Social Transformations of the Victorian Age: A Survey of Court and Country

55

See the following extract from the Daily News, Dec. 16, 1896: —

Mr Gladstone on Parliamentary Changes. – Mr Gladstone having read an article in the Westminster Review entitled ‘The Old M.P. and the New,’ by George A. B. Dewar, writes that, speaking from recollection, he thinks there were not five members of the Conservative party in 1835 who sat in the House of Commons by reason of their connection with trade or industry. He describes the change which has come about in the composition of the party since then as ‘simply marvellous.’

56

‘It is the Queen’s doing,’ is the statement of the newspapers of that year; but seems to apply not to the dismissal of Lord Grey, but of Lord Melbourne who had followed him.

57

The reference to Lord Palmerston and the Morning Post is historical.

58

It might be argued of course with much plausibility that this order of things has begun long since, and that, the verbal distinction notwithstanding, government by party has always, from another point of view been government by groups.

59

This (1701) followed the Kentish petition to the Commons protesting against distrust of the King, and desiring that the addresses of the loyal petitioners might be turned into Bills of Supply.

60

Sir Theodore Martin’s ‘Life,’ chapter i. These references are in all cases to the People’s Edition.

61

‘Life,’ p. 11.

62

Before Prince Albert’s reforms, the jurisdiction of the Palace interior was divided between the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Steward. The Lord Chamberlain was responsible for providing the lamps, the Lord Steward for lighting them; before a pane of glass or cupboard could be repaired, months sometimes passed; all external repairs were in the hands of the Woods and Forests, on which it therefore depended how much daylight should be admitted through the windows. More than two-thirds of the indoor servants seemed without control, coming in, going out, when, and with whom they chose. – ‘Life,’ pp. 26-27.

63

‘Life,’ p. 21.

64

‘Life,’ p. 21.

65

Not, as was long said, Mr Disraeli, but Mr Disraeli’s then titular leader, Lord George Bentinck.

66

At this interval, traditions as to the merits of the quarrel may differ. The account here given is from the most authentic source existing. – Martin’s ‘Life,’ p, 29.

67

This opinion used to be expressed very strongly by Lord Raglan who commanded in the Crimea. It was shared by the French military experts of the day.

68

The figures in the earlier estimate are taken from the Imperial Federation Journal, June 1886: Those of the later date are supplied by the Army Estimates, and by the courtesy of Lord Lansdowne and his colleagues at the War Office.

69

This (i. e. distribution of honours according to property) seems from Ethics, Book viii. ch. 10, the exact meaning of the convenient compound.

70

For the chief facts in these remarks on the army, where they are not directly drawn from the Blue Books, or as above specified from the Imperial Federation Journal, the writer is indebted, and would express his thanks, to Lord Lansdowne, Secretary of State for War; to Field Marshal Lord Wolseley, and to his old and distinguished friend General Sir Henry Brackenbury.

71

Quoted by Captain Eardley Wilmot in The Development of Navies, p. 1.

72

The Development of Navies, p. 12.

73

P. 27.

74

The ‘Warrior,’ at this time standing by herself, was a vessel of 9,210 tons. Thirty-five years later the advance made in our ideas of dimension and power may be judged from the fact that on Jan. 31, 1895, the ‘Majestic’ was launched. Her tonnage was 14,900, an increase of 5,690 on her predecessor. Unlike the ‘Warrior’ of an earlier date, the ‘Majestic’ was only one of several, the building of which began at the end of 1894, the last parliamentary record of which reaches to the spring of 1896. Briefly to summarize the results that emphasize the contrasts between the two epochs, the average size of vessels built at the present time approaches thrice that of twenty years ago. Then too, steel was not used for ship building; now it is gradually supplanting iron. Of late there have been more ships built than formerly on a less colossal scale. The result is partially due to the dimensions of the Suez Canal whose depth is not equal to an ironclad of the first magnitude. Time, apparently, is still needed to show if our seamen can develop a skill as great in handling these iron leviathans as in controlling those wooden craft, their management of which was the admiration of the world.

