by Simon Heffer
A nation with riches built institutions that reflected its new status: not merely practical edifices such as law courts, government offices, railway stations, schools and colleges, but institutions that suggested the importance of an intellectual and spiritual dimension to the lives of millions: museums, galleries, libraries and churches. Many were in the medieval style fashionable at the time; yet this was an era that cast off many of the surviving relics of the pre-democratic society. By the close of the period the monarch had been forced to take as her First Minister the man the electorate sent her, and not the man she would have liked to choose. Her subjects became more equal before the law, as the laws of contract and conspiracy were reformed. The House of Lords would not until 1911 end its practice of over-ruling the elected House, but it was made increasingly aware of the provocation issued when it did so, and it did so more rarely.
Perhaps most important, the tight hold the Established Church had over many state and private institutions was severely weakened. Schools were no longer its near-monopoly. It lost what had, effectively, been the right to admit to the ancient universities. With the expansion of prosperity it saw philanthropy, albeit often conducted in the name of Christ and His example, taken more into private hands and out of its own. The advance of science placed divines on the defensive. Some medieval practice was unthinkable by the 1880s: no longer would a man suffer having his book burned as a public spectacle for heresy, and no longer would a man have to throw in his livelihood as a university teacher because of his inability to confirm with the rites of the Church of England.
The Britain of 1838 bore only a superficial resemblance to that of 1880. The foundations of the modern nation had been laid. Privilege had not been expelled, but meritocracy was steadily supplanting it. The craving for wealth and status that a patriotic, self-confident and even jingoistic people had by the 1880s was not one that could be satisfied by the existing ruling class, but required a different army of the talented, with different motivations. The framework of a competitive, self-reliant society had been put in place. It was now up to individuals to advance it.
The great politicians of the period had all been propelled towards making improvements for those whom they led: Peel, Gladstone, Cardwell, Disraeli, Cross. Such people as Mill, Arnold, Dickens, Eliot, Ruskin and, grumbling throughout the period like a volcano about to erupt, Carlyle had pointed the way for the statesmen. Most important, the philosophers, propagandists and statesmen exhorted and encouraged numerous individuals who translated idealism into reality: Burdett-Coutts, Peabody, Nightingale, Octavia Hill, Emily Davies, Anne Clough, Holloway, Booth, Barnardo and, another constant presence, Shaftesbury. And the towering example of the age was the man who was part statesman, part philosopher, part man of action: Prince Albert.
The greatness of the age was the product of a conjunction of technological revolution, wealth, energy and high minds. It could have resulted in the construction of the greatest temple of Mammon the world has ever seen, a place for tribute to be paid to the gods of utilitarianism alone. That it became more than that was thanks to the mission of benevolence – the pursuit of perfection – that people as diverse as Gladstone, Arnold, Shaftesbury, Mill, Eliot and Dickens took out into the world at this moment when the tectonic plates of society were shifting as never before. If perfection remained elusive, the greater civilisation that they helped foster did not. The pursuit of perfection, a minority activity in 1838, had become almost an obligation by 1880.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Manuscript Sources
In the footnotes, the principal archives are identified as follows:
BC: Samuel Butler Collection, St John’s College, Cambridge.
BC RF: Bedford College Archive, Royal Holloway College, Egham.
BL: British Library, London.
RA: Royal Archives, Windsor.
RAH: Royal Albert Hall Archive, London.
RC: 1851 Commission Archive, Imperial College, London.
RHC: Royal Holloway College Archive, Egham.
UL: Cambridge University Library.
Some online references are included, notably to the Darwin Project, run by Cambridge University, which is putting online the correspondence of Charles Darwin; the Morgan Museum and Library Collection in New York; and the Barnardo’s website, which contains much historical information about Thomas Barnardo. The British Library catalogue is fully searchable online and will identify the particular collections in which papers of the subjects listed below can be traced:
Prince Albert: Royal Archives, Windsor; Imperial College (1851 Commission Archive).
Thomas Barnardo: www.barnardos.org.uk/.
William Booth: British Library.
John Bright: British Library.
Baroness Burdett-Coutts: British Library.
Samuel Butler: British Library; Cambridge University Library; St John’s College, Cambridge.
Edward Cardwell: British Library.
Thomas Carlyle: National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.
Joseph Chamberlain: British Library.
4th Earl of Clarendon: British Library.
Richard Cobden: British Library.
Henry Cole: Imperial College (1851 Commission Archive); Royal Albert Hall Archive.
