Quiz: Past and Present

All 30 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. Why does Carlyle think Gurth the thrall happier than many modern labourers?

   He was paid a fixed money wage every week, whatever the harvest might bring He could vote for his lord at the county elections and so make himself heard He owned his own herd of swine and a strip of land free of any rent owed to Cedric He was sure of supper and lodging, and bound to his fellows by his collar
2. 2. What does Carlyle ironically propose as an improvement on bribery at elections?

   An Election-Office in Downing Street selling seats at a fixed tariff Abolishing the House of Commons and governing by royal commission A secret ballot for all voters, as the Chartists demanded Choosing members of Parliament by lot from among the ratepayers
3. 3. Which of these does the Editor not list among the false “Laws of Union” for society?

   Hero-worship Supply-and-demand Cash-payment for the sole nexus Laissez-faire
4. 4. What “widest universal principle” does Carlyle offer as the basis for organising labour?

   Piece-work instead of time-wages Manhood suffrage instead of privilege Permanent contract instead of temporary Free trade instead of protection
5. 5. Why did Abbot Samson order Dean Herbert’s new windmill torn down?

   Free townsfolk would grind at it and damage the abbot’s own mills The Dean had refused to pay the reap-silver It had been built without leave on the consecrated ground of St Edmund’s cemetery Its sails frightened the horses on the London road outside the town
6. 6. What does the “picturesque Tourist” see outside the St Ives workhouse?

   Children working the treadmill under the eye of a parish overseer A crowd of rioters trying to break down the workhouse gates Paupers being loaded onto carts for emigration to Canada by the parish guardians Fifty or more able-bodied men sitting silent on benches
7. 7. To whom, according to Carlyle, does the land properly belong?

   To the Crown, which lets it to the nobility in return for military service To the aristocracy who inherited it from its Norman conquerors by right To God and to all the generations who have worked or will work it To whoever pays the market price for it
8. 8. What accusation does the idle governing class bring against the manufacturing workers?

   Sedition: supporting the Chartists Idleness: refusing to work in the mills at the wages offered Extravagance: spending their wages on drink and gin-shops Over-production: making too many shirts and other goods
9. 9. Why does Carlyle call Plugson of Undershot a “Bucanier” rather than a true Captain of Industry?

   He has bought a seat in Parliament and a coat of arms with the profits of his mills He keeps the hundred thousand and dismisses his spinners with their wages He refuses to pay his spinners anything at all once the cloth has been sold He smuggles cotton past the customs officers and so cheats the public revenue
10. 10. With whom does Carlyle compare the Captains of Industry when urging them to become a chivalry?

    The Roman senators The monks of St Edmundsbury under Abbot Samson The Puritan preachers The old Captains of Slaughter
11. 11. What crime from the Stockport Assizes does Carlyle cite as evidence of the workers’ condition?

    Weavers burning a mill to destroy the new power-looms installed there Parents poisoning their children to claim burial-society money Workhouse guardians embezzling the poor rate A mob seizing a bakery during a bread riot
12. 12. What did King John leave the convent after staying at St Edmundsbury for about a fortnight?

    Thirteen pence for a mass, and a silk cloak later borrowed back A golden crown for St Edmund’s shrine A charter freeing the town and its market from all royal tolls for ever Forty marks of silver to repair the ruined Camera and the cloister
13. 13. Under Abbot Hugo, how did the sacristan’s loan from Benedict the Jew grow?

    From £40 to £80, then was forgiven by the king From about £27 to a claim of £1,200 besides interest, through renewed bonds It was repaid at once from the shrine’s offerings It was converted into a grant of the Lakenheath eel-render to the Jew
14. 14. What does “Morrison’s Pill” stand for in Carlyle’s argument?

    The opium and laudanum sold by druggists to quiet hungry children The thin workhouse diet prescribed for paupers under the New Poor Law One Act of Parliament that would cure society at a swallow Free trade in corn, as preached up and down the country by the Anti-Corn Law League
15. 15. What turns out to be the “ghost” singing “Once I was hap-hap-happy, but now I’m meeserable”?

