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GLADSTONE

AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.

CHAPTER VIII.

WAR-FEVER-THE YEARS MILITANT.

Illustrative Events of the preceding Sessions 1852-3-Signs of Prosperity-Agriculture Science-Art-Pugin-Turner-d'Orsay-Social Topics-"Secularism "-Mr. Holyoake-The "Achilli" ScandalMr. Walpole's Militia Bill-Macaulay at Edinburgh-Gladstone and Oxford University-The Oaths Question-Brougham-Gladstone and the Frome-Bennett Case-Drifting into War-The Czar Nicholas -The Crimea-Commissariat Muddle-Florence Nightingale-Our Allies-The Sardinians-Russell and the Shifting Government-The Great Struggle-Death of Nicholas-Parliament-Divorce BillGovernment of India-Gladstone and the Ionian Islands.

In

SIGNS of advances in material prosperity | receipts of the year were £14,987,310-not and of a great increase in the means of social progress had not been wanting during the period which we have been considering; and the session of 1853 opened with excellent prospects for the country. Telegraphic communications were being adopted, not only between distant parts of Great Britain, but between England and other nations. A submarine electric telegraph already united us with France, and a system of international copyright had been arranged between the two countries. The construction of railways in the United Kingdom had been going on at an enormous rate, with the result that the receipts at the end of 1851 had diminished in proportion to the increased length of the lines opened, as compared with the years from 1842 to 1846. At the end of the year 1845 the length of railway opened in the United Kingdom was 2023 miles. The total expenditure on railways at that date was £71,647,000 about £35,070 per mile; and the gross traffic receipts from the railways for that year were £6,669,230-about £3469 per mile per annum. At the end of the year 1851 the length of railway opened in the United Kingdom had increased to 6928 miles. The total expenditure on railways had swelled to £236,841,420 -about £35,058 per mile; and the gross

VOL. III

more than £2281 per mile per annum.
1842 the average cost per mile of the railways
in existence had been £34,690; in 1845 it had
been £35,070; in 1848 it had been £34,234;
and in 1851 it was again £35,058. So that
the practical cost per mile had increased in-
stead of diminishing with a reduced cost of
material and increase of skill. The gross traffic
receipts per mile from 1842 had been-In
1842, £3113, or £8.29 per cent on the capital
then expended; in 1843, £3083, or £8.82 per
cent on the capital; in 1844, £3278, or £8.84
per cent; in 1845, £3469, or £9.30 per cent;
in 1846, £3305, or £9.25 per cent; in 1847,
£2870, or £8.20 per cent; in 1848, £2556, or
£6.78 per cent; in 1849, £2302, or £613 per
cent; in 1850, £2227, or £5.80 per cent; in
1851, £2281, or £6.35 per cent. Therefore
the increased receipts fell behind their due
proportion to the increased length opened
every year between 1842 and 1850; but in the
latter year, when the increased length opened,
fell below the increased length opened in the
preceding year by more than half (from about
590 additional miles to about 240 additional
miles), there were signs of a healthy reaction.
The over-construction on speculative railway
enterprise had to a great extent ceased, and
the lines which had been formed in many in-

43

stances were the cause of the development of fresh industrial centres, and of the opening up of new markets and increased productions. There was a general increase in activity in trade in Manchester, Birmingham, and the Irish linen factories, both in home and foreign orders and at good prices. Machinery had to a large extent superseded the former kind of hand labour in numerous manufactures; but it was shown that the effect had not been disastrous to the people who were employed. With respect to inventions, an instance may be taken from one by which the lower class of hosiery goods was produced, and in consequence of which it was stated that while the labour which formerly cost 1s. 6d. had been reduced to 2d., the output had enormously augmented and the average earnings of the operatives had greatly increased. Indeed, the condition of the working-classes was better than at any previous period. All the mills were working at full time, and many of them had more orders than could be completed. New manufactories were being rapidly built in various districts. Prices of raw material and of articles of consumption were rising in all our markets; and the shipping trade was active, because, although the carrying power of the railways had enormously increased, those railways brought goods regularly and rapidly from the interior, for conveyance from our ports.

