This dissertation aimed at tracing down the most important stages and components of the 'March of the Mind' phenomenon and at pouring light on the nature of the changes that were going on within the ranks of English professionals in the last third of the nineteenth century. In my work I attempted to show and explain the social, economic and cultural forces that operated in the given period and helped transform the early Victorian professional status – which mostly meant middle class intellectual work. Professional people aimed at providing certain services based on a presumed mastery of a body of esoteric knowledge, but lacked any kind of formal institutional structure, therefore it was essential to carry out reforms that moulded the practitioners of the professions into a recognizable occupationally selected subclass within the society, which enjoyed more unity than ever before, increasingly moved in the direction of professionalism and could boast of specialized, expert knowledge and state recognition by the end of the era.