The Victorian Era

Outlines Of British History Part II By F.W.Tickner , D.Lit.,B,Sc.

THE changes that had been taking place for a period of well-nigh one hundred years, and had been retarded by the great French wars, became clearly visible during the reign of Queen Victoria. The Industrial Revolution, the growth of a second great British Empire, the rapid increase in wealth and prosperity, all these things had been causing great alterations in the outlook of the British people. The older landed aristocracy was losing its control of the Government, and was passing away, and this change was carrying with it whatever remained of the older feudal ideas of society that had persisted in rural England. England was becoming, for better or for worse, a land of industrial and commercial towns; its people mainly town livers. Before the great Victorian era closed the Government had become really a democracy, with a sovereign who was content to rule as the constitutional head of a limited monarchy. Power was in the hands of the people, and could be exercised by them through their representatives in Parliament. It was a great and a wonderful change that had taken place, and none the less wonderful in that it had been brought about from beginning to end almost entirely by orderly evolution, at a time, when, on more than one occasion, Europe was disturbed by the sound of revolution in many lands.

George III died in 1820, and was succeeded by two of his sons in turn, the worthless George IV (1820-1830), and the harmless William IV. Then in 1837 a young girl of nineteen ascended the throne. She was to rule the country for sixty-four years, and in these years Britain was to pass through a perio6 of remarkable changes which make the Victorian era comparable in some respects with the spacious days of great Elizabeth.

The first years of the era are marked by the dominance of the middle classes, whose steady rise to power we have been tracing ever since the time of the Tudors; the later years witness the advent of democracy, and the rule of the people. It is a period of great progress, and of great success in material things ; above all, it is a period of great scientific developments, and of the application of those developments to commerce and industry. The wealth of the nation increased by leaps and bounds: it has been estimated that the average income per head of population was £150 in 1837; fifty years later it was £256 per head. The revenue in 1792 was less than 20 million pounds; in 1915 it was over 270 millions. This great treasure in wealth was shared, too, in varying degree, by all sections of society, and the standard of comfort rose considerably. The Great Exhibition, which was opened by the Queen in 1851, showed the world some of the results of these extraordinary developments.

The young queen took a keen interest from the beginning in the affairs of the nation, and showed a certain obstinacy of purpose in her desire to share in the direction of those affairs. She was guided by Lord Melbourne, the Whig Prime Minister, who performed this difficult task with great discretion and success, until in 1840 her marriage with Prince Albert of SaxeCoburg brought Melbourne's work to an end. It was a particularly happy marriage, and the queen suffered greatly by the untimely death of the Prince Consort in 1861.The life of the court changed entirely from the life of the courts of their predecessors; the Queen and Prince Consort set an example of good living and sobriety of conduct which was very popular with the people. It was reflected also in the general life of the people, and the era may well be called an era of humanitarianism: indeed, in many sections of society the general tone was even sentimental; and sentimentalism has been considered the mark of the age.

The results of this are to be seen in many directions. There was great progress in social legislation; Factory Acts did away with some of the worst evils of the Industrial Revolution; Sir Robert Peel, one of the most conscientious of Victorian Prime Ministers, and Lord John Russell, removed the worst severity's of the horrible penal code by reducing the number of crimes punishable by death, until at last murder alone remained as a capital offence. In 1800 more than 200 offences had been punishable by death, and two-thirds of these had been added in the course of the eighteenth century. Peel also improved the methods adopted for securing the safety of the streets by forming in 1829 an efficient police force, the members of which were for a long time known as Peelers, or Bobbies. Slavery was abolished throughout the Empire in 1833; and greater care was taken for the welfare of the people at home, and especially for the greater happiness of the children. People lost the roughness and coarseness that had marked the preceding century; there was a distinctly higher tone of manners, and more gentleness and refinement and moderation in people's habits. The nation became soberer, the taste in amusements and recreations rose as time went on, and before the close of Victoria's reign efforts were being made by the municipalities to cater for these tastes by means of public parks, recreation grounds, museums, art galleries, and public free libraries and reading rooms.

Above all things the nineteenth century is the century of scientific progress. The developments in railway communication continued, and made communication possible and easy throughout the country. By 1860 most of our great railway systems had been planned, and many were in actual operation. Better carriages were built, with faster engines to move them; inventions were brought forward to make travelling safer also. In 1846 a Cheap Trains Act compelled the provision of one train per day in each direction at a fare of one penny per mile; and since 1872, when the Midland Railway began to run third-class carriages on all their passenger trains, the cheaper passengers have been well catered for. Steam, too, was employed more and more on ocean-going vessels, and the vessels increased in size, until we have the great ocean liners of to-day, replete with comforts of all kinds. Now steam is passing away as a source of motive power, and its place is being taken by petrol and electricity; and all boys and girls know something of the results of these new sources of power in the tram and tube train, the omnibus and motor-car, and last of all, the aeroplane.