Richard Cross: British Library.
Charles Darwin: www.darwinproject.ac.uk.
Charles Dickens: British Library; Morgan Museum and Library, New York (online collection, www.themorgan.org/collections/works/dickens/).
George Eliot: British Library.
W. E. Forster: British Library.
James Anthony Froude: National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.
W. E. Gladstone: British Library.
Sir George Grove: Shulbrede Priory.
Octavia Hill: British Library.
Thomas Holloway: Royal Holloway.
Charles Kingsley: British Library.
Sir A. H. Layard: British Library.
F. D. Maurice: Cambridge University Library; British Library.
Henry Mayhew: British Library.
John Stuart Mill: British Library.
John Henry Newman: British Library.
Florence Nightingale: British Library.
Caroline Norton: British Library; Pierpoint Morgan Library, New York.
Parkes Papers: Cambridge University Library.
Sir C. H. H. Parry: Shulbrede Priory.
Sir Robert Peel: British Library.
Elizabeth Jesser Reid: Royal Holloway.
Sir George Gilbert Scott: British Library.
Henry Sidgwick: Cambridge University Library.
Sir James Fitzjames Stephen: Cambridge University Library, Parkes Papers.
G. E. Street: British Library.
Charles Trevelyan: British Library.
George Otto Trevelyan: British Library.
Printed Sources
Books
The books are listed under the author’s abbreviations for them as used in the notes to the text. Some are titles, but most are under the name of the books’ authors.
A&C: The Life and Letters of Benjamin Jowett, MA, by Evelyn Abbott and Lewis Campbell (John Murray, 2 Vols, 2nd Edition, 1897).
Arnold, C&A: Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Social and Political Criticism, by Matthew Arnold, edited by J. Dover Wilson (CUP, 1950).
Arnold, Essays 1: Essays in Criticism, by Matthew Arnold (Macmillan, 1886).
Arnold, Essays 2: Essays in Criticism, Second Series, by Matthew Arnold (Macmillan, 1921).
Arnold, Eton: A French Eton or Middle-Class Education and the State, by Matthew Arnold (Macmillan, 1892).
Arnold, Letters: The Letters of Matthew Arnold, edited by Cecil Y. Lang (University of Virginia Press, 6 Vols, 1996–2001).
Arnold, MW: The Miscellaneous Works of Thomas Arnold, DD, Collected and Republished (B. Fellowes, 1845).
Arnold, Poems: New Poems, by Matthew Arnold (Macmillan, 1867).
Arnold, Reports: Reports on Elementary Schools 1852–1882, by Matthew Arnold, e
dited by Rt Hon. Sir Francis Sandford (Macmillan, 1889).
Arnold, Sermons: Sermons, by Thomas Arnold (Longmans, Green, 6 Vols, 1878).
Bagehot: The English Constitution, by Walter Bagehot (Oxford’s World’s Classics, 1928).
Balgarnie: Sir Titus Salt, Baronet: His Life and its Lessons, by Rev. R. Balgarnie (Hodder & Stoughton, 1877).
Bamford: Thomas Arnold on Education, edited by T. W. Bamford (CUP, 1970).
Bayley: The Albert Memorial: the monument in its social and architectural context, by Stephen Bayley (Scolar Press, 1981).
B&B: The Great Exhibitor: The Life and Work of Henry Cole, by Elizabeth Bonython and Anthony Burton (V&A Publications, 2003).
Beer: Darwin’s Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century Fiction, by Gillian Beer (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983).
Best: Mid-Victorian Britain, 1851–75, by Geoffrey Best (Fontana, 1979).
Bibby, Education: T. H. Huxley on Education: A Selection from his Writings, by Cyril Bibby (CUP, 1971).
Bibby, Scientist: T. H. Huxley: Scientist, Humanist and Educator, by Cyril Bibby (Watts, 1959).
Biswas: Arthur Hugh Clough: Towards a Reconsideration, by R. K. Biswas (OUP, 1972).
Blake: Disraeli, by Robert Blake (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1966).
Bloxam: The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, by Matthew Holbeche Bloxam (W. Kent & Co, 10th Edition, 1859).
Booth: In Darkest England and the Way Out, by General Booth (The Salvation Army, 1890).
Bostridge: Florence Nightingale: The Woman and Her Legend by Mark Bostridge (Penguin, 2007).
Bradley: St Pancras Station, by Simon Bradley (Profile Books, 2007).
