Adams J.T. Empire on the Seven Seas. The British Empire 1784-1939
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CHAPTER
VIII
EARLY
VICTORIAN
I.
PEEL
AND
THE CORN
LAWS
IN
FOLLOWING
the
story
of
the
long
Victorian
reign
which
will
continue
for
several
chapters
we must
bear in mind
that there
is a
very
distinct
difference
between
the earlier and
later
por-
tions of
itjJThe
former
was
one of
genuine
idealism even
if
strongly
tinged
with
materialism,
whereas the
latter,
with
more
sophistica-
tion
and
modernity,
was
a
period
of
high-finance
and
rampant
imperialism.
1
^
We have
already
spoken
of the
religious
revival,
but
the
results or
applied
science created much of the
shallow
optimism
of
the American
Emerson
on
both
sides of the
water.
People
be-
lieved,
in
Emerson's
phrase,
that
somehow "the
railroad,
the
insurance
office,
the
joint-stock
company"
and
the other new inven-
tions would
be
raised to "a divine
use,"
and
also that
"in
a free
and
just
commonwealth,
property
rushes
from the idle and
im-
becile,
to
the
industrious,
brave,
and
persevering."
These
beliefs
were
genuinely
and
honestly
held
by great
numbers
of
those
in
England
toward
whom
the
new
wealth
was
"rushing,"
and
they
had
undoubtedly
much to
do with that
energy
which
brought
Britain
to
perhaps
the
apex
of
her economic
career
about mid-
way
in
the Victorian
era,
even
though
the
poor
might question,
if
they
ever
heard
of
it,
the
soundness of
the
doctrine,
during
the
hard
years
of
"the
hungry
forties."
But
even
in
the
period
including
these,
great
things
had
been
happening
and
were
to
happen.
We have
seen the
overthrow
of
EMPIRE
ON THE
SEVEN SEAS
the
old
oligarchy
and the
regaining
to
a
great
extent
of
public
control
of
governmental
machinery
by
the Reform
Bill.
There
had
also been
increasing
emphasis
laid
upon
the
simple
Biblical
doctrine
of
being
one's
brother's
keeper,
that
is
the
duty
of
the
State
to see
that
the dice of
fate
should
not
be loaded
too
heavily
against
the
merely
unfortunate,
even
though,
as in the
Poor
Law
already
noted,
the insistence on individual
initiative
might
have
seemed
harsh.
In
addition,
Britain
made one of her
greatest
con-
tributions
to a
sane world
by
giving
up
the old idea
of
a
self-
sufficing empire,
which
is
again ruining
the
world
today,
and
embarked on the
experiment
of free
markets for herself
and
others.
In the
period
under review
she
was the
greatest
power
and
con-
trolled
the sea
routes of
all
commerce,
but
it is notable
she
reached
her
own
zenith
while she left them
free and
open,
and
that
the
century
of
world
peace,
disturbed
by
only
minor and
local
wars,
between the
Napoleonic
struggle
and
the
World
War,
was a
period
in which nations were
not
striving
for
self-sufficiency
but
were
trading
with one
another
and
were
willingly
dependent
on
one
another. The
change
was
to
come with
the
rank
imperialism
of
the
later
part
of
the
century
when
colonies
began
to
spell
pres-
tige
even more
than
materials
and
markets.
WJien
Sir
Robert
Peel
became
Prime
Minister
in
1841
the
country
had been
suffering
from
a
severe business
and
agricultural
depression
for
several
years.
Moreover the
Liberals,
in
spite
of
their
reforms,
had
proved
extremely
inefficient in the
daily
routine
of
governmental
business.
The
handling
of
such
business,
and
espe-
cially
the
development
of
the
Cabinet as
a
team
with collective
responsibility,
was one
of Peel's
strongest
points,
and Peel
proved
his
strength
where
his
predecessors
had
been
weakest.
With
such
men
as
Durham,
of
the
Report
on
Canada,
as
Grey
and
Russell
of
the Reform
Bill,
and
others,
Peel
is
one of
the
great
men
of
the
30's
and
40*3
to be
reckoned with
in
the
history
not
only
of Britain
but
of
the
Empire,
and,
owing
to
the
preponderant
influence of that
Empire,
it
may
well
be
said
the world.
