A School History of England/Chapter 12
CHAPTER XII
GEORGE III TO GEORGE V, 1815–1911
The last ninety-six years.The period of English History which remains for me to tell you about will bring us down to our own days. It is a much more difficult story to understand than any that I have already told you. It is also much more difficult to write about.
For people hold such diverse opinions about the events of the present day and of the last hundred years. These opinions are very often the result of their upbringing; ‘we have heard with our ears and our fathers have told us.’ Men are still alive who were born before Waterloo was fought. As you get older you will form opinions about these events for yourselves; and so it is desirable for me, in this last chapter, rather to state what did take place than to try to guide your opinions. And it will be easier to do this if you, my readers, will allow me to treat the period as all one, rather than narrate the events year by year.
Progress towards Democracy.On the whole, the progress of Great Britain during the past ninety-six years has been towards what is called ‘Democracy’, a long word meaning ‘Government by the people’. This form of government may be said to be still ‘on its trial’. Let us hope that it will prove a great success. It will only do so if all classes of the people realize that they have duties as well as rights, and if each class realizes that every other class has rights as well as itself.
Five sovereigns in these ninety-six years; George IV, 1820–30.Five sovereigns have reigned and died during these ninety-six years, and the sixth is now upon the throne. George III had long been blind and insane when he died in 1820, and it was the eldest of his seven sons who became King in that year as George IV. This man had been acting as Prince Regent for his insane father since 1810. He was naturally clever and had some kind of selfish good nature, but he was mean, cowardly, and an incredible liar. Some famous lies he told so often that at last he got to believe them himself; for instance, he was fond of saying that he had been present at the battle of Waterloo, whereas he had never seen a shot fired in his life.
William IV, 1830–7.He was succeeded in 1830 by a stupid honest old gentleman, his brother, William IV, who, as a young man, had been nicknamed ‘Silly Billy’. There was no harm in King William, but there was little active good, and so the influence of the Crown, both upon private and public life, was very slight when he died in 1837. His heir was his niece Victoria, a girl of eighteen of whom little was then known, but of whose goodness and high spirit stories were already being told.
Victoria the Great, 1837–1901;‘Who will be King, Mamma,’ she said, when she was twelve years old, ‘when Uncle William dies?’ ‘You will be queen, my dear.’ ‘Then I must be a very good little girl now,’ she replied. her character.In this wonderful lady the spirit of all her greatest ancestors seemed to have revived, the burning English patriotism of the Tudors, the Scottish heart of the Stuarts, the courage of Edward Ill, the wisdom of Edward I, Henry Il and Alfred. And all were softened and beautified by womanly love and tenderness. No sovereign ever so unweariedly set herself to win the love of her people, to be the servant of her people. And her people rewarded her with a love that she had more than deserved. Her reign of sixty-three years will always be remembered in history by her name; it was the ‘Victorian Age’. Her husband was her own cousin, the wise and good Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a small State in central Germany. Edward VII, 1901–10.She was succeeded by her eldest son, Edward VI, whose too short reign closed only after this book was begun. All the Empire is still in mourning for him, the wise and prudent statesman, the peace-lover, the peacemaker of Europe, the noble English gentleman.
George V, 1910.The result of the reigns of Victoria and Edward VII has been to lift the Crown again to a position which it had not occupied in men’s minds since the death of Elizabeth. It is not with our lips only that we are loyal to King George V, it is with our hearts also. The crown is not only the ‘golden circle’ that binds the Empire together; it is the greatest thing in that Empire.
The Bells and the Queen, 1911.
To ring the Bells of London Town.’
When London Town’s asleep in bed
You’ll hear the Bells ring overhead,
In excelsis gloria!
Ringing for Victoria,
Ringing for their mighty mistress—ten years dead!
Than Gloriana guessed or Indies bring—
Than golden Indies bring. A Queen confessed,
A Queen confessed that crowned her people King.
Her people King, and crowned all Kings above,
Above all Kings have crowned their Queen their love—
Have crowned their love their Queen, their Queen their love!
Disowning her are we ourselves disowned.
Mirror was she of our fidelity,
And handmaid of our destiny enthroned;
The very marrow of Youth's dream, and still
Yoke-mate of wisest Age that worked her will!
Her praise the years had proven past all speech,
And past all speech our loyal hearts always,
Always our hearts lay open, each to each;
Therefore men gave their treasure and their blood
To this one woman—for she understood!
Oh, London Bells, to all the world declare
The Secret of the Empire—read who will!
The Glory of the People—touch who dare!
Power that has reached itself all kingly powers,
St. Margaret’s: By love o'erpowered—
St. Martin’s: By love o'erpowered—
St. Clement Danes: By love o'erpowered,
The greater power confers!
For we were hers, as she, as she was ours,
Bow Bells: And she was ours—
St. Paul’s: And she was ours—
Westminster: And she was ours,
As we, even we, were hers!
As we were hers!
