U*v$C\fc~&-*~^K<- 
 
 THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES 
 OF BELIEF, 
 
 PEOPOSED AS THE PEOFESSION AND PBOGBAHHE 
 
 CHRISTIAN SOCIALISTS, 
 
 ONE OF THEM. 
 
 " It is out of the Hell of the Poor that the Paradise of the 
 Rich is made ! " VICTOR HUGO. 
 
 PUBLISHED ON BEHALF OF TIIII 
 
 "CLIFTON AND BRISTOL CHRISTIAN SOCIALISTS," 
 
 BY J. W. ARROWSMITII, QUAY STREET, BRISTOL ; 
 AND SOLD IiV SIMPKIX, MARSHALL AND CO., I.ONL' 
 
 Price Tu-
 
 THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES 
 OF BELIEF, 
 
 PEOPOSED AS THE PEOFESSION AND PEOGEAMME 
 
 CHRISTIAN SOCIALISTS, 
 
 ONE OF THEM. 
 
 It is out of the Hell of the Poor that the Paradise of the 
 Kich is made ! " VICTOR HUGO. 
 
 PUBLISHED ON BEHALF OF THE 
 
 "CLIFTON AND BRISTOL CHRISTIAN SOCIALISTS," 
 
 BY J. W. ARROWSMITH, QUAY STREET, BRISTOL ; 
 AND SOLD BY SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO., LONDON ; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.
 
 "The 'kingdom of heaven' is within; but we must also make it 
 without. " FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 "Visions are the creators and feeders of the world." GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
 " Ideals may not be capable of being at once reduced to practice ; 
 
 but there is nothing so truly practical as they are Ideals 
 
 present an end which we are not simply to admire, but towards which 
 we are to work. They contain in themselves the seeds of an endless 
 growth. Much of Christianity is in the best sense ideal ; and because it 
 is so, it is entitled to the admiration of men now, and will command the 
 allegiance of the best of men until they have a higher ideal (and when 
 will that be ?) set before them. " Professor MILLIGAN. 
 
 "It is the duty of scholars and philosophers not to shrink from 
 holding and expressing what men of the world call Quixotic opinions ; 
 for, if I read the history of the world rightly, the victory of reason over 
 unreason, and the whole progress of our race, have generally been 
 achieved by such fools as ourselves ' rushing in where angels fear to 
 tread,' till after a time the track becomes beaten, and even angels are 
 no longer afraid." MAX MULLER.
 
 Stack 
 Annex 
 
 5" 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 A MORALIST of repute, in laying down rules for the settle- 
 ment of quarrels (see Matthew xviii. 15-17), treats the 
 matter under three successive heads or stages, in which the 
 offending party is confronted severally and in turn with 
 (1) the party aggrieved, by himself, alone ; (2) the same, 
 but accompanied by a few friends ; and (3) the Community 
 at large to which both the above parties belong. 
 
 The present is a case in point. For whereas the 
 "Masses" of this country have for a long time regarded 
 what Mr. Gladstone calls our " Classes " as (however un- 
 consciously and unintentionally) wrong-doers in relation to 
 them ; and have, by way of first stage, argued the matter 
 with them by the pens of several writers, reasoning in- 
 dependently, to whose appeals however and remonstrances 
 the offending " Classes " as a whole appear to have paid 
 no attention whatever, we have now reached the second 
 stage of the quarrel, in which it seems fitting that any 
 champion of the "Masses" should plead their cause no 
 longer unaccompanied, but bringing with him " one or two 
 more," in the shape of some sixty or seventy impartial 
 writers on Social subjects, most of them belonging in fact 
 to the " Classes," in order that in the mouth of these 
 combined witnesses " every word " of his indictment " may 
 foe established." 
 
 It remains to be seen whether the "Classes" will "hear"
 
 IV. 
 
 while still there is time, and so our brother be "gained"; 
 or whether, passing to the third stage, we must bring the 
 matter before the Court of Final Appeal, to wit the Nation 
 at large, i.e. the Constituencies with whom lies the power 
 to will " the means," and not merely to set forth the " end," 
 which is all that a writer, even when surrounded by a 
 " cloud of witnesses," is able to effect. 
 
 As regards the term " Christian Socialist " several points 
 are to be remembered. For one thing, there are " Socialists" 
 and "Socialists": there is the Socialism which Mrs. Aveling 
 desires to have preached as " a thing of death and terror " ; 
 and there is another kind of Socialism, truly to be described 
 as " Good tidings of great joy." Of such a " Gospel " we 
 who call ourselves Christian Socialists profess to be the 
 preachers ! It must not be supposed however that every 
 one who calls himself a " Christian Socialist " professes, in 
 so doing, to be a " Christian " in either the ecclesiastical or 
 the vital and spiritual meaning of that term " a Christian 
 Socialist" means merely a Socialist within the limits of 
 Christian Morals and Politics on Christian principles 
 and employing only Christian methods in the prosecution 
 of his aims. Neither belief nor disbelief in Christ as a 
 Supernatural Being forms any part of our meaning when 
 we apply that name to ourselves as a body, but only a 
 discipular regard for Christ as a teacher, in our judgment, 
 of the highest the most precious the most fruitful, Moral 
 and Political truth. 
 
 An extraordinary remark about Socialists has quite 
 lately been made by the London Spectator, which invites
 
 V. 
 
 criticism, and shall receive it in the shape of a direct and 
 unqualified contradiction. According to this authority, 
 "All modern Socialists contend, in one dialect or another 
 and sometimes the Christian one that the thing to be 
 mastered is not the body but the circumstances around it." 
 No doubt this is a correct description of Eobert Owen and 
 his school; also of any thoroughgoing "Materialists" if 
 such there be who combine Socialistic with Materialistic 
 opinions. But to impute such doctrines to " all " Socialists 
 is to predicate of them all without exception that they are 
 " Necessarians " and are of EALPH IKON'S opinion that " we 
 are only the wood, the knife that carves us is the circum- 
 stance " ! But what if some of us hold undoubtingly and 
 maintain energetically, with e.g. NOVALIS, that " a character 
 is a perfectly-formed Will " ! What if some of us habitu- 
 ally believe and teach that the mastery of the "body" 
 nay more, of the whole "natural man" is a matter of far 
 greater importance to both individuals and communities 
 than any re-arrangement of men's " environment ! " Is 
 however such a conviction on our part any good reason for 
 lugging Eeligion into a treatise on Polity ? or for our making 
 no attempt to lessen men's external temptations, considering 
 the weakness of the wills of most of them, and that there 
 is the same reason for our trying to remove stumbling- 
 blocks from the path of others as there is for our praying on 
 our own account that we may not be " led into temptation " ? 
 
 E. D. a 
 
 CLIFTON, BRISTOL, 
 
 October, 1886.
 
 AETICLE I. 
 
 All men have certain "Natural" and "Moral," as well 
 as "Legal," Eights; and the Natural and Moral rights of 
 some men are often overridden by the Legal rights of others. 
 
 Without going so far as to affirm, with VICTOR HTTGO, that 
 "Law almost entirely ignores Eight," we believe that, besides 
 Legal rights, every man is possessed also of certain "Natural " 
 and "Moral" rights often not recognised, nay! even over- 
 ridden and nullified, by Law ; so that the " Legal " right of one 
 man comes to involve a "Moral" or "Natural" wrong to 
 another. 
 
