Part 18 (1/2)

Queen Square, Bloomsbury, was the first scene of his labours; but as the firrew, Morris found the pre a suitable spot near the old cloth-working towns at the foot of the Cotswolds, where pure air and clear water were to be found; but the conditions of trade made it necessary for hiht an old silk-weaving mill at Merton near Wimbledon, on the banks of the Wandle, and this is still the centre of the work

To study special industries, or to execute a special co journeys to the north of England or elsewhere; but the routine of his life consisted in daily travelling between his house at Hammersmith and the mills at Merton, which wasto the absence of direct connexion between these districts But his energy overbore these obstacles; and, except when illness prevented him, he remained punctual in his attendance to business and in close touch with all his workers Towards theenerous The weakerafter they had ceased to produce remunerative work, while the more capable were in course of time admitted as profit-sharers into the business Every man orked under him had to be prepared for occasional outbursts of iood work fault with hisrun all were sure to receive fair and friendly treatment

Such was William Morris at his Merton works, a master craftses, fit to hold his place with the es, and the wood-carvers of Nure with others for profit he was less successful The purchasing of the best material, the succession of costly experi' of all imperfect work, meant a heavy drain on the capital Also the society had been hurriedly for the variousto their work; and when in 1875 it was found necessary to reconstitute it, that Morris ally hold the position which he had from the outset won by his exertions, this could not be effected without loss, nor without a certain friction between the partners So, however prosperous the business h its monopoly of certain wares, it was difficult even for a skilful financier to make on each year a profit which was in any way proportionate to the fame of the work produced But in 1865 Morris was fortunate in finding a friend ready to undertake the keeping of the books, who syifts suppleested the work of Ruskin, and had learnt frooods of the best quality, and only secondarily to produce a profitable balance-sheet

Hoas that fro the head of an industrial business Morris came to be an ardent advocate of Socialism is the central problem of his life The root of the es He had studied the centuries productive of the best art known to him, and he believed that he understood the conditions under which it was produced The one essential was that the workers found pleasure in their work They were not benumbed by that Division of Labour which set the artisan laboriously repeating the sa of no ainst his coeneration to another the tradition of ell done for its own sake He knew there was another side to the picture, and that in many ways the freedom of the mediaeval craftsman had been curtailed He did not ask history to run backwards, but he felt that the nineteenth century was advancing on the wrong line of progress To him there seemed to be three types of social framework The feudal or Tory type was past and obsolete; for the richer classes of to-day had neither the power nor the will to renew it

The Whig or Manchester ideal held the field, the rich e his work so aining between free men must yield the best economic results for all classes, and that beyond econoive, and a ainst this doctrine e forms by Carlyle and Disraeli, by Ruskin and dickens; but it was slow to die

The third ideal was that of the Socialist; and to Morris this meant that the State should appropriate the e that every worker was assured of the means of livelihood and of sufficient leisure to enjoy the fruits of what he had ht more of the unjust distribution of happiness than of wealth, as ives a Utopian picture of England as it was to be after the establishment of Socialism Here rather than in polemical speeches or pamphlets can we find the true reflection of his attitude and the way in which he thought about reform

It was not easy for him to embark on such a crusade In his earlyin the war scare of 1859, he had taken no part in public life The first cause which led to his appearing at s rath at the ill-considered restoration of old buildings In 1877, when a society was formed for their protection, Morris was one of the leaders, and took his stand by Ruskin, who had already stated the principles to be observed They believed that the presentation of nineteenth-century uise of mediaeval as a fraud on the public, that it obscured the true lessons of the past, and that, under the pretence of reviving the original design, it h the centuries It was from his respect for work and the workman that Morris denounced this pedantry, fro which the artist had executed unconsciously in the spirit of his ti replaced by lifeless iainst this he was ready to protest at all tis of 'Antiscrape', as he calls the society, are frequent in his letters He also was rigid in declining all orders to the firht seem to disturb the relics of the past

His next step was still itation, of a capitalist and enant protests His severer critics seized on any paical fallacies and scornfully asked whether this was fit work for the author of the _Earthly Paradise_ Many liberal-retted the diversion of his activities, but the question whether he asting thee him fairly we must look at the problem from his side and postulate that Socialisht or not) did pursue practical ideals

If Aeschylus was edies--if Socrates claimed respect as much for his firmness as a juryht believe that his duty to his countrymen called him to leave his study and his workshop to take an active part in public affairs He ht be more prone to error than those who had trained themselves to political life, but he faced the probleood

Criticism took a still more personal turn in the hands of those who pointed out that Morris himself occupied the position of a capitalist employer, and who asked hi hi his place in the ranks of the proletariat

This argument is dealt with by Mr Mackail,[54] who describes the steps which Morris took to ad the profits of the business, and defends hie of inconsistency Morris ht out the question in all its aspects, but ical and depended on far too narrow and illiterate a use of the word Socialism He kneell as his critics that no newthe wealth of the rich and dividing it into equal portions a the poor

