The heart of the empire : discussions of problems of modern city life in England with an essay on imperialism.

Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The heart of the empire : discussions of problems of modern city life in England with an essay on imperialism. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    menace to society, have become rewoven into the social fabric. With all busy working for subsistence, none have leisure to cry out or to demonstrate in favour of change. Partly this is due to a real breakdown in the new party. Socialism has been largely abandoned. Shifted forward to the distant generations of the future, it has failed to provide stimulus for the active sacrifice of the present. The leaders who exhibited such brilliant promise have gone under or passed into obscurity. No one has arisen of magnetic personality to unite the scattered and dis- couraged forces of progress and push forward towards the attainment of u the day of better things.” And the enthusiasm of the Upper and Middle Classes has ebbed with the failure of the dull and unimaginative population to respond to their earlier efforts. “ People,” a careful observer has told us, “ have become tired of the poor.” Results seem so inadequate ; the material is so stubborn and unpliant; it seems better after all to let things drift and trust piously in a Divine Providence working all things for good. Age after age has passed, scheme after scheme has been tried, and in essence the problem remains as far from solution as ever. There was the Age of Socialism, when middle-class enthusiasts abandoned their comfortable surroundings to preach to the workers by rainy corner and in dismal meeting the gospel of the New Era. And the result was but scorn and dull indifference and rejection of a creed only pro- mising benefit to generations still unborn. There was the Age of Slumming, when, stimulated by the cloying pathos of the popular novelist, the wealthy and good of the West descended, halo-crowned, into hovel and cellar, to demon- strate by songs and smiles and sympathy the affection of the rich for the poor. There was the Age of Settlements, when the Universities essayed their hands and founded citadels in the dark quarters of the great cities, attempting by the diffusion of diluted knowledge and culture to beautify the lives of the toilers. There was the Age of Philanthropy, falsely so called, when Mansion House Funds and similar charities rained golden showers on an imperturbable and dissatisfied populace ; when General
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