 AETICLE II. 
 
 Our present Social and Industrial system, the very breath 
 of whose life is "Competition," is both Unjust and Unchristian. 
 
 Accepting as we do Mr. J. S. MILL'S affirmations (a) that 
 "the Social arrangements of Modern Europe commenced from a 
 distribution of property which was the result, not of just parti- 
 tion, or acquisition by industry, but of conquest and violence ; 
 and that notwithstanding what Industry has been doing for 
 many centuries to modify the work of Force, the system still 
 retains many and large traces of its origin"; and (b) "that it 
 is only through the principle of Competition that Political 
 Economy has any pretension to the character of a Science," we 
 believe that the existing Social System, thus founded on Injustice 
 and supported by the Anti-Christian stimulus of Competition, 
 i.e. Covetousness, not only is the parent of the present awful 
 contrast between the condition of the few superfluously Eich, 
 and the many miserably Poor, in this and other so-called 
 "Christian" countries, but must always, necessarily and by 
 logical consequence, be productive of such hideous results 
 hideous equally from a moral and from a material point of 
 view. "I say," says Bijah Mudge, in a book by an American 
 author, "there's something out o' kilter in that commonwealth, 
 and in that country, and in that lot o' human creeturs, and in
 
 them ways o' ruling, and in them ways o' thinking, and in God's 
 world itself, when a man ken spend forty thousand dollars on 
 the plate-glass windows of his house, and I ken work industrious 
 and honest all my life, and be beholden to the State for my 
 poor-'us vittels, when I'm 66 year old." Says Sip Garth, "It 
 aint because they don't care, it 's because they don't know, nor 
 they don't care enough to know ! " 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 Reciprocity that is Equal service in return for service 
 is the proper principle of Social union. 
 
 We believe, on the contrary, with W. VOLCKMAN, that 
 "Association reveals its own cohesive principle : the noble law 
 of EECIPROCITY ; that this beautiful principle is, or should be, 
 the vital element permeating with life-giving vigour the whole 
 body politic ; and that, no matter what the relations of life 
 and society, it never allows itself to be left out of account, but 
 stands by in all its purity and sorrow to make every injustice 
 the more ghastly by comparison. . . . Non-producers in 
 any form may not truly be considered as partners ; they are 
 a great disadvantage to the State, contributing nothing to its 
 well-being, while largely absorbing the gains of the active 
 partners." 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 It is only through Reciprocity and Co-operation that a true 
 National prosperity is attainable. 
 
 We believe that the only sound Political Economy the only 
 one which in the nature of things is capable of securing a real 
 and generally diffused prosperity to any community is a system 
 founded on this principle of " Eeciprocity," and inspired by the 
 spirit of Co-operation and Brotherly kindness ; and while we 
 abjure and repudiate the doctrine, laid down, e.g. by F. W. NEW- 
 MAN, that " Our oivn interest is the main and rightful moving 
 principle"; and that "the Laws of the Market which individual 
 interest generates are precisely those which tend best to the
 
 8 
 
 universal benefit," we maintain and believe, on the contrary, 
 that it is only when the individual takes thought for the public 
 interest as well as, and including, his own, that any community, 
 large or great, is at all likely to prosper. 
 
 AET1CLE V. 
 
 Humanity is one family with Common, not Eival, 
 interests. 
 
 We believe, with ADAM SMITH, that "what is prudence in 
 the conduct of every private family, can scarcely be folly in 
 that of a great kingdom " ; and, with J. S. MILL, we feel bound 
 to acknowledge that, whereas " in a well-constituted community 
 every one would be a gainer by every other person's successful 
 exertions, we now gain by each other's loss and lose by each 
 other's gains ; and, whereas the reward of each working man 
 ought to be proportioned to his individual labour and abstinence, 
 it is, as a matter of fact, almost in an inverse ratio to it, those 
 who receive the least labouring and abstaining the most." 
 "Other rules vary," said the late SYDNEY SMITH; "this is the 
 only one you will find without exception, that in this world the 
 salary or reward is always in the inverse ratio of the duties 
 performed." 
 
 AETICLE VI. 
 
 Merit, and the Right to Recompense, are proportioned to 
 Voluntary endeavour and abstinence, rather than to Natural 
 endowment. 
 
 While we believe, with M. E. DE LAVELEYE, that "the 
 supreme maxim of justice is : To every one according to his work, 
 so that the well-being of each may be proportioned to the co- 
 operation which he gives to Production " ; in interpreting this 
 maxim, we distinguish between the really meritorious element in 
 every man which depends upon the direction and energy of his 
 "Will," and that non-meritorious element which is measured by 
 the extent of his "Natural Endowments"; and we believe, 
 with J. S. MILL, that "working by the piece," or the principle
 
 of remuneration being proportioned to work done, " is really 
 just, only in so far as the more or less of the work is a matter of 
 choice : when it depends on natural difference of strength or 
 capacity, this principle of remuneration is itself an injustice : 
 it is giving to those who have ; assigning most to those who are 
 already most favoured by nature." 
 
 AETICLE VII. 
 
 A true Political Economy would aim at demonstrating 
 the fittest, rather than at describing the existing, method of 
 procuring and dealing with National wealth; and would 
 never collide with Ethics. 
 
 We believe, with the Rev. W. CuNNiNaHAM, that the defi- 
 nition of a true "Political Economy" includes "a reasonable 
 treatment of the fittest" and not merely the existing, "means 
 of obtaining wealth." A treatise on " Political Economy," 
 which cannot be trusted to furnish wise and wholesome 
 principles for practical application, is, in our opinion, as 
 valueless, to make the best of it, as would be a work on the 
 "Theory of Geometry," which, when applied to the practice 
 of "Land Surveying," led only to confusion and mistake. 
 We believe, indeed, that this branch of science is properly 
 inseparable from the kindred branch of "Ethics"; and, with 
 Cardinal MANNING, we maintain that Political Economy some- 
 times " comes in contact and collision with Moral Laws ; and 
 that, when it does, it must be repulsed and cast back." 
 
 AETICLE VIII. 
 
 Each new and valuable Discovery or Invention would, 
 under proper arrangements, be followed by unmixed benefit 
 to all ; which is far from beiijg the case at present. 
 
 Whereas every time-saving and labour-saving machine, 
 and every application of Science to the improvement of in- 
 dustrial processes, might be, and in our opinion ought to 
 be, and under just management would be, a source of unmixed 
 
 2
 
 10 
 
 benefit to all, we believe, with M. CONSIDERANT, that " there 
 are a thousand facts which prove cumulatively that, in our 
 existing social system, the introduction of any good brings 
 always along with it some evil." 
 
 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 " Competition " is the fruitful parent of Division and 
 Strife. 
 
 We believe that Competition necessarily leads to antagon- 
 ism in interest and feeling between class and class in the same 
 community, between individual and individual in the same class, 
 between the Buyer and the Seller, between the Wholesale 
 Dealer and the Retail, and between the Employer and Em- 
 ployed ; and that it is responsible for all the evils which attend 
 on " Sti-ikes" and "Lock-outs." And we further believe, with 
 DAVID SYME, (a) that "it is quite a mistake to suppose that 
 Competition invariably tends to reduce prices " ; (b) that this 
 principle favours men of large capital and natural endowments, 
 rather than those who are less liberally gifted ; (c) that Absence 
 of Moral Principle becomes, under its regime, a condition 
 favourable to success ; (d) that it is the chief cause of the widely 
 prevailing Adulteration ; and (<?) that it is in that way largely 
 responsible for our country's recent loss of custom, especially 
 with her own colonies, and for the consequent Depression of 
 her Trade. 
 
