English Science and Culture in the 19-th Century

The 19th century in English history crowned the effects of the Industrial Revolution. Capitalism made substantial progress. There was no mistaking that great material changes had taken place. The sight of new agricultural machinery in the fields and the flaring passage of trains across the countryside were both reminders of the progress of the century, while over the towns a constant pall of smoke bore witness to the growth of industry. The situation in England was conducive to further development of natural sciences and technological inventions. There were many important scientific discoveries made in the 19th century which were precisely what was required by capitalist industry. Engineering could only develop if there was progress in science. The latter began to break down the old conceptions of the world.

A second phase of the Industrial Revolution emerged based on Henry Bessemer's process which made possible the mass production of steel and Michael Faraday's earlier discoveries of electro-magnetic induction. Other important discoveries were made in physics. In 1865 James Maxwell discovered the nature of electromagnetic effects and worked out the theory of the electromagnetic field. He proved the existence of electromagnetic waves which served as a foundation for radio communication. James Jowle introduced his caloric theory and James Thomson laid the foundation for the electronic theory. Of tremendous importance for the further development of science was the discovery of the periodic laws of the chemical elements by the Russian scientist Dmitry Mendeleev.

The revolution in natural science was associated with the name of Charles Darwin (1809 – 82), whose creative genius, industry and love of scientific truth enabled him to create a materialistic theory of evolution. In 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, a long and scientific treatise which made a shocking discovery: that man and all the other species of life had evolved from a common source – that there were similarities in fact between human beings and apes! Darwin noted that Man with all his noble qualities, still bore in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. Darwin's theory had a great significance not only for biological science but also for the spiritual and intellectual life of England. It was an open challenge to the biblical story of creation and the reactionary clergy launched a fierce attack against the author of the new theory. Despite these frenzied attacks Darwinism – the idea of the historical evolution of the organic world – began to be widely accepted by the end of the 19th century.

Political economy reflected the changes which occurred in English society. In this respect most typical were the views of John Stuart Mill (1806 – 73), a bourgeois 'liberal economist who accepting capitalism as a basically ideal system advocated the -necessity of limited redistribution of the wealth created by labour for the benefit of the toilers. Expressing the aspirations of his time Mill in his works On Liberty, Speculation on Representative Management declared freedoms of speech, thinking and the press to be the loftiest values of humankind. However, these privileges were to be enjoyed by the bourgeoisie, for he opposed universal suffrage and the secret ballot. Herbert Spenser (1820 – 1903) was another philosopher and sociologist of renown. He became one of the most eminent adherents of positivism, whose works had a serious influence on philosophical thinking in both England and the USA. Biological law in his view determined the division of capitalist society into exploiters and the exploited. Hence revolution was detrimental whereas evolution was a contributing factor of the same liking as the organic changes which occur in the human body. His biological approach of human society led him to such reactionary assumptions that handicapped nations were doomed to extinction whereas the Anglo-Saxon species was born to dominate the world. Thus social darwinism evolved into outward racism.

As for the development of scientific concepts of nature and society in the 19th century they all experienced directly or indirectly the influence of the ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin. Marxist ideas of nature and society were winning over more and more supporters, despite fierce opposition from bourgeois ideologists. This fully applied to the English social scene.

The English school of painting in the 19th century was best represented by John Constable, J.M.W.Turner; Thomas Lawrence and the Preraphaelites, architecture by Charles Barry, Augustus Pugin, John Nash, William Railton, John Soane, sculpture by John Flaxman, Landseer, Foley, music by Gilbert and Sullivan.

It was a period of romanticism influenced by the industrial and social revolution. The Medieval ages were a source of inspiration. Hence Gothic in combination with the traditions of Tudor England was considered the true national style. This taste was fully expressed in the new buildings of the palace of Westminster, the seat of the British Parliament. On October 16, 1834 several cart loads of notched tally sticks which had been preserved as forms of account in the Exchequer tally room were taken to the House of Lords for burning in its furnace. Overheating resulted; the entire building caught fire, and 24 hours later most of the palace was a smoking and blackened ruin. The new palace, designed by Charles Barry, assisted by Augustus Pugin, was begun in 1840, and finally completed in 1860. The result of this collaboration was a triumph: Barry built in the symmetrical style of late Perpendicular, and Pugin enlivened Barry's structure with innumerable details, many in earlier Gothic traditions. The work of many sculptors, painters, mosaic-workers, tile-makers, wood-carvers, iron-founders, goldsmiths and silversmiths, provided internal decoration of incredible elaboration and, on the whole, of distinguished craftsmanship.

William Railton designed the Nelson memorial in 1841 as a Corinthian column with bronze bas-reliefs at the foot of the column representing Nelson's four great naval victories and the admiral's statue at the top by E. H. Bailey. The four bronze lions at the base by Landseer were added in 1867. The famous Albert Memorial in memory of Queen Victoria's husband was the work of George Scott. It was unveiled in 1872 and it epitomized the 19th century Gothic revival. Under the spired canopy is the statue of the prince by the sculptor J.H.Foley. Another prominent sculptor of the period was John Flaxman. Patriotism was one of the virtues, which he tried to install in monuments such as his Lord Howe and Nelson in St Paul's Cathedral. Flaxman's Howe was one of the first monuments to be erected in St Paul's, to commemorate the heroes of the war against France.

At the beginning of the 19th century John Soane, surveyor of the Bank of Eng­land, began to transform the City of London in the neoclassical style with the arch, dome and different medallions. Much transformation work in London and in its streets was also done by his exact contemporary, John Nash. His name is associated with Regent Street, Oxford.and Piccadilly Circus. He also began a conversion of old Buckingham House into Buckingham Palace. Robert Smirke rebuilt Covent Garden Theatre in Greek Doric and in 1823 he gave the British Museum its interminable rows of giant Ionic pillars. Neoclassical eclecticism led to architectural eccentricity and confusion.

Nineteenth-century art cannot be fully understood or appreciated unless account is taken of certain fundamental artists, J.Constable (1776 – 1837) among them. He devoted himself to landscape painting, almost to the exclusion of all other forms of art, and^! it was in landscape that he sought the values of man. His painting was of an extreme moral rigour, holding firmly to fact, and entirely devoted to the study of truth and nature. When The Hay Wain was exhibited in Paris in 1824 it caused a sensation. Constable was thenceforward to enjoy a continuously high reputation in 19th century France. And yet the. English public took little account of him until long after his death. Ironically, he is,now regarded as in many ways the most 'national' of English artists – certainly the supreme painter of the English scene. Among his best works are The Valley Farm, the Flatford Mill. One of the most prominent landscape painters of the century was J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851). He made a name for himself in the acceptable art of topographical watercolour painting. His early oil-paintings, such as Calais Pier, are in the highest degree dramatic. His vast travels abroad gave him an enormous range of subjects. He produced many characteristic and inimitable works, including the Snowstorm, The Approach to Venice and Rain, Steam and Speed where nature was painted with such passionate intensity and understanding. The prominent critic of his time Ruskin was fascinated by Turner's paintings considering him to be the greatest of all painters in England.