commentary. The equal claim of everybody to happiness involves an equal claim to all the means of happiness."

"I regard utility as the ultimate appeal on all ethical questions; but it must be utility in the largest sense grounded on the permanent interests of a man as a progressive being."

The only self-renunciation which utilitarians applaud is devotion to the happiness, or to some of the means of happiness, of others; either of mankind collectively, or of individuals within the limits required by the collective interest of mankind."-H. PAUL.

Of Monsieur Le Comte's system of the service to humanity, Stuart Mill says:-" Monsieur le Comte has superabundantly shown the possibility of giving to the service of humanity, even without the aid of belief in a Providence, both the physical power and the social efficacy of a religion; making it take hold of human life, and colour all thought, feeling, and action, in a manner of which the greatest ascendancy ever exercised by any religion may be but a type and foretaste."

What Le Comte calls Altruism, or to live for others, was already initiated by Saint Simon's doctrine which creates labour a religious duty. Stuart Mill's utilitarianism is a further, more comprehensive, and more philosophical elaboration of the same idea. He unquestionably deserves the gratitude of mankind for having indicated the practical way of carrying out Christ's commandment, "Love ye one another," and of realizing universal brotherhood upon earth, and introducing that state of society which forms the last of the three democratic mottoes: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

SECTION VII.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF
EQUALITY.

CHAPTER XXVII.-OF THE COMMUNITY OF GOODS.

"The realization of the doctrine of equality and fraternity necessitates the institution of common property.”—BABEUF.

THA

HAT Communism in its sublimest conception may one day become a reality, Robert Owen tells us in these words :"The time will surely come when the populations of the earth will be governed solely under the influence of universal love and charity; and Divine as these principles are, they are yet the principles of common sense for governing mankind.”

Montesquieu advises the community of goods for small states, saying:-"Those who wish to establish the community of goods must imitate the organization of Plato's republican model city, in which trade and commerce are carried on by the state without the intervention of private citizens, in which arts flourish, but not luxury, and where our wants will be satisfied, but not our desires; where money is proscribed, with its corrupting influences. Republics after Plato's model are fitted for small states where education can be given to all, and where the exchange of commodities can be rapidly effected without money. They are scarcely practicable in large states." Montesquieu could not foresee the rapidity of the exchange of ideas and commodities which is now effected by telegraphs, steam navigation, and railroads.

"Let

Plato says of the members of his Model Republic :none possess any private property unless it be absolutely necessary; next, let none have any dwelling or storehouse

into which anyone may not enter. Let them also frequent public meals, as in camps, and live in common."

Mably considers a community of property to be the only social order conformable to the true end or intent of society, which is, the permanent happiness of all its members. According to him, all the evils which afflict human society, being the effects of avarice and ambition, the science of politics reduces itself to the art of effectually stifling these passions. Avarice cannot be smothered unless by a community of goods. The principle of community does away with individual property, and diminishing the attractions of power, it becomes a rampart against ambition, which ought also to be restrained by manners and institutions."

Sargant condemns individualism, but devises only puerile means of checking it, saying: "Individualism often degenerates into egotism. This fault lies in our unsocial selfishness. We are too much bent on riches and pleasure, and thus elbow those who have their way to make. If a man having attained a competency would relax his exertions, and adopt a quiet, unostentatious mode of life, there then would be room for those who have not been so fortunate. There would then be no need to squeeze those below us, or to struggle with our equals.”

In a report submitted to the committee of the Poor Laws, Mr. Owen gives us the first rough sketch of the Associated Home. The building he proposed should afford accommodation for 1,200 people. The most convenient form would be a square, divided into two parallelograms by the erection of public buildings in the centre. Lodging rooms would occupy three sides of the square; each family would be provided with four rooms, and its numbers would be restricted to four perWhen it consisted of more than two children, the others were to be sent to the dormitory, which would occupy the entire of the fourth side of the square. All the children from three years of age must sleep there, and must be sent to school. Their parents would be permitted to see them at meals and at all other proper times."

sons.

And again :-"In the co-operative farmhouse, proposed for the relief of the poor, they would enjoy every advantage that economy could suggest; the same roof would cover many dwellings; the same stove might warm every room; the food

would be cooked at the same time and at the same fire; and the meals would be eaten from the same table, in the society of friends and fellow workers. Sympathy now restricted to the family would be thus extended to a community; the union would be still further cemented by an equal participation in the profits and an equal share in the toil."

Fourier proposes the adoption of a sort of Communism by getting rid of the great loss and waste which is now occasioned by the splitting up of society into fragmentary private homes.

Cabet says that in Icaria all the people are fed, clothed, and lodged by the state from the common stock of produce. Only slight differences in this equal distribution arise from the difference of age, sex, health, and other circumstances.

Sir Thomas More describes community life as practised by the. Utopians, and mentions their arrangements for common meals, saying:-"In every street there are great halls that lie at an equal distance from each other, distinguished by particular names. In these halls the Utopians all meet and have their repasts. The stewards of every one of them come to the market place at an appointed hour, and according to the number of those that belong to the hall, they carry home provisions."

That uniformity of dress and attire is a necessary corollary of the community of goods, Cabet tells us in these words:"In the communistic state all persons will be dressed alike. This uniformity of dress will, however, be agreeably diversified by the difference of costumes that will distinguish childhood, youth, manhood, old age, spinsters and bachelors, women and men, married and divorced, widows and widowers, artizans and professional men, public servants and functionaries, etc.

Sir Thomas More is of the same opinion, for he says:-" The Utopians wear throughout the island the same sort of clothes, without any other distinction except what is necessary to distinguish the two sexes, and the married and unmarried. The fashion never alters, and, as it is neither disagreeable nor uneasy, so it is suited to the climate and calculated both for their summers and winters."

In the following passage Cabet mentions an important arrangement by which the use of national property and its safe keeping are secured:-"Every person and family will

have to keep a list, or inventory, of all the things rightfully assigned to them for use. Wilful destruction of anything, as, for instance, of articles of furniture, clothing, tools, books, scientific and artistic implements and instruments, is a punishable offence."

Of the common use of enjoyments, Cabet says:- Enjoyments are distributed equally, the same as food. In most cases it is done by casting lots,* especially where only a certain number can, at one time, participate in a certain pleasure, as, for instance, theatres, travels, etc."

In how far and to what extent Communism sanctions the enjoyment of pleasures, Cabet shows us in the use the Icarians make of it, saying:-"The Icarians like pleasure, for they consider it wisdom to use all their faculties which beneficent nature has implanted in them; but in order to enjoy rightly the treasures which she has spread around us and for us we must be guided by reason.'

And again :-"Travelling in the home country, as well as in foreign parts, will be an enjoyment much favoured by the communistic state, and means being afforded and time granted to everyone to partake of this pleasure, at regulated intervals, the custom of travelling will become so general that those who take advantage of it will be counted by thousands."

Concerning the introduction of the community of goods and the realization of Communism, the most advanced social theorists have always shrunk back from an immediate application of a communistic organization of society at large. Even Cabet, the Ultra-Communist, tells us that Icaria underwent a transition period of fifty years before Communism was fully established.

The greatest and most violent Radicals of the Parisian clubs of 1848 clamoured for no more than a very partial application of nationalising property, as may be seen from the following speech delivered in one of those clubs :-"Society, in guaranteeing the rights of labour, has taken the role of a social providence. It requires a civil list in harmony with its first wants. Let us take away from the parishes, from the intermediate

* The admission of strangers to the British Houses of Parliament is regulated by the casting of lots when all who have obtained members' orders for admission cannot be accommodated.