The British Parliament, 1815–1911.The next greatest thing, probably every one will admit, is the Parliament of the United Kingdom. During these ninety-six years that Parliament has undergone considerable changes. The House of Lords has been very much increased in numbers, but has not been altogether strengthened by this increase. The House of Lords.It still represents, as it has always represented, the wealthy people of the Kingdom. When the only wealth was in land, the House of Lords consisted almost wholly of great landowners. Now that the traders have more wealth than the landowners, rich manufacturers and other great employers of labour have been made peers, though they also have nearly always bought land to support their dignity.
The House of Commons.The House of Commons has undergone a still greater change. I told you in the last chapter what serious need there was in the eighteenth century for a ‘Reform’ of that House, and how, during the twenty-two years of the Great War, that and all other reforms had to be put off. A very small knot of Whigs had never ceased to urge that reform even during the war. The foremost of these was Charles, Earl Grey.
Mistakes of the Tories, 1815–32.I have had to scold the Whigs a good deal during the reign of George III, and I am afraid I shall now have to scold the Tories for their attitude during the first fifteen of these ninety-six years. They held power right up to 1830, and it was obviously their duty to take up this and many other questions in a serious and ‘modern’ spirit. They consisted of two sections, the enlightened Tories, like Mr. Canning and Sir Robert Peel, who had sat at the feet of William Pitt; and the stick-in-the-mud Tories, like Lord Sidmouth and Lord Eldon, who were opposed to any change in any department of life. I think it was strange that the former as well as the latter section of Tories were opposed to reform of the House of Commons. The Whigs for Reform of the House of Commons, 1815–32.The result was that it fell wholly to the Whigs to force it on; and the Whigs, being weak in Parliament, did not scruple to appeal to the passions of uneducated people outside Parliament. They encouraged ‘monster meetings’, ‘monster petitions’ and such like. There were riots in favour of Reform. At one riot at Manchester in 1819 the soldiers had to be called in, and several people were shot. Very likely these were only innocent spectators and not rioters at all; those who get up riots are usually careful to keep out of the way when their suppression begins. Stiff laws were passed in Parliament to prevent such riotous meetings for the future.
The Reform Bill, 1832.From 1820 to 1830 the question of Reform was never for a moment allowed to slumber, and at last in 1832 the Duke of Wellington, who, though opposed to Reform himself, was always moderate and sensible, advised the Tories to give way, and a ‘Reform Bill’ was at last got through both Houses, an eminently sensible and moderate Bill. The number of members in the House was not increased, but the absurd old boroughs with few or no inhabitants lost their right of sending members, and the great growing towns got that right. All persons in the counties with a moderate amount of property, and all persons in the towns who had a house worth £10 a year, got votes for the election of members. The educated people of Great Britain and Ireland were very fairly represented in the House of Commons between 1832 and 1867.
Fresh agitation; the Chartists 1832–48.But this did not stop agitation outside. A group of men called ‘Chartists’ began to cry out for something more, for the representation of the uneducated as well. They demanded that every grown-up man should have a vote, that members of Parliament should be paid, that a new Parliament should be elected every year, and so on. These men tried to get up riots in favour of their demands; in 1848 it looked as if these riots were going to be serious. But the thing fizzled out somehow. Later Reform Bills, 1867 and 1885.Twice since that time new ‘Reform Bills’ have been passed, one by each party in the State, by the Tories in 1867 (now called ‘Conservatives’) and by the Whigs in 1885 (now called ‘Liberals’ or ‘Radicals’). On each occasion the vote was given to poorer and less educated classes of the people, and on the latter occasion the distinction between counties and boroughs was practically abolished; every district in Britain, whether of town or country, is now represented in the House of Commons pretty nearly according to the number of people living in it.
The Irish members.Unfortunately one exception to this principle has been allowed. With the exception of those from Ulster, the Irish members of the House of Commons since the Union of 1800 have never been loyal to our system of government, but have continually cried out for a separate Parliament in Dublin. The first great agitator for this purpose was the orator Daniel O'Connell, in the reigns of George IV and William IV and at the beginning of Victoria's reign. He has been followed by many others, notably by Mr. Parnell, and the agitation is still continuing. In order to hush this cry, British statesmen have allowed Ireland to have many more members of the House of Commons than the population of that island warrants. More than one statesman, especially the famous Mr. Gladstone in 1885 and 1892, has thought of conciliating the Irish, by granting them, under the name of ‘Home Rule’, the separate Parliament which they demand. But most people fear that a separate Irish Parliament would be followed by a complete separation between Ireland and Great Britain, by the establishment of an Irish Republic, and by the oppression of the well-to-do and intelligent classes of Irishmen, who are certainly loyal to the British Crown. All British politicians, on both sides, have, during the last seventy years, made haste to remove every real, and, indeed, every imaginary grievance of the Irish people, though they have earned no gratitude by doing so.