 ARTICLE X. 
 
 "Competition" has produced more evil than it has good 
 to the Working class in particular. 
 
 We believe, with M. E. DE LAVELEYE, that the Competitive 
 system "produces an incessant agitation, a permanent restless- 
 ness, a universal sense of mutability, in which no one is content 
 with his lot, and no one is sure of to-morrow. The rich man 
 desires to accumulate more riches ; he who lives by labour 
 trembles for his very livelihood. While economical progress 
 has emancipated artisans from the bonds of trade guilds, has 
 raised their wages, and improved their condition ; at the same
 
 11 
 
 time it forms them into a class by themselves, massing them in. 
 vast bodies into enormous factories and fixed centres ; and while 
 giving them new wants, it has exposed them without protection 
 or security to all the fluctuations of business, so often turned 
 upside down by the revolutions of industry, the crises of trade, 
 and the stagnation of the market." 
 
 AETICLE XI. 
 
 Even the extreme of "Communism" were preferable to 
 the present system. 
 
 Without professing to go the whole way with " Communists," 
 we share the opinion of J. S. MILL that "if . . . the choice 
 were to be made between Communism with all its chances, and 
 the present state of society with all its sufferings and injustices ; 
 if the institution of private property necessarily carried with it 
 as a consequence that the produce of labour should be appor- 
 tioned as we now see it, almost in an inverse ratio to the labour 
 the largest portions to those who have never worked at all, 
 the next largest to those whose work is almost nominal, and so 
 in a descending scale, the remuneration dwindling as the work 
 grows harder and more disagreeable, until the most fatiguing 
 and exhaustive bodily labour cannot count with certainty upon 
 being able to earn even the necessaries of life; if this or Com- 
 munism were the alternative, all the difficulties, great or small, 
 of Communism would be but as dust in the balance." 
 
 AETICLE XII. 
 
 Emigration unnecessary, in this age of the world, were 
 our Industrial system founded on Justice ought, if employed 
 now at all as a means of temporary relief to be State- 
 aided and Systematised. 
 
 While we believe that, under a wise system of Production 
 and a just one of Distribution, there would be, for some time to 
 come, no such pressure of Population upon the means of sub- 
 sistence, on the part of any class amongst us, as to call for tho 
 
 2*
 
 12 
 
 application, either of Preventive Malthusian checks in order to 
 raise and maintain the general "standard of comfort," or of 
 Emigration as a remedy for congestion, we are of opinion 
 that Emigration, if employed at all, should be State-aided ; and, 
 instead of its being left in all its details and conditions to the 
 control of chance and- personal caprice, should be systematised, 
 the State providing (1) that only suitable persons, in suitable 
 proportions as regards Age, Sex, and Occupation, be allowed to 
 colonize ; and (2) that the necessary preparations and pre- 
 cautions be taken, in the field of enterprise, before the arrival 
 of the new importation, to prevent failure, and as far as may 
 be to ensure success. 
 
 ARTICLE XIII. 
 
 Woman ought to be the Complement, and not the EivaJ, 
 of Man. 
 
 While we are very far from supposing that Woman is 
 inferior to Man, we are of opinion that one of the most 
 unnatural and disastrous results of the action of Competition is 
 the custom, prevailing in this country to some extent already, 
 and daily gaining ground, of Women becoming "Breadwinners," 
 and so undermining their health, at the same time that they rub 
 the fineness off their inner natures, by following laborious and 
 over-exciting occupations, whether bodily or mental, such as tend 
 to unfit them for the due discharge of the proper duties of their 
 sex. For we believe that Woman is by nature, and is intended 
 to be in function, the complement, and not the copy, or the rival, 
 of Man, and that it is for the interest equally of the present and 
 future generations that her training and occupations, while 
 enabling her to be a true "helpmeet" for Man, should be in 
 harmony with the offices which she is called upon to fill in every 
 healthily-organised community, as daughter, sister, wife, and 
 mother the solace and sunshine of her home the guardian 
 and governess of childhood and the symbol and representative 
 of the Beautiful as Man is of the Useful side of human life. 
 We share, in regard to Women in general, the "ardent hope" 
 which GEORGE ELIOT in her youth expressed about herself in 
 particular; viz., that she "might have given her some woman's 
 duty some possibility of devoting herself where she might see
 
 13 
 
 a daily result of pure calm blessedness in the life of another." 
 And with GOETHE we venture to ask: "Where is there any 
 station higher than the ordering of a house ? While the husband 
 has to vex himself with outward matters ; while he has to 
 gather wealth and to protect it ; while perhaps he takes a 
 share in the administration of the State, . . . ruling nothing 
 while he conceives that he is ruling much, ... a reason- 
 able housewife is actually governing in the interior of the 
 family ; has the comfort and activity of every person in it to 
 provide for and make possible. . . . It is when a woman 
 has attained this inward mastery, that she truly makes the 
 husband, whom she loves, a master : her attention will acquire 
 all sorts of knowledge for her ; her activity will turn them all 
 to profit. Thus is she dependent upon no one ; and she pro- 
 cures her husband genuine independence, that which is interior 
 and domestic ; whatever he possesses he beholds secured, and 
 what he earns well employed ! " Further, we believe, with Dr. 
 WITHERS MOORE, that " excessive work, especially in youth, is 
 ruinous to health, both of mind and body ; and excessive brain- 
 work more surely so than any other. From the eagerness of 
 woman's nature, competitive brainwork among gifted girls can 
 hardly but be excessive, especially if the competition be against 
 the superior brain -weight and brain-strength of man. The 
 resulting ruin can be averted if it be averted at all only by 
 drawing so largely on the woman's whole capital stock of vital 
 force and energy as to leave a remainder quite inadequate for 
 maternity. . . . The one truism says it all women are 
 made and meant to be, not men, but mothers of men ! " 
 
 ARTICLE XIV. 
 
 Education ought to be State-paid, Universal, Liberal, and 
 Technical, besides including a Test in every lad's case 
 of aptitude and capacity. 
 
 We believe, in regard to " Education," that, with a view to 
 the general welfare, this ought to be universal, gratuitous, 
 liberal, and carried far enough, in an industrial and technical 
 point of view, to provide that each member of the body politic 
 shall become, if he is willing, an efficient worker and co-worker. 
 As WILKIE COLLINS remarks, " The production of a good citizen
 
 14 
 
 represents the most valuable result of a liberal education." 
 Further, we hold that each individual's capacity should be 
 tested by the State beforehand, and his lifework assigned to 
 him in accordance, jointly, with his ascertained ability, and the 
 need at the time, on the part of the State, for workers of the 
 different classes. We think too that each child's Education 
 ought to be Physical and Moral as well as Intellectual and 
 Technical, holding as we do, with HERBERT SPENCER, that "to 
 prepare us for complete living is the function which Education 
 has to discharge," and, with MONTAIGNE, that "it is not a 
 body only, or a mind only, that we have to fashion ; it is a 
 man, and we must not divide him in two." With the same 
 author also we believe that "the first teaching with which we 
 ought to imbue a child's mind should be that which is to regu- 
 late his morals and feelings ; which shall teach him to know 
 himself, and to know how to live and die well." And what, we 
 ask, will do this so well as Essential and Undenominational 
 Christianity, the knowledge of the sayings and doings of Him 
 who in the words of the "men of the barricades" (in Paris, 
 1848) " first taught fraternity to men " ? 
 
