been attained by heaping innumerable sufferings and hardships upon the labouring classes, first by slavery, then by serfdom, and lastly by labour on insufficient wages. That this state of oppression is still continued up to this very day has been shown in the first part of this book. Even slavery is still flourishing in the Spanish colonies and serfdom in the Danubian principalities. That the so-called free labour of England is, however, more oppressive than any species of slavery and serfdom, is irrefutably proved by the fact that the cotton manufacture of Lancashire has used up within the last ninety years, nine generations of men instead of three,* which is a striking illustration of the sacrifices of human lives that were and are still required for England's material pro

gress.

Objection.-There are too many small proprietors of capital, land, houses, ships, factories, etc., who would all oppose the abolition of property.†

Answer.-Reason will enlighten them, and they will voluntarily renounce their claims.

Objection.-Who is to assort men according to their abilities? Who will put the right man in the right place?

Answer.-Degrees and diplomas for professions will be obtained by proving efficiency before a board of examiners; labour will be allotted according to ability, the degree of which will be known from the results of apprenticeship and previous performance of work; administrative work will be distributed by election.

Objection. Everywhere, with all nations and in all ages, property and inequality of fortunes have served as a basis of society, and equality in the possession of goods has never anywhere been permanently established.

Answer. It has been proved that the state of society as it has developed itself under the long influence of property and inequality is one of gross injustice to certain classes of society, and there arises from it the dire necessity of trying another organization of society, although such an one had never been permanently established before. In abolishing slavery, men *See Ferrand's speech in House of Commons, 27th of April, 1863. + An apprehension likewise entertained by the Swiss delegate at the Congress of the "International," at Brussels, 1874.

never considered its previous long existence, but acted solely on the behests of justice and humanity.

Objection.-All the communistic experiments hitherto tried have failed; the great efforts of St. Simon, Fourier, Louis Blanc, Robert Owen, and Cabet, have furnished no visible proof of the feasability of Communism.

Answer-One grand cause of the failure of these isolated communistic experiments was the want of authority. They possessed no means of compelling the idle to work, which can only be done by an established state-government. They also retained the use of money, and, with it, its evil influences. They were directed by men who did little or no work, because they brought money into the establishment, or purchased the estate for the community. By the evil influence of money the land of some of these communities became so heavily mortgaged that it would have required the exhausting labour of civilized men working like beasts of burden, to satisfy the claims of the mortgagees.

Of the failure of the St. Simonians, Mr. Bronterre O'Brien says: "The multitude were too enlightened to believe in the St. Simonian religion as a revelation, but not sufficiently enlightened to perceive that it was only a new device designed to rescue humanity from poverty and its endless horrors."

In the New Harmony Establishment it was found that the members, trained from childhood to think of little but the pecuniary interests of themselves and their families, were unable to devote themselves heartily to the general welfare of from 500 to 1000 persons.

CHAPTER XLI.-CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE DOCTRINE OF COMMUNISM, AND OF ITS INFLUENCE ON THE GENERAL PROGRESS OF MANKIND.

B.C. 1300.

MINOS and Althæmenes give communistic institu

tions to the Cretans, and establish the community of goods and common meals in order to suppress envy and discord. Under these institutions, Candia,

B.C.

1300.

a small island, increases its population to 1,200,000, and containing one hundred cities, is called Hecatompolis by Homer.

845. Lycurgus induces the rich to voluntarily abandon their possessions, and divides the land of Lacedemonia into 39,000 equal parts for 39,000 citizens, to form their inalienable portions. He suppresses luxury, puts impediments to the accumulation of wealth, introduces equality of education, and the enjoyment of common repasts. His institutions endure for five hundred years, and raise Sparta to the highest pinnacle of power and prosperity, admired by Xenophon, Aristotle, and the whole of Greece.

