By the late 1840s an acceptance of the cities, even of their further growth, and a faith in social progress were becoming more general. Arnold accepted the cities as a necessary stage in human progress even though he preferred to contemplate the higher things to follow. Alton Locke, inspired by the last Chartist agitation, rejected Arcadian nostalgia but condemned the irresponsibility of the wealthy and the effects of economic competition in the cities and demanded remedial action. Ruskin, nourishing social ideals derived from his vision of the mediaeval craftsman, moved gradually towards a total rejection of the modern cities where he saw only physical and moral ugliness being produced by the forces of economic competition and capitalist industrialism. Cowen boasted of the industrial city’s economic and political achievements, and Chamberlain aspired to a civic dignity and grandeur for Birmingham that would rival the great cities of the past.