The Year That Shaped the Victorian Age: Lives, Loves and Letters of 1845

485 Pages·4.018 MB·English

by  Michael Wheeler

THE YEAR THAT SHAPED THE
VICTORIAN AGE
Whatwasspecialabout1845andwhydoesitdeserveparticularscru-
tiny?Inhismuch-anticipatednewbook,oneoftheleadingauthorities
ontheVictorian ageargues thatthis wasthecriticalyear in adecade
that witnessed revolution on continental Europe, the threat of mass
insurrection at home and radical developments in railway transport,
communications, religion, literature and the arts. The effects of the
new poor law now became visible in the workhouses; a potato blight
started in Ireland, heralding the Great Famine; and the Church of
England was rocked to its foundations by John Henry Newman’s
conversion to Roman Catholicism. What Victorian England became
wasmoulded,saysMichaelWheeler,inthecrucibleof1845.Exploring
pivotalcorrespondence,togetherwithpamphlets,articlesandcartoons,
theauthortellstherivetingstoryofaseismicepochthroughthelives,
lovesandlettersofleadingcontemporaneousfigures.
Michael Wheeler is a leading cultural historian of the Victorian age.
HisbookswithCambridgeUniversityPressincludetheprize-winning
Heaven, Hell and the Victorians (1994), Ruskin’s God (1999), The Old
Enemies(2006)andStJohnandtheVictorians(2011).Hismostrecent
work is The Athenæum (2020). He has lectured in eighteen countries
outsidetheUnitedKingdom.
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T H E Y E A R T H A T
S H A P E D T H E
V I C T O R I A N A G E
LIVES, LOVES AND LETTERS
OF 1845
MICHAEL WHEELER
Visiting Professor
University of Southampton
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781009268851
doi:10.1017/9781009268868
©MichaelWheeler2023
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ofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,noreproductionofanypartmaytake
placewithoutthewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress&Assessment.
Firstpublished2023
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names:Wheeler,Michael,1947–author.
title:TheyearthatshapedtheVictorianage:lives,lovesandlettersof1845/
MichaelWheeler.
description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:Cambridge
UniversityPress,2023.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
identifiers:lccn2022024820(print)|lccn2022024821(ebook)|
isbn9781009268851(hardback)|isbn9781009268837(paperback)|
isbn9781009268868(epub)
subjects:lcsh:Englishletters–19thcentury–Historyandcriticism.|Open
letters–England–History–19thcentury.|Writtencommunication–England–
History–19thcentury.|England–Intellectuallife–19thcentury.|Great
Britain–History–19thcentury.
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008–dc23/eng/20220627
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To Chris and Greg
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Thatprodigiousyearofexcitementanddisaster…
—JohnForster,LifeofCharlesDickens
Iamgladtofindthatseveralpensareinmotion.
—GladstonetoManning,18January1845
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations page ix
Preface xi
Textual Note xvii
Abbreviations xviii
Introduction 1
Part I Public Scandals 19
1 Opening Mazzini’s Mail: Sir James Graham
and the Post Office 21
2 The Railway Juggernaut: Delane, Dickens
and the Press 49
3 Poor Law Bastille: The Andover
Workhouse Scandal 80
Part II Private Lives 111
4 Love by Post: Elizabeth Barrett and
Robert Browning 113
5 Letters from the Continent: Ruskin in Italy 149
6 Letters of the Living and the Dead: Thomas
and Jane Welsh Carlyle 178
vii
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Contents
Part III Oxford Movements 211
7 Established Church in Crisis: William George
Ward and the Oxford Movement 213
8 A Dangerous Correspondence: Newman on
the Road to Rome 244
Part IV Irish Questions 279
9 Educating Papist Priests: Gladstone and the
Maynooth Grant 281
10 The Condition of Ireland: Daniel O’Connell
and Thomas Campbell Foster 312
11 A Prime Minister Resigns: Peel and the
Corn Laws 347
Afterword 374
Notes 378
Bibliography 428
Index 451
viii
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ILLUSTRATIONS
1 [William Newman], ‘The Post-Office Panic’,
Punch, 9 (July–December 1845), 159 page 17
2 [John Leech], ‘Paul Pry at the Post Office’,
Punch, 7 (July–December 1844), 7 28
3 [John Leech], ‘The Railway Juggernaut of
1845’, Punch, 9 (July–September 1845), 47 53
4 [John Leech], ‘The Poor Man’s Friend’,
Punch, 8 (January–June 1845), p. 93 85
5 The Andover Union, 1836 88
6 [John Leech], ‘The Greedy Boy Who Cried
for the Moon’, Punch, 8 (January–June
1845), 229 313
7 [John Leech], ‘The Premier’s Fix’, Punch,
8 (January–June 1845), 175 353
ix
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