developed many peculiar additions to the published creed of the Order, and the Third Congress met under circumstances very exciting to all its members. The convocation took place in Berlin, September 6, 1868. Among the delegates from Paris were Tolain, Murat, Rousseau, door-porter, Pindy, joiner, Flahaut, marble-cutter, Theisz, chiseler, and Henry, actor. This Congress declared, first, that "the tool or machine should belong to the laborer"; second, that "the quarries, coalmines, railroads, etc., should belong to the State, but only after the regeneration of the State by its transformation into a workingmen's society"; third, that "the admission of arable land to the collective property," should be secured. The general idea to be deduced from many queer words, such as "solidarization," "collectivity," "economic evolution," "regeneration," etc., was the changing of what is now called the Government into a trade-union, the confiscation of all enterprises of production, and the compulsory labor of every member of society. Forty-nine delegates were present when the vote carrying this platform was taken. Thirty voted for it, four against it, and fifteen did not care to vote either way.

On Monday, September 6, 1869, the Fourth Congress opened at Basle (Bazz'l), Switzerland. From Paris were sent Varlin, Rousseau, Murat, Pindy, Tolain, Robin, physician, and Dereure, working shoemaker. Tolain, before this Congress, proposed a declaration that, "in order to realize the emancipation of laborers, all leases, rents, and salaries must be changed to contracts of sale outright." Property, thereby, always continuing to circulate, and nobody being able to save any, would cease to be abusive. Before this same Congress, Delegate Proudhon pronounced his celebrated dictum: Property is Robbery. When the Congress came to the discussion of the abolition of inheritance, Delegate Chemale remarked that, inasmuch as all property was to be confiscated by the Collectivity (the State), there would be precious little to inher

it. Bakounine, Russian, sent from Lyons, France, was willing that the clothes of the parents should be transmitted to the children, but that was all. This interesting reformer named the changes which he wished to effect, "social adjust

ment." The literary men always invented terms to which they might apply a wide latitude of meaning. Listen to the Russian's language, as he said it in French, a tongue so nearly like English as to require hardly any change in the important words of this sentence: "I understand, by social adjustment, the expropriation [grand bounce] by law of all actual proprietors, by the abolition of the political and juridical State [laws, courts, and administration] which is the sanction and the only guaranty of actual property, and of everything that is called juridical laws; and the expropriation, in fact, everywhere and as far as possible, and as soon as possible, by the very force of events and circumstances." The force of theoretical frenzy was obliged thereafter to circulate around chaos and travel in beaten paths. There was nought else to be abolished. From America, as a delegate to the Congress of Basle from the American Labor Congress of Philadelphia, held that year, was sent Citizen Cameron, editor of the Workingman's Advocate, published for several years in Chicago. It is interesting to understand the character of the crowd he got into. Having secured an advanced thinker in Bakounine, the International was very glad to welcome to its ranks another Russian, Dombrowski, just back from Siberia, whither he had proceeded at the expense of the "Collectivity" known as the Imperial Government. Deeming his stay in so cold a climate as Siberia prejudicial to his health, he made the long trip back without any particular ostentation, and arrived in the "circles of solidarization" with a deep disapproval of at least one Government, namely, the Russian, and probably of all others.

A Fifth Congress was called by the Fourth Congress to meet in Paris in 1870, to discuss "the abolition of public debts, the practical means of converting landed property into social property, and the conditions of co-operative production upon a national scale." It was postponed somewhat by the outbreak in 1870 of war between France and Germany. Its sessions, owing to this postponement, took place in the City Hall of Paris, 1871, beginning on the 18th of March!

Now, of course, there were men in France who knew what Bakounine meant when at Basle he demanded chaos, and the

members of the French Government considered that they had a bad lot on their hands. But the leaders of this International were nobodies. Their dreams, to ordinary people, seemed so visionary, and their language was so ambiguous and bombastic, that the public almost believed them an invention of the police, gotten up as a scarecrow to make political capital for Louis Napoleon.

One of the most blatant of the Radicals in France was an editor named Henri Rochefort. He had gained much reputation by his attacks on the Empire of Napoleon III., published in the Lantern, a journal printed in Belgium, but circulating enormously in every country of Europe. Arriving in Paris, A paper

he became the spokesman of the International. called the Marseillaise was started, with a writer named Milliere as assistant to Rochefort.

