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too nicely elaborated, not merely for actual working, but for common comprehension. Fourier was a man of much originality, but crotchety and dogmatic in the extreme, and full of the most profound contempt for all other thinkers, from the sages of Greece to the journalists of his own time. His chief disciple, Victor Considérant, has reproduced the best part of Fourier's ideas, in a clear and eloquent form, in the "Destinée Sociale," and no reader can fail to admire the noble spirit of humanity which pervades that work; but it leaves the chasm between the system and the actual life of man as impassable as before.

According to Fourier, there is nothing at all amiss in human nature. Owen always wanted a change of circumstances in order to change character, but Fourier wants no change of character. All our troubles and miseries are the consequences of bad arrangements. Every man will not only work, but work with all his heart and soul, at something, if you only give him to do what he likes best. The social problem, therefore, is so to divide a community into groups and sections, or series, as that each man shall follow his own impulses, and yet the result of the whole be a harmonious and immensely increased production of all desirable commodities. Fourier was convinced that this could be done, and that he had found out the secret of doing it. It was to be accomplished, in a great measure, by letting each individual have a great variety of employments, and by observing the general rule of sticking to no one thing for more than a couple of hours at a time. Whatsoever other good it might have produced, it is tolerably clear that neither the Crystal Palace, nor the Britannia Bridge, nor Mr. Mill's Logic, would ever have come to light under such a dispensation. Fourier, however, had a boundless faith in the invigorating effect upon industry of numerous and abrupt transitions-from the study to the garden, and from the corn-fields to the workshops. He rejected the equal division of the produce which the communists would have, and would have rewarded, in separate proportions, the possessors of la

bour, capital, and talent, or capacity. The result of the whole system was to be, to make every kind of labour intensely attractive. All were to be as busy and as happy as the insect swarms that Paley was so fond of, or as Virgil's bees, with this additional perfection, that there was to be no provision, and no want of a provision, for driving away drones. Fourier could not understand the meaning of an evil passion. Self-denial was the humbug of the priests and the philosophers. All passion was good because it was power,-so much invaluable steam going to waste for want of proper machinery which it might propel. In the mechanism of the phalanx every impulse was to have full play, and, with a universal liberty of action, Fourier believed the distribution of tastes amongst mankind to be so harmonious, that even the disagreeable duties of the scavenger and the nightman would find groups and sections to take them up with passionate enthusiasm.

Christian Socialism.

The other forms of Socialism usually recognise as real evils the tendencies which men show to laziness, fraud, and selfindulgence, but concur in expecting that, with social arrangements once properly placed on a brotherly footing, men would act habitually from brotherly feelings. This is the fallacy of the most respectable of all the Socialist writers—namely, the very able, humane, and courageous men who advocate what is called Christian Socialism in England'. In theory they begin with Christianity as the foundation, and if they could do this in fact, that is to say, if they could find a body of workmen thoroughly imbued with the Christian spirit, a brotherly organization of industry would be easy enough. Even with a very imperfect religious sentiment, when strong enough to over

The most acute and brilliant of the French Socialist writers, Prudhon, cannot be siad to have a system. He is negative and critical, not creative; but he would be a formidable adversary for the old dogmatic economists to fence with, if they were always sensitive enough to know when his weapon runs them through the body.

come the ordinary passions of human nature, co-operative industry has been practicable amongst the monks of the middle ages and amongst the Moravians and Shakers of later times; but without the moral preliminary the mechanism will not revolve. Nothing is easier than, like Gonzalo in the " Tempest," in the idleness of the imagination, to frame plans of perfect commonwealths-nothing harder than to give birth to a new enthusiasm. The Christian Socialists find themselves compelled to think of the plan first, and to hope for the enthusiasm as a result. But the laws of moral causation will not be evaded, and those laws condemn all such schemes to inevitable failure. Upon this subject Mr. Carlyle saw and spoke the whole deep truth--first in 1829, and again with increased force, at the very time when England was in a whirl of excitement about the Reform Bill-that no changes of the social mechanism will accomplish a moral regeneration. Life, wherever it exists, assumes appropriate organization. But no organization, if such a thing can be thought of separately, can ever produce life. The Christian Socialists, however, would deserve forgiveness even for more serious errors, which are only theoretical, in consideration of the practical energy and sagacity with which they have urged a really valuable reform, of which I shall presently speak, and in consideration, also, of the important service which they have rendered to society, by causing a numerous body of intelligent working men to feel that amongst the educated and aristocratic classes are many of their firmest and most zealous friends.