75

Apart from the parliamentary papers bearing on the navy, Captain Eardley Wilmot’s The Development of Navies is the literary authority that has been found most useful in preparing this chapter. The writer is however, chiefly indebted to the details with which he has been kindly and copiously supplied by the present First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr Goschen and his staff, especially Lord Encombe.

76

In the nineteenth century, on a much smaller scale, exhibitions had been held in Paris 1801, 1806, 1836, 1849, as well as in Belgium, Germany and Spain. The true precursor of the ’51 Exhibition has been discovered by Mr Molesworth (History ii. p. 363) in the Covent Garden Free Trade Bazaar 1846.

77

Macaulay’s House of Commons speeches in the 1832 Reform Bill debates are famous. When he was best known as a writer, he had been Secretary at War (1839) and Paymaster General (1846). Lytton at the zenith of his literary fame had been Colonial Secretary under Lord Derby in 1858, before he was made a peer in 1866.

78

The vitality of Purcell’s fame at the 200th anniversary of his death was attested by the celebrations of 1895. Since then a very remarkable tribute to his greatness has been given accidentally in an unexpected quarter. The great German classical authority, the Bach Gesellschaft (vol. xlii. p. 250) prints as a doubtful work of Bach, Purcell’s Toccata in A which is given in the Harpsichord and Organ volume of the Purcell Society (p. 42). That a work of Purcell’s should have been mistaken for one of the very greatest organ writer’s who has ever lived, and that by Bach’s own jealous countrymen, is a panegyric more significant than words on our own great national composer.

79

Life and Letters of Sir Charles Hallé (Smith, Elder & Co.) illustrates with interesting detail the service rendered to Beethoven by this great exponent of his genius.

80

For the facts and figures contained in this survey of our musical state, the writer desires to express his special obligations to Sir George Grove, and to Sir Arthur Sullivan, both private friends of many years standing.

81

Martin’s ‘Life,’ People’s Edition, part ii. p. 63.

82

The habit of inviting other than parliamentary guests, men famous in art or science, to the State dinners on the eve of the session began with Mr Gladstone, and after him Mr Disraeli.

83

A class chiefly, if not exclusively, represented by, to his honour be it said, Professor Herkomer.

84

While these pages are passing through the press, the French critic, M. Yriarte, writing in the Times, gives the following interesting testimony to the world-wide value of this British centre of humanity and culture: – To-day for all of us foreigners South Kensington is a Mecca. England there possesses the entire art of Europe and the East, their spiritual manifestations under all forms, and Europe has been swept into the stream in imitation of England. Berlin, Budapest, Vienna, Nuremberg, Basle, Madrid, St Petersburg, Moscow, the large towns of America itself have now their South Kensingtons; but in the original one of England still unfinished, where the splendour of the start (excessive, as it seems to me) contrasts with the inertia of the last fifteen years, the inconceivable treasures are becoming so much heaped up as to be a veritable obstacle to study. How is it possible to study this extraordinary series of textiles of all times and countries, ranged one upon another, overlapping and hiding one another, without proper perspective and proper light?

85

£70,000, to which the Duke of Marlborough reduced the £100,000 which he originally asked.

86

For the information embodied in this chapter, the writer is under many obligations to the late Sir John E. Millais, to the late Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, long Director at South Kensington, and Mr F. A. Eaton, the present Secretary to the Royal Academy.

87

Greenwood, p. 291.

88

Thackeray, when writing The Virginians, Carlyle, in the preparation of all his later works, are authentic and only the more illustrious instances which could be given.

89

Such was the precise garment mentioned by Mr Harrison when he told the story to the present writer.

90

To whom, while at work on portions of this book at a distance from London, the present writer owes much courteous help.

91

By exactly ten years, Thackeray dying 1863, Lytton 1873. The increased interest in Dickens is shown by Messrs Chapman & Hall’s latest editions, the revived interest in Lytton by Messrs Routledge’s new ventures.

