Class B A -^ Book GopightN". COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. ENGLAND AN ACCOUNT OF PAST AND CONTEMPORARY CONDITIONS AND PROGRESS Edited and Arranged by JOHN M. HALL Published by the BAY VIEW READING CLUB CENTRAL OFFICE BOSTON BOULEVARD DETROIT. MICH. 1906 CopyrigHted, 1906 BY JOHN M. HALL CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE At the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century, 3 CHAPTER n The March of Events 16 CHAPTER HI Improvements in Social Conditions 30 CHAPTER IV Further Reforms, and Moral Efforts 45 CHAPTER V How ENGLA.ND Is GOVERNED 60 CHAPTER VI The English House of Commons 78 CHAPTER VII Three Leaders of the British Parliament. . 87 CHAPTER VIII English Industrial Conditions 97 CHAPTER IX Condition of Education 108 CHAPTER X Women's Colleges in England 122 CHAPTER XI British Social Life 131 CHAPTER XII Recent Impressions of the English 141 PREFACE TN planning a study course on England for the mem- 1 bers of the Bay View Reading Clubs, and for " solitaire " members, it seemed important that much consideration should be given to contemporary life and conditions. Of some countries their golden age is in the past. Of such are Italy and Spain. There are other lands which live or have lived deeply m some particular field, where the race of each has ex- pressed and may still be expressing its endeavor with so much splendor that all else is of secondary value. Witness how French and Dutch history and art eclipse all else of interest to students. But England's greatest vitality is nozv, and it is expressed with almost unri- valled force in nearly every field of thought and ac- tivity. England is, all in all, the greatest moral, polit- ical, literary, and civilizing power in the modern world. Therefore, a consideration of contemporary England is a theme of the very first importance, and to omit it in any scheme of study would be a serious defect. But when search was made for the right book, behold there was none! Great libraries were searched and English publishers were interested, but the book had not yet been written. It was an anxious moment for the management, who were desirous of breaking away from the beaten course and the ruts of all club study since clubs began 2 PREFACE studying England. Finally the plan of this book came and has been worked out. It seemed as if the idea of a book on the subject had already come at about the same time to writers working independently in Eng- land, the United States, and France, and that in some of the best reviews, magazines, and recent books they had each taken up in a special way some of the threads which another, wath a comprehensive and orderly plan, could weave into a rich and useful fabric. And this is what has been done in this book. While the plan has its disadvantages, on the other hand it gives a work each of whose chapters is the contribution of a specialist. Acknowledgment is made of the generous consent of publishers to use the material, and at the end of each chapter is a key-letter which directs the reader to the last page of the book for the authorship and source of the chapter. License has been taken to correct some parts with the latest statistics and information; also to eliminate unimportant material in the interest of limitations of space ; and to do some slirht editing in order to unite all the work in a smooth fabric. J. M. Hall. ENGLAND CHAPTER I THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY CONTEMPORARY England can be best under- stood if we begin with a consideration of times and conditions a century ago. In this way the prog- ress that has been made and contemporary life which are always relative, will be best judged when measured on the background of the past. A glance at some examples of character and conduct, of life and man- ners, of laws and customs, of labor and recreation, mainly as seen in London, will greatly help to picture to our readers the condition of England generally as it was in the first year of the nineteenth century. For ten years the country had been more or less engaged in war which had left its traces everywhere. Food was scarce; there was no foreign grain in the market in those days, the only supply other than that which England itself yielded being the occasional booty gained by the stopping of the grain ships of neu- tral powers and the forcible sale of their cargoes. Later in the year food became still dearer and scarcer ; throughout London and the country food riots became 4 ENGLAND prevalent, and so great was the scarcity of corn that the king issued a proclamation asking those who could obtain supplies to use the strictest economy in the use of every kind of grain. The general food of the poor and the middle classes was at all times much plainer than now, nor had they so much variety. The state of the roads made it impossible to supply London with fresh foods throughout the year, consequently salt meat and fish formed the staple diet during the winter months, and as fresh vegetables for the same reason were unob- tainable, meat, bread, and cheese, with beer, com- posed the regular bill-of-fare. In higher classes of society the ordinary food was also much plainer and coarser than at the present time. There was a preju- dice against French cookery, game was scarce and dear, poultry was seen only at the tables of the rich, and the usual fare was beef and mutton varied by mut- ton and beef. The enormous expenditures for war purposes made it necessary to impose taxation to an almost boundless extent, and this, in conjunction with the scarcity of food, made the condition of the poor, upon whom taxation always falls heaviest, almost hopeless. Bread, sugar, salt, tea, and malt, — all those things which have come to be regarded as necessaries of life, — were taxed heavily, and so great was the poverty resulting in 1801, that four millions sterling was ex- pended in the relief of the poor in England and Wales. ENGLAND 5 The working-classes at this period groaned under equally heavy burdens, were fettered by vexatious laws, and were stung by the reproach that they were but a mere part of the machinery of the country. None of the thousand schemes now in operation for their benefit were in existence, and no efforts were made in any direction to uplift and improve them, physically, morally, or spiritually. The factory sys- tem was cruelly oppressive; mines and collieries were worked in great measure by women and children, under conditions that were a disgrace to civilization ; bakers, sailors, and chimney-sweeps were left unpro- tected by legislation. Friendly societies, many of them rotten to the core, were the only legalized means of self-help ; post-office savings banks, or their equiva- lents had scarcely yet entered into the thought of man; sanitary science was practically unknown; edu- cation was not a right ; ragged schools, reformatories, and industrial schools, mechanics' institutes and work- men's clubs, had not begun to exist; limited liability, enabling the poorer classes to contribute their small capital to the increase of the productive power of the country, was not so much as thought of. The poor laws were pauperizing and degrading; the stamp du- ties were an effectual bar to the poor man enforcing legal claims ; there was no compensation for accidents. The tastes of all classes, high and low, were degener- ate and coarse, and the cheap literature of the day only pandered to it. Crime was rampant, and a spirit of turbulence and lawlessness was beginning to mani- 6 ENGLAND fest itself. The only resource of the people in self-defence and the only argument they understood was that of violence, and the vast machine of phi- lanthropy so familiar since the second half of the cen- tury, was but in its infancy. In religious circles an unmistakable lethargy had taken possession of the clergy and laity, ministers and people, alike. The cathedrals were little more than show places in which perfunctory services were per- formed before scant congregations. Westminster x\bbey and St. Paul's were never thronged with eager listeners to stirring appeals ; none of the great reli- gious edifices of the land were filled, except on the oc- casion of some great funeral or great public function. The old parish churches were the dreariest and most desolate of places, cold and cheerless ; while the teach- ing and preaching of the Gospel by laymen was un- dreamed of except by the followers of John Wesley. In such a state of things it follows almost as a matter of course that crime of all kinds flourished, especially in the great cities. The means for its re- pression were ridiculously inadequate. In London the safety of life and property depended upon the ef- forts of the parochial watchmen, familiarly termed " Charlies." At night — for it was not deemed neces- sary to set a watch in the daytime — the authorities provided him with a watchbox in order that the old man might snooze in comfort, and furnished him with a huge lantern in order that its rays might enable the thief to get out of his way in time. He was also pro- ENGLAND 7 vided with a staff with which he thundered on the pavement as he walked, alternating this racket with crying the hour and the state of the weather in a loud singing voice, thus better proclaiming his whereabouts when he himself was far out of sight. In 1805 the horse patrol was instituted to suppress the highway robberies which nightly took place in the outer dis- tricts, but it was not until 1829 that Sir Robert Peel organized a new police force which was immediatdy nicknamed after him " Bobbies " or " Peelers." Plow- ever, no means existed by which the watchmen of va- rious districts could be made to co-operate against their common foe, the thief, for in the city they were under the direction of thirty different authorities, and the constable of one ward could not interfere to pre- vent a robbery going on on the opposite side of the street if it was out of his bounds. It is not surpris- ing therefore that with scarcity of food, heavy taxa- tion, extreme poverty, and such a police force, robbery and crime increased to an alarming extent. Pick- pockets pursued their illegal traffic in open daylight, body-snatchers rifled the graves of the dead at night, while highway robberies and murders were everyday occurrences. The criminal laws were bar- barous and cruel and correspondingly ineffectual, though administered in a relentless spirit. Death was the punishment for great as well as small crimes, and transportation, imprisonment, the stocks, the pillory, and public whipping were meted out to more petty offenders. In the army and navy the discipline was 8 ENGLAND cruelly severe, and the principal instrument of tor- ture used on the men was the lash, administered with horrible barbarity. Perhaps the most significant commentary on all this excessive system of crime and punishment is the fact that in 1800 there were eighteen prisons in Lon- don alone ; whereas, in 1850, when the population had enormously increased, that number had been reduced one-third. In 1773 John Howard, the celebrated phi- lanthropist, paid his visits of inspection to the chief of English prisons, and what *he saw then might have been, with few exceptions, seen at the dawn of the nineteenth century. Nearly every one was not only unsanitary and ill-ventilated, but filthy, poisonous, and over-crowded. Disease was prevalent in excessive forms, and as no measures were taken to prevent its spread, the prison became the death-trap of luck- less persons who, in nine out of ten cases, ought not to have been there at all ; many of the prisons were totally unfit for human habitations; both sexes were con- fined therein ; and so evilly were they managed that free intercourse was allowed between prisoners. In many prisons the jailor received no salary, but made his livelihood from the fees he could extort from the prisoners and their friends; in some cases he paid a commission for the privilege of holding the ofiice. Not only had the prisoner to pay for his food and for the straw he slept on, but if he failed to pay his dues he would be detained until he did so, even though his term of imprisonment had expired. In Cold Bath ENGLAND 9 Fields prison men, women, and children of tender years were indiscriminately herded together without employ- ment or wholesome control. At the celebrated Fleet Prison a grated window had inscribed above it, " Pray remember the poor prisoners having no allowance," while a small box beneath received the charity of the passing public. At Newgate, historic old spot, in 1808, the women numbered from one hundred to one hundred and thirty, and each had only eighteen inches of sleeping room, and all were packed like slaves in the hold of a ship. When Elizabeth Fry visited this prison some years later, she found its inmates swearing, gambling, singing, dancing, drinking, and dressing in men's clothes. The amusements of a people indicate very fairly the level of their civilization and attainment, and we now look in horror at the things in which our forefathers sought their recreation. Bull-baiting, a most cruel and degrading sport, although not patronized so much by the leaders of fashion as in previous years, was still practiced openly. An interesting incident which shows the spirit of the times was the introduction in May, 1802, of a bill into the House of Commons, by William Wilberforce and Sheridan, for the suppression of this brutal sport. In spite of the eloquence of its defend- ers, the House listened to the argument of their oppos- ers that " the measure was the first result of the con- spiracy of the Jacobins and Methodists to render the people grave and serious," and refused to abolish the amusement. 10 ENGLAND Prize-fighting was popular, and cock-fighting a com- mon feature of the day's sport. The great London Fair had degenerated into a somewhat disreputable af- fair, country fairs were held frequently for the hiring of servants and as commercial markets, and tea gar- dens, especially near the metropolis, were the delight of the English heart. Drunkenness was almost uni- versal, and dancing booths and drinking saloons were the most prominent features of these gatherings. The manners of the day were essentially coarse, and morality was at a very low ebb. A dinner party was regarded as a failure if the guests did not drink deeply, and it was considered no disgrace, rather the proper thing, for those who could quaff no more, to seek that repose on the floor which the seat at the table failed to afford. Profane language was the fashion for gentlemen, from the king on the throne to the lowest scion of higher society. Ladies swore orally and in their letters. Gambling was very preva- lent in all classes and was practiced by both sexes. The government demoralized the public by their li- censed lotteries, and the mischief created by such a system was incalculable. When the century opened there were vast areas around every important center where no provision whatever was made for the education of the poor chil- dren. Not half of the adult population in the manu- facturing districts could either read or write. Chil- dren, instead of being placed at school, were sent to the factory districts, where they were treated with incred- ENGLAND 11 ible cruelty and worked inordinately long hours. Ow- ing to the invention of the spinning- jenny and other loom improvements, the spinners of England were obliged to work in the mills in place of their own homes, and instead of being comparatively their own masters, working when they would, they were under masters who forced them to labor for what- ever wages they were pleased to give and for whatever hours they chose to dictate. Remonstrance was in vain, and the only alternatives facing the laborer were these : Water could now be employed to do the harder part of the work formerly done by men, who if they were refractory could be sent adrift by the manu- facturer without loss; and as the machinery invented could be managed by children almost as successfully as by adults, their labor could be transferred to chil- dren. Thus the demand for child labor was created and the supply was immediately forthcoming. Young children were drafted from the workhouses, child-job- bers scoured the country to purchase children whom they resold into the bondage of factory slavery on the one hand and to owners of brickyards, coal pits, and proprietors of agricultural gangs on the other. Education under such circumstances was impossi- ble, and tens of thousands of children were drifting into maturity with a painful knowledge of what was evil, unjust, and immoral, and without any of the higher knowledge which makes life worth living. It is difficult to realize the enormous changes that have taken place within the century in the means of 12 ENGLAND traveling. In its early days there were the mail coaches for the well-to-do, the stage coaches for the middle classes, and the stage wagons for the poor. No railroad was yet in existence, and steam although un- derstood was not utilized for the steamboat or loco- motive. Many of the main roads were good, but few of them were old, and they developed mile by mile as the system of coach traveling developed. Before that time communication with other parts of the country could only be made on horseback at the rate of thirty or forty miles a day. In the cities the sedan chair was not altogether obsolete, and owing to the ex- pense of conveyance by road the rivers and canals were used much more in proportion than they are now. Yet even a trip by water was regarded as a perilous undertaking, and a voyage to Margate was looked upon as a feat of maritime daring by Paterfamilias, who, it is said, made his will and settled all his worldly affairs before embarking in the old Margate '' Hoy," which lumbered down the river at the rate of six or seven miles an hour, and might reach its desired haven in twenty-four hours or forty-eight, according to wind and tide. Shipping extended from London Bridge to Greenwich, but the docks were, few and poor. In 1800 the first stone of the West India Docks was laid, in 1802 that of the London Docks, and that of the East India Docks in 1806. Wherever the traveler went, either by road, river, or canal, he was always sure to find good accommodation for man and beast in the humble wayside taverns or ENGLAND 13 the more pretentious coaching inns, which made up beds and catered to the general needs of a fleeting but well-to-do population. The hotel proper was as yet in its infancy and in all London there were not twenty hotels at this time. Food for thought may be found in the brief recital of one or two aspects of London in the year 1800. It was regarded as the best-paved city in the world, the main thoroughfares being flagged and curbed, with sewers under them and gratings for the water to run into them from the gutters. But the side streets had only " kidney " stones on end and no sewers. Drink- ing water was, as a rule, supplied from pumps, and was greatly inferior to that used to-day because the laws of sanitation were in their infancy and drainage was shamefully defective. One branch of industry long ago dropped was the supplying of spring water for drinking purposes at the rate of a penny or two- pence a bucket. There was no competent fire bri- gade until 1832, and each insurance company kept its own staff of firemen, engines, etc. There was no gas, only twinkling oil lamps flickering with every gust and going out altogether in a strong wind, and always wanting their wicks trimmed and a fresh supply of oil. Pall Mall was lighted with gas on January 28, 1807, — the first street so lighted in the world's his- tory. There were no matches or fuses of any descrip- tion, the only means of obtaining light being from the tinder box. This consisted of a flat round box of brass or iron containing tinder made of charred linen or cot- 14 ENGLAND ton rags, which after much striking of the flint ignited a spHnter of wood dipped in sulphur. Postmen deHvered letters and at the same time col- lected the money for nonpaid letters, for there were no postage stamps and no letter boxes. ^ The country mail was carried to its various destinations on horse- back or in mail coaches. Shops were of necessity wretchedly lighted, plate glass was unknown, and the limited wares in tradesmen's windows were ex- posed behind small panes of very comrhon glass. Coffee houses abounded and much business was trans- acted at them in the daytime and much social inter- course in the evening. Many of them provided sleep- ing accommodations and meals to all comers, while cook shops were to be found in every part of the town. Nineteenth-century costumes were as varied and curious as they had been before that period. Soldiers and sailors wore pigtails ; men of mark wore " Jean de Bry " coats, well padded at the shoulders and made short in the waist in order to show the startling waist- coat beneath it. The fast men of the period wore fancy tail-coats, white satin waistcoats, frill shirts, neck cloths, cassimere breeches with white satin knee- ribbons, and top boots ; beaver hats, powdered heads — for which a tax had to be paid — and a quizzing glass dangling on the breast. Occasionally a peruke might be met with, and snufif-boxes still existed, many of them beautifully decorated with precious stones. This brief and cursory glance at some aspects of ENGLAND 15 the old-time social life of England, will help us to more fully realize the wonderful progress made in the course of one hundred years and to dimly appreciate the struggle which has evolved Imperial England from such a slough of misery, wretchedness, and wicked- ness as existed at the dawn of the nineteenth century .a CHAPTER II THE MARCH OF EVENTS IT will be both interesting and instructive to consider some of the steps in the march of nineteentn-cen- tury progress. The idea of a revolution in the postal system had its origin, according to a story told by Miss Marti- neau, thus : — " Coleridge, when a young man, was walking through the Lake district, when he one day saw the postman deliver a letter to a woman at a cot- tage door. The woman turned it over and examined it, and then returned it, saying she could not pay the postage, which was one shilling. Hearing that the letter was from her brother, Coleridge paid the postage, in spite of the manifest unwillingness of the woman. As soon as the postman was out of sight, she showed Coleridge how his money had been wasted as far as she was concerned. The sheet was blank. There was an agreement between her brother and herself that as long as all went well with him he should send a blank sheet in this way once a quarter; and she thus had tidings of him without expense of postage. Many persons would have remembered this incident only as a curious story to tell ; but there was one mind which wakened up at once to a sense of the significance of the fact. It struck Mr. Rowland Hill that there must be something wrong in a system which drove a brother 16 ENGLAND 17 and sister to cheating, in order to gratify their desire to hear of each other's welfare. In his childhood Rowland Hill suffered from a spinal complaint, and as he lay on the floor of his home at Kidderminster, he used to amuse himself by counting until the numbers sometimes amounted to hundreds of thousands. His first start in life was as a teacher of mathematics; later he co-operated with Edward Gibbon Wakefield m his Colonial scheme and in aiding the work of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. When, therefore, he heard the story told by Coleridge it fell upon prepared ears, and he determined to see what he could do to rectify the abuses in the existing postal system. He found that letter-writing was the luxury of the rich, the cost of postage being prohibitive to the poor. Members of Parliament could send a limited number of their own or friends' letters free of charge by franking them ; members of the government could frank any number of letters and send them free of charge; and as the friends of these men in high places were mostly well- to-do people, they had the privilege which the poor so much more needed. In innumerable details, he found the> existing system full of errors of principle, and as facts accumulated he set to work to oppose it, hip and flank. It was a difficult task; the information he re- quired was not easy to obtain ; he had to form public opinion, and what was harder work still, to oppose officials who hated the idea of departmental reform. In 1837 he issued a pamphlet entitled *' Post-Office 18 ENGLAND Reform; Its Importance and Practicability," in which he showed that the state habitually overcharged the public; that where a shilling was demanded, less than a penny was all that was needed to meet the outlay and expense ; he argued that the sender and not the re- ceiver should pay the postage — a thing never before dreamed of ; that weight, and not the number of pages written, should regulate the cost of transit, and that a uniform charge of one penny should be the rate of postage throughout the United Kingdom. This pamphlet raised a storm of opposition in the post-office, and in many unexpected quarters. Lord Litchfield, the postmaster-general, spoke of the scheme in the House of Lords, and said that " of all the wild and extravagant schemes he had ever heard, this was the wildest and most extravagant ; " two members of the House of Commons took an opposite view and sup- ported Rowland Hill through thick and thin. A committee was appointed to inquire into the con- dition of the post-office, and long and harassing exami- nations were undergone by Mr. Hill, who was, how- ever, so well fortified with damning facts that the committee reported in favor of his plans. Petitions in favor of the scheme had been sent in from all quar- ters, and public interest had been so warmly excited that a resolution was carried by a majority of one hundred and two, and the bill for giving it effect sub- sequently passed without a division. On the 10th of January, 1840, the penny-postal system came into force. ENGLAND 19 Two important questions were settled in the early forties, one marking an epoch in the history of Par- liamentary procedure, the other affecting the inter- ests of all the literary men. In 1839, Messrs. Hansard, the Parliamentary printers and publishers, issued a report of the commis- sioners appointed to inquire into' the state of prisons, in which report it was alleged that many of the prison- ers were found reading certain obscene books pub- lished by one J. J. Stockdale. Stockdale at once started an action in the Queen's Bench against Messrs. Hansard for libel, and claimed $100,000 dam- ages. It was pleaded that the reports were pub- lished under the authority of the House of Commons, but the Lord Chief Justice held that the authority of Parliament was supreme, but not the authority of the House of Commons singly. A jury was summoned to assess damages and $500 