66

Among the prominent topics of the year were those relating to agricultural improvements, and they were closely associated with the name of Mr. Mechi, a London cutler and dressing-case maker, whose cheap razors and magic strop" were advertised all over the kingdom. Mr. Mechi-who became a prosperous tradesman, and was afterwards alderman and Lord Mayor of London-bought an estate at Tiptree in Essex, and there carried out very costly and interesting experiments in drainage, and the application of sewage matter as manure to the land. His guests at the annual meetings and harvest-homes at Tiptree Hall usually included many of the nobility and gentry who were interested in agricultural improvements. Mr. Mechi said that "if far

mers followed his plans the ox which went up to market on Monday would be back with them again in manure before Friday." His plan was to form reservoirs of liquid manure from animal and vegetable refuse and land drainage, and to distribute it over the poor land by means of iron pipes. His experiments were able and interesting, and he brought very poor, cold, and wet land to a high state of cultivation; but the experimental farms at Tiptree did not pay, and eventually Mr. Mechi, having spent a large sum of money, died poor, assisted however for a very short time by the contributions of his friends.

The name of Mr. Mechi could not very well be omitted when questions like these are before us; his ingenious and persevering experiments had an important bearing, not only on agriculture, but on "sanitation." Meanwhile the Sanitary Association was doing its best to arouse public attention upon the subject of the water supply of London, and the defects of a bill introduced by Lord John Manners for regulating that supply in some particulars. At this time the proposal was openly made that the government should "buy up" the water companies, and consolidate the whole machinery of the supply under an authority directly responsible to parliament.

Sanitary topics spread themselves over large areas of time-and space-and they are worked by large numbers of hands; but a word is also due to Mr. F. O. Ward's labours in the cause of pure water for London from the chalk hills, and the devotion of the refuse of towns to its natural use in fertilizing ground set apart for the growth of grain, fruits, and flowers. The open-air and other reunions of Mr. F. O. Ward for tasting hill-top water and fruit grown on ground fertilized in a manner which was then rather new to the minds of the multitude, were among the most brilliant and agreeable of the year 1852-3, including some of the foremost names in "society," literature, and art.

The building of Sir Joseph Paxton and Messrs. Fox and Henderson in Hyde Park, which was the admired scene of the Great

SCIENCE AND ART TOPICS-PUGIN-TURNER.

Exhibition of 1851, became, when that exhibition of "peace" was over, a sad bone of contention. Lord John Manners peremptorily closed the building at the end of the term, and the plan of making it a winter-garden for London did not excite any very great interest in the mind of the general public. Many of the trades-people in Piccadilly and the neighbourhood strongly opposed the idea of retaining the building on its original site, saying that the concourse of visitors blocked the streets and spoiled their trade. Others urged that, as the building covered nearly twenty acres of grass ground and necessitated the trampling down of about as much more, with a disagreeable pollution of the Serpentine (from which the effluvium was said to be very bad), it was very undesirable on sanitary grounds to keep the edifice where it was. In fact this crystal palace of peace was the subject of more warfare than any human being would have thought possible. It must not be supposed that London alone took part in the fray. The provinces joined in it, almost every town having a pet scheme of its ownone of these being that the building should remain where it was and be made a "centre" for the granting of diplomas in art and technical knowledge. At public meetings the Duke of Argyll, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Harrowby, Lord Palmerston, Baron Meyer de Rothschild, and other distinguished public men, came forward to support the proposal for keeping the palace in Hyde Park. A working-man sent £20 to Lord Shaftesbury in aid of the movement; but the general public after all were apathetic, and Lord John Manners and his colleagues held that the government were pledged to its removal. There was at first a chance of its being laid down in Battersea Fields, which might have been a good conclusion; but the subsequent history of the palace is well known. The noticeable point is that in these discussions the idea of technical education on a large and dignified scale, and as a national matter, followed so easily in the wake of ideas which belonged strictly to the original Exhibition itself.