 AETICLE XV. 
 
 A Community is served by both Manual and Mental 
 work; and Education ought to fit each citizen to take a 
 share in both kinds. 
 
 We believe that the interests of any community are served 
 by brain-work as well as muscle- work; but we are also of 
 opinion that, as a general rule, it is better alike for the Indi- 
 vidual and for the State that both kinds of service should be 
 united, in due proportion, in each citizen ; and we therefore 
 desire that the Course of Training provided for every child 
 should be such as to enable him, when grown up, to take a 
 share of both the manual and the mental labour required by the 
 Community. At the same time due allowance being made for 
 the Immature, the Aged, and those who are either temporarily 
 or permanently incapacitated for service; we believe that no 
 person ought to be permitted either to live in idleness or to be 
 overworked.
 
 15 
 
 AETICLE XVI. 
 
 The employment of Emulation in Education, while it 
 fails in great measure to attain its end, is prolific of evils 
 both physical and moral both immediate and remote, and 
 national not less than personal. 
 
 We believe that the prevailing practice of employing the 
 powerful stimulus of "Emulation" as the chief motive power 
 in Education is disastrous in its effects, equally on personal 
 health and character, and on Society at large. While, with 
 A. DE MORGAN, we believe that "the striving one against 
 another for the highest place among boys or young men is 
 among the crudities of an imperfect system, as ineffectual in 
 gaining the end either of making the best scholar or shewing the 
 best scholar, as its moral tendency is bad " ; and, while we hold, 
 with Sir F. POLLOCK, that "the most valuable qualities for 
 practical life cannot be got at by any examination such as 
 steadiness and perseverance;" we further accept the teaching 
 of Dr. T. CLIFFORD ALLBUTT, that " there is no single agency 
 comparable to competitive examinations for straining and ex- 
 hausting the brain and nervous system . . . the great 
 increase of nervous affections in children being partly due to 
 the effect of the examinations their fathers underwent in their 
 youth ; and that when, as is coming to be the case, loth parents 
 go through the fire, the result will be frightful. It would be 
 better almost," as he says, "to return to a state of barbarism; 
 for barbarism has a future before it, but an exhausted people 
 has none." But we believe that the running of these risks is 
 altogether unnecessary, and that sufficient stimulus to secure as 
 much industry as is consistent with the health of growing youth 
 is within our reach without one having recourse to the whip and 
 spur of "Emulation." For we are convinced, with J. S. MILL, 
 that "Mankind" [including School-children] "are capable of a 
 far greater amount of public spirit than the present age is 
 accustomed to suppose possible ; History bearing witness to the 
 success with which large bodies of human beings may be trained 
 to feel the public interest their own." As Dr. THRING says, 
 " Glory to the strong ! Boys, whet your tusks, rush, rend, tear, 
 win, make yourselves a name, be great! This is but the 
 Vandal over again, and the swineherd's call. ' Glory to the 
 Strong' is on the reverse side oppression to the weak. The
 
 16 
 
 weak are pushed into the corner and neglected, and their natural 
 tendency to shrink from labour is educated into despair ! " Then 
 again the effect of such bringing up upon the dispositions of 
 grown-up men in after life how it harmonises with " Competi- 
 tion " as the spring of Social life, and how antagonistic it is to 
 all growth of Public Spirit ! LAWRENCE OLIPHANT points the 
 moral when he says : " Boys go to school with strict injunctions 
 if possible to put self at the top of it. They take the highest 
 honours at the University purely for the sake of self. How can 
 we expect when they get into Parliament that they should think 
 of anything but self? . . . Who is there that ever tells 
 them that personal ambition is a sin the most hateful in the 
 sight of God, the first, and not the last, ' infirmity of noble 
 minds'?" 
 
 " Each for himself is still the rule : 
 We learn it when we go to school 
 The Devil take the hindmost, ! 
 And when the schoolboys grow to men, 
 In life they learn it o'er again 
 The Devil take the hindmost, ! " 
 
 A. H. CLOUGH. 
 
 AETICLE XVII. 
 
 Leisure is attainable for all (a) through the non-production, 
 in future, of demoralising luxuries, and (&) by participation 
 in the work of production becoming universal. 
 
 We believe, with Sir T. MORE, who wrote 370 years ago, 
 that ' ' a large proportion of our labour and means are expended 
 on trades that are both vain and superfluous, 'and serve only to 
 support riot and luxury ; and that, if those who work were em- 
 ployed only in such things as the conveniences of life require, 
 there would be such an abundance of them that the prices of 
 them would sink ; and that, if all that languish out their life in 
 sloth and idleness (every one of whom consumes as much as any 
 two of the men that work) were forced to labour, a small pro- 
 portion of time would serve for doing all that is either necessary, 
 profitable, or pleasant to mankind, especially while pleasure is 
 kept within its due bounds."
 
 17 
 
 AETICLE XVIII. 
 
 Production ought to be (a) of the Necessaries of life ; and 
 (6) of its Comforts and Conveniences of both sorts enough 
 for all. The balance of the Producers' time to be enjoyed as 
 leisure, rather than devoted to " glutting the market " with 
 superfluities. 
 
 We believe, in regard to Production, that the primary aim 
 should be to secure and put within easy purse-reach of all an 
 ample supply of the Necessaries of life ; attention being after^ 
 wards given to the multiplication and cheapening of all possible 
 sources of comfort and refinement. It has been calculated by 
 W. HOYLE (1873) that owing to the increased application of 
 machinery, the total amount of labour required to provide for 
 our bodily needs would be as follows: "Food, half-an-hour's 
 labour daily ; Clothing, fifteen minutes ; Houses, &c., half-an- 
 hour's daily labour." 
 
 What a prospect is here opened out of leisure for the culti- 
 vation of the mind, the study of nature, the enjoyment of social 
 pleasures, and the discharge of social duties ! As Mr. RTTSKLN" 
 says, ' ' Luxury is indeed possible in the future innocent and 
 exquisite Luxury for all, and by the help of all"; though never 
 except for a few on the present most inequitable system ! 
 
 AKTICLE XIX. 
 
 All men have an equal right to benefit from the Land ^ 
 and the accumulation, as at present, of large portions of it in 
 few hands is alike unjust, inexpedient, and positively harmful. 
 
