c "lis (Rmixtll ^nivmii^ ^Mm^ Qmrnmrn miKmSmsMm FROM THE FUND GIVEN BY in- habitants, and all the other towns together, including market towns which were not much more than villages, mustered about 800,000, the two largest, Bristol and Norwich, having scarcely 30,000 each. The State of Agriculture Agriculture was, of course, the mainstay of the country. Agriculturally the country was divided into the "open field" or "champion" districts, and the "woodlands" or enclosed districts. The relative position of these districts is indicated pretty accurately by the map facing page 39, the open field dis- tricts forming a wide belt stretching from the coasts of York- shire, Lincoln, and Norfolk on the North Sea, to those of Dorset, Hampshire, and West Sussex on the Channel ; while both the southeastern corner of the country, including Kent, Surrey, most of Sussex and Essex, and the greater part of Suffolk, was "enclosed," and also Wales, Devon, and Cornwall and the West generally. The terms "open" and "enclosed" must be understood as applying to the cultivated land only. Thus in Devonshire, for example, a typical enclosed country, not only did Dartmoor and Exmoor cover much greater areas than at the present day, but throughout the county there were numerous and extensive, though smaller, wastes, covered with heather, ling, gorse, and bracken, and serving as common pasturages for the sheep, cat- tle, and ponies of the neighbouring hamlets, and as a common supply of fuel, in the shape of turf and gorse, and of litter, in the shape of dry bracken. In the northern and northwestern counties such common wastes were even more extensive ; and in Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland prob- ably made up more than half the area. The cultivated land, however, in those areas on the map which are unshaded, south of Lancashire, was divided up into small fields or closes, mostly by quickset hedges, much as it is at the present day. The farms were mostly very small, but each farmer managed xvi INTRODUCTION his own farm independently of his neighbors, though of course subject to his landlord, if he were a tenant. In the open-field country the conditions and methods of agriculture were altogether different, and much more closely resembled those obtaining in Central Russia up to very recent years than those of either modern England or America. Here the whole parish, averaging perhaps three thousand acres, formed the unit of cultivation. Farmers and labourers had their houses and cottages, with but few exceptions, clustered to- gether in a village more or less centrally situated. The parish boundaries ran in such a way as to comprise a fair proportion of the various sorts of land in the locality, commonly stretch- ing from the banks of a stream to the watershed of the next valley. The lowest ground adjoining the water-course was meadow. Such meadows were held in partnership by the va- rious occupiers of land in the parish, there were certain stones or wooden pegs in them in known spots, and, by the help of these, when the hay was ready to cut, the meadows were di- vided up, by lot or by rotation or other local custom, and each peasant cut the hay on his own portion. As soon as the hay was carried off, the meadow became a common pasture, into which the peasants turned their cows according to the known proportion, or "recognised stint." The arable fields began where the ground began to rise from the bottom of the valley. Usually a road, of a sort, connected the villages along the same side of the valley, roughly parallel to the stream, but keeping to the lower slopes of the hills; and each village was placed where some small spring or tributary rivulet crossed the road. Such roads, therefore, intersected the arable land of village after village, but unequally, the larger area lying above the road, the smaller below it, between the village and the meadow. Beyond and above the arable land again were the common pastures: ewe downs, cow downs, tur- baries, woods, and wastes. Broad drifts descended from these to the village, traversing the arable. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the most com- mon systems of managing the arable land were the three- INTRODUCTION xvii field system still followed in South Russia, and the still more primitive two-field system. Under the three-field system the whole of the arable land was divided into three fields, and every year one of the three lay fallow. The fallow field was sown with autumn grain, either wheat or rye ; after the crop was car- ried the stubble was grazed upon in common, and when the land was bare it was ploughed in the winter to be sown again in the spring with barley, oats, peas, or beans. Again, after this crop was carried, the field became commonable, and remained so through the following year, during which it lay fallow and was gradually ploughed for wheat or rye. As each of the three fields followed this rotation, every year there was one field under wheat or rye, one under spring com, and one fallow. These arable fields covered on an average about half the area of the parish, so that the usual size for each field would be about five hundred acres. Each field again was divided into some hundreds of long oblong strips, the ideal dimensions of which were, in length, one furlong, in breadth, one, two, or four poles. Actually the length varied very greatly, but the breadth was almost always a pretty exact multiple of the pole of five and one half yards. In area, again, these strips were most fre- quently approximate acres or half acres, though quarter acres were not uncommon, and in some places the fields were di- vided pretty exactly into strips of two or three acres each. A typical holding would consist of about twenty acres, scattered over the whole area of the three arable fields, in the form of six or seven separate acres, or thirteen or fourteen half acres, in each field, together with a share in the meadow and rights of pasturage over the meadow after hay harvest, over the stubble on the arable after the com harvest, and over the common pas- tures. Thus every holding in the village was intermixed with every other holding, and, necessarily, much time was lost by the individual cultivator in going from strip to strip, to plough, or sow, or reap. There can be little doubt that this intermix- ture of holdings was a survival from an earlier time when the peasants clubbed together to equip ploughs with oxen, and the combined plough teams ploughed an acre on Monday for xviii INTRODUCTION one partner, and one on Tuesday for the next, till each had had his turn, and then began again. By the beginning of the eigh- teenth century, however, individual ploughing had become the rule in England and Wales, though cooperative ploughing was still the more usual practice in Scotland. The abandonment of coSperative ploughing was followed by a tendency of occu- piers to make exchanges one with another, so as to get con- tiguous strips instead of separated ones. There were, of course, recognised ways across the arable fields, which were left un- ploughed, and by which access to all parts of them could be obtained. In some villages it was also the rule that a "mere" or "balk" of unploughed land, about a foot wide, should be left to form a boundary between every pair of contiguous strips; but this practice had the disadvantage of harbouring weeds, and it was more usual to agree to dispense with any visible boundary, beyond the turning of the sod in one direction for one occupier, and in the opposite for his neighbour. Sometimes quarrels ensued, but the peasantry, as a rule, understood the importance of neighbourliness and fair-play. In one of the last surviving open-field parishes, Castor and Ailesworth in North- amptonshire, two men disputed over the ownership of a foot's breadth of land between their strips, and each kept a plough on the spot, and alternately one ploughed it into his strip, and the other back into his. But such conduct was regarded as an amusing eccentricity by the rest of the village. It happened in the same place that one year one field was sown with peas, and before the crop was gathered a great storm swept all the plants off the field against the wall of an adjoining park belonging to Earl Fitzwilliam. But without any quarrelling or unpleasantness each farmer took what he calculated was his proper share of the whole. This three-field system was by no means universal. A good many villages practised a two-field system of alternate crop and fallow, and there is indeed some reason for thinking that it was more widely used. Others, again, followed a four-field sys- tem, with the rotation (i) wheat or rye, (2) barley or oats, (3) peas or beans, and (4) fallow. INTRODUCTION six It was specially in the management of stock that the com- munal character of open-field husbandry was noticeable. The two objects of sheep-rearing and corn-growing were combined; the sheep belonging to different villagers formed one flock, in the care of the village shepherd, who led them out every morn- ing on to the common pastures, which formed the most remote, and in undulating country the highest, portion of the village lands, and at evening brought them back to the arable field that was lying fallow, and penned them in a fold for the night. He had to make a new fold every day, and arrange that in the course of the year every part of the fallow field should be occu- pied for one night by the fold, and the whole be equally en- riched by the manure dropped by the sheep. The village also kept a bull and boar for the common benefit, and the selection of these important animals was one of the most delicate duties of the annually elected "reeve" or "foreman." Sheep were valued more for their wool and "folding quality " — i.e., for the propensity to deposit manure at night in the fold rather than by day — than for their flesh. They were long-legged, slow in coming to maturity, and overstocking was so much practised that it was only as they got old and cunning that they fat- tened. The open-field districts were by no means entirely lacking in hedges. Small closes used as paddocks were common immedi- ately round the villages; and walls or hedges might be made along the parish boundary, both to separate the common pas- ture of one village from that of another, and to provide shelter. Similarly the meadow might be separated from the arable fields by a hedge; but not the arable fields from the common pas- ture, because the boundary was indeterminate; the better the ploughing season, the further the arable stretched. The enclosed districts had a much larger proportion of their area under grass, and devoted much more attention to the production of meat and dairy products; the traditional associa- tion of Devonshire and Dorset with butter, of Somerset (Ched- dar), Gloucestershire, and Cheshire with cheese, holds to this day. A greater variety of crops was cultivated in the south- XX INTRODUCTION eastern corner of England, Kent particularly being famous for cherry orchards and hop gardens. Throughout the eighteenth century there was controversy over the respective advantages of oxen and horses for plough- ing. Those controversialists who found their way into print generally advocated oxen, but this did not prevent a practical preference for horses from being gradually established. During the first half of the century, however, the type of ox that was most admired was one more suitable for the plough than for the butcher, with big, solid bones. Every parish, whether in the open-field or the enclosed coun- try, was a unit of social life and governmental organization. There was much rivalry between village and village. In the East Riding of Yorkshire a primitive but exciting form of foot- ball was played annually. The ball was placed where the road from one village to another crossed the common boundary. All the men turned out, those who could manage it on horse- back. Each side endeavoured to get the ball into the centre of the enemy village, and as the footmen charged along the road, the horsemen stood ready to catch the ball if it were thrown out. The mounted player who caught it rode at full speed across the fields pursued by the riders of the opposition, who hammered him on the head with their heavy whip handles when they overtook him, and leaving him stunned on the ground, and seizing the ball, rode in their turn for the goal of their desires. In rural England the word "foreigner" might mean, almost indifferently, a man from the next county or a man from the next village. Each parish had to appoint annually, either by election of the parishioners, or selection by some neighbouring justice of the peace, two churchwardens, two overseers, one constable, and one surveyor; and commonly it also appointed other offi- cials. The special duty of the churchwardens was to maintain the fabric of the parish church, appoint and superintend the sexton, and do all the business necessary for the proper observ- ance of public worship, in co5peration with the incumbent. For these purposes they were authorised to levy a church-rate. INTRODUCTION xxi The two churchwardens were also responsible, in conjunction with the overseers, for the relief of poverty. They had to pro- vide able-bodied destitute persons with employment, maintain sick, aged, widows and orphans, and apprentice poor children, for these purposes levying the poor-rates. The constable was responsible for the observance of the law, and had to report offences to the justices, and to arrest offenders. The surveyor had to keep the parish roads in order. He could call upon all the men of the parish for six days' unpaid labour in the year, and on those who possessed them for carts, horses, and road- mending material. All these village officials were unpaid, and acceptance of office was compulsory, though possession of a "Tyburn ticket," granted to any one who apprehended a felon, gave exemption from service. All also worked under the super- vision of the county justices of the peace, who in rural districts were almost exclusively landlords or clergymen. Upon the activity, public spirit, and good sense of these functionaries, also unpaid, the happiness of the countryside largely depended. Of the other village officials that might, or might not, be ap- pointed, the reeve or foreman, whose duties have already been indicated, was perhaps the most important of all in open-field villages. These too found it necessary to have a "hayward " or "pinder," whose duty it was to put stray animals in the village pound, and keep them there till the owners redeemed them by paying a fine. Then we hear of "dog-whippers" to drive stray dogs out of church during divine service; "chimney-peepers" to inspect chimneys and see that they were not likely to set the neighbour's thatch on fire, and many more. The general body of inhabitants were summoned at Easter to a general meeting presided over by the incumbent, to elect the churchwardens, receive reports and accounts, and make by-laws for the parish. The election of the foreman or reeve, on the other hand, and the passing of resolutions relating to the management 6i com- mon fields, meadows, or pastures, took place at meetings held under the presidency of the lord or steward of the manor. Some idea of the state of agricultural efficiency and of the economic condition of the agricultural population is given by xxii INTRODUCTION Gregory King's estimates. He calculates the total area of Eng- land and Wales at 39,000,000 acres, divided up as follows: — Arable 11,000,000 acres Pasture and meadow 10,000,000 Woods and coppices 3,000,000 Forests, parks, and commons 3,000,000 Heaths, moors, and wastes 10,000,000 Houses, homesteads, gardens and orchards, etc.. 1,000,000 Rivers and lakes 500,000 Roads and roadside waste 500,000 The average rent paid for arable land he puts at 5s. lOd. per acre ; that of pasture and meadow at 9^. per acre. These rents were about double those paid a century earlier, and were destined to be increased very much more during the century that followed. King calculated that the 11,000,000 acres of arable land produced 12,000,000 bushels of wheat, 8,000,000 of rye, 25,000,000 of barley, 16,000,000 of oats, 7,000,000 of peas, 4,000,000 of beans, and 1,000,000 of vetches. If we suppose that of the 11,000,000 acres of arable land in any year there were 4,000,000 acres of fallow, the remaining 7,000,000 acres produced, on the average, only io§ bushels of grain per annum, in addition to the seed. The average crop of barley appears to have been about 15 bushels per acre; of wheat and rye about 13 bushels. It will be noticed that there is no mention of potatoes, turnips, or other roots. From the point of view of the consumption of food he divides the total population into three classes: — (i) The class that pays poor-rates, and which (except in the case of sickness or infancy) eats fish or flesh every day, num- bering 3,540,000. (2) The class that through poverty is excused the payment of rates, but is not poor enough to receive help from the poor- rates, numbering 1,760,000. These only eat meat twice a week. (3I The class that does receive help from the poor-rates, and which does not eat meat more than once a week, numbering 1,200,000. INTRODUCTION xxiii There must, by the way, be some mistake in his calculations, as these numbers add up to 6,500,000, and he makes the total population only 5,500,000. His estimate of the average inhabitant's consumption of food per annum, reckoned in money values, is also rather striking. Itis: — £ s. d. Bread, corn, etc 15 8 Flesh-meat 12 o Butter, cheese, and milk 8 5 Ale and beer I i i Wine, spirits, and strong liquor 4 8 Fish, fowl, and eggs 6 2 Fruit, roots, and garden stuff 4 4 Salt, oil, groceries, etc 4 o What is perhaps here most noticeable is that the expenditure on animal food, given under three heads, is put at 26s. 'ji. ; that on bread at only 155. 8(f., in spite of the fact that relatively to bread, meat was then much cheaper than it is now, and eggs, milk, and cheese very much cheaper. It is also interesting to note the large consumption of alcoholic drinks. But with regard to this ale and beer it must be remembered that brewing was a home industry, and the beer was generally drunk while only partially fermented, so that it was a fattening and nour- ishing drink rather than an intoxicating one. Wheaten bread was not yet commonly eaten by the poorer classes, at least in the country. Their loaf was made of "mes- lin," a mixture of wheat and rye, and, on occasion, other grains. Bread of any sort, however, was not so important as it became before the end of the century, as varieties of "fru- menty" or porridge, of wheat, rye, barley, or oatmeal, were really the staple food, fuel being generally to be had for the getting, and hot meals being preferred to cold. Communica- tions were so bad, and the obstacles placed by the administra- tion of the poor-law to migration so difificult to surmount, that wages and prices varied very widely within quite small dis- tances ; and in case of local failures of the harvest, there might be starvation in one village, and plenty within a radius of xxiv INTRODUCTION twenty miles. The operation of the poor-law should have made starvation impossible, because any village that could not main- tain its own poor had the right to call upon the other villages of the same hundred for assistance, and if that failed, upon the whole county. On the whole, however, the labourer in the fields in the first half of the eighteenth century was much better fed than in the first half of the nineteenth. His bread or porridge was pretty adequately supplemented by eggs, milk, and cheese, if not by meat. Beer or cider was commonly supplied by the employer, and consumed in enormous quantities; at harvest time the labourer had his fill of cow-beef and ewe-mutton, and at other times game was abundant, and the machinery for preventing poaching still very imperfect. About one quarter of the cultivated land was the property of small peasant owners who worked their own farms, and these with their families comprised about one quarter of the rural population. These were more frequently copyholders than freeholders, i.e., they had to pay quit-rents to the lord of the manor, and certain fines when the property passed from a dead man to his heir. Copyholds, moreover, were subject to a definite local custom with regard to inheritance. In Kent they had to be equally divided between the sons of the deceased holder; generally they were inherited by the eldest son, but in a good many manors by the youngest. Apart from glebe lands, the remainder of the agricultural land belonged to lords of manors and other large owners, whose numbers were being continually recruited by men who made money by trade, and who desired to acquire social consequence by the purchase of estates. Nearly all this land was let out to quite small tenants, though with the beginning of the eighteenth century land- owners took to doing some farming on their own account. The entirely landless labourer was rare. It was illegal for more than one agricultural labourer to be housed in one cottage, or for a cottage to be let to an agricultural labourer without four acres of land. Though this law was by no means scrupulously observed, most labourers had two or three acres in the common fields, in the open-field districts, or large gardens in the enclosed INTRODUCTION xxv districts. Cottages were not too abundant, and it was not al- ways easy for a labourer to get permission to build a hut for himself when he was able and willing. Young labourers there- fore frequently had to remain as lodgers in a farmer's house, un- married, until a cottage fell vacant, saving'up meanwhile. Once started, however, with a cottage and a small parcel of land, there was a pretty fair chance, in the open-field districts, for the labourer to add by degrees to his holding, till he ceased to depend on wages at all. The country was much healthier than London, which might fairly be described as pestilential ; but it suffered from an utter lack of medical service, from complete ignorance of hygiene, and from endemic small-pox, with a plentiful accompaniment of other infectious diseases. Manufactures By far the most important manufacture was that of woollen cloth, an industry that had been fostered during preceding generations by kings and statesmen from the time of Edward III. On this point of national policy the newly established Par- liamentary Government was equally thoroughgoing. The van- tage-ground on which the industry was based was the superior- ity of British wool. Accordingly the export of English wool, unmanufactured, was entirely forbidden, and Ireland was re- quired to send all her wool to England. This prohibition, to- gether with the heavy import duties on all French goods, stimulated smuggling on all the coast from Yorkshire to Corn- wall, and in Ireland. Even magistrates were frequently ac- complices, and in Kent and Sussex in England, and Cork and Kerry in Ireland, the smugglers were organised in desperate bands under chiefs whose names have come down to us, who, on occasion fought battles with the coast guards and soldiery. Further, to develop the home trade, laws were passed com- pelling the wearing of woollen caps, and the burial of the dead in woollen shrouds, and foreign policy was directed very largely to securing foreign markets. One of the most successful strokes of policy to this end was the treaty with Portugal, negotiated xxvi INTRODUCTION in 1703, by Lord Methuen, by which the Portuguese agreed to admit English cloth at a low duty, and in return the English duty on Portuguese wines was fixed at two thirds of the French duty. Incidentally this Portuguese alliance brought patriot- ism and port wine into close association, with rather deadly efifects for British wine-drinkers. The manufacture of cloth was still carried on by the primi- tive means of the spinning-wheel and the hand-loom. During the preceding two hundred years it had escaped largely from the towns and was widely scattered over the country. Spin- ning was a bye-occupation for the families of agricultural workers; weaving was the main occupation of the weavers, who were mostly men, but they had some difficulty in getting yam enough to keep fully employed, and were most favour- ably situated when they had small holdings to which to devote their leisure time. Other textile manufactures had been greatly stimulated by the arrival of Huguenot refugees from the year 1680 on- wards, fleeing from the persecution of Louis XIV. They estab- lished silk-weaving in Spltalfields, in London. They gave a great impetus to linen manufacture in both Scotland and Ire- land, and introduced the manufacture of tapestry, calico- printing, and the arts of making beaver hats and sail-cloth. Other industries which were greatly widened in their scope by the superior knowledge and skill of the immigrants were paper- making, cutlery, hardware, surgical-instrument-making, glass- making, and pottery. The manufacture of iron was in a transitional state. The iron smelters still depended on charcoal, and Sussex was the chief producing area. But the timber supply from the ancient forest of the Weald was becoming exhausted, which necessarily caused the output to decline. Coal-mining was carried on in various places, most particularly in the neighborhood of Northumber- land, whence it was sent to London by sea. Copper and tin mining were prosperous in Cornwall, lead-mining in Derby- shire, and salt-making in Cheshire. In fishing the British con- tended for supremacy with the Dutch. INTRODUCTION xxvii Trade and Communications English exports amounted to just over £2,000,000 in 1688, to £6,788,000 in 1699, and to £7,379,000 in 1715. These fig- ures will give some idea both of the absolute amount of foreign trade, and of its tendency to increase rapidly during peace, and not to be entirely prevented from growing by war. The country was practically self-sufficing, but it was able to attract foreign buyers with useful goods, and able to purchase foreign luxuries. The villages themselves were largely self-sufficing. That was almost made imperative by the condition of the roads. Mac- adam was not bom till 1756, and the idea had not yet been suggested that roads ought to be made fit to carry wheeled traffic. True, country gentlemen did take their families to London for the season and back in the family coach, but for such exceptional efforts powerful teams of horses were re- quired. Ordinary travelling was on foot or on horseback, and the transport of goods was the task of pack-horses. In en- closed districts the roads were chiefly deep hollow lanes; in open country they straggled widely, the traffic, as ArthurjYoung said, being "sometimes a mile abreast in pursuit of the best track." London, if not the sole port of England, was the only one of any importance. It was to London that the lines of pack- horses brought the cloth collected in many a little market town ; from London that they distributed over the country wines and spirits, sugar and spices, silks and muslins. From London sailed the fleets of the merchant adventurers, at the Thames wharves the East India Company disembarked the treasures of the East. Foreign trade was carried on largely by chartered companies, privileged to control the trade with defined areas of the world, but which had continually to guard their monopolies against "interlopers." This system was not established without rea- son. Trade with France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal, and Italy was free, and left to the competition of xxviu INTRODUCTION individual merchants; but in more distant markets, involving more dangerous voyages, the erection of fortified trading sta- tions, negotiations with petty princes or semi-barbaric poten- tates, there was great advantage in unification and organisa- tion. These chartered companies were of two types. The more ancient were "regulated companies," which might be com- pared with the merchant gilds of earlier times. The most famous example of this type is the Company of Merchant Ad- venturers, whose business was the export of English cloth to the German market. All merchants who chose could join, on payment of an entrance fee fixed by statute. The company fixed the time of sailing from England, and the different mer- chants arranged for their several ships and cargoes. The fleet sailed in company to the port (Hamburg for many years) where the company had its foreign station. There a hostel was main- tained, at which merchants, their clerks and agents were housed, and subjected to collegiate discipline. The price for the different qualities of cloth was fixed in consultation ; no one was allowed to sell for less, unless by the general permission, after it had been found that a reduction of price was neces- sary to clear stocks, and then the loss incurred by accepting a reduced price did not fall on the merchant who had failed to sell at the original price, but was divided in proportion among all. The other type of company was the joint stock company; of this the East India Company was the first great exemplar. It held the monopoly of trade with India and China, and at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries it was the only company the price of whose shares was reported in newspapers. Other chartered companies, of one type or the other, were the Muscovy Company, the Eastland Company, the Levant Company, a succession of African Com- panies, the Hudson's Bay Company (still surviving and pros- perous), and the ill-fated South Sea Company. It must finally be noted that England entered upon the eighteenth century with the minds of her people definitely INTRODUCTION xxix turned toward industrial progress and the acquisition of wealth. The patriotic enthusiasm of the Elizabethan age, and the fierce religious factions of the seventeenth century had sub- sided ; the select minds of the new age turned to the study of natural science, to literature, philosophy, or philanthropy; but the generality to merely material aims. The skeleton of a capi- talistic organisation also was already provided ; the Jews had been invited to return to England in 1655, and had continually increased in numbers since; and in 1694 the Bank of England had been established. Only an opportunity was needed to display the temper of the time, and the South Sea Bubble of 1720 provided the test. People of all classes rushed to take up shares in some hundred different undertakings, the wildest of wild-cat schemes that any stock exchange has ever known. There were companies for the transmutation of metals, for wheels of perpetual motion, for collecting all the beech nuts of England, for secret purposes to be revealed by the pro- moters at an unspecified date. The promoters seldom deigned to ask for less than a million pounds by way of capital, or to promise less than a hundred per cent per annum in profits. When the crash came the ruined gamblers largely turned highwaymen and burglars, and an extraordinary epidemic of crime broke out. II The Transformation of England in the Eighteenth Century Agricultural Changes The great industrial changes of the eighteenth century, which caused Arnold Toynbee to apply the term "The Industrial Revolution" to the period immediately after the year 1760, affected, in turn, agriculture, manufacturfe, and transit. But perhaps the deepest change of all was in men's habits of thought about industrial processes and methods. The disposition to look upon these as properly determined by tradition and cus- XXX INTRODUCTION torn was obstinate, but it perforce had to give place to a recognition of the necessity for continual change and im- provement. There were many writers, landlords, and tenant farmers who took part in the agricultural innovations, and those selected for mention must be taken as representatives, rather than as names of exclusive importance. Jethro Tull, born 1674, began farming in 1699 and died in 1 741. In 1733 he published his book Horse-hoeing Husbandry, probably the most important book in the history of British agriculture. The essential idea of it was that a plant is a living thing, which can live vigorously only if the conditions of vig- orous life are present, and that those conditions need to be ascertained by practical experiment. He advocated care in selecting, cleansing, and changing seed; invented a drill to deposit the seed in furrows at what he found by experiment to be the right depth, instead of scattering it broadcast. He dis- covered that the roots must be given room, and must be fed from the air as well as from the soil, so he hoed and pulverised the space between the drills. He was a great advocate of tur- nips, the introduction of which was destined to revolutionise the methods of stock-raising. The pioneer of the great band of eighteenth-century improv- ing landlords was Charles, Viscount Townshend, nicknamed "Turnip" Townshend. He had been a noted Whig politician, the colleague and almost the rival of his brother-in-law Robert Walpole. But in 1730 he found that Walpole was resolved "that the firm should be not Townshend and Walpole, but Walpole and Townshend." He retired from political life al- together and went to his country house at Rainham in Norfolk, and never visited London again. He devoted the remaining eight years of his life to improving the tillage of his land. He found that the Norfolk crag, a barren, sandy formation, could be made fertile by "marling," i.e., by plentiful dressing with the clay that underlay it at a very moderate depth. He in- vented the famous Norfolk four-year course, wheat, turnips, barley, clover. This superseded the bare fallow, gave much INTEODUCTION xxxi heavier cereal crops, and enabled in addition more stock to be fed than could be maintained on pasture land. An even greater innovator was Bakewell of Dishley, Leices- tershire, a working farmer. He began his experiments on the Leicestershire sheep in 1745. He crossed them with another breed to get variability, and then proceeded to select with the greatest care for points almost the opposite of what had before been esteemed. He aimed at getting as short legs as possible, the bones fine, the largest possible proportion of the weight of the animal to consist of meat on the best joints, and at fat- tening propensity and early maturity — in short, at the best possible mutton-yielding animal. He established the New Lei- cestershire breed; but he also set an example that was widely followed in the creation of new and the improvement of es- tablished breeds of all sorts of domestic animals. How great a change was affected by Bakewell and his followers in the production of butcher's meat can be inferred from the follow- ing passage in an address to the Board of Agriculture in 1795 by its President, Sir John Sinclair: — "The difference between the size of cattle and sheep now, and in the reign of Queen Anne, is hardly to be credited. In 1710 the cattle and sheep sold at Smithfield market weighed, at an average, as follows : — Beeves 370 lb. ; calves 50 lb. ; sheep 28 lb.; lambs 18 lb. Now it maybe stated, beeves 800 lb.; calves 148 lb.; sheep 80 lb.; and lambs 50 lb." It is obvious that the new agriculture, the abolition of bare fallows, the introduction of turnips which had to be left in the fields for months after the customary time for the arable to become common pasture, and even the quest of new and more profitable herds of sheep and cattle, was bound to come into collision with the old common-field system, based on the coop- eration of a number of illiterate and conservative peasants, the management of the flock in common, and the exercise of rights of common for defined periods over all cultivated as well as untilled land. As the result of this collision the common-field system was the mark of the determined hostiUty of landlords and agricultural reformers, and it was gradually swept away, xxxii INTRODUCTION by the process of enclosure, partly carried through by private and local Acts of Parliament, and partly by other methods. The results of enclosure are dealt with in Chapter II. Invention in Manufacture The manufacture of cotton goods began in England early in the seventeenth century. The start of this industry was so little regarded that it is impossible to name the date, or give any particulars of the circumstances. For unknown reasons it got localised in Lancashire ; as it were providentially, for Lan- cashire possessed latent advantages for cotton manufacture which were revealed only in the course of its subsequent development. Till 1733 the tools used were the ancient spinning-wheel and the ancient hand-loom. The first of the series of inventions which revolutionised the cotton industry, and all textile manu- facture later, consisted, not in the application of animal or mechanical power, but in making the power of human muscles more effective. In 1733 John Kay of Bury invented the fly-shuttle. In es- sence this meant that wooden substitutes did the work of the human hand in catching the shuttle as it passes between the threads of the warp. In the old style of hand-loom, as still used, for example, in India, the alternate threads are fixed to different pairs of beams, which are moved in alternation by treadles which the weaver works with his feet. When one set of threads is raised he throws the shuttle across between the threads from his right hand to his left; when those are de- pressed, and the other set raised, he throws it back from his left hand to his right. Occasionally the shuttle does not travel right across, and the fingers have to be pushed between the threads to give it a fresh impulse. Further, the weaver working single-handed, can only weave cloth of such a limited width that he can reach both edges with his two hands simultane- ously. If wide cloth is required, an assistant's help is required. Kay altered the shape of the shuttle and made it heavier; then he contrived what we may term two wooden hands to catch INTRODUCTION xxxlii the shuttle on either side, both worked with strings by a handle which the weaver holds in one hand. This device has recently been introduced into India. On an average its result, which varies a great deal according to qualities and widths of cloth manufactured, is to treble the output per weaver. As all the power employed still comes from the body of the weaver, the expenditure of muscular exertion is considerably increased. One result of the rapid spread of the use of the improved loom was to make weaving a man's industry much more exclusively than before. Another effect was to cause the supply of yam to be inadequate to the demands of the weavers; and this pro- duced a tendency for weavers to acquire small holdings, on which to utilise their surplus time and working power. The period of scarcity of yarn lasted for thirty years. In 1764 came the first great spinning improvement, in the spin- ning-jenny of James Hargreaves of Blackburn. He was a hand- loom weaver, who, like other weavers of the time, depended partly for yarn on the spinning-wheels of his own family. He noticed that a wheel, accidentally knocked over, continued to revolve, and this gave him the idea that a number of vertical spindles could be made to rotate simultaneously with one horizontal wheel. His first machine had eight spindles, but it was soon found that this number could be greatly increased. English cotton cloth of that time was only partly cotton ; it consisted of a linen warp and cotton woof, English spinners not being able to produce, as the more skilled Indian spinners could, a cotton thread strong enough for the warp. This defect was overcome by Arkwright, a singularly enterprising barber of Preston, the only one of the textile inventors of the eighteenth century who made money by his inventions. In his "spinning- frame" the cotton wool was drawn between rollers revolving at different velocities before being twisted into thread by spindles; and the resulting thread was hard and firm enough to be used for warp. It was first used for making calico in 1773 in place of linen warp; and in 1775 Arkwright took out a series of patents for various processes in yarn manufacture. What was most noteworthy about his machines is that they utilised mechanical xxxiv INTRODUCTION motive power. For a very considerable period the power used was water power, peculiarly abundant in Lancashire, which county forms the short, western slope of the Pennine Hills, this western slope being the more rainy. Arkwright travelled the country, however, to find favourable sites for factories, and capitalists willing to build and run them, and pay him royal- ties. The third of the great spinning inventions was the work of Samuel Crompton, a spinner who used the Hargreaves jenny. Troubled by the constant breaking of threads, he set to work to perfect a weft-spinning machine that afterwards became known as the mule, because it combined the principles of the jenny and Arkwright's spinning-frame, besides adding a new contrivance for equalising the strain on the " sliver " as it was drawn from the rollers to be twisted into thread. Crompton made his in- vention public property in return for a promise of a public subscription which realised for him £67 65. 6d., while his inven- tion brought millions of pounds into the pockets of the manu- facturers. By these three inventions spinning became a great machine industry, yam became superabundant, the weavers (weaving still being done by hand) entered upon a period of extraordinary prosperity, and English textile manufacture dis- tanced all foreign rivalry, a circumstance that was of enormous political importance during the Napoleonic wars. But these great advantages were purchased at a very heavy price. On the one hand, the complete supersession of hand-spinning deprived the whole agricultural population of a very important bye industry, which custom had made essential for decent sub- sistence, no equivalent rise of wages for agricultural labour taking place to make up the deficiency; on the other hand, the labour for the spinning machines was obtained by a misuse of the poor-law, which led to the most horrible oppression of the operatives, as is shown in later chapters. The importance of these inventions in spinning was magni- fied by contemporary inventions in other fields of industry. One of these is too much ignored by English writers on indus- trial history, the American invention of the ginning machine, INTRODUCTION xxxv which made the upland cotton available for the spinner. Previ- ously of American cottons only sea-island cotton could be used. This invention laid the foundation of the great cotton-growing industry of America, incidentally localised slavery in the States containing the cotton-belt, and so underlies the Civil War, and all subsequent American history. It also supplied the English manufacturers with an unlimited supply of raw material, and built up the trade relations between Liverpool and Charleston and her sister ports. No less epoch-making were the English improvements in the steam-engine, which brought the factories from the hills and waterfalls to the coal- fields. The principle of the steam-engine was known to the Greeks, but the first steam-engine of practical value set up in England was constructed by Thomas Savery, who patented it in 1698. Its object was to pump water out of mines. Under what diffi- culties those growing and important industries of coal-mining and tin and copper-mining were carried on when in some mines the water was carried up ladder after ladder in buckets, and in others raised by a series of common suction pumps, worked by hand, each lifting the water some thirty feet, can well be imagined. Savery's machine consisted of a cylinder supplied with valves, connected alternatively with the boiler, and filled with steam, and then, as the steam condensed and created a vacuum, with the water in the pit, which was thus sucked into the cylinder. Then steam again being turned on, the water was forced upwards. The total height to which it was found practi- cable to raise a column of water by this means was about eighty feet. The first great improvement in this machine was made by Thomas Newcomen, who fitted a piston into the cylinder and invented what is known as the " Cornish Beam Engine," which has only recently, if even yet, ceased to be used for pumping. The piston and cylinder produced the power which worked the pump (and which could be used for working any slow-moving machinery) by an up-and-down motion. The upward motion was produced by letting steam into the cylinder beneath the xxxvi INTRODUCTION piston, the downward motion was due to atmospheric pressure upon the piston, when a vacuum beneath it was created by condensing the steam with a spirt of cold water. The New- comen engine revolutionised the conditions of mining; and made England's rich deposits of coal available for the new work made possible by the next improvement in his engine. In 1763 James Watt, a mathematical-instrument-maker who was endeavouring to set up in business in Gleisgow, had a New- comen engine brought to him for repair. He studied the prob- lem of the waste of energy, and solved it by the device of having a separate condensing engine, and of alternately admitting steam above and below the piston, and thus driving it up and down by steam pressure on either side. This involved, difficul- ties of workmanship, because to get satisfactory results the piston had to fit the cylinder exactly, and the piston rod had to slide up and down through the stuffing which surrounded it with a minimum of. friction, but also without permitting any escape of steam. It was not until Watt went into partnership with Matthew Boulton of Birmingham, and the famous firm of Boulton & Watt was created in 1773, that sufficiently careful and skilful workmen were employed on this task; and the first successful Watt machine was built in 1776. It was specially in the rapidity of the strokes that Watt's engine contrasted with Newcomen's. In consequence, while first used for pumping, they were speedily in demand for all sorts of other purposes. In 1783 Watt built a steam hammer capable of strildng three hundred blows a minute; then the engine was applied to flour- milling," to sawmills, sugar-mills, paper-mills, and, in 1785 to both cotton and silk manufacture. Thenceforward the number of steam-engines at work, and the variety of the purposes for which they were used, increased unceasingly. Another memor- able fact with regard to the Boulton & Watt Works is that in 1802 they were lit by gas, in honour of the Peace of Amiens; and thus was begun the use of this illuminant in Britain. The development of machinery involved an increased de- mand for iron; and improvement in the processes of iron pro- duction kept pace with the development of textile machinery INTRODUCTION xxxvii and the steam-engine. From the beginning of the eighteenth century to 1760 the importation of iron increased threefold, owing to the difficulty of increasing home-supplies as long as the iron-masters were dependent on charcoal. Methods of utilising coke made from coal had been invented in the previous century, and practised at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, but they had remained the secrets of particular firms, and in some cases were lost. But in 1760 Smeaton, working at the Carron Iron Works, near Falkirk in Scotland, so far improved the blast that the coke-using furnaces increased their output four- iold. This was followed in 1784 by the invention of the method of making malleable iron from pig by puddling and rolling, by Henry Cort. Numerous other minor improvements brought in the age of great iron works, localised in districts rich both in iron ore and coal. The first iron bridge, cast in Coalbrookdale, was over the Severn, and was opened in 1779. The first iron ship was launched by John Wilkinson from his works at Mer- thyr Tydfil in 1790. When he died he was buried in an iron coffin, having had one made in readiness. In the china and earthenware industry the single event of greatest importance in the eighteenth century was the discov- ery by Cookworthy of the china clay deposits of Devon and Cornwall about 1750. But both before and after that date the Wedgwood family was building up the great industry in the district ever since known as The Potteries. In 1769 Josiah Wedgwood opened his new works in Etruria, continually dis- covering new ways of compounding materials and obtaining new results. Other celebrated works were established at Chel- sea, Derby, and Worcester. To return to the textile manufactures, the first English in- ventor of a power-loom was a Kentish clergyman named Cart- wright, who took out a patent in 1785. His first machine was very clumsy, and after he had improved it, his progress was checked again in 1791, when his factory was burnt to the ground. So slow was the power-loom in coming into general use that its history belongs to the nineteenth rather than to the eighteenth century. xxxviii INTRODUCTION A later invention of Cartwright's, a machine for combing wool, patented in 1789, came much more rapidly into use. Its superiority, both in speed and in the quality of its work, over hand processes, was so great that the ancient craft of wool- combing was completely and suddenly superseded. Before the end of the eighteenth century bleaching by chemical means and calico-printing by machinery were also introduced. Transit and Transport It can easily be realised that the revolutionary changes in manufacturing methods detailed above produced enormous changes in the localisation of industry and in the distribution of population. Lancashire became the seat of the great cotton industry; the woollen manufacture of the West Riding of York- shire, the one ancient seat of the industry situated upon a pro- ductive coal-field, grew rapidly, while other centres were at best relatively stationary, and many dwindled away altogether. The iron industry was established in new centres, though in several considerably removed from one another, and became extinct in Kent and Sussex. The coal-fields which were favour- ably situated for sea transport, as Northumberland, Durham, and South Wales, attracted a rapidly increasing population. All these new centres of population and industry required con- tinual supplies of food, and in many cases of raw material, from other parts of the country; they also sent forth ever-increasing quantities of goods, in some cases heavy and bulky goods. The time of the self-sufficing village had passed, giving place to the manufacturing town and busy seaport, needing to carry on a continual exchange of commodities at once with the rural dis- tricts, with other towns, and with foreign countries. Meanwhile London continued to grow from decade to decade. It continued to be the distributing-centre for all England of sugar, rum, spices, tea, coffee, tobacco, wines, brandy, gin, and such im- ported manufactures as came into the country in spite of fiscal barriers. And London drew from the country ever-increasing supplies of grain, cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, fish, and fuel. For all this new and increasing traffic the existing roads, and INTRODUCTION xxxix the existing system of repair, whereby the surveyor of the country parish, an utterly untrained amateur, directed the un- willing labour of the village population, and set it to work to fill up the local Sloughs of Despond, was obviously entirely inade- quate. Equally inadequate was the system of conveying goods in panniers or in bales on the backs of pack-horses. True the ancient roads, maintained according to the customary fashion, suited one part of the trafific fairly well. The drivers of the herds of Scotch bullocks, who brought them even from the Highlands to Norfolk to be fattened, and hence to London to be slaughtered at Smithfield, preferred soft tracks, and specially those which straggled widely across unfenced fields, and they calculated on their beasts fattening somewhat on the road. Similarly sheep, pigs, and even turkeys and geese made the journey to the great city by road, only incommoded by the mud in winter, when it was apt to become extraordinarily deep in the immediate neighbourhood of London. But this traffic had the effect of mak- ing the soft tracks still more impassable for wheeled~traffic, and wheeled traffic, for the conveyance of commodities which could not walk to market, had become indispensable. An inadequate solution to the problem, but still a solution of a sort, was found. From the year 1706 and onwards, right through the century and into the next, there was an enormous output by the Houses of Parliament of local acts authorising country gentlemen to form themselves into highway trusts, for the purpose of making roads from one specified town to another, and to erect turnpikes, and levy tolls on all men or beasts, riders or drivers, who used the road. They were au- thorised to borrow money on the security of the tolls, for the purpose of construction, and the tolls had to pay the interest as well as provide for repair. From about the year 1750 the turnpike trusts began to employ professional engineers and permanent workmen, and these, though entirely without any engineering education, gradually, by an expensive process of experiment and failure, and the elimination of many fantastic ideas, worked out an extremely rudimentary art of road con- struction and maintenance. It was not until the nineteenth xl INTRODUCTION century that two really able engineers, Thomas Telford and John Macadam, got to work upon the English highways on scientific principles. In Ireland the roads, from about 1780 till about 1830, were much better than in England, and in the Highlands of Scotland the construction of highroads was car- ried through with considerable efficiency after the suppression of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. While roads were bad, canals were non-existent during the first half of the eighteenth century, and but little had been done for the improvement of river navigation. In 1760 canal construction was initiated by the Duke of Bridgewater. Crossed in love, he sought consolation in the improvement of his estates, and got an Act of Parliament passed authorising him to connect his collieries at Worsley with Manchester by canal. He was most fortunate in securing a natural genius for his engineer, James Brindley, a man who could scarcely write, let alone draw or spell, but who overcame engineering difficulties with extraordinary boldness and success. The Bridge- water Canal, as it is still called, had to cross the river Irwell. Brindley carried it across by a viaduct. Now the Manchester Ship Canal also crosses underneath the Bridgewater Canal, and the viaduct has been converted into a swing bridge to allow the passage of ships with masts below. From 1760 till his death in 1772 Brindley was hard at work planning and constructing canals in the new manufacturing districts, and after his death canal-making still proceeded until the building of railways began. Achievements of Fifty Years It may be noticed that England of the second half of the eighteenth century, displayed extraordinary energy and in- ventive power in carrying through improvements in method wherever, as in agriculture and manufacture, such improve- ments could be made effective by individual action; but was much less successful in the field of transport, where associated action was required. It was an age of individualism ; it was also an age of individuality, of striking and forcible personalities. INTRODUCTION xli The population of England and Wales in the year 1750 must have been somewhere between 6,000,000 and 7,000,000. At the census of 1801 it was 8,892,000. The average population for that period can be put at 7,500,000, just equal to that of Roumania in the year 1914. If the population of Scotland be added, we should get a total a little less than 9,000,000. Great Britain was what by the twentieth-century standard would be deemed a little nation. But it was during this period that in addition to the industrial achievements recorded above, the Canadas were wrested from France, and the foundations laid of the Indian Empire. This age produced such statesmen as Chatham, William Pitt, Fox, and Burke, soldiers and ad- ministrators like Clive and Hastings, Nelson, the greatest of English seamen. Captain Cook and Mungo Park, the explorers. In painting, these fifty years give us the names of Hogarth, Reynolds, Romney, and Gainsborough ; in sculpture, of Flax- man. Of poets we have Cowper, Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Robert Burns; of other literary men, Johnson, Goldsmith, Gibbon, Fielding, Richardson, Sterne. Adam Smith created modern political economy; Bentham, modern political science; David Hume, Hartley, Priestley, John Hunter, Erasmus Dar- win did great work in philosophy and science. In this period the fervid preachers, John and Charles Wesley and George White- field, initiated the great religious movement of Evangelicalism, which so profoundly and beneficently influenced the whole English-speaking world, and John Howard and an ever-increas- ing body of men and women began to prove to England that heroism can be displayed in the works of peace and service to humanity. Yet during these fifty years the mass of the people were entirely bereft of political power; of the whole adult popu- lation only a minority, probably not more than a quarter, could read ; poverty was increasing side by side with increasing wealth, and with poverty there came also a lowering of moral stand- ards which brutalised family life and made illegitimacy extra- ordinarily common. Such was the Britain that waged relent- less and successful war against the French Republic and against Napoleon, the Britain which " saved herself by her exertions and Europe by her example." yj)r' ,r THE "MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND CHAPTER I the peace without a parallel From War to Peace There are but few turning-points in history at which there is so marked a break in the current of the hfe of nations as there was for Europe and for England wheny in November 1815, the peace was concluded which finally ended the Napoleonic wars. I would say, somewhat forc- ing the literal meaning of the word, that for our own country the eighteenth century ended in 1815, and the nineteenth began with the first year of peace, 1816. For the story of the eighteenth century is, as Professor Seeley has taught us, the story of the expansion of England. Externally it was the time during which Britain struggled with France for the Empire of the Seas, for the dominion of India, and for the opportunity of colonising the great sparsely populated lands of the world in the temperate zones beyond the ocean. Internally, it was the time during which the same proud aristocracy which conducted this struggle made itself the master of the land and of the peasantry. After Waterloo Britain emerged from the foreign struggle almost completely successful. She was Mistress of the Seas, she held securely that position of empire and of commercial supremacy which Portugal, Spain and Holland had partially grasped ; and, though the original American colonies had broken away, the seed of 2 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND other great colonies had been planted in Canada, Austral- asia and South Africa. Nor was this proud position fated to be challenged during the succeeding ninety years, until in 1905 the present naval competition in Dreadnought building seriously began. With the beginning of the year 18 16 the whole direction of national thought and energy was turned from the desperate struggle against the genius of Napoleon and the power of France to an almost equally desperate struggle for internal reform. The work of the nineteenth century began. It was not by any means of their own free will that our forefathers of a century ago turned their minds so imme- diately to this new task, which was indeed the making of modern England. Throughout the latter years of the war, through the period when families in the south of England had scarcely dared to go undressed to bed for fear of the landing of the French during the night, through the years of Wellington's struggles and triumphs in Spain, and through the last effort that ended in the victory of Waterloo, men had continually looked forward to the coming of peace as a time for relaxation, prosperity and happiness. When peace actually came it brought with it instead even greater distress than had been known during the war. " Oh, wondrous Peace ! Oh, Peace without a parallel ! " is the exclamation with which the Morning Chronicle opened an outburst of astonishment and lament early in the year. After bidding the observer mark the desolation in town, the versifier bids him — Turn to the country, then, and witness there Tenants in gaol and landlords in despair ; Industrious hinds that beg for work in vain ; Recovered lands that turn to waste again. As the year 18 16 passed on, misery deepened into starva- tion, and almost frantic efforts to cope with the distress were accompanied by fierce controversies as to its causes and possible remedies. There was but slight improvement in 1817 and 1818, followed by an almost equal accession of PEACE WITHOUT A PARALLEL 8 misery in 1819. Tliese were four years of national purga- tory; but during them the nation reaUsed the necessity of radical national reform. Agricultural Distress Merely as an economic phenomenon the distress of the peace merits examination. In the first half of 1816 the outcry came almost entirely from the agricultural interest; in fact the King's speech at the opening of Parliament declared that the commerce, manufactures and finances of the country were in a flourishing condition, while it prudently abstained from referring to the condition of agri- culture. The prosperity alleged to exist was probably regarded by both Houses as but a poor compensation for the distress of agriculture. It must be remembered that the condition of agriculture was then just as important to the country as that of all its other industries put together. By the estimates prepared for the Budget that spring, the incomes of persons engaged in trade, manufacture and handicraft in Great Britain were computed at a little less than thirty-four and a half millions, while the rents paid by occupiers of agricultural lands, assessed under Schedule B, amounted to nearly thirty-seven millions. When the House of Commons turned to the considera- tion of the state of agriculture, as it did at the first oppor- tunity, the stories told from all parts of the country were alarming. In Cambridgeshire " only 8d. a day is given to strong, healthy men who are capable of the greatest, labour." Mr. Brand, member for Kent, reported that — "a farmer who was the last occupier of land in the parish of that county and on whom, of course, the payment of poor rates had devolved, came to him, imploring in the most earnest manner to inform him what he should do, as he was unable to bear the burdens laid upon him. Being asked what had become B 3 4 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND of other occupiers of land in the parish, seeing he was left alone, 'Sir,' said the farmer, 'worn out by the wretchedness of the times they are not able to touch the land.' Land-holders to a man refuse to plough the land, and this farmer was to leave his farm at Lady Day. Where, then, had the poor any right to apply when there were none in their own parish to pay the rates? Undoubtedly they must go to the neigh- bouring parishes. Nor was this a solitary instance of the miserable state of the country; he was ready to furnish gentlemen with many of a similar nature, should it be deemed necessary. The poor in many cases had abandoned their residences. Whole parishes had been deserted, and the crowd of paupers, increas- ing in numbers as they went from parish to parish, spread wider and wider this awful desolation-." Through the months of February, March and April the Board of Agriculture ^ sent a series of questions to all its correspondents. To the question whether any farmers in the correspondent's district had given notice to quit, 37 answers out of 322 said that all farmers that could had given notice, 103 that many had, in that some had, and 71 that none had. The report of the Board added the note, "It is scarcely necessary to remark that, until the present period of depression commenced, such an idea as giving notice to quit a farm, except for the purpose of hiring another one, may be said to have been almost unknown in the kingdom." On the state of the labourers, 237 answers out of 273 asserted that there was want of employment, 1 01 describing extreme distress. Further, says the report, "Bankruptcies, seizures, executions, imprisonments and farmers becoming paupers are particularly mentioned by many of the correspondents ; with great arrears of rent, and in many cases tithes and poor rates unpaid, extreme distress and absolute ruin in a variety of instances." > A voluntary Association founded in 1793 with Sir John Sinclair as president and Arthur Young as secretary. It was in receipt of an annual grant from the Treasury till 1816. It ceased to exist in 1819. PEACE WITHOUT A PARALLEL 5 Its Causes The change from war to peace was only in part the cause of the agricuhural distress, which, in fact, had been felt, though in less degree, in the years 1814 and 1815. The period of the war had been, on the whole, one of great prosperity for large farmers and owners of agricultural land. The growing numbers of the manufacturing popu- lation, the heavy purchases by the Government for the supply of the army and navy, the making of turnpike roads and canals, the rapid progress of enclosure and of other agricultural improvements, all contributed to swell profits and rents. As Brougham put it in the House of Commons (April 9, 18 16) — "Not only wastes have disappeared for miles and miles, giving place to houses, fences and crops; not only have the most inconsiderable commons, the very village greens, the little strips of sward by the road- side, been in many places subjected to division and exclusive ownership and cut into cornfields in the rage for farming ; not only have stubborn soils been forced to bear crops by mere weight of metal, by sinking money in the earth, as it has been called ; but the land that already grew^ something has been fatigued with labour and loaded with capital until it yielded much more." The increased production had only been sufficient for the increased wants of the people during the years of particu- larly good harvests. In bad years grain of all sorts leapt up to famine prices. This had been the case in 1800, when the price of wheat averaged 114s. for the year, and 1801, when it stood at 120s., after whichlDetter years had followed. Then came the year 1810 with a deficient harvest, and 181 1 with a very bad one. In August 1812 the price of wheat rose to 155s. per quarter. The harvest of 181 2 was good, that of 1813, we are told, was the best ever known,^ that • Robert Wilson, Tract on the Distress in 1816. 