was awarded to Stock- dale. This decision was upheld by the Law Courts, while the House of Commons stood up resolutely for its privileges. A further action was brought by Stockdale against Messrs. Hansard in the same year claiming $250,000 damages, and the under sheriff before whom the case was heard, awarded $3,000 damages. Messrs. Han- sard then appealed to the House of Commons for pro- tection from penalties incurred in carrying out its or- ders, and the sheriffs of London, who had been or- dered to seize and sell some of the property of the Hansards and had delayed doing so, were summoned 20 ENGLAND to appear on the 17th of January, 1840, before the Court of the Queen's Bench to show cause why they had failed in this respect. To put an end to the troublesome and undignified contest. Lord John Rus- sell brought in a bill (March 30, 1840) "to afford full protection to all persons employed in the publi- cation of Parliamentary papers." This excellent meas- ure passed into law on the 14th of April and has worked without further difficulty. It was a law im- peratively required, for the abolition of the slave trade, factory legislation, and other philanthropic movements which demanded the exposure of cruel- ties and abuses, could never have been carried out without it. Since 1840 the publication of Parliamen- tary reports has not been hampered, and any and every question has been made known without re- straint and without fear or favor, a privilege that has been very beneficially used. The second question, affecting the interests of all literary men, related to copyright. Blackstone says, " When a man by the exertion of his rational powers has produced an original work, he seems clearly to have a right to dispose of that identical work as he pleases, and any attempt to vary the disposition he has made of it, appears to be an invasion of the right." It is generally supposed that a common-law right of copyright existed in England long before there was any statute on the subject. Certain it is that in the reign of Queen Anne, an act was passed providing that the authors of books already printed, and those claim- ENGLAND 21 ing under the author, should have the sole right and liberty of printing them for a term of twenty-one years and no longer; and that the authors of books to be printed, and their assigns, should have the same right for fourteen years and no longer, and after the expiration of those fourteen years, the same right should return to the authors, if living, for another fourteen years. This act was supplemented by an- other, which considerably extended the period. '* Sir Walter Scott had lately departed amid pecuniary dif- ficulties and distresses with which the whole nation sympathized. The sale of his works was the only resource left to his family; and the copyright of the most important and profitable of them, the " Waverley Novels," would shortly expire, unless the Legislature interposed to prolong its duration. Wordsworth, now just beginning to obtain the tardy recognition of his genius, was likely to have the harvest which that genius was about to reap, snatched from him by the same cause. Southey, who was in a similar position, had been deterred from publishing a great work by the apprehension that the fruit of his labors would be gathered by some adventurous bookseller. Charles Dickens, now at the height of his reputation, was actively pressing the measure. But perhaps there was nothing that more influenced the House than a characteristic petition addressed to it by Thomas Carlyle. Out of all the agitation came the Talfourd Act, which was passed, and is the law which in the main has ever since regulated literary property 22 ENGLAND throughout the British dominions, both stimulating that literary effort which was the glory of the cen- tury and securing to genius and effort the benefit of their work. In the first half of the century wonderful discov- eries and inventions succeeded one another with such rapidity that it is only possible to glance at a few of them without making any claim whatever to a comprehensive description. How to attain empire in the air, how to make aerial navigation possible, has for some centuries been a keen desire of men of science as well as of common showmen. The Brothers Montgolfier, in 1783, ascended in a balloon from Versailles, and all France, from Louis XVI to the merest street boy, went crazy on the subject. In the same year Pilatre de Rozier projected a journey into cloudland, but the king opposed it and suggested that two condemned criminals should occupy the car. This so offended De Rozier that he told the king " it would not be right to show such honor to criminals," and the king yielding, De Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlande were the first to undertake a lengthened journey, fol- lowed, still in that year, by others, who reached a height of ten thousand feet in a balloon filled with hydrogen gas. In the following year the craze ex- tended to England. In 1812, James Sadler at- tempted to cross the English Channel, but his bal- loon dropped into the sea, and the captain of a pass- ing vessel found that the only way in which he could ENGLAND 23 rescue the aeronaut was to run his bowsprit smartly through the balloon. It was not till 1836 that defi- nite journeys were attempted, when Mr. Green, who made over 1300 ascents in all, succeeded in crossing the Channel, and landing in the heart of Germany after a journey of five hundred miles in eighteen hours. For a long time the balloon was of little prac- tical use, until Mr. Glaisher devoted years of study to make it serviceable, and has left a remarkable volume containing the results of his observations. On one occasion he ascended to a height of thirty- seven thousand feet, or upward of seven miles, two miles higher than the highest mountain in the world, within the space of one hour. Since Glaisher's day aerostation has been a worthy science. In 1839 M. Daguerre's '* new invention for tak- ing pictures " was publicly exhibited in Paris, by order of the Minister of the Interior. The first ex- periment in England was made only six days later, when M. St. Croix exhibited the instrument and proc- ess in the presence of a select party of scientific meui and artists, and succeeded in producing a picture of the place of meeting. Of the many marvelous dis- coveries of the century, photography is entitled in many respects to take its rank among the most re- markable. It does not, perhaps, produce the same practical effects upon the social condition of the human race that the steam-engine and electric tele- graph have done, nor does it bring such mitigation 24 ENGLAND to human suffering as the discovery of chloroform — although one of its latest developments, the X or Roentgen rays, has greatly assisted surgery ; — but it occupies a unique position in the perfect novelty of its results, and their more direct connection with the world of mind. An American philosopher, Pro- fessor Hitchcock, advanced the theory that the scenes that passed upon this earth thousands of years ago have not really perished; but that the waves of light which left the earth then are still vibrating in illimitable space, and might even now be striking, in some far-off fixed star, an eye sensitive enough to discern them. Be that as it may, the practical value of photography in a thousand varied forms is un- questionable. Let one amusing instance suffice. In the early days of photography a thief bethought him- self that it would be a good speculation in his way of business to steal one of a photographer's lenses, a kind of booty that would pay as well as a couple of dozen spoons. Accordingly he went in to have his portrait taken, duly sat for it, and when the photog- rapher retired to develop the plate, he walked off with his plunder in his pocket. Unluckily he had not reflected upon the consequences of the few seconds he had spent in front of the lens he coveted. The photographer had obtained a good likeness of him and the means of identifying him were, of course, speedily placed in the hands of the police, to his great discomfiture. He would be a rash man who would volunteer to ENGLAND 25 name the greatest scientist of the nineteenth century, but among the inner circle of the great, Michael Faraday, the famous chemist, occupies one of the highest positions. He taught us so much that we fail to recognize how ignorant we were when he began his stupendous labors in 1829. He, following on the lines of Dalton, taught us the unity of nature; that all truth is but one; that all nature is the off- spring of concordant thought; that in nature there is no scale of great and small; that the region of phy- sical science and the region of chemical science are one. '' The region of Faraday's discoveries, which entitle him to the gratitude of the human race, is mainly that mid-region between exact physical science and empirical chemistry. His great theorem is this: The things which seem so different are the same under different aspects ; and the forces of matter which seem so opposite are but the same forces acting under different conditions; one mat- ter, one force, one law, in infinite variety of devel- opment." That was an important day in the his- tory of scientific discovery when at a meeting of the Council of the Royal Institution (Nov. 5, 1845), Mr. Faraday announced a discovery tending to show that light, heat, and electricity are merely modifica- tions of one great universal principle. He did not contribute largely to the inventions which controlled the laws he had discovered ; he threw broadcast preg- nant seeds of truth into the minds of men ready to cultivate them for human convenience. " It was 26 ENGLAND enough for him when he fathomed the secrets of nature, and dragged out of the recesses of nature a divine and luminous thought. Faraday was one of a small band who added to our scientific knowledge a whole continent of truth, who have done for the future peace and wealth of the nation more than conquerors of kingdoms or heroes of battlefields." The impetus given by Faraday and others to the study of electricity produced some marvelous inventions for its practical application. In 1837 the first electric telegraph was constructed on the Blackwell Railway, and step by step it came into general use, until in 1851 there was laid down the first submarine electric telegraph connecting Eng- land with France. To-day " there are no less than fourteen lines across the Atlantic, while all the other oceans have been electrically bridged so that mes- sages can be sent to almost any part of the globe at a speed which far surpasses the imaginary power of Shakespeare's goblin Puck, who boasted that he " could put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes." Progress in engineering science went on apace during the second quarter of the century, and dar- ing deeds were done which seemed little short of miraculous. Let one example suffice: On the pier at Sunderland was a lighthouse ; the sea made a breach in the pier, and the pier had to be lengthened. To accomplish this it was requisite either to take the lighthouse down or to carry it a distance of four ENGLAND 27 hundred and seventy-five feet, to a spot one foot, seven inches higher, at the end of the new pier, and it was necessary to carry it round a corner; a task frbm which the mightiest genie tof oriental fable might have shrunk appalled, but the work was done. In 1845 there was great excitement in naval and military circles, consequent upon Professor Schon- bein's experiments with his gun cotton before the chairman of the East India Company and a number of scientific persons. A rifle charged with fifty- four and one-half grains of gunpowder sent a ball through seven boards, each half an inch in thick- ness, at a distance of forty yards ; the same gun, charged with forty grains of the cotton, sent the ball into the eighth board ; and with a fresh rifle the ball was sent through the eighth board at ninety yards. This was the beginning of a series of inventions and discoveries for destroying human life which has gone on without interruption: to the present day. At the same time the experiments for destroying life were in progress, the medical world was inter- esting itself in new methods for preserving it and for subduing pain. In November, 1846, a great stir was occasioned by the publication of a letter in the public press written from Boston, U. S. A., re- garding the discovery of sulphuric ether. One of the first to make use of it was James Young Simp- son, of Edinburg, one of the first physicians of his 28 ENGLAND day, and he soon became convinced that other ther- apeutic agents might be employed with even better success. He succeeded in introducing chloroform, a fluid discovered and described at nearly the same time by Soubeiran and Liebig. It seems incredible, but nevertheless it was a fact, that Simpson was strongly opposed on almost all sides. The public press charged him with putting a premium on crime by his discoveries, that assassination would become of daily occurrence, and that it would be applied to every criminal purpose. Others affirmed that the inhalation of chloroform produced so strong a sem- blance of death that victims would be daily buried alive. The strongest opposition of all came from the religious public, who declared that it was in di- rect opposition to Scripture " to avoid one part of the primeval curse on woman," and from pulpit after pulpit it was denounced as '' impious." Simp- son wrote some strong pamphlets in defense of the blessing he had brought into use. " My opponents forget," he said, " the twenty-first verse of the second chapter of Genesis. There is the record of the first surgical operation ever performed, and that text proves that the Maker' of the Universe, before he took the rib from Adam's side, caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam." Simpson was on the win- ning side and the greatest battle of science ever fought against human suffering was won. Chloro- form was administered to the queen, practitioner ENGLAND 29 after practitioner adopted it, and Simpson lived to see the blessing acknowledged and in almost uni- versal use.^ CHAPTER III IMPROVEMENTS IN SOCIAL CONDITIONS WE will now turn to events relating more imme- diately to the social life of the country. Duel- ling was in full force during the early years of the queen's reign, and it was one of the first subjects to which the prince consort turned his serious atten- tion.- He proposed that 'quarrels between gentle- men should be settled by the arbitration of Courts of Honor, and although he was not able to carry out his scheme his personal influence did much to suppress the foolish and degrading practice. Public feeling was aroused, and in the following year the War Office issued articles on the subject, declar- ing " that it is suitable to the character of honor- able men to apologize and offer redress for wrong, or insult committed, and equally so for the party aggrieved to accept frankly and cordially explana- tions and apologies for the same." This important declaration gave the death blow to duelling in al- most its last stronghold, thc' army. In 1836 a most beneficial law was passed in the interests of prisoners accused of felony. Hith- erto a felon had never been allowed to have counsel to defend him. Although the prosecution might be carried on by the ablest advocates at the bar, the defendant — perhaps a poor ignorant man who did 30 ENGLAND 31 not know how to put a sentence together — was compelled to plead his own cause. Two bills to abolish this injustice had been thrown out by the House of Lords, but in 1836 the new bill happily fell into the hands of Lord Lyndhurst and was suc- cessfully passed. Another humane act passed in 1836 was to abol- ish the law that had up to that time been in force, which required that persons convicted of murder should be executed the day but one after their con- viction, unless that day happened to be a Sunday, in which case they would be executed on the Mon- day. In the interval between the sentence and its execution they were to be fed on bread and water, and no person was to have access to them except the gaoler, the chaplain, and the surgeon. The old statute containing these provisions was repealed; a much longer period was allowed to elapse between the conviction and the execution, the relatives and friends were allowed to visit the condemned person, and many lives have been spared from the utmost penalty of the law in consequence of that extended interval. A bill for the abolition of imprisonment for debts under a certain sum, received the royal assent by commission on the 9th of August, 1844, and came into operation the day following, when several persons who had been confined in prison for debts below that amount were set at liberty. It was not until 1869 that an act for the entire abolition of im- 32 ENGLAND prisonment for debt ' — coupled with a retention of imprisonment for fraudulent and certain other kinds of debts — was passed, after having been called for in vain for many years. In 1839 Rev. Theobald Mathew, popularly known as " Father Mathew " organized a temper- ance crusade on a scale never before attempted. He already exercised a powerful influence over the Irish people for his fame in organizing an institu- tion in Cork on the model of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, for visiting the sick and dis- tressed, and when a temperance society was organ- ized in that city, he became its president and threw himself into the work with such astonishing energy that in a few months he obtained 150,000 adherents in Cork alone. He organized great temperance demonstrations at Limerick. On one of the days the crush of the people was so immense that the cavalry, called out to preserve order, were swept off the ground. Thousands were anxious to even touch the hem of his garment. At Nenagh 20,000 persons took the pledge in one day, and 100,000 in Gal way in two days. After making a royal progress through the west of Ireland^ the " Irish Apostle of Temperance " came across to London, where he created almost as great a sensation as in his na- tive land. He administered the pledge at various meetings in and about London, and on the 23rd of August, 1843, visited Greenwich and was received by about 20,000 persons on Blackheath. His serv- ENGLAND 33 ices in the cause of religion and humanity were rec- ognized by the state and a pension was granted him from the civil list. He died in 1856. This great crusade had many of the characteristics of a re- ligious revival and may be ascribed to that myste- rious sympathetic influence by which it is well known that whole communities have often been swayed, but which can not well be defined. Period- ically, since the days of Father Mathew, similar crusades have been started, have been carried on with wild enthusiasm, and have died a natural death. In a filthy and disreputable part of London, known as Field Lane, but popularly as " Jack Ketch's Warren," from the largeness of its an- nual contribution to the gallows, a little band of men, mostly poor and all apparently uninfluential, opened a school in 1841 for the benefit of the waifs and strays, the vagabonds and outcasts, of that unsavory neighborhood. It was named the " Field Lane Sabbath School." Charles Dickens visited it and has thus described his visit : " I found the school in an obscure place called West Street, Saffron Hill, pitifully struggling for life under every disadvantage. It had no means; it had no suitable rooms ; it derived no power or protection from being recognized by any authority; it attracted within its walls a fluctuating swarm of faces, young in years but youthful in nothing else, that scowled hope out of countenance. It was held in a low-roofed den, in a 34 ENGLAND sickening atmosphere, in the midst of taint and dirt and pestilence, with all the deadly sins let loose howling and shrieking at the doors. Zeal did not supply the place of method and training ; the teachers knew little of their office ; the pupils, with an evil sharpness, found them out, got the better of them, derided them, made blasphemous answers to Scriptural questions, sang, fought, danced, robbed each other, and seemed pos- sessed of legions of devils. The place was stormed and carried over and over again; the lights were blown out, the books strewn in the gutters, and the female scholars carried off triumphantly to their old wickedness. With no strength in it but its pur- pose, the school stood it all out and made its way. Some two years since, I found it quiet and orderly, full, lighted with gas, well whitewashed, numerously attended, and thoroughly established." The example set by the good laymen who opened the school in West Street was followed by others, and in Westminster, Whitechapel, Camberwell, and other places notorious for disreputableness, filth, and crime there were set up other " Ragged Schools " — the name was given by Charles Dickens — and great success attended them." It soon became evident that instead of having separate and independent schools in different local- ities to deal with the great problems that each school had to face, it would be wiser to have some federation — some headquarters — where all-im- ENGLAND 35 portant questions could be discussed and united ac- tion taken. So one night in 1844 a band of forty superintendents and teachers, called together by one Mr. R. S. Starey, met in a hay loft over a cowshed in the center of what was then known as the Rook- ery of St. Giles, and then and there they formed themselves into the now world-known Ragged School Union. A few months later the philan- thropic Lord Ashley was elected president of the Union, an office he retained till the end of his life in 1885. Within ten years the committee of the West Street School, which was typical of dozens of others that were brought within the Union, were able to report that they had established " a free day school for infants ; an evening school for youths and adults engaged in daily occupation; a woman's evening school for improving character and extending domestic usefulness, thereby making better mothers and more comfortable homes; industrial classes, to teach youths tailoring and shoemaking; employment in the shape of wood chopping, as an industrial test for recommendation to situations; a home for boys when first engaged in places, apart from unwholesome contamination; a night refuge for the utterly destitute; a clothing society for the naked; a distribution of bread to the starving; baths for the filthy ; a room to dry clothes worn in the rain during the day; Bible classes under voluntary teach- ing, through which nearly ten thousand persons of all ages, but of one class — all in a state of physical 36 ENGLAND and spiritual destitution — heard set forth the glad tidings of salvation; various prayer-meetings, quarterly conferences for committee and teachers for minute examination into the detailed working of the institution; a school missionary to supply the spiritual wants of the sick, to scour the streets, to bring youthful wanderers to the school, and to rescue fallen females from paths of sin; and a Ragged Church for the proclamation of the Gospel and the worship of God." This was a goodly program, but it set forth only one aspect of the gigantic work these good people undertook. They had in course of time to deal with questions that led to important legislation ; and anyone who walks in the streets of London to-day, remembering the state of things half a century ago, can see for himself what wonderful reforms they initiated. Springing out of the labors of the Ragged School Union were movements and enterprises that have effected an enormous amount of good. As the Union came more and more into public favor ques- tions of legislation were brought forward, and steps were taken to provide for the voluntary emigration of certain young persons of both sexes who had been educated in the schools, while the Youthful Offend- ers Bill and other legislative enactments were instru- mental in reducing crime, which during the past thirty or forty years had decreased no less than sev- enty-five per cent. In 1850 the Protestant spirit of England was ENGLAND 37 profoundly stirred. On the 24th of September, the Pope issued a bull abolishing the administration of Roman Catholics in England by Vicars Apostolic, and appointing instead two archbishops and twelve bishops with territorial districts distinctly marked out. Dr. Wiseman was created the first Archbishop of Westminster and was raised to the dignity of a cardinal, and in this capacity he sent to England the notorious pastoral, dated " From out of the Flaminian Gate at Rome," a document which inflamed the Protestant fervor of the country a hundredfold more than a papal bull. Writing as though England had been restored to the Romish communion and ignoring the English Church and its episcopate, he said, " The great work is complete. What you have long desired and prayed for is granted. Your beloved country has received a place among the fair churches, which, normally constituted, form the splendid aggregate of Catholic communion. Catho- lic England has been restored to its orbit in the ecclesiastical firmament from which its light had long vanished." This was more than English Protestants could stand; for some time past papal encroachments had been regarded with great disquietude; the Oxford Movement had resulted in the secession of Newman and other distinguished clergymen and laymen to the Church of Rome, and the expectation that England woud go back to the darkness of pre-Reformation times, and follow the footsteps of these seceders to 38 ENGLAND Rome, had been openly discussed both in London and in Rome. So the cry " No Popery ! " rang out through all the land. The prime minister, Lord John Russell, dealt some sturdy blows at his Tracta- rian foes, and in the famous letter written to the Bishop of Durham, known as the " Durham letter," he denounced the recent measures of the pope. Pub- lic meetings denouncing the papal aggression were held throughout the country and petitions were adopted calling upon the government and Legislature to interfere. The queen, in her own gracious and kindly words, has left on record her opinions and feelings on the subject. Writing to the Duchess of Gloucester, she said, " I could never have consented to anything which breathed a spirit of intolerance. Sincerely Protestant as I have always been and al- ways shall be, and indignant as I am at those who call themselves Protestants, while they are, in fact, quite the contrary, I much regret the unchristian and intolerant spirit exhibited by many people at the public meetings. I can not bear to hear the vio- lent abuse of the Catholic religion, which is so pain- ful and cruel toward the many good and innocent Roman Catholics. However, we must hope and trust this excitement will soon cease, and that the whole- some effect of it upon our own church will be last- ing." Some idea of the ferment may be gathered from the fact that between the 14th and the 30th of No- vember, no fewer than seventy-eight works on the ENGLAND 39 papal aggression were issued from the press. On the 7th of February, 1851, the premier introduced a bill ** to prevent the assumption by the Roman Catholics of certain ecclesiastical titles taken from any place within the United Kingdom," which subsequently be- came a law. Twenty years afterward the act was re- pealed, although the illegality of the titles was again explicitly affirmed. The year 1848 was marked by revolutions in al- most every capital of Europe; thrones were upset, dynasties collapsed, the whole continent was thrown into confusion and alarm; and every state was con- vulsed by violent popular conflicts with the authori- ties. In France, where the great agitation com.