The royal commissioners had been constituted a permanent body by a charter granted

3

by her majesty, and were empowered to devote the surplus derived from the Great Exhibition to the erection of galleries and museums for the promotion of arts, manufactures, and commerce. The money was therefore expended in the purchase of land at South Kensington for the new national Science and Art Galleries.

Early in 1852 a name great in art, and of even more than national interest, had come prominently before the public. The death of Pugin, the centre, or more than the centre of the great Gothic revival, was interesting as well as mournful in various ways which need not be dwelt upon now; but Turner, who was in a more direct manner a national benefactor, claims distinct and extended notice. He was, in several respects, a very remarkable man; perhaps, like Pugin, not altogether sane. He was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, in 1775, was the son of a barber, and received a very poor education. His extraordinary natural gift with the pencil made him noticed by kind and discerning friends, and it befell that at twelve years of age he was exhibiting two drawings at the Royal Academy. When he was only twentyfour years of age he was elected an associate, and three years afterwards he received the full honours of an academician. In 1807 he was elected professor of perspective, but as he was vulgarly illiterate and quite incapable of communicating knowledge this came to nothing. When he died, in a small house at Chelsea looking on the river, it was found that he had bequeathed to the nation the magnificent collection of pictures now to be seen in the National Gallery, and a fortune of about £200,000 for founding an asylum for decayed artists: a scheme which was frustrated owing to some legal technicality.

Turner left more-and more splendid-work in landscape than any artist that ever lived. He travelled much, but used to say that the finest sunsets he ever saw were in the Isle of Thanet. During the season he might be seen on board the Margate boat, eating a coarse dinner out of a cotton handkerchief, and quite ready to "spell for" a glass of wine of any

stances were the cause of the development of fresh industrial centres, and of the opening up of new markets and increased productions. There was a general increase in activity in trade in Manchester, Birmingham, and the Irish linen factories, both in home and foreign orders and at good prices. Machinery had to a large extent superseded the former kind of hand labour in numerous manufactures; but it was shown that the effect had not been disastrous to the people who were employed. With respect to inventions, an instance may be taken from one by which the lower class of hosiery goods was produced, and in consequence of which it was stated that while the labour which formerly cost 1s. 6d. had been reduced to 2d., the output had enormously augmented and the average earnings of the operatives had greatly increased. Indeed, the condition of the working-classes was better than at any previous period. All the mills were working at full time, and many of them had more orders than could be completed. New manufactories were being rapidly built in various districts. Prices of raw material and of articles of consumption were rising in all our markets; and the shipping trade was active, because, although the carrying power of the railways had enormously increased, those railways brought goods regularly and rapidly from the interior, for conveyance from our ports.

Among the prominent topics of the year were those relating to agricultural improvements, and they were closely associated with the name of Mr. Mechi, a London cutler and dressing-case maker, whose cheap razors and "magic strop" were advertised all over the kingdom. Mr. Mechi-who became a prosperous tradesman, and was afterwards alderman and Lord Mayor of London-bought an estate at Tiptree in Essex, and there carried out very costly and interesting experiments in drainage, and the application of sewage matter as manure to the land. His guests at the annual meetings and harvest-homes at Tiptree Hall usually included many of the nobility and gentry who were interested in agricultural improvements. Mr. Mechi said that "if far

mers followed his plans the ox which went up to market on Monday would be back with them again in manure before Friday." His plan was to form reservoirs of liquid manure from animal and vegetable refuse and land drainage, and to distribute it over the poor land by means of iron pipes. His experiments were able and interesting, and he brought very poor, cold, and wet land to a high state of cultivation; but the experimental farms at Tiptree did not pay, and eventually Mr. Mechi, having spent a large sum of money, died poor, assisted however for a very short time by the contributions of his friends.

The name of Mr. Mechi could not very well be omitted when questions like these are before us; his ingenious and persevering experiments had an important bearing, not only on agriculture, but on "sanitation." Meanwhile the Sanitary Association was doing its best to arouse public attention upon the subject of the water supply of London, and the defects of a bill introduced by Lord John Manners for regulating that supply in some particulars. At this time the proposal was openly made that the government should "buy up" the water companies, and consolidate the whole machinery of the supply under an authority directly responsible to parliament.