6 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND of 1814 good again. Prices fell rapidly, that of wheat dropping to 52s. 6d. in January 1816. The inflation of prices, mainly produced by scarcity, had been aggravated by the depreciation of Banls of England notes, which reached a discount of about thirty per cent.; and both the scarcity and the depreciation of paper helped to force up rents and to stimulate the raising of money on mort- gage for agricultural improvement. In 1813 there were about 700 country banks largely engaged in making such advances to farmers and landlords; as prices fell the country banks became alarmed and began to call in their notes, but in many cases they took alarm too late, for in the three years 1814, 1815 and 1816 no fewer than 240 were obliged to stop payment.^ Meanwhile, partly perhaps as a result of the consequent diminution in the issue of notes of private banks, but more, no doubt, in consequence of the greater demand for money during the temporary peace from April 1814 to March 1815, the discount on Bank of England notes almost disappeared. This, again, aggra- vated the position of men who had borrowed money or who had contracted to pay rents at the time when paper had been depreciated. The last straw on the tenant farmer's back, it was declared, was the income-tax of 2S. in the £. Farmers' incomes, for this purpose, were assessed at three-quarters of their rent, an arrangement which had probably been favourable to them in the days of high profits, but the reverse now, when they were largely living on their capital. It is not surprising that bankruptcies became more and more numerous through 18 14 and 1815. The Liverpool Mercury (September 15, 1815) says the prisons were choked with farmers. The number of bailable writs and executions in Norfolk was 636 in 1814, 844 in 1815 ; 430 and 850 in the two years respectively in Suffolk ; 640 and 890 in Worcestershire. A group of farmers in Lincoln- shire emigrated in a body and took with them the village > Brougham, House of Commons, April 9, 18 16. PEACE WITHOUT A PARALLEL 7 curate. According to the Morning Chronicle, they were frequently ready to sell themselves as contract labourers for a term of years in America in order to pay their passage money thither. As a general rule the misery of the agricultural labourers reflected in an aggravated degree the suffering of the tenant farmers. It is true there were exceptions. Grass land naturally suffered less than the arable districts; and in Devonshire, for example, the chief cause of the agricultural depression, which was considerable in that county, was the suspension of purchases of meat by the Government. Cheshire, not so directly affected by this cause, appears to have scarcely felt the depression at all. Wherever the farmers were able to continue employing the full number of labourers, the latter gained through the great fall in the price of bread. There was, however, a strong move to reduce wages, whether paid directly by the farmer or indirectly out of the poor-rates by the corrupting and pauperising system of allowances. In 1814 the amount expended in Poor Law relief had risen to 12s. 8d. per head of the population. It was now argued, in the words of the Courier (June 20), the organ of the Tory party, that— "The lower classes have been accustomed to high wages and liberal allowances from the parish. These must be reduced as the price of provisions falls." And again, "Provisions have fallen in price, farmers are lowering wages, and a great part of the poors' rates are discontinued." The movement to reduce wages, which had risen to 25. or 2S. 6d. a day (when the price of a 4 lb. loaf was close upon 2s.) was certainly effective; but only a slight and temporary success attended the efforts to reduce poor-rates. Though the merits of the lavish outdoor system adopted during the war, in maintaining a high birth-rate and in making even labourers feel that they had a stake in the 8 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND landed property of the country, were no longer so impor- tant and desirable in the eyes of justices of the peace as they had been during the war, it was found practically impossible to reduce the poor-rates in the face of the miseries of the people, and the total rate reached its highest point in the year ending March 31, 1818, when it amounted to 13s. gd. per head of population. William Cobbett, writing in the Political Register of his own district in Sussex, gives a graphic picture of the condition of the labourers — "I have the good fortune to live in a part of the country where the labouring people are better off than in any part of England that I have seen. . . . (Indeed until the last three years, very little distress was known here.) But now it has found us out, and threatens to involve us in one general mass of misery. I could name numerous individuals, who are actually become a sort of skeletons. ' It is useless, however, to enter into descriptions ; and I need only tell you, that since my return from London, in the month of March, more than 300 labourers have applied to me for work, and none of the 300 have f been able to employ, though the nature of my crops requires a great many hands. I see scores of young men, framed by nature to be athletic, rosy-cheeked and bold. I see scores of young men formed by nature to exhibit this appearance; I see them as thin as herrings, dragging their feet after them, pale as a ceiling and sneaking about like beggars." * Agricultural Riots To a certain extent the misery of the agricultural labourers vented itself in disorder. In one week at the end of April there were eleven incendiary fires in Suffolk, in May paper-mills were burnt down at Exeter and Top- " August 10, 1816. PEACE WITHOUT A PARALLEL 9 sham. Numerous fires took place in the neighbourhood of Honitonj in Bridport riots to reduce the price of provisions, and in Appledore and Bideford to prevent cargoes of potatoes from leaving those ports. Later there was an epidemic of incendiarism in Dorset. But by far the most formidable riots took place in Littleport and Ely, where, through the wholesale bankruptcy of farmers, an enormous area of land was left vacant and uncultivated. Fifteen hundred men collected, marching under a banner inscribed "Bread or Blood," armed with heavy sticks and demanding that maximum prices should be fixed for bread. Seventy- eight men were indicted before a special commission for their shares in these proceedings, twenty-four of them were condemned to death, and five were actually hanged at Ely. It was reported that these five men went to the scaffold expressing contrition and acknowledging the justice of their sentence, but the agricultural labourers were not in- variably ready to endorse the ruling code of ethics. One effect of the distress was an increase of poaching, and the rumour that the laws against poaching were to be still further increased in severity led to the following anonymous circular being sent to the magistrates of Somerset — "Take notice: We h^ve lately heard and seen that there is an Act passed, that whatever poacher is caught destroying the game is to be transported for seven years. Now we swear to each other that the first of our company that this law is inflicted on, that there shall not one gentleman's seat in our county escape the rage of fire ; we are nine in number, and we will burn every gentleman's house of note. The first that impeaches shall be shot. We have sworn not ,to impeach. You may think it is a threat, but they will find it a reality. The Game Laws were too severe before. The Lord of all men sent these animals for the peasant as well as for the prince. God will not let His people be oppressed ; He will assist us in our 10 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND undertaking, and we will execute it with caution ; let every one of us that breathe praise the Lord." ^ I have not discovered, however, any instances of the execution of these threats. The Corn Law of 1815 and the Harvest of 18 16 It would appear that the agricultural distress of 1815 and 1816 was mainly due to the violent fluctuations of prices caused by the alternation of good and bad seasons. In so far as the cessation of Government purchases for war purposes came at a time when prices were rapidly falling through abundant crops, the condition of agricul- ture may be said to have been aggravated by the change from war to peace. Already, in 1814, when the forces of the Allies were seen to be overwhelming the resistance of Napoleon, the fear of foreign competition following upon peace had alarmed the agricultural interest, and had pro- duced a demand for the prohibition of imports of food. This was not immediately successful, but in 1815 the first of the celebrated series of Corn Laws of the nineteenth century was passed, whereby the importation of foreign wheat was not permitted until the home price had reached 80s. per quarter, that of rye and pulse till the price was 53s. per quarter, nor barley under 40s., nor oats under 27s. It is possible that this measure facilitated the recovery of agricultural credit. It is at any rate the fact that in the autumn of 18 16 very extensive ploughings were made ; and the agricultural labourers became much more fully em- ployed. To this result the failure of the harvest, otherwise disastrous, contributed. The summer of 1816 was an extraordinary one. A long cold winter was followed by a cold wet spring and a dripping summer. The roads in July became almost impassable through constant heavy rains, and severe frosts set in in the beginning of September. The Liverpool • Morning Chronicle, October 22, 1816. PEACE WITHOUT A PARALLEL 11 Mercury records the following prices realised in Covent Garden on June 12: Cherries, 14s. per lb.; grepn peas, 8s. per qt. ; new potatoes, 2S. per lb. ; French beans, 65. per hundred. To the end of November the corn was still standing in Lancashire in the icy fields. The wheat harvested was of so bad a quality as scarcely to be fit for human food; but it was so scarce in quantity that from December 1816 to the following July it was sold at over IOCS, per quarter. An effective object-lesson in the work- ing of the Corn Law on the consumer was thus supplied. There were four dates in the year on which the ports might be opened to foreign imports : February 15, May 15, August 15, November 15 ; provided that duringthe previous six weeks the price of food-stuffs had exceeded those laid down in the Act. On August 15 it was found that though the price of wheat at that date was 82s., the average for the previous six weeks was only 79s. and some odd pence. For three months, therefore, no foreign grain could be imported. Ships from the Baltic, which had started in anticipation of the opening of the ports, were turned back, and when the ports were opened on November 15, by which time the price had passed 98s., the Baltic was frozen over. Local scarcity had, moreover, caused a general prohibition of the export of grain from the Mediterranean countries; and in consequence no grain could be imported at all until the Baltic navigation opened in the spring, except for some ship-loads which had been sent back in August and which had been stored in Holland in the meanwhile, which now were purchased at greatly enhanced prices. Trade and Manufacture in 1816 When we turn from agriculture to the other industries of the country, the influence of the violent change of industrial conditions produced by the war becomes the predominant feature. A little calculation will help us to realise how violent was the transition. Between 1802 and 1815 the war expenditure increased the National Debt at 12 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND an average rate of ;^30,ooo,ooo per annum, in addition to necessitating a crushing burden in taxation. Towards the end of the period the expenditure out of loan reached ;^5o,ooo,ooo for several years in succession. The money so raised was, of course, mostly spent on the employment of men as soldiers, sailors and other ministers to the needs of war. Even in the case of subsidies, the money was directly spent in the employment of British industrial labour, the subsidies being paid in ammunition, clothing aijd other equipment. The effect of the sudden cessation of Government expenditure to the amount of over ;^5o,ooo,ooo, mainly raised by loan, may be guessed when we consider how great that expenditure was in proportion to the total power of wealth production in the country. The population in Great Britain in 1816, taking the mean between the census figures of 181 1 and 1821, was about 13,000,000; it was at the census of 191 1, 40,834,714. The population has thus increased more than threefold, but the average production of wealth per head has probably also increased more than threefold, so that the expenditure of ;^5o,ooo,ooo per annum in the beginning of the nineteenth century would be commensurate with one of ;^5oo,ooo,ooo per annum at the present day. It will be easy for the reader to work out, in imagination, the economic pheno- mena which would to-day follow the sudden cessation of such an enormous expenditure on war out of loans. The reductions in the army and navy, together with the disbanding of the militia, are calculated to have liberated half a million men in the three years, 1814 to 1816. At first the men discharged were pretty rapidly absorbed in other industries; later they helped to swell the multitudes of unemployed. During the war, countries under the control of Napoleon had been prohibited from importing British manufactures, the object of this policy being to cripple British manufac- tures by depriving them of their chief markets. The British Government had met the Berlin and Milan Decrees PEACE WITHOUT A PARALLEL 13 of Napoleon by Orders in Council, which, whatever their merit as measures of war, added still further difficulties to the export of British manufactures. After the retreat from Moscow and the victory of the Allies at Leipzig (October 1813), Europe was reopened to British trade. An enormous outburst of speculative export followed. According to Brougham (House of Commons, April 9, 1816)— "Not only clerks and labourers, but menial servants engaged the little sums they had been laying up for a provision against old age and sickness. Persons went round tempting them to trade with Holland, Germany and the Baltic; they risked their mite in the hope of boundless profits, it went with the millions of the more regular traders. The bubble soon burst, like its predecessors of the South Sea, the Mississippi and Buenos Ayres; English goods were selling for much less in Holland and the north of Europe than in London and Manchester; in most places they were lying a dead weight without any sale at all ; and either no returns whatever were received, or pounds came , back for thousands that had gone forth. The great speculators broke ; the middling ones lingered out a precarious existence, deprived of all means of con- tinuing their dealings either at home or abroad; the poorer dupes of the delusion had lost their little hoards, and went upon' the parish the next mishap that befell them." Nor was this outburst of speculative trade, which over- flooded and destroyed a market which had been grievously over-estimated, confined to Europe. The correspondence of the Morning Chronicle shows just the same thing hap- pened in America. The American markets were grievously overstocked with all sorts of British manufactures : "Broad- cloth, muslins, Manchester goods, Birmingham, Sheffield and Staffordshire wares, pins, Bristol glass, pianofortes 14 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND ^^^ and almost everything you can mention." Bankruptcies among American traders were very frequent, because, after they had had forced upon them, at very low prices, as large quantities of goods as they dared to stock, the remaining portions of British cargoes were sold by auction to the general public for whatever they would fetch, in order to save the expense of bringing them back to England. In Belgium riots took place to prevent the sale of British goods. From Germany there arose an outcry that the new British tyranny which was determined to crush out German manufactures by the sale by auction of vast quan- tities of British goods at rubbish prices was still more dangerous and odious than the tyranny of Napoleon. There can be no doubt that the peculiar phenomena of British export trade at this period paved the way for the subsequent building up of hostile tariffs against England on the continent of Europe. The Metal Industries We might trace the progress of depression and unem- ployment from one industry to another. The direct effect of the cessation of war demands upon commodities most immediately affected, may be judged from the fact that the price of copper fell from ;^i8o to ^80 per ton, that of iron from ;^20 to ;^8, of hemp from ;^ii8 to £34. Of the London tailors four-fifths, according to Francis Place, were thrown out of employment, no doubt mainly through the cessation of demand for uniforms. The blow fell, naturally, heavily upon the metal-working districts of the Midlands. Birmingham was extremely busy through 1815 in that speculative export trade to which merchants and manufacturers turned as the war demand left the operatives free. In November 1815 trade became worse, money - scarce, confidence disappeared, and stocks of goods accumulated until the manufacturers resorted first to short time and then to a complete cessation of work. Alarming letters appeared in August in the London papers with PEACE WITHOUT A PARALLEL 15 regard to the misery of the people. In the five parishes of Bilston, Sedgeley, Tipton, Dudley and Kingswihford, it was stated that 15,000 operatives were thrown out of work. Correspondents spoke of multitudes living on cabbage stalks or anything they could gather from the fields, of men leaving their families to starve, and wander- ing about the country offering to work for farmers for a little food. In Birmingham one quarter of the population was stated to be destitute, at Walsall many respectable householders on being distrained for non-payment of rates were found to have pawned even their bedding. At Hinckley, in Leicestershire, two-thirds of the population were paupers and the poor rates mounted to 52s. in the £. The Tory organ, the Courier, supposing that the distress was being exaggerated for party purposes, sent a Special Commissioner down to expose in a series of articles the supposed misrepresentations appearing in the Times and Morning Chronicle. His first letter sums the situation up in the following sentence : "Some inconvenience exists, but certainly not the grievous distress spoken of, unless it be in the manufacturing towns, where the effects of peace after war, and imprudent speculation, have undoubt- edly thrown a great rnajority of families out of bread." With this letter the series ended. Whatever further letters the Commissioner may have written failed to appear in his paper. The cessation of activity in the metal-working industries naturally reacted upon coal-mining. In the Midlands the unemployed colliers hit upon the device of loading trucks with coal, harnessing themselves to them and marching to London to present the coals to the Prince Regent with a petition for help. As these melancholy bands reached London they were met by officials who bought the coal and sent the men home again. In South Wales the pro- prietors of the ironworks gave notice of Successive reduc- tions in wages, finally bringing the figure down to 6s. per 16 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND week. Wheat was then lOOS. per quarter in South Wales, and the men preferred to starve idle rather than to starve working. Starting from Tredegar, the strikers went from forge to forge, putting out the fires and gathering together the workers. The chief employer at Ebbw Vale gave them bread and cheese, and offered them ale, which they declined, fearing that in their starving condition it would deprive them of self-control. To the number of about 15,000 they camped on the hills, till after some helpless and hopeless waiting they determined to take what work and receive what wage was obtainable. The Textile Industries The textile districts were but little better off than the Midlands and South Wales. The great inventions in spinning, dating mostly from the decade after 1760, had so cheapened production that the spinners could force their sales to a great extent even in the worst depression. But it was otherwise with the weavers. Though Cartwright's power-loom was invented in 1782, it was only after 1815 that it began to come into general use. The hand-loom weavers still formed the main body of textile workers. They largely combined agricultural work and the care of small holdings with their industry. They were traders as well as manufacturers, buying their yarn and selling their cloth. They formed, in fact, the elite of the working- class in Britain. The peculiar condition of the trade in 18 16 is to some extent indicated by the fact recorded in the Courier (September 11), that the export of cotton twist from Hull to the continent of Europe, between January i and April 5, was just over one and a quarter million pounds, but that in the shorter period, from April 5 to June 25, it reached nearly three million pounds. It would appear that Continental duties and the revival of manu- facture on the Continent were beginning to be effective in excluding British hand-woven cloth ; but they could not keep out machine-spun yarn. The condition of destitution PEACE WITHOUT A PARALLEL 17 among weavers in the north of England became very terrible. In Lancashire it was calculated that a weaver working full time could only earn 65. ^d. a week, out of which gd. would go for material ; and an aged man and woman working together could only earn 4s. The silk weavers in Spitalfields were no better off. The report of the "Association for the Relief of the Industrious Poor in Spitalfields and its Neighbourhood " authoritatively declared in November that two-thirds of them were unemployed. Remedial Efforts The country had been accustomed, during the great French war, to distress caused by bad harvests and scarcity of food. It was in 1816 faced with the peculiar problem of distress from unemployment, at a time when food, as compared with the previous years, was relatively cheap. It is not surprising that there were but the haziest ideas, even amongst those who had given most considera- tion to economic problems, as to how the emergency could be met. A great meeting was held in Westminster on Monday, July 29, called by the "Association for the Relief of the Manufacturing Poor," which had originally been formed in the famine year of 1812. The royal dukes took part; and the first resolution set out what may be termed the official view of the causes of distress : " That a transition from a state of extensive warfare, to a system of peace, has occasioned a stagnation of employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the situations of many parts of the community and producing many instances of great distress." As we have seen, there were some grounds for regarding this statement as being true in fact: but unfortunately it opened the way to no remedy, except once more to plunge the country into a state of "extensive warfare." At the meeting at which this theory was propounded, the Radicals of Westminster, organised by Francis Place 18 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND and represented by Lord Cochrane, were in full force. Lord Cochrane moved an amendment attributing the dis- tress to the pressure of taxation. This may be regarded as the Radical and, to some extent, the Whig view of the position. It was frequently expressed in the Morning Chronicle, which urged that trade was bad because the gentry had no money to spend, and the gentry had no money to spend because the Government had taken it all in taxes. Parliament may be said to have acted on this theory when it threw out the Government proposals to continue at is. in the £ the income-tax, which had been levied at the rate of 2s. in the £ during the war.^ The Whigs had even succeeded in obtaining excited meetings against the income-tax among Wiltshire labourers, who were perhaps earning 6s. a week. It might be argued that by abandoning the income-tax the Government was deprived of the opportunity of repealing the taxes which really did press hard upon the working-classes, and of the funds which might have been used directly in the allevia- tion of distress. It must, however, be remembered that the Government in 1816 was not efficiently organised for such work, even if the funds had been available. Another proposal that was made was that the nominal capital of the National Debt and the interest on it should be reduced in proportion to the general fall in prices. This proposal to recognise fluctuations in the purchasing power of money, by adjusting deferred payments, has since been further worked out under the influence of the Bi- metallic controversy. Remedial suggestions of a sort were to be had in quantity. The Association above-named, and its royal patrons, gave careful attention to the proposal that the unemployed should be set to pick rushes and make them into mats, and to gather grass seeds in the London parks. The Morning Chronicle improved on this by 1 The Government had further proposed that the incomes of tenant farmers should be estimated at one-third of their rents for the purpose of income-tax instead of at three-quarters as previously. PEACE WITHOUT A PARALLEL 19 recommending that rows of tubs of brine should be placed round the coasts for the unemployed to put in the fish that they might catch. Fish so cured, the editor thought, might not be good enough for the Englishman, but they might be exported to the Continent. Meanwhile the practical men organised themselves to cope with the distress by private charity. ;£'40,ooo was quickly raised by the "Association for the Relief of the Manufacturing Poor," mainly for the benefit of the Mid- lands, and this was supplemented by local funds in all the Midland towns. The Spitalfields Association, later in the year, raised in a few weeks ;^30,ooo, and a voluntary committee, organised by Mr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas Fowell Buxton, carried through the work of relieving the distress in the East End. Influence of the Distress on Political Agitation But another theory as to the nature of the malady and the appropriate cure was preached in such a way as to come home to the minds of those who we^e actually suffer- ing. In the beginning of August William Cobbett lowered the price of his Political Register from is. ojd. to 2d. Week by week he put forward his views with extraordinary directness and power. He declared that all Europe was suffering in a similar way to Great Britain, because all Europe was governed like Britain by corrupt and aristo- cratic monarchies. But in contrast he quoted current American wages and prices of necessaries, pointing out that in a land where the people governed themselves there was plenty for all who were prepared to work. He denounced violence and rioting and local agitations against retail tradesmen for putting up the price of bread, when it rose in sympathy with wheat. He urged his readers to concentrate on the one effort to end the tyranny of the Borough-mongers. The circulation of the Political Register went up by leaps and bounds. All over the country men formed themselves into clubs of a dozen or ca 20 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND twenty, to whom the most literate club member read out Cobbett's message week by week. Thus out of the distress of 1816 was born the great popular movement of the beginning of the nineteenth century for political reform, while the months passed on, "with sorrow in our habitations, and with famine in our streets, with more than a fourth part of the population of the country subsisting upon alms, while those who have know not how soon they may cease to have the means of giving." 1 ' Liverpool Mercury, Jan. 17, 1817. CHAPTER II the rural worker at the beginning of the nineteenth century The Decay of the Village Community It is impossible to convey an understanding of the con- dition of the rural workers of the country at the beginning of the nineteenth century without briefly summarising a great deal of earlier history. Although even by 1815 the process was not complete, it was mainly during the previous century and a half that the existing organisation of English rural life was built up, whereby agricultural industry is conducted by tenant farmers employing landless agricul- tural labourers dependent on their wages for an existence, and paying rent to land-owners, mostly owners of large properties, whose estates are administered by professional stewards and lawyers. The very stanip of this system upon the scenery of the country, the farm-houses dis- tributed singly over the surface of the land, instead of congregated in villages ; the cutting up of the whole surface of the land into what are now commonly called fields, but which were originally called "enclosures," by quickset hedges with numerous trees — these features of the English landscape were the work, in the main, of the eighteenth century. The village organisation of the Middle Ages, the Manor, was like the feudal organisation of the State itself, a balance of powers depending for the continuance of its characteristic features upon the equilibrium between the forces on either side. On the one hand there was the Lord of the Manor, with his steward and his bailiff, entitled to levy toll upon the working energies of the 22 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND villagers to the extent of something between a third and half of their time ; on the other hand the body of villagers supported, as a rule, by the spiritual power and influence of the priest, himself usually of peasant extraction and depending for a living, to a considerable extent, on his scattered strips of glebe which were tilled in common with the lands of the other villagers. Peasant co-operated with peasant in supplying oxen to the village teams. The village smith and carpenter were public servants following their specialised trades in the village service, and entitled to a definite share in the produce of the village agriculture. Similarly the shepherd, neatherd or swineherd took care of the village flocks and herds according to rules laid down by local custom. Between villager on the one hand and steward and bailiff on the other there was doubtless a continual struggle, on the part of the steward to secure the satisfactory cultivation of that portion of the village land (usually one-half or one-third) to the produce of which the lord was entitled; on the part of the villagers to save for their own benefit as large a proportion of their working power as possible. Side by side two changes passed over the manor as it was in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. On the one hand the serf gradually obtained personal emancipation and commuted in quit-rents, in money and kind, for his labour dues to the lord. On the other hand the privileged position of the Lord of the Manor gradually came to be based more and more upon ownership of land instead of on rights to the services of the people on the land. The demesne lands were more and more frequently let to tenants, many of whom represented the "servi " of Dooms- day. A great step in this direction was made in 1235 by the Statute of Merton, which enabled Lords of Manors, on leaving sufficient pasture of the' villagers on the waste, . to enclose and appropriate the residue. This was extended by the Statute of Westminster, 1285, which enabled lords of manors, in which the waste was used as common pasture THE RURAL WORKER 23 by other manors, to enclose against their neighbours. It further provided against the creation of new rights of common by the erection of new buildings ; and that, if after enclosure hedges were pulled down, the neighbour- ing villages could be distrained upon for damages. By these Acts the normal growth of the village through the extension of the village arable fields into the waste, and the more thorough utilisation of the waste for common pasture, was prevented, and the extension of cultivation henceforward was accompanied by a development of new agricultural estates carved out of the waste for the lord by the labour of his tenants. Of the great shock administered to the manorial system by the Black Death, which made manorial cultivation of the demesne lands unprofitable to the lords and so stimu- lated the letting of these as sheep-farms, which also extin- guished many properties by causing them to revert to the lords through lack of heirs, so much has been written that the subject is familiar to most readers. Concerning the still more familiar subject of the great extension of sheep- farming at the end of the fifteenth century and through the greater part of the sixteenth century, I would like to add a suggestion to explain one of the features of the movement which greatly puzzled contemporary observers. Du,ring the period when such a bitter outcry over an enormous extent of country was arising, that the country- side was being depopulated, and that thousands of peasants were turned adrift to starve or rob, through the great exten- sion of sheep-farming and the laying down of arable land in pasture, how was it that the price of wool remained relatively high and the price of grain relatively low? It seems to me probable that the primary economic cause of the increase of pasture and of enclosures was a revolution in the conditions of the trade in iron, which cheapened grain, and temporarily upset the balance which must be maintained between the products of arable and pasture in a country which feeds itself. 24 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND Professor Thorold Rogers has pointed out that one of the great causes of the poor results of medieval agriculture was the scarcity and dearness of iron, which induced the cultivator to be very sparing in the use of the plough-, share. For lack of sufficient ploughing and sufficient depth of ploughing, the natural herbage was not suffi- ciently rooted out to give the wheat or other grain a fair chance. From the point of view of pasture this defect in cultivation had a partially compensating advantage that it made the feed on the arable field, after the harvest was carried, which was enjoyed in common by the vil- lagers, more valuable than it would otherwise have been; and it also increased the value as pasture of the fallow field, which constituted one-half or one-third of the arable land of the village at any one time, according as the village followed the two-field or three-field system. The Wars of the Roses marked the climax and the end of the extensive use of iron for defensive armour. After Bos- worth Field the quantity of iron available for peaceful purposes must have been much greater ; and the condition of internal order maintained by the Tudor monarchs made it possible for internal trade to be carried on with com- parative ease and security, so that the iron of Sussex could be readily transported all over the country. As a matter of fact, a great increase in thp output of iron took place at this time. It is natural to suppose that more abundant use of iron in the making of ploughshares and deeper and more effective ploughing would gradually follow, with the consequence that the old balance of prices as between grain and pasture would be upset, and a given amount of land under cultivation according to the old custom would yield very much more bread-stuffs, but less meat and wool. This economic cause for an extension of the area of pasture at the expense of arable must, I think, be allowed for in combination with the other economic and social forces known to have been operating — the development of British cloth manufacture, the depreciation of the cur- THE RURAL WORKER 25 rency, the dissolution of the monasteries, and the break- down of feudalism. Broadly speaking, what was happening was that the economic condition of British agriculture was passing out of a system of agriculture for local subsistence into one of agriculture for the profitable supply of a market, with a corresponding change in the social structure of the villager from status to contract. Old customs ceased to be honoured, and it more and more became the object of Lords of Manors and their underlings to administer the villages so as to secure maximum rents. The Elizabethan Settlement Had the political situation been different in the sixteenth century, it is possible that the modern English land system would have been established then instead of later ; but the Crown was at that time enormously powerful. The Wars of the Roses and the development of artillery had destroyed the military power of the Barons ; and the movement of the Reformation enabled Henry VHI to make himself supreme head of the Church. National sentiment, moreover, was growing rapidly in the hearts of the population, and this spirit was fanned progressively into an intenser life, through the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Parliament became the instrument of the Ministers of the Crown, much as it is at the present day; instead of the instrument of the aristocratic opposition of the Crown, as it had been in the time of the Lancastrian kings. The agrarian situation, therefore, in the sixteenth century was dealt with according to certain clearly marked lines of national policy. The fundamental principles that we can see first vigorously expressed in More's Utopia, secondly tentatively em- bodied in legislation of the reigns of Henry VHI, Edward VI and Mary, and, thirdly, blossoming out in the great Elizabethan social code, may be defined as follows — (i) The principle that the private interest of individuals 26 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND in the management of landed estates or in the management of commercial undertakings must be subordinated sternly to considerations of general public welfare. (2) That the physical well-being and industrial efficiency of the working population must be safeguarded carefully on the one hand against idleness and laziness, on the other against inadequate sustenance and unemployment. Miss Leonard's Early History of English Poor Relief shows very clearly how these principles dominated both the structure of the Poor Law code and its administration up to the time of the great Civil War. Exactly the same policy is expressed by the Statute of Apprentices, the Depopulation Laws and other Acts affecting agriculture. We may sum up the results of these Acts on the organisa- tion of rural life by showing what was the position of the agricultural labourer in the eye of the law when Queen Elizabeth died. By the Depopulation Acts it was provided that old tilled land must be kept under tillage by proprietors, unless they brought into tillage an equal area of old pasture; that all farm-houses that had been allowed to fall into decay must be re-erected, and holdings of twenty or forty acres attached to them ; that the customary system of tillage in each dis- trict must be continued, although permission was given for cultivators to make arrangements by mutual exchanges of their scattered, intermixed strips of land in the meadows and arable fields to secure some consolidation of the hold- ings and greater freedom and convenience in cultivation. These Acts were intended, amid other objects, to secure . to the labourer a continual demand for his services in his native village. By the Statute of Apprentices the labourers' wages were fixed by Justices of the Peace according to the price of provisions. Wages so fixed were maximum wages. It was intended that they should be sufficient to provide the sustenance necessary for working efficiently, but no more. By this Statute, moreover, the labourer was bound to work, THE RURAL WORKER 27 if unemployed, for the yeoman or farmer who wanted his services. By the Cottages Act of 1589 each agricultural labourer was entitled to a separate cottage, and to a holding of four acres of land. Taken in connection with the provisions of the Depopulation Acts, which required adherence to the customary method of cultivation, this Act gave the labourer statutory rights of common to the aftermath on the common field, and on the waste, both for pasture and fuel. By the Poor Law, if no private employer desired to employ him, the labourer was entitled to remunerative employment under the direction of the parish. It will be seen that there is no recognition here of the principles of democracy or of human equality. The labourer is to be kept in tutelage. The contemporary theory expressed by Lambarde in his Perambulation of Kent, that mankind are naturally divided between dgxavrs; and aQXOfievoi, the class born to rule and the class born to be ruled, is evidently assumed without any question. But there is secured for the labourer, besides certainty of subsistence as far as the law could secure it, the opportunity of progressive advance in -prosperity and position. For it was one of the redeeming features of the open field system of agriculture that as holdings consisted of small, scat- tered strips of land, mostly acres and half-acres, any given holding was easily divided, and that there could be an easy gradation from the minimum of four acres secured by law to every agricultural labourer up to the largest holdings in the township. There remains a good deal of doubt as to the extent to which the provisions of these Statutes were carried out. Miss Leonard has shown that right up to 1640 there was a steady advance in the thoroughness with which the pro- visions of the Poor Law were put into execution. The Statute of Apprentices apparently, also, was pretty well obeyed. Historians have been apt to assume, much too hastily in my opinion, that the Depopulation Acts were a 28 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND failure. The assumption appears to have been originally based upon a priori economic arguments, and to have been persisted in without due consideration of the evidence. What evidence I have collected points strongly to the conclusion that while there were, no doubt, numerous cases in which the law was evaded or defied, and others in which particular lords obtained licences from the king to carry out local enclosures, yet, on the whole, the Depopulation Acts did effectively stop the conversion of tillage to pasture and local depopulation in a great majority of villages over the area to which they were intended to apply, which was the half of England in which arable farming had by tradition predominated. Compared with the policy of the Legislature during succeeding generations, the Elizabethan social and industrial code appears more and more fully justified, both in the wisdom of its aims and its successes in actual execution, the more it is examined. The law which was probably the least efficiently enforced was the Cottages Act. It is, however, important to remember that up to the year 1775, when this Act was repealed, every agricultural labourer had a statutory right of independent access to the soil. The Great Rebellion The great Civil War which broke out in 1642, and which may be said to have been concluded by the Restoration of 1660, broke rudely across the internal development of the country. It is desirable that English people should recog- nise, much more fully than they have been allowed to do by the histories in common use, how terrible a disaster this war was. Its character was complex. It was in the first place a political struggle to define the scope of the powers respectively of the Executive and the Legislature. It was also, to some extent, a racial contest, the stronghold of the Parliamentary party being in the districts peopled by men of Anglo-Danish descent, and of the King in the Celtic fringes of the West. There was a class division THE RURAL WORKER 29 between the landed gentry and the trading classes, and the towns on the whole tended to support the Parliament, the country districts more frequently the King. But funda- mentally and essentially it was a contest between religious principles. In some respects the English Civil War is to be regarded as part of the great series of wars between Protestants and Catholics throughout Europe, which includes, also, the war of Dutch Independence, the war between the Huguenots and Catholics of France, and the Thirty Years' War. But there is an important difference. While the English Puritans held ideas on religion closely resembling those of the Protestants of Germany, Holland and France, the Cavaliers did not" represent the spirit of Philip II nor of the Guises, but the spirit of the Renascence. The two great spiritual movements of the Renascence and of the Reformation had reached England each in two successive waves; the former bringing with it much of the spirit of Florence and Athens, the latter of Jerusalem and Geneva. Each was in itself a great civilising agency, but unfortunately the conceptions characteristic respectively of the Renascence and the Reformation, of the right atti- tude of man towards pleasure and duty, led to mutual scorn among those who had adopted either set of principles whole-heartedly. John Milton did combine in a great measure the spirit of the Renascehce and of the Reforma- tion, and his works, taken as a whole, form the noblest literary monument of the combined influence on the English of Greece and Judaea, as St. Paul's Cathedral is the noblest memorial in architecture. Milton, again, in the Areopagitica pointed out the true solution of the spiritual conflict of the time, liberty of thought and speech, free and candid discussion, from which the victory of truth should emerge. Had there been no other causes for civil war besides the division of opinion and feeling with regard to religious belief, this solution might have been reached. As a matter of fact, the religious issue being complicated by other 30 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND differences, Puritans and Cavaliers killed one another on the field of battle. The victorious Puritans then dubbed the Cavaliers Malignants, and as Malignants drove them into exile, sequestered their property, and in some cases sold them as slaves in the plantations of America. When the Cavaliers recovered power at the Restoration, they in turn embarked on a great campaign of persecution, passing Conventicle, Five Mile and Test Acts, expelling 2000 Puritan Clergy from the Church, and sentencing Quakers to transportation for refusing to take an oath. A religious war is the least sordid of all wars, but per- haps for that very reason the most disastrous morally. In our own Civil War the noblest Puritans and the noblest Cavaliers mostly died in battle, or were ruined by the sacrifices which they made for their respective causes. Half-hearted partisans survived, who knew how to change sides at a convenient opportunity, or to lie low when the opposition was in power, with those who cared nothing for either cause, but fished cunningly in the stormy waters. Then, too, a subtle degeneration of character occurred in those partisans who were driven by party spirit into bitter enmity; while the miseries of a civil war, arising from a conflict of ideals reaching such a pitch as to devastate the country, tended to sicken ordinary men of all pretence at high principle and lofty ideal, and to usher in a period of gross materialism. The Rule of the Squirearchy When the war was over and the " Glorious Revolution " of 1688 consummated, it was found that the political contest had resulted in the supremacy of Parliament. The late Mr. J. R. Green has taught the ordinary reader to regard this as a great triumph for the principle of liberty. But it brought no increase of freedom to the great mass of the people of England. The balance of power, both in the State as a whole and in the separate village communities, which was characteristic of the Middle Ages, was gone. THE RURAL WORKER 81 But while kingly power in the state was reduced to relative insignificance, in the village the local prince, the Lord of the Manor, now ruled without check. The landed aristo- crats acquired a monopoly of power such as had not before been possessed by any one class, and they held this mono- poly till 1832. They constituted the sole membership of the House of Lords and the practically entire membership of the House of Commons. They filled all the offices of State; as Justices of the Peace they exercised full control, both over the local administration of the whole country outside certain corporate towns, and also over the enforce- ment of the Criminal and Civil Law. They monopolised the Universities, and thereby, to a great extent, the organs of opinion. For their younger sons were reserved the positions of officers in the army and of incumbents in the Church. Thus they were able to carry dut with no check or hindrance, beyond individual scruples, whatever policy they chose to adopt with regard to the land and the labourers on the land. Gregory King's well-known estimate makes it clear that at the end of the seventeenth century the cultivation of the land was in the hands of a peasant class of varying status, a few being small freeholders, many more merely copy- holders, others, again, holding land by lease, by annual tenancy, or at the will of the Lord of the Manor. Custom and old agreements which had become almost traditional were largely the basis on which the relations between the Lord of the Manor and the occupier rested. In 1676 a blow was levelled at all customary and verbal agreements. The first two sections of the Statute of Frauds (19 Charles II, c. iii) read — Clause I. — "All Leases, Estates, Interests of Free- hold, or Terms of Years, or any uncertain Interest of, to or out of any Messuages, Manors,- Lands, Tene- ments or Hereditaments, made or created by Livery and Seisin only, or by Parol, and not put in Writing, 32 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND and signed by the Parties so making and creating the same, or their agents lawfully authorised by Writing, shall have the Force and Effect of Leases or Estates' at Will only, and shall not either in Law or Equity be deemed or taken to have any other or greater Force or Effect, any consideration for making any such Parol Leases or Estates, or any former Law or Usage to the contrary notwithstanding." Clause IL — "Except nevertheless all Leases not ex- ceeding the term of three years for the making thereof, whereupon the Rent reserved to the landlord, during such Term, shall amount unto two-third parts at the least of the full improved Value of the thing demised." Hereby we see each Lord of the Manor has conferred upon him the statutory right to confiscate the little pro- perties of those manorial tenants who were unable to bring documentary evidence of their rights, and to turn them into tenants-at-will liable to be dismissed from their holdings at any time for a whim. It is impossible at the present time to form any estimate as to the extent to which this power was exercised. It is most desirable that the question should be investigated, but probably no investigator would have any chance of success who did not have access to the private documents of the great houses which have con- tinuously held large landed properties since the seventeenth century. It may perhaps be significant that Mr. H. H. Johnson has found from the records of the land-tax that the extension of small properties and land was proceeding at its maximum rapidity at the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth century. We may further note that the series of Game Laws begins from the Restoration. Two clear principles dominate the policy of the govern- ing class towards land during the eighteenth century: (i) the increase of rent, (2) the unchecked freedom of the landowner in the management of his estate. THE RURAL WORKER 83 As Dr. Cunningham has pointed out, the adoption by the whole governing class of the principle that it was the prime object of State policy that rents should be raised to the maximum, was not entirely based upon motives of class selfishness. It was held that rent supplied the State with its great fund of taxable wealth ; and that in time of national emergency the greater the fund on which the State could draw, the more secure and powerful the nation would be. The eighteenth century was a time of almost continual foreign war, and to a great extent it was by taxation of rents that the fleets and armies which won for England her naval and colonial supremacy were financed. Not only was a tax of 4s. in the £ levied upon rents, estimated, however, on the assessment of 1696, but in the final climax of the struggle, when Pitt's income-tax was levied, it was paid mainly out of rents, the landlord paying in this way ten per cent, of the rent he received, and the tenant farmer paying in addition seven and a half per cent, of the rent due from him if over £6i. Land monopoly, says Professor Vinogradoff, was the price England had to pay for empire. Enclosure in the Eighteenth Century Broad lines of policy for the management of estates are laid down with great lucidity by Edward Lawrence, a professional agent, in The Duty of a Steward to his Land- lord, published in 1727. We may quote — "A Steward should not forget to make the best Enquiry into the Disposition of any of the Freeholders within or near any of his Lord's Manors to sell their Lands, that he may use his best Endeavours to pur- chase them at as reasonable a price as may be for his Lord's Advantage and Convenience . . . especially in such Manors where Improvements are to be made by Inclosing Commons and Common Fields. ... If the Freeholders cannot all be persuaded to sell, yet at D 34 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND least ah Agreement for Inclosing should be pushed forward by the Steward" (page 9). "The Steward should not suffer any of the Lord's lands to be let to Freehold Tenants within or near his Lord's Manor " (page 34). " The Steward should endeavour to lay all the small Farms, let to poor indigent people, to the great ones. . . ." But "it is unwise to unite farms all at once, because of the odium and increase of Poor-rates. It is much more reasonable and popular to stay till such farms fall into Hand by Death " (page 35). "Noblemen and Gentlemen should endeavour to convert Copyhold for lives to Leasehold for lives" (page 60). There can be no doubt that this pronouncement repre- sents both the views and the actual practice of those responsible for the administration of the land through the eighteenth century. It is a policy of slow extermination of the peasantry. The small freeholder is to be checked and hampered at every turn (detailed methods of doing this are suggested in various passages by Edward Lawrence) in order that he may the more easily be induced to part with his freehold, becoming, perhaps, a tenant, and possibly obtaining greater opportunities thereby of making profit out of farming, but also becoming dependent' for his opportunity of making a livelihood on the good will of the lord and his steward. Then with regard to the great class of small copyholders ; instead of being allowed to commute their liabilities and become freeholders, they are to be degraded into lease- holders, by methods which are not clearly indicated, but which were too probably in practice a mixture of legal chicanery and bullying. The particular form of copyhold referred to was prevalent in the South and West, as for example, in Devon and Cornwall, Somerset and Gloucester- shire, and all the Cotswold country. The copyholder held THE RURAL WORKER 85 his property during the continuancfe of three specified lives, which, it would appear from Carew's reference to copyhold in Cornwall, were originally those of himself, his wife and his eldest son. The copyholder had the right, on payment of a definite fine, to substitute a new life as any one of the three expired. When copyhold for life is converted into leasehold for life this right disappears, though, of course, an arrangement to re-life may be made if both parties desire it. It is obvious that this transition could easily be made by the zealous steward at the expense of an ignorant peasantry, with the result that the copyholder's descendants were disinherited. While freeholders and copyholders are thus alike being converted into small tenants, and, again, tenants at long lease being turned into tenants on short lease, annual tenants or tenants-at-will, as tenants they were further vic- timised by the process, advocated by Edward Lawrence and generally followed throughout the country, of enlarge- ment and consolidation of farms. Side by side, therefore, a class of large tenant farmers and a much more numerous class of landless agricultural labourers were being created out of the peasantry of England. The policy of enclosure is curiously intermixed with the policy of consolidation of estates and aggregation of farms. Although much has been written of late to explain just what enclosure meant, it is perhaps worth while to point out here its most important features. Generally speaking, an Act of Enclosure, or an enclosure carried out without an Act, was one of two well-marked types. In the North and West generally, and also in the extreme South-east corner of England, an Act of Enclosure was generally the enclosure of a piece of waste land which had previoulsy been used as common for pasture and fuel. The moor, waste or other tract of common land was divided among the owners of the neighbouring properties, in some sort of approximation to the proportions according to which use had been made of it by their tenants while in a state of D 2 36 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND commonage. Such enclosure extended the area of cuhiva- tion, and increased the local demand for labour and the local prosperity, while it frequently inflicted serious injuries upon cottagers and other poor tenants who had previously been able to keep cows, geese or other animals, and to obtain their fuel from the common. The Open-field Village The other type of enclosure was more complicated, more important and more numerous. Out of the 4000 Acts of Enclosure passed during the eighteenth century and in the first part of the nineteenth century up to the General Enclosure Act of 1845, almost exactly two-thirds were Acts for enclosing open-field townships in which arable and meadow was subject to common rights as well as the permanent pasture. In a typical township of this sort the dwellings were collected together in the village, in the midst of which there might be a village green. Broad grass strips led from the green to the more remote parts of the township which were used as common pasture. A strip or strips of suitable land running along the streams in the parish would be set aside for meadows; and the greater part of the land in the immediate neighbourhood of the village would be in two, three, or four arable fields. The arable fields were divided into long, rectangular patches of various sizes, from one-quarter of an acre upwards, but averaging, as a rule, about one acre. The meadow was divided into even smaller strips. Each hold- ing, whether freehold, copyhold, leasehold, or other tenancy, consisted of a certain number of scattered strips in each of the arable fields, together with a proportionate number of scattered strips in the meadow. The tenant would / / / plough and sow his arable strips according to the custom of the village. Thus, if there were three fields, a three- year rotation would be followed, of wheat, spring corn, and fallow. He would also carry hay from certain portions of the meadow land, in some places being entitled to certain THE RURAL WORKER 37 definite known strips, in other places receiving his share by rotation or by the drawing of lots. When the hay was carried the meadow became a cow common till early spring ; and when the harvest was carried on the arable fields under crops, these, too, were thrown open ; while the field in fallow would be used as common pasture all the year round. With a number of interesting local variations, this was the method of agriculture that prevailed at the end of the seventeenth century over the central half of England; the extent of the open-field country being indi- cated pretty clearly by the shaded portion in the map showing the distribution of parliamentary enclosures enclosing arable land. Results of Enclosure When in such a village as this the principal proprietor had obtained the assent of a complacent House of Com- mons to a private Act of Enclosure, the village was handed over for a period of several years to the control of Enclosure Commissioners, who represented the interests of the Lord of the Manor, the tithe-owner and the large proprietors. It was the duty of the Commissioners to ascertain who were the owners of land and rights to common, and the proportionate value of their respective interests. They had then to redivide the whole of the township among the different proprietors, requiring each to fence off land allotted to him by quickset hedges, and to prevent those hedges from being destroyed by sheep or otherwise until they were strongly grown. A great deal of controversy arose at the time, and has been continued since, with regard to both the agricultural and social aspects of the great campaign of enclosure through- out the open-field districts of England. But the difference between the controversialists is really not so much one of actual contradiction as of varying emphasis, and this applies even to the last two books on the subject. The Village Labourer, by Mr. and Mrs. Hammond, and 38 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND ENCLOSURE of COMMON FJEUDS BY ACT or PARLIAMENT. Ehatosod bmfbr, tbm Oa—r-ml taolosvra Act rf IBOI. SjuMsed 6«t«e»i IBOa »nd ttHt. undmrGBneraJEnolomurm Act aP ie*S. acali>leX)OQ0O0eir linch- 73 S trtmll w, THE RURAL WORKER 89 Common Land and Enclosure," by Professor Conner. The following summary may be regarded as being outside the range of reasonable controversy. Particularly towards the latter part of the eighteenth century some great change was necessary in the open-field system, especially with regard to the exercise of common rights, in order to fit it to take advantage of new methods of cultivation. New agriculture was being pushed forward by energetic and progressive landlords. So far as they were concerned, the readiest means to their hands of im- proving agricultural methods was to make a clean sweep of the old system, and to start afresh with the assistance of the most progressive of the old tenants, who could be selected by their willingness to pay high rents. It has been urged that enclosure was necessary for progressive agriculture. If the word enclosure is used in its broadest possible sense, viz. some important change in the common- field system, this is obviously true. For instance, turnips could not be grown in the open fields without some modification of the prevailing custom with regard to the opening of the fields for common pasture at a particular time. It was, however, quite possible for the common- field system to be modified by local agreement to any extent necessary, without actual enclosure. Whatever doubts might have existed on the subject were settled by the Act of 1773 for the regulation of the cultivation of common arable fields. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that enclosure greatly 'facilitated agricultural progress, both in the im- provement of breeds of cattle and sheep and in the substitu- tion of root crops for bare fallows. During the great struggles of the eighteenth century, particularly during the war with the French Republic and Napoleon, the increase in the gross and also in the net produce of the land was a matter of urgent national importance. But, on the other hand, it is easy to exaggerate the economic gain of enclosure. When the practical details of the common- 40 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND field system are explained to one unfamiliar with them, as, for example, when a farmer says, " I have a farm of sixty acres in a hundred different patches," and dilates upon the possibilities of friction between occupiers of neighbouring strips in the open fields, one is inclined to marvel how such a system could have been worked at all. But it was by no means an uncommon experience that the results of enclosure were very disappointing. Frequently the gross produce of the land diminished. The common saying was "Enclosure makes a good farmer better and a bad farmer worse." It was no surprise to me when I asked the chief promoter of one of the most recent important enclosures of common-field whether the enclosure benefited the parish, to receive his answer, "Yes! the enclosure certainly was a benefit, but the parish has not recovered from it yet." Some twenty years had elapsed. While the effect of enclosure was immediately stimulat- ing to agricultural progress, it is by no means so certain that its permanent effects were beneficial. It is a very striking fact that the one part of England where the move- ment was successfully resisted in the eighteenth century, the Isle of Axholme, has abundantly justified what Arthur Young called its barbarous refusal to enclose its arable fields. Not only are the open fields of the Isle of Axholme exceptionally well cultivated at the present lime, but the island also serves as a training-ground in practical and effective farming, and men who begin as labourers there frequently become large farmers else- where. Both the net produce of land available for feeding the urban centres and the rent were increased very largely by enclosure. Perhaps the most extreme case was that of Long Sutton in Lincolnshire, where rent was raised from an average of 5s. per acre to between 30s. and 50s. Double or treble rents were not uncommon, though there were cases in which the increase of rent was insufficient to pay interest on the very heavy costs of enclosure. As we have THE RURAL WORKER 41 previously seen increase of rent was the test by which the success of the management of the land was judged. The Fate of the Peasantry If we turn to the effect of enclosure upon small holders, agricultural labourers and other cottagers in the district affected, we find that there was a very general loss to those classes of the advantages which they had enjoyed from the land under commonage, without any adequate compensa- tion. The cottagers who exercised common rights by virtue of occupying particular cottages, lost these common rights, and obtained instead the sentimental satisfaction of knowing that an allotment of land had been made to the owner of the cottages. They would have no oppor- tunity of getting any benefit out of that allotment of land, nor, so far as I have been able to trace, is there any case on record of the rents of the cottages being reduced. Cottagers who were small copyholders or freeholders fre- quently failed to obtain allotment of land in compensation for their common rights through inability to produce documentary evidence that they were entitled to such rights. The name of one Enclosure Commissioner has been put on record as having been in the practice of making allotments to all cottagers who could prove that they had actually exercised the right of common. He appears to have been a very rare exception, if not the only one, to the general rule. In those cases where the cottager could prove beyond doubt his right to an allotment, he got it, but more often than not it was so situated and conditioned that he was glad to sell it for a small sum of money, which, as a rule, was _ speedily spent. Thus, for example, a cottager who had been accustomed to keep a cow and to get all his fuel from the village waste, might be given an acre, or perhaps two, somewhere away on the edge of the parish, perhaps a couple of miles from his home. He would then be required to pay his proportion of the parliamentary cost of enclosure, 42 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND to fence his allotment, and to plant a quickset hedge along one side of it, as the condition of retaining it, and he would usually be unable to do anything of the sort. It must be remembered that it was a profession — and a profitable one — to be a Commissioner for Enclosure by private Act, and that a good connection in this profession depended upon the carrying out of the work in a manner satisfactory to the chief landowner, whatever might be the consequences for the peasantry. It should be further noted that what has just been said about the fate of the cottager on enclosure applies equally to cases of enclosure of the land of the village generally and of commons in the modern sense, "waste of a manor." But when we consider the indirect effects upon the labourer through the effect of enclosure upon the demand for agri- cultural labour, it is necessary for us to consider separately the two types of enclosure. The hedge is really a piece of labour-saving machinery, and labour-saving machinery may result either in increased production or in a diminu- tion of the workers directly employed. Where the land enclosed had previously been pretty well cultivated in open fields, enclosure produced local depopulation. This was particularly the case in certain midland counties — Leicester- shire and adjoining shires — where there was, on the whole, a considerable increase in the proportion of pasture. Wherever enclosure was of waste only, the local demand for labour would naturally increase. This was also the case in a large part of Norfolk, where the open-field parish had a very large proportion of common pasture, and where the proportion of land under arable was greatly increased by enclosure. In Lincolnshire, where a great deal of the arable fields had been under the two-field system, similar conditions were found. On the other hand, where the balance between pasture and arable was left undisturbed, the necessary work required fewer hands after the holdings had been made compact, and animals could be turned into paddocks and left unwatched. TIfE RURAL WORKER 48 Professor Conner has shown that it is very difficult to prove, by the recorded statistics, any definite connection between enclosure and the increase of poor-rates. On the other hand there can be no doubt that there was a very intimate connection between the degeneration of poor-law administration in the eighteenth century and the social transformation which was taking place in the villages. The connection is complicated, and much further investigation will be necessary before it can be satisfactorily understood. Further consideration will be given to the question below. Socially and morally, complete enclosure and, to a less extent, enclosure of waste, made a great difference to the spirit of the village. Before enclosure, holdings, whether of yeomen proprietors or of tenant farmers, were mostly small, many of them very small; and, on the other hand, it was easy for even a propertyless labourer to rent a few acre or half-acre strips. If he did not, he might still exercise common rights; and, in consequence, there would scarcely be found any men who were completely debarred from independent access to the soil, even after the repeal in 1775 of the Act of Elizabeth which provided that every agricultural labourer should have the opportunity of occu- pying four acres of land. There would be an imperceptible gradation from the poorest labourer, through different grades of men who spent their time partly working for hire and partly upon their own holdings, up to the larger farmers. But, as a rule, after enclosure the holdings were made few and large. They were occupied by the fortunate few who were possessed of more capital or more skill and enterprise. On the whole, these men generally prospered ; but for the others there was the choice between emigration, migration to the towns, or becoming labourers hence- forward with but little hope of rising out of that class. The Revolution in Spinning Important as was the influence of the progress of enclo- sure upon the fortunes of the villagers of England, the 44 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND great decline in the prosperity of the labourer which took place towards the end of the eighteenth century was in a far greater degree due to the inventions which revolution- ised spinning, from Hargreaves's jenny in 1764 to Cromp- ton's mule in 1779. Spinning was a very important bye industry for the families of agricultural labourers, and the universality of the spinning-wheel is indicated by the resolution of the Rutlandshire magistrates as late as 1793 to refuse poor relief to the family of any agricultural labourer if the children did not show proficiency in spin- ning in proportion to their age. As soon as the new factories were fully developed, and the machines invented for cotton were applied to wool, linen and silk, they naturally monopolised the market for yarn. The labourer's family had then to subsist upon its earnings in agriculture alone. In a considerable number of villages it may have happened that the agricultural and manufacturing changes were simultaneous, so that the labourer found himself deprived of the profitable use of the spinning-wheel, of rights of common, of pasture and fuel, and of the oppor- tunity to rent a little piece of land, at the same time; and this at a time when money wages, though increasing, failed to rise in proportion to the increase of prices of food. The Poor Law in the Eighteenth Century The Elizabethan Poor Law, which threw upon the Over- seers and Churchwardens of each parish the responsibility of providing against unemployment and other causes of destitution, depended for its successful working upon a fairly high level of public spirit in the village, and intelli- gent and friendly supervision by the Justices of the Peace, and upon the supervision of the Privy Council in case of failure in the administration of any locality. Up to the outbreak of the Civil War the Privy Council performed its function, with the result that the standard of local adminis- tration was continually improving. After the Civil War there was no central supervision until 1834. Miss Maud THE RURAL WORKER 45 Davies's inquiry into the village of Corsley, in Wiltshire, and that of Mr. Arthur Ashby into administration of Tysoe, in Warwickshire, give us some reasons for thinking that in parishes where small properties and holdings were relatively numerous, the Elizabethan Poor Law continued to be administered in as satisfactory a manner as might well be expected. Probably such villages were exceptional. But after the Restoration the spirit of Parliament was changed. In 1662 the first of the notorious series of Settle- ment Acts was passed. It authorised any two Justices of the Peace, on complaint from the Churchwardens or Over- seers, to send back to his native place or last place of settlement, within forty days of his arrival, any new-comer in the village who failed to obtain a holding of ;^io per annum or upwards. Subsequent Acts passed in 1685 and 1692 required that the forty days should only begin to count from the time that the new-comer handed in notice in writing to the Overseers, and that a list of those people who settled in the parish should be read out in church. The gradual building up of the statute law in relation to settle- ment marks the approach of a time when parishes were at war with one another, each endeavouring to plant as many as possible of its potential paupers upon its neighbours, and to maintain its own borders against in-comers. As settlement could be obtained by apprenticeship, it was an object of special effort on the part of Overseers to bind the parish orphans to any employer outside the parish who would take them, without regard to the future lot of the unfortunate boy or girl. In this struggle those parishes were fitted to prevail in which there was either a single landlord with full control, or but two or three who acted in concert. In such cases the practice was sometimes adopted of forming what was known as a close parish, where no labourers were allowed to live, the work of the farms being done by labourers living in some neighbouring congested "open parish." During the first half of the eighteenth century Poor Law 46 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND administration, bad enough in all other respects, was at any rate successful in keeping down the poor-rates- The Act of 1662 had provided for the building of workhouses in the cities of London and Westminster and in the counties of Middlesex and Surrey. Further stimulus was given to the movement for erecting workhouses by the example of Bristol in 1690 and by the Act of 1722, which authorised the offer of maintenance in a workhouse and the refusal of any other relief. About the middle of the century, however, the policy of the governing class was modified by other considerations. A scare arose about the numbers of the population. A Dr. Price drew attention to the fact that the number of inhabited houses which paid taxes was declining, and he argued that the numbers of the population were decreasing in a similar ratio. The inference, no doubt, was wrong, but it is impossible to say in what measure the facts Dr. Price relied upon really indicated an increase in over- crowding, or merely greater laxity in the collection of taxes. His position was vigorously controverted at the time, but Parliament was sufficiently impressed to pass laws to en- courage aliens to settle in the country in order to make up the supposed deficiency, and for the remainder of the century the need of encouraging an increase of population was taken for granted. When the Great French War broke out in 1793, other motives were brought to play upon Poor Law administra- tion. It was considered necessary to make the working classes, both in town and country, as immune as possible to the infection of republican aspirations, by emphasising the peculiar advantage which the English Poor Law gave to the labourer, by giving him a definite stake in land and other property. Hence, in the early years of the war, in rapid succession, (i) the Law of Settlement was so far altered that a labourer could no longer be driven away from the parish in which he settled unless he actually became chargeable to the Poor Law ; (2) the Workhouse Test was THE RURAL WORKER 47 abolished ; and (3) the County Magistrates began seriously to consider the problem of maintaining the physical effi- ciency of the labourers. As Mr. and Mrs. Hammond have pdinted out, various courses, more or less statesmanlike, were open to them. The best of the landlords, headed by Sir John Sinclair, the Earls of Carrington and Winchilsea, with Arthur Young, urged the provision of small holdings and the voluntary adoption by landlords of the policy of three acres and a cow. Had the principle of laisserifaire been less dominant, it is possible that steps would have been taken by the legislature to have revived in this way one part of the Elizabethan code. But the mere fact that such small holdings were known to be profitable to land- lords as well as advantageous to the labourers, made it, as was supposed, unnecessary to use legislative pressure. Some new small holdings were created, particularly in the Midlands, but these were too few to affect the situation sensibly. The labourers themselves demanded, when they ventured to give expression to their feelings, that their wages should be fixed according to the price of grain or flour, in accord- ance with another part of the Elizabethan code. It was hardly to be expected that this demand would be granted. It might not be easy to lower wages once they had been raised in so considerable a degree. Other persons suggested an alteration in the diet of the labourer, which had now, by degrees, come to consist almost exclusively of white wheaten bread, instead of the great variety of breads and porridges, with milk, eggs and a larger proportion of meat, which had been customary in earlier times. To a certain extent potatoes did supersede bread in the labourers' dietary. But all attempts to substitute cheaper grains for wheat failed. The solution actually adopted was the easiest but the most calamitous ; it was to supplement the labourer's starva- tion wages with an allowance from the parish fund, suf- ficient to make the total up to what was regarded as a 48 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND bare but sufficient maintenance for the family. Mr. and Mrs. Hammond have shown that through the country the estimate of benches of magistrates as to what was a suffi- cient maintenance became lower and lower, the later bread scales being considerably, less generous than the earlier ones. It is a fundamental mistake to attribute primarily to this new method of administering Poor Law the degradation of the labourer which followed ; the main cause, of course, was the fact that the independent labourer could not, as a rule, maintain an existence upon the wages which he earned. The so-called Speenhamland policy of out-relief according to bread scale saved the population from starva- tion. Combined with lowness of wage, with the decay of subsidiary village industries, and with the practically com- plete success of the landowners' policy of land monopolisa- tion, it left the labourer when the war was over in a con- dition of practically compulsory pauperisation, reckless, insubordinate and of deteriorated industrial quality, while illegitimacy was becoming so prevalent that in many villages it was rare for a girl to become a bride before she became a mother. CHAPTER III the urban worker at the beginning of the nineteenth century The Apprenticeship System The policy of the Elizabethan statesmen with regard to manufacturing industry was fundamentally the same as their policy with regard to agriculture. Here, too, the system of the Middle Ages was being broken down by the development of an international trade, a wider competi- tion for wealth, and the weakening of custom. The aim of the legislature was, therefore, to create a new national organisation based on those features of the gilds of the Middle Ages, which seemed to be still suitable to the changing conditions. To a great extent the basis of the new regulation was the Statute of Apprentices. Miss Dunlop, in English Apprenticeship and Child Labour, declares that "in all probability the Elizabethan system of apprenticeship was the most efficient system of training which has ever been available for the mass of the nation." Its value, of course, depended very largely upon the con- tinued existence of associations similar in character to the gilds, and much effort was spent in the organisation of companies both for trade and manufacture. It may seem excessive that seven years should be spent in learning a comparatively simple trade, but the great problem of dealing with the labour of the young is to secure that the future efficiency and well-being of the youth shall not be sacrificed for the purpose of exploiting to the utmost his E 49 50 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND undeveloped skill and immature abilities. A long appren- ticeship was a simple device, and probably the best then available, for securihg that it should be to the master workman's interest to teach his apprentice thoroughly during the first part of the period of apprenticeship in order to secure skilled assistance from him in the later period. Quite young children were employed under the system, and the hours of labour were sometimes very long. There was certainly a considerable proportion of cases of hardship; and the Puritan movement, no doubt, exag- gerated the natural disposition of the hard-working crafts- man to regard the eagerness of his apprentice for football and other games as the promptings of the Evil One. But the tendency of employers to exploit child labour unduly was, on the whole, very effectively checked by the appren- ticeship system, and its general tendency was to breed a great body of efficient and self-respecting craftsmen. From the time of the Civil War the system of appren- ticeship gradually underwent decay. The law of 1563 remained in nominal operation until 1814, but there was little disposition to enforce it. Its scope was limited by the conclusion reached by the lawyers that it did not apply to any new industries, hence, for example, the whole cotton industry w"as regarded as outside its scope. During the eighteenth century the custom whereby the apprentice lived with his master was less and less observed. While, on the one hand, in certain comparatively well-paid crafts the practice of apprenticeship remained, with the addition of the payment of considerable premiums, in poorer trades apprenticeship was more and more utilised as an adjunct to poor law administration. It is interesting to note that the repeal of the Statute of Apprentices in 1814 was occasioned by the appeal of the work-people for its better enforcement, and was a consequence of the influence exercised by the doctrine of laisser-faire. The older idea of the necessity of maintaining the standard of material and workmanship in British industry, both from THE URBAN WORKER 51 the point of view of justice to the home consumer and of the prestige of British manufacture in foreign countries, had gradually lost its hold over Parliament. In one respect, however, there was no change in the tone of current opinion from the sixteenth century to the begin- ning of the nineteenth century. In neither was there any doubt that "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do," and even those pioneers in the educational move- ment who urged that children should be sent to school to learn to read and write, fully admitted that schooling should not be pushed to such an extent as to interfere with the earliest possible employment of children in useful industries. Thus, for example, the Bishop of Gloucester in 1730 preaching at St. Sepulchre's Church, Holborn, on behalf of a charity school, explained, "That they" (the children) "may be above no kind of labour, their dres's should be little regarded on week-days ; they should attend school at leisure hours, only at such times as their fripnds have no work for them ; and should be taught no more than their prayers and their Catechism and to read their Bible and to write plainly and legibly; and as soon as ever they are of years and big enough should be dismissed the school and betake themselves to earn their bread by any kind of honest labour they can get to be employed m. The Factory System When in consequence of the inventions mentioned at the close of the last chapter, spinning factories, employing a large amount of child labour, sprang up towards the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century, many causes contributed to make the lot of those children most deplorable. (1) It has already been shown how these factories reacted upon the well-being of the agricultural population. In that way they helped to create a condition of pauperisation and destitution which they also exploited. B 2 52 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND (2) For a whole generation the spinning factories mainly relied upon water for their motive power, and they were accordingly placed in hilly districts, as on the western slope' of the Pennine Range, which provided streams of rapid fall. In consequence the new mills were placed in quite little villages, or even at a considerable distance from habitations. The record of the New Lanark Mills, under their original proprietor, sufficiently illustrates the difficulty of finding the necessary labour. At first Mr. Dale endeavoured to get the Lanarkshire shepherds to work in his factory, but though he offered higher money wages than they were accustomed to, he found it very difficult to persuade them. Later he succeeded in getting hold of a body of shipwrecked sailors ; but he finally entered into arrangements with a philanthropic society in Edinburgh to take over orphan and destitute children in regular batches. The same difficulty was experienced by English employers and surmounted by a similar device. Arrange- ments were made with the churchwardens and overseers of London parishes and of rural districts, who, for reasons indicated above, were glad to place the children with any willing employer, without inquiry and without provision for supervision. Thus a new slave trade grew up in England ; children even being bought and sold if, through bankruptcy or other reasons, their original employer desired to part with them before their indentures were complete. (3) The country was familiar enough with the principle of child labour, but it was a new thing that children of six years and upwards should be yoked to the tireless machine and compelled for twelve or even sixteen hours a day to pay unremitting attention to tedious duties. It was a new thing that industries should be carried on by machines which represented a considerable expenditure of capital, and which were continually becoming obsolete through the introduction of fresh improvements. The economic motive to exploit the machine and, therefore, the THE URBAN WORKER 53 child worker to the utmost, was balanced only by the philanthropy of the ernployer — a varying factor. Of David Dale it was said in 1792 by an enthusiastic reporter, "The various provisions which this extraordinary man has made for the health of the children employed by him are highly praiseworthy. They have every day some hours allowed to them for exercise in the fields — their apartments are likewise clean and well-aired, and ten schoolmasters are daily employed in their education." But even these pecu- liarly fortunate children went into the mill at from five to eight years of age; and their hours of labour were from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., after which the ten schoolmasters per- formed their part. (4) It will, I think, be admitted by all who have had experience with young Children that it is impossible to obtain unremitting attention from them without the severest coercion. It is hard to see how the overseers in charge of the spinning factories could have obtained the results demanded of them by the proprietors without systematic cruelty, and, it is, I believe, a melancholy psychological fact that a systematic exercise of cruelty gradually develops a morbid condition of mind which takes delight in inflicting cruelty. (5) The next feature that requires to be emphasised is the peculiar helplessness of the pauper apprentice and the attitude of public opinion towards the idea of limiting the amount of labour required from him and regulating its conditions. The pauper apprentice had no friends or rela- tives likely to inquire after his welfare. He grew up grossly ignorant, probably in a great majority of cases debased and demoralised, fit for little more, when of age, than to treat other children as he had himself been treated. Flight might be attempted, and we are told of cases of blacksmiths kept continually at work forging fetters, and of horses always kept saddled and ready to run down the refugee. Combination was obviously out of the question. (6) As for the attitude of public opinion, the strong 54 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND view held on the importance of training children to in- dustry, and the sentimental view that they were good and happy in proportion as they were kept usefully employed, were combined with the rising economic theories of the extreme importance of the maximum production of wealth and of the desirability' of giving a perfectly free hand to the industrial entrepreneur. (7) The last feature with regard to the condition of the pauper apprentice which we must note, is the deplorably insanitary conditions under which the apprentices lived and were housed. Suitable accommodation would have used up capital which was badly wanted in order to set up the maximum number of machines. The general condition of knowledge of hygiene was still very primitive, and, needless to say, the germ theory, or even the theory of the preventability of disease, was not yet heard of. Various contagious fevers if, by chance, introduced into a factory, had an excellent nidus for their development, and at times they spread to the neighbouring population. The First Agitation for Reform It was by this rude reminder of nature of the fact of human solidarity, that public opinion became convinced that the spinning factories sheltered intolerable evils; and it was under the leadership of the medical profession that the first steps towards regulation were made. In 1784, after an outbreak of fever at Radcliffe, the Manchester magistrates resolved that they would refuse to allow the indentures of parish apprentices to employers who worked children by night or more than ten hours a day. In 1796 an association of medical men in the neigh- bourhood of Manchester, called the "Manchester Board of Health," passed the following resolutions, which are of extreme interest as showing a point of view in relation to industry which is diametrically opposed to those which we have indicated above, but which has gradually exercised more and more influence in subsequent time — THE URBAN WORKER 55 (i) "Children who work in the large cotton factories are peculiarly disposed to be affected by the contagion of fever, and when such infection is received it /is rapidly propagated. (2) "The large factories are generally injurious to the constitution of those employed in them, even when no particular diseases prevail, from the close confine- ment which is enjoined, from the debilitating effects of hot and impure air and from the want of the active exercise which nature points out as essential in child- hood and youth to invigorate the system. (3) "The untimely labour of the night and the pro- tracted labour of the day, with respect to children, not only tends to diminish future expectations as to the general sum of life and industry, by impairing the strength and destroying the vital stamina of the rising generation ; but it too often gives encouragement to idleness, extravagance and profligacy in the parents, who, contrary to the order of nature, subsist by the oppression of their offspring. (4) "It ajjpears that the children employed in fac- tories are generally debarred from all opportunities of education, and from moral and religious instruction. (5) "From the excellent regulations which subsist in several cotton factories, it appears that many of these evils may be in a considerable degree obviated; we are therefore warranted by experience, and are assured we shall have the support of the proprietors of these factories, in proposing an application for parliamentary aid (if other methods appear to be not likely to effect the purpose) to establish a general system of laws for the humane, wise and equal government of all such works." The determination, here indicated, to apply for parlia- mentary aid, produced Sir Robert Peel's Act, passed in 1802, for regulating the labour of parish apprentices in 56 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND cotton factories. By this, apprentices were limited to twelve hours' work per day and were to be taught reading, writing and arithmetic. Night work was to cease by June 1804, a suit of clothing was to be supplied annually to each appren- tice ; factories were to be whitewashed twice a year and to be kept properly ventilated; separate sleeping apartments had to be provided for the different sexes, and not more than two apprentices were to share the same bed ; children were to attend church at least once a month. In order to enforce the Act Justices of the Peace were required to appoint two inspectors out of their own number, one of whom was to be a clergyman. After 1802 the improvement of the steam-engine created a tendency for new factories to be built in towns, particu- larly on the Lancashire and Yorkshire coal-fields, rather than on the hill-sides. Such factories were able to exploit the labour of th^ ordinary population, and particularly of the children of the hand-loom weavers, and in this way a new factory problem was created, to which further reference will be made below. The Hand-loom Weavers Meanwhile it is to be noted that while the condition of labour in the spinning industry was sufficiently deplorable, and its reaction upon the lot of the agricultural labourer also disastrous, the great increase in the output of yarn brought a period of greatly increased prosperity to the hand-loom weavers. On the one hand the genuine cotton industry of England was, in fact, really created by Ark- wright's "water frame"; for the yarn previously spun had not been strong enough to be used for warp, so that so-called cotton goods of British manufacture consisted of linen warp and cotton weft, and the sale was prohibited of cloth consisting entirely of cotton up to the year 1774. On the other hand, the spinning machines did away with the difficulty which the weavers, whether of cotton, woollen, or linen cloth, had long been under in getting THE URBAN WORKER 57 a sufEcient supply of yarn, a difficulty intensified by Kay's invention in 1733 of the fly-shuttle, which enabled much wider widths of cloth to be woven by a weaver working single-handed, and approximately doubled the speed of his work. After 1733 weavers had frequently to spend half their time hunting for yarn in order to feed their looms. Naturally the growth of the spinning factory revolutionised the relation between spinning and weaving. Weavers not only were fully employed, but they pressed their wives and children into the service. They could cheapen the selling price of their cloth, and force an ever expanding market, with but little possibility of foreign competition, as long as the great war was ravaging in the most advanced countries of Europe. It is true that in 1782 Cartwright invented the power-loom, incited thereby by the difficulty which was pointed out to him of disposing of the great quantities of machine-spun yarn because there were not weavers enough to Use it up. But the power-loom only very slowly came into use, and as late as 18 13 there were scarcely more than 2000 power- looms in use, while in the following twenty years the numbers increased to 100,000. In 1815 the hand-loom weavers had had some forty years of great though fluctuating prosperity. Compared with the agricultural labourers, or even with other urban crafts- men, they were distinguished by intelligence, sobriety and public spirit. Their occupation was entirely one for adult men, as while women or youths could work the older form of loom, it took a man to weave with the fly-shuttle. But in 1815 the hand-loom weaver was at the end of his time of prosperity, and at the beginning of a long period of agony, during which his craft was all but crushed out by the superior cheapness and efficiency of the power-loom. In future chapters some account will be given of the conditions of sanitation and of government under which the great manufacturing towns of England were beginning to grow. But we may in passing note Patrick Colquhoun's 58 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND account of the manner in which the trade of the river Thames was carried on before the establishment of the river police in 1798. The effect of the working of the Customs regulations was to concentrate on London the commerce both with the East and the West Indies; and Colquhoun estimates the imports and exports of the Port of London at the enormous figures of ;^30, 900,000 and ;^29,6oo,ooo respectively. The depredations he calculated at half a million annually, and the different sorts of depredators he divides into nine classes — (i) The River Pirates, who came armed and boarded ships by night; (2) Night Plunderers, who worked by connivance with Night Watchmen and plundered the unwatched lighters pointed out to them ; (3) Light Horse- men, who formed a connecting link between mates of West India ships and receivers on shore, and who boarded ships by night with black bags, and took so much sugar from each hogshead or so much coffee from each package, and carried jiggers — small pumps with which to extract a con- tribution from barrels of rum; (4) Heavy Horsemen, Lumpers who wore special gowns, inside waistcoats full of pockets, or long bags that went inside their trousers; (5) Game Watermen ; (6) Game Lightermen ; (7) Game Revenue Officers ; (8) Scuffle Hunters, loafers on the look- out for any small prey to be had; and (9) Copemen or Receivers. Much light is thrown on the internal history of our towns during the eighteenth century by Mr. and Mrs. Webb's History of Local Government in England. Broadly speak- ing, we may say that the record is one of widely-spread corruption and misrule, amid which many public-spirited men struggled gallantly for purity, good administration and order in their respective boroughs and parishes. The struggle was long and doubtful, meeting with varying success in different localities, with perhaps, on the whole, a net movement towards improvement. But what is most THE URBAN WORKER 59 characteristic of the whole period is the fact that the local reformers had everywhere to rely upon their own exertions without assistance from the Central Government ; and that the chief influence of Parliament upon local government was the corruption spread by the traffic in seats organised by the borough-mongers. CHAPTER IV THE AWAKENING OF THE SPIRIT OF REFORM "An old, mad, blind, despised and dying king, — Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow Through public scorn, mud from a muddy spring, — Rulers who neither see nor feel nor kiiow. But leechlike to their fainting country cling. Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow, — A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field, — An army, which liberticide and prey Make us a two-edged sword to all who wield, — Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay, — Religion Christless, Godless, a book sealed, A Senate — Time's worst Statute unrepealed, Are graves from which a glorious phantom may Burst to illumine our tempestuous day." Shelley : England in i8ig. Social Conditions in i8i6 Shelley's glorious phantom was perhaps the spirit of reform. There was indeed need for some semi-miraculous outburst of such a spirit. During the half-century before Waterloo, as we have seen, industrial changes had been proceeding with a rapidity previously unknown. During this period the Government had been monopolised by the most conservative class, and the class last to be affected by the sufferings of the poor. To an increasing degree the actual rulers of the State had been paralysed in any remedial action they might have taken by the doctrine of laisser- faire; and for more than half of this period war had engrossed the energies which might otherwise have been available for internal reform. It is notable that, while the only important step in advance which was made during the Great French War was the abolition of the Slave Trade 60 THE SPIRIT OF REFORM 61 in 1808, this period was also marked by much oppres- sion and reactionary legislation. Amid such an Augean stable there might be a danger that nothing would be effected because of the difiSculty of deciding where to begin. As Shelley indicates, every institution of the country was mistrusted by the people, and gravely deserved their mis- trust. The Prince Regent, who exercised the kingly power, was openly jeered at, even in moderate papers, for his selfish extravagance and heartless sensuality. The prestige of the Government was seriously damaged by the long list of pensions and sinecures maintained out of taxes wrung with difficulty from the people. The adminis- tration of justice varied from county to county, and from town to town. It reached the very lowest level in the metropolitan districts of Middlesex and Surrey, where the trading justices developed the arts of corruption to an extent which has scarcely been paralleled since in America. The Criminal Code administered by these justices is truly described by Shelley as a body of "golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay." Over two hundred different offences were felonies, for which the death penalty could be inflicted. The list had been growing through the eighteenth century. Once Burke declared that though he had singularly little influence with the Government, even his would suffice to secure a new felony without benefit of clergy, if he chose to exert it to that end. An extra- ordinarily inefficient parochial and borough police system was supplemented by a special body of "Bow Street Runners," and both bodies were stimulated to activity by a system of rewards reaching ^40 and a Tyburn ticket for a conviction for a felony. Under this system the most remunerative results were obtained by nursing the young criminal until he became a "forty-pounder." Juries were induced to acquiesce in this system by the practice of remitting the death penalty in about nine cases out of ten in which the death sentence was pronounced. But even then it appears that more executions took place in England 62 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND in any one year than in the whole of the continent of Europe. Transportation, imprisonmnent in the hulks, and imprisonment in the various local prisons throughout the country, were the lighter sentences reserved for a great majority of the condemned felons; and the prisons were still, in spite of John Howard's campaign for reform, horrible dens of disorder and disease. The army was kept in a certain condition of discipline by the brutalising method of constant floggings. In spite of new efforts and the organisation of the British and Foreign School Society and the National Society, the great mass of the people could neither read nor write. The Poor Law did generally protect the population against 3tarvation, but it did so at the cost of progressively demoralising them. Such was the relation between the State and the people in 1816. State of Opinion If we turn to consider what were the forces available for national reformation we find them at first no organised body, but a heterogeneous medley. The Tory Party had practically monopolised political power for a generation; and it had been profoundly modified and to some extent liberalised by this continued responsibility. It had been unanimous in support of the prosecution of the war, while the Whig Party had been divided, and to its unanimity on this point it was indebted for its continuance in power. It was now unanimous in its resistance to the demand for alteration of the Constitution and reform of Parliament. But within the Tory party there were two great dividing issues of such importance that the party itself may be said to have consisted of two sections : Reactionaries and Pro- gressives. There was the question with regard to the attitude of England towards the struggles of continental peoples for more representative and more democratic government. Castlereagh, perhaps unjustly, was con- sidered to be a staunch supporter of the Holy Alliance and of Continental Absolutism. Canning, on the other THE SPIRIT OF REFORM 63 hand, was the leader of those who would have thrown the weight of British influence on the side of the revolted colonies of Spain and South America, of the Spanish and Italian Liberals, temporarily successful in extorting grants of constitutions, and of the Greek revolt against Turkish misrule. The other dividing issue was that of Catholic Emancipa- tion, and on this question the dividing line cut through the party in very much the same way as the division with regard to foreign policy. Those Tories, again, who took the more liberal view on these two important questions, were also disposed to be more ready to accept lines of policy in relation to trade in accordance with the expert economic opinion of the time, while those whom I term the Reactionary Tories were disposed to favour high pro- tection and the subordination of other interests to those of land. The two sections of the Tory Party were held together by the personal influence of the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, until his retirement in 1827. The Whig Party, perhaps even more aristocratic in its recent traditions than the Tory Party, was divided and distracted. But it was more in touch than the Tory Party with the growing intellectual and spiritual movements which were destined to make English history. First among these should, I think, be placed the Evangelical movement. Starting from the preaching of the creators of Methodism in the middle of the eighteenth century. Evangelicalism had by the end of the century strongly permeated the Church of England. The social and political force of Evangelicalism sprang from its recog- nition of the inestimable value of every human soul, for whom existence in this world was regarded as the brief opportunity for determining its fate either of everlasting peace or of everlasting torment. This view of life did not make the Evangelical heedless of material conditions, but rather the more zealous to sweep away the obstacles created by poverty and ignorance to the finding of individual 64 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND salvation. It was this doctrine and this feeling that made Wilberforce and Thomas Fowell Buxton the leaders in succession of the struggle against the Slave Trade and the struggle against Slavery; that made Mrs. Fry the great reformer of prisons ; and Joseph Lancaster the pioneer of the movement for popular elementary education. Curiously associated very often with the Evangelicals were a body of Freethinkers and others, who derived their inspiration from the movement of thought which is asso- ciated with the American Rebellion and the French Revolution. What may be called the Edinburgh school of educationalists, led by Henry Brougham and Dr. Birkbeck, to which we owe the Birkbeck Institute in London, Mechanics' Institutions in various towns, and the general movement for education by evening lectures and cheap scientific publications, had its ultimate inspiration from France ; while the ideal of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity was the motive power for many obscure Radicals in the workshops of the cities, who supplied the non-commis- sioned officers of the army of progress. We can, indeed, trace these ideas further back to the " Levellers " and "Diggers" of the Great Rebellion, since whose time a sort of underground stream of Radicalism has flowed through the generations of city life, and particularly in London. Various important movements, like the Anti- Slavery movement, and the movement for the reform of the Criminal Code, led first by Sir Samuel Romilly and then by Sir James Mackintosh, were recruited mainly from adherents of these two schools. Even more important were the schools of Philosophic Radicalism, and of laisser-faire Economics, founded re- spectively by Jeremy Bentham and by Adam Smith, Ricardo