The Ministers of the Crown.As regards the Ministers of the Crown, whom we may consider next after Parliament as an ‘institution’ of the country, it has been well understood, ever since George III’s death, that the King ‘reigns but does not govern’. He takes as his ministers men who are agreeable to the majority in the existing House of Commons. In quiet times there is a new House of Commons about every five or six years and there must be one every seven years. There is, therefore, very likely to be a change of ministry every time there is a new House. Before the first Reform Bill there were only about 300,000 electors; there are now over 7,000,000. But, oddly enough, the larger the number of electors, the more frequent are the changes of public opinion. In former days Whigs or Tories might well hold office through three or four successive Parliaments; now it is very rare that either party holds it through two. The opinion of the electors has a curious habit of swinging right round in a very short space of time; and, so, great changes in our rulers are of frequent occurrence.
The Cabinet.These rulers or ministers we call the ‘Cabinet’; and in the Cabinet you will always find a ‘Prime Minister’, generally called the ‘First Lord of the Treasury’, at the head of the whole thing; it is with him that the real responsibility lies. He explains to the King what he and his friends think ought to be done; The King’s advice.and, when he is a wise man, he generally finds that the King’s advice on the matter is very well worth listening to. If the King does not approve of what his Prime Minister suggests he can always dismiss him; but it is of no use his doing this unless he can appoint some one else whom the existing House of Commons will follow, or unless he is prepared to dismiss the existing House of Commons and call a new Parliament. The King will do this last if he feels sure that the minister and the existing House are leading the nation astray or are leading it where it doesn’t want to go. Any very ‘revolutionary’ proposal, such as the abolition of either House of Parliament, the surrender of India or the Colonies, the reduction of the Navy very far below the strength necessary to defend the Empire, might quite conceivably obtain for a moment a majority in the House of Commons, and, though it is unlikely, it is just possible that the House of Lords might be terrified into accepting it. But then it would be the duty of the King to interfere, and to dismiss, at all costs, the ministry which was rash enough to make such a proposal.
Departments of the Government.Besides the Prime Minister, the most important members of the Cabinet are the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who manages money matters, the Secretaries of State for War, for Foreign Affairs, for the Colonies, for Home Affairs, and the First Lord of the Admiralty, who manages the Navy. Each is responsible for some particular part of the task of government; but all must agree upon all important questions, and the minister who doesn’t agree with the rest of the Cabinet must resign.
The most distinguished Prime Ministers since 1815.I shall not trouble you with a list of the ministries that have held office since 1815; two things only you should remember: first, that ministries are more short-lived now than they used to be; and secondly, that they are more dominated by the Prime Minister for the time being than they used to be. The most distinguished Prime Ministers have been Mr. Canning (died 1827), Lord Grey (died 1845), Sir Robert Peel (died 1850), Lord Palmerston (died 1865), Lord Beaconsfield, better known as Mr. Disraeli (died 1881), Mr. Gladstone (died 1898), and Lord Salisbury (died 1903). Each in his own way has contributed something to the greatness of England; but each, with the exception of Sir Robert Peel, has had a weak side. Speaking generally, those ministers who have paid most attention to finances and to internal reform have been less successful in upholding the honour of England abroad and in strengthening the army and navy.
The Law Courts.With regard to the law and the law courts, it is not such a very different England in which we live from what it was in the days of our great-grandfathers. The House of Lords is still the highest ‘Court of Appeal’ in Great Britain and Ireland; but to hear appeals, only those peers sit who are specially appointed to be judges for that purpose. There is a Court of Appeal below it and a High Court of Justice below that. The Judges are still appointed by the King, and still ‘go on circuit’ four times a year to the several districts of England to try criminal cases, as they have done since the fourteenth century. There are also small courts called ‘county courts’, for small lawsuits, in some sixty different districts In England. The Scottish Law Courts.Scotland has kept, since the Union of 1707, her own system of law and law courts entirely different from ours, but from them also you can appeal to the House of Lords. Ireland has the same system of law as ours, but has her own law courts with appeal to the House of Lords. Each colony in the Empire has its own law courts and judges, and appeals from them and from the Indian law courts come not to the House of Lords, but to a few great judges in the Privy Council.
Reform of the Criinal Law, 1818–50.The one really great law reform has been that of the a criminal law. In 1815 over one hundred and sixty crimes were still supposed to be punished with death. There are now only two, high treason and wilful murder, and, unfortunately, people who commit high treason are now too often let off. In 1815 a thief might be hanged if he stole five shillings’ worth of goods from a shop! He hardly ever was hanged, because he was tried by a Jury and a Judge, and juries preferred to declare him ‘not guilty’ rather than allow him to be hanged; so, as a rule, he got off altogether. Even of those who were convicted and condemned to be hanged, not one-tenth were hanged. And this was because public opinion was more merciful than the law. From 1788 onwards criminals who had just escaped hanging used to be ‘transported’ to Australia, and this went on till 1840. The other settlers in that continent naturally objected very much to this; and we now send our criminals to ‘penal servitude’ in large prisons at Dartmoor and Portland instead. No words can be too hard to use against the Tory ministers like Lord Eldon, who, year after year, from 1815 to 1830 obstructed the reform of the criminal laws as much as they could; most of the reforms in them were due to the Whigs or to the more enlightened Tory Sir Robert Peel.
