Victorian England and its culture. Everything you should know about the Victorian era (well, at least you should know something)
They were animated by a firm determination to oppose any further triumph of the democratic principle. New elections, called as a result of the change in monarch, strengthened the Conservative Party. The large cities of England, Scotland and Ireland voted predominantly in favor of the liberal and radical factions, but the English counties for the most part elected opponents of the ministry.
Meanwhile, the policies of previous years created significant difficulties for the government. In Canada, the discord between the mother country and the local parliament has reached dangerous proportions. The Ministry received permission to suspend the Canadian Constitution and sent Earl Dergham to Canada with extensive powers. Dergam acted energetically and skillfully, but the opposition accused him of abuse of power, as a result of which he had to resign from his position.
The government's weakness showed itself even more clearly in Irish affairs. The Ministry could achieve approval of the Irish tithe bill only after the complete elimination of the appropriation paragraph.
Chartism
At that time, the radicals formed an extreme faction that developed the “People's Charter” - a petition to parliament, which demanded universal suffrage, secret voting, annually renewed parliaments, etc. Beginning in the fall of 1838, the Chartists launched a strong campaign at meetings, collecting signatures for petitions and convened the so-called national convention in London at the beginning of 1839, looking for supporters among the working population of factory towns. The uprising that took place in the summer of 1839 was suppressed; the main Chartist leaders were put on trial and sent into exile. Chartism achieved a reduction in the working day.
Foreign and domestic policy
The year 1850 began with more favorable conditions. Habeas Corpus was restored in Ireland; thanks to free trade, revenues generated a surplus of 2 million pounds sterling, while the tax for the benefit of the poor was reduced by 400,000 pounds compared to the previous year.
In the discord between Russia and Austria, on the one hand, and Turkey, on the other, caused by the case of the Hungarian fugitives, England took the side of the Porte. In January 1850, an English squadron unexpectedly appeared in sight of Athens demanding payment of old bills, among which in the foreground was the reward of the Portuguese Jew Pacifico, who was an English citizen, for damage to his house during popular unrest. The response to the refusal of the Greek government was the blockade of all Greek harbors. Greece could only protest against this abuse of force; Envoys of other states expressed their censure of England's mode of action in more or less energetic terms. A month later the blockade was lifted; its consequence was a cooling of relations towards France and Russia. Lord Stanley invited the Upper House to censure the government for its conduct in Greece.
This proposal was accepted, but the lower house, at the suggestion of Roebuck, expressed formal approval of Palmerston's policy. However, the upper house vote was not without consequences. Palmerston realized the need to extricate himself from the isolated position in which he had placed England, and all the more diligently tried to get closer to the Great Powers on the Schleswig-Holstein question, resolved by the London protocols of July 4 and August 12, 1850.
The sudden death of Robert Peel was a sensitive blow for the ministry. At the same time, the Austrian General Haynau, who arrived in London, suffered a personal insult from the workers at the Barclay brewery, and since Palmerston was in no hurry to give satisfaction, this further aggravated mutual relations with Austria, whose policy in Germany, especially the desire to include all Austrian lands into the German Confederation, provoked decisive resistance from England.
The Roman Curia prepared great difficulties for the Whig ministry. The papal breve of September 30 immediately appointed nine Catholic bishops for Great Britain; Cardinal Wiseman received the title of Archbishop of Westminister. This revived in the English clergy and people the deep-rooted hatred and aversion to Rome; the old “No Popery” click sounded again. At the beginning of 1851, Rossel introduced a bill on ecclesiastical titles, which prohibited the assumption of the episcopal title by all clergy who did not belong to the state church, and declared invalid all donations made in favor of such persons. To liberals and even to some Peelites, this bill seemed too harsh, and in the eyes of zealous Protestants it was still too timid.
Meanwhile, the lower house, despite the protest of the ministry, accepted Lock King's proposal to grant English and Welsh counties the same voting rights as cities. A ministerial crisis ensued, ending with the restoration of the previous cabinet, since Lord Stanley, the leader of the protectionists, failed to form a strong cabinet and attract people like Gladstone to it.
Politics took a back seat for a time thanks to the first World's Fair, which opened in London on May 1, 1851. A new source of weakness for the Ministry was the conduct of Lord Palmerston. True, he ensured that the Hungarian fugitives settled in Turkey, including Kossuth, were released; but the outcome of the struggle over Pacifico was a heavy defeat for him. The mediation commission elected on this issue recognized Pacifico's right to a reward of no more than 150 pounds sterling - and because of such a sum, the minister almost caused a European war.
Then a diplomatic break with Naples occurred as a result of Gladstone's letters about the cruelties of the Neapolitan government being sent to English envoys on the continent.
The coup d'etat, which took place in France on December 2, was joyfully welcomed by Palmerston, without the knowledge of the ministry and the crown. Rossel took advantage of this to get rid of his inconvenient comrade. Palmerston repaid him by introducing an amendment to one of the government proposals, the adoption of which caused the resignation of the ministry. This time, Lord Stanley (who received the title of Earl of Derby after the death of his father) managed to form a ministry (in February 1852). In the new cabinet, strictly Tory, he himself took the place of First Lord of the Treasury, Disraeli received the portfolio of finance, and foreign affairs passed to the Earl of Malmesbury.
The protectionist sympathies of the ministry led to the resumption of free trade agitation. The Cobden League has reopened; Rallies were held throughout the country and preparations were made for new elections. The government was in the lower house in an undoubted minority and owed its existence solely to disagreements among the liberal parties. In view of all this, Disraeli spoke in favor of continuing the customs policy of his predecessors.
The long-awaited dissolution of parliament followed in July, and new elections were immediately called. The ministry acquired a few extra votes, but not enough to have a majority in parliament. A considerable loss for him was the death of Wellington (September 14), who enjoyed a pacifying influence on the parties. Disraeli's financial proposals were rejected by a majority of 19 votes, and the Tory ministry was forced to resign (December 1852).
The cabinet that replaced him was made up of various parties who entered into an alliance with each other to overthrow Derby. The Peelites had their representatives in it in the person of Lord Aberdeen (First Minister) and Gladstone, who received the portfolio of finance, the Whigs in the person of Lord John Rossel, and the radicals in the person of Molesworth and Baines. Palmerston received the Ministry of the Interior.
Crimean War
Events in India were no less favorable. Since the capture of Delhi by the British, the center of gravity of the uprising shifted to Oudh and its capital Lucknow. In March 1858, the main quarters of Lucnow were taken by storm. In vain did the leaders of the insurgents seek help in Nepal, the only Indian state that still retained signs of independence: the ruler of Nepal entered into an alliance with the British.
Lord Stanley, the talented son of the Earl of Derby, successfully carried out the plan for the reorganization of India. The dominance of the East India Company ended, the board of directors was abolished, and in its place the position of a special minister responsible to parliament was created with a board of 15 members.
Shortly before this, the ministry suffered a severe defeat on the question of the Jews. When the bill for the admission of Jews to Parliament was rejected for the third time by the peers at the insistence of Lord Derby, the opposition, outraged by such disrespect for the resolutions of the lower house, proposed to the House simple solution recognize Baron Rothschild as a representative of the City of London. Lord Derby had to yield. He introduced a new bill of oath into the upper house, which made it possible for the admission of Jews. This bill was passed by the Lords, after which Rothschild took his place in the House of Commons.
