"øSOMBRE CLASSICAL MUSIC" "In the early years of the 19th century a young princess grew up in a lonely palace in the heart of London." "She led a sheltered life, closely watched and guarded by servants, for she was destined to be the Queen of England." "øSINISTER MUSIC" "For most of her childhood, her dominion was defined by the nursery." "But beyond its walls a powerwas stirring thatwould change the world more rapidly and dramatically than at any time in its history..." "..and make her the ruler of more than a quarter of its population." "This is the story of a young girl who grew up to reign over the widest empire in the history of the world, the dynamic energies that created it and the dark forces that threatened to tear it apart." "This is the story of Queen Victoria's empire." "øLIVELY MUSIC" "The reign of Queen Victoria saw the birth of the modern world." "In Britain, in the first half , of the 19th century, a force was unleashed that would topple dynasties and change the life of almost every human on the planet." "Steam was the genie of the modern age and it was the British who let it out of the bottle." "It would make their small island the workshop of the world." "They would build railways and steamships to span the globe and they would forge the weapons to rule it." "But as they sent their explorers and armies to the far corners of the earth they would face a greater challenge than impassable rapids and hostile natives." "That challenge was whether to use their power for good or for evil- to improve the world or to merely subjugate it." "The struggle over how to use their power would divide the most famous names of the Victorian age." "Missionaries like David Livingstone, engineers like Isambard Kingdom Brunel, warrior heroes like Gordon of Khartoum, , writers like Charles Dickens and statesmen like William Ewart Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli." "And itwould confrontVictoria herselfwith a revolution - industrial, social , and finally political." "A revolution that threatened her heritage, her throne and her life itself." "øSOMBRE MUSIC" "In 1819, the yearVictoria was born, the world was closer to that of the Greeks and Romans than to the world of today." "Most people lived and worked on the land." "øGENTLE MUSIC" "They had few machines, and those they did have were powered by wind orwater or, more commonly, by a horse." "The great shire horses of old England cleared the land, ploughed the fields and hauled their produce to market." "Horse power established the limit of speed and the fastest means of public transportwas the horsedrawn coach." "Those heavy stagecoaches swayed and jolted along the highways of Britain at no more than 10 miles per hour." "In the 1830s, they were much used by a young journalist, Charles Dickens, who compared the experience to being broken alive on the torturer's wheel." ""No form of punishment", he wrote, "could be more effective."" "But all that was about to change." "Britain had pioneered the age of steam." "øGENTLE MUSIC" "The first steam locomotives heralded a revolution thatwould give Britain a decisive lead over her trading rivals but shake its social and political stability to the core." "By 1829, the world's first public railroad was completed" "linking the cities of Liverpool and Manchester." "George Stephenson's steam engines rushed along the iron tracks at an astonishing 35 miles an hour." "But the opening ceremony was marred by a regrettable incident." "A leading member of the government was knocked down by Stephenson's fastest locomotive, the 'Rocket', and he was crushed to death." "The modern world had arrived." "øSUSPENSEFUL MUSIC" "Giant machines driven by steam were changing a way of life that had endured for centuries." "But there was a dark side to this vision of power and progress that was obscured by the promise of rich rewards." "The British at that time were masters, , not only of industrial production but of the means of distributing the things they made around the world." "They were really on top of the world and it gave them, I'm sure, a kind of magical feeling- a feeling as if they had acquired the Promethean fire, you know?" "They were doing things nobody else could do and they could." "They could do anything." "In Greek mythology, Prometheus brought mankind the gift offire." "The British felt that the gods had brought them a gift of that magnitude." "They soon found that it came at a terrible price." "øSOMBRE MUSIC" "Social upheaval, physical hardship and a desperate squalor that turned parts of this green and pleasant land into a living hell." "England was really on the cusp ofwhatwe think of as the industrial revolution." "In fact, it had gone through a tremendous