SOCIAL PROGRESS IN THE QUEEN'S REIGN.
[To THZ EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'] am induced by reading your interesting article in the Spectator of April 10th to look back on life in my native village at the commencement of our beloved Queen's reign, particularly in reference to the three points you specify.
(1) Whether men are better than they were ?—At thirteen years of age my first sleep was not infrequently disturbed by the sounds of a brawl in the street which arose from some topers having been ejected from the 'King's Head,' and A and B were fighting. As they were men well known to me it was a pity to think of the "black eyes" they would have to exhibit. The boy who was " apprenticed " to us for working in the garden and being general factotum I gleefully under- took to instruct in the three " R's " with my mother's sanction, but we were neither of us sufficiently heroic to endure his terrible coarseness of speech. At that time there was only in the village of nearly five hundred inhabitants the dame's school for the poor. The flickering lights of tallow candles in the two general-shops and uncertain lamps at the three inns and the beershop alone contended with the denser darkness of the moonless winter night, though most of the cottage chimneys smoked, and there would be glimmerings of light from partially opened doors. The earthen floors were uneven, and damp barley-meal was much used for bread ; flour, though dear, was frequently "mused." The dress of the women was too frequently untidy, and children played and loitered about the ashes and refuse heap, which appeared here and there conveniently near the house door.
(2) Are men more competent ?—Certainly their heads are clearer ; they are more reasonable, and have talks among them-
selves on social and political subjects ; they have their reading- room, with a good supply of daily newspapers, Punch, and other illustrated weeklies, and their village band. Men and women can enjoy a lecture on books or on foreign travel, &c. The lads, well taught at the parish school, often obtain situa- tions of trust in their village or further afield; but it is right to say farmers complain of the difficulty in getting good agricultural labourers ; tan-yards give employment to many of the people.
(3) Whether men are happier ?—Distinctly happier where we are. On a fine summer morning it is good to see them starting on a picnic for the seaside in a large charabane hired by themselves. The return home in the twilight is happy too, though the children may be sleepy and the mothers tired, but the men are sober, and all are kindly to each other. All their money is not spent in frolic either, but they avail them- selves of the Post Office Savings Bank very satisfactorily, and of "the blanket society," &c. There are, of course, numerous tea-drinkinga and treats connected with church and chapels. On Sunday the working man is not relegated to the narrow bench in the cold corner of the old picturesque parish church, smock-frocks and cold feet being no longer considered necessary adjuncts of divine service. Alas ! the dress of the girls on Sunday has become terribly fine, and new fashions are eagerly seized even in remote Cornwall. The cricket club for the lads brings them in contact with gentlemen, and produces good all round, creating a bond of union, mutual interest, and good feeling. Now, my village has only two inns, very quiet ones. The inhabitants are sober, well fed, well clothed, well conducted, well housed, value their allot- ments and the recent good supply of drinking-water, and they are good neighbours to each other. In the old time we were more selfish, and did not realise so much, either religiously or socially, our neighbourly duties; but whilst writing thus, fine, sweet old faces and strong picturesque characters shine out of the past. Still, they were the rare jewels. The people are wiser, better, and happier, in this sixtieth year of he
Majesty's reign than in 1837.-1 am, Sir, &c., E. L.
[TO THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECT•TOR."] SIR,—In taking stock of social changes, it seems to me very difficult to make due allowance for the change wrought by time in the seeing eye and the hearing ear ; but there is one alteration which appears to me very striking, and I am curious to know whether others agree with me. I am between fifty and sixty, so that my impressions do not go back to the Queen's accession, but range over about thirty-five yeare. When I was young pity was reckoned a virtue, now it is reckoned the virtue; then it was directed to the victims of crime, now it flows much more freely towards the criminal, who is considered the victim of society. Victor Hugo was one of the first writers to give eloquent expression to this doctrine, which has since become a commonplace. "Justice is blind : punishment is cruel and generally mistaken : for pity's sake open the prison doors before it is too late !" That is the prevalent note of these recent years as their sound reaches me, and I think the note, if not new, has at any rate grown much louder in my experience. The telegraph, and its product, the ubiquitous correspondent, has no doubt partly caused the change by forcing us all to recognise the sufferings of all sorts of people all the world over ; but it hardly explains the popular indifference to the inevitable cruelty of injustice.
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