The source of this uncorrected OCR text may be viewed in the DjVu format at: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/HD3486xH7/ or http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/ugafax/HD3486xH7/ THE HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION BY THE SAME AUTHOR Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life. An Autobiography. With Portrait. 2 vols. Large crown 8vof cloth, 73. Also Cheap Edition in ι vol., zs. 6d. net. Bygones worth Remembering. (Completing the above). With many Illus trations. 2 vols. Large crown 8vo, cloth, 73. Public Speaking and Debate. A Manual for Advocates and Agitators. Crown 8vo, cloth, js. 6d. Cheap Edition, cloth, zs. net ; paper, is. net. LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN. •50 c, JJYom Piloto i The Press Studio. frontispiece to Vol. I» THE HISTORY OF CO - OPERATION GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE e Author of "SIXTY YEARS OF AN AGITATOR'S LIFK," " BYGONB3 WORTH REMEMBERING," ETC. REVISED AND COMPLETED Our greatness will appear Then meet conspicuous, when great things of small, Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse We can create.—MILTOH LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN i, ADELPHI TERRACE. MCMVIIJ [DEDICATION TO VOL. I. OF 1875] VOL. I.—Pioneer PerieJ, 1812 to 1844. Published by Trükner in 1875. VOL. II.—Ceiittructi-vi Period, 1845 w 1878. Published tf Trutntr in 1879. COMPLETE EDITION.—Published by T. Fisher Umvin in 1906. Reprinted in 1906 and iqo8. WENDELL PHILLIPS WHOSE INTREPID ELOQUENCE HAS EVER VINDICATED THE CLAIMS OF THE SLAVE, BLACK OR WHITE, IN BONDAGE TO PLANTER OR CAPITALIST, THIS STORY OF PIONEER VICISSITUDES IS DEDICATED [All rigJifs reserved.'] [DEDICATION το VOL. II. OF 1879] THE RT. HON. JOHN BRIGHT, M.P., WHOSE TOWNSMEN OF ROCHDALE MADE CO-OPERATION A SOCIAL FORCE, AND WHO IS HIMSELF A FRIEND OF EQUITY IN INDUSTRY, THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED PREFACE, 1906 EMERSON begins a poem with the words, " God says, I am tired of kings." Lest the reader should say he is tired of prefaces, I make this one very short. Other histories on this subject will be written, but what ever their merits may be, they cannot be written by any one caring more for Co-operation than myself, or who has been concerned in its career from the days of the Rochdale Pioneers, or been personally conversant with the incidents and persons who made the movement. I have known the motives of those who have promoted it, of those who have retarded it, and those who have withstood it, and for seventy years have vindicated it against its adversaries. The story of this move ment is that of an eyewitness. The Third Part of this work brings the History down to this date, with brevity, but with sufficient explicitness to enable the reader to understand the growth and trend of this new Order of Labour. Industrial Co-operation—voluntary concert, with equit able participation and control among all concerned in any enterprise—is a definition that would now be accepted by political economists and journalists. G. J. H. EASTERN LODGE, BRIGHTON, Junnary, 1906. [It is but consistent with the principle of Participation repre sented in this History that the Author should acknowledge his indebtedness to his daughter, Mrs. Holyoake Marsh and his amanuensis, Miss Amy Baum, for assiduous reading of the proofs, when sustained attention by him was impossible—and for sug gestions which familiarity with the subject enabled Mrs. Marsh to make.—G. J. H.] XJJ PREFACE TO VOL. I. OF 1875 MY desire has been to write an account of the origin and growth of Co-operation, of the literature which fostered it, of the persons who aided it, the principles which directed it, and the influence of Co-operation on the future welfare of labour. To this end I have sought facts of all informed persons, in England and America, saying to them that any books, pamphlets, rules, placards, papers, letters relating to the early Co-operative movements, or articles in reviews or periodicals about it, of sermons preached against it, I should be glad to hear of, to borrow, or to buy. Recollections of early meetings for promoting it, names of persons who took part in founding the early stores, or as promoters, managers, committee-men, writers or lecturers in any place, and what became of the persons themselves, would be welcome to me. I desired that none would assume that I might know what they knew. I wanted to be sure that I knew it. It was said of Hume that his " History of England " would have been more accurate but for the obligation he was under of sometimes imagining his facts, from the difficulty of transporting himself to the book shelf, where means of their identity lay. For myself, being as lithe as an Indian and resilient as an American, I might be depended upon to get at any fact which came within reasonable distance of me. My wish has been to give particulars of the persons who made the movement—it being not enough to treat Co-opera tion as a bale of cotton, and discourse of its fineness and value in the market. It concerns the reader to know who were the xiii XIV PREFACE OF 1875 artificers of the ultimate fabric ; what were its pattern and colour, its texture and durability. Let no one fear to pester me with suggestions. Many counsellors bring no perplexity, provided an author takes his own wilful way in the end ; and he takes it with many advantages, who has his eyes well open, knowing all that can be said on the subject in hand. The real peril of the historian is that he may paralyse his readers by tameness, or kill curiosity by monotony. There are persons who have a well- founded terror of making suggestions. We have ministers of State who teach that persons with ideas are to be distrusted, and it is not counted safe for any one with " notions " in his mind to go about certain Government departments now. In some cases, however, information transmitted has not been very apparent, though worth all the trouble of decipher ing. All penmen are not gifted. A bird pattering out of an inkpot over a page would be a rival writer to some corre spondents, who seem the natural and ready-made secretaries of Secret Societies, since no expert of the most suspicious Government known would be able to make much out of their caligraphy. It has, however, occurred to many correspondents, as it did to Lord Palmerston, that the purpose of writing is to be read, and that what is to be readable must be intelligible, and they have practised the unappreciated art of plainness to my great profit. My letter of inquiry inserted in the New York Tribune brought many communications from that wide-awake land. No case of any undecipherable caligraphy arose in American letters ; they make things pretty plain out there. Where suggestions have not been acted upon, the reader must ascribe the error to that opinionativeness, phrase-love, and general self-contentedness, with which Nature indulgently endows some writers in lieu of other gifts. While sitting at the Bolton Congress of 1872, when news came of the death of Professor Maurice, and seeing with the mind's eye the old familiar faces flitting, as it were, round the hall—the faces which have gone, as Bamford expresses it, through the " Pass of Death," and greet us no more—watching the vacant places (growing more numerous every Congress) of those who bore the heat and burden of the unregarded day of PREFACE OF 1875 xv Co-operation—whose buoyant, cheery voices we shall never hear again—I desired, more than before, to write some history of that new power of industry which will grow mightier year by year. For loans of works of reference my acknowledgments are due to Wm. Henry King Spark, of Skirsgil Park, Penrith, for a valuable collection of books in his possession, collected, bound, and annotated by Francis Place. Save for the dis cerning foresight and interest of Mr. Place in the welfare or the working people, many of the most remarkable facts con cerning their social and political life would be now unknown ; also to Mr. Thomas Allsop, of Redhill ; Mr. Truelove, of London ; Mr. David Crossley, of Brighouse ; Mr. Melsom, of Liverpool ; Mr. George Simpson, of Prospect House, Mottram ; Mr. R. B. Reed, senr., of Winlaton 5 and Mr. Henry Slatter, of Tunbridge Wells, for the use of volumes, pamphlets, and papers illustrative of ray subject. G. J. H. NEWCASTLE CHAMBERS, ESSEX STREET, TEMPLE BAR, LONDON, June, 1875. PREFACE TO VOL. II. OF 1879 IN inscribing this volume to Mr. Bright, a representative of my native town of Birmingham, my object was to acknowledge .. how much the working class owed to him for maintaining in i hostile days the great principle of political and commercial freedom, without which self-help is impossible to the people. I At that time I was not aware of what Abraham Greenwood " related years after, that one morning subsequent to the resolu tion being carried, putting an end to profit sharing in the Spinning Mill of the pioneers, Mr. Bright met him in the street, and suggested that the resolution should be recon sidered at another meeting. Mr. Bright had spoken at times to his parliamentary friends of the great Partnership enterprise in the Pioneer Mills of his townsmen, and regretted what had taken place. Had the resolution been rediscussed, with the knowledge of Mr. Bright's interest in it, the decision, I believe, would have been different, and the fortune of labour changed for the better by it. Evil days befel me during the progress of the First Part. Though I could see my way through my subject, I could not see my subject when it was through. Fortunately for the reader, Mr. Walter Morrison, to whose friendship I owed the means of writing this History, had the kindness to see the book through the press for me. Otherwise I might have been afraid to recover my sight, lest I should come to read my own pages. Once I had a printer—not deficient in care and intelligence —who would insert an enraging misconception of some doubtful word I had written. I asked, " How came you to think I meant that ? It is neither common sense, nor theological sense, nor legal sense " (the most uncertain sense known). "Well," he answered. "I thought so too, but I supposed it one of your quaintnesses of expression." So I xvii ι a xviii PREFACE OF 1879 counselled the Co-operative Printers when sending them my MS. to stop at any "quaintness" at which they stumbled. In some places I am afraid they have betrayed me. The previous volume met with more favour from critics, both in Great Britain and America, than I expected. If this volume fares as well, I shall be more than content ; for those who said it " was not interesting " said it was " useful," and those who said it " was not useful " thought it was " interesting." Travelling to distant places of new co-operative enterprise, seeing for myself the conditions under which they had been made ; editing reports of Co-operative Congresses ; listening to the speeches and daily conversation of die new race of co- operators, in order to be sure what manner of men they were, and to judge from what they said, what mastery they had of its principles j then writing controversial pamphlets in order to elicit the views of adversaries and learn their quality and reach of discernment ; taking part in discussions at store meetings to discover what thoughts were uppermost and what passions lay below, have been well rewarded. It would be an abuse of the attention of the reader, to beguile him with mere picturesque incidents, and conceal from him the motives. The only useful history of a movement is a history of its ideas. The animating idea which never slept or slumbered, which moved the most diverse co-operators, which was oft defeated, but never extinguished, covered with ridicule, but never made ashamed, which returned again and again to generous-minded, equity-loving men, was not distrust of succeeding themselves by competition, but dislike of it as the sole method of progress. Co-operation was born of the feeling that at best unmitigated competition was war, and though war had its bards and its heroic memories, there was murder in its march ; and humanity was imposture, if progress could not be accomplished by nobler means. What an enduring truce is to war, Copartnership Co-operation is to the never-ceasing conflict between Labour and Capital. It is the Peace of Industry. G. J. H. NEWCASTLE CHAMBERS, 22, ESSEX STREET, TEMPLE BAR, LONDON, December i, 1878. CONTENTS PART I DEDICATION PREFACES . CHAPTER I. NATURE OF CO-OPERATION . II. THE EVIL DAYS BEFORE CO-OPERATION BEGAN III. THE UTOPIANISTS WHO FORESAW BETTER TIMES IV. How CO-OPERATION ITSELF BEGAN (1810-1820) V. THE CHARACTER OF ITS DISCOVERER . VI. His APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE VII. THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD (1821-1830) VIII. THE DEVICE OP LABOUR EXCHANGES I.. THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD (1831-1844) . X. THE LOST COMMUNITIES . . XI. SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL ADVERSARIES. XII. EARLY ADVOCATES . . * XIII. FORGOTTEN WORKERS . PAGE v 3 7 15 32 43 54 70 104 115 163 202 215 252 PAGE 259 xx CONTENTS PART II CHAPTER XIV. THE STORY OF A DEAD MOVEMENT XV. BEGINNING OF CONSTRUCTIVE CO-OPERATION. 266 XVI. THE DISCOVERY WHICH RE-CREATED CO-OPERATION 277 XVII. CAREER OF THE PIONEER STORE 283 XVIII. PARLIAMENTARY AID TO CO-OPERATION . . 289 XIX. CO-OPERATION IN STORMY DAYS 294 XX. NATURE OF CO-OPERATIVE PRINCIPLE . 299 XXI. DISTRIBUTION—THE CO-OPERATIVE STORE 312 XXII. CO-OPERATIVE WORKSHOPS 337 XXIII. THE WHOLESALE SOCIETY . 350 XXIV. LONDON CO-OPERATION : THE REVOLT OF THE GROCERS . 3^1 XXV. LONDON CO-OPERATION : THE REVOLT OF THE CUSTOMERS . 372 XXVI. METROPOLITAN PROPAGANDISM 387 XXVII. SOCIAL POLICY OF CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES . 397 XXVIII. INDUSTRIAL PARTNERSHIP 407 XXIX. INDUSTRIAL CONSPIRACIES . 420 XXX. CO-OPERATIVE FAILURES 441 XXXI. AMERICAN SOCIETIES . 453 XXXII. CO-OPERATIVE FARMING 466 XXXIII. ECCENTRIC AND SINGULAR SOCIETIES 475 XXXIV. VICISSITUDES OF INDUSTRIAL LITERATURE 506 CHAPTER XXXV. XXXVI. XXXVII. xxxvm. XXXIX. XL. CONTENTS FAMOUS PROMOTERS LATER LITERATURE AND LEADERS THE TEN CONGRESSES THE FUTURE OF CO-OPERATION AN OUTSIDE CHAPTER THE SONG OF STATE SOCIALISM PAGE S2S 544 565 580 59° 607 XLI. XLII. XLIII. PART III. (1876-1904) TRANSFORMATION OF SOCIAL AIMS GROWTH OF SOCIETIES .6,5 618 A SUGGESTIVE TABLE. CURIOUS FACTS AND FEATURES XLIV. TWENTY-SEVEN CONGRESSES . XLV. THE "CO-OPERATIVE NEWS" XLVI. THE CO-OPERATIVE UNION . XLVII. WHAT ARE CONGRESS QUESTIONS ? XLVIII. PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION XLIX. OTHER INSTITUTIONS AND INCIDENTS L. CO-PARTNERSHIP WITH LABOUR LI. CO-OPERATION SELF-DEFENSIVE INDIVIDUALISM APPENDIX INDEX • 634 639 . 642 644 • 649 653 . 656 661 . 666 679 . 683 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS G. J. HOLYOAKE . Frontispiece WENDELL PHILLIPS . Facing page I SOCIALISTS' INSTITUTION—ΑΝΤΙ CORN MILL „ „33 ROBERT OWEN . „ „ 4.3 ROBERT OWEN'S GRAVE . . „ „ 64 TOAD LANE STORE . M M 283 JOHN BRIGHT .... „ 337 WALTER MORRISON . . . „ „ 613 NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS ι. Wendell Phillips was invited to our Co-operative Congress in 1876. He was the greatest American orator in the perilous Anti-Slavery agitation whenever equity to industry was in question. He was always spoken of in America as the " noblest Roman of them all." His portrait is from a photograph which he gave me in his own house in Boston but a short time before his death. 2. The old Socialist Institution is the type of many of the earliest places of meeting, and remains unchanged. Rochdale Co-operation began there. (See " History of the Rochdale Pioneers.") 3. At the end of the eighteenth century the Corn Mill of Hull charged high prices ; to remedy this a few co-operators set up an Anti-Mill—a mill against mills. It is the earliest relic of Co-operation in England. 4. The portrait of Robert Owen is by his friend the elder Pickersgill, in the days of Owen's early popularity. The original is in the possession of William Tebb, of Rede Hall, Burstow. 5. The Toad Lane Store is where the Rochdale Pioneers commenced business in 1844. A Swiss artist has delineated the DofFers from the m-ill who assembled to ridicule the humble beginning. 6. The portrait of John Bright is a reduction of the large photograph taken of him by Mayall, now in the posseasion of James Charltoii, of Chicago. It was the largest photograph which had then been taken, and was nearly life-size. It represents Bright as he appeared in the House of Commons when the cry went through the lobbies, " Bright is up ! " 7. The portrait of Walter Morrison is animated by that pleasant expres- lion of encouragement, which we all knew, when Co-operation was making itself a force in industry. Ill PART I THE PIONEER PERIOD 1812-1844 [ίο /ace ¡). 1. VOL. I. NATURE OF CD-OPERATION II CHAPTER I NATURE OF CO-OPERATION " Distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough."—King Lear. IT is the duty of him who pleads a cause, or solicits the atten tion of the public to any subject, to state distinctly what the subject is—if he knows it ; so that those who confer upon him the favour of their attention at the outset may possess the means of deciding whether or no they will continue it. Dr. Furnivall could tell all about the origin of the term Co-operation and when it first crept into our language. I find less of it than I expected in quarters in which I have looked. "The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana," 1845, says the French have the word co-operer, the Spaniards co-operar^ the Italians co-operare, the Latin co-operare^ and derive it from co- and operar^ which simply means to work—to labour together, to endeavour for some common purpose. Sir Thomas More, speaking of the Sacrament, mentions that " in certain respects it doth nothing work, nor co-operat thereto." Crashaw, in his " Sacred Poems," writes :— " Bring all your lutes and harps of heav'n and earth ; Whate'er co-operates to the common mirth." Hammond, in his "Sermons," was, so far as I am aware, the first to use the word in the form with which we are now so familiar. He says, "Men will see the original of all the wealth, called such, immediately from God ; without any co-operation of ours." Holland, in his "Plutarch," makes a 4 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION quotation from Timotheus, the poet, in which a form of the word which has never come into use, is employed :·— " Both boldness stout and fortitude, With mental discipline, In war, which are co-operant, With virtue doth combine." In Boyle's Life there is given a pretty instance of the personal form of the term : " And the success will perhaps invite many more to be co-operators with the truth." Co-operation, in the industrial sense of the word, means the equitable division of profits with worker, capitalist, and con sumer, concerned in the undertaking. From the commence ment of human society Co-operation has been common in the sense of two or more persons uniting to attain an end which each was unable to effect singly. As society grew, crowds were coerced into acting together by king or chief, who took the profit. In modern days the capitalist has it. It is still common to regard the labourer as being under great obligation for mere subsistence, while he aids in creating the wealth of his employer. The new Co-operation, of which I here write, begins in mutual help, with a view to end in a common com petence. A co-operative society commences in persuasion, proceeds by consent, seeks success by common efforts, incurs risks, and shares losses, intending that all its members shall proportionately share whatever benefits are secured. The equality sought is not a mad equality of " Equal division of unequal earnings," * but an equitable award of gains proportionate to work done. There is equality under the law when every man can obtain justice, however low his condition or small his means; there is equality of protection when none may assault or kill the humblest person without being made accountable ; there is civil equality when the evidence of all is valid in courts of justice, 1 Ebenezer Elliott wrote the best description in our language of what communism is not. Elliott repeated it to me amid the charming hedgerows, where he wrote his song of " The Wonders of the Lane " :— "What is a Communist ? One who hath yearnings For equal division of unequal earnings, Idler or bungler, or both, he is willing To fork out his penny and pocket your shilling." NATURE OF CO-OPERATION 5 irrespective of speculative opinion ; there is equality of citizen ship when all offices and honours are open to merit ; there is equality of taxation when all are made to contribute to the support of the State according to their means ; and there is equality in a co-operative society, when the right of every worker, shareholder, or purchaser is recognised to a share of the common profit, in the proportion to which he contributes to it, in capital, or labour, or trade—by hand or head. There is no complete Co-operation where this equality is not the rule. Co-operation, after being long declared innovatory and impracticable, has been discovered to be both old and ordinary. Mr. John Macdonell counts Jacob tending Laban's flocks as a very early co-operator, he being a servant directly inte rested in the profits of his master.1 Mr. Nasse has shown that there existed agricultural communities in Europe in the Middle Ages, and that there was a co-operative use of land in England which it would be deemed revolutionary to propose now. It is remembered now that Greek sailors in the Levant, American sailors engaged in the whale fishery and China trade, the Chinese traders in Manilla, the Cornwall lead miners, and the lead and copper miners of Flintshire and Cumberland, have long been either equal or partial participators in profits. The Metayer system 2 is a familiar illustration with political econo mists. A modern author, who has written with discernment of social theorists, says, "The words Co-operation and Co operative have been used by communist writers to denote that all the members of a community are to work together for the common benefit, instead of working, as at present, each on his own account." 3 This explanation is on the line of truth, and goes forward some distance upon it. Co-operation turns toil into industry, which is labour animated—working willingly, knowing the reason why— because the profit of each, in proportion to his work, is 1 " Survey of Political Economy," chap. xv. p. 213. 3 " The principle of the Metayer system is that the labourer, or peasant, makes his engagement directly with the landowner, and pays, not a fixed rent, either in money or in kind, but a certain proportion of the produce, or rather of what remains of the produce, after deducting what is con sidered necessary to keep up the stock. The proportion is usually, as the name imports, one-half ; but in several districts in Italy it is two-thirds " (Mill, " Political Economy," People's Edition, p. 183). 3 Charles Morrison, "Labour and Capital," p. in. 6 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION secured to him. Co-operation leaves nobody out who works. Those who do not know this do not understand Co-opera tion ; those who do know it and do not mean it, are traitors to the principle. Those who mean it and do not take steps to secure it, or are silent when others evade it, or do not advocate it when occasion offers, are unseeing or supine. Co-operation touches no man's fortune ; seeks no plunder ; causes no disturbance in society ; gives no trouble to states men ; it enters into no secret associations ; it needs no trades union to protect its interests ; it contemplates no violence ; it subverts no order ; it envys no dignity ; it accepts no gift, nor asks any favour ; it keeps no terms with the idle, and it will break no faith with the industrious. It is neither mendicant, servile, nor offensive ; it has its hand in no man's pocket, and does not mean that any other hands shall remain long or com fortably in its own ; it means self-help, self-dependence, and such share of the common competence as labour shall earn or thought can win. EVIL DAYS BEFORE CO-OPERATION BEGAN 7 CHAPTER II THE EVIL DAYS BEFORE COOPERATION BEGAN " Defend me, therefore, Common Sense, say I, From reveries so airy—from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up."—CowPER. MATTERS were at a very bad pass—as they had often been before—with the working people in England when Co-opera tion began. There was a certain statute of Edward VI., which set forth in its preamble "that partly by the foolish pity and mercy of them which should have seen godly laws executed" the poor and unemployed had become troublesome : and therefore, in order that godliness might do its duty to society, it was enacted that—"If any person shall bring to two justices of peace any runagate servant, or any other which liveth idly or loiteringly by the space of three days, they shall cause that idle and loitering servant or vagabond to be marked with a hot iron on the breast with the mark of V, and adjudge him to be slave to the same person that brought him for two years after, who shall take the said slave and give him bread, water, or small drink, and refuse him meat, and cause him to work, by beating, chaining, or otherwise, in such work as he shall put him unto, be it never so vile : and if he shall absent himself from his said master, by the space of fourteen days, then he shall be adjudged by two justices of peace to be marked on the forehead, or the ball of the cheek, with a hot iron, with the sign of an S, and further shall be adjudged to be slave to his said master for ever." In the days when this Act was passed, it was easy to see that gentlemen knew what they were about ; and at the beginning lull·' 8 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION of the last century there were worthy and worshipping persons, who regretted, as many do still, the decay of vigour in the governing classes. What they had come to in 1822 Francis Place has recorded.1 In that year a poor farrier had travelled from Alnwick, in Northumberland, to London in search of work. On the same day a shopman to a grocer—long out of employ—arrived penniless from Shropshire. Both had come up to London, and met, companions in destitution, in the pens of Smithfield market, where they ventured to think they might be allowed to sleep in the bed of beasts. They were seized by constables and taken before a magistrate of the city. Both begged to be discharged, and promised to make their way home in the best way they could ; but to this humble request the magistrate would not accede. He said u he was of opinion that the prisoners were not justified in coming to town without any prospect before them, for they must have known that, in the present state of trade, no one would take them in, nor would any one be justified in taking in a perfect stranger ; but whether their conduct arose solely from ignorance or not ,he considered was immaterial ; the magistrates could not know the minds of the prisoners, and could make no distinction." The Lord Mayor agreed with the Alderman on the bench who had delivered this decision, and who consulted him. "The City magistrates," the Mayor said, "wish it to be known in the country at large that in future they should feel them selves bound to send all to hard labour for the term enacted (which was not less than one, and as much as three, months), whether they were actuated by a vicious spirit of vagabondage, or with whatever professed object or speculation they came to town. In short, they would put the law in full force against all who could not prove reasonable assurance or certainty of employment as their motive for coming to London." Farriers and shopmen unable to obtain employment in their own parish were warned that they must stay there and perish. In 1825 a dinner was given to Joseph Hume, M.P., in Edinburgh, on which occasion Francis Jeffrey made a speech in favour of the combination of workmen. The substance of Mr. Jeffrey's speech occupies twenty-three pages octavo. « " Principles of Population." EVIL DAYS BEFORE CO-OPERATION BEGAN 9 Judging from the facility and persistence with which some Scotch bailies who come to England on deputations speak,1 this dinner may have lasted a week. The purport of Mr. Jeffrey's speech was to explain the toast "Freedom of Labour," which was expressed as follows : " Freedom of Labour. But let the labourer recollect that in exercising his own rights he cannot be permitted to violate the rights of others." It was generous of Francis Jeffrey, himself a Whig reviewer, to speak at all in defence of combination by work men ;2 but at that time, and for years after, it was a perilous business for the labourer to attempt to unite, or to be known to be friendly with those who counselled him to do it. There was no necessity to warn them not to abuse the power they dare not use. Now homilies are read to them against cultivating class feeling. In the day of which I write, it was a great point to get them to understand that they were a class at all. At that time a very uncomfortable monitor of the people existed, who attracted a large share of attention, and who gave the poor a " bit of his mind," which they have not forgotten yet— the Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus. This is what he said to them, in deliberately chosen sentences, and in large type : " There is one right which a man has been generally thought to possess, which I am sure he neither can nor does possess— a right to subsistence when his labour will not fairly purchase it."3 «I firmly believe," he says, " that such persons, by the laws of nature, which are the laws of God, have no claim to support." Only the rich had the right to live. Malthus had the ear of legislators, and he wrote for them ; and this is what he said to them : " As a previous step to alteration in the poor- law, which would contract or stop the increase of the relief to be given, it appears to me that we are bound in justice and honour formally to disclaim the right of the poor to support." 1 A Scotch deputation to Downing Street, headed by a Lord Provost of Edinburgh, first caused me to notice this. The chief speaker was Robert Chambers. He had been kept some years out of his well-earned dignity, because he was suspected of writing the " Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation " (it being unlawful to consider creation natural) ; yet I saw him fasten on a Prime Minister, who was overdue in Parliament, but could not extricate himself from that pertinacious visitor. • The Combination Laws were repealed the year before the speech— 1824. * Essays, vol. iii. p. 154. ΙΟ HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION " To this end," he continues, " I should propose a regulation to be made declaring that no child born from any marriage, taking place after the expiration of a year from the date of this law, and no illegitimate child born two years from same date, should ever be entitled to parish assistance." * This language informed the poor that they had better get good information as to how things are going on in the world before they come into it. He would logically interdict " lying-in " houses as encouraging sexual improvidence—he would abolish hospital aid for diseases arising from poverty. The St. Augustine tone prevailed in the churches. Piety was not only dogmatic, it was insolvent. It dictated to men their beliefs. The struggling, whom it could not help—the miserable, whom it could not save, it interdicted from thinking for themselves. The workman was regarded as holding his soul under a ticket-of-leave from the churches ; and men of free thought in religion, or politics, or science were treated as a criminal class. Common men were vassals—the mitre their souls—the State their means. And, what was worse, many of them had no more sense than to put themselves, like dry sticks, under the cauldron of corruption. Historical knowledge was a weak point of the people. Those of them who were politicians believed that the history of the world began with the French Revolution. Old Mid land politicians half believe now that liberty began with the Birmingham Political Union of 1830. A stout Radical of mark in Bradford, Squire Farrar, built himself a house early in the last century, and over the door, cut in stone, still appears the date of the declaration of American Independence ; and there is a general impression in many quarters here, as well as across the Atlantic, that the world recommenced at that period. However, without troubling much when the world began, workmen were to be found who were bent on improving it. Trades unionists were among the most active of this class. We need not go far for an example which will sufficiently illustrate their condition and their sense as well as their spirit. The wool combers and stuff weavers of Bradford published * Essays, vol. iii. EVIL DAYS BEFORE CO-OPERATION BEGAN u in 1825 a notable statement of the workman's case in local verse, which commences thus :— " Lads, pray what's the matter ? Are you with master about to fight ? 1 Yes, sir, we are, and well we might, For let us work hard as we will, We're ne'er the better for it still.' " Bradford men always had a stout, unyielding" way of ex pressing dissatisfaction with their condition. So the Bradford Homer proceeds to sound this note of battle, of which the world has heard a good deal since. Answering the masters, the poet sings :— " We are most willing To work twelve pen'orth for a shilling. But more we neither can nor will ; We'd rather all. at once, stand still,. And form a UNION of our own As men have done in many a town." The verse of the stuff weavers' bard, it must be owned, is a little woolly, but its texture is virile. Things were not in a satisfactory state in England when men like Southey and Coleridge thought of seeking in another land more hopeful conditions of life. Southey's noble invoca·' tion to the wealthier classes, said— "Train up thy children, England. Where hast thou mines—but in their industry ? Thy bulwarks where—but in their breasts ? O grief, then—grief and shame, If in this flourishing land there should be dwellings Where the new-born babe doth bring unto its parents' soul No joy 1—where squalid poverty Gives it the scanty bread of discontent." * The rise of machinery was the circumstance that filled the working class with despair. The capitalist able to use machinery grew rich, the poor who were displaced by it were brought in great numbers to the poor-house. A man so strong- thinking as Horace Greeley had his mind inclined to protec tion by the misery he witnessed in his father's household, when handloom weaving was superseded by merciless in ventions. Even Owen exclaimed, " We are pressed down by 1 It was a popular quotation long after, and is not untrue in 1905. The Economist of 1821 considered that " it deserved to be written in diamonds." 12 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION the weight of inventions and improvements."1 Indeed, in 1807, things were so hopeless for the people that Mrs. Bar- bauld wrote that "they considered even depredators usefully employed in lessening the inequalities of rank." Goldsmith relates how he found the reflective shoemaker who had but one regret, that by changing his street he had abandoned a stall where a successor " had amassed a handsome fortune," and died at last over his lapstone, "with seven pounds, all in hard gold," stitched in the waistband of his lucky breeches. The introduction of machinery for years lowered wages, and pushed the mass of the workmen with increased force against the walls of the workhouse. Mr. Thompson, of Cork, commenced an address, in 1826, to the distressed Spital- fields weavers, thus: "All kinds of labour, agricultural and manufacturing, are rapidly approaching their fated equality— the starvation price, the lowest that even in times of average employment will support a miserable existence." If one whom fortune had placed above want, and education above prejudice, had these impressions, no wonder the poor desponded. No wonder Social Reformers became world-sick. They called this the " old " world, as though they had a new one on hand. Mr. Charles Bray, the early friend of George Eliot, wrote so late as 1844 to ask whether " commerce and the mechanical arts do not really point to a declining age ? " All the dismal facts of the day were brought to the front, as though society had the small-pox and had never been vaccinated ; whereas the great creature called society has " a pulse like a cannon." True, there is "something the matter with its head," since the rich could display themselves conspicuously in the midst of a squalid people, as some one has said, like jewels in the hair of a mendicant woman. True, Carlyle is a grim and often a brutal preacher, but to him is greatly owing the improved regard since shown for craftsmen. He created " captains of industry," who thought 1 Mr. Owen's speech at the Holkham agricultural meeting, on his health being proposed by Mr. Coke. Even landlords had their vicissitudes in those days. Then Mr. Coke's land let at 155. per acre ; a fall in the value of produce might throw it out of cultivation, reducing it to 5s. per acre, involving a loss of ^40,000 a year. Even then the owner would probably not need to come upon the parish, while the weaver or mechanic would. EVIL DAYS BEFORE CO-OPERATION BEGAN 13 of equity as well as gain.1 The capitalist was a new feudal lord more cruel than the king who reigned by conquest. The old feudal lord had some care for his vassal, and provided him with sustenance and dwelling. The new lord of capital charges himself with no duty of the kind, and does not even acknowledge the labourer's right to live. His condition is no affair of his employer. Thoughtfulness for the workman might be manifested as an act of patronage, but not as an act of duty or right. Nevertheless there are few so poor or miserable in civilised society as they would be in savage society. They may die early of insufficient food and through an unhealthy dwelling in a civilised town, but they would die earlier and suffer more as savages ; while every one may find twenty chances of rising to some sort of comfort, and even to riches, which would never happen to one savage in ten thousand. Sir Richard Burton, in his " Unexplored Syria," relates that he went out to visit Mount Lebanon. Lured by writers, whom he says had " Holy Land on the brain," he found life there, though ages removed from the barbarian state, such that he exclaims : " Having learned what it is, I should far prefer the comfort of Spitalfields, the ease of the Seven Dials, and the society of Southwark." Hoarded earning is the beginning of progress. Capital is the handmaid of civilisation. Lord Brabazon points out that " the higher the civilisation of a country the more marked is the difference between rich and poor." 2 This only means that as the refinements and luxuries of the wealthy increase, the contrast grows greater between the condition of rich and poor. This does not necessarily imply that the condition of the poor is worse than it was. This is hardly possible, seeing that in every age it is declared to be as bad as it can be, and always worse than it ever was before. Civilisation gives the poor, who are wise, a better chance than the starvation stage. If a man is Lazarus it is ' Yet he could applaud those who added pianoforte wire to the cats with which they flogged working men and women of Jamaica. Men in the negro condition, black and white, will one day have their turn of power, and Mr. Carlyle's ferocious approval will invigorate many a cat, and sharpen many a knife, for use on respectable backs and throats, unless working people learn that fairness alone brings security. * Reports of the Condition of the Industrial Classes in Foreign Countries. 14 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION better for him to catch the crumbs falling from the table of Dives than lie waiting for those which may drop from brother Lazarus's table. The sole sensible question for the poor to ask is, Can they better themselves ? The French, demoralised by centralisation, lacked the English habit of working for majorities and winning them by agitation. The tradition of the camp in France was their disqualification for progress by reason. It is showier, swifter, and more natural to man to fight out a difference than persuade men out of it. The peril and imprisonments which resulted from political movements in England the first half or the last century were occasioned by men who had been in the army and wanted their associates to arm. To live in a state in which capital can exist is an advance. It is only in that stage that emancipation is possible. It is by concert in industrial operations that wealth arises. A man being one of the chief instruments in creating wealth, he ought to get a reasonable share of it. This he may obtain, not by taking it from those who have amassed it, which can only be done by bloodshed, and waste, and by setting a precedent which will expose him to similar attacks in his turn. One remedy is by employing the economy of Co-operation to save capital and entering into industrial partnerships to earn it. This lias been the lesson taught by co-operative thinkers, and by them alone. THE UTOPIANISTS CHAPTER III THE UTOPIANISTS WHO FORESAW BETTER TIMES "Now if ... any one should propose anything that he had either read in history or observed in his travels, the rest would think that the reputa tion of their wisdom would sink, and that their interests would be much depressed if they could not run it down, ... as if this were a great mischief, that any should be found wiser than his ancestors." — SIR THOMAS MORE, Utopia. "WORLD-MAKERS" seems a more relevant term than Utopianists. Those conversant with the history of social projectors will know that the phrase " world-making " is a fair description of the ambitious schemes of most of them. Co-operation in England was born of world-makers, and it becomes more intelligible when its order of descent is seen. A» idea recurring from age to age, and among various peoples, may be a pertinacious one, since experience shows that silly ideas are more likely to recur than wise ones — folly being ever ready-made, while sense has to be acquired. But if it be a matter of history that certain ideas, oft recurring and widely agitating dissimilar peoples, have been mostly originated by philosophers and only promoted by thinking people, the pre sumption is that there is something relevant to human needs in such projects. Co-operative ideas have been of this character. Men of sense and spirit want to know how it is that knaves are born on the bank and honest men in the ditch. Only the wise and bold venture on untried existence. Then there have been in all ages classes of men who found things so much to their advantage that they loudly recommended man kind not on any account to disturb them, knowing well that men are never the same any more after they have once seen a new thing. ι6 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION When Co-operation arose nearly everybody said it was contrary to human nature. What was new to them they concluded was new to humanity.1 The sentiment of mine and thine, which now seems part of human nature, was once an invention. " Even when agricul ture had been introduced," Herder remarks, " it cost some pains to limit men to separate fields and establish the distinc tions of mine and thine."8 Mr. James Mill says, in his "History of British India," that "the different benefits included under the idea of property, at different periods of society, are not the offspring of nature but the creatures of will chosen by society as that arrangement with which is, or is pretended to be, the best for all." According to Aristotle, there were nations who held the land in common and divided the produce, and there were others who divided the land and stored the produce in common. Minos, who, according to the legend, aimed at establishing equality among the Cretans, would not suffer any of them, whatever might be their rank, to lead an indolent life. Persons of all classes sat at common tables, partook of the same diet, and at the public expense. These laws subsisted in force for nearly a thousand years—a long time for a scheme of life to last which would now be held to be contrary to human nature. Lycurgus governed Sparta as grandly as Minos did Crete. Obedience to the law, and the dread of living for himself, were the earliest lessons imprinted on the mind of a Lacedemonian ; and this education is reputed to have endured four hundred years. This " dread " of a man living for himself alone has been long extinct in modern society. It is a true saying that it is liberty which is old ; it is despotism which is new. Plato had the sagacity to foresee and reason upon the danger of over-population, and considered it would be impossible to preserve equality in any State without regulating the number of the inhabitants—a question society has not made^ up its mind to look at yet. The noblest body of Jews, unlike any others of which his tory has made mention, were the Essenes. They deemed 1 Like the Irish peasant whom Dr. King met, and asked whether he would rather live upon wheaten bread or potatoes, answered, " Sir, I like bread well enough once in a way, but potatoes are more natural " (Co-operative Magazine, 1826). » Herder, "Phil. Hist.," vol. i. p. 372· THE UTOPIANISTS 17 riches to consist in frugality and contentment ; nor had they any slaves among them. All were free, and all in their turn administered to others. Among them there was no house, however private, which was not open to fraternal reception. Nor were they enervated by their communistic principles. Josephus attests the heroic fortitude with which they met their sufferings in defence of their opinions and mode of life. Jesus evidently thought well of their principles, and com mended them. But not himself foreseeing the rise of the commercial and manufacturing systems of Europe, he left no directions—which approve themselves to practical men—for continuing a plan of life in which men should have " all things in common." Indeed, political economists, with one consent, ignore -him in that great department of progress which is their especial study. Nothing can be more disastrous to the strug gling poor than that a teacher of the highest repute among them should bequeath to them plans of social life so crudely stated that men should be contemptuously counted as " enthu siasts " who seek to reduce them to practice. The "Utopia" had great influence on social thinkers. Considering More's position, and the eminence of the persons and interests which were satirised in his " Utopia," it was a bold book.* What kind of book the " Utopia " is, and what manner of man the brave author was, has been told by one whose pen lends charm to the meanest fact and worthily recounts the noblest. Mr. Ruskin says : " We have known what communism is—for our fathers knew it. ... First, it means that everybody must work for his dinner. That much, perhaps, you thought you knew. The Chelsea farmer and stout Catholic, born in Milk Street, London, three hundred and ninety-one years ago, I48o,2 planned a commune flowing with milk and honey, and otherwise Elysian, and called it the ' Place of Well-being,' or Utopia. . . . Listen how matters really are managed there." [It is Sir Thomas More who says what follows.] " Consider how great a part of all other nations is quite idle. First, women generally do little, who 1 Bishop Burnet says the tenderest part of the whole work is the repre sentation he gives of Henry the Seventh's Court, in which his disguise is so thin that the matter would not have been much plainer if he had named him. • " Fors Clavigera," Letter 7. 1871. VOl. J. -ι ι8 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION are the half of mankind ; and if some few women are diligent their husbands are idle. Then consider the great company of idle priests, and of those that are called religious men ; add to these all the rich men, chiefly those that have estates in lands, who are called noblemen and gentlemen, together with their families, made up of idle persons that do nothing but go swaggering about. Reckon in with these all those strong and lusty beggars that go about pretending some disease in excuse for their begging ; and upon the whole account you will find that the number of those by whose labours mankind is supplied is much less than you did perhaps imagine. Then consider how few of those that work are employed in labours that men do really need ; for we, who measure all things by money, give occasion to many trades that are both vain and superfluous, and that serve only to support riot and luxury. ... If all those who labour about useless things were set to more profitable trades ; and if all that number that languish out their life in sloth and idleness, of whom every one consumes as much as any two of the men that are at work do, were forced to labour, you may easily imagine that a small proportion of time would serve for doing all that is either necessary, profitable, or pleasant to mankind." He who said this, Mr. Ruskin adds, "was one of the sternest Roman Catholics of his stern time ; and at the fall of Cardinal Wolsey became Lord High Chancellor of England in his stead." Sir Thomas More wrote in 1516. One hundred and forty years later—1656 — Harrington dedicated his agrarian " Oceana " to Cromwell. Hume considered it to be " a work of genius and invention, and the most valuable model of a commonwealth which had been offered to the public." Cromwell thought there was mischief in it, and is stated to have said that "what he had won by the sword he was not going to be scribbled out of by Mr. Harrington." One hundred and fifty years after his death any espousal of his scheme brought persons into difficulties ; and His Majesty's Attorney-General, in 1793, spoke of him in a very unpleasant way. When the abusive Attorney-General sat down, Erskine rejoined : " Yet this very Harrington, this low blackguard as he is described, was descended (you may see his pedigree at THE UTOPIANISTS 19 the Herald's office for sixpence) from eight dukes, three marquises, seventy earls, twenty-seven viscounts, and thirty- seven barons, sixteen of whom were knights of the Garter." He was the most affectionate servant of Charles I., from whom he never concealed his opinions, for it is observed by Wood that the king greatly affected his company ; but when they happened to talk of a commonwealth he could scarcely endure it. " I know not," says Toland, " which most to commend— the king for trusting an honest man, though a republican, or Harrington for owning his principles while he served a king." At Charles's death the " Oceana " was written. It was seized by Cromwell as a libel, and the way in which it was recovered was remarkable. Harrington waited on Cromwell's daughter to beg for his book, and on entering her apartment snatched up her child. He said : " I know what you feel as a mother ; feel, then, for me. Your father has got my child," meaning the " Oceana." It was afterwards restored on her petition, Cromwell answering, in his tolerant way, " Let him have his book ; if my government is made to stand, it has nothing to fear from paper shot." * Forty years after Harrington's scheme of public life founded on equipoise, came the proposal, by John Bellers, of a College of Industry—a remarkable instance of practical and co-operative sagacity. It appeared in 1696, and was the first known instance of a complete plan of an industrial community for immediate adoption. Robert Owen, who received it from Francis Place, had it printed in the old type in which it first appeared. Bellers' scheme required £18,000 in the money of that time to carry it out. Had it been adopted by the states men to whom he addressed it, pauperism would have become a tradition in England before this time. Like Mr. Owen, Bellers appealed directly to the heads of the State, and prayed the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled to give ear to his plan, " by which the common people could be trained in the art of taking care of themselves." He also addressed the " thinking and public-spirited," who appear not to have been more numerous in those days than now. He adopted for his motto the wholesome words, u Industry brings plenty," and 1 Erekine's defence of Paine, before Lord Kenyon, 1793. This was the occasion, according to Erskine, when Cromwell made the remark quoted. 20 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION the uncompromising intimations that "a sluggard should be clothed with rags," and " he that will not work shall not eat." Lest these sentiments should escape notice, Bellers placed them on his title-page. His pamphlet was " printed and published by T. Sowie, in White Hart Court, in Gracious Street, London, 1696." Bellers began by quoting Lord Chief Justice Hale, who said that " they that are rich are stewards of their wealth "—a doctrine which was thought very new when first Sir John Sinclair and afterwards Mr. Thomas Drummond preached it in the House of Commons. " The best account," according to Lord Chief Justice Hale, " which the rich could give of their wealth was to employ it in the reformation and relief of those who want either money or wisdom ; " and reminded them that " he who said, ' Am I my brother's keeper ? ' was one of the worst of men." " The want of a due provision," the Chief Justice said, " for the education and relief of the poor in a way of industry is that which fills the gaols with malefactors and the kingdom with idle persons. A sound, prudent method for an industrious education of the poor will give a better remedy against these corruptions than all the gibbets and whipping-posts in the kingdom." Bellers himself remarks that " it is the interest of the rich to take care of the poor." He seems to have had an idea in his mind that there were no poor, some of whose ancestors had not been rich, and that there were none rich then, some of whose ancestors had not been poor ; and that in the revolutions of society the posterity of the rich might be poor again, and that it would be good sense to put a stop to any more people becoming poor. He insisted that an industrial college could produce all its members required. The shopkeepers of this generation will be astonished to learn that their original enemy was Bellers. He enumerated persons and things of which he intended to save the cost in his system : He named shopkeepers and all their servants and dependents. Bad debts. (He was evidently opposed to the credit system.) Saving the labour of many women and children. Saving of much separate house room, firing, and cooking. Securing that the land should be better tilled by the labourers being owners. The profits of the college were to be divided among the shareholders, but the workers were to be guaranteed security THE UTOPIANISTS 21 in and for all things necessary in health or sickness, single or married, wife or children, and if the parents die early, the children would be well educated and preserved from misery. The workers as they grew older were to be abated one hour a day of their work. Punishments were to be rather abatements of food than stripes, and that those deserving of greater punish ments should be expelled. His plan for teaching languages to the children contained the germ of that system which Mr. Prendegast has since made famous, and Bellers proposed the same abridgment of the hours of learning for children which Sir Edwin Chad wick mercifully justified. Bellers proposed, as Pestalozzi and Froebel have since done, " to raise the child's love to what he should learn." Beating children to make them learn he thought silly, and spoiled their natural parts. " Understanding," he contended, " must rather be distilled as children can take it, than be driven into them." He was for giving them sensible employment, as he thought a silly employ ment left the mind silly. "A good education," he said, "though with but a little estate, makes a happier man than a great estate without it." Bellers gave no account of himself as to who he was— what station lie occupied—from what reading or experience he derived his thoughts, and nobody has asked ; but he was clearly sensible and original. His scheme is worth consult ing by any com.munity-maker, for it defines the number and proportions of persons in every department of industry who should be brought together. His was not a voluntary, but a State scheme of co-operation, and the only one ever proposed in England. He ended his proposal by answering a number of objections which he considered might be brought against it. One is : « Why should he propose to get the chief share of the profit of the poor's labour, and not let them have all the profit themselves, but give the larger portion to the rich, who are to supply the funds to the college ? " His answer is : " Because the rich have no other means of living but by the labour of others ; as the landlord by the labour of his tenants, and the tradesmen by the labour of the mechanics." It did not much matter that Bellers gave the surplus to the capitalists, seeing that he first made it a condition that every 'easonable want of every member should be well provided for. 22 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION His college of labour would have stood a good chance of succeeding because it would have been governed. It was no sentimental scheme in which those who set it going found the capital, and those who used it did as they pleased. Bellers' college was a despotism founded on industrial justice—i.e., free participation by the workers in the advantages they created. I learn, through the researches of Mr. W. E. A. Axon, that John Bellers was a member of the Society of Friends, the father of Fettiplace Bellers. John Bellers died February 8,1725, and was buried in Bunhill Fields. The reprint by Owen of Bellers' book made a great impression when it appeared, and was reproduced in periodicals. There was another writer subsequent to this social-minded Quaker—one Morelly, a Frenchman, who wrote in the eighteenth century. Mr. Owen was much influenced by what he came to know of his views. Francis Place gave some account of Morelly. Morelly was distinguished for the pre cision of his ideas and for the mathematical nature of his mind. He said the " problem " of social reform was " to find that state of things in which it should be impossible for any one to be depraved or poor." No theorist ever expressed the work to be done so well before,—no social reformer has expressed it better since. This is what social thinkers are always aiming to bring about. The Marquis of Mirabeau, in a letter dated 1762, made mention of a family of the name of Pinon, living a few leagues from the town of Thiers, in Auvergne, France, the head of which, a farmer, having lived to see his sons marry, requested them to continue a distinct tribe, and to maintain inviolably the sacred bond of union, by community of wealth and property amongst them. "After having been established, at this period, above a century," says the marquis, "this amicable institution has so greatly prospered, that the Pinons have not only a family seat in the mountains, supplied with all the conveniences of life, with elegant apartments for strangers of the highest rank, who are treated with the most generous hospitality, but they have also several villages appertaining to them, whose clergy, lawyers, and other professional persons are branches of the same stock. The necessary arts of life are exercised in this tribe for the emolument of the whole ; and THE UTOPIANISTS 23 the superfluities sold at the adjacent fairs and markets, where every one carries with him his family credentials. One tradition of their origin is that an ancestor of great wealth and a numerous progeny, well advanced in years, explained to his children " that their splendid way of living must be greatly diminished if, after his death, they should, as was customary, divide his fortune into separate portions ; but that, if they desired to be better economists than the rest of mankind, they should live in the united state they had done under his roof." The Pinon case is cited because its success was based on secular reasons, which alone are of universal weight. Certain Jesuits are credited with very great success in carrying out arrangements of common life in Paraguay. But Jesuits do not encourage self-dependence in life or thought, and when their enfeebling paternalism ended, the population were impotent and idealess as children. The noble aspiration after truer and higher life, with all the perils, conflicts, and vicissi tudes it involves, is better than the softest, smoothest, sleekest, and most steadfast stagnation. The only instance in which social equality was the subject of conspiracy occurred in Paris, 1796. Its great leader was Babeuf. In those days a blind love of innovation prevailed, not alone in France but in Europe, and was strongest in Paris. Then hope and eagerness had the force of a passion. M. de Talleyrand used to say " that only those who had lived near the conclusion of the seventeenth century could realise the worth of the world to man." Gracchus Babeuf was a young man when the French Revolution occurred. Ardent, well- informed, of penetrating mind, and able to write with clearness and fire, he soon got himself into difficulties. Of what kind nothing more need be said than that it was Marat who saved him from the consequences of an order of arrest. At a later period he obtained the post of secretary to a district adminis tration, and subsequently he got employment in the bureaux of the old commune of Paris. Mrs. Wollstonecraft, who knew Babeuf well, declared that " she had never seen any person who possessed greater abilities, or equal strength of character." His plan was to establish a system of equality by force—needless in a country which has a free press, free speech, and the right of public meetings. For these means 24 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION of progress an Englishman would fight ; but, having won them, he would count himself a fool if he could not make his way with them. Babeuf was not a wild reformer in the sense of not knowing what he wanted. He had a clear and complete idea of what he would put in the place of that he intended to supersede. His object was to establish a despotism of justice and equality. Robespierre, on the other hand, held that " without the people's consent none have a right to thrust systems upon them ; but with their consent, all systems should be equally accessible to them." To the credit of the French Liberals many of them objected to violent modes of attaining just objects. Certainly many of the aims of the conspirators were good. They were for abolishing mendicity as dishonouring to a free State, and for establishing a system of education in common. They regarded ignorance as a national danger. They were friendly to a policy of peace. They adopted a doctrine of non-intervention. They would not intermeddle with other nations, nor suffer other nations to intermeddle with the affairs of France. There were to be no idlers. " Nature," they said, " had imposed upon every one the obligation to work." They kept no terms with those who did nothing. Their words were : " They do nothing for the country who do not serve it by some useful occupation, and can exercise no rights in it." The common accusation is that men of social convictions seek other people's property— whereas the fact is they seek to make everybody work. This may be a very disagreeable passion ; but it is not laziness, nor is it plunder. All the schemes of Utopians prove at bottom to be schemes of work and wealth-making. Shopkeepers will be interested to hear that Babeuf and his colleagues proposed to retain retail dealers. They meditated censorship of the press, which the Napoleon family afterwards put in execution. But the conspirators had a ferocious thoroughness and vigour for which Carlyle and other eminent friends of Governor Eyre, of Jamaica, would very much esteem them. They decreed on the day on which they commenced their insur rection, that " to give or execute in the name of the existing Government (' tyranny ' they called it) any order whatever should be punished with instant death." Some were "to be buried under the ruins of their palaces ; which ruins were THE UTOPIANISTS 25 to be left in that state, as a monument to the latest posterity of the just punishment inflicted on the enemies of equality." * A dismal kingdom of equality France would have been with these murderous ruins defacing it. Babeuf and his compatriots failed through a traitor,2 and came to the block. They were brave men, neither afraid to avow their designs nor die for their cause. Babeufs last letter to his wife contained some wise and lofty sentiments : " It belongs," he said, " to the family of a martyr of liberty to give the example of every virtue, in order to attract the esteem of all good people. I would desire my wife to do all in her power to give education to her children. I hope you will believe you were always most dear to me. Speak often of me to Camille ; tell him a thousand times I bore him tenderly in my heart. Tell Caius as much when he will be capable of understanding it. I knew no other way to render you happy than by pro moting the happiness of all. I have failed. I have sacrificed myself ; it is for you as well as for liberty I die." When the conspirators were sentenced, Babeuf and Darthe, the chief leaders, stabbed themselves with their daggers, and were dragged from the court by the gendarmes. Babeufs poignard broke, and a piece remained imbedded near his heart. Both lived long enough to be beheaded next day, but their courage never forsook them. Their bodies were flung into a ditch. Some country people buried them. So ended the first and last conspiracy for equality ! Its conduct justifies the high repute for ability Babeuf won. It was a masterpiece of organisation. Nothing was forgotten. Proclamations, songs, manifestoes, decrees, laws, declarations of rights, were all pre pared for issue, conceived with sagacity, and written with brevity, eloquence, and fire. The labour and secret discussions 1 This design shows that the pétroleuse business, which got connected with the honest and just aims of the communalist party in France, was no new madness. Indeed, it would not be new in England. An English Conservative lord some time ago had at his breakfast-table one whom I knew to have acted in a plot to blow up London in 1848. It was a police- agent's project, but the person in question fell in with it, and it took some trouble to divert him from it. The said lord did not know of this little affair. The enterprising patriot left the country but kept up a corre spondence with his noble friend. 