Striving for a world transformed by justice and peace - a TL from 1827

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The book News From Nowhere or An Epoch of Rest: Being Some Chapters From a Utopian Romance by William Morris, was published by Longman and Green in October 1890. (1) Because Morris was Secretary of State for India in the cabinet, the book attracted much publicity, and was extensively reviewed in newspapers and magazines. Here is the interview he gave to The Times about the book.

' Is the England described in your book, a description of what you would like to happen?' The interviewer asked him.

'The book is a story, a utopian romance, it will never happen. But I believe passionately in the ideals represented - those of community, equality and mutuality. It is an imaginary picture of a future England as a socialist co-operative commonwealth. That is my party's vision for Great Britain. To be achieved peacefully and democratically.' Morris said.

(1) Here is the Wikipedia article about the book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_from_Nowhere.

 

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'Do you want to abolish private property?' David Wilson, The Times journalist asked Morris. (1)

I do not. But I would like all businesses and companies to become co-operatives. Morris said.

'Do you believe in state socialism?'

'There is a place for state socialism, but I much prefer community and local socialism. That is what I really believe in.'

'Do you want to see the overthrow of capitalism?'

'I want to see the peaceful transformation of exploitative and dehumanising capitalism into a socialist commonwealth. We have allowed machines to be our masters. They must be our servants.'

Does News From Nowhere represent your beliefs in the ideal future of our cities?'

'It does. In so far as it shows London as still a great city, but with poverty and pollution no more. I want to see the Thames and our other rivers cleaned up, and no longer filthy with all kinds of pollution.'

'I enjoyed reading about William Guest's (the protaganist) romance with Ellen. Did you set out to write a love story?' Wilson asked.

'I did not want to write a didatic novel. Their romance is an important strand in the story,' Morris explained.

'Are the people in the book based on people you know?'

'They are composites of many people I know.'

'Thank you Mr. Morris. Your answers have been enlightening and informative'

'Thank you Mr. Wilson for giving me this opportunity to talk about the book, and my political bellefs. I would just like to quote the last words Guest imagines Ellen's last mournful look seemed to say to him. "Go on living while you may, striving, with whatever pain and labour needs must be, to build up little by little the new day of fellowship, and rest, and happiness,"'

(1) Wilson is a fictional person.

 

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William Morris married Kate Roper on 5 May 1866. (1) She was six years younger than him, having been born on 4 August 1840. He was born on 24 March 1834. They had nine children - five sons and four daughters. As at 1 November 1890, their ages were sons, 23, 22, 12, 9 and 7; daughters aged 20, 18, 15, and 4. They lived in a four storey terrace house in Kentish Town, in north London with their children, except their two eldest sons who had left home by November 1890.

William was head of the Commonwealth Party publicity department from 1870 to 1878. He was Commonwealth MP for St. Pancras North from June 1874 onwards. He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Office of Works from June 1878 to June 1880, First Commissioner of Works from June 1880 to April 1886, and Secretary of State for India from April 1890.

Kate and William were both Catholics. She was a cradle Catholic. He was a convert to the Church. They greatly admired the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the two men corresponded with each other. William and Kate were friends with the poets Francis Thompson and Alice Meynell, and her husband Wilfrid Meynell, and others in Catholic literary circles. Thompson sometimes stayed with the Morris's in their house in Kentish Town. William was a regular contributor to the liberal Catholic monthly Merry England . He inspired many of the ideas in the journal. Not only Catholics wrote for it.

William wrote several books of poetry and prose. He translated the Aeneid and the Odyssey , and the Icelandic sagas into English. He stopped working as an architect and textile, including wallpaper, designer, in the early 1870s because of his political work.

(1) She is a fictional character.

 

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The policies of William Morris in respect of India, as announced in the Queen's Speech in November 1890 were as follows:
Locally elected councils would be established at all levels from province to village. These would be elected by one person one vote. A massive expansion of education, particularly at elementary level. to give all children a basic education in reading, writing and arithmetic.

In May 1890, Morris appointed the Earl of Ripon as Governor-General of India. Although he was a Liberal. he supported Morris's Indian policies.

 

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In September 1890 the Foreign Secretary, Donald Mackenzie, wrote to foreign ministers of other European nations, and to the United Secretary of State. He proposed that they meet for a conference in The Hague to draw up laws on the rules of law, and to establish a Court of Arbitration to settle disputes between nations. The foreign ministers and the Secretary of State agreed to the proposed meeting.