His
career
holds
a
special
interest also as
showing
the
good
as
well
as
the
evil which
might
come out of the
now
rapidly passing
148
PEEL
AND
THE
CORN
LAWS
system
of
the
old
governing
class
with
all
its
corruption.
His father
had been
a
self-made
manufacturer,
created
a
Baronet,
who
had
been
interested in
the
new ideas
of such men
as
Owen,
and who
was determined
that
some
day
his
son
should be
Prime
Minister.
His
wealth secured
the
boy
the
expensive
and
career-opening
edu-
cation
of
Harrow
and
Oxford,
and a
purchased
seat
in
Parliament
at
twenty-one
with
a
Cabinet
office
as
Secretary
for
Ireland
a
year
later.
This
sounds like
the worst of the
eighteenth
century,
but
there is this
to be said. A
privileged governing
class
made
up
of
leaders
who do
not
have
to
worry
about
money
and who
are
genu-
ine
in their
desire to
lead in
a
noble and
independent
fashion
may
fall
below
their
privileges
and
opportunities
and
get
out
of
touch
with
the
needs
of
the
people
at
large.
Yet,
on the
other
hand,
a
democracy,
as
is
evident
today,
may
show
itself
unable
to
produce
capable
leaders of both
party
and
country.
Peel
proved
himself
an
example
of
the best that could be
pro-
duced
by
the aristocratic
system
of
privileged
men
trained
in
the
art
of
government,
and
the
debt
which
Britain
owes him far
outweighs
what
modern
Laborites
might
regard
as his
iniquitous
privileges,
and the
inherent
injustice
of
a
whole
system
of
soci-
ety.
We
have
already
spoken
of
the
reforms he secured
when
in
the Home
Office,
such
as'
the
repeal
of the death sentence
for
more
than
a
hundred
offenses,
and
of
his establishment
of the
"Peelers,"
or
Metropolitan
Police,
with
its
far-reaching
beneficial
effects on
all
classes.
Although
he continued to
regard
himself
as a
Tory,
his
mind remained
opened
to the needs of
the
poor
as well
as
to those of
rich
but
short-sighted
landlords.[ln
his
budget
of
1842
he not
only
for
the
first time since Pitt
imposed
an
income tax
so
as
to
place
the
government
finances on
a
sound basis
but also
low-
ered
many
of the
protective
duties
on home-manufactured
and
farm
products.
The
budget
which
produced
a
surplus
instead of
the
deficits
of
the
Liberals,
was
bitterly opposed
by
the
Tories,
but in
1845
Peel
used
the
surplus
to
abolish
a
great
number
of
other
import
and
all
export
duties.
Helped
by
nature's
bestowal
of
bountiful
harvests,
except
in
Ireland,
as
well
as PeePs
establish-
ing
of sound
government
finance,
prosperity
had
returned
JThe
149
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN SEAS
temporary
income
tax
was
retained
and has
been
from
that
day
to
this,
but
even
more
striking
was
Peel's conversion
to
the
repeal
of
the
Corn
Laws.
In
1
842;
he
had made some reduction
in
the
sliding
scale
of
duties
which
satisfied neither
those
in favor
of
total
abolition
nor
those
favoring
retention.;
Meanwhile,
the
work of the
Anti-Corn
Law
League
had
been
actively
carried
on
under such leaders as Richard
Cobden and
John
Bright,
who
with
lesser followers
came to
be
known
as "the
Man-
chester
School." Both were men
of
untiring
zeal,
of
magnificent
public
spirit,
and
both
believed
in Free
Trade as a
holy
cause
and
not a
mere economic
dogma.
Peel,
as
we
have
seen,
had
been
mov-
ing
in their
direction,
and
by
1
845
his
conversion was
complete,
probably
largely
helped
by
the disastrous
potato
famine
of
that
and the
following
years.
Peel
had
come to realize that
Britain
could
not at
once be
the
workshop
of
the
world
and
raise
enough
food
for her
increasing
population engaged
in
manufacturing.