3 This was Grisel, in whom they had confided, and who had flattered, inflamed, and caressed them, as is the way of suspicious patriots. The club of Babeuf assembled in the vaults of the Pantheon, and this Grisel •vas the most open-mouthed scoundrel there. IP;; 26 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION gone through were immense. Nothing is more astonishing than the sublime confidence of the conspirators in human nature, to believe that no traitor would betray plans to which hundreds must have been privy. That only one was false shows that equality must have been a noble inspiration. Phillipo Buonarroti, a Florentine of high family, a reputed descendant of Michael Angelo—and his brillant powers and daring services corroborated the belief—was a colleague of Babeuf, and afterwards published a history—with documents which he had the courage to preserve—of the famous attempt of Babeuf. Among them were the " Songs for the Streets," which had not been overlooked. Equality had its Marseillaise as well as Republicanism, though its notes got stifled with daggers. I quote it as giving some idea of the aspirations of the time. Let the reader remember that the French had found no way out of the long oppression under which they and their forefathers had lived save by insurrection ; that they believed kingly luxury and tyranny to have been the causes of their misery and subjection ; that the people had delivered them selves by the knife ; that they had never seen any other means succeed ; that the philosophers had all pleaded for them in vain ; that they were firmly convinced that before kings arose equality, freedom, and means of subsistence were enjoyed by all who toiled ; that everlasting emancipation from slavery and want depended upon themselves alone ; and that one united, uncompromising, and thorough blow would redress for ever the wrongs of ages. Let the reader recall all this, and he is not English if his blood is not stirred by the— BATTLE SONG OF THE CONSPIRATORS FOR EQUALITY. By tyrant codes enthralled, by knaves borne down, Man stoops to man, and villains wear the crown :— Where is the freeman's voice ? the warrior's steel ?— Shall we not stoutly fight, as well as keenly feel ? Awake I arise, at Liberty's command !— Th' Aurora of our freedom is at hand— And slavery's night is o'er if we'll but bravely stand ! Oh, Nature, or whatever power it be, Which said to man, "Be happy and be free!" Say by what strange mischance thy laws o'erthrown Have yielded place to slavery and a throne. Is there not one will dare assert the cause Of outraged manhood and thy broken laws ? THE UTOPIANISTS 27 How long shall man quail 'neath the despot rule Of a usurper or a king-born fool ? Nations ! arise, at Liberty's command I— Th' Aurora of your freedom is at hand !— And slavery's night is o'er if you'll but bravely stand ! In ancient times, when yet our race was young— Nor gold nor war the soul to madness stung— Each in the land possessed an equal share ; No kingly luxury known, no gaunt despair. Then peace and competence went hand in hand, Unfear'd the assassin's knife, the foeman's brand— These days are ours again if we'll but bravely stand ! In those bless'd days when man, of man the friend, Nor yet had learn'd to borrow or to lend, Nature on all alike her bounty poured ; No starving wretch was seen, no pampered lord— Till fraud and priestcraft, by ambition led, Taught man his kind to hate, his blood to shed ; Then princes, subjects, masters, serfs were known, And shuddering Freedom Bed before—a THROKE ! Nations ! arise, at Liberty's command I— Th' Aurora of your freedom is at hand— And slavery's night is o'er if you'll but bravely stand ! Where is the difference 'tween the serf and peer ? Why meanly quail ye, then, with idiot fear ? Bring front to front the oppressor and the oppressed ; Wealth cannot strength impart, nor title steel the breast. Lay on I lay on I the death-sigh of the brave Be ours, and not the death-bed of the slave ! Nations 1 arise, at Liberty's command !— Th' Aurora of your freedom is at hand— And slavery's night is o'er if you'll but bravely stand 1 The only English account of this disastrous conspiracy is the translation of James Bronterre O'Brien, who rendered great service when boldness and historical knowledge were verv important to the populace. He was one of the best-informed of the Chartist leaders. His translation and comments on Buonarroti's History are still cherished by a few surviving old Chartists. Traditions of the camp contributed to disqualify the French Liberals for seeking progress by reason. It is showier, swifter seeming, to fight out a difference than to reason men into the right. Reason is no doubt ineffective for a time with those who do not understand how to manage a weapon in the use of which they have not been drilled. Most of the peril and imprisonments in England which occurred in Chartist movements were occasioned by persons who had been in the army. They said, "What is the use of reasoning when you know you are in the right ? Why waste time in trying 28 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION to convince those who know they are in the wrong ? " And while their plodding comrades were holding meetings, they were planning fights in the streets—declaring an hour's drill was worth a week of speeches. Violence and spoliation are still charged against social improvers. Judge Thomas Hughes relates in his "Memoir of a Brother " how George Hughes said to him, " You, Tom, don't want to divide other people's property ?" " No." "Then why call yourselves Socialists ? " Tom answered, " It is only fools who believe or say that a desire to divide other people's property is the essence of Socialism." "That may be very true," answered his shrewd brother George, " but if you are called Socialists, you will never persuade English people that this is not your object" (pp. 113, 114). Godwin's political justice was regarded, next to the works oí Paine, as a text-book of working-class politicians. Published 1793, three years before Babeuf fell, it contained no sanction of his desperate methods. It advocated equality as broadly as Babeuf did ; but Godwin added these warning words : " As the equality contemplated would be the result not offeree, but of the serious and deliberate conviction of the public at large, it would be permanent." English partisans of equality declared themselves in favour of peace, industry, economy, and reason. Its historic policy was that of progress by persuasion. Among our social innovators have been men who have cared nothing for political freedom. Many have come among them and have encouraged it, like Napoleon III., because they thought social ideas would beguile them out of political aspirations. The majority of them, however, have been men and women steadfastly caring for political improvement—not shrinking from sacrifice or peril when it came ; but they put not change upon issues of violence. Considérant gives an interesting account of the fabrication of Gruyere cheese in the Jura mountains : " The peasants rent a small house, consisting of a workshop and dairy, with a cellar. In the workshop they place an enormous copper, destined to receive the milk of two hundred cows. A single man suffices to make two or three cheeses of from sixty to eighty pounds weight. These cheeses are placed in a cellar to be salted and cured. Every day the quantity of milk THE UTOPIANISTS 29 brought to the dairy is noted on two pieces of wood—one for the milker, the other for the manager. It is therefore known exactly how much each family contributes. They can even keep an account of the relative qualities of milk by means of an aerometer. They sell wholesale to the merchants. They deduct rent, fuel, and implements, pay the manager in proportion to the general result, and divide the rest among the families, proportionately to the value of their respective invest ments." It is clear that Gruyere should be the favourite cheese of co-operators, as it is the first cheese made on their system. If Protestants of historic taste take ox-tail soup (Huguenot soup) because the Huguenots taught us to make it, co-operators ought to eat Gruyere. St. Simon, a member of an illustrious French family, born in Paris in 1760, was one of the world-makers. He served in several campaigns under Washington, but out of the ranks he proposed no violence, nor did any, except when he came to poverty and neglect he attempted to shoot himself. He, how ever, survived, regained his generous enthusiasm for human improvement, and prided himself on being the apostle of Industry—a worthy species of apostle who have come rather late in the world. He took no part in the destructive movement of the French Revolution, but spent nearly all his fortune in instituting "A Grand Establishment of Industry and a School of Scientific Perfection." In 1814 he published a scheme for the "Reorganisation of Europe." In 1817 (a notable year, as will appear in amother chapter), with English social aspirants, St. Simon published his work on "Industry," upon the organi sation of which he never ceased to write. "Industry," he declared, " was holy, for it serves to ameliorate the condition of the poor." His system was known by the formula—" To each according to his capacity : to each capacity according to its works " ; which meant that the community would expect from each member the best he was able to do, and would reward him according to what he did. The followers of St. Simon acquired a grand way of speaking. "If Moses," they said, "had promised men universal fraternity, Jesus Christ had pre pared it, St. Simon had realised it." His system attracted many noble minds in France. St. Simon himself shared the common fete of those who think for others more than for themselves, 30 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION and died poor and neglected in 1825. One disciple and two or three friends were with him when he expired, to whom his last exhortation was "Be of courage, and go forward constantly." In 1832 St. Simonian missionaries came to London to call attention to their principles and plans. They described them selves as representing the holy religion of progress—a very good religion in its way, but it is one that never had many followers. Charles Fourier was the next French dreamer of social worlds who attained great celebrity. He was born at Besançon, in 1772. He began his career in a way that gave no promise of the sublime schemes of passional harmony he was destined to amaze mankind with. His first literary effort was a poem on the death of a pastrycook, which astonished the professors of the college in which he was placed. He was hardly seven years old when tarts inspired his muse. Though of poetical temperament he was attached to business. His life was several times in danger during the fearful times of the Revolution. Notwithstanding that he was compelled to enter the army and serve six years, his gentle and kind disposition never changed. He believed the miseries of humanity to proceed from ignorance ; and held that pain, either physical or moral, was the sign of error—pleasure the sign of truth. He issued in 1808 a state ment of his views, under the title of " The Theory of the Four Movements." His ultimate work of most mark was " The New Industrial World " ; but it was not until Victor Considérant became his disciple that his views began to allure cultivated minds. Fourier founded Phalanstères, and bewildered men more than St. Simon. His plans were as boundless as the visions of the " Arabian Nights "—his state ment of them as dry as mathematical rigour could make them ; his divisions and subdivisions were such that no Englishman could hope to master them and live. Never were such pomp and perplexity presented to working people before. If Fourier had had his way nobody would have known the earth again. If the disease of social reformers be world-making, Fourier may be said to have had it in a very violent form. We have had bad attacks of it in England, but nothing like what Frenchmen have suffered from. Fourier ends his work on the THE UTOPIANISTS 31 future of man by the astounding remarks : " The duty of God is to compose a social code, and reveal it to man. . . . The duty of man is to search for the Divine code. . . . It is manifest that human reason has not fulfilled its task. This neglect has now been repaired, and the passional code discovered"1—by Fourier. His last work, " La Fausse Industrie," was published in 1835. In 1837 he died, after the manner of his kind, sad and dejected at the non-realisation of his grand and gracious dreams. These generous Utopianists put new ideas into the mind of the world. They made it possible for new men to do more. The careless verdict of the unregarding public was that they had all discovered perpetual motion, but none of them could get their machines to move. Before pioneers, for their encouragement, stand the dying words of St. Simon, " Be of courage, and go forward constantly." 1 " Social Destiny of Man." 32 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION CHAPTER IV HOW CO-OPERATION ITSELF BEGAN " All around was dim, Yet his face glowed with light revealed to him." GEORGE ELIOT, THE originator of Co-operation was Robert Owen, born so far back as 1771, a year before Fourier. Nature was in one of her adventurous moods at that period. In the four years from 1769 to 1772 there appeared Napoleon, Wellington, Goethe, Owen, and Fourier—all historic men in their line : bane and antidote, war and art, world-destroyers and world-makers. Robert Owen was born May 14, 1771, in Newtown, Montgomery shire. He was afterwards known as Robert Owen, of New Lanark. Many will consider that he was not a proper person to be brought forward in legitimate history. But history is unceremonious. Its natural food is facts ; and when it gets them it has no choice, no scruples, and no remorse. In Mr. Owen's days few " proper persons" had the faculty of improve ment in them of the kind that the world most wanted, and therefore a wilful Welshman took it into his benevolent and fertile head to do what he could. And thus it came about that Co-operation was a Welsh inspiration. Mr. Owen was a very unusual man. By patience, industry, sagacity, and kindness he raised himself to eminence and opulence. His life illustrates how much knowledge a man of observation may acquire without books. He attained distinc tion by two things—the observance of truth in conduct and experience in practice. He was known from the first as a man of veracity and reflection. From being a draper's assistant he became a manager of cotton mills at Manchester. He had a large population of the working class under his direction in THE ΑΝΤΙ CORN MILL, HULL. THE SOCIALIST INSTITUTION, EOCHDALE. [To face p. 33. HOW CO-OPERATION ITSELF BEGAN 33 Manchester, from 1791 to 1799, and a still larger number for many years afterwards at New Lanark, where, in 1810, he planned an Institution for the Formation of Character. He built commodious schoolrooms (one of them 90 feet by 40 feet) for the separate instruction from the time when as infants they were able to walk alone until they were intelligent. No school board with a town rate to aid it now would venture upon erecting premises so spacious for little children.1 These proceedings being too far in advance for his partners, the building was suspended when the walls were half up. In 1814 he separated from these school-fearing colleagues, made arrangements for new partners, and purchased the whole establishment. Assent to his measures, for the improvement of the· population and the finishing of the institution, were the conditions on which he accepted his new allies into partnership. The new institution was completed, fitted up, and furnished in the year 1815. On the first day of the following year, January, 1816, "The Institution" was formally opened, in the presence of all the villagers with their children. The assemblage exceeded two thousand in number. There were present also the principal nobility and gentry in the neighbour hood, with some of the clergy of various denominations. The parents present were astonished at being called upon to send their children to school the very next day. This was the first infant school ever established. Lord Brougham—then Henry Brougham—visited it twice. It was by Mr. Owen's aid in supplying them with teachers that Mr. Brougham, Mr. James Mill, and others were able to open the first infant school set up in England, in Brewer's Green, Westminster. The first little scholars met there on the I4th of February, i8i9·2 Mr. 1 " Owen, like Plato, laid great stress on the value of singing, dancing, and drill, as means of education, much to the horror of his Quaker partners. Like Plato, he considered ease, graceful bearing, self-possession, and politeness principal tests and objects of any system of education. Where even now could you find such a school as the New Lanark, for rich or poor, setting up these qualities as among its main and principal objects ? " (Lecture on " Foreshadowings of Co-operation in Plato," by Walter Morrison, M.P., Co-operative Institute, London, 1874.) * This school failed. Not satisfied with the moral training and instruc tive amusement, as at New Lanark, the managers sought prematurely to develop the intellectual powers. The tender brain of the infant was over excited ; more harm than good was done ; and the system fell, in a measure, into disrepute, until Fröbel, in his " Kindergartens," brought back things to a more rational way (R. D. Owen : Autobiography). VOL. I. A 34 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION Owen was incessant in translating his theories into practice. It was in these skilfully-devised and long-continued arrange ments for uniting intelligence with industry, and industry with working-class competence, that Co-operation was generated. Mr. Owen acted on the principle that intelligence would prove a good investment, (jt did prove so, and thus it came to pass that the education of members has always been deemed a part of the co-operative scheme among those who understood it. "^—·" Though Mr. Owen earned an honourable name for bene volence he was not a man who played at philanthropy. The working people in his employ were in ignorance, viciousness, and discomfort. Their great employer's object was to show them how much could be done by mutual arrangement to improve their condition and prospects. Mr. Owen's provisions in the attractions of the schoolroom, in the appliances for teaching, and the extent and quality of what was taught, have not been excelled in the most generous state in America, and it has never yet entered into the imagination of any English minister to offer, or of any workpeople to ask for such in Great Britain. The weavers and their wives at New Lanark who witnessed this more than princely concern for their children's welfare, knew that Mr. Owen meant them well, as was manifest also in a thousand acts of thoughtfulness and respect ful treatment towards them. Had Mr. Owen lived in more appreciative days he had been offered a baronetcy. However, grateful workpeople offered him what he was prouder of, their confidence and co-operation, and their will and skill were new elements of profit in the workshop. Thus the foundations of Co-operation were laid by Mr. Owen and his associated capitalists by sharing with the labourers and their families a portion of the common gain. The share falling to the employers was greater than it otherwise could have been. Mr. Owen, in his letter to the Times newspaper in 1834, addressing his early friend, who had then become Lord Chan cellor Brougham, said : " I believe it is known to your lord ship that in every point of view no experiment was ever so successful as the one I conducted at New Lanark, although it was commenced and continued in opposition to all the oldest and strongest prejudices of mankind. For twenty-nine years we did without the necessity for magistrates or lawyers ; HOW CO-OPERATION ITSELF BEGAN 35 without a single legal punishment ; without any known poors' rate ; without intemperance or religious animosities. We reduced the hours of labour, well educated all the children from infancy, greatly improved the condition of the adults, diminished their daily labour, paid interest on capital, and cleared upwards of ^300,000 of profit." Lord Brougham, in reply, stated in the Times, what he many years afterwards repeated in the House in Lords, that Mr. Owen was the originator of infant schools in England. Lord Brougham said : " I have not the least hesitation in stating that the infant school system never would, in all probability, have been established but for Mr. Owen's Lanark schools. I most distinctly recollect Mr. Mill (Mr. James Mill, father of John Stuart Mill, was the person referred to), Sir C. Grey (afterwards Chief Justice of Calcutta), and myself discussing for some weeks what name we should give these new schools, and . . . after rejecting various names, we fixed upon that of Infant Schools. The thing as well as the name were equally unknown till then in England." Mr. Owen added, in a further letter to the Timest that in 1799 he purchased the New Lanark mills for j£60,000, and entered upon the premises on the 15th of August of that year ; that he published a very full and detailed account of the new institution, which included the infant schools, in his third essay on the "Formation of Character," and that a mutual friend of his and Lord Brougham (Mr. James Mill) corrected the press for him. It was candid in Mr. Owen to make this acknowledgment of the assistance of Mr. Mill.1 The reader is conscious of vigour and direct ness of statement in those essays greater than other works of Mr. Owen's. Owen instigated Fellenberg to commence an infant school at Hofwyl, which subsequently uniting industry with education became celebrated. The self-supporting Pauper Colonies of Holland were owing to Owen's suggestion. He originated the short-time agitation on behalf of children in factories ; he assisted Fulton with money to try his inventions in steam navigation ; he purchased the first bale of American Sea Island Cotton imported into England, foreseeing at once the future 1 Mr. Francis Place told me that he also was concerned in the revision of the Owen MS. 36 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION importance to the spinning trade of England of encouraging the foreign supply of raw material. The great " Utopian " (as persons call him who, following the bent of their own faculties, believe nothing which is not commonplace) " had," his son Dale Owen states, "been received respectfully, and sometimes with distinction, by those highest in position : by Lords Liverpool, Sidmouth, Castlereagh, and by Mr. Canning ; by the Royal Dukes of York, Cumberland, Sussex, Cambridge, and especially by the Duke of Kent (Queen Victoria's father) ; by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Sutton), and by the Bishops of London, St. David's, Durham, Peterborough, and Norwich. Besides Bentham, his partner, he was more or less intimate with Godwin, Ricardo, Malthus, Bowring, Francis Place, Joseph Hume, James Mill, O'Connell, Roscoe, Clarkson, Cobbett, Sir Francis Burdett, the Edgeworths, the statistician Colquhoun, Wilberforce, Macaulay (father of the historian), and Nathan Rothschild, the founder of the house. He had received as guests at his own house at Braxfield, Princes John and Maximilian of Russia, the Duke of Holstein-Oldenburg, Baron Goldsmid, Baron Just (Saxon ambassador), Cuvier, Brougham, Sir James Mackintosh, and Lord Stowell, father- in-law of Lord Sidmouth. When he visited Paris he took letters from the Duke of Kent to the Duc d'Orléans (Louis Philippe), and from the French ambassador to the French minister ; and he was invited to the Visitor's Chair by the French Academy. In Europe he made the acquaintance of La Place, Humboldt, La Rochefoucauld, Camille Jourdain, Pastor Obcrlin, Pestalozzi, Madame de Staël, and many other eminent persons." * These illustrious intimacies show that Robert Owen carried co-operative industry into good company, for the discussion of this subject was the sole reason why eminent persons sought Mr. Owen, or he sought them. The gains and economies of Lanark Mill had taught that the working class could, if they had sense to unite, make something by shopkeeping. One oven, Mr. Owen pointed out, might suffice to bake for one hundred families with little more cost and trouble of attendance than a single household took, and set free a hundred fires and a hundred domestic 1 Robert Dale Owen, Atlantic Monthly, June, 1873, pp. 735-6. HOW CO-OPERATION ITSELF BEGAN 37 cooks. One commodious washhouse and laundry I would save one hundred disagreeable, screaming, steaming, toiling washing- days in common homes. It was not far to go to infer that one large well-stocked shop would, properly served, supply the wants of a thousand families, and supersede twenty smaller shops, and save to the customers all the cost of the twenty shopmen and twenty shop rents and rates, in addition to the economy in prices and advantage in quality in buying whole sale, in a degree small shops could not compass. When Mr. Owen's plans for the reconstruction ot society first dazzled the imaginations of men, hope begat belief that the day of great change was nigh. Many had a sense that society was ravel and cruelty, as far as competition went. But the formation of character was more arduous than was thought. Science has taught men that the improvement of mankind is an afFair of a million influences and unknown time. None now can tell the fascination of that vision of improve ment, in which progress was considered to be reduced to a simple problem of State mechanism, of which all the conditions had been discovered. The tireless Newtown Utopian instituted a magnificent publicity of his projects. He made speeches, held meetings, published pamphlets and books, bought innumerable copies of all newspapers and periodicals which gave any account of his proceedings, and distributed them broadcast over the world. 2 The very day on which he opened his celebrated schools at New Lanark for the formation of character he dispatched to Lord Sidmouth the manuscript copy he had made of all he said, so that the Government might have the earliest and most authentic knowledge of what was going forward. Where a great co-operative society now spends pounds in diffusing a knowledge of its principles Mr. Owen spent thousands of pounds. It was this wise, costly, and generous publicity that led the public to attach value to the new social ideas. Mr. Owen may be said to have impressed mankind with them ; for he travelled all over Europe and made repeated visits to 1 These exist now. In Mr. Owen's days they were unknown and unthought of. He paid the full price for all newspapers he bought, and the price was considerable then ; and he posted copies, among others, to every clergyman in the kingdom. Mr. Pare found that Mr. Owen's payments «or papers amounted to £4,000 in three months. 38 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION America to personally spread the information of the new system of society. Simultaneously with his efforts in Europe he spent a fortune in America in endeavours to found com munities there, but up to 1820 no periodical was started to advocate these views. Things were so bad that few saw any hopes of amending them. The conclusion of most who thought upon the subject was that of the link-boy, who, when Pope, stumbling, cried out, "God mend me," answered, "I think, sir, God had better make a new one." Social reformers said it was better to make the stumbling world over again. In the Economist of that day, the first of the name, the editor, Mr. Mudie, was ready to undertake the task, and thus announced, the resolution to which he had come :— "Though far from entertaining a very exalted opinion of my own powers, yet from the mere conviction that the duty ought to be performed by some one, however humble, I have had the boldness to take upon my shoulders the burden of examining the whole affairs and circumstances of mankind. The ponderous load is greater than I could sustain, but that I feel a strength beyond my own. Would that I possessed the power to call around me on the instant the choicest spirits of the earth and the air,—that with a magic touch I could at once dissolve the delusions of error and of prejudice,—and, by the genii of the lamp and the ring, transport mankind in a moment into that new world of delights which is opening upon my enraptured sight." « The British public, who walk by faith on Sundays, walk by sight only during week-days. In business they believe only according to results. Those who had resolved to make a clean sweep of existing institutions, found full employment for disciples of this thorough-going school, and a broom party of. reformers was actually formed, who undertook to sweep error and cart it away. "Social Science," now well recognised, was then an un known term. Mr. Owen was the first public man to insist that there might be a " science of society." 2 His doctrine 1 Economist, 1821. ' During a period of twenty years I well remember when the phrase " social science " was regarded as much an indication of " something being wrong " on the part of those who used it, as mentioning Sir C. HOW CO-OPERATION ITSELF BEGAN 39 was that by the wise use of material means men might make society what it ought to be. In these happy and latitudinarian days anybody may improve society who can, and society is very glad when anybody gives signs of the capacity of doing it. His services are accepted, and no questions are asked. But in Robert Owen's days no one was allowed to attempt any good unless he believed in the Thirty-nine Articles,1 and down to the year 1840 the Bishop of Exeter made things very unplea sant in the House of Lords to any persons detected doing it. Our "pastors and masters" held then the exclusive patent for improving the people, and though they made poor use of it, they took good care that nobody infringed it. Improvement, like the sale of corn, was a monopoly then, but we have free trade in humanity now, though the business done is not very great yet. The day at length came when the most ardent had to pause. The world did not subscribe, and it was left to chequeless enthusiasts to find funds to diffuse a knowledge of the new views. It was then that certain practical-minded per sons advised the formation of co-operative stores, where money might be made without subscribing it, and proposed that share holders should give their profits to a fund for propagandism. The first journal in the interest of Co-operation was the Economist of 1821. It was thought in 1868 an act of temerity to take the name of Social Economist as a title.2 . The Economist was a title adopted by Mr. James Wilson, the founder of the Economist newspaper, who was likely to have seen Mr. Owen's publication, for there was much early knowledge of Co-opera tion in the house in Essex Street, where I used to see formidable files, reaching to the ceiling, of unsold Economists, before it became the organ of the commercial classes. The first number of the co-operative Economist appeared on Satur day, January 27, 1821, price threepence. It was preceded by Lyell's doctrine of the Antiquity of Man, or Darwin's Theory of Evolution, afterwards became. We were all surprised when a National Association was formed for the promotion of " Social Science " in which prelates took part ' This was as modestly put as could be expected by a prelate of that day. The Bishop of London said, "Mr. Owen's system was brought forward by an individual who declared that he was not of one of the religions hitherto taught. This alone was a sufficient reason for him to disregard it " (Hampden in the " Nineteenth Century," p. 47, 1834). " The Social Economist, edited by the present writer and Mr. E. O. Greening. 40 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION a prospectus, as elaborate as an essay and as long as a pamphlet. The title-page of the volume declared that " The Economist was a periodical paper explanatory of the new system of society projected by Robert Owen, Esq., and a plan of association for the working classes." "Working people" was the better phrase Francis Place used in his addresses to them. In the very first number of this Economist mention was made of the formation of a " Co-operative and Economical Society," which is the earliest record I find of a name now so familiar to the public ear. The public had been told that human affairs were hence forth to be based on some new principle. There was a general expectation that the public would soon hear of something to their advantage. At length one day in the autumn of 1821, the editor of the Economist broke in upon his readers in small capitals, and said to them :— " The SECRET is OUT : it is unrestrained CO-OPERATION, on the part of ALL the members, for EVERY purpose of social life."1 It was a very small, eager, active, manifold thing which appeared in the name of Co-operation, then for the first time distinctively named ; but during the next ten years it spread wondrously over the land. In the middle of January, 1821, a pamphlet was published describing the Economical Society, at the Medallic Cabinet, 158, Strand, where the Economist itself was published. The pamphlet was signed by Robert Hunt, James Shallard, John Jones, George Hinde, Robert Dean, and Henry Hetherington. It professed to be a report of the committee appointed at a meeting of journeymen, chiefly painters, to take into consideration certain propositions, submitted to them by Mr. George Mudie, having for their object a system of social arrangement calculated to effect essential improvements in the condition of the working classes and of society at large. They took as a motto words from Milton, which were very appropriate to their purpose :— "Our greatness will appear Then most conspicuous, when great things of small, Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse We can create." 1 Economist, August 27, 1821. HOW CO-OPERATION ITSELF BEGAN 41 This is the first co-operative society motto I have found. The term Co-operation was used in the sense of com munism. From implying concert of life in community it came to mean concert in shopkeeping. It was a great descent from the imperial altitude of world-making to selling long- sixteen candles and retailing treacle. Doubtless, if we only knew it, the beginning of civilised society was not less absurd. There were in all probability dreamers who stood on the verge of savage life contemplating with satisfaction the future ot civilisation, when men should abandon their reckless and murderous habits and master methods of thrift and peace. And when that new order began, now described as the dawn of civilisation, there must have been persons with a fine sense of contempt for those petty transactions of barter, out of which capital and commerce grew, which have finally covered the earth with palaces and raised private individuals to an opulence surpassing that of monarchs. Had there been leading articles, reviews, and political economists in those days, how these dreamers who brought about modern society would have been held up to derision and have been glad to hide their abashed heads ! Mr. Owen entertained the belief that " if the bad position of men's affairs proceed not from necessity but from errors, there is hope that when those errors are forsaken or corrected a great change for the better may ensue." " It is compara tively of little avail," Mr. Owen was accustomed to say, " to give to either young or old 'precept upon precept, and line upon line,' unless the means shall be also prepared to train them in good practical habits." These were the convictions which gave him strength and made him useful. When pass ing by the new Royal Exchange, London, he, looking up at it, said to a friend (Thomas Allsop) with him—" We shall have that one day. The old system must give way. It will come down of its own weight." The course of progress in this Country is otherwise. Society does not come down. The originator of Co-operation never foresaw that a minor part ot his views was destined to obtain a strange ascendancy. Who would have dreamed that flannel weavers, mechanics, and shoemakers of Rochdale, in 1844, were founding a movement the voice of which would pass like a cry of deliverance into 42 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION the camps of industry in many lands, and since cause shop keepers in every town and city of the British Empire to scream with dread, cry to members of Parliament, and crowd the offices of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, praying to be rescued from the Red Sea of Co-operation, lest it should sub merge their huxtering. But Co-operation is more merciful than the Egyptian waves, the Pharaohs of capital and competition will be saved, although they have brought—as co-operators contend—plagues of poverty upon the people. Co-operation, Mr. Owen no more constructed than George Stephenson did that railway system, which a thousand unforeseen exigencies have suggested and a thousand brains matured. But, as Stephenson made railway locomotion possible, so Owen set men's minds on the track of Co-operation, and time and need, faith and thought, have made it what it is. THE CHARACTER OF ITS DISCOVERER 43 ;: CHAPTER V ? THE CHARACTER OF ITS DISCOVERER βΕ«--.'" - _ " There is a way of winning more by love than fear ; ϊ. Force works on servile nature—not the free : j He that's compelled to goodness may be good, I But 'tis but for that fit : where others, drawn By softness and example, get a habit."—BEN JONSON. ι THERE cannot be an adequate record of the co-operative movement without taking into account the influence of Mr. / Owen's proceedings upon its fortunes. It was often involved in theological conflicts. Mr. Owen was the chief cause of this. He could not very well avoid giving battle to several kinds of adversaries, and, being a Welshman, I have no doubt he did it with good-will. Robert Owen was the only Welshman I ever knew who did not think Wales the world, and he no sooner compre hended that there was a wider world elsewhere than he acted like one who had taken possession of it, and finding it in disorder, suggested how it might be put straight. He was the first publicist among us who looked with royal eyes upon children. He regarded grown persons as being proprietors of the world—bound to extend the rites of hospitality to all arrivals in it. He considered little children as little guests, to be welcomed with gentle courtesy and tenderness, to be offered knowledge and love, and charmed with song and flowers, so that they might be glad and proud that they had come into a world which gave them happiness, and only asked of them goodness. Duke Bernard, of Saxe-Weimar said, with admirable comprehensiveness, " Mr. Owen looked to nothing less than to renovate the world, to extirpate all evil, to banish ITO face p. 43· aU punishment, to create like views and like wants, and to 44 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION guard against all conflicts and hostilities." Finding pious benevolence seeking progress by prayer, which did not bring it, Mr. Owen boldly proposed to substitute for it scientific benevolence, which seeks human improvement by material methods. " Here," he said, if not in terms in theory, " is the new path of deliverance, where no thought is lost, no effort vain ; where the victory is always to the wise and the patient, and the poor who believe will no longer be betrayed." We know not now what courage it required to say this when Mr. Owen said it. Gentlemen expected to provide the poor with their religion. If they subscribed to any school this was their chief object, for very little secular learning was imparted. In Sunday schools spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic were subordinated to the Catechism. Mr. Owen gave lessons in the knowledge of the world in his schools. Both the clergy and dissenting ministers regarded with jealousy any influence not under their direction, and they made it difficult for social improvers to do anything. To teach common people the arts of self-help, the wisdom of choosing their own opinions, and to believe only in that religion which brought them actual deliverance from depend ence and want, was not a popular thing to do. Mr. Owen had the fate of Paine before him. Paine excelled all politicians in teaching principles. Ebenezer Elliott told me Paine was the greatest master of metaphor he had known. Cobbett's writings were vigorous wordiness, compared with Paine's finished thoroughness. The pen of Paine did as much as the sword of Washington to effect American independence. He was one whose writings Pitt thought it worth while to study. He was one of the founders of National Independence whom Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin consulted. Owen, like Paine, for protesting against Theology as an obstruction to Humanity, suffered like penalty. From being the associate of the first men of his time, he had to appeal to working people to give effect to his views. Mr. Owen was ready in public speech. Cambridge scholars, utterly prejudiced against him, were struck with the dignity of his bearing at the memorable meetings at the City or London Tavern in 1817. After a lapse of fifty-six years cne of those present related that when Mr. Owen said, "all THE CHARACTER OF ITS DISCOVERER 45 the religions of the world were wrong," he thought him beyond the rank of common men. He seemed to this hearer to grow loftier in stature. The vast and various audience listened as men breathless. Then they broke out into tumultuous cheering at the courageous act of the speaker. Indeed, I modify the terms in which that day has been spoken of to me. Readers now would not understand the impression made ; and for any purpose of persuasion it is useless to say more than will seem probable to those addressed. Mr. Owen's reputation for great wealth, the munificence of his known gifts, his personal sincerity, his high connections, the novelty of his views,—all lent elements of popular interest to what he said on subjects on which no gentleman, save he, ventured tc say anything. He had made himself the first Captain of Industry. He had accomplished wonders never attempted before by any manufacturer. Statesmen from every part of Europe had been allured to New Lanark, and, for all any one knew, he might be able to demonstrate what no statesman had deemed it possible to compass. The determination to make the formidable statement de scribed, at that particular time, his son relates, was come to suddenly. Certain sectarian publications, seeing favourable notices in the Times of his proceedings at his first and second meeting in the London Tavern, began to call upon him to make a declaration of his views on religion, which up to that time he had withheld. Theological charges were made against him.1 He had, however, maintained a proud reticence. As he enjoyed the personal respect of several eminent prelates— for the best educated are always the most tolerant—Mr. Owen could well afford to pass the lower sort by. As they were capable of doing harm, Mr. Owen, who was brave and not politic, defied them. It was the consciousness of this which helped to move the wonder and enthusiasm of the densely 1 His son, Robert Dale, relates that he was with him during his exami nation by a committee of the House of Commons, when he gave evidence on the condition of the factory children, and heard Sir George Philips put questions to his father in an insolent tone as to his religious opinions. Brougham, who was also on the committee, resented this irrelevant offensiveness, and moved that the cross-examination in question be expunged from the record, and it was done. If, however, a gentleman's personal opinions could be attacked in a Parliamentary committee, the reader can imagine what took place elsewhere. 46 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION packed and excited audience, and of thousands outside trying in vain to obtain admission. " What, my friends," he began, " has hitherto retarded the advancement of your race to a high state of virtue and happiness ? Who can answer that question ? Who dares answer but with his life in his hand ?—a ready and willing victim to the truth and to the emancipation of the world from its long bondage of error, crime, and misery. Behold that victim ! On this day ! in this hour ! even now ! shall those bonds be burst asunder, never more to reunite while the world lasts!" This enthusiasm and pluck, moved the admiration alike of those who approved, and those who dissented, from this dangerous and impolitic speech. The consequences soon came home to him. He had friends too powerful for his life to be in danger ; but those who could save his life could not save his influence. And in after years, at public meetings in the provinces, his life was often in jeopardy, and he was only saved by the intrepidity of working men, who protected him. The Times soon wheeled into line against him—the Conservative and influential classes deserted him. Only the Duke of Kent and Lord Brougham stood by him to the end.1 From being a social reformer he had commenced to be a religious reformer. An ominous meeting in the Rotunda of Dublin in 1823 was fatal to his new world. Society set its face against him, and the people were too poor to carry his ideas out. The father of Queen Victoria stood true. He said at one of Mr. Owen's meetings, two years after he had denounced all religions, " If I understand Mr. Owen's principles, they lead him not to interfere to the injury of any sect ; but he claims for himself tbat which he is so desirous to obtain for his fellow-creatures—* religious liberty and freedom of conscience ' ; and these he contends for because his experience compels him to conclude that these principles are now necessary to secure the well-being and good order of society." This is excellently put, and is really what Mr. Owen meant. Being always a Theist, he was logically in error in denouncing " all religions." His province was to maintain, as the Duke of Kent puts it, "religious liberty and freedom of conscience." 1 Vide Autobiography of Robert Dale Owen. THE CHARACTER OF ITS DISCOVERER 47 In those alarmed days, when politicians and capitalists were as terrified as shopkeepers at Co-operation, Mr. Owen counte nanced the discussion of a new question, which has strangely passed out of the sight of. history. Mr. James Mill had written in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," as Malthus had done before, that it was both desirable and profitable to limit the families of the poor. Mill despised working people who crowded the labour market with their offspring, and then com plained of the lowness of wages and the want in their homes. Certainly a man or woman supplicating a relieving officer^ treated as a burden on the parish, and advised to emigrate, as the needy shopkeeper assessed for poor-rates is, compelled to begrudge the flesh on their bones—is a humiliating business, so shocking and deplorable that those who come to it had better never have been born. Any legitimate remedy which the wit of man could devise having this object would seem purity and dignity by the side of this degradation. Community-makers soon found that the inmates would come to certain ruin if the houses were overrun with children, and they listened to the Malthus and Mill warning. Mr. Owen, who always gave heed to the philosophers, took steps to give effect to their advice. No man had a better right than he to invent the maxim he was fond of using—" Truth without mystery, mixture of error, or fear of man." He was not able to obtain truth free from error ; but he was, beyond question, free from the fear of man. This question concerned none save the poor, and he boldly counselled them against supplying offspring to be ground up alive in the mill of capital ; or be cast aside when the labour market was glutted to fall into the hands of the constable or the parish overseer. The subject was regarded by the public then as the question of cremation was, which could never be mentioned in lany periodical with tolerance. Cremation, to the surprise of everybody now—a question supposed to be innured with the ashes of Shelley—has become popular. No notice of this curious episode in Mr. Owen's life occurs in the biographies of him which have appeared since his death. Mr. Sargant has brought together a variety of facts which it must have taken considerable research and cost to accumulate. Though Mr. Sargant's views are antagonistic, he never r I 48 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION calumniates, although he often fails to judge accurately ; but as he is never dull, never indecisive, and often right in the opinion he forms, he is an instructive writer to tbose who incline to the side of the innovators. Mr. Dale O wen might have given the world an incomparable life of his father, such as otherwise we are not likely to see. He had opportunities which no man, save he, possessed. For a period of half a century almost every man in Europe and America engaged in any forlorn hope of progress had communi cations at one time or the other with Mr. Robert Owen. Robert Dale published a work casting limited light on his father's career. His " Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World " reads as though it were written by a man who had left this. He has apparently given us from scant notes twenty- seven years of autobiography in " Threading my Way," which, however, serves to show how curious and valuable a history of his father it would be in his power to write. That I take to be the manliest reverence which praises within the limits of truth. The flatterer is either a knave who intends to impose upon you, or a patron who intends to befool you, or a coward who applauds because he has not the courage to condemn you, or a weak-eyed man who can only see one thing at a time. Those are wise who avoid the men who by wholesale praise hide from a man what he should be and keep him what he is. Prefer the man who blows hot and cold to him who blows all hot, because it is better to be invigorated than to be stifled. Believing so, I speak frankly as well as affectionately of Mr. Owen. It is no part of my object to represent him other than he was. Though he was an amiable, he was, doubtless, at times a somewhat tiresome reformer. When he called a meeting together, those who attended never knew when they would separate. He was endowed with great natural capacity for understanding public affairs, and was accustomed to give practical and notable opinions upon questions quite apart from his own doctrines. His society was sought as that of a man wbo had the key of many State difficulties. Those know little of him who suppose that he owed his distinction to his riches. A man must be wise as well as wealthy to achieve the illustrious friendships which marked his career. He had THE CHARACTER OF ITS DISCOVERER 49 personally an air of natural nobility about him. He had, as the Daily News said, "an instinct to rule and command." In youth and middle age he must have been an actor on the political stage of no mean mark. He always spoke as " one having authority." He had a voice of great compass, thorough self-possession, and becoming action. Like many other men, he spoke much better than he wrote. When he was but twenty years of age he applied to Mr. Drinkwater for a responsible position. He was told " he was so young." "Yes," answered Mr. Owen, "that used to be said of me several years ago, but I did not expect to have it brought against me now." His boldness never deserted him. On one occasion William Johnson Fox, the famous preacher and anti- Corn Law orator, delivered a discourse in South Place Chapel on Mr. Owen's co-operative system. Some of his remarks being founded on a manifest misconception of it, Mr. Owens who was present, rose before the final hymn was given out, and addressed the congregation in a speech of great dignity and propriety, and corrected the error of the orator. Though the proceeding was most unusual, and would only have been permitted in a place of worship where freedom of conscience was not only maintained but conceded, Mr. Owen acquitted himself so well that no one felt any sense of unseemliness in what he did.1 Mr. Owen was an apostle, not a rhetorician. He never looked all round his statements (as Mr. Cobden did) to see where the ignorant might misconstrue them, or the enemy could come up and pervert them. He said "man was the creature of circumstances" for thirty years before he added the important words, " acting previous to and after his birth." He had the fatal ideas of the New Testament that equality was to be attained by granting to a community " all things in common " at the commencement. Whereas equality is the result, not the beginning. You must start with inequality and authority, steering steadily towards self-government and the accumulation of the common gains, until independence is secured to all. Mr. Owen looked upon men through the spectacles of his own good-nature. He seldom took Lord ' Mr. David Dale, who was a shrewd, discerning man, once said to Mr. Owen, "Thou needest to be very right, Robert, for thou art very positive." VOL. I. 5 So HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION Brougham's advice " to pick his men." He never acted on the maxim that the working class are as jealous of each other as the upper classes are of them. The resolution he displayed as a manufacturer he was wanting in as a founder of com munities. Recognising his capacity as a manufacturer, even Alien, his eminent Quaker partner, wrote to him, " Robert Owen, thou makest a bargain in a masterly manner ! " Sir John, then Dr. Bowring, said that the only time Jeremy Bentham ever made money was when he was a partner of Mr. Owen. No leader ever took so little care as Mr, Owen in guarding his own reputation. He scarcely protested when others attached his name to schemes which were not his. The failure of Queenwood was not chargeable to him. When his advice was not followed he would say : "Well, gentlemen, I tell you what you ought to do. You differ from me. Carry out your own plans. Experience will show you who is right." When the affair went wrong then it was ascribed to him. Whatever failed under his name the public inferred failed through him. Mr. Owen was a general who never provided himself with a rear guard. While he was fighting in the front ranks priests might come up and cut off his commissariat. His own troops fell into pits against which he had warned them. Yet he would write his next dispatch without it occurring to him to mention his own defeat, and he would return to his camp without missing his army. Yet society is not so well served that it need hesitate to forgive the omissions of its generous friends. To Mr. Owen will be accorded the distinction of being a philosopher who devoted himself to founding a Science of Social Improvement—a philanthropist who gave his fortune to advance it. Association, which was but casual before his day, he converted into a policy and taught it as an art. He substituted Co-operation for coercion in the conduct ot industry—the willing co-operation of intelligence certain of its own reward, for sullen labour enforced by the necessity of subsistence, seldom to be relied on and never satisfied. Southey, who was a competent judge of public men in his day, said : " I would class Owen in a triad as one of the three men who have in this generation given an impulse to the moral world, Clarkson and Dr. Bell are the other two. THE CHARACTER OF ITS DISCOVERER 51 They have seen the firstfruits of their harvest ; so, I think, would Owen ere this, if he had not alarmed the better part of the nation by proclaiming opinions upon the most momentous of all subjects. Yet I admire the man ; and readily admit that his charity is a better plank than the faith of an intolerant and bitter-minded bigot, who, as Warburton says, 'counter-, works his Creator, makes God after man's image, and chooses the worst model he can find—himself.' " Mr. Owen had an accessible manner and a friendly face. There was a charm that those who approached him always found in his mind. Great or low, each felt assured, as the poet puts it— " There can live no hatred in thine e3'e." The impression that Mr. Owen made upon workmen of his time is best described by one who won for himself a distin guished name as a working-class poet—Ebenezer Elliott. In an address to him, sent by trade-unionists of Sheffield in 1834, Elliott says : " You came among us as a rich man among the poor and did not call us a rabble. This is a phenomenon new to us. There was no sneer on your lips, no covert scorn in your tone." That this distinction struck Elliott shows us how working men were then treated. It was in reply to this address that Mr. Owen made a remark which is an axiom in the best political Liberalism of these days. He said " Injustice is a great mistake." He saw that it was not merely wrong, wicked, malevolent, hateful ; he believed that injustice did not answer in business—in fact, that it did not pay. This is becoming understood now. Here and there we may hear a wise employer say : " I cannot afford to pay my men badly." There are co-operative productive societies which have not quite learned this yet. Indeed, it has taken a long time for employers to see that the workman, like the inanimate tools he uses, can only be efficient when made of good material, is of good temper, and kept in good condition. A society in ShefEeld, which has never been a sentimental place, bore the sentimental name of the " Sheffield Regenera tion Society." Mr. Owen was in favour of a rule of eight hours' labour ; he being a very early advocate of what is now thought impossible. The Sheffield society ,did not believe that the world could be regenerated in eight hours, and addressed 52 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION Mr. Owen for an explanation. The document was written by Ebenezer Elliott, and was a good specimen of his prose style. It had this passage : " Dr. Chalmers, though he bids us die unmarried, does not really wish that the noble race of Watt and Burns, Locke and Milton, should become extinct. . . . William Cobbett, almost a great man, and once our only champion [a phrase he afterwards used in his famous epitaph on Cobbettx], seems to be mystifying himself and trying to mystify others on the all-important subject ; but we do not call him either rogue or fool." Elliott ended by saying that the appropriate epitaph for the great communist's tomb—when he arrived at one—would be :— " In the land of castes Owen was a Man." When Mr. Owen first proposed to his partners to institute educational arrangements at their works he admitted that there might be loss. Bentham, Alien, and other ot his partners resolved to run the risk, which in the end led to great fame and profit. When the partners who opposed the outlay retired the Lanark Mills were brought to the hammer. They depreciated the property, spreading about reports that Mr. Owen had ruined it, and that the business was not worth ^40,000. They intended buying it themselves. But the philanthropist had an eye to business, and sent his solicitor to bid against them. The discontented partners bid in person, and actually bid themselves upwards of ^i 10,000 for property they had declared worth ,£40,000 only. Mr. Owen bought it for £ 114,000. They knew that it was worth greatly more, and regretted all their days their folly and their loss. They had prematurely invited a large party of friends to a congratulation banquet on the day of the sale, and they had to play the part of hosts without appetite or exhilaration to guests unable to console them. When the news reached the Lanark workmen that Mr. Owen was to be their future 1 The reader may see that Elliott, when he came to write his epitaph on Cobbctt, must have recurred to this address. It was this :— " Our friend, when other friend we'd none ; Our champion, when we had but one ; Cursed by all knaves, beneath this sod Bill Cobbetl lies—a Man by God." THE CHARACTER OF ITS DISCOVERER 53 master the place was illuminated. When Mr. Owen and his new partners went down the workpeople and inhabitants for miles round went out to greet them with music. The horses were ungeared and, amid the acclamations of thousands, they were drawn in triumph into the town. Mr. Owen's Quaker partners with him were astounded. Never before were followers of George Fox sharers in such a demonstration. And few have been the employers who have been welcomed back by their workpeople as Mr. Owen was. These facts have had great influence in making employers genial and considerate to persons in their mills, though none have equalled the great founder of the system. These facts are worth remembering by the new co-operative companies continually forming, animated by the common notion that niggardliness is economy and that shabbiness can bring satisfaction. Wesleyanism dotted the country with prayer-meetings— Chartism covered it with conspiring groups of worldly- awakened men—Socialism sought to teach industry power, property its duty, and the working people how to struggle for their improvement without anger or impatience. It was Mr. Owen who was conspicuous in teaching them the golden lesson of peace and progress. His heart was with that religion which, though weak in creeds and collects, rendered humanity service. No affluence corrupted him. When he saw gentle men of his acquaintance adding thousands to thousands and acre to acre, and giving themselves up to the pride of family, of title, of position, he himself plotted for the welfare of mechanics and labourers. He found no satisfaction in the splendour of courts so long as the hovel stood in sight. He felt as Mr. Bright did who had a mightier power of expressing the great aims which raise the stature of mankind, who said : " I do not care for military greatness or renown : I care for the condition of the people among whom I live. . . . Crown, coronet, mitres, military displays, pomp of war, wide colonies, and a huge empire are in my view all trifles light as air, unless with them you can have a fair share of comfort, contentment, and happiness among the great body of the people," 54 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION CHAPTER VI HIS APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE " There are some very earnest and benevolent persons who have never theless a hollow jingle in their goodness. They mistake their own indifference for impartiality, and call upon men to renounce for philanthropic purposes convictions which are as sincere, as salutary, and often more important to public freedom than philanthropy itself." —G. J. H. IT was the year 1825 which saw co-operative views—which since 1812 had been addressed by Mr. Owen to the upper classes—first taken up by the working class. In 1817, as the reader has already seen, he declared " all the religions of the world to be founded in error " ; he alarmed the bishops and clergy, many of whom were in sympathy with his views, and had themselves intermittent compassion for the working class. For twenty-three years their wrath endured. In 1840 Mr. William Pare, one of the earliest and ablest of Mr. Owen's disciples, was compelled to resign the office he held of Registrar of births, deaths, and marriages in Birmingham, in consequence of its being made known to the Bishop of Exeter that Mr. Pare sympathised with Mr. Owen's views. Many of Mr. Owen's difficulties with theologians arose through their not understanding him, and through Mr. Owen not understanding that they did not understand him. His followers were fond of quoting the lines :— " For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, His can't be wrong whose life is in the right." It is not at all clear that a man has a fair chance ot getting HIS APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE 55 his life right while his creed is wrong. With all men creed has a great deal to do with conduct. Pope's lines are the doctrine of a latitudinarian without a conscience. But the argument of Pope imposed on Mr. Owen, as it has done on other excellent men. Mr. Owen was not himself indifferent to conviction. His own conviction about the religion of humanity was so strong that he paid no heed to any opinions which contradicted it. An innovator may point out the errors and mischiefs of a popular faith ; but he can never command respect from adversaries unless he makes himself master of their case and does justice to the equal honesty of those sincerely opposed to him. Meaning nothing offensive by it, Owen often displayed the common insolence of philo sophers—the insolence of pity. It is irritating and uninstruc- tive to earnest men to be looked down upon with compassion on account of convictions acquired with anxiety and many sacrifices. " It is not our object," at other times Owen used to say, " to attack that which is false, but to make clear that which is true. Explaining that which is true convinces the judgment when the mind possesses full and deliberate powers of judging." The creed of Co-operation was that the people should mean well, work well, secure to themselves the results of their labour, and neither beg, nor borrow, nor steal, nor annoy. Owen inconsistently denied men's responsibility for their belief, and then said the new system did not contravene religion. As religion was then understood it did. In 1837 Mr. Owen, in his discussion with the Rev. J. H. Roebuck, at Manchester, said "he was compelled to believe that all the religions of the world were so many geographical insanities." It was foolishness in followers to represent, as did John Finch and Minter Morgan, that their views were those of " true Christianity." Their business was simply to contend that their views were morally trae, and relevant to the needs or the day, and rest there. Neither to attack Christianity nor weakly attempt to reconcile social views to it would have been a 'self-defensive and self-respecting policy. Mr. Owen's theory of the motives ot conduct was one which could only commend itself to persons of considerable independence of thought—who were then a small minority. 