England: its people, polity and pursuits

Front matter

ENGLAND: ITS PEOPLE, POLITY, AND PURSUITS. BY T. H. S. ESCOTT. NEW EDITION. Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.: LONDON, PARIS <£• NEW YORK. 1881. [all rights reserved.] PBEFACE. The object of this book has been so fully explained in the first chapter that it scarcely seems necessary to inflict a Preface upon the reader. Yet there are some things -which could not well be stated in the body of the work, and which it may not be amiss here briefly to set forth. My purpose has been to present the public in these volumes with as complete and faithful a picture of contemporary England as the limits of space and opportunity would allow. That I might do this the better, I have devoted much time to the collection of materials, I have made several visits to different parts of the country, I have conversed with, and lived amongst, many varieties of people.

The facts £iven are those of observation and experience, and whatever there is of descrip tion in these volumes may, at least, claim to be a transcript of what I have seen. While I have endeavoured to be as accurate as possible in my narrative of the general condition of England, and in my account of the influences which are at work among us, and which may, perhaps, determine our future, so have I studiously avoided all historical retrospect when it did not appear absolutely necessary for a right under standing of our present state. Thus, too, while criticism and the expression of personal opinion have seemed occasionally unavoidable, I have aimed at being scrupulously sparing of both. Of the plan of the work I will only here say these words. Those who honour me with a continuous perusal of its pages will, I venture to think, perceive that its chapters are closely and logically connected by a per vading identity of purpose.

There are certain central ideas in the book round which I have endeavoured to group my facts and descriptions, and which I have explained at sufficient length in the introductory chapter. Whether the point of view there taken be right or wrong, it is at least that which has been taken consistently, and I hope it will have the effect of imparting to the entire work a certain air of unity and cohesion. Again, though I cannot hope to have escaped sins of omission, I would venture respectfully to be allowed to remind those who may not find all their conceptions realised that this book is not an encyclopædia, but a survey, and I would further crave permission to add that in some cases I have found it necessary to treat of particular subjects

Preface

. elsewhere than in those chapters in which, from their titles, such subjects might be expected to have a place. Thus, though there is no chapter exclusively devoted to the literature of the day in all its branches, I trust that a fair general view of that literature and its tendencies will be found in the three chapters, Keligious England, Modern Culture and Literature, and Modern Philosophical Thought, which should be read together, and to which I might perhaps add that on Popular Amusements. While the information contained in these volumes is for the most part the result of study of the facts at first hand, I have also profited greatly from the perusal of official documents and other treatises. Whenever a statement is made from Blue Books of a kind likely to challenge criticism or provoke controversy, I think I shall be found to have pointed out where it may be found in the original.

In other cases I have not thought it necessary to load any page with those references, whose frequent repetition chiefly serves to distract the reader's attention. The parliamentary papers which I have found -of most assistance are the reporis of the Commission on the employment of children, young persons, and women in agriculture of 1807, of the Factory and Workshops Acts Commission of 1876, the reports of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Truck system of 1871, as well as the periodical reports of the Educational Department, of the Inspectors of Factories, and of the Poor Law Board, and the Journals of the Hoyal Agricultural Society. As regards the other works to which I am mainly indebted, they will be found, I think, in almost every instance named in the text or in a foot-note.

My best thanks are also due for the invaluable assistance which, in the production of this work, I have received from many friends, and from some who, till it was undertaken, were strangers. Without this help the book could not have been written. The list of those who have so helped me is long, and I can only here mention a few representative names. I am deeply indebted to the several eminent noblemen, the manage ment of whose estates forms the subject of Chapter III., for the facilities afforded me for investigating their systems of territorial administra tion ; and am also grateful to the following, whose names follow in alphabetical order, for much valuable information and advice in different parts of my work : Lord Carnarvon ; the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.; Bishop Claughton ; Mr. G. H. Croad, Clerk of the London School Board; Sir Charles Dilke,M.P.; Mr. Grant Duff, M.P.; Mr. T. H. Farrer, Board of Trade ; Canon Fleming ; the Bight Hon. W. E. Forster, M.P. ; Mr. Harrison, Assistant Clerk of the Privy Council ; Mr. R. G. W. Herbert, Colonial Office ; Sir John Lubbock, M.P.; Sir Louis Mallet, India Office ; Professor D. Marks; Mr. Archi bald Milman ; the Right Hon. A. J. Mundella, M.P. ; Mr. C. Lennox

PREFACE.

. V Peel, Clerk of the Council ; Mr. Albert Pell, M.P.; the late Rev. Dr. Morley Punshon ; Mr. C. S. Read, M.P. ; Mr. Edmund James Smith ; the Rev. Dr. Stoughton ; Sir Julius Vogel; Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, M.P. Many of these gentlemen have not only given me or assisted me to obtain much useful information, but have most obligingly read through and revised various portions of the proofs. Hence, I trust I have secured a further guarantee against serious mistakes, and so invested the book with an additional value. I have further gratefully to acknowledge more specific assistance than this. The chapter on Commercial and Financial England (VIII.) is the work of Mr. J. Scot Henderson ; for that on Criminal England (XIV.) I am indebted to Major Arthur Griffiths, Her Majesty's Inspector of Prisons ; the Law Courts (XXIV.) has been contributed by Mr. W. D. I. Foulkes, Barrister-at-Law, of the Inner Temple ; the review of Modern Philosophical Thought (XXVII.) is from the pen of Mr. W. L. Courtney, Fellow and Lecturer of New College, Oxford, and author of " An Examination of Mill ;" while in the chapter on the Services I have been largely assisted in the naval portion by Captain Cyprian A. G. Bridge, R.N. T. H. S. ESCOTT.

CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. Introductory ...» 1 II. The English Village .... 8 III. Great Landlords, and Estate Management . 23 IV. Rural Administration ... 39 V. Municipal Government .... 54 VI. Towns of Business . . . .72 VII. Towns of Pleasure .... 90 VIII. Commercial and Financial England . . 100 IX. Commercial Administration . . . 117 X. The Working Classes .... 127 XI. The Working Classes (continued) . . 155 XII. Pauperism and Thrift .... 180 XIII. Co-operation ..... 199 XIV. Criminal England ..... 214 XV. Travelling and Hotels . . . 231 XVI. Educational England .... 245 XVII. The Social Revolution . . . 2G9 XVILT. The Structure of English Society. . . 280 XIX. Society and Politics .... 294 XX. Crown and Crowd ..... 305 XXI. Official England .... 320 XXII. The House of Commons .... 335 XXHI.

The House of Lords . . . , . 357 XXIV. The Law Courts . . . . .370 XXV. The Services ...... 388 XXVI. Religious England. .... 408 XXVII. Modern Philosophical Thought . . 436 XXVIH. Modern Culture and Literature . . . 457 XXIX. Popular Amusements .... 490 XXX. Professional England .... 507 XXXI. Imperial England and Conclusion . . ENGLAND,