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Leader (1850-1860), 28th February 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 195, Untitled Article

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      will there read— " Fraternity has no existence : that is universally aclaiowledged : and Socialism , instead of seeldng for its elements , iniagines that all that is wanted is to talk about . it . Let there he fraternity , it says ; but fraternity cannot be . * ... . . Socialism , taJcen strictly * is the community of evil , the imputing to society of the- faults of individuals , the joint responsibility of all in every offence . " Such are the terms in which M- Proudhon defines Socialism ; and his whole "book is nothing but a virulent attack upon our

      doctrines . In political economy , M . Proudhon had been but the exaggerator of M . Leon Faucher : it was natural that in politics he should set up "for the surviving representative of Hebert . The man who refused to admit of fraternity— -that bond of hearts—must needs incline , by an inevitable propensity , to demand the disruption of the bond of interests—that is , the State . And this is why M . Proudhon , in this point self-consistent , after having , as economist , preached laissez-faire , became , as publicist , the apostle of anarchy .

      But by whom was this deplorable notion of anarchy combated , the very day of its appearance ? Precisely by the Socialists , by Pierre Leroux , by myself . Nothing could be at once more incisive and more elevated than the articles on that subject with which Pierre Leroux demolished Prpudhon . ' f' X « Solidarite , the journal of the Socialists , defended with great vigour , againstithe invasion of modern Hebertism , the sacred domain of the democracy . $ I too , for my own part , entered into the struggle , and , sustained by the elite of the working men of Paris / who made , a . strong declaration in my favour , S laid down , that Order was the

      indispensable safeguard of Liberty ; that anarchy led through chaos to tyranny j and that the question was , not to annihilate the principle pf ^ veratiment , but to establish it on a basis which shpnlcf render it a tutelary institution . I wrote , in reply t ^^ Proudhon : "To demand the suppression c ^»^ State , even when it represents no more than the powejhigjr ^ W the community in reference to each individual , is to ^ demand the abolition of society protantos it is to deliver up the swallows to the birds of prey ; it is to instal tyranny in the midst of confusion . In the animal world , the State is it is in of

      unknown ^ and the absence its ^ tutelage that the tiger devours the gazelle . If , by the sovereignty of the people you understand a rabble of selfish interests , waging against one another , uncontrolled , a war of extermination , declare it frankly . We shall then know what to expect ; and if we must absolutely choose between two tyrannies , we will resign ourselves to endure the one which shall show itself ready to strike without deceiving us . For anarchy is oppression sheathed in hypocrisy , || and so we hold it doubly in abhorrence .

      I say , then , that those who rank Proudhon among the Socialists , are convicted of utterly ignoring the movement of the ideas of the day ; and those who , with the works of M , Proudhon before their eyes , accuse Socialism of being the code of anarchy , commit the unpardonable error of imputing to Socialists a doctrine essentially contrary to their faith , and which they have themselves , with the greatest energy , spurned , refuted , stigmatized , and denounced to the good sense of the people ! The Fbenoh Socialists aiie no Tekbobists . —

      All their writings prove it ; but how far more eloquently do not the facts by which their influence was manifested prove it ? Every one knows that the character of the revolution of 1848 was profoundly socialist , and how great was the ascendancy at that time of the men whom M . Mazzini calls " the system-makers and sectarians of a neighbouring country . " Now , what revolution was ever more moderate , more merciful , more magnanimous , than that of 1848 ? What revolution over made a more courageous appeal to all its enemies , or a more generous effort after universal conciliation ? To accusations without proofs , to vague insinuations , I will reply by facts . Here is the decree of the provisional government , dated as early as the 26 th of February ;—" The PuoyisioNAi < Government , convinced that grandeur of soul is the supremo policy , and that every revolution accomplished by the French people owes to the world the consecration of a philosophical truth the more : Considering that there is no sublimor principle than the inviolability of human life : " Considering that , in the momorablo days wo , have J « st passed through , the provisional government "has , Systeme das contradictions dconomiques ( t . 2 , oh . xii . ) T S « o La lUnnbliqna , of November 11 , 18 , 27 , 184 , 0 . I Solidarity of October 27 , 1849 . § Letter of the delegates of the Luxembourg to M . Aroudhon , published the 26 th November , 1849 , in all the democratic journals of PoriB , and notably in La MVublique . . J II Le Nouvea * Monde , 19 th November . 1849 .

