August i6,- 1917 
LAND & WATER 
^3 
of the employers. In the view of the ruling class, the child 
of the weaver and the miner had ho claims on society ; there 
%vas no reason to educate him except that some rudiments of 
knowledge might make him more useful to his emploj-er; and 
there was ever>' reason to keep such education as might 
awaken discontent out of his reach." Well, how much has 
been changed since ? * 
Pitiful Workmates 
Charles Kingsley's Thf Waierhahics finally rescued Tom 
and his pitiful workmates from the chimney flues. Babes 
are not condemned to the coalpit to drag heavy loads or to 
act as mechanical contrivances for the safety of the men 
working the seams. .Apprentices are no longer handed 
over by the parish with a sum of money to the first master 
who will take them, and no questions asked. But .does the 
ruling class believe to-day that the child of the poor has 
equal claims on society as the child of the well-to-do ? The 
question is suggested by the speech the Minister of Educa- 
tion delivered in the House of Cprnmons only last week, 
on introducing his Bill — a Bill which, if placed on the Statute 
Book, promises to inaugurate a new civilisation, newer and 
brighter and more enduring than that with which the volume 
under review is concertied. An answer can be given when 
it is seen how many legislators accept these assumptions 
with which Mr. Fisher concluded hijs masterly utterance : 
We a-ssume that education is one of the good things of life, 
which .should be more widely .shared than has hitherto been 
the case amongst t)ie children and j-oung persons of the 
country. 
We assume that education should be the education of the 
whole min, spiritually, intellectually, and physically : and 
it is not beyond the resources of civilisation to devi.se a scheme 
of education, pos.sessing certain con-.mon qualities, but ad- 
mitting at the sams tim? large variations, from which the whole 
population of the count^^^ male and female, may derive benefit. 
We assume that the principles upon which well-to-do parents 
. proceed in the education of their families are valid nitilnti-: 
mutandis lor the families of the poor, and that the State has 
need to secure fof its juvenile population conditions under 
which mind, body, and character may be harmoniously 
developed . 
\ye feel also that, in existing circumstances, the life of the 
rising generation can only be protected against the injurious 
ellects of industrial pressure by a furtiier measure of State 
compulsion. But we argue that the compulsion proposed 
17) tlMSr Bill will be no sterilising restriction of wholesome 
liberty, but the essential condition of a large and more en- 
lightened freedom. 
"A large and more enlightened freedom " is not only the 
cause for which the manhood of this countrv is battling in 
!• landers, but it is the prize for which the Working classes 
have striven for a hundred years and more with courage 
tenacity and self-sacrifice, often in the face of almost hopeless 
conditions, which are bevond praise. The story of the 
beginning of Trades Unions is related excellently here. " It 
would be interesting to know whether any other class of 
hnghsh society has ever shown such readiness to trust its 
fellows as the men and women who subscribed to Trades 
Lnions w-hen they were illegal associations." In those days 
the working class had no friendsr among the classes in power. 
" The aristocrat believed in the unqualified rit^hts of private 
property, the Radical believed in the unqualified virtue of 
free competition. The aristocrat traced everything back to 
private property: the Radical to private capital. The 
Radical said that if the law ought not to intervene to protect 
the rich, neither ought it on the other hand to intervene to 
^protect the poor." What chance again.st these entrenched 
dignities and powers had those who had only the labour of 
their hands to depend upon ? It is true that individual 
champions arose among both aristocrats and Radicals, but 
they could make small headway against current feeling and 
papular opinion, which moreover they often in their hearts 
regarded as right. For the world, on the whole, went vcrv 
well for the manufacturer and the landed proprietor after 
W aterloo ; there was glory and honour as well as comfort 
and luxury for them in being children of England ; there 
was no reason /.»r //»cw to question the justness of inequality, 
which they attributed more to Divfne law than to human 
regulations. 
So the poor had only the poor to look to for redemption, and 
the working man had to put his trust in his fellow working- 
man, knowing well there was always at his elbow a Judas 
ready to betray him with a comrade's salutation for coveted 
silver. But he won through. The authors in referring to 
the influence of the Methodists, use these words : " The 
•Methodists taught that the greater the sufferings endured 
with patience in these passing scenes, the greater would be 
the triumph of faith and courage in the day when the plot of 
humanity received its final disentanglement." To the present 
reviewer these words seem almost to have come true, though 
not in their intended sense. May we not behold the triiynph 
of faith and courage over sufferings endured with patience 
in the glorious conduct through which the cause of en- 
lightened freedom has lieen upheld by the working-men of 
Ivngland on the battlefields of France and Flanders during 
the last three years ? Had not self-sacrifice been a heritage 
which their fathers' fathers had handed down to them as the 
one gift of those years of misery two, three and four genera- 
tions ago, should we have stayed the enslavement which our 
enemies purposed or have.checked the onward march of this 
new barbarism ? Britain wins battles to-day, not only 
through her splendid military and naval traditions, but also 
through the courage and endurance which were nurtured and 
strengthened in the fight for freedom which the town labourer 
waged for over one hundred years. 