56 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION To incite men to action he relied on four considerations, namely, that what he proposed was :— i. True ; 2. Right ; 3. Humane ; 4. Useful. It was understood very early1 that Co-operation was proposed as a system of universal industry, equality of privi leges, and the equal distribution of the new wealth created. This was an alarming programme to most persons, except the poor. Many did not like the prospects of "universal industry." The " distribution of wealth " in any sense did not at all meet the views of others, and " equality of privilege " was less valued. Mr. Owen determined upon committing his schemes to the hands of the people, for whom he always cared, and sought to serve. Yet, politically, he was not well fitted to succeed with them. Cobden said Lord Palmerston had no prejudices—not even in favour of the truth. Mr. Owen had no political principles—not even in favour of liberty. His doctrine was that of the poet :— " For modes of government let fools contest, That which is best administered is best " —a doctrine which has no other ideal than that of a benevolent despotism, and has no regard for the individual life and self- government ot the people. Mr. Owen was no conscious agent of the adversaries of political rights. He simply did not think rights of any great consequence one way or the other. There never was any question among Liberal politicians as to the personal sincerity of Mr. Owen. Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, Francis Place were his personal friends, who were both social and political reformers, and valued Mr. Owen greatly in his own department, which was social alone.2 The French social reformers, from Fourier to Comte, have held the same treacherous tone with regard to political freedom. Albert Brisbane, who published the " Social Destiny of Man," 1 Co-operative Miscellany, No. 2, 1830. • In his account of the Shakers in the Economist of June 2, 1821, Mr. Mudie said, " They never meddle with public affairs—not even voting at an election," and described as " a few singularities " this base abandon ment of the country to whomsoever might bestride it—to patriots who might care for it, or knaves who might despoil it of honour or freedom, while the unheeding Shakers took care of their petty conscience and comfort. HIS APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE 57 himself a determined Fourierite, announced on his title-page, "Our evils are social not political"—giving a clean bill of health to all the knaves who by political machination diverted or appropriated the resources of the people. " Our most enlightened men," he contemptuously wrote, " are seeking in paltry political measures and administrative reforms for means of doing away with social misery." Tamisier more wisely wrote when he said, "Political order has alone been the object of study, while the industrial order has been neglected." Because social life had been neglected for politics, it did not follow that political life was to be neglected for social. This was merely reaction, not sense. Another dangerous distich then popular with social reformers was the well-known lines Tory Dr. Johnson put into a poem of Goldsmith :— " How small of all that human hearts endure That part which laws or kings can cause or cure." Goldsmith knew nothing of political science. The cultivated, generous-hearted, sentimental piper was great in his way. He foresaw not England made lean and hungry by corn laws ; or Ireland depopulated by iniquitous laws ; or France enervated and cast into the dust by despotism ; but social reformers of Mr. Owen's day had means of knowing better. It was not their ignorance so much as their ardour that misled them. The inspiration of a new and neglected subject was upon them, and they thought it destined to absorb and supersede every other. The error cost them the confidence of the best men of thought and action around them for many years. Mr. Owen's own account of the way in which he sought to enlist the sympathies of the Tories of his time with his schemes is instructive. They were, as despotic rulers always are, ready to occupy the people with social ideas, in the hope that they will leave political affairs to them. How little the Conservatives were likely to give effect to views of sound education for the people, irrespective of religious or political opinion, we of to-day know very well. "I have," says Mr. Owen, "attempted two decisive measures for the general improvement of the population. 58 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION The one was a good and liberal education for all the poor, without exception on account of their religious or political principles; to be conducted under a board of sixteen com missioners, to be chosen by Parliament, eight to be of the Church of England and the remainder from the other sects, in proportion to their numbers, the education to be useful and liberal. This measure was supported, and greatly desired, by the members of Lord Liverpool's administration ; and con siderable progress was 'made in the preliminary measures previous to its being brought into Parliament. It was very generally supported by leading members of the aristocracy. It was opposed, however, and, after some deliberation, stopped in its progress by Dr. Randolph, Bishop of London, and by Mr. Whitbread. But the Archbishop of Canterbury, and several other dignitaries of the Church, were favourable to it. The declared opposition, however, of the Bishop of London and of Mr. Whitbread, who it was expected would prevail upon his party to oppose the measure, induced Lord Liverpool and his friends—who, I believe, sincerely wished to give the people a useful and liberal education—to defer the subject to a more favourable opportunity. " The next measure was to promote the amelioration of the condition of the productive classes by the adoption of superior arrangements to instruct and employ them. I had several interviews with Lord Liverpool, Mr. Canning, and other members of the Government, to explain to them the outlines of the practical measures which I proposed. They referred the examination of the more detailed measures to Lord Sidmouth, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, and I had many interviews and communications with him upon these subjects. "I became satisfied that if they had possessed sufficient power over public opinion they would have adopted measures to prevent the population from experiencing poverty and misery ; but they were opposed by the then powerful party of the political economists. "The principles which I have long advocated were sub mitted for their consideration, and at their request they were at first printed but not published. They were sent, by the permission of the Government, to all the Governments of HIS APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE 59 Europe and America ; and upon examination by statesmen and learned men of the Continent were found to contain no evil, but simple facts and legitimate deductions. In one of my last interviews with Lord Sidmouth, he said : ' Mr. Owen, I am authorised by the Government to state to you that we admit the principles you advocate to be true, and that if they were fairly applied to practice they would be most beneficial ; but we find the public do not yet understand them, and they are therefore not prepared to act upon them. When public opinion shall be sufficiently enlightened to comprehend and to act upon them we shall be ready and willing to acknowledge their truth and to act in conformity with them. We know we are acting upon erroneous prin ciples ; but we are compelled to do so from the force of public opinion, which is so strongly in favour of old- established political institutions.' To a statement so candid I could only reply, ' Then it becomes my duty to endeavour to enlighten the people and to create a new public opinion.' " τ If Lord Sidmouth believed what he said, in the sense in which Mr. Owen understood him, he dexterously concealed, in all his public acts and speeches, his convictions from the world. It was happily no easy thing even for Mr. Owen to win the confidence of the working-class politicians. They honour ably refused to barter freedom for comfort, much as they needed an increase of physical benefits. We had lately a curiously-devised Social and Conservative Confederation, the work of Mr. Scott-Russell, in which the great leaders of the party always opposed to political amelioration were to lead the working class to the attainment of great social advantages, and put them "out in the open," as Sir John Packington said, in some wonderful way. Several well-known working-class leaders, some of whom did not understand what political con viction implied, and others who believed they could accept this advance without political compromise, entered into it. There were others, as Robert Applegarth, who felt that it was futile to put their trust in political adversaries to carry out their social schemes and then vote against them at elections, and so deprive their chosen friends of the power of serving them. Twelve 1 British Co-opcra'.cr, p. 154. 6ο HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION names of noblemen, the chief Conservatives in office, were given as ready to act as the leaders of the new party. Mr. Robert Applegarth caused the names to be published, when every one of them wrote to the papers, denying any authority for connecting them with the project. Mr. Owen's early followers were looked upon with distrust by the Radical party, although he numbered among his active disciples invincible adherents of that school ; but they saw in Mr. Owen's views a means of realising social benefits in which they, though Radicals, were also interested. Mr. Owen looked on Radicals and Conservatives alike as instruments of realising his views. He appealed to both parties in Parliament with the same confidence to place their names upon his committee. He went one day with Mrs. Fry to see the prisoners in Newgate. The boys were mustered at Mrs. Fiy's request for his in spection. Mr. Owen published in the newspapers what he thought of the sight he beheld. He exclaimed : " A collection of boys and youths, with scarcely the appearance of human beings in their countenances ; the most evident sign that the Government to which they belong had not performed any part of its duty towards them. For instance : there was one boy, only sixteen years of age, double ironed ! Here a great crime had been committed and a severe punishment is inflicted, which under a system of proper training and prevention would not have taken place. My Lord Sidmouth will forgive me, for he knows I intend no personal offence. His dispositions are known to be mild and amiableτ ; but the chief civil magistrate of the country, in such case, is far more guilty than the boy ; and in strict justice, if a system of coercion and punishment be rational and necessaiy, he ought rather to have been double ironed and in the place of the juvenile prisoner." When Mr. Owen applied personally to Lord Liverpool, then Prime Minister, for permission to place his name with the leading names of members of the Opposition, to investi gate his communistic plans, Lord Liverpool answered : " Mr. Owen, you have liberty to do so. You may make use of our names in any way you choose for the objects you have in view, short of committing us as an administration." The 1 Had this been true, his name would not have been hateful to this day. HIS APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE 61 next day Mr. Owen held a public meeting. " I proposed," Mr. Owen has related, " that these important subjects should be submitted for consideration to the leading members of the administration and of the Opposition ; and for several hours it was the evident wish of three-fourths of the meeting that this question should be carried in the affirmative. But as it was supposed by the Radical reformers of that day that I was acting for and with the ministry, they collected all their strength to oppose my measures ; and finding they were greatly in the minority, they determined to prolong the meeting by opposing speeches, until the patience of the friends of the measure should be worn out. Accordingly, the late Major Cartwright, Mr. Alderman Waithman, Mr. Hunt, Mr. Hone, and others, spoke against time, until the principal parties retired, and until my misguided opponents could bring up their numerous supporters among the working classes, who were expected to arrive after they had finished their daily occupations ; and at a late hour in the day the room became occupied by many of the friends and supporters of those gentle men, who well knew how to obtain their object at public meetings by throwing it into confusion."1 The wonderful committee Mr. Owen proposed comprised all the chief public men of the day, who never had acted together on any question, and unless the millennium had really arrived—of which there was no evidence before the meeting—it was not likely that they would. This was the resolution submitted to the meeting : "That the following noblemen and gentlemen be appointed on the committee, with power to add to their number :— The First Lord of the Treasury. T!ie Lord Chancellor. Sir Robert Peel, the Secretary of State. Sir George Murray. Sir Henrv Hardinge. The Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Attornev and Solicitor General. The Master of the Mint. The Secretary of War. The President of the Board of Trade. The First Lord of the Admiralty. The Duke of Sussex. The Duke of Richmond. The Earl of Winchelsea. The Earl of Harewood. The Marquis of Lansdowne. Lords Grosvenor and Holland. Lord Eldon. Lord Sidmouth. Lord Radnor. Lord Carnarvon. [York. The Archbishops of Canterbury and The Bishops of London and Peter borough. British Co-operator, p. 152. 62 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION Deans of Westminster and York. Cardinal Wild and Dr. Croly. William Alien and Joseph Foster. Mr. Rothschild and Mr. J. L. Gold- smid. Lord Alihorp. Mr. Brougham. Sir J. Graham. Sir Henry Pamell. Mr. Spring Rice. Lord John Russell. Sir John Newport. Sir James Mackintosh. Mr. Denman. Mr. Alexander baring. Mr. Hume. Mr. O'Connell. Mr. Charles Grant. Mr. Wilmot Horten. Mr. Huskisson. Lord Palmerston. Mr. J. Smith. Lord Nugent. The Hon. G. Stanley. Lord Milton. Sir R. Inglish. Sir Francis Burdett. Mr. William Smith. Mr. Warburton. Mr. Hobhouse. Dr. Birkbeck, Mr. Owen." There was this merit belonging to the proposal, that such an amazing committee was never thought possible by any other human being than Mr. Owen. Ministers were to forsake the Cabinet Councils, prelates the Church, judges the courts ; the business of army, navy, and Parliament was to be suspended, while men who did not know each other, and who not only had no principles in common, but did not want to have, sat down with heretics, revolutionists, and Quakers, to confer as to the adoption of a system by which they were all to be superseded. It was quite needless in Major Cart- wright and Alderman Waithman to oppose the mad motion, such a committee would never have met. Mr. Owen was never diverted, but went on with his appeal to the people. He had the distinction of being the gentleman of his time who had earned great wealth by his own industry, and yet spent it without stint in the service of the public. It is amusing to see the reverence with which the sons of equality regarded him because he was rich. His name was printed in publications with all the distinction of italics and capitals as the Great Philanthropist OWEN ; and there are disciples of his who long regarded the greatness of Co-operation as a tame, timid, and lingering introduction to the system of the great master whom they still cite as a sort of sacred name. It was a very subdued way of speaking of him to find him described as the " Benevolent Founder of our Social Views." Long years after he had "retired from public life" his. activity far exceeded that of most people who were in it, as a few dates of Mr. Owen's movements will show. On HIS APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE 63 July ίο, 1838, he left London for Wisbech. On the three next nights he lectured in Lynn, the two following nights in Peterborough. On the next night at Wisbech again. The next night he was again in Peterborough, where, after a late discussion, he left at midnight with Mr. James Hill, the editor of the Star in the East^ in an open carriage, which did not arrive at Wisbeach till half-past two. He was up before five o'clock the same morning, left before six for Lynn, to catch the coach for Norwich at eight. After seeing deputa tions from Yarmouth he lectured in St. Andrew's Hall at night and the following night, and lectured five nights more in succession at March, Wisbech, and Boston. It was his activity and his ready expenditure which gave ascendancy to the social agitation, both in England and America, from 1820 to 1844. Robert Owen died in his 88th year, on the ijth of November, 1858, at Newtown, Montgomeryshire—the place of his birth. His wish was to die in the house and in the bedroom in which he was born. But Mr. David Thomas, the occupant of the house, was unable so to arrange. Mr. Owen went to the Bear's Head Hotel, quite near, and since rebuilt. He was buried in the grave of his iather in the spacious ground of the Church of St. Mary. Mr. David Thomas and Mr. James Digby walked at the head of the bearers. The mourners were :— Mr. George Owen Davics. Mr. William Cox. Mr. W. H. Ashurst. Mr. Edward Truelove. Mr. Francis Pears. Mr. William Jones. Mr. George Goodwill. Mr. Robert Dale Owen. Mr. William Pare. Col. H. Clinton. Mr. G. J. Holyoake. Mr. Robert Cooper. Mr. Law. Mr. Pryce Jones. There was quite an honouring procession—the Rev. John Edwards, M.A., who read the burial service, medical gentle men, magistrates, Mr. Owen's literary executors, deputations of three local societies, and, very appropriately, twelve infant school children—seeing that Mr. Owen was the founder of infant schools. After the funeral, Mr. Robert Dale Owen came into the hall of the "Bear's Head " with a parting gift to me of the Life 64 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION of his father, in which he had inscribed his name and mine. While paying my account at the office window, I placed them on a table near me, but on turning to enter the London coach with other visitors I found the books were gone. Though I at once made known my loss, nothing more was heard of them until forty-four years later, July 24, 1902,* when a krge delegation of co-operators from England and Scotland assembled to witness the unveiling of the handsome screen erected by them, to surround the tomb of Mr. Owen, on which occasion I delivered the following address :— We come not " to bury Caesar "—but to praise him. It is now recorded in historic pages that " Robert Owen was the most conspicuous figure in the early part of the last century."2 We are here at the commencement of another century to make the first commemoration that national grati tude has accorded him. Being the last of the "Social Missionaries" appointed in 1841 to advocate Mr. Owen's famous "New Views of Society," and being the only survivor of his disciples who, forty-four years ago, laid his honoured bones in the grave before us, the distinction has been accorded to me of unveiling this Memorial. As the contemporaries of a public man are the best witnesses of his influence, or his eminence, we may recall that Southey described him as " one of the three great moral forces " of his day. There is a rarity in that praise, for there are still a hundred men of force to one of " moral " force. Do we meet here to crown the career of a man unremark able in the kingdom of thought, or without the genius of success ? It is for us to answer these questions. It is said by parrot-minded critics that Owen was "a man of one idea," whereas he was a man of more ideas than any public man England knew in his day. He shared and befriended every new conception of moment and promise, in science, in educa tion, and government. His mind was hospitable to all projects 1 The mistress of a shop in Newtown where pledges were taken in, hearing my name among the arrivals, and remembering she had seen it on the title-page of a book in her possession, kindly sent me word that she would have pleasure in restoring it to me, which she did. » " Robert Owen," by Leslie Stephen, Nat. Diet. Biog. : Λΐ .. ..' *J φ, V - - . - *':: if'. -· I ! o ö S a Χ Η HIS APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE 65 of progress ; and he himself contributed more original ideas for the conduct of public affairs than any other thinker of his generation. It was not the opulence of his philanthropy, but the versatility of his ideas and interests, which led members of our Royal Family to preside at public meetings for him, brought monarchs to his table, and gave him the friendship of statesmen, of men of science and philosophy, throughout Europe and America. No other man ever knew so many contemporaries of renown. Because some of his projects were so far reaching that they required a century to mature them, onlookers who expected them to be perfected at once, say he " failed in whatever he proposed." While the truth is he succeeded in more things than any other man ever undertook. If he made more promises than he fulfilled, he fulfilled more than any other public man ever made. Thus, he was not a man of " one idea" but of many. Nor did his projects fail. The only social community for which he was responsible was that of New Harmony, in Indiana ; which broke up through his too great trust in uneducated humanity—a fault which only the generous commit. The communities of Motherwell and Orbiston, of Manea, Fen, and Queenwood in Hampshire were all undertaken without his authority, and despite his warning of the inadequacy of the means for success. They failed, as he predicted they would. Critics, skilled in coming to conclusions without knowing the facts, impute these failures to him. The Labour Exchange was not Mr. Owen's idea, but he adopted it, and by doing so made it so successful that it was killed by the cupidity of those who coveted its profits. He maintained—when nobody believed it—that employers who did most for the welfare of their workpeople, would be the greatest gainers. Owen did so, and made a fortune by it. Was not that success ? A co-operative store was a mere detail of his factory management. Now they overrun the world. Have they not succeeded ? We Co-operators can answer for that. He bought and worked up the first bale of cotton imported into England, thus practically founding the foreign cotton trade. Will any one say that has not answered ? He was the first to advocate that eight hours a day in the VOL. i. 6 66 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION workshop was best for industrial efficiency. The best employers in the land are now of that opinion. He did not fail there. Who can tell the horrors of industry which children suffered in factories at the beginning of the last century ? Were not the Factory Acts acts of mercy ? The country owed them to Robert Owen's inspiration. They saved the whole race of workers from physical deterioration. Were these Acts failures ? Millions of children have passed through factories since Owen's day, who, if they knew it (and their parents, too) have reason to bless his name.' He was the first who looked with practical intent into the kingdom of the unborn. He saw that posterity—the silent but inevitable master of us all—if left untrained may efface the triumphs, or dishonour, or destroy the great traditions of our race. He put infant schools into the mind of the world. Have they been failures ? He, when it seemed impossible to any one else, proposed national education for which now all the sects contend. Has that proposal been a failure ? In 1871, when the centenary of Owen's birth came round, we asked Prof. Huxley to take the chair. He wrote, in the midst of the struggle for the School Board Bill, saying : " It is my duty to take part in the attempt which the country is now making, to carry into effect some of Robert Owen's most ardently-cherished schemes. I think that eveiy one who is compelled to look closely into the problem of popular education must be led to Owen's conclusions that the infants' school is, so to speak, the key of the position. Robert Owen," Huxley says, " discerned this great fact, and had the courage and patience to work out his theoiy into a practical· reality. That " (Huxley declares) " is his claim—if he had no other—to the enduring gratitude of the people." Huxley knew that Owen was not a sentimental, speculative, or barren reformer. He was for submitting every plan to experiment before advising it. He carried no dagger in his mouth, as many reformers have done. He cared for no cause that reason could not win. There never was a more cautious innovator, a more practical dreamer, or a more reasoning revolutionist. Whatever he commended he supported with his purse. It was this that won for him confidence and trust, given to no HIS APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE 67 compeer of his time. When 80,000 working men marched from Copenhagen Fields to petition the Government to release the Dorchester labourers, it was Mr. Owen they asked to go with them at their head. It was he who first taught the people the then strange truth that Causation was the law of nature on the mind, and unless we looked for the cause of an evil we might never know the remedy. Eveiy man of sense in Church and State acts on this truth now, but so few knew it in Owen's day that he was accused of unsettling the morality of the world. It was the fertility and newness of his suggestions, as a man of affairs, that gave him renown, and his influence extends to us. This Memorial before us would itself grow old were we to stay to describe all the ideas the world has accepted from Owen. I will name but one more, and that the greatest. He saw, as no man before him did, that environment is the maker of men. Aristotle, whose praise is in all our Universities, said " Character is Destiny." But how can character be made ? The only national way known in Owen's day was by prayer and precept. Owen said there were material means, largely unused, conducive to human improvement. Browning's prayer was—" Make no more giants, God j but elevate the race at once." This was Owen's aim, as far as human means might do it. Great change can only be effected by unity. But— " Union without knowledge is useless ; Knowledge without union is powerless." Then what is the right knowledge ? Owen said it consisted in knowing that people came into the world without any intention of doing it ; and often with limited capacities, and with disadvantages of person, and with instinctive tendencies which impel them against their will, disqualifications which they did not give themselves. He was the first philosopher who changed repugnance into compassion, and taught us to treat defects of others with sympathy instead of contempt, and to remedy their deficiency, as far as we can, by creating for them amending conditions. Dislike dies in the heart of those who understand this, and the spirit of unity arises. Thus instructed good-will becomes the hand-maid of Co-operation, and Co-opera tion is the only available power of industry. Since error arises 68 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION more from ignorance of facts than from defect of goodness, the reformer with education at command, knows no despair of the betterment of men. This was the angerless philosophy of Owen, which inspired him with a forbearance that never failed him, and gave him that regnant manner which charmed all who met him. We shall see what his doctrine of environ ment has done for society, if we notice what it began to do in his day, and what it has done since. Men perished by battle, by tempest, by pestilence. Faith might comfort, but it did not save them. In every town nests of pestilence coexisted with the Churches, which were concerned alone with worship. Disease was unchecked by devotion. Then Owen asked, " Might not safety come by improved material condition ? " As the prayer of hope brought no reply, as the scream of agony, if heard, was unanswered, as the priest, with the holiest intent, brought no deliverance, it seemed prudent to try the philosopher and the physician. Then Corn Laws were repealed, because prayers fed nobody. Then parks were multiplied, because fresh air was found to be a condition of health. Alleys and courts were first abolished, since deadly diseases were bred there. Streets were widened, that towns might be ventilated. Hours of labour were shortened, since exhaustion means liability to epidemic con tagion. Recreation was encouraged, as change and rest mean life and strength. Temperance—thought of as self-denial— was found to be a necessity, as excess of any kind in diet, or labour, or pleasure means premature death. Those who took dwellings began to look, not only to drainage and ventilation, but to the ways of their near neighbours, as the most pious family may poison the air you breathe unless they have sanitary habits. Thus, thanks to the doctrine of national environment which Owen was the first to preach—Knowledge is greater ; Life is longer ; Health is surer ; Disease is limited ; Towns are sweeter ; Hours of labour are shorter ; Men are stronger ; Women are fairer ; Children are happier ; Industry is held in more honour, and is better rewarded ; Co-operation carries wholesome food and increased income into a million homes where they were unknown before, and has brought us nearer and nearer to that state of society which Owen strove to create—in which it shall HIS APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE 69 be impossible for men to be depraved or poor. Thus we justify ourselves for erecting this Memorial to his memory, which I am about to unveil. The town has erected a Public Library opposite the house in which Mr. Owen was born, to which the Co-operators subscribed £1,000. One part of the Library bears the name of Owen's Wing. HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION CHAPTER VII THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD. 11820-1830 "Then felt I like some watcher of the skies, When a new planet swims into his ken ; Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes He stared on the Pacific ; and his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise, Silent upon a peak in Darien."—KEATS. THE enchanted wonder which Keats describes on first finding in Chapman's Homer the vigorous Greek texture of the great bard, was akin to that " wild surmise " with which the despair ing sons of industry first gazed on that new world of Co operation then made clear to their view. To the social reformers the world itself seemed moving in the direction of social colonies. Not only was America under way for the millennium of co-operative life—even prosaic, calculating, utilitarian Scotland was setting sail. France had put out to sea years before under Commander Fourier. A letter arrived from Brussels, bearing date October 2, 1825, addressed to the "Gentlemen of the London Co-operative Society," telling them that the Permanent Committee of the Society of Beneficence had colonial establishments at Wortzel and at Murxplus Ryckewvorsel, in the province of Antwerp, where 725 farmhouses were already built ; that 76 were inhabited by free colonists ; and that they had a contract with the Government for the suppression of mendicants, and had already 455 of those interesting creatures collected from the various regions of beggardom in a depot, where 1,000 could be accommodated. No wonder there was exultation in Red Lion Square when the slow-moving, dreamy-eyed, much- smoking Dutch were spreading their old-fashioned canvas in THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 71 search of the new world. From 1820 to 1830 Co-operation and communities were regarded by the thinking classes as a religion of industry. Communities, the form which the religion of industry was to take, were from 1825 to 1830 as common and almost as frequently announced as joint-stock companies now. In 1826 April brought news that proposals were issued for establishing a community near Exeter—to be called the Devon and Exeter Co-operative Society. Gentlemen of good family and local repute, who were not, as some are now, afraid to look at a community through one of Lord Rosse's long- range telescopes, gave open aid to the proposal. Two public meetings were held in May, at the Swan Tavern. The Hon. Lionel Dawson presided on both occasions. Such was the enthusiasm about the new system that more than four hundred persons were willing to come forward with sums of £5 to £10 ; one hundred others were prepared to take shares at ¿25 each ; and two or three promised aid to the extent of ¿2,000. Meetings in favour of this project were held at Tiverton, and in the Mansion House, Bridgewater. The zeal was real and did not delay. In July the promoters bought thirty- seven acres of land within seven miles of Exeter. A gardener, a carpenter, a quarrier (there being a stone quarry on the estate), a drainer, a well-sinker, a clay temperer, and a moulder were at once set to work. The Metropolitan Co-operative Society, not to be behind when the provinces were going forward, put forth a plan for establishing a community within fifty miles of London. Shares were taken up and ^4,000 subscribed in 1826. There was a wise fear of prematurity of proceeding shown, and there was also an infatuation of confidence exhibited in many ways. However, the society soberly put out an advertisement to landowners, saying, "Wanted to rent, with a view to purchase, or on a long lease, from 500 to 2,000 acres of good land, in one or several contiguous farms ; the distance from London not material if the offer is eligible." Information was to be sent to Mr. J. Corss, Red Lion Square. Four years earlier Scotland, a country not at all prone to Utopian projects not likely to pay, entertained the idea of community before Orbiston was named. The Economist announced that the subscriptions for the formation of one of the new villages at 72 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION Motherwell, though the public had not been appealed to, amounted to £20,000.* Eighteen hundred and twenty-six was a famous year for communistic projects. A Dublin Co-operative Society was formed on the a8th of February, at a meeting held at the Freemasons' Tavern, Dawson Street, Dublin. Captain O'Brien, R.N., occupied the chair. The Dublin Co-operative Society invited Lord Cloncurry to dine with them. His lordship wrote to say that he was more fully convinced than he was four years ago, of the great advantage it would be to Ireland to establish co-operative villages on Mr. Owen's plan, and spoke of Mr. Owen in curious terms as the "benevolent and highly-respectable Owen." This was nine years after Mr. Owen had astounded mankind by his London declaration " against all the religions of the world." 3 Two years before the Economist appeared, as the first serial advocate of Co-operation, pamphleteers were in the field on behalf of social improvement. Mr. Owen certainly had the distinction of inspiring many writers. One " Philanthropes " published in 1819 a powerful pamphlet on the "Practicability of Mr. Owen's plan to improve the condition of the lower classes." It was inscribed to William Wilberforce (father of the Bishop of Winchester), whom the writer considered to be "intimately associated with every subject involving the welfare of mankind," and who "regarded political measures abstractedly from the individuals with whom they originated." Mr. Wilberforce, he said, had shown that " Christianity steps beyond the narrow bound of national advantage in quest of universal good, and does not prompt us to love our country at the expense of our integrity." 3 The Economist was concluded in January, 1822. It was of the small magazine size, and was the neatest and most business-looking journal issued in connection with Co-operation for many years. After the 32nd number the quality and taste of the printing fell off—some irregularity in its issue occurred. Its conductor explained in the 5 ist number that its printing had been put into the hands of the Co-operative 1 Economist. No. 27, July, 1821. " Co-operative Magazine, 1826, p. 147. 3 These were Bishop Watson's words adopted by " Philanthropes." THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 73 and Economical Society, "and that it would continue to be regularly executed by them." After the 52nd number the Economist was discontinued, without any explanation being given. It was bound in two volumes, and sold at 75. each in boards. Many numbers purported to be " published every Saturday morning by Mr. Wright, bookseller, No. 46, Fleet Street, London, where the trade and newsmen may be supplied, and where orders, communications to the editor, post paid, are respectfully requested to be addressed." Early numbers bore the name of G. Auld, Greville Street. With No. 22 the names appear of J. and C. Adlard, Bartholomew Close. With No. 32 the imprint is "G. Mudie, printer"—no address. After No. 51 the intimation is—"Printed at the Central House of the Co-operative and Economical Society, No. I, Guilford Street East, Spafields." Twelve years later, when the Gazette of the Exchange Bazaars was started, a fly-leaf was issued, which stated, " This work will be conducted by the individual who founded the first of the co-operative societies in London, 1820, and who edited the Economist, in 1821—22, the Political Economist and Universal Philanthropist, in 1823, the Advocate of the Working Classes, in 1826—27 ; and who has besides lectured upon the principles to be discussed in the foithcoming publication (The Exchange Bazaars Gazette), in various parts of Great Britain. He enters on his undertaking, therefore, after having been prepared for his task by previous and long-continued researches." Mr. Owen never thought much of co-operative societies, regarding grocers' shops as ignominious substitutes for the reconstruc tion of the world. The dedication of the Economist was as follows:— "To Mr. John Maxwell, Lord Archibald Hamilton, Sir William de Crespigny, Bart., Mr. Dawson, Mr. Henry Brougham, Mr. H. Gurney, and Mr. William Smith, the philanthropic members of the House of Commons, who, on the motion of Mr. Maxwell, on the 20th of June, 1821, for an address to the throne, praying that a commission might be appointed to investigate Mr. Owen's system, had the courage and consistency to make the motion ; this volume is inscribed in testimony of heartfelt respect and gratitude by THE ECONOMIST." rill 74 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 75 The earliest name of literary note connected with Co operation was that of Mr. William Thompson. He was an abler man than John Gray. Though an Irishman, he was singularly dispassionate. He possessed fortune and studious habits. He resided some years with Jeremy Bentham, and the methodical arrangement of his chief work, the " Distribu tion of Wealth," betrays Bentham's literary influence. This work was written in 1822. In 1825 ne published "An Appeal of one-half the human race—Women—against the pretensions of the other half—Men." It was a reply to James Mill—to a paragraph in his famous "Article on Government." Mr. Thompson issued, in 1827, "Labour Rewarded," in which he explained the possibility of conciliating the claims of labour and capital and securing to workmen the " whole products of their exertions." This last work consisted of business-like "Directions for the Establishment of Co-operative Com munities." These "directions" were accompanied by elaborate plans and tables. A moderate number of pioneers might, with that book in their hand, found a colony or begin a new world. He consulted personally Robert Owen, Mr. Hamilton (whom he speaks of as an authority), Abram Combe, and others who had had experience in community-making. Jeremy Bentham's wonderful constitutions, which he was accustomed to furnish to foreign states, were evidently in the mind of his disciple, Mr. Thompson, when he compiled this closely-printed octavo volume of nearly three hundred pages. He placed on his title-page a motto from Le Producteur: "The age of Gold, Happiness, which a blind credulity has placed in times past is before us." The world wanted to see the thing done. It desired, like Diogenes, to have motion proved. In practical directions for forming communities exhaustive instructions were precisely the things needed. Where every step was new and every combination unknown, Thompson wrote a book like a steam engine, marvellous in the scientific adjustments of its parts. His "Distribution of Wealth" is the best exposition to which reference can be made of the pacific and practical nature of English communism. He was a solid but far from a lively writer. It requires a sense of duty to read through his book—curiosity is not sufficient. Political econo mists in Thompson's day held, as Mr. Senior has expressed it, that "It is not with happiness but with wealth that I am con cerned as a political economist." Thompson's idea was "to inquire into the principles of the distribution of wealth most conducive to human happiness." His life was an answer to those who hold that Socialism implies sensualism. For the last twenty years of his life he neither partook of animal food nor intoxicating drinks, because he could better pursue his literary labours without them. He left his body for dissection—a bold thing to do in his time—a useful thing to do in order to break somewhat through the prejudices of the ignorant against dissection for surgical ends. Compliance with his wish nearly led to a riot among the peasantry of the neighbour hood of Clonnkeen, Rosscarbery, County of Cork, where he died. Another early and memorable name in co-operative history is that of Abram Combe. It is very rarely that a person of any other nationality dominates the mind of a Scotchman; but Mr. Owen, although a Welshman, did this by Abram Combe, who, in 1823, published a small book named "Old and New Systems"—a work excelling in capital letters. This was one of Mr. Combe's earliest statements of his master's views, which he reproduced with the fidelity which Dumont showed to Bentham, but with less ability. There were three Combes—George, Abram, and Andrew. All were distinguished in their way, but George became the best known. George Combe was the phrenologist, who made a reputation by writing the " Constitution of Man," though he had borrowed without acknowledgment the conception from Gall and Spurz- heim, especially Spurzheim, who had published an original little book on the " Laws of Human Nature " ; but to George Combe belonged the merit which belonged to Archdeacon Paley with respect to the argument from design. Combe restated, animated, and enlarged into an impressive volume what before was fragmentary, slender, suggestive, but without the luminous force of illustrative facts and practical applications which Combe supplied. The second brother, Dr. Andrew Combe, had all the talent of the family for exposition, and his works upon physiology were the first in interest and popularity in their time ; but Abram had more sentiment than both the others put together, and ultimately sacrificed himself as well 76 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION as his fortune in endeavours to realise the new social views in practice. In 1824 Robert Dale Owen (Mr. Owen's eldest son) appeared as an author for the first time. His book was entitled "An Outline of the System of Education at New Lanark." It was published by Longman & Co., London, written at New Lanark, 1823. It was dedicated to his father. The author must have been a young man then.1 Yet his book shows completeness of thought and that clear and graceful expression by which, beyond all co-operative writers, Robert Dale Owen was subsequently distinguished. His outline is better worth printing now than many books on New Lanark which have appeared ; it gives so interesting a description of the construc tion of the schools, the methods and principles of tuition pursued. The subjects taught to the elder classes were the earth (its animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms), astronomy, geography, mathematics, zoology, botany, mineralogy, agri culture, manufactures, architecture, drawing, music, chemistry, and ancient and modern history. The little children were occupied with elementary education, military drill, and dancing, at which Mr. Owen's Quaker partners were much discomfited. The schoolrooms were picture galleries and museums. Learning ceased to be a task and a terror, and became a wonder and delight. The reader who thinks of the beggarly education given by this wealthy English nation will feel admiration of the princely mind of Robert Owen, who gave to the children of weavers this magnificent scheme of instruction. No manufacturer has arisen in England so great as he. The London Co-operative Society was formally commenced in October, 1824. It occupied rooms in Burton Street, Burton Crescent. This quiet, and at that time pleasant and suburban, street was quite a nursery-ground of new-born principles. Then, as now, it had no carriage way at either end. In the house at the Tavistock Place corner, lived for many years James Pierrepoint Greaves, the famous mystic. As secluded Burton Street was too much out of the way for the convenience of large assemblages, the discussions commenced by the society 1 His Autobiography, since published, states that his age was twenty-two, and that this was his first work. THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 77 there, were transferred to the Crown and Rolls Rooms, in Chancery Lane. Here overflowing audiences met—political economists, seem to have been the principal opponents. Their chief argument against the new system, was the Malthusian doctrine against " the tendency of population to press against the means of subsistence." In the month of April, 1825, the London Co-operative Society hired a first-floor in Picket Street, Temple Bar, for the private meetings of members, who were much increasing at that time. In November of the same year, 1825, the society took the house, No. 36, Red Lion Square. Mr. J. Corss was the Secretary. The London Co-operative Society held weekly debates. One constant topic was the position taken by Mr. Owen—that man is not properly the subject of praise or blame, reward or punishment. It also conducted bazaars for the sale of goods manufactured by the provincial societies. At New Harmony, Indiana, David Dale Owen, writing to his father, related that they had had debates there, and Mary and Jane, daughters or daughter-in-laws of Mr. Owen, both addressed the meetings on several occasions. After all the dis courses opportunity of discussion and questioning was uniformly and everywhere afforded. The second serial journal representing Co-operation appeared in America, though its inspiration was English. It was the New Harmony Gazette. Its motto was : " If we cannot recon cile all opinions let us endeavour to unite all hearts." The recommencement of a co-operative publication in England took place in 1826. The first was entitled the Co-operative Magazine and Monthly Herald, and appeared in January. It was "printed by Whiting and Branston, Beaufort House, Strand," and "published by Knight and Lacey, Watt's Head, Paternoster Row." It purported to be " sold by J. Templeman, 39, Tottenham Court Road ; and also at the office of the London Co-operative Society, 36, Red Lion Square." The second number of this magazine was published by Hunt and Clark, Tavistock Street. A change in the publisher occurred very early, and additional agents were announced as J. Sutherland, Calton Street, Edinburgh ; R. Griffin & Co., Hutchinson Street, Glasgow ; J. Bolstead, 78 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION Cork; and A. M. Graham, College Green, Dublin. The third number announced a change in the Cork publisher ; J. Loftus, of 107, Kirkpatrick Street, succeeded Mr. Bolstead, and a new store, the " Orbiston Store," was for the first time named.1 The co-operative writers of this magazine were not wanting in candour even at their own expense. Mr. Charles Clark relates "that while one of the New Harmony philosophers was explaining to a stranger the beauties of a system which dispensed with rewards and punishments, he observed a boy who approved of the system busily helping himself to the finest plums in his garden. Forgetting his argument, he seized the nearest stick at hand and castigated the young thief in a very instructive manner." a The worthy editor of the Co-operative Magazine was one of the fool friends of progress. In his first number he gravely reviews a grand plan of one James Hamilton, for rendering " Owenism Consistent with our Civil and Religious Institutions." His proposal is to begin the new world with one hundred tailors, who are to be unmarried and all of them handsome of person. Hamilton proposed to marry all the handsome tailors by ballot to a similar number of girls. After sermon and prayer the head partner and minister, assisted by foremen of committees, were to put the written names of the men in one box and those of the girls in another. The head partner was then to mix the male names and the minister the female names. When a man's name was proclaimed aloud, the minister was immediately to draw out the name of a girl from his box. The couple were then requested to consider them selves united by decision of heaven. By this economical arrangement young couples were saved all the anxiety of selection, loss of time in wooing, the suspense of soliciting the approval of parents or guardians. The distraction of courtship, sighs, tears, smiles, doubts, fears, jealousies, expectations, dis- 1 I preserve the names and addresses of the earlier societies' printers and publishers. It is interesting to know the places where historic move ments first commenced and the persons by whose aid, or enthusiasm, or courage the first publicity was given to them. Every part of London has been dotted with shops where they were printed and sold, with coffee- shops where they were discussed, and with printing offices where the struggling publications were carried to be printed when one house after another declined to print any more. " Private Letter from New Harmony, 1825 (Co-operqtive Magazine, vol. i. No. 1, p. 50. 1826). THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 79 appointments, hope and despair were all avoided by this compendious arrangement. How any editor, not himself an out-patient of a lunatic asylum, could have occupied pages of the Co-operative Magazine by giving publicity to such a pamphlet more ineffably absurd than here depicted, it is idle to conjecture. Could this be the Mr. Hamilton, of Dalzell, who joined Mr. Abram Combe in the purchase of Orbiston for /20,000, and who offered to let lands at Motherwell for a community, and to guarantee the repayment of /40,000 to be expended on the erection of the buildings ? Apart from the eccentric views which we have recounted (if indeed they were his) Mr. Hamilton was distinguished for the great interest he took in co-operative progress and the munifi cence by which he assisted it. In the projected community of Motherwell he was joined by several eminent men, who had reason to believe that a large and well-supported co-operative colony might be made remunerative, besides affording to the Government of the day a practical example of what might be done. Several gentlemen in England subscribed many thousands each in furtherance of this project. Mr. Morrison, of the well- known firm of Morrison and Dillon, was one of those who put down his name for / 5>oo°· The Co-operative Magazine of 1826 was adorned by an engraving of Mr. Owen's quadrilateral community. The scenery around it was mountainous and tropical. The said scenery was intended to represent Indiana, where Mr. Owen had bought land with a view to introduce the new world in America. Mr. A. Brisbane prefixes to his translation of Fourier's " Destiny of Man " the Fourier conception of a phalanstère. Mr. Owen's design of a community greatly excelled the phalanstère in completeness and beauty. Mr. A. Combe exhibited designs of his Scotch community at Orbiston, but Mr. Owen had the most luxuriant imagination this way. Artists who came near him to execute commissions soon dis covered that the materialist philosopher, as they imagined him, had no mean taste for the ideal. Lamarck's theory of the " Origin of Species " was intro duced into the Co-operative Magazine—-a harmless subject certainly, but one that was theologically mischievous for forty years after. " Scripture Politics " was another topic with which 80 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION co-operators afflicted themselves. " Phrenology," another terror of the clergy, appeared. Discussions upon marriage followed, but, as the co-operators never contemplated anything but equal opportunities of divorce for rich and poor, the subject was irrelevant. The editor actually published articles on the " Unhappiness of the Higher Orders," τ and provided remedies for it, as though that was any business of theirs. It was time enough for readers to sigh over the griefs of the rich when they had secured the gladness of the poor. In those days a practical agitator (Carlile), who had the courage to undergo long years of imprisonment to free the press, thought the world was to be put right by a science of " Somatopsychonoologia." 2 There were co-operators—Alien Davenport, the simple-hearted ardent advocate of agrarian views, among them—who were prepared to undertake this nine-syllabled study. Every crotcheteer runs at the heels of new pioneers. Co-operative pages advocated the " Civil Rights of Women," to which they were inclined from a sense of justice ; and the advocates of that question will find some interesting reading in co-operative literature. Their pages were open to protest against the game laws. The Co-operative Magazine gave almost as much space to the discussion of the ranunculus, the common buttercup, as it did to the " new system of society." The medical botanists very early got at the poor co-operators. A co-operative society was considered a sort of free market place, where everybody could deposit specimens of his notions for inspection or sale. In 1827, a gentleman who commanded great respect in his day, Mr. Julian Hibbert, printed a circular at his own press on behalf of the " Co-operative Fund Association." He avowed himself as "seriously devoted to the system of Mr. Owen" : and Hibbert was a man who meant all he said and who knew how to say exactly what he meant. Here is one brief appeal by him to the people, remarkable for justness of thought and vigorous directness of language : " Would you be free ? be worthy of freedom : mental liberty is the pledge of political " Co-operative Magazine, No. III. s A Greek compound, expressing a knowledge of body, soul, and mind. THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 81 liberty. Unlearn your false knowledge, and endeavour to obtain real knowledge. Look around you ; compare all things ; know your own dignity ; correct your vicious habits ; renounce superfluities ; despise idleness, drunkenness, gambling, and fighting ; guard against false friends ; and learn to think (and if possible to act] independently." This language shows the rude materials out of which co-operators had sometimes to be made. In personal appearance Julian Hibbert strikingly resembled Shelley. He had at least the courage, the gentle ness, and generosity of the poet. Hibbert had ample fortune, and was reputed one of the best Greek scholars of his day. Being called upon to give evidence on a trial in London, he honestly declined to take the oath on the ground that he did not believe in an Avenging God, and was therefore called an atheist, and was treated in a ruffianly manner by the eloquent and notorious Charles Phillips, who was not a man of delicate scruples himself, being afterwards accused of endeavouring to fix the guilt of murdering Lord William Russell upon an innocent man, after Couvoisier had confessed his guilt to him. Hibbert's courage and generosity was shown in many things. He visited Carlile when he was confined in Dorchester Gaol for heresy, and on learning that a political prisoner there had been visited by some friend of position who had give him ^1,000, Hibbert at once said : " It shall not appear, Mr. Carlile, that you are less esteemed for vindicating the less popular liberty of conscience. I will give you ^1,000." He gave Mr. Carlile the money there and then. It was Mr. Hibbert's desire in the event of his death that his body should be at the service of the Royal College of Surgeons, being another of those gentlemen who thought it useful by his own example to break down the prejudice of the poor, against their remains being in some cases serviceable to physiological science. This object was partly carried out in Mr. Hibbert's case by Mr. Baume. Some portion of Mr. Hibbert's fortune came into possession of Mrs. Captain Grenfell, a handsome wild Irish lady after the order of Lady Morgan. Mr. Hibbert's intentions, however, seem to have been pretty faithfully carried out, for thirty years after his death I was aware of five and ten pound notes occasionally percolating into the hands of one or other unfriended advocate of unpopular forms of spcial and voi. i, 7 82 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION heretical liberty, who resembled the apostles at least in one respect—they had " neither purse nor scrip." During 1827, and two years later, the Co-operative Magazine was issued as a sixpenny monthly. All the publications of this period, earlier and later, were advertised as being obtainable at 19, Greville Street, Hatton Garden, then a co-operative centre, and at co-operative stores in town and country. If all stores sold the publication then it proved that they better understood the value of special co operative literature than many do now. It was on May I, 1828, that the first publication appeared entitled the Co-operator. It was a small paper of four pages only, issued monthly at one penny. It resembled a halfpenny two-leaved tract. The whole edition printed would hardly have cost thirty shillings if none were sold.1 It was con tinued for twenty-six months, ceasing on August I, 1830. The twenty-six numbers consisted of twenty-six papers, all written by the editor, Dr. King, who stated that they were concluded because " the object for which they were com menced had been attained. The principles of Co-operation had been disseminated among the working classes and made intelligible to-them." This was not true twenty years later, but everybody was sanguine in those days, and saw the things which were not, more clearly than the things which were.2 The chief cause of failure which the editor specifies as having overtaken some co-operative societies was defect in account keeping. Of course, as credit was customary in the early stores, accounts would be the weak point with workmen. Dr. King wrote to Lord (then Henry) Brougham, M.P., an account of the Brighton co-operators. Lord Brougham asked Mr. M. D. Hill to bring the matter of Co-operation before the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Timid members on the council were afraid of it, as many councils are still. It would have been one of the most memorable papers of that famous society had they treated this 1 It bore as printer's name Sickelmore, Brighton, the last number (the first that bore any publisher's name) gave that of Taylor and Son, North Street, same town. It was always to be had at the Co-operative Bazaar, 19, Greville Street, Hatton Garden, London. * One of the disciples of Fourier, on being told that organised life was impossible because it was too beautiful, answered : " It is too beautiful not to be possible." THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 83 subject. They never did treat any original subject, and this would have been one. Mr. Craig, who had extensive personal knowledge of early societies, states that one was formed at Bradford in 1828. A stray number of the Brighton Co-operator (the one edited by Dr. King), soiled and worn, found its way into Halifax, and led to the formation of the first co-operative society there, owing to the foresight and devotion to social development of Mr. J. Nicholson, a name honourably known, and still re membered with respect, in Halifax. His son-in-law, Mr. David Crossley, of Brighouse, all his life manifested intelligent and untiring interest in Co-operation. The first Birmingham co-operative rules were framed in 1828 by Mr. John Rabone, a well-known commercial name in that town, who was a frequent writer in early co-operative years. The reports of the early success of the Orbiston community reached Birmingham, and had great influence there. Some who had seen the place gave so good an account of it, that it was the immediate cause of the first Birmingham co-operative society being formed. On January i, 1829, the first number of the Associate was issued, price one penny, " published at the store of the first London Co-operative Trading Association, 2, Jerusalem Passage, Clerkenwell." The Associate^ a well-chosen name, modestly stated that it was " put forth to ascertain how far the working class were disposed to listen to its suggestion of means by which they themselves may become the authors of a lasting and almost unlimited improvement of their own condition in life." The Associate was from the beginning a well-arranged, modest little periodical, and it was the first paper to summarise the rules of the various co-operative associations. The author of «Paul Clifford" takes the editor of the British Co-operator by storm, who states that this work bids fair to raise Mr. Bulwer to that enviable pinnacle of fame which connects the genius of the author with the virtues of the citizen, the philanthropist with the profundity of the philosopher.1 The Society for the Promotion of Co-operative Knowledge 1 British Co-operator, p. 62. 