Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:17:04.914Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

MODEL INSTITUTIONS AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF SOCIAL REFORM IN EARLY VICTORIAN BRITAIN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2018

TOM CROOK
TOM CROOK*
Affiliation:
Oxford Brookes University
*
Tom Crook, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, ox3 0bptcrook@brookes.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article reconsiders the nature and novelty of social reform in Britain during the early Victorian period. Historians have long ceased to debate the period in terms of a ‘revolution in government’, or the beginnings of a welfare state. Instead, the current consensus presents a picture of only modest, fitful change. Neither the state, nor the overall ideological landscape, was radically transformed. This article seeks to reinject a sense of transformative change back into these decades. It does so by examining a neglected facet of this otherwise richly served period of social reform: the formation and functioning of a series of self-styled ‘model’ institutions that spanned the fields of education, prisons, housing, and sanitation. In particular, what the use of these model institutions brings into sharp focus are the radical changes that occurred in the geography of social reform, which at this point began to develop according to multiple spatial relations, extending at once within and beyond Britain. Between them, they helped to engineer a truly cosmopolitan culture of social policy-making, which was both multi-directional – policies flowed outwards and inwards – and composed of multiple relations, national, imperial, and transnational.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 62 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 789 - 812
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

My thanks to Stephen Byrne and two referees for their helpful suggestions and advice.

References

1 The debate was kick-started by MacDonagh, Oliver, ‘The nineteenth-century revolution in government: a reappraisal’, Historical Journal, 1 (1958), pp. 52–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar, which was followed by accounts such as Roberts, David, Victorian origins of the British welfare state (New Haven, CT, 1960)Google Scholar. For an overview of the historiography, see Mandler, Peter, ‘Introduction: state and society in Victorian Britain’, in Mandler, Peter, ed., Liberty and authority in Victorian Britain (Oxford, 2006), pp. 1–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Philip Harling, ‘The powers of the Victorian state’, in Mandler, ed., Liberty and authority in Victorian Britain, p. 26.

3 The revisionist literature is much too extensive to detail here; but see Harling, Philip, ‘The state’, in Williams, Chris, ed., A companion to nineteenth-century Britain (Oxford, 2004), pp. 100–24Google Scholar.

4 Joyce, Patrick, The rule of freedom: liberalism and the modern city (London, 2003)Google Scholar; and Goodlad, Lauren M. E., Victorian literature and the Victorian state: character and governance in a liberal society (Baltimore, MD, 2003)Google Scholar.

5 Price, Richard, British society, 1680‒1880: dynamism, containment and change (Cambridge, 1999), chs. 5–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Innes, Joanna, ‘“Reform” in English public life: the fortunes of a word’, in Burns, Arthur and Innes, Joanna, eds., Rethinking the age of reform: Britain, 1780–1850 (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 71–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 A useful overview of recent political science literature is McCann, Eugene and Ward, Kevin, ‘Policy assemblages, mobilities and mutations: toward a multidisciplinary conversation’, Political Studies Review, 10 (2012), pp. 325–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 See especially Price, British society, 1680‒1880, pp. 155–99; and Eastwood, David, Government and community in the English provinces, 1700–1870 (Basingstoke, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 E.g. Anderson, David M. and Killingray, David, eds., Policing the empire: government, authority and control, 1830–1940 (Manchester, 1991)Google Scholar; and May, Helen, Kaur, Baljit, and Prochner, Larry, Empire education and indigenous childhoods: nineteenth-century missionary infant schools in three British colonies (Farnham, 2014)Google Scholar.

10 Saunier, Pierre-Yves, ‘Les régimes circulatoires du domaine social 1800–1940: projets et ingénierie de la convergence et de la différence’, Genèses, 71 (2008), pp. 4–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Other accounts which attend to the early Victorian period include Leonards, Chris and Randeraad, Nico, ‘Transnational experts in social reform, 1840‒1880’, International Review of Social History, 55 (2010), pp. 215–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 For accounts that focus on the post-1880 period, see Rodgers, Daniel T., Atlantic crossings: social politics in a progressive age (Cambridge, MA, 1998)Google Scholar; and Moses, Julia and Daunton, Martin, eds., ‘Border crossings: global dynamics of social policies and problems’, Journal of Global History (Special Issue), 9 (2014), pp. 177‒313CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 These institutions have not entirely escaped notice, though they have never been examined together, as in this article. Pentonville prison and model housing have received the most attention. Henriques, U. R. Q., ‘The rise and decline of the separate system of prison discipline’, Past and Present, 54 (1972), pp. 61–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Evans, Robin, The fabrication of virtue: English prison architecture, 1750‒1840 (Cambridge, 1982), ch. 8Google Scholar; and Gaskell, S. Martin, Model housing: from the Great Exhibition to the Festival of Britain (London, 1987)Google Scholar.

