actarian Crisis of 1841, and the _History of the French
Revolution and Past and Present_, when the giant opened his eyes and
fought with his chains. Darwin was slowly putting together the notes he
had made on the Beagle, and Hugh Miller was disturbing convention by his
explorations of the Old Red Sandstone. Most of all, the discussion of
permanent and transient elements in Christianity was taking a foremost
place in all strata of society, not merely in the form of the contest
around _Tract 90_, but in the divergent directions of Colenso, the
Simeon Evangelicals, and Maurice.

The Victorian Age began in rancour and turmoil. This is an element which
we must not overlook, although it was in a measure superficial. A series
of storms, rattling and recurrent tempests of thunder and lightning,
swept over public opinion, which had been so calm under George IV. and
so dull under William IV. Nothing could exceed the discord of
vituperation, the Hebraism of Carlyle denouncing the Vaticanism of
Wiseman, "Free Kirk and other rubbish" pitted against "Comtism,
ghastliest of algebraic spectralities." This theological tension marks
the first twenty years and then slowly dies down, after the passion
expended over _Essays and Reviews_. It was in 1840 that we find
Macaulay, anxious to start a scheme of Whig reform and to cut a
respectable figure as Secretary of State for War, unable to get to
business because of the stumbling-block of religious controversy.
Everything in heaven and earth was turned into "a theological treatise,"
and all that people cared about was "the nature of the sacraments, the
operation of holy orders, the visibility of the Church and baptismal
regeneration." The sitting member goes down to Edinburgh to talk to his
constituents about Corn Laws and Sugar Duties and the Eastern Question;
he is met by "a din" of such objections as "Yes, Mr. Macaulay, that is
all very well for a statesman, but what becomes of the headship of our
Lord Jesus Christ?"

If the Victorian Age opened in a tempest of theology, it was only
natural that it should cultivate a withering disdain for those who had
attempted to reform society on a non-theological basis. In sharp
contradistinction to the indulgence of the Georgian period for
philosophic speculation, England's interest in which not even her long
continental wars had been able to quench, we find with the accession of
Victoria the credit of the French thinkers almost abruptly falling.
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