- menced, Louise Philippe, after reigning successfully as a constitutional monarch, came into collision with the people on the question of Parliamentary reform. On the 24th of February the third French Revolu- tion broke out in Paris, and the king abdicated, fled in terror from his capital, and came a fugitive to England. A republic was established, of which Louis Napoleon, the nephew of Napoleon I, was afterward elected president. In England and Bel- gium alone there was comparative quiet, although much anxiety was felt in England. The Chartist Movement culminated and collapsed; the rebellion in Ireland, headed by Smith O'Brien, was confined to a " scrimmage in a cabbage garden" and ended in the conviction of the ringleaders and their sentence to transportation. And thus England weathered the 40 ENGLAND storm that overthrew and shattered so many foreign states. After the storm there came a cahn, and with the calm came a hopeful and joyous spirit in Eng- land that found its best expression in the determina- tion to gather together all the nations of the world in friendly competition in the arts of peace, at a great international exhibition, which was held in London in 185 L Up to the year 1856 no English sovereign, it is said, ever decorated an Englishman for being brave. France had its Legion of "Honor, instituted by Na- poleon I in 1802 when he was First Consul — a mili- tary and civil order established for the purpose of recognizing distinguished services whether by Frenchmen or foreigners. During the Crimean War Queen Victoria observed the anomaly of the soldiers of the two nations fighting side by side, some with the highly-coveted Legion of Honor on their breasts, and others without any special decoration, and she instituted by royal warrant on the 29th of January, 1856, the " Order of the Victoria Cross " for soldiers and sailors of any rank for a single act of bravery in the presence of the enemy. The decoration carries with it a pension of about- fifty dollars yearly for each noncommissioned officer and private, with a further annuity of twenty-five dollars for every ad- ditional bar, such bar being added upon each fresh act of bravery equal to the first. One of the most interesting functions over which Her Majesty ever presided was on the 26th of June, ENGLAND 41 1857, when thousands upon thousands of people as- sembled in Hyde Park to witness her fasten with her own hands the decoration on the breasts of sixty-one Crimean heroes of all ranks and ages. Forty-seven were given to the army, twelve to the navy, and two to the marines. This cross links all men together; " it stands as a symbol of the highest that man can attain, it places the hearts and the generous im- pulses of all men on a common level, and the words " For Valour " are as dear to the noble duke as to the humblest unlettered private." In the field of philanthropy the greatest activity prevailed ; and many harvests were gathered in from seed sown in the earlier half of the century. The claims of children employed in brickfields were for many years advocated by an eccentric and enthusias- tic philanthropist, George Smith of Coalville, whose persistency at last obtained legislation on their be- half. His own early experience in life had been in the brickfields, and he once wrote : " At nine years of age, my employment consisted in continually carrying aboiit forty pounds of clay upon my head froni the clay heap to the table on which the bricks were made. When there was no clay I had to carry the same weight of bricks. This labor had to be performed almost without intermission, for thir- teen hours daily. Sometimes my labors were in- creased by my having to work all night at the kilns. On one occasion I had to perform a very heavy amount of labor. After my customary day's work I 42 ENGLAND had to carry twelve hundred nine-inch bricks from the maker to the floors on which they are placed to harden. The total distance thus walked by me that night was not less than fourteen miles ; the total quantity of clay thus carried by me was five and one-half tons. For all this labor I received 6d ! " Success crowned the efforts of George Smith to procure legislation, and on the 1st of Janu- ary, 1872, thousands of little white slaves were set free by the coming into force of an act prohibiting any female under sixteen or child under ten, from being employed in the manufacture of bricks and tiles. Lord Shaftesbury was still continuing his labors on behalf of the poor and oppressed in general and children in particular. An act for regulating the labor of juveniles in workshops was passed, and an- other dealing with the iniquitous system of '* agri- cultural gangs " — the first statutory recognition of the rights of rural children to have equal educational privileges with the children of the towns — swept from the face of the land the long series of evils in regard to the cruel employment of children that could be dealt with by industrial legislation. Among the greatest of social agitations was that for the housing of the poor. London was in a state of transformation, and sanitary scientists, in view of the herding together of enormous populations in the slums of Westminster, Holborn, and elsewhere, recommended the pulling down of the *' rookeries " ENGLAND 43 that were the source of immense mischief to the health of London; and whole streets and in some cases almost whole districts were condemned. This raised the question of what was to be done for the accommodation of the working people who were to be dislodged, and for many years the ques- tion was before Parliament. Excellent results fol- lowed. The question of the dwellings of the poor passed from individual care to companies, speculative societies, and finally into the region of *' Imperial- ism," greatly assisted by organizations such as those originated by Sir Sidney Waterlow, Miss Octavia Hill, and others. Then came the great agitation of 1883-4 when the Royal Commission on the housing of the poor was appointed with the Prince of Wales as its most active member, culminating in Lord Sal- isbury's act of 1885, " The Housing of the Working Class Act." A great impetus was given to the construction of model lodging-houses for the poor by Mr. George Peabody, an American merchant, who in March, 1862, announced a gift to the poor of London of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars to be placed in the hands of trustees and to be applied at their discretion to the construction of improved dwellings for the poor, which should combine in the utmost possible degree the essentials of healthfulness, com- fort, social enjoyment, and economy. Subsequent gifts by this noble-minded philanthropist aggregated nearly $4,250,000. 44 ENGLAND While these efforts were being made for the ac- commodation of the poor in London, similar efforts were in progress for accommodating laborers and other workingmen of the country adjacent to Lon- don. A great boon for assisting them to obtain healthful homes outside the metropolis was the Par- liamentary enactment, introduced by Lord Derby in 1864, that on every railway leading into the metropo- lis provision should be made for the accommoda- tion of the working class by cheap trains.^ CHAPTER IV FURTHER REFORMS AND MORAL EFFORTS IN 1873 public feeling was much agitated by the revelations made by Mr. Samuel Plimsoll, as to the perils of the British seamen consequent upon the overloading of ships and the use of unseaworthy ves- sels. He first exposed the rotten condition of many of the coal-bearing coasters. In the six years pre- vious to his entering Parliament, as many as 6,357 coasting vessels had been wrecked, with immense loss of life. This led to the large question of mer- chant shipping generally. Mr. Plimsoll gathered information from all sources and published in a book entitled " Our Seamen," a fierce denunciation of ship- owners, whom he described as little better than mur- derers. His revelations of the cranky coffin-ships, insured far above their value for the purpose of be- ing lost, stirred up the feeling of all right-minded people. The whole conscience of the country woke up. The immediate result of his efforts is best stated in his own words : " Under one short act passed in 1875, confirmed and extended in 1876, nearly five hundred vessels, every one of them as rotten as a pear, were broken up." Among the many improve- ments that Plimsoll's efforts in Parliament procured were these : that ships are no longer overloaded as they were ; Board of Trade inspection has thinned out 4 45 46 ENGLAND the fleet of coffin-ships; the risks from shifting car- goes and piled-up deck loads are greatly reduced; the seaman's food is better; crimping is given short shrift; and the payment of seaman's wages has been put upon a better footing; over-insurance and un- der-manning can no longer be practiced with impu- nity. For these and other benefits the name of Sam- uel Plimsoll is honored and beloved by every sea- faring man. Trades-unions were regarded in the earlier half of the century with profound aversion by nearly all the employing and capitalist classes, and the high ground was taken that they were opposed to moral- ity no less than to sound principles of political econ- omy. But by degrees they came to be tolerated, then sanctioned, and afterward encouraged. When the workingmen found that these combinations gave them a giant's strength, at first they used it tyran- nously like a giant, and many outrages occurred which brought trades-unionism into very evil repute. In 1875, however, legislative measures placed masters and workmen on an absolute equality as regards all matters of contract, and established the principle that the right of a combination was iden- tical with the right of an individual, and that '' no combination of persons is to be deemed criminal if the act proposed to be done would not be criminal if done by one person." The period we have under consideration (1875- 1900) was remarkable for the frequency of great ENGLAND 47 strikes, and for the amount of public anxiety they occasioned. It would be tedious to tell their story in detail; they affected, at one time or another, al- most everybody in every branch of trade, and public interest or public anger was excited on behalf of many of them. So far and wide did the spirit of striking extend, that in October, 1889, there were strikes in several of the large towns by schoolboys, who demanded shorter hours, half holiday on Wed- nesday, no caning, and no homework! On the 1st of May, 1890, '' Labor Day " was instituted, when demonstrations took place in London and in most of the other European capitals, the chief object of the demonstrators being to urge the justice of an eight- hour day by legislative measures. We now turn to glance at some of the philan- thropic movements which have marked the period under review. Philanthropy entered upon a new stage ; it had already dealt with sanitary laws, the dwellings of the poor, the provision of suitable ele- mentary education, restriction in the hours of labor, inspection of mines, factories, and shops, and these had all passed from individual effort to important questions of imperial policy. Then there set in a new style of philanthropy, an endeavor to make the already improved homes more beautiful, to supply social enjoyments that should fill the larger number of hours of leisure, to make life more livable by culti- vating and improving the tastes of the people, to pro- vide more domestic and social comforts, and to turn 48 ENGLAND the dreary monotony of unbroken dulness into a life of pleasantness. The erection of the first cab shelter in 1875 marks, to a certain extent, the dawn of this new philanthropy. The idea of sending the poor little waifs and strays of our great cities for " a day in the country," with whomsoever it originated, was an excellent one ; but the idea of establishing " Holiday Homes," where they could drink in fresh air for a week or a fortnight at a time and get accustomed to the sights and sounds of country life, was better. The move- ment took hold of the imagination of the richer dwellers of the great cities, and tens of thousands of little pale-faced children are now provided for an- nually in beautiful country places and by the sea- side. A further development of the movement has been the establishment of seaside and country camps for boys, which has given a great impetus to such useful societies as the Church Lads' Brigade, the Working Lads' Brigade, and other similar institu- tions. The preservation of open places, — *' lungs for London " and other large cities — has occupied the attention of philanthropists', and many important so- cieties have been formed for securing and maintain- ing them; generous bequests and costly gifts have been made of public parks, such as Waterlow Park at Highgate and Brockwell Park at Heme Hill, while the corporation of London has succeeded in securing for the use of Londoners forever, such de- ENGLAND 49 lightful open spaces as Burnham Beeches and West Wickham Common. Playgrounds for children are now to be found close to the densely populated parts of our great cities, and the one at Wavertree in Liverpool, the gift of an anonymous donor, may be regarded as idealistic. In parts of Scotland a limited liability company began, in 1906, organized work to provide cheap and clean vacation outings and homes for poorly paid workers, and everywhere in the kingdom the impulse to befriend the poorer classes seems to be growing through many organized efforts. The question of small allotments of land for work- ingmen — mainly with a view of checking the de- population of the rural districts — has been dealt with by the Legislature, and has been taken up with enthusiasm in many places, with very beneficial re- sults in the majority of instances. The new philanthropy may be said to have cul- minated on the 14th of May, 1887, when Queen Vic- toria opened the People's Palace at Mile End. Mr. (afterward Sir) Walter Besant had applied himself to the discovery of a remedy for the deadly dulness and dreariness, the ignorance and the squalid pleas- ures, of the dwellers of the East End of London, and incorporated his views in a novel entitled " All Sorts and Conditions of Men," in which he drew a pic- ture of an ideal institution for the working classes. The idea struck home and the great People's Palace at Mile End was the practical realization of the 50 ENGLAND novelist's dream. It was a bridge to cross the gulf that separated the lowly East from the aristocratic West in intellectual pleasures, in art, in knowledge, and in the love of the beautiful; and it placed music and painting, literature and science, and good healthy amusement within the reach of the people. The scheme has borne excellent fruit, and to its in- fluence may be traced the rise of popular polytechnic institutions now to be found in all of our great cities and suburbs, for affording opportunities of technical education and rational amusement. Of late years the early-closing movement has made rapid advancement ; provision has been made for the more comfortable accommodation of women workers in shops and warehouses ; establishments unknown in earlier days have been opened for the sale of cheap and wholesome meals ; the cost of travel for short distances on tram or omnibus has been lessened ; the means of procuring respectable lodgings in " flats " or " sets " have become almost universal ; and the craving for intellectual advancement has been satisfied by the institution of free libraries. One of the very best of the many philanthropic in- stitutions originated during, the latter part of the century, is the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, founded by the Rev. Benjamin Waugh, in 1884. The early work of the society was greatly assisted by men of very diverse views, but of one heart, such as the Cardinal Archbishop of West- minster and Mr. Labouchere of Truth, Mr. Herbert ENGLAND 51 Spencer and the Chief Rabbi Dr. Adler, — and its operations were open to Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Christian, on equal terms. One of its great achievements was to procure the passing of the act by which fundamental changes were made in the standing of English children, entitling them, as a civil right, to be clothed, fed, and properly treated ; to admission into courts ; to limited hours of labor ; to new guardianship when that was for their welfare; and to other great benefits never possessed before. The society became " the solicitor, chief constable, and public prosecutor for every child — the smallest and poorest in the land," and it has been instru- mental in affirming and establishing the rights of children in many thousands of cases. " Dr. Barnardo's Homes " have for many years excited and still excite great wonder and admira- tion. Five thousand orphan waifs are always being maintained, educated, and taught trades here; desti- tute children of any age, creed, sex, or nationality are eligible to the homes, and also those who are deaf or dumb, blind or crippled; lodging-houses and night refuges, with '' ever open doors," are accessible day and night to homeless waifs and strays ; techni- cal training in some one of the fourteen handicrafts carried on in the homes is given to every lad ca- pable of receiving it, and girls are carefully trained for domestic service. A closely related movement that has begun, and considering the larger brotherly feeling that is 52 ENGLAND growing, is sure to extend, is the municipal pension idea. In 1907 Edinburg starts a system which will place on a pension list every employee of the munici- pality who becomes incapacitated after reaching the age of sixty years, the pension to be in proportion ac- cording to the employee's wages. Whatever opinion may be held with regard to the religious side of the operations of the Salvation Army, there can hardly be two opinions as to the enormous value of its philanthropic work. The Salvation Army began in 1865, when one man and his wife. General and Mrs. Booth, took up their stand as street-preachers on Mile End Green. Its progress was comparatively slow, and in 1877 there were only thirty corps, with thirty-six officers. By 1906 it had covered the world with its organizations; 7,210 corps were scattered over forty-nine different countries and colonies, with 16,857 officers, cadets, and employees exclusively de- voted to the work, and many thousand non-com- missioned officers rendering voluntary service. From mere force of numbers the Salvation Army can not be ignored by any section of the community, either as an avowed spiritual organization, a philan- thropic agency, or a political influence. In 1890 General Booth published a remarkable book, entitled *' Darkest England, and the Way Out," in which he propounded a gigantic scheme in- tended to solve " the probler^ of the unemployed." The scheme was to consist *' in the formation of these people into self-helping and self-sustaining com- ENGLAND 53 munities, each being a kind of co-operative society or patriarchal family, governed and disciplined on the principles which have already proved so effective in the Salvation Army." These communities were to be called " Colonies," and were to comprise : ( 1 ) The City Colony, — a number of institutions to act as Harbors of Refuge for all and any who have been shipwrecked in life, character, or circumstances. (2) The Farm Colony, — a settlement on an estate in the country, in the culture of which the '' colonists " would find employment and obtain support while the processes of reformation would be carried for- ward and a knowledge of agriculture acquired. (3) The Over-Sea Colony, — to be populated by those who had passed through the " city " and " farm " colonies and so " to lay the foundations, perchance, of another empire to swell the vast proportions in later times." To start the scheme Mr. Booth appealed for $500,000. The sum was readily obtained. Mr. Booth then announced that in order to carry on the scheme he must have $150,000 a year for the pur- pose. As the great undertaking has been continued to this day with ever-growing success, we may pre- sume that whatever he may ask for he will be sure to have. There are few who will deny that philanthropy never stood in a more erect and vigorous attitude than it does to-day ; there are few who will deny that the religious life of the people is less vigorous than in an earlier part of the century. Without en- 54 ENGLAND broaching on the province of the preacher, and without any leaning to sectarianism, it may be said here, as a matter of observation of the " Hfe " of the century, that in rehgious affairs, form appears to be taking the place of power, outward service supplanting the inward spirituality, the religion of fashion ousting the religion of devotion, the out- ward and visible signs over-shadowing the inward and spiritual graces. The spirit of the Oxford Movement has spread in a thousand different' directions and developed into as many ramifications; the free Christian churches have become more united and therefore more powerful ; while efforts to revive the religious spirit have been as numerous as they have been phenomenal. In 1875, D. L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey commenced a series of " Revival Gather- ings " in the Agricultural Hall, Islington, and sub- sequently at Eton and at the Haymarket Theater. At the latter place the afternoon gatherings were at- tended by many of the aristocracy, and on one occasion by the Princess of Wales. These evangelists were unlettered men, without any theological training, not belonging to any denomination, yet thousands upon thousands of people of all degrees in station and mental culture flocked to hear them. It was a phenomenon. So also was the ministry of Charles Haddon Spur- geon, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington Causeway, who died at Mentone on the 31st of Jan- uary, 1892. He and Cardinal Manning, both good ENGLAND 55 men of exceptional spiritual gifts, died about the same time. They were the acid and the alkali that had created much of the religious effervescence of the times. Spurgeon detested popery, the theater, and the " higher criticism " with a perfect detesta- tion. In his latter days he considered that the church and the world were alike on the down grade, and he despaired of being able to do more than utter a protest against the tendency of the times. But he had rendered yeoman's service in his day, in his splendid stand for Protestantism, in his consistent proclamation of what he conceived to be the " Gos- pel," and in his noble-hearted philanthropy. He preached and printed thousands of sermons, and left behind him almost as many more, which have been circulated and eagerly read in every English-speak- ing land under the sun. A revision of the authorized version of the Bible of 1611 was mooted in Parliament as early as 1856, and was fully discussed by both Houses on convoca- tion in 1870, when it was resolved to form two com- panies of scholars, one for the revision of the author- ized version of the Old Testament, and one for the revision of the same version of the New Testament. Two committees of American scholars were also ap- pointed to act with the two English companies on the basis of the principles and rules drawn up by the Committee of Convocation. The work of revision of the whole Bible was commenced in 1870 and com- pleted in 1884. 56 ENGLAND Great fears were entertained in certain quarters that a revised version of the Holy Scripture would create uncertainty in people's minds as to which was and which was not a true and reliable version, but these fears were dissipated on publication, and the popular verdict took this form: that the revised ver- sion was of little or no use to the unlearned masses, while to the learned few it was insufficient ; that it went too far in some places in interfering with the grand and simple beauty of the authorized version, and did not go far enough in criticism to make the giving up of the other worth while. We have already told the story of the main events in the political and national life of the nine- teenth century. Expansion of territory went on apace. In 1874 the king of the Fiji Islands ceded his country to the British government, represented at the time by Sir Hercules Robinson, commanding the " Dido," and in February, 1875, the colony of Fiji was constituted and a governor appointed. In 1884 all the south- ern coasts of New Guinea were annexed, and in 1886, after the surrender of King Theebaw, Lord Dufferin proclaimed the annexation of Upper Burmah to the British Empire. In 1888 the flag was hoisted on the Harvey or Cook's Islands in the Pacific Sea, and in 1889 on the Suwarrow Islands. In 1890 the British government made an agreement with the German government defining the respective spheres of influence in Africa ; at the same time ENGLAND 57 Heligoland was ceded to Germany and the protect- orate of Zanzibar granted to Great Britain. During the five years (from April, 1880, to June, 1885) that Mr. Gladstone was premier, some im- portant measures were passed, notwithstanding that Irish questions and foreign affairs stood in the way of better things. The most important measure was the Reform Bill of 1884, for household suffrage in the counties, or, in other words, for the inclusion of the agricultural laborers by which the electorate of the United Kingdom was raised to over five mil- lions, and the number of members in the House of Commons was raised to 670. The two great leaders of the political world passed away during the period under consideration. On the 19th of April, 1881, Lord Beaconsfield went peacefully to his last rest, and was buried at Hugh- enden Church, near High Wycombe. His had been a dazzling career; he had charmed the world with his wit and wisdom, his romances and adventures, his daring successes and disastrous blunders, and there was great regret when he passed away. Mr. Gladstone survived Lord Beaconsfield for seventeen years. Although he withdrew from public life on the 1st of March, 1894, on the ground that advanc- ing years had deprived him of the physical strength that could have enabled him to defy the fatigue of Parliamentary duties, he maintained to the last the glorious strength and vigor of his great intellect, and the grandeur of his eloquence was undiminished. 