Socialism on the Continent.

Socialism, then, in every form in which it has appeared, is, in my view, a delusion; and a calm and clear thinker can scarcely fail to see where the error of each system lies; but from working men in distress, or suffering under any stinging grievance, real or imaginary, calm and clear thought is hardly to be expected. On the Continent, where Socialism has been

most widely diffused, it is not an opinion, but a passion. It is the religion of the bulk of the artizans in all the great towns throughout France, Switzerland, and Germany; and in spite of the coarse sensualism that often mingles with it, is more like that stern, self-denying, irresistible fanaticism which in the seventeenth century overturned the English monarchy, than any popular feeling that has since appeared in Europe. These men have in them nothing of the timid, prudent, calculating spirit of the middle class. Whenever the summons comes, they are ready to march up to the cannon's mouth, or to fill the deepest fosse with their bodies, in order that their comrades may pass over them to storm, and sack, and devastate every standing structure of the old society. Their enthusiasm, indeed, would probably bear any trial better than the trial of a Socialist experiment itself; for it is very much easier to die on a barricade, or even to endure transportation to Cayenne, than to work on for a twelvemonth side by side with a lazy cooperative colleague, and see him regularly swallowing the half of one's own earnings.

Socialist Tendencies in England.

But there are some who think that this contagion, the spread of which has done much to undermine the fabric of continental society, is not at all to be dreaded in England; and that the instinctive good sense of English workmen must always protect them from such a delusion. The superior practical sense of the English workman is, indeed, a real and most fortunate distinction; but an error which can obtain dominion over such minds as those of the highly-educated advocates of Socialism in England, may very easily assume shapes which, under favourable circumstances, would spread it far and wide amongst the working class. There is, moreover, a peculiarity about working-class politics which is frequently lost sight of, but is of the highest importance; and that is, the love which they have for abstract and elementary discussion. The political shop

Keeper takes as keen an interest in the differences between Lord John Russell and Lord Derby, as if he himself were either hoping to gain or fearing to lose some ministerial appointment. The politician of the workshop cares not a rush for either of the great leaders. He is well convinced that they are both aristocrats and enemies of the people. The topics which he deems worthy of discussion are such as the right of property in land, the hostile claims of labour and capital; and, in short, his intellect is perpetually loosening up one or other of the foundations of society. What can be a greater mistake than to imagine that there is not here a soil, all ready prepared, for a general and rapid upgrowth of Socialism, whenever a man shall arise who knows how to turn the capacity to account, and chooses to cast in the seed?

Reform in the Law of Partnership.

Few things can be more important at the present time than to anticipate and prevent any such movement, by providing, if it be possible, channels into which the tendencies which would lead to Socialism may find outlets, not only safe, but eminently beneficial. That this can be done, even with facility, has been shown by Mr. Babbage, in his "Economy of Machinery and Manufactures," by Mr. Mill, in his most valuable chapter on the "Law of Partnership," and by the evidence of various witnesses before Mr. Slaney's committee. In this case a reform is suggested, which is not discordant with the doctrine of leaving things to themselves; but is, on the contrary, a very simple inference from that doctrine, although by some unfortunate coincidence it does incur the condemnation of some of the very persons who, in consistency, should be its chief advocates. The substance of the reform is, that the law of partnership', which amongst us is fettered

1 Upon this subject there is an article full of instructive details in the Edinburgh Review for April, 1852. The title is "Investments for the Working Classes." This paper is clear, forcible, and in admirable tone.

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