 We believe, with J. S. MILL, that, as "no man made the 
 land, and it is the original inheritance of the whole species, so 
 its appropriation is only a question of general expediency." 
 Further, we believe, with Professor BLACKIE, that "much ac- 
 cumulation of land tends to evil, and ought to be watched with 
 a jealous eye by the law, whose business it is, not to pamper 
 the few, but to feed the many." With HERBERT SPENCER too, 
 we believe that "the coheirship of all men to the soil is con- 
 sistent with the highest civilisation; and, however difficult it
 
 18 
 
 may be to embody that theory in fact, equity sternly commands 
 it to be done." On the other hand, we have learnt from the 
 "New Domesday Book" that, excluding residentiary properties 
 of less than an acre each, there are in this land of 7,000,000 
 heads of families (reckoning 5 persons to a family) only 200,000 
 owners of land, representing 1 million out of 35 million, i.e. 
 one-thirtyfifth of the population. The remaining thirtyfour- 
 thirtyfifths of the population get no benefit at all, direct or 
 indirect, from the land, except by paying for it. Deducting the 
 " Crown lands," and lands belonging to Public bodies, there is 
 an aggregate of 75 million acres in the country; and of this 
 immense total, more than two-thirds is vested in 5,000 owners; 
 and more than four-fifths in a number of persons so small that, 
 if we include their wives and children in the calculation, they 
 only reach a number about equal to the population of the Isle 
 of Wight ! 
 
 Will anyone maintain that the services rendered by the 
 owners of these lands and their ancestors are a fair equivalent 
 for the rental accruing from these lands to their landlords 
 accruing perpetually and perpetually increasing? For, N.B., 
 according to Professor J. E. T. EOGEBS, " Eent is fourteen times 
 as great in England now as it was five hundred years ago " ! 
 
 AETICLE XX. 
 
 The " Unearned Increment " to the value of Land belongs, 
 of right, to the Community, and not to any individual occupier. 
 
 In regard to the "Unearned Increment" to the value of 
 land and buildings, we admire, and desire to see realised, the 
 noble .sentiment of the poet COWTER, who wrote (1779) as 
 follows: "If I had ten acres of land in the world, and in 
 those ten acres should discover a gold mine richer than all 
 Mexico and Peru, when I had reserved a few ounces for my 
 annual supply, I would willingly give the rest to Government. 
 My ambition 1 would be more gratified by annihilating the 
 national incumbrances, than by going daily down to the bottom 
 of a mine, to wallow in my own emolument."
 
 19 
 
 AETICLE XXL 
 
 Two elements are to be distinguished in the value of 
 every plot of land, viz.: (1) the "State-right" (including 
 the Natural value and the Unearned Increment) ; and (2) the 
 "Tenant-right." While the former ought to be Nationalised, 
 the latter may without injustice be appropriated. 
 
 We believe, with J. S. MILL, that " the essential principle 
 of property being to assure to all persons what they have pro- 
 duced by their labour and accumulated by their abstinence, this 
 principle cannot apply to what is not the produce of labour, the 
 raw material of the earth. If the land derived its productive 
 power wholly from nature, and not at all from industry, or if 
 there were any means of discriminating what is derived from each 
 source, it not only would not be necessary, but it would be the 
 height of injustice, to let the gift of nature be engrossed by 
 individuals." 
 
 Note. Mr. ALFBED RUSSEL WALLACE, who was brought up 
 to the profession of Land Surveyor, and practised it for some 
 years in his early manhood, maintains that the " discrimination " 
 suggested above by Mr. MILL is quite feasible ; and has indeed 
 based his admirable scheme for the "Nationalisation of the 
 Land" upon this very distinction." 
 
 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 Our present Economical system, however successful it may 
 have been as a Producer of wealth, fails, and has ever failed, 
 most signally as its Distributor. 
 
 While we believe that the prevailing system of Economics is 
 well adapted for the production of a very large aggregate of 
 wealth, we are of opinion that it as signally, and necessarily, 
 fails to secure the just distribution of its stores ; in other words, 
 we say, with Mr. S. R. LYSAGHT, in "A Modern Ideal," " God 
 gives wealth to mankind, and the Devil distributes it ! " As 
 Mr. J. S. MILL remarks, " the laws of property have made pro- 
 perty of things which never ought to be property, and absolute 
 property where only a qualified property ought to exist. They 
 have not held the balance fairly between human beings, but 
 have heaped impediments on some to give advantage to others ;
 
 20 
 
 they have purposely fostered inequalities, and prevented all 
 from starting fair in the race." It is true, as GEORGE ELIOT 
 reminds us, that "men after dining well, often argue that the 
 good of life is distributed with wonderful equality " ; but, alas 
 for the many who never do "dine well"! we can hardly expect 
 them to share this optimistic view of our social state, 
 
 ARTICLE XXIII. 
 
 Capital, the offspring of Labour, becomes too often its 
 oppressor. 
 
 We believe it to be incontrovertible and statistically demon- 
 strable that Nearly Half of the whole "Income," and Three- 
 fourths of the whole realised "Property" (fixed and moveable) 
 possessed by the people of the United Kingdom taken all 
 together, are in the hands of so small a proportion of the 
 population as One-fifteenth this terrible and intolerable state 
 of affairs arising from two causes, viz: (a) an utterly unjust 
 distribution of the Gifts of Nature, and (b) an equally unjust 
 apportionment of the produce of the joint enterprises of 
 "Labour" and "Capital" Capital (most of it belonging to 
 "sleeping partners") absorbing the Lion's share of the total 
 produce; and Labour being, at the best, like the "Fox" in the 
 fable, who got but " a small mite " of the spoil, and, at the 
 worst, like the "Ass," who, when he proposed a more equitable 
 division, was "torn to pieces." In truth, as "VV. MORRIS tells 
 us, "Competition is Bestial, while Association is Human;" 
 and, if we pursue the analogy of a common meal or picnic a 
 little further, and consider how universally it is held in good 
 society to be "bad manners" and ungentlemanly behaviour for 
 one person, or a few, to attempt to monopolise the best dishes 
 for their own private gratification, leaving the rest to fare like 
 " Lazarus," and if we then apply this parable to the conduct 
 of the different classes at the banquet spread by Nature for all, 
 we are forced to the judgment that, in many cases, the 
 conduct of Landlords to their Tenants, of the Employers who 
 try to keep down to starvation point the wages of the Employed, 
 and of all who are trying in all things while buying in the 
 cheapest to sell in the dearest market, is a far mose signal 
 breach of the "manners," which, as William de Wykeham 
 told us so many centuries ago, "makyth man"! And when it
 
 21 
 
 is objected, on behalf of millionaires, that it in no way affects 
 the wellbeing, and especially the trade, of a community whether 
 the income they enjoy is in the hands of a few or many, seeing 
 that through them, the few, it circulates among the many either 
 as loan or as expenditure, we answer, with A. R. WALLACE, 
 that it makes an enormous difference to the community whether 
 a certain portion of the general wealth, say 50,000, is spent 
 as the income of one man, or contributes a supplementary 100 
 apiece to the annual incomes of five hundred citizens possessed 
 of only small or moderate means. "In the former case," as 
 he says, " a considerable portion of the money will usually be 
 spent in pure luxury, such as horses and carriages, jewellery, 
 ornaments, pictures, servants, foreign travel, horse-racing, 
 yachting, entertainments, and expensive dress all things which 
 give comparatively small direct employment to the great manu- 
 facturing industries of the country. In the latter case five 
 hundred families will be raised several degrees in the scale of 
 comfort, which means that more money will be spent by each of 
 them on clothing, household linen, furniture, and the ordinary 
 necessaries and comforts of life, which will ... in the 
 aggregate give an immensely greater support to our home 
 manufactures and general trade." 
 