Admission of Dissenters, Catholics, and Jews to Parliament, 1828–53.To Tory Governments belongs the credit of beginning to remove the laws which made a man’s admission to Parliament depend upon his religious opinions. Both Lord Castlereagh, who died in 1822, and Mr. Canning, who died in 1827, had always been anxious to admit Catholics to Parliament; but it was just after Canning’s death that, first the Protestant Dissenters in 1828, and then the Catholics in 1829, were admitted. Jews had to wait till 1853, and those who openly declared their disbelief in any religion at all till 1884. The support of the State to the Protestant Church in Ireland, which dated from the time of Elizabeth, was taken away in 1868. Church revival, 1829.The zeal of the Church of England was, from 1829 onwards, quickened by men like Newman and Dr. Pusey, and religion is now a far more vital force in our daily lives than it was at the end of George III’s reign. Differences of opinion upon religion still exist, and still occasionally lead to squabbles between Churchmen and Dissenters, but they are being smoothed away; of all passions religious hatred is now seen to be the most odious, and all reasonable men acknowledge that the teaching of sound morality is the main duty of all religious bodies. Without religion there can be no good morals, and without good morals the wisest laws are futile.
Other reforms.The Whigs are responsible for the abolition of slavery in our West Indian Islands (1833); the importation of slaves from Africa thither had been prohibited as far back as 1807. They can also claim the credit of the The new Poor Law, 1834.‘New Poor Law’ (1834), which refused to give food or money to the idle and improvident unless they would come into the ‘Workhouse’; and this law made workhouse life sufficiently unpleasant, so that lots of idle loafers, who had hitherto ‘lived on the rates’, preferred to earn their own living. Municipal reform, 1885.The same Whig Government in 1835 reformed the town councils of our cities and boroughs in such a way that every householder now gets a vote for the election of his town council. County Councils, 1889.In 1889 a Conservative Government extended this plan to the country districts also, and in each shire a ‘county council’ is now elected, which manages all local business such as the keeping up of roads, bridges, lunatic asylums, and the police. It was Sir Robert Peel who created the present magnificent force of policemen, and its members are still sometimes, in sport, called after him ‘bobbies’ and ‘peelers.’
National Education, 1870.Perhaps the most important of all reforms of the nineteenth century was the introduction in 1870 for all classes of the people of a system of schools, supported by the State and paid for by a rate on each district. Every one is now compelled to attend some kind of school, and a man may be sent to prison if he refuses to send his children to school. When I was a boy it was quite common to meet people who could neither read nor write; now it is the rarest thing in the world.
The food question.There was one burning question all through the first thirty years of this period, of which I have yet told you nothing; and it was the most serious of all—the question of food. Great Britain and Ireland could no longer grow enough corn to feed their great and rapidly increasing populations. For the two-and-twenty years which ended in 1815, Governments had been too busy saving the very existence of Britain and of Europe to pay attention to this question. But now followed a period of peace, in which both the bill for the war had to be paid, and this terrible food question faced in earnest.
The National Debt from 1815.The bill for the war was an enormous one; in 1793 the National Debt was not much over 200 millions; in 1815 it was over 900 millions; the interest to be paid on it annually had gone up from 8 to 33 millions. Taxation had been enormously heavy, and every one cried out for its reduction. To this cry for a reduction of taxes the Government was perhaps right to turn a deaf ear as long as that frightful bill remained unpaid; and, alas, during these ninety-six years, very little of that bill has really been paid off; the Debt is still over 700 millions, though the interest annually paid on each £100 of it has been reduced to £2 10s. 0d.
The Corn Laws, 1815–46.But there can be no excuse for the deaf ear which the Government turned to the question of food. The price of corn still varied with each harvest, and varied enormously. But now it was beginning to be possible to import corn from America, from Russia and from several other places. And the proper thing to do would have been to put a moderate Customs’ duty on the importation of corn, a duty which should vary with the price of corn in the London market. Instead of doing this, Parliament in 1815 passed a law saying that no corn should be imported at all until the price in London was at 80s. a quarter, which meant that a loaf of bread would cost about 9d. This was called ‘protecting’ the British farmers and the British landowners, who of course could get high prices and high rents when the price of corn was high; but it came very near to mean starving the British labourer. Those who upheld this plan were called ‘Protectionists’; those who wished to admit cheap foreign corn were called ‘Free Traders’.
