PREFACE

It may be well very briefly to explain the relation in which the present work stands to a survey, not a history, of modern England undertaken by the same author some years ago. That earlier work was originally published by Messrs Cassell and Co. in two volumes. It was reprinted, first by them, secondly by Messrs Chapman and Hall, in a single volume. Into that re-issue of his England: Its People, Polity, and Pursuits (the labour of revision being much lightened by the obliging help of Mr Francis Drummond), the author introduced certain references to social or legislative changes effected since the original edition of the work appeared. Without organic disturbance of its plan, and risk of consequent confusion to the reader, it would have been impossible to bring down that book to the year 1897. The writer does not in the following pages pre-suppose any knowledge of his former book on the part of the readers of his present one. He has, however, held himself absolved from the duty of repeating in this book minute accounts of institutions fully described in its predecessor. Such repetition seemed the more undesirable because the earlier book is still in wide circulation here; while it has been translated into several European languages, and has been adopted as a text book in the higher grade State schools of Germany,[1] and of other countries. The method of workmanship adopted in Social Transformations of the Victorian Age is identical with that pursued in the case of England, Etc.

This new book being, like its predecessor, not a history, but a series of different views from a common standpoint, the sketches of national life and character as well as of national institutions at work, have in all cases been made from personal observation; supplemented by the assistance of the highest experts in their different departments to whom the writer had access. Often, he is glad to say, the same private friends who helped him in the seventies have been able to renew that help in the nineties. Thus, Sir Charles Dilke, Sir Robert Herbert, Mr Mundella, Mr Archibald Milman of the House of Commons, and Mr Albert Pell have generally and specifically repeated the assistance lent to him twenty years earlier. In most cases it is hoped the assistance given has been acknowledged in its proper place. In many cases the advantages of this service extend beyond any particular passage. In all which relates to the new schemes of local government the writer is particularly indebted to Mr Henry Chaplin or members of his staff; to Sir Henry Fowler; to Sir Charles Dilke; to the Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., of Holdenby, as in ecclesiastical matters to the Rev. A. L. Foulkes of Steventon, and to the Rev. H. W. Tucker, D.D., of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In references to certain phases of social history, especially about the early railway period, he has learned much from Lord Carlingford, Mr Markham Spofforth, Mr J. C. Parkinson, and from Sir W. H. Russell. And finally he would specially thank several gentlemen of the Education Department, as well as the Vice-President himself, Sir John Gorst. It is hoped that, as in the case of the writer’s England, so in that of his new book, the collaboration of those who are, in their different provinces, experts, has ensured a more uniform accuracy than in a volume dealing with such a variety of subjects would otherwise have been attainable.

T. H. S. E.

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I

TWO EPOCHS OF VICTORIAN SOCIETY CONTRASTED, 1

CHAPTER II

THE NEW WEALTH, 13

CHAPTER III

TRANSFORMATION BY STEAM, 27

CHAPTER IV

THE ARISTOCRACY OF WEALTH AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS, 39

CHAPTER V

THE RICH MEN FROM THE EAST, 53

CHAPTER VI

SOCIAL CITIZENSHIP AS A MORAL GROWTH OF VICTORIAN ENGLAND, 67

CHAPTER VII

THE NEW ERA IN ENGLISH PARISHES, 77

CHAPTER VIII

THE NEW ERA IN ENGLISH COUNTIES, 92

CHAPTER IX

COUNTY COUNCILS AND CLASS FUSION, 103

CHAPTER X

THE SOCIAL FUSING AND ORGANIZING OF THE TWO NATIONS OF ‘SIBYL,’ 115

CHAPTER XI

FROM AN UNTAUGHT GENERATION TO FREE SCHOOLS, 132

CHAPTER XII

THE LADDER OF EDUCATION, 151

CHAPTER XIII

THE GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS AS MIRRORS OF THE AGE, 168

CHAPTER XIV

THE NEW OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE, 179

CHAPTER XV

FROM THE OLD SOCIAL ORDER TO THE NEW, 193

CHAPTER XVI

‘THE PLAY’S THE THING,’ 206

CHAPTER XVII

THE STRANGER WITHIN OUR GATES AND OUR OWN TEEMING MILLIONS, 220

CHAPTER XVIII

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AS A LANDMARK OF POLITICAL PROGRESS UNDER QUEEN VICTORIA, 238

CHAPTER XIX

CROWN, COUNTRY AND COMMONS, 259

CHAPTER XX

ROYALTY AS A SOCIAL FORCE, 274

CHAPTER XXI

CROWN AND SWORD, 290

CHAPTER XXII

FROM WOODEN WALLS TO FLOATING ENGINES, 311

CHAPTER XXIII

TRANSFORMATIONS OF VICTORIAN SCIENCE, 320

CHAPTER XXIV

CECILIA’S TRIUMPHS, 337

CHAPTER XXV

TRANSFORMED AND TRANSFORMING ART, 349

CHAPTER XXVI

POPULAR CULTURE IN THE CRUCIBLE, 362

CHAPTER XXVII

NEWSPAPER PRESS TRANSFORMATION SCENES, 380

CHAPTER XXVIII

TRANSFORMATIONS IN INVALID LIFE, 388

CHAPTER XXIX

TRANSFORMATIONS OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT, 398

CHAPTER XXX

THE QUEEN’S SUBJECTS AT PLAY—ACTIVE OR SEDENTARY, 408

CHAPTER XXXI

THE REIGN OF LAW AND ITS TRANSFORMATIONS:—HOME AND COLONIAL, 422

INDEX 439

Social Transformations