1829, 84 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION held regular quarterly meetings, commencing in 1829. They were reported with all the dignity of a co-operative parliament in the Weekly Free Press, a Radical paper of the period. The proceedings were reprinted in a separate form. This society bore the name of the British Association for Promoting Co-operative Knowledge first in 1830. This publication, entitled The Weekly Free Press, was regarded as a prodigy of newspapers on the side of Co-opera tion. The editor of the aforesaid British Co-operator described it as " an adamantine bulwark, which no gainsayer dare run against without suffering irretrievable loss." No doubt " gain- sayers " so warned, prudently kept aloof, but the " adamantine journal" ran down itself, suffering irretrievable loss in the process. No one could accuse the early co-operators of being wanting in large ideas. It was coolly laid down, without any dismay at the magnitude of the undertaking, that the principles of Co-operation were intended to secure equality of privileges for all the human race. That is a task not yet completed. In addition they made overtures to bring about the general elevation of the human race, together with univeral knowledge and happiness. Ten years before the British Association for the Advancement of Science was devised in Professor Phillips's Tea-room in the York Museum, and forty years before Dr. Hastings ventured to propose to Lord Brougham the establish ment of a National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, the Co-operative Reformers set up, in 1829, a " British Association for Promoting Co-operative Knowledge." It had its quarterly meetings, some of which were held in the theatre of the Mechanics' Institution, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, known as Dr. Birkbeck's Institution. The speeches delivered were evidently studied and ambitious, far beyond the character of modern speeches on Co-operation, which are mostly businesslike, abrupt, and blunt. Among those at these early meetings were Mr. John Cleave, well known as a popular newsvendor—when only men of spirit dare be newsvendors—whose daughter subsequently married Mr. Henry Vincent, the eminent lecturer, who graduated in the fiery school of "Chartism," including imprisonment. Mr. William Lovett, a frequent speaker, was later in life THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 85 imprisoned with John ColJins for two years in Warwick Gaol, where they devised, wrote, and afterwards published the best book on the organisation and education of the Chartist party ever issued from that body. Mr. Lovett made speeches in 1830 with that ornate swell in his sentences with which he wrote resolutions at the National Association, in High Holborn, twenty years later, when W. J. Fox delivered Sunday evening orations there. Mr. Lovett was the second secretary of the chief co-operative society in London, which met at 19, Greville Street, Hatten Garden. The fourth report of the British Co-operative Association announced the Liverpool, Norwich, and Leeds Mercuries ; the Carlisle Journal, the Newry Telegraph, the Chester Courant, the Blackburn Gazette, the Halifax Chronicle, besides others, as journals engaged in discussing Co-operation. The West- moretand Advertiser is described as devoted to it.1 The first Westminster co-operative society, which met in the infant schoolroom, gave lectures on science. Mr. David Mallock, A.M., delivered a lecture on " Celestial Mechanics " ; Mr. Dewhurst, a surgeon, lectured on "Anatomy," and complaint was made that he used Latin and Greek terms without translating them.3 The British Co-operator, usually conducted with an editorial sense of responsibility, announced to its readers that " it is confidently said that Mr. Owen will hold a public meeting in the City of London Tavern, early in Easter week ; and it is expected that his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex will take the chair. We have no doubt it will be well attended and produce a great sensation among the people." This premature announcement was likely to deter the Duke from attending. The first London co-operative community is reported as holding a meeting on the 22nd of April, 1829, at the Ship Coffee-house, Featherstone Street, City Road. Mr. Jennison spoke, who gave it as his conviction that the scheme could be carried out with £ζ shares, payable at sixpence per week.3 The first Pimlico Association was formed in December, 1829. Its store was opened on the 2jth of February, 1830, * British Ce-oferafor, p. 47. · ibid., p. 20. 1829. 3 ibid., p. 44. 86 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION and between that date and the 6th of May it had made £32 of net profit. Its total property amounted to £140. Its members were eighty-two. The first Maidstone co-operative society was in force in 1830, and held its public meetings in the Britannia Inn, George Street. A Rev. Mr. Pope, of Tunbridge Wells, gave them disquietude by crying—" Away with such happiness [that promised by Co-operation] as is inconsistent with the gospel." As nobody else promised any happiness to the working men, Mr. Pope might as well have left them the consolation of hoping for it. He would have had his chance when they got the happiness, which yet lags on its tardy way. In 1830 Mr. J. Jenkinson, "treasurer of the Kettering Co-operative Society," confirmed its existence by writing an ambitious paper upon the " Co-operative System." England has never seen so many co-operative papers as 1830 saw. Since the Social Economist was transferred to the pro moters of the Manchester Co-operative News Company, in 1869, there has been even in London no professed co-operative journal. The Agricultural Economist, representing the Agricultural and Horticultural Association, is the most important-looking journal which has appeared in London in the interests of Co-operation—" Associative Topics " formed a department in this paper. In 1830, when the Co-operative Magazine was four years old, the Co-operative Miscellany (also a monthly magazine) commenced, and with many defects, had more popular life in it than any other. The editor was, I believe, the printer of his paper. Anyhow, he meant putting things to rights with a vigorous hand. His Miscellany afterwards described itself as a " Magazine of Useful Knowledge " ; a sub-title, borrowed, apparently, from the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Know ledge, then making a noise in the world. The editor of this Miscellany held that co-operative knowledge should be placed first in the species useful. It was then a novel order of know ledge. The Miscellany was of the octavo size ; the typo graphical getting-up was of the provincial kind, and the title-page had the appearance of a small window-bill. It was THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 87 printed by W. Hill, of Bank Street, Maidstone. The editor professed that his magazine contained a development of the principles of the system. The allusion evidently was to Mr. Owen's system. Of the people he says "many of them are beginning to feel the spark of British independence to glow." He tells us that some "are moving onwards towards the diffusion of the views of Mr. Owen, of New Lanark, now generally known as the principles of Co-operation, Speaking of the meeting of the British Co-operative Association, at which Mr. Owen spoke, "who was received with enthusiastic and long-continued cheering," the editor of the Co-operative Miscellany, said : " The theatre was filled with persons of an encouraging and respectable appearance." Persons of an " encouraging appearance " are surely one of the daintiest discoveries of enthusiasm. At this time Mr, Owen held Sunday morning lectures in the Mechanics' Institution, followed, says this Miscellany " by a conversazione at half-past three o'clock, and a lecture in the evening." Early in 1830 appeared, in magazine form, the British Co-operator, calling itself also "A Record and Review of Co-operative and Entertaining Knowledge." This publication made itself a business organ of the movement, and addressed itself to the task of organising it. To the early stores it furnished valuable advice, and the sixtli number " became a sort of text-book to co-operators." No. 22 had an article which professed to be " from the pen of a gentleman holding an important office in the State," and suggested that intending co-operators should bethink themselves of bespeaking the countenance of some patron in the infancy of their Co-opera tion—the clergyman of the parish, or a resident magistrate, who might give them weights and scales and a few shelves for their store shop. The members were to sign an arbitration bond, under which all questions of property in the society shall be finally decided by the patron, who must not be removable, otherwise than by his own consent. The plan might have led to the extension of Co-operation in rural districts. And as the authority of the patron was merely to extend to questions of property when no law existed for its protection, the members would have had their own way in 88 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION social regulations. All the patron could have done would have been to take away his scales, weights, and shelves. A very small fund, when the society was once fairly established, would have enabled them to have purchased or replaced these things. The British Association for Promoting Co-operative Know ledge, published in the Weekly Free Press a special protest against " patrons of any sort, especially the clergyman or the magistrate." The early socialists spoke with two voices. With one they denounced the wealthier classes as standing aloof from the people and lending them no kind of help, and with the other described them as coming forward with " insidious plans " of interference with them. It was quite wise to counsel the working classes " to look to themselves and be their own patrons," but it was not an encouraging thing to gentlemen to see one of their order " holding an important office in the State," kicked, "by order of the committee," for coming forward with what was, for all they knew, a well-meant suggestion. The British Co-operator prepared articles for the guidance of trustees and directors or committees of co-operative societies. It gave them directions how to make their storekeeper a responsible and punishable person. How to procure licences. How to execute orders and schemes of book-keeping. It usefully remarked : " We regret that the neglect of the first Bloomsbury society to take legal measures to secure their property has deprived them of the power to recover their trading stock from four of the members, one of whom was nominally a trustee. The parties entered the store at night, and decamped with all the movables they could carry off. This has broken up the society. We still repeat, the trustees of a society ought not to be members of it." l Mr. Haigh, of Mill's Bridge Society, Huddersfield, wrote to inform the editor, that on the I4th ultimo " they were obliged to discharge their storekeeper^ as he had defrauded them of much property during the quarter "—a circumstance which subsequently occurred very frequently in that district. Some of the stores appear to have been troubled by the disappearance 1 The reason being, that if he were a member the law would then regard him as a partner, who might, as such, appropriate the funds to his own use. The law is changed now. THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 89 of cheese in larger proportions than the sales accounted for, and an announcement was made of the formation of a Mouse-trap Committee. It was a law in England that no partner should sue his co-partner for any fraud or breach of agreement by an action at common law ; his only mode of proceeding against his partner was to file a bill in equity in the Court of Chancery. This mode of proceeding against any member of a co-operative trading society, from the immense expense attached to it (for ¿60 would only meet the cost of filing the bill), was rendered impossible for a working man to adopt. Therefore it was better for him to pocket the first loss sustained rather than throw two or three years' hard-earned savings into the engulfing jaw of a Chancery suit. A discussion arose upon "Educated Shopmen" in the British Co-operator where it was proposed that the storekeeper should be "a person of gainly appearance—clean, active, obliging, and possessing a high sense of honour." Mr. Faber, contended that the storekeeper ought not to be re garded " as a servant only, but as a friend and brother of the associates." Efforts were then being made in London to establish an agency for the sale of co-operative manufactures. In 1830 the distressed co-operators of Spitalfields and Bethnal Green weavers produced a co-operative silk handkerchief. It was an article that only ladies and gentlemen would buy in sufficient numbers to be of any advantage ; but the disastrous proneness of enthusiasm to be instant in season and out of season, led to there appearing upon it a design representing the inordinate possessions of the upper classes, so that no gentleman could use it without seeing the reproach. The House of Commons published a paper detailing the attempts happily being made to put down Hindoo suttees. The British Co-operator writes upon it thus : " Mr. Owen is right in saying that the period of a great moral change which he has announced, is fast approaching. There is scarcely a publication which issues from the press that does not bring forward some new evidence of it." The co-operators at this period believed in the immediate advent of Mr. Owen's system as implicitly as the early Christians believed in the 90 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION coming of Christ, and every new and hopeful incident of the day was regarded as a shadow, cast by the new world before it. Dr. Epps1 and his system of phrenology, semi-Christian and semi-materialistic, is introduced in the British Co- operator, and Dr. Henry McCormac, of Belfast—described as " one of the illuminât! of the age "—is noticed as the author of a work on the moral and physical condition of the working class. Dr. McCormac was a promoter of social as well as medical ideas, and was known as a teacher of mark. His son, a well-known physician, was the author of similar works. Dr. Epps, a leader in homoeopathy when it was ill-regarded, took a sincere interest in advancing liberal opinion. In the British Co-operator a co-operative catechism was published, in the form of a dialogue between one Tom Seekout and Jack Tellall, a co-operator. After nine numbers had been published of the Associate, which bore no date save that of London, 1830, by which its times of appearance could be told, it took the second title of Co-operative Mirror. The tenth number reproduced the catechism with pictorial embellishments, quite of the Catnach order of art, representing Tom Seekout, a dilapidated rascal, who wore breeches and stockings with holes in them, smoked a pipe, had a battered hat, and was very thin. He is shown as coming out of the " Pipe and Puncheon " public-house, a far less dismal place, it must be owned, than the drawing of the co-operative stores opposite—a plain-looking, solid, rather dreary house, bearing the name " Co-operative Society " over the door. Before this stands a smiling, well-contented-looking fellow, in good health and compendious whiskers, which are apparently the product of the store, as poor Tom Seekout has none. Jack Tellall, the co-operator wears a hat with a brim of copious curvature, a coat evidently cut by some Poole of the period, voluminous white trousers, and a watch and seals that would be sure to have excited Mr. Fagin. In the distance, between the " Pipe and Puncheon " and the " Co-operative Society," is a remarkable church, very much given to steeple. The pathway to it is entirely devoid of travellers ; but it is quite evident that Jack Tellall, like a well-behaved co-operator, 1 Whose cocoa is still sold. THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 91 ¡B on his way there, when he falls in with Tom Seekout, who confesses that his elbows are not presentable to the beadle, and that his belly is pinched in like the squire's greyhound. Jack Tellall informs him, in the course of an amusing dialogue, how Co-operation will put all that to rights. Number 11 of this publication was printed on good paper in clear type, and poor Tom Seekout, who appeared in Number 10, and our decorous friend Jack Tellall, continue their dialogue under conditions admissible in respectable society, and the engraving was a miracle of improvement. It represented a community of majestic and castellated proportions, quite a city of the sun, resplendent on a plateau, raising its turrets above an umbrageous forest which surrounded it, with just one glorious pathway visible by which it was accessible. Beyond was the far-stretch ing sea, and from above the sun sent down delighting beams through clouds which evidently hung enraptured over the happy spot. Not even Ebenezer Elliott, with his sharp-eyed criticism, could detect a single evidence of primness inflicted upon the wild luxuriance of nature. There has been only one portrait published, which represented Mr. Owen as a gentle man ; and this engraving of a community, in No. n of the Asocíate, is the only one that had the genuine air of Paradise about it. No doubt the Associate was indebted for it to Mr. Minier Morgan, who had introduced it into his " Hampden in the Nineteenth Century." Among the correspondents of the British Co-operator was Josiah Warren. He wrote from Cincinnati, January 30, 1830, to recommend a scheme of cheap printing, of which he was the inventor. Considering the power of giving a monopoly by patents absurd, he makes known his scheme and offers it to any one to adopt. Application was to be made to the Free Inquirer, conducted in New York by Frances Wright and R. D. Owen. Like Paine, Warren made a present to the public of those copyrights in inventions and books, which in Paine's case made others rich and left the author poor. The world, which is apt to despise reformers for being always indigent, should remember how some of them became so. Mr. Josiah Warren was a member of Mr. Owen's com munity at New Harmony in 1826, and it was there he conceived the idea that the error of Mr. Owen's principles 92 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION was combination. Mr. Warren gave this doctrine the name of Individuality—his system being to let everybody have his own way in everything, at his own cost, which has hitherto been found to be an expensive form of waywardness. Mrs. Wheeler, a familiar name in co-operative literature, was a lady who very sensibly advocated the usefulness of women taking part in public affairs. Frances Wright, after wards known as Madame D'Arusmont, was a Scottish lady distinguished in the same way. Yet this did not prevent the editor from introducing into it a paragraph concerning the Anti-man Society at Maine calculated to bring a cause, which had few friends then, into contempt. The editor was one of that class who meant well and had little other capacity. To the honour of co-operators, they always and everywhere were friendly to the equal civil rights of women. The subject is never obtruded and is never long absent. It continually recurs as though women were an equal part of the human family and were naturally included in Co-operation. Mr. J. S. Mill frequented their meetings and knew their literature well, and must have listened in his youth to speculations which he subse quently illustrated to so much effect in his intrepid book, " Subjection of Women." This journal, however, had substantial merits. It had spaciousness of view as to the organisation of industry, and published thoughtful and practical papers thereon. It had cultivated correspondents who knew how to interest the reader and were not merely useful and dreary. One gave an account of one of Mr. Owen's meetings at the London Tavern. The large tavern hall was crowded. Proceedings were delayed in order that adversaries might elect a chairman of their own. Mr. Owen quietly put it to the meeting whether, as was his custom, he should conduct his own meeting, or whether a stranger should occupy the chair. Hands were held up. It was Owen against the field. The enemy was abundantly beaten. " I have," said a religious advocate present, " often argued with Mr. Owen, but the misfortune is, I can never get him into a temper nor keep myself out of one." Mr. Owen read an address two hours and a half long. The most devoted admirer could not help trying to count the awful pile of pages in the speaker's hands, to estimate when the hearer would be THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 93 out of his misery. No House of Commons—no university assembly—no church meeting—would have borne such an infliction. Yet the audience kept peace. When the end did come, a fury took possession of the adversaries. A Presby terian minister rushed to the platform. As he lifted up his Calvinistic voice he became aware that the Rev. Robert Taylor, who had taken upon himself the unpleasant name of "The Devil's Chaplain," stood next to him, and close to him. The Rev. Presbyterian Pharisee pushed back with his stick the Chaplain of Lucifer. The meeting understood it. It was : " Stand off, I am holier than thou." Gentlemen would con sider the act an insult—a magistrate an assault—Taylor did neither, but bowed and retired a little. The meeting applauded the dignified rebuke. In due course Taylor came forward of his own right to reply. As he had wantonly caused himself to be known by a distasteful name, he was not welcome on his own account, and had a bad time of it. One evangelical lady spoke against hearing him with a volubility which showed how valuable she would have been had she lived in the days of the building of Babel. Her tongue alone would have con founded the builders better than the multiplication of languages, and saved the labour of Latin and Greek and other miseries of scholarship entailed upon us. A description of what followed, by an eye-witness, is given in the British Co-operator. " Taylor at length obtained a hearing. His figure is good, his appearance prepossessing, his dress affected, though not as I had been taught to expect—eccentric. His language was florid and highly wrought, his sentences abounding in figures of speech and closing in well-formed and generally pungent periods. He was elaborate, yet fluent, with much of the trickery of eloquence, much, too, of the soundness of reflection. His gesture was appropriate to his diction, both were too highly finished. It was acting, the acting of the theatrical performer, not on the stage but before the looking-glass. It was the elegant play of the sword fencer in his practice, brilliant and dazzling, it wanted the earnestness, the ardour, the recklessness of the combatants. In short, it was more the rehearsal of the orator than the oration itself. In the midst of affectation, the greatest and the most faulty, was that (next after the display of the diamond on his little finger) 94 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION which tempted him to quotations from the learned languages. To speak Latin to an audience in the city of London was certainly out of keeping. "The attention of the meeting was now drawn to an object equally worthy of attention, another apostle for the cause he had espoused. It was the celebrated Henry Hunt, the Radical reformer, standing on a chair near the centre of the room, with head erect, his short white hair mantling over his florid countenance, his coat thrown open, and his right hand fixed on his side, in the resolute attitude of determined self-posses sion. I could see in a moment why it was he ever secured an ascendancy over the wills of those whom he is in the habit of addressing. He was Old England personified, and his very figure spoke for him to English hearts. On his appearance the clamour broke out afresh, for there was a strong expression of disapprobation testified in some parts of the room against him. But he was not to be daunted ; like the true English mastiff, he held his grip; John Bull might bellow, fret, and foam, but he was not to be shaken off. ' Gentlemen '—' down, down,' on one side, ' Go up, go up,' on the other. Still he was fixed and immovable.—' Gentlemen, if you will but allow me to speak, I will tell you why I will not go up.'—' Bravo, Hunt.' ' I went up and was turned down again.' Mr. Owen apologised to him, explained the mistake, and requested him to go up to the gallery. ' No,' replied the sturdy orator, ' I am not one of your puppets, to be moved up and down at your pleasure.' Mr. Owen on his side was as determined, though not so sturdy. ' Mr. Hunt, I do not hear you well, and as I would be sorry to lose anything of what you say, whether it be for or against my propositions, you will oblige me by coming up.' Good temper is Mr. Owen's distinguishing attribute, never was it displayed in a more amiable, effective manner. The stern rigidity of Hunt's features instantly relaxed, he testified his assent by a good-hearted nod, descended from his self-selected point of elevation, was by Owen's side, and com menced a harangue by declaring his strong sense of the claims which that gentleman had on the public attention, and his respect for the philanthropy of his views, and for his perseverance in pressing them on through good and evil report," In thpse days the Birmingham Co-operative Herald existed, THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 95 The storekeeper appears to have been an object of solicitude to it. Mr. Pare was 'afraid that the society would become dependent upon one man, and urged that all members should become in rotation committee men, so that there might be sufficient knowledge of the affairs of the society in as many hands as would enable them to change any principal officer without arresting the progress of the society. This was pro vided for in the Assington co-operative farms, devised a few years later. Every shareholder is a " steward " or member of the committee in turn. A subject discussed and not settled at the Bolton Congress of 1872, was discussed with great force by Mr. Pare in 1830, that was the permanence of share capital, and the necessity, not merely the advantage, but the necessity, of treating co operative capital like joint-stock, railroad, and canal company capital, and not compelling the directors of a store to give members the value of their share on withdrawing from the concern. Mr. Pare urged this in his Liverpool lectures, and carried his advice as far as Gatacre, a village six miles from Liverpool, where Lady Noel Byrom had, at that early period, suggested the formation of a co-operative store. Though living herself in another part of the kingdom, her solicitude for social progress was communicated to her correspondents. Mr. Pare, who was called the first Co-operative Missionary> that being the title applied to him in the British Co-operator, rendered in the friendly papers of the day frequent, modest, and always interesting accounts of his tours, and his narrative is very interesting to follow, as it alone records the dates when Co-operation was first preached in some of the chief towns of England. From Liverpool Mr. Pare proceeded to Lancaster. Going in search of the mayor of that day to obtain from him the use of a public hall, he found him at the County Lunatic Asylum, which struck Mr. Pare as being a place so superior to the comfortless lodgings and-cottages of mechanics and farm hands, that he thought there were considerable advantages in being mad. The mayor, however, proved to be as much demented as many of the inmates, for he disliked Co-operation, lest its funds, which did not exist, should be applied to support workmen in case of a turn-out against their employers. By other means Mr, Pare obtained a building to speak in, and 96 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION though his posters were up only four hours before his lecture, more persons came than could get in, being from two to three hundred in number. He next addressed, in Blackburn, about three hundred auditors. He was informed that there were at least twenty-six societies in this town and its immediate vicinity. The industrial ground was good in those days, for the co-operative seed sprang up fruitful everywhere. The condition of the bulk of the inhabitants he saw there is worth remembering. He beheld thousands of human beings pining with hunger, in rags, with little or no shelter for their emaciated bodies, and who had to beg to be allowed to work to obtain even these miserable conditions of existence. His next visit was to Bolton, where he lectured in the Sessions Room to about four hundred persons. On this visit he was entertained by the Rev. F. Baker, who had preceded him in delivering two lectures on Co-operation in the Mechanics' Institute of that town. Some of the leading men of the city of Chester attended a lecture delivered by Mr. Pare on the 17th of March. A co operative society existed then in Chester, consisting of seventeen members, who were making arrangements to supply all the co-operative societies in the kingdom with prime cheese at low prices. The Chester men seemed desirous of getting at the bottom of the subject, for they put questions to Mr. Pare which caused his lecture to extend over four hours. At this period Mr. James Watson was known as one of the store keepers of the first London co-operative society, 36, Red Lion Square, and afterwards Jerusalem Passage, Clerkenwell. Mr. Lovett was his successor. On making a journey to Yorkshire, Mr. Watson was requested to act as a co-operative missionary, and he was furnished with tracts for distribution and the necessary credentials, Mr. Watson was an earnest and forcible speaker, who knew how to unite boldness of sentiment with moderation of manner. When Richard Carlile's shopmen were being imprisoned, beyond the rate of metropolitan supply, Mr. Watson was one, of many others, public-spirited young men, who volunteered to supply the place of those imprisoned. He took his place at Mr. Carlile's counter, and also in prison when his turn came. He was incarcerated three times through his participation in public THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 97 movements, and for periods of unpleasant length. He ultimately became one of the three famous Radical publishers (Watson, Hetherington, and Cleave), whose names were known all over the country,'as leaders of the Unstamped publication movement. Mr. Watson remained in business until the opening of the Fleet Street House in 1854, when his business was purchased by the present writer. He maintained all his life a reputation for principle and integrity, and was held in personal esteem by the leading Radical members of Parliament from the days of the drafting of the People's Charter to the time of his death in 1874. Both as publisher and advocate, he always ranked as one of Mr. Owen's most practical disciples. It was reported (in 1830) that a co-operative society was being formed at Marseilles, south of France, on the original social principle that the character of man is formed for and not by him ; Mr. Hamilton, of Dalzell, appears to have carried this doctrine there. Persons wishing information about it were to apply to M. Boinet, Boulevard du Musée, No. 7, A.D., who would be at home from seven to eight in the morning for that purpose. Propagandist!! begms early in the day in France. The Newry Telegraph reported two fervid speeches on Co-operation, by Edward Gardener and John Stevenson, made at the annual dinner of the Armagh Benevolent Society, held in the Market House, January 7, 1830. Ireland has always been favourable to Mr. Owen's views, and received him well long after England had grown angry at his apparent heresies. A Metropolitan Co-operative Book Society was formed, which met in 19, Greville Street. In the absence of P. θ! Skene, of Lewes, the chair was taken by W. Ellis. The society had in view to establish reading-rooms and libraries. This Mr. Ellis is the gentleman mentioned by Mr. J. S. Mill in his autobiography, as an early friend and associate of his, and to whom the metropolis was subsequently indebted for the Birkbeck Secular schools founded by his generosity, and directed by his trained judgment. In October, 1830, the magazine before mentioned was published once a fortnight by Strangs, of Paternoster Row, and sold by co-operative storekeepers. It bore the double title of Magazine rf Useful Knowledge, and Co-operative Miscellany. It took for its motto this premature sentence, VOL. i. » 98 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION " Learning has declared war against Ignorance." It had done nothing of the kind, but was only airing itself before a larger multitude with Latin quotations—and with Greek ones, where the printer happened to have that type. Many long years elapsed before Learning attempted any war against Ignorance. The first speech reported in co-operative journals of Mr. Henry Hetherington's appeared in No. 3 of this magazine. The first number of the Miscellany had to tell of a Rev. Mr. Pope, of Tunbridge Wells, who had " proved Co-operation to be totally inconsistent with the Gospel." It is fair to mention that about this period, one Rev. F. Baker, the same who entertained Mr. Pare at Bolton, appeared as an advocate of Co-operation, and published a periodical which had reached forty-three numbers in 1830, and was sold at one penny. But clerical dissentients were, however, never wanting. After the Birmingham Political Union " was hung up," as Mr. Muntz expressed it, " like a clean gun "—and never taken down again, John Collins. became known as a Chartist speaker. He was a man of some force and earnestness, but not otherwise distinguished for power. It was to his credit that he assented to that form of progress which was to be advanced by instruction rather than by force, which Chartism began to rely upon. Mr. Collins and I used to go to Harborne together, a little village some four miles from Birmingham, only famous because Thomas Attwood, the founder of the Political Union, had a seat there. Our object was to teach in a school in a little Pasdobaptist Chapel. Heaven, I hope, knew what Psedobaptist meant. I did not. I was quite a youth then, and sometimes Collins used to take me by the hand as I got over the long walk badly. I remember when the sermon, which followed the school teaching, was much protracted, I used to long for dinner-time to come. I see now the humble cottage, belonging to a deacon, to which I went, in which the fire grate was very spacious, and the fire nearly invisible. I used to sit very close to it looking at the snow in the garden, which at that time covered the ground, as I ate my dinner off my knees, which usually consisted of a cold mutton chop, which my mother had thoughtfully provided, lest that article should not be prevalent in the cottage, and her dear solicitude THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 99 was quite prophetic. John Collins came to know much of Co-operation and to take interest in it. He was imprisoned two years in Warwick Gaol with Mr. Lovett, as has been said. The impression that Co-operation was making upon politicians was set forth in striking terms in 'BlacT^uooffs Edinburgh Magazine.Σ The gravity of the estimate made, shows that the new industrial views were recognised as a moving force of the time, as in that quarter no undue importance would be accorded to them. The writer said : " Difficult as it is to force upon the attention of those who live in continual plenty and immoral indulgence, the severe distress of others, whom it is a trouble to them to think of, yet they can hardly be blind to the necessity of acting in a matter, which the people themselves have taken up in a way extremely novel in this country, and dangerous, or the contrary, according as the Legislature may make it. Multitudes of the common people now see clearly the state they are placed in. They perceive that their labour is valuable, if they had the means of applying it ; but as their former masters have no use for it, they are driven to see whether they cannot use it for their own advantage. Those who have the virtues of thrift and patience are forming themselves into societies for the purpose of enjoy ing the benefit of their mutual labour ; and it is impossible to look at their virtuous endeavours, to substitute comfortable competence for the horrors of dependence upon precarious employment by masters, without wishing them God-speed." These words were evidently intended to influence those who influence affairs, and are of interest and moment still. The last fruits of the enthusiastic period was the invention of congresses. Indeed, from 1829, and for six years after, Co-operation may be said to have lived on congresses. Here tofore such assemblies were called " Conferences." It was Mr. Pare who introduced the American term " congress," to distinguish social from political proceedings, which were known as conferences. In America, congress implied a political parliament. Mr. Pare held that he brought the term into English notice by the frequent use co-operators made of it. 1 No. 161. January, 1830. ΙΟΟ HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION The first co-operative congress was held in Manchester, in May, 1830. There were delegates present from fifty-six societies, representing upwards of three thousand members, who had, by small weekly contributions and trading on co operative principles, accumulated a capital of ^6,000 in less than fifteen months. Mr. Place has preserved a copy of the United Trades' Co-operative Journal, issued in 1830, in Manchester. Its price was twopence. It was printed on the best paper with the greatest typographical clearness, and contained the soberest and most intelligent writing of all the journals of this period started to represent Co-operation. The anecdotes selected were in good taste. It admitted nothing which was silly or uninstructive. Many of its quotations were selected with such judgment and knowledge that their literary interest is unabated to this day, and would be well worth reproducing. Even its original poetry was endurable, which was very rarely the case in these publications. Once in making a quotation from the Guardian newspaper, which it felt justified in contradicting, it suffered its correspondent who wrote upon the subject to entitle the paragraph in question, "Falsehoods of the Manchester Guardian." To charge a journalist with lying, because he took a different view of the condition of the operatives, was indefensible. Mr. Taylor, the editor of the Guardian, was himself a man of honour, but had it been otherwise it was quite sufficient to show that a writer was wrong without calling in question his veracity. This United Trades' Journal rendered a great service by publishing a summary of the rules in force in various co-operative societies in the kingdom—an act of thoughtfulness and labour, and one that shows that the enthusiastic period was not devoid of sagacity. To this day these rules are instructive. They marked the towns, chiefly Brighton and London, Worthing, Belper, and Birmingham, where these rules were known to be adopted. They are worthy the attention 01 co-operative societies now, as showing the care that early societies took to secure character, confidence, education, co-operative knowledge, and self-helping habits in their members. The following are some of the more notable rules :— Loans of capital to the society by its own members shall THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD ιοί bear an interest of £5 per j£ioo, and are not returnable with out six months' notice. In the purchase and sale of goods credit shall neither be given nor received. Every member agrees to deal at the store of the society for those articles of daily use, which are laid in of suitable quality and sold at fair ready-money prices. All disputes among members on the affairs of the society are to be settled by arbitration. Any member misbehaving may be expelled by vote of the majority of members at a quarterly meeting. No husband shall be admitted a member without his wife's appearing before the committee and expressing her consent. A man is not eligible to be a member unless he can read and write ; and in general he must produce a specimen of his work. No member is eligible for this committee until six months after admission to the society. The preface to the Co-operative Miscellany of 1830 stated that there were then upwards of 20,000 persons united in different parts of the kingdom. The number of societies spread over England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland were estimated by the British Association as being 266 in 1830. The members of the British Co-operative Association itself numbered 639. The enthu siasm with which Co-operation continued to be regarded was manifest by the statement in the British Co-operator, that in the last quarter of the year 53 societies had been formed. When William Thompson wrote his Practical Directions for forming Communities in 1830, he stated there were 300 co-operative societies of the industrial classes associatif·1 through England, Scotland, and Ireland. He spoke of grand experiments instituted in 1825, on the principles«pf\\ co-operative industry, one at New Harmony, in the of Indiana, America, and the other at Orbiston, near Glasgow ; and of others in different parts of the United States, particularly one at Kendal, in the State of Ohio, without any connection with Mr. Owen, other than that of friendly communications. It was in 1827, he says, that the people themselves took up IO2 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION the idea of co-operative industry, and names William Bryen, one of the hard-working industrious classes, as the chief promoter in Brighton, Sussex, of a Trading Fund Association. Within three years of that period the combined efforts of Mr. Philip Skene, Mr. Vesey, of Exeter, Mr. William Pare, of Birmingham, and other friends of co-operative industry, united with Mr. Bryen, led to more than eighty associations on similar principles being formed in different parts of England. He relates that the first Brighton association had accumulated funds sufficient to take a small piece of land, of twenty or thirty acres, and others had commenced the manufacture of cotton and stockings. The Brighton society published every month a periodical called the Co-operator^ while the Birmingham society issued the Co-operative Herald. We have this year (1830) an announcement of the first co-operative manufacturing community in London. The object appears to be to give employment to members. A committee was appointed to superintend the manufacture of brushes. They were to be sent to the Co-operative Bazaar, 19, Gré ville Street, where goods manufactured by other co-operative societies were purchased for sale. Co-operators in Burslem were sending up orders for co-operative handker chiefs, stockings, galloons, and such things as were likely to be sold among poor people. The British Co-operative Associa tion had the management of the arrangements, and they opened their bazaar from two to three o'clock daily. The terms on which goods were admitted were these : " The carriage of goods paid ; the wholesale and retail prices fixed and attached to the articles, with an invoice, specifying the quantity, qualities, and kind of each article, which might be sent on sale, or returnable if not sold. The money derived from sales, subject to a deduction of 2¿ per cent., will be paid to the society through which the goods have been sent. At such times as the proceeds of the bazaar management exceed the expenses, a dividend will be made to the sender of goods previously sold." A list was published of seventeen societies, which in Manchester and Salford alone were formed between 1826 and 1830, bearing names like Masonic lodges, the "Benevolent," the " Friendly," the " Owenian," and others. But only the THE ENTHUSIASTIC PERIOD 103 last-named society was intending to commence manufac turing. At that time (1830) a few co-operators in Manchester took 600 acres of waste land upon Chat Moss, and contrived to cultivate it. England had not a drearier spot in which to begin a new world. There was scarcely a thing for the eye to rest upon over a fiat of several thousand acres. Railway surveyors had declared it impossible to make the Manchester and Liverpool line over it. Those who stepped upon it found it a black, wet sponge, which absorbed the pedestrian in it up to his knees. Horses who walked over it had to wear wooden pattens. It was literally a " Slough of Despond," but enthusiastic co-operators thought they could cultivate the millennium there. Co-operation had the soul of charity in it, and the apostolic virtue which hoped all things and believed all things. IO4 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION CHAPTER VIII THE DEVICE OF LABOUR EXCHANGES " The night is darkest before the morn ; When the pain is sorest the child is born." KINGSLEY'S Day of the Lord. So far as my reading or experience extends there is no example of a commercial movement so simple, necessary, and popular as the device of Labour Exchanges—exciting so wide an in terest and dying so soon, and becoming so very dead. The exchange of labour meant really an exchange of commodities upon which labour had been expended. One plan was to take a large room, or series of rooms, where persons having articles they needed to part with could exchange them for others, or obtain a negotiable note for them. The first intimation in England of this new device of commerce of industry came from Mr. Owen. It appeared in the Crisis in the following form :— " NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC : EQUITABLE LABOUR EXCHANGES' INSTITUTION OF THE INDUSTRIOUS CLASSES, GRAY'S INN ROAD, KING'S CROSS. "Agriculturists, gardeners, manufacturers, provision mer chants, factors, warehousemen, wholesale and retail dealers of all descriptions, mechanics, and all others, who may be inclined to dispose of their various articles of trade and merchandise in the only equitable manner in which men can mutually dispose of their property to each other, viz., its value in labour for equal value in labour, without the intervention of money, are requested to communicate with Mr. Samuel Austin, at the Equitable Labour Exchange. " All letters must be post-paid—ROBERT OWEN." THE DEVICE OF LABOUR EXCHANGES 105 These bazaars were designed to enable artificers to exchange among themselves articles they had made, by which they would save the shopkeeper's expenses. For currency labour notes were substituted, which it was thought would represent real value. The shoemaker brought his pair of shoes to the bazaar, with an invoice of the cost (calculated at sixpence per hour). The labour note, of so many hours' value, was given to the shoemaker, who could then, or at any other time, buy with them any other deposit in the bazaar—a hat, or teakettle, or a joint of meat, if he found what he wanted. Upon each transaction a commission of 8J per cent, was charged, in some bazaars payable in cash, to defray the expenses of the institution. In the exchanges conducted under Mr. Owen's auspices the commission charged was only one halfpenny in the shilling. In the published rules of the Equitable Labour Exchange, in Gray's Inn Road, in 1832, the name of Robert Owen appears as governor ; and Thomas Allsop, Sampson Mordan, and W. Devonshire Saull, as members of council. According to Mr. Noyes, Josiah Warren, in 1826, originated the idea of Labour Exchanges, which he com municated to Mr. Owen when he was a resident in Mr. Owen's community of New Harmony. After leaving New Harmony Mr. Warren went to Cincinnati!, where he opened a Labour Exchange under the title of a Time Store. He joined in commencing a second one in Tascarawas, Co. Ohio ; a third at Mount Vernon, Indiana. He opened a fourth in 1842, at New Harmony, to which he had returned. Mr. Owen alone gave effect to the plan in England, and by whom alone it was made known. In May, 1833, the National Equitable Labour Exchange, London, was opened at noon on May-day with some pomp, at the new rooms in Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place, London. This place extended 250 feet from the front entrance in Charlotte-street, to John Street, at the back. In Charlotte Street it appeared to be no more than one of the usual private dwellings ; but on passing through the entrance it opened unexpectedly into a quadrangular building of two stories, with a covered space in the centre of 16 ft. by 130 ft. Alterations were made in it to suit the convenience of the Labour Exchange and public meetings. Nearly 12,000 people were able to fililí 106 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION stand in it under cover and hear a speaker with an ordinary voice—it could seat 3,700 persons. Mr. Owen convened the opening meeting " purposely to announce his determina tion to reject the system of error, by which society had been so long governed, and plant his standard of open and direct opposition to it." He had done that sixteen years before, at the City of London Tavern ; but that was a thing which would bear doing many times over. Society had a way of going on, regardless of the stand Mr. Owen made against it. Mr. Roebuck, M.P., was the chairman. The chief thing which he did was to make " known his conviction, that nothing would be done for the labouring classes unless they did it themselves." Mr. Gillon, M.P., was also a speaker. Mr. Owen then gave his address. Mr. Owen, as head of the London exchange, was publicly offered a hundred tons of the pink-eyed potatoes. It seemed an indignity that the correspondent of all the monarchs of Europe should be publicly engaged in considering tenders for pink-eyed potatoes. Sixpence was the uniform standard of value for each hour, adopted by Mr. W. King. He it was who was the editor of a Gazette of Labour Exchanges. The Gazette stated that the first Labour Bank was established at the Gothic Hall, New Road, Marylebone, in the month of April, 1832. The projector of the bank had no capital. Mr. Owen, who understood business, objected to this bazaar ; as persons who had no property to indemnify the public from loss were unfitted for the work. The Bank of Labour had no capital at its back. It was to Mr. Owen's credit that when he judged the King scheme unsound he said so. Mr. King " wondered that he should find an opponent in the ' universal philanthropist,' " evidently being of opinion that a philanthro pist should approve of everything well intended, whether well devised or not. The projector thought enough to allege that he w was conscious of the purity of his intentions, and confident in the soundness of his principles " ; but, as the " principles " had never been tried, and as " purity of intention," however excellent in itself, is not capital in a commercial sense, and will buy nothing in the market, the exchange could not be expected to command confidence—yet it obtained it. Within twenty weeks deposits of the value of ,£3,500 were made. THE DEVICE OF LABOUR EXCHANGES 107 In writing to the Times concerning the Labour Exchange Institution, Mr. Owen cited the great commercial organisation of the firm of James Morrison & Co. as an approach towards the change that he intended to effect in the distribution of common wealth among the people. A United Interests Exchange Mart and Bank was projected* and premises taken for it in Aldersgate Street, a few yards south of the corner of Long Lane, consisting of a spacious front shop, with three other floors, each of nearly the same extent, for showrooms and exchange purposes. An exchange was opened in Sheffield, a town always venturesome in social things. But it was Birmingham that stood next to London in labour exchange fervour. Mr. Owen convened a congress in 1832 in Birmingham, at which delegates from various parts of the kingdom were invited, to discuss this new scheme of local commerce. The propagandism of it was in mighty hands, wont to strike the world in a large way. At once Mr. Owen held a great meeting in Birmingham, where he excited both enthusiasm and inquiry into the nature of co-operative plans generally. Mr. Thomas Attwood, himself then a man of national repute, with a natural affinity himself for men of spacious manners, introduced Mr. Owen, with many courtly phrases, to the council of the famous Birmingham Political Union, whom Mr. Owen addressed. He delivered lectures in the public office in Dee's Royal Hotel, Temple Row, which was largely attended by ladies ; and in Beardsworth's Reposi tory, which was attended by eight thousand people. Mr. G. F. Muntz was announced to preside. Mr. Owen's subject was " Labour Exchanges " j and Mr. Beardsworth, having an eye to business, offered to sell him the repository for a labour exchange mart. Mr. John Rabone, Mr. George Edmonds (one of the most ambitious orators of the Birmingham Political Union, and subsequently Clerk of the Peace of the town), Mr. Hawkes Smith, Mr. Pare, and others, addressed the great meeting at Beardsworth's. Birmingham being distinguished among English towns for the variety of its small trades and miscellaneous industries, exchange of any kind came congenially. Journalism theie soon showed itself interested in advancing the idea. A special Labour Exchange Gazette was started, and on July 29, 1833 1 ι J tal IK 108 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION the National Equitable Labour Exchange was opened in Coach Yard, Bull Street. Benjamin Woolfield, Esq., was the director, and Mr. James Lewes sub-director. The bankers were Spooners, Attwoods & Co. The first day the deposits were 18,000 hours, and the exchanges 900. Each day, for some time, the deposits increased, but the exchanges never exceeded one half. In August the association of depositors numbered 840. Coventry sent £30 worth of ribbons ; but a much more saleable deposit was three hundredweight of good bacon, and one person undertook to take any number of well- manufactured Birmingham articles in exchange for the best Irish provisions. The capital upon which this exchange com menced was only £450, which the first three months realised a profit, clear of all rents, salaries, and other payments, of £262. By this time London was filled with the fame of the Labour Exchange Bazaar of Gray's Inn Road, which Mr. Owen had taken to accommodate the growing business which was arising around him beyond that which could be dealt with in the Charlotte Street Rooms. It was stated that in one week the deposits in the Gray's Inn Road bazaar amounted to little less than £10,000, and that if 4 per cent, out of the 8J per cent, said to be then charged on those deposits were applied to the extension of exchanges, there would be a disposable accumulating fund of £400 weekly, or if the deposits and exchanges proceeded at that rate £28,000 per annum would arise for that purpose. "Over the water"— as the Surrey side of London was called—things went on swimmingly. The Labour Exchange Association was so active that in 1833 and '34 it published monthly reports of its proceedings, with carefully drawn up papers and speeches of members. The astonishing number of deposits made in a short time, and the avidity with which exchanges were made, proved that a large amount of wealth remained stationary for the want of a market. No doubt numerous persons were stimulated by these exchanges to make articles of use and value, who before did nothing, because no means existed of disposing of them ; and thus, by providing exchanges, new wealth was created. Mr. Owen strongly recommended the management of the ex change at Birmingham to be given to Mr. William Robert THE DEVICE OF LABOUR EXCHANGES 109 Wood. Mr. Wood better understood the commercial possi bilities of these Exchanges than any one else.1 The cardinal point he insisted upon was, that each Exchange should be provided with quick, sound, practical valuators—not men muddled with labour-note ideas of sixpence per hour estimates —but who would know exactly what a thing would fetch in the market if it had to be sold out of doors. The labour of a second-rate shoemaker, or button maker, might not be worth sixpence an hour, while the labour of a skilful oculist might be worth loo guineas. Who could appraise the value per hour of the chair painter and the landscape painter at the same six pence ? The Labour Exchange needed the pawnbroker's faculty of quickly seeing what a thing was worth. The exchange managers should have a clear eye to not giving more than could be obtained for an article if they had to sell it to a stranger. By giving more than the value obvious to the outsider, the labour notes are depreciated in value. If a man of business went into an exchange and saw persons depositing chimney ornaments and firescreens, and carrying out kettles, good hats, and sound pieces of bacon, he knew at once that things could not go on. Their rapid popularity showed that they really hit a general need, and sound management must make them profitable. At first, tradesmen around them readily agreed to take labour notes, and numerous placards were issued, and are still extant (preserved by Mr. Place),2 giving this notice to the public. Of course these tradesmen took occasion to run round the exchange themselves, and see what kind of deposits represented the value of the notes. A weakness for " respectable" friends of the system caused in one case a whole family of shrewd, talkative professors of the " new views" to be put upon the directory of an exchange. These adroit managers did business with their friends and acquaintances, 1 Mr. Wood remained persuaded of the utility of Labour Exchanges to the end of his days, and proposed to co-operate with me in establishing one. He became the leading dentist in Brighton and died at an advanced age. He became alderman, and his friend Mayall—the famous photo grapher—became mayor. Both were Huddersfield men. Brighton owed its public baths and other social improvements to Alderman Wood, to whom the memory of Owen was a constant inspiration. ' As many as three hundred tradesmen gave notice that the Labour Notes would be taken at their places of business, and in some cases the theatres made the same announcement—that Labour Notes would be taken at the doors. fill no HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION who loaded the shelves with useless things appraised at a special rate, while valuable and saleable articles were carried away in exchange. Sharp shopkeepers sent down worthless stock in their shops, exchanged it for labour notes, and before the general public came in carried away the pick of the saleable things, with which they stocked their shops. As they put in their windows " Labour Notes taken here," they were thought wonderful friends of the exchange. With some of them the proper notice in the window would have been "Labour Exchangers taken in here." And these were the knaves who first began to depreciate Labour Notes and compare them to French assignats, and they well knew the reason why.1 The popularity and even profit of the deposit business was such that it bore this. Then wholesale and general dealers systematically depreciated Labour Notes with a view to buy them up, which they did, and carried off all the saleable goods they could find at the exchange. These operators did not approve of the exchanges which appeared to threaten a new system of barter, and ingeniously devised means to discredit them and profit themselves in doing it. If Mr. Owen had otherwise chosen his officers in the central exchange the enemy might have been frustrated ; but disinterestedness had become with him a second nature, and he took for granted the integrity of those who offered their services. When his suspicions were aroused no man could see more easily or farther into a rogue than he. Mr. Owen rather regarded these exchanges as weak expe dients of persons who thought that they could mend or mitigate a state of society which he considered should be peremptorily superseded ; they had not the advantage of that strong direction. Facility and certainty of exchange is a condition not only of commerce but of production. Astute persons failed not to see that a wealth-making power resided in them. It was obvious if pawnbrokers—who received no money with deposits, but had to pay out capital for them and be debarred from realising upon articles taken in until a long period after, and then only when not redeemed—prospered, there was some probability that a 1 On the other hand there were honest and favouring shopkeepers who took the notes with a view to promote their circulation as currency, and gave saleable goods for them, who found themselves unable to obtain a fair exchange at the bazaar, and thus they became victims of the exchange scheme. III THE DEVICE OF LABOUR EXCHANGES company of labour brokers—who received cash with every deposit and paid no capital out for it, but merely gave a note for it and were at liberty to sell it the next hour—could make profit. There might have been a department where valuable articles of uncertain demand could be received on sale at the depositor's own price, to be paid for only when disposed of. Had the profits accruing been carried to the credit of customers in proportion to their dealings, as is now done in the co operative stores, and the first five pounds of profit so gained by the exchanger capitalised to create a fund to stand at the back of the notes to prevent panic or depreciation, these Labour Exchanges might have continued, as they might now be revived. At the Surrey branch in Blackfriars Road, which existed simultaneously with the Gray's Inn Road Exchange, the total 'deposits soon amounted to £32,000, and the exchanges to £16,000. Mechanical inventions, steam engines, steamships, and pro jected railways had changed the character of industry before men's eyes. Dr. Church was known to be running about Birmingham on a steel horse. Though some of his patients were more alarmed at his untoward steed, he made a favourable impression upon the popular imagination. The novelty of change disposed many to believe that the new discovery in barter was the very supplement of industry wanted, and that its uses and benefits would be indefinite. Their progress was marvellous, and their first discouragement came, not from the enemy but from friends. They were the disciples of the world-makers who helped, in their mournful, misgiving way, to bring the scheme down. They regarded these exchanges as an expedient for diverging from the straight road which led to the new world. Mr. Gray says: "They proved entirely delusive, as all attempts to graft a new system upon the old must be, without any corresponding change of principles and and habits of action " ; whereas it was a merit of this scheme that it required no change of principle and very little habit of action. It was their success and profit becoming obvious to untheoretical eyes that led finally to their ruin. The Jewish proprietor of Gray's Inn Road saw that good commercial results could be derived from them and conspired to obtain Ill 112 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION them himself. But the enthusiasm which Mr. Owen had created, and which allured the public to any scheme with which he was connected at that time, was wanting to the new proprietor. He had taken a shop without being able to secure to himself what in England is called the goodwill of the business. In January, 1834, the Labour Exchange in Gray's Inn Road was broken up by violence. The proprietor, Mr. Bromley, having had his building empty in 1831 for four months, artfully placed the keys in Mr. Owen's unsuspecting hands, to do what he pleased with it, he relinquishing any claim to rent till 1832. Nothing was to be paid for the fixtures. Mr. Owen accepted the arrangement without any schedule of fixtures or any definite agreement as to terms and tenure of future tenancy. Had the place gone on indifferently, Mr. Bromley would have been very glad for such rent as Mr. Owen would have paid him. For a year and a half Mr. Owen used the place as the grand central institution for promulgating his system. Lectures were delivered there on Sundays and other days. Great festive celebrations were held ; and many of the most eminent men of that day and of subsequent years were among the occasional frequenters of the meetings. Trade unionists, social, political, religious, and philanthropic reformers of all schools, found welcome and hearing there. No opinion, Tory, Radical, or religious, and no want of opinion, was a bar to friendliness and aid, provided the object was one intended to benefit the public. It was taking the Labour Exchange there that brought the Institution (of which London never had the like before or since) to an end. When Mr. Bromley saw the exchange succeed he took steps to obtain possession of the place, as he was satisfied Mr. Owen had discovered a mode or making money which was unknown to Mr. Bromley. One of his modest proposals, then, was that Mr. Owen should buy the whole institution at £17,000. Then he demanded that the fixtures should be paid for, which had never been estimated at more than £700. He, however, made a demand for £1,100 ; and, to prevent dispute, or unpleasantness, Mr. Owen paid him £700 out of his own pocket. It was ultimately arranged that the premises should be given up, as the directors of the exchange refused to take any further lease of the premises at THE DEVICE OF LABOUR EXCHANGES 113 the rental asked, which was £1,700 a year. Mr. Bromley, however, was so impatient of re-possession that he did not wait even for their leaving, but procured a mob of men and broke into the place, and let in sixty-four ruffians (the exact number of the gang was set down), who smashed the secretary's doors in, took possession of the fixtures belonging to the exchange, and turned the directors into the street. The police were called, some of the rioters were taken before the magistrates, and the same discredit occurred as though Mr. Owen had not paid the £700. Of course there was a remedy in law against Mr. Bromley, but the directors were too lenient to enforce it, and they were content to open a new bazaar in the Surrey Institution, Blackfriars Road. Notwithstanding the excite ment and mischievous knowledge the public had that the Gray's Inn Road place might be peremptorily closed, the amount of deposits on the last day it was opened was 6,915 hours, and the exchanges 5,850,50 that the directors continued to do business to the last day at the rate of more than £50,000 a year. The lowest rent Mr. Bromley would agree to accept as a condition of their remaining was £1,400, and the rates and taxes amounted to about £300 more, making a yearly outgoing of £1,700. The business of the exchange was clearly likely to bear this ; Mr. Bromley became so satisfied on this point, was so impatient to get possession, that, rather than wait a week or two for the convenience of removal, he resorted to force, and immediately issued a placard announcing that " The whole of the splendid and capacious premises, Gray's Inn Road, will be occupied in future by the National Land and Equitable Labour Exchange Company. The present occupants will close their proceedings this week, and the National Land and Equitable Labour Exchange Company will commence receiving deposits on Wednesday morning next, the loth instant, at ten o'clock, and continue daily at the same hour ; and the company's exchange stores will be opened to the public on Monday, the 2 ist of January, 1833; after which day the company will be ready to receive proposals for the occupation of land lying at convenient distances from the metropolis, or on the land of the intended railroad from Birmingham to King's Cross." Here was a well-kid scheme, which was really a tribute to VOL. I. Û lÉflílííí 114 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD the value of exchanges. This practical man, unembarrassed by any scruples, thought that if the plan succeeded so well when weighed with Mr. Owen's unpopular principles, the world would flock to the same standard when a neutral flag was displayed. He, however, overlooked that outrage, though it sometimes succeeds, is often a dangerous foundation to build upon. Mr. Owen's disciples were not all philosophers—they were human enough to feel rage, and numerous and powerful enough to make their indignation felt ; and they spoke so unpleasantly of the new project and its ingenious projector, that he got few exchanges, and lost his good tenants without getting any other. He found he had not only alienated those who had made the exchange system popular ; he had alarmed the public by the spectacle of violence, police cases, and failure. The National Company fell into well-earned contempt and distrust, and the Gray's Inn Road buildings became an obscure, woebegone, deserted, unprofitable holding.