The English had lived in domestic peace for many years, had a common language and an established religion and, many believed, a constitutional system which guaranteed more individual freedom than was common in Europe. They also had a well-defined class system, which lingered on far longer than in many other modern societies and is still very obvious to Australian visitors. Industrial and urban change greatly affected this system but did not destroy it. The monarchy and aristocracy continued long after most other societies in Europe and the Americas had become republics. The House of Lords remained as a glorious anomaly which Liberal and Labour governments promised to abolish or reform but usually only modified, until the hereditary principle was finally abolished in 1999.

Land ownership remained extremely unequal. It maintained the wealth of those like the Duke of Westminster, still the richest man in England in 2003 and, like several other dukes (Bedford, Portland, Devonshire), landlord of much central London property inherited from his ancestors. As industrialisation increased, landowners like Lord Londonderry and the Earl of Halifax with coal beneath their fields were able to draw on considerable royalties.