Adams J.T. Empire on the Seven Seas. The British Empire 1784-1939
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FURTHER
REFORMS
the nation could
idolize and
idealize. At
that
moment when
reform
was
in
the air
at
home and the
Empire
could be
linked
together
only
through
the
Crown,
the wearer of that Crown
had become
an
innocent
but
well-trained
girl,
who
won
all
hearts
and could
por-
tray
all the
qualities
most
revered
by
the middle
class,
newly
come
into
power
in
Britain,
and could
also
symbolize
in
the
growing
and
increasingly
self-governing Empire
the
glory
of
a
common
link
and
destiny.
117
CHAPTER
VII
THE
BREATH
OF NEW
LIFE
I.
VICTORIA
ON
THE
June
day,
^hen
at
six
in
the
morning
the
young
Princess was
called
from
her bedroom
in her
dressing
gown
with her
Victorian
night-cap
almost
falling
off,
to
be
told
by
the
Archbishop
of
Canterbury
and Lord
Conyngham
that
she
was
now
Queen,
a
glorious
summer
was
opening
in
the
history
of
empire.
No
one could
foresee the vast
changes
and ex-
pansion
which were
to
occur
in
the
long reign
of
well
over
sixty
years
lasting
into
our own
century,
and
that
the
Victorian
Age
would
constitute
the
greatest perhaps
in
all
British
history.
But
after the
winter
of
the
eighteenth
century,
the
seemingly
endless
reigns
of
George
III
and
his worthless
sons,
and
the
long
agony
of
the
Napoleonic struggle
and
its
post-war
effects,
there
was
now
a sense
of
freshness
and
rejuvenation.
Nations
are not like
indi-
viduals
who must
progress
steadily
through
all
the
stages
from
birth
to
death.
England
had been
old
when
under
Elizabeth
she
again
became
young,
and
now,
more
than
two
centuries
older,
the
nation was
again feeling
the
stirrings
of
new
life.
The
wonders of
applied
science
seemed to
open
endless
vistas
of
increasing
wealth
and
comfort
which,
although
they
might terrify
the
ultra-conservatives
with
their
possible
social
results,
brought
to
most that facile
optimism
which was one of
the characteristics
of the
latter
two-thirds
of the
past century
in the
Empire
as in
the
United
States. The
middle
class,
which
was
largely
to direct
118
VICTORIA
the
practical energies
of
the
new
age,
had
received
a
new
incentive
in the
vast
change
in
their favor
which
had
been
secured
by
the
alteration
in
government.
The
romantics,
Scott,
Shelley,
Words-
worth,
Byron
and
others,
had
had
their effect
in
stirring
people
out of
the
easy
acquiescence
of
the
eighteenth
century.
Their
in-
fluence
had,
perhaps,
also
not a little
to
do
with
the
joyous
ac-
ceptance
of the
young
Queen.
Little
was known
about
her
by
the
public.
During
her
earlier
childhood
some
half dozen
lives
had
stood between her
and
the
throne,
and
even
of
late,
after
a
series
of
deaths had
made
her
the
heir
apparent,
she had lived
a
quiet
and
sequestered
life in
the old red
palace
in
Kensington
Gardens to which
her mother
had
been
rushed from
Germany
so that
her child
might
be born
in
England.
There,
except
for
occasional
visits from
German
boy
cousins,
she had lived a
singularly
feminine
life
after the
death
of
her
father. She
had been
rigorously brought up
by
her
mother,
the
Duchess
of
Kent,
and
the child's
greatest
friend,
the German
Bar-
oness
Lehzen. The far from
admirable
Duchess
had
trained
her
daughter
for the
position
which she
always
firmly
believed she
would
occupy,
and
had so
far
succeeded
and
failed
to
succeed,
that
her
own
influence
ceased
on that
June
morning
when she
assured
Victoria that she
was
really
Queen.
She
had
never allowed the
girl
to be
alone,
even
forcing
her to
sleep
up
to that
night
in
the same
room with herself.
The
new
Queen,
whose
girlish
dignity
of man-
ner and
composure
deeply impressed
the
statesmen,
including
the
Prime
Minister,
Lord
Melbourne,
who
called
officially
that fate-
ful
morning,
at
once
asserted herself.
She
commanded her mother
to
leave
her
for an
hour,
and after
that hour
of
meditation
she
ar-
ranged
for
a
separate
suite,
which,
when
they
soon
moved from
Kensington
to
Buckingham
Palace,
was far
from
the Duchess's.