and Malthus, the two being very closely allied, and possessing common representatives in James and John Stuart Mill and Francis Place. Holding that the test of rightness of conduct was the net result in happiness to all persons affected ; holding further that the individual man was governed by two master passions, the pursuit of his I THE SPIRIT OF REFORM 65 own happiness and the avoidance of his own pain ; the Benthamite utilitarians drew the inference that all classes of the population required an equal share of political power in order to secure that their individual happiness should be justly allowed for in the determination of common miction. Hence they naturally took the lead in the philo- sophical defence of political democracy and also in the working out of the actual details of political reform, by which the State might approximate towards democracy. Their political doctrine, though based upon a psychology which has since been exploded, is still sufficiently important on account of the large measure of practical truth embodied in it, and because of its ready appeal to the mind of the multitude. The political economists of the laisser-faire school had already attained the zenith of their influence in some direc- tions, while only beginning to be effective in other directions. For the most part their theories were singu- larly clear cut, capable of being dogmatically expressed and of pointing towards definite lines of practical policy. The doctrine of laisser-faire may be expressed as three prohibitions — (i) The State shall not interfere between employer and employed. (2) It shall not interfere between buyer and seller within the country. (3) It shall place no hindrance in the free develop- ment of foreign trade. The first of these prohibitions was pretty faithfully observed before the year of Waterloo. Except for the 1802 Act, applying only to parish apprentices, the Statute book had been free from laws for the protection of the workman. Similarly with regard to the second of the three pro- hibitions; the old regulations for securing fair dealing between trader and buyer had been practically reduced to non-existence. But the great battle was still to be fought F 66 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND for freedom of foreign trade, and in tiiis field the principle of laisser-faire did not finally triumph until 1846. The Malthusian theory that population continually tends to outstrip subsistence, universally held by the Economists, also carried with it its prohibitions, and it, too, was destined to control English policy through the enactment and administration of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. Each of the above schools of thought exercised a certain amount of influence upon men of the leisured, propertied and educated classes. If we turn to the masses of the population no doubt the strongest influence was the some- what erratic genius of Cobbett, who can be classed under no school, but who blended a vigorous advocacy of thorough-going parliamentary reform and denunciation of the Corn Laws with violent hatred of Malthjjsian philo- sophy and an ultra Tory love of old rural customs and habits. Yet withal he was equally warm-hearted and sincere, whether denouncing the Tory politicians or the Radical philosophers, and, no doubt, more representative of the heart of the plain Englishman than any other con- temporary thinker or political leader. With him acted "Orator Hunt," who had the unenviable reputation of loving to stir mobs with seditious language, but of being very careful of his own person ; Major Cartwright, who represented the tradition of the reformers of 1780; Samuel Bamford, whose biography is a well-known and valuable contemporary record; and many others. The most effective of the Radical politicians, however, was Francis Place, the tailor, of Charing Cross. He had but little respect for Cobbett, or Hunt, or Cartwright, but by his skilful organisation of the democratic party in Westminster he was generally successful in supplying the advocates of thorough-going reform with two spokesmen in Parliament, at this time Sir Francis Burdett and Lord Cochrane. The working-men reformers had two main centres of activity, London and Lancashire. Though "Hampden THE SPIRIT OF REFORM 67 Clubs," which advocated Parliamentary Reform, were established widely over the country, the main strength of the movement lay with the skilled artisans of London and the hand-loom weavers of Lancashire and other textile districts. Stirrings of the People From 1816 to 1820 a very unequal str.uggle was waged between the Government and the working-class reformers, from which the Whigs and the middle classes generally held aloof. Some futile rioting took place in London in December 18 16. This was followed by a secret inquiry by Committees of both Houses into the disaffection of the people and by the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. Xhen came the proposed "March of the Blanketeers" from Manchester. Every man was to carry provisions and a blanket in order to be able to bivouac on the roadside. This effort was a dismal failure. The weather was very bad, and all organisation was prevented by the Manchester police. The demonstrators who actually started straggled out of the city by various ways, and it was not long before the last of those who persisted on the march turned back. This, again, was followed by an Act to prevent seditious meetings, and a circular from Lord Sidmouth, the Home Secretary, to the Lord-Lieutenants, authorising magistrates to apprehend persons accused of libellous publications. In June 1817 what is known as the Derbyshire revolt took place. Brandreth, a pauper in receipt of parish relief, assembled 500 men, who armed themselves forcibly, and himself shot dead a man who ventured to oppose his party. His band marched on Nottingham, but the Yeomanry were assembled in overwhelming force, and scattered the men, arresting their leaders'. Brandreth, with two of his associates, was executed. Some attempt at remedial action by the Government was made, combined with repression and a vigorous employ- ment of spies by the Home Secretary. In the beginning of 181 7 the sum of three-quarters of a million was granted T 2 68 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND for the assistance of public works and the encouragement of fisheries in order to increase employment for the poor, half a million to be spent in England and a quarter of a million in Ireland. An Act was further passed to facilitate the establishment of savings banks. Meanwhile the repres- sive laws were generating a spirit of resistance, which expressed itself by refusals of juries to convict men pro- secuted under them. In December the prestige of the Government suffered severely by the failure of its prosecu- tion of William Hone, a small publisher who had published political parodies of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Litany and the Catechism. Three times he was prosecuted by the Attorney-General, on two occasions before Lord Ellenborough, the Chief Justice of England, and a special jury, and on each occasion he was acquitted by the jury, in spite of all the exertions of the judge, amid the applause of the public. In 1818 there was somewhat of a lull in political agita- tion. A partial revival of trade diminished the tension, and the suspension of Habeas Corpus was allowed to end. But in 1819 trade again became extremely depressed, while food prices remained extremely high. The depression was aggravated by the ignorance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Vansittart, who actually raised the duty on foreign wool from 6s. 8d. to 56s. per cwt. Even before this unemployment was so rife that the Government obtained a vote of ;^5o,ooo for assisting emigration to the Cape. As was inevitable at a time when the power-loom was rapidly making its way, the hand-loom weavers suffered terribly. In Ayrshire it was calculated that the utmost a man could earn in a week was 2s. yd., working from four- teen to sixteen hours a day. Both cotton and wool shared in the depression, and numbers of colliers in the Black Country were also thrown out of employment. In May Sir Francis Burdett moved in the House of Commons that the House should take the subject of repre- sentation into serious consideration at the commencement THE SPIRIT OF REFORM 69 of the next Session, urging that the reform of Parliament was a necessary preliminary to more ecortomical adminis- tration. Fifty-eight votes were given for the resolution and 153 against. Huge reform meetings followed this declaration against Reform from the House of Commons. A great meeting was planned for August 16, on some vacant building land, called St. Peter's Field, at Man- chester. It was here that the Blanketeers had met in 1817. From all the districts round the reformers arranged to march hither ; and in order that their demonstration might be as imposing as possible they spent the evenings before in drilling and in preparing banners. Vast multitudes of men marched on the appointed day into St. Peter's Field. The Manchester magistrates were alarmed. They col- lected considerable bodies of special constables and of Yeomanry, together with a troop of Hussars. After the meeting had actually begun, they took the extraordinary step of ordering the Chief Constable to arrest the speakers then and there. The constable could not penetrate the crowd, the Yeomanry were called upon to make a way for him, but they became scattered, and the people prevented them from reaching the wagon which served as platform. Then the Hussars were ordered to charge. At first they had little success, but presently their swords were seen flashing in the air, rising and falling, and screams rose from the people immediately beside them. The cry arose that the Hussars were killing the demonstrators ; and the crowd broke into a run to allow those in danger to escape. There was terrible confusion, people fell down and were trodden on, several were killed, many were seriously injured. It is disputed to this day whether the Hussars struck with the flat or the edge of their swords, but descendants of men who were in the crowd have assured me that there is no doubt that they used the edge. In the end the speakers, Hunt and his companions, were arrested and sentenced to terms of imprisonment from one year up to two years and a half. / 70 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND This was the celebrated massacre of Peterloo. The Government expressed emphatic approval of the conduct both of the magistrates and of the soldiers, but in this they completely misrepresented public opinion. Public indignation was intense. George Cruikshank's cartoon, republished in Social England, represents the Yeomanry on horseback charging and trampling over men and women and babies in arms, and hacking at them with bloody axes while their leader shouts, " Down with them I Shoot 'em down, my brave boys, give them no quarter 1 They want to take our beef and pudding from us, and remember the more you kill the less poor-rates you will have to pay. So go it, lads, show your courage and your loyalty." The Common Council of London, by 71 votes to 45, affirmed the legality of the Manchester meeting and expressed strong indignation at the action of the magistrates and military, and an address embodying the resolution was presented to the Regent. Meetings in a series of great towns called upon the Regent to dismiss the Ministers who had been connected with the massacre. Lord Fitzwilliam, Lord-Lieutenant of the West Riding, summoned a county meeting at York to consider the Manchester proceedings, and other counties followed this example. Shelley, receiving the accounts in Italy, wrote the "Masque of Anarchy," concluding— " And that slaughter to the nation Shall steam up like inspiration Eloquent, oracular, A volcano heard afar. " Rise like lions after slumber In unvanquishable number Shake your chains to earth, like dew, Which in sleep have fall'n on you ; Ye are many, they are few. " And these words shall then become Like Oppression's thundered doom Ringing through the heart and brain Heard again — again — again." THE SPIRIT OF REFORM 71 The Ministers resolved on a policy of repression. They dismissed Lord Fitzwilliam from the Lord-Lieutenancy of the West Riding, and summoned Parliament to pass the "Six Acts." They were, respectively, an Act to prohibit unauthorised persons from practising military exercises; an Act to alter the procedure in trials for treason and to accelerate the proceedings ; a third to authorise magistrates to issue warrants for the search for arms ; a fourth for the suppression of seditious and blasphemous libels, making transportation the punishment for a second conviction for libel ; a fifth to restrict the right of public meetings ; and a sixth to subject all publications below a certain size to the stamp duty on newspapers. These Acts were pushed through Parliament in spite of strong opposition with but little modification. The most drastic and subversive of liberty of the six was the one dealing with public meetings. It allowed county meetings called by the Lord-Lieutenant or Sheriff and meetings of corporate towns called by the Mayor, and other meetings called by five or more Justices of the Peace. But it prohibited all other meetings for political purposes, except meetings of parishioners within their own parishes. Unincorporated towns, like Man- chester, Birmingham and Sheffield were directly silenced. No itinerant speakers were allowed to go from one parish meeting to another; and practically the attempt was made by this Act, in conjunction with those dealing with the Press, to muzzle all except the governing classes. By Christmas the Six Acts were passed. Perhaps the country was never at any time in the nineteenth century nearer civil war. CHAPTER V the eventful reign of george iv Queen Caroline A MONTH after the passing of the Six Acts an event, apparently quite insignificant, created a curious diversion of public attention. On January 29, 1820, the old King George III, who for years had been hopelessly insane, died. The Prince Regent, who had been King since 1811 in reality, now became King in title also. His Queen, who had been leading a somewhat irregular life on the Conti- nent and on the Mediterranean, having separated from her husband by mutual consent after a somewhat brief and stormy wedded life, naturally anticipated some of the honours of royalty, the recognition of her position as Queen of England in foreign courts and the mention of her name in the Prayer Book. But George IV, if not very capable of affection, at least knew how to hate. He refused to acknowledge her. In June she arrived in England to claim the dignities to which her position entitled her. She was met by a "Bill of Pains and Penalties" intro- duced by Lord Liverpool as Prime Minister, and under- went a trial for divorce before the House of Lords, with the Ministers of the Crown as the prosecuting counsel. At all times Divorce Court proceedings attract much more than their due share of public attention. But this was the divorce of a queen, with a king as petitioner, while every detail of the life of the respondent was ransacked to find evidence of guilt. We need not now be concerned with the question as to 72 REIGN OF GEORGE IV 73 whether she had or had not actually committed adultery; nor, indeed, were the English people very much concerned with that question at the time. The immense mass was, at any rate, quite satisfied on one point — that, however bad the Queen might be, she was at least good enough for her husband. An immense multitude assembled at Dover to receive her with cheers. The Commandant gave her a royal salute. In Canterbury a torchlit crowd took the horses from her carriage, and the Mayor and Corporation waited on her with an address. All the way from Canter- bury to London the enthusiasm increased with her pro- gress. Nor was there any abatement in the partisanship of the people during the long proceedings in August, September, October and November. At last the Bill of Pains and Penalties was abandoned amid general rejoicings. Queen Caroline died the next year, after a futile attempt to force an entrance into Westminster Abbey on the occa- sion of the King's coronation. But her brief career in England in 1820 and 1821 left permanent effects. Whigs and Radicals fought side by side for the Queen. Cobbett was ^ler secret adviser as well as her open champion. Brougham took the lead in fighting her cause in the House of Commons; and even the Whig nobles voted at every step against the Bill of Pains and Penalties, whether they believed in the Queen's guilt or not. This temporary alliance produced a remarkable approximation in feeling. The Whigs became more zealous and deter- mined in their hitherto very tepid advocacy of reform. They were warmed — perhaps intoxicated — by popular ap- proval ; they naturally felt more friendly towards Radicals, and the Radicals in turn were ready to meet them half way. The first actual triumph for the reform movement was achieved in 1821 by the disfranchisement of the cor- rupt borough of Grampound and the transference of its two seats to the county of York. At last a breach was made in the defence of the Constitution exactly as it was with all its anachronisms and anomalies. 74 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND Canning in Office The alliance between Whigs and Radicals was destined to bear fruit later. Meanwhile, important changes were taking place within the Ministerial Party. Lord London- derry (previously Lord Castlereagh) committed suicide in August 1822, and Canning became Foreign Secretary and began that more liberal administration of the foreign policy of the country to which reference has been made above. In the next year Vansittart retired to the House of Lords and Robinson (afterwards Lord Gode- rich) became Chancellor of the Exchequer. Huskissoiij also, became President of the Board of Trade, and brought to the task a very different type of mind and of training to his immediate predecessor. He was, in fact, something of a financial expert, with a good knowledge of existing commercial conditions, and he was disposed to move as far as was immediately practicable in the direction of free trade. He held office for five years. During this period, partly by changes in his own department and partly by his influence on the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he made the first great breach in the protective system of the previous two centuries. In 1823 he dealt with the Navigation Acts by his Reciprocity of Duties Bill. These Acts, which had been passed in 1651, 1661 and 1662, had been aimed at the mercantile supremacy of the Dutch. They prohibited the import of goods into England or any English dominions, from Asia, Africa, America, Russia and Turkey, and, with few exceptions, any other European countries, except in English vessels or vessels belonging to the country of origin. These Acts had effected their immediate purpose, and had even been approved by Adam Smith on the ground that "Defence is more important than opulence." But in more recent years they were found to hamper trade more than they assisted the development of British shipping. Since 1815 the United States, Por- tugal, Holland and Prussia had struck at the system set REIGN OF GEORGE IV 75 up by the Navigation Acts of a practical monopoly for British ships in the world's carrying trade, by levying differential duties against British ships. Huskisson's Reciprocity of Duties Bill allowed the Government to conclude reciprocity treaties by which foreign ships could be admitted into British harbours on the same terms as British ships on condition that the country to which they belonged gave equal privileges to British ships in its ports. In subsequent years Huskisson initiated a complete change of policy with regard to customs duties. The policy had been one of absolute prohibition of import or of very high or prohibitive duties on the importation of manufactured goods, together with more moderate duties on imported raw materials. He reduced the scale of duties to approximately an average of thirty per cent, ad valorem on manufactured goods, and of about ten per cent, on raw materials. He allowed cotton goods to be imported at a duty of ten per cent, instead of fifty to seventy-five per cent. ; woollens at fifteen per cent, and linens at twenty-five per cent, instead of at duties from three to six times as high. He halved the duties on copper and zinc and unmanufactured articles generally. The importation of silk goods had been actually prohibited; with the result that English ladies were so convinced of the superiority of the French silks, which they were not allowed to buy, that, in order to induce them to buy the native wares, merchants found it necessary to take them out to sea and smuggle them back into the country. Huskisson allowed importation of French silks at a duty of thirty per cent, ad valorem, with the consequence that the British silk manu- facture revived, and even a flourishing export trade to France began. Similarly he cut down to a nominal figure the duty on foreign wool and removed the prohibition on the export of native wool. The years 1820 to 1S24 were a period of gradually reviving prosperity, which reached in 1825 a condition of 76 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND boom and inflation, which, in turn, brought about a panic and collapse. The winter prices of wheat fell from 79s. 6d. in January 1819 to 40s. lod. in the same month of 1823, and then rose to 58s. yd. in 1824, and 67s. 3d. in 1825. The falling prices produced, of course, an outcry of agri- cultural distress, with a renewal of the phenomena of agricultural unemployment. But the reaching of lower prices of food than had been known before for a genera- tion, on the whole gradually alleviated the condition of the mass of the people. Meanwhile, the recognition of the independence of the revolted Spanish colonies led to a great development of export trade to South America. In 1824 business became extremely brisk, with rising prices. Development of Trade Unions Right through the nineteenth century we can trace a close connection between the varying condition of trade and the direction of efforts of the leaders of the working classes. At any time during the past hundred years there have been two channels between which the efforts of labour leaders have been divided — the channel of industrial organ- isation, mainly by means of trade unionism, and the channel of political agitation ; and there has been a very uniform tendency to throw effort in times of depression of trade into the political channel, but in times of brisk trade into the industrial channel. This is. of course, perfectly natural. While trade is brisk and unemployment at a minimum, it is possible for wage-earners, with com- parative ease, to spare weekly a few pence for trade union contributions, and demands for higher wages can, in a considerable proportion of cases, be enforced. But when the tide ebbs, when profits diminish and employment is restricted, a large proportion of strikes against falling wages fail, the union funds are depleted, and the man in work fears that if he drops his job there are too many eager to snatch at it for him to have much chance of reinstatement. In these circumstances hopes resting on REIGN OF GEORGE IV 77 trade unionism decay, and men with more leisure tiian money turn to consider and condemn the manner in which they are governed, and unite in the demand for poUtical reform. During the period we are now treating of, the development of trade unionism becomes more important than the course of the demand for political reform. The general history of trade unionism may be summed up as the history of a movement towards wider and wider union of the wage-earners, but a movement in which too hasty progress towards the desired end has been continually followed by reaction. Great Britain at the beginning of the nineteenth century was still a country of undeveloped means of communication. Though the industrial towns were near together as compared with towns on the Continent, and the roads gradually improved by the passing of a great number of Turnpike Acts, the different urban centres still remained so isolated from each other that the artisan of York or Nottingham, for example, usually lived and died in his native town. Further, though, as we have seen, there had been considerable decay in the system of apprenticeship enforced by law, yet the custom con- tinued. Hence the trade unions of the eighteenth century and the first two decades of the nineteenth century were commonly local rather than national, and unions of men in a particular craft rather than unions of labourers gener- ally, or of all the varieties of craftsmen engaged in a particular sort of industry. Out of these small local trade- clubs which grew up, as Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb have shown, largely out of the practice of fellow-craftsmen using the same public-house as a "house of call," i.e. as a sort of informal employment registry, it was theoretically possible for a general combination of all workers of a particular industrial centre to be formed, as appears to be the tendency in Italy. But as a matter of fact the other possible development has been the one which has taken place in Britain. The barriers between crafts have proved more insurmountable than those of place. From the local 78 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND unions have grown up national unions, which may even have branches in distant colonies, and it is through the federation of the national unions that the organisations of labour have made such progress as has been attained towards the theoretical ideal of the national combination of all workers of all trades and crafts. In 1824 the small trade club was still the dominating type of union ; though national unions were beginning to be formed. These trade unions were banned by the law. They were regarded as being fundamentally illegal on the ground that their very object was the restraint of trade. In addition, the Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800 expressly prohibited any sort of combination of workmen. The law was freely used to checkmate strikes and to ward off the demands for better conditions. It appears that the special motive for legislation in 1799 was the new effort at combination among the textile operatives of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Prosecutions were numerous. A typical case was that of the Scottish weavers. In 181 1 certain cotton weavers had been convicted of combination and imprisoned, the judge observing that the^ magistrates had full power to fix rates of wages. In 1812 many of the em- ployers refused to accept the rates fixed by the justices for weaving, and all the weavers between Aberdeen and Carlyle struck to enforce the justices' rates. When a satisfactory settlement appeared imminent the Weavers' Central Committee of five was arrested by the Government and its members sentenced to terms of imprisonment varying from four to eighteen months. Legalisation of Trade Unions In 1824 Francis Place, now retired from business as a tailor in Charing Cross, thought that the opportunity had come for carrying out a project which he had proposed to himself during the previous ten years, the repeal of all legal restriction upon the right of combination. Through his favourite pupil, Joseph Hume, he succeeded in bringing REIGN OF GEORGE IV 79 influence to bear upon Huskisson to secure the passage of an Act which not only repealed the laws of 1799 and iSoo, but also overrode the common law presumption of the illegality of trade unionism. This was done quietly, with- out assistance from the workers' organisations. In fact, the Bill passed through both Houses without debate or division, as Place remarked, almost without the notice of Members within or newspapers without. Actually some Lancashire magistrates sentenced cotton weavers to im- prisonment for combination some time after combination had ceased to be a crime. But as soon as men began to realise what had happened, new combinations sprang rapidly into existence and old combinations into fresh activity, to take advantage of their new position in the law and of the boom in trade. According to the Sheffield Mercury (October 8, 1825), almost the whole body of mechanics in the kingdom had combined in the general resolution to impose terms on their employers. Naturally reaction followed. Shipowners, already marked by that hostility to trade unionism which has char- acterised them ever since, demanded a committee for inquiry into the conduct of the workmen and the effect of the Act of 1824. The shipowners themselves proposed a measure forbidding anybody to subscribe to the funds of any association whatsoever unless some magistrate approved its objects and himself became its treasurer. The Committee of Inquiry was packed with placemen and Ministerialists, Hume alone being allowed a seat to represent the point of view of the workers. But the trade unions were now fully aroused. They sent their best spokesmen to give evidence and to lobby personally every member of the Committee, and these were effectively coached by Francis Place. The shipowners were virtually defeated, and the Act of 1825, while repealing that of 1824, did nevertheless allow com- binations to exist for the purpose of raising wages and shortening hours of labour. 80 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND Effect of Legalisation From a point of view of political and economic thinkers of the time the significance of the repeal of the Combination Law lay in the fact that it removed one of the surviving restrictions upon the liberty of men to pursue their own economic interests according to their own judgment. They grouped it with the repeal of the Spitalfields Acts which regulated the manufacture of silk, as carried on in the East of London, by authorising magistrates of London, Middle- sex and Westminster to fix the wages of silk weavers. This was carried through the House of Commons in 1823, and, though thrown out by the House of Lords in that year, was finally passed in 1824. Similar measures carried on Hume's initiative in 1824 were the repeal of the laws prohibiting the emigration of artisans and the exportation of machinery. The trade unionists themselves looked at the matter with different eyes. They were disposed, perhaps, to over- estimate the immediate advantage that accrued to them by the partial legalisation of their combinations in 1825. They had suffered so much from the paralysing of their activities by the imprisonment of their leaders that they scarcely realised how strong were the purely economic difficulties in the way of their efforts to raise wages and improve the conditions of labour. Francis Place himself, indeed, in no way underestimated these difficulties. Hold- ing firmly by the creed of the economic school with which he was associated, he had no faith at all in the power of trade unions to modify the working of the laws of the distribution of wealth. But he thought that as long as trade unions were illegal the workmen would believe com- bination was a powerful weapon which the law unjustly withheld from them. To legalise combination would, therefore, give the men a chance of finding out that it was futile, and induce them to turn to more effective ways, such as the restriction of births, of improving their con- REIGN OF GEORGE IV 81 dition. He also considered that the Combination Laws were a perfectly unnecessary irritant in the relations between employer and employed. Though, ultimately, the views of the workers were proved to -be sound, the immediate future consequences did not appear to justify them. The first few months of 1825 were a period of rising prices and rather extraordinary specula- tion. There was a boom closely resembling that at the time of the South Sea Bubble, and caused very largely by a parallel circumstance — the opening out of a new field for British export trade in South America. Promotions nearly as wild as those of a hundred years before were rushed upon the money market and readily attracted gullible investors. Harriet Martineau gives as typical examples the Quicksilver Fixation Company and the Company for drafting Scotch milkmaids to the Argentine, where the people used oil instead of butter, and the cows were too wild to be milked. The crash came on December 5, when the banking house of Pole & Co. closed its doors. On the following day three more bankers of high reputation failed, and then the panic began which destroyed even many sound firms and imperilled the Bank of England itself. In the depression of trade which followed this crash the trade unions which had been hurried into existence or into larger growth by the prosperity and hopes of 1824 and 1825 had a very disastrous time. It was some years before they began to recover, and then they developed new tactics and entered into a new phase in their history. The Parliament which had been summoned in 1820, on the death of George III, was dissolved in 1S26 amid circumstances not much less gloomy than those which had seen its beginning. Most miserable of all was the con- dition of the hand-loom weavers, to whom every fluctuation of trade was, as it were, a fresh turn of the screw to compel them to abandon their craft in despair. In the depression of 1826 there were widespread but, it is needless to say, futile riots to destroy the power looms. 82 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND Catholic Emancipation . The next Parliament was to prove the most eventful one in the long period of Tory ascendancy. Early in 1827 Lord Liverpool, the Prime Minister, resigned in conse- quence of illness. Canning became Prime Minister and was joined by some of the Whigs, while the Duke of Wellington, Peel and Lord Eldon retired. His Ministry lasted but a few months, during which, however, the Treaty of London, between England, France and Russia, for the pacification of Greece, was signed. Canning's death on August 8 was shortly afterwards followed by the battle of Navarino, which secured the independence of a part of Greece. After various Ministerial changes the Duke of Wellington became Prime Minister in 1828, with Peel as Home Secretary, Huskisson as Colonial and War Secretary and Palmerston as Secretary at War. The supposed leaders of the reactionary Tories were thus in office. They were by no means effectively in a position of power. Lord John Russell (February 26, 1828) carried against the Government, by 237 votes to 193, a motion for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, which confined offices in the national service and in that of municipal boroughs to members of the Church of England. Some further progress was also made in the disfranchisement of rotten boroughs. But the great issue before Parliament was Catholic Emancipation. In 1823, at a time when all Ireland was in a condition of veiled civil war, Protestants organising themselves as Peep-o'-day Boys and Catholics as Defenders, Protestants in Orange Lodges and Roman Catholics becoming Ribbon- men, a small body of Roman Catholics met in Dublin and formed themselves into a Catholic Association under the leadership of Daniel O'Connell. The Association rapidly increased its influence and exerted it with great discretion. On the one hand it urged the Catholics to abstain from all illegal acts and from joining any illegal societies; on REIGN OF GEORGE IV 83 the other hand it prosecuted Protestants who were guilty of violence against Catholics. Throughout the country it levied the so-called "Catholic rent" on the parishes. Its very moderation and the power it showed of suppressing violence all the more increased the alarm of the Government. O'Connell did indeed use words which might be inter- preted as suggesting a possible future rebellion — " If Parlia- ment will not attend to the Roman Catholic claims, I hope another Bolivar will arise to vindicate their rights ; " and, again, "Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow." For these utterances he was prosecuted by the Government, but the Grand Jury threw out the Bill. In 1825 the Government passed a measure for the suppression of the Association, making every society in Ireland for the redress of grievances in Church or State, which renewed its meetings for more than fourteen days, illegal. But it was easily evaded. The Catholic Association dissolved itself, and its members formed a new association "for education and other charitable purposes." The Catholic rent was still collected. Under the pressure of this effective organisation a Catholic Relief Bill passed the House of Commons in May. But, led by the Duke of York, the King's younger brother and the expected heir to the Throne, the House of Lords threw out the Relief Bill amid great rejoicings from intolerant Protestants. The Forty-shilling Freeholder The General Election of 1826 followed quickly after this repulse, and O'Connell resolved to make a striking demon- stration of the determination of the Irish peasantry. From 1727 to 1793 Catholics had been excluded from the fran- chise in Ireland, where, as in England, the county vote depended on the ownership of a 405. freehold. In 1793 the Irish Parliament, which had secured practical inde- pendence the year before, under the leadership of Grattan, conferred the franchise on Catholics. The greater powers of the Irish Parliament naturally increased the desire of G3 84 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND the land-ownefs for parliamentary influence. Forty- shilling freeholders were multiplied enormously for elec- toral purposes, but these nominal freeholders remained as completely dependent for a subsistence on the goodwill of the landlords as before. A man might, for example, be given the nominal ownership of his hovel, estimated value lod. per week; but he remained a tenant-at-will of the land he tilled, without which he must starve. Vivid descriptions are given by Lever as to the way in which the landlords marched to the poll at the head of their tenants armed with blackthorns; and, naturally, voting being open, every tenant voted as his landlord bade him. O'Connell chose Waterford for his demonstration. This county was almost entirely the property of the Beresfords, and Lord George Beresford, the sitting member, appeared to have the representation securely in his hands. The Catholic Association supported another candidate against him, and even the Beresford tenants voted against their member, so that he had to retire from the contest. The 40s. freeholders had placed themselves in peril of starva- tion at the bidding of the Association. The Government had to calculate that they might be equally ready to face death by the bullet; and that, should a rising in Ireland take place, the troops at the service of the Government consisted to a very large extent of Catholic Irish. During the two years of rapid Ministerial changes that followed the General Election of 1826 there was no oppor- tunity of striking another effective blow. By that time Canning had died, the short-lived Goderich Administration had come and gone, and the Duke of Wellington had become Prime Minister. A display of independence on the part of Huskisson produced a quarrel between him" and the Duke, and Huskisson resigned office. Mr. Vesey Fitz- Gerald, Member for Clare, was appointed President of the Board of Trade. He had to seek re-election from his con- stituency. This was considered a light matter, for Clare had never failed to follow the lead of its landlords, and REIGN OF GEORGE IV 85 every landlord was prepared to support FitzGerald 0'Connell determined to repeat the Waterford demonstra- tion in an even more striking manner. Though a Catholic, and therefore unable to sit in Parliament, he offered him- self as a candidate. Again the 40s. freeholders marched in from their hovels on the mountain side to Ennis, the county town, but this time behind their priests instead of behind their landlords. FitzGerald's case was hopeless, and after five days he retired from the contest, declaring "The country is mad." The enthusiasm spread to the constabulary and the troops. In the South the Catholics armed and drilled, and made their public meetings almost into military demonstra- tions. The Act against Associations passed in 1825 had been enacted for three years only, and the three years now expired. Ulster Protestants prepared for civil war, and here the danger seemed imminent. Then O'Connell gave a third demonstration of the effectiveness of the discipline which he had instilled in the Catholics. At, the end of September 1828 he issued an address directing the people to discontinue holding meetings, and his order was scrupulously obeyed. At last, after long and anxious debate, the Duke of Wellington's Cabinet, prompted by Peel and by Lord Anglesey, the Lord-Lieutenant, resolved upon granting the demand for Catholic Emancipation. Much against his will, King George IV was induced to acquiesce. The secret was published on February 4, 1829, in the advance reports of the King's Speech. All the rights of citizens were thrown open to Catholics, except that they were barred from the Throne, the Lord Chancellorship and the Lord- Lieutenancy of Ireland. But, on the other hand, the Catholic Association was once more dissolved, this time effectively, and the 40s. freeholders were deprived of the franchise, the qualification for an Irish county elector being now fixed at £10 per annum. CHAPTER VI the first reform act The French and Belgian Revolutions On June 26, 1830, George IV died. Parliament was dissolved on July 24. It was a time of growing political excitement in England. The last memorable event of the dissolved Parliament had been the rejection of a proposal of Lord John Russell, the Whig leader, to enfranchise Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester. In Birmingham a new association, the Birmingham Political Union, origin- ally formed for the purpose of advocating the free use of paper money, had postponed its original object in order first to carry Parliamentary Reform. Thomas Attwood was the leader of this movement, and he was working- in close association with Francis Place and the Westminster Radicals. The rapidity with which this body grew, and the influence it exerted, appeared to Conservatives to bear a most disquieting similarity to the record of the Catholic Association. Meanwhile events were occurring across the Channel which stirred the friends of constitutional govern- ment into enthusiasm. On July 27 a revolution broke out in Paris. Within a few days King Charles X, who had been placed upon the throne by the Allied Powers of Europe, was compelled to abdicate, and on August 7, Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, was proclaimed King of the French. At the same time the people of Belgium, who had been put under the rule of the King of Holland, also rebelled and succeeded in establishing their independence. The success with which the principle of the right of a 86 THE FIRST REFORM ACT 87 people to determine the nature of its own government had been established both in France and in Belgium, with but very little bloodshed, had the effect of rousing a common enthusiasm among Whigs and Radicals in England. Between these there now was effected a partial fusion, and the Liberal Party of the nineteenth century was the result. Meanwhile the Tory Party was torn by dissension. It had lost faith in its leaders, and had followed the statesmen who had emancipated the Catholics mutinously and with- out enthusiasm. In the election the Liberal candidates had a series of remarkable successes in the big constituencies, but still the Tory Party had a nominal majority in the House of Commons, and the Duke of Wellington remained Prime Minister. In a very curious way the issues of Home and Foreign politics were blended. The King's Speech deplored the events in Belgium, and it was feared that war was con- templated in order to re-establish Dutch rule. Earl Grey called upon the House of Lords to prevent the danger of war by reforming Parliament. On the other hand the Duke of Wellington made his historic declaration in favour of the Constitution as it was, declaring that if he "had the task of creating a new Constitution he could not hope to create such perfection at once, but his great endeavour would be to form some description of Legislature which would produce the same results." Next day the Funds fell from 84 to 80. This-, was on November 3. When the gth of November came the Ministers feared to allow the King and Queen to attend the Lord Mayor's Banquet, The danger feared was only partially connected with the agitation for reform. The main cause for excite- ment was the unpopularity of the new force of Metropolitan Police that had just been created by Sir Robert Peel, as a necessary part of the policy of reform of the Criminal Law. Peel had, in fact, taken up the work begun by Sir Samuel Romilly of substituting for the barbarous plan of nominal death penalties for innumerable offences moderate 88 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND penalties which could actually be carried out, combined with an efficient police. The new police, however, were still very unpopular. The Whig Ministry On November 15 the Ministry was defeated in the House of Commons and resigned. Earl Grey, leader of the Whigs in the House of Lords, was induced to undertake the task of forming a Cabinet. It was a Ministry partly of~ Whigs and partly of Canningites. Lord Althorp, the heir to a peerage, was Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Melbourne Home Secretary, Lord Palmerston, an Irish Peer sitting in the House of Commons, Foreign Secretary, the other chief members being Lord Russell, Lord Lans- downe, Lord Durham, Lord Goderich and Sir J. Graham. It was perhaps the most aristocratic Cabinet of the nine- teenth century. The great difficulty in its formation was Henry Brougham, the one prominent man associated with the Whig Party who had displayed the qualities of a popular leader. He had been elected with enthusiasm by the freeholders of Yorkshire without even visiting the county. It was determined to exile him from the Hbuse of Commons, and he was made a Peer and given the Wool- sack. There he ceased in effect to be a political influence, and busied himself in wiping off the great accumulation of appeals which had been left to him by his predecessors. The First Reform Bill Such was the Cabinet which had to deal with the great problem of drafting a Reform Bill sufficiently bold and comprehensive to win the enthusiasm of the more advanced reformers, and yet mild- enough to secure the endorse- ment of a sufficient body of moderate opinion. In this effort they were extraordinarily successful. The essence of their proposals was that a uniform system based on intel- ligible principles should be established by law for the whole nation, in the place of a medley of local customs. THE FIRST REFORM ACT 89 In the unreformed House of Commons the counties had but two representatives each, except Yorlsshire, which had recently gained two by the disfranchisement of the corrupt borough of Grampound. On the other hand 205 English parliamentary boroughs returned two members each, select- ing them according to their local constitutions. There were fifty-nine boroughs where the franchise was exercised by all who paid poor rate or church rate (scot and lot boroughs), or by those who, not being in receipt of poor relief, possessed a hearth where they could boil a pot, and a doorway where they could control ingress or egress (pot- walloper boroughs). In thirty-nine "Burgage Boroughs" the owners and occupiers of certain ancient tenements exclusively exercised the franchise — these were specially easy to control. In sixty-two the Freemen of the Borough were the parliamentary voters. In forty-three the Cor- poration, whether elected, or, more usually, self-elected, disposed of the representation as it chose. For two centuries local struggles had been carried on between the partisans of a wide and of a restricted franchise within the boroughs. The Bill proposed to give the fran- chise everywhere to ;^io householders. It thus made the struggle for a wide franchise a national instead of a local one. The Royal power, acting under varying motives in different times, had determined which places were to be Parliamentary Boroughs. Some boroughs had decayed, many had always been insignificant, while great towns like Manchester and Birmingham had no representation apart from the counties in which they were situated. The Bill proposed to disfranchise the insignificant boroughs and to enfranchise the great towns. It thus struck a blow at the system by which Borough representation was controlled by Patrons and Borough-mongers. The Reform Bill was drafted by a Committee of the Cabinet, and introduced by Lord John Russell, who had fought actively for small instalments of reform during the 90 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND past ten years. It was received with enthusiasm by the Radicals, with scoffing laughter by the Tories. A fierce debate took place on the second reading, followed by one of the most exciting divisions ever known in the House of Commons. Lord Macaulay's letters contain the following vivid description — "Such a scene as the division of last Tuesday I never saw, and never expect to see again. If I should live fifty years, the impression of it will be as fresh and sharp in my mind as if it had just taken place. It was like seeing Caesar stabbed in the Senate House, or seeing Oliver taking the mace from the table ; a sight to be seen only once and never forgotten. The crowd overflowed the House in every part. When the strangers were cleared out, and the doors locked, we had six hundred and eight members present — more by fifty-five than ever were in a division before. The Ayes and Noes were like two volleys of cannon from opposite sides of a field of battle. When the opposition went out into the lobby, an operation which took up twenty minutes or more, we spread ourselves over the benches on both sides of the House : for there had been many of us who had not been able to find a seat during the evening. When the doors were shut we were able to speculate on our numbers. . . . "As the tellers passed along our lowest row on the left-hand side the interest was insupportable — two hundred and ninety-one — two hundred and ninety-two — we were all standing up and stretching forward, telling with the tellers. At three hundred there was a short cry of joy — at three hundred and two another — suppressed, however, in a moment : for we did not yet know what the hostile force might be. We knew, however, that we could not be severely beaten. The doors were thrown open and in they came. Each of them as he entered, brought some different report of THE FIRST REFORM ACT 91 their numbers. It must have been impossible, as you may conceive, in the lobby, crowded as they were, to form any exact estimate. First we heard that they were three hundred and three, then that number rose to three hundred and ten ; then went down to three hundred and seven. Alexander Barry told me that he had counted, and that they were three hundred and four. We were all breathless with anxiety, when Charles Wood, who stood near the door, jumped upon a bench and cried out, ' They are only three hundred and one.' We set up a shout that you might have heard to Charing Cross, waving our hats, stamping about the floor, and clapping our hands. The tellers scarcely got through the crowd : for the House was thronged up to the tables, and all the floor was fluctuat- ing with heads like the pit of a theatre. But you might have heard a pin drop as Duncannon read the numbers. Then again the shouts broke out, and many of us shed tears. I could scarcely refrain. And the jaw of Peel fell ; and the face of Twiss was as the face of a damned soul ; and Herries looked like Judas taking his necktie off for the last operation." The Dry Election vSoon after the Ministry was defeated by 299 votes to 291 on the question of going into Committee, and a new crisis arose. It was known that the Cabinet wanted a dissolu- tion, the Opposition was determined, if possible, to prevent it. Confident in their power, they refused supplies, hoping that the King would refuse to consent to a dissolution and that the Ministry would be obliged to resign. The King, however, held by his Ministers, and preparation was made for a dissolution by commission. Lord Wharncliffe gave notice in the House of Lords of a motion for an address to the Crown against the dissolution. This necessitated the King acting in person. The Ministers drove to Buckingham Palace and stated the case to King William. 92 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND He was roused by the attack on the prerogative, and when officials of the Household put every trumpery difficulty possible in his way, he declared that if his carriage could not be got ready he would go in a hackney coach. Lord Wharncliffe was moving his motion when the King arrived amid shouts of "The King," uproar, noble fists shaken in the faces of noble lords — all but actual fighting. A similar scene took place in the House of Commons when the members were summoned into the Peers' chamber. Peel was speaking in denunciation of the dissolution, and refused to cease until he was forcibly pulled by his coat- tails into his seat. The election of 183 1 which followed is known as the Dry Election. In the days of prolonged and open voting, when the qualification of the voter was examined on the hustings before he openly gave his vote, it was a part of the regular business of an election agent to secure the continued presence of a body of violent partisans, whether voters or non-voters, in front of- the hustings, throughout the election. The regular method of securing the necessary fervour and party enthusiasm was the hiring of adjacent public-houses. But in the Dry Election it was not neces- sary for the supporters to do this, and it was futile for the opponents. The cry throughout the country was "*rhe Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill." This represented the common determination of moderates and of advanced men to sink their differences in order that an actual result might be then and there achieved. The second Reform Bill was introduced on June 24, 183 1, and differed but little from the first. The second reading was carried by a majority of 136. The Opposition delayed progress as much as possible amid the growing 1 impatience of the country, and it was not till the 22nd of September that it reached the House of Lords. On October 3 the Peers rejected the second reading by 199 votes to 158. Demonstrations of protest took place in many towns. Nottingham Castle was burnt down. A THE FIRST REFORM ACT 93 meeting said to have been attended by 1 50,000 persons was held in Birmingham and resolutions were passed that no taxes should be paid unless the Reform Bill was passed. Parliament was prorogued. Meanwhile Attwood's Political Union in Birmingham was made a model for similar organisations elsewhere, affiliated together in a National Political Union, with its headquarters in London. The situation became more, dangerous. Riots became more numerous, and on October 13, the entry of the Recorder of Bristol into that city was the signal for three days of anarchy. The Mansion House was sacked; the mob drank the wine in the cellars, then liberated the prisoners in the old Bridewell and the new gaol and fired the buildings, while some rioters marched to the Bishop's palace and set that on fire. They thus drew away troops who had been stationed at the Mansion House, and that, too, was set on fire. Nor were the riots of Bristol the last of the disturbances, though in no other town was such destruction carried out. Meanwhile cholera was on its way, and in February 1832 it reached London. Some 50,000 people perished during the visitation. Eleven Days ' In December Parliament was summoned again, and a third Reform Bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons by a majority of one hundred and sixty-two. On March 26 it was sent up to the House of Lords, where now some of the opponents began to waver. There was talk of swamping the Opposition by the creation of peers, based upon the actual fact that the King had given consent to some small measure of this character. On April 14 the Peers carried the second reading by a majority of nine. On May 7, however, they again hardened their hearts and carried a hostile amendment by 151 votes to 116. The King refused to create new peers and the Ministry resigned. One part of the secret history of the eleven days that followed has been told by Mr. Graham Wallas from the 94 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND Memoirs of Francis Place. The Duke of Wellington was asked to form a Ministry. He attempted the task, intend- ing to introduce a more partial Reform Bill than the one under debate. The National Political Union, and its branches throughout the country, prepared for armed rebellion. Birmingham, it was decided, should begin, and the blacksmiths' shops worked all night preparing arms, and, in particular, making immense numbers of little steel balls with four sharp points projecting, so placed that how- ever they were thrown on the ground one point always stuck vertically upwards. These were called the " 'Tis-as-it-was." They were to be used to make the roads impassable for cavalry. In Francis Place's back parlour consultations of the leaders were held, and continual messengers posted between them and Attwood in Birmingham. Elaborate plans were made to stop the departure of troops from London. But their masterpiece, in Place's opinion, was the issue of a bill with but these words on it, "To stop the Duke go for gold." A run took place on the Bank of England, which only ceased when it was known that the Duke had failed to form a Cabinet and that the King was obliged to recall Lord Grey. From the other side we learn that the difficulty which the Duke of Wellington could not surmount was the refusal of Peel to enter the Cabinet in order to carry a measure of reform similar to one to which he had offered the most determined resistance. This would have been a course precisely similar to that which he had just taken with regard to Catholic Emancipation. But with regard to Catholic Emancipation Peel really had had no choice. It would not have been practicable to have handed over the task of the carrying through of the measure to those who had advocated it, because they would have been unable to do so in the face of the strong opposition of the King and ^the general dislike to the measure in Great Britain. On the question of Reform there was no overwhelming reason why Peel should again shake the confidence of his party THE FIRST REFORM ACT 96 and appear untrustworthy and a turncoat in the public eye. Whatever the cause, the Duke of WeUington's failure to form a Ministry left the King no alternative but to agree to the creation of peers. The threat was sufficient, and the Reform Bill was passed. It disfranchised 57 small boroughs, which returned 113 members, took away one member from each of 30 boroughs which returned two, and two from Weymouth and Mel- combe Regis, which had conjointly returned four. It gave 62 additional seats to the counties, and 63 to cities and boroughs which had not previously been enfranchised. It reduced the representation of England by 18 members, giving 5 to Wales, 8 to Scotland and 5 to Ireland. It gave the borough franchise to ;^io householders, abolish- ing previous qualifications; it added copyholders, lease- holders for lives, and tenants at will paying over ;^5o per annum, to the freeholders as county voters. CHAPTER VII THE FIRSTFRUITS OF REFORM Two questions arise from the previous narrative of the manner in which the Reform Act of 1832 was carried. (i) How far is it true that reform was carried by violence? As we have seen, the Bristol riots and the burning of Nottingham Castle took place after the Ref6rm Bill had been rejected by the House of Lords, and that when these and other disturbances had taken place the Reform Bill was again sent up, and this time the second reading was passed. It seems difficult to avoid the conclusion that in all probability the House of Lords was to some extent intimidated, not so much by the actual violence used, as by the indication thus afforded of the intensity of popular feeling. When the second crisis came and the Duke of Wellington gave up the task of forming a Ministry, it does not appear that the threatened armed rebellion, cen- tring at Birmingham, had any direct influence upon the situation. But the crucial fact of the matter was that the Duke of Wellington was convinced that even if he did form a Ministry, he would be obliged to introduce some measure of reform. It may have been a fact that he was driven to this conclusion by his recognition of the excited state of the country. On the other hand, I think it is equally clear that the impression made by such violence as appeared, was mainly due to the fact that it took place in spite of the efforts of the leaders of the Reform Party to prevent disorder, and that these efforts were, as a rule, successful. Hence, it would have seemed evident to 96 THE FIRSTFRUITS OF REFORM 97 observers of the time that very much worse things would be likely to happen if once the party of reform was satisfied that it could not succeed by constitutional methods. So far as we can draw a lesson from the experiences of the country from 1815 to 1832, it would appear to be that political effect depends not on any actual violence, but rather upon the evidences of intense emotion among those who are capable of effective violent action, combined with restraint. We may take the elections of Waterford and Clare as typical of the most effective popular demonstra- tion, where bodies of men, representative of a vast popula- tion, show by their action that they are prepared to risk extremities for a cause, but make their demonstration in an absolutely irreproachable manner. (2) What did the Reform Act of 1832 actually accomplish? It did not democratise the Constitution. In one sense it may even be said that the Constitution of England was less democratic after 1832 than before, for it is probable that there was a smaller proportion of working men among those entitled to the franchise. Whereas the majority of scot-and-lot voters, and a considerable proportion of free- men voters, were working men, in 1832 but few working men could be found among the ;^io householders. This fact needs to be emphasised in order that we may understand how great was the disappointment of the work- ing classes with the results of the Reform Bill of 1832. But it does not follow that the political instinct which led men to exert themselves so enthusiastically for a measure which can be described as one for their own dis- franchisement, was unsound. It was of no real advantage to the great mass of the people that in this or that town a number of poor men should have votes under such con- ditions that it was practically certain they would be either coerced or bribed into voting according to the desires of the borough-monger. What the Act of 1832 really did was to make the House of Commons actually a representative H 98 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND body. That was its most important result. It was, after all, not quite so important a matter that it made the House of Commons representative of the upper and middle classes, leaving it unrepresentative of the working classes. After all, the Constitution had been changed, and now it was clear that it could be changed again. There was nothing final about the ;^io householder, nor any special reason why he should be a voter and the £> " >' '840 659 ,, „ ,, 1851 Railway Building But the characteristic industrial feature of the Forty Years' Peace between Waterloo and the Crimea was the revolution in transport. The modern railway presents the union of two ideas, the metal rails to reduce friction and to secure full control of rapidly driven carriages, and the steam locomotive to supply mechanical power. ' At the very beginning of the nineteenth century both of these devices were known in their separate forms. Stationary, steam engines were in common use for various purposes. In 1801 the Surrey Iron Railway Co. obtained parliamen- tary powers for a line to be worked by horse power; and in 1803 Trevithick had working a road locomotive, and the following year he established a tramway worked by loco- motive power at Merthyr. The development, however, of the British railway system begins with the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which in 182 1 passed its Act of Par- liament, and in 1823 obtained sanction to use steam power, on the advice of its engineer, George Stephenson. This was speedily followed by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which obtained parliamentary powers in 1825. The promoters were long doubtful as to the motive power to be adopted, but they finally submitted three steam loco- motives to a test race on October 6, 1829, at Rainhill, and THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 129 when George Stephenson's "Rocket" attained a speed of twenty-nine miles per hour the issue was settled. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was opened in 1830, an occasion marked by Huskisson's death by accident. Many important lines were started in the years immediately following : 1833 saw the passing of the Act for the London and Birmingham line and the London and Greenwich line ; 1834 of that from London to Southampton; 1835 the London and Croydon, and the Great Western; 1836 the South Eastern and Southern Counties; 1837 the London and Brighton. In 1837 this vigorous activity was followed by a panic and a temporary check, but in 1840 activity revived, and the railways already established began to pay handsome dividends. Railway Regulation By 1840 it had become clear that railways had ceased to be a doubtful experiment, and had become an essential part of the industrial and social life of the nation. It became necessary to consider on which, of various competing prin- ciples, the national policy with regard to railways should be based. On the whole the general disposition was to regard a railway as being a modification of the ordinary high road; on the supposition that while it might, like a turnpike road, be created by a Joint Stock Company for the sake of profit, it yet could be used, under suitable regula- tions, by all sorts of individuals owning their own loco- motives, their own trucks and carriages, and competing with one another in the transport of goods and passengers much as did the coaches that plied for hire on the high roads. This conception naturally had to yield before ex- perience. The railway companies rightly did not give facilities for all and sundry to run their trains upon the metals, and it soon became clear that the corporation that owned the line must also control and manage the traffic. However, the general idea of trusting to the force of competition in order to secure the interests of the general 180 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND public was tpo fully indoctrinated into the people of Eng- land to be readily abandoned in any circumstances what- ever. When it was seen that there could be no competition of different carriers along the line of a particular railway company, it was still thought that there might rightly be competition between different railway companies serving the same districts. It has, in fact, taken at least half a century of experience to make the British public under- stand, in the first place, that railway competition is neces- sarily wasteful, and, in the second place, that it is the general community which has to pay for the waste. This obstinate belief in the virtues in all circumstances of com- petition was largely the reason why so little consideration was given to the alternative policy of State ownership, and to the reluctance with which Parliament entered upon what proved the unavoidable task of State Regulation of Railways. In 1840 the Railway Regulation Act was passed, giving to the Board of Trade the duty of inspecting railways before they were opened in order to secure the safety of the public. This was followed by the Cheap Trains Act of 1844, which endeavoured to safeguard the public against excessive charges. It required that along every line a train must be run each way daily at not less than twelve miles an hour, carrying passengers in covered wagons at not more than One penny a mile. The companies sub- mitted reluctantly to this introduction of comparatively low fares, but speedily found their profit in developing third-class traffic. The Act of 1844 further laid down some suggestions for nationalisation, which have never been developed or acted upon. It prescribed that future rail- ways, if they obtained profits exceeding ten per cent., might be bought by the State on the basis of twenty-five years' purchase of their average profits for three consecu- tive years. Although this provision has never been applied in any case, it yet has had an important and a demoralising influence on the financial management of British railway THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 131 companies; for it acted as an inducement to them to dis- guise the real extent of their profits by unduly inflating their nominal capital. This has been done not only by flagrant operations of stock watering, but also by habitual failure to make adequate allowance for depreciation and obsolescence. This has combined with other causes (such as the monstrous cost of parliamentary proceedings and excessive prices paid for land) to swell to its monstrous figure the nominal capital of the British railway system, which stands to-day at three times as high as the capital valuation of the Prussian State Railways, which have a longer mileage. Railway Mania In 1844, 57 Acts were passed for the construction of 805 miles of railway; in 1845, 120 for 2700 miles. Then came the Railway Mania. In two days George Hudson, the "Railway King," secured the assent of various bodies of shareholders to 40 Bills, involving the expenditure of ;^io,ooo,ooo. November 30, 1845, was the last night for depositing schemes with the Board of Trade for the next parliamentary session, and through the summer every available "engineer," competent or incompetent, was pressed into the service of making surveys and taking levels. During the latter days of November lithographic printers were locked into their workshops day and night, taking brief snatches of repose on the floor when exhausted with fatigue. A wild scramble took place at midnight, November 30, at the Board of Trade offices. Ultimately 270 Bills got through for the construction of 4,538 miles of railway, though many were afterwards abandoned. The construction of railways proceeded rapidly till 1874, when 16,449 miles were open in the United Kingdom ; but less rapidly since, the mileage at the end of 1910 being 23,387- In speed, comfort, and safety to passengers the British railway system stands high. But it is inordinately dear K 2 132 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND judged by foreign standards, and oppressive to many industries towards which it holds a position of monopoly, while the men whom it employs seethe with discontent. The opinion in favour of nationalisation grows, but the magnitude of the operation and the possibility of the supersession of railways by other means of inland transit deter many who would be in favour of the principle. Ocean Traffic under Steam The application of steam to sea-going vessels did not linger long after the development of the railway. In 1812 the first steamer ran upon the Clyde, though the river Hudson had seen this phenomenon in 1807. In 1819 the Savannah crossed from Georgia to Liverpool, taking thirty-two days on the voyage, and travelling for a part of the journey under sail. The real beginning of the revo- lution in sea transit ought, perhaps, to be assigned to the date of 1838, when the Sirius and the Great Western left Cork and Bristol respectively and arrived at New York under steam alone ; the Sirius taking eighteen days on the journey and travelling at an average speed of seven knots, the Great Western doing the journey in fifteen days and exceeding eight knots. Very rapidly new vessels for the Transatlantic trade were built. The size and speed of steam- ships has not ceased since to grow continually, nor has there been any cessation in the continual improvement of their machinery. In 1907 the net steam tonnage of the United Kingdom was 10,023,000 tons, against 2,256,000 belonging to Germany, 1,117,000 to Japan, and 602,000 (engaged in foreign trade) of the United States. Transport and Manufacture Looked at on the industrial side, the revolution in transit was the natural consequence and complement of the revolu- tion in manufacture. The great increase in the power of cheap and rapid production of merchandise necessitated an improvement in the means of transport, which the im- THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 188 proved macadamised roads and the canals supplied by the engineers at the end of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries were quite insufficient to supply. Further, the output of the steam-driven factories required ever wider and wider markets to which the improvement in methods of transit gave access. On the other hand, the quickening and cheapening of transport facilitated and even necessi- tated new developments of manufacturing methods, bring- ing into existence businesses on a much larger scale and much more complex industrial organisation. '" But viewed from a social point of view, the revolution ' in transit had in many respects an opposite effect to that in manufacture. To a very large extent the introduction of machinery into manufacture caused the labour of women and children to supersede that of men ; it produced the demoralising spectacle described by the Manchester Board of Health as "Parents subsisting on the degradation of their offspring." The revolution in transit, on the other hand, created a huge new demand for the labour of adult men, of navvies for the construction of railways, of porters, engine-drivers, signalmen, etc., for the working of the railways ; of sailors, dockers, coal-trimmers, stokers, steve- dores, for the working of the steamships ; it created a great demand for the produce of steel-making and engineering industries, and, in consequence, for the labour of miners, engineers, steel-smelters and the like; it created the great shipbuilding industries of various ports, and so gave employment to a great number of boilermakers, ships' car- penters, and so on. All these industries relied practically exclusively upon the labour of men. They have given us a new aristocracy of labour to take the place of the hand- loom weavers ; and they have done much to raise the wages even of agricultural labourers by offering at the same time increased mobility and an alternative choice of occupation to the young labourer. It is scarcely necessary to add that it is the revolution in transit quite as much as the revolution in manufacture 134 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND that has transformed the face of the country, concentrating the population upon factory towns and mining villages, and leading to a relative and in many parts an absolute depopulation of the agricultural districts,. The early pro- gress of the new methods of transit led to the aspiration that Britain should become the workshop of the world. That aspiration appeared likely of realisation when the railways and steamers were carrying the products of the more highly organised British industries into the countries of Europe and Asia which still relied on peasant crafts and hand labour. It became a chimerical ideal when the example of British industrial organisation proved con- tagious, and the coalfields of Saxony and the Rhine had proved as favourable a habitat for manufacturing industry in the new style as Lancashir*e and Yorkshire, when Niagara was harnessed to the dynamo, and America gave birth to new and more monstrous forms of industrial organisation. Now we are obliged to realise that the world is to have many workshops outside the British Isles. Yet, viewed absolutely and not comparatively, Britain is becoming still a huger and huger workshop. The development of manu- factures and transit have made the people of these islands dependent now for their material prosperity mainly upon the energy produced by coal, instead of that obtained from the sun through the medium of growing crops. Coal- mining instead of agriculture is for us the great extractive industry upon which our economic system rests. CHAPTER XI free trade Rise of the Free Trade Movement The great controversy which was fought out in the 'forties over the fiscal policy of the country may be regarded as the natural consequence, either of the industrial develop- ment which we sketched in the preceding chapter, or of the political change signalised by the passing of the first Reform Act, or of the stronger hold on men's minds of the doctrines of the political economists, or, again, of the rise to social power and influence of a body of rich men owing their wealth to industry and commerce rather than to land. It is clear that the growth of the great machine industries when brought into touch with all the world by steam transit, necessitated a very different fiscal system from that which had grown up during a period when the country could be very nearly industrially self-contained and self- dependent, and in which foreign trade was generally valued as a means of drawing the precious metals into the , country and so of providing the means of financing armies / and fleets. On the other hand the political effect of the Reform Act of 1832 was to compel the land-owning class to share political power to some extent with the com- mercial and manufacturing classes. It is true that they still retained an enormous superiority. Lord Morley, in the Life of Cobden, estimates that four-fifths of the House of Commons represented the land-owning class between 1832 and 1846; but the commercial classes could secure a hearing, and the disproportion in ability and in weight was by no means so great as in numbers. — 13s 136 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND Equally important was the fact that the teaching of the Manchester School with regard to trade was also the teach- ing of Adam Smith and of every one who could be regarded as speaking with authority on the subject. Hence the ideas which were expounded in the learned or popular treatises, or in the Chair of University College, or in the Political Economy tales of Harriet Martineau, were on the one hand declaimed by cotton manufacturers, like Cobden and Bright, to great audiences, and on the other found their way into the offices of the Board of Trade and the Treasury, under men like Huskisson and Sir Robert Peel. The great battle for Free Trade was scarcely a battle at all in the region of economic thought and expert opinion ; and the victory of Free Trade in this field ultimately secured its triumph in the political field, where it was fought out to a great extent by the great rival interests of land and manufacture or, specifically, of corn and cotton. The Corn Laws Mention has already been made of the Corn Law, passed in 1815, which prohibited the import of wheat unless the price on certain specified days had during the preceding six weeks exceeded an average of 80s. per quarter. It was hoped in this way to secure that the British corn-grower should be able to obtain this price for his wheat and be able to continue to pay rents fixed in the time of the famine prices during the war. The hope was soon found to be fallacious, and when, in 1822, the limit price was reduced to 70s. the change had no practical effect, as the maximum price up to the time of the next change in the law only reached 69s. The Corn Laws of 1815 and 1822 amounted to an almost entire prohibition of the import of wheat. They were thus in harmony with the general fiscal system, which had come down from the eighteenth century, which was marked, as we have seen, by prohibitions on the export of raw material FREE TRADE 187 and of the import of manufactured articles, or by its permission only under very crushing duties. When Huskisson and Goderich carried out the reforms of 1823 and 1824, they abolished prohibitions and intro- duced instead a system of moderate duties, somewhat similar in principle to that which has been recommended recently by Mr. Charles Booth, and which appears to be the policy of our modern "Tariff Reformers." The Corn Laws were at that time left alone, but towards the end of the Canning Ministry the device of the Sliding Scale was invented. At 60s. importation on wheat was to be allowed with a duty of 20s. per quarter; for every rise or fall of IS. in the price there was to be an increase or reduction of 2s. in the duty, so that when wheat was at 50S. the duty stood at the prohibitive amount of 40s. ; when the price rose to 70s. or upwards, only the registra- tion duty of IS. per quarter was to be imposed. It was thought that this sliding scale on the one hand would maintain wheat pretty steadily at the fairly remunerative price of about 60s. per quarter, and that foreign corn would be admitted when really required to make up for a deficiency in the home supply, and that on its admission the duties would assist the revenue. The scheme was an obvious improvement, but it was killed by the strong opposition of the Duke of Wellington. The Duke of Wellington subsequently carried a sliding scale of a much more complicated character, which also was intended to maintain wheat at a higher level than that aimed at by Canning's abandoned scheme. The duties on imports were to vary as follows — PRICE. DUTT. 50S. 36s. 8d. 56s. 30s. 8d. 60s. 26s. 8d. 64s. 22s. 8d. 70s. los. 8d. 73s. IS. od. 140 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND effective organisations which has ever taken part in British political history. Neither money nor ability was wanting. — In 1839 the campaign began with the sending of a body of lecturers through the towns and villages of England, Scotland and Wales. In many places these missionaries met with very rough treatment; but soon they began to fiird out that even among the agricultural districts there were plenty of people to welcome their teaching. What- ever were the benefits of the Corn Laws to the industry of agriculture as a wholp, the actual working agriculturist ._saw very little of them. The agricultural labourer was perhaps in about as miserable a condition as his class had ever endiired in this country. The labourer was, in fact, suffering from the combined evil effects of the ojd cam- paign against the independence of the labourer which we have described above, and from the demoralising influence of the early nineteenth-century administration of the Poor Law, and also from the harsh repression of the new Poor Law of 1834. Their cry had been "Give us back our commons, and we will do without relief." Outdoor relief had been taken from them, but no commons had been returned. The idea that wages would immediately rise to a normal and reasonable standard when no longer sup- plemented out of the parish rates, had utterly failed of realisation. Something between 7s. and gs. a week was the average wage of the agricultural labourer throughout the South of England, a wage that meant practical starva- tion for labourers with families every time the price of wheat rose over 60s. a quarter. The Repeal of the Corn Laws In 1840 the Whig Government, which was passing into decrepitude, began to dally with the idea of Free Trade. A committee was appointed to consider import duties, and it recommended that the Huskisson policy of moderate FREE TRADE 141 duties on an immense number of articles should be further reformed by sweeping away the taxes on the great majority of such articles, and retaining only duties on a small number of commodities chosen so as to secure the largest possible revenue with the least possible interference with trade. This was the policy afterwards adopted by Sir Robert Peel. In 1841 a budget, to some extent framed on this report, was introduced. With regard to corn. Lord John Russell moved for the abolition of the sliding scale and for the substitution of a fixed 8s. duty. Before the budget was voted, however, Sir Robert Peel carried a vote of want of confidence in the Government and the dissolu- tion of 1841 took place. Sir Robert Peel came back at the head of a Conservative majority of 91, and among the new members returned was Richard Cobden. The fiscal reform, which was advocated by the report of 1840, then fell into the abler hands of Sir Robert Peel?! He found in the list of Customs duties 1,150 different rates of duties enumerated, while there was one comprehensive tax on unenumerated articles. His budget sacrificed a Customs revenue of two and a half million pounds, and" it abated the duty on 769 articles. The general principle was that all raw materials and all semi-manufactured articles should be imported under nominal duties only, and that the duties on manufactured articles should not be prohibitive; sugar was left untouched; but a new sliding scale of duties on corn was introduced similar to Can- ning's defeated proposals of 1827. At 64s. the duty on wheat was to be 8s., at lower rates the duty was to rise to the same extent as the price fell, but with a maximum duty of 20s., at 70s. the duty was to be 5s. Some years ~n ago such a proposal would have been welcomed as liberal, j Now, after the vigorous propaganda of the League and the extreme distress that had prevailed in the cotton trade in 1841, the Minister's proposals were denounced by the Free Traders as a bitter insult to a suffering people. In order to meet the temporary loss of revenue caused 142 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND by the readjustment, Sir Robert Peel revived the income- tax, which had not been levied since 1816. ■- — In the next few years the subject of the Corn Law was / continually under debate, both in Parliament and all over the country, but on the whole the Free Traders apparently lost rather than gained in the period of somewhat better harvests that followed. But meanwhile a change was _going on in Sir Robert Peel's convictions on the subject. Associated as he was with manufacture, being the son of a cotton manufacturer, and trained in the study of finance and trade, he was always disposed to have an open mind for Free Trade arguments. The special change in his opinion that took place between 1842 and 1845, was that he became convinced that it was a fallacy to suppose that wages would automatically rise with a rise in the cost of provisions. Meanwhile the country party had carried, in the teeth of the manufacturers' opposition, the Factory Act of 1844. It is very curious to note in the pages of Hansard how curiously the questions of factory regulation and of corn taxes were interwoven in parliamentjary debate. The Free Traders taunted the land-owners with the miserable wages paid to the agricultural labourers, and with the fact that their rents were swollen by the excessive prices taken from the very poorest of the population for the necessities of life. The land-owners could make no effective direct reply, so they in turn reproached the manufacturers for drawing their profits out of the toil of miserable children beaten in order to make them keep pace with the machines. When Parliament had intervened to protect the operative, the argument became more one-sided. It was still more one-sided because the manufacturers after 1842 could urge that they had been deprived of the protection which the fiscal system had previously given them, and that they had accepted the alteration willingly. The last new element in the situation was that the farmers began to doubt whether protection was any benefit to them, and FREE TRADE 148 to suspect that they lost more in rising rents than they gained in enhanced prices. In the autumn of 1845 it became known that the potato crop in Ireland was a disastrous failure. On October 31 the Cabinet met to consider the situation. Sir Robert Peel advised the suspension of all restrictions upon the importation of food, but the Cabinet could not agree, and separated without coming to a conclusion. On November 22 Lord John Russell published a letter to his constituents in the city of London denouncing the Corn Law as the blight of commerce, the bane of agriculture, the source of bitter enmity between class and class, the cause of penury, mortality and crime. He declared for the total and immediate repeal of the Corn Laws. Again Peel sum- moned his Cabinet, again he failed to induce them to accept any definite policy. The activity of the League became incessant, and public opinion among all classes, except those directly interested in land ownership, became practically unanimous. On December 5 Sir Robert Peel resigned office, and the Queen sent for Lord John Russell, but he failed to form a Government. Sir Robert Peel had to return and to be prepared to carry the policy to which he had been converted, if necessary by the help of his political oppo- nents. By May the repeal had been carried through the House of Commons, and the Peers acquiesced in the position. But in June the combination of Whigs and Protectionists defeated the Government, and Sir Robert Peel resigned. Results of Free Trade The policy of Free Trade was apparently successful. The following table gives an indication of the result of the policy inaugurated in 1842 and more fully put into execution in 1846. 144 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND TOTAL FOREIGN TRADB YEAR MILLION ;£ IN MILLION £ 1830 42 90 1842 60 130 1850 90 190 i860 164 375 1872 3IS 669 For about thirty years from 1846 the manufactures and foreign trade of the country had a period of expansion such as had never before l^een known, and greater than has been experienced since. With the development of trade there also came an increase in wages and in the general well-being. Even agriculture enjoyed far greater prosperity than during the previous period of protection; for foreign imports of food only supplemented and did not displace home supplies in the work of feeding the rapidly growing urban population. It is true that many other causes besides the change in fiscal policy contributed to this enhanced prosperity; and indeed at least one of them was of superior importance. The greatest influence of all, no doubt, was the develop- ment of the means of ocean transit and the building of railways, both in the British Isles and elsewhere. Closely allied with this influence was the discovery of gold in California and Australia in the years 1848 and 1849. There was a sudden upward leap in consequence in the world's annual gold production, from 5J millions to over 30 millions. This directly affected Britain more than any other country, as being the greatest gold-using country. It tended to make all figures relating to trade and the production of wealth somewhat fallacious; for these are necessarily measured in values reckoned by pounds sterling, and as prices rose with the increased production of gold, a pound sterling became a smaller unit of value. Further, the steadily rising prices acted as a direct stimulus to production, by reducing the burden of all fixed charges FREE TRADE 145 on the industrialist. Again the combined effect of the gold discoveries and the improvement in the means of communi- cation was to stimulate emigration, to create great new markets for British goods, to increase the sources of the supply of raw materials and thereby to increase the demand for labour, while also offering an alternative to the labourer to living and working at home. But while it would be a great mistake to attribute the great commercial and manufacturing prosperity which followed to Free Trade alone, it would be an equally absurd mistake to deny some part in the creation of that prosperity to the removal of the fiscal fetters that had previously hampered the importation of food. A very little con- sideration will show, for example, how heavily Corn Laws like that of 1815, which prohibited the import of wheat till the price was 80s., or that of 1828, which would have levied a duty of 36s. on every quarter imported when the price was as low as 50s., would have pressed upon the British artisan and the urban labourer during the second half of the nineteenth century if they had been maintained. It is difficult to conceive how in any circumstance it could be wise for the Government of two small islands, with a crowded population, but with extraordinary potentialities for manufacture, to endeavour to restrict the population to the food grown upon its own surface. But if for any reasons of overmastering importance it were necessary to adopt such a policy, at least such a Government ought to secure that the land should be put to its fullest possible agricultural use. Before 1846, and since, the British Government has acquiesced in the sacrifice of the agricul- tural interests of the country to the sporting proclivities of the land-owners. The combination of the two policies of protective duties for corn and of game laws and fox- preserving, would be nothing short of a vile oppression of the community as a whole for the selfish pleasure of a very small minority. But again, on the other hand, it must be pointed out 146 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND that other considerations have entered into the later con- troversy which has arisen over the proposal to reimpose duties on imported food, combined with colonial prefer- ence. If this proposal be put in a form which would allow of free import of cereals and other necessary foodstuffs from all parts of the British Empire, the proposal may be wi^e or unwise, but it is not necessarily condemned for the same reasons that made the system in vogue before 1846 indefensible. It is one thing to restrict a thickly populated manufacturing country to its own food supplies ; it is quite another thing to propose such a restriction for an empire of enormous area containing millions of acres of fertile and undeveloped land. The Irish Famine and Free Trade When we turn from the case of Great Britain to that of Ireland, it is much more difficult to be complacent over the results of the repeal of the Corn Laws. It is indeed an ironically melancholy circumstance that the Irish famine was the immediate occasion of the abolition of agricultural protection. The fact that Ireland had free access to the British market with its artificially enhanced prices, caused, between 1780 and 1845, a development of corn-growing in that country which has been regarded as excessive in view of the fact that Ireland is much more suited by climate for pasture than for the growing of either wheat or barley, though the grain chiefly grown was oats, for which the climate of Ireland is suitable. This artificial stimulus to tillage created a great field for employment in the land, and, combined with the political forces which fostered the creation of small holdings, it developed a system whereby the Irish peasant paid his rent out of small patches of oats, wheat and barley, and subsisted on still smaller patches of potato. When the potato famine came there was still far more food grown in Ireland than was necessary for the feeding of all the people. The people starved, not in consequence FREE TRADE 147 of a deficiency in the total quantity of food, but purely because their contracts with the landlords compelled them to send the food out of the country, instead of consuming it themselves. The exports of cereals in 1845 from Ireland were 779,000 quarters of wheat and flour, 93,000 of barley, 2i353,ooo of oats and oatmeal, sufficient to feed four mil- lion people for twelve months. The policy adopted by the British Government of enforcing the collection of rents and consequently the exportation of food required to feed the people, encouraging voluntary charitable subscriptions in money, and then altering the whole fiscal system of the country in order that these charitable donations should be expended to greater advantage, was miserably in- effective. Its deplorable failure was aggravated by the abject sub- jection in which the minds of the administrators were held by the doctrines laid down by the Poor Law Commis- sioners of 1834 — that no relief should be given except to the destitute. When the peasantry could have been effectively helped, help was denied them; when they were reduced to a condition of utter weakness by starvation they were offered relief work. It is sufficiently obvious at this day that the only reasonable policy would have been to have prohibited the export of food, or to have retained a sufficient quantity in the country by State purchase, and to have suspended for a sufficient period the payment of rent. This would have prevented loss of life, and even minimised the ultimate loss of rent to the landlords. But in the then condition of opinion it was practically impos- sible for such a policy to be conceived, much more for it to be carried out. The population of Ireland at the census of 1841 was 8,175,124. At the outbreak of the famine it was probably about 8,500,000. At the census of 185 1 it was 6,552,385. Famine, fever following famine, and the panic-stricken flight to America, reduced the population by about two million souls. Very many who emigrated reached America L t 148 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND only to die. No single cause has contributed so much to aggravate relations between Great Britain and Ireland as the incompetence displayed in dealing with the famine. But after 1851 the depopulation of Ireland continued, and one important factor was the loss of the privileged position enjoyed by the Irish agriculturist in the English market under the Corn Laws. The acreage under oats fell from 2,189,000 in 1851 to 1,066,000 in 1905; that under corn crops generally from 3,099,000 to 1,271,000. Every decennial census has continued to show a decreasing popu- lation, though there are signs that the tide is now turning. CHAPTER XII the labour movement from 1 825 to 1 855 Trade Union Consolidation We have previously said that the vigorous develop- ment of trade unionism characteristic of the boom of trade which happened to coincide with the partial legalisation of labour organisation in 1824 and 1825 was followed by a general collapse when the financial panic came at the end of the latter year, and that when the fresh impulse came it was marked by different ideals and different methods. It was widely felt that the small local trade club, con- fined to workers in a particular craft in or around a par- ticular industrial centre, was too small and feeble to carry on a prolonged dispute with the employers, or even to have, as a rule, irtuch permanence or solidity in quiet times. The aspiration grew in the period of trade union depression, which began in the autumn of 1825, for very much wider and larger forms of combination. Thjp pioneer of the new movement appears to have been John Doherty, already mentioned through his later connection with the Short Time movement — a Roman Catholic Irish- man who had started work in a cotton mill in Antrim at the age of 10, but who migrated to Manchester in 1816 and then, though only 17 years of age, became Secretary to a local Cotton Spinners' Society. In 1829 he led a great strike of the cotton spinners of Hyde against a reduction of rates, which failed after a stubborn struggle lasting over six months. This convinced him that no local union could 149 150 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND succeed against a combination of employers, and he suc- ceeded in organising a delegates' meeting of the spinners' societies of England, Scotland and Ireland, which was held at Ramsey in the Isle of Man in December 1829. The "Grand General Union of the United Kingdom " was , formed, to include all male spinners and piecers, women and girls being urged to form a separate organisation. The attempt to combine the spinners of all three kingdoms proved a failure. The Union became merely a federation of Lancashire societies, and speedily sank into insignifi- cance, though not until considerable progress had been made in fixing standard rates throughout Lancashire, and in compelling many of the worst employers to come up to the standard set by the better ones. But meanwhile Doherty was pressing forward the idea of a much larger association. In February 1830 there was formed at his instigation the "National Association for the Protection of Labour." This was a sort of federation of trade unions which. included about 150 separate societies, many of textile workers, but also many of miscellaneous trades. A weekly newspaper, called The Voice of the People, appeared as its organ in January 1S31. Unfortunately, Doherty and his Executive Committee quarrelled, and before the year was over The Voice of the People ceased to appear. In its place Doherty started The Poor Man's Advocate in January 1832, and endeavoured to build up a new national association on the basis of those branches which had most life left in them. The same idea of a widespread national association, though with a somewhat more limited scope, was embodied in the Builders' Union, which included Joiners, masons, bricklayers, plasterers, plumbers, painters and builders' labourers, and which endeavoured to cover the whole country. During 1832 it grew rapidly in Lancashire and the Midlands, and in June 1833 it entered into a great struggle with the Liverpool and Manchester employers for the abolition of contracting, the limitation of appren- THE LABOUR MOVEMENT 151 tices, and the prohibition of machinery and piece-work. The employers met these demands by a device which after- wards became famous as "the presentation of the docu- ment," a demand from every man applying for work that he should sign a renunciation of trade unionism in all its forms. After the political excitement on the passing of the Reform Act had died down, the favourable condition of trade produced by good harvests and by the beginnings of railway development, which marked the years from 1832 to 1835, stimulated a very great increase of trade-union activity. The Builders' Union in September 1833 deter- mined on building a magnificent Guildhall in Birming- ham, to contain a lecture-hall and school-rooms for the children of members. The Cotton Spinners improved their organisation and began to plan a general strike for a forty-eight hours week with undiminished wages. The Leeds Clothiers began an aggressive policy; the Potters' Union, established by Doherty in 1830, numbered, by the autumn of 1833, 8000 members. Not only to Doherty but also to Robert Owen the time seemed ripe for the fullest expressions of the general principle of labour solidarity. ' Various attempts were made in 1833 to form a general union of all sorts of workers, and in January 1834 there was started the "Grand National Consolidated' Trades Union." It was to be a federation of separate lodges, each lodge to be as a rule a local organisation of workers in a particular trade, though provision was made for mis- cellaneous lodges for men and also for women. The movement spread like fire in a field of stubble; it swept as far north as Dundee; it included many classes of workers that had always been found very difBcult to organise — shop-assistants, agricultural labourers and women. Its avowed policy was to inaugurate a general strike of all wage-earners throughout the country for an eight-hours day. But the general struggle never came. While preparations were being made for it the union found 152 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND itself harassed by local and sectional disputes which it could neither prevent nor bring to a successful termination/ The Dorsetshire Labourers The governing classes, however, were very seriousl; alarmed, and their alarm expressed itself in an act of flagrant tyranny and injustice in March 1834. Six labourers of Tolpuddle, in Dorsetshire, determined to form a lodge of the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union. For this purpose they obtained some masonic apparatus and entered into curious ceremonies. They were charged under an Act passed at the time of the sailoiis' mutiny at the Nore, with "administering oaths," and they were sentenced to seven years' transportation. A huge demonstration of protest took place in London on what is known as "The day of the trades," and Harriet Martineau tells us that in government circles it was believed that this demonstration masked a project for a bloody revolution, which was only checkmated by the precaution of concen- trating vast numbers of troops on the streets traversed, but keeping them carefully hidden from the view of the mob. These fears were certainly founded on delusion, but the fact that they were entertained illustrates how great was the severance in spirit between the Government and the labouring people. Years elapsed before the Dorsetshire labourers were pardoned and brought back to England. In July 1834 began a general lock-out, accompanied by "the presentation of the document," in the London build- ing trade. Other lock-outs followed in various centres, and by the end of the year the great trades union which had seemed so formidable was practically killed. The first great effort to create wider forms of combination had failed completely. The Transition to Political Action Meanwhile some of the general organisations which had been established, probably largely with the idea of definite THE LABOUR MOVEMENT 153 industrial organisation, like the "National Union of the Working Classes" and the "Society for National Re- generation," became mere propagandist bodies, aiming at the advance of education or at other reforms for which the assistance of enlightened and philanthropic employers could be enlisted. From this to political propaganda the step was easy. Thus, for example, the "National Union of the Working Classes " started as a Carpenters' Society, and then became a national organisation working both before and after the passage of the Reform Act for Man- hood Suffrage. From this, again, there sprang the "London Working Men's Association," created in June 1836 with William Lovett, a carpenter from Cornwall, for its secretary. This was the body which fathered the cele- brated Charter drafted by Lovett on the suggestion of Francis Place, with its six points — Manhood Suffrage (Adult Suffrage in the first draft), Equal Electoral Dis- tricts, Abolition of the Property Qualification for Members of Parliament, Payment of Members, Vote by Ballot, and Annual Parliaments. The Chartist Movement, which was thus originated, was perhaps, on the whole, the most con- fused and chaotic of political movements, yet one which took a deep hold on the hearts of the people. Chartism From the very beginning there were two definite strains of thought and feeling blended in Chartism. William Lovett, the Secretary of the Chartist Convention, which lasted from February to September 1839, beginning in London and concluding in Birmingham, was a typical representative of London Radical artisans. This body of men was comparatively well paid, pretty well accus- tomed to the conduct of trade unions of a somewhat exclu- sive type, desirous of limiting their demands to that which was practicable and their methods to such as were con- stitutional. They had maintained through ntany struggles and difficulties a fairly high standard of comfort, and they 154 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND were prepared to struggle strenuously for the means of education for themselves and their children. They were also fairly well in touch with the parliamentary Radicals through such channels of communication as Francis Place. But while the London artisans framed the Charter, the idea was taken up with far greater fervour in the manu- facturing towns of the north, where by this time the hand- loom weavers had been crushed into hopeless poverty and misery, and the rising generation of the workers had been trained in the brutalising school of the unregulated fac- tories of the beginning of the century. While Lovett formed the London Working Men's Association, Feargus O'Connor, who had been Member of Parliament for Cork, but who had been thrown out for lacking the necessary property qualification, appeared in Oldham, and, after being handsomely defeated in a parliamentary contest, formed the Central Committee of Radical Unions in 1836. In November 1837 he began to publish the Northern Star, and made it the channel for the denunciation of the new Poor Law, for the advocacy of all trade-union efforts, and of political reform. In 1838 the northern and the southern current met, and Feargus O'Connor became the acknow- ledged leader of the whole movement. The policy definitely adopted was the revival of that urged twenty years earlier by Cobbett, viz. that all sorts of social and industrial ideals should be temporarily postponed in order that every effort should be made to secure the Charter. Once the Charter had been obtained men could turn with some hope to remedy their crying grievances — low wages, high prices of food, insanitary conditions, denial of educa- tional opportunities and other forms of industrial oppression. But it was one thing to resolve to get votes before going for the cheap loaf and other desirable things ; it was quite another thing to see how votes could be won by the vote- less. Public meetings obviously could be held, monster, petitions could be presented to Parliament, resolutions THE LABOUR MOVEMENT 155 could be carried and forwarded to the Member for the district and to the Prime Minister, and even, as O'Connor was showing, a local newspaper could be established with a larger circulation than any other paper outside London. But all these methods of constitutional agitation, so effective when exercised by voters, it was shrewdly suspected would fail in their effect when it was known that the petitioners and demonstrators could do nothing to turn out a single Member of Parliament. Hence the great cleft of opinion that speedily arose between the advocates of physical force and moral force ; a division of opinion which could not be satisfactorily settled. If it was perfectly clear to the physical force Chartists that constitutional methods were bound to be ineffective ; it was equally clear to those of the other opinion that rioting and attempts at rebellion were even more hopeless in view of the overwhelming power of the (Government, supported by drilled troops who were certain to obey orders to shoot, and led by officers who were not likely to hesitate to give such orders. Between the two wings of the Chartist Movement Feargus O'Connor held an unenviable and undignified position. He attempted to secure their union and co- operation by using violent language to appease one section, and privately urging moderation in action to appease the other. Meanwhile he was the victim of an insidious brain disease which gradually robbed him of self-control and made him a dipsomaniac, and which finally brought about his death in a lunatic asylum. If there was great doubt among the Chartists as to the relative merits of constitutional and violent methods, there was no doubt on the part of the Government that the most effective way of dealing with the Chartists was to goad them into violence and then to use harsh methods of repression. One of the chief speakers of the constitutional wing was Henry Vincent, who afterwards had a long and honour- able career as a public lecturer. In 1839 he went to South 156 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND Wales to lecture and to urge moderation and order, but he failed to prevent a small riot in Newport, and was arrested on the charge of inciting to riot after his return to London. He was taken to Monmouth Assizes and was sentenced to a year's imprisonment. A great body of miners, variously calculated at from eight to twenty thousand men, marched towards Newport gaol in order to rescue him. They were met by the troops; ten were killed and fifty were injured. In March 1840 O'Connor was tried at York for seditious libel and sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment. The same sentence was inflicted on Bronterre O'Brien, one of the chief speakers of the physical force wing, in April. William Lovett had also been sentenced about the same time as Henry Vincent, and by other sentences it was clearly shown that the Govern- ment intended to stamp out the agitation. Decline of Chartism In 1842 a fresh and most promising effort was made by Joseph Sturge, a business man and Quaker of Birming- ham, who had shown the stubbornness of his convictions by refusing to serve in the militia or to pay a substitute, and by refusing as a tradesman to deal in corn if the purchaser intended to use it for brewing or distilling. He perceived that the extension of the franchise could only be carried through the co-operation of those who already possessed votes, and that in order to carry on a successful campaign it was necessary that the leadership of the move- ment should be put into other hands than those of O'Connor. He summoned in 1842 the Complete Suffrage Conference, but his efforts were foiled by O'Connor. During the next few years Chartism began to fade under the influence of reviving trade and cheaper food. It also suffered from an influence which had been working against it throughout its existence, viz. the competition of the Anti- Corn Law League. There was the greatest contrast be- tween the efficiency with which the League was conducted THE LABOUR MOVEMENT 157 and the confusion which reigned in Chartist circles ; between the harmony that reigned among the Free Trade leaders, and the fierce personal quarrels that hampered the working- class movement; between the enormous financial re- sources which the League could depend upon, and the utter poverty of the rival movement. Moreover, as the pros- pects of victory for the immediate practical end of the cheap loaf became nearer, it was less and less effective for Chartist speakers to point out either that, if Manhood Suffrage had been won, it would be quite easy to get the abolition of the Corn Laws with all sorts of other reforms, or, on the other hand, to urge that the manufacturers only wanted cheaper food in order that they might be able to pay smaller wages. The immediate possible and very practical boon was more attractive than the wider demand which seemed to have so little chance of realisation. After the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1S46 O'Connor endeavoured to give Chartism an immediate practical at- traction by forming a Land Company to buy estates and to cut them up into small holdings to be balloted for by the Chartists who joined the scheme. Five estates were bought and thus divided, and a special organ. The Labourer, was started to assist the movement. In 1847 O'Connor was elected to Parliament for Nottingham. The following year, under the influence of contemporary conti- nental revolutionary movements, which have caused the year 1848 to be remembered in history as a year of revolu- tion, and of bad harvests which sent up the average price of wheat to over 70s. a quarter, the final outburst of Chartist activity tqok place. A great meeting was summoned for April 10, 1848. O'Connor, with the giant petition, said to have been signed by 5,000,000 persons, was to be escorted from Kennington Common to Westminster by a crowd sufficient to overawe Parliament. But the forces arrayed against the demonstrators were too great. The procession was abandoned and the petition went to the House of Commons in a solitary cab. It was found to 158 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND contain not 5,000,000 signatures, but only i,975>496; and the clerks put to count the signatures were able to find among this number, and to hold up to public scorn and derision, a few which were obviously not genuine. This was considered a sufficient justification for laughing out of court a petition signed by nearly two million persons, many of whom had laboured strenuously and suffered much for the cause. The Results of Chartism After 1848 Chartism, as a movement, was practically dead. A new development of trade unionism was already rising in importance, the motto of which was "No Politics in the Trade Union." In the North of England, also, much enthusiasm was diverted into the co-operative movement. The period of rapid commercial development was favour- able to efforts for the direct amelioration of the workmen's position by voluntary association. One of the Chartist leaders alone continued doggedly lecturing and agitat- ing. This was Ernest Jones, who had only joined the Chartists in 1846, but who brought into the movement a spirit he had shown even as a schoolboy, when at the age of eleven he ran away from a Berlin school to join the Polish insurgents. He never ceased his efforts till the Reform Act of 1867, which gave household franchise to the boroughs, conceded something to the democratic claims, and made further concessions inevitable. We have already dealt upon the contrast between the rival movements of the 'forties. Chartism and the Anti- Corn Law League, in the character of their leaders and in the forces which they respectively enlisted. The contrast is equally remarkable in their ultimate results. The Anti- Corn Law League was immediately and brilliantly suc- cessful, but its success may not prove to be permanent. The broad principle upon which it rested, the principle of laisser-faire, has lost its prestige as the guiding principle in the general policy of the State in relation to industry. THE LABOUR MOVEMENT 159 and its special application to the question for foreign trade and tariffs is challenged by a powerful party backed up by a very considerable weight of expert opinion. On the other hand, the principles underlying the Charter have never ceased since 1848 to advance from one partial victory to another. Already the majority of Englishmen are en- franchised, the question of complete manhood suffrage is under debate in Parliament, complete adult suffrage is strongly demanded, the principle of equality of voting strength for voters is no longer openly contested, payment of Members is a fact, and the abolition of the property qualification and vote by ballot