Agitation against them.The ‘Corn Laws’ became the subject of an agitation far fiercer than that for Reform of Parliament, and with much more reason. Over and over again there was danger of a rising of the poor labourers against all who owned or farmed land. Even when there was not a bad harvest, and when the price of corn was far below the 80s. a quarter, it was easy for agitators to persuade the poor that they must be very badly off; and, especially in the days before the Reform Bill, the outcry of the poor against the rich was a most distressing feature of the age. You cannot expect much reason from people who are really hard up for food, or who expect to be hard up for food in a few months. At last, in 1845, there appeared the most manifest symptoms of a coming famine in Ireland, owing to the failure of the potato crop. Their repeal, 1846.Sir Robert Peel, who was then in power, and who had hitherto been a moderate ‘Protectionist’, turned right round, and in 1846 abolished the Corn Laws altogether. He was too late to save Ireland from famine, which came in all its horrors in 1847, and, by death or emigration to America, reduced the Irish people by more than a third of their numbers. But he believed that he had saved any portion of our islands from the chance of such a disaster for the future.
Decay of agriculture.For a long time after the abolition of the Corn Laws, it still paid the farmers to grow corn in Britain. But as the empty lands of America and Canada came to be more and more peopled and cultivated, and when the introduction of steamships brought down the cost and shortened the time needed to bring corn across the Atlantic, it began to pay them less and less. And now we buy not only almost all our corn, but most of our meat, and a good deal of our wool, fruit and butter, from abroad also. The sad result has been that the land of England is rapidly going out of cultivation, and that our villages are being deserted in favour of our towns, where we cannot expect so strong and healthy a race to grow up as that of our grandfathers who lived by work in the open fields.
Imported food.There is, moreover, a most serious danger behind. If England should ever be defeated in a great war at sea, it would be impossible for us to get our food at all, and our population would simply starve. Therefore, at whatever cost to ourselves, it is our duty to keep our navy so strong that it must be for ever impossible for us to be defeated at sea.
Big Steamers.
With England's own coal, up and down the salt seas?’
‘We are going to fetch you your bread and your butter,
Your beef, pork, and mutton, eggs, apples, and cheese.’
And where shall I write you when you are away?’
‘We fetch it from Melbourne, Quebec, and Vancouver,
Address us at Hobart, Hong-kong, and Bombay.’
And suppose you were wrecked up and down the salt sea?’
‘Why, you'd have no coffee or bacon for breakfast,
And you'd have no muffins or toast for your tea.’
For little blue billows and breezes so soft.’
‘Oh, billows and breezes don’t bother Big Steamers,
For we're iron below and steel-rigging aloft.’
With plenty wise pilots to pilot you through.’
‘Oh, the Channel’s as bright as a ballroom already,
And pilots are thicker than pilchards at Looe.’
Oh, what can I do for your comfort and good?’
‘Send out your big warships to watch your big waters,
That no one may stop us from bringing you food.
The sweets that you suck: and the joints that you carve,
They are brought to you daily by all us Big Steamers,
And if any one hinders our coming you’ll starve!’
Free trade.The principle of ‘free trade’ has been carried into all departments of life. When Sir Robert Peel took office in 1841 there were over twelve hundred articles on which duty had to be paid when they were imported from abroad. There are now only sixteen such articles, and the only ones of any importance are wine, spirits and tobacco (all of which are ‘luxuries’, as opposed to ‘necessaries’ of life). When this policy was first adopted it was expected that all other nations would soon adopt ‘free trade’ also, but they have not done so; and we have even allowed our own colonies to put on Customs’ duties against the importation of British woods to their ports. Proposals are now on foot, and are maintained by a large party in Britain, to go back upon this principle of ‘free trade’, and to impose a moderate ‘tariff’ on the importation of goods from all nations which will not admit British goods to their ports without a duty. It is not my business to express an opinion as to whether this would be wise or not. No doubt ‘free trade all round’ would be the most splendid thing in the world for all nations if all would agree to carry it out.
Growth of the Empire.The next point to which I must direct your attention is the growth of the British Empire. Soon after Victoria became Queen a cry for ‘self-government’ began to be heard from the Colonies. There were five-and-forty British Colonies all told, and the joke went round that they were governed by three-and-twenty clerks of the ‘Colonial Office’ in Downing Street, London. Cry of colonies for self-government: Canada, 1839.This was not quite true, as most of our colonies had little councils of their own, which in some cases were even elected. It was in Canada that the cry for a more free system first arose. Many of the inhabitants of its two provinces were of old French descent, and spoke, as they still speak, French. These had been nobly loyal to Britain and had twice repelled American invasions; and there were also descendants of American loyalists, who had fled to Canada in 1776–83 rather than live under a foreign flag. But there was a danger of such feeling wearing out, and there were, in 1840, mutterings of rebellion and threats that the Canadians would join the United States. In order to prevent this and to satisfy the Canadians, the experiment was tried of giving them the beginnings of a regular Parliament like our own, with a ministry responsible to that Parliament and named by a Governor representing the Crown.