Sanitary topics spread themselves over large areas of time--and space--and they are worked by large numbers of hands; but a word is also due to Mr. F. O. Ward's labours in the cause of pure water for London from the chalk hills, and the devotion of the refuse of towns to its natural use in fertilizing ground set apart for the growth of grain, fruits, and flowers. The open-air and other reunions of Mr. F. O. Ward for tasting hill-top water and fruit grown on ground fertilized in a manner which was then rather new to the minds of the multitude, were among the most brilliant and agreeable of the year 1852-3, including some of the foremost names in "society," literature, and art.

The building of Sir Joseph Paxton and Messrs. Fox and Henderson in Hyde Park, which was the admired scene of the Great

SCIENCE AND ART TOPICS-PUGIN-TURNER.

Exhibition of 1851, became, when that exhibition of "peace" was over, a sad bone of contention. Lord John Manners peremptorily closed the building at the end of the term, and the plan of making it a winter-garden for London did not excite any very great interest in the mind of the general public. Many of the trades-people in Piccadilly and the neighbourhood strongly opposed the idea of retaining the building on its original site, saying that the concourse of visitors blocked the streets and spoiled their trade. Others urged that, as the building covered nearly twenty acres of grass ground and necessitated the trampling down of about as much more, with a disagreeable pollution of the Serpentine (from which the effluvium was said to be very bad), it was very undesirable on sanitary grounds to keep the edifice where it was. In fact this crystal palace of peace was the subject of more warfare than any human being would have thought possible. It must not be supposed that London alone took part in the fray.

The provinces joined in it, almost every town having a pet scheme of its ownone of these being that the building should remain where it was and be made a "centre" for the granting of diplomas in art and technical knowledge. At public meetings the Duke of Argyll, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Harrowby, Lord Palmerston, Baron Meyer de Rothschild, and other distinguished public men, came forward to support the proposal for keeping the palace in Hyde Park. A working-man sent £20 to Lord Shaftesbury in aid of the movement; but the general public after all were apathetic, and Lord John Manners and his colleagues held that the government were pledged to its removal. There was at first a chance of its being laid down in Battersea Fields, which might have been a good conclusion; but the subsequent history of the palace is well known. The noticeable point is that in these discussions the idea of technical education on a large and dignified scale, and as a national matter, followed so easily in the wake of ideas which belonged strictly to the original Exhibition itself.

The royal commissioners had been constituted a permanent body by a charter granted

3

by her majesty, and were empowered to devote the surplus derived from the Great Exhibition to the erection of galleries and museums for the promotion of arts, manufactures, and commerce. The money was therefore expended in the purchase of land at South Kensington for the new national Science and Art Galleries.

Early in 1852 a name great in art, and of even more than national interest, had come prominently before the public. The death of Pugin, the centre, or more than the centre of the great Gothic revival, was interesting as well as mournful in various ways which need not be dwelt upon now; but Turner, who was in a more direct manner a national benefactor, claims distinct and extended notice. He was, in several respects, a very remarkable man; perhaps, like Pugin, not altogether sane. He was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, in 1775, was the son of a barber, and received a very poor education. His extraordinary natural gift with the pencil made him noticed by kind and discerning friends, and it befell that at twelve years of age he was exhibiting two drawings at the Royal Academy. When he was only twentyfour years of age he was elected an associate, and three years afterwards he received the full honours of an academician. In 1807 he was elected professor of perspective, but as he was vulgarly illiterate and quite incapable of communicating knowledge this came to nothing. When he died, in a small house at Chelsea looking on the river, it was found that he had bequeathed to the nation the magnificent collection of pictures now to be seen in the National Gallery, and a fortune of about £200,000 for founding an asylum for decayed artists: a scheme which was frustrated owing to some legal technicality.

Turner left more-and more splendid—work in landscape than any artist that ever lived. He travelled much, but used to say that the finest sunsets he ever saw were in the Isle of Thanet. During the season he might be seen on board the Margate boat, eating a coarse dinner out of a cotton handkerchief, and quite ready to "spell for" a glass of wine of any

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