have long been established. There remains only one point of the Charter — annual Par- liaments, and this is no longer demanded. Further, the principle behind the demand for annual Parliaments has, to a large extent, been conceded by repeated efforts to bring representatives more and more into close touch with their constituents, and converting them from being free repre- sentatives, entitled to vote on all subjects under discussion in accordance with their own opinion, into something inter- mediate between this and the position of delegates obliged to vote according to the mandate of those from whom they received their commission. The development of this form of parliamentary demo- cracy has, in fact, been one of the most important lines of progress of Modern England since 1848. How far a democratic spirit has come with the form of democracy is another question. CHAPTER XIII THE CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC HEALTH, 1832 TO 1854 Sanitary Conditions of London in the Eighteenth Century If the history of London were typical of that of the rest of the country, the nadir of public health would probably have to be fixed at about the year 1730. It is true that there were no great epidemics in London in the eighteenth century comparable with the Black Death in the fourteenth century, the Sweating Sickness in the sixteenth century, and the Great Plague of the seventeenth. But on the whole it would appear that apart from epidemics the average condition of health and of mortality from endemic diseases continually grew worse as the city grew larger and as its site became continuously more polluted by the accumulation of the filth of generations. Right through the eighteenth century London deaths far exceeded the births — Year Births in London Deaths Estimated Death-rate I710 15,623 21,461 38-3 1720 17,111 23,909 41-9 1730 18,203 27,492 47"4 1740 16,830 26,492 437 1750 14,457 25,352 40-9 1760 17,156 22,001 33'8 1770 19,784 24,943 36-1 1780 19,248 23,851 32-2 1790 21,477 23,080 288 1800 22,605 24,270 28-2 An important movement for sanitary reform and city 160 CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC HEALTH 161 improvement began in the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1764 the City Commission of Sewers reported to the Corporation that the pavements were very defective, that the gutters which ran down the middle of the streets were deep and dangerous to vehicles, that the practice of throwing refuse into the streets was inconvenient and insanitary, that the footways, not being raised above the roadway, were naturally overflowed with mud, that various obstructions impeded the proper use of the streets, that projecting signs obstructed the free passage of air, that the waterspouts from the old houses poured strearris upon the heads of passers-by in rainy weather, and that it was desirable that houses should be numbered. The move- ment for City reform displayed itself in the building of new bridges,* in considerable street improvements, and in continual efforts, repeated again and again, to supplement the work of the New River Company with additional arrangements for providing a suitable and adequate water supply. There followed a movement for the buildihg of new districts on more regular lines, and with greater attention to the disposal of sewage. Innumerable District Commissions for paving, sewering and lighting parishes or parts of parishes outside the City were created. The old Sewer Commissions, which dated from the time of the Tudors, had been created for the purpose of dealing with storm water, and were not expected to receive house drainage into their sewers. It was, in fact, a punishable offence for a builder to connect his drains with the sewers instead of building a private cesspool. But al- though it was an offence, builders in the London district frequently managed to secure the permission of the Com- missioners to make such connections, and when cesspools were constructed it was a common practice for the men employed to empty them to take the contents to the nearest 1 Westminster Bridge was begun in 1738, opened in 1750 ; Blackfriars bridge begun in 1761, finished in 1769 ; the houses on London Bridge were removed in 1757-8. M 162 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND inlet to the sewers. Frequently the sewers were faulty in design and construction. It was long afterwards dis- covered, for example, that the celebrated sewer of the Westminster Commission, of which the Commissioners had been so proud when it was constructed that they marched in procession through it decked in all their insignia, had an upward instead of a downward slope to- wards the Thames, so that in course of time its sides gave way before the pressure of the liquid filth that accumulated at its lowest point, and a great continually spreading lake of sewage was formed beneath some of the most highly esteemed residential parts of London. Defective, however, as were both the sanitary engineer- ing of the end of the eighteenth century and the arrange- ments for local administration, the increased concern for the care of health produced a continually falling death- rate from 1730 onwards, and the deaths fell below the births at the beginning of the nineteenth century for the first time for over a hundred years. The improvement begun in the middle of the eighteenth century has con- tinued to the present day. Sanitary Conditions of Provincial Towns But if we turn from London to the country we find that in the great provincial towns the sanitary conditions were deteriorating instead of improving at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century. The aggregation of population in great factory, industrial and seaport towns, which was a natural consequence of the development of manufacture by the aid of steam power, and of the improvement of transit, acted as a most power- ful influence for the deterioration of the national health. The population continually flowed from the comparatively healthy rural districts to the growing towns. A helpless and ignorant working population overcrowded densely the courts and alleys already existing, while speculative builders hurried to meet the demand for additional accom- CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC HEALTH 163 modation by rushing up new erections, uncontrolled by building by-laws or sanitary inspection. Such working- class quarters had but the most meagre provision of sani- tary conveniences, usually no system of drainage, and no water supply, while no scavenger's cart ever visited their courts to remove refuse, unless it were the case that the landlord derived a profit from the sale of the mounds of filth, which were frequently heaped up in the centre of the courts, to be sold to the farmers of the neighbourhood for manure. Hence the very towns which were most rapidly growing in the beginning of the nineteenth century were also as rapidly deteriorating. A typical example is Glasgow, which in 1821 had a death-rate of twenty-eight per thousand, in 1838 of thirty-eight per thousand, and in 1843 of forty per thousand. In this city no less that 62,051 typhus cases appeared in the five years ending in 1840, the population then being only about a quarter of a million. The Coming of Cholera There was need. that some great movement should arise for sanitary reform. The Manchester Board of Health, formed in 1784, was the most active of several local move- ments for inquiry, protest, and agitation for remedial action. But a definite stimulus was needed to operate upon the popular imagination, and this stimulus was sup- plied in the repeated visits of the cholera. This dreaded plague, but most helpful and valuable sanitary inspector, first attracted the attention of Europeans in consequence of its ravages in India in the year 1817. From time to time it spread northwards and westwards; but it did not actually reach England till the 31st of October 1831, when it appeared in Sunderland, making its way by the follow- ing January to London. We have no accurate knowledge of the amount of the destruction which the first visitation caused. The number of deaths may be put approximately at about fifty thousand, but this is not much more than a guess. The official registration of births and deaths for M 2 164 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND the country as a whole had not yet been instituted. Nor can we specify any definite preventive action taken at the time, beyond that- of prayer in the churches. The great value of the first epidemic lay in the fact that the terror it excited acted as a stimulus to preventive effort when on subsequent occasions it was known that the disease was again making its way from one city of Europe to another nearer and nearer to our shores, and in the opportunity it gave to the great pioneer of sanitary reform. Edwin Chadwick Charles Kingsley in his novel Two Years Ago depicts the efforts of his hero, Tom Thurnall, to fight the cholera in a little Devonshire fishing village. The prototype of Tom Thurnall was Edwin Chadwick, but the fight which he carried on was over the whole national field, and against all sorts of fiJth diseases, and not cholera merely. Edwin Chadwick had a brief but most crowded career. We have already mentioned his connection with the Royal Com- mission on the factory question which led to the first Factory Law for the control of factories. He was next made an Assistant Commissioner to the Poor Law Com- mission of Inquiry, and when the administrative Commis- sion was established he was appointed its paid secretary. He had a stormy time with his official superiors, but he succeeded in making them his implement for securing an investigation into the sanitary conditions of the country. He had already, as an Assistant Commissioner, been struck by the fact that a great deal of the pauperism which the new Poor Law was passed to combat was directly due to preventable diseases, which created destitute widows and orphans, threw men out of work and burdened family exchequers during the period of sickness; while the very insanitary conditions of housing and living which caused disease, also created listlessness, mental inertia and a craving for alcoholic stimulants, even in men well enough to be able to work. CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC HEALTH 165 The passing of the new Poor Law in 1834 was followed by the Act of 1837 for the Registration of Births and Deaths, creating the office of the Registrar General and providing for the appointment of local Registrars for districts based on the Poor Law Unions. This provided a continually recurring reminder to the whole community to consider the questions of life and death, health and disease. Whether the passing of the Act was directly or indirectly prompted by Chadwick, I do not know. It certainly provided him with a weapon that he was not slow to use. In 1837 he obtained reports from Drs. Arnott and Kay "on the prevalence of certain physical causes of fever in the Metropolis " ; and a further report by Dr. Southwood Smith, then physician to the London fever hospital, "On some of the physical causes of sickness and mortality to which the poor are peculiarly exposed and which are capable of removal by sanitary regulations." These were presented to the Home Secretary by the Poor Law Commission. They were further followed up by another report by Dr. Southwood Smith "On the preva- lence of fever in twenty Metropolitan unions or parishes," and at last, in August 1839, the Home Secretary, Lord John Russell, was induced to direct the Poor Law Com- missioners to make a general inquiry throughout the country as to the extent to which the evils depicted in London also prevailed in other parts of England and Wales. This gave Chadwick his great opportunity. He sent directions to all the Assistant Commissioners to investigate the conditions of housing in their respective districts, the proportion of rent paid to weekly wages, the improve- ments that might be found in any model cottages erected, and the possibility of reform by means of Building Acts. He further asked for information about water supply, refuse removal, conditions of drainage, and the condition of the lodging houses. He himself supplemented the inquiries of the Assistant Commissioners by his own 166 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND researches in some of the larger provincial cities; and finally, in 1842, published his "Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Classes of Great Britain." He then set to work to secure for it the widest possible distribution. Meanwhile a " Health of Towns Association " had been formed in 1839 with the Rev. Charles Girdlestone, R. A. Slaney, M.P., the Marquis of Normanby and Dr. South- wood Smith among its more prominent members. In its ranks was Dr. J. R. Lynch, a Poor Law Medical Officer of the City of London. He secured election as a Common Councillor in order to batter the easy optimism of the City with regard to the perfection of its sanitary arrangements, and supplied a ghastly illustration of the truth of his complaint by catching typhus fever in the London slums, dying andf leaving a widow and children unprovided for. The Health of Towns Commission It was difficult at that time to obtain a hearing in Parliament for the Public Health agitation. It was still regarded as a question of the health of towns, and while the country members were indifferent, the urban members were much more keenly concerned in the question of Free Trade, then fiercely contested. In default of the possi- bility of legislation, the sanitarians were content to secure, in 1844, a Royal Commission on the Health of Towns, which produced a report confirming in all respects the terrible picture which had been drawn by Chadwick's earlier report. Thus with regard to cleansing it was found that, out of all the towns inquired into, only in Bath and South Shields could it be asserted that refuse was removed at the public expense from the courts and alleys inhabited by the poor population. One or two examples of the summary may be given. From Bradford the report is that there are no regulations for draining the town; that accumulations of refuse are thrown from the houses; that there are no sewers; that CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC HEALTH 167 the house drains emit offensive smells ; that scavengers are employed to some extent for cleaning the streets, but the courts and alleys are very offensive ; that the water supply is inadequate, the working classes obtaining their water from carts at the price of three gallons for one penny, but that waterworks are in progress. In Liverpool the surface drainage was defective, particularly that of the north end of the town, the town being full of pits of stagnant water ; the sewers in the main streets, courts and alleys were neg- lected, so that refuse) rotted on the surface; liquid matter was absorbed and found its way into the cellars ; house drains, when they did exist, were not properly cleansed, and the regulations forbade the communication of house drains with sewers ; paupers were employed as scavengers ; the lower and north parts of the town were in a filthy condition ; in courts and alleys the inhabitants did what cleansing was done, and did that very inefficiently; two companies supplied extremely pure water, but there were no public pumps or fountains, and the poor begged water or stole it. These two cases are typical of the whole number. A general measure was brought in on the basis of the report of the commission, but nothing was passed in 1845 beyond a Clauses Act to facilitate the drafting of local Acts by particular districts. The General Board of Health But in 1847 the second great visitation of cholera came to Europe. Under this impulse the Public Health Act of 1848 was passed. It set up a General Board of Health, on lines somewhat similar to the Poor Law Commission, with the Commissioner of Woods and Forests for the time being as its chairman, and two other members. This board was to advise Parliament on questions relating to public health, and to guide and stimulate local Boards of Health, which by the Act could be instituted in urban localities which so desired, or might be created by 168 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND compulsion by the General Board where the death-rate was in excess of twenty-three per thousand. The two working Commissioners appointed were Edwin Chadwick, removed from the service of the Poor Law Commission, to the great delight of the Commissioners, and Lord Ashley, who became Earl of Shaftesbury while he was a member of the Board. To these Southwood Smith was shortly afterwards added as a medical adviser. The Act was only temporary. Unless renewed the Board was to cease to exist at the expiry of five years. This was a fatal weakness, because it encouraged all vested interests threatened by the advance of sanitation (and it is remarkable how many there were) to obstruct and resist the Board, and it also deprived the officials through whom the Board had to act at once of any reasonable hope of advance and of security for the permanency of their appointments. For six years (for in 1853 the existence of the Board was prolonged for one year) the members toiled unremit- tingly. Of Chadwick and Southwood Smith, Lord Shaftesbury declares that they knew neither fatigue or satiety of labour; he himself did his utmost not only to assist his colleagues in their official duties, but also to fight their battles with the Cabinet and with Parliament. By the end of 1853 one hundred and eighty-two local Boards had been set up, and one hundred and twenty-six surveys, with a view to putting the Act into operation, had been completed or undertaken. Throughout the period meetings of the Board had been held at an average of four or five times per week. Further, though under the Act the Board had no jurisdiction over London it framed bold and comprehensive schemes for dealing with the question of burials, water supply and main drainage. During its existence also the same impulse that had produced the pass- ing of the Act of 1848 was effective in inducing various cities, beginning with London, to appoint Medical Officers of Health. The first report on the health of London CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC HEALTH 169 drafted by Dr. (afterwards Sir) John Simon, is one of the most scathing arraignments of its own condition which any city has ever placed before the public. It was not long before the storm began to gather round the heads of Chadwick and his associates. In Lord Shaftesbury's diary are found the following entries — "May 14th, 1852. The Times has taken up the note of the undertakers, the water companies, the parlia- mentary agents, and the whole tribe of jobbers who live on the miseries of mankind and are hunting the Board of Health through brake and briar and hope to be ' in at the death ! ' Be it so ; if we fall, not a body will be left to shout ' Unclean, unclean ! ' and form, guide and impel public opinion. Matters will become worse and worse. I tremble for the issue. Walked yesterday to review my old haunts in Westminster, and look at the wretched children in Pye Street ; Sick, sick, sick, to see how little years of labour had done." . . . "November 17th. Grieved to learn that not only nothing is' done by the Government, but that the Ministers will take good care that nothing shall be done by any one else : the Board of Health is to be de- stroyed, its sin is its unpardonable activity." . . . "August 9th, 1853. It is not wonderful, though sad, when we remember the interests that it has been our duty to approach and handle. We roused all the Dissenters by our Burial Bill, which, after all, failed. "The Parliamentary Agents are our sworn enemies, because we have reduced expenses, and, consequently, their fees, within reasonable limits. "The Civil Engineers also, because we selected able men, who have carried into effect new principles and at a less salary. " The College of Physicians, and all its dependencies, because of our independent action and singular success in dealing with the cholera, when we itiaintained and 170 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGtAND proved that many a Poor Law medical officer knew more than all the flash and fashionable doctors of London. ' "All the Boards of Guardians ; for we exposed their selfishness, their cruelty, their reluctance to meet and to relieve the suffering poor, in the days of the epidemic. " The Treasury besides ; for the subalterns there hate Chadwick; it was an ancient grudge and paid when occasion served. "There are the Water Companies, whom we laid bare and devised a method of supply which altogether superseded them. ^ "The Commissioners of Sewers, for our plans and principles were the reverse of theirs ; they hated us with a perfect hatred." The second visitation of the cholera, the threat of whose coming had created the Board of Health, arrived towards the close of 1848, and in the years 1848 and 1849 killed 55,201 people in England and Wales. Little was known about the disease, but Chadwick was satisfied that the right way of combating it was to create a general condition of cleanliness, to carry out efficient means of sewage disposal, and to drive forward the provision of a pure water supply. This was the policy which he pressed, regardless of the varying opinions of medical men and the prejudices of local authorities. It is due to his efforts more than to any other single cause that England became relatively well equipped in these two respects, and diminished death-rates have clearly proved that he rightly chose the two most urgent and fundamental points of attack. The third visitation of the cholera, in 1853 and 1854, which brought 24,516 deaths, prolonged the existence of the original Board of Health for a single year, and it was on August 5, 1854, that the Commissioners and their staff held their farewell dinner. Chadwick was then dismissed CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC HEALTH 171 from the public serVice, and retired on a handsome pension. The best use which the country could make of this man of genius, with his indomitable energy, his keen insight, his passionate hatred of disorder and inefficiency, was to pay him to leave dirt and disorder alone. He lived forty-six years longer. In his ninetieth year he was knighted as a K.C.B., and shortly afterwards died on July 5, 1890. His career is this summed up by the late Mr. Kirkman Gray: — "Edwin Chadwick's large personality confronts us at every turn when we investigate the socio-political history of the nineteenth century. It was given to him to discern distant social ends to which he might advance by ruthless toil and the exercise of a stubborn will. He waSj in fact, a prince of agitators . . . while other agitators worked their will on individuals, he goaded corporations. His ideal of centralisation set him in opposition to the dearest faith of Englishmen, the belief in laisser-faire. He desired to strengthen the central control, less for the sake of drainage or of health, than for the sake of strong administration. This was the height of his offending, and this drove him from ofSce. But before he went he had shaken the old edifice of leave-it-alone to its foundations." — ■ Philanthropy and the State, pp. 309, 310. A weaker Board of Health was put into office in 1854. This, too, was got rid of, and the powers which it exercised either lapsed or were nominally vested in the Privy Council or in the Home Office. As Lord Shaftesbury had feared, the movement for Public Health was left without central guidance, control or stimulus. Parliament, however, did something to facilitate the action of local Sanitary Authori- ties, where they were desirous of acting, by the Public Health Act of 1858; and by degrees the desire for physical well-being, and the acceptance of the obvious truth that the war against disease can only be carried out effectively through the joint action of private and public effort, made \ 172 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND continually greater inroads upon the stronghold of sloth and vested interests. The L.G.B. At last a further Royal Commission on the general sub- ject was called into existence in 1869. It reported that it was necessary that a strong central authority should be re-established to supervise the administration of all the laws relating to public health ; it deprecated the creation of local sanitary authorities to deal with public health alone; and recommended that the duty of local public health administration should be entrusted to the municipalities. The latter recommendation was carried out by the Public Health Act of 1875, which not only established a system of local health administration, but also a great and valuable code specifying the duties which the local authorities were to carry out. But no strong central sanitary authority for public health was created. Instead the miserable alter- native was adopted of handing over the work for which a Ministry of Public Health was required to the Poor Law Board, without even reorganising it, or giving it a suitable expert staff. It merely altered its name to "The Local Government Board." It would have been better if no pretence of setting up a central health authority had been made, because in that case the omission would have been easy to remedy. The Local Government Board as a public health authority is a scandalous and disastrous failure, blocking the way to the creation of a rational system. Though some slight im- provement has been made quite recently, it has never been equipped with the staff which it requires for its public health duties, it has never endeavoured to obtain such a staff. It shows no eagerness to exercise the coercive powers with which it is entrusted ; thus attention has recently been drawn to the existence of an important town in the Thames Valley which still preserves the methods of sewage disposal and of water supply characteristic of the Middle Ages, CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC HEALTH 173 without interference or rebuke from the Local Government Board. On the other hand it makes no effort to obtain the really effective means of stimulating local authorities, which is exercised by the Board of Education, and by the Home Office in respect of police, the power of giving grants-in- aid for efficient administration. Further, its deficiencies are inherent in its very nature. A single department of State, under a single Minister, cannot effectively carry out the extraordinarily varied duties entrusted to this undiffer- entiated department. The most pressing reform needed in Local Government is the abolition of the very idea of an omnibus Local Government Board, and the transfer of its duties to a sufficient number of specialised departments, including, in the first place, a Ministry of Health. CHAPTER XIV the crimea and the mutiny The Plunge into War In February 1854 the long peace after Waterloo ended with the despatch of an ultimatum from Britain and France to St. Petersburg, and the Crimean War began. It is difficult to understand, and impossible to explain in a few words, the causes of the Crimean War. To a large extent they were personal, rising out of the special position and idiosyncrasies of the Emperor Napoleon III of France, the Czar of Russia and Lord Stratford de Redclyffe, the. British Ambassador at Constantinople. The original cause of friction between France and Russia lay in a dispute over the guardianship of the rights of Christian pilgrims at Jerusalem ; but a more important ground of difference rose from the pressure exercised by the Czar upon Turkey on behalf of the Christian provinces of Wal- lachia and Moldavia, which were desirous of forming them- selves into the single principality of Roumania. Behind any arguments that could be raised for war there was a curious condition of the public mind, excited by the memories of the victories of Nelson and Wellington, for- getful of the sufferings of the war period, entirely ignorant of the evil reaction of war upon the national life, but com- paratively awake to the injuries arising from internal political conflict. The doctrine was even preached that war has an ennobling and purifying influence, and the poet Tennyson appeared to imagine it was a cure for com- 174 THE CRIMEA AND THE MUTINY 1^5 mercial dishonesty. The country plunged into war with blind enthusiasm. We are not here concerned with the story of the war itself. In briefest summary we may say that the English, French and Turkish Allies, afterwards joined by the Sar- dinians, succeeding after a long siege in taking Sebastopol, and concluded a treaty with Russia in March 1856 whereby Wallachia and Moldavia were nominally handed over to the Turks, but actually were allowed to form a single semi- independent principality. Governmental Inefficiency There are, however, certain significant features about the Crimean War which demand our attention. In the first place, the war was a test of the efficiency of the national public service. The system of recruiting officers for the army was by nomination by Members of Parliament, i.e., by political patronage. There is a boast in the biography of Sir Robert Peel that in making public appointments he never took any circumstance into con- sideration except the profit of the party; he scorned to make personal profit out of appointments. His biographer did not conceive it possible that the public advantage should be the guiding principle. In quiet times this system of government produced a strong reluctance to allow any work to fall into the hands of the Government which could be done in some other way. In time of war there was no possibility of avoiding governmental responsi- bility. The business of feeding, arming the troops, lead- ing them in battle and guarding them against disease had to be done by the Government and the Government alone. The nation watched to see how this task would be per- formed. What it saw was sufficiently disquieting. When it was resolved to make the Crimea the chief scene of operations, the little fishing village named Balaclava was made the base. A distance of seven miles separated it from the entrenchments of the army before 176 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND Sebastopol. The soil was of heavy clay. There were no roads, and no effort was made to make roads. Thousands of horses and mules were collected at Varna, the other side of the Black Sea, and left there. As soon as the autumn rains came, all the troops were separated from their base by seven miles of almost impassable mire. Baggage mules were gradually brought from Varna, but no forage was brought for them. The Treasury officials had forgotten the matter of hay, and no one on the spot dared take the responsibility of ordering it, so the beasts died, and the soldiers had to turn themselves into commissariat mules. The men slept under leaky tents in puddles on the bare ground. They were expected to forage for their own fuel, none being provided, and such confidence had the adminis- tration in the soldiers' powers of foraging that their meat was served to them raw. Coffee, also, was issued unroasted and unground, for, as the Commissary-General said, "The soldiers will no doubt find some means of overcoming any difficulty that may arise from the want of mills and coffee- roasters." Green vegetables was another requirement overlooked, and scurvy broke out. An enterprising mer- chant captain had foreseen this difficulty, and brought to Balaclava a ship laden with cabbages, but no officer dared take the responsibility even of giving a receipt for the cabbages, so they were kept on board until they rotted, and then were thrown into the sea^ Fresh meat could have been obtained in abundance, but the officers stuck to the traditional rations of salt beef and pork. There was plenty of lime-juice in store, but for months it was not served out. The sick were gathered in hospital tents, where they lay on the bare ground, and were fed on salt beef and biscuit till they could be shipped off to Scutari. The original British force that landed on September 14, 1854, was 25,000 troops; out of these 7,400 died in the three months of December, January and February, and in the last month out of the original force and reinforcements there were 23,000 on the sick list. THE CRIMEA AND THE MUTINY 177 The news from the field of operations created great indignation. Popular clamour was appeased by the resignation of the Cabinet and the formation of a new Government; but a deep impression was made on the minds of politicians, and the experiences of the Crimea prepared the way for the abolition of purchase in the army, and for a reform of the Civil Service, whereby competitive examination became the main means of selection. This was carried out after the Reform Act of 1867 diffused political power more widely. Meanwhile Florence Night- ingale tackled the actual problem of the care of the sick, and by the time the war ended succeeded in establishing an admirable organisation. She thereby created the present system of military nursing, and, moreover, per- manently lifted to a higher plane the profession of nursing in times of peace as well as in war. The trained and educated hospital nurse is the best fruit of the Crimean War. The Period of Wars for Nationality The next aspect which demands consideration is the fact that the Crimean War ushered in a period of suc- cessive European wars which turned upon the principle of nationality. To the student of European history the most interesting feature in the Crimean War is the appear- ance before Sebastopol of a contingent of Italian troops sent by the King of Sardinia, whose domains included Piedmont, and whose capital was Turin. This was the first move played by Count Cavour in his campaign for the creation of a united Italy under the leadership of an Italian monarch. His object was to secure that the ques- tion of Italy should come up for discussion when negotia- tions for peace were being conducted. The greater part of the north of Italy, including Lombardy and Venice, was then under the domination of Austria; Tuscany, Parma and Modena formed three weak duchies in tfie centre of the peninsula, to the south of them lay the Papal Estates, 178 THE ^L\KING OF 3I0DERN ENGLAND and, beyond, the kingdom of the Two Sicilies was ruled by a Bourbon monarch. Nothing was actually accom- plished for Italy by the Treaty of Paris of 1856, but Cavour succeeded in entering into engagements with Napoleon III which led to the Franco-Austrian War of 1859, in conse- quence of which Lombardy was ceded to Sardinia: and Tuscany, Parma and Modena united themselves to the enlarged Italian kingdom; while Savoy and Nice were ceded to France as the price of Napoleon's help. In i860 Garibaldi made his successful descent on the Two Sicilies, and in March 1861 \''ictor Emmanuel was declared King of Italy. The war of 1865, by which Schleswig and Holstein were taken from the King of Denmark and added to the king- dom of Prussia, was the first of the series of w ars by which the German Empire was created. In the war of 1866 Prussia and Italv combined against Austria, with the result that \'enetia was added to the Italian kingdom, and the political connection between the historic empire seated at Vienna and the states now forming Germany were severed. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 the Italian troops entered Rome, and, on its conclusion, the Empire of Germany and the Kingdom of Italy were established in their present form. The Indian Mutiny It was in May 1857 that the Mutiny broke out in Meerut. It spread with extraordinary rapidity from one military centre to another, and all but swept away the rule of Britain over the great peninsula. It is not improbable that, had it not been for the fact that British troops were being sent to China for the prosecution of a disgraceful opium \^'ar and were stopped on the way, the British forces would have been overwhelmed, and the result of a hundred years of gradual conquest would have been undone. The causes of the Indian Mutiny were various and curious. To a great extent they were all based upon the THE CRIMEA AND THE MUTINY 179 lack of otYort oil tho part oi tt\t> riilois of India to imdor- stjuwi tht> iwind and partioiitarty the religions pirjudioos of tl\e poopU>. rtu> Mutiny was, t(» a irrtaiit t~\t«Mit, a nu>ven\ont for invieprndenvv l\t\ul«'d l\v native princos \vl>o l\ad a dt'tiiiitt> gtiovancr against the I'^ast hulia (.\Mupany, btvause in a series of oases it havl is;nort-d tlieir eustoniary rij^ht, when ohilviless, to eontinue their line l\v tl\e principle of adoption. There were elements of military \\<>akness. The British troo[is numlHTed only 45,ihx\ ai;ainst iiative troops, trained under Hritish oIIuhms, to the number of .J57,(hx.>. The strength v>f the Company lay in its prestige due to the eir- eun\stai\ee that it hnii never, up to iS^j, been beaten in any campaign which it had undeitaket\. But this prestige reiH*iveii a a^nsiderable blow in the Afghcui War. In 1S55 the run\our was spread over India that the British arniy had been destroyet.1 iii the Oimea, and that once the troops in India had been disposed of no more wouKi be available to take their plaiv. AH this, however, divs not explain why the trvH^ps wen? disposed to rise against their otVicers. Tv> understand this it must be remet«bered that thrs of the Indian army. This movement found expression in some actions which were highlv commendable, although couragemis tv> the pt>int of rashness : the pn.">hibition of sutttv, the execu- tion of criminal Brahmins despite the holiness of their caste, the authoris^ition of the retnarriage of widows. But it further showed itself in a too aggressive etTort on the part of offii-ers to spread (."hristianity among the Moham- medan and Brahman rank and tile of their regiments. The i>tfict>r with the "Orvler-b*.\»k in one hand and the Bible in the other" became a common feature in the nati\-e s * 180 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND regiments. He was a subject of religious horror, and he created a suspicion that it was the intention on the part of the Company to convert men forcibly to Christianity, or at least to break or degrade their caste. This suspicion was excited to keen apprehension by the enlistment order of September 1856, which specified that recruits hencefor- ward might be required to serve beyond the sea. It was roused to frenzy when the new Enfield rifles were served out which had to be greased with a fat supplied to the troops, declared by persistent rumour to consist of a mixture of pig fat and beef fat, the pig being an abomina- tion to the Mohammedans and the ox an object of venera- tion to the Hindoos. The Government asserted that the fat was innocent, the native troops refused to believe the assertion ; and, in fact, it is impossible to assert with confidence that they were wrong. The Government with- drew the fat and substituted vaseline, with analyst's testimony to its constitution. But by this time no official statements on the subject received the slightest credence from the troops. Then a further rumour was spread that the Government contractors were in the practice of grinding up human bones to mix with the flour supplied to the troops. To the materialistic Westerner these provocations appear trifling; not so to the Oriental. Of all the military events of the Indian Mutiny, of the Siege of Delhi, the Massacre of Cawnpore, the Relief of Lucknow, of the career of Gunga Bhai, the Indian Joan of Arc, whose death, shot down at the head of the cavalry, brought about the final conclusion of the war in April 1859, it is unnecessary to treat here. But it is worth while for us to dwell for a minute on the different ways in which the final suppression of the mutiny is viewed in England and in India. In England we are accustomed to think that the mutineers behaved with extraordinary ferocity, and that on the suppression of the mutiny they were treated with extraordinary clemency and generosity. In fact, the name of the Governor-General, under whom the settlement / THE CRIMEA AND THE MUTINY 181 was carried out, is handed down to us as "Clemency Canning." But to the native mind it probably appears that a horrible vengeance was taken for a comparatively trifling offence. To the Indian, whether orthodox Mussul- man or orthodox Brahman, death is a trifling matter com- pared with what happens after death, and in the determina- tion of the fate of the human being after death religious burial is an all-important element. The mutineers, when taken prisoners, were tied to the muzzles of guns and shot into fragments, so that it should be impossible to bury them. An Indian Sepoy, who fought on the British side right through the mutiny, records in his autobiography how among a batch of prisoners he recognised his own son, and how, as a reward for his long and faithful service and by earnest supplication, he obtained the privilege that his son should be shot, and that he should be allowed to bury him. This one man was, he believed, the only mutineer to whom burial was permitted. On the conclusion of the mutiny the East India Company was abolished, and India was brought under the direct rule of the Crown. Certain lessons have been learnt; the pro- portion of British to native troops has been greatly in- creased ; the zeal of Christian propagandists has been held in check ; but it is doubtful whether there is, on the whole, much more real sympathy and understanding between the ruling caste in India and the native population than there was under the rule of the Company. CHAPTER XV public elementary education Class Monopoly in Education If the relations between the State and voluntary efforts for promoting popular education were peculiarly difficult and complicated throughout the nineteenth century, the reason must be sought in the history of preceding centuries. The critical time in the history of national education was the Protestant Reformation. In Scotland this was carried through by reformers who were naturally zealous for improved education, feeling it was their ally in the struggle with the "Popish superstition." Under John Knox's inspiration the principle was accepted, first by the Church and afterwards by the State, that there should be an ele- mentary school for every parish, a grammar school for every market town, and a university for every city. In this way free access of even the poorest students of ability to the highest means of education possessed by the country was, to a very great extent, assured for all future genera- tions. But in England Henry VIII was the master-spirit of the Reformation, and the master-motive was secular greed for Church endowments. These were closely inter- mixed with endowments for education, and the damage which was done through the wholesale plunder of the Church was not adequately compensated for by the creation of new grammar schools and colleges. Very frequently where land had been left for religious and educational objects combined, a small money endowment was created to continue the educational work, but the land itself went 182 PUBLIC ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 183 to some private person. With the alteration in money values such educational endowments dwindled in real value, and the diminished provision for increasing needs was more and more monopolised by the class most able to help themselves. Hence in England a class monopoly of education was created in the seventeenth century, and became intensified in the eighteenth century, while the mass of the people were sunk in continually deeper ignorance. Philanthropic Effort Efforts began to be made at the end of the seventeenth century, under the encouragement of Queen Mary, to meet the crying need by the provision of charity schools, and the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge organised the movement. The motive of subscribers was mainly religious; it was felt that there was but little chance for salvation for children unable to read the Bible or to understand the Catechism, and so, because girls as well as boys were recognised as having souls, the charity schools were usually formed in pairs. The boys learned ordinarily reading, writing and a little arithmetic, girls reading, writing and sewing; meals and clothing were also commonly provided. The supply of these schools was only sufficient to provide for a very small proportion of the children of the country. A larger need was met by the Sunday Schools initiated by Robert Raikes in 1782. But at the end of the eighteenth century the happy thought was invented by Dr. Bell, and utilised by Joseph Lan- caster, of applying something like the factory system to education. The unsectarian British and Foreign School Society (originally the Royal Lancastrian Society) and the " National Society for the Education of the Children of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church " sprang up to exploit the monitorial method. The speech of the Secretary of the National Society at its annual meeting in 1816 illustrates the nature of the 184 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND monitorial system and its charm to the charitable donor. He explained that in order to establish a good school of nine hundred or one thousand children it was sufficient to obtain some disused workshop or other building capable of accommodating the children, and the services of a man of good natural common-sense, who must also receive a month's training in the art and science of education. When the master was trained, the school would be opened. Out of the children who attended some thirty of those who appeared most intelligent would be selected and would be admitted half-an-hour before the other children. In that half-hour the master would teach them the lesson for the day, and then each of these thirty little monitors would be given a class of thirty other children, and would recite what he had just learnt to his class, while the master surveyed the scene and maintained order. The efificiency of this method was extolled by the spokesmen of both societies; and it is easy to see that it offered education to a remark- ably large number of children for a very moderate sum of money. It promised the generous donor a great deal for his guinea. The First Education Grants In the very beginning of the nineteenth century efforts were made, notably by Whitbread in 1807 and by Brougham in 1820, to provide a national system of educa- tion. Whitbread's Bill passed the House of Commons but was rejected by the House of Lords; Brougham's was defeated in the House of Commons. No step was taken by the Government until in 1833 the sum of ;^20,ooo was placed in the Estimates to be used solely for the erection of schools, with the proviso that no grant was to be made unless at least one-half of the cost of building was met by voluntary contributions actually received, and a report recommending the application was received from the National Society or the British and Foreign School Society. No increase in grants was made till 1839, when PUBLIC ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 185 the annual vote was raised to ;^39,ooo, and a special Com- mittee of the Privy Council for education was established, under whom inspectors of schools were appointed. It was intended in connection with this development to establish a normal training college for teachers, but this development was blocked by the jealousies of religious bodies which had already created their own training colleges. In 1845 the report of the Education Committee gave a severe blow to the monitorial system. It was found that out of the children attending school only one in six was able to read the Bible with any ease, and even these were commonly unable to read any other book. It was esti- mated that about one-half of the children were still unable to read when they completed their school period. Only about one child in four acquired the art of writing, and only two per cent, advanced beyond the most elementary arithmetic. A new start was made in 1846 by improving the system of. inspection, substituting a system of pupil teachers for the monitorial system, and by increasing the grants. The annual grant reached ;^i6o,ooo in 1852, and it continued to advance rapidly until i860, when it reached the sum of ;^842,ii9. In 1853 a fresh attempt was made to deal with the problem of education along other lines than that of sub- sidising the philanthropical societies. Lord John Russell introduced a Bill to permit Town Councils of incorporated towns, or towns with a population exceeding five thousand, to levy rates in aid of education. The Bill failed, but it incidentally created capitation grants. In this way the principle of State assistance, first applied to the building of schools, and then to the training of teachers, was extended to the maintenance of the school itself. Payment by Results In 1858 a further effort by Sir John Pakington to deal with education by legislation failed in consequence of the religious difficulty, but led to the appointment of a Com- 186 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND mission which left a deep mark on the British elementary educational system. The Commissioners found that there were in the schools of the countrj' about two and a half million children. Of these about two-thirds were in public schools of various sorts, one-third attending schools carried on by private adventure. Of those in the public schools rather more than half were in schools receiving grants and subject to inspection. Of the private adventure schools some were certainly very unsatisfactory, the teachers being untrained, frequently uneducated, and often recruited from those who had failed in other callings. Discharge servants, out-door paupers, cripples, consumptives, and aged and decrepit men and women were found among the numbers of those who taught poor children for the wretched fees which their parents were willing and able to pay. The Commissioners held that the inspected schools were far superior, as a rule, to the others, but that even in these a great stiffening up of the standard was required. They recommended the individual examination of the scholars in order to prevent the neglect of backward pupils. Thev demanded "a searching examination of every child in every school to which grants are to be paid," so as to make "the prospects and position of the teacher depend to a considerable degree on the results of this examination." The Commission reported against compulsory- attendance at school, and against the extension of State grants. It further recommended that grants should be paid to school managers. It recommended, again, that countv rates should be levied and administered by county Boards of Inspection. The best of these proposals, that for a county rate, failed to secure adoption, but Mr. Robert Lowe, as \lce-President of the Committee for Education, drafted a new code to put into force the proposal of individual examination. This came into operation in 1861. In introducing the new- system of payment by results he declared "that if the new system is expensive it shall at least be efficient; if it is PUBLIC ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 187 inefficient it shall be cheap." By his own test the code was disastrously inefficient. For year after year the grant fell. In 1861 it was ;£'842,ooo, in 1862 ;^774,ooo, in 1863 ;^72i,ooo, in 1864 ;^655,ooo, in 1865 ;^635,ooo. And yet the new code did not go the full length the Commission recommended. Instead of making a grant entirely upon examination, and requiring the examination of every child of every school, it allowed a grant of 4s. for attendance, besides as. 8d. for each pass in either reading, writing, or arithmetic made by a child who had attended two hundred times, and it further excused children under seven from individual examination. Even with this modification, however, payment by results exercised a powerful and blighting influence upon the schools. The teachers were harried and worried, they in turn harried and worried th^ children. To secure passes children were compelled to go to school even when in the peeling condition of scarlet fever, and a great deal of injurious pressure was exercised upon ill-fed, nervous and backward children. But what was perhaps worst of all was that the managers insisted on regil educati^jn being sacrificed to the dull, ceaseless grind at the "three R's," with the result that school work lost its interest, Probably less progress was made in the three sacred subjects than would have been the case under a more generous curricu- lum, and the real object of education, the development of the faculties of the children, was altogether sacrificed. The later progress of education, to a great extent, consisted in the sweeping away of this reactionary measure, which was, indeed, one of the most striking examples of the obsession of commercialism over the public mind at the time. The Act of 1870 In 1867 the second Reform Act was passed, and all men householders in boroughs were enfranchised, so that a very large proportion of urban working men were entrusted with the powers and responsibilities of citizenship. The 188 THE IHAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND perils of democracy combined with illiteracy- were tolerably well realised. In 1869 two societies were formed: "The Education League," demanding the provision of free and unsectarian schools by local authorities throilgh local rates, together with the principle of compulsory attendance; "The Education Union," advocating the development of a voluntary system with definite religious education, so that it might become universal. Out of this situation grew Mr. Forster's Education Act of 1870. It neither made education free nor compulsory, but it did require that there should be a public elementary school, under State inspec- tion, available in every district. For this purpose the country was divided into school districts : (i) what is now the Count}- of London, (2) the corporate boroughs, and (3), outside these, separate parishes. If in any school district sufficient voluntary schools did not exist and were not formed, a School Board had to be formed, required to build and maintain schools at the cost of the rates. A compromise was effected on the religious difficulty by requiring*: (i) that in all schools religious instruction must be given} either at the beginning or at the end of the school period, and that parents should be allowed to withdraw their children if they chose; and (2) that the religious education given in Board Schools must be of an unsectarian character. ^ Between 1869 and 1876 the school accommodation nearly doubled, mainlai th»^ough the efforts of voluntarv agenda. Attendance was still unsatisfactory, and the Act of 1876 required every parent to cause his child to receive efficient elementary instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic, and prohibited the employment of children under the age of ten, or between the ages of ten and fourteen, without a certificate of educational proficiency. L"nder this Act School Attendance Committees were created for jill school districts to enforce attendance. In 1890 the system of pay- ment by results, which had been whittled away by degrees during the preceding twenty years, was finally abolished, PUBLIC ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 189 the grants being made dependent on average attendance except for certain grants for special subjects. This reform was immediately followed by the freeing of elementary education, a measure which may be regarded as the logical consequence of the third Reform Act which enfranchised agricultural labourers. Acts passed in 1889 and 1S91 authorised the newly created County Councils to provide for technical education, and the subsequent clashing of the technical education authorities with the School Boards led to the passing of the Education Acts of 1902 and 1903, whereby all local administration of education in England and Wales is put in the hands of authorities of a municipal character — County Councils, Borough Councils, and Urban^District Councils. These have also acquired, under the acts named, extended powers of providing for all sorts of education. While a national system has thus been created, the movement for abolishing monopoly (n^ducation has triumphed in other directions. In 1871; Dis|^nters were admitted to the Universities of Oxford"'a|;|l Cambifitdge, and about the same time began the allied movementsTfor Uni- versity Extension^_ and the creation off local unm^ersities. The Girls* Public Day^^^ool CompMy was the pioneer of a new movement fof oflmnp- girls Sf th6 middle classes as efficient education as the*»^ e'ic Sahopls " ofBpr to boys, and women's c^eges have b ^^ nnled in lai^ numbers. Ruskin College and the Wo i mete " Watio nffl Association have experimentally tjndk ofVei mmoi the manual workers to be offered fuiTopiJoffir.^? .s of education in the subjects relating to civic life and duties. The present state of education in England and Wales may be described as very unsatisfactory, but full of promise of improvement. The elementary schools still bear the traces of their peculiar origin. The classes are too large, instruction rather than real intellectual training is their aim. The efficiency of the secondary schools and technical insti- tutes which d/aw their pupils from the public elementary 190 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND schools is checked by the defects of the latter. On the other hand, the education of the " Public Schools," though possessing admirable features, is cursed by the tradition of class monopoly, and by the low ideal of education for individual culture instead of for public service. The third educational system the country possesses, that of the Girls' High Schools and Women's Colleges, in many respects the best of the three, needs revision in order to cure it of its present tendency to produce overstrain in girls at a critical stage in their growth; and to bring the passing of examinations into due subordination to the full and harm ' jus development of complete womanhood. jftry V rnr- |: #in schoc„" ' IP • . :8i fii romise -wk^ (i) that in a .„ either at the beg. , id that parents,. , u. aiiowt,<^ ^ ren if they cho '" V"'^ '^^) ^^^^ ^^^ iven in Board ScR^. jls must be of an \ 6g and 1876 the school accf"* ",b.rDugh the efforts oi" ., "''' "'1 unsatisfarNarw;,. C i t ' xr all /'■' Tr CHAPTER XVI english industry from 1846 to 1879 Railways Abroad It is very interesting to read in Hansard the pro^jfnrflBiCa- tions of Free Traders on the one side and Protecf; iractt on the other with regard to the effect of free impor ?-^Distri'd upon the future of British agriculture. '"* "^ The Protectionists were vague. T'ley "te forebodings of ruin, and of wholescl ; Gissaal le agyi- The etailed rd a^a Cambiii various fovements' 't little unr^ loreign cultural population in the man Free Traders, on the other ham- examination of the agriculture foreign countries, nr provec* possibility of 6v _ :, products ii' Public DajdScj In the 3 ovement fogfoffer tions of th ducation as the ' m justified by coll'^gesjiave b for British <- ' 'the Wo from 1852 to 10.-. vindic higher than they h^o ■"' .