In the same 1858, Lord Elgin concluded an agreement with Japan, which brought enormous trade advantages to England.
In England itself, reformist agitation assumed impressive proportions in 1859; Shortly before the opening of parliament, Bright came up with a reform project of a purely democratic nature. The Ministry decided to introduce its own bill in order to calm down with some concessions public opinion. The Whigs entered into an agreement with the Radicals to reject this bill, which did not meet with approval among the Tories. On the 21st March Lord John Rossel moved the House to declare that the Reform Bill was not suited to the needs of the country; this proposal was adopted by a majority of 39 votes. Following this, the dissolution of parliament was announced.
This step caused great excitement in the country, especially since the foreign policy of the ministry threatened new dangerous complications. At the first signs of a clash between Austria and France in the Italian affair, although the government assumed the guise of complete impartiality, from its statements one could understand that it was leaning more towards the side of Austria, while sincere sympathy for the cause of Italian freedom prevailed among the people. Mediation offered by Lord Malmesbury was rejected by Napoleon III.
The extensive naval armaments announced by the government, the strengthening of the Mediterranean fleet, Lord Derby's statement that England might find herself forced to occupy Trieste, the call for the formation of volunteer detachments, even the declaration of neutrality, interpreted in a sense favorable to Austria, all this maintained public distrust of the intentions. ministers and influenced new elections. The fear of being drawn into a war to maintain European absolutism prompted the radicals to forget their dislike of Lord Palmerston.
Lord Rossel was reconciled with his long-time enemy; a coalition was formed of all liberal factions with the aim of overthrowing the Conservative ministry, to which the new House of Commons expressed its distrust (June 1859). The Tories have fallen. Palmerston took over as First Minister, Rossel became Foreign Minister, and the remaining portfolios were distributed to Whigs, Peelites and Radicals. The ministers included Gladstone and Milner-Jibson. There was no more talk of sabotage into the Adriatic Sea to defend Trieste; in alliance with Russia, an attempt was made to divert the Prussian court from intervention in favor of Austria.
All other interests were relegated to the background due to the North American crisis that broke out in early 1861. If the seemingly inevitable collapse of the proud republic aroused a certain sense of schadenfreude in the British aristocracy, then the influence of the internecine war on cotton production, which fed a significant part of the working population of England, inspired serious fears. Gladstone's budget indicated continued improvement in finances. Revenues promised a surplus of almost 2 million, which is why the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed not only the abolition of the paper tax, but also a reduction in income tax. In order to deprive the lords of the opportunity to reject the first of these measures a second time, the financial proposals of the ministry were submitted to the upper house not separately, but together with the budget, and although the lords protested against this, they, on the advice of Lord Derby, did not bring matters to a collision with the House of Commons.
The treaty between England, France and Spain, by virtue of which the demands made by these three powers on the Mexican government were to be supported by military force if necessary, indicated the intention of the Allies to take advantage of the critical situation of the alliance to intervene in American affairs.
Thanks to an unexpected incident, matters suddenly became so acute that one could fear a decisive break. The English mail steamer Trent, on which the commissioners of the southern states of Mason and Slidel were traveling, was detained by an American military corvette under the command of Captain Wilkes, who arrested the commissioners and took them to New York. The news of this caused great indignation in England. The British envoy in Washington, Lord Lyons, immediately received orders to demand the extradition of the prisoners and satisfaction for the insult inflicted on the British flag. The government of President Lincoln understood that, under these conditions, a break with England could have the most fatal consequences for the union. It condemned the action of its officer and released the prisoners. The peaceful outcome of the clash was partly Prince Albert's business. This was the last service he rendered to his second fatherland. He died on December 14, 1861, sincerely mourned by the British nation.
The joint intervention undertaken by England, France and Spain in Mexican affairs had a completely unexpected outcome. Spain and England were not slow to realize that the plans of the French emperor went much further than the original goal of the expedition. First English and then Spanish troops left Mexico. This step could not help but touch the heart of the French emperor, but he hid his displeasure because he needed further assistance from England for his transatlantic plans.
On October 30, 1862, Minister Drouin de Luis sent an invitation to the courts of London and St. Petersburg to take measures to end the internecine war in America, transparently hinting at the possibility of armed intervention. But the St. Petersburg court decisively rejected the French invitation, and Lord Rossel followed his example.
The revolution in Greece, which cost King Otto the throne (October 1862), produced a new turn in England's eastern policy. In order to prevent the election of the Prince of Leuchtenberg, the nephew of the Russian emperor, as king, it was decided to make a territorial sacrifice to Greece. The Greeks were given to understand that if they made a choice pleasing to the British cabinet, the latter intended to agree to the annexation of the Ionian Islands to the Greek kingdom.
The bombing of a London prison to free Fenian prisoners again brought the Irish question to the forefront. Realizing the impossibility of resolving it through persecution alone, Gladstone, at the very beginning of the 1868 session, introduced three famous resolutions into parliament, which stated the need to destroy the Irish state church. They were adopted by a majority of 65 votes. The ministry, headed by Disraeli due to Derby's illness, decided to remain in office and appeal to the people. On July 31, the last parliament elected under the 1832 law dissolved.
By this time, the war with Abyssinia, caused by the refusal to release British prisoners, had ended successfully.
New elections gave a Liberal majority of 118 votes. Disraeli resigned; the drafting of the ministry was entrusted to Gladstone (December 1868). In addition to members of the former Liberal cabinet, the ministry included John Bright and Adulamite Low, who managed to make peace with the Liberals.
The 1869 session opened with the release of a significant number of Fenians and the announcement of the impending restoration of Habeas corpus in Ireland. On March 1, Gladstone introduced his Irish Church Bill into the Lower House. He proposed to immediately stop the payment of allowances to Irish priests and to transfer all church property into the hands of a royal commission, which would undertake the payment of lifetime income to the owners of ecclesiastical places. Irish bishops were to lose their seats in the upper house, Irish ecclesiastical courts were to cease their activities. Of the 16.5 million value of the property of the Irish Church, it retained the right to only 6.5 million, while the remaining 10 million were to be used partly for general useful purposes, partly for benefits to Catholics and Presbyterians. The Lower House adopted this bill with a majority of 361 votes to 247. Although the House of Lords approved it in the third reading, it did so with many amendments. Since these amendments were rejected by the lower house, and the Lords did not yield, fears arose at one time that the reform would not take place; but the conflict was removed by a compromise between the Earl of Granville and Lord Cairns, the leader of the opposition.
After the resolution of the Irish church question, another reform, which was in connection with the Irish unrest, should have come next - namely, a change in land relations in Ireland. This amounted to main task session of 1870. Already on February 15, Gladstone introduced his Irish Bill into the lower house. It was supposed to recognize farmers at the end of the lease period as having the right to compensation for all improvements and buildings they had made; facilitate farmers through benefits from state treasury the purchase of land property, and for farmers - the cultivation of infertile lands; finally, establish arbitration courts to resolve all disputes and misunderstandings between farmers and landowners. The bill passed both houses and became law on August 1. In addition, both houses approved the new law on public education proposed by Forster (initially for England and Wallis). The whole country was supposed to be divided into school districts and then found out how the existing schools in each district corresponded to the true needs of the population. Those districts in which the condition of the schools turned out to be satisfactory were to remain in the same position, while in the rest it was planned to open a corresponding number of new schools. The following three basic rules were established for these new schools:
- 1) compliance of teaching with the program approved by parliament,
- 2) supervision of government inspectors regardless of religious differences,
- 3) absolute freedom conscience, by virtue of which none of the students can be forced, against the will of the parents, to participate in religious teaching.
