PEOGEESS UTJEING THE NINETEENTH CENTUEY. 
107 
with the result of Luddite and machine-breaking riots all over the 
country. Luckily our own county seems to have been almost free 
from any of these outbreaks, the only incident connected with them 
of which I have heard being the stoppage by the Magistrates at 
St. Albans in the Summer of 1816 of a waggon laden with coal 
which was being drawn to London by distressed Staffordshire 
colliers in order to excite the public pity. The coal was bought 
and the men went quietly home. 
On the other hand, at the beginning of the twentieth century 
employment was plentiful in all parts of the country and wages 
were at least twice as high as they were in 1800, whilst the cost 
of bread and all other necessaries of life, including clothing, but 
with the exception possibly of meat, was not more than half what 
it was in 1801. House rent was certainly higher, at any rate 
in the towns, but the accommodation given and insisted on was 
infinitely superior to anything dreamt of at the beginning of the 
previous century. 
The work-people themselves, instead of being the ignorant and 
brutalized beings, of whom not one in ten could read or write, 
who degraded our country a hundred years ago, are now a fairly- 
educated and very intelligent set of men and women, who take an 
active interest both in local and imperial politics, and who try to 
keep themselves acquainted with the history and doings of their 
times as nearly as the newspaper will let them. Judicious 
legislation as regards such matters as education, factory manage¬ 
ment, and labour regulations, poor relief, etc., has done much for 
them; whilst the numerous and well-managed Friendly Societies, 
together with such institutions as Savings Banks and Building 
Societies, have promoted thrift. This great improvement could 
not have taken place without the great advance shown during the 
past century in all departments of knowledge, not only social and 
political, but also in all branches of science, and in the improve¬ 
ment of arts and manufactures arising therefrom. 
The chief credit for the industrial development of the century 
must be ascribed to the steam-engine. This invention had become 
a practical power for raising water in the hands of Savery and 
Papin about 1700 (1698-1705), and had been made self-acting as 
early as 1713 by the ingenuity of a boy named Potter. Many 
other improvements were also made in it during the eighteenth 
century, such as the introduction by Watt of a separate condenser 
in 1769, his method of making the engine double-acting in 1782, 
Homblower’s idea of the two-cylinder compound engine in 1781, 
and the adoption of a higher steam-pressure at the instigation 
