Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/343

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CHAPTER XXIV

Circa 1802—1820

DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

"New times demand new measures and new men:
 The world advances and in time outgrows
 The laws that in our fathers' days were best."
Lowell.

STARTLING as were the inventions of the last period, numerous as were the innovations, they pale before the breathless progress of the age upon which we are entering. Yet in its early days there was nothing to distinguish it from the eighteenth century, and but slight indication of the vastness and rapidity of the coming changes. The Hanoverian Kings were to wear out their inconsequent lives before the greatness of our country developed to its present capacity. Hence we have to deal with a condition of society, progressing truly, but not with the

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