In view of
that,
and
almost
within
sight
of
the
starving
millions
in
Ireland,
it
seemed to
him
impossible
any
longer
to
continue
the
system
which
made
food
artificially
scarce
and
high-priced
for
the
benefit
of
the
landlord
and
agricultural
interest
alone;
The Corn
Laws,
by
placing
a
duty
on
imported
cereals,
including
wheat,
tended
to
raise
or
keep
high
the
price
of
bread,
and Peel
was
undoubtedly
right
in
abolishing
them.^His
party,
however,
furious
at
what
they
felt
their
betrayal,
refused to
follow
him,
and
he
was forced to
resign
in
December,
only
to
be
called
back
to
office next
month
in
1
846,
when
Russell,
who had
been
unable
to
form
a
Ministry,
pledged
him
support.
By
June
the
Corn Laws
had
been
practically repealed
in
entirety,
though
not
totally
so until
three
years
later.
JThe
popular
demand
was
so
great
that
the measure
passed
the
Lords,
as
the
Reform
finally
had,
for
fear
of a
revolutionary
crisis.
On
the
day
the bill
passed,
however,
Peel
was defeated in
the Commons on
his
Irish
Bill and
his administration
was
followed
by
six
years
of
Liberalism
under
Lord
John
Russell,
supported
by
Peel
and
his more devoted
followers.
150
UNREST
IL
UNREST
The new
Ministry
had
to serve
through
stormy
times,
at
home
and
abroad. Peel
had done
what
he
could
to aid the stricken
Irish
but
owing
to
the same
old
troubles
in that
unhappy
island
be-
tween
tenants
and landlords
there
was
much disorder
and the
bill
on
which
the Prime
Minister
had been
defeated
by
Disraeli
and
his
group
had been
one
for
the
protection
of life.
The
famine was
even
worse
in
1
847
and
it has been said that there
was
room
in
the
poorhouses
for
less
than three
per
cent of
those
dying
from starva-
tion.
With
the
ever-present
Irish
difficulties
and
hatreds,
the
slow
movement of
Parliamentary
reforms,
and the lack of
organized
relief
for
such a
vast mass of
misery
suddenly
needing
it,
people
died
and
emigrated
on
a
colossal
scale,
the
Irish
population
falling
from
eight
to
perhaps
six
millions.
Most
of
the
emigrants
went
to
the
United
States
and
carried
with
them
an
abiding
resentment
against
England,
whom
they
blamed for
all their
troubles,
a
feel-
ing
which
unhappily
has
to
be
taken
into
consideration
even
to
the
present.
The Irish
landlords
were,
many
of
them
sunk
heavily
in
debt,
and
Russell
got
through
Parliament
a bill
to
allow them to
sell
their estates in the
hope
that
new
owners,
with cash
resources,
would
be
able to
improve
the
estates
for the
tenants.
Unfor-
tunately
this did not
prove
to
be
the
case,
many
of
the new
"moneyed"
men
being
harder on
their tenants
than the
former
easygoing
ones.
Other
bills
designed
to save
the
tenants
the
im-
provements
they
had
made
and
to avoid
some of
the worst
evils
of
eviction
failed of
passage.
Armed
resistance
flared
up
again
in
1848
and
any
settlement
of
the Irish
question
appeared
farther
off
than ever.
[
In
England
itself
in
the same
year
there
was
a
renewal of
the
Chartist
movement,
which
as
we have seen
demanded
the
secret
ballot,
manhood
suffrage, pay
for members
of
Parliament,
equal
electoral
districts,
abolition of
property
qualification
for
the
suf-
frage,
and annual
Parliaments./
At first
the
movement seemed
alarming
and
a
petition
said to be
signed
by
over
5,000,000
was
to
be delivered
to
Parliament.
A
huge
illegal
mass
meeting
was
EMPIRE
ON
THE SEVEN
SEAS
scheduled
to
be
held on
Kennington
Common but was attended
by
only
about
25,000.
Fortunately
the
government
did not
get
in a
panic.