The acceptance or non-acceptance of these rules is left to the good will of the school authorities, but only if they are accepted does the school become entitled to benefits from Parliament.
The English commissioners were greeted in London with noisy rejoicings, as messengers of an “honorable peace.” peace with honor). Lord Hartington's motion to vote a censure on the ministry's Eastern policy was rejected by 388 votes to 195. Important legislative measures were out of the question during the session of 1878 in view of the predominant importance foreign policy. The Home Ruler Party resumed its obstructive tactics on various occasions, but refrained from repeating scenes like last year. An important event in history there was a gap between its moderate and revolutionary elements over the debate about the murder of a large landowner, the Earl of Leitrim.
Late Victorian period
Soon after the closure of parliament, news arrived of the Russian movement towards the Amu Darya and the arrival of the Russian embassy in Kabul. This was Russia's response to sending Indian troops to Malta. For his part, Lord Beaconsfield decided to abandon the policy of non-intervention in Afghanistan that his predecessors adhered to. When the Afghan emir Shir Ali did not agree to the presence of British residents in Kandahar and Herat, the Anglo-Indian army entered Afghanistan and quickly occupied the Peiwar Pass, thus removing one of the main obstacles to Kabul.
At the beginning of 1879, Shir Ali fled Kabul and soon died. His successor, Yakub Khan, made peace with England.
In Ireland the general excitement was maintained by huge rallies. Parnell proposed a system of public ostracism against anyone who dared to lease lands from which the previous tenants had been expelled, or who in any way acted contrary to the land league. A whole series of violence was committed against court officials, land agents, farmers who remained faithful to the contracts, and in general against all persons who for some reason were unpleasant to the league. All this aroused all the greater fears because the perpetrators were not found and the police were powerless.
The government increased the number of troops and brought 14 leading members of the Land League, including Parnell, to trial on charges of sedition. The extent to which the Irish people took to heart the means of social ostracism recommended by Parnell was shown by the story of Captain Boycott, a farmer and land agent in Mayo, after whom this whole system, which took on the character of real terror, received the name of boycott. Soon in Ireland, except Ulster, there was not a single corner left where the league did not have its own branches and secret courts, the members of which had terrible weapon boycotting. In the case of the Land League members, the jury could not reach an agreement, and the trial remained without result. At the beginning of 1881, a bill was proposed to parliament to suppress anarchy in Ireland and a land bill tending to transform agrarian relations. Home Rulers declared their firm intention to slow down the first of these bills at all costs. The debate dragged on for 42 hours straight. Finally the bill passed its first reading; but already on the same day, regarding the proposal for a second reading, the home rules resumed their obstructive tactics.
The need for changes in the charter of the chamber itself became absolutely clear. Gladstone's proposal in this regard caused new stormy scenes. It was adopted, but the Irish deputies still managed to delay the approval of the bill for as many as 12 meetings. Then came the turn of the Land Bill. It contained the following main regulations: restriction of the landowner’s right to refuse the farmer further maintenance of the lease; providing farmers with the cost of all improvements they have made on the leased plot; review of excessively high rents by special assessment offices, the determinations of which should be equally binding on both landowners and farmers; increase in lease terms; finally, the issuance of loans for the improvement or purchase of rented estates, for the raising of empty lands, as well as for the resettlement of the hopelessly impoverished. Despite many amendments, the bill remained unchanged in its essential points; but after being examined by the Lords he returned to the lower house unrecognized. The Ministry expressed its readiness to make concessions, but rejected all amendments that violated the main purpose of the bill. The lords stood their ground. Gladstone made several more concessions, and finally the bill received royal assent (August 1881).
In April of the same year, Lord Beaconsfield died, who was succeeded as leader of the Conservative Party in the upper house by Lord Salisbury. A Boer uprising broke out in the Transvaal. Through the Orange Republic, negotiations were opened, which ended in peace, which was based on the recognition of the sovereign rights of the Queen and self-government of the Boers.
The government calmly looked at the occupation of Tunisia by France, but in advance declared its protest against the expansion French influence to Tripoli.
Efforts to renew the Anglo-French trade agreement concluded by Cobden in 1860, in which Charles Dilck took an outstanding part from the English side, were defeated by the resistance of French protectionists.
The Irish Land League was closed by the government; assessment presences for rent review opened their activities, reviving hopes for a better future. But already in the first days of 1882, a new ferment of hostile elements was discovered. Fenian secret societies tried to occupy the gap left by the destruction of the land league; they were supported by cash benefits and emissaries from America.
At the beginning of the 1882 session there was a clash between Gladstone and the Upper House. The latter decided to elect a special commission to examine the results of the Irish Land Bill. In Gladstone's opinion, such a commission, appointed by landowners and in the interests of landowners, could only have a harmful effect on the work of pacification begun in Ireland. He therefore proposed that the censure be voted on by the upper house, which was adopted by a majority of 303 votes to 235.
The Lords nevertheless elected a commission, but without the assistance of the government, it remained stillborn. The Tories themselves found it necessary to meet the demands of the Land League and made a proposal to assist farmers in purchasing their leased plots with benefits from the treasury, while at the same time demanding stricter measures against secret societies. The conciliatory mood was disturbed by the news of the murder of the new Secretary of State for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and his comrade Bork in Phoenix Park, Dublin (May 6). This murder was the work of secret societies who did not want to hear about the agreement. Already on May 11, Garcourt introduced a crime prevention bill into the lower house, which, among other measures to protect public safety, included permission to conduct house searches day and night, the appointment of emergency courts, the right to ban newspapers and public gatherings. The bill was passed by both houses. Following this, Gladstone passed another law aimed at helping the poorest Irish tenants.
In the sphere of foreign policy, Egyptian affairs were of main interest. Back in the fall of 1881, a military party was formed in Egypt under the leadership of Arabi Pasha, which openly became hostile to foreigners. In this regard, on June 11, 1882, there was an indignation of the mob in Alexandria, and the British consul was wounded. On June 15, Gladstone formulated in parliament his Egyptian policy in 3 main points: joint action with France, respect for the sovereign rights of the Porte and the establishment of a lasting order in Egypt in the interests of Europe and with the approval of the great powers. The European Conference that met in Constantinople (June 23) acted in the same spirit. But the slowness of the Porte, the reluctance of France to intervene armed, and the increasingly provocative manner of Arabi's actions soon forced England to a more energetic course of action. On July 6, the English government sent Arabi Pasha a demand to suspend the fortress work he had begun in Alexandria, and since Arabi ignored this demand, on July 11 the British fleet under the command of Admiral Seymour opened fire on the Alexandrian forts.
On July 13, Arabi left the city, which was set on fire by the mob. Having occupied Alexandria, the British turned their forces against Arabi. The most outstanding English commander, Wolseley, was sent to Egypt, and on August 13 he won a brilliant victory over Arabi Pasha at Tel el-Kebir. The latter surrendered and was taken to the island of Ceylon.