    A broken church organ An imitator of Byron living next door A rusty meat-jack A Scottish misanthrope locked in the attic
16. 16. What does the Strand hatter do instead of making better hats?

    Sends a seven-foot lath-and-plaster hat through the streets Hires a famous poet to write verses in the newspapers about his hats Cuts his prices below every other hatter in London, whatever the loss Petitions Parliament for a heavy duty on all French and foreign hats
17. 17. What does the engineer Brindley do when difficulties accumulate on him?

    Goes walking in the hills until the answer comes Retires to his bed, sometimes for three days, to think them out Consults the Man of Theory and follows his logic Writes a long pamphlet explaining his reasoning to the public and the shareholders
18. 18. What does Bobus Higgins, the sausage-maker, really revere, according to the Houndsditch Indicator?

    Learning and the universities Hereditary rank and ancient lineage, above any amount of money The Charter and universal suffrage Talent only once it has brought cash, celebrity and success
19. 19. What is the Chinese Emperor’s “most public Act of Worship”, according to Carlyle?

    Ploughing a red furrow in spring, the signal for all China to begin Reading the classics aloud before his court Offering sacrifices at the Temple of Heaven at midnight Visiting the tombs of the previous emperors at the new year
20. 20. According to Sauerteig, what is the “Hell of the English”?

    The fear of being found guilty before the Just Judge at the last day The dread of doing unworthily, as with the old Romans The fear of revolution and the guillotine The terror of not succeeding, chiefly of not making money
21. 21. What does Carlyle say the modern Epic has become?

    “Gold and the Merchant” “Steam and the State” “Tools and the Man” “Arms and the Man”
22. 22. Which ruler does Carlyle hold up as a model for the English dukes?

    Frederick the Great, who ruled Prussia as the first servant of the state Louis-Philippe, who governed France as a citizen-king without a court The Duke of Wellington, who served England in war and in peace The Duke of Weimar, who governed actively and sheltered Goethe and Schiller
23. 23. Which fable does Carlyle use to close his first chapter on England’s “enchanted” wealth?

    Tantalus, who could never reach the fruit above him Midas, who got his gold and long ears with it Croesus, who was told to call no man happy until he died Pandora, who opened the box of evils upon the world
24. 24. Which two new government “Services” does Carlyle say must be organised?

    A State Railway Service and a Penny Postal Service A Medical Service and a National Banking Service A Police Service and a Convict-Transport Service An Education Service and an Emigration Service
25. 25. What does the Quaker manufacturer “Friend Prudence” say about his workers compared with his neighbour Blank’s?

    He would not exchange them for Blank’s with seven thousand pounds to boot He envies Blank, whose workers never strike He would sell his whole mill to Blank for seven thousand pounds He would gladly exchange them, since Blank pays lower wages
26. 26. According to Book IV, which two “vital elements” has no society ever existed without?

    A standing army and a national debt A free press and an elected parliament A governing class and a teaching class Private property and free contract
27. 27. How did the St Edmundsbury monks prepare their choice of abbot before going to the king?

    Six sworn elders chose three names, sealed in a paper Samson carried The Prior named his own successor, as the custom of the house had long required The whole convent voted by secret ballot in the chapter-house, the Prior counting the votes They asked the Pope’s legate in England to nominate a candidate of his own choosing
28. 28. What, according to Carlyle, was the “huge inarticulate question” the Manchester Insurrection put to England?

    “What do you mean to do with us?” “Why should we pay rent to idle landlords?” “Where is the bread the Corn Law promised?” “Who will give us the Charter?”
29. 29. How, according to Carlyle, did the Irish widow in Edinburgh “prove her sisterhood”?

    She took her case to the Court of Session and won She died of typhus and infected her lane, so that seventeen others died She led a march of the poor to the city chambers She nursed the children of the charitable ladies who had refused her any help
30. 30. To what does Carlyle compare the starving English worker, to show that “impossible” is the wrong word?

    The pauper in the workhouse, who is at least fed and housed The working horse, which always has food and lodging The medieval monk, who never lacked a pittance The American slave, who is fed by his master