Extension of Canada, 1840–1911.The gradual extension of the Dominion of Canada to include the territories known as Ontario and British Columbia right up to the island of Vancouver, was the work of the middle period of Victoria's reign; and during the same period the United States of America were extending Westwards and ever more Westwards till they reached the Pacific Ocean. In ‘British North America’, Newfoundland now alone remains a Colony separated from the ‘Dominion of Canada’ and with a Parliament of its own.
The Australian Colonies, 1787–1911.The first of the Australian Colonies in point of time was New South Wales, to which, as I told you, our criminals continued to be sent from 1788 till 1840; West Australia dates from 1829, South Australia and Victoria from 1836, and Queensland from 1859. These all soon began to cry out for parliamentary government of their own; and in 1850 a Whig ministry began to give it to them freely. The Australian Federation.Quite in our own days an Act of the British Parliament has made all the Australian Colonies into a single ‘Federation’ of States, with a ‘federal’ or united Parliament for the whole continent. New Zealand, which was first recognized as a colony in 1840, has got her own Parliament and is not included in this Federation. The great wealth of both New Zealand and Australia Consists in their vast flocks of sheep; these colonies are to the British manufacturers of woollen goods what England was to the Flemish weavers in the fourteenth century, namely, the source of the ‘raw material’ of their industry. There are also great gold mines in Australia.
South Africa, 1806–1911.Next in order of importance of our colonies comes South Africa with its wonderful climate. Its great importance to us, when we took it from the Dutch in the Great War, was as a station on the road to India; but, since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, we have now got a shorter road thither.
In Canada we had really little difficulty in making good friends with our new French subjects, for they hated and feared the pushing Americans, whose territory lay to the South, and they knew that we would defend them against these men. In Australia we had nothing but a few miserable blacks, who could hardly use even bows and arrows in fight. In New Zealand we had a more warlike branch of the same race, called the Maoris, to deal with. But in South Africa we had not only really fierce savages like Zulus and Kaffirs, but also a large population of Dutch farmers and traders, who had been settled there since the middle of the seventeenth century.
The Dutch Boers.These were called the ‘Boers’; they thoroughly disliked our rule, and they were continually retiring farther and farther from Capetown into the interior of the continent. They treated the native Kaflirs very badly, and objected when we tried to protect these against them. Besides ‘Cape Colony’ (at the Cape of Good Hope itself), there were Dutch or half-Dutch States at Natal, on the Orange River, and beyond the Vaal River. One by one, in the reign of Victoria, each of these was annexed by Great Britain, and the last years of our great Queen were made sorrowful by the war which we had to fight against these brave, dogged and cunning Dutch farmers of the Transvaal. This war, though against a mere handful of men, strained the resources of Great Britain to the utmost; it showed us how very badly equipped we were for war upon any serious scale; but it also led to a great outburst of patriotism all over the Empire, and our other colonies sent hundreds of their best young men to help us. The South African Federation.In the end we won, and peace was signed in 1902; a ‘Federation’ of all the South African colonies with a central Parliament at Capetown has recently been concluded, and the hatred between British and Dutch is now almost a thing of the past. South Africa owes its recent prosperity more to the discovery of great gold and diamond mines than to agriculture; but almost anything can be grown there.
Other African Colonies.The vast territory of Rhodesia, in the centre of the dark continent of Africa, and the British ‘Protectorates’ of Uganda, British East Africa and British Central Africa farther to the North, are still, as yet, more or less undeveloped; but great things may be expected of all of them, both as agricultural, commercial and mining colonies. The natives everywhere welcome the mercy and justice of our rule, and they are no longer liable, as they were before we came, to be carried off as slaves by Arab slave-dealers.
The West Indies, &c.There are other countries, like Ceylon, the West Indies, the several stations on the North-west African coast, Singapore on the Straits of Malacca, Guiana on the north coast of South America, and islands too numerous to mention, both in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, which belong to Great Britain. But most of these are called ‘Crown Colonies’ and do not enjoy any form of Parliamentary government nor need it. The prosperity of the West Indies, once our richest possession, has very largely declined since slavery was abolished in 1833. There is little market for their chief products, and yet a large population, mainly black, descended from slaves imported in previous centuries, or of mixed black and white race; lazy, vicious and incapable of any serious improvement, or of work except under compulsion. In such a climate a few bananas will sustain the life of a negro quite sufficiently; why should he work to get more than this? He is quite happy and quite useless, and spends any extra wages which he may earn upon finery.
Future of the Empire.What the future of our self-governing and really great Colonies may be, it is hard to say. Perhaps the best thing that could happen would be a ‘Federation’ of the whole British Empire, with a central Parliament in which all the Colonies should get representatives, with perfect free trade between the whole, and with an Imperial Army and Navy to which all should contribute payments. But where and when shall we find the statesman great and bold enough to propose it?
