their strength in
oratorio. Pierson, Horsley, Ouseley, Macfarren, Sullivan,
Mackenzie and Stanford have, nevertheless, produced works
which excited great interest, and even enthusiasm. With
reference to these the time test has been applied in some
cases with unfavourable results, in some it is stUl pending.
Some of the most enduring work has been done in smaller
ways. Church music has absorbed the attention of many
of our most gifted musicians. The anthems of Dr. S. S.

MUSIC 6 17
Wesley show no signs of diminishing popularity, and his
service in E with its famous preface has probably affected
the music of the English Church more than any other
single composition. To it we owe the lively but often
boisterous settings of sacred words which have dulled our
ears to the calm beauty of the old music. In later life Dr.
Wesley himself regretted this, and the writer possesses a
letter from him in which he speaks of his growing affection
for and return to the old Church School. Sir John Goss
has also acquired enduring fame by finished work on small
lines. His anthems and glees are stUl in constant use.
The anthem ' 0 Saviour, of the World ' may be cited as one
of the most beautiful compositions of this century. Henry
Smart and J. L. Hatton, both writers of large works, Avill
probably live in their songs and part-songs. Of the
numerous composers who are noAV fighting their Avay to the
front it would be impossible to speak here. The ferment
in the musical world is remarkable, the amount of so-called
original composition enormous. Much of it is kept before
the public for a time by clever ' log-rolling,' but its ulti
mate fate is certain.
In looking back fifty years we find that the estimation Estima-
of great composers has varied considerably. Handel and great
Beethoven stand much where they did. Bach has made an
astonishing advance. Schubert and Schumann have also
established their claims to a place among the greatest
men. On the other hand, the popularity of Mendelssohn
has slightly waned. Spohr also hardly holds the position
he once claimed. Gounod has probably not advanced in
public estimation by- his recent oratorios, the ' Redemp
tion ' and ' Mors et Vita,' and his chances of a prominent
place in the highest ranks must still rest on ' Faust ' and
other operas. Berlioz, who had for years been regarded
mainly as an eccentric master of orchestration, suddenly

composers.

6i8 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
sprang into the highest favour after the performance of
' Faust ' in Manchester under . Mr. HaUe. This drew the
attention of musical men to other unheard works of his.
The gigantic but bizarre ' Messe des Morts ' wUl probably
hardly sustain the impression produced by ' Faust,' but the
' TeDeum,' first heard two years ago at the Crystal Palace,
is more intelligible, and may live. Brahms has earned for
himself a foremost place by his Chamber Music, his German
Requiem, and his Symphonies. Too abstruse and learned
for the general public, his music appeals to the cultivated
artist more powerfully than that of any other living writer.
Rheinberger and Raff have also met with much appreciation
in this country. The personal enthusiasm of Liszt's fol
lowers gained a hearing for many of his compositions which
would hai-dly on other grounds have deserved performance :
but, in spite of perfect rendering by the Richter Orchestra,
they were received in England with very obviously forced
approval. This is not the place for the statement or discussion of
Wagner's theory and practice of the art. The most oppo
site views about his works are held by people who ought to
know, but there can be no doubt that his influence upon
English musicians has been profound. The expense and
difficulty of giving adequate performance of his operas is so
great that they are mainly known through the fragments
presented in concert rooms, though this practice is in direct
contradiction to the composer's views. When so given,
they nevertheless excite the greatest enthusiasm.
Nearly all the great musicians of the Continent have
visited this country during the last., fifty years, and have
kept us en rapport with the state of the art in other lands,
especially in Germany.
The Prmce Consort's influence in this way can hardly
be overrated, not merely because it was exerted always on

MUSIC 619
the side of the best things, but also on account of the wel
come which — largely through him — was accorded to great
musicians. His intercourse with Mendelssohn is so fully
before the world, that it is needless to dwell upon it here.
To the Prince we owe the first performance in this country
(though not public) of Bach's ' St. Matthew Passion,' Men
delssohn's 'Athalie' and ' GEdipus,' and Schubert's Sym
phony in C. The quickening effect of Mendelssohn's many
visits is still evident. Spohr, Berlioz, and Wagner were
all warmly received. Almost every singer and performer
of note has chaUenged the criticism of the London musical
pubhc. Some, like Madame Lind-Goldschmidt, have made
this country their home; others, Uke Joachim, never fail
to make a stay of some months.
What, then, is the prospect for music in England ? If Pro-
an almost feverish activity and competition in every branch of music
— composition, performance, and criticism — could bring futui^e.
about great results, we need have no fear. For composers,
the constantly increasing claims of social intercourse are
the great danger. Individuality must suffer from the bustle
and friction of life.
Pecuniary gam, the lowest but not the least powerful
incentive, is not on the side of the best work. Single songs
have brought to their fortunate composers more money than
almost any oratorio. Sullivan himself is said to have
received 700Z. for one song. Few publishers would under
take to bring out a cantata or symphony unless it had been
adopted by the committee of one of our great festivals.
Honour, therefore, is due to many composers for a large
amount of work that could never be remunerative. A large
proportion of music that is written now impresses us not so
much by its depth of thought and feeling as by the force
and fury of its expression. With regard to literature, John
Morley has recently said, ' The probabilities are that we are

620 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
noAV coming to an epoch of a quieter style,' In music too,
in sacred music especially, a similar tendency is much to be
desired, but signs of it are so far wanting.
Musicians can at least feel secure that their art is
no longer regarded by thinking men merely as the most
expensive of noises, or as a means of obtaining pleasurable
sensations. Its effects on mind and heart, though not yet
understood, are nevertheless studied, and philosophers like
Herbert Spencer forecast for it a future beyond the aims,
beyond even the dreams, of musicians themselves. ,
Walter Parratt.

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