Page:The Preservation of Places of Interest or Beauty, 1907.djvu/7



It may perhaps be thought that the subject of my lecture would have been more appropriate to some old Cathedral City, with its beautiful monument of mediaeval times and its many interesting reminders of mediaeval life, than to a city which may be said to represent the growth of a single century, and to be typical of the stress and endeavour of modern commercial enterprise. What, it may be said, has Manchester to do with places of natural beauty and historic interest, a modern city which has devoured the green fields and pleasant places of Lancashire with the ruthlessness begot of pre-occupation? I agree that forty years ago to have suggested in Manchester, that it was a matter of any serious importance to preserve beauty of scene or interest of association might have been to talk an unknown tongue; but this is not true at the present day. The time has past when life in our great manufacturing and trading centres was deemed to consist merely in the amplification of factories and stores, in the utilization of an unlimited supply of cheap labour, and in the building up of large individual fortunes. The fulness and value of life, its many interests, and the many opportunities of intelligent enjoyment it affords, are realized by the present generation in a way of which our forefathers were hardly conscious. Further, there has been a vast quickening of the sense of duty towards our neighbours, and many of those who have greatly prospered have an uneasy feeling, that the success of the few does not of itself justify our civilization, and that while life is dull and ugly for large sections of