The
meeting
was
kept
in order
by
the civil
authorities
without
the
calling
in
of
the
military,
and
the
petition
was
received
by
Parliament,
when
it was found
to contain
only
2500
genuine
signatures.
It
was
a
year
of revolutions and
everywhere
on
the
Continent
revolutionists
were
in
motion,
with
civil
war
between
Austria
and
Hungary,
and
Italian
risings
against
the
Austrians.
Most
of
the
movements were
promptly
crushed,
though
not with-
out
fierce
fighting,
and
in an effort
to obtain internal
tranquillity
France
elected
Louis
Napoleon,
a
nephew
of the
great
Bonaparte,
president
of
the
newly
created
"republic,"
for
ten
years.
All of
this
was
but the
prologue
for
events of
the
same
generation
which
were to
change
the
map
of
Europe
and
establish
those
nations
which
are the
protagonists
today
in the
latest
act of
our
drama.
III. OPTIMISM AND
THE
GREAT EXHIBITION
Indeed
the
world
was
changing
fast,
though
few
realized
how
fateful
the
changes
were to
prove.
In
fact,
in
1851
men
were
saying
that the
days
of
wars
were
past owing
to
the
victory
of
free
trade
and
the
opening
of
the world to
peaceful
commerce.
The
Russell
Ministry
had
fallen
on
the
question
of the
Catholic Church
in
Ireland,
and
the
new
government,
with
Lord
Derby
as
Prime
Minister and Disraeli at the head
of
the
Exchequer,
had
pro-
nounced the final doom
of Protection.
But
before
Disraeli was to
leave
office an event
pregnant
with
fatal
consequences
occurred.
Louis
Napoleon
had
had himself
proclaimed
Emperor
of the
French. Men's
minds,
however,
were more
on
trade than
on
war,
and
in
1851
London
was
thinking infinitely
more
of the wonders
of
the Great
Exhibition,
just
opened
in
the
Crystal
Palace
in
Hyde
Park,
than
of
imperial
or Continental
dangers.
The
optimism
and
self-satisfaction
of the
English
were bound-
less
as
they
sauntered around
the
impressive
if
gaudy
building
in
which
were housed
the inventions
and
other
things
which
were
deemed to
spell
the
then "World of
the
Future."
A
few
months
152
OPTIMISM
AND
THE GREAT EXHIBITION
before,
Tennyson
had
published
his
In
Memoriom with
its
proph-
ecy
of
"One
God,
one
law,
one
element,
And
one
divine
f
ar-off
event,
To
which the
whole creation
moves,"
and
Browning's
Pippa
Passes
was
still
comparatively
new,
with
its
"God's
in
His
Heaven-
All's
right
with the
world!"
If
too
many
felt
that
the
one
divine event
was
the future
culmina-
tion
of British
greatness,
there was
some foundation
for
that
com-
forting
belief.
There
were,
it is
true,
dark
spots.
There
was
Ireland,
but
Eng-
lishmen had
come,
through
centuries,
to
consider
Irish
misery
and
discontent so much
the order of
things
(which
was one
of
the
reasons
that
they
were
so)
that Irish
conditions were not taken
seriously.
There
was
to
be India in a few
years,
but that
was
not
realized. There were
many
evils at
home,
which
we shall note
presently,
to
be worked out in
time,
but
the fiasco
of
the
last flash
of the Chartist
movement seemed
to indicate that
even the
work-
ing
classes
had no wish
to
disturb
matters. And
meanwhile
were
not
things
all
working
out
for
good?
First of
all,
there
were the
Crown and
Court.
There was the
adored
young
Queen,
deeply
devoted
to
her
husband,
against
whose
married
life
not a
whisper
of scandal could survive
for
a
moment the obvious
truth
of
their unblemished
lives. Not
only
that
but
the
Crown had become
a
symbol
for
the
greatness
and
traditions
of
the
people,
while
the
Sovereign
maintained
publicly
her constitutional
position,
and almost
worship
had taken
the
place
of
disgust
or
fear.