58 ENGLAND His industry never failed; from his retirement he watched and attempted to aid with his powerful pen the claims of Greece, the rights of Christians under Turkish rule, and *' all oppressed people rightfully struggling to be free." In the winter of 1897, vis- its to Cannes and Bournemouth failed to revive his declining strength; he returned to Hawarden, and died on the 19th of May, 1898 (Ascension Day), at the age of eighty-eight. Yielding to the demand of the nation, his family consented to the removal of his body to London, where, for two days, it lay in state in Westminster Hall, and on the 28th of May was interred in Westminster Abbey, two of the pall-bearers on the occasion being the Prince of Wales and Duke of York. When the nineteenth century began, the popula- tion of the United Kingdom was 16,345,646; at its close it was 40,921,371. The population of the rest of the British Empire was in 1800, 2,500,000; in 1900, 256,000,000. The population of London in 1800 was 959,000; in 1900, 4,546,752. The area of London in 1800 was barely 9^ square miles; at the close of the century the area of London comprised within the boundaries of the London County Council was 118 square miles. *' Greater London," practically non-existent at the beginning of the century, has now a population of 6,528,434. As regards the territory and population of the whole of the British Empire at the close of the cen- tury, the position is an altogether unprecedented ENGLAND ' 59 one. A recent writer says : " Including Egypt, which is a veiled protectorate; the Soudan, which is openly, frankly, and directly under British control; and the Orange and Transvaal States, the British Empire at the century's end comprised an area of about 13,000,000 miles and a population of about 440),- 000,000. The Transvaal alone is as large as Great Britain and Ireland. Without Egypt and the old Egyptian Soudan, the combined area of which is equal to India, the British Empire is thrice the size of Europe. If, as is supposed, the population of the globe amounts to seventeen or eighteen millions, it follows that for material and moral welfare of every fourth human being in the world, the British Em- pire is in some form responsible." And now our review is done. We have told the story of the " life " of the most remarkable period of human history, the most wonderful of all the centu- ries, and have endeavored to trace the chief lines of human endeavor; the changes effected in science, in the arts, in all possibilities of human intercourse; the extension of knowledge and the progress of thought. In the retrospect of the nineteenth century there are many things still left to cause regret and fear; but the century closed with a glorious heritage of hope that progress will continue, that knowledge will grow from more to more, and that as " God's in His Heaven, All's right with the world." d CHAPTER V HOW ENGLAND IS GOVERNED WHOEVER now writes an exposition of the powers of the EngHsh government must ac- knowledge his obHgations to Mr. Walter Bagehot and Professor Thomas F. Moran, whose works are remarkable for their clear, illuminating, and authorita- tive qualities. Professor Moran has written so de- lightfully on this subject in his " Theory and Prac- tise of the English Government " that his ideas, often his own words, have been used in the preparation of this chapter. " ' England,' he says, ' has taken the lead in solving the problem of constitutional government; of government, that is, with authority, but limited by law, controlled by opinion, and respecting personal right and freedom. This she has done for the world, and herein lies the world's chief interest in her history.' These are the opening words of Gold- win Smith's recent and brilliant work, ' Tha United Kingdom.' These two sentences set forth admirably the great debt which the world owes to the English people. As we note the progress of civilization from its beginnings on the banks of the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates, we are led to the conclusion that every nation has made its pecu- liar contribution to this progress. Each seems to 60 ENGLAND 61 have contributed something to those forces which tend to civilize, — something to the general good ; and we of the present generation are the inheritors of these contributions. The Egyptians and the Chal- deans furnished the humble beginnings of literature, science, and art; the special mission of the Hebrews was to teach religion ; the Phoenicians were the mer- chants, navigators, and colonizers of the Orient; the Greeks excelled in art and the Romans in law. In like manner the solution of the problem of con- stitutional government has been the great contribu- tion of the English people to the world's civilization. It is true that England's achievements in agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing are of no mean order and have added much to the welfare of the race; yet her supreme contribution has been along govern- mental lines. An exposition of the English government must always be attended by difficulties not ex- perienced in a study of American government, be- cause the English constitrtion, unlike our own, is exceedingly extensive and largely unwritten. The American form of government is comprised in a definite number of articles and clauses, while that of England is made up of a series of great documents like the Magna Charta, scattered over centuries of time, of acts of Parliament, of decisions of courts, and of various customs which have slowly crystalized into the law of the land. These various component parts of the English Constitution have never been 62 ENGLAND collected and reduced to writing and probably never will be. The labor of collecting and unifying these scattered fragments would be a stupendous task, and the work could never be complete even for a single day, as Acts of Parliament affecting the fundamental law of England would still continue to be passed, and the decisions of the courts would still constitute an uninterrupted stream. The American Constitution can be amended only in the two ways specified in the document itself, and changes in our fundamental law are by no means easy. ' In England, however, no such difficulties present themselves, as Parliament may alter any law with equal facility. As Sir Wil- liam R. Anson puts it, ' Our Parliament can make laws protecting wild birds or shell-fish, and with the same procedure could break the connection of church and state or give political power to two millions of citizens, and redistribute it among new constituen- cies.' When an Englishman says that a proposed measure is ' unconstitutional ' he means that it is * opposed to the spirit of the English Constitution,' but does not mean to say that it would be void if passed. When an American announces an Act of Congress * unconstitutional,' he means that it is opposed to the written Constitution of the United States and would be declared null and void in case it were tested in the courts. For these reasons the English Constitution is more variable and intangible than the American, and its exposition correspondingly more difficult. " The English government is usually classified by ENGLAND 63 political scientists as a limited or constitutional mon- archy. While it is a monarchy in form, in reality it is what Bagehot denominated it a generation ago, — a * disguised republic' This is a fact not always appr,eciated to the fullest extent. There is a pop- ular misconception in some quarters in respect to the real nature of the English government; and this is particularly true in respect to the powers and pre- rogatives of the Crown. The idea prevails to some extent that the king or queen occupies the throne by hereditary right, and is the determining force in directing governmental affairs. As a matter of fact, however, the claim to the throne based on he- redity alone is not conclusive, and Parliament may constitutionally refuse at any time to recognize such a claim. This has been done in several instances. It is also true that the Crown at the present time has comparatively little direct participation in the government. The House of Commons, under the leadership of the Cabinet, is the real governing power. The time was when the Parliament was subservient to the Crown and subject to its dictation in most matters. This subserviency and submission are startlingly evident at times during the Tudor period. In modern times the power of the Crown has gradually decreased, while that of Parliament, or more properly speaking, of the House of Com- mons, has correspondingly increased. Since the revolution of 1688 the House of Commons has been practically supreme in the government of England, 64 ENGLAND and no monarch since Queen Anne has exercised the veto power. This important change came about al- most imperceptibly and as the result of custom rather than of statute. " A study of the fundamental principles of the government of England, with some reference to their origin and development, and with a careful distinc- tion between the theory and practice, can not fail to be of value to an American citizen. American gov- ernmental institutions are of English origin, and a consideration of the English government constitutes the best possible preparation for a study of American government. Indeed, such a preliminary survey ought to be considered indispensable to a thorough and intelligent understanding of our political insti- tutions. In theory the governing power of England is vested in the Crown and the three estates of the realm, — The Lords, the Clergy, and the Commons. As a matter of fact, however, the Lords and the Clergy have been merged for centuries, so that there are now only two estates instead of three. " It will be necessary, then, in a consideration of the English government, to study the powers and prerogatives of the Crown', the functions of the two Houses of Parliament, and the practical working of the Cabinet." The English nationality as known to-day is made up of Celts, Danes, Normans, Germans and others, with the Germanic element predominating, and the origin of the national assembly can be traced to the ENGLAND 65 forests of Germany, when Caesar and Tacitus were the pioneer historians and the king and Popular Assembly were to the people what the king and Par- liament are to-day. During the Anglo-Saxon period and up to the time of the Norman conquest in 1066, the elective power of the Witan, the predecessor of Parliament, was in the ascendency. Those were troublous times, when the young nation was reaching out for posses- sions and the chief duty of the king was to lead his armies in battle. Custom demanded that the Witan choose the successor to the throne from the royal family, usually the eldest son of the deceased king or a son born after the father's succession to the throne. If the claimant were a weakling or in any way phy- sically defective he was passed over and another chosen, perhaps not of the royal family. This was the case when Earl Harold, the greatest warrior and wisest statesman of the realm, was chosen to suc- ceed Edward the Confessor. After the Norman Con- quest the succession by right of descent increased in importance, until in 1307 Edward II was proclaimed king immediately on the death of his predecessor, without mention being made of an election. 'Tis true that Parliament was obliged to assert its su- premacy and depose him in 1327. Richard II was also deposed hy the same Parliament in 1839 and King Henry IV elected to succeed him. After the revolution in 1688, when James II fled the kingdom. Parliament by the Bill of Rights gave the throne to 5 (£ ENGLAND William and Mary. The last time Parliament exer- cised its right was in 1700-1701, when it passed the Act of Settlement under which the House of Han- over reigns to-day. Should occasion demand, Par- liament would undoubtedly again assert its elective right, and Professor Moran suggests that, should it be called upon to do so, it might pass an act more in harmony with the advanced religious views of the present age. The Act of Settlement provides that no Roman Catholic shall be allowed to ascend the throne, and should a claimant to the throne marry a papist the nation would be absolved from allegiance to that claimant and the Crown would pass to the next Protestant in order of succession. The act stip- ulates that the person inheriting the Crown must, on coming into his heritage, ** joyn in communion with the Church of England," and at the coronation or on the first day of the session of the first Parliament thereafter must declare against the doctrine of trans- substantiation. The ceremony of coronation takes place soon after the accession to the throne. It is conducted in West- minster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and so impressive is the' spectacle and so seldom witnessed that the English people count it a most memorable event in their lives to get just a glimpse of the splendid pageantry. To show the interest of the people in a coronation, Moran extracts the fol- lowing, concerning the coronation of Charles H, from the famous " Diary " of Pepys : " About four ENGLAND 67 I rose and got to the Abbey, and with much ado did get up into a scaffold across the north end. A great pleasure it was to see the Abbey raised in the middle, all covered with red, and a throne — that is, a chair and footstool — on the top of it, and the officers of all kinds, so much as the very fiddlers, in red vests." That the enthusiasm has in no way decreased was evidenced at the recent crowning of King Edward VII. The ceremony begins with the presentation of the new sovereign by the Archbishop, who turns in suc- cession to each of the four points of the compass. He then says : " Sirs, I here present unto you King , the undoubted king of this realm: Wherefore all you who have come this day to do your homage, are you willing to do the same ? " The people ex- press their willingness by crying in unison : " God save King ." The oath of office is then taken, the king swear- ing to govern the United Kingdom according to the statutes of Parliament. He promises to maintain " the Protestant reformed religion established by law ; " and " to preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy — and to the churches committed to their charge — all such rights and privileges, as by law do, or shall appertain to them." The coronation chair has been used since the time of Edward I (1272-1307), and around it is woven an interesting story. The seat of the chair is a slab of stone twenty-six inches long, sixteen inches 68 ENGLAND wide, and eleven inches thick. It is the " stone of destiny," or " stone of fate," upon which all the Scottish kings were crowned. Tradition has it that it is the stone upon which Jacob rested his head at Bethel ; that his sons took it with them to Egypt ; that the son of Cecrops, the founder of Athens, took it from Egypt to Spain; that in the year 700 B. C. it was taken by an invading army to Ireland, placed upon the sacred hill of Tara and called the ** stone of fate," because when the rightful heir to the throne was being crowned it sent* forth loud groans, but when a pretender was about to be crowned it main- tained an ominous silence. In 330 B., C. it was taken to Scotland by King Kenneth and placed in the Abbey of Scone, from which place it was cap- tured by King Edward I 'and taken to England, where it has since remained in Westminster Abbey. There is the usual spoiler of legends, however, for the practical geologist tells us that it is nothing but a slab of Scotch sand-stone and never journeyed under the skies of the Orient. The power of the Crown is even more of an anomaly than the elective power of Parliament, and the royal prerogative is hardly as great as the defini- tion of the word by Professor Dicey, viz., *' the dis- cretionary authority of the executive." The revolu- tion of 1688, when the Bill of Rights settled the suc- cession on William and Mary, closed a struggle for supremacy between the Crown and the House of Commons that had lasted more than four centuries. ENGLAND 69 Professor Moran quotes John R. Green, who says: " In outer seeming the revolution of 1688 had only transferred the sovereignty over England from James to William and Mary. In actual fact, it was trans- ferring the sovereignty from the king to the House of Commons." The written constitution affirms, ac- cording to Alpheus Todd, that " he is, moreover, the head of the legislature, of which he forms an essen- tial constituent part; first in command of the naval and military forces of the state ; the fountain of honor and of justice, and the dispenser of mercy, having the right to pardon all convicted criminals ; the su- preme governor on earth of the national church; and the representative of the majesty of the realm abroad, with power to declare war, to make peace, and to enter into treaty engagements with foreign countries." All of these powers exist in theory, but none of them are exercised except through responsible ministers, and the advice of the minister " amounts to a practical dictation." In theory the Crown may sanction or veto a meas- ure; in practice the king's signature is merely a matter of form. The veto power has not been exer- cised by the Crown since Queen Anne rejected the Scotch Militia Bill in 1707, and the royal signature is now affixed as a matter of course. " Should the king refuse," says Moran, " to append his signature to a bill passed by the two Houses of Parliament, the latter would insist and would carry their point." And Bagehot says, referring to Queen Victoria : " But the 70 ENGLAND queen has no such veto. She must sign her own death warrant if the two Houses unanimously send it to her. It is a fiction of the past to ascribe to her legislative power. She has long ceased to have any." Not even the presence of the king is tolerated in Parliament, except at the opening or prorogation, or to sign bills during the session. And Queen Victoria adopted the custom of being represented by a com- mission on these occasions. The precedent of the king absenting himself from Parliament was estab- lished by George I and George II, who were Germans and knew but little of the English language or Eng- lish government. In the relations of England with foreign powers, the king has no voice. All treaties are made by the Foreign Secretary, who also receives and answers all communications. Although the king is the " foun- tain of Justice," he can not decide a case, the courts making all decisions. The moral influence of the king is of great impor- tance, and Alfred Todd says : " Though divested, by the growth and development of our political institu- tions, of direct political power, the Crown still retains an immense personal and social influence for good or evil." He still has " the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn. And a king of great sagacity and sense would want no others." To understand the English government correctly it is necessary to have a knowledge of the workings of the Cabinet, which, though not mentioned in the ENGLAND 71 written law of England, is " the guiding and deter- mining force of the government. It is composed of the leading members of the party dominant in the House of Commons; but the names of the noblemen and gentlemen composing it are never officially an- nounced and no record is kept of its meetings and resolutions. " Macauley," says Moran, " with his customary clearness comments upon the origin of the cabinet as follows : * Few things in our history are more curious than the origin and growth of the power now pos- sessed by the Cabinet. From an early period the kings of England had been assisted by a Privy Coun- cil, to which the law assigned many important func- tions and duties. During several centuries this body deliberated on the gravest and most delicate affairs. But by degrees its character changed. It became too large for despatch and secrecy. The rank of privy councillor was often bestowed as an honorary dis- tinction on persons to whom nothing was confided, and whose opinion was never asked. The sovereign, on most occasions, resorted for advice to a small knot of leading ministers.' " The British ministry and the Cabinet are often used synonomously, but there is this difference be- tween them, that there are members of the former that are not members of the Cabinet, though all members of the Cabinet are attached to the ministry. The Prime Minister is chosen by the Crown and in turn selects the other members of the Cabinet. He may not 72 ENGLAND follow his own inclinations in this selection, but must appoint men who can command the support of the ma- jority of the House of Commons. The duties of the Prime Minister are many. He must supervise the work of all the other ministers, and that he may do so must familiarize himself with everything of impor- tance in the various departments. " He is the official link between the Crown and the Cabinet." Parliament consists of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The Upper Chamber is composed of six hundred members, who inherit the honorary title of Lord, or have it bestowed upon them for some act of loyalty. The sessions of the body are attended by scarcely a dozen of the members, and three constitute a quorum. Not one measure passed by the House of Commons has been defeated in the House of Lords since 1832, for they know the bills will be sent to them time after time until they are ratified and the Lower House wins its point. There has been much talk about reforming the House of Lords, or abolishing it altogether, and Lord Rosebery told an amusing story, while speaking in favor of re- forming the Lords in 1884. It was about a noble earl who spoke in the House four long hours with no other audience than the presiding officer and another peer. " On another occasion," says Moran, " Lord Lynd- hurst, the presiding officer, after being bored by a long and tiresome speech and having given numerous in- dications of his body and mind, arose and expressed his determination to ' count out ' the speaker." ENGLAND 73 Concerning the origin of the House of Commons, Moran says that it " may be traced to a very definite date. It was founded by Simon de Montfort in 1265. The event is one of the most important in all Eng- lish history. Henry HI was the king of England at the time, and his despotic character was the immediate cause of the establishment of the popular branch of the legislature. He had repeatedly and solemnly con- firmed the provisions of Magna Charta only to disre- gard them persistently. He harbored many unworthy foreign favorites at his court, and was prodigal in the expenditure of money. To supply the necessary rev- enue he extorted money from the people by various illegal methods." At last the barons, goaded to des- peration, " took up the cause of the people, prevailed against Henry as they had previously done against John, and succeeded in getting his unwilling consent to a set of articles known as the Provisions of Ox- ford, by which his power was very greatly curtailed. Three years later, in 1261, the king boldly refused to be bound by the provisions, and civil war ensued. King Henry was utterly defeated, and the government fell, as a result, into the hands of the barons, of whom Simon de Montfort was the leader. This patriotic man made good use of the vast power of which he found himself possessed. The government author- ity up to this time had been lodged in the king and the two Estates of the realm, — the Lords and the Clergy. The common people had been excluded. Simon de Montfort now issued writs for a Parliament to which 74 ENGLAND representatives of the common people or the Third Estate were to be admitted. .The sheriffs were di- rected to return two knights from each shire, two cit- izens from each city, and two burgesses from each borough to meet in London on the 20th of January, 1265. This assembly, known as the Parliament of Simon de Montfort, met according to call in 1265, and this date marks the birth of the House of Com- mons. The beginning of the popular chamber was a humble one, and thirty years were destined to elapse before there was a perfect representation in Parliament of the three Estates of the Realm. Even then all of the members of Parliament sat together, constituting one House, and continued to do so until about the middle of the fourteenth century." The founder of the House of Commons is worthy of a word of mention. He was a member of an il- lustrious French family and was born in France in 1208. In 1230 he came to England, and nine years later was made Earl of Leicester. He was a man of chivalrous spirit, was a natural leader, and just the one for the crisis of that time. He was killed in the battle of Evesham, and enthusiasm for his name ex- pressed itself in the song, " The Strong Citadel." Moran characterizes him as the " Moses who led the English people out of the wilderness of oppression to the promised land of liberty; and though great in peace and war, his greatest claim to the undying grat- itud,e of posterity lies in the fact that it was he who first admitted the people to their inheritance, and thus ENGLAND 75 ' first struck the keynote of constitutional govern- ment.' " The EngHsh statute requires ParHament to meet once in three years, but as a matter of fact, it is obliged to meet annually. The session begins in mid- winter and continues until the middle of August. Free- dom of speech is one of the great privileges enjoyed by the English Parliament as well as by the American Congress. " Under this privilege members of Par- liament have the right to express their opinions in either House without reservation and without being questioned therefor in any other place. Either House, however, may call its members to order for unparlia- mentary language. In a large number of cases mem- bers have been censured, imprisoned, or even ex- pelled for offensive utterances. In most cases the member using unparliamentary language is called to order, and satisfies the House by an apology or an explanation. In other cases a more severe punishment follows." Representation in the House of Commons is based on population, and the members are divided into three classes, representing counties, the boroughs, or towns, and the universities. The speaker is the official spokesman of the House, and also its presid- ing officer. He leaves partisanship behind him when he assumes the chair and must be impartial in public and private intercourse with members. In rank the Speaker precedes all other commoners. On vacating the office he is made a peer, and granted a pension 76 ENGLAND The two important political parties in England are the Liberals and Conservatives, and the all-im- portant political issue is Home Rule. After Mr. Gladstone's strenuous championship of Home Rule for Ireland split the Liberal party, the opposing ele- ment took the name of Liberal Unionists and joined their strength with that of the Conservatives, keeping the latter in power up to the recent elections (1906). As a result of the last general election the Liberals find themselves in power with a greater majority than they have had since 1832, the year of the Reform Bill. Several elements entered into the defeat of the Con- servatives. " * Thou shalt not introduce protection,' is the first commandment given by the people," some- one has said; so most of all it was the Conservatives themselves who wrought the avalanche — the inde- pendent citizens who neglect to vote unless their pocketbook is threatened. These in the recent elec- tion arose in their might and asked for free trade. Then there was the introduction of Chinese labor into the Transvaal ; and the Licensing Act that offended the friends of temperance. The Prime Minister of the new ministry is Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. With what success he and his colleagues will meet the great financial and political difficulties with which the Conservatives have endowed them remains to be seen. Students of social progress see a new element in British politics — it is labor. With Sir John Burns, the English labor leader, in the cabinet, and with Sir John Redmond to ENGLAND 77 champion the cause of Home Rule, something impor- tant is looked for from the new ministry. Under the new government things are looking up for Ireland. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman has long been regarded as a Home Ruler, and his appointment of the Earl of Aberdeen as Lord Lieutenant of Ire- land, with Right Honorable James Bryce Chief Sec- retary for Ireland, it would seem that there is cause to hope that the Irish people may at last realize what they have so long contended for. The Earl of Aber- deen was Viceroy of Ireland under Gladstone and is greatly beloved by the Irish people. England may be considered slow, and many of the features of her government are ridiculed on account of their absurdity; but if not logical to exactness, England's institutions have worked well, and the history of the country proves that " the race is not al- ways to the swift."^ CHAPTER VI THE ENGLISH HOUSE OF COMMONS THAT is an era in a man's life, especially if he be an American, the day on which he sees for the first time this imperial assemblage, the oldest, wealth- iest, most cultivated, most powerful legislative body in the world. And yet in its ordinary modes the House of Commons is not an inspiring spectacle. There are some men in it whom it is a delight to look upon and listen to. There is an abundance of cul- ture in it, and high birth and good breeding. Indeed there are in it great scholars, great authors, great jurists, great wits, and some of the most perfect gen- tlemen in the world. But as a whole the name is de- ceitful. The House of Commons is not a House of the common people. It is a House of territorial, profes- sional and commercial magnates, with a few phi- lanthropists, many scholars, and more snobs. It is the stronghold, not of the English people, but of those great landed and moneyed classes that are still able to control the English people. It is the nature of aristocracies to be absorbingly selfish; the aris- tocracy of England has by hereditary privilege the un- disputed possession of one entire branch of the legis- lature, the House of Lords, yet it also seeks to clutch as large a portion of the other branch as by its enor- 78 ENGLAND 79 mous wealth, its social prestige, and its ancient con- nections it is able to obtain. The Lower House, or House of Commons, is nominally a representation of the common people ; but it is only since the great re- form of 1832 that the middle, or trading classes, have had any appreciable voice in the selection of those who sit in this branch of Parliament. Until a re- cent date a considerable property qualification was necessary to render a citizen eligible for membership in this body; and it is still practically the rule that only men of fortune can aspire to the honor of writ- ing M. P. after their names. Parliamentary service brings no salary, but instead of that the privilege of a more conspicuous social position and of heavier bills for current expenses; while the mere cost of get- ting elected to this luxury averages the pleasant little sum of $15,000 for each member. By a study of the personal composition of the House of Commons we are enabled to estimate not only the spirit of its legislation, but that strange code of courtesy which prevails within its walls. Parliamentary politeness is a very unique affair; and few natives or foreigners have reflected upon the subject deeply enough to account for its eccentric- ities and its contradictions. The visitor is ushered into the gallery of the legislative chamber, where he has always understood are assembled the most schol- arly and polished gentlemen of a highly civilized na- tion ; and you see down the somber hall, crowding the long files of benches, an array of black-coated states- 80 ENGLAND men, all sitting with their hats on. Not all, for here and there is an exception. Mr. Mill, with his sharp face and bald head, always proved a shining exception ; Disraeli ever abhorred the vacuum of a beaver, and Mr. Gladstone invariably sat throughout the sessions bareheaded. The first impression is invariably unpleasant. American chivalry starts at the incivility of forget- ting that there are ladies in the room, even though he knows that they are ladies caged. He wonders if " meeting has begun," and finding that such is the case, and insefisibly grouping Quaker habits with Parliamentary ones, is obliged to rectify his standard of indoor courtesy, and to accept a new plank in his platform of gentlemanlike behavior. Presently another observation steals over the senses of the onlooker and fills him with surprise. He has often been assailed with the taunt that Amer- icans are so boorish as to sit with their feet in such a position as to allow their brains the benefit of grav- itation in seeking the head; but he certainly ex- pected to find in this assembly of superlative English gentlemen naught but dignity and grace of posture. But as the debate goes on he finds himself greatly mis- taken, and in addition to all varieties of grotesque and ungainly looking postures, one honorable member sits with his feet raised and resting on an opposite bench, in dangerous proximity to some famous man's nose, and on enquiry we learn with amazement that the pos- sessor of said irreverent feet is a good old Tory bar- ENGLAND 81 onet. When, therefore, he sees that even respected and honored old baronets can sit with their feet up, he is less astonished as he glances around the oppo- site side of the room to find gentlemen of the old school on the Whig side doing the same thing; and he is glad to escape into a consoling reflection by re- calling to mind Fenimore Cooper's dictum, that " there is a tendency in the Anglo-Saxon race to put the heels higher than the head." But something to the credit of the House of Com- mons manners must be emphasized. In this great as- semblage of English gentlemen there is one article of furniture that you will not find anywhere, — a cus- pidor. What is more to the point, there is no need for one. Sooner or later it will be well for American citizenship to make a determined effort to adjust it- self to Sydney Smith's stern and irrevocable verdict: " All claims to civilization are suspended till this secretion is disposed of. No English gentleman has spit upon the floor since the Heptarchy." It may be well, before looking further into the behavior of the members of the House of Commons, to consider what is the real significance of these per- sonages. The king has almost no direct political power in England ; he is only one of her constitutional fictions, very costly and very ornamental. The House of Lords is rapidly becoming another constitutional fiction, its legislative power being reduced to that of criticism, consultation, and passive resistance. In real- ity, the House of Commons is supreme within the 82 ENGLAND British Empire for all purposes whatsoever. It is king, lords, and commons in one. Thus the onlooker is about to approach a committee of six hundred and fifty-eight private English gentlemen, who, through a certain bungling and corrupt hocus-pocus called an election, are, for the time being, the supreme rulers of one-fifth of the human family and one-twelfth of the habitable globe. The House of Commons is not an assemblage for oratory or for philosophical discussion or for dress or for show of any kind, it is simply a big business com- mittee. And there is something truly admirable in the business-like plainness, in the commercial simplic- ity and directness of their ways. It signifies work, not fuss or palaver. They keep their hats on, they put their feet up, they loll about and stretch them- selves at full length on their benches in order to keep alive, and emphasize the idea that the place is not an exhibition room at all; not a theatric French legisla- tive chamber, with its rostrum for preconcerted de- clamatory explosions ; nor an American Congress with desks for members to do their correspondence at, instead of attending to business, and with its animated windmill going by water and whiskey, grinding out realms of eloquence printed beforehand. It is but a homely workroom, in which the business of the Brit- ish Empire is industriously transacted. Nothing could be finer than the fine tone of quiet and assured strength which on ordinary occasions marks their proceedings; nothing more worthy of ENGLAND 83 imitation than the purpose they manifest of doing the greatest amount of work with the least possible bluster. Hence it is that they are very impatient of eloquence that seems to be going off for its own grat- ification, and with any orator who is so unfortunate as to betray the fact that he is attacking them with malice prepense and verbose. The sort of a man most re- spected in the House of Commons is he who knows at least one thing, even if he can not tell about it; who works much and says but little about it ; while the sort of man least respected is the professional speech- maker, the senatorial elocutionist, the spouting polit- ical geyser. In one aspect this House is the most courteous, in another the most discourteous of all assemblies in the civilized world. It unites in itself the attributes of perfect decorum and almost brutal discourteousness. The practice of individual politeness is exquisite. The moment a member rises to address the House, and thus stands forth in his individual character role, he seems possessed by the most refined and courteous considera- tion for others. In his allusion to antagonists he carefully guards against the. slightest imputation of dishonorable motive ; or if a word of oblique signifi- cance should slip from his tongue he hastens to with- draw it and to express his regret; nay, even in his sarcasm and home thrusts he is careful to mention something to the very credit of the very foeman he is about to scathe. Such a thing as casting vituper- ative epithets, as giving the lie, as threatening personal 84 ENGLAND violence, would not be tolerated in the House of Com- mons for the fraction of a second, except indeed under dire compulsion in the course of an Irish debate. In this respect it must be pronounced the finest legislative body known to history. It has brought to the high- est perfection the fine art of transfusing exciting de- bate with those graceful amenities which are twice honorable and also twice blessed, and which lift its discussions leagi-ies above the hot and scurrilous word- brawls into which most men fly when they attempt to argue. Wholesome vigor in expression is not neces- sarily enfeebled by total abstinence from polemical mud-throwing. Real intellectual blows, logical hard hitting, the sturdy cut and thrust of mind with mind — these are beneficial, the more the better; but they are not rendered more beneficial by being expressed with vulgarity and discourtesy. The immense pres- tige of Lord Palmerston enabled him to indulge in many personal liberties in debate, but it never enabled him to indulge in the liberty of being uncivil to the most insignificant or the most unpopular member of the House. When on one occasion he said impatiently of Joseph Hume, " If the honorable gentleman's under- standing is obtuse it is not my fault," he was instantly brought to his senses by the reproachful murmur as it rose from all sides of the House, and he was reminded that even Lord Palmerston could not be allowed to forget the fine code of legislative chivalry established there. ENGLAND 85 But the strange thing about the House of Com- mons civility is that when a member ceases to speak and subsides from his individual responsibility into the general mass, then instead of being any longer the in- carnation of courtesy, he may without violating any law or habit of the House, become instantly the in- carnation of discourtesy. Standing, he must observe the gracious amenities of debate; sitting, he may do as he likes. Standing, he must not breathe the slight- est suspicion against his antagonist; sitting, he may bellow at his opponent, bray at him, bark at him, mew at him, squeal at him, crow at him, whistle at him, laugh aloud at him. Standing, he must illustrate the manners of an English gentleman ; sitting, he is at per- fect liberty to illustrate the manners of a ruffian, a cow, a cat, a dog, an ass, a South Sea Islander or a baboon. This is not hyperbole ; it has occurred over and over again in recent reform debates. It is the mode in which high-born, high-bred, and high-titled Tory gentlemen received the speeches of Gladstone and John Bright. England is the far-renowned land of anomalies, and in no place is this more thoroughly demonstrated than in this legislature of opposite qualities, — the House of Commons. So, as we look at West London, that city of pleas- ure and privilege, we realize that its very existence de- pends on a better understanding that all which is really great in the social life of any people must be founded 86 ENGLAND upon that which is pure, lovely, and of good report; upon the abatement of human misery, and the up- holding of righteousness ; for that alone which exalts a nation exalts any section of society./ CHAPTER VII THREE LEADERS OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT D URING the last English election, when it seemed certain that the reins of government management would be handed over to the Liberals, it was often asked, " Who will be the next Premier? " There were three men, pre-eminent in ability and service, who were often named: Earl Spencer, Sir Henry Campbell- Bannerman, and Mr. Winston Churchill. And now that the choice has fallen upon Sir Henry to form the new Cabinet, some account of these three eminent Parliamentary and public leaders will be of interest. Earl Spencer is a typical English gentleman, by heredity, by training, and by achievement marked out for a high position. J. Poyntz Spencer, Fifth Earl, Knight of the Garter, Privy Councilor, D. C. L., LL. D., Baron Spencer, Viscount Althrop, Lord Lieu- tenant of Northamptonshire since 1872, and Keeper of the Privy Seal of the Duke of Cornwall since 1901, is an English grandee of the first rank. He owns about twenty-seven thousand acres of land, part in London and part in Northamptonshire. In his seventieth year, he is the leader of the handful of Liberal peers who still survive in the House of Lords. Earl Spencer is no orator. It is said that his speeches are dull and dreary. But his political gifts and capacity for work are unlimited. He entered the 88 ENGLAND administration in 1868, under Mr. Gladstone. In that year, when only thirty-three, he was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, holding the post till 1874, when the Gladstone ministry fell. In the second Glad- stone cabinet. Earl Spencer was minister of agricul- ture and lord president of the council. It was in this ministry that his qualities of grit, courage, and ad- ministration were proved. The entire government of Ireland was thrown into his hands on the retirement of Mr. Forster and the assassination of Lord Fred- erick Cavendish and Mr. Burke. It was a terrible time, — the land was demoralized and in mutiny. But (in the words of Mr. Morley's " Gladstone " ) " the new viceroy attacked the formidable task before him with resolution, minute assiduity, and an inexhaust- ible store of that steady-eyed patience which is still the sovereign requisite of any man, who, whether with coercion or without, takes in hand the government of Ireland." Earl Spencer was threatened with assassi- nation and subjected to endless insult, but for three terrible years he stood his ground and never lost his temper or nerve. In 1892 Mr. Gladstone sent Earl Spencer to the admiralty. This, although a good appointment, led indirectly to Mr. Gladstone's retire- ment, when Earl Spencer insisted on strengthening the navy, and, although his naval program was approved by a majority of the Cabinet, nothing could reconcile Mr. Gladstone to what appeared to him a monstrous and unnecessary expenditure of public money in provocative armaments. Mr. Gladstone's ENGLAND 89 large-mindedness, however, was illuslrated by the fact, that notwithstanding his disapproval and the success of the program, upon his retirement he submitted Earl Spencer's name to the queen as his successor in the premiership. When Lord Rosebery became premier, Earl Spencer cheerfully continued to serve on the ad- miralty, and at the Liberal debacle the " Red Earl " never swerved. He remained at his post, and Eng- land, which expects every man to do his duty, has never been disappointed in Earl Spencer. Even if Earl Spencer should become premier, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman will be one of the most important members of the new Cabinet. " C-B " is a year younger than Earl Spencer. He was originally plain Henry Campbell, but when his maternal uncle, Henry Bannerman, died, he assumed the second name, and, quite late in his career,— in 1895, and twenty-seven years after he first entered the House of Commons,— the baronetcy came. " C-B " has led the House of Commons since February, 1899. He stepped into the breach when other men deserted it, and has done his duty manfully and well, under circumstances of great difficulty. He is a very cautious man, — a canny Scot. He refrained all through the war from praising the Boers, fearing lest one word of eulogy might lead them to prolong the war. He also took every opportunity to assert himself with Mr. Morley in repudiating any intention of restoring the independence of the South African Republics. " I have publicly stated that the annexa- 90 ENGLAND tion must, in my opinion, be upheld." But this was to be only on condition that the new subjects were to be admitted to all the rights and privileges of British self-governing colonists. *' C-B " is a shrewd man, full of bonhomie, and possessing no small fund of natural eloquence. He does not write articles or books. He makes speeches, and uncommonly good speeches they are. Good-tempered, genial, humorous, and incisive, he has never had justice done him. In mere forensic tour- ney Mr. Asquith may be his superior. But there is no blood, or heart, or soul, in Mr. Asquith's speeches. Cold himself, he never excites a generous warmth of passion or enthusiasm among his hearers. Sir Henry is much more human. If it can not be said of him that he can " wield at will the fierce democracy," he has undoubtedly a great faculty of effective public speech, effective alike in Parliament and on the platform. That both these leaders are, heart and soul, in favor of the Anglo-American entente -c or diale goes without saying. They do not favor the policy so dear to the British Jingo mind of converting the Dominion of Canada into an ironclad fighting unit in the armed forces of the empire. All the schemes for fostering the growth of militarism in Canada are by them de- tested and abhorred. Moreover, whether Lord Spen- cer be premier or Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Mr. Bryce will be a prominent member of the cabinet, and Mr. Bryce is as sympathetic an American as if he had been born in New England. ENGLAND 91 After the premier, Mr. Winston ChurcliiU, now under-secretary to the colonies, will, it is prophes.ed, become the leader in the Commons. While .he ma - rimonial alliances between American women and Brit- ish politicians have not often resulted m large or brilliant families, there- is one brilliant exception^ Miss Jerome, who married Randolph Churchill, has not a large family, but her son, Winston, has done much to gratify British American intermarriages, tor Winston Churchill, who is an American on his moth- er's side is the most conspicuous and the most prom- ising of the younger politicians in Great Britain. Whether he will ever lead the House of Commons is an open question. But if he does, he will owe it quite as much to his American mother as to his aristocratic *^ Miss Jennie Jerome, who became Lady Randolph Churchill, and who is now Mrs. Cornwallis-West, is . by universal admission one of the cleverest and most influential women in Britain. She is credited with having suggested to her husband the formation of the PHmrose League, the most successful of all modern political organizations in England. She is only one of its vice-presidents, but she was its inspirmg voice. Many of its most successful features were Yankee dodges which proved mightily successful when trans- planted to British soil. She was a power « English society during her husband's lifetime, and has been still more conspicuous and influential since his death. She can organize, intrigue, edit, and tram. She no 92 ENGLAND longer edits the sumptuous Anglo-Saxon Reviezv, but she contributes to periodical literature and devotes herself to the task of promoting the fortunes of her son. " Winston," an irate Tory recently remarked, — " there's nothing in Winston. But he's got some of the cleverest women of England at his back. That's the real secret of his success." That is not the whole truth, for " Winston " has proved his capacity in re- gions where his mother's care could not stand him in any stead. But he undoubtedly owes much to the American strain which comes from her. He has in- herited a full measure of American snap, and is a hustler of the first class. He is as pushing as a New England canvasser, and his " American ways " are often referred to with intense disgust by the rivals whom he has passed in the race. " I never see him," said a conservative M. P. the other day, '' but I think of a Chicago newsboy. He certainly means to make things hum. He is constantly on the alert. In the House, and in the country, he is never silent." To-day, Winston Churchill is the center of the British political arena. He is the most conspicuous and in many respects the ablest of the British rising statesmen. He has gone from the Unionists to the Liberal benches in the House of Commons, and it is safe to predict that in the near future he will be Lib- eral leader in the House. Speaking of his career, and particularly of his military adventures. Lord Dufferin once remarked, " On every occasion he has shown that chivalrous courage which becomes a high- ENGLAND 93 minded gentleman, and, what is equally important, that capacity, that skill, and that resource that bear testimony to his intellectual ability." Mr. Winston Churchill is audacity incarnate. He will dare and never cease to dare. In this he is the true son of his father. Both the Churchills entered Parliament at the same age. To be an M. P. at twenty-five and a prospective party leader at thirty is a lot which has fallen to them, and to them only, in our generation. Winston Churchill's grandfather was the seventh Duke of Marlborough, at one time Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in a Tory administration. The present Church- ill was born in 1874. Educated at Eton and Cam- bridge, Winston finished at Sandhurst, with honors, in 1894. The next year he was appointed lieutenant in the Fourth Hussars. Soon, however, he obtained leave to visit Cuba, which was then in the throes of her ten years' war with Spain. His father had been corres- pondent for the Daily Graphic in South Africa; the son was special correspondent for the same journal in Cuba. He saw service under Martinez Campos, and was decorated for his bravery. No sooner had Jie reached home than his regiment was ordered to India. All through the frontier war at Malakand he fought with the Thirty-first Punjab Infantry and wrote for the Daily Telegraph- For his valor he was again dec- orated. When he returned to London he imme- diately joined the force of General Kitchener for the reconquest of Khartum, all the time acting as cor- 94 ENGLAND respondent for the Morning Post. His stay with Kitchener was full of adventure, and he was in the march from Atbara to Khartum, and in the battle of Omdurman, which he described as an eye-witness. In his book, " The River War," he told the story of the conquest of the Sudan, and in his despatches to the Morning Post he criticised the work of his commander- in-chief so daringly and so truly that his political repu- tation was made. He, however, soon concluded that he could be more useful out of the service. It was not until the Boer War, however, that Wins- ton Churchill rose to the first rank of war correspon- dents. He was the luckiest and the smartest, and cer- tainly the most picturesque personality of all the newspaper writers during that conflict. He was taken prisoner in the early part of the war, escaped, and told all about it in his letters home. His correspond- ence marked him as a man of distinction, — a man who was not merely a keen observer and a brilliant writer, but who had the political instinct in his blood. At first he was certain that the Boers, considering their courage and the strength of their religious conviction, would surely win, and it was some time, he says, be- fore he could believe in a British triumph. In March, 1900, he published in the Morning Post, his famous appeal for dealing with the Boers in a reasonable spirit of conciliation. Mr. Churchill entered Parliament as a Tory Dem- ocrat, and a Tory Democrat he remains to this day, although he sits on the Liberal benches. Toryism, ENGLAND 95 however, as interpreted by the Churchills, is often al- most indistinguishable from Radicalism as inter- preted by men like John Burns, who have the histor- ical insight and a keen sympathy with the traditional glories of their country. He gave Parliament a taste of his 'quality in his scathing analysis of Mr. Broder- ick's new army scheme, in May, 1901, and was the only Unionist who voted against it. Of his speech on that occasion, Mr. Massingham, whose " Pictures in Par- liament " are perhaps the best contemporary chronicle of proceedings at Westminster, said: " Its threads were not, of course, woven with the skill that comes with long practice, and here and there were missing stitches. But in its elevation of purpose, its broad conception of national policy, and, in the direct movement of its closing sentences, I recall nothing like it since Mr. Gladstone died. I will make two criticisms upon it, — the first is, that it is the speech that should long ago have been delivered from our own benches ; the second is, that in the years to come, its author should be prime minister,— I hope Liberal prime minister,— of England." Always a Conservative, Mr. Churchill is still a free-trader, and in this fact is to be found the cause of his desertion of the Unionist ranks. He could not remain a Jingo and a militarist, so he became a sup- porter of the Liberals. His first serious administra- tive speeches were made against financial expenditure and the policy of protection. His first field for re- trenchment is in the army ; he upholds, but he is un- 96 ENGLAND alterably opposed to, the attempt to convert England to a military power. There are two other questions upon which he differs from the old Conservative forces, — he has Radical ideas on the Irish question and on edu- cation; he is against the National Education Act. It may be said that he is a born demagogue. Perhaps he is ; but this young man, demagogue though he may be, has already, before he is thirty, won the ear and aroused the enthusiasm of the great majority of his countrymen.