Briggs, Cities: Victorian Cities, by Asa Briggs (Odhams, 1963).
Briggs, People: Victorian People, by Asa Briggs (Odhams, 1954).
Briggs, Things: Victorian Things, by Asa Briggs (Batsford, 1988).
Bright: The Diaries of John Bright, with a foreword by Philip Bright (Cassell, 1930).
Brown: Palmerston, a Biography, by David Brown (Yale, 2010).
Brownlee: The Law Courts: The Architecture of George Edmund Street, by David B. Brownlee (Architectural History Foundation, 1984).
Burn: The Age of Equipoise, by W. L. Burn (George Allen & Unwin, 1964).
Butler, Flesh: The Way of All Flesh, by Samuel Butler (Oxford World’s Classics, 1936).
Butler, Haven: The Fair Haven, by Samuel Butler (Watts & Co., 1938).
Butler, Note-Books: The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, edited by Henry Festing Jones (Fifield, 1912).
Butler, Savage Letters: Letters between Samuel Butler and Miss E. M. A. Savage 1871–1885 (Jonathan Cape, 1935).
Carlyle, Letters: The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle (Duke University Press, Duke-Edinburgh Edition, 39 Vols, 1970–2011).
Carlyle, Reminiscences: Reminiscences, by Thomas Carlyle, edited by C. E. Norton (Dent, 1932).
Carlyle, Works: The Works of Thomas Carlyle (Chapman & Hall, Centenary Edition, 30 Vols, 1897–1902).
Cate: The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin, edited by George Allan Cate (Stanford University Press, 1982).
Cecil: The Life of Robert Marquis of Salisbury, by Lady Gwendolen Cecil (Hodder & Stoughton, 2 Vols, 1921).
Chadwick: The Secularization of the European Mind in the Nineteenth Century, by Owen Chadwick (CUP, 1975).
Chedzoy: A Scandalous Woman: The Story of Caroline Norton, by Alan Chedzoy (Allison & Busby, 1992).
Clapham: An Economic History of Modern Britain: Free Trade and Steel, 1850–1886, by J. H. Clapham (CUP, 1932).
Clarendon: Report of Her Majesty’s commissioners appointed to inquire into the Revenues and Management of certain Colleges and Schools, with the Studies pursued and Instruction given therein; with an Appendix and Evidence (HMSO, 4 Vols, 1864).
Clark: The Royal Albert Hall, by Ronald W. Clark (Hamish Hamilton, 1958).
Clough, Letters: Correspondence of Arthur Hugh Clough, edited by F. Mulhauser (OUP, 2 Vols, 1957).
Clough, Poems: Poems, by Arthur Hugh Clough (Macmillan, 1862).
Clough, Remains: Prose Remains, by Arthur Hugh Clough (Macmillan, 1888).
Cobbett: Rural Rides, by William Cobbett (Dent, 2 Vols, 1912).
Cockshut: Truth to Life: the Art of Biography in the Nineteenth Century, by A. O. J. Cockshut (Collins, 1974).
Collini: Arnold, by Stephan Collini (OUP, 1988).
Cook: The Life of John Ruskin, by E. T. Cook (George Allen, 2 Vols, 1911).
Cowling, 1867: 1867: Disraeli, Gladstone and Revolution, the Passing of the Second Reform Bill, by Maurice Cowling (CUP, 1967).
Cross: A Political History, by Richard Cross (privately printed, 1903).
Curl: Victorian Architecture: Its Practical Aspects, by James Stevens Curl (David & Charles, 1873).
Daiches: Some Late Victorian Attitudes, by David Daiches (Andre Deutsch, 1969).
Darley: Octavia Hill: A Life, by Gillian Darley (Constable, 1990).
Darwin, LL: The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, including an Autobiographical Chapter, edited by Francis Darwin (John Murray, 1887).
Darwin, OS: On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature, 1998).
Davenport-Hines: Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin, by Richard Davenport-Hines (Fourth Estate, 1998).
Davis: The Great Exhibition, by John R. Davis (Sutton Publishing, 1999).
Dickens, ED: The Mystery of Edwin Drood, by Charles Dickens (Popular Edition of the Complete Works, Chapman & Hall, 1907).
Dickens, HT: Hard Times, by Charles Dickens (Popular Edition of the Complete Works, Chapman & Hall, 1907).
Dickens, Letters: The Letters of Charles Dickens (Oxford University Press, 12 Vols, 1965–2002).