By the end of the session, Gladstone's proposed changes to the parliamentary statutes were adopted. The most important of them was the so-called. closure rule closure), by which the speaker was given the right, with the consent of the majority, to declare the debate over and the establishment of the so-called large committees (eng. grand committees) for the preliminary development of special issues that have hitherto been discussed in the full sitting of the House. These two regulations largely limit the possibility of abuse of freedom of speech. There have been important changes in the composition of the ministry. Bright retired immediately after the bombing of Alexandria. Gladstone ceded the portfolio of finance to Childers, reserving only the post of First Minister, and new members joined the cabinet: Lord Derby, who openly went over to the liberal camp, and Charles Dilke, who belonged to the radical wing of the party.
In the 1883 session the ministry still had a majority in the House of Commons. A bill against the manufacture and sale of explosives passed both houses on the same day. Thanks to large committees elected on the basis of the new parliamentary statute, the chamber with unusual speed adopted laws introduced by the ministry on insolvency, on abuses in parliamentary elections and on protecting the rights of inventors. In the same way, a law was passed, although not without strong resistance, to improve the living conditions of English and Scottish farmers.
In Ireland things continued as before. How far the network of Fenian conspiracies spread was demonstrated by the murder of Carey, one of the crown witnesses in the trial against the murderers in Phoenix Park; he was killed on a British steamer just as he was about to land on the African shore.
In Egypt, matters became more complicated due to unrest that broke out in Sudan. Back in 1882, a national-religious movement arose there, headed by the Mahdi (prophet) Mohammed-Ahmed. On November 1, 1883, he utterly defeated the Egyptian army, commanded by British officers, and a few days later another detachment suffered a brutal defeat at Suakim. The outburst of indignation that gripped the entire nation forced Gladstone to agree to send General Gordon to the Sudan as Governor-General. Gordon immediately hurried to his destination, but was poorly supplied with troops and money. The Egyptian army under the command of the Englishman Baker was completely defeated (February 11, 1884) by Osman Digma at El-Teb, and Gordon himself was forced to lock himself in Khartoum, without provisions and with a garrison overcrowded with traitors. The whole nation demanded that the brave general not be abandoned to the mercy of fate, and the ministry decided to send General Wolsley to his rescue. But before the vanguard new army reached Khartoum, the city succumbed to starvation and Gordon was killed (January 26, 1885). Wolseley was ordered to retreat. By the end of May, all British military forces had returned to Upper Egypt.
If, despite the dismal outcome of Egyptian affairs, the House rejected the Tories' proposed censure of the ministry, this is explained by the fact that, through a number of reforms in the field of domestic policy, Gladstone was able to acquire reliable supporters among the radicals. Among these reforms, the first place was occupied by a new electoral law, which eliminated the difference between rural and urban voters and granted suffrage in the counties to every tenant of an apartment; In addition, the right to vote was granted to servants with a qualification of 10 pounds. In this way, 2 million new voters were created. The lower house passed this bill on June 26, 1884, but the upper house decided not to proceed to the second reading until the ministry introduced its bill on the distribution of electoral districts. Gladstone did not agree to this demand.
Under pressure from the press, the lords yielded; the electoral bill was adopted by them. Soon after, the other half of the reform was realized: many small towns were deprived of the right to have their own special deputy, the number of representatives from big cities was enlarged, the counties being divided into electoral districts of approximately equal population. Gladstone's weak successes in the field of foreign policy, and on the other hand, his courtesy to the radicals and Irish autonomists, had long caused an estrangement between him and the moderate Whigs. This led to the fact that when on June 3, 1885, regarding the budget, Gix Beach introduced a resolution expressing no confidence in the government, the latter was defeated and resigned.
The creation of a new cabinet was entrusted to the head of the Tories, the Marquis of Salisbury. He himself took over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Northcote, who at this time passed with the title of Lord Iddesley into the upper house, became president of the privy council, Gix Beach received control of finance, and Lord Churchill received the Ministry of Indian Affairs.
The new cabinet pursued its foreign policy quite happily: relations with Germany, shaken by the latter’s successes in Africa, improved, disagreement with Russia over the Afghan borders was settled, General Prendergast occupied Burma, and already on January 1, 1886, the Viceroy of India proclaimed the annexation of Burma to British Empire.
Meanwhile, at the beginning of December 1885, parliamentary elections took place on the basis of the new electoral law, giving the liberals a significant number of votes thanks to the assistance of rural voters who wished to express their gratitude to Gladstone and his friends for the political rights granted to them. In total, 333 Liberals, 251 Tories and 86 Irish autonomists were elected. In Parliament, the Irish united with Gladstone's friends, and already on January 26, 1886, the Salisbury cabinet was defeated over the address. The Tories resigned.
Since moderate Whigs, like Lord Hartington and Goshen, stood aside, the cabinet was composed mainly of Gladstone's friends and radicals - Lord Rosbury, Childers, Morley, Chamberlain. Gladstone immediately introduced two bills to pacify Ireland in the lower house. One of them intended, with the help of a redemption operation, to convert large land property, which was exclusively in the hands of the British, into free peasant ownership, and the other - to grant Ireland a native government and a special people's parliament. The new Irish parliament was to consist of ²/3 elected members and 1/3 members appointed by the English government. All matters relating to Ireland were to be subject to his jurisdiction, with the exception of foreign policy, customs and military matters; in return, Irish members would lose their seats in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
There was a violent opposition in the country against this last bill; Not only all the conservatives, but also the moderate Whigs, led by Lord Hartington, took up arms against him; even many radicals spoke out against the law, the consequence of which would be such a far-reaching separation between Ireland and England. Chamberlain left the office with his friend Trevelyan. The Irish Autonomy Act was rejected in the Lower House (June 7) by a majority of 341 to 311. Gladstone appealed to the country, but after an unusually excited electoral struggle, the people spoke out, in July 1886, against the ministry. In addition to 86 Irish autonomists, only 191 Gladstone supporters got into the new parliament, while the Tories received 317 seats and the liberal unionists 76.
Since Hartington refused to join the cabinet, Salisbury formed a purely Tory ministry, which included, among other things, Lord Iddesley, Gicks Beach, Lord Churchill and Cranbrook. Ireland responded to the overthrow of Gladstone's ministry with new agrarian crimes and street riots. Dillon and O'Brien, leaders of the national league that was formed in place of the former land league, recruited supporters everywhere for their “plan for a new campaign.” By this plan it was proposed to appoint trustees from the league to fix the rents of every private estate in Ireland; If the landlords do not accept the assessments made by these trustees, then the tenants must stop paying rent altogether. Irish MPs tried to challenge the government in the lower house, but Parnell's amendment to the address was rejected along with his Land Bill, which would have reduced rents by 50%.
At the end of 1886 and at the beginning of 1887, some changes took place in the ministry. First of all, Lord Churchill unexpectedly resigned. His place was offered to the leader of the Liberal Unionists, Lord Hartington, who himself refused to accept the position, but persuaded his friend Goshen to join the ministry as Chancellor of the Exchequer. This marked the beginning of a rapprochement with the moderate Whigs. Lord Iddesley and Geeks Beach then left the ministry; the latter's place was taken by Balfour, Salisbury's nephew.
The unrest in Ireland forced the government, at the end of March 1887, to introduce a draft of a new pacification law. Despite strong opposition from Gladstone's supporters and Irish MPs, the ministry's proposal received a majority and came into force in June 1887.