      with pride , taken note that not a single cry of vengeance or of death has issued from the lips of the people : " DEOIiAKE , " That , in their judgment , the penalty of death for political motives is abolished , and that they will present tliis their desire to the definitive ratification of the National Assembly . '•• . " The provisional government have , so firm a conviction of the tr " uth , that they proclaim , in the name of the French people , that if the guilty men who have lately made the blood of France to flow were in the hands of the people , it would be in their eyes a more signal punishment to degrade than to strike them . "

      Now , may I be allowed to recal , that the man who caused the adoption of this decree , and who drew up its preamble , was precisely that one of all the members of the provisional government who there , among his colleagues , in a more special manner represented Socialism . * It was this same member who , on the 10 th of March , 1848 , front the tribune of the Luxembourg , uttered these words , amidst the acclamations of the people : —

      " The men who were impossible are suddenly become the men who are necessary . They were ever denounced as the systematic apostles of the Reign of Terror . Now , the day that the revolution swept them into power , what were their acts ? They abolished the punishment of death , and their dearest hope is to be enabled one day to lead you to the public square , and there , in all the splendour of a national fete , to consume with fire the last remains of the scaffold . "f Such is the terrorism of the Socialists !

      But , God forbid that we should join in the strange maledictions which M . Mazzini launches against the fearless and powerful men by whom our first French revolution was directed . M . Mazzini exclaims , " It has always been my deep conviction that the French JBJegne de la Terreur was nothing but cowardly terror in those who organized the system : they crushed , because they feared to be crushed ; and they crushed all those by whom they feared to be crushed . " —

      So , then , they were cowards , those menj who knowingly , voluntarily , opened beneath their own feet terrible abysses , in which they well knew it would be their own fete to disappear , engulfed ! Cowards , were they ? those men who said with Robespierre , " Let us die , and perish with us our memory , so that justice triumph . " Cowards , were they ? who , when pressed by their friends to fly from the scaffold , said , like

      Danton , " Can a man carry his country about with the sole of his shoe ? " And they remained , to die Cowards , were they ? those men who , encompassed by snares within , and unable to stir a step without clashing against an enemy , dared to throw down the glove of challenge to all Europe ; and who replied , when some one asked them , " Have you made a compact with victory ? " "No ! but we have made a compact with death !"

      M . Mazzini adds , "A true terror , terror to the foes , is energy of bold , continued , devoted action /' And he knows not how that energy was precisely the supreme virtue of the men he assails ! And the man who admits of " terror to the foes , " does not perceive that the French revolution was an Homeric combat , the moat important and the most formidable that was ever waged ; so important , indeed , and so formidable , that nothing less than the whole world was broad enough to be its battle-field . It is easy enough for us , who are now enjoying the fruits of so many terrible effort ' s , and to whom our ancestors have bequeathed clemency in taking upon themselves to exhaust the terror , —it is very easy for us to blame them !

      But are wo sure of being just , when wo separate from the appreciation of their acts that of the obstacles which they hat ! to conquer , and of the necessities they had to sustain . The French Revolution was a sort of prodigious gestation : now , Nature herself has associated agony with parturition . St . Just « aid : " The

      Revolution has passed through suffering ; she has had this in common with the world that sprung from Chaos , * and with Man , that is born in tears . " We will not require of M . Mazzini to accept this heroic explanation ; we will not require of him , in the midst of the general clemency which our softened manners render so easy , to forgive whatever of violence may have marked the past history of our militant liberty ; but we will at least demand of him not to affirm that these men slew only because they feared to be slain— -men , who astounded the world for evermore by the vehemence of their convictions , and persevered in their Course , albeit they knew well that " the Revolution , like Saturn , devoured her own children . " Louis B : lanc . ( To be continued . )