 ARTICLE XXIV. 
 
 The Laws of Nature are the worst possible patterns for 
 Human Legislation. 
 
 "We believe that it is folly and wickedness to cite the precedent 
 of Nature by way of sanction to Competition ; for " Nature," as 
 E. KENAN says, "is an embodiment of Injustice." When we 
 are told that "Competition" is a "law of Nature," and that 
 the "struggle for existence" and the "survival of the fittest" 
 are examples set by Nature and intended for Human following, 
 we reply, with J. S. MILL, that "the order of Nature, in so 
 far as unmodified by Man, is such as no being, whose attributes 
 are Justice and Benevolence, would have made with the in- 
 tention that his rational creatures should follow it as an 
 example"; for "in sober truth, nearly all the things which 
 men are hanged or imprisoned for doing to one another are 
 Nature's everyday performances." And, further, we believe, 
 with Sir ARTHUR HELPS, that Fortune "makes things uneven 
 so that men may make them even again"!
 
 22 
 
 AETICLE XXV. 
 
 While Inequality is the first Law of Nature ; the Eecti- 
 fication of Inequalities, natural and artificial, is one of the 
 primary duties of Legislation, and especially the equalisation 
 of men's opportunities, so far as feasible. 
 
 We believe, with the late Lord LYTTON, that "throughout 
 all creation from the archangel to the worm from Olympus 
 to a pebble from the radiant and completed planet to the 
 nebula that hardens through ages of mist and slime into the 
 habitable world the first law of Nature is Inequality;" and 
 we do not believe in the possibility (at least until human nature 
 is fundamentally altered) of ever equalising, or assimilating, 
 either men's capacities or their fortunes ; but we believe in the 
 sacred duty of securing, so far as may be, to all men " Equality 
 of Opportunity"; and, further, in the duty of the "Strong," 
 Christlike, " to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to 
 please themselves." 
 
 ARTICLE XXVL 
 
 It is both wrong and unnecessary that Poverty should be 
 perpetual; and it is better to remove its causes by "pre- 
 ventive " measures of Justice, than to attempt to " cure " its 
 symptoms by superficial applications of Charity. 
 
 We believe, with J. S. MILL, that it is "a base doctrine" 
 that " God has decreed there shall always be poor." Further, we 
 are of opinion that "Almsgiving," however sympathetic and 
 extensive, is, though better than nothing if prudently adminis- 
 tered, adapted to remove the superficial symptoms only, and 
 not the deep-lying causes, of the disease called "Poverty." 
 In this, as in other cases, we believe that "Prevention is 
 better than cure"; and that the true Preventive and Pro- 
 phylactic against Poverty is to be found, not in the so-called 
 "charity" of Churches, i.e. "Systematic Injustice tempered 
 with a little Mercy"; but in the application to Society of 
 the "Charity" of S. Paul and his Master, i.e. something 
 more, not less, than "Justice," viz: a system founded upon 
 "Justice," and with "Mercy" added to meet and mitigate 
 those sad incidents of human infirmity to which even the
 
 23 
 
 perfection of Justice would be hardship. Under the present 
 system, Poverty is, in myriads of cases, entirely unavoidable, 
 resting upon social causes so deeply founded that no amount of 
 individual abstinence, thrift, temperance, or other virtues, can 
 possibly "find a way to escape" it! 
 
 AETICLE XXVII. 
 
 The possession of riches on the part of any man is a 
 suspicious and questionable circumstance, needing explana- 
 tion ; and of which a satisfactory explanation cannot always 
 be furnished. 
 
 We believe, with Sir ARTHUR HELPS, that "instead of being 
 anything which is prima facie for a man, it is prima facie against 
 him, that he is rich : it is a fact that he has to account for ; and 
 often the account he has to give is anything but creditable to 
 him." And we believe, further, with Professor BLACKIE, that 
 "Rich men who live on the inherited produce of other persons' 
 work, with nothing specially to do for themselves, are a class of 
 men to be pitied rather than to be envied." 
 
 AETICLE XXVIII. 
 
 The desire to be Eich is in effect the desire to tyrannise, 
 and is therefore a mean and unmanly ambition ; while the 
 desire to be useful and to serve is noble. 
 
 We believe, with JAMES HARVEY, of Liverpool, that "the 
 wish, so universally indulged in by the unthinking, that they 
 were possessed of thousands, is really a wish that hundreds of 
 men should be their slaves " ; and we believe that this is a mean, 
 ignoble, selfish, and ungenerous wish unworthy of a Christian, 
 and even of a Man. We believe, on the other hand, with JESUS, 
 the Carpenter and Salvation preacher, that " whosoever would be 
 first among us, shall be our servant"; and, with CHARLES 
 KINGSLEY, that "to live for others is the law of all earth and 
 heaven, and Him who made them ; and that Grod is perfectly 
 powerful, because He is perfectly and infinitely of use ; and 
 perfectly good, because He delights utterly and always in being
 
 24 
 
 of use ; and that we can become like God only in proportion as 
 we become of use." With J. S. MILL also we believe that "a 
 contest who can do most for the common good is not the kind 
 of Competition that Socialists repudiate." 
 
 ARTICLE XXIX. 
 
 Being rich however excusable formerly, when it carried 
 with it corresponding duties is, when coupled with Idleness, 
 inexcusable in people who call themselves " Christians," and 
 in the present age. 
 
 We believe, with BURNS, that 
 
 " The rank is but the guinea's stamp ; 
 The man's the gold, for all that ! ') 
 
 And, with the Kev. E. A. ABBOT, we believe that whereas in 
 feudal times, when " the first in wealth and power were also the 
 first in the battlefield ; and in the Greek cities, where the rich 
 equipped ships, and gave public exhibitions at their own 
 expense," it was excusable to suppose that "living on his own 
 means" made a man respectable and a gentleman, "it is 
 inexcusable now, seeing that do-nothings have no place in a 
 Christian nation . . . and that the Christian theory is that 
 every man is what he is by the grace of God, and no one need 
 be ashamed of his work, if his work is useful, and he is an able 
 workman." (See Appendix, A.) 
 
 ARTICLE XXX 
 The truly respectable man is the Worker not the Drone. 
 
 Like THOMAS CARLYLE, we refuse to believe that the " keep- 
 ing of a gig," or of a carriage and pair either, proves a man 
 "respectable " ; on the other hand, we believe that the worn-out 
 inmate of an Almshouse or a Workhouse has often a far higher 
 olaim to honour than a pensioned Duke or Minister of State ; in fact, 
 we believe, with Dr. F. MASON, artisan and Christian Missionary, 
 that "it is the Worker that contributes something to society 
 who is entitled to an honourable place in it ; while the Drone 
 the one that contributes nothing to the public good is the one 
 that ought to be ' out of society.' "
 
 25 
 
 AETICLE XXXI. 
 
 We are " members of one body " ; and the primary duty 
 of each is to requite the personal services of others with an 
 amount of personal service at least equal to that which has 
 been rendered him. 
 