The
young
woman
who
was
from
now
to
preside
for so
long
a life
over the destinies
of
the
Empire
had
many
of
the
simple
qualities
of the
average
middle class.
Perhaps,
in view
of much
that
her
subjects
would have
to
forgive,
it
was her more common-
place
characteristics
which caused her to win
their
affection and
in
later
years
a
veneration
granted
to
few
monarchs/She
was not
a
119
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN
SEAS
brilliant
woman,
and,
not
alone
during
her
overlong period
of
mourning
and
retirement
after
her
husband's
death,
the life
of the
court
was
dull.
Her
poor
taste
in
literature
and the arts became
a
byword.
She
had
nothing
of
the
almost
masculine
robustness
of
the
great
Queen
Bess. But she
was to
win
her
subjects,
long
after
the
first
burst
of
enthusiasm,
by
her
domestic
virtues
and
qualities,
her
simple
dignity,
her
devotion to
duty
and her
limiting
herself
to
the constitutional
role
she had
to
play.
It
appears
true
that in
the
later
years
of
her
reign,
especially
after
1
861,
there
were occa-
sions
when she
showed
a
tendency
to
overstep
the
bounds of
her
strict
constitutional
position,
but
any
open
clash was avoided
by
the
tact
of her
Ministers,
particularly
Gladstone,
and
the
public
learned
nothing
of the
difficulties she
was
creating.
The
result was
that
by
the
time of her death in 1
901
she
had
become
such
a
symbol
of British
life,
character and
Empire
as
might
not have
been the
lot of
a
more brilliant mind.
But if
she
had
many
commonplace
traits,
she was far
from
being
a
commonplace
woman. Even
allowing
for
British
sentimentality,
only
a
great
woman could
have
come
to be the
symbol
she became.
At the
close of that
exciting day
when
her
life
had
been
so
sud-
denly
altered,
as head
of
the most
powerful
Empire
in
the
world,
she
wrote in
her
Journal:
"I
am
very young,
and
perhaps
in
many,
though
not in
all
things, inexperienced,
but
I am
sure,
that
very
few have
more
real
good
will
and
more real desire to
do what is
fit
and
right
than
I
have,"
and "I
shall do
my
utmost
to fulfil
my
duty
towards
my
country."
It
is
perhaps
ludicrous to
link Victoria
with
Nelson,
but
in
that word
"duty"
we
have
the
common factor
which has bound both the
leaders
and
the
ordinary
folk
of the Em-
pire
together
down
through
the
ages,
which
has made
it
what
it
is,
and
enabled
it
to
bear
the
bufferings
of
all the
seas
and
ages.
She
was
right,
and
this she
did,
and
this was
chiefly
the
reason that
on
her
Diamond
Jubilee
after
sixty years
of
reigning
the celebra-
tion
was almost
a
deification.
On
the
morning
when
she
unexpectedly
had
the
responsibilities
of
empire
thrust
upon
her,
she
had informed
Melbourne
that she
would continue
with the
present
Cabinet,
which
was
then
satisfac-
120
VICTORIA
tory
to the
Commons,
and
it
may
be noted
here
that
throughout
her
reign, although
not
seldom
having
to
accept
Ministers
who
were
personally
repugnant
to
her,
she
never
attempted
to revive
the
claim
of
William IV
to
appoint
Ministers other
than those
who
represented
the
will of
Parliament,
establishing
a
usage
of
the
Constitution
beyond any
future
possibility
of
infringement.
Melbourne's
government,
however,
was
o
hampered by
attacks
in
the
Lords
against proposed
reforms that
it
was
weakened to
such
an
extent as
to lose
popularity
in the
country
and in
1839
the
Cabinet
resigned.
Obviously
the
man
to
be
called to
form
a
new
government
was
Peel,
but
fearing
the influence
over
the
young
Queen
of the
Ladies' of the
Bedchamber,
who were
chiefly
mem-
bers of
the
families
of the
previous
government,
he
declined
to
try
to form a
new
one unless
they
were
dismissed. The
Queen
refused
to
cast
off
her
old
friends
on
what
she
considered a
non-political
issue.
Peel was
equally
firm. So Melbourne was
recalled,
remain-
ing
in
power
until
1841*
By
that
time
the
Ministry
was
heavily
defeated
in the
Commons,
and
the
Queen,
having
been
happily
married
to
Prince Albert
of
Saxe-Coburg,
one of
the
German
cousins
who
had visited her
as a
boy,
the
question
of what women
she
had about
her
had
become
unimportant)
Peel then
had no dif-
ficulty
in
forming
a new
Ministry
to
represent
the
large
majority
,of
Conservatives
who had
been
returned in the
general
election.