amount of change." "There was a tremendous growth in population and this population is increasingly flocking into cities." "And there was never enough housing, the services were appalling, overcrowding..." "really very, very poor conditions." "We had very early death, a lot of industrial accidents, , industrial disease and the substantial likelihood of dying before the age of 45." "There were no cushions at the time." "We talk about the greatVictorian boom but it was the great Victorian insecurity." "This was the boom or bust, rich , and poor, dynamic and insecure world thatVictoria inherited when, , at the age of 18, she emerged from the luxurious cocoon of her palace to be crowned the Queen of England." "øSTATELY MUSIC" "She was not quite five feet tall but she had an enormous zest for life and, like her people, she was a mass of contradictions." "She ate greedily and worried about herweight," "loved horse-riding, loathed exercise, was described as stubborn and bad-tempered, kind and generous." "The members of her Government were astonished by her dignity and maturity but she confided to herfirst Prime Minister thatwhile walking in her gardens she had an almost irrepressible urge to roll on the grass." "Many, including the writer Thomas Carlyle, thought she would be overwhelmed by the forces that were raging outside her palace walls." "CARLYLE: "Poor little queen." ""She is at an age atwhich a girl" ""can hardly be trusted to choose a bonnet for herself, ," ""yet a task is laid upon herfrom which an archangel might shrink."" "Victoria had come to the throne at a time when the monarchy and the idea of empire were equally repugnant to many of her subjects." "Her grandfather was the mad King George III who had lost the American colonies." "And her uncle, George IV, was so widely despised that his death was the occasion of drunken celebration in the streets of his own capital." "Victoria comes to the throne at a time when the prestige of the monarchy is drooping." "Her two uncles, , George IV and William IV," "Lush, heavy-drinking womanisers- not, if you like, in touch with their people." "She comes to the throne aware that she's got to try and rescue the monarchy." "She's got to make it a Christian monarchy." "She is a deeply religious woman and she sees herself as a Christian ruler over a Christian people, as a benevolent squire might look after his peasants." "øTENSE MUSIC øPLOUGH AND CHAINS RATTLE" "But Britain was no longer a land of peasants." "Victoria's subjects were leaving the farm for the factory." "They were leaving their country cottages for the city slums." "Britain was in the throes of the first industrial revolution in world history." "It would see the birth of the factory system, the production line, the machine age." "It would change, not only the nature of industry but the nature of society- perhaps, even, of humanity itself." "Charles Dickens described one of the new factory towns where so many ofVictoria's subjects were forced to live." "DICKENS: "It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys" ""out of which interminable serpents of smoke" ""trailed themselves forever and ever." ""It had a black canal in it" ""and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye." ""Vast piles of buildings full ofwindows" ""out ofwhich there was a rattling and a trembling all day long" ""and where the piston of the steam engine" ""worked monotonously up and down" ""like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness."" "øPISTON CHUGS REPEATEDLY" "This was a world far removed from that of the young Queen with her palaces and her servants." "What could she know of the people who lived in such towns or of the machines that now ruled their daily lives?" "DICKENS: "All went in and out at the same hours" ""with the same sound upon the same pavements to do the same work." ""Every day was the same as yesterday and tomorrow" ""and every year the counterpart of the last and the next."" "Once, on a journey through this industrial heartland, the Queen caught a rare glimpse of this other world." "She recoiled in shock and horror." "QUEEN VICTORIA:" ""It is another world." ""In the midst of so much wealth" ""there seems to be nothing but chimneys," ""flaring furnaces with wretched cottages around them." ""Add to this a thick and black atmosphere" ""and you have but a first impression" ""of the life which a third of my poor subjects are forced to lead."" "Victoria may have been sympathetic to the plight of her people but she lacked the skills to keep her country from the violent revolution that many feared was inevitable." "She was shortly to be tutored, however, and more pleasantly than she could have imagined." "øHORSE AND CARRIAGE APPROACH" "When