τ No doubt, Labour Exchanges died there. Had Mr. Owen's friends been self-denying, stilled their hatchet tongues, and have promoted the success of the Equitable Exchange, the cause might have been saved. They did not comprehend that steam was not a failure, though a thousand experiments broke down before a single steamship sailed or railway car ran ; that new medicines as often kill people as cure them before cautious, patient, experimental physicians discover the right way of administering them. Yet no one decries the curative art. But in social devices the first scoundrel or the first fool—the first thief or the first blunderer, who by over-confidence, fraud, or ignorance brings a scheme to immediate grief, sets the world against it for generations, and journalists evermore speak of it as that " abortive failure which was tried long ago and brought ruin and ignominy upon all concerned." 1 The original correspondence on this subject and the statements and letters of Mr. Bromley to Mr. Owen, are now in the possession of The Owen Memorial Committee of Manchester. CHAPTER IX THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD. 1831-1844 "Thus truth was multiplied on truth, the world Like one great garden showed, And thro' the wreaths of floating dark npcurl'd, Rare sunshine flow'd."—TENNYSON. FOR thirteen years now Co-operation has to be traced through Socialism. Store keeping had in many cases failed, and, where successful, its profits were insufficient to pave the way to the new world, much less defray the costs of that rather extensive erection. Grand schemes were revived, in which idleness and vice, silliness and poverty were to cease by mutual arrange ment. This state of things came to bear the name of Socialism. Social and co-operative literature has not been very brilliant. Robert Dale Owen was incomparably the best writer of the early period. William Hawkes Smith, of Birmingham, had an animated readable style. Mr. Minter Morgan had literary ambition. In this period the working-men writers were often eloquent by impulse and passion. They told their story ofttimes with verbose energy. There were frequent instances of wit and humour in their platform arguments. But their writing was best endurable to persons of the same way of thinking, to whom earnestness was eloquence, and to whom any argument in which they agreed seemed witty. Any man who stood up manfully for opinions, at which society scowled, seemed admirable, and was admirable in doing it ; and by those who thought that deliverance from precariousness lay that way, no art save sincerity was esteemed. English men, as a rule, getso few large ideas that when one ni«!Hl l ιι6 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD makes its way into their mind, whether political, religious, or social, they go mad about it for the first few years. They see nothing but that. Everything else in the world is obscure to them ; and they believe that their route is the high-road to the millennium. No Co-operators arose who had the pen of Bunyan, the Bedford tinker. Many books were published without any date, or any allusion by which a person unacquainted with the time could determine when they were issued. So important a book as William Thompson's "Practical Directions for the Establishment of Communities" merely contains an incidental date which suggests rather than tells when it appeared. All these authors thought they were commencing a new world, and that their works would be known and issued at the beginning of things. Even Robert Fellowes, B.A., Oxon, who published an address to the people in 1799, on the "Genius of Democracy," was not well served by the printer, who made him say that " Nelson's victory on the Nile had lain the posterity of France in the dust." That would have been a famous achievement and saved Europe much trouble. Posterity ought to have been prosperity. Huber states that some ants are subject to a peculiar malady, which, after being once seized with it, prevents them moving any more in a straight line. There are a great many writers who are subject to this disease, who not only move, but reason deviously, and never arrive at the point of their meaning. Ant writers of this description overrun socialist literature. With the close of 1830 periodicals representing Co-operation appear to cease. Few, if any, reached 1831. No new ones were announced in London for that year, and no trace of any remain. Another form of activity commenced. As 1830 was the year of journals, 1831 was the year of congresses. The fervour of the five years from 1826 to 1830 stimulated action, and then ceased to direct it. Societies popular in conception can hardly become so in practice, or be largely sustained without the animation and counsel which well-contrived periodicals supply. None could advertise or pay for competent editorship or competent contributors. It comes to pass that journals written by charity come to be read only by charity. At length, in 1832, Mr. Owen entered the field of weekly journalship himself, and issued a much larger paper than had 117 ever before appeared, purporting to represent Co-operation. Of course it must bear a momentous title if Mr. Owen had anything to do with it, and accordingly it was named The Crisis. The poor are always in a crisis, and rich and poor in that year were rather better off in this respect than they had been for a long time. There was a profitable crisis approaching of some importance, for the Reform Bill was near, but this did not concern Mr. Owen, and it was scarcely mentioned in the volume edited by him. The French Revolution had occurred two years previously, and Mr. Owen narrowly escaped being shot in it ; but as Louis Philippe was not a believer in the " new views," Mr. Owen made no note of his deportation from France. It was the change from error and misery to truth and happiness, by the introduction of communistic plans, that was to constitute the crisis. Mr. Owen proposed to offer for the guidance of the affairs of men the heroic precept of " the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, without mystery, mixture of error, or the fear of man "—which the world has certainly not seen yet. It was proof that social expectation in Owen was still great, that 12,000 copies were sold immediately The Crisis was out, and a second edition of 5,000 was issued. In the meantime the provinces were busy with organs of associative opinion. After the first subsidence of Co-operative journals in London they arose in Lancashire, and were con tinued during 1831 and 1832 in a more practical way than in London, the price being mostly a penny, while in London they were published as sixpenny magazines, and, of course, only purchased by people who had sixpence to spare ; while in the provinces Co-operation had become a matter of interest chiefly to workmen who had less to spare. Then in London and the south of England Co-operation was more sentimental, as though the warmer atmosphere rarefied it ; while in the north it appeared as though the cold condensed it. In Lancashire and Yorkshire journals were more practical. Instead of theories about the happiness of the higher orders, the pages were filled with reports of societies actually in operation with accounts of their experience and profit to the " lower orders." Monthly papers had hitherto been the rule, it being illegal then to publish news earlier than twenty-eight days old, unless the paper bore the newspaper stamp ; which made it HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION impossible to issue a weekly paper which reported immediate proceedings. Long before the newspaper stamp was abolished considerable latitude had been allowed by the Government with respect to journals representing religious, scientific, or educational movements. It was impossible for the Stamp Office to make a restrictive definition of news. All weekly publica tions reporting any proceeding which gave immediate informa tion came under the definition of a newspaper ; and Mr. Owen's Crisis might have been put down at any time had any one called the attention of the law officers to it. Mr. Collett made this clear when he stopped Mr. Dickens' Household Narrative of Current Events, and brought the Athenäum within the operation of the law. The Lancashire Co-operator, or Useful Classes' Advocate, as it with some judgment called itself, took for its motto this well-conceived improvement upon the half maxim, " Union is strength," namely— "Numbers without union are powerless, And union without knowledge is useless." This publication, edited by Mr. E. T. Craig, first appeared in September, 1831. It published addresses to Christian co-operators, who, however, could never be persuaded to take it. This journal was locally well received, and was sent out by the Manchester and Salford Co-operative Council. It was a small penny periodical, the expense of issuing which could scarcely have cost the members more than a farthing each, even if none had been sold. The editor showed great taste in selecting illustrative extracts. One was from Shipley, the Bishop of St. Asaph, which set forth that the art " of prevent ing insurrection is not to take from the people the power to resist, but to make it their interest to obey." The fifth number reported a co-operative tea-party, attended by about a hundred and thirty men and women, in Halifax. In September a successor to this little journal appeared under the title of The Lancashire and Yorkshire Co-operator, resembling its predecessor in every respect, with the addition only of the name of " Yorkshire." In those days adversaries were fond of describing Co-operation as an ignis fatuus. An article under that term— " Co-operation an Ignis Fatuus "—was written. THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 119 Fifty people read the title for one who read the article.1 In the second number of this two-counties' journal Mr. B. Warden, an enthusiastic saddler, of Marylebone, addressed a communication to the " Eight Millions of Workpeople of the British Nation," though it was perfectly certain that eight hundred would never see it. The editor continued to make extracts from Bishop Shipley ; and, knowing that co-operators were esteemed latitudinarians in religion, because they were more scrupulous in believing only what they could give an account of in reason, he judiciously called attention to Bishop Shipley's wise saying : " I am not afraid of those tender and scrupulous consciences who are over-cautious of professing or believing too much. ... I respect their integrity. The men I am afraid of are the men who believe everything, who subscribe everything, and vote for everything." These principleless evasionists overrun the country still and pass for respectable persons of irreproachable faith. This journal continued until February, 1832—writing to the last about Co-operation being an ignis fatuus. It, however, reappeared as a four-weekly organ. There was no halfpenny postage of publications in those days, and the editor intimated that the cost of carriage proved a barrier to its circulation, and the "Six Acts " prohibiting their giving news, such as reports of lectures or societies' meetings, oftener than once a month, they had determined to issue their journal in future monthly ; but whether the "Six Acts" frightened them from discovering the name of the month or year of issue did not transpire. The journal never contained the one or the other till, incidentally, in October, the month and year appeared. In its monthly form it was printed very prettily. It was in double columns, and the chief subjects of each page was printed at the head. The new series commenced by another address from Mr. B. Warden, "To the Eight Millions." Its last number appeared in November, and was entirely occupied with a report of the fourth Congress of delegates, which was held at Liverpool. That year Mr. T. Wayland, of Lincoln's Inn, published a work on the " Equalisation of Property and the Formation of Communities." 1 The adversaries whose eyes fell on the suspicious title exclaimed : " We always said co-operators were under a delusion, and now they see it themselves." 11 ' frill II ΙΙΙΙι 120 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION 121 The Congresses and their incidents will be more intelligible, perhaps, if related in the order of their succession. The first Congress was held in Manchester in 1830. The second Co-operative Congress was held in Birmingham in October, 1831, and for a season divided attention with the Reform Bill in that town. It met in commodious rooms in the Old Square. At this Congress, Rowland Detrosier was present, who had already distinguished himself by the possession of unusual scientific and political knowledge for one of his rank of life, and who had a voice, an energy, and an eloquence which was considered strikingly to resemble Brougham's. Birmingham in those days was quite a centre of Co-operative inspiration. Here the first organised impulse was given to the formation of a band of missionaries. Here the Congress proposed to contribute to the capital of the Voice of the People, with a view to its becoming the accredited organ of the move ment. Then there were no railways nor funds for coaches, and two of the delegates from Glasgow walked the whole distance, nearly 300 miles. Robert Owen and William Thompson were the chairmen of the Congress. In December of the following year a public meeting of 8,000 persons was held, lasting from eleven in the morning till four o'clock in the afternoon, consisting of small manufacturers, shopkeepers, operatives, and many ladies and persons of the wealthier classes. Mr. Owen said, in writing to his son Dale, that " in all his experience in Europe and America he had never witnessed so numerous and gratifying a meeting."T The third Co-operative Congress, held in the Gray's Inn Road Institution, London, in 1832, was notable for many things. Further and more open attempts were made to pro mote political indifference among co-operators. Mr. Owen remarked that "despotic governments were frequently found to be better than those called democratic. In the coun tries where those governments existed the industrial classes were not found in such misery and destitution as in this country, and therefore on this ground there was no reason to dislike despotism. As far as the co-operative system was concerned, it was of no consequence whether governments were despotic or not." * Crisis, No. 39,1833. THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD Mr. Joseph Hume, M.P., who was a visitor to the Con gress, at once challenged this fatal doctrine of political in- differentism. He said "he had himself been a co-operator, perhaps longer than most present. He was surprised to hear what had been said in reference to the character of govern ments. The English was not a democratic government. Though democratic in name, it was despotic in practice. In Austria and Constantinople despotism was exercised by one man. In England it was inflicted by many. He was sur prised also that popular instruction was not urged in Mr. Owen's address. It was only by knowledge that the people could be freed from the trammels of bad laws and State religion." The number of persons attending this Congress were eight hundred on the day on which it assembled : certainly showing great popular interest in the proceedings. The new project of Labour Exchanges was that which was uppermost in the minds of the public, both at the Birmingham Congress and at this great one in London. The first number of the Crisis, before mentioned, announced this Co-operative Congress of the associations in Great Britain and Ireland, and the societies were ad monished " to choose men capable of having their minds elevated, and of such moral courage and singleness of purpose that the passions of men should not be able to turn them from the godlike course which they will have to run." A delegate needed to have a good deal of courage to present himself at the Gray's Inn Road Congress, as a person likely to fulfil these high conditions, especially as all the members of Parliament were invited to meet the men of the " godlike " career. It is curious to observe all through the history of social and other reform how few leaders seemed to consider how far their language would be likely to excite the amusement, rather than the respect, of those who differ from them. Mr. Pare reported " the absence of Mr. Portman, M.P.; Mr. Hughes, M.P. [there was a Mr. Hughes, M.P., favour able to Co-operation in that day]. Mr. Slaney, M.P., had agreed to support a petition ; but neither Lord Brougham nor Mr. O'Connell, who were to present it, ever did so, or even acknowledged its receipt"—not worth telling, since it gave the public the idea that those honourable members did not ι nun 11 ι ri Hl II 122 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION think much of the Congress—the probability being that both gentlemen were overwhelmed with more applications than they could attend to, or even write to say so. Lord Boston sent a letter to the Congress.1 Three members of Parliament—Mr. Hume, Mr. Mackinnon, and Mr. James Johnson—appear to have been present. Mr. Owen presided. The names best known to co-operative history of the delegates who attended were Dr. Wade, who afterwards wrote a history of the working class ; William Lovett, honourably known subsequently for his advocacy of educational Chartism ; Mr. John Finch, a Liverpool iron merchant, a famous advocate of temperance, and a man of great earnestness—a religious man with great capacity for making Socialism disagreeable to religious people ; Mr. William Pare, of Birmingham ; Mr. Joseph Smith, of Salford ; James Watson, B. Cousins, John Cleave, and the Rev. Thomas Macconnell, a ready and powerful speaker, not known subse quently to much advantage. Mr. Hume came in the course of the Congress, and, as we have seen, took part in the pro ceedings—the report of which was made and edited on the order of the Congress, by William Carpenter, a famous name among the reformers of that day as the author of " Political Letters," and many publications which still live in political recollection. The motto of the political tracts published by William Carpenter was : " Every man for every man, himself included"—a co-operative device in which it was provided that the individual should not lose sight of himself. In other respects this was a remarkable Congress. It adopted a wise and much-needed resolution upon which nobody acted, which, however, was ordered to be the standing motto of the society, to be printed with all publications regarded as official, issued by the co-operative body. It was this : " Whereas, the co-operative world contains persons of all religious sects, and of all political parties, it is unanimously resolved—that co-operators as such are not identified with any religious, irreligious, or political tenets whatever ; neither those of Mr. Owen nor any other individual." This resolution was brought forward by Mr. Owen, and showed good sense on his part. It was, however, impracti- " Crisis, May 5, 1832. THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 123 cable since the principles of Co-operation as explained by him, and accepted by co-operators, did contradict the popular belief of the day as respects the unwilfulness of sin, the unjustifiable- ness of punishment (except as a means of deterring others), the power of influencing character by well-devised material con ditions. No resolution could establish neutrality in a party whose principles committed it to dissent from the popular theology. At this Congress the United Kingdom was divided into nine missionary districts, with a council and secretary for each. I. The Metropolis; 2. Birmingham; 3. Manchester; 4. Glasgow ; 5- Belfast ; 6. Dublin ; 7. Cork ; 8. Edinburgh ; 9. Norwich. The " old immoral world " was to be assaulted at many points. At this Congress a circular was sent to all the societies, " Regulations for Co-operative Societies " :— " i. Let it be universally understood, that the grand ultimate object of all co-operative societies, whether engaged in trading, manufacturing, or agricultural pursuits, is community in land. " 2. To effect this purpose, a weekly subscription, either in money, goods, or labour, from a penny to any other amount agreed upon, is indispensably necessary to be continued from year to year, until a capital sufficient to accomplish the object of the society be accumulated." τ The majority of co-operators had formed stores and established numerous manufacturing societies for the mutual advantage of the members. Many friends, among the middle and upper classes, had established co-operative stores, and had advanced capital to start them, from a kindly regard to the welfare of the members, sometimes to improve their social habits and train them in economy ; and sometimes with the view to control their social and religious views by their influence as patrons. As working men grew independent in spirit this patronage was now and then declined, and sometimes resented. Engknd, Ireland, and Scotland were studded, Eng land especially, in Yorkshire and Lancashire, with co-operative manufacturing and provision associations, similar in character but less opulent than those which we now know. Several of 1 This resolution led to co-operative stores being formed with a view to devote their profits to a fund for purchasing community land. , ri Ml V II 124 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION these stores were destroyed by success. The members for a time made money, but did not capitalise their profits, nor had they discovered the principle of dividing profits in proportion to purchases. The shareholders simply found success mono tonous. Some betook themselves to other enterprises more adventurous. In some cases want of religious toleration broke up the society. Bad management ruined others. In possibly quite as many instances scoundrel managers extinguished the society. The law, as has been said, enabled a thief to plead that being a member of the society he only robbed himself, although he stole the shares of everybody else. The amend ment of this state of things was not attempted until twenty years later, when lawyers joined the co-operative movement. Mr. E. Vansittart Neale, Mr. J. Malcolm Ludlow, Mr. Thomas Hughes, J. J. Furnival, and others, took Parlia mentary action, and these crime-encouraging laws were ended. Co-operators were invited to set out, like pilgrims, to the land of Beulah, where Acts of Parliament were unknown, or unnecessary. Of these dreams Mr. Pare spoke happily, and with the good sense from which English communists never departed. "It was true," he said, "they wished equality, but it was voluntary equality. It was true they were levellers, but they wished to level up and not down. They sought to create and retain fresh wealth for themselves." * This Congress meant business, for, on Mr. Owen com municating that community land might be obtained if thought desirable, at Aylesbury, in Bucks, of four hundred acres, with one thousand acres adjoining, which he thought might also be had, he, Mr. Thompson, and Mr. Bromley were appointed to inspect the estate, and a deputation was likewise appointed to wait upon Mr. Morgan, of the Stock Exchange, and endeavour to effect a loan of /250,000." 2 The fourth Congress of delegates was held in Liverpool, October, 1832. So impatient and confident of progress were the co-operative communists becoming, that they held two Congresses in one year. 1 Crisis, No. iv., 1832. 2 Report of Third Co-operative Congress, 1832. Reported and Edited by order of the Congress by William Carpenter. It was a rule in those times always to have the Congress reported and edited by men of mark. THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 125 The fifth Co-operative Congress was held at Huddersfield in April, 1833, when a public meeting took place in the White Hart Inn, and one was held at Back Green, called by the town crier. Mr. Rigby's name appears for the first time at this Congress as a delegate from Manchester. It was stated that " numerous delegates from the various co-operative societies throughout the kingdom gave encouraging accounts of their progress, and that the societies in the West Riding of Yorkshire alone had accumulated a capital of/5,000, which was thought a great sum then in the north. It was at this Congress that the death of Mr. Thompson, of Cork, was announced by Mr. Owen, which was matter of deep regret to all social reformers. Mr. Stock, High Constable of Hud dersfield, spoke at the White Hart meeting, and Mr. Owen moved a vote of thanks to their patriotic High Constable." Mr. W. R. Wood, of London, was appointed one of the secretaries of the Congress. " A provisional committee was appointed to immediately engage premises for a Labour Exchange." This Congress is described in the Crisis for May, 1833, as the sixth. In September of the same year the full report is reprinted as that of the " fifth Congress," which appears to be the right enumeration. The sixth Congress was held at West End, Barnsley, March 31, 1834. It is not, so far as I can trace, even mentioned in the Crisis. The seventh Congress recorded was held at Halifax, April 20, 1835. This was the last meeting of delegates from stores described as " a Co-operative Congress." This Halifax Con gress was the end of the Co-operative Congress series. They lasted six years. This year, 1835, the Association of All Classes was formed, and in May was held the first of the Socialist Congresses. It was not convened as a delegate Congress, but was open to all who cared to come. It was really the great meeting at which the A.A.C.A.N. [Association of All Classes of All Nations] was floated. The second Socialist Congress was convened at Burton Chapel, Burton-street, Burton Crescent, London. Its proceedings consisted of addresses and resolutions. The third Socialist Congress was held in Manchester, May, 1837. It assembled in the Social Institution, Great George 120 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 127 Street, Salford. The Congress was intended to be, and is always described as the " Manchester " Congress. The practical result of this Congress was the formation of a National Community Friendly Society. On the motion of Mr. Lloyd Jones, a Missionary and Tract Society was resolved on. The chief things otherwise arranged were the enrolment of the society under the loth George the Fourth, chap. 56, as amended by the 4th and 5th of William the Fourth, for the purpose of obtaining legal security for the funds of a society having in view the establishment of a system of united property, labour, and education among the members thereof. Mr. James Rigby, of Salford, and Alexander Campbell, of Glasgow, were appointed the permanent missionaries of the association, who were to receive instructions from the Central Board of the Home Department. The Foreign department announced was little heard of afterwards, though London was assigned as the seat of the foreign government. The main objects of all the resolutions, and departments, were founding communities of united interests. The fervour which prevailed at this period was indicated in an editorial article on " The Socialists' Cam paign," in which it was pointed out that things would go on badly everywhere, "until 'The Book '—the Book of the New Moral World—shall be received and acknowledged as a guide, not simply to all parties, but to the entire family of human kind." The second quarterly report, presented after the announce ment of the Home and Foreign departments referred to, showed a total income of only ¿122 ios. 4d. A revenue of ^500 a year certainly suggested that the world was going to be governed with a very moderate budget. The fourth Socialist Congress was held in Manchester, May, 1838. Mr. F. Hollick was first appointed a missionary at this Congress. At the same meeting Messrs. William Clegg, John Finch, and Joseph Smith were instructed to seek an estate capable of accommodating five hundred persons. It adjourned to the ßoth of July to Birmingham, where it met under the designation of a " Congress of Delegates of the National Community Friendly Society." Mr. Owen, the president, artfully read to the delegates an account of a council of savages in the South Seas,1 where throughout the whole of the proceedings no two persons had attempted to speak at the same time—no speaker had attempted to impugn the motives or opinions of the rest—but all had honourably confined themselves to the question before them—one of many instances in which savages are capable of teaching the civilised. The two last-named associations—that of All Classes of All Nations and the National Community Society—made a pro clamation at this Congress, and the " Outline of the Rational System of Society " was first issued then. The fifth Congress of this series was held in Birmingham in May, 1839. Birmingham had become so influential a centre of Co-operation, that not only was the New Moral World printed and published in it, but the Central Boards of the two associations were established in Bennett's Hill, and the longest Congress that had then been held took place in Birmingham. The Congress there of 1839 sat sixteen days. The Association of All Classes and the National Community Society were amalgamated and transmuted into something more wonder ful still, "The Universal Community Society of Rational Religionists." The sixth Congress met in a music saloon, South Parade, Leeds, in May, 1840. The chief announcement made was that since the last Congress the estate of East Tytherly, in Hants, had been secured for the purposes of a community. This first Congress of the Community Society was occupied chiefly with the affairs of Tytherly. The seventh Congress (second of the Universal Community Society of Rational Religionists) met in Manchester in the great hall of the Social Institution, May, 1841. The affairs of Tytherly—the Queenwood Community, as it came to be called—was the main topic of debates, which lasted seventeen days. In the proceedings of this Congress the name of the present writer appears for the first time officially as appointed Social Missionary for Sheffield. The eighth Congress opened May, 1842, in the new building, Harmony Hall, Queenwood. Standing orders were published this year. The later Congresses showed business progress and order of deliberation. More than the powers of a primç 1 From " Montgomery's Travels." 1C j il ίι'Ι I, 128 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 129 minister were accorded to the president, that of choosing his administration and changing them at his discretion. This was the first Queenwood Congress. The docility which persecution had taught some tongues was shown by Mr. Fleming at this Congress, where he said by way of admonition to social missionaries that " fondness for theological controversy always argued an ill-regulated mind, to say the least of it; and he who fostered that spirit could be neither good nor happy." The ninth Congress was a special one, called at the Institu tion, 23, John Street, Tottenham Court Road, July, 1842, to take the affairs of Harmony into consideration, as funds were wanted. The Congress sat on Sunday. The business occupied nine days. The tenth Congress of May, 1843, again held at Harmony Hall, was styled the " Eighth Session of the Congress of the Rational Society " (the " special " Congress not being counted in official enumeration). The eleventh Congress of the " Rational Society," as it was now called, took place again at Harmony Hall, May 10, 1844. Harmony Hall affairs occupied the main time of the delegates, who grew fewer as the business became more serious. Lack of funds and diminished members deterred or disqualified many societies from electing representatives. The twelfth Congress met again at Harmony Hall, May 10, 1845. A series of elaborate business papers and financial and other statements were laid before the delegates. Mr. George Simpson was now the general secretary, quite the ablest man who had held the office in later years. Had Mr. Simpson been secretary from the beginning of the Queenwood community it would probably have had a different fate. A clear-minded, single-minded, and capable financial secretary is of priceless value in experimental undertakings. A thirteenth " special " Congress was convened at the Literary and Scientific Institution, John Street, London, in July, 1845. The disposal of Harmony was the critical question debated. The proceedings were remarkable for a curious reactionary speech made by Mr. Lloyd Jones, who said " ho had serious doubts now as to the good effects of their preaching for several years past, and it was with him a question whether they had bettered thç state of those who by their preaching they had loosed from the authority they were formerly under, and placed them under themselves." * Mr. Henry Hethering- tpn stoutly said " it was always good to release individuals from the influence of bad men and false opinions, and was at a loss to conceive how people could be made better if it was not done." There are times when able men are discouraged at the small impression made on those with whom they are directly in contact. Truth often deflects from those it strikes, travels far and hits other men. Time alone shows the good done. It is worth while telling mankind when they are in known wrong. It gives men a motive to look in that direction. Besides, it is the duty of those who strive to be reformers to take care when they set men free from ignorant aims, that they place them under the dominion of intelligent and demonstrable ones, and provide for such repetitions of the teaching as shall keep the new conception strong and clear. Socialism under Mr. Owen's inspiration and its own enthu siasm continued in its grand ways to the end. It issued pro clamations, manifestoes, and addresses to her Majesty. If the Queen preserved them she must have left a fine collection. The fourteenth and last of the Socialist Congresses was held at Queenwood Farm, June 30, ι&φό.3 The New Moral World had ceased then, and these proceedings were reported in the Reascner, which from 1846 vindicated and explained co operative principle, and in every subsequent publication under the same editorship. George Pétrie, a Scotchman by birth, but who had the appearance of an Irish gentleman, served as a private in the army, and took part in the Peninsular wars. He was a man of courage, who ran generous and frightful risks for his com rades, from which only his wit extricated him. Settling in London among the co-operators he wrote a poem on "Equality," which was dedicated to Robert Dale Owen. He was an energetic man, and attracted many personal friends. He became an inmate of one of Mr. Bäume's experimental cottages on the Frenchman's Island,3 where he became insane in a month. The Rev. C. B. Dunn, curate of Camberworth, is a name 1 New Moral World, July 26, 1845. · Reasoner, July 8, 1846. 3 Pentonville Prison stands on the spot now. VOL. L ÏQ 130 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION which frequently occurs in the Congress and other co-operative reports as a successful speaker and advocate of Co-operation. Among the writers of co-operative melodies was Mrs. Mary Leman Grimstone, a popular contributor to the Monthly Repository, edited by W. J. Fox, who some twenty-five years later became member of Parliament for Oldham, and who himself was one of the early and literary friends of Co-opera tion. Mrs. Grimstone wrote an acrostic on the founder of Co-operation :— " O mnipotent benevolence, this is thy holy reign : W oe, want, crime, vice, and ignorance shall fall before thy fame ; E re long, o'er all the gladd'n'd earth shall thy full blaze be glowing, N or leave a spot that shall not hear and bless the name of OWEN 1 " All these glowing predictions should be deposited privately in some House of Prophecy, to be brought out when the day of fulfilment comes. The Crisis placed on the title-page of the first volume a portrait of Robert Owen enough to scare any one away from its pages. To compensate for this a vignette appeared, representing the Labour Exchange Institu tion at Gray's Inn Road. The design was a sort of Canaletto interior. The place never looked half so well as in this engraving. Very early in volume two this disappeared, and gave place to a large straggling parallelogram of a community. The Crisis was the first London weekly paper representing Co-operation, and excited great interest and hope. The friends of the " great change " impending were far from intending that the public should pass through the "crisis" without knowing it. The Social Missionary and Tract Society of the time established three stations—at Primrose Hill, Copenhagen Fields, and White Conduit House —where they sold sixteen dozen of the Crisis in one day. All matters of interest to the party were made known in its columns. Mr. F. Bate would write a note to the editor " announcing that the Annual Report of the London Society would be received at Burton Rooms on Sunday morning, at ten o'clock." Though the co-operators were charged with latitudinarianism as respects responsibility, they appear to have had a very sharp conception of it in practice. Mr. Eamonson was a shining light of that-day. It was he who delayed the indejf of thç THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD first volume of the Crisis for some time, in order to get a good likeness of Mr. Owen to put upon the title-page ; and who finally produced that alarming one of which the reader has been told. This gentleman, having a debt which he was unable to get paid, actually inserted in the Crisis the following notice :— "To PERSONS IN DEBT.—Whereas, if Mr. Puckeridge, alias Mr. Mackellon, proprietor of the Royal Clarence Theatre, New Road, does not immediately settle the small account which is due to Eamonson, 15, Chichester Place, for papers, he will continue to give publicity to it by this and other means, as also some other persons who are in his debt, and whose conduct has been shuffling and unmanly." The sub-editor who suffered this notice to appear should have been wheeled away by the first costermonger who passed by the office with his barrow. In the thirty-fifth number of the Crisis Mr. Owen associated with himself his son, Mr. Robert Dale Owen, as conductor of the paper. This occurred in November, 1832. Mr. Dale Owen and his father's joint names appeared for the last time in 1833. Volume two was much diminished in size. Articles still appeared in it with the welcome signature of "R. D. O." Soon after, the journal stated that its co-editor, Robert Dale Owen, had set out for the United States ; and the title-page bore the new title of National Co-operative Trades Union, and Equitable Exchange Gazette, the pro ceedings of Labour Exchanges and projected communities were the principal topics, and it gave the additional informa tion that it was "Under the patronage of Robert Owen." A third volume commenced in September, 1833. It now returned to its original size and name, and was again a spacious, well-printed paper. From the prevalence of Mr. Owen's articles and expositions of his views in it, the probability is that he found the funds.1 Its price was now three halfpence, having previously been one 'When the Labour Exchange was broken up at Gray's Inn Road by violence, 9,000 hours of labour notes were stolen—" abstracted " Mr. VweiJ sa"l. These Mr. Owen undertook should be honoured if presented. About the time of the Queenwood Community of 1840, Mr. Owen appears to nave come to the end of the money he had reserved for the furtherance nt social principle, and appears afterwards limited to an income only ufficient for lus personal comfort 132 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION penny. It now bore two small engravings on either side of the title, one representing a small town where the buildings, on one hand, appear in very irregular groups, while opposite is a lunatic asylum. All the people to be seen in the streets before it are crippled, or blind, or ragged ; while in the new town the buildings are in mathematical order ; the walks well laid out, all the people there are well dressed, well-to-do, and perfectly upright. The artist, however, had no genius for sketching the new world ; for the old, immoral arrangement of the houses, with their quaint appearance, presented a far better skyline than the monotonous regularity of the well- built pile. The lunatic asylum had a far more picturesque appearance, and must have been a pleasanter place to live in than the solid, prosaic structure with which it was contrasted. A fourth and last volume of the Grists appeared in 1834. By that time all the diagrams had disappeared. There was less and less of Mr. Owen in its pages, and more and more of the Rev. J. E. Smith, who was a continual lecturer at the Charlotte Street Institution, and his fertile and industrious lectures frequently filled the pages of the Crisis, which became more various in contents, and more readable ; but Mr. Smith lectured upon Socialism with so much ingenuity that Mr. Owen did not know his own system, and at last he protested, announcing that he would issue an entirely new publication, to be called the New Moral World, stating, with his usual grandeur, that " the great crisis of human nature would be passed that week." At length the date was definite and the event near. Three years the crisis had been pulling itself together, but then, the world was shy. It had now determined to make the plunge. In the same number Mr. J." E. Smith protested, and announced that any persons left undispersed by the crisis he would gather into a fold of his own, and announced a new publication to be called the Shepherd. Amid a shower of fables and playful gibes at his illustrious colleagues and his disciples, Mr. Smith took his departure. The Rev. J. E. Smith, better known subsequently as "Shepherd Smith," was one of those clever and curious spirits who alighted within the confines of Co-operation. He THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 133 was a born mystic, who explained everything by means of indefinite and untraceable analogies. He entertained his hearers, he baffled his questioners, he evaded his adversaries. He constantly said excellent things, but all that was admirable was mostly irrelevant. He became the wonder and delight of thousands who never hoped to understand him. Mr. Smith afterwards achieved a wide and prolonged repute as the fertile, diverting editor of the Family Herald. He made a fortune by his wit and inexhaustible variety, and, exemplary editor ! he left it among his contributors, with a considerable portion to Mr. B. D. Cousins, his publisher, a pleasant and active promoter of Co-operation, whose name was honourably asso ciated with those of Hetherington, Watson, and Cleave. The Crisis, like all propagandist papers which preceded it, and many which followed it, appeared in several sizes, with fluctuations in quality, colour of paper, infirmity of type and orthography, price, and changed names. Like flags carried in battle, they were made out of such material as happened to be available in the exigencies of forced marches, and were often shot into tatters by the enemy. Taxes upon knowledge and upon news hampered them, and rendered them unable to include matter of daily interest. The True Sun, of 1834, stated that the Crisis was prevented assuming the character of a newspaper through the cost of the stamp, or it would probably have had a prosperous existence. Two New Moral Worlds appeared—the first was issued August 30, 1834, and was larger and altogether better printed than the second, which was issued three months later, and formed the first of a series of annual volumes, which were continued until 1845. It showed vitality in a movement, attempting larger schemes when lesser ones had failed, that its weekly journal, the New Moral World, should have a career of twelve years before it. The August issue was described as the " Official Gazette of the National Association of Industry, Humanity, and Knowledge," a most compendious representation, it must be owned. The first article, addressed to the " Unions of Great Britain and Ireland," was signed W. R. Wood, the young and eloquent speaker, whose name appeared in the proceedings in relation to Labour Exchange. The New Moral World may be regarded as the most HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION important, the longest continued periodical which the co- operators had established. Co-operation, however, was less formally noticed than in the Crisis. At this time co-operative societies were dying out all around. Mr. Owen and his disciples were more and more influenced by the belief that these small affairs could effect no permanent change in society, and that they must concentrate their endeavours on the establishment of the great social scheme, which should demon strate once for all and for ever the possibility and advantages of organised industry and organised society. The failure of the Indiana and the Orbiston experiments certainly discouraged advocates, but Mr. Owen's persistent assertions that a larger combination of means only was wanted to attain a striking success, kept up the faith of many adherents. The missionary propaganda proposed in 1832, and put in operation in 1833, created a new generation of adherents. Numerous young men of considerabe ability were inspired by the addresses made in various towns, and the facilities of discussion afforded in the various lecture-rooms gave them opportunities for public speaking. Popular excitement arising, and large audiences being attracted, active and provoking adversaries made their appearance, and all who could address an audience took the platform in defence of the new principles, acquired training as public debaters, and a stand was made on behalf of a great social change. How could any one -within that enthusiastic circle doubt that Mr. Owen saw his way to the introduction of the new co-operative world, seeing that he had applied for the government of Coaquila and Texas, and that the Mexican Government had actually conceded to him the jurisdiction of the entire line of frontier stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, some 1,400 miles in length, and 150 miles in breadth, in which to establish his wonderful government of peace and plenty ? * To plant the English millennium on 1,000 or 2,000 acres would, to use Mr. Disraeli's unpleasant and ignominious simile, be a mere " flea bite " of progress. In 1834 a correspondent of Mr. Owen's, whose communi cation, signed " J. C.," appeared in the New Moral Worlci, in November of that year, proposed a " Floating Co-operative 1 New Moral World, September 26,1835. THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD '35 Community," which was to have its station on the Thames, where it was thought the inhabitants would be safe from the extortions of retail traders, lodging-house keepers, and gin- hops. Convenient shops were to be selected where the families of the floating society could go on shore for the instruction of the children in horticulture, agriculture, and botany. " Community " cofFee-houses existed in London in 1834. Co-operators were never deterred by poverty of means. A halfpenny a week land fund had its enthusiastic members and friends, who expected to join Mr. Disraeli's territorial aristocracy by patient subscriptions of two shillings and twopence a year.1 At 14, Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, was situated " The Institution" where Mr. Owen lectured every Sunday, and festivals and discussions were held on week-days. Socialism was always social. Its worst enemies could not deny this, and it first set the example of teaching working people to meet like ladies and gentlemen, on a pleasant equality, to abandon habits of isolation, sullenness, and conspiracy, and to chat, and sing, and dance, and think their way to schemes of competence. The Poor Man's Guardian of 1834, said, "We believe greater order or more genuine good feeling and polite ness are not to be met with in any of the public assemblies in the metropolis or elsewhere." Considering that these assemblies were composed mainly of lodging-house keepers, newsvendors (who in those days were seldom long out of prison), grocers, tailors, costermongers, shoemakers, tallow-chandlers, and in some cases, as I know, sweeps, good people of conventional tastes were perplexed at this new species of association. It was not then understood that variety of industry was really the dress and decoration of the public service ; and those who rendered none were merely nude and useless, and if they wilfully evaded work they were disreputable compared with those who lived by their honest labour. At length these assemblies commanded respect. At the end of 1834 the first female co-operative association was formed. The object of the promotors was to form associa tive homes, and enable their members to acquire the art of living in contiguous dwellings. To raise funds these female 1 New Moral World, No. 10, p. 64, December 20,1834. •Ill 1 id I 136 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 137 co-operators commenced selling tea and coffee, inviting the custom of the faithful to that end. There were congratulations to the members of the Charlotte Street Institution on their having given spontaneous support to a groceiy store, as it was in contemplation to open a meat-seller's store. A French advocate of association, Mons. J. Gay, sent a letter by Dr. Bowring, in 1834, in which he described a plan of association which he had himself projected, and which was to consist of 12,000 souls. His dining-room was to be the size of the court of the Louvre, and capable of seating 12,000 guests—a very satisfactory dinner-party. The "London weekly publication," as its advent was described, bore the title of the New Moral World. Its tone and terms were apostolic : otherwise its typographic style and appearance were inferior in quantity and quality of writing to the Crisis. It bore a proud, confident motto, which averred that "Silence will not retard its progress and opposition will give increased celerity to its movements." This was one of several famous sentences which Mr. Owen constructed. The great crisis of human nature, which was to take place in the fourth week in August, appears really to have come ofF, for the first serial number of the volume, appearing on Saturday, November l, 1834,* declared in its opening sentence that "the Rubicon between the old world and the new moral worlds is finally passed." These tidings were followed by twenty-one proofs of the principles and practices of the new state of things and were somewhat dull. The second number announced that " truth had at length gained the victory over error. Its reign upon earth had commenced, and would now prevail for evermore." The two volumes for 1835 and 1836 contained mainly papers by Mr. Owen. Two pages of the New Moral World of 1835 contain the most intelligible and brief calculation of the material requirements in the way of agriculture, manufactures, and provisions for 500 persons of the working class which appears 1 It was printed and published by Rowland Hunter, junr., at the office of the Association of All Classes of All Nations, 14, Charlotte Street Fitzroy Square. in the records of these schemes. The proportions of persons were HO men, no women, and 280 children, who were to occupy Ι,ΟΟΟ English acres, upon part of which a village was to be built for their habitations. Early in the year, owing to the excessive cold which pre vailed in 1835, Mr. Owen ceased to lecture in the Charlotte Street Institution, and delivered his addresses in his chapel in Burton Street, Burton Crescent. Early in 1834 Mr. Owen had proposed that the "Friends of the human race " should form " An Association of all Classes, and of all Nations." An elaborate scheme was published of this comprehensive society, of which Mr. Owen was to be the " preliminary father." This paternal authority published the long proposals for a "change of system in the British empire " which were duly offered to the Duke of Wellington's administration. Notices were published that at one o'clock on the ist of May, 1835, a great meeting would be held in the Charlotte Street Institution, when the superseding of the old world by the new would be made, and the contrast between them would be made evident. The A. A.C. A.N. (Association of All Classes of All Nations), the great cosmopolitan device of 1835, was formed at this meeting, "to effect an entire change in the character and condition of the human race." Mr. Braby opened the pro ceedings and Mr. Owen took the chair. His speech occupied, when published, nearly two entire numbers of the New Moral tPorld, long enough to weary both worlds at once, and would have affected the temper of all the nations together, had they been present. Nor did the trouble end there. One Mr. Charles Toplis, of Leicester Square, had conceived an in fernal engine, a sort of Satanic mitrailleuse, which was to eject a thousand balls in the time one man could fire one. This he called " the Pacificator." Mr. Toplis had the wit to send an account of the horrible thing to Mr. Owen, who thought it something like an act of Providence that it should reach him just as he had finished writing his address, as it seemed to confirm the announcement he had made of the probable termination of war all over the world. Mr. Toplis had, Mr. Owen thought, made war impossible by multiplying the '38 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION powers of destruction ; and he insisted upon the Toplis paper on " the Pacificator " being read, which being long must still have further wearied the Association of All Classes of All Nations. Indeed, the Toplis document was dull enough to have dispersed any army had it been read to them without any other application of " the Pacificator." The report says the meeting was numerous and respectable, but the only person of note who spoke at the end was Richard Carlile ; he, however, was a man of historic powers of endurance. A congress was announced to be held fourteen days later, to set the A.A.C.A.N. going, when Mr. Owen stated that he should retire from public life. On that day he would be 65 years of age. He said that he had, while he was wealthy, taken the precaution of making his wife and children sufficiently independent of his public proceedings, which always involved pecuniary loss. Mr. Richard Carlile made an eloquent speech on Mr. Owen's retirement from public life. Henceforth the lectures in the Charlotte Street Institution were given in the name of the A.A.C.A.N. Of course, Mr. Owen never retired, and public letters appeared every week from his pen ; sometimes to Lord Brougham, at another time to Sir Robert Peel, and to Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer. Three months later Mr. Owen served upon a sub-committee with Thomas Attwood—a committee appointed of members of Parliament and others who had met at the Exchequer Coffee House, Palace Yard, to consider means of relieving the distress which then existed among the working class. Mr. Owen even wrote an address to the "Religious of all Denominations." Twelve months after his