* for apy since 1833, and the values of meat v steadily advancing. It is true that; products were growing; but they 'W rapidly as the demand of the growing'' On the whole the most important factoi evolution of industry was the general devfeioprtient of rail- way and steamship transit throughout the world. Railway building in Europe began about the year 1833. In that 191 ■al y was the tl^ middF iflticipa- ls"off:^' nearly fed in larp us decade tiwM^y was that i'Sre on the whole sponding period ■r produce were i.drLs of foreign / '. incre sing as popriations. !.ei/uining the 192 The making of modern England year Belgium, which had newly won its independence from Holland, embarked on a well designed construction,- by the State, of main lines. But progress in Europe was com- paratively slow till about ten years afterwards. In 1842 railway building started on an extensive scale in France. The first line in Germany was laid down in 1836, but it was not until 1848 that the State of Prussia began to con- struct its lines, and it was not until 1870 that the develop- ment of the system was pushed forward energetically. In the United States railway building went on at a steadily accelerated rate, until interrupted by the Civil War, which broke out in the spring of 1861. At this time the total length of railway constructed was about 30,000 miles. In the seven years which followed the conclusion of the war, 1866-1872, the railway mileage was doubled, and after the financial panic that then checked develop- ment, construction again was accelerated, 40,000 miles beiing constru^M^in the five years ending 1883. What w^^pi^icularly important for British industry^ was the ^development of the railway system west of th,e Missisippi, and the opening out of the great prairie area so eminently suitaffle for the growing of cereals. In 1865 there were but three,,thousand niiles of railway west of the Missisipm* Between that yeadjand 1883 46,600 miles were construcrad. Uponl^ritish innustrfes the immediate effect of this world-movemsent towai^s qi^jfkening and cheapen- ing transit ft %d the^ ffect-jpf producing an ever-expanding market for mamnactures. The, de^lopment of European competition was considerably checked by the wars of nationality which followed the conclusion of the Crimean War, in which Prussia, France and Italy and the southern German States were repeatedly engaged. American com- petition in manufacture remained insignificant compared with the great development of America in the export of food and raw material and in the consumption of manu- factured articles. The British manufacturers' ideal that Britain should become the workshop of the world, and that ENGLISH INDUSTRY, 1846—1879 193 all other countries should send her raw material for her manufactures, food for her artisans and orders for her goods, was more and more realised up to the year 1873. How rapid during this period was the development of American production of foodstuffs may be shown by a few figures. In i866 the United States exported five million bushels of flour, in 1874 seventy-one million bushels; in the earlier year 650 million pounds of cotton, in the later 1,358 millions. In the same time the export of bacon and hams increased ninefold, that of lard sixfold, of tallow fivefold; while the exports of pork, beef, and tobacco doubled. The Cotton Famine Meanwhile it is interesting to note that the American Civil War left a permanent mark on the social history of the country. Complacency with the policy of the new Poor Law of 1834 gradually grew up to i860. Pauperism had been steadily declining ; the resistance to the repressive system had been weakening; and in consequence of com- mercial prosperity wages had been rising even more rapidly than the prices of necessities of life, and labour was becoming more independent. But^when the blockade of the Southern ports by the Federal Governi^ent had brought with it a famine in raw cotton which threw Lancashire operatives out of employment by the thousand, the validity of the Poor Law principles of 1.834 'was put to a severe test. What was to be done with the weavers and spinners who were reduced to starvation by this interrup- tion to the ordinary course of trade? According to the principles adopted by the nation, they should have been refused assistance until they became destitute, and then given workhouse fare and workhouse discipline, which was intentionally made repellent in order to compel the man who might become a pauper to make every possible effort to maintain his independence. The broad theory was that if a worker was not wanted in one industry he must be o 194 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND driven to overcome all natural inertia and practical diffi- culties virhich stood in the way of his finding some other occupation by which he could secure an independent living. But in the case of the Lancashire cotton operatives it was very obvious that if a strict adherence to the principles of 1834 compelled them to take to other sorts of work, all their acquired skill upon which this most pros- perous industry depended would become practically lost to the nation. Similarly if they underwent the degrada- tion of workhouse life, or were reduced to actual destitution, their industrial efficiency would likewise suffer a very great diminution. No real re-examination of the principles of 1834 was made, but it was admitted that an exception must be made in the case of the cotton operatives, and that there must be special provision for their relief. The actual pro- vision made was unsatisfactory enough ; but to a consider- able extent the mind of the public was opened to the fact that the supposed invariable principles of political economy might not always and in all circumstances hold good. The American War gave timely assistance to a movement already begun for the reform of poor-law administration. The Campaign for the Humanisation of the Poor Law There is a very interesting passage in the History of the Poor Law, by Sir George Nicholls, himself one of the chief architects of the system of 1834, in which he gives a table of average salaries as paid in 1850 to union and workhouse officials. We find that while clerks received on an average ;^iio, medical officers received only ;^5o, masters and matrons £37, schoolmasters ;^3i, schoolmistresses ;^2i, and nurses £i/\. per annum. It is very significant that, bearing in mind that every union had to have a workhouse, and that each workhouse had to include a general hospital, that 634 unions had between them only 248 paid nurses, and that the average salaries of the nurses qalled to this most laborious and responsible work was £14 per annum. ENGLISH INDUSTRY, 1846—1879 195 Still more significant is the comment of Sir George Nicholls on his own figures : "The amount of the salaries exhibited in the foregoing statement is certainly large." But not long after a campaign for letting light into the secret places of the workhouses and humanising the conditions found therein began. Miss Louisa Twining, the daughter of a clergyman, while living in London in the 'fifties took up district visiting, and among the poor acquaintances she made was an old woman, who was compelled to remove into the workhouse through illness at the age of seventy. She begged Miss Twining to con- tinue to visit her there. Miss Twining did so, and found her in a shed, put among the able-bodied women, picking oakum on a brick floor, in her own words, "amid the sweepings of six parishes." It was a fortnight before the old woman was removed into the infirm ward. Miss Twining took to visiting the workhouse regularly, and then to organising a body of lady visitors, but soon she found that permission to enter the workhouse was denied by the authority of the Poor Law Board itself. The greater the obstacles put in her way, the more determined she was to surmount thehi, and to ascertain what was the condition of the sick and aged and unfortunate in those workhouses which were regarded with so much ofiEicial complacency as an effective means for reducing pauperism. She found that there were 50,000 sick in the London workhouses, nursed almost entirely by pauper nurses of whom hkli were above fifty years of age and some over eighty, and whose remuneration consisted of extra allow- ances of tea or beer. One nurse, frequently left in sole charge of the sick ward of a large London workhouse, a woman given to drink and of a violent and ungovernable temper, confessed to Miss Twining that she had been sixteen times in the house of correction. Imbeciles, again, were left in charge of old pauper women between seventy and eighty years of age. Another deplorable future of the actual working out of 196 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND the principle of less eligibility, was that the workhouse became less eligible than the prison. In the single year 1856, the Visiting Justices of Westminster alone com- mitted 494 indoor paupers to prison from Westminster workhouses. It would frequently happen, Miss Twining explains, that a servant girl losing a situation and without a home in London, would become destitute before she could find another situation. Entering a workhouse she would be set to pick oakum amid a body of other women of various characters, but all more or less degraded by work- house treatment, with no supervision except that of the taskmaster. His treatment of her might goad her to rebellion and abusive language, then she would be locked up in the "Black Hole," and afterwards committed to prison. Subsequently, having tried both prison and work- house, she would look upon the former as a desirable refuge from the latter. At the Social Science Congress in Glasgow in i860 opinion was focussed upon the necessity of getting three classes of paupers out of the workhouse : the children, the sick in need of remedial treatment, and the incurables. So far as the children were concerned, efforts had already been made in this direction, and by an Act of 1844 power had been conferred upon the central authority to group unions in "school districts" for the purpose of maintaining great barrack schools, in which, it was thought, the expense of maintenance would be reduced to a minimum, and the children be brought up in a more satisfactory manner than in the workhouses. This system was developed to a con- siderable extent in London, though to no great extent in the provinces. It was better than the practice of bringing up children within the workhouse, but the life of the children in thfe barrack schools was one of deadening monotony, their training and education was by no means satisfactory, their vitality was low and they were extra- ordinarily subject to infectious diseases. Mrs. Nassau Senior in 1874 initiated a demand for further reform, which ENGLISH INDUSTRY, 1846—1879 197 has led to the development of some more satisfactory systems; as the boarding out of orphan and destitute children among working-class families in the country; the very expensive Cottage Home system, the Scattered Home system in which children are brought up in rather large artificial imitations of a family in small houses scattered over the union to which they belonged. The agitation with which Miss Louisa Twining was more directly associated, that for the improvement of the condition of the sick, was taken up by the Lancet and other medical journals. A considerable victory was won in 1867 when the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund was created, by which the whole of London, instead of the separate unions, was made chargeable for the maintenance of lunatics in asylums, of fever and smallpox cases in specially provided hospitals, of children in special schools, and for medical service. The Metropolitan Asylums Board was created for the purpose of carrying out the provision of asylums and hospitals ; and the dispensary system was set up for the administration of poor-law medical relief outside the workhouse. ' An enormous change for the better took place in the treatment of the sick poor in London. The workhouse infirmary became by degrees practically a public general hospital, usually suitable in construction, well equipped, and served with continually increasing efficiency by a special staff of doctors and nurses. Similar progress has been made in some provincial unions; but these, on the whole, lag behind London. The Crisis of 1879 When the American War was over British industry again continued to prosper and British trade to expand. The. exports of cotton cloth, for example, increased from ;^39,524,ooo in 1863 to ;^6o,927,ooo in 1866, and of cotton yarn from ;^8,o63,ooo in 1863 to ;^i3,685,ooo in 1866. If we take the value of British exports as our test of manu- 198 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND facturing activity, we find the advance is rapid and contin- uous until 1872, wtien the total value reached ;^256,257,ooo (against ;^ 124,000,000 in 1862), a figure which was not sur- passed until 1890; while the value of exports per head of British population, which was £^ 5s, 7d. in 1862, rose to ;^8 15. in 1872, but did not again reach so higfh a figure until 1906. If we judge by imports we find that 1873 was the culminating year, when the total value readied ;^37i, 287,000 as compared with ;^225, 7 16,000 in 1862, and the value per head was ;^ii us. 2d. as compared with £y 145. Td. in the earlier year. But the figures for 1877 showed a renewed tendency for imports to increase, and the difference betwen imports and exports has shown a continual tendency to widen. To a great extent these figures, however, are delusive. We measure the value both of imports and exports in pounds sterling, and the pound sterling is a very variable measure of value. As prices rise the amount of actual commodities indicated by each million pounds' worth of exports decreases, and the power of such a recorded value of exports to procure goods from abroad similarly de- creases; the opposite is the case when prices are falling. Prices were rising from 1858 up to 1873. But in 187,1 monetary changes on the continent of Europe took place of the greatest importance. The newly formed Empire of Germany converted her coinage from a basis of silver to one of gold, with the natural effect that the exchange value of silver was lowered, and the general level of prices in silver-using countries was raised ; while the exchange value of gold was increased, and prices began to fall in the British Isles. In the same year the Latin Union of France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy, which had long retained a bi-metallic currency, and had steadied the relative values of gold and silver through the great fluctua- tions in the world output of the precious metals, found itself in peril of being completely drained of gold by the new demand from Germany, combined with the shrinking ENGLISH INDUSTRY, 1846—1879 199 in gold production that was then taking place. Accord- ingly the countries in the Union were compelled in 1873 to close their mints to silver, and this again aggravated the depreciation of silver and the appreciation of gold. How tiui general level of prices varieil in consequence is shown by the diagram in the Appendix. If we allow for the variations in the real meaning of the pound sterling, we find that, estimated in real values, British (wporls as well as imports have continued to expand since 1872, though with considerable fluctuations, and at a diminished rate compared with the preceding period. But while manufacture suffered only a partial check to its growth, British agriculture in the 'seventies experienced a crisis which was followed by a long continued decline. Up to about 1874 the farmers were on the whole pros- perous, foreign competition was mainly felt in corn and wool ; but such meat as was imported was considered as of inferior quality, and the prices of British meat and dairy produce wcvc well maintained. The acreage under wheat and corn crops up to 1874 showed very little tendency to decrease. But after a series of bad or poor harvests there came the black year of 187Q. It was a summer of almost unintermittent rain. The hay was ruined ; the yield of wheat worked out at an average of isj bushels per acre, or only half a crop ; the yield of other cereals was nearly as bad, and the quality was as poor as the quantity was deficient. In previous years since 1846 bad harvests had been followed by some increase of prices, though not to such an extent as earlier in the century. But in 1879 America had a bumper crop, and prices fell instead of rising. The British markets, too, were overflooded with American cheese, which brought the value down to a record low price; while sheep-rot, pleuro-pneumonia, and foot-and-mouth disease ravaged the flocks and herds. Ever since 1855 rents had been rising, not only because the profits of agriculture had been increasing, and addi- 200 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND tional capital had been put into land in the form of farm buildings and drainage, but also because the continual tendency of farms to increase in size produced an accen- tuated competition for 4;he diminished number of holdings, and so forced the level of rents up to or beyond the maximum that farmers could pay. In the crisis of 1879 many tenant farmers were ruined. Landlords accustomed to anticipate continually increasing rent-rolls, with proper- ties frequently encumbered, sometimes refused all reduc- tions of rent and very frequently made only temporary deductions. Agricultural wages remained stationary for a few years, and then began to be generally reduced. Investment of fresh capital in land was checked, labour began to be economised to the maximum ; and the exodus of agricultural workers to the towns was greatly accelerated. CHAPTER XVII the industrial worker from 1 846 to 1 879 The New Model in Trade Unionism Though Chartism had its second outbreak in 1848, the period when it really began to weaken in its hold over the minds of the industrial classes of England began about 1843. A general tendency showed itself for men to turn with some degree of distaste from impassioned political oratory to the tackling of the actual detailed problems of their industrial interests. The most significant sign of the times was the brilliant success in co-operation achieved by the Rochdale Pioneers of 1844, and the widespread imita- tion of their efforts in the North of England. So successful was this movement that in 1863 the English Wholesale Society was started, which added a national organisation of the several co-operative societies to the local organisa- tion of the distributive stores. The Scottish Wholesale was formed in 1868, and the Co-operative Union in 1869. These events were approximately contemporaneous with the political enfranchisement of the urban worker by the second Reform Act of 1867, and the provision of a national system for elementary education by the Act of 1870. The changed temper of the artisan also showed itself in the conduct of the trade unions. Their rules and expendi- ture showed a new interest in education, a tendency to form libraries and classes, and to issue trade journals. Their industrial policy showed how much their leaders had assimilated the current economic teaching of the day, which had, of course, to a great extent, been popularised by the aoi 202 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND controvorsios over tlio liscnl system. The iilcn tliat the \v;it;i\s of labour wore deior;niiioil by (he forcos ot supply and demand operating in the labour market having; ht^en impressed upon the trade unions, they naturally applied the lesson by endeavouring to foster emigration and to limit apprentices. The middle-class ideas of organisation also showed their influence in the effort to restrict the liberty of branches and bring them under the control of central executives. Past experience, as well as the constant teaching of the economists, produced a reaiiion against strikes, some unions even abolishing the possibility of striking according to rule. As an alternative method (o bring pressure to bear upon tlie employer, it was suggested that his workers should be witluiraw ii froni him one by one, A method that might be \'ery elTt>ctive at a time when tl»e employer had as many orders as he could execute, and skilled labour of tlie sort he neeiled happened to be .scarce. It was not, however, until after the second outbreak of (he Chartist movement that the new type of tnule unionism which was destined to make history in (he succeeding livt*- and-twenty years came definitely into (he foreground. The year 185 1 saw the formation of (lie .Arnalgamated .Society of Engineers. The foundation of this society was the Journeymen Steam-engine and IMachiiie-maker.s and Mill- wrights' Friendly Society, established in iSjo, which by 1S48 numbered seven thousand memliers in brnnches ail over the kingdom, with an accumulated reserve fund of ;^27,000. By this time it had developed an elaborate internal organisation. Its chnr.acterislic features were an extended and varied system of benefits, pjiid for by high weekly contributions; a constitution whereby much detailed administrative work had to be done in the various branches by the branch oflicials, combined with strong control over all important matters of administration by a central execu- tive committee, ,nnd an aiiparent local is.'U ion of the funds disguising (heir real C(>ntrali.sation. This .scviety was becoming prominent among those existing in the growing THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER 208 engineering industry, through its agj^ressive trade policy. Tn March 1850 its two chief leaders, William Newton and William Allan, succeeded in carryins; through the scheme of amalgamation which created the Amalgamated Society of Enj^ineers, whereby in practical eflfect three or four smaller societies were absorbed in their own. There were difficulties in the carrying out of the amalgamation, but by October 1S51 Newton and Allan were at the head of a united society of eleven thousand members paying con- tributions of one shilling a week each. The union ex- ceeded in membership, and still more in annual income, .my other trade union of the time. Towards the end of the year the Amalgamated Society entered upon a campaign for the abolition of overtime and for the exclusion of labourers from the working of machines. This led to a general lock-out throughout London and Lancashire of the whole of the engineering trade, beginning on January 10, 1852. The masters refused to employ any union man unless he signed the "document," forswearing trade-union membership. After three months' struggle the men were obliged to return to work on the employers' terms. But they did not regard themsel\es as moralh- bound by the signing of the docu- ment under compulsion, and the A.S.E. speedily recovered and snriv^ssed its previous strength. Tn the succeeding years the A.S.E. became the model tor a number of new national trade societies, while other organisations incorporated its leading features. An im- portant event in the development of this new trade-union movement \\.^ the strike in the London building trade of 1850 to i860. A movement was initiated by the London carpenters for a nim^hours day, which the masons and bricklayers joined. A joint committee of the three trades sent a memorial on the subject to the master builders, and then a special petition to four firms selected by ballot. One of the^se lirms, Me,ssrs. Trollope, dismissed the man who presented the memorial. This led to an immediate 204 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND strike against Messrs. Trollope. The masters replied by a general lock-out, in which 24,000 men were excluded from their employment. A long struggle took place, which ultimately ended in the return to work on the old conditions. The London Builders were badly organised, but they were well supported by various unions throughout the country. The A.S.E. made three weekly donations to the strike funds of ;^iooo each, and this demonstration of their financial strength made a deep impression. It was further noted that in the struggle the stonemasons, who had a national society and could levy provincial members for the benefit of their London strikers, could have con- tinued the struggle for a long time; but the carpenters, who had but a London society, and that an ill-organised one, were soon reduced to extremities. When the strike was over a new Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners was formed, imitating the constitution of the Engineers and adopting a similar scale of benefits. Under the leadership of Mr. Robert Applegarth it speedily became a great and powerful union. Other societies and trades followed the example, and a widespread influence was exerted upon other unions which made no radical alterations in their rules. "The Junta" The trade-union movement from this time came under the guidance of what Mr. and Mrs. Webb term the Junta, an informal cabinet of five trade-union leaders living in London and in constant communication with one another. These were William Allan and Robert Applegarth, the secretaries of the two great societies of Engineers and Carpenters; Daniel Guile, general secretary of the Iron- founders; Edwin Coulson, general secretary of the London Order of Bricklayers; and George Odger, who alone of the group held no official position in the trade- union movement, but who was the favourite platform THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER 205 spokesman of London trade unionism, and who was selected as the foremost champion of the movement for direct representation in Parliament of the manual workers. These men had a definite and clear-sighted policy. Largely indoctrinated with the political economy of the day, they held no extravagant views as to the possibilities of social emancipation through direct trade-union action. Their trade-union policy was to build up strong societies, made solid by the accumulated interest of the member in its financial benefits, which tended to increase in amount and practical value for him as he grew older ; to build up a great reserve fund; and to make it practically impossible for the employers to conduct their business satisfactorily without employing trade-union men and conceding the standard wage ; the trade-union standard wage being fixed at the amount which the best employers were willing to concede. Apart from this, they desired to use other means for effecting those reforms which had appeared to them to be unobtainable by direct action of the trade unions. They strongly advocated direct labour representation and political agitation for reform of the law as between the employer and employed, for extension of the franchise, and of national education. As the level of wages for the skilled trades was advancing, and with it the level of rents, there was an increasing number of working men who became entitled to the franchise as £io householders. This gave the trade-unions a political lever with which to work, and it was a very important element in securing the Reform Act of 1867, and the much fuller enfranchisement of the urban workers. Two other features may be noted with regard to the new spirit dominating the trade-union movement. We note on the one hand a disposition to adopt a variety of schemes which appeared to offer some practical improvement in social and economic conditions. Thus, when the Christian Socialists, after 1848, held out the ideal of producers' co- 206 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND operation, that the working men in a trade union should combine together to secure capital for themselves, and to conduct the industry under the leadership of foremen elected by themselves, the trade-union world was ready to accept the idea with a considerable amount of enthusiasm. Though this form of co-operation has had but little prac- tical success in England, it yet has had an extremely valuable effect in stimulating and inspiring with broader ideals the co-operative movement on the Rochdale plan, and the action of the Christian Socialists directly led to the establishment of the Co-operative Union. Another move- ment which appeared on the field in the year 1862, the Working Men's Club and Institute Union, has had a very great measure of actual success, having now two thousand working men's clubs in affiliation to the union. It carries on a steady educational propaganda among them, and has secured their co-operation in establishing convalescent homes for members. The other notable feature in the developments about the year i860 was the establishment of permanent trade councils. These had been formed before 1S60 in Sheffield, Liverpool and Edinburgh, and in 1861 the London Trades Council was formed. Since then one of the signs of the rising vigour of trade unionism at different epochs has been the increased activity of such trades councils in various towns. The work of the Junta, in making trade unionism an effective political force, was much facilitated by the ascend- ancy of men of similar aims and ideas in the largest pro- vincial centres of trade unionism. Among these the most notable were Alexander Macdonald, the leader of the coal- miners, and Alexander Campbell, who dominated the Glasgow Trades Council. Macdonald led the miners into a long struggle to secure the reform of the Mines Regula- tion Acts, and in particular to obtain the statutory right of the miners in each pit to appoint a check-weigher to certify the accuracy of the weighing of the coal on which THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER 207 the miners' earnings were, and have continued ever since, to be regulated. The first Act that ceded the principle was that of i860, the Mines Regulation Act of 1872 slightly strengthened the position of the check-weigher, and the Act of 1887 finally made clear the right of the men by the provision that the majority of those employed in any pit were entitled to appoint, at the expense of the pit, a check-weigher with full power to keep an accurate and independent record of each man's work. A much shorter struggle, carried on on a wider scale, secured the amending of the general law between employer and employed. The old Master and Servant Acts were based on the idea that violation of contract vby the em- ployer was only a civil case, but by workmen a criminal offence. On the one hand the employer was only liable to be sued for damages or for payment for the amount due. On the other hand the workman who left his work could be sentenced to three months' imprisonment. It followed, also, that a master when sued by his workmen could be a witness in his own favour, but the workmen when prosecuted by the employer could not. Further, in the absence of any Court of Criminal Appeal, a workman on an alleged case of breaking of contract could be seized, brought before a single Justice of the Peace, who could hear the case in his own house, and be sentenced to im- prisonment without any right of appeal. The trade-union agitation for the reform of this law was first organised in 1863, and was successful in obtaining an amending Act in 1867. Position of Tr.\de Unions before the Law Meanwhile, however, the issue of the position of workers' combinations before the law was about to be fought on broad lines. From 1850 to 1866 trade unionism had been steadily growing in power and influence. Its growth had been watched with alarm in many quarters; and the strong national societies, though they were moderate and 208 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND conservative in their trade policy, were specially feared and dreaded by employers. In October 1866 the latent hos- tility against trade-unionism was roused to fever-point by an outrage in Sheffield. Sheffield has long been remark- able for the multiplicity of its craft' unions, and many of these were notorious for the brutality of their methods of enforcing decisions of the union on any particular member. Rattening — i.e., interfering with the workmen's tools- was their ordinary method of enforcing discipline; when it failed methods of terrorising were adopted. The social conditions in the Sheffield trades about the year 1866 are depicted in Charles Reade's novel. Put Yourself in his Place. In October 1866 agents of the Saw Grinders' Union let down a can of gunpowder through the chimney into the house of a man who was working for a firm against whom the saw grinders had struck. A demand arose among employers for a general investigation into the position of trade unions before the law. This demand was re-echoed, for a very different reason, by the trade unions themselves. The development of great amalgamated societies, with their large accumulated funds, had made more serious than ever the question of the legal protection of such funds. The Act of 1825 had done nothing to give trade unions regular legal status ; but a section of the Friendly Societies Act of 1855 had allowed societies established for any pur- pose not illegal to deposit their rules with the Registrar of Friendly Societies, and have disputes among their own members dealt with summarily by the magistrates. Trade unions had largely taken advantage of this clause, in the belief that it allowed them to prosecute a member who wrongfully used the society's funds. The Boiler-makers' Society in 1866 proceeded against the treasurer of their Bradford branch for wrongfully withholding the sum of ;^24. The magistrates held that the society could not proceed under the Act of 1855, as it was a trade union and not, a friendly society. On appeal, the Court of Queen's Bench, headed by the Lord Chief Justice, confirmed THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER 209 the decision, declaring that trade unions were illegal associations. The gfound of their judgment was obviously more serious than the judgment itself. Immediately on the publication of the decision of the judges in January 1867, the London trade-union leaders took up the question, assisted by leaders of the Christian Socialists and Positivists. The first thing to be done was to secure the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into the whole subject, which the employers were already demanding j the second, to secure that the trade- union case should be put effectively before that Commis- sion. No workman, till a long time after, was ever ap- pointed a member of a Royal Commission, but trade unionists were fortunate in having as their spokesmen Mr. Thomas Hughes (the author of Tom Brown's School- days) and Mr. Frederic Harrison. The question of the Sheffield outrages was put in the hands of special examiners, while the main body dealt with the general problem of trade-unionism, and in particular with the large and powerful unions. For these Allan, Applegarth and their associates were able to present an overwhelmingly powerful case. The majority report contained no recommendation which was adverse to trade unions, and the minority report, signed by Messrs. Harrison and Hughes and the Earl of Lichfield, advocated the removal of all special legislation relating to labour contracts, and urged that no act by a combination of men should be regarded as criminal if it would not have been criminal in a single person. Meanwhile, the Reform Act of 1867 was passed, and a general election took place. It was some time before Mr. Gladstone's Ministry dealt with the problem. Then, in 1871, the Home Secretary introduced a Bill which, on the one hand, gave trade unions complete protection for their funds without interfering with their internal liberty, but, on the other hand, codified all the penalties which the law already sanctioned for picketing, or otherwise interfering 210 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND Willi employers, or with the men who chose to work litiring a labour liispute. The tnule unions vigorously piotested as;;»iiist this clause, but the oiily concession they could secure w.-is lh«t it was made into n separate Act, the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1871. The Junta had Inrj^ely obtaincii what it specially liesired, vi/. the lejjal protection of the union funds. Mut the rank and tile of the trade-union worUi was exasperated to the utmost, and their irritation was intensified by the action which was taken under the Criminal Law Amendment Act in various disputes; as when certain _i;as stokers were sentenceil to twelve months' imprisonment for conspiracy to coerce their employers by simultaneously leaving their work. It ap- peared evident that while trade unions were legalised, every sort of action which they could take to enfonv their views in disp\ites with an employer was maile subject to very severe penalties. The agitation for repeal of the Criminal Law Amend- ment Act continued through the later part of Mr. Glad- stone's Ministry, and at the election of 1S74 -^ general campaign for direct representation in Tarliament of tnule- union leaders was made elTecIive. Thirteen labour can- didates went to the poll, and of these Alexaiuler Macdonald and Thomas Burt, the leading olVicials (^f the National Miners' Union, became the first Labour Members of tlie House of (.\inimons. The Criminal Law .\mendment Act of 1S71 was repealed, the Master and Servant Act of i^b"; was replaiH'tl by the lunployt>rs and Workmen .'\ct, by which both parties became similarly and equally respon- sible under the Civil Law aKine. Peaceful picketing- was permitted, and violence and intimidation were left to be dejilt with as part of llie general criminal code. This legislation, passed in iS;o, was supposed for a period of twenty-three years to have satisfactorily settled the legal status of trade unionism. THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER 211 ExrwsioN AND CoNrrRAcrioN Th^ ^vriod t"a>in iS;i to iS.'O, which witnessed such « notable ;Kl\an*x> ii\ the political influeiTce of trade-unions, was also marlwd b\ their rapid growth in membership and in industrial influence. The Trades Union Cong;re<.s of iS;j daiiiuvl to repnvsont 375axvi men; that of 1S74 repre- sented a nominal total of i,r<)i.0Jj members. This growth is sliown both in the j;reat increase of membersliip in vinions of old standinc and in the spread of the mo\-ement towards branohos of labour which had long been com- pletely in\ori;,uiist\i. In 1S7J the movement e\>in spread to the acncultiiral labourers, and the Agricultural l^bour^rs" liiion. started on March io. boasted a member- ship of ONTfr uv>,ooi^> l\v the end of the \-?ar. Considerable increases of waj^vs wvre ohiaint\l, but the hibourers found against them, in alniv^st perfect solidarity, the landowners, the clorjcy and the farmers. WTiile on the one hand the l^dy Bountifuls of the cvmntryside undermined the union by exerting their influence o\-er the labourers' wi\-es, the farmers \iciunist\l the leaders, and the Bishop of Gloucester recomttiendeii that the orj^anisers should be ducked in the honse-pond. It is not surprising, when one considers the ixn-erty vvf the labourexs, their dependence on charitable help in hard winters, and the isolation in which tliey li\-e and work as ^vmpartxl with urban wvrkers. that their organis;Uion was cradually broken down during the fol- lowing four or tj\e ^^ars. The same {vri^vi also showed a vigorous effort to organise women workers, and some Sivieties then founded ha\T continued to exist, thougli their value has largely consisted in showing the im{^x^ssibi!i!y of dealing with the gt*at problem of sweating merely by organisation of the swT^ated workers. But in iS;4 the contraction of trade from irs high-water mark led to a series of desperate and generally unsuccessful r a 212 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND strikes against reductions of wages, whicii crippled many unions. And while wages were reduced and hours increased, unemployment was not prevented by these devices for making the employment of labour more profitable to the capitalist. The great unions which had provided for unemployed pay for their members were reduced to a state approaching bankruptcy. Many small local unions had disappeared altogether, and some national societies sur- vived only as local associations. In South Wales and Some other districts trade unionism practically ceased to exist, and it is probable that the total trade-union member- ship stood at about the same level in 1879 as in 1871. Nevertheless, the movement weathered the storm with very much less loss of strength than in the earlier period of adversity between 1839 and 1842, and it was much more able than before to advance into new strength and aggres- siveness when next the condition of industry became more favourable. Chapter xviii the development of municipal life General Trend of Municipal Progress We have in previous chapters explained the nature of the revolution in municipal government effected by the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, and have given a brief account of the campaign for public life which created the General Board of Health of 1848. The period that followed was marked by a progressive increase in the efficiency of the municipal government ot the great cities in the public interest taken in their doings, and by a rising sense of the importance of the civic life, which has done something to create in modern England a spirit of enlight- ened local patriotism not altogether dissimilar to that which animated the ancient cities of the Mediterranean or the fortified boroughs of the Middle Ages; It is impossible, of course, to give any general account of the municipal movement. Every city had its own geographical, industrial and social environment, and its own historipal background. It had its own problems to face, it developed its own local leaders, and its own view as to what were the most urgent necessities and the best way of meeting them. But once the progressive movement was started in any particular town, one of the most potent influences working upon the town was the example of those that had preceded it. We may, moreover, note certain causes which acted as a general stimulus to all the great centres of population. One of these was the influence of commercial and manufacturing prosperity. This produced 213 214 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND the resources for new enterprises, and gave the municipal financier confidence that the yield of a penny rate would be continually increasing, so that a given burden of debt for an enterprise for common benefit would become automatically lighter as the years went by. The same cause also had its influence on the type of business man who became a municipal leader. The advantages of the widened market abroad for British exports were grasped by a certain proportion only of manufacturers, and the ablest men had opportunities of rising in wealth beyond their rivals and in obtaining corresponding prestige and influence in local municipal life. Other important influ- ences operating on the municipalities were the gradual development of popular education and the increased recog- nition of Edwin Chadwick's principles of pure water and efficient drainage after he himself had been silenced. Liverpool Some brief account of the development of some of the great provincial cities will illustrate the general tendency of the whole municipal movement. Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow suffered perhaps more terribly than any other towns from the social degradation produced by the un- regulated growth of industry and by the subordination of human to commercial interests. Liverpool and Glasgow were further depressed by the fact that it was possible for them to draw upon a rural population in Ireland and the Highlands accustomed to a very low standard of wage and comfort, and specially helpless in facing the problem of securing a healthful and decent existence in the purlieus of a great city. The select Corporation which governed Liverpool before 1835 has been found by Mr. and Mrs. Webb to have been exceptionally able and public spirited. Liverpool Cor- poration was the first public authority in the country to establish baths and wash-houses, the first public baths being opened in 1794 and the first wash-houses in 1842. MUNICIPAL LIFE 215 This lead then secured has been maintained ever since, and the Liverpool baths, both indoor and open-air, are famous as being the most extensive and varied in the country. The old Corporation also organised the markets, and bujlt St. John's Market in the year 1820. But till 1856 the city had no public park, and until 1857 the water supply was in the hands of a private company, which turned on the supply only two or three days per week. The report of the Royal Commission of 1844 stirred the new Corporation, which had been established in 1835, into immediate activity. A Sanitary Act was obtained in 1846 and the broad policy for the development of public health was elaborated, based on drainage into the river Mersey. When this was carried out it was found that an ample supply of water was necessary in order to secure the proper working of the system of drainage. After 1857 the water supply was municipalised, and twenty years later the bold step was taken of creating Lake Vyrnwy in North Wales, and bringing a water supply of forty million gallons a day. In more recent years Liverpool has been conspicuous among British cities for the development of a housing policy which aims at providing municipal dwellings at rents possible for the very poorest. It has also created seven municipal hospitals for infectious diseases, and it has carried on a great educational work. Glasgow In many respects the social environment of Glasgow is similar to that of Liverpool. It had its ancient munici- pality dominated by the traders with America, who, at the end of the eighteenth century carried out the bold policy of the development of the river for ocean-going ships. It expanded enormously -early in the nineteenth century, becoming at once an important centre of the cotton trade and of the iron and steel industry, as well as a great ship- building and commercial centre. But in its rapid period of growth the misery and degeneration of its poorer 216 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND inhabitants increased terribly. We have already noticed that the death-rate rose from twenty-eight per thousand in 1S21 to forty per thousand in 1843, and at that time typhus was always raging in the courts. Like Liverpool, Glas- gow was stirred by the inquiries of the 'forties. The first necessary reform was the improvement of the water supply. In 1853 the step was taken, afterwards imitated by other municipalities under greater difficulties, of obtaining from a mountain area an ample supply of pure water, and Loch Katrine was the source laid under contribution. A fresh movement began in 1856. An Improvement Trust was constituted for the purpose of clearing the most un- sanitary areas in the densely crowded parts of the city and for constructing wide streets, while a great variety of schemes for municipal housing were carried out. There is no city in Great Britain which has a greater variety of municipal activities than Glasgow. It has the most elaborate system for the disposal of refuse, which is sifted and burned or utilised in a great variety of ways. The cleansing department owns over seven hundred rail- way wagons, and sells the sorted city refuse to firms in half the counties of Scotland. It owns farms, quarries, and workshops. One of its most famous enterprises is its tramways, which, constructed by the city in 1871, were leased to a private company to 1894, when, on the termina- tion of the lease, they were taken over by the city and successfully worked, at first with horse traction and then electrified. Manchester Manchester was not incorporated until 1838, and then only after a severe struggle between the progressive and reactionary forces of the city. It was the birthplace of free libraries, the first being established in 1853, and since 1882 its Municipal Art Gallery has been one of the greatest provincial collections in the country. It has been pecu- liarly successful in making very large profits out of gas, MUNICIPAL LIFE 217 and annually draws about ;{J^5o,ooo from this source in aid of the rates. The reason of this policy is perhaps to be found in the fact that the city gas company supplies eleven outlying districts. This undertaking, I believe, was the oldest public gas company in the country, for the Com- missioners of Police, established by local Act for Man- chester in 1824, obtained pdwers to light Manchester with gas, and in 1843 these powers were transferred to the new Corporation. The period of the public health campaign was marked by the municipalisation of the water supply in 1847, and in 1876 Manchester followed the Glasgow example, and went to Lake Thirlmere for water. But the greatest of all the Manchester enterprises was the com- pletion of the ship canal, after the company formed to construct it exhausted its resources in 1890. For this purpose the city raised no less than ;^5,ooo,ooo. But the charge on the rates, which has been considerable, has now dwindled to nothing. Birmingham In many respects the municipal progress of Birmingham is more interesting than that of any other provincial town. Industrially it is remarkable for the long continuance of the small workshops owned by independent masters. Like Manchester, it had no representation in Parliament before 1832, and it was not until 1838 that it became a corporate town. For a long time it was backward in municipal development, and as in other towns the water supply was the crucial test of the development of its civic spirit. The first proposal for the municipalisation of water was mooted in 1851, but the proposal was defeated. Not until 1869, after a period of increasing death-rates, at last reaching the terrible figure of fifty-three per thousand, was a second attempt made. But if reform was delayed till late, when it came it came with a rush. A local group of enlightened men carried on a strong campaign on behalf of civic progress, and in November 1873, having been 218 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND successful in the municipal elections, they elected their spokesman, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, as Mayor. He was three times re-elected, in 1874, 1875 and 1876, and during that period Birmingham, from being the most backward of the great municipalities, became known as the "Muni- cipal Mecca." Water and gas undertakings were both municipalised immediately. A great housing scheme, by which 1,369 houses were built upon forty-five acres of land, was carried out. In 1876 the celebrated Birmingham School of Art was founded. The citizens levied a special rate upon themselves in addition to the usual penny rate for library purposes. Parks and recreation grounds were multiplied, and the bold scheme whereby Corporation Street was built on the site of a central slum was carried out in a manner which excited the admiration of municipal administrators all over the world, and which was imitated later with much less conspicuous success by the London County Council in Kingsway and Aldwych. In the ten years between 1872 and 1882 the Birmingham Municipal debt was increased tenfold, but the municipal assets are no doubt far in excess of the debt. Birmingham's Influence on the National Life The municipal progress of Birmingham is specially important as well as specially interesting because of its influence upon the general national development. After the general election of 1880, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain left the municipal for the national field, becoming President of the Board of Trade in Mr. Gladstone's Ministry. It fell to his lot to deal with the problem of electrical enterprise, and he determined that this new industry should be developed as far as possible as a municipal enterprise rather than as ofte for private profit. So severe were the conditions which his Act of 1882 laid down for the acquisi- tion of private undertakings by Municipal Corporations, that electrical development was seriously checked, and it was found necessary to modify the Act in 1885 3° ^s ^° MUNICIPAL LIFE 219 offer sufficient inducement to private capital to do the experimental work which the municipalities shrank from undertaking. But, nevertheless, the effect of Mr. Cham- berlain's policy is seen in the fact that a great number of local authorities have from the beginning made themselves responsible for the distribution of electric light and power within their borders. When towards the end of Mr. Gladstone's government it was resolved to emancipate the agricultural labourer, the influence of Birmingham and of Mr. Chamberlain was shown in the publication of the "unauthorised pro- gramme," which advocated the policy of reform for rural government as the logical consequence of the emancipa- tion of the agricultural labourer, much as the reform of municipal government in 1835 followed that of the Reform Act of 1832. Mr. Gladstone instead decided upon making Home Rule for Ireland his chief proposal, but when the Home Rule Bill was thrown out, and the Unionists returned to power in 1886, some of the proposals of the unauthorised programme were carried out by the County Councils Act of 1888. Towards the end of his active career, Mr. Chamberlain applied to the colonies the prin- ciples worked out in the beginning of the 'seventies in the city of Birmingham. London Origins The municipal development of London has been pecu- liar. The corporate institutions of London appear to have been of Roman origin, though modified by Anglo-Saxon and Norse influences before the Conquest, and further developed at a favourable opportunity afforded by the Crusades in 1291 by the establishment of the Mayoralty and the Court of Common Council. Their influence has been powerful upon both the development of other cities and upon the constitution of the country as a whole. But when the central power of the King's Government was firmly established in Tudor times, a certain jealousy of 220 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND the greatness of London made itself felt. It would almost appear that the turning-point in the history of the city was in the beginning of the seventeenth century, when two tasks competed for its energies. On the one hand there was the problem of an increased and improved water supply; on the other hand the King petitioned for the co-operation of the City in the settlement of Ulster. The City chose for itself the distant enterprise, and put into the hands of a private citizen, Sir Hugh Myddelton, the task of bringing the New River to London. The population of the great city on the bank of the Thames grew continually. It was really two cities rather than one ; and grew from two centres, the one being the commercial and manufacturing City of London proper, the other the royal capital of Westminster. But there was no expansion of the area over which the City Corporation ruled. Lord Burleigh gave Westminster a constitution which was a sort of feeble imitation of that of London, and which in the course of the eighteenth century became overpowered by the Westminster Commission of Sewers and the county and parochial authorities. London Vestrydom For the rest of the Metropolitan area the parish was the basis of what local government then existed, and the parish officers or the parish vestry, or the two combined, had to deal with both Poor Law and the general administration. In some parishes there was the "open vestry," which would be attended by the parishioners generally; and in these there was frequent alternation between acquiescence in the corrupt control of the parish governing clique and stormy attempts at reformation. In other parishes select vestries of varying degrees of merit were entrusted with local administration. Early eighteenth-century parochial government is caustically described by Daniel Defoe, who, under the pseudonym of "Andrew Moreton " declaimed against the Parson's Rate, Church Rate, Poor Rate, Overseers' Rate, MUNICIPAL LIFE 221 Scavengers' Rate, Sewers Rate, Watch Rate, and High- ways Rate, which, he said, "eat poor tradesmen up alive." The parishioners "are ridden to death by these parish jockeys, who know no mercy." He proceeds — "For all these great sums collected the Poor fare never the better. The Money is parcelled Out to make the greatest show, and a few miserable wretches have some 6d. some is. a week to starve upon ; which scanty allowance is the reason why our streets swarm with beggars. "With what ImperiOusness do they ride the Parishes? How do they lord it over the poor wretches, who take relief at their hands! And yet these Gentlemen to save charges are brisk enough to hunt a distressed creature from Parish to Parish till they perish for want by the way. How many poor women in Labour have been lost while two parishes are endeavouring to throw her on each other? "To what end is this outside caution, but to save money for their own Guts, and feast themselves at the Parish Charge? "But nothing is so profitable to these Gentlemen as Parish Repairs. If the Church is new beautified, whip they come upon you with a Church rate, and when ;{i^200 has been expended, ;^i,20o shall be col- lected : for Mr. Churchwarden will strive hard but his daughter shall be ;^iooo the better. "There is not a greater abuse in the world than that of Select Vestries. It is the most flagrant of tyran- nies. All other elective bodies have a Rotation, but these Select Vestries stagnate and stink in the nostrils of their fellow citizens. "While the election is in themselves we have no hopes of amendment. If they happen to be mistaken in their man, and by chance chuse one honest rrian among them, he must either absent himself, or come inta their measures, otherwise he is like an Owl among 222 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND the birds. So that it may be said of the Select Vestry as of the Mint : Let any man go in never so honest, he's sure not to come out so. "Offices of Burthen, fatigue or expense, are the ministers of their resentment; and the punishment of inquisitive, reasoning or rebellious parishioners; but the sweet posts of profit are reserved for their true and trusty Hell Hounds, vi^ho go through stitch with their dirty work, and boggle at nothing, no not the ruin of whole families." Not all Select Vestries were as bad as this. Some indeed were pure and public-spirited; nevertheless, the vestrydom which Defoe depicts in its very worst form, has been a lingering evil in London life. After the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act of 1837 the same Commission of Inquiry investigated London government, and made the recommendations that the principles of the Act of 1835 should be applied to London, that the whole of the metropolitan area which from the social and industrial point of view formed part of London, should be brought within the sphere of the Corporation, and that the constitution of the Corporation should be amended so as to bring it into harmony with the Act of 1835. But by this time the Whig Government, though still in office, had lost its hold upon the support of the country, and the Corporation of the City was both powerful and indisposed to purchase extension at the price of a profound change in its peculiar and historic constitu- tion. The proposal, therefore, fell to the ground, though it remained to a