The conference met in The Hague in March 1891. Present at the conference were Mackenzie, the foreign ministers of all European nations, including the Ottoman Empire, and the US Secretary of State, and a cardinal representing the Vatican City. They agreed to laws on the conduct of warfare in relation to the treatment of prisoners of war, non-combatants, wounded soldiers and the treatment of enemy ships during war; and the rights of neutral countries. They also agreed to set up a Court of Arbitration to settle disputes between nations. However the foreign ministers of Prussia and Russia said that their countries would refuse to judgements of the Court which were against their national interests.

 

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Helen Price, whom Angharad Griffiths loved as her wife, died from pneumonia on Tuesday 27 January 1891. She was 68 years old, having been born on 6 April 1822.

The Congregational Church in Swansea where Angharad and Helen worshipped was packed for Helen's funeral on Saturday 31 January 1891. The following people were there: Tom Price and his wife Nia and their seven daughters and five sons; Rhiannon and John Davies and their children: Aneurin and Maire Griffiths and their children; Maire's siblings and in respect of those who were married, their spouses and children, if they had any, except for Maire's brother, Padraig O'Brien, who was a priest in Liverpool; Megan Griffiths and her wife, Esther Jenkins. Also Aneurin and Maire's eldest son and his boyfriend, Rory Keneally, and other friends of Helen and Angharad. Carwen Griffiths, Angharad's youngest son, was not there. Because he was autistic, he would find the crowded chapel overwhelming.

The service was all in Welsh. In her eulogy for Helen, Angharad said she was "my beloved wife."

Helen left £35 3 shillings and four pence in her will. She left half to Angharad and the remaining half divided among Tom. Nia and their children.

 

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In the book Victorian London: The Life of a City 1840 - 1870 by Liza Picard, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005, there is a table which shows how much could be bought in 2004 with one pound in each year from 1840 to 1870. In 1870 it was £45.06. Taking account inflation from 1870 to 1891 in this tl, and from 2004 to 2022 in otl, I'm assuming that one pound in 1891 was the equivalent in purchasing power of fifty pounds in 2022.

So the 35 pounds, three shillings and four pence which Helen left in her will, would be roughly £1,758 now. Helen saved up that money after decades of work at the Dafen tinplate works near Llanelli, and at the Hafod Copperworks in Swansea. She left the equivalent of roughly £879 to Angharad, and of around £439.50 jointly to Tom and Nia, and about £40.65 in estimated today's values to each of their eleven children. They money left to those of their children who were under sixteen years old, was put into savings account with the Principality Building Society. When they reached the age of sixteen, they could keep it in their account, or withdraw all or part of it. The interest would be added to the capital.

Angharad moved out of the rented three bedroom terrace house in which she lived with Helen in Swansea, and into a rented two bedroom terrace house in Swansea.

 

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In February 1891 the Commonwealth government published the Coal Industry Public Ownership Bill. This provided for the transfer of the industry in Britain into public ownership, with compensation at a fair price for the coal mine owners. The bill did not apply to Ireland because there were no coal mines there. One third of the industry would be owned by the workers, one third by the government and one third by the public as users of coal. The would be a British Coal Board. One third of its members would be appointed by the government, one third elected representatives of the workers, and one third elected representatives of consumer groups. Each coal mine could choose to be a co-operative owned by the workers, including the pitbrow women where they were part of the workforce, and the managers. These women removed dirt from the coal tipped from the pit wagons. They also loaded railway trucks with coal. They worked in the coalfields in the Black Country (west of Birmingham), Lancashire and South Wales. A National Coal Bond would be issued to raise money for investment in the industry. These would be for a minimum term of five years and pay interest at five percent a year.

The bill received its second reading in the House of Commons in March 1891. The Conservatives and Liberals voted against it. The Parliamentary Secretary for Mines in the Board of Trade, Edward Purcell, was responsible for the bill. (1). He was Commonwealth MP for the coal mining constituency of Doncaster in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It passed through all its stages in the House of Commons, but was rejected by the House of Lords in May 1891.

[1] He is a fictional person.

 

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After a few months, Alice Nuttall found that living and working on a canal boat was not what she really wanted. On Saturday 28 March 1891, she left her job on the narrow boat, having given a week's notice. She travelled by train from Hemel Hempstead, and went back to live with her sisters Ann and Mary, and brother, John, in their rented terrace house in Notting Hill.