 We believe that all the individual citizens of each civilised 
 community are, in the language of the Apostle Paul, "many 
 members, but one body "; each unit being largely indebted to 
 the rest for the innumerable services that make life either 
 possible or enjoyable ; and as, in the body of flesh and blood, 
 u one member suffering, all the members suffer with it ; or one 
 member being honoured, all the members rejoice with it," so, 
 we opine, it ought to be in the Body Politic. We believe 
 accordingly, with HERBERT SPENCER, that " in order that any 
 citizen may so behave as not to deduct from the aggregate 
 welfare, it is needful that he shall perform such function, or 
 share of function, as is of value equivalent at least to what he 
 consumes ; all further requirements being unimportant com- 
 pared with this primary requirement, that each shall so live as 
 neither to burden others nor to injure others " ; and with ISAAC 
 BARROW, a 1 7th century divine, we maintain that "he is not a 
 man who is not inclined to make some returns thither whence 
 he hath found great kindness." W. BLACK points the same 
 moral when he writes : " The man who considers himself wholly 
 independent of other people as owing nothing to them that he 
 cannot pay is a dastardly repudiator of millions of debts and 
 obligations, not one of which has been paid, or could be paid, 
 to the real creditor. All his life long, he has been saying to 
 person after person, ' I am much obliged to you ' ; and if he 
 * were anything else than a miserable sneak, he would make of 
 these perpetual small obligations a general fund, to be drawn 
 upon when occasion offers." 
 
 AETICLE XXXII. 
 
 The larger the income, unearned by himself, that any 
 man enjoys, the heavier is the debt of service he owes 
 Society. 
 
 We believe, with JOHN BUSKIN, that " Life without Industry
 
 26 
 
 is Guilt"; with GEORGE ELIOT, that "Industry is one of those 
 dues that it were baseness not to pay towards the common 
 burden"; and with E. ATKINSON (Miss H. Martineau's corre- 
 spondent) that "the possession of property, commonly called 
 'wealth,' and spoken of as the standard of a man's 'worth,' 
 fails most ignobly unless it becomes opportunity for broader and 
 more effective work." We believe also, with Professor GOLDWIN 
 SMITH, that " Christianity is a religion of Humanity ... its 
 social idea is industrial. ... If any will not work, neither 
 shall he eat. . . . No Christian who knows the Gospel can 
 possibly believe that it warrants him in living uselessly by the 
 sweat of another man's brow." (See Appendix, B.) 
 
 AKTICLE XXXIII. 
 
 All persons who live on Eent, Interest, Dividends, or 
 Profits (as "sleeping" partners), and who meanwhile are 
 rendering no personal service to Society, are, in fact, living 
 " by the sweat of other'men's brows." 
 
 We believe, further, that all those persons do live " by the 
 sweat of another man's brow," who live, and in proportion as 
 they live, on Eent of Land or House, on Interest arising from 
 Loans, on " Profits " in the Economical sense, as distinguished 
 from the "Earnings of Management," and on the Dividends 
 accruing from Shares in concerns of any kind in which they are 
 only sleeping partners ; and we believe, with WILLIAM GODWIN", 
 in his "Political Justice," that "it is a great imposition that 
 men are accustomed to put upon themselves, when they talk of 
 the property bequeathed by their ancestors that property 
 being produced by the daily labour of men now in existence." 
 
 AKTICLE XXXIV. 
 
 Every one who does not earn his livelihood by " Work- 
 ing," is either a " Beggar " or a " Thief." 
 
 We believe it to be literally and demonstrably true that 
 there are in reality only three ways of living, viz. : by " Work- 
 ing," " Begging," and "Stealing" ; and that every person who 
 does not live "by his own work, past or present, is practically.
 
 27 
 
 and in the real truth of things, either a " beggar" if his 
 living at the cost of others is legalised (as in the case of those 
 who live on "Rent," "Dividends," or "Interest"), or a "thief" 
 in case the mode in which he gets his livelihood is a violation 
 of the law. Accordingly we believe, with Dr. THRING, that "it 
 is a mean thing to live on alms and do nothing ; be the alms a 
 princely fortune inherited, or a beggar's crust ; both are equally 
 the stored-up life of other men. And no man has a right to 
 take the stored-up life of others, and pour it out in folly and 
 idleness. . . . WORK CAN ONLY BE REPAID BY WORK." This 
 last sentence deserves to be published in golden letters through 
 the world. Money, by whomsoever tendered, is commonly sup- 
 posed to be a fair exchange for personal service or the produce 
 of personal toil. But it is not so in truth ! Money which has 
 been earned by personal service is indeed a real quid pro quo a fair 
 exchange; but "money" tendered to society by an Idler in ex- 
 change for personal service money which neither he, nor any 
 one for him, ever ^earned by work, is a "stone" instead of 
 "bread," a "scorpion" in place of a "fish" a Bill payable 
 in "Work," and drawn on Society by a merchant possessed of 
 "no effects" of corresponding value. The money which a 
 worker of any sort receives in payment for his work is of course 
 paid him in requital of some " service " which he has rendered 
 to some one. In return for such service he might have fairly 
 claimed from his employer a modicum of service of value equal 
 to that which he has himself rendered ; but he accepts instead a 
 certain sum of money (paper or metallic), such " money " being, 
 as it were, a "Promissory Note," or a "Bill of Exchange" 
 drawn on " Society," and payable at any future date by any 
 partner of the bank so named (i.e. by anybody) in the shape of 
 whatever amount of " service " (or " commodities " representing 
 '"service") is at that time deemed equivalent to the "service" 
 he originally rendered. His title to this quantum of service 
 holds good for ever; it is an equitable claim for "service in 
 return for service " a fair exchange. There can, in fact, be no 
 morally higher title no juster claim ! And the claim repre- 
 sented by the coin or note in question remains undiminished in 
 strength and value by any lapse of time since first it came into 
 being, and equally by the death of the original claimant ; his 
 heirs and assigns having the same right exactly, neither more 
 nor less, as he had, to the cashing of the "Bill" in "service." 
 They stand in his shoes, and his merits, like " works of super- 
 erogation," are transmitted in full measure to them. Nor does
 
 28 
 
 the magnitude of such a claim make any difference in its vali- 
 dity. We quarrel not with either "fortune" or "capital" 
 because they happen to be large, if they have been justly 
 earned, and represent a true "value received " ; and if, further, 
 it can be shewn that the original " services " which they profes- 
 sedly represent have really never yet been recompensed to any 
 one. But neither " Interest " nor " Kent of Land " answers to 
 this description. The "principal," or corpus, of a just man's 
 just savings under a just Social system, and the "Interest" 
 accruing in what form soever from them, stand, in our opinion, 
 upon altogether different moral footings ; and because a man 
 has an indefeasible right in equity to the one, it does not follow 
 that he has any right at all to the other ! (See Appendix, C.) 
 
 ARTICLE XXXV. 
 
 Perpetual Annuities payable to private persons in the 
 shape of "Inherited Incomes" whencesoever accruing are 
 too heavy a price for Posterity in the shape of the whole 
 Community to pay for the service, if any, rendered by the 
 said individuals' energetic ancestors. 
 