Moreover,
although
owing
to
the Reform Bill
the
middle
class
had
gained
great
additional
power,
enough
to
satisfy
them,
therewas
little or no
class
feeling,
and
the
new
govern-
ing
class
as
well
as
many
of
the old
aristocracy
made moves
toward
still further
broadening
of the franchise.
Parliament
was
becoming
more
representative
than
ever
before,
and the free
institutions on
which
the British so
prided
themselves
were
in course of
being
153
EMPIRE
ON
THE SEVEN
SEAS
bestowed
on
New
British
nations overseas.
As
Britain
contrasted
herself
with
other
nations
which
had
once
been
great
France,
Spain,
Italy,
and
others
she
might
well
be
complacent
over
her
peculiar
ability
to
govern
herself
and
maintain
liberty,
and
in
addi-
tion
to
bestowing
it
on
others in
far
parts
of
the
world.
The
Exhibition,
which
included
foreign
countries as
well
as
Britain,
with
a
generous
allowance
of
space
for
the
colonies,
was
divided
into the
four classes
of
raw
materials,
mechanical
inven-
tions,
manufactures and art.
Except
for
the
last
section
it
was
frankly
materialistic
and afforded
a view of
what was then
con-
sidered
the
amazing
advance of
applied
science
in
the
previous
generation
or two. The
next
great
invention,
that
of
Armstrong's
guns,
lay
some
years
ahead,
and
as
yet
science
seemed to
promise
better
communications,
cheaper
production,
a
wider
range
of
goods
for
all
with
none of
the terrors with
which our own
age
has become
familiar.
Science seemed
wholly
on the
side
of a
richer
civilization
for
all
than the
world had
ever
dreamed
of
before,
and
Britain
was
leading
in its
application
to
all
sorts
of
goods
and
their dis-
tribution
throughout
the world.
Over
6,000,000 visitors,
many
of
them
travelling
to
town for
the
first
time
in
their
lives
by
the
new
railways
and
reported
as
consuming
(an
English
touch)
2,000,000
buns,
saw
the
19,000
exhibits.
For
many
of
the
sight-seers
it
was a
vision of
a
marvellous world to
be
in
which
the
Empire
would
take
the lead. In
addition,
the
quiet
and
friendly
crowds
from
all
parts
of
the nation
seemed
to
symbolize
the
termination of
the
anxieties
and disturbances
which had
racked
society
since
the end of
the
Napoleonic
wars and to be
ushering
in
a settled
period
of
harmony
and
social
calm.
The
Exhibition,
due
almost
wholly
to
the Prince
Consort, was,
unlike some smaller
ones
already
held on the
Continent,
not
a
mere
show.
It
was
an event with
its
influence
on the
mind and
history
of the nation. It
was a
turning
point,
as
was also the
fall
of
the
Russell
Ministry.
The "Victorian
Age,"
as it
is
called
with-
out
considering
its two
contrasted
periods,
was
to
last
for
nearly
a
half
century
more,
but
it
was
entering
on a
new
phase,
in
which
the
dreams
of
pacifism,
of
a
world made
peaceful
and
happy
by
154
SOCIAL
CONDITIONS
free trade
and
inventive
industry
were to
be
rudely
shattered.
The
culture
of
materialism
was to
be
attacked
by
Matthew
Arnold,
the
economics
of
an
industrial
society
excoriated
by
Ruskin,
and the
foundations of
religious
tradition
and
belief undermined
by
Dar-
win
and
Huxley.
The
Exhibition, indeed,
although
it seemed
to
those
who visited
it
as
the
doorway
to
the
future,
was in
reality
the
"Finis" to an
age
which was
rapidly
passing.
We
may
still
linger
a few
moments over
some of
its
aspects,
which
are
amply portrayed
in the novels
of
the
time.[
As
the
Elizabethan
period
is
that of
the
highest
development
of the
drama,
the
mid-
nineteenth
century
is
that of
the novel
and no
other
period
is
so
clearly
mirrored
in
that
form. In
his
Vanity
Fair
(1848)
and other
books
Thackeray
gives
us
unforgettable
pictures
of
the
London
society
of
his
time,
as
Trollope
does
of
country
life,
and
Dickens
of
the middle class
and
poor,
mostly
of the towns. If
we
add Mrs.
