| | | | | If any antidote could abate the moral disease which leads men | to place overweening confidence in the conclusions of their | own reasoning powers, it might be looked for in the review of | the strange oscillations of opinion, with which the most | cultivated ages and countries are familiar. The worshippers of | intellectual progress would persuade us indeed that their idol | has steadily made good its authority, and that the wisdom of | ages is collected in the notions received by our own generation. | A more unbiased estimate of facts rather suggests the | conclusion, that the popular faith is subject to a cycle of | vicissitudes, which vindicates for each generation the right of | laughing at its fathers' belief. It is difficult to name the | proposition in political economy or in social ethics, which has | not been by turns assumed and decried during the centuries of | philosophical inquiry and free discussion. It may be, as the | lecturers at Mechanics' Institutes tell us, that this process is the | best for eliciting truth, and that the nineteenth century is | peculiarly happy in its energetic method of conducting it. But | these savans never inform us, as they ought to do, what precise | era of time may be fixed upon as the epoch of the ultimate | declaration of the truth on the matters of which they treat. If | the history of opinion up to the present time could be fairly | written, it would appear that our chief intellectual discoveries, | just when they had attained the rank of popular truths, have | been tripped up by some unexpected assailant, making his | attack in the quarter most remote from that which has engaged | the watchful attention of their patrons. Or, as it has happened | more than once in our own time, the patrons themselves have | overthrown their own belief; | | it has borne them onwards to conclusions which they could not | accept; and they have been foremost, in the keenness of their | disappointment, to demolish the objects of their own idolatry. | We have seen the men, who had identified their whole cause | and their school of opinion with the maintenance of 'civil and | religious liberty,' give up in a moment the first principles of | their system, when they came into conflict with a popular | prejudice, or involved the risk of losing popular support. In | this, as in similar instances, the very grounds of most confident | boasting on the part of those, who asserted their own exclusive | progress in light and knowledge, revealed the shallowness of | the pretension. | | It would be idle to attempt in this place to analyse the causes to | which such revolutions of opinion ought to be ascribed; for our | present purpose it will be sufficient to indicate one which lies | on the surface of the inquiry. Whether the defect of which we | speak should be referred to the general imperfection of the | human intellect, or to the moral disqualifications belonging to | the leaders of modern speculation, certain it is that few or none | have avoided the blunder, incident to all quackery, of ascribing | exclusive importance to their own favourite principle. A | theory is discovered sufficient to explain certain notorious and | interesting phenomena; forthwith its inventors propound it as | the key to all difficulties whatsoever, apply it to cases with | which it has not even a remote connexion, and exact obedience | to its laws from multitudes who can see no force or validity in | its claim. For a time this zeal ensures a degree of success to | the eager partisans of the new philosophy; in the end it | involves the certainty of defeat. In the attempt to work out the | universal authority of their chosen formula, they stumble upon | facts which will by no means adapt themselves to its | requirements. The process of adaptation cannot be commenced | without disclosing monstrous injustice, or at least | inconsistency, intolerable to such as are not blinded by their | slavish adherence to the theory, which lies at the root of the | mischief. Then the old consequence ensues; indignant | remonstrants put forth the true account of these facts, and soon | require for their own explanation the same universality of | acceptation, which they justly denied to its obnoxious | predecessor. Thus it is, that on many momentous subjects | public opinion drifts to and fro like a ship at anchor in the | tide-way; each generation is employed in exploding, instead of | correcting, the error of the last. | | Recent events have removed any doubt that might have been | previously entertained, as to the influence of the opinions | taught by the 'Manchester School.' They have gained so fast a | hold on the convictions of the majority, that even the | | indignant complaint of pecuniary distress on the part of a large and | once prominent class has failed to disturb their supremacy. | Against the power which they undertook to dethrone, they have | been completely victorious. Adopting, so far as it suited their | purpose, the conclusions of the political economists, they | denounced the existence of all that might be termed, in the | most comprehensive signification of the words, commercial | monopoly. They found the freedom of trade hampered by | restrictions, and its extension opposed in some cases for the | sake of persons, whose private interests appeared to conflict | with the public welfare. Unconditional liberty in all the | transactions of commerce was their demand, founded on | distinct evidence of the evils occasioned by certain notorious | interruptions of it. The old system of monopoly, or rather the | eighteenth-century aspect of its influence, had very little to say | in its own behalf. Men of intellect, and still more men of | fluency and controversial readiness, had enlisted themselves | amongst the disciples of Adam Smith, and were busily working | out the problems, of which they were indebted to him for the | enunciation. They had the advantage of conducting their | argument on their own conditions, choosing their own | examples, and for the most part engaging an auditory whose | interests favoured their conclusions. Their opponents belonged | to classes that were too ignorant or too careless to reason, and | they were allowed to indoctrinate with their principles the | rising statesmen of the age, as though their teaching contained | within itself an answer to all the questions which the troubled | waters of political strife might cast in the way of the helmsman | of the State. | | We are very far from imputing in general to all political | economists this fundamental mistake. The more eminent | disciples of that science have expressly disclaimed the | intention to extend their inquiries beyond the narrow limits | prescribed by their own arbitrary definition. They were | engaged, they said, in examining the laws which governed the | production of wealth: their science had no higher function: it | ought not to be censured if it failed to throw light on greater | subjects. With such a definition it is quite legitimate to | disagree. We may object that a term so extensive as political | economy ought not to be applied to this narrow investigation, | but we certainly cannot ascribe to its professors a charlatanism | which they expressly disavow. To them we can only say that | they may have erred in attributing undue importance to their | own study, that they have given to the accumulation of wealth | an unfortunate prominence amongst political aims, and that | they must not expect their science to escape some share of the | odium, if its successful | | result should be coincident with a diminution of national | happiness. But the truth of their statements would be as little | invalidated by these reflections as would the calculations of a | military engineer by a lamentation on the destructive tendency | of his operations. Until the economists plainly assert that the | aggregation of wealth, without regard to its moral or social | incidents is the sole end of political existence, they are entitled | to be heard with respect. If there be any truth in the maxim, | , the man who has analysed the causes of a nation's | wealth, and systematized the laws of its increase, should | furnish a valuable contribution