In other wonderful ways, too, means of communication were improved, and the ends of the earth were linked together. The telegraph was first used publicly in 1838, and was followed by the submarine cable in 1850. Still more useful was the invention and use of the telephone in 1876; now we are becoming accustomed to the various uses of wireless telegraphy, with its value as a link between ships at sea, its help in war-time, and its latest development as a means of broadcasting information and amusement. All these important inventions had a great effect upon methods of business; the nineteenth century saw a great commercial revolution resulting from the industrial revolution that had preceded it. The great extension of postal facilities played its part here also; penny postage was introduced in 1840, and was followed by money orders, postal orders, post office savings banks, .and the parcel post. Better methods of copying, improvements in the printing presses, and above all the introduction of the typewriter, 1857, added to the changes that were taking place.

But this is only one of the many aspects of scientific progress in this great scientific era, nor can we mention all the directions in which it extended. We may, however, mention the progress in photography both for business purposes and as an interesting hobby; and the utilisation of different materials for lighting purposes which have made the farthing dip of the early century a thing unknown. Coal-gas, petroleum, and then electricity have revolutionised the lighting of our streets and public buildings, and of our homes. Gas was first used to light the streets of London in 1810. These sources of light and heat are useful also for cooking and for industrial purposes. Matches, which ignited by friction, displaced the old tinder-box with its flint and steel, in 1830.
Perhaps the most important scientific developments have been associated with medicine and surgery. Much valuable research work has been done in the endeavour to prevent diseases by finding out their causes in order to remove them; and the work has been aided by the higher standard of cleanliness which is a feature of the century, and by the efforts made to bring sanitation into our towns and homes. Smallpox, one of the worst diseases in earlier centuries, is now a disease of rarer occurrence, and, thanks to careful notification of the disease and isolation of suspected persons, is usually quickly stamped out. Many doctors claim that this is due to vaccination, which was introduced by Dr. Jenner towards the close of the eighteenth century, though others do not agree. But, whatever the reason, the result is certain. Researches into the causes of many other diseases have been made with great success: we may mention particularly the work of Sir Ronald Ross in his efforts to combat malarial fever while working in India. He has been able to trace the spread of the disease to the work of the mosquito, and so to suggest a method of preventing its occurrence. Other workers have shown the world how to use chloroform and other anaesthetics to make operations painless; more recently, X and other rays, radium and other substances, have been placed at the disposal of the surgeon with very beneficial results.

The spirit of greater humanity which we have suggested as so characteristic of the age is to be seen also in the better care of the sick at home and in hospital; the greater attention paid to the insane and feebleminded, a matter in which much still remains to be done; and the care of children, and the place they now occupy in home and school. We may well call the end of the century the children's golden period

Another feature of the Victorian era has been the rapid spread of education, and the great improvement in the methods employed. At the beginning of the century the ignorance of the great majority of the English people was almost inconceivable. An improvement was begun by the Charity schools and Sunday schools of the eighteenth century: they were followed by two societies, one, the National Society, 1811, associated with the Church of England; the other, the British and Foreign Schools Society, 1810,with the Nonconformist bodies. These societies built schools and trained teachers, and by 1833 were educating over a million and a quarter children. The money for their work was raised chiefly by private subscription, but, with the gift of the vote to the working classes, education became a concern of the Government, for an ignorant democracy was a real danger to the State. When Queen Victoria came to the throne 40 per cent of the men and 65 per cent of the women of England could not sign their names. "We must induce our masters to learn their letters," said Mr. Robert Lowe, when introducing a new Education Bill in 1861; and the Franchise Act of 1867 made this education a real necessity. In 1833 the first Reformed Parliament had made a grant of £20,000 to the Voluntary Societies; in 1839 this grant was increased to £30,000, and inspectors were appointed to inspect all schools which were aided by the State. Greater help was given in succeeding years, and finally, in 1870, when Gladstone was Prime Minister, an Act of Parliament was introduced by Mr. Forster, which allowed any district which desired it to set up a School Board, with power to levy a rate for educational purposes and to build Board Schools. This was the beginning of great advances in education. In 1876 an Act compelled parents to send their children to school; in 1891, education in the Board Schools was made free; and at the same time the standard of instruction and the nature of the subjects taught were continually improved.

Other changes followed, until in 1902 the School Boards were abolished, and the care of education was placed in the hands of the County and County Borough Councils. These authorities were also given power to deal with the provision of better secondary (or higher) education, for England was very much behind other countries in its provision of secondary, technical, and commercial education. So the work has continued; children who need it may now receive food also; efforts have also been made to provide efficient medical inspection for all children in the schools. Girls particularly have gained from these developments, for while there was provision for boys in the usual town and country grammar schools, there was little or no provision for girls except in private schools, which taught accomplishments and deportment and such things, to the neglect of real education. University education has also improved very considerably, and new modern universities have been established in many parts of England, which train their students upon a wide curriculum, and are in close touch with modern needs, while the older universities have awakened to the great possibilities they have as leaders of thought in the country. The modern universities now receive aid from the Government in carrying on their work. Mechanics' Institutes, University Extension Lectures, and other organisations have been founded to give education to adults, who would not otherwise have benefited by the advances that have been made .

