CHAPTER XXXI.
Architects and civil engineers — Men of science — Scientific societies — Medical men — Lawyers — "Tracts for the Times" — Curates' pay — Flogging in the army and navy — Crime — Transportation versus hulks — Stories of convicts.
This was a reign in which both architecture and civil engineering were nascent, and yet there were some famous men in both professions. Among the former were Sir Chas. Barry, R.A., J. P. Deering, R.A., P. Hardwick, R.A., Sir Robert Smirke and Sydney Smirke, both R.A.'s, Sir John Soane, and Sir William Tite. Whilst among civil engineers we may note G. P. Bidder, once the famous calculating boy, both the Brunels, Sir W. Fairbairn, Sir John Rennie, and both the Stephensons; and, as a mechanical engineer, Joseph Whitworth was preparing the mathematical exactness of the tools which enabled England to hold her own, and more, against the whole world in the manufacture of machinery.
Of the men of science there is a fine list. Sir David Brewster, C. R. Darwin, M. Faraday, Sir John F. W. Herschel, and his wonderful aunt Caroline, Sir W. J. Hooker, to whom botany owes so much, as does geology to Sir Charles Lyell, and Sir J. Murchison, Mrs. Somerville, whose scientific attainments were marvellous, and W. H. Fox Talbot, by whom photography was much developed, though still in its infancy. In chemistry, we have Ure, Brande and Herapath.
The scientific societies inaugurated in this reign are as follows: in 1831, Royal Dublin Society, Harveian Society, British Association; in 1832, British Medical Association; 1833, Entomological Society; 1834, Statistical Society; 1837, Ornithological Society. In mechanical science both the gas engine and Ericson's caloric engine were known, the air-gun and limelight were novelties, and the hydro-oxygen microscope was a source of wonder to thousands.
A fine list, too, is to be found of medical men. Richard Bright, Sir B. Brodie, Sir R. Christison, Sir C. M. Clarke, Sir William Fergusson, Sir W. Laurence and Sir Charles Locock. Homeopathy was only just beginning to be talked about at the end of the reign.
There were some fine lawyers, Lord Abinger, Baron Alderson, Lord Brougham, Isaac Butt, Thomas Chitty, Sir A. J. E. Cockburn, Sir J. T. Coleridge, Lord Denman, Sir Fitzroy Kelly, Lord Lyndhurst, and Sir Frederick Thesiger, afterwards Lord Chelmsford.
Among the higher dignitaries of the Church of England in this reign were very few men of note,—all good men, doubtless; but, since the Wesleyan revival, the Church had been getting a wee bit sleepy, and wanted waking up. And it was woke up with a vengeance, when a conference of some Anglican clergymen and others was held at Hadleigh, July 25-29, 1833, and Oriel College may be said to be its birthplace, for at that College were Keble, Pusey, Newman, and Froude. From the tracts which were issued, exemplifying the views of these writers, the movement obtained the name of Tractarian. The first tract proper appeared September 9, 1833, and by November, 1835, seventy had appeared; and at first they were almost universally welcomed, for they carefully respected the Prayer-book, and defended the rights of the clergy. But the Evangelical party became alarmed at this growing popular movement, and, in the early part of Queen Victoria's reign, the strife waxed fast and furious, which only infused wakefulness and life into a somewhat dormant church, and has ended, as far as our time go, in the establishment of a so-called "High Church" form of worship, which would have utterly astonished the originators of the movement. True, some few good men left the Church of England, and joined that of Rome, but their secession only served as warnings to others, and the Church of England is now firmer established than ever it was.
A Clergy Act had been passed, enjoining that a curate's pay should in no case be less than £80 per annum; and that such salary should not be less than £100 per annum in any parish or place where the population, according to the last parliamentary returns, should amount to three hundred persons; where the population should amount to five hundred, the salary was not to be less than £120, and £150 if the population amounts to a thousand. This Act was much needed, as the following figures show. Six curates received under £20; 59 under £30; 173 under £40; 441 under £50; 892 under £60; 300 under £70; 415 under £80; 458 under £90; 156 under £100; 500 under £110; 69 under £120; 207 under £130; 52 under £140; 32 under £150; 162 under £160; 26 under £170; 15 under £180; 5 under £190; 3 under £200; 17 under £210; 2 under £220; 2 under £240; 3 under £250; 4 under £260; 1 under £290; 2 under £310; 1 under £320, and 1 under £340. There were forty-three who received the full income of the benefices they served. Two received one half of the income, and one was paid two guineas each Sunday.
The army and navy had very few opportunities of distinguishing themselves; they had a well-earned rest after 1815, but they were slow in doing away with the old bad practices in force in both services. For instance, flogging is still in force for some offences in the navy, by the regulations issued on December 18, 1871. Abolition of flogging in the army, at all events in time of peace, was advocated in Parliament in 1836, but came to nought; this was, however, done in April, 1868, and altogether abolished in April, 1881.