CHAPTER XIV: _Stress and Strain_
Forward, forward let us range,
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.
TENNYSON
The greatest Revolutions are not always those which are accompanied
by riot and bloodshed. England's Revolution was peaceful, but it
worked vast and almost incredible changes.
We find, in the first place, that after the great Napoleonic Wars
and during the 'forty years' peace' a new class, the 'Middle Class,'
came into being. It had, of course, existed before this time, but
it had been unable to make its power felt. The astonishing increase
of trade and consequently of wealth, the application of steam power
with special influence upon land and sea transit, transformed
England into "the Workshop of the World."
By the year 1840 railways were no longer regarded as something in
the nature of an experiment, which might or might not prove
a success; they had, indeed, become an integral part of the social
life of the nation. In 1840 the Railway Regulation Act was passed,
followed in 1844 by the Cheap Trains Act, which required that
passengers must be carried in covered waggons at a charge of not more
than one penny a mile and at a speed of not less than twelve miles
an hour.
From 1844 onward the construction of railways proceeded apace, until
by the year 1874 no less than 16,449 miles had been laid.
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