ABSTRACT
'We Englishmen pass on the Continent as masters of the art of government; yet it may be doubted whether, even among us, the science which corresponds to the art, is not very much in the condition of Political Economy before Adam Smith took it in hand.' So claimed Henry Maine in his book on Popular Government (1885). Certainly, neither by art nor by science had government yet devised means of overcoming the problem of widespread and persistent poverty in the midst of national plenty. By the 1880s many of the poor were indeed visibly improving their standards of living; but many others still were not. An additional dangerous problem was therefore arising — poverty in the midst of improvement. Yet even those who were making overall economic gains were not necessarily content; for cyclical trade depression still brought periods of high unemployment. 'Periods of flash prosperity, speedily followed by depression, which pinches and starves even the best artisan class.' 1