In August 1887, the Irish National League was closed as a dangerous society, and its branches were dissolved; the consequence of this was new disturbances.
In April, the Imperial Conference opened in London. Imperial conference) of all British colonies with the aim of more closely linking the ties between the colonies and the mother country.
In the field of foreign policy, disagreement arose with France over the New Hebrides Islands, which was soon settled; There were misunderstandings with Russia on issues of the Afghan borders and Bulgarian affairs. When, after a long interregnum, the Bulgarians elected Ferdinand of Coburg as prince, the St. Petersburg cabinet turned to the Porte with a demand to recognize the illegality of this election. But England, supported by Austria and Italy, refused to accede to this demand, and the meeting of Queen Victoria with Emperor Franz Joseph in April 1888, apparently, did not remain without influence on the fact that Austria and England took a hostile position in the Bulgarian question Russia.
In Ireland, despite special laws and emergency courts, agrarian unrest did not stop. The statement of the Roman Curia (1888), which in harsh terms condemned the boycott system, caused great irritation in the country. The Irish replied that they did not intend to borrow their policy from either Italy or England, and flatly refused to stop the measures of violence condemned by the Pope. In August, Parliament discussed a proposal to set a trial for Parnell, accused by the Times newspaper of being an accomplice to the murderers of Cavendish and Borke. Parnell, without waiting for the decision of the commission appointed by parliament, began against the Times lawsuit about slander; Pigot, who delivered letters compromising Parnell to The Times, confessed to the forgery and committed suicide (February 1889).
Parnell's trial with the Times made a deep impression in the country. The series of private elections that followed showed that the Tory cabinet was increasingly losing ground. New trial of Parnell, convicted of illegal cohabitation with married woman(whom, however, he later married), alienated Gladstone’s supporters from him and created a split within the Irish autonomists themselves, who demanded that Parnell temporarily renounce leadership of the party and parliamentary activities in general. The most important internal measure that marked the reign of the Conservative Ministry for last years, consisted of transforming local government on a more democratic basis.
This new law came into force on April 1, 1889. In the same year, a special Ministry of Agriculture was established. In 1890, £33 million was allocated to assist Irish tenants in purchasing their leased estates; in 1891 a new bill was passed to the same end, allowing tenants who were forcibly removed for non-payment of rent to sell their tenancy to others within a period of five years. The Conservative majority in the House of Commons, although reduced (through separate elections favorable to the Liberals), is still strong enough to prevent the adoption of radical reforms, such as free primary education, rejected (February 1890) by a majority of 223 votes to 163. Budgetary the surplus, however, is used to develop public education and improve the position of public teachers. The queen's request to allocate special sums for the maintenance of her grandchildren (the son and daughter of the Prince of Wales) met with opposition from the leaders of the radical party, Labouchere and Morley. The House of Commons agreed only to a slight increase in the funds allocated to the Queen personally (August 1889).
In both 1889 and 1890 there were major workers' strikes in London and other large cities in England.
English troops took part in the defeat of the Dervishes who invaded Egypt from the south.
Disagreements arose between the USA and Great Britain over freedom of navigation in the Bering Sea, and between France and England over fishing off the coast of Newfoundland (1890). England recognized the rights of France to Madagascar, France - the rights of England to Zanzibar (established under the Zanzibar Treaty of 1890 with Germany).
1899 - the beginning of the Anglo-Boer War.
Fight for Africa
Long-standing misunderstandings between England and Germany on the issue of the South African possessions of both powers were put to an end by the treaty of July 1, 1890, according to which Germany made great concessions to England in Africa, but received the island of Heligoland from England.
In Africa, there were reasons for strife between Portugal and England, which at one time threatened war.
In 1891, Parnell, who failed to return to his former role as leader of the Irish autonomists.
Victorian morality
The values professed by the middle class and supported by both the Anglican Church and the opinion of the bourgeois elite of society began to prevail in society. Middle-class values and energy underpinned all the achievements of the Victorian era.
Sobriety, punctuality, hard work, frugality and thrift were valued even before Victoria's reign, but it was during her era that these qualities became the dominant norm. The queen herself set an example: her life, completely subordinate to duty and family, was strikingly different from the life of her two predecessors. Most of the aristocracy followed suit, abandoning the flashy lifestyle of the previous generation. The skilled part of the working class did the same Lewis Carroll You can Middle Ages Wikipedia
July 14th, 2012
Victorian era (1837-1901) - the period of the reign of Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India.
Although this era is, in general, clearly tied to a specific country (Great Britain), it is often linked in general as the steampunk era. And there are reasons for this.
But first, a little about Queen Victoria herself.
Victoria (English Victoria, baptismal names Alexandrina Victoria - English Alexandrina Victoria) (May 24, 1819 - January 22, 1901) - Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 20, 1837, Empress of India from May 1, 1876 (proclamation in India - 1 January 1877), the last representative of the Hanoverian dynasty on the throne of Great Britain.
Victoria remained on the throne for more than 63 years, longer than any other British monarch. The Victorian era coincided with the Industrial Revolution and the height of the British Empire. Numerous dynastic marriages of her children and grandchildren strengthened the ties between royal dynasties Europe and strengthened the influence of Great Britain on the continent (it was called the “Grandmother of Europe”).
1837 Portrait of the Queen after her coronation.
And this is her classic (one might even say canonical) look.
The Industrial Revolution turned Britain into a country of smoky factories, huge warehouses and shops. The population grew rapidly, cities grew, and in the 1850s the country was covered by a network of railroads. Highly productive and leaving other countries far behind, Britain was becoming the “workshop of the world,” which it demonstrated at the first international industrial exhibition in 1851. The country maintained its leading position until the end of the century. Against the backdrop of rapid transformations, negative sides: unsanitary conditions in workers’ homes, child labour, low wages, poor working conditions and exhaustingly long working hours.
World Exhibition of 1851. The first exhibition of this kind.
The British themselves in our time perceive the era of their zenith ambiguously. There were too many different things there, including hypocrisy..
During this period, people belonging to the upper and middle classes adhered to strict values, which included the following:
Sense of duty and hard work;
Respectability: a mixture of morality and hypocrisy, rigor and conformity to social standards (having good manners, owning a comfortable home, regular church attendance and charity), it was this that separated the middle class from the lower;
Charity and philanthropy: activities that attracted many wealthy people, especially women.
Patriarchal orders reigned in the family, so a single woman with a child became marginalized due to the widespread idea of female chastity. Sexuality was suppressed, and affectation and hypocrisy were extremely common.
Colonialism was also an important phenomenon, leading to the spread of patriotism and being influenced by ideas of racial superiority and the concept of the white man's mission.
Rules of conduct and morality were very strict, and violations of them were strongly frowned upon. Severe corporal punishment was extremely common in families and educational institutions. Such phenomena as affectation and excessive moderation, suppression are considered important and very common features of the Victorian era. So, in English language, the word "Victorian" is still synonymous with the words "sanctimonious", "hypocritical".
Despite the government's efforts to streamline economic life, the industrialization of society also had its negative consequences. Unthinkable poverty may not have increased compared to the old days, but it became a real problem for society when masses of the poor migrated to urban slums. People's uncertainty about the future grew, because under the new economic system, ups and downs alternated, as a result of which workers lost their jobs and joined the ranks of the poor. Defenders of the system argued that nothing could be done, since these were the “iron laws” of economics.