to the stores of a statesman's | knowledge, or the materials for a philanthropist's reforms. | | But the politicians, whose influence has been paramount of late | in the Senate and in literature, do not confine themselves | within such reasonable limits. They have applied the principles | of their economic teachers to the whole subject-matter of | public policy. They have one remedy for every evil, one | solution for every difficulty. Competition is their panacea, the | keystone of their whole system. Poverty and crime, ignorance | and barbarism, are to melt away before the sun of this | heaven-descended principle; give men (they say) but scope for | competition, and wealth will be increased, labour employed, | comfort diffused; England shall become the workshop of the | world. It need not be told how the advocates of competition | have fared in their enterprise. They succeeded at last in | making the most popular statesman of the age their coryphaeus, | and adjusted the taxation of the empire to their mind. They | could not see that by this narrow idolatry of a theory they were | ensuring its ultimate downfal. They forced men to put it to a | test, which it could not bear, and staked its existence on the | issue of the fatal experiment. Concurrently with the advance in | public favour of their views, there was growing up a | formidable antagonism; not among the vanquished monopolists | of property and hereditary influence, but in the mind of the | people. Under the banner of Chartism this opposing school of | social ethics began to show its disbelief of Manchester | doctrines; but the disputants were somewhat too ready to | appeal to the pike and the monster-meeting; commerce trusted | in her special constables and was saved. Not disheartened by | the failure, the opposition has owned its error in dreaming of a | resort to physical force, and now applies itself in earnest to the | rational investigation of the theory, to which existing evils are | attributed. | | That evils do exist under it, can hardly at this day be denied. | For a time, indeed, the confident protestations of the believers | in competition gained the same respect for their facts, with | | which their arguments had already been treated. Men stared at | well-filled tables of statistics, showing every imaginable | criterion of prosperity, and such as doubted of the conclusion | intended to be proved, did not know how to detect the failing | link in the argumentative chain. But from time to time voices | were heard, which could not be mistaken; their cries might be | suppressed, but the ear on which they had once fallen could not | forget the sound. The utterance was that of helpless distress, | the more helpless because it had no right appreciation of the | causes to which that misery was due. Amongst the operatives | of the factory districts suffering periodical depression after | temporary abundance, ~~ from the dull and stupidly ignorant | labourers of agricultural counties, whose condition had fallen | as low as that of their ancestral serfs, ~~ from weavers and | lacemakers, from women working like savages in mines, or | plying the needle with a servile devotion which still could not | save them from a more infamous trade ~~ arose one mingled | petition for relief from the evils of a degraded and miserable | existence. These murmurs of the people's discontent may have | been translated sometimes into an unreal and affected | language, which has repelled the sympathy it was intended to | arouse. In this age, as in every other period of the world's | history, the cause of the people may have had its factious or | conceited orators, whose personal credit added nothing to their | principles, and rather weakened the arguments to be drawn | from their recorded facts. But the facts have | not really been disposed of by imputations against the | mannerism of their relators, or even by the refutation of | erroneous doctrines maintained upon the assumption of their | truth. For a long while the condition-of-England question has | had a real significance for all thoughtful men; its revelations | have possessed that melancholy kind of interest which belongs | to discoveries of unsuspected danger, which do not at the same | time make known the remedy or the escape. | | When such thoughts were stirring in the minds of Englishmen, | it was time for the economists to clear up the mistake with | respect to their science, which had so widely prevailed. If they | did not desire to be held responsible for these evils, they should | at once have owned that the success of their system did not | necessarily involve the 'happiness of the greatest number,' and | that the accumulation of wealth might be coincident with a | lamentable want of it among the industrious classes. In their | proper sphere the received laws of political economy were | indisputably true; for the capitalist and the merchant-prince | their operation was evidently beneficial. It would have been an | act of graceful homage to truth, if men had confessed that | something | | more was needed for the general well-being of society | than their own prosperity, and that other principles, more | unselfish schemes, must accompany their system, ~~ nay, must | be the necessary conditions of its toleration in the land. But | unfortunately the liberal theorists adopted an entirely opposite | tone; the more clearly social evils were disclosed, the more | obstinately did they insist on the exclusive power of their own | dogma to meet them. The bitterness of their raillery was | reserved for the charitable schemes with which some well-meaning | philanthropists tried to patch up the most glaring rents | of the existing order of things. Charity itself was almost | proscribed as a bungling interference with the great laws of | supply and demand. Nothing was wanted but a still greater | emancipation of capital from existing restrictions; if | competition were encouraged, all would be well. Well for | themselves, they meant; or, well for the working classes in | good times; but, by a fallacy familiar to the tyro in logic, they | argued upon the assumption that the proposition was | universally true. When they described in glowing terms the | abundance of employment for labour, which increased capital | would create, they forgot to add that there would be seasons | when capital would allow this labour to be unemployed for | want of remunerative operations, in which it might be | occupied. When they spoke of the ability conferred by the | possession of wealth to accomplish works unknown to the most | enterprising of our forefathers, they said nothing of the power | which it also gave to the capitalist of depressing the condition | of the workman. When they tasked the resources of their | philosophy to show that each man's interest was the interest of | all, and that selfishness was the moving principle of general | advancement, they overlooked the obvious truth, that men do | not know their own real interest, and that what they take for it | may often be both detrimental to themselves and fatal to the | general welfare of the society in which they live. When they | were pressed with facts, which could not be disposed of by | economical phrases, they contented themselves with the | general observation that misery was a necessary part of the | order of things, and that partial suffering was an incident of the | great law of competitive progress. It was this contemptuous | refusal to hear the pleadings of distress, which embittered the | feelings of the working classes against the owners of capital. A | man may struggle against calamities through a long life, if he | has sympathy from others and a hope of ultimate success in his | endeavours; but when he is once assured that the evils of his lot | are irremediable, he will either sink into vicious despondency, | or angrily question the sincerity of his informant, for whose | benefit his own misfortunes appear to be prolonged. If both | results have been witnessed amongst | | ourselves, let those bear the blame who have tried to conceal | under the garb of political economy the dictates of their own | selfish idolatry of wealth. | | It might have been well in some respects