This new book being, like its predecessor, not a history, but a series of different views from a common standpoint, the sketches of national life and character as well as of national institutions at work, have in all cases been made from personal observation; supplemented by the assistance of the highest experts in their different departments to whom the writer had access. Often, he is glad to say, the same private friends who helped him in the seventies have been able to renew that help in the nineties. Thus, Sir Charles Dilke, Sir Robert Herbert, Mr Mundella, Mr Archibald Milman of the House of Commons, and Mr Albert Pell have generally and specifically repeated the assistance lent to him twenty years earlier. In most cases it is hoped the assistance given has been acknowledged in its proper place. In many cases the advantages of this service extend beyond any particular passage. In all which relates to the new schemes of local government the writer is particularly indebted to Mr Henry Chaplin or members of his staff; to Sir Henry Fowler; to Sir Charles Dilke; to the Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., of Holdenby, as in ecclesiastical matters to the Rev. A. L. Foulkes of Steventon, and to the Rev. H. W. Tucker, D.D., of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In references to certain phases of social history, especially about the early railway period, he has learned much from Lord Carlingford, Mr Markham Spofforth, Mr J. C. Parkinson, and from Sir W. H. Russell. And finally he would specially thank several gentlemen of the Education Department, as well as the Vice-President himself, Sir John Gorst. It is hoped that, as in the case of the writer's _England_, so in that of his new book, the collaboration of those who are, in their different provinces, experts, has ensured a more uniform accuracy than in a volume dealing with such a variety of subjects would otherwise have been attainable. T. H. S. E. _CONTENTS_ PAGE CHAPTER I TWO EPOCHS OF VICTORIAN SOCIETY CONTRASTED, 1 CHAPTER II THE NEW WEALTH, 13 CHAPTER III TRANSFORMATION BY STEAM, 27 CHAPTER IV THE ARISTOCRACY OF WEALTH AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS, 39 CHAPTER V THE RICH MEN FROM THE EAST, 53 CHAPTER VI SOCIAL CITIZENSHIP AS A MORAL GROWTH OF VICTORIAN ENGLAND, 67 CHAPTER VII THE NEW ERA IN ENGLISH PARISHES, 77 CHAPTER VIII THE NEW ERA IN ENGLISH COUNTIES, 92 CHAPTER IX COUNTY COUNCILS AND CLASS FUSION, 103 CHAPTER X THE SOCIAL FUSING AND ORGANIZING OF THE TWO NATIONS OF 'SIBYL,' 115 CHAPTER XI