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      POOR-LAW ASSOCIATION AND 'THE WEEKLY DISPATCH . ' { To the Editor of the Leader ) New Poob-Law Association , 9 , St . James ' s-square , Manchester , February 23 , 1852 . Sib , — -As the conductors of The Weekly Dispatch have thought proper to publish an elaborate attackfounded either in the grossest ignorance or the most wilful perversion of facts—upon the objects , principles , and means of this Association , and have refused to insert the following temperate and not very lengthened rejoinder thereto , I shall feel much obliged if you can find room for it in the next Leader . I have the honour to be , Sir , Your very humble servant , Akch . G-. Stark , Secretary to the Poor-law Association of the United Kingdom . BEPRODTJCTIVE EMPLOYMENT OF PAH PEES , IN LIEU OF IDLENESS AND USELESS TASK-WOEK . { To the Editor of The Weekly Dispatch . ) Poor Law Association , 9 , St . James ' s-square , Manchester , Feb . 16 , 1852 . Sik , —I have perused with no little astonishment an article in the last number of your Journal , headed , "The Last Carlyleism , " and to which is appended the well-known sobriquet of " Eublicola . " It is no business of minewere it ever so necessary—to defend Mr . Carlyle from the charges brought against him , in regard to ** Chartism /' "The French Revolution , " "Model Prisons , " and many other subjects which have engaged the exercise of his powerful intellect ; nor do I feel called upon even to justify

      his connexion with this Association , farther than to state , that he entered it with his eyes open , and with a thorough knowledge of its principles and objects , and of the means sought to carry them out , while his assailant is , to use his own phrase , " blind , stone blind , " to either one or the other;—but it is imperatively incumbent upon me to protest against the public mind being abused , in reference to this Association , which has been formed by persons of acknowledged worth , station , and influence , and of various shades of religious and political feeling , in different parts of the United Kingdom , to promote the amelioration of the condition of the poor , and relieve property and industry from grievous burdens imposed upon them by an absurd and irrational system .

      " Publicola" says— " The proposition to which Mr Carlyle calls public attention , with trumpet blast , is that of a voluntary subscription to raise a capital for employing all the paupers of the kingdom . " The printed circulars which I enclose will prove that the Poor-Law Association has undertaken no such Herculean labour as this . We propose to . raise no capital—that is ready to our handsit consists of the poor-rates levied throughout the country . This capital has amounted , annually , since the passing of the Poor-Law Amendment Act iu 1834 , to between 4 , 000 , 000 / . and 5 , 000 , 000 / ., and the aim of the Poor-Law Association is to impress upon the public , the

      legislature , and the government , the necessity of disposing of this money—money from the landed proprietor , the manu faeturer , the merchant , the professional man , the shopkeeper , the farmer , ay , and the earnings of the hard-fisted mechanic and labourer—to some butter purpose than immuring the " paupers" within the walls of "workhouses , " there to bo kept in total idleness , or to such felon-like task as picking oakum , to their own mental , moral , and physical degradation , nnd the injury of society . It ia unnecessary to take up your time and space by noting the various objections that have been raised ngainst the reproductive employment of " pnnperB , " either in handicrafts

      within the walls of , or upon land , wnsto or arable , attached to , workhouses , , as you will Hiul them fully discussed in the enclosed documents . The principal objection is , that the setting of indigent persons to work of a reproductive nature , will interfere with independent labour at "largo . " This " bugbear" has been cxpoBcd times without number , but it still reappears with the pertinacity of a " Jack-inthe-box . " One would imagine- that as the capital annually raised for the support of the poor is the money of the people , the people have an unquestionable right to disburse it in ti » e way beat calculated to make it go furthest . Does not this principle govern domestic economy P and why , then , as society has been aptly termed the great human

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      ? The Bccond half of this memorable Decree was drawn up by M . de Lamartine , the first , by M . Louis Blanc . Every one now knows that it was M . Louis Blanc who , on the 26 th of February , prevailed upon the Provisional Government to adopt the abolition of tho punishment of death . M . de Lamartino , who , on the preceding day , had made

      the same , proposition , but unsuccessfully , now ran up to M . " Louis Blanc , seized Irini by . both hands , with rapture , and exclaimed : — "Ahl there you have accomplished a noble act I" All the historians of tho Revolution of ' 48 are agreed on this point ' . See not only Pages de VUistoire Contemporaine , but also tho Ilistoiro de la Revolution de 1848 , par M . Charles Robin , vol . i . p . 370 ; Ilistoiro da Oouvernement Provisoire , by M . Elias Hcgnault , pp . 107 , 108 ; Ilistoire de la Involution de Vevrier , par David Stern , vol . ii . ; and Jlistoire de la HSvolution de 1848 , par M / do Lamartino , vol . i ., pp . 425 , 426 . —E » . of Leader . t Moniteur of March 10 . 1848 .

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      Feb . m , I « 5 i ] THE LEA DEB . 195

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 28, 1852, page 195, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1924/page/7/