92

Personally, Lord Lytton was more correctly appreciated in Paris where in his last years he much lived. His unfailing presence of mind in physical difficulties or dangers compelled the admiration of all who knew him. A Colonial Secretary himself, he first showed, in the closing chapters of The Caxtons, that sense of the greatness of our Colonial empire, to-day a commonplace but unknown up to then.

93

John Copley, afterwards Lord Lyndhurst, and John Campbell, afterwards Lord Campbell, during their student days at the Bar, both wrote for the London papers, chiefly theatrical critiques.

94

These figures for the later date are taken direct from Mitchell’s Newspaper Press Directory 1897; for the earlier from a note by Mr Garnett in Mr Ward’s Reign of Queen Victoria; Mr Garnett’s statistics being apparently derived from an article contributed probably by Albany Fonblanc to an early number of the Westminster Review.

95

Carried in the January of 1855 a majority of 157 (305 to 148).

96

Successes of a new sort have been made. The penny newspapers had paid by their advertisements; when the price of the paper on which they were printed exceeded a certain figure, circulation beyond the amount necessary to maintain advertisements was not therefore in itself a paramount object. The new halfpenny sheets realized on every copy sold a profit larger even proportionately than the penny papers had ever made on their copies, advertisements of course excepted.

97

For the commercial details of newspaper enterprise, the reader is referred to the author’s earlier work England, etc., where he duly acknowledged his obligations to his editorial chief and personal friend, Mr W. H. Mudford, of the Standard; for the fresh facts and figures here given the writer is indebted to Sir Charles Dilke, to Mr H. Labouchere, to an article on Halfpenny Papers by Mr F. A. McKenzie in the Windsor Magazine for January 1897, and above all to Mitchell’s invaluable Newspaper Press Directory.

98

M.P. for Shrewsbury since 1832.

99

Each reform was followed by a fresh diminution in the death rate.

100

This lady, in addition to her natural gift of organization, had been trained at the Prussian hospital of Kaisersworth. Accompanied by her friends, Mr and Mrs Bracebridge of Atherstone Hall, and 37 nurses, she reached Scutari November 5, just in time to tend the wounded after Balaclava.

101

Sampson Low’s Charities of London, p. 2.

102

The statistics illustrative of this subject have been derived exclusively from Mr Sampson Low’s Charities of London, at the places already indicated in the footnotes. For the other facts to complete the little picture, the writer is indebted to friends who have made this subject their special study, such as Lady Priestley, or reluctantly to his own personal experience.

103

For these statistics, some of them perhaps now given for the first time the writer is beholden to Sir Brydges Henniker, Registrar General.

104

This most gifted family came originally from Plymouth or its neighbourhood, sending representatives to Bath, Bristol and Barnstaple. The Barnstaple Budd, universally respected, died 1896.

105

Dr Ferrier’s work on the brain, mapping it out according to its functions, appeared 1876 and also perhaps marks an epoch.

106

Shortly before his death, the late Sir Andrew Clark assured the present writer that his remarks in his earlier work, England, on the medical profession were accurate in all respects and applicable to the existing state of things. For the purpose of the present volume when the writer was first contemplating it, and was in occasional correspondence with Sir Andrew, the great physician kindly made a few fresh hints. These, with the information of Sir William and Lady Priestley, have been indispensable to the writer throughout.

107

Evidence in support of this has been collected by the writer throughout the manufacturing districts, an important fact being that where secularism was most organized, there well-to-do mechanics and artizans are Communicants, and often Sunday School teachers as well.

108

The Ramsden Sermon, preached before Oxford University June 12, 1892, pp. 10, 11.

109

These Bishoprics, 75 in America, 4 in other countries, that is 79 in all, control (1897) 4,666 clergy; among the church goers 622,194 are Communicants. The total of Anglican clergy in foreign parts, at the period of the Queen’s accession, excluding Bishops, was 897. In 1850 it was 1,193. To-day (1897) it is 4,312. Roughly, therefore, the increase has been 300 per cent.