she was 20, a suitor was , presented for Victoria's approval - her German cousin, , Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg." "øPOIGNANT MUSIC" "Earlier she had told her Prime Minister..." "VICTORIA: "I dread the thought of marrying." ""I am so accustomed to having my own way" ""and 10-to-1 I shouldn't agree with anybody."" "Now she formed a different view." ""Seeing Albert has changed all this." ""He really is quite charming and so excessively handsome." ""Such beautiful blue eyes, an exquisite nose" ""and such a pretty mouth with delicate moustachios." ""A beautiful figure, broad shoulders and a fine waist."" "Suddenly there was Albert looking resplendent and she was ready to propose." "And she did, the next day." "She had to propose because she was the sovereign and, of course, Albert was prepared for this and ready to say yes." "Suddenly he was being offered the job of consort to the greatest queen in the world." "It was a job that any man in his situation would look for and he was unemployed." "The Prince was summoned to attend the Queen in her drawing room." "VICTORIA: "He came where I was alone" ""and I said that I thought he must be aware" ""why I wished him to come here" ""and that it would make me very happy" ""if he would consent to my wishes." ""He said he would." ""I felt itwas the happiest, brightest moment of my life."" "øTRIUMPHANT MUSIC" "Four months later, the country celebrated a royal wedding." "But the official fanfare masked a distinct lack of popular enthusiasm for the marriage." "As she dressed for the ceremony Victoria was aware that many of her subjects viewed her choice of husband with dismay." "Albert was foreign and he was poor." "Parliament reflected the public mood." "They refused to grant Albert the title of king." "In fact, they refused to grant him any title at all." "During the marriage service Victoria promised to honour and obey a husband who was now bound as a loyal subject to honour and obey her." "The wife of the American ambassador, , who was one of the guests, commented on the irony of an impoverished German prince endowing the Queen with all his worldly goods." "øSOMBRE MUSIC" "(Men applaud) Bravo!" "Bravo!" "Prince Albert had won the hand of a queen but he would have a hard fight to win the hearts of her people." "For the moment the royal couple had to make do with their love for each other." "Victoria wrote in her diary of her relief when they finally escaped the guests at the reception." "øGENTLE MUSIC" ""Then dearest Albert fetched me downstairs" ""where we took leave of Mama and drove off." ""I and Albert alone."" "øJOYFUL MUSIC" "Victoria had chosen to spend the honeymoon just a few miles from London at the ancient castle of Windsor - home to the kings and queens of England since the 12th century." "The wedding night, apparently, went off very well and the next morning she told the Prime Minister that they had a wonderful night and she didn't sleep much that night." "And she added in her diary that, "dear Albert helped me put on my stockings in the morning."" "To Albert's dismay, Victoria refused to take more than four days break from the business of government." "She was, she gently chided him, the Queen of England." "This begged the question- what, then, was Albert?" "He knew that he would have to find something to do merely to make life bearable for himself." "What was he to do other than to ensure the succession?" "The other job, he had to find- that is some kind of manly, useful work in the administration." "That was hard to do because Victoria didn't want to give up anything." "She wanted to reign." "She wanted to rule." "She wanted to be alone with her advisers and put Albert to the side." "All he had to do at the start was to blot her signature." "They had desks side by side in the palace and his job was to move over to hers and blot the signatures." "øLIVELY MUSIC" "When they were driving together in their carriage itwas Victoria who invariably took the reins and provoked jokes about her holding the whip hand." "Itwas a side of the Queen's character that caused problems for other men in her life, notably the leading members of Her Majesty's Government." "The Queen may have wanted to rule alone but in reality she had to rule with the consent of Parliament." "(Parliamentarians chatter)" "Former kings and queens of England had accepted rules binding them to choose the Government from among those men who commanded a majority in the elected House of Commons." "Victoria found this hard." "She was a headstrong, young woman who had constantly kicked against the limits of her power." "Her ministers soon realised that Albert had more patience for dealing with complex affairs of state and