if the whole question | of the alleged antagonism between Capital and Labour could | have been argued de novo in this age | and country. Unfortunately it comes before us prejudiced by | facts recorded in the most appalling chapters of the world's | history. In early times we have scarcely an instance of an | effort on the part of the oppressed to secure for labour its | rights, that was not characterised by the grossest ignorance | both of the real boon to be sought and of the right way to seek | it. Wild and visionary demands enforced by horrible violence | have made the cause of the people odious to the student of | history. The terrors of the Jacquerie in the fourteenth century | and the monstrous extravagances of the Munster Anabaptists, | loom out from the annals of the past as images of the fearful | consequences to be always expected from the revolt of ignorant | slaves against the evils of their condition. In our own era the | form assumed by popular discontent has been not less revolting | to the lovers of order and morality than those ancient excesses. | Starting from the axiom that all his distresses are to be traced to | the existing constitution of society and to the superstition by | which it is upheld, the Communist is at war with all that | nourishes the affections or claims the homage of civilized man. | Destroying by his abrogation of marriage the whole framework | of duties and enjoyments involved in the idea of home, and by | his denunciation of the rights of property arraying its | possessors against himself in internecine war, he can look for | no toleration from the society which he is pledged to | annihilate. The prevalence of Communistic notions in France | and Germany at this moment is a circumstance full of terror to | all thoughtful men, ~~ an alarming correlative of the military | system, which the Continental powers have again established | on the ruins caused by the Revolutions of 1848. It seems as | though the fleeting vitality of civilization depended on the | faithfulness of the soldier to the traditions of his professional | discipline against the blandishments of the new philosophy and | the propagandism of the people's faith. That society cannot | long exist on such conditions, it would be idle, with our | experience of European history, to assert; but that it must on | such conditions be continually in danger of destruction from | the mine over which it is upheld, is plain to the most careless | observer. | | To English readers it may seem perhaps unnecessary to descant | on the dangers of Communism; their national instinct is | peculiarly sensitive on the point most deeply affected by that | | theory, ~~ the sanctity of the family and the home. English | agitation in modern times has taken almost exclusively the | form of political discontent, and while it professed to | administer a cure for social ills by Municipal or Parliamentary | Reform Bills, guarded with religious care the fabric of that | society itself. There are some signs, however, that this trade of | political agitation is nearly worn out. It has been grossly | abused by the managers of it for their own purposes, and the | people begin to find out the cheat. The Reform Bill did not | give them, as they had been led to expect, plenty to eat and | drink; the new Municipal Corporations are as much closed | against the workman as the old; even the repeal of the Corn | Laws has left the great majority of the labouring class in no | better condition than that in which it found them. The newest | device of all, the Financial Reform Association, is so | manifestly a trick of the traders in politics, that the workmen | are simply indifferent to its progress altogether. They have lost | confidence in professional Reformers, and seeing how little | they have gained from the past labours of that voluble | fraternity, they are not very solicitous about their future | success. And yet they feel strongly that a change is needed, | that increasing poverty and vice cannot be the necessary laws | of human existence, and that they must overthrow the obstacle, | whatever it may be, that hinders their improvement. | Such feelings it is scarcely possible for them to express without | encountering the reasonable prepossessions occasioned by the | remembrance of past insurrection and the dread of | contemporary Communism. And hence the philanthropists, | whose hearts have been stirred by recent disclosures of the | misery of the poor, have betaken themselves to plans of wholly | eleemosynary assistance. They thought it right to keep the | lower orders in their proper station, and to make them the | recipients of the bounty of their richer brethren; they were but | carrying out (so it seemed to them) the Divine system of | inequality in the distribution of blessings, if they marked as | strongly as possible the childlike dependence of the poor and | the paternal munificence of their wealthy guardians. Who can | estimate the marvellous and manifold benefits which such | charity has conferred? Political economists may sneer, and | claim for their own science the credit of more exalted, because | more rational, benevolence: the dispensers of charity will not | heed such sneers; they can trust their own feelings, and they | can appeal to the cheerful confidence of the recipients of their | bounty, as a testimony to the blessed influence of almsdeeds, | which have had no intellectual basis for their operation, no | better guide than human sympathy for their distribution among | the poor. Whatever system this anxious | | century may inaugurate, whatever reorganization of society the | coming generations may behold, there will always remain work | enough for these good Samaritans, ~~ cases of desolation and | distress beyond the reach of general laws and national | provisions, ~~ widows and fatherless to be visited in their | affliction; disease and imbecility to be tended; vice to be | reclaimed by Christian guidance: ~~ the poor shall never cease | out of the land. | | The authors of the publications referred to at the head of this | article appear to have no misgivings as to the propriety or | practicability of another remedy for the miseries of the poor, | viz. the introduction of Socialism, as regards the employment | of labour. If we do not in many points agree with the | sentiments these writers have expressed, we yet owe them | thanks for the heartiness and manly activity of their | proceedings. If they have not proved their case, they have | contributed the most valuable materials for proof by hazarding | a direct experiment of their own plans, and publishing its | history to the world. | | But why, it will be asked, have they adopted a title which | recalls naturally to men's minds some of the worst excesses of | modern licentiousness, and which must of necessity prejudice | their cause in the eyes of the moderate and respectable among | their countrymen? It is possible that they have felt it | incumbent on them, by this bold nomenclature, to invite the | confidence of a class, which has been but too successfully | instructed to suspect the venerable titles of the past, and to hate | the powers consecrated to the respect of the educated portion of | society. Or, without recognising any such obligation of policy, | they may have chosen an appellation whose etymological | propriety was apparent, and have resolved to disregard the | possible misrepresentation to which it would expose them. | Certainly the name of 'Socialism' has a very awkward sound to | English ears. It is the designation by which the system of the | few enthusiasts of native origin who have devoted themselves | to expound the new material philosophy, has been popularly | known. It has been understood to imply the absence of | religion, and even of morality, in those who professed it, and | has, therefore, conveyed to the public mind no other idea than | that of simple antagonism to the wealth and welfare (the words, | unhappily, have acquired a distinct meaning) of existing | society. | | In fairness it should be conceded that a Socialist need not be | the monster which common repute has represented him to be; | etymology may appeal for its justification to facts. Socialism | is not, and need not be, identical with Communism; its French | expounders vehemently disclaim the imputation which would | endeavour to confound them. But disappointed Socialists are | | apt to embrace the Communistic theory in all its excesses, and | to draw down by that conversion the whole weight of the | public censure on their earlier opinions. It is not our business | to vindicate the adventurers in France who suddenly found | themselves placed by the Revolution of 1848 in the seat of | power, for which they had enjoyed no training of official life, | possessed no prestige of personal | character. But it may be suggested that the government of the | Luxembourg has hardly met with a fair consideration as yet at | the hands of English politicians. Judged of by the results, with | which we are most familiar, it must be pronounced a gigantic | failure. But there are facts less known in this country, which | show that the condition of the labouring class has occupied a | different position since the Revolution, and that the very failure | was not without its benefits to their cause. The organization of | labour certainly had no fair trial during the brief reign of the | revolutionary government; its author was not cordially assisted | by his colleagues, and his plans were thwarted by their | intrusion of the into his system. His movement | incurred the blame of the whole commercial depression | consequent on a great political convulsion; and his colleagues | were nothing loth to throw overboard a companion whose | hobby seemed only to embarrass their own combinations. But | there was no destruction of family or Church contained in the | programme of the theorists, to whom the of Paris | looked for the renovation of their social life. Whatever faults it | might exhibit, it was free from those offences against public | morality with which kindred schemes had been not unjustly | stigmatized. In saying this we do not lose sight of the | connexion between the organizers of labour and that school of | French philosophy which endeavours to propagate simple | materialism under a new terminology; there is little doubt that | these men are unfriendly to the Christian faith, or at best are | making an appeal to motives inferior to those which should | influence the actions and undertakings of Christian men. We | would only remark, that these unchristian tendencies had no | necessary relation to the schemes for the association of labour | which the eventful epoch of 1848 brought so prominently | before the world. | | To leave no doubt as to their own feeling on this subject, the | promoters of the Working-Men's Associations recently | organized have chosen the title of Christian Socialists. We | understand them to imply, by that name, their firm assurance | that no principle of organization or association of labour can | succeed, which has not for its supporters men imbued with | Christian principles, and acknowledging a common obligation | higher, not only than self-love, but even than patriotic | fraternity. On this very | | ground they have been attacked by free-thinkers, by liberal | politicians, and by zealous sectaries, uniting, on different | grounds, to deprecate the alliance between Christianity and | popular politics. The union evidently perplexes these critics; it | is a stumbling-block equally to the opposite schools which hold | religion too sacred, or too irrational, a system to be mixed up | with secular projects. The scoffers who would banish what | they deem the myths of an exploded superstition, and the | religionists who would confine the exposition of their dogma to | the walls of the conventicle, have displayed an equally hostile | feeling to the honourable attempt to make religion the guide of | social improvement, and to sanctify the partnership of trade by | the recognition of a more enduring and holier brotherhood. | | We need not say how little we sympathise with the classes of | objectors to whom we have referred, and yet we cannot regard | with satisfaction the religious bearing of the movement. The | promoters of it have pledged themselves to a Christian basis, to | the establishment of their works on the foundation of a | common faith. But what Christianity, and what faith, are | implied in these professions? We do not forget, in asking these | questions, that two Clergymen of the Church of England are | prominent in their advocacy of 'Christian Socialism;' nor do we | intend to charge Professor Maurice or Mr. Kingsley with | disowning the Creed which they are pledged to teach. But in | the attempt to gain a favourite object men sometimes deceive | themselves into the belief that they are maintaining their own | cause, while, in truth, they strain it to meet, as best it may, the | necessities of their position. An unconscious Eclecticism is the | result in too any cases of the desire to harmonize an ancient | code with the prevailing sympathies of the persons for whose | acceptance it is offered. The working men, who are invited to | form these associations, are described by the promoters | themselves, as prejudiced in great measure against the teaching | of Revelation, and still more against the instructors to whom | the delivery of its doctrines has been committed. Educated too | often in the persuasion that Christianity is an imposture | maintained for the benefit of the Clergy, they have learned the | hacknied arguments against its evidences, and what is worse) | have indulged the habits of practical ungodliness, for which its | rejection furnishes so common an excuse. With their moral | sense blunted, and the traditionary respect for the faith of their | childhood destroyed, their minds have opposed no obstacle to | the entrance of theories fatal to every promise of social | tranquillity or domestic happiness. Irritable and suspicious, | keen to detect the first indications of contempt, imposture, or | oppression, and slow to believe truths, which they have been | taught to regard | | as profitable frauds, they seem to offer no opening for a | friendly approach to the moralist or the divine. We are far | from saying that they cannot be approached; it would be | miserable want of faith to deny the practicability of their | conversion. But they must be gained, not so much through | argument as by the power of personal influence: they must | first trust the teacher, and then his message will find its way to | their hearts. The promoters of the Working Men's Associations | will reply, that they are giving the best proof of their agreement | in this view by their labours for the oppressed; and it is exactly | because they have shown some perception of the truth, that we | regret their adoption of less hopeful and less legitimate means. | To bring down Christianity to the level of those to whom it is | offered, is a hazardous undertaking, which may justify itself | indeed by S. Paul's description of his own conduct, but is too | likely, in the hands of uninspired evangelists, to issue in a | perversion of the truth. The experiment has been tried often | enough of applying the nomenclature of the Gospel to the | idolatries which it was sent to extirpate, but never with such | success as would encourage its repetition. Persuade the | Chartist that his democratic principles are identical with | Christian liberty, ~~ that he should , as Alton Locke | has it, ~~ and you will do much to convince him of the | sacredness of his own cause, but little to humble him before the | power that would bring home to him the sins he may have | committed in maintaining his right. He will hear you gladly | enough while you declare that 'democracy is the will and gift of | God,' and will probably argue from your premises that he | should smite with the sword of the Lord the oppressors who | resist it; but he will not be so ready to hear 'that this is | thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, | suffering wrongfully .' We fear that | the acceptance of a spurious Christianity as a sanction to | political claims would not be the precursor of a devout | obedience rendered to the Evangelical law. It is impossible to | forget the contrast to such discipline, which Apostolical | example suggests. Onesimus