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was appalling on account of their system of regimentation, hard work and a monotonous diet. The poor had to wear uniforms and their families were split. This apparent hard line was due in part to an optimistic faith in progress and to the Puritan virtues of hard work, frugality and duty. The idea behind the workhouses was that awareness of such a dreadful life would inspire the poor to try to improve their own conditions. CHARTISM In 1838 a group of working-class radicals drew up a People's Charter demanding universal manhood suffrage, a secret ballot and other reforms of the electoral system. No one in power was ready for such democracy and the Chartist movement failed. However, their influence was later felt when, in 1867 the Second Reform Act enfranchised part of the urban male working class in England and Wales for the first time and, in 1872, the secret ballot was introduced with the Ballot Act. THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE Bad weather and an unknown plant disease from America caused the destruction of potato crops in 1845. Ireland, whose agriculture depended on potatoes experienced a terrible famine, during which a lot of people died and many emigrated, mostly to America, in search of a better life. The Irish crisis forced the Prime Minister: Sir Robert Peel, to abolish the Corn Laws in 1846. These laws imposed tariffs on imported corn, keeping the price of bread high to protect the landed interests. TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS In the mid-years of the 19th century, England experienced a second wave of industrialisation which brought many economical, cultural and architectural changes. While European monarchies were toppled by revolutions in 1848, England avoided the revolutionary wave. In 1851 a Great Exhibition, organised by Prince Albert, showed the world Britain's industrial and economic power. The exhibition was housed at the Crystal Palace, a huge structure of glass and steel designed by Sir Joseph Paxton and erected in Hyde Park. More than 15,000 exhibitors from all over the world displayed their goods to millions of visitors. The building of the London Underground began in 1860 and railways started to transform the landscape and people's lives. FOREIGN POLICY In the mid-19th century, England was involved in the two Opium Wars (1839-42; 1856-60) against China, which was trying to suppress the opium trade. England gained access to five Chinese ports and control of Hong Kong. The most lucrative colony of the British Empire was India. In 1857 the Indian Mutiny (rebellion), against British rule began, after which the Indian administration was given fewer responsibilities. Britain also supported some liberal causes like Italian independence from the Austrians. When Russia became too powerful against the weak Turkish Empire, the Crimean War (1853-56) was fought. It was the first conflict reported in newspapers by journalists "on the ground". THE LIBERAL AND THE CONSERVATIVE PARTIES When Prince Albert tragically died from typhoid in 1861, Queen Victoria withdrew from society and spent the next ten years in mourning. She still remained an important figure even though the political panorama was changing with the regrouping of the parties. The Liberal Party included the former Whigs, some Radicals and a large minority of businessmen; the party was led by William Gladstone (1809-98). The Conservative Party, which had evolved from the Tories in the 1830s, reaffirmed its position under the leadership of Benjamin Disraeli(1804-81). BENJAMIN DISRAELI Disraeli government (1868; 1874-80): passed an Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act (1875), which allowed local public authorities to clear the slums and provided housing for the poor; a Public Health Act (1875), which provided sanitation as well as running water; a Factory Act (1878), which limited the working hours per week. In 1875 Disraeli encouraged the purchase of more shares in the Suez Canal Company to protect Britain's route to the East. WILLIAM GLADSTONE Gladstone was Prime Minister four times, starting in 1868. At that time, reforming legislation focused on education. Elementary schools had long been organised by the Church; the 1870 Education Act started a national system by introducing "board schools"; mainly in the poorer areas of the towns. By 1880 elementary education had become compulsory. Other reforms included the legalisation of trade unions in 1871, with the Trade Union Act, and the introduction of the secret ballot at elections in 1872, with the Ballot Act. The Third Reform Act of 1884 extended voting to all male householders, including miners, mill- workers and farm labourers. The Irish Parliamentary Party, led by Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-91), demanded self-government for Ireland the so called "Home Rule". Gladstone believed that Home Rule was the way to bring peace to Ireland and tried to get Parliament to pass a bill three times; but an Irish government was granted only after World War I. THE ANGLO-BOER WARS In South Africa, by the 1870s, the British controlled two colonies, Cape Colony and Natal, while the Dutch settlers, the Boers, had the two republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. When Britain took over Transvaal in 1877, the Boers rebelled and war broke out. The Boer Wars (1880-1902) ended in 1902 with a British victory. EMPRESS OF INDIA In 1877 Queen Victoria was given a new title, Empress of India. In the last decades of the 19th century, the British Empire occupied an area of 4 million square miles and more than 400 million people were ruled over by the British. The Empire was becoming more difficult to control. There was a growing sense of the "white man's burden", a difficult combination of the duty to spread Christian civilisation, encouraging toleration and open communication and at the same time promoting commercial interests. India was economically important as a market for British goods and strategically necessary to British control of Asia from the Persian Gulf to Shanghai. By 1850 the East India Company directly ruled most of northern, central and south-eastern India. THE END OF AN ERA The Victorian Age came to an end with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. For almost a century she had embodied decorum, stability and continuity. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees for 50 and 60 years on the throne had been celebrated with huge public parades, and for her funeral London streets were packed with mourners. She was buried beside her beloved husband in the Frogmore mausoleum at Windsor Castle. Victorian compromise A COMPLEX AGE The Victorian Age was marked by complexity: it was a time of unprecedented change but also of great contradictions, often referred to as the "Victorian compromise". It was an age in which progress, reforms and political stability coexisted with poverty and injustice. Listening to sermons was a popular pastime, yet vices were openly indulged. Modernity was praised but there was a revival of Gothic and Classicism in art. Religion played an important role in people's lives; Evangelicalism, in particular, encouraged public and political action and created a lot of charities. Philanthropy led to the creation of societies which addressed every kind of poverty. The Victorians believed in God but also in progress and science. Freedom was linked with religion as regarded freedom of conscience, with optimism over economic and political progress, and with national identity. RESPECTABILITY Increasing emphasis was placed on education, and hygiene was encouraged to improve health care. Self-restraint, good manners and self-help came to be linked with respectability, a concept shared both by the middle and working classes. There was general agreement on the virtues of asserting a social status, keeping up appearances and looking after a family. These things were respectable. However, respectability was a mixture of morality and hypocrisy, since the unpleasant aspects of society - dissolution, poverty, social unrest - were hidden under outward respectability. There was growing emphasis on the duty of men to respect and protect women, seen at the same time as physically weaker but morally superior, divine guides and inspirers of men. Women controlled the family budget and brought up the children. General attitudes to sex were a crucial aspect of respectability, with an intense concern for female chastity, and single women with a child were marginalised as 'fallen women. Sexuality was generally repressed in both its public and private forms, and moralising 'prudery' in its most extreme manifestations gradually led to the denunciation of nudity in art, the veiling of sculptured genitals and the rejection of words with a sexual connotation from everyday vocabulary.