The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-23
THE TIMES WASHINGTON WEDNESDAY, JANUARY %, 1901

| coaches were Furnishing where railways
now cover the land with network OF
steel; when people wanted to go to Amer
lea they went by sailing vessel: there were
no sewing machines and no factories;
printing presses were worked by hand;
cooking stoves were uncommon, and mcst
OF the common people in the United King
dom of Great Britain aud ireland did not
know how to read. In those days the peas
ants of England lived in miserable iittle
matched huts. scarcely better than those
occupied by their ancestors several hun
dred years before: women and children
worked in coal mines, often living there
as well, and seldom seeing daylight; the
women were employed to drag sledges
loaded with ere. crawling en- their hands
aud knees through narrow passages. The
chinnneyf sweep pitiful little Taif of hui
mainly. doomed to occasional smothering
in smoke. was still in existence; the abuses
OF which Dickens wrote with such burning
Indignation were still darksning the land.
In workhouse debt prison. and private
scfccl. Children toiled in factories; labor
ers worked for mere pittance. and nearly
starved when the price of corn went up &
trihe; absolute, horrible misery and desti-
tuition existed in all the corners OF the
realm of England; and the sIuggishness of
conservative aristocracy, the selfshness of
hereditary privilege. the blindness of
prejudice and careless thinking. allowed
the rich to pass by On the other side.
When the young Queen was crowned in
Westminster Abbey the country was on
the eve of better time. Sturdy reformers
and conscientious men were working
against great odds. 10 bring about changes
In the laws directly concerning the people.
and by the better government of the colo
MES, door was opened for the more en-
terpr!sing and determined among the poor
to escape from their hard conditions at
home. The steady progress of inventive
genius made many things possible and
easy which had before been impracticable,
and the increased production of all sorts
OF goods, made living more comfortable
for the poor as well as the rich. All this
is part of the history of the nineteenth
century; but 1t is also part OF the history
OF the reign of Victoria. for most of the
pleasanter place to live in did not get
fairly under way until about the time of
her accession to the throne, and although
the work is not all done, by any means,
greater changes have be-n brought about
in the last sixty years than are likely to
come in like period in the future. In
short, during that sixty years the people
of England have advanced in material,
moral. and social matters. from about the
seventeenth to the twentieth century The
mass of the people had been stationary for
many generations; during this time the
leayen of progress reached them and leav-
ened the whole Empire.
While the last years of the Queens
life were saddened and embittered by the
Boer war. it cannot be said that this war
is out of harmony with the general course
of the progress of England during her
reign. Some English statesmen like to
use the phrase "rectifying the frontier"
That is what England has been about for
the last fifty years. 1t is another name
for solidifying the Empire. The Boer
man OF the seventeenth century, was an
obstinate particle, refusing assimilation
with the spirit Of the nineteenth. He
was mart IF South Africa ~. rot a har-
r1uious Ths present is simply
easl .a- g-s in which
E-Ea has Heea .In-s.e 7hich have
trrugl- men as-y traditions
nrt cEsral.etE .Et1 szctain harmony
- ,nIs case. One of the tendencies of
English statesmen for the last hundred
years has been to look at the end rather
than at the means. This comes of the
largeness of view belonging to time in
which problems are tremendous and very
complicated. Gladstone was the only man
of prominence in England under Victoria.
who concerned himself much with details
and motives. gPalmerston, Peel, Disraeli.
looked beyond these toward the end in
view. Gladstone. who was perhaps the
most characteristic figure of the middle
century, was troubled by twofold nature,
ideal and practical The practical side OF
him saw the expediency of a thing; the
idealistic side saw something else. Hence
he was always worried over aspects which
did not occur to others: and he was SEN
sitive to the opinion of the people In a
way which it did not occur to his con-
temporaries to be.
It was a fortunate chance which brought
Victoria TO the throne. a girl-queen. with
all the advantage of wise and experienced
advisers and all the influence possessed
by a gentle, virtuous. and high-souled
woman Thus, for England. there was
the double good OF a governing power
which was competent and sagacious,
and must be in general accord with the
spirit of the people. and titular sover-
eigp of character which commanded adj
miration. The people thus had q gov
ernment to respect and an ideal to ad-
mire and reverence; and the two were not
necessarily TO be thought OF apart.
Englani's New Ruler
Americans will not fail TO remember
that the new King of Great Britain and
Ireland and Emperor of India enjoys the
distinction of being the only British mon
,..l,.1 bu1 tote