they encouraged Victoria to include him in their regular briefings." "Soon he was doing more than blot the Queen's signature as the Queen became distracted by an event that took her mind off government business." "When Victoria became pregnant she began to feel discomfort, the usual things that one associates with pregnancy, and so she gave more and more jobs to Albert to do." "Albert began to draft her letters." "Albert began to meet with her ministers." "Albert became, in effect, the associate sovereign." "The chief secretary to the Government noted that while Victoria had the title" "Albert was really discharging the duties and functions of the sovereign." "He was, to all intents and purposes, king." "Albert was an intellectual." "He grasped things very quickly." "He learned English very quickly." "He read a great deal, he knew everything thatwas going on." "He read all the mail that came through in the Cabinet red boxes." "Albertwas, in effect, taking charge." "øDRAMATIC MUSIC" "Albert had a lively interest in industry and invention and he wanted the Queen to share it." "He introduced her to developments and technology that, without his enthusiasm, might have seemed too complex, too mechanical,too grubby for her royal attention." "He tried to open her eyes to the ideas and opinions thatwere uprooting the old Britain- ideas and opinions thatwere about to shake the world." "Albert thought that the world was going to change whether or not they liked it." "He wanted it to change in a way thatwould be useful for people." "He wanted their standard of living improved." "He wanted wealth to be better distributed." "He wanted more people to have the advantages of the new inventions." "In that sense he was quite a social liberal." "øTRAIN BELL RINGS" "In 1842, the Prince took a trip on one of the new railroads - the Great Western that linked London with the port of Bristol on the west coast of England." "The 120-mile journey would have taken 15 hours by stagecoach." "The railroad did it in three." "Waiting for him at the end of the line was the man who had built it - a man whose name had a ring of grandeur to match the age he lived in." "Isambard Kingdom Brunel." "He was the most famous engineer in the world and he devoted his life to making it a smaller place." "Victoria had inherited an empire that spanned the globe but her scattered possessions were separated by thousands of miles of ocean." "In the days of sail it could take three months to cross the Atlantic, six to reach India, , even longer to make the passage to the Queen's dominions of Australia and New Zealand." "Brunel mastered the technology to weld these disparate elements into an empire." "He had conceived of the SS 'Great Britain' as the first all-iron steamship, doubling the size of any ship ever built before." "She was designed to cut the journey time across the Atlantic from around three months to a reliable 15 days." "Brunel personified the spirit of limitless ambition that was to be the hallmark ofVictoria's empire." "He seized the opportunity of Prince Albert's visit to convince him of the potential of this dynamic new method of transport." "Steamships had been ridiculed by their critics who argued that they would need so much coal for their engines there would be no space left for cargo." "Brunel demolished this myth with a complex mathematical equation." "In simple terms, he proved that the bigger the ship the bigger the proportion that could be used for cargo or passengers or troops." "It was the beginning of the end for the great days of sail." "The SS 'Great Britain' would be the first of this new breed of ocean steamers that would bind the mother country ever more closely to her imperial possessions." "And their ability to steam in a straight line, regardless ofwinds or currents, would have a vital impact on one of the other great inventions of the Victorian age." "øMYSTERIOUS MUSIC" "In 1837, inventors , on both sides of the Atlantic had simultaneously created the electric telegraph." "Brunel argued that his railroads provided a perfect route for the telegraph wires that would link city to city, while his steamships could lay telegraph cables across the seas to link nation to nation." "Brunel inspired the young Prince with the vision of the first modern empire - an empire based not on conquest but on commerce and communication." "In 1845, Britain , was a global superpower." "It had a monopoly of the latest technology based upon steam." "It also possessed the greatest capacity for manufacturing and a vast surplus of capital." "If these assets are to be used to their best effect," "British businessmen have to sell cheaply... ..and buy cheaply." "And in the 1840s, it was clear that Britain