Economic Expansion and Reform
The Industrial Revolution continued with great force during the Victorian Age，consolidating Britain’s position as the industrial leader of Europe.By the 1880s，it owned one⁃third of the world’s merchant marine，and had made great advances in chemicals，electricity，and machine tools.The nation as a whole enjoyed the highest per capita income in the world.More 70％ of the British population lived in cities.
Life in Victorian Britain underwent many changes.Influenced by the example of Queen Victoria’s lifestyle，the middle class began to develop its class values and moral standards.Devotion to family life，a sense of responsibility，and obedience to the law became representative ideals of this period，and have remained enduring values of the middle class.
During the second half of the 19th century，more and more middle class people began to move to the suburbs due to overcrowding in the cities.Indoor plumbing and bathrooms were common in middle class homes by the end of the century.Electric lighting was progressively installed in urban houses，although gaslight continued to be used in places until the 1920s.
Compared to the middle class，the living conditions of factory workers were miserable.Most of them lived in shoddy and unsanitary dwellings of two rooms with no indoor plumbing or sanitary facilities.Sometimes，a family of 8 or 9 would be crowded into one room.In the slums of London，conditions were even worse.
Transportation became more convenient during the Victorian Age.The railroads provided fast and relatively safe transportation.In 1863，London’s Metropolitan Underground Steam Railway opened.In 1891，the first electric underground railway began to operate and the electric trains began to replace the horse trains.Bicycles became very popular in Britain by the 1890s as falling prices made them affordable for most people.
Many people also enjoyed more leisure time than before.In 1871，Parliament passed an act to establish bank holidays when people would not be required to work.Bank holidays now include New Year’s Day（January 1st），Good Friday（the Friday preceding Easter），Easter Monday（the Monday following Easter），May Day，the spring bank holiday（the last Monday in May）and the summer bank holiday（the last Monday in August），Christmas Day，and Boxing Day（December 26th）.Saturday was also a half day holiday then.
Among the various leisure activities，theatergoing was popular for upper and middle class people，while workmen would go to the pubs where cheap beer and gin were offered and singers and dancers would provide entertainment.The English were also very enthusiastic about sports.The most popular sports in the second half of the 19th century were football and rugby.In 1863，the Football Association was founded and the English Cup was instituted in 1871.The Rugby Union was organized in the same year and the English League in 1888.Other popular sports included cricket，field hockey，lawn tennis，croquet，and golf.Horse racing and betting also attracted many people.
Reading was another popular leisure activity in the second half of the 19th century.Education reforms introduced universal education and raised the literacy level of the population.At the same time，the abolition of high stamp taxes on newspapers made them cheaper and thus affordable to more people.Penny papers like the Daily Telegraph appeared in the early 1860s.Other newspapers like The Times and the Daily News also became popular and magazines multiplied.Various popular educational journals were founded，such as the Englishwomen’s Domestic Magazine，the Boy’s Own Journal，and the Young Englishwoman.The journals were so popular that many of Charles Dickens’novels first appeared in installments in weekly and monthly magazines in order to reach more readers.
However，life for the working classes remained hard and workers continued to lack political rights.A group of prominent writers，including Charles Dickens，William Thackeray and many others exposed the injustices of society in their writings.This helped to strengthen the movement for further reforms，which successfully pressed the government to implement measures for political and social change.Politically，the electorate was further enlarged.By 1885，all workers and agricultural laborers with a regular home got the vote.The Ballot Act of 1872 ensured secret balloting，which freed voters from intimidation by their landlords or employers and helped to reduce corruption in the electoral process.In 1883，the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act reduced the possibilities of buying influence with money.
Reforms in the method of recruiting government employees helped to make British society more egalitarian.New appointments to permanent government positions began to be made through open competitive examinations.The practice of selling military commissions to wealthy aristocrats also ended.These changes made it possible for talented people from the middle class to enter government service.Great changes also took place in education.Before 1870，most elementary schools in Britain were private.In the 1870s，Parliament passed two Education Acts which mandated the establishment of elementary schools supported by local taxes and made elementary education compulsory for children aged 5 to 10.In 1891，all school fees in state elementary schools were abolished.
Laws were also passed to regulate labor relations.By the end of the 19th century，children under the age of 11 were not allowed to work in the factories.The Trade Union Act of 1871 finally granted legal status to trade unions and two later acts guaranteed their rights to picket peacefully.In order to push for more reforms and to send their representatives to Parliament，the trade unions organized their own party in 1900;it was named the Labor Party in 1906.
The Labor Party supported the Liberal Party，which was in power from 1905 to 1915，in carrying out further reforms.The government began to take a more active role in providing services directly for its people，such as unemployment insurance，and pensions for elderly people.To finance these reforms，the government increased revenue by taxing the wealthy more heavily with a progressive income tax system.