^ CHAPTER VIII ENGLISH INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS THE growth of industrial life in the United States, with its attendant problems, makes a chapter on England's industrial history of special instructive value to American students. The industrial evolu- tion of England is of special interest, too, because of British pre-eminence in the industrial world. Its industrial history began with Sir Richard Ark- wright's invention of his spinning machine, in 1769. The idea of a machine which would spin many threads at the same time was ini- tiated by James Hargreaves five years before. Tra- dition says that the idea, which was to eventually revolutionize English industrial life, came to Har- greaves bv an accident. On suddenly returning home one day, his surprised wife made a quick movement which upset her spinning-wheel. Her husband no- ticed that the spindle continued to revolve in the up- right position, and the thought came to him, why not construct a machine with many spindles, all driven by one wheel. He soon had such a machine in opera- tion, and in honor of his wife named it the spinning- jenny. But it was left to Arkwright to improve and perfect this labor-saving machine, and on his success and the introduction of steam power, the invention of the American cotton gin and the power loom, arose 98 ENGLAND England's mighty industrial supremacy. Until these inventions came, there were little more than cottage industries, for the primitive methods did not require specially constructed factory buildings nor organized efforts. But now, highly developed and extensive machinery called for specially constructed buildings, large capital, and an army of operatives. One can hardly at this day understand the mighty industrial revolution and evolution which these changes wrought, and they all came in the forty years between 1760 and 1800. Out of this change grew the great indus- trial problems which England has been solving ever since by governmental regulation. In order to appre- ciate what has been accomplished by a century of agitation and legislation, it is necessary to look into the conditions which have prompted a long series of effective regulations. Even before the inventions above mentioned, and particularly after them, England began to cultivate a world-wide market for its manufactured products. Society is a delicately adjusted and balanced system of labor and modes of life, and the moderate develop- ment of any one feature soon throws the entire system into disorder. This is- what occurred in Eng- land in the seventeenth century. Before the indus- trial revolution, the land was a country of small shops and individual effort. In every village the hand loom was turning out fabrics ; and all sorts of other town and rural industries had grown up. Then came the period of great factories. To operate them re- ENGLAND 99 quired large bodies of people, and the village shops could not meet their competition. Accordingly, all over the land village industries fell into decay, and the people either lived on, declining from competence to want, or drifted to the factory towns to be engulfed in the stream of the new industrial life with its attendant ills, which will be described farther on. At the same time that industrial life was passing through a transformation, agricultural life was also changing. Improved machinery was coming into use, better breeds of stock and more scientific methods ; but the prices were low, and the factory towns held out such alluring offers of better pay and more attrac- tive social conditions that from the country, as well as the village, vast numbers were shifting to the factory centers. Goldsmith graphically describes in " The Deserted Village " the effects of the changes going on in the land. In the realm of ideas marked changes took place in the closing years of the eighteenth and the opening of the nineteenth century. Before that period some- thing had been undertaken in the way of governmental regulation of the conditions that should be imposed on industrial life. But during the period named writers and statesmen advocated what was afterward termed the Iaissc;:;-faire theory, with such convincing force that it was an accepted creed for a long while, and resulted in the gradual undoing of all labor regula- tion by the government. The theory referred to was that in industrial life there should be no interference 100 ENGLAND with perfect liberty for every person to labor in his own way, in working, employing, buying, or selling. In this theory all restricting laws were to be annulled, and people were to be left to decide their economic measures for themselves. It was a return to the natural order that existed before organized industries. This theory was carried further by Adam Smith, whose work, the " Wealth of Nations," which came out in 1776, was destined to exert an enormous in- fluence. Its teaching was " that the most effectual plan for advancing a people to greatness is to main- tain that order of things which nature has pointed out, by allowing every man, as long as he observes the rules of justice, to pursue his own interests in his own way, and to bring both his industry and his capital into the freest competition with those of his fellow-citizens." According to this theory the ob- servance of a natural order of individual decision would in the end lead to the same salutary results to which all statutes were aimed. The acceptance of this theory was so general that for a while all government economic and industrial regulations were either withdrawn or fell into disuse. For a time, and until about 1830, labor, capital, and enterprise in their relations were unrestricted, free, and independent, and with what results we will now consider. There followed the acceptance of the theories of Adam Smith and others, a period of individualism. Farm and village laborers were free to find employ- ment anywhere, and a people that had been fixed in ENGLAND 101 their habits and had cultivated thrift at home began to crowd to the factory centers, where they found no government protection, and under a free competitive system, long hours, and low wages they became slaves to rapacious manufacturers. The mill owner was not obliged to consider the welfare of the operatives ; there was no strong power to interfere in their behalf, nor combination of labor to curb the hard conditions imposed by capital. On the surface, economic con- ditions seemed to be flourishing, and England was fast winning the premiership in the empire of trade. But below the surface there was a deplorable condi- tion. Big factory competition was slowly driving out the small farm and village hand industries, which still lingered and kept up a contest for their very existence, to the verge of pauperism. In the bustling trade and factory centers there was another picture, even more depressing. England's foreign trade was growing at a rapid rate, and to keep up with the demand a system of forcing resulted. The hours for labor were lengthened to twelve and fourteen, and to find more help the custom grew up of apprenticing the children of the poorhouses. They were, by hundreds, at seven and eight years huddled in the factories and put at work on long hours, housed and under-fed in barracks, worked in crowded and filthy rooms, and driven without sympathy to tasks suited only to strong hands. Nor were women ex- empt, and in factories and mines they were wearing out their lives by hard toil. The day usually began 102 ENGLAND at six in the morning and continued until 7 : 30 and 8 : 30 in the evening. Some mills began as early as five in the morning and did not close until nine in the evening. There were few holidays, and generally Sunday was the only day of relief from the fearful strain. Conditions were becoming intolerable, and two of the noblest humanitarians of the age, Robert Owen and Robert Peel, heard the cries for relief and threw their souls into movements and measures to change all this. Owen was himself a successful mill owner and early moved for labor emancipation. He introduced reforms and gathered a vast amount of information to show England what was going on, and wrote a pamphlet which had an enormous influence. Peel was in Parliament and started the movement for govern- ment regulation, where everything begins in England, by getting a commission to investigate conditions and report them to the government. This was in 1815, the date when was begun in Parliament a movement for industrial supervision and labor emancipation which has pressed steadily forward to this year 1906. It was during the early years of the agitation that Mrs. Browning espoused the children's cause and thrilled all England with her " Cry of the Chil- dren : " — "Do you hear the children weeping, O my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes with years? They are leaning their young heads against their mothers. And that can not stop their tears. The young lambs are bleating in the meadows ; ENGLAND 10^ The young birds are chirping in the nest; The young fawns are playing with the shadows; The young flowers are blowing toward the West; But the young, young children, O my brothers 1 They are weeping bitterly. They are weeping in the playtime of the others In the country of the free. ***** *For oh!' say the children, 'we are weary. And we can not run or leap: If we cared for any meadows, it were merely To drop down in them and sleep.' ***** They look up with their pale and sunken faces, And their look is dread to see. For they mind you of their angels m high places, With eyes turned on Deity. 'How long; they say, 'how long, O cruel nat.on Will you stand to move the world on a chud s heart. Stifle down with a mailed heel >ts PalP'tat.on And tread onward to your throne amid the mart. Parliament was slow in undertaking the great task of supervising and regulating industrial life, but once it committed itself to the policy, it has made a steady advance. It was four years before Robert Peel s movement in Parliament for the P-t<=^''°" °* '=^^°^ resulted in any enactments. In the year 1819 the "Factory Act" was passed, and it apphed on y to cotton mills. It forbade the employment of children before they had reached the age of nine, shortened their hours to twelve, and required an allowance of half an hour for breakfast and one hour for dmner. The improvement was small, but it was a begmmng. From that day to the present Parliament, in which sits 104 ENGLAND the able labor leader, Mr. John Burns, scarcely a session has passed without new laws and amendments being enacted, and all of them breathe the larger humane spirit of the modern days. It would not be interesting to the general student to recite every legal enactment. It will be quite enough to state what the laws are to-day. In 1867 the " Factory and Workshop Consolidation Act " abrogated previous special laws and undertook a regulation of industrial life, which is the law to-day modified. Children can no longer be employed until' they are ten years old, and their hours must not exceed twelve, with two hours out for meals. Every Saturday is a holiday and provision is made for eight half holidays in the year. Children between ten and fourteen years must be kept at work only half of each day, or if for full time, then alternate days must be free for school attendance. Other stringent provisions enforce good sanitation, protect in dangerous occupations, require medical certificates, and provide penalties for infraction of any of the regulations. The last addition to the above act was the " Shop- hours Act " of 1892, which still prevails, with few modifications. It prohibits the employment of per- sons under eighteen for more than seventy-four hours in any week, and applies to stores, shops, markets and warehouses. In 1899 another act compelled the pro- prietors of stores to supply a sufficient number of seats for their female employees. There are also laws (the last having been enacted in 1897) which ENGLAND 105 fix the liability of an employer for accidents or deaths, the compensation bearing some proportion to the employee's earnings, and from which there is no relief save when " serious and wilful misconduct " can be shown. This law is in effect a sort of an accident insurance, and is an implied part of every contract. Passing from factory to farm life, we find some progress has here been made against the harsh condi- tions that once prevailed, but there is still need for a larger supervision to protect children and laborers from rapacious employers. The greatest advance in agricultural life has been made along lines of better- ment. English tenants can now, by a recent law, maintain a bill for improvements made during their occupancy. In 1894 the last of a series of acts makes it obligatory on the town councils to provide people, either by purchase or allotment from common lands, small farms which must be rented out to those who desire to set up homes and utilize their odd hours on their grounds. This return to an old condition by which the people have an interest, as did their fathers, in the land they occupy, has been eagerly accepted with inestimable benefits. The latest statistics show that in 1895 more than half a million holdings were leased out by the town councils. The first acts only contemplated helping to small holdings, but subsequent laws have extended the policy to farms of five to fifty acres, and have provided measures to assist small farmers in buying land, by a loan system, which en- ables them to buy a small farm as soon as one-fifth of 106 ENGLAND the value can be paid down. Easy terms are given on the balance, one quarter of which may be left and paid in perpetual annual ground rent. The influence of this wholesome plan on economic and social life is work- ing marked salutary changes all over England. From being mere laborers, thousands have passed into proprietorship, with the improvement of social stand- ing and better economic conditions. In villages, a similar plan assists the employees of store and shop to acquire cottage homes. Along industrial and economic lines the govern- ment is vastly assisting by a system of sanitary in- spection and enforcement of wholesome regulation whenever any aggrieved persons will apply for re- lief from the ill-effects of bad drainage or condi- tions which are dangerous to health. The govern- ment control of the telegraph and also all the tele- phone service but that operated by one company, the parcels-post system by which the post-oflices receive and transmit packages of as heavy as twenty-one pounds and deliver them — all these give a public service at minimum charges and indirectly benefit several economic conditions. ' It would be interesting to extend this study and consider the rise, condition, and effect of trades- unions, employers' associations, co-operative socie- ties, profit-sharing plans and kindred subjects, but this would extend this chapter beyond reasonable length. ENGLAND 107 In the main the experiences in the United States are being repeated in Great Britain. Passion is just as strong there, and opinions differ quite as widely on all these matters as in America./^ CHAPTER IX CONDITION OF EDUCATION THE first Parliamentary grant for public educa- tion in England was only in 1832. That year the House of Commons voted $200,000 toward the building of public schools, and seven years later much more was done for this cause. Besides, some sys- tem in administering public education began to ap- pear in that period, and inspectors of schools were for the first time appointed to exercise supervision over private, as well as board, or public, schools. The founder of England's early educational sys- tem, which dates from 1839, was a medical man. Dr. Phillips Kay, who became secretary of the Educa- tional Department. In the course of his practice he had observed the gross ignorance prevalent in many large towns, and became convinced that persistent efforts were needed to cope with it. He made a practical study of the educational methods followed in Holland, Prussia, and Switzerland, countries at that time far ahead of England in providing efficient teaching. Dr. Kay felt that the chief need was carefully trained teachers, and advised the establish- ing of a state training college, but the idea met with opposition. However, he was persistent, and with the help of Mr. E. C. Tufnell, a school for pupil- teachers was started, and so was laid the founda- 108 ENGLAND 109 tion of the English normal school system. Dr. Kay's school proved a great success, and in 1842 was recog- nized by the department of public education, which that year granted it $5,000 to carry on and improve its work. The approval of public education was now grow- ing, and in 1847 the Parliamentary grant was in- creased to $500,000 and a Code was agreed upon for the conduct of education, which, with a few modi- fications, lasted for fourteen years, and at the end of that period the annual grant for education, science, and art had arisen to over $6,000,000. In 1858 a Royal Commission under the Duke of Newcastle was appointed to enquire into the state of popular educa- tion, and reported in 1861. The system had then reached one-eighth of the population, but the attend- ance was very irregular, and not more than a fourth of the children left school fairly well taught. The report of the Commission fell into the hands of Mr. Robert Lowe, vice-president of the Council in charge of education, who dealt with it in a very drastic manner, and produced a Revised Code. Its main feature will surprise American educators, for it was nothing less than a proposal to grant to any school from public funds an amount in proportion to the number of scholars who passed a successful ex- amination in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Mr. Lowe's Revised Code did not find universal favor, but it was adopted, and while it proved economical and made the public schools more efficient, it did little no ENGLAND more to advance the progress of education. How- ever, public education was rapidly growing, and in 1869 there were in England and Wales alone, 11,000 elementary day schools, 2,000 night schools, with 1,450,000 children on the registers and 1,000,000 in an average attendance. The school population was, however, far in excess of these figures, and in some places the deficiency in attendance was very serious. It was clear that if the children of England and Wales were to be educated, the existing system was wholly inadequate. Accordingly, in 1870, the sub- ject was taken in hand by Mr. Gladstone's adminis- tration, and Mr. W. E. Forster, the vice-president of the Council, succeeded in carrying through Parlia- ment an Elementary Education Act, which will make its author's name ever memorable among the benefactors of his countrymen. Its chief provisions were : sufficient schools should be provided for one- sixth of the population ; every elementary school should be taught by a qualified teacher, and should be subject to inspection ; that in all such schools relig- ious instruction should be given at the beginning or end of the teaching, and that parents should be en- titled to withdraw their children from religious in- struction ; that in the public schools (called Board Schools in England), no catechism or religious for- mulary distinctive of any religious denomination should be used ; and finally, that the Educational Department should not take any account of religious ENGLAND 111 instruction, and the inspector should not examine in religious subjects. Mr. Forster's Act also authorized school boards to raise money by a school rate to build schools and for other scholastic purposes ; and to take steps to enforce compulsory attendance of children at schools and to supply free education to the children of poor parents. A subsequent act made education free to all who demanded it for their children. As a result of these wise laws, a great impetus was given to the progress of education. All over England places vied with each other in building schoolhouses, while the quality of instruction was everywhere improved, and many subjects were now taught which had once been considered quite beyond the range of elementary schools. The wave of educational enthusiasm that swept over England will be better understood by com- paring the statistics of 1901 with those given herein for 1869. In the former year over five and a half million scholars were on the registers of the elemen- tary schools, with an average attendance of over four and a half millions. The number of elementary day schools had risen to 20,022, of which 17,008 were absolutely free; and 31,038 pupil-teachers were being trained to fill positions. Five years ago the central government disbursed for education over forty-one million dollars, and this amount has been in- creased every year since. A feature of the English system is the Continua- tion School, for those who have left the day schools, 112 ENGLAND and of this class the latest obtainable census gave nearly 6,000, with an attendance of almost half a million. It is worthy of special mention that nearly every town in England has now one or more evening continuation schools, which provide efficient teaching for those who can not attend the day schools. It is also noteworthy that while a majority of those reg- istered in these schools are under the age of six- teen, ten per cent of the whole number are adults. These schools, like the public schools, are aided by the government and are under its inspection. " The existence of a growing desire for pro- longed education has led to the establishment in Lon- don and many of the chief industrial centers of * higher grade schools.' These are not in the true sense secondary schools, and are in no wise intended to lead upward to colleges and universities ; but they take the scholar who has made good use of the ele- mentary school up to the age of fourteen, and pro- vide for him a developed program of studies on the same lines, up to fifteen or sixteen. These schools supply a real want and are rapidly growing in use- fulness and favor with the more intelligent parents. But the question has arisen whether such prolongation of the school course beyond the age of fourteen — the statutory limit of compulsory education — is con- sistent with the intention of the Educational Acts; and the additional subjects taught in the higher grade schools, such as modern languages, mathe- matics and various branches of physical science, can ENGLAND 113 come properly within the domain of elementary in- struction. The more enterprising of the school boards have answered the question for themselves, and have made generous provision for higher-grade day schools and for evening continuation schools." In addition to the board, or public, schools there is in Great Britain another class of schools, both ex- tensive and useful. These are the " voluntary schools which have been established by religious bodies and derive a portion of their income from the contribu- tions of the churches. In them it is permissible to give instruction in the distinctive doctrines of the body to which they belong. The voluntary schools are chiefly those connected with 'the Established Church, and in rural districts are the only public ele- mentary schools accessible to the children. Even in the largest cities their attendance is large, and they must be considered as performing an important part in public education. In London the attendance at voluntary schools, including those of the Church of England, the Catholics, and the Wesleyans was, even in 1891, 174,702, while in the board schools it was 439,744. Year by year the discrepancy increases throughout the country, and the attendance at the voluntary schools either remains stationary or grad- ually declines." Still the existence of the voluntary schools is a powerful element to be reckoned with in all school legislation. It was the class occasioned by a double- headed system of board and voluntary school, as well 114 ENGLAND as the doubtfully legal secondary schools, that occa- sioned an effort to correlate them into a system which would reduce the cost of public education and make it more effective. The school acts here referred to were introduced and became a law in 1902, during the administration of Mr. Balfour. Never in recent times has any legislation met with such a storm of protest, especially from the hosts of Non-conformists who objected to having the administration of the public schools placed under the control of the Estab- lished Church people, for this was the effect of that law. At this writing, May 20, 1906, Parliament is considering a new act, which the Liberal ministry has introduced, to annul the obnoxious features of the present law and provide for a larger degree of efficiency in the public schools. The urgent need of some provision for technical education was not generally felt in England until twenty-five or thirty years ago, when manufacturers awoke to the perception of the fact that in many matters of industrial work, Continental workmen were superior. In the application of science to in- dustries England seemed to be falling behind her neighbors, and those who studied the question of in- feriority