could no longer produce enough food for its people." "So, it needed inexpensive food." "The vision of a modern technological empire was threatened by the lack of the most basic commodity in the world-grain." "Despite the new inventions," "British agriculture could not provide enough bread to feed the millions who had flocked to the cities in search ofwork." "They threatened riot and rebellion." "America could supply vast quantities of grain." "But this was opposed by the most powerful lobby in Victoria's empire." "The landlords, the squires were the dominant power in Parliament." "Theirwealth came from agriculture and they were determined to maintain a high price for their crops, especially grain." "They used their votes in Parliament to impose high import duties on foreign grain- the infamous Corn Laws." "And they would bring the country to the brink of armed insurrection." "Prince Albertwarned the Queen of the serious danger of civil war with the manufacturers, the hungry and the poor" "lined up against the aristocracy." "Warned that this could only end in the ruin of the aristocracy and the end of the monarchy, that it could even threaten Victoria's life." "The crisis came to a head in Britain's oldest colony-Ireland." "øTRANQUIL MUSIC" "In the reign ofVictoria, the whole of Ireland belonged to Britain." "Most of the country was owned by English landlords who rarely visited their estates in Ireland." "Their tenants were poor Irish farmers." "Most grew nothing but potatoes, which was all they had to eat." "An English traveller noted the grave inequality in wealth." "MAN: "Landlords first get all that's made of the land." ""And the tenants, for their labour, get poverty and potatoes."" "øSOLEMN MUSIC" "In 1845, the Irish potato crop was hit by a mysterious blight that turned the tubers black and rotten." "The harvest was ruined." "Eyewitnesses chronicled the growing anguish and despair." "MAN: "Distress and fear were pictured on every face." ""The wretched people wringing their hands" ""and wailing bitterly against the destruction" ""that left them foodless."" "øSOMBRE MUSIC CONTINUES" "For a while, they lived on nettles and otherweeds." "Then they began to starve." "English magistrates filed grim reports." "MAN: "I entered some of the hovels." ""In the first," ""six famished skeletons, to all appearances dead," ""were huddled in a corner." ""I approached with horror," ""found by their low moaning that they were still alive."" "Captain Wynn, English army officer..." ""Mothers, shivering in the snow and sleet," ""uttering exclamations of despair" ""while the children scream with hunger." ""I am a match for anything else I may meet with here" ""but this I cannot stand."" "The Government provided aid in the form ofwork and food but nowhere near enough." "The Queen wrote from Windsor Castle to complain that the government corn was not reaching the people who were starving." "VICTORIA: "After all we have done to supply the needy with food," ""the landlords appropriate the people's corn." ""And use the employment of the poor to improve their properties" ""at the public expense."" "She was horrified to learn that the dead were being buried without coffins in mass graves." "In 184, an American traveller , took a boat to the western isles." "WOMAN:" "Nothing of life was seen or heard except occasionally a dog." "I thoughtlessly said," ""How can the dogs look so fat and sleek" ""when there is no food for the people?"" ""Shall I tell her?" said the pilot." "øGRIM MUSIC" "As the dogs scavenged among the graves, one and half million people starved to death." "Many tenants who could not pay their rents were evicted by their landlords." "Two million Irish emigrated in disease-ridden hulks known as coffin ships." "Those who survived the voyage were herded into the slums of New York and Boston, , Liverpool and Glasgow." "It was one of the greatest human disasters in history." "øGENERAL CHATTER" "The British Parliamentwas split." "On one side were the landlords." "On the otherwere the free-traders, , who warned that unless the Corn Laws were repealed, they all risked the danger of violent revolution." "But the landlords held out, rallied by a man who was destined to become one of the outstanding statesmen of the age" "Benjamin Disraeli." "Disraeli was an unlikely champion of the landed interest." "Though he had been baptised, his family was Jewish at a time when Jews were barred from public office in England." "The young Disraeli had the elegant style of man of means but it was mostly bluff." "He had no money, no land, no friends in high places." "He joked that he had been born in a library- and his father certainly had one of the largest libraries in London." "At the age