Dickens, LD: Little Dorrit, by Charles Dickens (Popular Edition of the Complete Works, Chapman & Hall, 1907).
Dickens, OMF: Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens (Popular Edition of the Complete Works, Chapman & Hall, 1907).
Disraeli, Coningsby: Coningsby, by Benjamin Disraeli (Dent, 1911).
Disraeli, Sybil: Sybil, or The Two Nations, by Benjamin Disraeli (Oxford World’s Classics, 1925).
D&M: Victorian Architecture, by Roger Dixon and Stefan Muthesius (Thames & Hudson, 1978).
Dunn: James Anthony Froude, A Biography, by Waldo Hilary Dunn (OUP, 2 Vols, 1961–3).
Eliot, Holt: Felix Holt, the Radical, by George Eliot (Oxford World’s Classics, 1911).
Ellis: British Railway History 1830–1876, by Hamilton Ellis (George Allen & Unwin, 1954).
Engels: The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844, by Frederick Engels (George Allen & Unwin, 1892).
Eyck: The Prince Consort, by Frank Eyck (New Portway, 1975).
Ferriday: Victorian Architecture, edited by Peter Ferriday (Jonathan Cape, 1963).
Festing Jones: Samuel Butler, Author of Erewhon (1835–1902): A Memoir, by Henry Festing Jones (Macmillan & Co., 2 Vols, 1919).
Finer: The Life and Times of Sir Edwin Chadwick, by S. E. Finer (Methuen, 1970).
Finlayson: The Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, by Geoffrey B. A. M. Finlayson (Eyre Methuen, 1981).
Flanders: The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London, by Judith Flanders (Atlantic Books, 2012).
Forster: The Life of Charles Dickens, by John Forster (Dent, 2 Vols, 1927).
Froude, Carlyle: Thomas Carlyle, A History of the First Forty Years of his Life and Thomas Carlyle, A History of his Life in London, by J. A. Froude (Longmans, Green & Co., 4 Vols 1882–4).
Froude, MT: The Reign of Mary Tudor, by James Anthony Froude (Dent, 1910).
Froude, Nemesis: The Nemesis of Faith, by J. A. Froude (John Chapman, 1849).
Froude, Remains: Remains of the Late Reverend Richard Hurrell Froude, MA (Rivington, 1838, 2 Vols).
Fulford, DC: Darling Child: Private Correspondence of Queen Victoria and the Crown Princess of Prussia 1871–1
878, edited by Roger Fulford (Evans Brothers, 1976).
Fulford, DM: Dearest Mama: Letters between Queen Victoria and the Crown Princess of Prussia 1861–1864, edited by Roger Fulford (Evans Brothers, 1968).
Fulford, YDL: Your Dear Letter: Private Correspondence of Queen Victoria and the Crown Princess of Prussia 1865–1871, edited by Roger Fulford (Evans Brothers, 1971).
Gardiner: The Life of Sir William Harcourt, by A. G. Gardiner (Constable, 2 Vols, 1923).
Garvin: The Life of Joseph Chamberlain (Vol. 1), by J. L. Garvin (Macmillan, 1935).
Gash: Sir Robert Peel: the Life of Sir Robert Peel after 1830 by Norman Gash (Longman, 1972).
Gaskell, MB: Mary Barton, by Elizabeth Gaskell (Oxford World’s Classics, 1906).
Gaskell, N&S: North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell (Oxford World’s Classics, 1908).
Girouard: Alfred Waterhouse and the Natural History Museum, by Mark Girouard (Yale, 1981).
Gladstone, Diaries: The Gladstone Diaries, edited by M. R. D. Foot and H. C. G. Matthew (OUP, 14 Vols, 1968–94).
Gloag: Victorian Taste: Some Social Aspects of Architecture and Industrial Design from 1820–1900, by John Gloag (A&C Black, 1962).
Greville: The Greville Memoirs (Second Part): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria, by Charles C. F. Greville (Longmans, Green & Co., 3 Vols, 1885).
Harrison-Barbet: Thomas Holloway, Victorian Philanthropist, by Anthony Harrison-Barbet (Royal Holloway, 1994).
Hartley: Charles Dickens and the House of Fallen Women, by Jenny Hartley (Methuen, 2008).
Hawkins: The Forgotten Prime Minister: The 14th Earl of Derby, by Angus Hawkins (OUP, 2 Vols, 2007–8).
Healey: Lady Unknown: The Life of Angela Burdett-Coutts, by Edna Healey (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1978).