retirement, he was addressing letters to his Majesty William IV. from 4, Crescent Place, Burton Crescent. In September, James Morrison, the editor of a trades-union journal called the Pioneer^ died. He was the first platform and literary advocate of unionism, who obtained distinction for judicious counsel and a firmness made strong by moderation. He died prematurely through working beyond his strength. His widow was long known at the Social Institution, Salford, for activity and intelligence nearly equal to his own. She was one of the lecturers of the society. This year some friends in Finsbury obtained possession of THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 139 Zebulon Chapel, in the Curtain Road, and converted it into an Eastern Associative Hall. It caused disquietude in certain quarters that " Zebulon " should become a social institution. A Social Land Community Society was the quaint name of a scheme this year, which never got far beyond its name. We have known a good deal in London of co-operative tailors since "Alton Locke" appeared. In the "Social Land" year (1835) ; an association of the tailor craft conducted a business at 5, Brydges Street, Strand. Mr. Owen's lectures on marriage, and that kind of per plexing thing, were first printed in volume one of the New Moral World^ in 1835. Many thought them unfortunate in tone, terms, and illustrations ; while those who thought ill of his objects found in them an armoury of weapons for assault which lasted them ten years. In the abstract pages of the New Moral World^ the lectures were harmless and inacces sible, but some one had them reprinted in Leeds, and Mr. Joshua Hobson published them. It was then brought to light that the lectures were not verbatim, but made up of abrupt notes taken by a hearer. But Mr. Owen did not care to repudiate what he did not recognise. It did not need Mr. Owen to tell us that we cannot love whom we please : yet it continues true that we may all our lives remain pleased with those who allure us to like them. There are unsuitable marriages, when divorce is far more moral than association with hate. But in those days it was deemed sinful to think so. The rubicon being passed so late as November I, 1834, was followed on October 31, 1835, by the second volume of the New Moral World^ which opened with the sub-title of the «Millennium." The full title read, "The New Moral World and Millennium." That hitherto evasive form of perfection had been secured. A junior member of the council of the A.A.C.A.N., unaware of it, delivered a lecture at the Charlotte Street Institution, on " Millennial Prospects." A proposal was made for establishing co-operative Free masonry, and a Lodge was determined upon, and the "punctual attendance of all the brothers was respectfully requested." Trade unions and trade benefit societies took imposing titles. The printers, who acquire increase of sense by setting up the 140 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION sense of others, were first to have their Grand lodge, and schemes were published for establishing lodges in all nations of the world. An attendance of "all the Brothers" of the " Grand Lodge of Miscellaneous Operatives and Friends of Industry and Humanity" was called, in February, 1835. This catholic device certainly gave everybody a chance ; for he must be very badly used by nature or circumstance who was not qualified to be classed among "miscellaneous" people. Volume two of the New Moral World (1836) had a de partment called "Herald of Community," but the "Herald" was many years blowing his trumpet before forces appeared. Social reformers were always making "trumpet calls." In 1835 one W. Cameron, author of the first "Trumpet," announced a second, which he dedicated to Robert Owen, who certainly did not require it as his friends had a large stock. About this time Mr. Owen became acquainted with a little book which afterwards made some noise, known as Etzler's " Paradise within the Reach of All Men." The great co- operator must have had some side of his nature open to wonder. The clever German undertook to put the whole world in ten years in a state of Paradise, which might be permanently maintained without human labour, or next to none, by the powers of nature and machinery. Etzler was a man who stood by the wayside of the world, and offered the philosopher's stone to any passer-by who would take it. "Look here," he cried in his preface, "ye philosophers, ye speculators, ye epicureans, behold a new, easy, straight, and short road to the summit of your wishes." By Mr. Etzler's invention the sea was to become a drawing-room, and the air a sort of upper chamber, for the accommodation of those who dwelt on the land. Mr. Owen regarded Etzler as a fellow- renovator of the universe, who had, in some wonderful way, got before him. Now and then French Socialists contributed some astounding scheme of co-operative cooking, in a limited degree practicable, but was projected on a scale of magnitude which made it absurd. A proposal was made in Paris to supply the city with food by one immense restaurateur. One who had studied the project said, with something of the fervour of Mr. Etzler: THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 141 "Go and see it. There are Greek statues holding frying- pans, brilliant portraits of Lucullus, of Gargantua, Vatel, Carême, and all the great men who have honoured universal gastronomy. There you will see the great cook, M. de Botherall, skimming his gigantic pot, his forehead enveloped with a cotton nightcap and a viscount's coronet. To prove the profits arising from the scheme he offers to wrap his cutlets for twelve days in bills of 1,000 francs each. In a short time the restaurative omnibuses will circulate through Paris. A cook will be upon the front seat, and a scullion behind. These vehicles will contain broth and sauce for the whole city. There will be the soup omnibus, the omnibus with made dishes, and the omnibus with roast meat, running together, after which will come the tooth-pick omnibus, and lastly the omnibus with the bill." This must have been ridicule, but social editors quoted it as one of the possible schemes of the time. Ebenezer Elliott had, like the Chartists who came after him, a political distrust of social amelioration. In 1836 Elliott made a speech in Sheffield in favour of news-rooms, in which he stood up stoutly on behalf of political knowledge, and said, " Be not deluded by the Owens, the Oastlers, the Bulls, and the Sadlers, these dupes of the enemy." In 1836, Mr. Owen published the book of the "New Moral World," which, while it animated his disciples by many observations which it contained, gave persons of any vivacity of temperament rather a distaste for that kind of existence. The phrase, " taxes on knowledge," so often heard twenty years later, appeared in the New Moral World in February, 1836, imported from the London Review. Notices of co-operative societies grew fewer and fewer in volume two of the New Moral World, but we have announcements that the " Religion of the Millennium " is now ready, and may be had of the publishers. In volume four of the New Moral World, November, 1836, occurs a notable passage which illustrates how poor an opinion Mr. Owen entertained of Co-operation, which had excited so many hopes, and had been the subject of so many endeavours. He related that on his journey to New Lanark he passed through Carlisle. •Devoting Tuesday and Wednesday " to seeing the friends of HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION the system, and those whom I wish to make its friends : to my surprise I found there are six or seven co-operative societies} in different parts of the town, doing well, as they think, that is, making some profit by joint-stock retailing. It is, however, high time to put an end to the notion very prevalent in the public mind, that this is the social system which we contem plate, or that it will form any part of the arrangements in the New Moral World. Later, in December, a prospectus appeared of an intended Hall of Science in Brighton, prefixed by the phrase, " Science belongs to no party." This might be true, but there were certainly many parties who never had it. These halls of science were devoted not to physical but to social science. Mr. J. Ransom, of Brighton, was one of six who wrote a letter to the New Moral World, proposing means of increasing the sale of the publication, and showing that the early interest which Brighton took in Co-operation was still sustained. A writer in the Radical,. & weekly stamped newspaper, addressed several brief, well-written letters to the working class on the means of obtaining equality. The writer took the signature of " Common Sense," and published his letters in dateless pamphlets ; but I believe the Radical appeared in 1836. The most striking thing that "Common Sense" had to say was that " the besetting sin of the working people is their admiration of the unproductive classes, and their con tempt and neglect of their own." It must be owned that during this period of departure from Co-operation to Socialism, the new adherents got a little absurd. Their styling Mr. Owen the " Preliminary Father," and addressing him, as Mr. Fleming did in public letters, as " Our dear Social Father," showed the infirmity of tutelage. They pulled themselves together a little towards the end of 1836, when they silenced the Millennium gong, and called their journal the New Moral World and Manual of Science. The ecstatic term " Millennium " ceased, and " Manual of Science " succeeded it ; but when, instead of lectures, songs, and religion of the new time, the reader was introduced to papers on " The Functions of the Spinal Marrow," the transi tion was very great. The editor of a " Manual of Science " THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 143 had no means of furnishing it. Science then was not the definite, mighty thing it now is. The British Association for advancing it was not born till four years later. The Penny Magazine people and the Chambers Brothers both excluded discussions on politics and religion from their pages, and the journals of the co-operators were the only papers of a popular character which dealt with religion and politics, and recognised science as one of the features of general progress. The little they did, therefore, passed for much and meant much in those days. It was a merit, and no small merit, to recognise science when it was deemed a form of sin. The volume bearing the sub-title of " Manual of Science " did something to sustain the profession by giving a page or more in each number upon subjects of physical science. In several towns, notably in Manchester, the Socialist party erected Halls of Science. There was an instinct that science was the available pro vidence of man, and would one day be in the ascendant. The volumes of the Moral World at this time were devoid of advertisements. The editor withheld necessary information from his readers of public and other meetings to take place on behalf of their own principles. " We refrain, he said, " from making formal announcements, which by some persons might be mistaken for advertisements ; we never deal in this kind of merchandise," as though publicity was merely venal. Mr. J. L. Gay, of Paris, addressed a letter to Mr. Owen, from which it appeared that the French world-makers did not think so much of the English contrivance to that end. Mr. Gay reports, that the most rational St. Simonians and Fourierites refuse either to hear or read any exposition of Socialism ; but they very sensibly demanded a practical trial of it. They would look at that. The French Socialists of Mr. Owen's school were then about to establish a " Maison Harmoniene de Paris " (House of Harmony at Paris).1 The fourth volume of the New Moral World was printed by Abel Heywood, of Manchester,2 always known to Radicals and Social Reformers as a man of honour, of energy, and the chief Liberal publisher of Manchester, when that 1 New Moral World, December 24, 1836, p. 66. • Volume three had been printed by John Gadsby, of the same city. The price of each number of the fourth volume of the New Moral World wa* three halfpence. A number contained eight pages. 144 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION trade required not only business ability, but the courage of meeting imprisonment. Volume four was more belligerent than the previous one. The politicians united against a system which disregarded immediate political right, under the belief that a state of universal community would render rights unnecessary, or secure them in full ; but community was distant, and the need of political liberty was near. One number of the New Moral World stated that " Mr. Hetherington, with the Radicals at his back, decried their proceedings." The New Moral World published an article from the Shepherd, stating that Mr. Owen had been to Paris, and found that "the French were looking beyond politics, and lucky would it be for us also if, instead of palavering with such trifles as ballots, and canvas, and law amendments, we were to cast this small- ware overboard, and raise one loud and universal shout of social reorganisation. This patching and mending system is a miserable delusion." Yet the same article recorded that Mr. Owen had been prevented lecturing in Paris by the police, lest he should excite commotion through the numbers he attracted. The fact was a prompt rebuke of the coii- temptuousness expressed as to political freedom. The " small- ware " had great value in practice. The editor of the New Moral World had published offensive and foolish articles himself, disparaging Radical politics. In an article upon the name of the paper, the editor stated that he rejected the abandoned name of co-operator, the most sensible that had been adopted, and the members of the Grand Society of All Classes and All Nations wisely refused to be called Owenites, although they persisted in their affection for Mr. Owen, whom they designated at the same time their "social and right reverend father." At the Manchester Congress of All Classes of All Nations—at which only one class of one nation appeared, and a very small portion ofthat took part in the proceedings—they determined to call themselves Socialists. At this period, June, 1837, the Moral World was printed at Manchester, and then Mr. George Alexander Fleming became editor,1 and also general secretary of the central board which had been formed. Henceforth the 1 Mr. Fleming's editorship commenced June 10,1837, and his resignation was dated from Avenue Cottage, Queenwood, November 8, 1845. THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 145 Moral World was edited with more controversial vigour, and with general energy and ability as a propagandist organ, but the last volume edited in London, the "Manual of Science" volume, was the most various and readable of the whole that had been published. It gave weekly a column taken from the «Daily Politician," composed of short passages of current political interest selected from the general newspaper press ; notable sayings of philosophers, well-chosen anecdotes, extracts from books of mark and force, such as Mr. Mill's " History of British India," rendering that volume of the N. M. W. readable to this day. " Live for others," that afterwards became the motto of the Comtean religion of humanity, was the subject of an editorial article in the New Moral World for January 21, 1837. Mr. W. D. SauII, of London, announced that he had received Exchequer bills to the amount of £1,000, of which the interest was to be devoted to the purposes of an educational friendly society—£500 more were announced when Mr. Baume appeared at Bradford as a deputy representative of the society. His proceedings being reported in the Northern Star, and quoted in the New Moral World, the editor added a caution against confounding that project with the National Community Society, and professed doubts as to the practicability of the plan. The Star in the East commenced in 1837. ^ts Pfice was fourpence-halfpenny. It was a newspaper and stamped, and the first which professedly advocated social views. Its editor and proprietor, Mr. James Hill, of Wisbech, was a member of the distinguished Rowland Hill family, to whom the public has been indebted for so many national improvements. The east and north had both Stars, edited by Hills. Both Stars arose in the same year. The Northern Star had Feargus O'Connor for proprietor, and Mr. Hill, an energetic Yorkshire schoolmaster, for editor, but no relative of Mr. Hill, of Wisbech. The northern luminary was political, being the organ of the Chartists, but always friendly to social ideas—both proprietors being community makers in their way ; Mr. James Hill having a peculiar social theory of his own to work out at Wisbech, chiefly educational, after the genius of his family ; Mr. O'Connor having a land scheme which, with the usuaj VOL. ι, υ 146 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION talent of reformers for administering to the merriment of adversaries, he located, among other places, at Snig's End. The Rev. Joseph Marriott, who represented Rochdale at the Manchester Congress of 1837, published a drama entitled " Community," which appeared in the 2V. M. W. Some of the predictions of telegraphic facilities which it contained are now seen realised in every street, which then only the Socialist imagination would incur the risk of regarding as a possibility of the future. The fact of to-day was a " craze " then. The Rev. Mr. Marriott was a gentleman of far more enthusiasm on the whole than discernment, for he described Mr. Thompson's essay on " The Distribution of Wealth " as a work " as superior to Adam Smith's ' Wealth of Nations ' as one book can be to another." The subject was certainly an important supplement to the great topic stated by Adam Smith, but the difference in the capacity and range of thought of the two writers ought to have been perceptible even to enthusiasm. Adam Smith traced the laws which were found to operate in commercial affairs. Mr. Thompson planned the laws which he thought ought to operate under circumstances which had never existed. Yet if the public read Mr. Thompson's book they would be of opinion "that there was something in it." In June, 1838, the seat of social government and the journal of the society were removed to Bennett's Hill, Birmingham. Mr. Guest became the publisher ; known as the leading Liberal publisher of the town, as Mr. Heywood was of Manchester. The printer was Francis Basset Shenstone Flindcll, of 38, New Street, Birmingham. The editor announced that various considerations had induced the Central Board to limit the number of impressions to 2,000. One consideration deter mined it, and that was that they had no more purchasers. There arose in Birmingham several advocates. It was the residence of Mr. Pare, the earliest and ablest organiser of the movement, and Mr. Hawkes Smith, its most influential advocate through the press ; and the town furnished two lecturers, Mr. Frederick Hollick and the present writer. Birmingham was long distinguished for its influence in co operative things. There was also actively connected with the Central Board an Irish gentleman, Mr. John Lowther Murphy, THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD the author of several minor works of original merit—the best known being "An Essay Towards a Science of Consciousness." They were illustrated by diagrams, broadly designed, which had an air of ingenuity and newness. The argument was materialistic, put with boldness and with definiteness. Occupying a professional position and having audacity in council and in action, Mr. Murphy was always a popular figure on the platform. Single, and a dentist in sufficient practice, no social persecution could reach him, since Christians with the toothache would waive any objection to his principles when he could afford them more skilful relief than any one else. In meetings of danger his courage was conspicuous and effective. There is a conquest of conviction, and the leader herein was Mr. William Hawkes Smith, incomparably the wisest and most practical writer in defence of social views. He wisely maintained that the denunciation of religion was irrelevant to co-operative ends. His son, Mr. Toulmin Smith, became a man of eminence as a black-letter lawyer and author of remarkable works on municipal and parliamentary government. A writer who really contributed accurate information on many subjects employed the instructive signature of a " Student of Realities," whose name was Vieussieu, a gentle man in official employment at Somerset House, whose sons after him took a generous and expensive interest in social progress. In those days a small book was published separately called "Outlines of the Rational System and Laws of Human Nature." They were divided into five fundamental facts and Twenty Laws of Human Nature. Human nature in England was never so tried as it was during the first five years when these were discussed in every town in the kingdom. When î future generation has courage to look into this unprecedented code as one of the curiosities of propagandism, it will find many sensible and wholesome propositions, which nobody now disputes, and sentiments of toleration and practical objects of wise import The fifth volume of the New Moral World was enlarged to sixteen pages, and published at twopence. The phrase "Manual of Science" was now omitted. But it published 148 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION under the head of "Physical Science" Mr. Mackintosh's " Electrical Theory of the Universe." The volume showed a great increase in reports of propagandist lectures in numerous towns, and bore as its large-type title, the simple name of the Moral World, " New " being modestly subordinated. " Labour's Wrongs and Labour's Remedy " is the name ot an energetic little book by Mr. J. F. Bray. It was a good deal read by co-operators of the time. There was a Social Pioneer that made its appearance in 1839, printed by Mr. A. Heywood, of Manchester. It was rather late in March, 1839, to bring out a Social Pioneer, thirty years after those operators had been in business. In October of the same year a more ambitious journal appeared, entitled the Working Bee, "printed by John Green, at the Community Press, Manea Fen, Cambridgeshire, for the Trustees of the Hodgsonian Community Societies." It took the usual honest and determined motto " He who will not work neither shall he eat ; " but it turned out that those who did work did not get the means of eating, there being no adequate provision made for this at Manea Fen. Volume six of the Socialist journal started with the full pretentious title of The New Moral World, and the ponderous sub-title oí " Gazette of the Universal Community Society of Rational Religionists, enrolled under Acts of Parliament 10 George IV., c. 56, and 4 and 5 William IV., c. 40." This was the first time the movement put on a legal air. The sixth volume commenced in Leeds in July, 1838. Volume seven also continued to represent the National Religionists of the Universal Community Society. The eighth volume of the Moral World commenced a series of a larger size than had before appeared. It was as large as a moderate-sized newspaper, all in small type, and was the costliest weekly journal the co-operative party had yet commanded. The charge was threepence per number of sixteen pages, and was printed by Joshua Hobson, in Leeds, who was himself an author upon social and political questions, and was well known among the politicians of Chartist times as printer, and publisher also, of the Northern Star. The year 1840 was the culminating period of the Socialist advocacy. The expectation of a new community being near its establish- THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 149 ment brought an accession of writers to the Moral World ; and the eighth volume was edited with spirit. The articles had a general and literary character. In volume nine, which commenced January, 1841, the Rational Religionists still confronted the public on the title-page. Volume ten was a serious issue, abounding in addresses and Congress reports, animated a little by reviews and accounts of provincial and metropolitan lectures. It commenced in July, 1841, and ended June, 1842. Never despairing, early in the volume, the editor again commenced to give directions how to obtain the millennium, although it had arrived and had had its own way some years previously. In October, 1841, the printing of the Moral World was brought back to London after wandering in the wilderness of Manchester, of Birming ham, and of Leeds five years. The eleventh volume let slip one of its anchors. It began with the simpler sub-title " Gazette of the Rational Society." The Rational Religionists peremptorily disappeared. Whether they had sworn themselves into disrepute, they having taken to oath-taking, or found it onerous to maintain its clerical pretensions which raised the very questions of religious con troversy which it was the duty of the society to avoid, was never explained. The twelfth volume continued to mankind the comfort of knowing that there was in their midst one " Rational Society." Of course the meaning was that the society aimed at promoting rational conditions of life, and it was well that there should be some persons pledged to find out these conditions if possible. But unfortunately the name did not represent the aspiration, but seemed to express the fact ; and " Rational Society " was not a fortunate term. The thirteenth volume of the New Moral World, the largest and last of the official issue, commenced on June 29, 1844. The end, for a time, of all things communistic was then casting its ominous shadows before. In February, 1845, this journal was first printed at the Community Press, by John Melson, for the governor and company of Harmony Hall, Stockbridge, Hants. The last number printed there appeared on August 23, 1845. The type was sold, and bought by Mr. 150 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION James Hill, who bought also the second title " Gazette of the Rational Society." Mr. Hill contended that he had bought the copyright of the paper. The title New Moral World Mr. Owen claimed as his copyright, and by arrangement with him, a further volume was commenced, under the title of the Moral World, the word " New " was omitted, and it appeared under the further editorship of Mr. Fleming. The result was that on August 30, 1845, two Moral Worlds again appeared, the old one being the new and the new one the old ; Mr. Fleming editing the Moral World, which Mr. Owen retained, and Mr. Hill editing the New Moral World, which he had bought. Mr. Hill's New Moral World continued to January, 1846, when he merged it into a new paper entitled the Commonweal. It ought to have borne the title of the Commonsqueal, for it shrieked. Under the words, " Gazette of the Rational Society," which Mr. Hill retained, was printed Mr. Owen's motto : " Any general character, from the best to the worst, may be given to any community by the application of proper means, which are to a great extent under the control of those who have influence in the affairs of men." Underneath this Mr. James Hill placed his rival and refutatory motto : " It must certainly then be concluded that ' proper means ' have not been applied, since such means to a great extent have been ' under the control ' of Mr. Owen and those who have had influence in the affaire of the Rational Society." Mr. Hill himself had been an educational and social reformer of no mean note in his time. His Star in the East had been a journal of great interest and great instruction, but he had a faculty for vigorous and varied disputation, which grew by what it fed upon. He was a writer of ability and flexibility, who attacked with great celerity any one who dissented from him ; and if disputation could be entertaining of itself the new issue in his alien hands would have been the most alluring of the series. The fourteenth volume of the Moral World suspended the profession of being the gazette of the Rational Society, which it appears was after all a saleable title, since Mr. Hill certainly bought and continued to use it, long after the society was practically extinct. Mr. Fleming described his new volume as the " advocate of the Rational System of Society, as founded THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 151 by Robert Owen." It was. printed by McGowan and Com pany, the printers of the Northern Star, in London. Only eleven numbers of this volume were issued. The close of 1845 and the early months of 1846 introduced to the social reader a new journal, bearing the ambitious and provoking title of the Herald of Progress. Mr. John Cramp was the projector and editor of it. The present writer was one among the contributors after it commenced. During these later years there was collateral activity in social literature in several quarters, but Co-operation seldom attracted attention. Mr. Frederick Bate published in 1841 a play, in five acts, entitled " The Student." Mr. Goodwyn Barmby, a poet who possessed real lyrical power, an advocate of original tastes, hung up his hat in the social hall, where no hat save his could hang. He married "Kate," the clever correspondent of the New Moral World. Mr. Barmby founded a Communist church, and gave many proofs of boldness and courage. He and Dr. George Bird, who afterwards obtained professional eminence in medicine, issued a prospectus of the London Communist Propagandist Society. Dr. Bird con tributed the best literary reviews which appeared in social publications of the day. Mr. Lewis Masquerier, of New York, was a frequent correspondent, known from 1836 as ι fertile and original author of social works, and was dis- :inguished as a leader of the land reformers of America, who took for their motto certain famous words from Jefferson, namely, "The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their back, for a favoured few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately by the grace of God." In 1840 the Fourierites established in London a paper called the Morning Star, edited by Mr. Hugh Doherty, a writer who had puzzled the readers of the Moral World through many a wearying column. He entitled his journal A Phalansterian Gazette of Universal Principles and Progressive Association. Its sources of authority were the book of Scripture and the book of Nature. Dr. Doherty published works of value afterwards to those who accept Fourierist principles. In 1842 a magazine, entitled The Union, and Monthly Record of Moral, Social, and Educational Progress, was edited by Mr. G. A. Fleming. It contained papers from the fertile and 1 «ill 152 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 153 ingenious pen of "PenciPem," by January Searle, Charles Lane, Charles Bray, and a writer who used the name of Arthur Walbridge, who wrote a story of " Torrington Hall," and a very suggestive book on " Social Definitions " ; and anonymous papers by eminent and popular writers, whose names the editor suppressed on the uninteresting principle that truth should stand unsupported by names which might induce people to look at it. Reformers in those days took pride in adopting all the means they could to prevent the truth they had in hand becoming popular, and then complained that it had few friends. In 1843 there appeared a publication entitled the New Age, a less pretentious title than the New Moral World. The New Age was also called the Concordlan Gazette. It represented a small band of mystics, who were inspired by James Pierrepont Greaves, one of whose doctrines was, " as man cannot do right when he himself is wrong, a right nature must be superadded to him in order to establish right institutions in society." One of the conditions, as Mr. Greaves would say, were pure air, simple food, exercise, and cold water, which he contended were much more beneficial to man than any doctrinal creeds, or churches, chapels, or cathedrals. Mr. Greaves was seldom so clear and intelligible as this. He was himself the most accomplished, pleasant, and inscrutable mystic which this country has produced. He possessed competence, which enables a man to be unintelligible and yet respected. An American gentleman, Mr. H. G. Wright, who was a natural Greaves, described him as possessed of "a lofty forehead, a well- defined contour, a nose inclined to the aquiline, a deep, sonorous, slightly nasal voice, a stature rather above the middle height, and a marvellous eye. Mystery, God, Fathomlessness, all were written upon him." A man of mark, after his kind, it must be owned. The disciples of Mr. Greaves took premises at Ham Common, in Surrey, which they called Alcott House. The society was called the First Concordian. It was also the last. Their two best writers were Charles Lane, who dated from Concord, Massachusetts, and Goodwyn Bannby. The New Age, its organ, was veiy intelligently edited, but was discontinued when it had existed little more than a year and a half, on the ground that "no book could represent what was passing in that establishment. Even the proceedings of a single day were found to be of far greater moment than could be transcribed or recorded in any work whatever." Those who visited the Concordian were certainly not of this opinion. The inmates were scrupulously clean, temperate, transcendental, offensive to any one who ate meat, attached to Quakers, especially white ones, repudiated even salt and tea, as stimulants, and thought most of those guests who ate their cabbage uncooked. They preached abstinence from marriage, and most things else. Their cardinal doctrine was that happiness was wrong. The managing director, Mr. William Oldham, was called Pater, and, like Howard, preferred damp sheets to dry ones. Mr. Lane invited the Pater to join the Shakers at Harvard, Massachusetts, where he would find no want of liberty to carry out his self-denying plans to the utmost. A very little liberty is sufficient to do nothing in, and a very small space would have enabled the society to carry out its only experiment, which consisted in standing still in a state of submission to the Spirit until it directed them what to do. Mr. Greaves' disciples, however, had the great merit of pausing before they did anything until they had found out why they should do it, a doctrine which would put a stop to the mischievous activity of a great many people, if thoughtfully followed. So late as 1843 Mr. G. A. Fleming and Mr. Lloyd Jones opposed the Anti-Corn Law League. An active representative of the school, Mr. Ironside, a well-known partisan of Socialism in Sheffield, reported on one occasion that he had been to hear Dr. Smiles, editor of the Leeds Times, lecture on Complete Suffrage, and " was at a loss to imagine how Socialists could waste their time in listening to expositions of such petty measures as these." The Central Board issued charters authorising the foundation of branches in the different towns, when satisfied as to the zeal and respectability of the parties making application for them ; which long hung up in places of honour in some of the old halls. Occasionally a grand notification was made to the branches of the Association of All Classes of All Nations, and to all others whom it might concern, running thus : " Whereas, •he Congress of the Association [with the far-reaching name] 154 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION did, for the more extensive and systematic diffusion of the social principles, divide Great Britain and Ireland into certain districts with missionary stations ; and whereas a memorial has been presented to the Central Board from the branch of the Association, situate at Sheffield, requesting that that town may be made a missionary station, and that a district may be assigned for the labours of the missionary. Now, therefore, we, the Central Board, in pursuance and by virtue of the power and authority vested in us by the Congress, and in consideration of the memorial hereinbefore mentioned, do hereby make the following revision of the districts : that is to say, the town of Sheffield, and generally that part of the county of York not included in the Leeds district, to be taken from the Manchester district ; the towns of Derby and Nottingham, and generally the county of Nottingham, and that part of the county of Derby north of a line drawn immediately south of the town of Derby, to be taken from the Birmingham district ; and the county of Lincoln to be taken from the London district ; and, further, we do hereby order and determine that the counties and parts of counties and towns so taken from the said districts shall constitute a new district, to be called the Sheffield district, which shall comprise :— Sheffield Rotherham Don cas ter Barnsley Thorn Barton-upon-Humber Great Grimsby Louth Market Rasen Boston Holbeach Spalding Market Deeping Bourn Folkingham Grantham Lincoln Gainsborough East Retford Newark Nottingham Derby Ashbourn Belper Wirks worth Cromford Alfreton Mansfield Bakewell Buxton Dionfield Chesterfield Worksop " This was the extent of my diocese when I was appointed Social Missionary for Sheffield. Then they did " furthermore order and determine " certain other things, not necessary here to recite. All this legal pomposity could never have been of Birmingham growth. The board there had acquired a Mr. Bewley, as a secretary, a gentleman of capacious ways, who might have inspired those extraordinary terms. The enumeration of places which com prised the district of Sheffield was, however, real. There was THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 155 work doing and to be done there. It was no uncommon thing to meet in social literature a protestation that " we must not be understood as advocating any sudden changes."1 Seeing how limited was its means there was no possible danger in their peremptory efforts. A disastrous peculiarity in advocacy, by which the pages of co-operative journals were disfigured, was that of quoting the most offensive things said against the doctrines and advocates of its own party. The enemy never did that by them ; but this fact never instructed them. The information the Socialist editors were able to give their readers was not much. They could seldom afford to pay the printer for what they did give ; and yet they went to the expense of reprinting and circulating among their own adherents the most unpleasant imputations which embittered wit could make against them. All timid adherents were alarmed when they saw these things. Half- informed adherents could not possibly tell what answer could be made ; and prudent readers withdrew at once from a cause against which such imputations were being made, and which they were called upon to circulate among their own family and friends. Sharp-witted adversaries had every encouragement to go on, multiplying their accusations, the publications, and exhaust all the means of the society in publishing effective disparagements of itself. The outside public possessed writers more numerous and skilful than these semi-penniless reformers could command. Such, however, was their infatuation that they not only suffered the sharpshooters of the enemy to take aim at their own readers from their own pages, but allowed the rabble of evangelical pamphleteers and tract writers to possess their gates, and to pelt them with mud and stones. On one occasion the editor, Mr. Fleming, having made a vehement comment upon the Manea Fen scheme, afterwards :xpressed his regret in a very manly way that he had violated :he pacific principles imposed by Socialism upon its representa tives. Imputative terms were often applied to opponents. From some, it was said, " the truth was not to be expected." Charges of " dishonesty," of " wilful misrepresentation " were made, which obliges all the friends a man of honour has to come forward in his personal defence ; and enables all the 1 " Outlines of Various Social Systems," 1844. ιιΐιιιιΐ! 156 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 157 friends a scoundrel has to intrude themselves in the controversy. Nevertheless, it ought to be said, as it honestly may, to the credit of the social party, that though its leaders lacked a clear grasp of principles of neutrality in invective, it was only on great provocation that they spoke ill of others. Compared with the vituperation and personalities of every other party, political and religious, of their day, they were examples of for bearance to adversaries, who showed them no quarter. A page of laughter is a better defence against a worthless adversary than a volume of anger. Terms which impute want of honour to others, or accuse them of conscious untruth, dishonesty, or bad motives, are charges with which the judge and not the journalist may deal. When one person makes imputations of dishonesty upon another, the only legitimate notice is to kick him, and nobody ought to make these imputations unless he is prepared for that operation being performed upon him ; and no editor ought to permit such imputations unless he is prepared to recognise that form of reply. Many things, social, polemical, and progressive, with which society now concerns itself, appears to have begun in one or other co-operative publications ; or if not originated were espoused, and publicity accorded, when they were denied any hearing elsewhere. Abram Combe called his organ of Orbiston the Register of the Adherents of Divine Revelation, The editor said that "Abram Combe was perfectly right in adopting whatever name he thought proper, as a free and unbiassed expression of his conscientious opinions." [If Mr. Combe's object was not to establish a public community for public advantage, but simply a group of persons for the profession of Combism—he was right, but the universality of communism was gone.] The editor added, " We are great lovers of candour and moral courage." Yet the editor, Mr. Fleming, abandoned (when imprisonment overtook them) two social missionaries, the present writer being one, Mr. Charles Southwell, of spirited memory, was the other. I was put upon my trial for delivering a lecture in Cheltenham upon " Home Colonies." It was never pretended by the witnesses that the lecture was otherwise than neutral, and it was admitted by the judge, Mr. Justice Erskine, that no remark whatever was made in it which trans gressed the proper limits of the subject. In the town of Cheltenham, in which it occurred, a small Socialist poet, one Mr. Sperry, suspected of heresy, had been induced to recant, and had then been naturally abandoned and despised by those who had promised him advantage if he did so. This affair had produced an impression in the town that Socialist speakers were wanting either in courage or honesty, and the same feeling existed in other towns. The Bishop of Exeter had really frightened many. When Mr. Pare was forced to resign the registrarship of Birmingham, it became a question with other gentlemen, who held official situations, how far they were prudent in standing connected with this party. The Central Board began, under alarm, to urge the policy of theological neutrality, which they ought to have adopted earlier on principle. Some of the missionaries took a running leap into the clerical ranks, upon which they had so long made war. They obtained licenses as preachers, and advertisements were issued, setting forth that lectures would be delivered to the Societies of the Rational Religionists, by the "Rev. B. Swearat- last " and the " Rev. J. Swearatonce." As the gifts of these gentlemen were not understood to lie in this direction, this step caused scandal. When, at the Cheltenham lecture referred to, a question was put by one of the audience, having a theological object, I gave a definite and defiant answer, which, at least in that place, restored the reputation of Socialist speakers for uncalculating explicitness. Neither the trial and imprisonment which followed, nor the parliamentary proceedings in reference to it, were ever mentioned in the New Moral World. Room was found for articles on "Chinese Manure" and the "Sense of Beauty," but in its Samaritan pages no reference was made to the missionary, who had literally " fallen among thieves " in the discharge of his official duty. Mr. Owen, the president, had said to the Congress, only a month before, " When we are questioned on any subject, we should declare what convictions we are obliged to have. Such is the ground I mean to take. What I have told you is my determination, and, though not a single individual go with me, I shall pursue the same course."1 A special Congress was held during the imprisonment of the 1 New Moral World, May 28,1841. ..".111.1.1 Il 158 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 159 missionary lecturer in Gloucester Gaol, and no allusion was made, no resolution proposed respecting him. The Central Board addressed weekly its " Friends, Brothers, and Sisters " upon many subjects, but they never suggested that some help might be needed in a certain household, though the subscrip tion of a penny a day, by the members of the board, would have saved one young life in it. What was wanted was neither defiance nor compliance, unless there was a change of conviction. Then a manly and explicit retraction of what errors the convert supposed himself to have held was due as an act of honour ; so that the abandoned opinions might no longer possess the influence, whatever it might be, that his authority and example could be considered to lend to them. The Hall of Science, in Manchester, was registered in the Bishop's Court as a place of worship belonging to a body of Protestant Dissenters called " Rational Religionists," and by that means it was brought under the Act of Parliament which licensed it to be open for divine worship. This Act rendered all who officiated in the building liable to be called upon to take the following oath :— I solemnly declare, in the presence of Almighty God, that / am First. A Christian, and Second. A Protestant ; that as such, / believe Third. The scriptures of the New and Old Testamen^ commonly received among the Protestant churches, do contain the revealed Word of God ; and that I do receive Fourth. The same as the rule of my doctrine and practice. Mr. Swearatlast (Robert Buchanan) took this oath in Manchester. Mr. Maude, the magistrate, who administered it, first demanded to know whether this was an oath binding on his conscience, and whether he really believed in a future state after death of rewards and punishments ? This mission ary, who had been several years lecturing against every one of these points, as one of the expounders of "truth without mystery, mixture of error, or the fear of man," replied that he did believe in all these things, and that the oath was binding upon his conscience. The Central Board never repudiated the missionaries who thus lied in open court before the whole :ity. Indeed, the editor of the New Moral World justified it, and stated that he would take it. Mr. Buchanan had sufficient self-respect to make scruples about it. He was anxious to prove to the court that he had a conscience, and to stand well before the public ; and the court was adjourned to give him time to make up his mind. On Tuesday, August n, 1840, he appeared, took the oath, and made the declaration under 19th George II., c. 44, and received his certificate of having done so.1 Mr. Fleming so far respected the moral sense of his readers of the Moral World as never to publish this discreditable scene. Mr. Swearatonce(Mr. Lloyd Jones) gave his own account of how he went through the part on February 13, 1841, in Bristol. "On Tuesday I attended at one o'clock for the purpose of taking the oath. The office was crowded by gentlemen who seemed anxious to see the performance. It passed off very comfortably. I took it with out any words. I am now, therefore, the REV. LLOYD JONES." The small capitals are the " REV." gentleman's and the word "performance" too.2 Other gentlemen than those who were present long remembered these scenes reported in the press. Many years after, when the present writer was concerned in getting the Secular Affirmation Bill passed through Parliament, Sir George Cornewall Lewis demanded, reproachfully (looking at me as I sat in the gallery of the House of Commons as he spoke), "Where are your cases ? Where are the men of honour who refuse the oath ? It is your free-thinker who takes it ' with out any words.' " Those of us who had consented to act as missionaries were in some sort, in our secular way, apostles of a new state of society, which, we weekly assured the public by the title of our accredited journal, was to be at least "moral," if not otherwise notable. Then it did not become any of us—so it seemed to me and my colleagues of the protesting school—to 1 Sun, August 14, 1840. * These proceedings made Mr. Southwell indignant, and being a man of fiery courage, he wrote an article in the Oracle of Reason (started as a protest against the New Moral World policy of the day), which caused his imprisonment for twelve months. He intended to defy prosecution ; nd Sir Charles Wetherall, who was his judge, was a man quite_ ready to neet him half-way in supplying it. Mr. Southwell was imprisoned in iristol and I in Gloucester Gaol. ¡„Vllllllí 16ο HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION fall, in self-respecting honour, below those other apostles with whose teaching we were in many respects " non-content." Though sincerity does not imply errorlessness, it gives dignity to those who profess error honestly. The Christian apostles had this personal dignity. It seemed to me, for one, that we had no moral right to dissent from them publicly, were we content to advance our cause by meaner means than theirs. We could not be their equals in advantage. Our inspiration was not owing to contact with a celestial teacher : but it was in our power to be their equals in honesty, and refuse to profess the opinions we did not hold, whatever peril, or personal loss, or social discomfort followed. We were to teach " truth without mixture of error." Even when we follow mathematical truth—dealing with definite and palpable magni tude—we travel but a short way, into the realms of certainty ; while in moral and social things—where "sense is narrow and reason frail "—who can fathom truth without error ; or escape the need of hourly precaution, qualification, and moderation ? We the lessness of man—in the discharge of the duty of speaking in the spirit of relevance, conceding the same freedom to others —that was within our power. To fail herein before the world, in the publicity of a court of law, where persecution gave us the priceless opportunity of winning respect, seemed alike a failure of policy and honour. He has no claim to free speech unless his object is to utter true speech and to maintain veracity among the people by example. Though I never took an oath of any kind in my life, since I could not take it in the sense in which the court administered it, yet I am no fanatic against oaths, and respect those who take them sincerely. The common instinct of society respects the memory of those poor and humble religionists of despised sects, who, having hardly any grace but that of sincerity, have suffered torture and death rather than say the thing which was not. Socialists who professed to intro duce a higher morality were bound to set an equal example. Addison usefully tells us of Euripides that : "The great tragic poet, though famous for the morality of his plays, had intro duced a person who, being reminded of an oath he had taken, THE SOCIALISTIC PERIOD 161 were to teach "without fear of man." That was one thing possible in the humblest advocates. Fear- replied, ' / swore -with my mouth, but not with my heart' The impiety of this sentiment set the audience in an uproar ; made Socrates (though an intimate friend of the poet) go out of the theatre with indignation, and gave so great offence that he was publicly accused and brought upon his trial, as one who had suggested an evasion of what they thought the most holy and indissoluble bond of human society, so jealous were these virtuous heathens of any the smallest hint that might open a way to perjury." It was to the credit of Socialism that the oath-taking related led to a schism in the party. Undoubtedly we did harm of one kind—at the time. In setting up a new camp we weakened the force which held the recognised co-operative fort ; and those who may be influenced by our example should weigh well the responsibility we incurred, and be satisfied whether we were justified in our course before they imitate us. Others, as stout Mr. Finlay, of Edinburgh, and Mr. Pater- son, then of the same city, Mr. Adams and Mrs. Adams, of Cheltenham, not missionaries but of the party, underwent imprisonment on the same account. Dr. Watts, Mr. Jeffery, and Mr. Farn, who were all missionaries, rendered every help in their power to sustain the protesters. Mrs. Emma Martin fearlessly aided. Nor will I omit to mention, with what honour I can, my untiring friends in the Gloucester aifair— Maltus Çjuestell Ryall, a man remarkable alike for ability and courage, and William Chilien also. Both cared for Socialist honour ; no personal peril intimidated them from vindicating it. It was the intention of the opponents of the propagation of social views to close the halls by forcing the oath described upon the lecturers. The Rev. Mr. Kidd, and some other divines, took the step of indicting the owners of the halls for receiving money for admission at the doors. As the partisans of Co-operation were not wealthy, and incurred expense beyond their means in disseminating their views, it was only by taking admission money at the doors, that they could maintain their advocacy. The clergy knew this, and calcu lated that if they could prevent admission money being taken, they would succeed in closing the hall. It was a shabby, but » well-calculated proceeding. Accordingly, they did lodge an VOL. I, 1 I62 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE LOST COMMUNITIES 163 indictment against the hall owners in Manchester, for receiving money at the doors. They found an Act of Parliament of the reign of George III. (fruitful in infamous Acts), which levied serious fines upon the conductors of halls if money was taken at the door on the Sunday, unless such hall was licensed as a place of worship. The Rev. Mr. Kidd's prosecution failed, the directors producing a license which described it as the authorised place of worship of the Rational Religionists. But, as the speakers in a licensed hall must be licensed preachers, Mr. Kidd next prosecuted the lecturer at the hall, who, we have seen, eventually took the oath. Mr. Kidd thus triumphed. In various halls in the country to this day money is taken without their being licensed, and addresses are delivered by lecturers who never took any oath as preachers ; but, owing to the ignorance or generosity of the clergy, no legal steps are taken against them, which, if taken, must have the effect of degrading the speaker or closing their proceedings. These Georgian Acts are still in existence, and persons of pernicious intent still put them in force. A few years since eminent scientific teachers in London, Huxley among them, were prevented by them from instructing the people on the Sunday. The Aquarium at Brighton was closed by them on the same day ; and in no Co-operative Hall is it legal to take money for lectures or even a tea-party on the Sunday, and the most valued forms of co-operative life are arrested by those clerical laws. Thus Co-operation has not only to be judged by what it has done, but what it has been prevented doing. Amid the crowds of incidents and of persons, in connection with this movement, many remain unnamed lest the weight of detail oppress the reader. Where two events or two persons equally serve to explain the story, like the two women grind ing at the same mill, one is taken, and the other left. CHAPTER X THE LOST COMMUNITIES " Seeing that human society labours under a chronic want of disinte restedness and mutual consideration on the part of its members, there is a demand for select or heightened pictures of love, devotedness, and sympathy, as an ideal compensation."