At this time plots against the Empire were thickening on every hand. The International was willing to wait until something should turn up. Upon a petty insurrection which startled the city and was squelched by the police, Varlin, Malon, and Combault issued a proclamation, signed by their names, repudiating any connection between the discovered plot and their society. However, to convince the rank and file of the International that they had not sold out to the Empire, these leaders closed up in this wise: "What is most important is to assure the success of the revolution; and, being conscious of our strength, we are concentrating it. The cup is nearly full. It will not be slow in filling. Let the revolution choose its hour!" How strange it is that the people of Paris laughed at these manifestos, and forgot their existence in the next moment!

At

Yet at this time, it must be admitted, the French people were excited to an extraordinary degree by the probability of war with their natural and traditional foes, the Germans. the very moment when France needed all the patriotism of her subjects, the sympathies of a vast body of people were being still further alienated from the Government. Strikes were undertaken in many places. One at Creuzot, under the direction of the machinist Assi, required the interference of the

military, and brought upon the Government the deep and now portentous maledictions of the whole powerful organization of the International.

While the second batch of International Committeemen were serving their sentence at Saint Pelagie Prison in Paris, a former officer of the French Army, cashiered and sent to prison for dishonorable conduct and hostility to the Empire, made their acquaintance. This was Cluseret. He liked the sentiments of the Committee, and thought the Committee might some day trade places with Louis Napoleon, who had sent them to prison. He, therefore, joined the Committee. After his release from prison he secured naturalization papers as an American citizen, from which it would seem that he must have already spent much of his life in America. Upon learning this, the French Government requested him to get out of France, and he went forth as an accredited evangelist of the International in America. No sooner had he arrived in New York than the news from his native country became so loaded down with accounts of plots, arrests, and insurrections, that he felt the end of the Second Empire to be at hand. He therefore explained himself, in a letter to Correspondent Varlin, accepting a new commission at the hands of the International. Upon this letter may be said to have rested the basis of the programme of events which afterward took place. The schemers believed that the people who wished to see a descendant of the old Kings of France on the throne instead of descendants of Napoleon the usurper, would soon be able to unseat Napoleon III. They believed that they, who wished for neither King, President, nor Emperor, would be able to strike their blow at the proper time, and thus clutch from the Royalist conspirators the fruits of their machinations. As for the existence of a party desirous of a moderate Republic, they had no belief that such an element existed in French politics. With this understanding of their feelings in 1870, the letter of Cluseret takes its place as a historical document:

NEW YORK, February 17.

MY DEAR VARLIN: I have just received your good letter of the 2d. It explains to me the delay occasioned to the solution of my question: it is needless

to tell you I accept, and that I am going to throw myself into the work of endeavoring to be useful to my brothers in misery and labor.

The journal of which I spoke to you is not founded, and I do not think it my duty to renew the attempt, in view of the late events in France, which, as well as the letters of my friends, unanimously call me back to Europe.

According to all probability I shall be there by next summer; but, by that time, I shall have organized the International relations between the various French and American groups, and have designated to take my place (subject to the choice of the French Committee) one or more persons zealous and capable. As you say, we will triumph surely, infallibly, if we persist in demanding success for the organization.

But let us not lose from sight that the organization has for its end the uniting of the largest number for action.

Then let us be smooth; let us round off the angles; let us be really brothers in action, not in word. Let the words of doctrine and of individuality not separate us from those whom a common wrong, that is to say, a common interest, has united. We are everything and all; it must be confessed that, if we are beaten, we deserve it.

I have not seen that we have figured in the late troubles. What has been the attitude of the workingmen's societies, and what are their actual dispositions? Certainly, we must not sacrifice our ideas to politics, but it will be disastrous if we detach ourselves from them even momentarily.

To me, all which has just occurred signifies that the Orleanists are gradually making their way into power, cutting the nails of L. N., so as only to have to substitute themselves for him some fine morning.

Now, on that day, we ought to be ready, physically and morally. On that day, we or nothing! Until then I will probably remain quiet; but, on that day, I promise you, and I always mean what I say, Paris will be ours, or Paris will be no more! That will be the decisive moment for the accession of the people. Yours,

CL

About this time the Emperor Napoleon III. determined to go through the cut-and-dried operation of holding an election by the people, at which they should again acclaim him the sovereign of their choice. This opened a sort of political campaign. The International ordered the casting of blank ballots by the workingmen, but, upon further consideration, directed its members to vote against Napoleon. The campaign furnished a good excuse for meetings of the workingmen. To these meetings flocked also the Radicals. The International felt a closer sympathy with these Implacables at the dawning of each day. One of the Internationals, Megy, an engineer, was made an honorary President of every meeting, because he had shot a policeman who had endeavored to arrest him. One of these meetings appointed a Committee, with