SOCIALISM,' CONSIDERED IN ITS ORIGIN AND FIRST

MANIFESTATIONS.

Analyse de la Doctrine De Babeuf. Paris, 1796.

Théorie des Quatre Movements. By Charles Fourier. Leipsig (Lyons),

1808.

Some Barriers between Labor and Capital. Cath. World, Nov. 1878.

THE

HE ominous expansion of Socialism during the last few years, not only all over Europe, but, to a certain extent, even in this country, requires that all intelligent men should thoroughly understand its purposes and aims, and the means its leaders intend to adopt for their furtherance. This, until recently, appeared to many persons somewhat indistinct, so that even great political leaders paid little attention to this new sect, and acted as if it had no existence whatever. It was only yesterday, as it were, that Mr. Disraeli, who was not yet known as Lord Beaconsfield, thought proper, for the first time, to say a few words in a public speech on the advent of the monstrous giant on the political stage; and it was still more recently that M. de Bismarck condescended to acknowledge it and prepared to fight it out, as he is at present attempting with great energy. In his last manifesto, just before his death, M. Thiers, who ought to have appreciated it better, on account of recent events in France, called it merely an epidemic, as if it would be only a momentary scourge, like the yellow fever of last summer in Louisiana.

This long-enduring indifference towards socialism must have in those three influential leaders the effect of wilful blindness, for they could not but be aware that the socialistic idea is much older than they seem to suppose. Its present attitude can scarcely be understood, unless we go back to its origin and first manifestations. This will be the main object of the present paper; although, of necessity, allusion will often be made to occurrences of the day, and people will judge whether it is merely an epidemic, as M. Thiers fondly imagined.

Socialism, which under the euphuistic name of Sociology, has lately been made in England a branch of science, has a much more extensive meaning than that formerly assigned to it by lexicographers. They often confound it with communism; but it would be unjust now to do so, although many socialistic systems end in the

1 A very important paper on Communism in the United States, was published in the July number of 1878. The object of this is altogether different, as the reader can easily recognize, and contains, in fact, a history of Socialism in all European countries.

community of property. The main idea of the thing itself is that of association, with the ultimate purpose of improving the condition of the lower classes, and through them, of all mankind. Thus any religious or philosophical scheme in which the amelioration of human society is considered as the theorizer's main object, can be called a socialist system. In this sense Plato's Republic, More's Utopia, Campanella's Civitas Solis, Fenelon's Telemachus, and many other celebrated books of the same kind, can be rightfully designated as innocent attempts at ameliorating man's social condition. In fact, when first published, they were mainly considered as inoffensive descriptions of an impossible state of things on earth, aiming at public good, and thus they were socialistic utopias.

When these speculations are examined from a practical point of view, it is easy to see that a mere philosopher, even of the highest rank, cannot be competent to construct or arrange a social system perfectly faultless, unless he is inspired and has actually received a mission from heaven for the noble purpose he has in view. Any one who has reflected seriously on the subject, must be persuaded that human society could not have started on its career except on the supposition that God himself had assigned laws to it, as well as to everything else. If the physical world imperiously requires physical laws, much more does the moral and social order necessitate moral and social principles. Until the evolutionists furnish us the demonstration that the material creation has made itself, and follows only the blind fatality of its own falling into line without a previous design, sensible men, even if not Christians, will continue firmly to believe that God alone could make the world and has made it. Then, too, moral and social order is of a far higher character than that which is purely physical, and God is much more needed for its establishment than even for the mighty energy by which the material creation was brought into existence.

What renders many men blind to the acknowledgment of this grand truth is, that God has allowed us to co-operate with Him in the practical workings of social order; and then, too, political institutions, which in great part come from man, and the constant shifting of natural human life in the course of its history, react powerfully on social institutions and can modify them to a great extent. But all these peculiarities cannot weaken the positive fact that God is the sole author of the social order, has given it its original direction, watches with paternal care over the observance of its laws, and alone prevents it from falling into confusion by His ever present action in the moral and social, as He likewise does in the physical world. Man, therefore, undertakes more than he can do when he attempts to frame a social scheme, de toutes pieces, as the French say,

irrespective of the divine laws which have presided at the foundation of society and which must constantly regulate its development. The social system is intimately connected with politics, but is far deeper, as being the necessary substratum of all governments. It is entirely interwoven with all the domestic concerns of man, inasmuch as the family is the first and most necessary element of society. It is inseparable also from the teachings of religion, which necessarily forms the basis of any commonwealth on earth. All these considerations are so many proofs that the human social system must have come from God's hands, and that it is the height of presumption on the part of man to think of building it up without having received a mission from heaven.

This is perfectly clear to every intelligent man who has not lost the use of his reason by too long a practice of sophism. It is true, nevertheless, that the great socialistic leaders of the day discard all this, and refuse to admit God's authority in politics, in the family, in the commonwealth, in all the concerns of man. But for this very reason all their social systems are not only untrue, but monstrous and absurd, as we hope to make clearly appear before we have done. We maintain again that no philosopher, as such, can frame for man a social system perfect in all its details, and sure to win the acceptance of all, for the reasons which have just been assigned.