[Note 54: _Life of Morris_, by J W Mackail, vol ii, pp 133-9]

However reluctant Morris ed into the Socialist cay For two or three years he was constantly devoting his Sundays to open-air speech-s in stuffy rooms in all the poorer parts of London; and, at the call of comrades, he often travelled into the provinces, and even as far as Scotland, to lend a hand And he spent ti journals which were to spread the special doctrines of his form of Socialism Nor was it only the indifference and the hostility of those outside which he had to meet; quarrels within the party were frequent and bitter, though Morris himself, despite his impetuous temper, showed a wonderful spirit of brotherliness and conciliation For two years his work lay with the Socialist Democratic Federation, till differences of opinion with Mr Hyndue, and for this he toiled, writing, speaking, and attending committees, till 1889, when the control was captured by a knot of anarchists, in spite of all his efforts After this he ceased to be a 'militant'; but in no way did he abandon his principles or despair of the ultimate triumph of the cause The result of his efforts must renificant, and the visible outco the value of personal exaave of his best with the sahness as in all his crafts, and no ard to his special gifts and to his personal happiness, we lad that his active connexion with Socialisranted seven years of peace before the end

These were the years that saw the birth and growth of the 'Kel press, so called after his country house Of illuminated manuscripts[55] he had always been fond, but it was only in 1888 that his attention was turned to details of typography The ; the creative in types of his own and produce his own books As in the other arts, his lifelong friend Burne-Jones was called in to supply figure drawings for the illustrated books which Morris was himself to adorn with decorative borders and initials Of his many schemes, not all ca, and a year and a half given to the actual process of printing, his masterpiece, the Kelmscott edition of Chaucer, was completed, and a copy was in his hands a few months before his death

[Note 55: Mr Hyndman (_Story of an Adventurous Life_, p 355) describes a visit to the Bodleian Library at Oxford with Morris, and how 'quickly, carefully, and surely' he dated the illuminated manuscripts]

The last seven years of his life were spent partly at Ha on the banks of the Upper Thareat traveller, dearly though he loved the north of France with its Gothic cathedrals and 'the river bottoreen er appeals to him than Greece or Ro to return to England and its homely familiar scenes Scotland with its bare hills, 'raw-boned' as he called it, never gave him much pleasure; for he liked to see the earth clothed by nature and by the hand of man By the Upper Thas of the past were still generally untouched; and beyond the orchards and gardens, with their old-world look, lay stretches of meadows, diversified by woods and low hills, haunted with the song of birds; and he could believe hiland of Chaucer and Shakespeare There he would alelcome the friends whoe he was a recluse His abrupt manner, his Johnsonian utterances, would haveelement in Victorian tea-parties When provoked by foolish utterances, he was, no less than Johnson, downright in contradiction There was nothing that he disliked solionized; and there was much to annoy him when he stepped outside his own home and circle His last public speech was made on the abuses of public advertise in Ruskinian fashi+on that he was ever 'born with a sense of roe'

His life had been a strenuous and exhausting one, but he enjoyed it to the last As he said to Hyndood world to me when all is said, and I don't wish to leave it yet awhile' At least his latter years had been years of peace He had been freed froain the joys of youth, and could recapture the old music

The days have slain the days, and the seasons have gone by And brought rass I lie As erst I lay and was glad, ere I

After an illness in 1891 he never had quite the sah he continued to employ hiy of , and he was content to relax his labours In August 1896 he was suffering fros, and in October he died peacefully at Ha care of his wife and his oldest friends The funeral at Kelmscott was re borne along the country road in a faron streith leaves; and he lies in the quiet churchyard amid thethe prophets and poets who took up their parable against the worshi+p of material wealth and comfort, he will always have a foremost place The thunder of Carlyle, the fiery eloquence of Ruskin, the delicate irony of Matthew Arnold, will find a responsive echo in the heart of one reader or another; will expose the false standards of life set up in a e and educate them in the pursuit of what is true, what is beautiful, and what is reasonable But tospecially inspiring in the life and example of one as a handicraftsman and so much beside

And Morris was not content to denounce and to despair He enjoyed as good in the past and the present, and he preached in a hopeful spirit a gospel of yet better things for the future He was an artist in living Amid all the diversity of his work there was an essential unity in his life The men hom he worked were the friends whom he welcomed in his leisure; the crafts by which he made his wealth were the pastiht in his ho of the mediaeval roh he lived often in an atmosphere of conflict, and often knew failure, he has left us an example which may help to fill the emptiness and to kindle the lukewarmness of many an unquiet heart, and may reconcile the discords that e of transition and of doubt

[Illustration: JOHN RICHARD GREEN

Fro by Frederick Sandys]

JOHN RICHARD GREEN

1837-83

1837 Born at Oxford, Decee School, Oxford

1852-4 With a private tutor

1855-9 Jesus College, Oxford

1861-3 Curate at Goswell Road, EC