‘Gold and the Gospel’: Systematic Beneficence in Mid-nineteenth-century England

Abstract

In 1864, Lord Shaftesbury spoke out against the complacency of those who congratulated themselves on the liberality of the nation. He looked back to the Irish famine, the Indian famine, the Crimean War. ‘The newspapers were loud in bepraising the munificence of the country in all those cases; but I confess I never saw any munificence.’ The first half of the nineteenth century had seen the formation of a multitude of philanthropic enterprises, Bible and Tract societies, missionary societies, which were both symptoms of and conducive to a revived state of religion. Yet, given Britain’s increasing prosperity, itself a focus for Protestant pride, the spirit of benevolence, if it had increased absolutely, seemed relatively to have declined. Too often, income increased, but donations remained the same. Moreover, as the Baptist William Brock put it: The age is remarkable for its institutions. We have societies for everything … They are the grateful indications of the age’s benevolence. My fear is lest of the age’s selfishness they should now become the excuse.