of English artisans ascribed it to a want of proper training and to the lack of schools in which such training could be acquired. In 1878 several of the great city companies, in co-operation with the Corporation of London, established an institute for ENGLAND 115 the advancement of technical education. Subse- quently a Royal Commission was appointed to en- quire into the subject, and published a long report in 1882. In 1889 the Technical Instruction Act was passed, authorizing the county councils and other bodies to raise money by taxation to establish tech- nical schools. It is significant of the aroused feeling that by 1900 the sum raised for this purpose was nearly four millions of dollars. The subjects taught in the technical schools vary according to the districts in which they are established. In many counties agri- cultural instruction is of first need, while in manu- facturing districts, in the mining regions and com- mercial centers, appropriate instruction to the needs is given preference. In a recent educational exhibit of work done in the London schools there were shown carpentry, joinery, plumbing, masonry, black- smithing, stone and wood carving, plaster-work, staircasing, and other lines in the building trades. The variety and extent of the subjects taught were also further indicated by exhibits in engineer's tools, printing, photography, bicycles, carriages, watches, jeweler's and silversmith's work, engraving, enam- eling, bookbinding, picture framing, and much more. All this was the work of the technical schools of one city alone, but what is going on in London is also being done all over Britain, and if American manu- facturers are to successfully compete with those of England, it behooves them to cease trusting too much to native genius and begin to set up schools every- 116 ENGLAND where, where the hand and brain of our artisans will be trained for higher excellence. " In the sphere of university education," writes Mr. J. C. Fitch in an able article in the Educational Review, " the last few years have witnessed remark- able development. Americans who are familiar with the fact that there are in the States no less than four hundred and eighty colleges and universities which have the power to confer degrees, are often struck by the smallness of such institutions in the old country. But it should be understood that here the establishment of a university is an event of serious national impor- tance. No such power can be exercised without a royal charter, and every academic degree is thus ultimately sanctioned by the Crown. At the com- mencement of the queen's reign there were in Eng- land only the two ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge; in Ireland, Trinity College; and in Scot- land, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and St. An- drews. The year 1837 saw the foundation of the London University, and Durham also received a charter. Subsequently, Owen College, Manchester, had associated with itself the local colleges of Liver- pool and Leeds, and became incorporated under the name of the Victoria University. In 1893 the Univer- sity of Wales was legally constituted, and already has affiliated to it the three colleges of Bangor, Cardiff, and Aberystwyth. In the last year of the nineteenth century the Birmingham University, which will ab- sorb the well-known Mason's College in that city, ENGLAND 117 received its royal charter of incorporation. At all the great industrial centers, notably in Newcastle, Sheffield, Nottingham, and Bristol, colleges of univer- sity rank have been established, partly at the cost of the municipalities and partly of rich and generous citi- zens. The college at Newcastle has become federated with the University of Durham; and other colleges will probably be associated ere long either with the Victoria University, the Midland University of Bir- mingham, or possibly with a new federation for the west of England, including Bristol and Exeter. All these institutions are well officered in the departments of the languages of humanities, and especially in such departments of physical sciences as are most nearly akin to the principal industries of the district. ' Hav- ing regard to their origin and to the new forms of intellectual and practical activity which are the result of our modern experience, it is probable that the types of university education which may thus be evolved in our provincial towns will be found to diiifer from each other, and from those which have prevailed in the ancient universities. But the inbred conservatism of the learned classes in England may be confidently relied upon to maintain, in all the institutions to which the government Intrusts degree-giving powers, a high standard of scholarship and intellectual excellence. " In Ireland the university problem is complicated by the fact that eighty per cent of the population of the island are Roman Catholics, and that they and the whole Irish priesthood desire a university which 118 ENGLAND shall be distinctly Catholic in its character, and under the supervision of ecclesiastical authority. There are no tests at Trinity College, Dublin; and the Royal University, which is mainly an examining board, re- ceiving students from Catholic colleges and from the queen's colleges, also awards degrees to students of all creeds, after examination in secular subjects only. But this open provision is not satisfactory to the Catholic hierarchy, and the demand for an exclusively Roman Catholic university meets with considerable sympathy, not merely from the Irish people, but also from some prominent English statesmen of both par- ties. On the other hand, it is rightly contended, that in every one of the ancient universities of the United Kingdom, all theological tests, whether for students or for the governing bodies, have been abandoned; that no one of the newer universities, either here or in our colonies, is sectarian in its character; and that, with one rather unimportant exception — that of Lavalin, Lower Canada — there is not in the whole of the king's dominions one which has a distinctively theological character or form of government. It may be added that, in the true interests of higher educa- tion, colleges with a pronounced denominational char- acter may very properly receive full recognition and public aid. But a university is something more than a college; it is a corporate body, intrusted by the Crown with the power of setting up the standard of learning, and of rewarding intellectual merit per se- In the exercise of this power denominational consid- ENGLAND 119 erations clearly have no lawful place. To establish a new university under the control of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and vv^ith a view to strengthen the influence of one religious communion, would be a reactionary step of serious magnitude on the part of the state which has, one by one, taken away all ex- clusive privileges from the adherents of its Established Church. Oxford and Cambridge, with the traditions of a thousand years behind them, have ceased, as far as the award of academic honors is concerned, to be Anglican institutions. Neither the Presbyterians nor the Wesleyans have asked for universities of their own. There is but one church that puts forth a de- mand for exceptional treatment and for a sectarian university. For the present statesmen and leaders of public opinion in England are hesitating whether to refuse or to comply with this demand. It is probable that Parliament will arrive at some compromise whereby the fullest liberty and encouragement shall be given to such teaching as Catholics desire, and at the same time the meaning of a university degree shall not be altered; while the distinguishing mark of scholarship shall be awarded on grounds of intel- lectual merit alone, without reference to the theolog- ical opinions of the candidate. One of the most important events of the closing year of the nineteenth century was the reorganization of the University of London. Founded in 1837, its charter recognized it as an examining body in close connection with certain other colleges, and empowered 120 ENGLAND it to examine the students from those institutions and to award them with degrees and honors. In 1878 a new charter threw open the examinations to all comers. Thus, for many years, the London University has been mainly an examining body rather than a teaching body, and has conferred its honors on can- didates from all parts of the country and the colonies. It has, in fact, been an imperial, not a local, university. But now the University has faculties and boards of studies for each of the departments of university instruction, including engineering, education, and economic and political science, and provides both for internal students who are pursuing a regular course of study under college professors, and also for exter- nal students who may receive degrees after examina- tion only, and on the same conditions as those which have hitherto existed. How important the mainte- nance of the system of external graduation is, may be inferred from the fact that in the year 1898 no less than 6,319 candidates presented themselves at the opening examinations; that of those, 1,078 men and 506 women passed at matriculation ; 285 men and 243 women in the examinations for degrees in arts; 255 men and 52 women in science; and 406 men and 51 women in medicine. " London has long been the only great capital of Europe without a real university taking cognizance, not only of examinations and degrees, but also of the higher culture generally. Otherwise no London university could be commensurate with the magni- ENGLAND 121 tude and intellectual influence of the metropolis. It is plainly impossible to reproduce on the banks of the Thames an institution appealing, like Oxford or Cambridge, by its beauty, its repose, and its venerable and touching historical associations, to the affections of students. But the very absence of tradition and precedent renders it freer to adapt itself to new condi- tions and to try new experiments. The London Uni- versity has it in its power to develop into an institu- tion of an original and noble type. By providing special chairs for the encouragement of post-graduate studies, by showing how existing colleges may be brought into mutually helpful relations, and by kin- dling among London citizens that spirit of local pa- triotism which makes men proud of their birthplace and anxious to promote its welfare and the fame of its institutions, the University bids fair to realize in London Bacon's dream of a New Atlantis — a great seat of learning, the chosen home of scientific inves- tigation and experiment, a bold pioneer in the discov- ery of new truth, the hospitable center at which the philosopher and the ' merchants of light ' and the * interpreters of nature ' from all regions of the earth will always receive a cordial welcome."* CHAPTER X women's colleges in ENGLAND THE revival of women's education in England has now a record of nearly sixty years behind it. In the first half of the last century girls of the upper classes were, for the most part, educated at home by governesses, usually foreigners ; more rarely were sent to private boarding-schools. No possibility of training was open to an English woman, for teaching was not looked upon as a profession, but as the one resource for all better-class women who through some untoward circumstance had been suddenly compelled to seek a livelihood. The average governess was a pitiful specimen of educated humanity. Some, of course, there were who, by travel or by private study, had reached a fair standard of attainment ; but the major- ity were utterly incapable of performing the duties undertaken. To help and protect this class the Govern- esses' Benevolent Association was formed in 1843, and as the needs grew was finally merged in 1848 into an educational institution known to the present day as Queen's College. The ideas with which the infant college started its career, strike us nowadays as exceedingly quaint. Each lecture was preceded by an apologetic introduc- tion, and in each case a lengthy explanation proved that the evils anticipated from the particular subject 122 ENGLAND 123 under discussion were but fanciful. It is difficult for the modern mind to realize how great was the terror of learned ladies which prevailed in those early days. There were many students, however, and the col- lege flourished. The entry of a number of quite young girls made it necessary to organize a prepara- tory school, and after fifty-eight years both school and college are still doing most excellent work. Queen's College was in connection with the Church of England ; Bedford College, founded in 1849, met the needs of Nonconformists as well as Episcopalians, its principles being unsectarian, and in the manage- ment of its affairs the women took a greater part. Its founder and benefactress was Mrs. Reid, and believ- ing that women could best understand the needs of girls, she chose a co-operating feminine board. These women enrolled as lady-visitors and were expected to be present in turn at the college lectures. The lec- turers at this college have included such distinguished names as De Morgan, Newman, George Macdonald, and Sir Oliver Lodge. Of the students the best-known is George EHot, who attended the first Latin class, while in comparatively recent years Beatrice Harraden appears in the list. Owing chiefly to the efforts of two of the earliest students of Queen's College, Misses Buss and Beale, a thorough reform in girls' schools was inaugurated. The former founded the North London Collegiate School for girls, the first and still the very best of high schools. Miss Beale became principal of Cheltenham 124 ENGLAND Ladies' College in 1858 and soon succeeded in raising it to the high rank which it still continues to hold. In 1865 girls were admitted to the Cambridge Local Examinations, which had been instituted for school- boys between the age of thirteen and fourteen. This proved a great step forward, for schools now had an aim to work for, and a link between girls' schools and the Cambridge University was supplied. In 1870 a second progressive step was taken, in the advent of a few women in Cambridge to work for the honors — degree examinations. They were successful, and the preliminary experiment being satisfactory, funds were raised and in 1873 Girton College was founded. Newnham College was founded about the same time as a hall of residence for girls preparing for Cambridge examinations, but very soon students began to study for the degree examinations. In 1881 women were formally admitted to honors examinations and Girton and Newnham formally recognized, but as yet neither Oxford nor Cambridge have conferred ac- tual degrees upon women. The University of London was the pioneer in giv- ing full rights to women, opening its doors to them in 1878. Bedford College sent in candidates to the very first examinations, and all distinguished themselves. It then adapted itself definitely to prepare for London degrees, opening classes in all art subjects, and adding one laboratory after another for the practical work in science until it was fully equipped. Queen's College developed along different lines. It ENGLAND 125 opened no scientific laboratories, and made no attempt to prepare women for a professional life. It is at- tended by well-to-do girls who desire thorough study- but who do not expect to earn their living in any line for which a degree certificate is an advantage. The students now are considerably younger than those at Bedford. About the time of the opening of London Univer- sity, women began to be admitted to University Col- lege. The professors first held separate lectures for them, but wearied after a time of repeating them- selves and threw open the regular classes to the women. King's College has a special department for women where they do good work in languages and lit- erature; while University College in Liverpool, York- shire College in Leeds, Durham University, and the University of Wales admit women on exactly the same terms as men. Westfield College in Hampstead and Holloway College in Surrey complete the list of higher educational institutions for women in England. The students at women's colleges are recruited mostly from high schools of the type of the North London Collegiate for girls. Such a student has been applying herself for many years and has accumulated a great deal of knowledge. At the same time she has had much healthy exercise playing hockey, lawn ten- nis, etc., and much fun from her school societies. There is often a want of individuality and atmosphere about her, because school-life with its lessons, its games, and its societies is so engrossing that the girl 126 ENGLAND develops in the one groove and is often very one-sided. Some come from private schools, and though their knowledge is more limited than the high-school girls, they are fresher and more original. The choice of the college usually depends upon the means, on the possibility of scholarships, and on the subjects which a girl wishes to study. Poor girls liv- ing within reach of a college are usually obliged to attend that college unless fortunate enough to obtain a scholarship to take them elsewhere. Rich girls go to Cambridge and Oxford, because the older uni- versities are of higher social standing. The stand- ard of preparation for all colleges is approximately the same, and one fault is common to all, — work is done too much with reference to the final examinations. This is at its worst in London, where it is also most excusable; for the London examinations are very difficult and at every one more than half the candidates fail. In Oxford and Cambridge actual failure is rare, but great value is laid on the attainment of first-class honors. A girl's life at college differs considerably with the place she selects, the greatest differences being between the residential and the non-residential colleges. Bedford College is essentially a non-residential school. There are no lectures in the morning or after five at night, and no interval in the middle of the day, so that each student has to make her lunch time fit in with her lectures as best she' may. Nearly all those who pre- pare for London degrees come from high schools, and ENGLAND 127 there is such a vast amount to be learned for a London degree in arts or sciences that these girls are often overhurried, and scarcely have time to assimilate their work satisfactorily. However, there are given oppor- tunities for enjoyment and recreation. Residential pupils, and those of the non-residents who can be on the spot early enough, devote the morning before ten to amusement and exercise. In winter they play hockey ; in summer there is boating in Regent's Park and the swimming-baths are not far away. After five in the afternoon the various societies meet and are charac- teristic of college life, and tea is supplied by the tea club at four, forming a short break in the afternoon's work. The organization of these clubs often shows marked ability, and in them the girls learn much which is useful to them in larger spheres. University College, London, has both male and fe- male students, the laboratories are on a very large scale, and every facility for advanced work and orig- inal research is afforded. The average woman stu- dent here is older than her sister at Bedford, and is frequently specializing in some subject, along with her degree work. Teachers desiring to qualify in higher branches are frequent students at University College, and so the atmosphere is distinctly less crude and schoolgirl-like than at Bedford. The majority of the students are members of the Woman's Union which includes all the college clubs. Some of the latter are formed of women only, others are mixed and are affiliated to the Men's Union as well as to the 128 ENGLAND Women's. Classes here begin at nine ; there are rarely any after five, and there is no lunch interval. The men and women work together in the laboratories, and learn much from each other, the women quite holding their own. The work is hard, but interesting and satis- factory, is keenly enjoyed by the students, and there is the sense of constant progress and at the same time the spirit of youthfulness and freshness. At Cambridge, and with few exceptions at Ox- ford, the students live in the colleges and devote all their time and energy^ to study and recreation. At Newnham and Girton it is usual for girls to stay three years, and only when they have special ability for four. At Girton each student has two very com- fortable rooms, — bedroom and study, — at Newnham only one. Breakfast and lunch may be taken at any reasonable hour ; dinner or " hall," as it is called, is at a fixed hour. The whole of the morning and part of the evening are devoted to work ; the afternoon, as is the habit at the older universities, is devoted to play. Science students only, who have much to do in laboratories, do not have their afternoons free. Girton is some distance from Cambridge, so that the girls go to and from the university lectiires in flies ; a great deal of the work is, however, individual, and is done either with women dons who live in the college or else with men who come out from Cambridge. Some of the students work day and night in their effort to get a " first class ;" others, who have come to the college be- cause of the pleasant life with its keen and intellectual ENGLAND • 129 atmosphere, companionship, games, and societies, and beautiful surroundings, do not do much more than is necessary to get a tolerable place in the examination. Those are wisest who do not neglect the social side, for as much is learned from cocoa parties as from text- books, and those are fortunate who ever again spend such happy years as the three at Girton or Newnham. The college terms are not long, and reading parties — another of the joys of existence — are often formed, either in England or abroad, for those who wish to meet together in the summer and do some work. The conditions in Oxford are not unlike those at Cambridge, but another recreation, boating, is possible. There is no doubt that, from the point of view of supplying an ideally pleasant and not unprofitable ex- istence for girls who have just Seen set free from the restraints of school, but have not entered on the re- sponsibilities of life, the women's colleges in England, particularly the residential colleges, are a very great success. From the point of view of the kind of women they turn out, they can probably also be re- garded as a success. A very large number of university women take up teaching as a profession, namely, very nearly all those who graduate in arts or science from Bedford or University College, London, and perhaps half of the Oxford and Cambridge women. Such teachers could hardly be better prepared as regards knowledge, and they all know how to work, but they are one-sided and have to pay for their excellence by deficiencies in other 130 ENGLAND respects. They have, in fact, been so busy studying that they are hopelessly ignorant of life, and they have mixed so much with young people of their own age that they have had no chance of getting- to know grown-up people or learning what ordinary human life is like. Many college women study medicine and they are liked as practitioners and are most successful in get- ting posts. A few take up journalism, a few have made their names in literature, and some have devoted themselves to social work./ CHAPTER XI BRITISH SOCIAL LIFE NOTHING shows more clearly that we are living in a transition age than the life in West Lon- don. It is a curious conglomeration of a past in- heritance, of present tastes, of future tendencies. The great palaces, the stately houses, the spreading trees in well-ordered parks, take our thoughts in a leisurely fashion down avenues that lead to a past age when life was not one long hurry in order to go to the next thing, but when men and women had time to be dignified and pause before the importance of their own existence. Little events bring great re- sults, and nothing has so changed the social life of West London, nothing has broken down class bar- riers so effectively, as the progress in the means of locomotion. I can well recollect my aunt's telling me of the first drive she ever took in a hansom cab. It was considered a sort of an expedition that had in it a spice of adventure, and her father, who accom- panied her, begged her to keep her parasol well be- fore her face. I also remember that my grand- mother told me that- she thanked heaven that she had never been in a hack cab in her life, and I still have a vivid remembrance of the swinging chariot, with two footmen hanging behind, which was con- sidered the only conveyance fit for any woman be- 131 132 ENGLAND longing to her order. This change in the pomp of daily life has invaded every realm of society. In old days a ball was a ceremony which was considered a serious social observance ; dancing was a measured ritual, slow, punctilious ; every step was of impor- tance, and every step was taught — a very different pastime from the crowded romp which has taken the place of that splendid though solemn recreation. I can also recollect the time when it was only whispered that any one received in society was con- nected with any trade or business ; but to-day, busi- ness and society are so combined that a man will, as has been very cleverly said by a pungent writer, " pull out a sample of kamptulicon from his pocket and beg his hostess to remember him when she re- covers her kitchen floor." West London in old days was essentially a city of ponderous pomp. Paris in comparison appeared as a bright firefly beside the grim darkness which surrounded England's metrop- olis. Now, the streets of London are brighter, if possible, than those of Paris, the shops as gay, the movement as vivacious. In the old days, the stately mansions in the West End were open for three or four months in the year. " The family came to town " — servants, carriages, horses, luggage, all were brought from the country house and established in Belgrave or Grosvenor Square. Now, Monday to Saturday may be spent in London, Saturday to Monday on the river, Tues- day to Thursday at some race-meeting. Rush and ENGLAND 133 hurry, hurry and rush, characterize the Hfe of those who are called " the smart set." The early ride in the park, the afternoon drive and shopping and calls, have given place to polo matches and pigeon-shoot- ing, cycling parties, motor-scorching, bridge, and poker. If you wanted in the old days to see your friends, you could invariably find them at a quiet, solemn lunch, assembled in dim stately dining-rooms between one and two o'clock. Now, restaurants, hotels, tea-houses and lunch-rooms are the re- sorts of the representatives of the fashionable world. But probably the greatest change of all has taken place in the methods by which people