The next day was Easter Day, and the day after that a bank holiday. On Tuesday 31 March, Alice went to the Good To Wear shop in Notting Hill, and asked the manager if they had vacancies for shop workers. The manager, told her that there was a vacancy. Alice told the manager that she had worked for two years and eight months in Trentham's Department Store in Fulham, as a milk girl for three years and nine months, and as a prostitute. The manager gave her the job. They agreed agreed that Alice would start work there at 9 am on the following Monday 6 April 1891.

Alice wanted to be politically active, so she joined the Commonwealth Party and
Women's Commonwealth Fellowship in her local constituency of Kensington North.

 

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Alice Nuttall worked on a till in the Good To Wear shop in Notting Hill. It was what she wanted. She liked using her customer relation and arithmetic skills. The shop was open on Monday to Saturday from 9 am to 6 pm. and she worked five days a week. The shop was a workers' co-operative with a profit sharing scheme for the staff, of which 84% were women, including all the managers. It was medium size and often busy. The clothes sold were fairly low price, but of good quality.

 

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The service of love and commitment of David Griffiths and Rory Keneally took place in Aneurin and Maire Griffiths's house in the Swansea suburb of Uplands on Saturday 4 April 1891. The ceremony was held in their living room and was all in Welsh. David's siblings were there, together with his aunts and uncles, his grandmother Angharad, Rory parents and his younger sister, Oonagh, a friend of David's sister Eithne.

David and Rory stood in front of a table covered in a white cloth, on which were two candles and a bowl of flowers from the garden. The two men solemnly promised, before God, to love and be faithful to each other till death. Then David said, "I love you , Rory." David said, "I love you, Rory.' The two men then kissed, and everyone clapped. Maire said the following prayer:
" The blessing of God the Father be on you David, beloved of my heart, and you, dearest Rory, and your love and desire for each other.
The blessing of God the Son be on you David, beloved of my heart, and on you, dearest Rory, and your love and desire for each other.
The blessing of God the Spirit be on you David, beloved of my heart, and on you dearest Rory, and your love and desire for each other."

David's aunt, Siobhan, sang a Welsh love song, and Nye took photographs of the
service. There were presents for David and Rory, a three-tier cake, which Maire had cooked, and plenty of food and non alcoholic drink. Maire hugged her son and said to him:
"You and Rory are now as if you are married. The sexual expression of your love is now holy and chaste, and a gift from God."

Later that afternoon David and Rory travelled by train from Swansea to the seaside town of Tenby in Pembrokeshire. They stayed in a guest house. They shared a twin bedded room, but got into bed together. They made love for the first time, passionately and tenderly. First Rory penetrated David, then David penetrated Rory. The following morning they went to Mass at Tenby Catholic Church and received Holy Communion. They returned home by train to Swansea in the morning of Tuesday 7 April.

 

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William Smith, the leader of the Conservative Party and leader of the Opposition, died on 6 October. The contenders to succeed him as Conservative Party leader were as follows:
Arthur Balfour (born 25 July 1848), President of the Health and Local Government Board from April 1886 to January 1887, President of the Board of Trade from January 1887 to April 1890, and Conservative MP for Hertford from 1874. His uncle was the Third Marquess of Salisbury, and it was because of his influence that Balfour was adopted as candidate for the safe Tory seat of Hertford in 1874.

Sir Michael Hicks Beach (born 23 October 1837), was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, and Postmaster- General in the Conservative government of 1866 to 1870, and Home Secretary from April 1886 to April 1890. He was Conservative MP Gloucestershire East from 1866 to 1874, and for Cirencester from 1874.

Henry Chaplin (born 22 December 1840), President of the Board of Agriculture from April 1886 to April 1890, and Conservative MP for Stamford from May 1868.

Charles Ritchie, President of the Board of Trade from April 1886 to January 1887, Chancellor of the Exchequer from January 1887 to April 1890, and Conservative MP for Islington North from 1874.

 

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The Conservative Party was divided on the issue of free trade versus tariffs, with the majority of the party in favour of tariffs, or Fair Trade as it was called. Charles Ritchie was a committed Free Trader. He was born in Dundee. His father was head of the firm of William Ritchie. jute spinners and manufacturers. When he left the City of London school, he went into the family business. (1) He was the only leadership contender who had business experience and who represented an urban constituency. He was also a strong advocate of alliance with the Liberal Party, as the only way that the Tory Party could win power. He was the candidate backed by the party establishment.