But such views were challenged by socialist thinkers such as Robert Owen and Karl Marx; their views were condemned by Charles Dickens, William Morris and other prominent writers and artists.
The Victorian era saw the birth and strengthening of the labor movement, from mutual aid and self-education programs (cooperatives, mechanics' schools) to mass action such as the Chartist struggle in the 1830s and 40s. for the expansion of political rights. Trade unions, which were illegal until the 1820s, gained real strength with the growth of socialist sentiments.
Although the Victorians failed to overcome the problem of poverty, the social and economic achievements of the era were significant.
Mass production led to the emergence of new types of products, and the standard of living gradually increased. The development of production opened up new professional opportunities - for example, the growing demand for typists allowed significant number literate women get a job for the first time in their lives. The new kind transport - trains - transported employees from the city home to the suburbs every day, and workers every weekend - on excursions to the coast, which over time became an invariable attribute of the English way of life.
English school 1897. Late Victorian era.
Victorian family photo.
Another photograph of a Victorian school.
And here’s what the Victorian era looked like through the eyes of photographic lenses (by the way, photography appeared right then):
Children's photographs from that time:
By the way, back then they went to school at the age of 8-9 years.
Do you want to see how teeth were treated back then? Like this:
Mechanical drill from the Victorian era. Want to try?
Rule Britain over the seas! World map 1897.
Indeed, an empire on which the sun never sets.
This is not a documentary photo at all. But this could very well happen in world history. Advanced steampunk, yes.
This is what it looked like everyday life that era:
A train leaving Paddington station.
And this is the celebration of the 60th anniversary of Victoria's coronation. 1897
Photos of this event:
Would I have wanted to live at that time? And this depends on social status :) Then the social class division was much sharper than it is today.
Moreover, the average life expectancy in those days was approximately 40 years.
This is how the British called the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). During this period there was no major wars, the economy, especially industry, has stabilized. It is no coincidence that this time was dubbed the “railroad age” and the “age of coal and iron.” In 1836-1837 The construction of railways began in England, and within ten years the whole country was covered with them.
Comfortable landaulets, two-wheeled and four-wheeled cabs, as well as omnibuses (a kind of horse-drawn bus) drove around the city streets. In rural areas they traveled in convertibles, charabancs and pony-drawn carriages.
At the same time, the electric telegraph appeared. This was followed by the replacement of the sailing fleet with ships made of iron and steel, which were propelled by steam. The demand for metal increased sharply, but by the middle of the century Britain was producing about half of the total amount of pig iron smelted in the world.
Revenues from foreign trade significantly replenished the English treasury. The discovery of gold mines in the colonies of Australia and North America strengthened England's position in world trade. In 1870, the volume of foreign trade of Great Britain exceeded that of France, Germany and Italy combined, and was 3-4 times higher than the volume of trade of the United States of America.
Various machines began to be used more often in agricultural work, and agriculture moved along the path of progress. After the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, food prices stabilized. The wealth accumulated by the mid-Victorian era greatly eased social tensions in the country, as working people's incomes increased significantly. However, this did not mean the disappearance of social inequality. One researcher wrote this about England at the end of Queen Victoria's reign: “Nowhere are the contrasts of wealth and poverty so sharp as in England, and none of the European capitals has anything like the “poverty quarters” of London. The English are not divided into two races - into the red-cheeked race and the sallow-faced race."
If in the western part of London, the West End, there were many magnificent mansions, then in the eastern part, across the Thames and on the outskirts, the poor lived in slums. Terrible cramped conditions and dampness reigned in these dwellings. Many had no roof over their heads at all.
From constant malnutrition and poor nutritional food, the poor quickly lost strength and efficiency and already looked like 60 years old after only 30 years. It was not until 1878 that a law was passed limiting the working day to 14 hours. However, in some places the owners forced their workers to work 17-18 hours a day.
The lot of women and children employed in industrial production has eased somewhat. They stopped taking children under 12-14 years old into factories. They were not accepted into foundries for “harmful” production (using lead, arsenic, phosphorus), and they were required to have a health certificate upon entering the factory. However, such government measures could hardly save poor families from poverty. Charles Dickens wrote a lot about England of the Victorian era, about its social contrasts, about the life of little ragamuffins in the London slums. The national wealth of England in the Victorian era was created through truly hard work.
The life of the “powers of this world” presented a completely different picture. Lords, state dignitaries, senior officials churches, ambassadors of the great powers lived in the aristocratic area of the western part of the city, built up with magnificent mansions. One Russian traveler described the scene of a tea party in such a house: “The table is covered with a snow-white tablecloth, laden with expensive dishes and silver. Luxury dishes and abundance in everything are a characteristic feature of the English household of the middle and upper class. In front of the mistress of the house's chair is a tray with cups and a teapot; A huge vessel of water is boiling over burning coals. The whole family: the older children, father, mother come out in full dress to the tea table... As soon as the family has sat down, the door opens and a maid in a white apron and a white cap brings in the food.”
The British in the Victorian era devoted a lot of time to sports and various physical exercises. They were engaged in hunting, horse racing, horse riding, swimming, fishing, playing ball, and boxing. In the evening they attended theaters, balls, and various entertainment venues. However, these entertainments were affordable only for the richest. Small traders and officials, highly paid workers and employees rested one day a week - on Sunday. As a rule, they spent this day off in nature, in the park, on the lawn. Here's how Dickens described these walks: “Gentlemen in waistcoats of stunning colors with watch chains running through them walk along the grass in a row, striking everyone with their importance (“peacock-like” - in the words of one joker); ladies, fanning themselves with new scarves the size of a small tablecloth, frolic on the lawn... grooms, not afraid of expense, order bottles of ginger lemonade for their beloved, and their beloved wash it down with countless oysters and shrimp; young men in tall top hats jauntily tilted to one side smoke cigars and pretend to enjoy it; Gentlemen in pink shirts and blue vests swing canes, occasionally knocking themselves and other walkers over with them. The toilets here often make you smile, but... general view These people are neat, contented, they are in a good-natured mood and willingly communicate with each other.”
For almost a century, the country did not wage major wars and was not exposed to any serious national danger. This allowed the British to devote all their attention to internal affairs: invent new and improve old machines and mechanisms, erect beautiful buildings, take care of the upbringing and education of the younger generation. That is why they remember with extraordinary warmth victorian era as the "golden age" in English history.
But by the end of the 19th century. England lost its industrial primacy, losing it to the USA and Germany in steel smelting and coal mining. England's monopoly position on the world market also came to an end. The war with the Boers began. The Victorian era is over.
Sometimes you look at Victorian photographs, and you get a shiver - how strange and often monstrous they are in the literal sense of the word. Pictures of dead people, made up and fixed to appear alive; depictions of physical impairments and injuries; collages with severed heads and “ghosts” shot with long exposures. Who needed these photographs and why? Let's look through the old album and try to find an explanation for the contents of its pages.
Beware, this article contains shocking illustrations.
Standing Dead
Photos of dead people are a very popular and widely circulated story. You can find many similar collections on the Internet: beautiful, elegant men, women and - most often - children with eyes closed half sitting or lying surrounded by living relatives. It is far from always possible to guess that the central character of the composition is already in a better world. Such photographs were widespread in Europe and America in the second half of the 19th century. Books of the dead really existed, there were even photographers who specialized in capturing the dead - both individually and in the circle of still living family members. Most often they photographed children and the elderly, and very rarely photographed young dead people.