600. Solon, one of the seven sages of antiquity, remodels the institutions of Athens, and suppresses many abuses By raising the nominal value of money from seventy to one hundred drachmas per mina, he relieves the tyrannical pressure which poor debtors had to suffer from rich creditors, and forbids the latter to seize the persons of the former, and to drag them into serfdom and slavery. He brands idleness as a heinous and infamous crime, and makes it an indictable offence before the Areopagus, the highest Athenian tribunal of justice. He makes bribery a capital crime, and enacts the punishment of death both against the giver and receiver of a bribe.

586. Pythagoras establishes equality of living amongst his pupils, who form a community in Crotona, known as the Pythagorean confraternity. He infuses into the bosoms of his disciples the culture of friendship, and teaches that friends are in duty bound to assist each other under all circumstances.

500. Servius Tullius, sixth King of Rome, relieves debtors from falling into servitude when unable to pay, and divides the Crown lands amongst the plebeians; but the patricians having held these lands for many years at a nominal rental, effect his destruction and preserve their privileges.

350. Plato writes his celebrated Dialogue "The Republic," in which Socrates, the principal interlocutor, expounds

B.C.

350.

the community of goods, common education, and the admission of women to the employments in the service of the state.

340. Sparta begins to forsake the wise institutions of Lycurgus, and a period of decadence is chiefly brought about by the permission given for selling or giving away landed properties, and is further accelerated by the evil influences of the conquest of Athens by Lysander (404), who carrying away an immensely rich booty into Sparta, creates riches by robbery, and corrupts the people. The 39,000 original allotments of land made by Lycurgus are now consolidated into one hundred large estates, and a great number of citizens become destitute.

330. King Agis attempts the restoration of the laws of Lycurgus in Sparta, but is assassinated by the rich at the instigation of Leonidas.

226. Cleomenes succeeds in re-establishing the institutions of Lycurgus, and under their influence, Sparta gathers

new strength, and offers a powerful resistance to the Macedonians.

188. The ascendancy of the Romans destroys every vestige of community life amongst the Spartans.

133. The Gracchi, seeing great numbers of the citizens of Rome reduced to abject poverty and with not an inch of land whereupon to build a sepulchre for the deposition of their ashes, propose an agrarian reform, by which all those who possessed more than five hundred acres should be obliged to cede the surplus against compensation for distribution amongst the poor. Both the Gracchi perish for their well intentioned efforts of benefitting the poor, and the patricians retain the hold of their large estates.

A.D.

30. Christ teaches that all men are brethren, and that they ought to love each other, and even their enemies (St. Matthew xxiii. 8; xxii. 39; iv. 43, 44). The first Christians practise the community of goods under the guidance of the apostles, and are of one

40.

A.D. 40.

heart and one soul; neither say any of them that ought of the things which he possesses are his own; but they have all things in common. Neither is there any among them that lack; for as many as are possessors of lands or houses sell them, and bring the prices of the things that are sold, and lay them down at the apostles' feet; and distribution is made unto every man according as he has need (Acts. iv. 32, 34, 35).

60. Apollonius of Thyan, a Pythagorean and contemporary of Christ, teaches the same doctrine of universal brotherhood and community of goods.

120. Plutarch adheres to Plato's ideas of having all things in common, and urges the establishment of communities after Plato's Model Republic.

180. Plontin obtains permission from the Emperor Gordianus to try Plato's institution by an experiment, and cedes him an abandoned and half-ruined city for this purpose. The intrigues of the rich courtezans of the emperor, however, hinder the realization of this project.

500.

Boëthius resuscitates the principles of republicanism and communism in his "Treatise on Personal Servitude."

1143. Arnold of Brescia preaches at Rome the practical adoption of Plato's doctrine of the community of goods.

1492. At the discovery of America it is found that the empire of Peru is organized on a communistic basis, and that it has existed for four hundred years under the institution of the community of goods.

1500. Sir Thomas More, High Chancellor of England in the reign of Henry VIII., gives in his "Utopia a com

* Mr. Sargant thinks that Sir Thomas More's "Utopia" was not written for the mere amusement of its author, but that it was inspired by a praiseworthy sentiment of philanthropy by which it was destined to serve as a proposal for the removal of the destitution which followed the suppression of monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII.

The interest and curiosity which the "Utopia" has excited, at all times