Our Indian Empire;Our Indian Empire must be treated to a few lines by itself. It is not a Colony but a ‘Dependency of the Crown’. The extension of our rule over the whole Indian peninsula was made possible, first by the exclusion of any other European power (when we had once beaten off the French there), and secondly by the fact that the weaker states and princes continually called in our help against the stronger. From our three starting-points of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, we have gradually swallowed the whole country; though some states keep their native princes, these are all sworn dependants of King George as ‘Emperor of India’, just as in feudal times a great feudal earl was a sworn subject of his King. Our rule has been infinitely to the good of all the three hundred millions of the different races who inhabit that richly peopled land.
its growth till 1911.Until 1858 the old ‘East India Company’, founded at the end of Elizabeth's reign, was the nominal sovereign. Its early conquests had been made over the unwarlike races of Bengal and of the South; next, in the reign of George III, over the gallant robbers who swarmed over the central plains and were called Mahrattas. Early in Victoria's time we had to meet those magnificent fighters the Sikhs of the Punjaub, and the fierce Afghans of the north-western mountains. Both gave us from time to time terrible lessons; but British patience and courage triumphed over all. As we conquered them, so we enrolled in our Indian army all the best fighting men of these various races, of that army the Sikhs are now the backbone; but the Afghans have still to be kept at bay beyond the northern mountains. They are the ‘tigers from the North’; and, if our rule were for a moment taken away, they would sweep down and slay and enslave all the defenceless dwellers on the plains.
The Indian Mutiny, 1857.In 1857 our carelessness and mismanagement of this vast Empire, together with the religious fear inspired among the Indians by the introduction of European inventions such as steam and railways, brought about the most serious danger that ever threatened British India, a mutiny in our Indian army. The instigator of the revolt was a man who claimed to be the representative of the old Mahratta rulers; the rebels took Delhi, the oldest capital city of India, and set up a shadow of an Emperor. They perpetrated terrible cruelties upon defenceless English women and children. But Southern India remained perfectly loyal and quiet; so did several of the old native princes; while the gallant Sikhs and the Ghoorkas of Nepaul came to our help in crowds. British troops were poured in as fast as possible, though in those days that was not very fast. The siege of Delhi and the relief of Lucknow were the greatest feats that were performed; and the names of John Lawrence, John Nicholson, Colin Campbell and Henry Havelock became for ever immortal. When the Mutiny was finally put down in 1858 the Crown took over the sovereignty from the East India Company, which ceased to exist; and, twenty years later, Queen Victoria was proclaimed ‘Empress of India’.
Egypt, 1882–1911.Another ‘Eastern’ state, much nearer home, came to us in 1882, Egypt. It was sorely against the will of our statesmen that it came. Egypt had, till 1840, been a province of the Turkish Empire, and had since that date been most shockingly misgoverned by a series of Mohammedan rulers, called Khedives. When, in 1869, the Canal was cut by French engineers through the Isthmus of Suez, which separates the Red Sea from the Mediterranean, and when a new route to India for the largest vessels was thus opened, it became of the first importance to us to keep this route safe and open. France at first shared with us the ‘Protectorate’ of Egypt which was then rendered necessary; but, when an insurrection of natives broke out in 1882, the task of suppressing it fell to us alone, and, when it was over, the sole Protectorate of Egypt became ours also. These were comparatively easy tasks, for the native Egyptian was not a good fighting man; but, as in India there is always a ‘tiger from the North’ to be feared, so in Egypt there was always a ‘lion from the South’. By this ‘lion’ I mean the fierce tribes of the desert which is called the ‘Soudan’, and of the Upper Nile Valley; they are Mohammedans by faith and of mixed Arab and negro race. These wild men were always ready to spring upon the fertile valley of the Lower Nile. Our ministers at home too often turned a blind eye to these dangers, and their blindness cost us the life of the gallant general, Charles Gordon. It was not till 1898 that these ‘Soudanese’ were finally subdued; and the Soudan is now governed by us as a dependency of Egypt. The justice and mercy, which these countries had not known since the fall of the Roman Empire, is now in full measure given to them by the British.
Jealousy of other European States.This great expansion of the British Empire during the last ninety-six years has not come about without a great deal of jealousy from the other European powers; and this jealousy was never more real or more dangerous than it is to-day. But the one European war which we have fought since 1815 had nothing to do with the expansion of our Empire.
Trade rivalry.The other nations have realized that this Empire was founded on trade, that it has to be maintained by a navy, and that it has resulted in good government of the races subject to us. So, though they have envied us and given us ugly names, they have, on the whole, paid us the compliment by trying to copy us, to build up their navies, to increase their manufactures, to plant colonies and to govern subject races well. Some people think that they have not succeeded in this last object so well as ourselves. But all European nations are now keenly interested in trade rivalry; whether this will end peaceably or not, remains still to be seen.
