The years through which we have been passing afford some confirmation of ...
The years
through which we
have been passing afford some confirmation of this sanguine philosophy.The labouring Englishman in the fifties was much better governed than the labouring Englishman of 1830,
and he was, taken in
the mass, a much more respectable man. He was better governed, inasmuch as the State had definitely resolved to concern itself with the condition of his life and labor and the education of his children.He was more respectable because, with rising wages and cheaper food, with some leisure at home and the grosser kinds of insanitation put down, he was recovering his self-respect. More strictly, it might be said that the proletariat, which in the thirties seemed to be sinking into a dull uniformity of wretchedness, had been stratified.
In this light, the contradictions which we encounter whenever we turn our eye to the condition of the people in mid-Victorian England are resolved. There was a vast, untouchable underworld.
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But the great industries were manned with families, often much better off ...
But the great industries were manned with families, often much better off than the neighboring curate or school-master, and not burdened by the middle class necessity
The maypole had gone: the village feast and the club-walk were going; ...
The maypole had gone: the village feast and the club-walk were going; but the zoo, the panorama, the free-library, the baths, and the excursion ticket were bringing
The storm which swept away half the Governments of Europe passed harmlessly ...
The storm which swept away half the Governments of Europe passed harmlessly over the islands, and the words which Macaulay wrote at the beginning of his h