From the time
of
his
marriage,
the
Prince
Consort
was,
until
his
death,
to
be
largely
the
mind
and a
happily tempering
influence
behind the
Queen,
who,
although
she
accepted
the
Ministers
de-
manded
by
the
majority
in
Parliament,
nevertheless
had
a
wom-
anly
inqlination
to
have
her own
way
and
deal
only
with her
own
friends.jHer
friendliness
with
Melbourne,
leading
to
her
corre-
spondence
with
him
on
political
affairs
after
Peel
became Prime
Minister,
as well
as
other
matters in
which
she
allowed her
per-
sonal likes
and dislikes to obtrude themselves
into
the constitu-
tional
machinery,
were smoothed
over
as
long
as
Albert
lived,
and
his
influence
both on
the
Queen
and on
constitutional
development
has
been
too
much
underrated
in the
past.
If
Melbourne,
however,
was
perhaps
unwise
in
continuing
to
121
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN SEAS
be
the
political
confidant
of the
Queen
after the
change
of
govern-
ment he
had
rendered
great
service
to
the
country.
If
not a
great
statesman,
he was
courtly,
kindly
and
witty,
devoted
to
both the
country
and
its
Constitution.
The
young
Queen
had a mind
and
will
of her
own
but
needed
guidance.
This
Melbourne
gave
during
the
critical
period,
and
he
gave
it
in
the direction
of
a
strict consti-
tutionalism.
If
in her
sixty
years' reign
Victoria,
on
the
whole,
respected
the
more
important
constitutional
conventions
and hard-
ened
them
into
unbreakable
usages,
it was
due in
no
small
measure
to
the
man who
first
won
her confidence
and treated
it
and his
country's
interests with
selfless
fidelity.
Meanwhile,
Palmerston,
as
Melbourne's
Foreign
Secretary,
had
been
altering
somewhat his
policy
of
rapprochement
to
France
into
an
antagonizing
of
that
nation. In the
civil war in
Spain
England
and
France
had united
in
supporting
the constitutionalist
govern-
ment
of
Queen
Christina
against
the absolutist
monarchial
claims
of
Don
Carlos,
the
English sending
a force of
10,000
men
to
take
part
in
the
conflict. Civil wars in
Spain,
down
to
our own
day,
seem
to
have
always
afforded
an
excuse
for
the
interference in
both
the
wars
and
politics
of
that
country by
outside nations.
The Carlists
were
completely
defeated
by
1839
with the
help
of France
and
Britain,
but
those countries
were
by
no means
agreed
as to
Spanish
political
questions,
and the bad
feeling engendered
between them
was
increased
further
by
events
in
the Near
East.
As
a result
of
wars
between the
Turks
and
Egyptians,
the
question
of
the
free-
dom
of
the Dardanelles had
been raised in
acute
form.
Russia,
Prussia,
Britain and
Austria
had formed
a
quadruple
alliance
to
enforce
terms
on
the
contestants,
to
the
excessive
annoyance
of
France,
who felt
she
had been
snubbed,
and
she
at
once made
preparations
for
war.
Although
all
the
powers
agreed
in
1841
that
the straits
should be
closed
to
all
warships
unless
Turkey
herself
was
at
war,
the wound
to the
pride
of
France rankled
and
the
arrangement
was far
from
pleasing
Russia,
which
felt
herself
bottled in the
Black
Sea.
122
LABOR
AND
THE
POOR
II.
LABOR
AND THE POOR
Of
more
importance
than
foreign
affairs at
this
time were
those
at
home and
in
the
growing
Empire.
At home the
reforms
which
we
have
already
noted,
some before and some after
the
acces-
sion
of
Victoria,
were
to
have
far-reaching
and beneficent
effects,
but for the
moment
the
artisan
and
working
classes
were
bitterly
disappointed.
It
appeared
to them
that
although
they
had
played
a
large part
in
securing
Parliamentary
Reform
they
had
been
com-
pletely
ignored
and
that
the middle
class,
which
had
gained
all
the
benefit,
refused
to do
anything
to
help
the
poorer
citizens
now
that
it had
come
into
power.
Not
only
did
the
middle
class
seem
to
do
nothing
to
ameliorate
conditions
but
there
was
intense bitterness
over
the new Poor
Law
which
the
workers considered
as
having
placed
an
almost
criminal
taint
on mere
poverty
and
unemployment.