was spoken of, indeed, as | ; but this account of him was given to the master, not to | the slave. To the slave was preached the duty of returning to | the lord whom he had wronged, and without whose consent he | might not enjoy even the privilege of ministering to the | necessities of an Apostle in his bonds. The 'new Church of | enfranchised and fraternal labour' should be proclaimed to the | rich and the proud, who have sinfully forgotten that | brotherhood which their Christian faith should have | | taught them to reverence and maintain. Philemon must be | brought to see the duty of assisting his toil-worn servants to | improve their condition and set themselves free in truth; for the | oppressed, Christianity has other and less welcome lessons | than the confirmation of their own claims to independence and | political power. In terms all this may be recognised by the | expositors of Christian Socialism: we do not accuse them of | wishing to deny it: one of them, indeed, has bidden the | working men, before they attempt to gain their rights, to make | themselves worthy of them. But will this wise and truthful | guidance be regarded, when the whole spirit of the teachers' | philosophy leads to a different result? To the future we must | look for an answer to our doubt. | | We freely admit that it is no easy matter to lay down the | conditions under which Christianity may become the governing | principle of a commercial body in these days. In old times all | men were agreed upon the meaning of Christian unity. If they | erred in their definition, yet they had the inestimable advantage | of being able to join together for any purpose in God's name, | without first discussing the arguments for natural or revealed | religion with such as had not accepted them. This is very | remarkable in the case of the guilds or confraternities of | workmen, which the new associations in many respects | resemble. | | | | | | To attempt in this age a similar mode of consecrating a trader's | association would ensure defeat. Even if the object could be | gained by limiting the right of association strictly to members | of the Church of England, it would be fatal to the scheme to | leave Romanists and Dissenters to organise rival partnerships, | in which the would be added to the bitterness of | commercial competition. If, on the other hand, it were possible | to organize associations, like colonies, on the basis of various | creeds, yet forming parts of a system, engaged in amicable | relations with each other, this would be to concede the | principle, and formally recognise conflicting views of | Christianity as equally true, or as founded on differences | immaterial to the question of active co-operation. The force of | such considerations we do not desire to evade. It must be | evident that the promoters of the Working Men's Associations | could not have required subscription to a creed, or have | imposed a test of religious orthodoxy on their associates. But it | might have been less difficult to do what is done by a great | proportion of Friendly Societies throughout the land unite in | some common act of worship, which should have dedicated the | labours of the community to Him, from whom their strength | and skill were derived. There are few Village Clubs which do | not, on a given day of the year, frequently a holy day of the | Church, begin their annual feast by a procession to the house of | God, and a joint offering of prayer and praise. Very indevout | are these services sometimes, it may be said; and the like | argument may be urged against all solemnities from the | unbelief of some who partake in them. But the argument has | no especial force against the religious assemblies of | associations formed for mutual benefit; nor can it be held to | outweigh the strong obligations which lie upon all Christians, | to pay homage in their public undertakings, as well as in | private devotions, to the Master, whose kingdom they serve. If | the circumstances of the traders, whose scheme is before us, | did not admit of this public recognition of the Christian Faith | we doubt whether they should have prefixed to their Socialism | the epithet by which they have distinguished it. If its only | Christian characteristic is the belief of certain promoters, it | might have been better for those gentlemen to have entered on | their work simply as a benevolent design, a philanthropical | experiment. They might have | | declared their own motives to be such as naturally influenced | members of Christ's Church, and have left the Christianity of | their acts to be judged by the beholders. It might have been | hoped that such fruits of faith would have disposed many | witnesses to think favourably of the tree from which they | sprung: it might have been confidently expected that the | recipients of the benefit would have been no unwilling | disciples in things spiritual of their temporal benefactors. | | The promoters have made profession of higher aims: we trust | that they will not really incur the evil we apprehend from the | identification of their professions with a very different kind of | religion from that which they intend. If self-respect should be | cultivated among their disciples to the exclusion of self-discipline, | if the fraternity of a trade should usurp the place in | their affections which belongs to the communion of Saints, if | kindly feelings and noble sentiments should be taken for the | whole of that religion which requires a surrender of the will, | and inscribes on its banner the necessity of crucifying the flesh | with the affections and lusts, they will not receive, nor will | they deserve, the approving assent of good men to the | honourable title of Christian Socialists, which they have | courageously assumed. | | A still graver objection seems to us to lie against some of the | arguments used in their publications in defence of mysterious | truths, or in vindication of what are termed Scriptural | difficulties. We cannot acquit some papers, under the signature | of 'Parson Lot,' of painful irreverence in discussing sceptical | objections to the Old Testament history. That they may suit the | tone of mind prevailing among the working classes, or even | that they may be greatly in advance of the literature | industriously circulated for their use, we will not deny; it is the | common allegation of opposite schools in defence of their | missionary efforts. The Oratorian makes no scruple of treating | with studied familiarity objects which the reverent customs of | the Christian world have secluded from such freedom; the | ranting preacher considers no subject too sacred for his vulgar | claptrap, if he can raise an approving laugh amongst his pious | auditory. We believe that in neither case does this conduct | secure a real assent from the hearts of those to whom the | appeal is made; their outward concurrence is dearly purchased | by the dishonour done to holy things, and the misrepresentation | of revealed truth. We feel convinced that the conversion of | unbelievers does not really depend on the answer they can give | to the quibbling objections which the admirers of Tom Paine | and Voltaire from time to time resuscitate. When a man is | experimentally assured of the truth of Christianity, or | | traditionally habituated to obey it, he will accept the weakest reply | to such objections, or be content to believe that, since the | system is true, there must be some sufficient way, though | unknown to him, of accounting for these apparent anomalies. | He will not take so exaggerated an estimate of his own | knowledge as to suppose that every difficulty, which he is not | prepared immediately to solve, must be fatal to the whole | system in which it appears. To give up the hopes, the | comforts, and the helps afforded by his faith, would be too | serious a matter to be resolved upon under the pressure of | intellectual difficulty; his natural course is rather to assume the | truth of his creed, and the consequent impossibility of an | objection to it, for which some adequate solution does not | exist. As for the infidels who allege these difficulties, we fear | that the most triumphant reply to their questions