of 20, Disraeli gave up the practice of law to write romantic novels." "But his main purpose in writing was to pay off the huge debts he'd incurred from dabbling on the stock market." "His real interest was in politics." "øREGAL MUSIC" "WOMAN:" "Disraeli's entry into politics was very difficult indeed." "He was constantly heckled for being a Jew." "People would turn up at the hustings with, you know, donkeys, saying, "Go back to Jerusalem."" "I mean, he encountered a lot of very rough and rather nasty anti-Semitism." "And yet one of the great things about Disraeli, I think, was his determination." "When he finally made it to Parliament, his florid style of speech and dress caused a sensation." "He dressed in clothes that amazed people." "You know, he wore , wonderful coloured outfits." "He wore lots of jewellery, he wore chains all over his waistcoat, and rings outside his gloves." "And he had very tightly ringleted hair." "He liked shocking people." "And he certainly succeeded in shocking the House of Commons." "His first speech had been drowned out by a torrent of laughter and abuse." "MAN:" "Sit down!" "DISRAELI:" "Aye, sir." "And though I sit down now, the time will come when you will hear me." "(Jeers and laughter)" "Disraeli modified his dress and tailored his speeches to the mood of Parliament." "And with the battle over the Corn Laws, his time had come." "RIDLEY:" "A lot of these country gentlemen really were not good on their feet but Disraeli was a brilliant orator." "DISRAELI:" "Right orwrong, if they be in the wrong." "It gave him the opportunity he had been waiting for." "which our present rulers." "But Disraeli's opportunism earned him many enemies in Parliament." "By far the most important of these was William Ewart Gladstone." "Gladstone's father had owned slaves in the West Indies and Gladstone was tormented by a deep sense of guilt which helped make him the conscience of the British Empire." "JAMES:" "The most important thing in Gladstone's life is thatwhenever he has any problem, any political problem, he speaks to God, he asks for God's guidance." "God is at the centre of his life, at the centre of his whole political being." "And when he looks at imperialism, he says," ""Is this godly?" and he decides it isn't." "Gladstone had been elected to Parliament as a Tory, but the Irish famine wrenched at his conscience and he switched sides to join the Liberals and free-traders." "The resulting battle would spark a life-long feud between the two politicians Disraeli and Gladstone - a feud that would divide Victorian England." "But there was no doubt whose side the Queen was on." "When Parliamentfinally voted on the repeal of the Corn Laws," "Prince Albert appeared in the public gallery to demonstrate moral support for the free-traders." "Abuse from the Tory benches forced him to leave." "(Yells) Go!" "And the Queen issued a fierce attack on his critics." "VICTORIA: "Gentlemen who do nothing" ""but hunt all day, drink claret or portwine in the evening" ""and never study or read about any of these questions."" "The free-traders eventually won over enough Tories to break the landlords' power." "The Corn Laws were repealed and Britain finally opened its doors to the grain harvests of America." "MAN:" "The 'ayes' have it." "Many feared it was too late." "The stubborn resistance of the landlords had provoked popular fury in the towns and cities of Britain - and at a dangerous time for the British royal family." "øLOUD EXPLOSION 1848 would prove to be the year of revolution." "øTENSE MUSIC" "It began in southern Italy and spread rapidly across the continent of Europe." "Armed mobs exploded into the streets, storming the palaces of their rulers, raising the red flag of revolution." "From the sanctuary of her medieval palace at Windsor, the Queen confided to her uncle, Leopold," "King of the Belgians..." "VICTORIA: "The state of politics in Europe is very critical" ""and one feels very anxious for the future."" "Revolution would eventually topple the thrones of France, Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and Turkey." "And it was not only Victoria's throne that was at risk." "(Fires shots)" "The shots missed but it was the first serious attempt on Victoria's life." "And it would not be the last." "øGRIM MUSIC" "In the spring of 1848, Victoria's government feared that the revolution had spread to Britain." "Their agents warned that a million men were planning to gather in London for a march on Parliament." "Panic gripped the capital." "Cannon were posted on the bridges across the river Thames." "Thousands of police and troops were brought into the city." "The fearful government smuggled the royal family aboard a train to take them to their