546 Ch. 14 • The Industrial Revolutionarmy units, and could be called upon to quell local disturbances and pro
tect property.
By about 1830, some Western European liberals became aware of some
of the social consequences of laissez-faire economic policies. They did not
object to the wealthy becoming even wealthier, but worried that the poor
were becoming too poor. Some of Jeremy Bentham’s followers, among oth
ers, began to espouse government-sponsored social reform. Liberals cru
saded against slavery, portraying the institution as incompatible with
morality and British freedom. Such campaigns also reflected evangelical
Christianity.
Differing views circulated on education for the poor. The British writer
Hannah More (1745-1833) believed that poor children should learn how to
read so that they could study the Bible, but not to write, because such a skill
might make them reject their social subordination. Thomas Malthus (1766
1834), the English clergyman who predicted that the rise of population
would rapidly outdistance the ability of farmers to provide enough food,
believed that education would make ordinary people “bear with patience the
evils that they suffer,” while realizing the “folly and inefficacy of turbu
lence.” Middle-class liberal reformers, however, shared far more optimistic
views of education. The National Society campaigned for universal educa
tion in Britain. Henry Lord Brougham (1778-1868) believed that progress
would be served if working men were educated. In 1826, he founded the
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, which made available to
ordinary people cheap pamphlets and other publications of “improvement
literature.” Brougham and his followers founded a number of schools called
Mechanics Institutes, most of them short-lived, which hammered home the
entrepreneurial ideal to artisans and skilled workers. But educational reform
in Britain proceeded slowly, at least partially because the state provided little
direction.
Many poor children in Britain attended Sunday schools, charity schools,
or “dame” schools (essentially day-care centers that charged a fee). The
state did no more than provide inspectors for schools built by towns or
parishes that could afford to do so or that had received random government
grants. On the continent, compulsory primary education existed only in
Switzerland, beginning in the 1830s.
The English philosopher John Stuart Mill became a forceful proponent of
greater government intervention on behalf of social reform. He was appalled
that relatively few people of means seemed concerned about the awful con
ditions of working-class life. In his Principles of Political Economy (1848),
Mill rejected Adam Smith’s cheery optimism about the “invisible hand,” and
called on the state to assist workers by encouraging their cooperative associ
ations. Mill’s On Liberty (1859) argued that the individual is the best judge
of his or her own interests, but he encouraged a retreat from pure economic
liberalism even in his spirited defense of individual freedom. Moreover, John
Stuart Mill’s espousal of causes such as women’s rights and his participation