would not | change the heart in which moral reasons for unbelief have | asserted their force. To such as are seeking for real guidance | and light, humbly desiring to have their doubts removed, the | irreverent manner on which we have been commenting, is little | likely to give satisfaction. | | We have referred to 'Alton Locke' as the most remarkable work | in which the principles of Christian Socialism have been | propounded. Our readers will of course understand that no | technical argument is contained in that tale. It is the | autobiography of a youth whose early training under the | restraint of a gloomy Calvinism, leads him to seek a larger and | more charitable faith, and whose experience of the hardships | endured in a tailor's workshop, makes him a ready convert to | the doctrines of Chartism. Disgusted by the failure of the | movement, which exploded on the memorable 10th of April, | and by the childish or cowardly behaviour of many who were | concerned in it, he is ready to embrace the views of those | benefactors to the working men, who would lead them to seek, | by a system of co-operation in trade, an escape from the evils | of competition with its grinding oppression and starvation-wages. | Alton Locke is a poet as well as a Chartist, and brings | out the intellectual developments in his order with some force, | but with rather too much appearance of effort. Mr. Kingsley | has not avoided altogether the besetting sin of all authors of | didactic fictions, ~~ the exposition of their moral in a more | direct form than the incidents of the story naturally allow. Yet | there are characters of strikingly individual conception, and | some scenes, in which the writer's power and imagination are | shown to be of no mean order. Sandy Mackaye, the old Scotch | bookseller, with his quiet humour, his keen analysis of popular | opinions, his mixture of genuine benevolence with a shrewd | estimate of the virtue of frugality, is enough to stamp the book | with the mark of originality. | | Nor are the subordinate characters wanting in interest; | the reader feels that some of them must have been sketched | from the life. Of the story we cannot speak so favourably: its | whole conduct is deformed by an air of improbability, which | can only be justified by the necessities of the author's moral | purpose; ~~ a justification which implies a defect of artistic | power in the treatment of the subject. A master would have | taught us the lessons of Mr. Kingsley's creed, while we seemed | to be listening only to a tale of every-day life, deriving its | whole interest from the analysis of human motive and the | descriptions of character, with which the artist had enriched his | work. The argumentative force of 'Alton Locke' lies chiefly in | the account of the present evils of the system which the | Christian Socialists seek to overthrow. So long as the | Manchester School are unable to deny these evils, and have no | better remedy to suggest than an expansion of the very power | which has produced them, any new physician is entitled to be | heard, who displays an acquaintance with the extent and | virulence of our social disorders. Slopwork is the crying evil | of the tailoring trade, and naturally falls under Mr. Kingsley's | bitter condemnation. We extract a scene in which Alton Locke | recovers two lost comrades, who had gradually sold themselves | into the hands of a 'sweater,' being compelled to live, or rather | starve, and work in his den for the money which they owed to | him. One of the two is the son of a burly yeoman from the | Fens, whose homely good-humour and stolid simplicity | contrast well with the bitter keenness and clever roguery of the | Londoners, amongst whom he has adventured himself for the | discovery of his lost son. The other victim is the brother-in-law | of Crossthwaite, Alton Locke's friend and compatriot; he | has fallen an easy prey to the knavery of the sweater's schemes | by his Irish recklessness. Alton Locke is himself the narrator | of the incidents which led to their discovery. | | | | | | | We must omit a spirited description of the scene following the | return of Locke with the old farmer and a policeman armed | with a search-warrant in which the countryman takes summary | vengeance on the owner of the sweaters' den for the detention | of his son, and afterwards in the joy of his heart furnishes the | money necessary to pay the debts for which the other poor | wretches were held in their employer's power. We have only | space for the conclusion: ~~ | | | | | | It has been maintained by some critics that such descriptions | have no proper place in the literature of fiction. They want | more dignified and more exciting scenes. But the truth is, that | with the revelations of our own social evils is bound up all that | sober and thoughtful men feel to be most full of interest, most | worthy of their earnest attention. The time is gone by, when | the adventures of celebrated highwaymen, or of successful | pirates, occupied a prominent place in popular literature. | Without claiming credit to our age for any great advance in | taste, it is easy to trace the decline of a zest for such narratives | to our altered circumstances. Our every-day life offers no | theatre for the display of bodily prowess; good roads, profound | peace, and rural constabulary, cut us off from sympathy with | scenes of perilous adventure or lawless daring. Meantime the | plot thickens; and our interest is transferred to the complication | of incidents more akin to what our own experience of social | life has rendered familiar. The great majority of modern | novels turn upon occurrences that might fall under our own | observation, if we had the sympathy to care about them. The | narrative is not less | | eventful; human passion is as stormy as ever; but a decent | regard for law, and the removal of the half-romantic mystery, | which lent dignity to the heroes of crime in other days, have | prescribed a change of subject to the author, who would really | discharge his function as a teacher of his age. Unhappily there | is as much mystery about the ordinary facts of English life in | its lowest aspect, as there could be formerly in a narrative of | plunder or the account of a smuggler's run. The rich know | nothing of the poor: the employer has only a commercial | relation to the employed: Belgravia has infinitely less | knowledge of Bermondsey than of Paris or of Rome. We think | that the writer does a real service to his country, whoever he | may be, that can gain the attention of the wealthy and powerful | to the mere facts of their neighbours' condition. They are not, | in truth, unwilling to listen; it is a libel on their humanity to | ascribe to them a wilful indifference to suffering or want. But | they are grossly ignorant, and for that ignorance of course they | are to blame. The great interest which the letters in the | 'Morning Chronicle' on Labour in London excited is a fresh | proof of the strange inattention to what was going on around | their own dwellings, which had characterised the great body of | the English gentry. The facts of London life ought not to have | been 'stranger than fiction' to the squires and fundholders, who | spend at least a quarter of the year in the heart of that capital. | | There are some persons, whose interest it is to suppress these | revelations, and to turn the thoughts of men to any subject | rather than to the existence of misery and discontent. Every | lamentation over want, nay, every statement of its possibility, | is a personal annoyance; it seems to call in question their | fundamental belief that non-interference is the key to all social | improvement. But the inquiry cannot now be stifled, ~~ not | even, we trust, by the uproar of the religious war which Lord | John Russell and Lord Ashley have stirred up. The state of the | poor must be known; if the condition of the workman has been | fairly described, a remedy must be found, if not for the sake of | charity, yet for the safety of the State which contains within it | such elements of confusion and ruin. | | The remedy which the Christian Socialists prescribe, arises | directly out of their own conception of the