THE INTERNATIONAL.
TEE world seems greatly disposed to make a bugbear of the International Society ; to believe that because its language is audacious and, its aims gigantic, therefore its power is vast. Conservatives on the Continent seem to regard it with something of the mingled dread and disgust with which Protestants regard the Society of Jesus, and to be ready to establish an Inquisition for the suppression of so deadly a political heresy. The Spanish Government has indeed announced that it will treat the " International " as a criminal association ; the French Government arrests its members wherever it can find them ; and it is gravely asserted that Germany and Austria, though agreed upon nothing else, have reduced to writing a programme of action directed against Karl Marx and his fellow-labourers. The English Government is constantly scolded abroad for its reluctance to engage in a holy alliance against Socialism, and we have reason to believe that on the slightest encouragement from Downing Street the subject might be made a topic of diplomatic correspondence. The fear may of course be well grounded, for Continental Governments have means of as- certaining the feelings of their own masses which we do not possess here in England, but there are some patent facts which it will be well to consider before giving away to panic. The first of these is that while the International claims millions of adherents, and avowedly aspires to political power, it no- where achieves any substantial influence over representative bodies. In the Austrian Parliament it has not, we believe, one delegate ; in the German Parliament, elected by universal suffrage, but two men speak its opinions, one of whom, Babel, is said to hold that woman must be driven back to her natural position, if necessary by force ; in the French Assem- bly the Socialists could not rely on twenty votes ; and in the Southern kingdoms, more especially in Italy, they are paralyzed by a quarrel with the Old Reds. Of course, under a system of majorities, a very large but diffused minority may be so defeated as to leave no trace ; as, for example, the Tories recently left no trace on the representation of London ; but the Central Council itself, in its most recent programme, only points to the necessity of acquiring political power, and admits that it has not yet succeeded in conciliating the agricultural proletariat, that is, in most parts of Europe the nfinitely greater majority of those who toil. How the Council are to conciliate them out of England we cannot even imagine. There is not a branch, or sect, or affiliated company of the Socialists which does not insist upon the absorption of all land by the State—indeed, the theory would not work with- out it—and it is insisted on even in the curious programme just issued, apparently by some Mazzinists, in which all Europe is to be united into a Federal Republic or League, with belief in God as the first article in its creed. Yet all throughout the Continent, except Austria, the peasant proprietors out- number all other classes put together, and in Austria, owing to the abundance of land, the agriculturist is not pressed by physical misery.
Of Course, if the International could succeed in inducing even the city populations to obey its decrees, it might accom- plish much towards the overthrow of society ; but just think of the sort of task that is, how vast, how difficult, and how tedious The alarmists of Europe actually credit a few Speculative thinkers and workmen in England, not only with the design of upsetting society, but with the power of inducing multitudes of men of different races, nationalities, languages, and creeds, to unite together for years in pursuit of a common object, which object includes, among other trifles such as the extinction of capitalists, the sup- pression of individualism. They think that they can actually do now, when individualism is so fierce, what the Catholic Church, with a much larger prize to offer—namely, as it votaries fully believed, eternal happiness—entirely failed to do centuries ago, namely, induce men utterly to postpone their own wills and selfishnesses and ideas to the pursuit of the reward held before them by their teachers. The very moment the party became strong it would split into fractions, begin to succumb to the ordinary laws of humanity, and, content for the time with the practicable, surrender its wider and more dangerous ideas. All the elaborate organization created by the "Adminis- trative Regulations" now before us will not prevent that, any more than it will prevent German and French workmen from quarrelling violently over their respective
places in a regenerated Europe. If the organization is only let alone, new leaders will rise, new parties will spring up, new concessions will be granted by Governments, till it is found that in the general movement of society the In- ternational is what; the Society of Jesus is in the Roman system, an association with gigantic aims, extreme views, many devotees, and a long history of momentary successes and perennial defeat. The effort to throw mankind into a mould has been tried often enough, and by men wielding promises more potent than those of the International and has always failed. The "extinction of classes" is an attractive idea, may- be, for some minds, though we never yet met the man who wanted at heart equality with everybody ; but what is it to the offer of Heaven 9—and that has failed among men who believe in its validity. Let the International work on, so long, of course, as it works by peaceful means, and the nearer it approaches to victory the more nearly will it approach to powerlessness and division. It has not carried even Geneva yet, though if it had planned the Canton itself it could hardly have found a better field.
Of the success of the International in this country, we agree with the Times, there is no fear, or fear in one direction alone. The revolutionary passion in the Continental sense does not exist here. Ask the first proletaire you meet what he really wants, and he will not say a suppression of classes, but a power of getting into the class next above him, the meana of comfort, or, it may be, more cultivation for his brains. Races do not change their inherent characters at the bidding even of religious leaders, far less of philosophical teachers, and the notion of the duty of self-effacement, the theory of perfect equality in means as well as rights, the aspiration for universal fusion, will never for long influence a race whose specialty through a thousand years has been in- dividualism. Republicanism might become a passion in Eng- land, but not Socialism, nor have our people ever displayed any disposition to postpone all objects to secure the mono- poly of power to any especial class. Except under reli- gious impulses, they have always united for the removal of grievances, never for the attainment of an idea, more especially of an idea which all above them tell them is unattainable. Of course, as we have often admitted, if the International could gain the confidence of the agricultural labourers it might wield a terrible power in our society, for they are suffering, they are conscious of suffering, and they have in their hands the most terrible of weapons,—the torch. But they are not to be gained by any International body. The ablest foreign lecturer who ever lived might go down among them and make any promises he pleased, and if they found out that he repudiated God, denounced marriage, and, wished for a community of goods, his lecture-room would be swiftly emptied and himself in considerable danger. Nor even, if irritated against their own masters, would the English agriculturists subscribe sixpence or send a man to free the labourers of other countries, they being, in their idea, as " furri- ners," men of an inferior type, only a little above the Irish. There is no danger to English society from the International and all the leas for the new rules of organization, with their Councils, Under-Councils, and excessive centralization. The moment the Society began to move in earnest, some Northern affiliated Council would pass resolutions denouncing foreigners, denouncing centralization, and declaring that in polities, as in religion, it was strictly congregational. The real danger is lest Continental pressure should induce Government to apply pressure to a Society which needs only utter freedom to lose its hold on the imaginations of men.
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