These extensions of education have been reflected in many ways in the life of the people. The circle of readers of books and papers has widened enormously, and early in the century the "taxes on knowledge" had to be repealed. The end of the system of licensing publications came in 1695; before the end of the eighteenth century the law of libel was also amended; but in the reactionary years that followed Waterloo fresh laws for the punishment of libel were passed, and heavy duties on political newspapers and on their advertisements made the price of newspapers very high, and, therefore, restricted their circulation. It was Mr. Gladstone who altered this the Stamp Act was reduced by him in 1836, and abolished in 1855 the duty on advertisements had been removed two years earlier; and in 1861 the abolition of the duty on paper made cheap literature a reality. Since then the inventions we have already mentioned have done still more to improve the methods of producing books and newspapers; alterations in the law of copyright have helped considerably; and now free lending libraries make it possible for all to keep in touch with modern ideas and extend their knowledge of older ones.

As might be expected, the Victorian era was a very prolific era in literary production. When Victoria came to the throne a great number of very important. writers were just beginning their work. Shelley, Byron, and Keats were dead, and Wordsworth's most important work was finished, but their influence was all-powerful over the young men and women who were now beginning to write. The Victorian authors could be sure of a large audience, and of a great influence over the minds of that audience. The most distinctive form of literature of the era was probably the novel. At the beginning of the century came Sir Walter Scott with his historical romances, and Jane Austen with her descriptions of the life of the middle classes. In Victoria's reign came Thackeray and Dickens, Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot; and these were followed by a host of others, including Meredith, Hardy, and Stevenson.

Poetry took on a new inspiration from Shelley and Keats, and the Victorian poets are renowned. They include Robert and Elizabeth Browning, Tennyson, Arnold, William Morris, Swinburne and a glorious company of lesser lights. Many of their poems must be familiar to the readers of this book. The early nineteenth century was also the era of the great literary and critical magazines and reviews, such as Blackwood's, The Edinburgh, and The Quarterly. Among the contributors to these were Lamb, Lockhart, De Quincey, and Hazlitt in. the first years of the century; Carlyle, Macaulay, Froude and Ruskin, in the early years of Victoria's reign; and Leslie Stephen, John Morley, Lang, Stevenson and many others in her later years. History, biography, philosophy, and other forms of literature were all represented by writers of great ability; and the whole literature is tinged with the new scientific knowledge for which this period is above all things famous.

Some of the scientific works of the century are indeed among its most notable achievements in the realm of literature; in 1859 Charles Darwin published the Origin of the Species by means of Natural Selection, a book applying the doctrines of evolution to the development of plant and animal forms, and Herbert Spencer applied the same doctrine to the foundation of a system of philosophy. Thanks to the work of many gifted scientific writers, this theory of evolution is found in all branches of intellectual work; and the Victorian era is an era of great scientific workers, who include Tyndall, Kelvin, Huxley, and many others. In art, too, there were great workers: Turner, Watts, Holman Hunt, Millais, and a number of others whose pictures are known to all of us. In architecture, there was a return to classical forms on the one hand and to Gothic on the other; and many buildings were erected in town and country.

The levelling-up process that resulted from the wide extension of education and the democratic tendencies of the Victorian era is also evident in the dress of the period. In earlier centuries it was usually possible to tell a person's social position from the dress he wore: in the nineteenth century these distinctions tended to pass away, and were retained only where uniforms were worn. At the same time colour disappeared from the dress of men and boys at any rate, and was replaced by the use of very sober colours and simpler shapes. Trousers became the common wear, knee-breeches disappeared except for sport and other special purposes. The stove-pipe hat was the fashion in the first half of the century ; its successor, the top hat, is still worn. There were many distinctive changes, too, in neck wear; but, on the whole, men's fashions change more slowly than women's do, and in this century women's dress seemed to move from extreme to extreme. In its early years there was much tight lacing; in the fifties the crinoline was the correct vogue; the close of the century saw hobble skirts. Hats and bonnets, too, changed from large to small and back again; and at different times there were coal-scuttle bonnets, and Dolly Varden hats, and so on. In recent years women's dress has benefited considerably by her interest in athletics.

Athletics , too, are certainly a mark of the age. Very many people now share in various kinds of games and amusements, and this has been made possible by the lessening of the hours of employment, and by weekly and annual holidays, which are fortunately becoming both possible and popular. Townspeople as well as the country folk now find time for many kinds of outdoor amusement, and engage in these amusements heartily, and with much advantage to themselves. We might almost say, too, that one feature of the era has been the rediscovery of the joys of the country, for first the bicycle and later the motor-car have made the country more accessible than ever to the dwellers of the town. For the feature of the century has certainly been the change of the English people into a nation of town dwellers, and this has not taken place without changes in physique and outlook. Now something is being done, by means of garden cities and improved methods of transport, to take some of the people back to the country once more.

In these and in many other ways there have been great changes during this remarkable Victorian Era. Whether they have always been changes for the better may be doubtful: but the changes have come, and it is for the nation to make the best of them by lessening the evils associated with them and increasing the good .