"After a quiet life in a country parsonage for more than twenty years, there was something dazzling to Mr. Hale in the energy which conquered immense difficulties with ease; the power of the machinery of Milton, the power of the men of Milton, impressed him with a sense of grandeur, which he yielded to without caring to inquire into the details of its exercise. But Margaret went less abroad, among machinery and men; saw less of power in its public effect, and, as it happened, she was thrown with one or two of those who, in all measures affecting masses of people, must be acute sufferers for the good of many. The question always is, has everything been done to make the sufferings of these exceptions as small as possible? Or, in the triumph of the crowded procession, have the helpless been trampled on, instead of being gently lifted aside out of the roadway of the conqueror, whom they have no power to accompany on his march?" (Chapter VIII)

Margaret Hale is a young woman who's spent her whole life in the country in the south. And now her family has moved to a bustling northern town (hence the title), a place that's changing fast with new factories and more workers—in short, it's industrialization. Even though Elizabeth Gaskell's narrator doesn't come out and say "industrialization" here, she does give us a bunch of keywords: energy, power, machinery, masses. This is an Industrial Novel, after all. And Margaret and her family have totally different reactions. Mr. Hale is "dazzled" by it all, while Margaret seems to see the flipside. Margaret sees the few "acute sufferers" who seem to be suffering for all this progress.

Suffering and the City

So Gaskell also doesn't use the word "utilitarianism" (although we can't really blame her, it's kind of a mouthful when you're trying to get into a good story). But she does describe it, even if she doesn't use its proper name. While Mr. Hale is distracted by all the energy and machinery, Margaret ends up befriending some of the workers who've been hurt by life in the factories (those would be the "one or two who […] must be acute sufferers for the good of many"). And then the narrator asks, "has everything been done to make the sufferings of these exceptions as small as possible?" That question is at the heart of utilitarianism: how can we act for the "good of many," even if that means a few people lose out?

Let's Get Abstract 

This passage imagines that Victorian progress is a triumphant, "crowded procession." Even though most people get to join in, a few get "trampled." So it might not be just a coincidence that so many Victorian novels try to represent crowds; they were always thinking about the "many" and the "few" that might get left (and trampled) behind.

That might sound really abstract—but then, so is this passage. Gaskell is warning us: hey, big ideas here; mind the abstract nouns. While we hear about the power of machinery and men, we don't actually get any specific types of machines, or any specific people. In fact, the narrator doesn't even name Margaret's friends. Instead, she ends up talking in general terms, signaling that this isn't just a microscopic example but a general problem.