I have no doubt wrongly estimated and anticipated events of the present and future, and gladly acknowledge the personal and tentative character of each particular assertion. I should like, however, to think myself free from the charge of disguising polemic as observation. I should like, in a word, to think that no one would be able to ascertain, merely from the following pages, whether their author was advocate of Free Trade or Protection, Socialist or Individualist, Pagan or Christian. Portions of some of these chapters have already appeared--in substance--in the pages of _The Nation_, and I am indebted to the proprietors of that journal for permission to reproduce them. The book has been completed under circumstances of haste and pressure, for which I must ask indulgence. I would have delayed its publication until further leisure was possible, did I see any opportunity of that leisure being attained. But any one who has chosen to embark upon the storm and tumult of public affairs, must henceforth reconcile himself to the limitation of other interests to odd corners of time and short holidays avariciously husbanded. If I had delayed a study of modern England to a less hurried and more tranquil future, I might have found that it would be a very different England which I should then be compelled to examine. C. F. G. MASTERMAN _Easter, 1909_ CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE 1 II. THE CONQUERORS 19 III. THE SUBURBANS 68 IV. THE MULTITUDE 96 V. PRISONERS 157 VI. THE COUNTRYSIDE 190 VII. SCIENCE AND PROGRESS 209 VIII. LITERATURE AND PROGRESS 230 IX. RELIGION AND PROGRESS 261 X. THE ILLUSION OF SECURITY 277 XI. POSTSCRIPT 304 INDEX 307 THE CONDITION OF ENGLAND CHAPTER I THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE