and renown of General Garibaldi, which arose from the two causes, (1) mental superiority as a military genius; (2) the laudable promptings of the passion of patriotism, and of the defence of the sacred principle of freedom. Yet Garibaldi not only declines all public and private honours and rewards from his countrymen, but lives the life of a poor goatsherd * on a barren island; thus vindicating that sacred principle which caused him to risk his very life with every one of the noble patriots who went with him to Sicily, or who fought with him at Mentana, where he was wounded. The disinterestedness of Garibaldi, and his refusal to fare better than his companions during and after the acquisition of fame, are the true indications of the distinctions which eminent men will enjoy in the communistic state. They will be honoured and revered, but will not, for all that, eat more and sleep longer than other people.

Mr. Sargant's argument that mental inequality is much exaggerated, is an able contradiction to Mr. Stephen's views that it merits reverence and awe; for if Mr. Sargant is right, Garibaldi's ingenuity in warfare is not worth more than that of the common labourer applied to his every-day work; and the communists can but be grateful for this contribution to the arguments in favour of equality.

Mably sees in the existing inequality of property the sole obstacle of the realization of equality; consequently he says:"Establish first the community of goods, and nothing will subsequently be easier than to establish the equality of fortunes and conditions, and to prove the possibility of securing happiness to all."

Robert Owen thinks that the attainment of equality must be facilitated by the principle of training and education. He says:-"So far as there may be any original difference of temperament between men, it will also be reduced when breeding proceeds upon scientific principles. Equality necessitates the assimilation of character."

Many writers find the basis of equality to be traced in a widely spread and felt sentiment by which men regard each

* In the words of a British Minister's despatch, the condition in which Garibaldi lives at Caprera is described as only one degree above that of a common peasant."

other as equals. Buonarotti says:-" All systems and all passions apart, where is the human being that does not in his heart recognise an equal in an individual of his own species, whatever he may be?" Cabet says: "There is one great impulse in human nature more powerful than all the passions of egotism, ambition, and emulation. It is the tendency of mutual help and association for the common welfare of all."

Babeuf says:-"Families have been the first models of societies, and are the most striking proofs of the natural sentiment and consequent rights of equality. Equality in families is the pledge of tenderness on the part of parents, of union and happiness on that of the children."

Mr. Mill calls equality a virtue, saying:-" The true virtue of human beings is fitness to live together as equals, doing nothing for themselves but what they as freely concede to everyone else." He also maintains that the abolition of serfdom, slavery, and class distinction are steps towards the realization of more equality amongst men, saying:-"The joint influence of Roman civilisation and of Christianity obliterated the distinction between free male citizens, slaves, women, and unfranchised residents, and declared the claims of the human being to be paramount to those of sex, class, or social position."

Babeuf thinks that when men, quitting their natural state of equality, entered into the first conventions of fixed settlements and social intercourse, natural equality was strictly continued in the new mode of life; saying:-"The most strict equality must have been consecrated by the first conventions; for what could have induced persons hitherto the enemies of all distinction, to consent to privations and inferiority?" As an illustration to Babeuf's view can be cited the Brehon law in Ireland, the clanship in Scotland, and the use of common lands in England, where, not long ago, whole counties were unenclosed.

Buonarotti calls the friends of equality the friends of justice; indicating thereby that the basis of equality is justice.

Mr. Mill refers to an argument often used by Communists in support of the principle of justice in equality, saying:-" Some communists consider it unjust that the produce of the labour of the community should be shared on any other principle

than that of exact equality. Whoever does the best ne can deserves equally well, and ought not in justice to be put in a position of inferiority for no fault of his own." This argument Mr. Mill considers unanswerable, but he puts in opposition to it another side of the question of justice forming the basis of equality, and says:-"On the contrary side it is contended that society receives more from the more efficient labourer, and owes him a larger return, and that if he is only to receive as much as others he can only be justly required to produce as much, and to give a smaller amount of time and exertion proportioned to his superior efficiency. Each, from his own point of view, is unanswerable; and any choice between them on grounds of justice must be perfectly arbitrary. Social utility alone can decide the preference." Mr. Mill thus evades the final choice between these two forms of justice. The Communists, on the contrary, have decided their preference to unconditional or absolute equality; for they maintain that there will always remain an absolute impossibility of adjusting the distribution of goods to the merits of labour; first, on the ground that the supervision and classification required for each individual would be too expensive; secondly, because all labourers make more or less use of processes of work and manufacture which they have derived from the exertions and labour of passed generations; as, for instance, the husbandman, who now easily breeds and rears animals that have been domesticated under great difficulties in former ages; or the book-printer, who now works by the process of moveable type invented 400 years ago. Thus a true consideration of justice, as well as the claims of social utility, point decidedly to the preference of absolute equality in the distribution of the means of subsistence and of the enjoyments of life.

And does not God, the great Creator and Giver of all good, bestow to all, freely and equally, the beneficent gifts we enjoy in this world? and why should not men then imitate the great Leveller in the equal distribution of all other earthly goods, and follow Him in that equal dealing with His creatures so beautifully described by Mr. Spurgeon when he said in one of his sermons:- "After all, the best blessings we have come to us freely. What price have you paid for your lives? and yet they are very precious. Skin for skin, yea, all that you have

would you give for them. What price do you pay for the air you breathe? What price does a man pay for the blessed sunlight? * I wonder they have not a game law to preserve the sunbeams, so that the lords of the land alone might enjoy the genial rays, while the poor should be liable to punishment for poaching in pursuit of sunshine. No, they cannot pen in the sun's light; God has given it freely, and to the pauper it is as free as to the prince. Life and air and light come to us 'without money and without price.' And our faculties, toowho pays for eyesight? The eye which glances across the landscape and drinks in beauty, what toll does it pay? The ear which hears the song of the birds at dawn, what price is given for it? The senses are freely bestowed on us by God, and so is the sleep which rests them. To-night, when we lay down our heads upon our pillows, the poor man's sleep shall be as sweet as the sleep of him who reclines on down. Sleep is the unbought boon of heaven; you could not purchase it; all the mines of Patosi could not buy a wink thereof, yet God gives it to the sea-boy on the giddy mast. It is clear, then, that some of the best blessings we possess came to us by the way of free gifts; aye, and come to the undeserving, too, for the dew shall sparkle to-morrow upon the grass in the miser's field, and the rain shall fall in due season upon the rising corn of the wretch who blasphemes his God. The influences which nurture wheat and barley, and other fruits of the earth, are given to the farm of the Atheist as well as to the fields of the godly: they fall alike for the evil and for the good; for the 'Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.' Equality may be viewed under various aspects, of which the following merit a special treatment.

* Matthew v. 45.

SECTION V.

SUBDIVISIONS OF EQUALITY.

with us.

CHAPTER XVI.-NATURAL EQUALITY.

ROUSSEAU says:-"There is a natural equality which consists in the uniformity of wants and desires that are born The want of food, of sleep, of repose, the enjoyment of health, the sexual desire, the feeling of sympathy and pity, the love of freedom,-these are what exist in pretty nearly the same degrees in the bosoms of all sound and well constituted beings."

Sir Thomas More likewise disbelieves natural inequality arising from any special favouritism of nature, for he says:"There is no man so much raised above the rest of mankind as to be the only favourite of nature, who, on the contrary, seems to have placed on a level all those that belong to the same species upon this, we infer that no man ought to seek his own conveniences so eagerly as to prejudice others."

The communistic organization of society admits and favours the development of superior intellects and geniuses, but does not render them dependent on the reward by wealth or power, but expects them to arise from the love of art, science, and literature.

Natural equality takes its origin in the necessity that all men must satisfy certain wants in order to live; the unskilful man has as much need of stilling his hunger, of quenching his thirst, of protecting himself against cold and heat, of seeking repose in sleep, as the skilful one.

Babeuf speaks of an equality of the natural organs of men,