Necessity for defence of the Empire.All civilized nations, except ourselves and the Americans, have also set themselves to arm and drill all their citizens, so as to fit themselves for war on a gigantic scale at any moment. If ever a great war breaks out in Europe, the nation that is most ready with its fleet and its army will win; in the greatest war of the nineteenth century (that of 1870 between France and Germany) it needed only a telegram of two words to put the German army in motion in a few hours. On the other hand all the great mechanical inventions of recent years, railways, telegraphs, enormous guns, iron ships, airships, have made war, not only much more terrible, but infinitely more expensive; and, so, each nation will naturally shrink from being the first to start a war, for defeat will spell absolute and irretrievable ruin. But I don't think there can be any doubt that the only safe thing for all of us who love our country is to learn soldiering at once, and to be prepared to fight at any moment.
The Crimean War, 1854–6.The one European war which we fought in the nineteenth century was the ‘Crimean War’. England and France fought Russia, on behalf of Turkey, in 1854–6. The Turkish State was believed to be crumbling, and certainly the Turks were real barbarians, who governed their provinces very badly; and, being Mohammedans, they denied all justice to their Christian subjects. Russia claimed to protect these subjects, but every one knew that she only did this in order to swallow as much of the Turkish Empire as she could. All other powers dreaded Russia, a half-barbarous state of vast size, and full of very brave, if very stupid soldiers. Some people think that the cunning Frenchmen led England by the nose into this war, and that it was no business of ours. It was fought in the peninsula of the Crimea, on the northern coast of the Black Sea. There were some terrible battles, those of the Alma, of Balaclava, of Inkermann, in the autumn of 1854; then the war settled into a long siege of Sebastopol, during an awful winter, in which the sufferings of our army in the trenches before the city were terrible. In the end Russia had to own herself beaten, and Turkey, whom people called the ‘Sick Man of Europe’, was propped up again. Though many of his other provinces have revolted from him, he is still alive, and now even in a fair way to recover his health, and to govern more decently than before.
Changes in English life, 1815–1911; the age of inventions.One point I have left till the last. When your great-grandfathers were young, the fastest method of travelling was in a stage-coach with four horses at ten miles an hour, or in a private (and very expensive) post-chaise which might perhaps do twelve miles an hour. When they wanted to light their candles and fires (and they had nothing else to light) they had to strike a spark with a bit of steel on a bit of flint. The navy was built of oak instead of steel, and moved by sails instead of steam. Letters cost twopence apiece for the smallest weight and the smallest distance; a single-sheet letter from London to Edinburgh cost 1s. 1d.
Look round you and see in what a different England you now live. Gas was first used in the streets of London in 1812; but gas already is going, and electric light is taking its place. The first railway was opened in 1829 between Liverpool and Manchester; already people are wondering when the first service of passenger airships will begin to cut out railways for long journeys, as electric tramways and motor-cars have begun to cut out horses and railways alike for short ones. The first steamship began to ply on the Clyde in 1812; it was of three horse-power and moved at five miles an hour; the Mauretania, of 78,000 horse-power, now crosses the Atlantic in less than five days. During the Great War a system of wooden signals from hill-top to hill-top, worked by hand, would carry a message from Dover to London in about an hour; now the electric telegraph flashes messages round the world in a few minutes. By another kind of wire, the telephone, a man in London can talk to a man in Paris, and they can hear each other’s voices and laughter. The discovery of chloroform in 1847 has reduced human suffering to a degree which we can hardly conceive; and the other improvements in medicine and surgery have saved and prolonged countless useful, as well as many useless, lives.
The Secret of the Machines.
We were melted in the furnace and the pit—
We were cast and wrought and hammered to design,
We were cut and filed and tooled and gauged to fit.
Some water, coal, and oil is all we ask,
And a thousandth of an inch to give us play,
And now if you will set us to our task,
We will serve you four and twenty hours a day!
We can print and plough and weave and heat and light,
We can run and jump and swim and fly and dive,
We can see and hear and count and read and write!
If you’ll let us have his name and town and state,
You shall see and hear your crackling question hurled
Across the arch of heaven while you wait.
Marine engines.Has he answered? Does he need you at his side?
You can start this very evening if you choose,
And take the Western Ocean in the stride
Of thirty thousand horses and some screws!
You will find the Mauretania at the quay,
Till her captain turns the lever ’neath his hand,
And the monstrous nine-decked city goes to sea.
And lay their new-cut forests at your feet?
Do you want to turn a river in its bed,
And plant a barren wilderness with wheat?
Shall we pipe aloft and bring you water down
From the never-failing cisterns of the snows,
To work the mills and tramways in your town,
And irrigate your orchards as it flows?
Watch the iron-shouldered rocks lie down and quake
As the thirsty desert-level floods and fills,
And the valley we have dammed becomes a lake!
We are not built to comprehend a lie,
We can neither love nor pity nor forgive,
If you make a slip in handling us you die!
We are greater than the Peoples or the Kings—
Be humble, as you crawl beneath our rods!—
Our touch can alter all created things,
We are everything on earth—except The Gods!
It will vanish and the stars will shine again,
Because, for all our power and weight and size,
We are nothing more than children of your brain!
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