A
cycle
of
bad
business
and
agricultural
years
which
began
in
1837
increased
the distress
and
resentment.
There was much
talk of what we
would now
call
Socialism,
direct action and
Syndicalism.
These movements
failed,
however,
and their leaders
became
discredited
among
the
workers
themselves.
Looking
back
it would seem that the failure must
in
considerable
part
be ascribed
to
the
inherent
moderation with which
they
were
conducted. In
a
sense
they
were
revolutionary
but
the
vast
mass
of the
working
class
wished
to
gain
the
results aimed
at
by
constitutional
means. The
sobriety
with
which
they
acted,
com-
bined
with
the
sensible decision of
the
government
not
to
resort to
the
repressive
measures
which had been
applied
earlier,
avoided
what
in
a
race of different
temperament might
easily
have devel-
oped
into
a social
war.
f Gradually
the
workers
turned
away
from
other
forms
of
exert-
ing
pressure
to the
political
method,
which
meant
gaining
influence
in Parliament
and
effecting
their
ends
through legislation
and not
force.
Out of
this
change
of
policy
emerged
the Chartist
move-,
ment which
began
in
this
period
but was to reach its acme in the
next.
In its
first
phase
it
may
be considered
to
have
begun
in
1
837
and
collapsed
two
years
later,
to rise
again.
\The
episode
is
of
great
123
EMPIRE
ON
THE SEVEN
SEAS
interest
for the
light
it sheds
on
British
character
and
development.
The
movement
was
extremely
radical
for
that
day,
and
spread,
especially
in
the
North,
with
alarming rapidity.
.Its
organ,
a
paper
called the Northern
Star,
preached
doctrines
which
to
all
conservative
minds
spelled
the
ruin
of
the
economic
and
political
life of the
country,
while
huge
mass
meetings,
includ-
ing
one
almost
under
the
shadow
of
the Houses
of
Parliament,
were
held
at
which
there
was
much wild
oratory.
Troops
were
massed
in
certain
places
in
the North
and in
Wales,
where
the
worst
trouble was
expected,
but
the
government
did
everything
possible
to
allow the storm
to
blow
itself out without
interference
or
bloodshed.
Its
attitude,
very
different from
that of
thirty
years
earlier,
was
well
expressed
by
Lord
John
Russell
when
he
declared
in
the
midst
of the
excitement
that
"The
people
have a
right
to
meet.
If
they
had no
grievances,
common
sense would
put
an
end
to
their
meetings.
It
is
not from
free discussion
that
governments
have
anything
to
fear,"
and that
there was
cause
for
real fear
only
when
men
were
"driven
by
force to
secret combinations."
They
were,
however,
driven to do
something
by
their miserable
condition.
The
system
of
paying
wages
in
goods
instead
of cash
was
still
largely
in
force in
industry
and
sometimes resulted
in
a
real
cut in
wages
of
a
half to
almost two-thirds.
The
cost of
living
was
high,
wheat
having
risen
in
price
by
nearly
80
per
cent from
the
average prices
of
1836-39
to those
of
1840-43.
Housing
con-
ditions
were atrocious from
overcrowding
and
were ruinous to
family
life,
self-respect
and
morality.
The
most
popular
remedies for these
ills were embodied
in
what
was
called the
People's
Charter,
which called
for
annual Parlia-
ments,
abolition
of a
property
qualification
for
membership, pay
for
members,
manhood
suffrage,
vote
by
ballot,
and
equal
election
districts.
A
monster
petition
was
presented
to
Parliament,
which
was said
to contain a
million
and
a
quarter
signatures
but was re-
jected
by
a
vote of
about
seven to
one.
After this
there
was
a
little
sporadic
rioting,
easily
put
down,
and the
movement
collapsed
for the
moment. Both
in
its
early
and
later
phases,
however,
it
exemplified
the
rise of
the common
124
CHANGES
IN
EARLY
VICTORIAN
PERIOD
man
to
political
self-consciousness. It
marked
the
growth
of
gen-
uine
democracy
at
home
and
provided
the
background
for the
po-
litical
development
of
the
overseas
Empire.
The various
events
of the
1
830'$
indeed
form
a
watershed
in
the
national
life,
a
range
of
mountains in
which
the Reform
Bill and the accession
of
Vic-
toria
rise
like
peaks,
and
on the
hither
side of which that
life
takes
on
quite
a
different
form
from
that
on
the
side
from which
we
have
crossed.
III.