Gaskell,
whose classic
Crawford
appeared
in
1853,
we
have
an
almost
incomparable
portrait
of
a
society
at
a
given
time.
We
do
not
read
about
it}
we live
in
it,
as
in
no
other
period
of
English
history.
The
world
its
authors created
for
us is
three-dimensional,
and
their
characters
have
a
reality
and
vividness
lacking
in
many
of our
living acquaintances.
How
much better we know
Becky
Sharp,
Jos
Sedley
and
Amelia,
the
Duke of
Omnium,
Mrs.
Proudie,
Doctor
Thorne,
David
Copperfield,
Dora,
Peggotty,
Sairie
Gamp,
Mr.
Pecksniff,
Mr.
Micawber,
and
scores
of
others
from the
novelists
of
this
period
than
we do
our own
neighbors!
IV.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS
It was
an
age
of
strong
individualism and
"characters."
Those
of Dickens
are not
exaggerated,
as
neither were
the
conditions
he
described
and strove to
correct.
It
was
still,
in
spite
of
the
wonders
in the
Crystal
Palace
and of
many
reforms,
almost
incredibly
crude
and cruel.
Every
age
is
too
complex
to be described in
a few
paragraphs,
and
only
hints
can
be
given.
To
suggest
something
of
the
range
to
be described
we
may
note that
the
ventilation
of
the
Queen's
apartments
in
Buckingham
Palace
still
passed through
155
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN
SEAS
the
common
sewer
and
as
has
been
said
"were less
salubrious
than
King
Alfred's
primitive
abode."
The
great
houses
in
Belgrave
and
Eaton
Squares,
as well
as in other fashionable
neighborhoods,
were
built
over
"sewers
abounding
in
the
foulest
deposits
and
emitting
the
most
disgusting
effluvium."
Such
physical
conditions
typify
the
social
ones
in
which
the
highly
educated
and
privileged upper
society
lived
above
the
lowest
strata
in
which
conditions
were still
atrocious.
It was
the
heyday
of
the
"great
houses"
with
their
retinues
of
servants,
although
the servant
problem
was
beginning
to
be trou-
blesome,
and
an estimate for
1850
suggests
that
on an
income of
1000
only
a
cook,
two
housemaids
and a
manservant
could
be
kept.
A
few
years
earlier on
5000
a
year
the
possessor
of
that in-
come
could
have maintained
thirteen
menservants,
nine
women,
ten
horses,
and several
carriages.
We
must recall
that
12
a
year
was
a
good wage
for
an
experienced
maid and
that
the
accommoda-
tions
for these
numerous servants
were
bad
and
crowded.)
In
some
great
houses
three
and four footmen had
to
sleep
together
in
a
badly
ventilated
basement cubicle.
One boon
which
the
Exhibition
year brought
to
servants
and
the
poor
was the
abandonment
of
the
iniquitous
tax
on
windows,
maintained
long
after
by
the
French.
Ventilation
brings
us
to
one or
two
minor
points
in
the
develop-
ment
of
the
Englishman.
For
example,
the
English
are
supposed
to
be
inordinately
addicted
to fresh air and
the
taking
of
baths,
but
as
we
have
already
noted not
only
in
the homes
of
the
very
poor,
where
they
might
be
crowded
twenty
to a
cellar
room,
al-
most
unventilated,
but
even
in
the
great
mansions,
up
to
Bucking-
ham
Palace
itself,
the
ventilation
was
often
even
noxious.
The
lack
of
water
and
bathing
facilities was
almost
as
bad.
As
early
as
1
8
12 the
Lord
Mayor's
request
for the
installation
of a shower
bath
in
the Mansion
House
was refused
on
the old
English argu-
ment that there
never had
been one and
therefore
there should
not
be
one.\By
1832
there were
occasional
fixed
bathtubs
to be
found
in
such
houses as that of
Lord
John
Russell
but
they
were
not in
general
use
even
in
the
homes
of
the
rich in
the
period
of
this
chapter.
Water
closets which flushed
came
into
common
usage
only
156