England in the Eighteen Eighties - Toward a Social Basis for Freedom

ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEEN-EIGHTIES TOWARD A SOCIAL BASIS FOR FREEDOM HELEN MERRELL LYND OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS London New York Toronto 1945 A WARTIME BOOK THIS COMPLETE EDITION IS PRODUCED JN FULL COMPLIANCE WITH THE GOVERN MENTS REGULATIONS FOR CONSERVING PAPER AND OTHER ESSENTIAL MATKRIAI. S TO ANDREA and STAUGHTON and My FATHER and MOTHER Foreword THIS BOOK has been in preparation during a number of years. Inevitably it reflects different stages in my thinking, and any acknowledgment of the many persons who have contributed to that thinking is particularly inadequate. In the preparation of the book I owe incomparably more to Robert S. Lynd than to any other person. His hand ap pears in the organization of the material, in the conceptual analysis, and in the writing of several chapters, especially of Chapters n and vn. What he has contributed is beyond any possibility of adequate recognition. It was Carlton J. H. Hayes who first directed my attention to the importance of the decade of the eighties in social history. J. Bartlctt Brebner read the entire manuscript with great discernment and gave me invaluable criticisms, Charles E. Trinkaus Jr., Maxwell Geismar, Jean Carroll Trepp, Emery Ncff, and Jacques Barzun gave me important sug gestions on parts of the manuscript. Friends in England were generous in helping to supply details which are not readily accessible to an American. I recall with especial pleasure a day spent with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and conversations with Graham Wallas, John Burns, R. II. Tawncy, G. D. H. Cole, Harold Laski, and J. L. and Barbara Hammond. Catherine Turner not only had great patience in the typing of the manuscript but through resourcefulness and care hi checking of sources saved me from errors I might otherwise have committed, Patricia Becsley was a keen and delightful companion in proof reading and index making vii viii FOREWORD the book would have profited by her counsel at earlier stages. Footnotes have been divided those that contain references only have been placed at the back of the book others appear at the bottom of the page. Acknowledgment is gratefully made to the following pub lishers for permission to quote from books published by them which are cited in full in Notes and Bibliography George Allen and Unwin, D. Applcton-Century and Co., G. Bell and Sons, Jonathan Cape, Chatto and Windus, Columbia University Press, Constable and Co., Dodd, Mead and Co., Victor Gollancz, Harper and Bros., Hodder and Stoughton, Independent Labour Party, P. S. King and Staples, John Lane the Bodley Head, Longmans, Green and Co., The Macmillan Company, W. W. Norton and Co., G. P. Putnams Sons, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, University Tutorial Press. Grateful acknowledgment is also made to Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and William J. Wilkin son for permission to quote from their works. HELEN MERRELL LYND Sarah Lawrence College BronKville, New York November 1944 Contents FOREWORD vii INTRODUCTION I. The Eighteen-Eighties 3 PART I CHANGES IN THE EIGHTIES II. Material Environment 23 III. Environment of Ideas 61 IV. Intruding Events 113 V. Signs ol Change 155 PART II ROLE OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN CHANGE VI. Political Parties 193 VII. Organized Labor 237 VIIL Religion 399 IX. Education 349 X. Organization for Change 379 CONCLUSION XI-Toward Positive Freedom 411 NOTES 431 BIBLIOGRAPHY 461 INDKX 477 INTRODUCTION