CHANGES IN EARLY VICTORIAN PERIOD
The
change
is
notable in
many departments
and
not
least
in
literature.
We
shall
speak
in
a
later
chapter
of
the
stagnation
in
most of the
arts,
painting,
music,
architecture
and the minor
household
ones,-4>ut
in letters
the
Victorian
Age
was to
prove
sec-
ond to
none,
save
possibly
the
Elizabethan,
in
all British histora
It
is
noteworthy
that both were
periods
of
rapid change,
and
of
great
increase
in trade
and
expansion
in
far
parts
of the world.
Detailed consideration of
the
authors will best be
left until we
discuss Victorian life
in
general
in
the
mid-century
when the
Great
Exhibition
and
Crystal
Palace
in
1851
marked
its
apotheosis.
But
it
is
important
here to
note the
sharp
cleavage
between
old and
new which we
can
now
see
occurred with
the
accession
of
Victoria.
When she came
to
the
throne
all
the
great
luminaries
of
the
previous
period
had
passed,
with
the
exception
of
Wordsworth,
who
lingered
on,
though
doing
no
more
of his
best
work,
until
1850.
Keats had died
in
1821,
Shelley
1822,
Byron
1824,
Scott
1
832,
and
Coleridge
1
834.
A
whole
generation
of
genius
had been
swept
from the
stage
but the new
was
just
coming
on/
Tennyson
and
Macaulay
first
published
in
1830,
Browning, Carlyle
and
Dickens
in
1833,
Ruskin
1834,
and
Carlyle
in
i83y.^The
elder
generation
had been
romantics,
egoists,
singers
of
the/common man
in the
abstract
or
lovers of
nature
and sheer
beauty
JjThe
new
was
to be
chiefly preoccupied
with
the
social
scene and
especially
its
evils
and
abuses,
with
men
as
part
of an
organized
society,
with
the new
ideas
of
science,
and
with
the
reorganization
of institu-
tions.^
Naturally
these
are
generalities
but there was
a
marked
125
EMPIRE
ON THE
SEVEN SEAS
break between
the
two
generations.
It
is
seldom that we
find
so
complete
a
shift
in the
intellectual
climate so
sharply
defined.
iThere
was
another
great
change,
in
the
field
of
religion,
which,
added to
the
Evangelical
movement
spoken
of
earlier,
was to
have
marked
effects
on life
throughout
the
Empire.
In
1
833
a
quite
dif-
ferent
movement,
the
Oxford or
Tractarian,
was
inaugurated by
a
sermon
preached
by
Keble.
The
Evangelicals
and
Nonconformists
had broken
from
the Church and
laid
great
stress
on
personal
re-
ligion
and
salvation. The
Oxford
movement,
on
the other
hand,
minimized
the
importance
of
the
individual and
laid
chief
stress
on
the Church
as a
continuing
body,
a
living organism
in
itself,
the
existence
of which was more
important
than the
personal
views or
life
of
any
mere
single
member.
For
this
reason
its
adherents
strongly
objected
to the
Church
being
subject
to
lay
or
govern-
ment
control,
and
so
deeply
did
some
of the leaders like
Newman
and
Manning,
both
later
Cardinals,
feel that
they
left the Church
altogether
to
go
over to that
of Rome. The secession
of
such
lead-
ing
figures
in the
High
Church
Party
tended to weaken
it
in
the
Anglican
Church and so
gave
a certain
impetus
to
the Broad
Church
or
Modernist movement within
it.
This was
emphasized
by
the
influence
of
such
men
as
Doctor Thomas
Arnold,
who were
inculcating
a new
spirit
of moral
earnestness.
'
Almost
coincident
with
the
beginning
of
the
Oxford
movement
in
England
there
was
a
renaissance
of
religious feeling
and
interest
in Scotland
accompanied
by
a
demand for
separation
of
Church
and
state:
When
compromise
was found
impossible
in
1843
practically
half the
clergy
left
their
churches
and
livings,
but
so
great
was
the
popular support
and
religious
fervor of
the
day
that in
less
than a
year
500
new churches had been
built
for them
by private
subscription,
and
the Free
Church
of
Scotland had been
estab-
l^shed.
'}
(
Not
only
these
two
movements,
with the
Evangelical,
but
a
re-
newed
spirit
of
devotion
within
the
Church
of
England
itself all
testified
to
a
great
religious
revival
throughout
the United
King-
dom,
made
up
of
diverse
currents.
This
must be taken
heavily
into
account
when
considering
other
aspects
of
the national
life,
such
126