Influence of the French Revolution 
An interesting historical fact which this book recalls is 
the extraordinary influence which the French Revolution 
e.xerted over Britain's industrial revolution throughout the 
nineteenth century, an influence which is not yet altogethei 
dead. The Reign of Terror actually lasted under two years 
in France, but in England it lasted more than ten times that 
number. Every effort the lower classes made for more humane 
treatment was regarded as a possible beginning of an up- 
rising against existing conditions which would end with the 
guillotine on Tower Hill. Churches were built, not as outposts 
of heaven, but admittedly as ramparts against the forces of 
hell, embodied in half-starved weavers and farm labourers. 
The joyless Sunday of the X'ictorian era was much more due 
to the French Revolution than to Puritan teachings. " In 
the merry days of .\rchbishop Cornwallis, the Church, to the 
horror of George the Third, had set the fashion in Sunday 
parties. After the Revolution these dissipations ceased and 
Sunday became much stricter." The Home Office then took 
action against those of the poor " who wickedly profaned the- 
Lord's Day by exercising unlawful Sports and Pastimes." 
The Newmarket meeting, which opened on Easter Monday, 
was postponed to the Tuesday so that it was unnecessary for its 
royal and rich supporters to travel on Easter Day, to the 
delight of the villagers, through whose villages the cavalcade 
passed. " The Duke of York, in answer to remonstrances, 
said that it was true he travelled to the races on a Sunday,' 
but he always had a Bible and a Prayer-book in his carriage/' 
.As regards the Sundays of the proletariat, "some regarded 
the time spent by the poof on amusement as time stolen 
from the service of God ; others regarded it as time stolen 
from the service of their employers"; but both agreedlhat 
amusement was bad for the poor. 
Here we must part company with this fascinating book, 
though we have touched only" lightly on its contents. Mr. 
and Mrs. Hammond are inspired with a genuine historical 
spirit. How widely they have read is evidenced by the 
list of authorities given as an appendix. They never play 
the r61e of plaintiff or defendant ; they are content to set down 
the facts and let them for the most part speak for themselves. 
These facts, combined with literary grace, raise their work 
to a very high level. It has the character of a classic in so far 
as the period it covers. It throws such a flood of light on the 
history of industrialism and incidentally on so much English 
literature, of the \'ictorian times and onwards, that we 
should like to see it accepted as a standard work in 
all Universities, to be read by .students taking Honours in 
History, English, Economics, etc. The only fault we have 
to find is that the authors have been a little too sparing with 
the dates of years in the letterpress. The topic often compels 
them to pass quickly over considerable periods of time, and 
we arc occasionally uncertain to what exact year their 
quotations have reference. It is a trifling defect, and only 
worth mentioning if the volume is to be accepted as a text 
book. There is not an employer in the country, not a work- 
ing man or working-woman of intelligence, not an individual, 
male or female, who takes a sincere interest in industrial 
problems who can afford to ignore this book. 
" The unofficial organ of the Inns of Court O.T.C." is the brief 
description given on the cover of The Gehenna Gazette, which, a.s 
is fitting with such a title, is written and ilhi.strated by members 
ot '• The Devil's Own." It is also to be noted that this is a summer 
number of Tlie Hades Herald, and its contents as well as its 
titles are well worthy of remark. The only outside contributors 
are Mr. W. W. Jacobs and "Touchstone.'"' who need no recom- 
in»iidation, and, for the rest, it may be said that both letterpress 
and drawings are witty and clever enough to make up a really 
entertaining paper. The "Ode to a mess waiter," the "More- 
hints on cleaning of equipment," and "Studies in evolution." 
as instances out of a mass of good matter, attest the soldi-r's 
unfailing sense of humour, and the drawings are just as good as 
the literary matter, which is .saying a good deal. Copies of the 
Gehenna Gazelle can be obtained on application to the Editor, 
Inns of Court O.T.C, Berkliainsted, at a shilling each, the pro- 
ceeds of sales being dcvot?<l to charities. 
