Britain in 1850 was a country brimming with confidence. It's engineers were the best in the world and it's navy was the largest. It's growing empire stretched around the globe, and trade and industry were booming. The mood of optimism found the perfect expression in the Great Exhibition of 1851. Victoria and Albert, the devoted royal couple, set the moral tone, becoming the model of respectability for Victorian families. Yet poverty was all around, as City slums filled to bursting and emigration reached it's peak. Reformers and philanthropists found much that needed to be done.
