Out of this movement sprang Working Men's Clubs attached
to the Unions and carrying on all branches of work, educational and
beneficial, amongst its members.
The standard of society was continually rising, and it was already
a far cry to the Early Victorian England described in an earlier
chapter.
The world was growing smaller--that is to say, communications
between country and country, between continent and continent, were
growing more easy. The first insulated cable was laid in 1848, across
the Hudson River, from Jersey City to New York, and in 1857
an unsuccessful attempt was made to connect the New and the Old World.
In 1866 the _Great Eastern_, after two trials, succeeded in laying
a complete cable. The expansion of the powers of human invention led
to a great increase in the growth of comfort of all classes. To take
only a few striking examples: at the beginning of the century matches
were not yet invented, and only in 1827 were the 'Congreve' sulphur
matches put on the market; they were sold at the rate of one shilling
a box containing eighty-four matches! In the year 1821 gas was still
considered a luxury; soap and candles were both greatly improved and
cheapened. By the withdrawal of the window tax in 1851 obvious and
necessary advantages were gained in the building of houses.
In 1855 the stamp duty on newspapers was abolished. In these days
of cheap halfpenny papers with immense circulations it is difficult
to realize that at a date not very far distant from us, the poor
scarcely, if ever, saw a newspaper at all.
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