Virtue and Vanity: Continuing Story of Desire and Duty
Page 22
Coffee and tea were aggressively promoted in the early nineteenth century as alochol substitutes. There were only eight coffee houses in London in 1805, but more than 800 by the start of Queen Victoria’s reign.
Sometimes the local Methodist parson was the only literate man living among the lower industrial class and it often fell to the local pastor to represent the worker’s grievances.
The industrial management was backed by the controlling triumvirate of aristocracy, government and state church, which were comprised essentially of the same small number of wealthy individuals.
This social arrangement also explains why most of the early nineteenth century writers (i.e. well to do), wrote in contemptible terms about the Methodists, since the latter group was seen as a supporter of both the poor and unions (and thus, a real threat to the ruling aristocracy).
Given that only a few landowners could vote, the British government was not sympathetic to the worker’s plight of six day work, sixteen hour days and child labor (often down to age 3 - 5, if they were physically able). Unions were outlawed and attempts to improve conditions jailed many a worker and Methodist pastor.
The typical miner was drunken, dissolute, and brutalized, tyrannized over by his employers and their underlings. The majority had never received any education whatever. To these people the Methodist class leader or preacher brought the Bible and the Methodist Hymn Book. They were eventually taught to read and reflect. There came to them a desire for learning and for improvement which had to be gratified. They sent their children to the Sunday School, and not content with that, they often accompanied them. Men who had grown up and had children to go to school, have been sitting side by side on a form learning the very rudiments of reading and writing. The miner not only went to school, he took to going to Chapel, and, finding it necessary to appear decent there, he got new clothes and became what is termed respectable. (Wearmouth, Working Class, 226)
The aristocratic government was perplexed by these brave Methodist pastors. On one hand they wanted to brand them revolutionaries and ban them; but, learning of their strong loyalty oaths to the king, found no basis to legally persecute them. Eventually, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, unions were legalized and role of the pastors working in unions faded away.
Because of their hard work to improve the conditions of the poor, prison reform and health care (the Methodists were the first to open free health clinics in England), the famous French historian, Halevy, credits the Methodists with preventing the gruesome French revolution from being duplicated in England (see discussion in Desire and Duty).
In Cooper’s notes on England, which range from 1828-1836, he fully expects that a dramatic revolution would also occur in England due to the great unrest and social injustice (from the viewpoint of an American democrat).
Two quotes from British newspapers in 1831 and 1834–
“distress and starvation now existing among great numbers of the working classes are due to the land being held in the hands of a few, instead of being cultivated for the benefit of the community at large.”
“high rents, high tithes, high tolls, high usury (interest rate), high profits and low wages amongst working people are the cause of their poverty.” (Wearmouth, Working Class, 168)
Works Cited
Cooper, James Fenimore. Geanings in Europe: France. State University of New York Press: Albany, 1981.
Cooper, James Fenimore. Gleaning in Europe: England. State Univeristy of New York Press: Albany, 1979.
Halevy, Elie. A History of the English People in 1815. Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd: London, 1987.
Pinkney, David. The French Revolution of 1830. Princeton University Press: New Jersey, 1972.
Taylor, Archer. English Riddles from Oral Tradition. Octagon Books: New York, 1977.
Wearmouth, Robert. Methodism and the Common People of the Eighteenth Century. Epworth Press: London, 1945.
Wearmouth, Robert. Methodism and the Working-Class Movements in England: 1800-1850. Augustus Kelley Publishers: Clifton, 1972.
Willms, Johannes. Paris: Capital of Europe. Holmes and Meier: New York, 1997.
Woodforde, James. The Diary of a Country Parson. Folio Society: London, 1992.
If you enjoyed this story, you will also want to read:the award winning:
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