In this family photo, the girl on the far left is dead.
The explanation for this tradition, common from the 1860s to the early 1910s, is extremely simple. In those days, almost no one had their own cameras; daguerreotype, and then collodion photography, were complex technologies and required a professional approach. Almost no private photographs were taken; the work of a photographer was prestigious and required high qualifications, so it was paid very well.
It's hard to believe, but both girls are dead. The supports of the stands are clearly visible behind their feet.
Going to a studio for a family photograph was expensive, and only wealthy people could afford to invite a photographer to their home. They prepared for photography in advance, did their hair, put on the best suits - this is why people in the photographs of the 19th century seem so proud and beautiful. They just posed very carefully. Remember, for example, famous photograph"The Wild Bunch" by Butch Cassidy (right): the wanted criminals are dressed to the nines, in brand new suits and bowler hats, look like real dandies and are not shy about being filmed. Why? Yes, because the photographer received a good fee, and Cassidy, who was not devoid of pride, wanted to have a beautiful photo of his organization. These people robbed banks and trains in a completely different way.
So, because of high prices Many people simply did not have time to photograph the photographs and the complexity of the process during their lifetime. This was especially true for children - infant mortality in the 19th century was monstrous and at the same time completely common. Families were large, on average 2-3 out of 10 children died from diseases in the absence of antibiotics, vaccines and other modern means. Old people were also rarely photographed during their lifetime - in the days of their youth there was no photography, and in their old age they had no time for it.
As a result, people realized that they did not have family photographs only after the death of one of their loved ones. A photographer was immediately hired, the body was anointed and seated in a “living” pose. Often such photographs were the only ones in which the deceased was captured. The middle-aged dead, from 20 to 60, were photographed much less frequently because they usually had time to have their photograph taken while they were alive.
Here are the eyes dead girl not drawn, but fixed in the open position
Photographers made good money from this genre. There were many tricks and devices that made it possible to pass off a dead person as a living person. For example, specialized (patented!) supports to give the dead a natural pose - although more often they took a photograph where the deceased imitated a sleeping person. Spacers were inserted into the eyes, and the pupils were rotated so that the deceased “looked into the camera.” Sometimes it was completely impossible to guess that there was a dead person in the picture, except perhaps by the barely visible tripod at his feet.
Sometimes photographs of famous dead people were sold as souvenirs: for example, in 1882, after looking at the body of the murdered robber Jesse James on display for edifying purposes, one could buy a photograph of his corpse on the way out.
The genre began to decline at the beginning of the 20th century, and by the 1920s it completely disappeared. Compact personal cameras became widespread, filming became ubiquitous and cheap, and it was difficult to find a person who had never been caught in the lens. And we were left with a lot of nightmarish photographs as memories. However, many of them seem very elegant and interesting, until you realize that the Victorian beauties depicted in them are dead.
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Hidden Mothers
Many children did not have intravital photographs because it is difficult to sit the child upright and force him not to twitch. And the shutter speeds in those days were very long. If it was necessary to photograph a child alone, without a mother, 19th century photographers used a simple trick. The mother sat on a chair, and she was carefully draped, covering her arms, face, legs, as if she were a piece of furniture. The child was placed on the mother's lap, where he could behave decently for a while. At the same time, from the photographer’s point of view, everything looked as if there was no one in the picture except the child.
However, if you look closely, these photographs create an eerie feeling. It is noticeable that under the covers, in the darkness, a man is sitting motionless. It looks like it's about to jump out and devour the unsuspecting innocent child.
Victorian photoshop
On May 23, 1878, a young British photographer, Samuel Kay Balbirnie, from Brighton (Sussex, UK), placed an advertisement in the Brighton Daily News, which later became famous and gave rise to a whole genre of photo manipulation. It read: “Spirit Photographs: The ladies and gentlemen in the photographs will be flying through the air accompanied by tables, chairs and musical instruments! Headless Photos: The ladies and gentlemen in the photos will be holding their own heads in their hands! Photos of dwarfs and giants: it's really funny!
There were plenty of photographers in Brighton, and Balbirnie, who opened a photography studio, wanted to stand out. And he invented a method of photo manipulation based on combining several negatives. In fact, this became the forerunner of modern Photoshop. Oddly enough, Balbirnie's idea was not successful. The residents of Brighton, accustomed to traditional photography, were in no hurry to be photographed headless or flying. Two years later, the photographer closed the studio and left to serve as an army doctor.
But, oddly enough, his business continued to live. The few photographs taken by Balbirnie spread not only through the private albums of clients, but also through newspapers. As a result, dozens of photographers in England and abroad mastered the simplest manipulation of negatives. Headless portraits became a popular genre of photography and remained in fashion until the 1910s.
By the way, most likely, Balbirnie was not the inventor of the technology. There is at least one known “headless photograph” taken in 1875, before the opening of the studio, by another Brighton master, William Henry Wheeler, who ran a photo studio on the High Street. But Wheeler did not advertise his “Photoshop” as openly as Balbirnie, and did not become the founder of a new direction.
Exploding Mule
The most famous headless photograph is not of a man, but of a mule. Moreover, the mule really doesn’t have a head on it! It was taken by British photographer Charles Harper Bennett on June 6, 1881, exclusively for scientific purposes.
Bennett was the son of a Surrey hatter, but in the 1870s he decided to open a business selling photographic equipment. In 1878, while trying to find a way to shorten the shutter speed, he realized that there was no way to speed up the collodion process and that a radically new emulsion composition was needed to instantly fix the image. By that time, another photographer, the English physician Richard Maddox, had already achieved success in this area by replacing collodion with gelatin. But he was also unable to achieve a sufficient fastening rate due to the fact that there was too much liquid in the gelatin. Bennett set out to improve Maddox's method and quickly achieved success. He managed to reduce the shutter speed from a few seconds to 1/25 of a second.
First of all, Bennett decided to show the technology to the military, and the American, not the British, and he needed a spectacular and at the same time effective experiment. He chose a unique method of demonstration: he tied dynamite to the mule’s neck, mounted the camera on a tripod, and then blew up the animal’s head in the presence of US Army Lieutenant Colonel Henry Abbott and several other military personnel from the Willets Point base (New York). He managed to take the picture at the moment when the pieces of the head were already scattered, but the body of the mule was still standing, not having time to fall. This demonstrated the speed of photography.
A description of the experiment and the results of Bennett's work were published in Scientific American. The technology was successfully implemented, Bennett received a patent and made money on his invention. But the press brought down a mountain of criticism on him for cruelty to animals. Because Bennett's father was a hatter, some newspapers played on the phrase "mad as a hatter" from Alice in Wonderland.
Treatment or torture?
The second photo has been widely circulated on the Internet. The first one shows a girl with a curved spine, the second one shows the process of straightening, the third one shows a tight bandage that keeps the spine aligned.
Other popular destination photographs of the 19th century - people who are clearly being tortured by someone. It slaps you on the back, gives you an electric shock, and squeezes your head in a vice. In fact, there is absolutely nothing scary in most of these pictures. Imagine that a person who has never seen a dentist sees a picture in which you are sitting with your mouth wide open, and some guy with scary instruments is climbing in there. He'll be horrified, won't he? So we, for the first time encountering long-forgotten and sometimes erroneous medical techniques of the 19th century, are horrified, although at that time they seemed completely normal.