110

The most noticeable being the Gorham dispute about Baptismal Regeneration 1850, which issued in defining the Evangelical status, as in 1847 Hampden’s bishopric had secured the broad Church position. In 1871 the Frome case secured the highest doctrines on the Eucharist. These three decisions practically constitute the Charters of the three chief parties in the National Church.

111

Not Dean of St Paul’s till 1869.

112

The Sermon on the Mount, 1897.

113

For the information as to the Church of England embodied in this chapter, the writer’s thanks are sincerely tendered to the Rev. H. W. Tucker of the S.P.G. Society; to the Rev. J. C. Cox, D.D., Holdenby, North Hants; to the Rev. A. L. Foulkes, Steventon, Berks; and to Mr G. W. E. Russell. No official statistics of the numbers in the different Churches exist. The basis of the estimate given is supplied by the statistics of the Federation League Journal, June, 1886.

114

This is not the conventional idea of clubs. Thackeray, who knew club-life well, first illustrated this view. An examination of the tariff and general charges at the professional clubs in Pall Mall or St James’s would show the absolute truth of the description.

115

The Honourable Mr Algernon Bourke has a more than amateur experience of modern clubs. While these pages are passing through the press, he gives it as his opinion that nowadays there is practically no play in clubs. All who know anything of the subject would confirm the general truth of that statement.

116

See passim the evidence taken before this Committee printed in the 1844 Parliamentary Blue Books.

117

The reluctance of referees to interfere is natural and pardonable in view of the fashionable brutality not only of the players but the spectators. A proof of this may be found in a typical instance reported in a daily paper: – A Football Referee assaulted. – A disgraceful scene was witnessed at Lincoln last night after the close of the League match between Lincoln City and Newton Heath. The decisions of the referee (Mr Fox, of Sheffield) gave great dissatisfaction to the crowd, and the hostile demonstration commenced when he awarded the Heathens two penalty kicks in quick succession. After the match he had to seek shelter in the secretary’s office for some time, and when he did leave the ground he was badly assaulted by several roughs. The windows of a cab in which he drove to his hotel were completely smashed.

118

In the diverse materials for this chapter, the writer has been helped greatly by the volume on the Turf in the Badminton Series, but in all which has to do with horses by the Earl of Dunraven, by Lord Ribblesdale, by Mr Leopold de Rothschild; in all that relates to cricket and football by the Hon. and Rev. E. Lyttelton, Headmaster of Haileybury College, and in the football facts by one of Mr Lyttelton’s Haileybury colleagues. His chess facts have been given him by a great West of England authority in the game, H. Maxwell Prideaux. For his knowledge of ladies’ work he is indebted, as in England he was, to Miss F. S. Hollings.

119

The motion in 1849 for the Sierra Leone reduction was, as Hansard shows, only one of a series of such proposals. Hume’s views on the Colonies were much those which Mill had set forth in his famous Encyclopædia Britannica article. Mill may have been against Colonial expansion, but not against Colonial retention.

120

On this subject see the very interesting and accurate statistics compiled by Mr F. Leveson Gower, and published by the Cobden Club.

121

A. Cleveland Coxe, then Rector of Grace Church, Baltimore, published his Impressions of England, 1856. His Ballads and Carols, ecclesiastical or religious, especially one entitled In Dreamland, abound in graceful fancy, and have had a popularity among English and American Anglicans approaching that of The Christian Year.

122

For the facts relating to the administration of law, the writer is indebted to Sir Edward Clarke, and to the Master John MacDonell, of the High Court of Justice. The facts and figures with respect to the Colonies have been drawn from official sources as well as from the very valuable Imperial Federation League Journal for June 1886. He is further personally beholden for the local colour inparted to his Colonial descriptions by the private information of Sir Robert G. W. Herbert, Sir Julius Vogel, Mr John Bramston, and other Colonial officials. The privately printed papers of the fourth Lord Carnarvon distributed among his personal friends (1897), opportunely confirm and illustrate the views here given of the Colonial past, present, and future.