The City Mouse and The Country Mouse

Charles Dickens was interested in writing about urban issues, particularly London city life. On the other extreme we have Cobbett who was fascinated with issues in the countryside and wrote the book Rural Ride, a determined man in his sixties galloping about the place and giving an account of what he saw.

We constantly find ourselve s referring back to the French Revoution on this course, and learning that the Revolution is a key impact on the world. Brian Thornton explained today that the French Revolution is key to what England has become today. You could argue that there are two versions of the French Revolution, one political (France) and one industrial (England).

Interestingly our precious sunny England had some advantageous ideas and successfully managed to keep troupes distant from the first part of the Napoleonic Wars following the fall of the French Revolution. Leaving Europe to it they built an empire (India, Singapore, South Africa which is actually my birth country, Sri Lanka etc). The Napoleonic Wars were so expensive that the French came up with the system of Income Tax in 1799. So those who pay income tax, that is an original reason why: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/reader_guides/article4067154.ece

There was a season called the Transatlantic Triangle Trade. In the 16th Century there were 1 million slaves sent from Africa to America, in the 17th Century, 5 million, and in the 18th Century there were 7 million so you can see how the numbers grew before the Abolition of Slavery Act in 1833: http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/economic/antislav.htm. Ships would literally throw slaves overboard and let them drown so as not to be caught with slaves on board.

Manchester became renowned for 'becoming great', you could say that it was the centre point of the industrial revolution in England. Population grew from 17,000 to 180,000 from 1760 to 1830. Marx and Engels write about this a lot.

In terms of growth in industry, small simple inventions like gaslight enabled factories to have people, mainly women and children, work around the clock.

At the end of the war there were Corn Laws put into place, a tariff on grains making bread very expensive. The poor lived on bread as the greatest component to their diet so they greatly suffered with incredible poverty, starvation and disease such as Cholera because of no money to afford good rent so living in places with very bad sanitation. The idea was to protect farms and agriculture, but the most vulnerable were hurt most. Later these tariffs were repealed (1846) but the pay given to the poor was also reduced because, 'oh yes with cheaper bread they can live for less so they are being paid too much, and we cant have that can we?'.

There are stories of exportation and martyrs in Tolpuddle, Dorset and the Peterloo, Manchester massacre. Parliament was run but the elitist and only 2% of people had the vote. Ironically the big cities of Manchester and Leeds had no votes whilst the Village of Old Sarum had 11 votes and 2 MP's. Luckily there was the Reform Act in 1832: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_Act_1832.

Cobbett noted that the countryside was empty of people and life, empty were there could be development, opportunity and activity. Landowners used to give small portions of their land as common land and England used to be a patchwork quilt of cute little happy farms. These were closed down and made into big running fields.

Poor houses were horrible places, the poor were made to feel like prisoners, husbands and wives, parents and children were separated and everyone was only fed enough to be kept alive, but slowly getting weaker and dying. This is were Dickens story of Oliver Twist is very topical 'Please Sir, may I have some more?'.

Cobbett was an anti radical who then became one, he saw that rapid industrialisation would change natural country life. He was a passionate man who rode all day believing that getting soaked would cure his whooping cough. He is an example of a journalist, he talked of the lost cause of farm workers who were stick thin walking skeletons.

Dickens saw London's population double in 50 years. He expressed his view and what he saw as wrong, through his novels, essentially the Eastenders of that day. In conclusion, Cobbett's writing is colourful and engaging whilst Dickens works on your emotions.

Why is history so sad?