For example, a photograph is widely circulated on the Internet in which a slender, half-naked woman is tied by the hands to a strange cone-shaped frame. It's completely nearby dressed man middle aged and seems to be looking at female breast. What is this - a Victorian BDSM club? Of course not. This photo simply illustrates the method of correcting scoliosis developed by the famous American orthopedic surgeon Lewis Sayra.
He was a true revolutionary in his field. Using a cone-shaped frame, Sayra temporarily straightened the spine crippled by scoliosis, and then tightly bandaged the patient, preventing him from bending again. After several weeks of such procedures, the spine was noticeably straightened. The photo with the girl is most famous due to the fact that its heroine is young, slender and all this looks mysterious and erotic. In fact, pictures of Seira at work are a dime a dozen. Most depict men with round bellies or, on the contrary, bony ones, with hairy, excuse me, butts sticking out of their slid down pants. Of course, truly beautiful photography has become popular.
And by the way, you haven’t yet seen other devices for correcting scoliosis, common in the 19th century.
Duchesne shows a smile. In fact, due to facial paralysis, the patient was physically unable to smile. Duchesne simply “turned on” the necessary muscles using electrical impulses.
French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne, who lived in the 19th century, studied the reaction of muscles and nerves to electrical impulses. His work subsequently formed the basis of electroneuromyography, a diagnostic test that can detect nerve damage.
Among other things, Duchenne captured the facial expressions of patients when applying impulses to one or another facial nerve. The problem was photography at that time - long exposures did not allow such a procedure. But Duchenne was lucky - he had at his disposal a middle-aged shoemaker who suffered from facial paralysis (Bell's palsy). In other words, if Duchenne used a current to produce an expression on the patient’s face, it would remain there unchanged for several minutes until the muscle “released.” This made it possible to take high-quality photographs with long exposures.
The doctor did more than 100 experiments with the shoemaker, connecting electrodes to various muscles and obtaining a variety of facial expressions. The study, accompanied by photographs, was published under the title “The Mechanism of Human Physiognomy.” Thanks to this work, Duchesne determined the purpose of a number of facial muscles and, in particular, identified the mechanism of the smile.
And in the photographs is the same shoemaker during one of the experiments.
Portrait of Phineas Gage
Phineas Gage was an American railroad worker and explosives expert. On September 13, 1848, 25-year-old Gage was preparing to blow up a rock near Cavendish while laying a section of the railroad between the cities of Rathmond and Burlington in Vermont. He needed to drill a hole at the desired point in the rock, place explosives and a fuse there, compact it all with a tamping pin and caulk the hole with sand, releasing a section of the fuse out.
At the moment when Gage raised the pin over the hole where the explosives had already been placed, he was distracted by one of the workers. Gage turned around and automatically lowered the pin. The impact caused the gunpowder to ignite and explode. The pin entered Gage's cheekbone under his left eye, penetrated his skull and exited the top of his head. So you understand: this thing was 3.2 cm in diameter, more than a meter long and weighed 6 kg. Having passed through the skull, the pin flew away, splashing blood and brains, 25 meters up and fell nearby.
But Gage somehow survived. At first he fell and twitched in convulsions, then he calmed down, came to his senses and, with the help of his colleagues, reached the hotel where the workers lived, 1.2 km from the scene of the incident. When surgeon Edward Williams arrived there half an hour later, a hastily bandaged Gage was sitting on the porch in a rocking chair.
After just 2 months, Gage returned to active life, having apparently lost only his left eye. But his personality changed dramatically - friends and relatives claimed that “this is no longer our Phineas.” As a result of the injury, he lost 4% of his cortex and 11% of his white matter, as well as connections between different areas of his brain. Phineas Gage was studied for 12 years the best specialists. Based on this case, a number of patterns were identified for which one or another part of the brain is responsible. Two photographs of Gage were taken. On both he sits, elegantly dressed, and holds in his hands the same tamping pin that pierced his head.
Phineas Gage died in 1860 from an epileptic seizure triggered by an old injury. His skull is kept in the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard.
It's okay, just keep scrolling
This expression could not be more suitable for most old photographs in which something strange is happening. In fact, there is nothing unusual there - we are just not used to that reality, because we live in a different one. Photos of, say, the animal world sometimes seem just as strange and monstrous to us, when a female praying mantis eats a male after mating or some other abomination occurs. Every Victorian photograph, like any modern one, has a subtext, a story, an explanation, without which it is not clear what is happening in it. And when you recognize them, suddenly it becomes not scary at all. Or, on the contrary, even more uneasy. It's up to you to decide.
Queen Victoria
The Victorian era is the period of the reign of Victoria, Queen of Great Britain (1837-1901).
It was in the second half of the 19th century that England showed its power to the whole world.
As a colonial empire, England developed industry with the help of the strong positions of the bourgeoisie. Neither war nor class struggle. England during the Victorian era was constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system and a two-party system.
This time period was characterized by such phenomena as:
- absence of major wars;
- stabilization of savings;
- industrial development.
The Victorian era is also known as the Railway Age or the Age of Coal and Iron.
It was no coincidence that the period of Queen Victoria's reign was dubbed the railway period. When construction began in 1836, railways covered the entire country within 10 years.
On the streets you could see cabs and omnibuses, and if you went to the countryside, there were more cabriolets and charabancs driving around.
An omnibus is something like a horse-drawn bus.
The electric telegraph was used for the first time, and the sailing fleet was replaced by iron and steel steam ships. The production smelted cast iron, half of which was supplied to other countries by Britain.
By the way, foreign trade brought great profits. Gold mines in North America and Australia did their job, and England took a leading position in world trade.
Agriculture also moved forward, and machines could now be seen to make agricultural work easier. When the Corn Laws were repealed in 1846, social tensions subsided as workers finally saw decent incomes for themselves.
The Corn Laws were laws that were in force in Great Britain from 1815 to 1846. Any imported grain was taxed to protect English farmers.
But social inequality as a phenomenon has not disappeared; rather, on the contrary, it has become as contrasting as possible. One researcher even spoke of two races in England - the red-cheeked and the sallow-complexioned race.
Poor people often did not even have a roof over their heads, and those who were luckier huddled in the damp slums across the Thames. Poverty reached such an extent that at the age of 30 young people looked like 60-year-olds, losing their ability to work and strength. And malnutrition and miserable living conditions were only one of the reasons for this order of things - the owners forced their workers to work for 18 hours.
At the same time, lords, high churchmen, ambassadors and dignitaries of the state settled in the west of the city in their magnificent mansions. They loved to engage in hunting, horse racing, swimming, boxing, and in the evening they went to balls and theaters, where high society ladies wore corsets according to fashion.
However, only the richest among the aristocrats could afford this, while the rest - officials, merchants and the highest paid workers - had fun only on Sunday, relaxing on the lawn in the city park.
Queen Victoria was only 18 years old when she came to the throne in 1837. She reigned for 64 of her 82 years of life. She was respected, although there was no talk of a brilliant mind or talents. All her life she adhered to the principle of “reign, but not govern,” placing all the reins of government in the hands of ministers.
Sources:
- Encyclopedia for children. Volume 1. World History
- http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_laws
- Soroko-Tsyupa O., Smirnov V., Poskonin V. The world at the beginning of the 20th century, 1898 - 1918