cause of the disease. | Capital, they say, has been the instrument of oppression: | profits could only be made to capitalists by continual reduction | of wages competition between workmen rendered it possible to | carry that reduction to the very limits of human existence, in | rare cases to cause the absolute starvation of the helpless | victim. Labour had found no defence but in open war, which | was profitable often to the master with his overstocked | warehouse rather | | than to the workmen who organized the strike. At best such | combinations were destructive of peace, industry and good | order; a more excellent way of protecting labour must be | found. The reconciliation between capital and labour must be | effected then, in their opinion, by making the same persons | possessors of both, and therefore interested equally in the fair | and just remuneration of their expenditure. A company of | workmen paying wages to themselves, ~~ to borrow an | incorrect phraseology from existing practice, ~~ and dividing | the profits of their work amongst themselves, would have a | common interest in their own success, and would retain in their | own hands the power of so regulating their work as to provide | for the health, the comfort, and the improvement of each | partner in the general enterprise. A great increase of profit | would result (they say) from the absence of fraud and | indolence, ~~ crimes henceforth against the whole society | instead of injuries to the one owner of capital, ~~ from the | economy in materials and in the use of them, which concert | among workmen would produce, from the abolition of the | middlemen, and from the prevention of the ruinous abatement | of prices, which at every crisis of trade the law of competition | enforces. | | It would be idle to attempt, by an incidental discussion in this | place, to dispose of the great problem on which these proposals | depend. To those, however, who are inclined with the | Manchester School to dismiss them at once as unphilosophical | and fallacious, it may be proper to cite the testimony of Mr. | John Stuart Mill. In a chapter of his great work which bears | the significant title of 'The Probable Futurity of the Labouring | Classes,' he points to the development of the co-operative | principle as a thing to be confidently expected, quite apart from | any recommendation of the teachers of political science. He | thinks it utterly improbable that the labouring classes, | stimulated as they now are to acquire knowledge and inform | themselves in respect to all that affects their own prosperity, | will be long contented to be the mere servants of the owners of | capital, hewers of wood and drawers of water for the benefit of | others. They will demand a share in the product of their own | toil, ~~ not merely the smallest share which the necessities of | the labour-market permit their employer to accord, but a share | varying with the returns of the trade or business in which they | are embarked. They will require such an extension of the | joint-stock principle as will allow the humblest artisan to feel that | he too has a stake in the great enterprise to which the strength of | his sinews contributes a part of its success. It is plain that such | a participation of profits would in no small degree be an | antidote to the revolutionary spirit of modern times. The | workman whose interests depend on the stability of society and | on that public | | confidence which so essential to commercial prosperity, will | be the natural guardian of the public tranquillity, the natural | opponent of its disturbers. It is said that scarcely a single | operative enrolled in the Parisian associations was found | among the actors in the sanguinary outbreak of June, 1848. | They no longer felt, as they had done, that in a revolution they | had everything to gain and nothing to lose. | | We do not, of course, ascribe to the French Republic the origin | of the co-operative societies to whose principles it gave so | warm and apparently so ephemeral an encouragement. Long | before the revolution the experiment had been tried, and its | results published to the world. The pages of Mr. John Stuart | Mill have made many of our readers familiar with the example | of M. Leclaire, a tradesman in Paris, whose system was in full | operation in 1842, and has been more than once explained to | the English public. Both in Chambers' Journal, and in an | appendix to some editions of the famous | Organisation du Travail , the details of the experiment | conducted by this intelligent house-painter were fully | authenticated. It appears that the workmen, amounting in 1842 | to 50, but afterwards increased to about 200 in number, | received their wages on the ordinary plan, a fixed allowance | being paid to the manager, and interest allowed on his capital | embarked in the concern. At the end of the year the surplus | profits were divided among the workmen in proportion to their | wages. In the introduction to his statement of accounts, M. | Leclaire, while he describes the good feeling arising from his | connexion with a body of workmen, whose interests he was | enabled so materially to advance, disclaims the idea of being | influenced chiefly by motives of philanthropy in his | undertaking. He expatiates on the difficulty experienced by | tradesmen in disposing advantageously of their concerns, and | the loss occasioned by insolvent purchasers, or by the | carelessness and neglect of hired managers. How much better, | he argues, by associating the workmen in one partnership, to | make it the interest of all to labour heartily for the common | good, and thus provide a better security for the due | employment of the capital than the most vigilant supervision of | a hostile master could effect? | | To such a system as this no objection can be made. The critics | reply, with a sarcastic smile, that they have no desire to oppose | such plans, and that they are glad to find instances of trades, | where the profits are sufficiently large to pay interest on the | capital and surplus dividends to the workmen. They imply that | the ordinary conduct of trade no such convenient surplus can | be found, ~~ a remark, to the truth of which some testimony is | certainly borne by the small number of associations | | similar to that of M. Leclaire, which have been formed, in | comparison with the numerous co-operative societies in Paris | and in the chief provincial towns of France, in which the | workmen are the only associates. Of these bodies, exceeding, | it is said, a hundred in Paris alone, some account is given in the | fourth number of the Tracts on Christian Socialism. The report | is meagre, and leaves many questions unanswered which ought | to be solved, before we can pronounce any opinion on the | success of the principle on which the associations are founded. | One point in particular we should have gladly seen noticed in | the statistics of existing bodies, as well as in the schemes put | forth by our Christian Socialists; ~~ we refer to the | maintenance of that large class of workmen in every trade, | whose skill or power are inferior to the average ability of their | fellows. At present these are the great sufferers by the tyranny | of competition; these are the first to lose employment in a | period of depression; upon these the lowered rate of wages falls | with the greatest severity. It seems impossible to expect that in | the associations, whose rules provide for an | equal distribution of profits among the partners, such | unsatisfactory companions should be admitted at all. The most | abundant influence of a fraternal spirit which we could hope | for, would hardly induce a society to admit members, whose | unskilled and unprofitable labour would seriously reduce the | income of the whole fraternity. If, on the other hand, the | dividends are proportioned to the wages (or 'allowances,' as | they ought to be called), and these to the character of the work | done it is plain that the adjudication of the sums respectively | due, according to the varying competency of the workers, must | introduce, in certain trades at least, an element of no little | difficulty and delicacy into the deliberations