—PROFESSOR BAIN. IT is a long time since Joseph de Maistre declared that " the human race was created for a few, that it is the business of the clergy and the nobility to teach the people that which is evil and good in the moral world, and that which is true and false in the intellectual world. Other men have no right to reason upon such things : the people must suffer without murmur ing." In these days the people decline to suffer. They resent the infliction of suffering upon them. They see that the inequalities of nature are made greater by the wilful con trivances of men. The people protest against inferiority being imposed upon them. They see that some men by opportunity, energy, and enterprise are able to forfend themselves against suffering. The people endeavour to equalise opportunities for themselves by the establishment of communities. Though they have not much to show for their efforts, they set a self- helping example. Their failures are not to be mourned over, but imitated. France, which for years held political upremacy in Europe, lost it by the conspiracy of an mperial adventurer, who happened to possess a talent for assassination. Though France, in its own brilliant and insurgent way, has borne the palm of distinction for the propagandism of social reform, England in a quieter way. has shown the capacity for Comprehending equality. A distinguished lawyer, who had i64 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION great knowledge of the municipal history of his country, the late Toulmin Smith, of Birmingham, in his great book on the " History of Early English Guilds," traced the social features of English life with a research in which he had no compeer. His daughter, Lucy Toulmin Smith, in the befitting preface which she supplies to her father's work, states that the early " English guild was an institution of local self-help which, before Poor Laws were invented, took the place, in old times, of the modern friendly or benefit society, but with a higher aim. It joined all classes together in a care for the needy and for objects of common welfare." " Guilds," says this authoress, " were associations of those living in the same neighbourhood, and remembering that they have, as neighbours, common obligations, regarding love to one's neighbour, not as a hollow dogma of morality, but known and felt as a habit of life." It is also worthy of notice in these days, in which we flatter ourselves that social reform is being born—that there were " scarcely five out of the five hundred gilds known to history which were not formed equally of men and of women." The British Association for the Advancement of Science has admitted ladies to read papers at its meetings. This has been counted an astonishing step. It is creditable, but not astonish ing, seeing that in the old social days English women were counted upon to take part in the civil progress of the city. Many women who take part in these movements think it a new thing ; and many more, who stand aloof, think it unwomanly, not knowing that they are merely the degenerate daughters of noble mothers who thought it their duty to take a public part in the duties of society. In 1870 the Deputy Johann Jacoby, addressing his con stituents in the Second Arrondissement of Berlin, said : " The great end before the people is the abolition of the wage system, and the substitution in its place of co-operative labour." The late Mr. Frederick Cowell Stepney, a great friend of British and foreign workmen, said, in their behalf, that " The emanci pation of the working classes must come from the working classes themselves. The struggle for the emancipation of the workman is not a struggle for class privileges, but for the obliteration of all class dominion. It is, therefore, worth while THE LOST COMMUNITIES 165 looking a little at some Lost Communities, whose romantic story has instruction and encouragement in it. When the tireless Welsh reformer, of whom we have spoken, was one day dining at the house of a Frankfort banker, he met a renowned German statesman, Frederick Von Gentz. "I am in favour of seeing a social progress commence," said Mr. Owen, "for if union could replace disunion, all men would have a sufficiency." " That is very possible," replied Von Gentz ; " but we by no means wish that the masses should become at ease and independent of us. All government would then be impossible." This was the old idea of the higher classes. Every one sees now that government will never be secure until competence and independence are enjoyed by the people. When the term "Social Science" was first employed in England it sounded as the most visionary word dreaming philosophy had suffered to escape in its sleep. Statesmen had none of that quality which scientific men call prevision—a compassing foresight, seeing what ought to happen, and taking care that it should happen. Society was a sort of legally arranged blunder, the costly device of public incompetence. We are still in that state that Fourier used to call our "incoherent civilisation." It is from this that community contrivers strive to deliver us. A Pantisocracy was the idea of cultivated men, a name derived from Greek words, implying a state in which all govern and all serve. This is one of the prettiest definitions of association extant. Communities on a superstitious basis have hitherto been the most successful. It is easier to trust in what you are told than to find out what you ought to trust in. Science is the latest born power of the understanding. The knowledge of it, belief in it, the use of it, and the trust in it, are of slow growth. Reality seems to be the last thing men learn. When they do come to comprehend its nearness, its importance, its influence over their destiny, men will avail themselves of its teachings. There will be heard then from platform and pulpit words of passion, of power, of fiery counsel, such as fitful, fluctuating belief in unseen influences have never yet called forth. It is quite true, as Italians say, " he who has a partner has a 166 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE LOST COMMUNITIES 167 master " ; and this is true of marital partnership, yet men and women enter gladly into it. All association is sacrifice of minor things for the attainment of greater. In religious societies sacrifice is made by authority, in secular association the authority is common sense, and that is not common. The reason of every great step has to be made plain to the general understanding. As intelligence increases association becomes more possible. Co-operation to the extent it now prevails was impossible, until later years. Association is still an almost unknown art. Religious communists have sought peace and plainness, security and competence. Secular communists seek peace and art, intelligence and prosperity. Intelligent indi viduality will exceed anything hitherto realised by communities of mere industry and faith. One who gave the English people the earliest and the first unprejudiced account of American communities, Harriet Martineau, says : " If such external provision, with a great amount of accumulated wealth besides, is the result of Co-operation and community of property among persons so ill prepared for its production as these, what might not the same principles of association achieve, among a more intelligent set of people, stimulated by education, and exhilarated by the enjoyment of all the blessings which Providence has placed within the reach of man ? If there had been no celibacy amongst them they would probably have been much more wealthy. The truth of these positions cannot be doubted by any who have witnessed the working of the co-operative system. It can never now rest till it h made matter of experiment" x Communities are, as yet, in their infancy. There are two causes which account for the failure of many of them. First. The want of sufficient capital to maintain the place for a few years on a frugal scale, until the members could be trained in self-supporting efficiency. Second. Members were not picked men, nor pledged to obey the authority established among them, and readily re movable if unsuitable. Schemes of social life require the combination of means and intelligence, and have to be attempted many times before they 1 Society in America. ucceed. Could the present railway system have been perfected the minds of inventors at the beginning of the century, it could not have been got into work, for no workmen were to be had of sufficient skill to make the engines or conduct the traffic. The most sensible account given of the English system by a foreigner is that which Buonarroti made at the end of his long life in a letter to Mr. Bronterre O'Brien. "Babeuf," he said, "attempted to combine a numerous people into one single grand community ; Owen would multiply in a country small communities, which, afterwards united by a general bond, might become, as it were, so many individuals of one great family. Babeuf wished his friends to seize on the supreme authority, as by its influence he hoped to effectuate the reforms they had projected ; Owen calculated on success by preaching and by example." Mr. David Urquhart, a writer who never fails to interest the reader, and to whom the public are indebted for much out-of- the-way knowledge, gave in his work on "Turkey and its Resources," in 1833, a remarkable account of the great Co-operative Society of Ambelakia, whose varied activity was a miracle of co-operative sagacity. It would have continued had there been a court of law in which questions in dispute could be speedily and cheaply settled. It has been the fate of Co-operation often to be, not only before its time, but before the law. "Ambelakia," says Mr. Urquhart, " is the name of a spot overlooking the Vale of Tempe, where an extraordinary association had a brilliant existence of twenty years. ... I extract," says Mr. Urquhart, " from Beaujour's ' Tableau du Commerce de la Grecque ' the details he has preserved respecting it, in as far as they were confirmed to me by the information I obtained on the spot. "Ambelakia, by its activity, appears rather a borough of Holland than a village of Turkey. This village spreads, by its industry, over the surrounding country, and gives birth to an immense commerce which unites Germany to Greece. Its population has trebled in fifteen years, and amounts at present ' *798) to 4,000, who live in their manufactories like swarms of bees in their hives. The Ambelakiot faces are serene ; the ι68 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION slavery which blasts the plains watered by the Penens, and stretching at their feet, has never ascended the sides of Pelion (Ossa) ; and they govern themselves, like their ancestors, by their protoyeros (primates, elders), and their own magistrates. Twice the Mussulmans of Larissa attempted to scale their rocks, and twice were they repulsed by hands which dropped the shuttle to seize the musket. " Every arm, even those of the children, is employed in the factories ; whilst the men dye the cotton, the women prepare and spin. There are twenty-four factories. This yarn found its way into Germany, and was disposed of at Buda, Vienna, Leipsic, Dresden, Anspach, and Bareuth. The Ambelakiot merchants had houses of their own in all those places. These houses belonged to distinct associations at Ambelakia. The competition thus established reduced very considerably the common profits ; they proposed, therefore, to unite themselves under one central commercial administration. The lowest shares in this joint-stock company were between ¿(>OO and £700, and the highest were restricted, that the capitalists might not swallow up all the profits. The workmen subscribed their little profits, and, uniting in societies, purchased single shares ; and besides their capital, their labour was reckoned in the general amount; they received their share of the profits accordingly, and abundance was soon spread through the whole community. " Never was a society established upon such economical principles, and never were fewer hands employed for the transaction of such a mass of business. " The greatest harmony long reigned in the association ; the directors were disinterested, the correspondents zealous, and the workmen docile and laborious. The company's profits increased every day on a capital which had rapidly become immense ; each investment realised a profit of from 60 to IOO per cent., all of which was distributed, in just pro portions, to capitalists and workmen, according to capital and industry. The shares had increased tenfold."1 Mr. Urquhart's estimate of the causes of failure gives, first, " the too great extension of the municipal body, its consequent loss pf activity and control, and the evasion of responsibility by * Chap, iv, p. 46, of his work THE LOST COMMUNITIES 169 the .managers ; secondly, the absence of judicial authority to settle in their origin disputes and litigated interests, which, in the absence of law, could only be decided by the violence of faction. " That the exclusion of the workmen from a due influence in the administration, and share in the profits, was the real cause of the breaking up of the commercial association, is established by the fact of the workmen separating themselves into small societies." That is a very important statement Mr. Urquhart makes, namely, that " the exclusion of the workmen from a due influence in the administration and share in the profits was the real cause of the breaking up of the association." The Ambelakiots had, however, many points worthy of modern notice. They were citizens as well as co-operators, and fought when occasion required for independence. They understood the theory of industrial partnerships better than any modern companies do, and profits were divided between capital and labour long before modern discussions arose upon that subject. More modern instances, however, claim our attention. No one should accuse Socialists of wanting in intrepidity when they settled down on the banks of the Wabash of Indiana, which the much-enduring German celibates were deserting. New Harmony—a name never applicable to it, but in herited—consisted of 30,000 acres of land, purchased by Mr. Owen in April, 1825. In 1822 it was peopled by 700 persons, who had previously occupied a back settlement in Pennsylvania, near Pittsburg, and were chiefly German emigrants. They had had for their spiritual teacher and temporal director Mr. Rapp. They were ignorant, bigoted, despised intellectual attainments, and were celibates. They greatly enriched themselves, and might have multiplied their wealth, as we have seen, had they multiplied themselves. " New Harmony " stood in a thickly-wooded country on the banks of the Wabash and about thirty miles from the mouth of that river. The site of New Harmony was generally flat for about a mile and a half from the river ; but the neighbouring hills were covered with vineyards and orchards. The Wabash here was an ample stream, winding its course in front of the town and IL mili 170 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION beneath the luxuriant and lofty woods on the opposite banks of the Illinois. The town was well laid out in straight and spacious streets, crossing each other at right angles, after the manner of modern American towns. There were excellent wells in this Wabash settlement, and public ovens at convenient distances from each other. There were well-built granaries, barns, and factories, and a pretty village church, the white steeple of which was pleasantly seen from afar. Mr. Owen explained his intended plan of proceedings in the House of Representatives at Washington, an opportunity which would not be accorded to the angel Gabriel of speaking in the Houses of Parliament in London, if he contemplated founding a settlement on the Thames. In three months Mr. Owen was joined by upwards of 900 individuals, which further increased, and notice had to be given to prevent more persons coming. Lord Brougham, being asked (about 1826) to give his opinion of schemes of industrial societies, answered : " Co operation will, by and by, do for the worst, but it must begin with picked men." The Indiana communists were not of this description. In fact, they were advertised for. Notice was given that all ready to join the new system of society might make their way to the banks of the Wabash, and all who came were accepted, just as though you could begin the New World with a job lot. As was to be expected, the men of good sense were ultimately overwhelmed by the mass of wayward adherents, composed, in the words of Mr. Horace Greeley, for the most part of "the conceited, the crotchety, the selfish, the headstrong, the pugnacious, the unappreciated, the played-out, the idle, and the good-for-nothing generally, who, discovering themselves utterly out of place and at a discount in the world as it is, rashly conclude that they are exactly fitted for the world as it ought to be." Nevertheless, the men of good sense ruled at first, and prevailed intermittingly throughout. A committee was appointed to govern this heterogeneous assemblage of 1,000 Republicans. It is clear they had business instincts, for the first thing they did was to pass a resolution " that no spirituous liquors shall be retailed in New Harmony ; " and this resolution has been repeated in eveiy great co-operative society down to this day. THE LOST COMMUNITIES 171 For the first forty years of their career no clergyman, with a character to lose, would guarantee them Christian charity. St. Peter was apprised to have a sharp eye upon them if they came to his gate. Yet these Socialists were not wanting in self-denial, which the very elect, who sat in judgment upon them, often failed to practise ; and they were resolute that Co operation should always mean Temperance. They had none of the teetotalers' tenderness for wilful inebriates, treating them with more respect than the self-sustained, self-respecting, temperate man. They regarded intemperance as uneconomical. They knew that drunkenness is madness at large, and in countless families children and women are shut up with these maniacs, and live in daily jeopardy and terror. It was better to have a tiger or a snake in a community than -a drunkard. You could kill the beast or the reptile, but the drunkard might kill you. It would not pay to manage him in a community. Some knew the inebriate in every stage. In the first he is amusing. Playwriters make merry with him ; comic artists put his foolishness into demoralising cartoons. In the second stage his officious good-nature is succeeded by suspicions, which make his society a nuisance and a peril. In the third stage he stabs those who oppose him, or does it on surmise of his own, against which there is neither warning nor defence. The foulest suspicions grow real to the inebriate. In some cases daughters hear infamous accusations upon testimony apparently authentic. Waste and violence mark the days of horror and sorrow in the household. Little children undergo frights which affect their reason (as doctors know). Working men and women have been hanged for murder which mere self- defence against drunken provocation has forced upon them. The most brilliant men, the sweetest and most self-denying women, whom suffering, weakness, or sorrow bows low, until nervous exhaustion befáis, come to this dreadful end. There is no land of refuge, no escape for them. The fatal temptation -j ever in their sight. At every corner of every street that which to them is the accursed spirit is blazoned. Advertise ments in newspaper or magazine carries the dreadful information where can be got the dainty drink of death. The co-operators had knowledge enough of the causes of sin to pity the poor wretch on the inclined plane, but they would have no inclined .n MUÍ 172 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION plane laid down in their stores. There have been drunken saints and drunken sceptics, whom both sides have deplored, but a drunken co-operator would be a nuisance, a scandal, and a fool. Where temperance in use is the observance, moderation is expected as naturally as courtesy or truth, and immoderation held as infamous. In New Harmony the religious difficulty was made to submit to the co-operative conditions of liberty, conscience, and criticism. The different sects ultimately met in church and hall, attending as they chose, when they chose, and upon whom they chose ; and preachers of all denominations had free liberty to teach, and discussions are mentioned* as having occurred after the morning services. As late as 1842, New Harmony, in Indiana, was the subject of report in the New Moral World. Robert Dale Owen was there at that time, and stated in a speech that many of those present, himself among the number, hoped to live and die in New Harmony. They expected to leave their children, their daughters as well as their sons, behind them, the future inhabitants of the place. Mr. R. D. Owen was occupied in replying to the objections of ministers of religion. The co- operators would have certainly done twice as much as they accomplished but for the time spent in answering clerical critics, who had nothing whatever to do with their business. Mr. R. D. Owen, who had not delivered a single lecture on the subject of religion for ten years, condescended to answer one Rev. B. Halstead, who all that time had been lecturing upon it every Sunday. It cannot be said that these social reformers did nothing for the future. They spent their time in writing papers on theological subjects, long enough to fill the bookshelves of posterity. On their own ground ministers of religion were to be regarded with respect so long as they were unimputative ; but religion, being an affair of individual conscience, for which individuals are made responsible in the future, and not the minister, he had no right to dictate opinions for which another had to answer. The absence of Mr. Robert Owen during the years when personal inspiration and training were most important, was a great disadvantage to the community. 1 Co-operative Magazine, 1826,, p. 50. THE LOST COMMUNITIES 173 Abram Combe deserves to be ranked with Mr. Owen for the cost to himself with which he strove to prove co-operative life practicable. He published a periodical informing the public of the progress of the Orbiston community. It was a small neatly-printed paper, which he named The Register of the First Society of Adherents to Divine Revelation at Orbiston, which was not very civil to all the other Christian societies, which for eighteen centuries have regarded themselves as being the same description of persons. Mr. Combe professed to derive his principles from Mr. Owen, and appeared to treat the principal things Mr. Owen had said as discoveries. These discoveries Abram Combe had the merit of stating in his own way, and stating very well ; and some thought in a much more acceptable form than the master had put them. The Register was the least tiresome and most sensibly written of any of the publica tions of the class. There were practical articles about the situation and prospects of the place, the views of the inmates, the different occupations, diversions, and departments ; the pro ceedings of the theatre which was opened in Orbiston. Letters, when they were good, were introduced, and extracts also from private letters when they contained passages publicly interesting. Notices of co-operative publications were given, and of experi ments elsewhere, commonly done in a very pleasant spirit. Lectures were reported, some of which must have been well worth hearing since at this time they are interesting reading. In 1826 the Orbiston Community buildings were begun on the 18th of March. An average of 100 men were employed. The art ideas of Mr. Abram Combe were of the most sterile utilitarian order. He held that " it ought always to be borne in mind that the sole use and end of domestic accommodation is to protect the body from painful sensations." " To me," he said, " it has a slight appearance of irrationality to seek mental plea sure from such a source, seeing that liberty, security, and knowledge, united with social intercourse, and confirmed by the affection and esteem of all with whom we are in contact, con stitute the only source from which the wants of the mind can be supplied." The excellent gentleman must have been born without any sense of art in his soul. Every longing for beauty in his nature must have been satisfied by the sight of mortar and Whitewash. What a genius poor-law commissioners missed in 174 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE LOST COMMUNITIES 175 Abram Combe ! He would have been the Pugin of bare Bethels and union workhouses. He was wise in proposing the plainest conveniences until prosperity was attained, but he need not have struck his harp in praise of naked monotony. A building was described as possessing a centre—left centre and left wing —right centre and right wing. The left centre contained about 120 private rooms. The whole building was plain, was all of hewn stone, and was said to have " a rather magnificent appearance," which criticism, after what we know of the architect, must have been written by a gravedigger. It is, however, but just to add that the Glasgow Chronicle of that day said that " the rooms intended for the inmates were neat and even elegant." If so there must have been some departure from Mr. Combe's principle of dreariness. Orbiston was near Hamilton. The funds for the settlement were raised by a joint-stock company, and were divided into two hundred shares of ¿£250 each, paid in quarterly instalments of j£io ; Mr. Combe, of course, being the giant contributor. The community buildings are described as situated on the banks of the Calder, at that place the river being but a paltry, quick, shallow, mill stream, but the banks beautiful. The visitor approaching the place saw only a tall white building, covered with blue slates, standing entirely by itself, without a house or tree to keep it company. The general feature of the spot was flat, but surrounded on all sides by near or distant, high mountainous scenery. On arriving at the building one found it to be plain, of great extent, and devoid of every ornament— yet the aim, the zeal, the sacrifices of the promoters, and the hopes they inspired, made these places sacred. Mr. Combe was described as a stout-built, middle-aged, farmer-looking man, giving no indication of the general know ledge he was understood to possess ; known in Edinburgh as a sharp-eyed tanner—that being his business—well understand ing the art of pursuing the " main chance," of a cynical turn of mind, satirical and vivacious beyond either of his eminent brothers. He visited New Lanark in 1820. Though he was then thirty-five years of age, he experienced an entire " change of mind," as complete, remarkable, and salutary as any recorded in the annals of religious conversion. Some of the many persons visiting Orbiston were naturally disposed to make some compensation to the community for the :ime of the members consumed in taking visitors round, and iey made offer of money on account of the attendants placed it their disposal. This was resented in a dignified and foolish article, for the community might have been eaten up, either in food or time, by visitors—a few curious to learn, but more ^.urious to ridicule. A charge for attendance in showing people round, at so much per hour, would have been welcome to the common fund. However, a very sensible suggestion was made, namely, that visitors who felt desirous of serving the place should purchase some article of its produce. In the Co-operative Magazine of this period (1826) were prudently published several calculations of the proportion of the agriculturists, mechanics, and other workmen who should be included in a community, according to the quality of land which was to be occupied. There were also statements of the conditions to which members were to conform in the Orbiston and New Harmony communities. These calculations and conditions are not devoid of historic interest as showing what conceptions were entertained of the art of association, by two such eminent leaders and students of it as Robert Owen and Abram Combe. But it would be unfair in the historian to waylay the reader with twenty pages of these technical details. The Orbiston estate consisted of 290 acres, for which the serious sum of ^20,000 was paid. The land was cold and poor, and has been judged to be not worth half the money ; and an additional ^20,000 was expended on buildings. An ill-assorted random collection of most unsuitable persons flocked to the spot, which speedily acquired from the surrounding population the emphatic name of " Babylon." At its breaking up the land and buildings were sold for ^16,000. But for Mr. George Combe, who, at the death of his brother Abram, forced on the total destruction of the concern, the foundry, with its " forge and water-wheel " might yet have remained to waken the echoes of that " romantic dell." Orbiston was ridding itself of its idlers and its unsuitable members—it was gradually con solidating itself, and would, but for the forcible legal interference of the great phrenologist, have righted itself.1 Orbiston was nearer succeeding than other European experi- 1 New Moral World, vol, vu. p. 995, January 4,1840. HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION ments. Had Mr. Abram Combe lived, his practical sense and fine example, no doubt, would have sustained the community. He was quite right in wasting no money on ornament in the erection of the earlier buildings, but he was wrong in writing against ornament ; true ornament is art, and art is pleasure ; and pleasure in art is refinement, and refinement is the grace of life. It was of no consequence that the buildings were plain at first. The enthusiastic would be quite content if the buildings were wholesome, and they might have been so contrived that the addition of comeliness could have been given when there was money to pay for it. Mr. Combe died of his own enthu siasm. Unfitted for much field-work, he persisted in it exces sively, even after his lungs were affected. When what he had done was explained to him, he regretted that the physiology of health had not been taught to him in lieu of other knowledge, which could not now save him. He was a man of fine parts and many personal accomplishments, and a martyr of Co operation. Subsequently Mr. William Thompson arose, with whose name the reader is already familiar. He had a definite scheme of social life in his mind, which he had given the best years of his life to describe and define, and which he left his fortune to forward. In those days it was, and still is, difficult to leave money for purposes of progress, not of an orthodox character. Religious judges at once confiscated the bequest on the ground of alleged immorality of purpose. Any persons to whom the money might revert could successfully plead the lunacy of the testator. Nobody believed in the sanity of any one who sought unknown improvement in an untrodden way. The only way was to give the means while you lived. If testators could have been persuaded of this, some projected communities never attempted would have been heard of, and some commenced would not have been lost. Mr. Thompson died in March, 1833, and left freehold estates to the value of £8,000 or £10,000 to thirteen trustees, to be applied in loans to communities, the pur chase of shares in communities, and the reprinting for gratuitous distribution such of Mr. Thompson's works as might be supposed to further co-operative objects. The heirs- THE LOST COMMUNITIES 177 at-law disputed the will, and collections had to be made to defend it. A plea of insanity was set up against Mr. Thomp son. Ultimately a decision was obtained in the Rolls Court, Dublin, when the counsel for the heirs brought forward the same imaginary charges of intended sexual immorality in com munity arrangements which were brought forward thirty years later in the Rolls Court, London, with respect to the Queen- wood community. The Cork case ended in the court taking possession of the funds. In September, 1831, announcement was made of a co operative community being established in Cork, under the influence of Mr. Thompson—it was intended to consist of two thousand individuals. Two years before his death a Congress was held in Manchester, May, 1831, for the purpose of arranging the immediate formation of a com munity. The first Birmingham Co-operative Society had published, in "Carpenter's Political Letter," a recommenda tion that the incipient co-operative community should be upon the plan laid down by Mr. William Thompson, and that application should be made to 199 other co-operative societies to elect one member of community each, and supply him with £30, in order that the community should start with £6,000. Mr. Owen declined to be a party to the pettiness of writing to two hundred societies only. He proposed a committee for universal correspondence, and refused to have his name associated with any committee which was for making a beginning with a smaller sum than £240,000. Mr. Thompson had come up to London, with other gentlemen resident at a distance, to promote practical operations.1 At the Manchester Congress, he wisely urged that they should commence with a small experiment in proportion to their possible means, and the Congress was disposed to advance £6,000 to him, when it could be raised upon their scheme. A document was agreed to in which his plan was recom mended, but Mr. Owen, saying that £6,000 or £20,000 would be insufficient, discouraged the attempt. In the Cork community, which Mr. Thompson meditated, entire freedom of thought and expression on all subjects were *o prevail, guided by regard for the feelings of others ; and 1 Mr. Thompson's speech, London Congress, 1832. ι78 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE LOST COMMUNITIES 179 entire freedom of action, not interfering with similar freedom in others, were amongst the mutually guaranteed rights rf every member of this community. Religion was declared to be the peculiar concern of the individual alone. Women were to be entitled to equal means of improvement and enjoy, ment, and to be equally eligible with men to all offices "} which their inclination or talents might lead. Besides his famous Scotch convert, Abram Combe, Mr. Owen made an Irish convert hardly less remarkable, who , founded an Irish community which attained greater success than that of Orbiston. It was in 1830 that Mr. Vandeleur of Ralahine, devoted 618 acres to the uses of a modified community on Mr. Owen's plan. His tenantry were of the lowest order of Irish poor, discontented, disorderly, and vicious. Mr. Vandeleur had heard Mr. Owen's lectures in Dublin, and was persuaded of the suitability of his scheme of co-operative agriculture for Ireland, and he did not hesitate to trust his fortune in order to verify the sincerity of his convictions. His expectation of success was very high, and} although he proposed to apply the co-operative principle to the most unfavourable state of society in the world, it is admitted on all hands that his experiment succeeded. Strange to say, the most important application of O- operation to, agriculture has occurred in the restless land of potatoes and Whiteboys, amid the bogs of Ralahine. Mr. William Pare published a history of this Irish experiment. The sort of treatment to which farm labourers had been sub jected on the Vandeleur estate there was not calculated o promote good-will. A reaper on a hot harvest day paus'd to get a drink of water from a can, when the steward kicked it over, declaring that he would not have water there as an excuse for the reapers wasting their time. No wonder that a few wandering shots flew about this estate : and after better treatment set in, the men went out shooting as a precautionary measure, but when they saw good homesteads put up for them, a share of the produce of their labour secured to them, peace, and even prosperity, reigned in that wretched district. This patch of Irish communism is the only one that ever flourished. It did not come to grief of itself; its proprietor ended ι Though a gentleman of good family, Mr John Scott Vandeleur was a gambler, and lost the co-operative farms and everything else in a dice-box. He fled himself, and passed into outer dark ness, and was never more heard of by men. There being no equitable land laws, such as Mr. Gladstone devised, for Ire land, the co-operators had no claims for improvement of stock, and the " New Systemites," as they were called in Ireland, vanished also. There is no doubt that the "system" answered among the worst-used people, and under the worst circumstances imaginable. The Rev. Francis Trench, brother of the Archbishop of Dublin, visited the " New Systemites," and not only expressed, but wrote his approval of what he saw. The society had made itself rules. One was, that " no mem ber be expected to perform any service or work but such as is agreeable to his or her feelings." Irish human nature must not be of bad material, since both honest and disagreeable work was daily done, and done cheerfully. One day a mail coach traveller found a man up to his middle in water repairing a dam. "Are you working by yourself? " inquired the traveller. " Yes," was the answer. "Where is your steward ? " " We have no steward." " Who is your master ? " " We have no master. We are on a new system." " Then who sent you to do this work ? " " The committee," replied the man in the dam. " Who is the committee ? " asked the mail coach visitor. " Some of the members." " What members do you mean ? " "The ploughman and labourers who are appointed by us as a committee. I belong to the New Systemites." When Mr. Craig, the co-operative steward, first went among these men, who had shot the previous steward, they sent him an interesting sketch of a skull and crossbones, and an intimation that they intended to put him to bed under the " daisy quilt." As he went along the road, the people who did not know him saluted him with the kind country greeting of " God be with you." One of his labourers told Wm that he should always reply in Irish—" Tharah-ma-dhoel." Accordingly Mr. Craig answered everybody "Tharah-ma- 18ο HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION dhoel " ; but he observed that his rejoiner did not make him popular, when a friend explained to him that " Tharah-ma- dhoel" meant "Go to the Devil." The man who taught this dangerous answer became one of the best members of the society ; and once, when the co-operative steward was supposed to be lost behind the Crattan Wood, he met "Tharah-ma- dhoel " looking for him, and on being asked why he had come out on that errand, answered— " We thought you were lost in the Bog Mountain." " Suppose I was lost, what then ? " said the steward. " Sure, sir," answered Tharah-ma-dhoel, " if we lost you we should lose the system." Mr. Craig deserves words of honour for his courage in undertaking the post of steward, seeing that his predecessor had been shot, and that the proprietor, Mr. Vandeleur, had been under the protection of an armed force. Between Terry- Alts, White Feet, Black Feet factions, and a "Tharah-ma- dhoel" set of labourers, Mr. Craig had a very unpleasant prospect before him. The government of the colony was absolute in Mr. Vandeleur, who retained the right of summary dismissal of any person brought upon the estate of whom he disapproved. Yet during the three years and a half the Clare community (it was situated in the county of Clare) lasted, he never had occasion to use this summary power. It would not have been very wonderful if he had, seeing that the members of the community were elected by ballot among the peasants of Ralahine. The business of the farm was regulated by a committee, also elected by ballot. The committee assembled every evening, and appointed to each man his work for the following day. There was no inequality established among them. The domestic offices, usually performed by servants, were assigned to the members under seventeen years of age. It seems quite incredible that the simple and reasonable form of government should supersede the government of the bludgeon and the blunderbuss—the customary mode by which Irish labourers of that day regulated their industrial affairs· Yet peace and prosperity prevailed through an arrangement ot equity. From this quiet community, established in the midst of terror and murder, Mr. Vandeleur received back in full all THE LOST COMMUNITIES 181 the money he advanced for th e wages of the labourers ; ¿200 a-year interest on the working capital, the stock, and farm implements; and ¿700 a year rent. What induced the labourers to work with such profitable zeal and good will was, that the members of all ages above seventeen received an equal share in the division of profits over the above payments. Besides, a co-operative store was established similar to the one at New Lanark, whence they obtained provisions of good quality and nearly cost price. Pure food, honest weight, an d reduced prices filled them with astonishment. None had kn own such a state of things before. None had conceived the possi bility of it. The members ate at one table, which saved much expense in cooking food and serving meals. People who had always lived in doubt whether they should have a meal at all, made no scruple of eating with one another when a well-spread table was before them. In addition, care was bestowed on the education of their children. The school was conducted upon purely secular principles, and the results were highly valued by the parents. As was the habit of communities, spirituous liquors were not permitted on the estate, and neither was smoking, which was gratuitous and petulant prohibition. Had the Ralahine farm continued, arrangements would have been made for enabling the members to acquire the property and hold the community as their own, by common capital. It was in the "enthusiastic period" when this Clare community flourished, and needed enthusiasm to carry social ideas to these desperate districts. Communism should no longer be counted sentimental, since it did the stout-hearted practical work it achieved in Ireland. It is a thousand pities, all counted, that Vandeleur was a gambler, as otherwise the merriest community in the world would have been established in the pleasant land of Erin. Men who taught their new steward to reply to the pious greetings of the peasantry by telling them to go to the devil, had an infinity of fun in them. In racier humour than this, and in harmless drollery and wit, the Irish surpass all tribes of men ; and communism in their hands would have been industry, song, and laughter. Yielding to a necessity always adverse, experiments were HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION next attempted in the fens of Cambridgeshire. The projector, Mr. Hodgson, was a handsome and lusty farmer, who heard from clerical adversaries that a community might serve harem as well as public purposes ; and as he had some land, a little money, and plausibility of address, he turned out as a peripatetic orator in favour of beginning the new world in his native fens of Cambridgeshire. No one suspected his object, he was regarded as an eager advocate for realising the new system of society. Mr. Owen at once set his face against the ingenious schemer, whose hasty and indefinite proceedings he disapproved. Mr. Owen's high-minded instincts always led him to associate only with men of honour and good promise. He went down to Manea Fen, the name of the site chosen, and, having acquaintance with landowners of the neighbour hood, was soon able to properly estimate the qualifications of the new communist leader. Some gentlemen farmers, who knew Hodgson's antecedents and unfitness for trust, did Mr. Owen the service of telling him the truth. Mr. Fleming, the editor of the New Moral World wisely declined, on business grounds, to sanction the Manea Fen project. It did not add to the repute of the scheme that Mr. Rowbotham, afterwards known as " Parallox," made himself the advocate of the discountenanced projector. Many honest, and some able, men, naturally thinking that the discontent with Mr. Hodgson's plans originated in narrowness, and impatient to try their fortunes on the land themselves, went down and endeavoured to put the place in working order. Buildings were erected and many residents were for a time established there ; but the chief of the affair soon found that he had misconceived the character of those whom he had attracted, and they soon abandoned it. Those who had the smallest means suffered most, because they remained the longest, being unable to transfer themselves. The Wording Bee, the organ of the association, edited by Mr. James Thompson, had animation, literary merit, and the advantage of appealing to all who were impatient of delay, and not well instructed in the dangers of prematurity. It was in August, 1838, that Mr. E. T. Craig made the first announcement that Mr. Hodgson, who had the suspicious address of Brimstone Hill, Upwell, had an estate of two THE LOST COMMUNITIES 183 hundred acres within a few miles of Wisbech, which he •'ntended to devote to a community. Mr. Hodgson addressed he readers of the Moral World as "Fellow Beings," the mly time in which that abstract designation was applied to them. The editor prudently prefaced his remarks upon the communications by quoting the saying of the Town Clerk of Ephesus, " Let us do nothing rashly." Mr. William Hodgson had been a sailor in his younger days—and many things else subsequently. He was acting in the character of the farmer when he invented the Manea Fen community. It was mortgaged, but this did not prevent him offering to sell it to the Socialist party. This Fen Farm consisted of four fifty- acre lots, divided by dykes, as is the Fen country plan. The dykes acted as drains also. Three fifties lay together, the fourth was somewhat distant—half a mile. Twenty-four cottages, twelve in a row built back to back, were single- room shanties. There was a dining shanty, which would accommodate one hundred people. There were brave, energetic men attracted to this place. To set up a paper, which was one of the features of the Fen Farm, was to enter the ranks of aspiring cities. The members were " working bees " in the best sense, and were capable of Success anywhere if moderate industry and patience could command it. Besides being disastrous to individuals, this Fen community was a hindrance to the greater scheme of the Queenwood community, which had then been projected, and which represented what of unity, wisdom, and capacity the Socialist party had. The possibility of co-operation aiding in new forms of social life was next destined to be illustrated in an unexpected manner, and by a very unlikely person—namely, Mr. Feargus O'Connor. He soon became master of English Chartism ,· and he and countrymen of his carried it clear away from all the moorings to which the English leaders would have held it secure. They vehemently protested against social reform as digressive and impossible. Against all attempts to obtain property for the purposes of community they urged, you cannot get land—laws of primogeniture and entail forbid. If law did let you get land, government would not let you 184 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE LOST COMMUNITIES 185 II keep it ; and if law and government consented, how can those get land who cannot get bread ? Mr. O'Connor was a man of candour, had a mind susceptible of new ideas, and ultimately came himself to project a " Co operative Land Scheme." He gave to it at one time the name of " Co-operative." It was subsequently known as the National Land Scheme. It was through contact with the social advocates that the Chartist leaders turned their attention to life upon the land. He bought four estates and contracted for two others—O'Connorville, near Rickmansworth, formerly bore the name of Herinsgate, Herts ; Snigsend, near Staun- ton, Gloucester ; Lowbands, near Tewkesbury, on the borders of Gloucester and Worcester ; Minster Lovell, near Whitney, Oxfordshire ; Bromsgrove, Worcestershire ; and Mathon, near Great Malvern. The purchase of the two last was not completed. O'Connorville cost ^9,736 ; Low- bands, ^18,903 ; Minster Lovell, ^22,978 ; Snigsend, ¿£27,237 ; Dodford, ¿£12,046 ; and there was a deposit on Mathon of ¿£2,005. Mathon, however, did not come into the occupation of the company. There was confusion in making the allotments, which were given by ballot. They fell, of course, often to the unprepared and unfit. The properties, owing to an ill-devised mode of purchase, came into Chancery. Nevertheless, there remained several persons upon these estates who lived profitably upon their holdings. Had the occupants had sufficient capital to enable them to subsist while they built their habitations and gathered in their first crops—had the holdings been of four acres instead of two acres only, the scheme might have been of lasting benefit to many persons. The Newcastle Daily Chronicle sent (1875) a special commissioner, Mr. Longstaffe, to visit all these places. He recounts how the shares were fixed as low as twenty-six shillings each. The member who had paid up four shares (five pounds four shillings) was entitled to ballot for two acres. It was assumed that good arable land might be rented in the most fertile parts of the country at fifteen shillings an acre, or bought outright at twenty-five years' purchase at eighteen pounds fifteen shillings an acre. As soon as the share capital realised ¿£5,000, a hundred and twenty acres were to be bought to locate sixty persons on two- acre holdings, and leave a balance of ¿£2,750 ; this would allow to each occupant a sum of forty-five pounds sixteen and eightpence with which to start on his enterprise. It was believed that thirty pounds would be sufficient to build a commodious and comfortable cottage, and that the fifteen pounds remaining would provide implements, stock, seeds, and subsistence until the land became sustaining to its occupiers. It was thought that the allotments with dwellings might be leased for ever to the members at an annual rental of five pounds. The Chartist land cry was : " A beautiful cottage and four acres, with thirty pounds to work it, for a prepayment of five pounds four shillings." When the society had the amazing number of 70,000 members, the total sum they subscribed was a little over ,£36,000. It took ^78,000 to locate fewer than two hundred and fifty persons. Seventy thousand members spread all over Great Britain involved unforeseen cost to register — it was found to require ^6,000 to put their names upon the books. The cost of land, the expense of conducting the great society on Mr. O'Connor's plan, actually required an enormous sum of money and time to carry out. When the subject was examined before a Parliamentary committee, Mr. Finlason, the actuary of the National Debt, calculated that it would require twenty-one millions to place the whole seventy thousand members on the land, and that, supposing Mr. O'Connor's most sanguine scheme of profit could be realised, it would re quire every minute of three centuries to get all the shareholders on their holdings. Thus the politicians failed, as no social reformers ever did, however, some advantages accrued from their efforts. The attention of the great mass of working-class politicians, who were mere politicians and nothing more, was turned to the fact that progress had a social as well as political side, and Mr. Ernest Jones, instead of opposing Co-operation in public debates, became an advocate of it. The last of the English attempts at community to be re counted here was the one at Queen wood, in Hampshire. This was the greatest effort of the kind made in this country. For more than twenty years before it began the disciples °f Socialism had been forecasting the means of a decisive Ill ι86 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION experiment in England. Rich men had believed in com munity as a reasonable commercial speculation. Benevolent men with a turn for statesmanship had believed in these home colony schemes as a means of easier and better government of the people. After the rise of the socialistic agitation the working people believed in community as a means of self-help and self-government. Their idea was that moderate labour on the part of the many, and moderate attainments in the science of society on the part of the few, would bring success. The Socialists understood by communism simply a society in which the fruits of intellect, art, and industry should be diffused by consent, poverty made impossible, and ordinary crime unnecessary. The laws of the universe were not exclusive. Light and air were common. Life and death were common. In the hour of his birth the young prince has to scream for air like any infantine pauper ; and unceremonious Death walks into the parlour of the gentleman without sending in his card. It had been proposed in Parliament that galleries of art should be open to the gaze of the shoeblack as well as to the connoisseur. Books of rare value were being made accessible to all. Fire offices insured the cottage or the mansion. The careless were made as secure as the careful. Life insurance was a form of equality. The strong and the temperate were made to use their prolonged lives to pay up premiums which go to the progeny of the weak and the reck less. The virtuous and the vicious, the base and the noble, had been all declared equal in the sight of the law1. The same police watch over the life of the scoundrel and the patriot. Before civilisation began, the weak had to take care of themselves. Now the feeble and the strong, the coward and the brave, are equally protected. That personal daring which made the inspiration of Homeric song, which made Sparta a name of energy through all time, which makes the blood tingle over the pages of Sir Walter Scott, is no longer a daily requisite. A man need neither carry arms nor use them. A set of men are paid to defend him. An old warrior of the romantic days would rather die than call the police. If a man gets into a disputation he is not allowed to settle it in honest hot rage, but must refer his quarrel to the decision THE LOST COMMUNITIES 187 of a cold-blooded magistrate, who will probably fine him for his fervour. How the brave were abashed—how courage blushed with shame—how the pride of manliness was stung, when craven, cringing law first put valour down. There is plenty of exercise for courage without expending it in broils and bloodshed. The equality of the law conduces to justice— and the equality of competence may lead to security and morality. A Hall of Science was erected in Rockingham Street, Sheffield, in 1839 : a commodious and handsome building for the time. Mr. Joseph Smith had erected the first at Salford, less pretentious, but a pleasant structure, costing £850, and capable of holding six hundred persons. The Liverpool Hall, a building of mark for those days, cost £5,000. The London Hall, in John Street, Tottenham Court Road, cost £3,000. Lawrence Street Chapel, Birmingham, built or held by the Southcotians, was bought for £800. More than £22,000 was spent in one year in securing " Social Institutions," and Mr. Pare, with that business wisdom in which he excelled, had a deed drawn on the model of that by which Methodist chapels are vested in the Conference. Had the community plan at Queenwood succeeded, a powerful social organisation had existed in England. A good-looking chapel was held in Glasgow, in Great Hamilton Street. The present writer, the last of the Social Missionaries, officiated in 1845. In other places halls were continuously occupied. The most famous and costly erection was that of the Hall of Science in Camp- field, Manchester, which has since been purchased for the City Free Library—the most honourable use to which any of these halls have come. Dr. John Watts was chiefly or mainly instrumental in promoting this welcome destination of it. In the early Queenwood days upwards of one hundred thousand members of Socialist Societies could be counted upon for Co-operation. The Community Society contributions were fixed at threepence a week from each member. As Mr. Owen calculated that £250,000 was the lowest sum which would enable a successful experiment to be conducted, the prospect of collecting it by threepence a week was a distant one. The hope of increasing the fund more rapidly led to a recurrence to the old co-operative store plan, and a store for li ι iv -Ί mi lili ιδδ HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE LOST COMMUNITIES 189 the sale of tea and groceries was opened at the Institution in John Street, London. Thus the necessity of self-created capital brought back the store, for years extinct in London. In 1837, when the National Community Friendly Society was formed, the subscription was fixed at one shilling a week, and those only who had subscribed ^50 were declared eligible to go upon the land. In 1838, the members amounted to four hundred. In 1839, ¿1,200 were collected in this way, which in two hundred years or more would furnish the j£ 240,000 Mr. Owen required. Nothing discouraged by this circum stance, a year before, Messrs. Wm. Clegg, John Finch, Joseph Smith, by one of the formidable ukases from the Central Board, were instructed to inquire for an estate, capable of sustaining a colony of at least five hundred individuals. There was some idea of going Fenwards again in search of a site for the new world. They actually made an offer for an estate in Norfolk, for which they were to pay ^11,500. The Community Committee contracted to buy the Wretton estates, near Wisbech, of Mr. James Hill, but, as that gentle man had social and training views of his own, he stipulated that he should have a paramount right to carry those out. As this would confuse the public judgment of what was done by two different sets of regenerators acting in the same field, the purchase was not proceeded with. After much inquiry, other negotiations, and more misgiving, land was rented in Hants. The estate consisted of two farms, one of 301 acres, named Queenwood, tithe free ; the other 232 acres, extra-parochial, named Buckholt. The annual rent was ^350, having been fined down from ¿275 ^y payment of ¿750. The society had the power to further fine down the rent to ^300, ^250, and j£2OO on making three payments of £ 1,500 each at three successive periods. Complaints were made that the land selected at Tytherly was unsuited in several respects. It was unfruitful, it was inaccessible for those needing to frequent it ; it was too far from markets. Even in London, where the vast number of people living together necessitates a certain tolerance from the impossibility of noticing the peculiarities of one another, it has been difficult to obtain a site for a hall of science. In the town )f Bury, in Lancashire, chiefly possessed by the house of Derby, who were not favourably disposed to Unitarians, it was impos sible for a long period of years to obtain a strip of ground on which to erect a Unitarian church ; and those enterprising religionists were under the necessity of waiting until they could convert a gentleman who happened to possess a little land, when they obtained a site. When the colony pro jectors have succeeded in securing some spot, it has generally been one with many disadvantages, and conceded to them because nothing better could be done with the place. The calculation of the owners has sometimes been that the social occupants would, after spending all their capital in improving the land, be obliged to relinquish it, when it would return, gratuitously improved, into their hands. The most important accession which was made at this time was that of Mr. William Galpin, a banker, of Salisbury, who wrote to the New Moral World a modest, comprehensive, business-like letter, saying, " he regretted that Mr. Owen did not intend being himself a resident in the community formed in his name " ; arguing properly that " he who knew most should be at hand to give effect to what he knew, and that he thought a joint-stock fund was possible to be formed for the especial purpose of advancing the practical objects of the home colony contemplated." The editor, who did not at all com prehend the quality of his correspondent, answered with more confidence than judgment, that it was not probable that much could be done in way of a joint-stock fund, till the members of the proposed community had proved the success of their undertaking ; which meant that when they had succeeded without money they would be able to get it. The unseeing and sanguine editor argued " they would get more than they knew how to use." In 1841 the buildings were commenced at Tytherly, from the designs of Mr. Hansom, a clever architect, who had a sympathy with social views. He had erected a Philosophical Museum in Leicester, not distinguished for gracefulness oí design, but it was never completed as he intended it. His best known erection, the Birmingham Town Hall, was for many years considered the handsomest town hall in the kingdom. He was a man of mechanical resource. He was ICO HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE LOST COMMUNITIES 191 the inventor of the hansom cab, and some machines which were successful. It was probably through Mr. Fare's municipal connection with Birmingham that he became architect of the Queenwood Hall at Tytherly. A sketch of it appeared in the New Moral World for October 9, 1841, about the time of its completion. The building was a pleasant semi-baronial structure, and had a certain stateliness. The manner of the erection was more creditable than many churches. It was built with the care · that befitted a sacred edifice. The parts out of sight were I finished as scrupulously as those that met the eye. Owing to Mr. Galpin's wise and wholesome sense of thoroughness, the laths which formed the partitions were of the best quality, and the nails used in the obscurest part of the building were the best that could be had. There was nothing hidden that was mean. It is one of the pleasant recollections of the place, that its directors endeavoured to make it honest throughout. Seven or eight hundred pounds were spent in making roads and promenades around it—spacious and enduring. The old Romans would have respected them. Even the kitchen and basement rooms, used by the members for evening meetings, were wainscoted with mahogany, many feet high. Comfort and grace were consulted as far as means permitted in every thing. To the credit of the English communists they were no Barebones party. Had they succeeded in making a community, it had been a pleasant one. They were not afraid of art, and beauty had no terrors for them. Mr. Bate, who was an artist, and who ultimately gave his fortune for the advance ment of the Queenwood experiment, sent eight original drawings in water colours, framed and glazed, as a beginning towards forming a gallery of drawings. Mr. Devonshire Saull meditated bestowing his geological museum upon Tytherly. Geology did not make much progress in his time, as the clergy imagined there was something wrong with Nature. Indeed, many suspected Sir Charles Lyell of thinking himself wiser than Moses. To Mr. Saull belonged the merit of enthusiasm for the suspected science, and according to his knowledge he promoted it. It being stated that ^3,500 was required on loan for five years, bearing interest at 5 per cent., intimations were at once received that the following sums would be sent from the following places : Oldham, £38 ; Birmingham, £80 ; Shef field, ,£60; Worcester, ¿61 ; Coventry, £121 ; Leicester, £60; Nottingham, ¿60 ; Northampton, ,£17; a London Friend, £100 ; Glasgow, ¿20; Brighton, ¿ζ ; Chatham, ¿50; Suffolk, ¿loo ; Edinburgh, ¿230; Hyde, ¿184; Norwich, ¿50; Ashton, ¿56; Macclesfield, ¿24; Liver pool, ¿61 ; Boston, ¿20 ; Hull, ¿7 ; Louth, ¿20. This celerity of subscription is good evidence of the widespread enthusiasm with which the Queenwood project was regarded. In 1842 Mr. Owen resigned the governorship of Queen- wood, and Mr. Finch became president of the society, when a new executive was formed for carrying out the affairs of Queenwood. At the Congress of 1843 Mr. Owen was re- appointed president. Subsequently Mr. William Pare became governor ; and his suavity, accessibility, and zeal rendered him the most popular that held the office. Among the new and honourable expedients for diverting the mind of the public from the polemical character of the communistic movement, was that of creating a Home Coloni sation Society, which proposed to take the affairs of Queen- wood into its hands. It was thought that men of money might be induced to join the society divested of controversial names which proved a hindrance to the general investment of capital. The projectors of the new Home Colonisation Society contributed largely to its funds, and for some time the New Moral World contained frequent announcements of the receipt of a thousand pounds at a time from this society. But its name had no enthusiasm in it, and its example produced very little outside effect. The constitution of this society was devised by Mr. W. H. Ashurst, an eminent solicitor in the City of London. Struck with compassion for poor people in every part of the empire who, by reason of the high rate of postage subsisting, were prevented from receiving or giving information affecting their interests or affections when separated from members of their families, Mr. Ashurst rendered invaluable and prolonged assistance to Sir Rowland Hill in the great advocacy which gave the people the Penny Postage. No Writer made a more striking impression than he by a union of I ' II» HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION sympathy and facts. Many insurgent reformers sought his protecting counsel ; he warned them against the pitfalls of the law, and when in the course of what they thought theii duty they fell into them, he stretched forth a strong and generous hand to pull them out ; and his son and Mr. John Morris, who succeeded him, continued like disinterested service. In 1843 came the resignation of Mr. W. Galpin, of his office of general secretary. A certain grandeur of aim, which he had in common with Mr. Owen, had led him to sanction a scale of administration which promised soon to exhaust the available funds of the party to which he had himself con tributed with notable liberality. His influence in rendering the society neutral in matters of theology, destroyed the zeal of many, whose activity was necessary to sustain the movement among the branches, and his connection with the society was of too short a period for the education of new supporters, who should be content to advance economical projects by con siderations purely economical. Enforced neutrality, dictated by policy, is different from the intelligent neutrality of dis cernment. Mr. Galpin took leave of the society, in a letter of good taste and dignity. It was "enough for him," he said, "that there existed a feeling that the cause might be better served by his ceasing to be one of its officers." Mr. Owen had had the Tytherly Hall made to bear con spicuously outside of it the mystic letters C. M., which meant Commencement of the Millennium which, however, declined to begin its career there. Towards the end of 1845 the Standard announced that " Mr. Owen had taken his leave of Rose Hall, Hampshire, for America. The Queenwood enterprise, after ,£37,000 was spent upon it, proved a failure." " Rose Hall " was the name of a house on Rose Hill, a pretty little residence on the estate generally used for boarders, or as the occasional residence of the governor. Many ladies and gentlemen went down to Queenwood, and became residents, and contributed pleasantly both to the funds and the society of the establishment. When affairs at Harmony (for Mr. Owen had given Queen- wood this unfortunate name, which served to exaggerate every THE LOST COMMUNITIES 193 minor difference into discord) began to present financial com plications, the boarders gradually fell off. Members' meetings ceased to be interesting, and credit was the agreeable but insidious canker-worm which ate up Queenwood. Works were undertaken, provisions ordered, accounts with tradesmen augmented. Had the community begun on the principle of co-operative stores—of neither giving nor taking credit—its operations would have been humbler, but might have been lasting. It came to pass in the process of Queenwood affairs, that the branches in which poorer members predominated were able to send delegates, who were able to elect a new governor, who was unable from his own means to influence capitalists who were wanted. Mr. John Buxton, the new governor, was a man of honesty and courage, and, in more solvent days, would have been successful. The three trustees of this society (Messrs. Finch, Green, and Clegg), being mainly or altogether liable, naturally became solicitous to protect themselves. Had they proposed to take the affairs of Queenwood into their own hands, undertaken to conduct it first for their own security, subjecting their administration to annual audit, and paying any profits they could realise in proportion to all claimants, Queenwood would have ceased to be a public community, but it would have ceased without discredit. Ultimately they hired labourers and such stray ruffians as were to be had, and put Mr. Buxton and his family forcibly into the lanes, where they all remained, for days and nights, in courageous protest on behalf of the humble community shareholders, who had subscribed their money in as much good faith as the largest lender, and were entitled to have some honourable treaty made with their chief representative. Thus ended the affair of the Queenwood community in 1846. The trustees were assisted in their summary proceedings by Mr. Lloyd Jones. Their only justification for their violence was that they rescued the property with a view to do what justice was possible to every class of subscribers. Instead, these trustees used it for private purposes. They brought up the daims of the tradesmen ; they met the demands of the Ijoldsmids from whom the estate was leased ; they relinquished Portions of the estate, and let the Queenwood Hall and VOL. i, I4 ^ 194 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE LOST COMMUNITIES 195 grounds for a school to Mr. Edmonson, a celebrated educator of Lancashire. It was afterwards known as Queenwood College ; it combined industrial with commercial and scientific training. As a college it more resembled the famous school ot Fellenberg, of Hofwyld ; or that of Mr. Heldenmayor, of Worksop, in Nottinghamshire, unrivalled among English schools for the industrial, social, and classical education imparted—of which Charles Reece Pemberton gave a memor able account in the Monthly Repository when edited by W. J. Fox. The Socialists were proud that Queenwood had become a college so much in accordance with their own conception of education. The best known teacher connected with it was Dr. Yeats, of Peckham ; himself a writer or authority on education. Professor Tyndall and others or note in science and learning were teachers in it. Many years elapsed, and it was found that the trustees, Messrs. Finch, Green, and Clegg, who had seized the estate, rendered no account of what proceeds they derived from it, not even to the principal loanholders, and it came to pass that Mr. Pare and others entered an action in Chancery to compel them to render an account. The trustees held that no society existed. But so long as a single branch of the community society continued to pay subscriptions, the society had a legal continuation. The Congress mentioned, of which Mr. Buxton, the governor, was the legitimate officer, continued the society. The present writer was appointed and continued to be the general secretary, and for one had always continued a subscribing member ; and he, on behalf of the humble community sub scribers, became a party to the action in Chancery. The case was tried before Lord Romilly. Corrupted, it would seem by immunity, the trustees resisted the honest demand to produce their accounts, and, incredible to relate, they set up the plea of the old enemies of social reform, that the society was constituted for the propagation of immoral principles, and was therefore illegal, and could not enforce accountability of its trustees. This plea from men who had been vehement and passionate defenders of this society, when other persons had brought this vile charge against it, was a new scandal. One of the trustees was certainly not of this opinion, for in 1841 Mr. C. F. Green wrote a letter from Spithead, announcing to his dear brothers and sisters of the New Moral World that he had given up competition, and exclaimed— " Farewell, dear brothers, I have marked you well, Nor yet for ever do I leave you now ; And busy thoughts of thee my bosom swell, And thronging recollections crowd my brow." Mr. Green had no intention then of filing a statement in the Court of Chancery that he and his dear brothers and sisters were members of an immoral association. When affidavits of the false trustees (too long to quote here) were read by their counsel to Lord Romilly, he said : " Ah ! it is all very well, my learned brother, but where is the money ? " and when the learned counsel again implored the court to listen to hackneyed extracts from Mr. Owen's ill-reported lectures on marriage, Lord Romilly said : " The court is quite aware of that, my learned brother, what we want is a state ment of receipts and expenditure since the trustees took possession of this property." The reluctant accounts had to be produced, and the balance withheld had to be paid into court. Lord Romilly was a just judge, regardless of the speculative opinions of those who sought justice at his hands. He had known Mr. Owen from his youth, and was quite aware that his opinions were not open to the imputations sought to be put upon them by the apostate trustees. The Queenwood Hall was sold by order of the court, and the proceeds equitably dis tributed among the loanholders and preference shareholders. There was none to be divided among original contributors to the community funds. Hundreds of men and women, who invested all their savings in this generous and hopeless enter prise, received nothing. And thus Queenwood passed away as a communistic scheme. When the trustees seized upon the effects of the society, they made an attempt themselves to sell it, and they actually advertised Harmony Hall for sale in the Times, suggesting to purchasers that it might be made available for a lunatic asylum, In the opinion of the public, it had been used for this purpose already, and when such a use was officially pointed out for it in the future, it was quite clear that the trustees themselves were qualified to remain in it. The Herald of Progress aforesaid, in which I was concerned, HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION was the continuation of that official record of the proceedings of the communist affairs which had been so long made in the New Moral World. The society of many names — Co operative, All Classes of All Nations, National Religionists, but always communist at heart—had been declared extinct by lapse of members, at a congress at Rose Hill. This was not true, as in London and Sheffield members continued to pay, and therefore legally represented the interests of the society's subscribers in every town, who held what was called com munity scrip, and the Herald in question was maintained from a sense of duty to represent the interest of these superseded but deserving members. To this end a new Central Board was appointed, a president and general secretary. In the Herald of Progress, which was published from October, 1845, to May, 1846, the official addresses of the society appeared. In May, 1846, the Reasoner was commenced, which continued the official representation of the Cjueenwood society, and the history of its final proceedings were given in that journal alone. Thirty volumes of the Reasoner were issued between 1846 and 1872, edited by the present writer, in which the advocacy of Co-operation, as contemplated by its founders, was continued. The thirtieth volume was under the commercial charge of the leaders of Co-operation in Lancashire and Yorkshire, who had arisen since the Queenwood days, and who inherited the traditions of those honourable and unsuccessful struggles. The cessation of Queenwood was primarily caused by insufficient capital to last while the new order of life consoli dated itself, and the conditions of industrial profit were found. Astute farmers sometimes find that they must vary the nature of their produce to realise profit. It could be no argument against a communistic estate that its managers did not all at once make a profit by it. The chief charge brought against the management was that too much money was spent upon the Hall, which was but another form of saying that the capital was too small—since the Hall was not out of proportion to the estate rented, the educational convenience required, and the effect to be produced upon the alien and outside public. Miscellaneous as were the members collected together, they were all believers in the principle on which they associated ; and there were none who did not deplore the day of parting THE LOST COMMUNITIES 197 when it came. Working members said they would rather live on an Irish diet of potatoes than go again into the old world, of which they had had experience, if that would enable the society to hold on. Mr. Ironside, who had a few thousand pounds—all his available means—said he would throw it into a common fund, if others who had similar means would do the same, so that they might go on. Residents—and there were many who were boarders in the community—all regretted the end of their tenancy. To this day few who survive, who were there in any capacity, but regret the loss of the happy days which, till the end approached, were spent at Queenwood. Ladies, who are always difficulties in a new state of association, came to prefer Queenwood life. Some who were at first unhappy in the changed condition in which they found them selves there, and who made their husbands unhappy who brought them there, eventually liked their new life exceedingly. Others who were tartars in their social relations in the old world—just women at heart, but impatient of the crude way ward ways of domestics—there became the most agreeable and honoured of residents. It was not because they had to control their tempers, but because the occasions of natural irritation no longer existed under the happier circumstances of equality of duties and enjoyment. The inmates of Queenwood ate as they listed. No restric tion was put upon their preferences. There was a vegetarian table, at which some twenty dined, and, to the credit of their simple diet be it said, theirs was the merriest table in the hall. At meal-times it resounded with laughter, and often others came and surrounded it to listen to the pleasantries which abounded there. The present writer published an account of a personal visit to Harmony Hall.