Jim’s Reviews > The Victorians > Status Update

Morris was to demonstrate in his own personal pilgrimage one of the key reasons why the Left took so long to become an effective political force in England. The psychology of the rebel against the system is unlikely to be that of the team player. However much they believe themselves converted to a system of universal comradeship, they are always likely to rebel against the actual comrades' way of going about things.

The old-rich and new-rich helped to keep Britain as a whole rich. That was the idea which underpinned late Victorian politics, making it a contest not between plutocrats and 'equalitarians' but between two parties who, much as they might differ over some aspects of foreign policy, of Irish policy and even of domestic administration, were united to keep the wealth of the plutocracy largely undisturbed.

The Royal Navy pursued slave ships no doubt with the fervor of moral liberators, partly influenced by the fact that they could earn 'head money' for the number of slaves liberated. The slavers in turn could claim insurance for cargo -- i.e. slaves -- lost at sea. It was therefore a common occurrence if a Navy vessel pursued a slaver that she would cast her cargo into the ocean, still in chains as a feast for sharks.

After 1832, there were to be three major cholera epidemics in Britain: 1848-9, 1853-4 and 1866. The first of these killed 53,000 in England and Wales, 8,000 in Scotland; the next killed 26,000 -- but 10,000 in London.