Hicks Beach was a Free Trader, but not as committed to that cause as Ritchie. He believed in limited co- operations with the Liberal Party. He was also the most politically experienced of the leadership candidates. (2)

Henry Chaplin was a fervent Fair Trader and advocate of tariffs. He was an acknowledged expert on agricultural issues and popular with Tory back benchers. (3) He was strongly opposed to any co-operation with the Liberal Party.

Balfour was generally regarded as the outsider in the leadership race. Though recognised as having been a highly competent and hard working cabinet minister, and a gifted debater, it was thought that he did not have the qualities to be party leader. He was aloof, detached and languid, and no one knew where he stood on the issue of Free Trade versus Fair Trade.

After discussions by Conservative MPs and Peers, and in the great country houses, Ritchie emerged as party leader to the surprise of most political commentators. It was thought that the Tories chose him as their leader because they believed that he was the man who would return them to power. Though the consensus among historians is that Chaplin would have become leader, if Conservative MPs had elected their leader.

Frederick Smith, the son of William Henry Smith, easily won the Westminster Grosvenor by-election for the Conservatives on 27 October 1891.

(1) Here is his entry in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Thomson_Ritchie,_1st_Baron_Ritchie_of_Dundee

(2) Here is his wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hicks_Beach,_1st_Earl_St_Aldwyn.

(3) Here is his entry in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Chaplin,_1st_Viscount_Chaplin.

 

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Eithne Griffiths, Maire's and Nye's seventeen year old eldest daughter, enjoyed working as a trainee midwife. She found it fulfilling and rewarding, though challenging. She always accompanied Mrs Elizabeth Kelly, Maire's friend of many years and an experienced midwife, to women giving birth. There were examinations for middle class women who wanted to enter the profession, but not for working class women. Elizabeth had not taken any examinations, she had learned on the job.

By 1891 there was a network of mother and baby clinics throughout the UK. These gave free advice and help to expectant and nursing mothers. These were the result of legislation passed by a Commonwealth Party government in the 1880s.

 

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Eithne and Elizabeth Kelly had to be ready to go to birthing mothers at night, when the majority of births took place. During 1890, Maire and Nye became connected to the telephone system, so Eithne was contactable by phone, as was Elizabeth. When a woman went into labour, she or a family member, often her husband, if they were on the phone phoned Elizabeth, who phoned Eithne. They met up and walked or got a cab to the house of the birthing mother. But very few working class homes and only a minority of middle class homes had telephones. In those cases when a woman went into labour, a family member or friend or friend rushed round to Elizabeth's house, and she phoned Eithne.

Sometimes there were complications and Elizabeth dealt with them as best she could. But babies still died during or just after birth. In Britain in 1890, maternal deaths were around 4.7 per one thousand live births.

 

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Maire was shopping in Swansea town centre in the morning of Friday 24 April 1891, when she saw her friend Hannah Davis (formerly Brinton, formerly Roberts). The two women said hello, and started talking. Hannah was 49 years old, and Maire was 40. They had known each other since November 1872 when Hannah's eldest daughter, Bronwen, became Maire's and Aneurin's maid of all work.

 

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Hannah married Arthur Brinton in September 1874. They loved each other very much, but he did not enjoy having sexual intercourse with her. In fact he was gay, for which he hated himself, and married Hannah because he thought that would make him 'normal'. However they made love a few times and Hannah became pregnant. She gave birth to a baby boy in June 1875. She and Arthur named him Henry. Though, they did not make love again, they still slept together and kissed and cuddled in bed. He was a loving father to Henry, and stepfather to Hannah's children. They lived together until April 1880, when he was arrested for buggery with a man. He and his lover were sentenced to ten years penal servitude. At the time Hannah told Maire that Arthur felt deeply guilty about cheating on her.

 

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In November 1881 Hannah married Edward Davis, a train driver. She gave birth to a baby girl in September 1882. She and Edward named her Lisa. Four months later Edward died when the train he was driving crashed. The public enquiry on the crash found that he was not at fault. Hannah did not marry again. She earned money by working as a seamstress. In April 1891 she had three sons ranging in age from twenty nine to fifteen, and three daughters with ages ranging from thirty one to eight. Except for Lisa, they had all left school and were working. Her eldest daughter, Bronwen, worked as a maid of all work for Aneurin and Maire until they moved from Swansea to Ferryside in July 1877. Bronwen later married and had children.