seaside palace off the south coast of England." "Albert was very frightened." "Victoria was frightened." "She did not want to go." "She felt that it would look unheroic to leave but it looked as if there might be a real revolution." "As the royal family was hurried to safety," "London braced itselffor the invasion of a million men bent on bloody revolution." "But on the morning of April 10, just 30,000 demonstrators turned up." "They were out-numbered by over 100,000 troops and special constables." "At the first spark of violence, the leaders of the protest lost their nerve." "They implored the crowd to disperse." "Then the weather took a hand." "øTHUNDER RUMBLES" "The threatened revolution was drowned in a violent outbreak of English rain." "They expected hundreds of thousands of people to gather and march across the bridges to Parliament and present this monster petition." "Very few people actually turned up." "It was a great disappointment." "The English just aren't revolutionists." "When the news reached the Queen in her seaside refuge, she rejoiced." "VICTORIA: "Thank God!" ""The procession has turned out a complete failure." ""The loyalty of the people at large has been very striking" ""and their indignation at their peace being interfered with" ""by such wanton and worthless men- immense."" "But Prince Albert had a much more realistic view of the situation." "The revolution had been averted but the threat remained as strong as ever." "Albert believed that the only way to preserve the monarchy was to improve the conditions of the poor." "The British people had to be persuaded that free trade would bring in a new age of peace and prosperity, not just for the manufacturers but for the whole nation." "The problem was - how were they to be convinced?" "WEINTRAUB:" "Albert liked the idea of using trade to liberalise the world in general." "He liked the idea of trade creating communications and a better life for people worldwide." "Prince Albert believed that free trade was not just an economic theory, it was almost a sort of religion." "Free trade would provide universal happiness throughout the world." "In 1849, Prince Albert met one of the great prophets of this new religion" "Henry Cole, writer, artist, architect, and one of those Victorian gentlemen who buzzed with ideas that could change the world." "He told the Prince of his bold new dream." "They would build a cathedral of free trade, a giant temple in the heart of London to exhibit the art and industry of all nations." "Every country in the world would be invited to send the most beautiful and the most useful of its creations to London, to unite the world in a dream of universal peace through trade." "The Prince was enthralled." "MORRIS:" "Prince Albert was, in many ways, a very idealistic figure." "And this was not only to project the majesty of Great Britain across the world, it was also to emphasise the fact that we were all interconnected." "Victoria shared Albert's enthusiasm and appointed him president of a royal commission to organise would would be known as the 'Great Exhibition of the Works and Industry of All Nations', the world's first international trade fair." "The Queen offered one of the royal parks" "Hyde Park, in the centre of London- as the site for the exhibition." "But Prince Albert's vision was resisted by the same forces that had opposed the repeal of the Corn Laws." "First, they objected that it would bring hoards of foreigners into London." "Well, there was very great concern about the invasion offoreigners into this country." "Xenophobia, I think, was quite rife at that time." "There was concern about disease being brought into city." "The critics then shifted their attack to the building itself." "The plan first chosen by the royal commission resembled a giant dome." "It was held to ridicule" "But when it was revealed that a famous avenue of trees would have to be cut down to make room for it, the mirth turned to anger." ""Save the trees" became a popular rallying cry for Albert's critics in press and parliament." "MAN:" "Are the trees to be sacrificed for one of the greatest frauds, greatest humbugs, greatest absurdities ever known?" "The real target of this attack was Prince Albert himself." "He was mocked as the uncrowned king of the royal nursery, the foreign stud who could sire nine children but was fit for little else." "But behind the mockery was the fear that Albert represented a threat to the established order." "In many ways, Albert was far ahead of his time." "The people in government didn't want to move as fast as Albert wanted to move." "And so he became something of a suspect person to the politicians who were more conservative than he was." "Victoria and Albert were at their wit's end." "It wasn't just Albert's reputation that was at stake, it was their dream." "The dream that world trade could secure world peace." "The Prince wrote to his brother Ernst in despair." "ALBERT: "We shall probably be defeated" ""and have to give up the whole exhibition." ""You see, we do not lie on a bed of roses."" "Then, with the project on the verge of collapse, help came from an unexpected source." "Joseph Paxton was a farmer's son." "He had started work at he age of 15 as an under-gardener on the great estate of the Duke of Devonshire, , in the north of England." "øTRANQUIL MUSIC" "But like Brunel and Cole and so many otherVictorians," "Paxton had enormous self-belief, , and an imagination that soared beyond the limits of the Duke's plantations." "His ideas for improvements caught the attention of his noble employer." "They earned him rapid promotion." "By the age of 40, he was manager of all the Duke's estates and an independently wealthy man with investments in bridges, railways and gasworks." "He even founded a newspaper with Charles Dickens as its editor." "Paxton was the typical Victorian entrepreneur, who seemed to excel at anything and everything." "øLIGHT-HEARTED MUSIC" "He knew that Prince Albert's exhibition was doomed without a building." "So, he turned his mind , to designing one." "He produced a preliminary sketch on a piece of blotting paper during a board meeting of one of his railroad companies." "Itwas a giant greenhouse." "Prince Albert and his team were delighted." "A building made of glass could be assembled quickly and itwould do away with the need to cut down the trees in Hyde Park." "The critics were felled with one stroke." "øLIGHT-HEARTED MUSIC CONTINUES" "In the all of 1850, an army of 2,000 workmen descended on Hyde Park." "The vast iron framework covering 19 acres of land was erected in just nine weeks." "The following week, 80 glaziers fitted 18,000 panes of glass." "The critics prayed for a violent hailstorm but it was a forlorn hope." "øREGAL MUSIC" "Paxton's beautiful building won the hearts of the nation." "Itwas opened by the Queen and Prince Albert on 1 May, 1851, and instantly became known as 'The Crystal Palace'." "MORRIS:" "As far as the public was concerned, it was architecturally magical." "Itwas such a marvellous building." "Itwas so unlike anything that anybody had seen before." "That in itself, I think, set the thing off on a marvellous passage." "For the first time, the Victorians saw their brave new world on show, , with all its novelty and invention- and they were bewitched." "øGENTLE, WONDROUS MUSIC" "BENNETT:" "There was a tremendous impact." "Everyone was excited to see this whole building and whatwas contained inside it." "Within three months, over six million people visited." "When you consider the London population at the time, which was over two million, that shows it had a tremendous international impact." "øMAJESTIC MUSIC" "But itwas the achievements of British industry that entranced the crowds who flocked to the Crystal Palace." "The Great Exhibition was Britain's show." "No other country came close in the production of steam engines, machine tools, the symbols of industrial might." "JAMES:" "You go in and you see all these wonderful gadgets, all these inventions, all this evidence of British ingenuity and of British energy and it's an advertisement to the world which says," ""This is the most progressive nation in the world." ""Look what it's produced, isn't this marvellous?"" "The Crystal Palace achieved all that Prince Albert had hoped for and more." "It convinced millions of ordinary people that the new technology could deliver a golden future, not just for the rich and privileged, but for them all." "It fired an enormous sense of patriotism and pride in the monarchy." "But it also provoked feelings of national supremacy, a growing conviction that with such engines of power,ø the British could conquer the world." "After the opening ceremony, the Queen gave thanks." "VICTORIA: "God bless my dear Albert." ""God bless my dearest country, which has shown itself so noble." ""Albert's name is immortalised."" "The Prince, with more restraint, commented that the day's events had been "quite satisfactory"." "The Great Exhibition marked the dawn of a new era of free trade." "But Prince Albert's vision ofworld peace and the brotherhood of nations would prove more elusive." "øBOMBS EXPLODE, GUNFIRE" "In the decade thatfollowed the Crystal Palace," "Britain would be plunged into two great conflicts that shattered Albert's illusions and set Victoria's empire on a dangerous and bloody route towards world domination." "ø Supertext Captions by øCaptioned by:" "ø Michael McGettigan"