* My publication of it was an error. At that time it was the duty of all members to continue to support the executive who had hitherto governed, since the party who would change the administration had not the means to take affairs into their own hands. It was far better to suffer disappointment at the limitation of community objects than to witness the enterprise brought to a premature end. It was long before I discovered for myself, that truth was not relevant on all occasions because it was true. No man 1 " Visit to Harmony Hall," reprinted from the Movement, 1844. 198 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION THE LOST COMMUNITIES 199 may speak a lie or act a lie ; but of all that he knows to be true he is only warranted in stating that which is relevant and useful. It may be a well-ascertained fact that the Home Secretary has changed his bootmaker, but it would be irre levant in a debate upon the Budget. It was well known to be true that Mr. Disraeli was "on the side of the angels"; nothing came of it, and we were obliged to have Moody and Sankey to put things right ; therefore, however true, it was no use impressing upon public attention Mr. Disraeli's seraphic alliance. Inequalities of education and commercial experience were great, and conflict soon arose between the prudent and the infatuated. The " earnest," as they were called, were (as they commonly are) anxious to go forward with other people's money. The prudent were considered " timid," because the prudent were generally those who would have to pay if the project failed. The infatuated had only principle to put into the concern, since if they lost their stock mayhap they could acquire another ; but those who lost, their fortune might not be able so easily to repair that mischief. The enthusiastic would themselves incur all the risks they advise, were they in a position to do it. But this does not give them any right to vote a liability to others which they do not and cannot equally share. Yet this is constantly done in popular societies. The cheap-tongued orators of mere " principle " talk tall, and carry on all the applause, because their irresponsible followers are the majority ; while the prudent, who " want to see their way," are put down as " discouraging persons." There is yet a subtler creature than the infatuated, to be encountered in societies of progress—the spontaneous enthusiast : sharp, quick, fertile, unthinking, who sets schemes going because they ought to go ; others who regard those who have money as persons who should be made to pay, and calculate that if a good project is started, many who would not join in commencing it will subscribe rather than it should go down ; and that those who have made advances will make more, in the hope of not losing what has been already lost. These are not the architects, they are the conspirators—they are not the administrators, they are the speculators of progress. The brilliant and plausible operators in this line commonly end in diffusing an ineradicable distrust in the minds of those who have been trepanned into their enterprises. In matters of social progress, as in com merce, risks have to he run, and loss must be calculated upon. Some may risk fortune, some health, some even life, as many do in the public service ; and it will be an evil day for society when people are wanting to do it. Whoever enter upon these generous enterprises with their eyes open we honour as philan thropists, or patriots, or martyrs ; but they who trepan others into these sacrifices without their knowledge and consent are responsible for their ruin. Though a philanthropic motive may mitigate indignation, it does not excuse the crime of destroying others in the name of benevolence. No social community in Great Britain had a long enough time allowed to give it a reasonable chance of succeeding. Had any gentleman supplied as much money to be experi- . mented with as Sir Josiah Mason, of Birmingham, supplied during fruitless, disappointing, and perilous years to the Messrs. Elkington for perfecting the discovery of electroplating, some of these social colonies would have pulled through. Estab lishing a new world is naturally a more elaborate and protracted work than establishing a new manufacture. Electroplating turbulent and competitive man with pacific and co-operative habits, is a more serious affair than electroplating metals. The social movement, indeed, had at times the good fortune to be countenanced and aided by persons of high position and large means. When Mr. Owen held his great meeting in Dublin in 1821, the Archbishops and other prelates and many noblemen appeared on the platform to support him. At one meeting Lord Cloncurry wrote to say that he was, to his great regret, prevented : being present. But this was no formal evasion, though expressed in the well-known terms of avoid ance ; he wrote a letter intended to serve the object, and afterwards sent £500 to further it. Frequently when steps were about to be taken likely to compromise the scheme before the public, the prudent had the wisdom to come to the front and dictate the steps which would lead to a surer success than those about to be taken at the instigation of the eager and uncalculating. Despite all the eccentricities by which these new opinions were accompanied, and by which all new opinions are accom- 20Û HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION panied, it is right to honour these ardent agents of improve ment, who both made sacrifices and incurred discomfort and disadvantages for no selfish end of their own, for their enthusiasm arose from the belief that everybody would be advantaged by the chance they sought. Though Coleridge had warned them that it was vain to be sane in a world of madmen, yet they resolved to run this risk, and do the best they could to introduce sane arrangements of life. Social progress, though an old historic dream, and an anxious pursuit of so many persons, can hardly be said as yet to have a policy. It cannot be presumed that the rich ought to aid unless they are satisfied of the soundness of the plan put before them. To assume that Brown ought to subscribe because Jones thinks he should, is a sort of philanthropic confiscation of Brown's property. All that can be reasonably done is to ask Brown's attention to the scheme, with a full statement of the chances against its success as well as those in favour of it, and if he declines to take part in the affair it may be matter of regret, but not of reproach. Scrupulous care should be taken never to induce or allow any generous enthusiasts to advance more than they are ready and able to lose in case of failure. If they do more, and yet do not show regret when the day of loss or ruin comes, their relatives will ; and an unknown party of fierce and defamatory adversaries of social progress will be developed in society, active perhaps for two or three gene rations. No less disadvantage occurs if humbler and poor adherents are encouraged or suffered to do their utmost " for the cause." The Jewish tribute of a tithe of their means is as much as can be safely taken from the household resources. If more be taken the family suffer, and, what is worse, the family complain, and diffuse among all their neighbours and friends a dislike and distrust of the philanthropy which puts upon them privations without their consent.* And when the day of reaction comes to the over-taxed contributor, he forms the most dangerous disparager of the very undertaking he himself 1 My attention was engaged very early in popular movements by the fact that the most discouraging persons were those who had suffered losses in earlier enterprises. They had been heroes of forlorn hopes. There was reason to believe that had their sacrifices been limited to a tenth of their resources of time and money, they had never lost interest in struggles which did them honour to engage in. THE LOST COMMUNITIES 201 has aided beyond his means. The extreme advocate commonly bec~mes the extreme adversary — defamatory, virulent, and vindictive ; and his discouraging word goes farther than that of the stranger who dislikes the thing offhand. Thus, as far as social progress is concerned, it is wise to have a policy, that it may be promoted by calculable methods. When confident promises are made in the name of a new project, the public expect some signal fulfilment, and when nothing comes of the great pretension, their interest in it is no more to be awakened in any generation which remembers its failure. This should be a warning to those who believe they have important untried truth on hand, never to risk the experiment which is to decide its validity until they have at command the best conditions known to be necessary for realising it. Better to disappoint the eager by delay, than premature action should cause failure. A great project will live from age to age. Delay may damage, but it never kills ; whereas inadequate action is always regarded by the majority as the failure of principle rather than the failure of men. All this care, patience, toleration, labour, generous sacrifice, and endurance seemed fruitless. But these pioneers had, how ever, the proud consolation expressed for them by the great Midland poetess :— "The greatest gift the hero leaves his race Is to have been a hero. Say we fail : We feed the high traditions of the world, And leave our spirit in our country's breast."1 » George Eliot. 2O2 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION CHAPTER XI SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL ADVERSARIES " Look closer to't ; you make the evil first ; A base, then pile a heap of censures on it. "Tis your own sin supplies the scaffolding And mason work : you skilful, rear the grim Unsightly fabric, and there point, and say, ' How ugly is it.' You meanwhile forget 'Tis your own handiwork." CHARLES REECE PEMBEETON. SOME account of the adversaries which the social pioneers had to encounter, will further elucidate the early history of co-operative enterprise. The system of challenging everybody to discuss the new views produced some excitement. The clergy, who then never discussed long with anybody who answered them, naturally felt that these debates ought to be put down. Other persons did not like controversy, and though they would take no part themselves in suppressing it, were not unwilling to see it done. The teetotalers of Liverpool, who invented a new social crime, called Moderation, and rather apologised for the sot, actually suspended ¡Mr. Finch, who had done more than all of them put together to advance temperance, and interdicted him from speaking on platforms in their name, because of his social notions. In Birmingham an honest Quaker shoemaker, named Empson, had to obtain a situa tion, but requiring testimony to his character as a sober man, he applied to Mr. John Cadbury, a well-known, influential, kind-hearted, and exemplary Quaker of the town, to give him a testimonial. Mr. Cadbury being secretary to the temperance society, who had known Empson many years as SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL ADVERSARIES 203 a gooc teetotaler, was naturally sought to certify to the fact. Mr. Cadbury (whose handsome calves were the admiration of Birmingham, and who wore breeches the better to show them) answered as only a conventional Quaker can, "William Empson, I want to hold no communion with thee, and I have ordered others to hold no communion with thee. Thou recollects the conversation I had with thee about John Finch, of Liverpool, when I told thee he was a blasphemer." "Yes," said Mr. Empson, "I said if Mr. Finch comes to Birmingham I will do all I can to get him a temperance meeting ; but, Mr. Cadbury, you have long known me as a prominent member of the temperance society, will you give me a character for sobriety ? " Mr. Cadbury answered, "No, William Empson." "But," said Empson, "are you not a Christian, sir ? " Mr. Cadbury answered, " Yes, William Empson, I am, and I always respected thee, but I do not want to hold any communion with thee." The chief reason why persecution is so hateful is that it so Frequently succeeds in putting down the truth. Well-directed persecution is a great power, like assassination. The Bishop of Exeter, whose claims for dignity in the Church were not godliness, but vigorousness and virulence, well understood that. Tory pamphleteering had done more for him than divinity, and he naturally came forward in the House of Lords to revile the grey-headed philanthropist, Mr. Owen, who had given his fortune to mitigate the lot of the poor. Lord Nonnanby had presented Mr. Owen at Court. Her Majesty, with that queenly impartiality with which she recognised every man of distinction who has served the nation, was glad to meet the ancient friend of her father. In Owen's intimacy loans had passed between him and the Duke of Kent, which the Queen repaid when she knew it. Good taste, if good feeling did not, should have kept the bishop silent concerning a pre sentation so honourably accorded, and which in no way concerned him. The bishop's speech in the House of Lords was thus reported in the Morning Chronicle, of January 27, 1840, by George Wallis («Pencil 'em"):—· " He wished of his task he could be rid : For he felt a horror, indeed he did, Yet had seen and heard with profound disgust, Their deeds of shame, and their words of lust. Illll 204 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION He was able to tell them all, he said, The nauseous tale, from A to Z. And he thought the Marquis of Normanby Might relish the tale as well as he. Tlie Socialists were the vilest race That ever on earth or hell had place. He would not prejudge them—no, not he ; For his soul overflowed with charity. Incarnate fiends, he would not condemn ; No, God forbid he should slander them ; Foul swine, their lordships must confess, He judged them with Christian gentleness. He hated all show of persecution, But why weren't they sent to execution ? To hasty censures he objected,— But was not Lord Normanby suspected ? He never believed a rash report, But who took Robert Owen to Court ? He would not offend, but would fain be knowing, If Normanby was not as loose as Owen ? And would ask, nought meaning by the hint, Did he believe in God ? for Owen didn't." This was the spirit in which the Church commended itself to the people in those pleasant days. The bishop made no idle speech. He meant mischief, and he did it. This was the time when Mr. William Pare, the registrar of Birmingham, lost his situation, and the town lost a publicist of a quality of knowledge which has never been replaced. All over the country working men of skill and character were dismissed from their employment for attending lectures upon the new principles of association. Some of the men became masters, and blessed the day when they were dismissed ; and, as they became capable and relentless rivals of their former employers, the said employers did not bless the Bishop of Exeter for his services. Many workmen were ruined, others had to emigrate ; and I have heard them say that if they can get at the Bishop of Exeter in the other world, either above or below, they will make things very uncomfortable to him. As the sharp-tongued bishop, clever in all things, prolonged his life to a great age, some of them thought he desired to delay the day of meeting them as long as possible. When bishops are angry the people are grateful, Mr. Pare experienced this. On his leaving Birmingham, a dinner was given to him, November, 1842. Mr. Pare was then coun cillor of the ward of St. Thomas. Mr. G. F. Muntz, M.P., was present, and said, " if he was asked who he should appoint 5OME OF THE PRINCIPAL ADVERSARIES 205 to take charge of business requiring great care, great investiga tion, and great honesty, he should say Mr. Pare was the man o do it. It was not the second, nor the third, nor the tenth ime he had made that statement. If every man had worked n the cause of reform as Mr. Pare had done, no man could „Iculate what would have been the effect." Men of mark who showed any civility to co-operators were scolded in a grand way. One of the quarterlies was disagree able to the poet laureate. It said : " Mr. Southey brings to the task two faculties which were never, we believe, vouch safed in measure so copious to any human being—the faculty of believing without a reason, and the faculty of hating without a provocation. He seems to have an instinctive antipathy for calm, moderate men—for men who shun extremes and render reasons. He has treated Mr. Owen, of Lanark, for example, with infinitely more respect than he has shown to Mr. Hallam and Dr. Lingard ; and this for no reason that we can discover, except that Mr. Owen is more unreasonably and hopelessly in the wrong than any speculator of our time." τ Happily poet laureates have succeeded Southey equally incapable of being intimidated out of sympathy with the fortunes of honest, self- helping industry, as Tennyson did. A number of wandering and flockless preachers hawked challenges from town to town. One was a Mr. John Bowes, a pachydermatous believer, who was not without the gift of imputation, and with whom many discussions were held. In a discussion of some nights which I held with him in Bradford, he gave me the idea that he was a species of moral rhinoceros. Apart from the religious vices of imputation which passed in those days for holy zeal, he was known as a friend of tem perance and political freedom, and died in 1874 in Dundee well stricken in years, after forty years of Wesleyan-like activity as a peregrinating preacher. The best qualified adversary who occupied co-operative ittention for a long period was the Rev. Joseph Barker, a l'estless Wesleyan local preacher, who had not been used well by his own party, and he avenged himself by never 1 The student of social progress in this country scarcely needs to be reminded that it was Southey who held out a helping hand to the promoters of co-operation (Leigh Hunt). "II 2θ6 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION treating any other party well. He published pamphlets against social principles, always readable for their invective but not instructive, as the objections he brought were entirely theological. The social advocates, who always had an appetite for an adversary, found Mr. Barker much occupation. He excelled most men who as Christians destroyed respect for Christianity. The overwhelming majority of social reformers were believers in the precepts of Christ, and desirous of being associated with what would now be admitted as practical Christianity. Mr. Barker had great command of Saxon- English and poetic imagination ; so that whatever side he adopted, and he adopted every side in turns, he presented it with a force of speech which commanded attention, He was not a man who originated thought, but ü discerning all that could be made of thought which he found originated, he excelled as a popular expounder of it The imputations he made upon those who differed from whatever views he happened to hold at the time would have amounted to a crime, had it been an intellectual act of his mind ; but, as his rotary imputations were applied by turns to every party to which he had ceased to belong, it was merely the expression of an irresponsible extremist. He left to the adherents of every opinion that he espoused, a legacy of exposition and denunciation which no other man contributed in his time.1 Of all the opponents who were encountered, the most impudent was a person known subsequently as Dr. Brindley. Mr. Hawkes Smith, of Birmingham, having delivered some lectures on phrenology, after a visit of Mr. George Combe to that town, Mr. Brindley attacked it. The present writer advised Mr. Hawkes Smith to answer him. Mr. Smith knew all about the subject, and Mr. Brindley nothing. Not being able to reply, Mr. Brindley attacked Mr. Hawkes Smith for his advocacy of Mr. Owen's views. This excited the applause of the clergy, who were willing that the new social principles should be denounced by some one, and Dr. Brindley was 1 After years of defamation he wrote me a public letter, expressing he regret and conviction that the views he had so strenuously opposed were true. Afterwards he had correspondence with Mr. Owen to it J same effect, and sought an interview with him, which was readily granted- See letters in Co-operative News, July 9, 1904..· SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL ADVERSARIES 207 •neaged to do it. He became the Caliban of the Church. He did not issue from a Cave of Adullam, where all who were discontented were invited ; but from a Cave of Vitupera tion where all who uttered rude words of Mr. Owen, or had offensive imputations to make against his followers, were welcome. He went on his mission of defamation to our manufacturing towns, and counselled employers to dismiss men of far honester repute than his own ; and scores of families were brought into distress by his calumnious tongue. His prayer was literally— " Lord, in thy day of vengeance try them ; Lord, visit them who did employ them." Brindley was originally a travelling comb-seller. It was to his credit that he became a schoolmaster—but he continued a pedlar in piety. As a disputant he was not without some good qualities. He was not afraid of discussion. He never sheltered himself under German mysticism or occult or tran scendental interpretations, but stated and defended the broad, vulgar, orthodox Christianity of the day, from which abler, wiser men shrunk. He perished at last in the streets of New York. Ministers of religion in America were more scrupulous than in England, and did not adopt him. Dr. Hollick, a social missionary who had debated with Brindley in England, was living in New York, but did not hear of his fate until it was too late, else, he wrote, he would have rendered succour to his old adversary in his last extremity. Brindley had professed to follow Mr. Bradlaugh to America. It is impossible not to feel sympathy for the fate of the old combatant. He died like- the war horse, sniffing battle from afar, when age had weakened his powers without being able to tame his spirit. Moved by a generous eagerness to turn men's attention to the power which dwelt in circumstances, Mr. Owen devised the instructive phrase, that " man's character was formed for him and not by him."1 He used the unforgettable inference that " man is the creature of circumstances." The school of material improvers believed they could put in permanent force *.This_ troublesome proposition, Mr. Bray relates, "was one upon which his followers, without exception, took their stand." By a resolu- ·* u Jhe Pr°Priet°rs of Orbiston, the tenants had to sign their assent o it before admission into the society. •¡.in 2θ8 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION right circumstances. The great dogma was their charter of encouragement. To those who hated without thought Jt seemed a restrictive doctrine to be asked to admit that there were extenuating circumstances in the career of every rascal. To the clergy with whom censure was a profession, and who held that all sin was wilful, man being represented as the " creature of circumstances," appeared a denial of moral responsibility. When they were asked to direct hatred against error, and pity the erring—who had inherited so base a fortune of incapacity and condition—they were wroth exceedingly, and said it would be making a compromise with sin. The idea of the philosopher of circumstances was that the very murderer ;n his last cell had been born with a staple in his soul, to which the villainous conditions of his life had attached an unseen chain, which had drawn him to the gallows,1 and that the rope which was to hang him was but the visible part. Legis lators since that day have come to admit that punishment is justifiable only as far as it has preventive influence. To use the great words of Hobbes, "Punishment regardeth not the past, only the future." Dr. Travis, an early and influential disciple of Mr. Owen, proposed a new statement of the doctrine of character ; which, while it recognises the causation of the will, admits a self- determining power in man, which justifies instruction being given to him, and appeals being made to him. One who is in the foremost rank of those who have thrown light over ravelled questions of controversy, remarks, " Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance."2 It would, therefore, be unjust to imply that adversaries, clerical or lay, always gratuitously misunderstood questions. There were statements made, which often left them open to honest misconception. The great masters of statements some times fail to convey an exact impression of their meaning. I have seen Mr. Cobden look at his words as though they were palpable to him in the air, retracting doubtful terms, amplifying the deficient, and qualifying those that went too far. Those ' See this idea, which is better expressed by my old friend Thorn, the poet, of Inverary, in the preface to his poems. * G. H. Lewes' "Life of Goethe." 5OME OF THE PRINCIPAL ADVERSARIES 209 who 1 id none of Mr. Cobden's experience and sagacity, must have misled many fair-meaning opponents. Mr. Owen gave emphasis to the doctrine of the mighty influence of material things over man for good or evil, because that was not acknowledged then. As far as belief was con cerned, that, he said, was so entirely commanded by evidence, that a man could not be held responsible for conclusions which evidence justified. There is one town (Leicester) where social views early took root—where a few men of strong understanding, of unusual dispassionateness, have, during more than two generations, maintained public interest in social ideas. What may be called the Leicester principle of controversy is to question and try all assertions. No person in the society meetings there advances any propositions except under the condition of submitting them ίο discussion. Dr. Brindley, when I last met him on a plat form, proposed to debate the question of Atheism. This I refused to do, as it would lead the public to confound atheistic with secular principles. That the pretensions of dogmatic Theism should not be advanced unquestioned, Mr. Josiah Gimson, A resident engineer in the town, met Dr. Brindley several nights in succession, contributing greatly to the public informa tion upon the subject. Elsewhere no instance has occurred in which a private gentleman had stepped forward in this way to discuss such a topic—the town fully understood and respected the courage and independence of the proceeding on his part. This was in 1873. Professor Tyndall, after one of his addresses at the Dundee meeting of the British Association, which had somewhat amazed the Duke of Buccleugh, the president for the year, said generously to the present writer, in reference to the toleration of modern controversies, " We do but reap where you [which included colleagues with whom I had acted] have sown." Jeremy Taylor, nearly two hundred years before Owen,^ wrote : ** No man can change his opinion when he will, or be ( satisfied in his reason that his opinion is false, because dis- - countenanced. If a man could change his opinion when Ίε lists, he might cure many inconveniences of his life ; t l» his fears and his sorrows would soon disband, if he would j îut alter his opinion, whereby he is persuaded that such an } "OL. i. > ' 210 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION accident that afflicts him is an evil, and such an object formid able ; let him but believe himself impregnable, or that he receives a benefit when he is plundered, disgraced, imprisoned, condemned, and afflicted, neither his sleep need be dis turbed, nor his quietness discomposed. But if a man cannot change his opinion when he lists, nor ever does heartily or resolutely but when he cannot do otherwise, then to use force may make him a hypocrite, but never to be a right believer ; and so, instead of erecting a trophy to God and true religion, ••^we build a monument for the devil." * The conclusiveness- of these authorities availed us nothing. It was regarded as a new sin in the social party to show that eminent men had agreed in principle with them. Vindictive- ness of the enemy harmed the movement by making many resentful and retaliative, prone to follow the advice of St. Just, who destroyed many excellent reformers by his maxim that they who attempt half measures dig their own graves. But St. Just's maxim did not keep him alive long enough to observe that they who insist upon whole measures while they are only half supported, commonly get themselves and their cause into the sexton's hands very early. Only theorists talk of truth being immortal—I have seen it put to death many times. Lord Brougham in his day suc ceeded in terrifying Parliament into toleration of unpopular opinions, by contending that nothing could extend them but persecution. If brave men stand by unfriended truth, persecu tion will spread it. If the timid, or ease-loving, or the time serving, have truth in hand, persecution well directed, will soon put it down. This is the real reason why persecution is intrinsically hateful. Other agitations brought into play the passions : of the social agitation it must be owned that it appealed to the under standing only, and made men inquiring and reflective. The intellect let loose proved no wild animal needing a chain to restrain it, as Cardinal Newman 2 asserts, but a salutary and self-managing agent, active in improving individual character. Adversaries of the Socialists were notx dainty in their imputa- « " Liberty of Prophesying." ' Cardinal Newman forgets altogether the wild animals reared in hi» chosen Church, of which Torquemada was the chief, SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL ADVERSARIES 211 tiuns. The Rev. Mr. Anderson, of Glasgow was a man of character and talent, and of generous political sympathies, and fror ι whom in later years I oft had the pleasure, through my friend Mr. William Logan, a wise city missionary, to receive valued communications ; yet in his vehement days Dr. Ander son called the" Very Reverend and Preliminary Social Father " an " Incestuous Profligate." But this was not very objection able, in a rhetorical sense ; for when an angry adversary departs from the truth the farther he departs the better, and he is placed by the concurrence of common judgment outside the pale of those who are to be regarded. Some opponents did not know the truth when they saw it, and did not speak it even by mistake. Some of them did garble with an ability that would have entitled them to a prize medal, had there been any board of examiners to award distinction to that kind of merit ; but in controversy he who recognises these peculiarities arrests altogether the progress of his arguments, and invites attention to the adversary instead of the subject. In February, 1834, the "Rev. Dr. Redford " published a letter in the Worcester Journal, against Mr. Owen. The Crisis, following the policy of helping the enemy to abuse its friends, published this letter, which I shall not reproduce. In Worcester, the religious opposition to co-operative speeches amounted to violence. It was only by the effort of a strong-handed carpenter, whom I well knew, and in whose house I subsequently lived, one Robert JoneSj that Mr. Owen's life was saved from an infuriated mob.1 The Rev. Dr. Redford was an adversary who went great lengths. In a public dis cussion, he committed upon Mr. Owen an indignity which created a stronger hostility to Christianity than anything else which had occurred in the Midland counties. He made a motion of flinging the contents of his nose into Mr. Owen's face. Mr. Alexander Campbell, the most fatherly-minded of all the missionaries, whose voice sounded like a truce, was forcibly prevented preaching the new gospel of industry on Glasgow Green on Sundays. It was a common thing to have halls 1 I have heard that Jones, as years advanced, joined the Methodists. If M>, he has a double chance of salvation if his creed be good, for he has ¿enerous works to plead, as well as faith. 212 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION refused after they had been duly let, and no County Court Judo-e in those days would award any damages for a breach of faith. Riots took place at the Broadmead Rooms, Bristol, upon the " social innovators." No doubt the innovators often retaliated, but the imitation generally fell far short of the original.1 In Bristol there was a dangerous fight through the narrow passage leading to the Broadmead Rooms, occupied by the Socialists in that city. Workmen were sometimes dismissed who were observed to have a copy of the New Morai World in their possession. In some cases clergymen refused to bury co-operators, and in one case a sexton refused to dig a grave for a Socialist's child. Mr. Connard, a well-known speaker, who became an insolvent, was stigmatised as deranged because he honourably refused to make oath, as not in accord ance with his conscience, and Mr. Commissioner Reynolds sent him back to prison with many words of outrage when he could otherwise have discharged him. Mr. Connard was kept in prison many months, as a punishment for his creditable scruples. The Rev. Mr. Giles, a Baptist minister of dis agreeable ability, said " Socialism was a union of all practico, save those of chastity and virtue." Had the showers of denunciation been material, like hail or rain, the pioneers would have lost their hats, and their garments would have been sodden. When Mr. Owen was a boy, he swallowed some scalding food in his anxiety to reach his school early. His digestion was very much weakened by it, he was obliged to be very careful in the food which he took. In illustrating his belief of the influence of circumstances, he related this event as one which early disposed him to observation and care. With his oft indifference to what advantage might be taken of a casual expression, he mentioned that the food which he partook, 1 Indeed, piety was not always self-respecting in its company, nor very dainty in its invitations. There were those who remember the Rev. W. Cooper, for instance, reading in hymn-books sturdy verses beginning— " Come dirty, come stinking, come just as you are—" an invocation of fine Saxon vigour, but not remarkable for delicacy. Nor did noblemen and clergymen then shrink from countenancing such style of address, any more than they have done in the case of Moody ana Sankey and the Salvation Army, and if not deeming it good enough for themselves, at least thinking it might do the people good. JOME OF THE PRINCIPAL ADVERSARIES 213 •^rnmon in Wales in his youth, was called flummery. As this -ord was a slang term for untrustworthy speech, clerical speakers thought it an excellent point to say that the social system began in flummery.1 This was deemed very witty, and always produced peals of laughter. In Runcorn, a Mrs. Johnson left the Established Church and went over to the Wesleyan chapel. She was called upon to explain her proceeding. She replied that it was on account of her Sunday pie being exactly done when the Methodist chapel came out ; whereas when she attended the church it was always overdone. The good woman regulated her piety by her pastry, a circumstance which influenced her faith. When the familiar vehicle we now see in the streets without terror first appeared in a university county, a peasant, in the vicinity of an Oxfordshire village, ran one night to warn the inhabi tants that a frightened monster with saucer eyes, and making a strange noise, was coming towards the place. Those who had courage got behind the hedge to look. The monster turned out to be a post-chaise,2 with two lamps. The clergy always mistook social science for an Oxford post-chaise, and ran out to alarm the people. A fair, a clever, and gentlemanly opponent met with great respect and regard when one appeared, which was very seldom. The Rev. J. H. Roebuck held a public discussion with Mr. Owen, in Manchester, in 1837. He was a Wesleyan of remarkable ability and remarkable fairness, and the distinctness of his objections were well seen in consequence. Though he was, therefore, a more influential adversary than vituperative ones, he was always spoken of with respect, and his early death was sincerely deplored. The old pioneers of Co-operation stood up for liberty and and relevance of speech. Some thought toleration meant indifference to what opinion prevailed. This was the mistake which some still make. Toleration means anxiety for the Charles Knight, in his " Passages of a Working Life," gives an account ;of his tour in 1828, to gain support for the Useful Knowledge Society. He tells us that at Liverpool he found a few clerical opponents, and one of them preached also against mechanics' institutes ; at Man chester no clerical support could be obtained ; and at York he could do "ule. "He found tbe commercial atmosphere better adapted for the Diffusion of secular knowledge than was the ecclesiastical," 1 Joseph Brosbridge, 1824, 214 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION truth : it means ardour for the truth : it means confidence in the truth. It believes that truth, like fire, is excited by colli sion, and that no truth can be known to be true, save that which has passed through the ordeal of controversy. Tolera tion means giving new truth fair play. Intolerance, which is prohibition, gives it none. The conditions of truth are now well ascertained to be liberty of expression, and of criticism ; it is not he who is tolerant of these, but he who :s intolerant of them, who is indifferent to the truth, and upon whom the stigma of looseness and latitudinarianism of mind ought to fall. EARLY ADVOCATES 215 CHAPTER XII EARLY ADVOCATES "So when the Parthian turned his steed, And from the hostile camp withdrew, With cruel skill the backward reed He sent ; and as he fled he slew." Louis BLANC has described the Jacobin as powerful, original, sombre ; half agitator and half statesman ; half Puritan and half monk ; half inquisitor and half tribune. The co-operative advocates were not wanting in some of these qualities ; and in perseverance and propagandist capacity they surpassed all working-class advocates of their time. They certainly were not demagogues, as any one may see from the definition of a modern writer who comprises in one short passage a complete study of those troublesome persons.1 Our early advocates chose the unpopular side, which was ill- requited ; they believed in their measures themselves, their lives and industry alike commanded respect, and their dis interestedness was shown in persisting in a course which was far from bringing them flattering recognition. The Duke of Wellington, when they were brought under his notice, admitted they were clever, but added, in his coarse, vindictive way, " they were clever devils." With more discrimination 1 "The demagogue, in all ages and in all countries, is a man voluble and vehement in speech—expansive and popnlar in his humour—more plausible in advocating measures than wise in choosing them—unscrupu lous in his alliances with all who will serve his immediate objects—extreme m his views—magnificent in his promises—ready with specious theories aud proposals of sweeping change—restless in agitation, but impatient of obscure labour—aiming at immediate and showy results—and, from a i«fe an<^ ran^om way °f living) often not a safe man in pecuniary affairs, although he may have no inclination for deliberate dishonesty" (C. Morrison, " Labour and Capital," p. 126). 2l6 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION EARLY ADVOCATES 217 and courtesy, as befitted his station, the Bishop of London said of these social reformers, that, though they were generally men of ""some education," their deficiency was that " they were wanting in humble docility, that prostration of the understanding ana iwV/, which are indispensable to Christian instruction." No doubt they were open to this charge ; want of " humble docility" was conspicuous in them. It never occurred to them to "prostrate their understanding." The use of it seemed to them the only way of making out how things stood. These adventurous and unskilled social navigators had to pull their frail skiffs through rough waters. At that time society abounded with persons—they are not yet quite extinct—who would never do anything for the workman except think for him. They would neither find him work nor bread, but they would supply him with opinions, either religious or political, ready- made. These people gave a very poor account of social projects. The political economist considered them the dream of folly—the clergyman, of wickedness—the statesman, of insubordination—the employer, of idleness—the rich man, of plunder—the capitalist, of confiscation—the journalist, of demagogism. Co-operation in its early days was somewhat ramshackle. Mostly pale and thin, these amateur shopmen looked as though they needed themselves to eat up the commodities they tried to sell. What business they did was done in an unusual way. Every crotchet that thickened the air of Utopia was proclaimed at their doors. Poets, enthusiasts, dreamers ; reformers of all things, and the baser sort of disbelievers in any, gave them a turn : for, as we all know, a nimble eccentricity always treads on the heels of change.1 There was nobody so mad but their right to improve the world was respected ; there was not a regenerating lunatic at large who did not practise upon them. The philosophers were scandalised at them, the political economists shook their heavy heads at them—the newspapers were scornful—politicians in Parliament proposed to put them down—bishops interdicted them in the House of Lords—and the clergy consigned them individually and collectively to per- 1 " Licentiousness always treads on the heels of reformation " (R· W. Emerson). dition. Luckily the honest fellows had a well-instructed pa ience. Their advocates served them well, teaching them that every creature must be allowed to articulate after its kind, and would do better if it only knew how. The heretics, who were their only friends, eventually silenced the clamour ; and the men of sense and purpose made their way to the front, and Co-operation got a hearing, and grew in favour with men. As in all new parties, and as for that in old ones too, at times there were figures in the social landscape that attracted attention, without enticing adherents. Fastidious friends of progress were not pleased that the prominent advocate of the system should be an Irish philosopher—Mr. Thompson, of Cork—who was against large families, and in favour of dissec tion. Social Reformers, not knowing how to subordinate without discouraging the just efforts of others, became the Nursing Mother of all the "Crazes" of the day. There was a Dr. McCormac, of Dublin, who, being like Bentham, a philosopher above vulgar prejudice, prominently advocated that all co-operators should leave their bodies for anatomical purposes. He was called the " Skeleton-Man " of the movement ; and some Christian partisans did not hesitate to say that Mr. Owen wanted to get men into communities in order to sell their bodies for dissection. Every friend of the new system was supposed already to have sold his soul to a certain eminent and enterprising contractor for that article. As to Mr. Owen, it must be owned charity was his sole religion, and this was a religion which God may recognise but which has not found favour in the world yet ; and one which had no followers in Mr. Owen's days except a few perilous persons, of whom the Rev. Robert Hall, with his fine talent for con- temptuousness, said " lived in the frigid zone of Christianity." Mr. Owen himself was called the " Circumstantial Philosopher" —a name not without honour, for circumstances were in very bad want of a philosopher. One of the strange and inexplicable figures that flitted about the early co-operative movement was a gentleman who usually signed himself as P. Baume, " reforming optimist." * 1 The profession of principles of the Reforming Optimist was that .hough everything is for the best at this instant, everything will be >etter upon the whole surface of our planet at every one of its diurnal volutions—nay, at every pulsation of the human heart. "»Ill, 2l8 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION EARLY ADVOCATES 219 In after-years two or three other initials would appear between the P. and the B. Who, indeed, he was, or whence he came, nobody ever knew. Common repute said he acquired a fortune as a foreign spy. If so, it was doubtless in the interest of freedom, for he always appeared to care for it. He had spent the greater part of a long and wondrously active life in bequeathing property which nobody ever came to possess. For thirty years there was hardly any meeting held anywhere in reference to social reform at which he was not present in some part. He was ubiquitous. In distant towns, in Manchester or Liver pool, the eyes in search of mysterious faces would be sure to light, in some quarter of the room, upon a disguised figure, whose brilliant, penetrating eye alone revealed his identity. Mr. Baume had what he called Experimental Gardens, in the New North Road, leading from Battle Bridge to Holloway, where he invited all practical men and women to meet him, with a view to agree upon something which would settle everything. The presumption is that they never did agree upon anything, since everything has not been settled yet. His proposal at that time was to establish a Co-operative College, for which purpose he said he would unhesitatingly and most cheerfully give up to them his most valuable leases and ground rents—several extensive plots for building and gardening ground, fourteen acres altogether, his funded property, his ready money, in a word, everything he possessed ; " including his most unrelenting exertions through life." Mr. Baume had made a proposition to advance money to any amount, and on the most liberal terms, to any car penter or bricklayer willing to build cottages on his land, on speculation, or for the location of their families. He stated then that all his property was vested in the hands of trust worthy characters ; his unremitting exertions being devoted to the establishment of a Co-operative College and Com munity. At one of Mr. Owen's Sunday lectures he sent a little boy with a note, saying the lad had been born three years before, and had been entrusted to his care, but he had never allowed him to be christened because he had never found any character in history sufficiently perfect to warrant him in adopting his name ; but now Julian Hibbert was dead, he requested Mr. Owen to christen him by that name. Mr. Owen, and many of his disciples after him, were accustomed to christen children who were brought to them, and they commonly made little speeches to the parents, counselling them to remember how much sensible treatment and pure material conditions might influence the child for good. This gentleman continued to give his property away. He gave it to nearly every community that was formed. He gave it to the United Kingdom Alliance. He has given it to the co-operators, and to other persons and parties, certainly too numerous to mention. A considerable portion of his property lay in the neighbourhood of Colney Hatch. He always professed to be afraid that some one would confine him in a lunatic asylum, and yet he established himself in the neighbourhood of one. There was not the slightest fear for him. There was no aslyum which would have under taken to manage him. He would have driven the governors and directors all mad in a month, by the inexhaustible fertility of his projects. He was quite sincere in saying he would give the whole of his possessions away, as well as his "un relenting life exertions," for he appeared never to require anything whatever to live upon. A few peas, which he commonly carried in his pocket, seemed to be his chief source of subsistence. With ample means he would live in one obscure room, or rent a railway arch, and deposit himself there, and he did not, like the parties in Mr. Pickwick, select the dry ones, but took a damp one as being the cheapest. He would carry about with him bundles of bank-notes in a dress-coat pocket, and keep a small live monkey there ; so that if any adventurous hand found its way there, it would meet with a very unexpected remonstrance. His property, at the site of the Experimental Gardens, lay over what is now known as the Caledonian Road, and the Pentonville Prison part, and had he retained it a few years longer than he did, he might have derived an immense income from it. At that time his land was covered with furze and mysterious- looking cottages, in one of which he lived. It was known as the "Frenchman's Island," where very unpleasant visitors 220 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION were frequently attracted ; but as he was known to go about at night with a pistol in his pocket, and as he was very likely to fire it, and knew perfectly well how to do it, a good deal of curiosity was repressed by that peculiar reputation. He had projects for a community experiment there, and he brought more scandal upon the cause by his eccentric proposals than any other man. One of the curious enthusiasts of 1837 was Samuel Bower, of Bradford. He was one of the abstemious co-operators who lived, like the Reforming Optimist, chiefly upon grey peas, of which he carried a supply about, and strenuously insisted that that peculiar diet should be universally adopted. Never theless, he was a strong-thinking man, and had many useful and self-denying views, which he illustrated in many curious and impracticable papers. There were many among the advocates whose position and attainments commanded respect, else the movement could never have attained the ascendancy it did. One who remained longest known was "Dr. King, of Brighton."1 This gentleman was educated for the Church, at Trinity College, Cambridge. He married a daughter of Dr. Hook, Vicar of Rottingdean. He subsequently adopted the medical profession, from intellectual preference, and settled in Brighton, where he originated and edited the first publication, called the Co-operator. He was a man of notable friendships, and promoted many liberal movements in conjunction with Dr. Birkbeck, Ricardo, Owen, and Lord Brougham. His daughter married Mr. John Robertson, well known as one of the early editors of the Westminster Review, during Mr. Mill's connection with it. Dr. King was justly considered one of the founders of Co-operation. Dr. King continued his interest in Co-operation until the end of his life. On entering his eightieth year he wrote to the Co-operator a letter as enthusiastic as those he wrote half a century earlier, and which might have been 1 Dr. William King was born at Ipswich in 1786. Gaining con siderable distinction at Cambridge, he was elected a Fellow. He settled at Brighton. He assisted a co-operative society then established in West Street. On May i, 1828, he issued the first number of the Co-operator, and continued it monthly until 1830. Dr. King died at Brighton in 1865. EARLY ADVOCATES 221 vritter. by a young convert. He had the honour of being consulted by Lady Noel Byron, who had contributed ¿£300 towards the success of a productive association established among those Brighton societies. Dr. King's Co-operator was a source of inspiration in many parts of the country, mere fragments of numbers being treasured up by the recipients. Stores have been founded in consequence of their perusal. The fairness, temper, and the certain moderation of tone rendered Dr. King's little paper, all the articles being written by himself, one of the wisely- influential precursors of Co-operation. P. O. Skene, Esq., who is always mentioned as an " Esq.," appears frequently in early co-operative reports as a promoter, contributor, and medium by whom ladies and others made contributions. There was also a Mr. G. R. Skene, his brother ; but being less personally distinguished he is described as Mr. G. R. Skene. Being very watchful and workful as a secretary, he deserves equal mention in these pages. In those days, when Co-operation was struggling, it was no doubt necessary to mark when one of its adherents held a position of more conventional respectability than others. "Philip O. Skene, Esq.," was really a very accomplished gentleman, an eminent teacher of languages in his day. He held a German class in the upper room of the first-named London Co-operative Store, 19, Greville Street, Hatton Garden. Mr. J. S. Mill and Mr. J. A. Roebuck, when young men, were among the remarkable pupils who attended. The Times of 1837 gave a very honourable notice of Philip Orkney Skene. "His father, Major Skene, and grandfather, Governor Skene, were both attainted of high treason against the United States, as British Loyalists ; and his great-grandfather was attainted of high treason in the rebellion of 1715. The Times stated that the Earl of Fife, who is a branch of the Skene family, had taken the estate which had previously descended from father to son for eight hundred years in the Skene family. Before Philip O. Skene was twenty years of age, he was sent to superintend the erection of the military fortification at Hoy Island, in the Orkneys. He joined the English army, entering Paris, in 1015, and from his great knowledge of the French and 222 HISTORY OF CO-OPERATION EARLY ADVOCATES 223 German languages, was appointed to attend the Crown Prince of Prussia, whose sovereign, in distinction of his services, presented Mr. Skene with a valuable ring, set with numerous brilliants. After attaining much scientific dis tinction abroad, he returned to England, entered the Middle Temple, and ate several terms ; when Mr. Owen's efforts at New Lanark, in its best days, so impressed his mind, that he devoted afterwards much of his time and means to promoting similar objects. Mr. Skene died at the age 01 44, at Lewes, from exhaustion, after a protracted state of debility, brought on by over-exertion in his duties as surveyor of roads, a post which he had held for several years." The Times added, that "he left elementary works in German, Italian, French, Spanish, Latin, and Greek, besides works which bear other names than his." At the (Third) Co-operative Congress, of 1832, a very remarkable Jetter was received from a distinguished man, Leigh Hunt, who dated it from 5, York Buildings, New Road, London. He alleged that " increasing avocations and ill-health alone prevented his attendance." Happily neither killed him until nearly thirty years later. He stated he believed he was the first journalist who endeavoured to impress upon the public the propriety of considering Mr. Owen's views. Touching the supposed contradiction between the claims of this life and a future one, he cited what was said by a wise man, " that it would be a very strange and ungrateful thing if we behaved ourselves gloomily or in differently in a beautiful garden which some friend gave us, because by and by he had promised us a better." Another name, always one of interest and respect, was that of Mr. Thomas Allsop, who, to the manners and cultivation of a gentleman, united an originality of sentiment and generous enthusiasm for political as well as social change, displayed with the same force and boldness by no other adherent of social views. A member of the Stock Exchange, he understood the conditions of business as well as those of the social state contemplated. He was the adviser of Feargus O'Connor in his best days, and conferred upon him the necessary property qualification which Mr. O'Connor did not possess when he was first elected a member of parliament viz· £,3°° a year derived from land. On one occasion Mr. Allsop, who was also connected with a large and fashionable business in Regent Street, alarmed the law courts and the press by refusing to be sworn upon a grand jury, on which he had often served, on the ground that he objected to find a p/isoner guilty, alleging as a reason that in every part of London the criminal class was recruited by flagrant social neglect. This was done for the express ^purpose of forcing public attention to the subject. Such an act by one in Mr. Allsop's position produced a great impression.1 In the late Mr. Justice Talfourd's memorial of Charles Lamb, the reader will find graceful acknowledgments of Mr. Allsop's long and helpful friendship to the great Essayist. Another writer, who impressed society with the opinion that persons of taste and means were favourable to social views, was Mr. John Min