of the | administrative council. But the co-operative system would do | only half its work if it provided chiefly for those who are | already most able to help themselves. | | In suggesting this difficulty, ~~ and it is only one of many | which occur to us, ~~ we by no means wish to discourage the | endeavour to use the Socialist or co-operative principle, still | less to thwart the experiment, which benevolent persons are | making for the good of the working classes. We cannot | attribute any real value to that often repeated Manchester | argument, which forbids such an experiment on the ground that | it is better to leave the workmen to find out their own interest, | and work the system, if it be a just one, for themselves. This is, | as it seems to us, to speak and act in wilful ignorance of facts. | How can the unaided artisan arrive at a solution of the | problems of political economy? He must have some teacher; | and we see no reason why the laissez-faire | school should claim | | an exclusive hearing for their own doctrines; they have not | provided in past seasons of difficulty for his support; they must | not now complain if he should give ear to a more attractive and | more sympathetic philosophy. How, again, can the workman, | if he has succeeded in mastering the theory, find the means to | begin its practical illustration? How is he to provide the | implements of labour, the material required, or even the slight | expense necessary for perfecting the organization of the | partnership, and procuring the proper habitation for conducting | the manufacture or the sale of goods? It is clear that he has no | security on which he can borrow capital, even at a ruinously | high rate of interest: it is equally clear that a high rate would | prevent the possibility of his success. Let it not be denounced, | then, as undue interference with the workman's independence, | if benevolent persons, who have studied the condition of the | poor, come forward to find the capital, and frame the laws for | the associations, in which labour may make its own terms with | the employer. They may be deceived in their expectations of | the good that is to result from their plan; but we do not believe | that their total failure, ~~ if that should be the issue of their | work, ~~ would be more bitter to the working men than the | hostility or indifference of his superiors, of which he now | thinks himself too often entitled to complain. | | We should not do justice to our own motives in handling this | subject, if we closed our remarks without referring to a | thought, which must have again and again occurred to our | readers, as they turn over our pages. They cannot have avoided | the reflection that the theory, for which in some modified | degree we have been the apologists, has been connected almost | uniformly in modern times with notions destructive of the | peace and order of a Christian community, ~~ connected at | least in the opinions, if not also in the practical conduct, of its | advocates. Is it possible our readers are entitled to ask, that this | connexion should have been only fortuitous? must not there be | some real and logical sequence in the idea, which have been | thus frequently allied? The Christian Socialist would answer | distinctly in the negative; but we cannot altogether sympathise | with their confident vindication of their faith. We have said | before, that Socialism is very different from Communism. We | are well aware that many advocates of co-operative | establishments are as far removed from sympathy with the | immoralities of Materialism as we profess to be ourselves; but | this repugnance is often due rather to their own moral instincts | or their religious orthodoxy, than to the necessities of their | social theory. For let it once be granted that the present | relations between capital and labour are full of evil, ~~ that the | rights of labour | | demand a participation in the profits of capital, ~~ that joint | ownership is the true method of increasing production and | distributing enjoyment, ~~ there is danger that it will be made a | step to the proposition that all wealth | ought to be held in common by mankind, and that the State, | abolishing private ownership and right of inheritance, should | administer the common property for the common good. When | the notion of property is abolished, it will be found more | difficult to maintain respect for the conjugal union and the | domestic tie than our speculators suppose; if history has not | been written in vain, we must allow the intimate connexion of | institutions, neither of which has yet survived the decay of the | other in any part of the civilized world: or, to look at the | question from another point of view, if it be maintained that all | distress and want depend on the defect of our social | arrangements, and are capable of being removed by their | improvement, it is an easy, however unsound, process of | argument by which the conclusion is established, that | circumstances are the controlling power of our life, the agents | that must bear the whole responsibility of our moral condition. | Man, on this view, is what external things have made him: he | would have been better if society had done its part: for what he | is he will not be called to account; the creature of necessity, he | only obeyed the miserable law which his unhappy | circumstances imposed. The Divine purposes of providential | trials, the duty of bearing affliction with patience, and the | certainty of being responsible for gifts and blessings whether | many or few, ~~ these things are easily eliminated from the | Socialist's conclusions on the state of that world in which his | lot is cast. | | The Conservatives, then, have, in our opinion, some | justification for the timidity with which they view even the | most distant approach to the dreaded maxims of continental | Communism. An apparent logical interdependence of ideas | and systems is not to be altered by strong protestations of the | abhorrence which certain conclusions excite, or by | combinations of men, which seem at first sight to exclude the | possibility of moral decline. But, on the other hand, when the | anti-socialists try to persuade us of the actual perfection of | things as they are, we feel unable to acquiesce in their | denunciations, and desiderate something more than their cold | Conservatism has to substitute for the sanguine predictions | with which the preachers of universal fraternity have elevated | our hopes. When the world is full of sorrow, and the condition | of our countrymen too sad for words to describe, ~~ when the | greatest accumulation of wealth which these ages have beheld | is neighbour to the most grinding poverty, and the lowest | degradation of man's moral and intellectual | | being, we dare not fling away even the hope which Christian | Socialism holds out of an escape from the stormy sea in whose | waves we are in danger of perishing. | | Christian Socialism! If we were but certain that it would be | Christian indeed, our scruples would disappear. There was a | time, we know, when men 'had all things common, and sold | their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as | every man had need.' But of those Communists we are told | that they . Neither the eloquent yet questionable | preaching of Professor Maurice or of Mr. Kingsley, nor the | rhapsodies of Lady Ellerton in the pages of 'Alton Locke, ' give | us reason to expect the revival of Apostolic Communism, and | the establishment of co-operation in trade on the basis of the | 'one Faith, one Lord, one Baptism.' We wish all success to Mr. | Kingsley and his brother-promoters of the Working Men's | Associations, in their present undertakings; we honour them for | their attempt to gain the sympathy of a class, which has been | sadly estranged from their own; and we will gladly welcome | any assurance, which may hereafter be given us, that their | Christianity is something more than the fraternity of | unbelievers, the fair profession of Materialists, who dream that | they have found a remedy for the sorrows of humanity in a new | combination for the better division of this world's goods among | its members.