第21章 Reform Movements(9)

This enormous change and the corresponding development of the power of the press,which affected to mould and,at any rate,expressed public opinion,entirely fell in with Utilitarian principles.Their part in bringing about the change was of no special importance except in so far as they more or less inspired the popular orators.They were,however,ready to take advantage of it.They had the Westminster Review to take a place beside the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews ,which had raised periodical writing to a far higher position than it had ever occupied,and to which leading politicians and leading authors on both sides had become regular contributors,the old contempt for journalism was rapidly vanishing.In 1825Canning expresses his regret for having given some information to a paper of which an ill use had been made.He had previously abstained from all communication with 'these gentry,'and was now resolved to have done with hoc genus omne for good and all.45In 1839we find his former colleague,Lord Lyndhurst,seeking an alliance with Barnes,the editor of the Times ,as eagerly as though Barnes had been the head of a parliamentary party.46The newspapers had probably done more than the schools to spread habits of reading through the country,Yet the strong interest which,was growing up in educational matters was characteristic.Brougham's phrase,'the schoolmaster is abroad'(29th January 1821),became a popular proverb,and rejoiced the worthy Bentham.47I have already described the share taken by the Utilitarians in the great Bell and Lancaster controversy,Parliament had as yet done little.A bill brought in by Whitbread had been passed in 1807by the House of Commons,enabling parishes to form schools on the Scottish model,but according to Romilly,48it was passed in the well-grounded confidence that it would be thrown out by the peers.A committee upon education was obtained by Brougham after the peace,which reported in 1818,and which led to a commission upon school endowments.Brougham introduced an education bill in 1820but nothing came of it.The beginning of any participation by government in national education was not to take place till after the Reform Bill.Meanwhile,however,the foundation of the London University upon unsectarian principles was encouraging the Utilitarians;and there were other symptoms of the growth of enlightenment.George Birkbeck (1776-1841)had started some popular lectures upon science at Glasgow about 1800,and having settled as a physician in London,started the 'Mechanics'Institution,in 1824.Brougham was one of the first trustees;and the institution,though exposed to a good deal of ridicule,managed to take root and become the parent of others.In 1827was started the Society for The Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,of which Brougham was president,and the committee of which included James Mill.In the course of its twenty years'existence it published or sanctioned the publication by Charles Knight of a great mass of popular literature.The Penny Magazine (1832-1845)is said to have had two hundred thousand subscribers at the end of its first year of existence,Crude and superficial as were some of these enterprises,they clearly marked a very important change.Cobbett and the Radical orators found enormous audiences ready to listen to their doctrine.Churchmen and Dissenters,Tories and Radicals were finding it necessary both to educate and to disseminate their principles by writing;and as new social strata were becoming accessible to such influences,their opinions began to exercise in turn a more distinct reaction upon political and ecclesiastical affairs.

No party felt more confidence at the tendency of this new intellectual fermentation than the Utilitarians.

They had a definite,coherent,logical creed.Every step which increased the freedom of discussion increased the influence of the truth.Their doctrines were the truth,if not the whole truth.Once allow them to get a fulcrum and they would move the world.Bit by bit their principles of legislation,of economy,of politics were being accepted in the most different quarters;and even the more intelligent of their opponents were applying them,though the application might be piecemeal and imperfect.It was in vain that an adversary protested that he was not bound by logic,and appealed to experience instead of theory.Let him justify his action upon what grounds he pleased,he was,in point of fact,introducing the leaven of true doctrine,and it might be trusted to work out the desirable results.