are ad- mitted to the inner circles of what is called " the best society." Many causes have been at work, which have, some for the better and some for the worse, broken down the barriers that existed be- tween the aristocratic classes and the great profes- sional and money-making world. It was of set pur- pose that Pitt created a plebeian aristocracy. He made peers of the successful money-lmakers, and, as Lord Beaconsfield said, " caught them from the alleys of Lombard Street and clutched them from the counting-houses of Cornhill." But to-day, the suc- cessful brewer who has coined enough money out of the public houses of East London and other great centers, the reckless speculator or the great Jewish financier, are among those eagerly selected for hered- itary seats in the House of Lords; and to-day, if the pedigrees of the great families were examined, not 134 ENGLAND one would be found that has not reinforced its exchequer by an alHance with a great commercial house. In an age when money is the real touch- stone of power, the great names of England are freely bartered for fortunes that have been built up by successful money-makers. Another great change which has taken place is undoubtedly the admittance into society of the Jews. Sixty years ago, it would have been impos- sible for any Jew to obtain a social standing in Lon- don. To-day, not only is every great financial house, save one, practically Jewish, but a large Jewish plutocracy forms one of the pillars of social life sup- porting the throne and re-enforcing the power of English aristocracy. And yet with these many anomalies we see amidst the traditions of the past, there is no place where those traditions have so firm a hold or appeal so strongly to the popular imagination as in West Lon- don. All who witnessed the splendid pageant of the Coronation will have realized how dearly the Eng- lish still love pomp. The great mass of the people are gratified to see the fruits of their taxation, and revel in spectacular pageants ; but even at the most im- pressive moment of that great ceremony, when the trappings of the cream-colored horses were glit- tering in the sun and the painted coach bore its bur- den of robed and crowned royalty, riveting every eye, the hooting of a motor-car and the presence of a bicycle testified to the fact that all this was a resur- ENGLAND 135 rection of past times, not an indication of future cus- toms. The presence of a thousand kodaks in the streets upon that memorable Coronation Day testi- fied to another transformation which has brought far-reaching results that it would be impossible to detail here. Probably the greatest visible change, however, that has taken place in West London is the manner in which the older houses have passed from the hands of their proprietors into the possession of the newly rich. Park Lane at one time was considered to be the home of the country's great ruling class only. To-day, almost every large house is inhab- ited by either a Jewish stockbroker or an African millionaire. Pecuniary pressure has forced the for- mer proprietors into smaller houses or flats, or that strange compromise now known as a maisonette, which is simply a fine word for living over a shop. The absence of privacy is again another marked social change in the life of the inhabitants of the West End. In earlier days, the reticent announce- ment that such and such a family had left London was all that appeared about people who occupied great positions, but nowadays the interviewer invades their morning-room at eleven o'clock. Every detail of their lives is known ; they are asked their opinion on the best books, the best flowers, the worst plays, the position of women, the position of men; in fact, the dissection of every taste, habit, idea, is de rigueur. Nothing is withheld; even the details of life's great- 136 ENGLAND est emotions are freel}^ demanded, or the relation of the most momentous event that has influenced them. Everything is laid bare before the operators of the press. A large portion of society spends its time in reading with interest what the other half wears, does, thinks, plays at, in order to imitate it as nearly as possible. This modern mania for publicity has broken down the seclusion of domestic life, and with this same emancipation from all reserve has come a want of restraint in conversation which was for- merly unknown. Decoruni is almost extinct. There is scarcely any subject that is not discussed at so- ciety's dinner-table, no illness that is not mentioned, no story that is not told. A well-known writer in a delightful book on so- ciety, speaking of this, gives an illustrative anecdote which came before his own notice. A lady was sending her youngest boy to our public school at Eton, and in talking over his new life she gave him the sagest of all mother's counsels, " Never listen to anything which you would not wish your sisters to hear." He gazed at her with awe-struck eyes and then replied with emotion : " I should think not, in- deed, mother ! If Polly and' Kitty could not hear it, it must be awful." The young girl of the present day in many social circles is as free in her conversa- tion and as emancipated in her ideas as the brother who formerly had to guard her innocence and re- strain his conversation in her presence. All these changes which have affected British ENGLAND 137 society so deeply can not be traced to any one cause, much less to any one set of men, although the " newly arrived " social leaders have often been blamed with bringing them about by undiscerning critics. At any rate, the representatives of the great financial houses have come to stay and must be reckoned with as a social factor in the future. It is in a way curious that these men who have been all their lives engrossed in money-making should aspire to social recognition. Their motives are not in all cases the same. A few, no doubt, have become tired of business activity and yet do not wish to pass into the sort of mediocrity v^^hich involves no struggle. Used to climbing, day by day, in their business affairs, they must have some aim, some ambition, after retirement from financial circles. And so so- ciety attracts them. But it is more often the ambi- tion of the women of the household which impels to a social campaign of lavish expenditure. To many women any charmed circle to which they are not ad- mitted has an attractiveness from the very fact of the difficulty of entrance to it. Then, too, the young Englishman who is forced to go to South Africa or the other colonies for his livelihood rarely regards his situation as a perma- nent one. He thinks of England as his home and is ambitious to return to it and establish his family there permanently, and the surest way of accomplish- ing this object is an alliance with one of the promi- nent families in reduced circumstances, or an entrance 138 ENGLAND into society by means of wealth. What is true of British society is also true of society in the United States. The fashionable set in New York is very much more largely recruited from the wealthy fami- lies than from those whose main claim to prominence is the possession of an ancient name. And yet American society offers a far less diver- sified and interesting life than does British society. The great families of England have vast estates to manage, tenants dependent upon them, and a score of other responsibilities. Then, too, the society woman of London is frequently a keen political partizan. She follows closely the careers of public men and often is so thoroughly posted in the affairs of the nation that she can criticize parties and politics with insight and keenness. American society, on the other hand, not only takes no part in political affairs, but is not at all backward in affecting a total igno- rance of the subject. Even the men show only luke- warm, passing interest, and rarely run for office. There is a tendency among them to regard politics as a business to be handed over to the professional politician, not as an intimate concern of their own. Thus it is that in London' society may be found the most prominent men of affairs, while New York so- ciety is scarcely interested in anything or any one outside of its own more or less narrow limits. West London presents a picture which is full of danger and difficulty. In old days, after the season ,was over, as I have already said, families traveled ENGLAND 139 back again to their country homes, their round of quiet duties, their accountabiUty toward dependents on great estates, which made them to a large extent realize the responsibility of existence. It would have been thought impossible for the members of a fam- ily to be absent from church on Sundays without an adequate reason, even though they probably would profess no special personal religion. This was at any rate the acknowledgment of a God and of a power higher than their own, a world beyond their little world. Now, by train or motor, the smart set rushes from London. Sunday is spent in expeditions, boat- ing and bicycling. Formerly, the family dinner used to consist of sort of an abbreviated meal in the eve- ning in order to allow the servants to go to church. Now, an elaborate feast of many courses is suc- ceeded by a late supper. It has been well said that the society existence of West London begets a life which is absolutely divorced from duty. In fact, it has come to be regarded as a sin, in a certain set, to take any concern of life seriously. Carlyle once said that there is no class among us intrinsically so valuable and so recommendable as our aristocracy. I am led to believe that if this is true of latter-day London society, it is now largely due to the many and the much-discussed marriages of wealthy American girls to titled Englishmen. Our British aristocracy has replenished its exchequer, perhaps, by means of them, but it has done something more. Through them it has brought home new vital- 140 ENGLAND ity, fresh outlook, and great vigor. There is an awakening among hundreds to the needs of their fellow men. There is a quicker concept of the eternal truth of the great brotherhood of the race, and that has sent many young men from the universities to the Settlements of East London, many women to de- voted work among those of less opportunity than themselves. We live in a tradition period. The in- stitutions of the past are re-forming themselves on new models, and at such transition times the worst is often emphasized while the best is evolving.^ CHAPTER XII RECENT IMPRESSIONS OF THE ENGLISH THE stranger in London to-day, when he stands at the foot of Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square, may congratulate himself upon the fact that he has reached the very core and center of the great- est empire which the world has ever seen, and at the moment of the greatest power which that empire has thus far attained. It is no wonder, then, that London, the heart of the Empire, throbs with the sense of imperial power. A London paper speaks, with pardonable pride, of " a vitality pulsating from the center to the extremi- ties of the empire, which will enable England, if she be true to her task, to hold between contending com- binations the balance of the world." People call Paris gay and London gloomy, but these epithets no longer apply. The dreadful wounds inflicted upon the self-respect of France have dimmed the gayety and sharpened the temper even of Paris ; whereas in Lon- don every one, old and young, feels himself to be a component part of a mighty empire. ^ . But there is another side to this picture. England, though triumphant in war and strong in the devotion of her colonies, has begun to tremble for her commer- cial supremacy. Shrewd observers, men who have gone behind the scenes, report that the trade of Lon- 141 142 ENGLAND don is declining, and that the metropoHs is beginning to Hve upon past earnings. In manufactures Eng- land is being hard pressed by Germany, and still more by the United States. Does this compel us to conclude that the British Isles have passed the climax of their prosperity and have entered upon the down-hill path? The answer to that question depends upon the answer to another, — namely, are the English deteriorating in character or in energy? For I assume, despite the brilliant theories of Mr. Brooks Adams, that this is the sole cause of national decay; that no commercial policy or financial system, however erroneous, can work the ruin of a race which retains its moral and physical stamina. Do our British cousins, then, show any signs of moral or physical decadence? If we may trust so keen an observer as the late Mr. G. W. Stevens, him- self a patriotic Englishman, there are such signs. " Compared with our ancestors," he said, " we do not drink so well, love so well, fight so well; physically and emotionally we have subdued ourselves to a lower plane." If there be any decadence in the English, it is a decadence which they share with the rest of the civil- ized world, and it is possible that what they have lost in some directions they have gained in others. The whole world is, as Mr. Stevens put it, " subdued to a lower plane." People have become more temperate, less childlike, more reasonable; and undoubtedly with ENGLAND 143 the development of the nervous system and of the imagination there has been a loss of animal courage; but it may have been more than supplied by an in- crease of moral courage. No one can come in contact with the English of to-day and conclude that they lack courage or en- ergy. England is suffering rather from misdirected, or unapplied, energy. She is in the position of a man who, having enjoyed for many years a large income, continues, after his income has diminished, to live extravagantly and idly. The number of superfluous luxuries which a wealthy Englishman gathers about him is appalling: an army of servants, more horses than he can use, houses in town and country, kitch- ens like laboratories, bathrooms like plumbers' shops ; canes for every sort of walk ; bags, trunks, waterproofs, blankets, rugs, binocular glasses, and a thousand other things that tend to make life com- plicated, material, and unsatisfactory. Nor is indulgence in luxuries confined to the rich. The typical Englishman puts nothing aside. At Man- chester the working-classes are famous for buying the first of the early vegetables ; and among the same class all over the kingdom the use of alcoholic liquors is excessive. Even the love of sports and of outdoor exercise is now carried to an excess. It involves the expenditure of more time, more energy, and more money than the English can afford. Horse-racing is worse, for it in- volves gambling. Such are some of the ways in 144 ENGLAND which John Bull is endangering his position in the world. He eats and drinks too extravagantly, and he neglects his business to amuse himself. But there is another drag upon John Bull, the effect of which is very little understood in this coun- try — I mean the aristocracy. To the imagination of an American, the English aristocracy figures as a kind of ornamental thing, furnishing some gifted states- men and many brave soldiers, but chiefly useful as a theme for the novelist and as an exemplar of good manners and good '' form." The Enghsh themselves are apt to look upon it in this light ; and even so hard- headed a man as the late Benjamin Jowett gravely re- marked, '' I do not think we can afford to give up aristocracy as an element of national education." The aristocracy may be all this, — though a keen observer declares that English duchesses have the worst man- ners in the world, — ■ but it is also something more and something worse. It is a contrivance for putting second- and third-class men into places that should be occupied by first-class men. This is most apparent in the army. All the cor- respondents and military critics who dealt with the South African War, whether friendly or hostile to the English, were agreed upon one point ; namely, that the English officers, as a class, were supremely brave, but also supremely stupid, careless, and incapable of adapting themselves to new conditions. The ineffi- ciency of the English officers is due mainly to the fact that the army is an aristocratic institution. An officer ENGLAND 145 in a crack regiment must have a private income of at least $4,000 per annum, in addition to his pay; and unless he has a certain social standing, he would not be tolerated in the mess. Young men join the army not as a profession, but as a kind of sporting club. At a dinner party in London there was an officer lately returned, wounded, from the war. He was of the extreme " haw, haw " English type; and he declared that ''South Africa" was a " beastly place." There was really no amusement there until Lady Fitzdoodle came out and gave after- noon teas. Then it was " rather nice." What could such a soldier accomplish if he were pitted against an alert foreigner keenly interested in his profession, looking to it for his bread and butter, and eager for promotion ? To a great extent the officers of the government are selected upon the same aristocratic theory. The administration, like the army, is still in many respects a feudal institution. It does not gather to itself the best talent of modern, practical England; and hence its blunders. What is to be thought of a govern- ment which, though it foresaw, months if not years before the event, the clouds of war gathering over South Africa, yet sent its troops into the field armed with obsolete toy weapons, which carried about half as far as the Mausers of the Boers? It is impossible to believe that such a government represents the best abilities, the real energy, of the English people. It is a stupid government because 146 ENGLAND it is an aristocratic government. At least half the members of the House of Commons belong to the aristocratic class, and many of them are the sons of peers. In 1886 one-quarter of them bore titles. It is a significant fact that the English ministry, at least whenever the Conservatives are in power, is always largely composed of Eton men. They go to Eton as boys because it is an aristocratic school ! and after- ward they get into Parliament, and thence into the ministry, because their wealth enables them to dis- pense with professional work, and because their birth recommends them to constituencies. On the other hand, to find a Rugby man you will search the roll of the British ministry almost in vain, for Rugby is a middle-class school. The one graduate of Rugby who has distinguished himself in Parliament is Mr. Goschen ; and he did not do so until he had made a large fortune in the city. The aristocracy is so deeply rooted in the respect and even in the affections of the country, its public services have been so great, and the character of many of its representatives is so high, that its aboli- tion is perhaps neither to be expected nor desired. But John Bull must find some way to prevent its acting as an extinguisher; he must select his servants and agents for their talents and not for their birth, or else he is likely to be outstripped in the race for commercial and even for military supremacy. The most striking difference between the English people of to-day and those of twenty-five years ago ENGLAND 147 is that the old feeUng of perfect satisfaction with everything EngUsh has passed away. Even the coun- try gentry are becoming aHve to the deficiencies of their pohtical and social systems. John Bull, then, being for the first time in some hundreds of years alive to his deficiencies, and his stamina being, as I believe, unimpaired, it seems rea- sonable to conclude that he will continue to hold his place in the world. His climate remains to him, and the climate of England, uncomfortable and depress- ing though it may be in the dark months, is, never- theless, a guaranty of physical strength. An Englishman eats four sheep per annum; a Frenchman, only one and a half. A London doctor, who numbers among his patients many French resi- dents, told me that for them he usually prescribed only about one-half of the dose which he would give to a Briton. It has been found that certain race- horses, both trotters and runners, which were known in this country as delicate feeders, upon being ex- ported to England picked up an appetite and became stouter and stronger, and therefore speedier. Hawthorne said: "These Englishmen are cer- tainly a franker and simpler people than ourselves, from peer to peasant; but if we take it as com- pensatory on our part (which I leave to be consid- ered) that they owe these noble and manly quali- ties to a coarser grain in their nature, and that with a finer one in ours we shall ultimately acquire a 148 ENGLAND marble polish of which they are unsusceptible, I be- lieve that this may be the truth." Here we touch upon what seems to be the funda- mental difference between the English and American people. The English have in their nature a founda- tion of barbarism, which Americans, owing perhaps to the greater development of their nerves and sen- sibilities, have left behind. The English, though the older people, are much the more primitive, closer to that vigorous savage from whom, after all, the dynamic force of a race is derived. Hence it is that England, far more than America, is a land of ex- tremes — extremes of ignorance and grossness, ex- tremes of cultivation and refinement. The race which has produced Shakespeare, Sir Isaac Newton, and Darwin is notorious for the stupidity and ignorance of its peasantry. But that same peasant is a jewel in the rough. One of the most sagacious of modern writers has ob- served, " It is not the nature of the aristocrat that permeates the cottager, but the nature of the cot- tager that permeates the aristocrat." The English cottager has contributed to the English aristocrat a moral and physical nature so robust that the aris- tocrat can safely be put through the process of cul- tivation without having the substance of his char- acter tried out of him. Parental training, the pub- lic school, the university, refined surroundings and traditions, religion and morality, the pride of birth and of family — these and other influences brought ENGLAND 149 to bear for several generations will finally produce the English gentleman. The process is long in pro- portion to the roughness of the material, and much longer than it is with us. There is one thing, and perhaps only one, which can greatly abridge the process of making an Eng- lish gentleman, and that is the possession of genius. Keats, the most delicate and fastidious of poets, was the son of a butcher. Genius, in fact, springs most luxuriantly from a wild soil. Turner, the most im- aginative and ethereal of painters, was a man of low origin and gross habits. " No great poet," writes Mr. John Burroughs, ** ever appeared except from a race of good fighters, good eaters, good sleepers, good breeders." The problem of civilization is to train and cultivate the " noisy, sensual savage " existing in every man, without refining away those instincts of pride, of pugnacity, of pity, which make men strong and effective ; and perhaps the English, of all races in the world, have come the nearest to doing this. It is a significant fact, well worth considering, that in respect to mental activity England bears the same relation to Scotland that it does to the United States. Both in Scotland and in the United States the average of intelligence is far higher than it is in England ; but I think we must admit that in the nobler departments of intellectual achievement we also are as yet inferior to the English. The stand- ard, both in literature and in the fine arts, is higher in England than it is here. It is the very same in re- 150 ENGLAND spect to oratory. The average of the speaking in the House of Commons is lower than it is in the American House of Representatives, but the best English speakers surpass the best American speakers. Even the judicial opinions of the English judges are better expressed than those of our judges — more racy and spontaneous, more literary. In learning generally, especially in theology, there can be no question of English superiority. But it is only in these higher branches that we are excelled by the English. The moment that you pass from pure science to applied science, or from science to the practical art in which it results, that moment the tables are turned, and the American be- comes the superior. In surgery, which is both a science and an art, both speculative and practical, we are probably on a par with the English; in civil or mechanical engineering, which is more practical and less theoretical, we excel the English ; and in trade, in mechanics, in manufactures, in the everyday affairs of life, the American is infinitely more skilful, more rapid, more effective, than the Englishman. The Englishman has none of that all-around men- tal activity which distinguishes the American. He knows only one thing — that by which he earns his living; and he does not desire to know anything else; far less is he ashamed of not knowing it. A London policeman, if you ask him about some distant street or building of importance, will reply civilly, but un- abashed, " I can't tell you, sir ; that is not in my beat.'' ENGLAND 151 An American policeman would know the fact, and if he did not know it, he would feel called upon to apol- ogize for his ignorance. In a remote Maine village there was recently some occasion for a plumber, and a very good one was forthwith improvised from a carpenter. Such a thing would be impossible in England. Many a New England farmer can build or repair his barn, paint and plaster his house, " tinker " his mowing- machine, shoe his horse, doctor his cow, break his colt, row or sail his boat, " butcher " his pig, shear his sheep, skin a fox, track a deer, hive bees, serve as guide or lumberman, play the fiddle, solve a problem in arithmetic, make a good speech in town meeting, and do a hundred other things besides. There is probably not a man in all England who can do half so many things. The American is quick-witted, has far more general intelligence and information, and is therefore by far a better workman. In order rightly to understand the past or reason- ably to conjecture the future history of England one must remember that the British Empire has been created not mainly by the intellectual, but rather by the moral, qualities of the English. Upon this point one finds writers the most diverse expressing them- selves in words nearly the same. " The English did not calculate the conquest of the Indies," said Emer- son ; " it fell to their character." / (the end) AUTHORSHIP OF CHAPTERS a, h, c, d, and i, Edwin Hodder, in " The Life of a Century," published by George Nevins, Lon- don, England. e, Evelyn Clough. f, M. C. Tyler. g, Review of Reviews, h, Jacob Tison. j, English Illustrated Magazine. k, Lady Henry Somerset, in Cosmopolitan. I, Henry Childs Merriman, in Harper's Magazine, APR 5 1907