It might not be unprofitable to recite again the various stages which human society has passed through from the beginning down to our own day. The hand of Providence would surely appear in the details which we might recount, and history would teach us better than philosophical speculation what social plan God has designed for man from the primitive ages, and how this plan has been in part thwarted by the follies and errors of man. But this would be beyond our scope; and we are reduced to consider only one of those social stages, the most conspicuous in fact, namely, the establishment of Christianity.

For, the social changes which the Christian religion brought into the world, are so remarkable that no one who merely opens his eyes can gainsay them; and every one is obliged to admit the truth of these words of St. Paul: Pietas ad omnia utilis est, promissionem habens vitæ quæ nunc est et futuræ, 1 Tim. iv. 8. This alone, is more than sufficient to prove that God's hand has founded human society, and preserved it from ruin whenever man interfered too violently with His plan. Ancient history, moreover, has been searched into of late years for this very purpose of discovering the 'early civilization of man, which is another name for God's plan; and if crude theories have been devised, derogatory both to man's dignity and to God's power or goodness, other inquiries have vin

dicated both, and proved the correctness of the biblical account. It is evident that if human society has often been subject to frightful evils, it is mainly because the divine designs have been opposed and resisted in all their elements, political, social, industrial, domestic, and individual. What has been well ascertained of the workings of the Christian religion on human life under all these aspects, demonstrate that it was intended to repair the wrong, and render happiness possible in human society; so that Montesquieu's saying is profoundly true: "It is wonderful indeed that Christianity, whose great object is to prepare man for a happy hereafter, is likewise the best calculated to procure his felicity in this life.”

The necessary limits of this paper allow us only to furnish here a very short, and consequently imperfect sketch of this most important subject, but it cannot be altogether omitted. Despotic power of the most monstrous kind had replaced in the Roman world the former paternal forms of all political institutions. The social hierarchy of ranks in the primitive commonwealth had been totally subverted by dividing all men into the mere dualism of the few and the many, the free and the slave, both in the most extreme meaning of the terms; the former enjoying all freedom's privileges, the latter being subjected to all the horrors of the most abject servitude. Slavery had also altogether spoiled the industrial system, founded primitively on universal labor according to each individual's capacity. This normal rule, dating from Adam's fall, had been replaced by abject labor imposed on the slave, which rendered free corporations simply impossible. The domestic institution was rapidly running to its destruction by the introduction of repeated divorces, which would soon have brought on the degrading custom of promiscuity. Finally, the individual abandoned to himself, and free from any other restraint except that of exterior force, appeared to have at last obtained his independence, only to fall under the crushing,heel of despotism.

The Christian religion, considered as a human institution-it bears also this aspect-corrected fundamentally all these fatal effects of a universal decline among the nations, and inaugurated the modern, or rather, mediæval social system. Happy, if men had better appreciated it and kept it. The Imperial Roman absolutism was replaced either by the Christian idea of moderate monarchy, or by the aristocratic governments of the mediæval republics, very different from the former Grecian democracies; all these institutions being at the same time under the control of the Pope's mediation, in case of discord among the rulers. The Third Estate soon appeared everywhere to secure the rights of the lower classes, and. the great word, freedom, acquired a meaning which it never had in ancient times. This new political society was at once established on

the firmest basis by the great Christian principle that "All power comes from God." The noblest social axioms were embodied in the sublime virtue of charity-charitas-which remedied as far as it is possible, the evils necessarily derived from the inequality of rank, of wealth, of knowledge. It was admitted that this inequality is founded on man's nature, and that it would be sheer folly to attempt a levelling of fortunes, of power, of ideas, and that in case. this should be done for a moment, it could never last owing to the immense variety of aptitudes and of opportunities which a wise Providence has decreed should entirely rule human affairs. The modern industrial system was introduced step by step, by the gradual abolition of slavery, which had rendered impossible among the ancients what we now call free industry. It was in the monasteries that free labor was first born, and there was then no conflict whatever between it and capital. There would, in fact, never have been any conflict of importance between them even in modern times, such as we witness at this day, if the old corporations and guilds, created by the Church in the Middle Ages, had not been totally destroyed first by the Reformation, and afterwards more completely still by the French Revolution. To have a sufficient idea of this, it is sufficient to consult the History of the Reformation, by Cobbett. No one has ever been able to confute the statements of the great English radical on the important subject he has treated. He has indeed completely unveiled the true cause of modern pauperism, which is the last expression of this frightful phenomenon of our day, viz., the total subjection of labor by capital. As to the results of the French Revolution, M. Taine's last work, Origines de la France Contemporaine, to the same effect as Cobbett's, it is impossible to refute. Finally, there is no need of dwelling on the consideration of the social unit called the family, since every one. now admits, except the extreme Socialists, that the Christian ideal of it, with all its consequences, is the only one acceptable to reason and morality. Even non-Christians begin to shudder at the social decomposition produced by the introduction of divorce in marriage, and of independence among unruly children so common in our age.

All these considerations are irrespective of many other ameliorations which Christianity has introduced into human society, such as the principle of association, the smoothing away of international asperities, the introduction of humanity in war, the mildness of modern manners, etc. It is very doubtful, to say the least, if any modern theorists will ever find out a social system preferable to the one which has just been described. And it is remarkable that the immense and universal success attending it has not been confined to the first ages of the Church, when the Blessed Saviour's