13 Millbank prison was the first in 1816; Parkhurst prison for juveniles was the second, opening in 1838.

14 Johnson, Samuel, A dictionary of the English language (London, 1755)Google Scholar, ‘Mod’; Clarke, Hyde, A new and comprehensive dictionary of the English language (London, 1855)Google Scholar; Chambers's English dictionary (London, 1872)Google Scholar.

15 Zupko, Ronald Edward, Revolution in measurement: Western European weights and measures since the age of science (Philadelphia, PA, 1990), pp. 50‒62Google Scholar.

16 Smith, Denis, ‘The use of models in nineteenth-century British suspension bridge design’, History of Technology, 2 (1977), pp. 170‒8Google Scholar.

17 Innes, Joanna, Inferior politics: social problems and social policies in eighteenth-century Britain (Oxford, 2009), pp. 42–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Gillispie, Charles Coulston, Science and polity in France: the end of the old regime (Princeton, NJ, 1980), pp. 255‒6Google Scholar.

19 Howard, John, The state of the prisons in England and Wales, with preliminary observations and an account of some foreign prisons (3rd edn, Warrington, 1784), pp. 65, 92, 213, 342Google Scholar; Howard, John, An account of the principal lazarettos in Europe (Warrington, 1789), pp. 110, 223Google Scholar.

20 Clark, John, A collection of papers, intended to promote an institution for the cure and prevention of infectious fevers in Newcastle and other populous towns (Newcastle, 1802), p. 5Google Scholar.

21 Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline and for the Reformation of Offenders, Juvenile, Remarks on the form and construction of prisons (London, 1826), p. ivGoogle Scholar.

22 Parkes, Susan M., Kildare Place: the history of the Church of Ireland Training College and College of Education, 1811–2010 (Dublin, 2011)Google Scholar.

23 Twentieth report of the British and Foreign School Society, to the general meeting, May 9, 1825 (London, 1825), pp. 127–36Google Scholar; BFSS/1/1/6/14, Brunel University London Archives (BULA).

24 Eighth annual report of the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church (London, 1819), p. 10Google Scholar.

25 Innes, Joanna, ‘Central government “interference”: changing conceptions, practices and concerns, c. 1700–1850’, in Harris, Jose, ed., Civil society in British history: ideas, identities, institutions (Oxford, 2003), pp. 39‒60CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Report of William Crawford, on the penitentiaries of the United States, addressed to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, HC 1834 (593), XLVI, pp. 1–51.

27 Third report of the inspectors appointed under the provisions of the Act 5 & 6 Will. IV, c. 38 to visit the different prisons of Great Britain: I. Home District, HC 1837–8 (141), xxx, p. 100.

28 Lord John Russell, ‘Supply–Model Prison’, speech to the House of Commons, 4 May 1840, Parliamentary debates, Commons, 3rd ser., vol. 53 (1840), col. 1189.

29 Evans, Fabrication of virtue, pp. 354–60.

30 Quoted in Roberts, Henry, The dwellings of the labouring classes, their arrangement and construction (3rd edn, London, 1853), p. iiGoogle Scholar.

31 Tarn, John Nelson, Five per cent philanthropy: an account of housing in urban areas between 1840 and 1914 (London, 1973), pp. 18–20Google Scholar.

32 See especially Wohl, Anthony S., The eternal slum: housing and social policy in Victorian London (London, 1977), pp. 142–5Google Scholar.

33 Price Baly, Prichard, A statement of the proceedings of the Committee appointed to promote the establishment of baths and washhouses for the labouring classes (London, 1852), p. 15Google Scholar.

34 Papers on education, HC 1839 (16), xli, p. 1.

35 Reports of the commissioners to inquire into the state of popular education in England, i: 1861 (Cd 2794-i), p. 643.

36 Twenty-ninth report of the British and Foreign School Society (London, 1834), pp. 3–5Google Scholar; BFSS/1/1/6/23, BULA.

37 Fourth report of the Glasgow Educational Society's Normal Seminary, 1837 (Glasgow, 1839), pp. 19–20Google Scholar.

38 See especially Rich, R. W., The training of teachers in England and Wales during the nineteenth century (Trowbridge, 1972), ch. 3Google Scholar.

39 Whitbread, Nanette, The evolution of the nursery-infant school: a history of infant and nursery education in Britain, 1800–1970 (London, 1972), chs. 1–2Google Scholar.

40 Evans, Fabrication of virtue, pp. 367–84.

41 John Michael Weiler, ‘Army architects: the royal engineers and the development of building technology in the nineteenth century’ (D.Phil., York, 1987), pp. 436–8; Johnston, Norman, Forms of constraint: a history of prison architecture (Urbana, IL, 2000), pp. 99–100Google Scholar.

42 Fourth report of the Glasgow Educational Society's Normal Seminary, 1837, pp. 21, 24.

43 ‘Home and Colonial Infant School Society’, Home Missionary Magazine (Oct. 1838), p. 168; Quarterly Educational Magazine, 1 (London, 1848), pp. 94–5, 369–70Google Scholar.

