MR. PUNCH'S HISTORY OF MODERN ENGLAND VOL. IV. OF IV. Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with underscores: _italics_. [Illustration: AFTER TEN YEARS Reproduced from the original cartoon.] Mr. Punch's History of Modern England By CHARLES L. GRAVES IN FOUR VOLUMES VOL. IV.--1892-1914 CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 1922 _Published by arrangement with the Proprietors of "Punch"_ CONTENTS PART I THE PASSING OF THE OLD ORDER HIGH POLITICS CAPITAL AND LABOUR EDUCATION AND THE CHURCHES THE ADVANCE OF WOMEN INVENTIONS, DISCOVERIES, NOVELTIES CHANGING LONDON PART II SOCIAL LIFE IN TRANSITION CROWN AND COURT VANITY FAIR FASHION IN DRESS LETTERS AND JOURNALISM FINE ARTS, DRAMA AND MUSIC SPORT AND PASTIME INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES PART I THE PASSING OF THE OLD ORDER HIGH POLITICS Transition and growth, change and decay and reconstruction marked the half-century covered in the previous three volumes. In the twenty-two years that divide the return of the Liberals in 1892 from the "Grand Smash" (as Mr. Page has called it) of 1914, these features are intensified to an extent that renders the task of attempting even a superficial survey perilous and intractable to one who is neither a philosopher nor a trained historian. The wisest and sanest of those who have lived through these wonderful times are too near their heights and depths to view them in true perspective. Whatever merit attaches to this chronicle is due to its reliance on contemporary opinion as expressed in the pages of an organ of independent middle-class views. It is within these limits a history of Victorians and post-Victorians written by themselves.