considerable extent for generations after- wards a sort of ideal for one school of London reformers, whose motto was "The Unification of London." The Metropolitan Board of Works In 1855, after the third visitation of the cholera, and after great reforms had been effected in the sanitary condition of many provincial towns. Sir Benjamin Hall's Metro- MUNICIPAL LIFE 223 politan Management Act was passed, which gave the larger parishes representative vestries, grouped together the small parishes under District Boards of Works, the members of which were elected by the vestries of the con- stituent parishes; and created for the whole of London a Metropolitan Board of Works to deal with main drainage, street improvements, protection from fire and the extension of parks and open spaces. The Metropolitan Board of Works left a perrnanent mark upon London, and coming into existence, as it did, immediately after the London Water Companies had been compelled to move their in- takes up the river, its establishment was followed by an enormous improvement in London health. How necessary were tlie two reforms of creating a main drainage system with outfalls well below the city at Barking and Crossness, and the treatment of the sewage before its discharge into the river, together with that of prohibiting the intake of water for drinking purposes from the centre of the City, may be judged from the fact that in the 'forties three hundred London sewers emptied themselves into the Thame:? above the lowest intake of the water companies. Relatively satisfactory as it was, however, the Metro- politan Board of Works was secret in its methods, and was served by officials some of whom were unable to resist the opportunities for public plunder which were offered to them through the carrying out of street improvements. It be- came known popularly as the "Board of Perks,", and repeated Commissions of Inquiry had to be made into its methods. It was already recognised to be an institution that must be abolished, when the County Councils Act of 1888 was drafted. The problem of London had then to be faced, and the area within the administration of the Metropolitan Board of Works was created into the County of London, and the first London County Council was elected in December i{ 224 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND The London County Council Once again, after several centuries, the real City of London possessed a representative authority empowered to deal with her concerns generally. It is probable that no body of administrators in this country ever reached a higher standard of efficiency and public spirit than the second London County Council, which was elected in 1892, many of the members of which continued to take a leading part in London affairs through several successive councils. Again and again the Progressive majority, received a fresh mandate from the electors of London. But the last time the electoral mandate was renewed, in 1904, the issue upon which the election was fought was a false one. The one effective election cry was " Chinese Slavery." But the Council that sat from 1904 to 1907 had to deal with one of the most important problems that any city has ever had to face, the problem of the generation in bulk of electricity. The Progressive majority on the County Council was pushed somewhat unwillingly into under- taking this task. The details of its scheme were unsatis- factory; the scheme itself was rejected by Parliament and the great issue between municipal and private enterprise was raised under conditions unfavourable to the municipal idea. In 1907 the Progressive party was decisively beaten, at an election marked by a record poll, and by an extra- ordinarily high expenditure of money for electioneering purposes. Problems OF Local Government The history of Local Government during the period since 1835 has shown a gradual tendency to rely more and more upon the municipal type of local authority; that type which is characterised by the election of a local council to deal with all sorts of local services. It appears to me that the prestige of the municipality was steadily growing up to the very end of the nineteenth century. In 1888, as we have seen, counties were given a governing authority of the municipal type; in 1894 ^he same type of government MUNICIPAL LIFE 225 was established for Urban and Rural districts outside the corporate boroughs; in 1899 the London Government Act created the Metropolitan Borough Councils, with less ex- tensive duties than provincial borough councils, but with larger populations and greater revenues than any but the largest boroughs. In 1902 education was municipaHsed by the transfer to county, borough and district councils of the duties hitherto exercised by school boards over elementary education, and with the further right of dealing in all sorts of education other than elementary. Again, the active municipal enterprise, which the provincial boroughs began to show in numerous cases from about the year 1870, continued to develop during the period of falling prices, which lasted up to 1896, for this period was also marked by falling rates of interest for municipal securi- ties, money being obtainable at the lowest rates of interest from 1896 to 1899. But the higher rates of interest which have been current since the outbreak of the South African War have considerably checked municipal enterprise, and during the past few years there has been a notable and very regrettable decline in the prestige of municipal institutions. It appears to me that this lowering of the status of our most important local authorities can be traced to the causes set out below. It should in the first place be noted that there has been a tendency for the greater local authorities to flourish at the expense of the smaller; for the parish councils, for example, to fade into practical insignificance, and for county councils to take from the importance of district councils. This tendency is shown by the proposals of both the majority and minority reports of the Poor Law Commission to recommend the superseding of the union by the county as the local unit for poor-law purposes ; and the tendency to transfer health administration to the counties from the rural district councils. The prestige of municipal government, therefore, depends upon the county councils. But even the county councils, which may be divided into Q 226 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND three types, have each been subject to drawbacks which have militated greatly against their usefulness and standing in the public eye. The councils of rural counties have disappointed the country, because in general they have utterly failed to represent the great body of the people. There is no payment of election expenses for members or payment for lost time. The distances to be traversed in attending a county council meeting are very considerable; and it is, therefore, practically impossible for a man to be a county councillor of an ordinary county unless he belongs to the class that can afford to keep motors. The import- ance of this drawback is specially felt when the county councils are entrusted with the execution of laws intended to democratise agriculture. Both the Housing Acts and the Small Holdings Acts have received but step-motherly care from the county councils. The only remedy would appear to be payment for time spent and expenses incurred in the work of the councils. The next type of county council is the council of the county borough. These are on the whole the most effective and the most highly respected of our local authorities. But they, it appears to me, are faced with a peculiar diffi- culty arising from the centrifugal movement of population which is appearing in all great towns. The phenomenon which was the bane of the civic life of London appears repeatedly at the present time with respect to many pro- vincial towns, the tendency for a larger and larger portion of the population to live outside the municipal area, and to come under the control of a special rural or urban local authority for a particular suburb. This is the natural consequence of the development of the electrical tram- car, the bicycle and motor bicycle, the motor and motor- bus, the cheap season ticket. To a certain extent the problem can be dealt with by means of extension of city boundaries, and the recent policy of the Local Government Board has been to favour such extension as far as possible ; but the method of Parliamentary Inquiry and Private Bill for carrying out such extension is cumbrous and expensive. MUNICIPAL LIFE 227 It should not be a difficult matter to devise a machinery for the continual revision of boundaries where necess^iry. The third type of county council has but one representa- tive, the London County Council. It is suffering in a marl9i5» the imports of meat, dead and alive, amounted to ;^48,878,947, and of butter, cheese, and eggs tO;^24,493,45o, ;^6,8i2,37i, and ;^6,296,i45 respectively. But foreign competition has been to an increasing degree transferred from agriculture to manufacture. With a certain amount of alarm and of surprise the British manu- facturer has watched the transformation of America and Germany in particular into great manufacturing countries. The export of wheat from the United States was 10,678,000 bushels in 1861 ; it continued to rise until 1902, when it reached a maximum of 154,856,000 bushels, but then began to oscillate, falling to 4,395,000 in 1905, the lowest figure on record for many years, but recovering to 100,771,000 bushels in 1908. What is true of wheat is true of American agricultural products generally. Thus fresh beef ex- ported to the extent of 351,000,000 lbs. in 1901 fell to 201,000,000 lbs. in 1908; bacon exported to the extent of 650,000,000 lbs. in 1898 fell to 241,000,000 lbs. in 1908; lard at the same time from 709,000,000 lbs. to 603,000,000 lbs. On the other hand, while only 647,000 pairs of boots and shoes were exported in 1894, 6,552,000 were exported in 1908. Machinery and agricultural implements appear in the figures for 1861 to the extent of $7,940 worth; in 1874 this had increased to $4,708,000 worth. In 1894 the two are divided, and we have $5,028,000 worth of agricul- tural implements and $15,825,000 for machinery. In BRITISH INDUSTRY 241 ral implements to the value of $26,93 and machinery to that of $90,056,000 were expor'ted. 1907 agricultural implements to the value of $26,936,000 American Industrialism The extraordinary natural wealth of the United States of America in minerals and agricultural resources is indi- cated by the fact that the great republic stands first among the nations of the world in the production of wheat, of oats and of maize, second in cattle, first in fish and tobacco, and has about sixty per cent, of the world's output of raw cotton. It also far surpasses all. other nations in annual production of coal, iron, petroleum, lead and copper, and stands second to the Transvaal in the production of gold, and to Mexico in the production of silver. The existence of these huge resources waiting for exploitation in a vast country of relatively small population, but that population recruited from the most enterprising spirits of every country of Europe, is, itself, one of the dominating circum- stances determining the character of American industrial- ism. But certain historical and sociological forces are scarcely less important. Puritanism left a distinct mark on the New Englander, which, too, has in turn imposed its influence upon the social ideals of modern America. It emphasised the ideal of self- con quest, of the training of the will into obedience to a settled pilan in life, and into mastery over the straining impulses towards pleasure and the human weakness which continually tempts us to be idle and to procrastinate. The conditions of desperate struggle with natural dis- advantages under which the colonies on the border of the Atlantic grew up, naturally emphasised this Puritan ideal of character and conduct and directed its influence into a material channel. To succeed became not only a thing desirable in itself, but also the mark of the human qualities most highly prized. Throughout the later development of the United States this original disposition to put a higher 242 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND value upon material success and the acquisition of wealth as honourable personal achievements, than would be put upon them in Europe, has been encouraged by the political and social institutions of the country, which on the one hand offered the chance of an industrial career and of wealth to the vigorous seeker of all countries, and on the other allowed no place for the competing titles to social distinction which exercise so great an influence in older countries. One important result is that whereas the British business man, who has accumulated a certain measure of wealth, is disposed to retire entirely or in part, to buy land and to build a country house, to entertain the county and patronise sport, the American business man, who has reached the same stage in the growth of his income, then considers that the time is come to really begin business on an effective scale. The material and sociological conditions of America have combined to create the characteristic American business organisation of the trust. The trust in its most character- istic form may be described as a monopoly that has grown out of competitive industry. The Standard Oil Company, the conception of which was formed apparently in the brain of Peter Watson, Freight Agent to the Erie Railway Company in 1870, but was afterwards built up during the 'seventies and 'eighties by the Rockefeller brothers and H. H. Rogers and their associates, proved to America and the world how vast are the profits of an industrial monopoly in an important commodity when effectively organised on a national, and even more on an international, scale. The development of trusts has since become the foremost feature in the industrial life of America, and the trust issue the dominant issue in American politics. The influence of American industrial development upon that of our own country has been direct and powerful. When the American trusts emerged from a powerfu^ national field of operations into the world market, in some instances, as in the screw trade and in the tobacco trade, BRITISH INDUSTRY 243 the American organisation created a similar British organ- isation by its direct pressure. But the principle of monopoly in industry once developed easily spreads in industries carried on with elaborate and expensive machinery, working under such conditions that a large output can be produced at a cKeaper rate per unit than a small output. In such conditions it is profitable for large manufacturers to extend their works, and when the exten- sion has taken place they must needs seek to maintain their plants in full activity. They are thus driven to com- pete with one another more and more fiercely until a point is reached at which they must carry on war to the death against one another or combine. These conditions, it is needless to say, become increasingly prevalent as the machinery of industry is developed and transit improves. British industry, no doubt, would have tended to monopoly in any case, but its progress in that direction has been very much hurried by the influence of America. America has also influenced the business methods of Great Britain by shaking them out of their old con- servatism. On the one hand we have had, particularly in the engineering firms and railways, a campaign in the direction of "speeding up," the Government workshop of Woolwich Arsenal being as much affected as any private business. In the Arsenal during recent years a large number of special officials have been appointed for the purpose of cutting piece-rates and reducing the time spent by a workman over any particular job. This is a method of workshop organisation which has its dangerous side. It is likely to lead to inferior workmanship, and it un- doubtedly creates great resentment among the men employed, who see a larger output turned out at a lower cost by a reduced staff. The individual workman probably finds that his weekly wages, if he is still employed, are rather increased than reduced, but a new anxiety is brought into his life, and the nervous strain on him is exaggerated to an extent for which he is in no way compensated by any 244 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND increase of pay that he is likely to get. The "speeding up " system is no inconsiderable element in the growing movement known as " Labour Unrest." Other features of American workshop management, the ready disposition to scrap machinery when better can be had, the disposition to encourage employees of all ranks to exercise their intelligence in the improvement of processes, and the disposition to pay proportionately higher wages for work which is rapid and effective, have to a certain extent also been adopted in Great Britain under the American influence. The movement of "Industrial Betterment" can hardly be said to have originated in America rather than in England, but it has become more self-conscious through American example; and America has taught us that there are advertising and other advantages to the firm that makes a special study of the general well-being of its employees, which may in many cases cause investments for such purposes to be pecuniarily profitable. Again I think we must partly attribute to American influence a subtle change which has taken place in the ethical ideals popular to-day among the governing classes. Mr. James Douglas, in one of those thoughtful papers which he is accustomed to contribute to the ostensibly flippant pages of London. Opinion, points out that the attitude of well-to-do London towards the miseries of the families of the dock labourers in the summer of 191 2, was very much harder and less sympathetic than at the time of the great dock strike of 1889. Though soon after he wrote more vigorous efforts to raise funds for feeding the starving population of East and South London were made, I still think his observation was a just one. The type of business man that is held up to admiration in current popular fiction is very far removed from that of Cheeryble brothers. American influence seems to have combined with industrial and political tendencies to give a Nietzschean trend to the ethics which are subtly instilled into the minds of young men : an admiration of hard and unsympathetic BRITISH INDUSTRY 245 qualities being substituted for the cult of more Christian virtues. On the social influence of wealthy Americans on the British governing classes, and particularly on the mating of young men of aristocratic families with American heiresses, much might easily be written. But it is not easy to write at once briefly and judiciously on the subject. German Influence The influence of Germany on contemporary British industrial development has been less direct but even more important than that of America. Germany is both a relatively new and a relatively old industrial country com- pared with England. On the one hand, up to the Franco- Prussian War and for some years afterwards Germany was a poor country, remarkable for the thrift of its peasantry and for the simplicity of life of its middle classes. When the war was over the energies that had been absorbed in achieving German unity and creating the Empire were concentrated upon industrial development. Some assist- ance was obtained from the French indemnity; but the greatest single cause of the huge industrial expansion that began about 1880 was Mr. Thomas's invention of the basic Bessemer process of making steel. This at a stroke con- verted the huge deposits of highly phosphoric iron ores in Germany, reckoned at about double the deposits of iron ores in the British Isles, from almost valueless into extremely valuable raw material. The production of ore, which was only 4,712,000 metric tons in 1876, rushed up to 26,734,600 metric tons in 1906. Steel making is one of the fundamental industries. It provides the raw materials for the industries which equip a nation with the means of cheap and efflcient manufacture and transport, with rail- way engines, machinery, ships, and the framework of industrial buildings of the modern type. But Germany is also a relatively old industrial country. 246 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND When the Hanseatic League was at the height of its power and the cities of the Rhine Valley and of the coasts of the Baltic and of the North Sea developed their early greatness, England was but the sheep-farm of the League, as Poland was its granary. An ancient industrial tradi- tion and an ancient respect for civilisation and for learning was handed down in Germany from this older period of prosperity, through generations of warfare. Hence while general elementary education is a comparatively new thing in England and technical education of still more recent growth, both are of old standing in Germany. Saxony has a technical school for every thirteen thousand of popu- lation, but these are the gradual growth of two hundred years. Germany has learnt the value of research, of the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, and is, therefore, better equipped than any nation in the world, with the possible exception of Japan, to turn to account every advance in invention. But if the ancient civilization of Germany is a consider- able force in the achievement of industrial success to-day, not less important perhaps is the character that has been imposed on the German people through centuries of suffer- ing through war; the Thirty Years' War, the wars of the reign of Louis XIV, the later series of dynastic struggles of the eighteenth century, and finally the Napoleonic wars. Germany emerged from these with the principle of disci- pline firmly implanted in the people. Individual discipline for, the sake of the national welfare was the principle underlying both the gymnastic clubs and the short service army, which raised Prussia from its prostration after Jena. The principle of the German Government to-day may perhaps be expressed in the formula that the individual must become at once active, efficient and docile, that he may serve the State ; and the State must care for the well- being of each individual in order that he may be able to give it good service. In practical detail the German prin- ciple finds expression in the utilisation in common service BRITISH INDUSTRY 247 of the best and best-trained brains of the male population. Hence State business and city business is conducted with a high general average of efficiency, with the natural con- sequence that it grows in comparison with private business. Thus, for example, the state of Prussia is the largest owner of mines and mineral properties in the kingdom. It owns over seven million acres of forest and a million acres of agricultural land, and is continually adding to this area. It owns and works the railways and a number of minor industries. It derives a net revenue from properties and industries, which it itself controls, of over thirty millions annually. The Empire and the several states have developed similarly, and so have individual cities. The public assets include besides forests, mines, lands, railways, smelting works, posts and telegraphs, such varied indus- tries as banks, printing works, tobacco factories, porcelain factories, and newspapers. The German Empire and the several states have really no debt, for the imperial and State assets are far greater than the public indebtedness. The gradual development of State Insurance against sickness, accidents, old age and invalidity, has proceeded side by side with the war against consumption and the development of State care for the health of children. With regard to German industrial policy two features may here be noted. There is a far greater disposition among German business men to co-operate than among British. If a great deal has been said truly in late years about the superiority of the German commercial traveller to the British, the explanation largely lies in the fact that the German bagman is the employee of an association of firms engaged in export business, which can naturally employ better trained men, send its agents to a greater number of foreign commercial centres, and enable them to offer dealers a greater variety of wares than can any isolated firm. German law, again, encourages the formation of associations of manufacturers and of traders, even when these associations become monopolies. Thus, while 248 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND American law endeavours to prohibit the formation of trusts and drives them into formal dissolution, German law favours the formation of Cartels, and does not even interpose any serious objection to the maintenance of a higher price by the Cartel for its products in the home market than in the foreign market. This policy of developing exports is again favoured by the State railways, which, though generally run for the purpose of yielding a large net revenue, offer very low rates for goods intended for the foreign market. Lastly, it is well to note the German policy with regard to University training. In England debates on the curri- cula of the older and wealthier Universities easily turn on the question of the merits of education for culture and utilitarian education. The principle of the German University is a far higher one than any which seems to be regarded as possible in England. It is education for public service. For this reason while the teachers of the University have immediate control, the ultimate power rests in the hands of the State, and from the State are derived the funds. For this reason also University education is made widely accessible. The British nation has not found it as easy to learn from Germany as from America, yet much has been and is being learnt. The whole of our movement for technical educa- tion is a frank imitation of the German example; so also are open-air schools, which are as yet but poorly developed, but which have considerably rationalised and improved the methods of the ordinary schools. Similarly the move- ment for the creation of sanatoria and dispensaries for consumption is mainly prompted by Germany; and the National Insurance Act, on its health side, is an attempt to do more by one great measure than Germany has hitherto achieved by gradual development of her system. At the moment of writing it is still doubtful whether in •the drafting of the Insurance Act sufficient allowance was made for the difference between the social characters which historical causes have created respectively in England and BRITISH INDUSTRY 249 in Germany. The Briton is comparatively new to com- pulsory education ; he has not yet undergone compul- sory military training; he iS apt to say, and to feel, when required to contribute his fourpence a week, "It is not the paying I mind, it is being compelled to pay. That goes against the grain." On the whole it would appear that it is much to be regretted that the Government did not, instead of going to Germany for inspiration, adopt the policy recommended in the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, and create a national health service, based on the municipal service of medical officers of health, and supervised by a Ministry of Health. "Tariff Reform" The realisation by Englishmen of both American and German industrial progress, and the pressure of their competition in the home markets as well as in neutral markets, have combined to produce a re-examination of the British fiscal system. In 1885 the "Fair Trade" move- ment sprang up, largely under the instigation of sugar manufacturers hit by continental bounties on sugar. As long as trade was depressed this movement made some headway. It died down with the revival of trade in 1888 and 1889, but a similar movement revived later in the depression of 1893 and 1895. The publication of Mr. E. E. Williams's book. Made in Germany, acted as a stimulus to the creation of a new protectionist movement, different from the protection of the 'forties, in that it aimed rather at protection of manufacturers than of agriculture. The only legislative result of this movement of any importance was the series of Merchandise Marks Acts, 1887 to 1894, which had the untoward effect of advertising rather than of stigmatising foreign manufactures. Before the next de- pression of trade — that which followed the South African War — in 1904 and 1905, the London School of Economics had been created and the Economic Chair of the University of Birmingham. Professor Hewins of London and Pro- 250 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND fessor Ashley of Birmingham became the founders of a new school of protectionist thought in England, which to a considerable extent derives its doctrines from the teaching of Frederick List. List died in Germany in 1846. He did a great deal to supply an intellectual basis for the protective systems both of his native country and America, where he was resident from 1823 to 1829. His essential doctrine is that the policy of the State towards industry should be guided by the consideration that when a particular industry is carried on the nation acquires, not only the product of that particular industry but also industrial power. To use a homely analogy, the disciple of the English Free Trade school of Economics would regard it as absurd to grow cabbages in his back garden unless he could in that way secure them more cheaply than by buying them ; the disciple of List would also take into calculation the gain of muscular power and of health which he might derive from the exercise of digging. List's argu- ment is specially pertinent in the case of manufacturing industries coming under what is known as the "Law of Increasing Returns." It operates very forcibly in those industries in which the small and young business has but little chance against one which is already firmly established and working on a large scale. Thus, for example, in the case of a country like Australia, which has coal and wool and a population requiring woollen garments. By List's principles it is desirable that a protective duty should be temporarily imposed on imported woollen goods. It is argued that without such a duty it will be in the immediate present cheaper to export the wool and to import it in the form of cloth, because any woollen manufacture which may be established would be inefficient during its early stages of development; but that if the struggling woollen manufacture receives protection it can grow to a larger scale with corresponding gain in efficiency, so that ulti- mately it can dispense with protection and supply the needs of the people more cheaply than the foreign manufacturer would. We may, therefore, represent List's principles as BRITISH INDUSTRY 251 advocating the use of a protective fiscal policy by the State for encouraging the fullest possible utilisation of the natural resources of the country, by encouraging the more intensive industry at the expense of the more extensive. Generally speaking, this principle bars out the protection of agriculture; though it may be used to justify an encouragement of the growing of cereals at the expense of pasture. On the other hand, it justifies the protection of manufacture at the expense of agriculture, only in countries where manufactures are young and capaHe of a development in which they are impeded by foreign com- petition. Another point on which List lays great stress is the importance of internal free trade and of the development of internal means of communication. It is clear that List's system of national economy, if applied directly to the case of the British Isles, is favour- able rather to the doctrine of free trade than that of protection. His arguments would forcibly condemn the taxation of imports of food and raw materials; and they cannot, as he stated them, be used directly to advocate the protection of manufactures generally, except where cases can be found of "infant industries" checked in their development by foreign competition. A considerable con- cession to the List doctrine has been made, though without infringing upon the principled of free trade, by Mr. Lloyd George's modification of the Patent Laws, which deprives foreign inventions of their monopoly if they are not utilised in Britain. It is further possible to argue that the same principle which has been applied to "infant in- dustries " may be applied also to those industries which have been outstripped in development by foreign' ex- amples. Thus, for example, the British neo-protectionists drew special attention to the case of steel, in which industry the largest British plants are small indeed compared with either the largest firms combined in the American Steel Company or with Messrs. Krupp's in Germany. Their pessimistic prognostications, however, have not been justified by later experience. 252 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND But our TarifiF Reformers* way of viewing the question, in 1904 at any rate, was from the point of view of the whole British Empire rather than of the British Islands. Great Britain is a country of dense population and of high industrial and commercial development in com- parison with its natural resources. It obviously stands to lose by the development of an international system of tariflFs, which must tend to make each country's industrial development proportional to its natural wealth in food- producing power and production of raw material. If we consider the case of the British Isles alone, it is diflBcult to resist the conclusion that foreign tariffs are as a rule best met by free imports. But if we consider instead the whole British Empire, we see that it is an immense area, with enormous potentialities for production, which are but very slightly developed. List's principles applied to the British Empire would, therefore, indicate the advisability of a policy of protective fariffs against foreign countries, combined with one of internal free trade within the Empire, and by a vigorous State policy of the development of an inter-imperial steamship service and telegraphs, and to the building of railways in the less developed portions. There was no doubt originally a hope that imperial preference would lead to such an imperial customs union. But apart from this hope imperial pre- ference was advocated as an approximation to the more desirable but less practicable system. It is unfortunate that the case between free trade and neo-protectionism has had to be argued before a public which has been denied any general education in economics, and therefore is not well prepared to understand the sounder arguments on both sides. The controversy has, therefore, degenerated, through the irresistible temptation offered to both sides to rouse prejudices and to use argu- ments, however unsound, which happen to appeal to the uninstructed voter. The suggestion was made that the whole controversy should be referred to a Royal Com- mission, and but for the difficulty of iselecting Royal BRITISH INDUSTRY 258 Commissioners at once competent and unbiased, the suggestion would have been an admirable one. Still, by slow degrees a sort of approximation towards agreement is being achieved. Free traders, on the one hand, have generally abandoned their original doctrinaire attitude of condemnation of any State interference with industry for the purpose of fostering its development. They are even disposed to concede that conceivable cases might be found where a protective tariff temporarily imposed for the benefit of a particular industry might be of advantage to the whole community ; and they raise their objection to the protective policy on the ground, first, that in a democratic and repre- sentative Government the choice of industries to be pro- tected would be determined by political pressure, and not by unbiased expert advice, so that the industries in which protection would be advantageous would very likely fail to get protected, while those might be protected in which protection would be mischievous. They also lay stress on the argument that the struggle to obtain protection would corrupt the legislature, and divert the energies of industrial leaders from the profitable field of improving their pro- cesses into the disastrous channel of lobbying at West- minster. They are disposed, instead of insisting upon an attitude of laisser-faire, to recommend that alternative and less dangerous methods of State action for the development of industry should be developed. It was even recom- mended by Mr. Sidney Webb that it would be better to give bounties to imports from the colonies rather than to levy taxes on imports from foreign countries. It is less easy to see any well marked change in the attitude of protectionists, but we may note that the hope of advance through imperial preference towards an imperial Zollverein appears to be chimerical ; for the very arguments on which the neo-protectionist case rests lead to the con- clusion that it is to the interest of Canada, Australia and India to protect their manufacturing industries, actual and potential, against the competition of Great Britain. Dr. Cunningham's recent publication, The Case Against Free 254 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENOLVNl) />(j\KS so far as to iu1\o>,»ic ilui o.»rl» f;ivj>i colony should havr its in\n 0(^K>ni.>l piodvtiw svslrin, ii> order lo iloveli>p a v;»rirly ot n\ii»isli it\s within it> own .m^t, »M>ly lovyinj> hijjhor ihitu^s i>n impiMts tiom ton-ijjit oonntrios tlian those oi tho r<-st ol the oiupiir. ThMe is. tinll>cr, a disposition on thr pait oi the pioto.tiiMUSt to wr;(Kt>n Ol\ tho subject ol" iinpoit taxes o\\ toi>d. The oiij^mal idea of this part of tho sohon\o was that in rolvirn for such an onconrai;(Mnont to colonial aj;riciillni(\ tho coloni<'s should ontorlaii\ an attitndi^ of iiulilVon'nco as \o whothor th«* inaniifailni(>d giH^ds which ihoy purchased weio n\ado within ihoir own colony or not as loi\j> as ihe\ wcmo maiio within the l on\\ ilo the noi>- protoctionist principles «pp'> j"-"^' •'•"^ touMbly to the ijreater ilepondencic\s as they Ao lo tlu' coiuhiuiHl Hiitish l-'.iupiro; hut also l^ritish farmers aiul the owners of aj>iicuhural land are lillle vlisposed to favi^ur a piol«vtive system which iKx's not iMit up food piici's. Nevertheless tho " TaritV RtMormors" have practically coneod(>d one of th<> jnincipal contentions of tho l-'uv Traders, that abundant and cheap supphes of food ,u\d raw material are <\sseniial to tlu> pnvspeiitx' of the Ibilish Isles. It vvouKl therefori> appear that the leadiost meaits of obtaininjj; a common pi)licy which can be accepted as a tomi>oraiy compron\is(> by boih schools ol thoin^ht is to leave aside, at least for a whilt", any (>ncoura};eim'nt of national iiuhisliy by means of proloiMixo taiills and to di"\(-lop liisl a policy ol iheir oncourai^i-mont by diit>i't Slate action. The Nfttional l>evelopmenl loant is a step in this direction. C)th(>r steps which, in mv opinii>n, deserve (•onsideijition, are (l) A pii>j^ramme of eihualional refoim, includinj> : (()) (."omitulsory techniijil tr;iinini> for bo\s front fourteen to seventeen ye;\is of aj.;e, and inakini; bo\'S of this aj^c half-timers. (6) Smaller classes in olomenlaiy sclumls and more elToctivo trainiii).; of tlirt inl<'llif^«'nc<'. BRITISH INDUSTRY 255 (.-'I Tho culm, 11 ion of the soiontific spirii in tW univoT^iiii's. (J^ riir onvN>ur.»i;<''^'><^iii »"'f inwniion b\ direct pecii- 111.5) \ rc\\,>rds to tho in\-i^ntor himself, insie.ul of In tho vvnfcrniis;; of nv>nopol\- rijiliis on the holder of the in\-on)ion. (,0 1 !io enlis(iiijj ^^f .-ihlo mdustiuUists And inx-entors in the sciMoe of iho Sj;iro. ^4^ Vhe suKe}>ATtnvM-iis for: (.i^ Shipping, Fishorit-s And Soa VmiTic; ((^^'l InternAl Vnuisport Aiid Mines; (.-> Acrioul- t\inf And ForrsJiv; (.H l;5'ooii;; (r) Vuhhc Hoalih. (^'^ Rofoini of tl'je n^imc s\sioni, so tliAt it ooascs tv"» Iv A hoAvy ui\ on housmj; And on the mvosimont of diVi.il in our own oountrv. ^f>^ The pi-ocr;5iiinie of rurAl rofonTi indicated in the Ias! ohaprer. Ij IS ni>isj des!r,th sides to jjtiissIv ovAj^j^'erAte the net e^x^nomic i;Ain or l^^ss to the oountrv as a whole of A s\Titt>ni of fjve imports on the one side And of sniAll imjVM-t duties on the other. There is Also A rendoncv to suN^tyJinAt* to the tis>\<»l issue other niAtti'-rs in which tiei^mte pr^-ij^ress niAv be nvade. And for which a nwch lAr^er sshAte of puhhc Attention is deniAnded. As. fatther, the tendency of a spe:! of Ad\-ersiiy is to Assist the efforts of those who Ar? ohAllencinc xvhAtever tAiiff s\-srem liAppens to he in fo^^«^, there is dAnjj-er thAt when the pohticAl forces vvn either side Art pre;j\ exenlv bAlAneed, the countr\- niAv <-»st-iliAfe betw< set s r j^teAter hxss And dAniAjTf thAn from a continued Adhereno? to ex-en the wtvse of the t*'0. CHAPTER XXI the labour movement in recent years Socialism and Labour We have previously described the condition of depres- sion into which trade unionism fell during the slump in trade which reached its climax in 1879. To a certain extent, what had happened was not only that the economic circumstances had become difficult, but also the ideals and methods of the school of trade unionism that had come into prominence some thirty years before had done their work, and were no longer adequate to the needs of the time. The old claim had practically been that the manual workers should have some share in the expanding wealth of the nation. Once more, as in the beginning of the century, a time was about to come when the increase in national wealth no longer took the form of a continuous growth, but advanced and receded like the flowing and ebbing tide, though remaining always at a very much higher level than in the earlier period of violent fluctua- tion. At the same time, a great deal of the work of estab- lishing political democracy had been achieved and more was on the point of being accomplished. A new intel- lectual movement among the manual workers then heralded in a new industrial movement. Just as the changed economic conditions were largely dominated by the development of foreign competition, specially that of America and Germany, so the new de- velopment of economic and political thought among the manual workers of Great Britain owed a great deal to these 256 THE LABOUR MOVEMENT 257 same countries. About the year 1880 Henry George's Progress and Poverty was widely circulated, and began to exercise a very stimulating effect. The British worker might or might not be convinced of Henry George's con- tention that the power of the landlord to extort rent was the cause of increasing or continuing poverty in the midst of increasing wealth ; he was in any case likely to be strongly moved by the contention that poverty increased side by side with wealth, that it increased because the increasing wealth was more and more unequally distributed, and that the evil arose from human law and not from inevitable forces of Nature. The ground which was first broken by Henry George was soon more deeply ploughed by the English disciples of the German Socialist movement. Where Henry George fixed upon the landowners, these fixed upon the capitalists as the enemy, and they demanded a broader remedy than the Single Tax, viz. the nationalisa- tion of all other means of production as well as of land. To the urban worker particularly this doctrine was the more reasonable of the two, for he comes into direct contact with the employer rather than with the receiver of ground rents, and he knows of more great incomes built upon the conduct of industry than upon the ownership of land. He might or might not regard the nationalisation of the means of production as being practicable, or as being likely to cure existing evils without producing a crop of fresh ones. But he was at any rate capable of seeing, when the point was vigorously pushed home to him, that the private appropria- tion of interest, rent and profits enabled a few to spend in luxury vast sums, which would, if added to wages, extinguish poverty. The broad idea of the solidarity of the working-classes and of the need for artisan and clerk and labourer to stand side by side, particularly in defence of the poorest section of the general body, began to take root and to develop. The seed once planted has continued to grow ever since. The great depression of 1879, and the return of bad s 258 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND) times after a brief burst of industrial prosperity between i8Si and iSS^;, also, \iras marked by a great mo\-ement of social compunction among the middle classes. To this date belongs the publication^ of The Bitter C-\ of Outcast London, the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Poor, the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the S\reating System, and the beginning of Mr. Charles Booth's in\-estigations into the actual condition of London. The poTcrty of great masses of the people was beginning to be recognised not merely as a personal inconreni- ence to those who happened to be poor, but as nothing less than a great social disease, bringing with it a com- plexity of odier social diseases. A campaigrn against in- temperance had been working for generations. It was now beginning to be realised that drunkenness is a consequoice of lack of necessary food, of necessary fresh air and rest, as well as a cause of poverty. A fresh outburst of e^-an- gelical zeal which created the Salvation Army, also brought with it a further realisation of the inter-relation of ph\-sical, economic and moral evils. Thus both for the working classes and for the middle classes the period between iSSo and 1889 was one of searching of heart and of stimulus to broader and deeper thinking. The Great Dock Strike Such was the intellectual preparation preceding one of the most stirring episodes in the century of the trade-union movement in Great Britain. To a certain extent the new thought concentrated itself upon London, where oratorv in the open spaces and lecturing in the clubs had been used most lavishly to explain the doctrines of Socialism. It was with the poverty, destitution and misery of the East End that scientific or emotional literature had been par- ticularly concerned; it was to organise the masses of unskilled and casual labour that the new leaders of the Labour Movement de\-oted their efforts. They needed the THE LABOUR MOVEMENT 259 «xrv.vuraj:<.-iu<:'ac oC jiucwsji, and that vNas suppiuNl in a stnkmg way in July iS^. Thif oM f \i.vrtcncif of trade untontsm had dn bv thoa>Ui;h ori:uni<..t:ton. by ample tutids^ and by the vuntA^xs^a^und ot a motio(x>iy 0«f ittvius^tnal $kilU so th.u «hen the ori;,i!iis5;\i craftsmen withdrfw their labour there was but a small margin or unorganised men who c\>uki pcssibty take their p«ktce. In the match-girls' scriku e^^ry k(K>trn advantage w,i<: Uickinj- tv> rtie girt«:, evefy kiK>wn disadvantage operated i^rjiins: them, rhvxtgh some i^ix hundred of them had unexpeci- «^.f!y cott^e out on stribt atwr a auis:ng article had l>e«x publish^^i by Mrs. IVsAn: on their wrongs in the L.'«i. they had nv'' or^antssi'.ion except or-.e h-is:ily ir.:prvv-;Sfv;. th#y had no funds. and» ho\v*\«- Ktd their pay -iitc their vvnviuions ot »v>rfe. it was well known that thei* wen? thousands of other gir;s sutucttnciy cvarj.vjent who wx-iu d he wti: :ig to take th^fir places. Yet the maroh-^irls won an tounediate and vvmpkte victory. This was dooe by :» fv.i««s: of publtcity and by an appeal to tfte cJerkal and other shareholders in the lirm of Bryant & May. It was then s»«en that a"l the o"d tde^as of ttade'mnkio racttcs and scratesry nrc;,: -^ to be oortected, ana rtiac hithfKto unexpected torv-^rs were in existence which tended to i:'>ve victory to the weak rather than to the stron*:, A new hopefulness Sf^an ro an.niate the efforts ot those who were orviams;;-,; urtsk "ec tabou.r m London. The L^ts Workers and Genera; I,abQaR(S* I'niort was esntS- hshed in May iSJsi. and ahr.cs: immediate- v ttdv^rt gas «ori^s, a victory which had the erect of vasdy ittc:eas:nj- the nuaabers of unsk.'ecwvjckets nf^utadv emploved by the gas wv\~ks. and so tecnpocarily ditn.n.sh- in^ the sn.arg\n of ur-einp'ovevi labocr oo the Locvira •abour marK^t Mr. Fen TiUett !?.±ssed on fa>ca assiscirc 260 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND the organising of the Gas Workers to the organising of the Dock Labourers. On the 12th of August an insignifi- cant dispute at the South West India Dock led to the formularising of the demand for a minimum wage of 6d. instead of 5d. an hour, with a minimum engagement of four hours. The demand became general, and within three days ten thousand dock labourers abandoned the work which they had been in the habit of fighting for at the dock gates. The stevedores, the more skilled and better paid men whose business it is to load ships, threw in their lot with the dockers, and public symi>athy rallied to their side. The weather was fine — no inconsiderable element in the situation. Subscriptions came from all over the country in aid of Dockers to the extent of some ;^i 8,000. But the most remarkable feature of this strike was the fact that over ;{^30,ooo was telegraphed to London in aid of the strikers from Australia. Practically the whole of the demands of the men were conceded. The New Unionism Immediately a sort of double wave of trade unionism spread, on the one hand throughout the ports of the United Kingdom among the seamen and firemen, the dockers, gas workers, and other unskilled labourers ; on the other through all the trades of London. During the rest of the year 1889 there was a ferment of continual reorgan- isation, and of demands — generally successful — for higher wages, shorter hours, and redress of grievances generally. In so far as new unions were formed, they were largely of unskilled labourers, and of a very simple type of organisa- tion. In view of the poverty of their members, and of the fact that all the more thrifty and prosperous of them were already members of benefit societies, it was impossible for such a union as the Dock, Wharf and Riverside Labourers, or the Gas Workers and General Labourers, to ask for any but a very small weekly contribution; it was therefore impossible for them to offer benefits on any extensive scale THE LABOUR MOVEMENT 261 beyond victimisation pay and strike pay. They therefore depended on an appeal quite different from that of the earlier type of unions in the skilled trades. At the same time, the special forces aiding trade unionism which existed among the cotton operatives and the miners were not to be found among the unskilled labourers. The strength of the union, therefore, depended almost entirely on moral forces. A man had to be impelled to stand firm by the union not so much in his own interest as in that of the whole class. Once this appeal was made it became a much wider one than merely to continue to subscribe 2d. or 3d. a week; it became an appeal to join in all efforts for the general emancipation of the manual worker, and particularly of the unskilled labourer, and for a change amounting to revolu- tion in the conditions concerning the distribution of wealth. Hence the so-called new unionism of 18S9 and the following years, born as it was to a considerable extent out of Social- ism, carried forward the Socialist propaganda in the general trade-union movement to such a considerable extent that the Trades Union Congress of 1891 declared in favour of the Socialist formula — the nationalisation of all the means of production. Municipal Influence The fact that local government had been reorganised for London and for the country outside the corporate towns by the County Council Act of 1888, and the fact that local authorities are very large employers of unskilled labour, caused the new unionism to seek a further triumph in the influencing of local administration. Already, in the year 1888, Mrs. Besant and the Rev. Stewart Headlam suc- ceeded in carrying on the London School Board a motion that only firms paying fair wages should be allowed to tender for School Board contracts. The same principle was adopted, after public debate, by the London Counts- Council, and afterwards strengthened so as to exclude from muncipal contracts firms which did not pay trade-union 262 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND wages and observe trade-union conditions. The move- ment thus initiated spread from town to town, and has advanced in London, where many of the Metropolitan Borough Councils have bound themselves to give a minimum wage of 30s. for a week of forty-eight hours. To a certain extent the national Government has come into line. Resolutions of the House of Commons have laid down the principle that the Government must be a model employer, though there is considerable unwillingness on the part of the executive departments to pay any higher wages than the conditions of the labour market compel. Reaction against Trade Unionism The great success of trade unionism in 1889 and 1890, when it seemed to win these triumphs not only through the rising spirit of solidarity among artisans and labourers, but also through the good will of the other classes of the community, was followed later by a movement of reaction. An aggressive attitude on the part of employers was heralded by a series of articles in the Times. The Royal Commission on Labour of 1891 recommended that the privilege or irresponsibility in which the trade unions had been left by the laws of 1871 and 1876, as it was then understood, should be abolished, and that the unions should be made legal corporations, able to sue and liable to be sued both by their own members and by employers with whom they had dealings. The numerous appeals to the responsible heads of the industries of the country to imitate American methods, to speed up their rate of pro- duction and to be more zealous in the pursuit of improved appliances, incidentally urged sections of employers to adopt lines of action which brought them into conflict with their workmen. In 1897 a stubborn conflict broke out between the Amalgamated Society of Engineers with certain minor engineering societies, but without the boilermakers, on the THE LABOUR MOVEMENT ^263 one hand, and the whole body of engineering employers on the other. A demand made by certain districts of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers for an eight-hours day was met by a demand on the part of the employers for complete freedom in the management of their workshops, a freedom which implied the right to supersede skilled hands by partially skilled labourers when improved machines simplified the work sufficiently to enable this to be done. After a long struggle the engineers were beaten. The next few years were marked by a series of legal decisions which profoundly modified the interpretation of the law as to picketing, and still more as to the general position of trade unions under the law. The most import- ant of these decisions was the Taff Vale Case, in the final 1 decision of which, in July 1901, the House of Lords \declared that trade unions were, as a matter of fact, cor- porate and responsible bodies; and the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants was made liable for very ■eavy damages for inducing the employees of the Taff Vale Railway Company to break their contracts in order to come out on strike. These decisions produced the effect which had been apprehended in the 'seventies. The trade unions were paralysed, with the result that in the succeed- ing ten years of rapidly advancing prices, marked also tjy two periods of boom, they completely failed to secure increases in monetary rates of wages at all equivalent to tpe increases in rent and the costs of the necessities of life. Rise of the Labour Party The Taff Vale decision had the effect of driving the i^abour organisations into political action. At the Trades Union Congress of 1902 it was resolved to demand fresh legislation, which should — (i) Clearly confer upon Trade Unions the rights of voluntary association, enjoyed by them under the 364 THE MAKING OF MODERN ENGLAND Trades Union Act of 187 1, of which they were deprived by the Taff Vale decision in the House of Lords ; (2) Make it practically legal for men to withdraw their labour, other than in breach of contract, and also for Unions to sanction such withdrawal ; (3) Define the law of conspiracy; (4) Generally define and co-ordinate the laws of Trade Unions and industrial disputes. The Labour Party, which was then organised by an alliance between Trade Unions and Socialist Societies, returned 29 members at the General Election of 1906. It was successful in forcing the Government to deal with the isituation created by the Taff Vale decision by making the law as much as possible what it had been supposed to have been between 1876 and 1897. The development of legal theory, which had caused the judges to modify their ideas as to the ways in which an association of individuals might Ibecome a corporation, could not be interfered with. Trade unions were therefore put in the position of being pecu- liarly privileged corporations, allowed to commit wrongful actions in the prosecution of a trade dispute without thereby becoming liable for damages. The passing of the Trades Disputes Act, however, did not immediately turn back the efforts of trade unions to the line of industrial'action. For a time the eyes of the leaders were fixed upon Parliament, and the Labour Party assisted in the passing of numerous measures intended to advance the well-being of the manual workers, among which the Workmen's Compensation Act was the one which de- pended for its enactment most upon the pressure of the Labour Party. The problem, however, which demanded the greatest amount of attention from the Labour Party was that of Unemployment, and the most conspicuous contribution of ^e party to the political history of the time was the drafting of the Right to Work Bill, which would have imposed on THE LABOUR MOVEMENT 365 the local authorities the duty of giving subsistence to the ufiemploj'ed ^-orker and to his family until they could secure for him an offer of employment on fair conditions. Needless to s^iy. the Labour Party's Bill was thrown out \by the House of Commons. Efforts were made to deal with the problem on the line^ suggested by the experience ^ Distress Committees under the Unemployed Work- nens Act of 1005. by means of Emploraient Exchanges imder the Board of Trade, and the Unemployment Section rthe Insurance Act. Meanwhile, among the masses of the rank and file there *as increasing: irritarion at the failure of Ae group of Labour Members in Parliament to use their presence and yotes in the House of Commons in such a way as to raise %-ages. The South African War and the Russo-Japanese ilfc'ar had both tended to raise prices: to the astonishment j«M those who did not follow the increasinc output of the Id-mines erf the worid, and w^ho did not belie\-e or under- id the econoniic theory concemingr the purchasing i>wer of money, prices continued to rise when the \\-orld IS once more at peace. In de^ult of any strong and lined action on the part of the wage-earners them- vages remained practically stationary. This was {undoubtedly the main cause of the labour unrest