When Maire and her family lived in Ferryside and Fishguard, she and Hannah met less often, though they regularly wrote to each other. When Maire and her family moved back to Swansea in November 1886, the.y met more frequently. They became lovers in May 1887.

Hannah and Maire walked together to Maire 's house in the Swansea suburb of Uplands. Hannah carried a bag of Maire's shopping for her. When they reached a quiet street the two women held hands. Aneurin was away in London seeing the publisher, John Lane, about his latest book of poems. Her children, and Nye's children by Sian Owen. were at school or work, except for Nerys and Niamh who were out playing. So Maire 's house was empty.

Hannah helped Maire unpack her shopping, and Maire made them both cups of tea. They sat on a settee in the living room, drinking tea, eating biscuits and talking. When they had finished their snack, they walked holding hands into Maire 's bedroom. They hugged each other closely.

"I love you Hannah, darling" Maire said.

' I love you too, Maire dearest."

The two women took off each other's clothes above the waist and lay down on the bed. They kissed each other long and passionately on the mouth, and caressed and fondled each other's breasts. When Maire became sexually aroused, she gently said to Hannah: "I'm enjoying this very much, but I've got work to do."

" So am I very much, but I've got work to do, and better go home now."

The two women dressed each other, hugged and kissed, and said goodbye, Then Hannah walked home.

Maire did not think of her relationship and love making with Hannah as cheating on Nye, because they did not touch below the waist. They stopped when Maire said, "I'm enjoying this very much", which was her signal that she was sexually aroused and it was time for them to stop making love. Hannah replying "So am I, very much", was her signal that she was also sexually aroused.

 

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Hannah Davis was the first woman to whom Maire was sexually attracted. They both wanted to have a full sexual relationship, but Maire would never have one while she was married to Aneurin. Though she loved him, she was very aware of his failings. He helped very little with childcare, cleaning and cooking. He did some work in their garden and on their allotment, but spent a lot of the time writing his poems. In April 1891, ten of his eleven children by Maire, and his four children by Sian Owen, were still living at home.

Maire had more than thirty years experience of cooking, from the time she helped her mother when she was a child. She sometimes cooked traditional Irish and Welsh dishes, and used fruit and vegetables from their allotment. There was a cooking range with an oven, a stove and a hob in their kitchen. Because they lived in a three storey, six bedroom house, Maire spent a lot of time cleaning. Furniture, fire grates, floors, curtains, windows, cutlery etc all needed cleaning. There were cleaners and polishers but most cleaning was by elbow crease. Nye swept their chimneys by using an 'engine', which was set of jointed long-handled brushes.

Maire washed clothes in a dolly tub, the ancestor of the washing machine. This was a long-handled wooden 'dolly' with four or six short slanting spokes at the end. She put the spokes end in the water and rolled the clothes in the washing water, and rubbed them against the corrugated inner wall of the tub. The wet washing was hung out to dry on the washing line in their garden. When the weather was wet, their washing was put in front of the range in their kitchen to dry.

Maire always wore trousers when she was working, and most other times. She and Nye had not employed any servants since Bronwen left their service in July 1877. From 1881 all domestic servants were entitled to be paid the living wage, which made them more expensive to employ.

 

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When Aneurin Griffiths went to London on 24 April 1891, he got a train from Swansea to Paddington. It stopped at Cardiff, Newport, Bristol, Swindon and Reading. He travelled second class. The journey took five and half to six hours. He got a bus from Paddington Station to the office of John Lane, publisher, in central London. He showed Lane the manuscript of his epic poem The Ballad of King Arthur . This had the characters of Arthurian legend, such as Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and Mordred, also Excalibur and the Round Table. Lane skimmed through the manuscript and told Nye that he would publish it.

After Nye left Lane's office, he walked to the British Museum, where he went in the Ancient Britain galleries. Then he walked along the Thames Embankment, visited the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, and walked through Hyde Park. From there he caught a bus to Kentish Town, as he was having dinner and staying the night with William and Kate Morris in their house. At the Morris's he met, Alice Meynell and Wilfrid Meynell, and Francis Thompson. They talked about poetry, politics and Catholicism. They were all Catholics, Nye having been received into the Catholic Church the previous October. They all believed in a liberal, outward looking Catholicism.