44 Leonards and Randeraad, ‘Transnational experts in social reform, 1840‒1880’, pp. 225–9.

45 Jebb, Lieutenant-Colonel, Observations on the separate system of prison discipline, submitted to the congress assembled at Brussels on the subject of prison reform (London, 1847)Google Scholar.

46 Roberts, Henry, ‘Report on the Congrès International de Bienfaisance and on the Association International de Bienfaisance’, Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science: 1858 (London, 1859), pp. 685–6Google Scholar; Congrès international de bienfaisance de Londres, Session de 1862, ii (Brussels, 1863), pp. 197–203Google Scholar.

47 Hawes, W., ‘Baths and wash-houses’, Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science: 1857 (London, 1858), pp. 594–600Google Scholar.

48 Report of a public meeting to consider the best method of extending the operations of the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes (London, 1854), pp. 8–9Google Scholar.

49 Forty-fourth annual report of the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church (London, 1855), p. viGoogle Scholar.

50 Report of the surveyor-general of prisons on the construction, ventilation and details of Pentonville Prison, 1844, HC 1844 (594), xxviii.

51 Baly, Statement of the proceedings of the Committee, pp. 11–13.

52 Emsley, Clive, Crime, police and penal policy: European experiences, 1750‒1940 (Oxford, 2007), pp. 174–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

53 Curl, James Stevens, The life and work of Henry Roberts, 1803–1876: the evangelical conscience and the campaign for model housing and healthy nations (Chichester, 1983), p. 156Google Scholar.

54 Roberts, Henry, The improvement of the dwellings of the labouring classes through the operation of government measures, by those of public bodies and benevolent associations, as well as individual efforts (London, 1859), pp. 22–5Google Scholar.

55 Henriques, ‘The rise and decline of the separate system of prison discipline’, pp. 78–87; ‘Whig New Model Bastille’, The Age (June 1841), p. 181.

56 Forsythe, Bill, ‘Centralisation and local autonomy: the experience of English prisons, 1820–1877’, Journal of Historical Sociology, 4 (1991), pp. 324–9Google Scholar.

57 See especially Baly, Statement of the proceedings of the Committee; and Ebsworth, Alfred, Facts and inferences drawn from an inspection of the public baths and washhouses in this metropolis (London, 1853)Google Scholar.

58 E.g. Second report of the surveyor-general of prisons, 1847 (C. 867), xxix, pp. 59–65, 68–77; and Smith, Thomas Southwood, Results of sanitary improvement (London, 1854)Google Scholar.

59 Gaskell, Model housing, pp. 21–3.

60 Bache, Alexander Dallas, Report on education in Europe, to the trustees of the Girard College for Orphans (Philadelphia, PA, 1839), pp. 159–69, 174–5Google Scholar; Mann, Horace, Report of an educational tour, in Germany and parts of Great Britain and Ireland (London, 1846), p. 69Google Scholar; Barnard, Henry, National education in Europe (Hartford, CT, 1854), ch. ‘England’Google Scholar.

61 Baly, Statement of the proceedings of the Committee, p. 13.

62 ‘The visitors book’, records of the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes, LMA/4025/03, London Metropolitan Archives.

63 Report of the surveyor-general of prisons, p. 19.

64 Caruso, Marcelo and Vera, Eugenia Roldán, ‘Pluralizing meanings: the monitorial system of education in Latin America in the early nineteenth century’, Paedagogica Historica, 41 (2005), pp. 645–54, at p. 650Google Scholar.

65 Second report of the surveyor-general of prisons, p. 39; Johnston, Forms of constraint, p. 93.

66 Hawes, ‘Baths and wash-houses’, pp. 594–5.

67 Curl, Life and work of Henry Roberts, 1803–1876, pp. 156–66.

68 Adam, Thomas, Buying respectability: philanthropy and urban society in transnational perspective, 1840s to 1930s (Bloomington, IN, 2009), p. 48Google Scholar.

69 Johnston, Forms of constraint, pp. 102–3.

70 Manual of the system of primary instruction, pursued in the model schools of the British and Foreign School Society (London, 1834), pp. vi–viiGoogle Scholar.

71 Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education, with appendices and plans of school houses, part II: 1839–1840, HC 1840 (254), xl, appendix 1.

72 Baly, Statement of the proceedings of the Committee, pp. 15–40.

73 E.g. Roberts, The dwellings of the labouring classes, their arrangement and construction; and Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes, Plans and suggestions for dwellings adapted to the working classes, including the model houses for families built by command of the Prince Consort (4th edn, London, 1870)Google Scholar.

74 Second report of the surveyor-general of prisons, pp. 12–15.

75 Rodger, Richard, Housing in urban Britain, 1780–1914 (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 44–51Google Scholar.