But the larger and freer upbringing of the earlier Victorians made them ...

But the larger and freer upbringing of the earlier Victorians made them a more receptive and independent audience for literature and science, for philosophic or political controversy; and for this closing of the general intelligence, this replacement of the fresh and vigorous curiosity of the former generation by a vaguely social, vaguely moral, vaguely intellectual convention, the public schools must take their share of blame. It was this readjustment that produced the malaise of the eighties.

There is an admirable study of the process by Giffen (British Association, 1887) though I do not think he allows enough for the destruction of agricultural values.

On this, the best work known to me is Loge der

Englischen Land-wirthschaft, 1896,

by Konig, a thoroughly competent and sympathetic observer. The troubles of London in the eighties might be read as a local Malthusian tension-the result of an influx of disbanded labour from the country, and the stoppage of expenditure following on falling rents.

Their share only, in a process of greater sweep. It would not be difficult to draw a parallel between the political, economic, and intellectual development of England from the middle to the end of the nineteenth century, a parallel which would be in some ways, no doubt, fanciful, but in many ways instructive.

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