The Roots of Reform
Patrick Dillon identifies the mid-18th century as a watershed in ideas about reforming society.
In 1754 the reformer Jonas Hanway directed his attention towards child poverty in London. He did not just lament the malnourished infants in every doorway; he developed suggestions for how to feed them and give them work. Hanway was not one to pass by on the other side, when ‘boys and girls of eight or ten years of age, to our great scandal, have perished in the streets, like starved cats or dogs’.
In Hanway we can hear the voice of liberal reform. We hear it in his tireless commitment, his conviction that the troubles of the poor are a shared responsibility, that problems can be solved and the world made better. Jonas Hanway believed in progress.
In the next century those attitudes would win victory after victory, slaying the dragons of disease, bad nutrition and worse water. And a reform mythology would be born. Progress was eternal, and would lead ever upward – from child labour to pensions, Health Service and Welfare State. Hanway and his fellows, the prison reformers, anti-slavery campaigners and reforming magistrates of the later eighteenth century, were the pioneers.
To continue reading this article you need to purchase a subscription, available from only £5.
Start my trial subscription now
If you have already purchased access, or are a print & archive subscriber, please ensure you are logged in.
Please email digital@historytoday.com if you have any problems.