 We believe, with the Rev. W. CUNNINGHAM, that, though 
 " doubtless in many cases the nation was the gainer by the 
 energy of those who pushed their business so as to make 
 fortunes for their families, the permanent charge on the nation 
 which is involved in supporting their posterity is a terribly 
 heavy price to pay for the benefit that has accrued through the 
 enterprise of forgotten capitalists"; and that, comparing "the 
 economic methods of Capitalism and Socialism, that method is 
 to be approved, as it will certainly survive, which gives facilities 
 for the raising of the greatest amount by all, so as to satisfy the 
 wants of each." "Private Property," as J. S. MILL says, "is 
 in every defence of it supposed to mean, the guarantee to 
 individuals of the fruits of their own labour and abstinence. 
 The guarantee to them of the fruits of the labour and abstinence 
 of others, transmitted to them without any merit or exertion of 
 their own, is not of the essence of the institution, but a mere 
 incidental consequence, which, when it reaches a certain height, 
 does not promote, but conflicts with, the ends which render 
 private property legitimate."
 
 29 
 
 AETICLE XXXVI. 
 
 Industry and Merit are the only legitimate roads 'to a 
 Competence. 
 
 To Bishop BERKELEY'S 218th "Query," put above 150 years 
 ago : " Whether a door ought not to be shut against all other 
 methods of growing rich, save only by industry and merit ? 
 and whether wealth got otherwise would not be ruinous to the 
 public?" we unhesitatingly reply, "Yes!" Such not only 
 " would be," but has been, and ever will be, the result ; and the 
 proposed "door" of exclusion ought to be as soon as possible 
 set up, shut tight, and double-locked ! 
 
 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 All "Interest" on Loans at however low the rate is 
 " Usury," in the Biblical sense of the word ; and when 
 exacted for private gain, and enforced by Law, tends both to 
 Public and Private ruin. 
 
 As regards Interest on Loans, we believe, with W. H. 
 LECKY (on "Rationalism"), that the word "Usury, according 
 to the unanimous teaching of the old theologians, consisted of 
 any interest that was exacted by the lender from the borrower 
 solely as the price of the loan. Its nature was, therefore, 
 entirely independent of the amount that was asked, and of the 
 civil laws upon the subject. Those who lent money at 3 per 
 cent, were committing Usury quite as really as those who lent it 
 at 40 per cent. ; and those who lent money at interest in a 
 country where there was no law upon the subject, as those who 
 lent it in defiance of the most stringent prohibitions." And 
 further, we believe with the learned Bishop JEWELL (who died 
 above three centuries ago, and on whose writings so high a 
 value was set that copies of them, as of Bibles, were chained up 
 to reading-desks in many churches, where they may be found so 
 attached, in some instances, to this day), in reference to this 
 custom,- that "it is a monster in nature; the overthrow of 
 mighty kingdoms ; the destruction of flourishing states ; the 
 decay of wealthy cities ; the plague of the world, and the misery 
 of the people." Despite Mr. NASSAU SENIOB'S claim, that 
 "Interest is the remuneration of abstinence," we do not believe 
 that " abstinence," i.e. the mere postponement of immediate
 
 30 
 
 enjoyment from the present to the future, is an act of such 
 heroic virtue on the part of the abstainer as to demand that he 
 should be "remunerated" for it at the cost of the lifeblood of 
 others ! No doubt, as A. BESANT reminds us, ' ' wherever there 
 is Capital there has been labour, and there has also been 
 abstinence from consumption. But, in studying the origin and 
 the accumulation of Capital, this remarkable historical fact 
 stares us in the face that Capital is not found in the hands of 
 the laborious and abstemious, but is obtained by a process of 
 confiscation of the results of labour and the imposition of priva- 
 tion on the laborious." No doubt, if X borrows from Y a sum 
 of money in the hope of making profit out of it, Y may fairly 
 expect to be insured at the cost of X against the loss of the loan ; 
 and further, if he can show that, but for this loan to X, it was 
 his intention to turn that money to profit on his own account, 
 he may even claim, in equity, some share of the profit made 
 by X. But this is far from being the meaning of " Interest " in 
 .general; what "Interest" usually means being, that the 
 Borrower's "necessity" is made the Lender's "opportunity" 
 for screwing as much as possible out of him, even if the Lender's 
 risk of loss be infinitesimal, and his sacrifice of opportunity be 
 nil ! We believe, however, that most of the evils attendant on 
 : the existing " Interest" system would disappear if only the Law, 
 instead of forbidding, or in any way regulating, contracts of that 
 sort, would simply ignore them, regarding all claims of Interest 
 as debts of honour, altogether irrecoverable by legal process. 
 
 ARTICLE XXXVIII. 
 
 The needless multiplication, as in England, of shops and 
 shopkeepers, for the distribution of the produce of labour, is 
 greatly to be deprecated, as the cause equally of an enormous 
 waste of Labour, and of a proportionate augmentation of 
 'Cost. 
 
 We believe that the necessary work of Distributing the 
 produce of labour through the country is far from requiring 
 that England should be, to the extent it is, "a nation of shop- 
 teepers," being of opinion, with Dr. T. L. NICHOLS, that 
 " this entire work could be done by one-tenth of the number 
 now employed, and at one-twentieth of the cost, with better 
 -articles, and a freedom from fraud and adulteration."
 
 31 
 
 AETICLE XXXIX. 
 
 Titles of Honour ought never to pass from Parent to 
 Child ; and Bequests, as well as property left by Intestates, 
 ought all to be subject to examination, and (so far as Justice 
 and the interests of the Community may require) to modifi- 
 cation, by the State. 
 
 We believe that no man has the right to do wrong ; and we 
 say "No!" to the question propounded by a recent Duke of 
 Newcastle: "May I not do as I like with my own?" We 
 believe indeed that very much wrong is done as regards the 
 distribution of property particularly after death. On this 
 subject, we are of opinion, with Professor BLACKIE, that, so far 
 from a man being entitled by the law of Nature to make a 
 Will so as to have it respected after his death, "the stage is 
 clear when he is gone ; and, whatever his wish and preference 
 while alive may have been, the survivors have rights to assert, 
 above which the desire of a departed person can have no call to 
 despotize ; and further, we share MATTHEW ARNOLD'S " wish for 
 the extinction of Title (after the death of each present holder) 
 and for the dispersion of property by a stringent Law of Bequests" 
 At present, we recognise, with JOHN MACDONELL, that " we are 
 an ancestor-ridden people. In regard to the disposition of the 
 land," [we should not limit the proposition thus!] "forefathers 
 bully us, and dead men rule us from their graves. Each 
 generation takes its seat at the banquet of life with equal rights 
 to all with which Nature has spread the board ; none may take 
 his seat twice, and none may be excluded. So says Reason ; 
 but the custom of our country speaks differently : We may 
 dispose of but half the courses ; of the other half former 
 generations have disposed, saying who shall eat this and who 
 shall drink that." Such a state of affairs cannot possibly last 
 for ever ; we believe that it cannot, and we desire that it may 
 not, last for long ! While " Christian " feeling would lead us to 
 show great respect to the feelings and rights the merely 
 "legal" rights of those living persons who, unknown to them- 
 selves, and with the full sanction of the law, have become 
 possessors of what are re.ally " stolen goods," our sense and 
 conscience as "Socialists" oblige us, on the other hand, to bring 
 to light and vindicate, with all our power of reason and of 
 protest, those "natural" and "moral" rights of the oppressed 
 and deserving masses, which have been so long obscured ; and
 
 32 
 
 to resolve and endeavour that, if possible, to the Unborn, if not 
 to the Living, shall rise a " Sun of righteousness with Healing 
 on his wings"! "Accustomed enjoyments, and reasonable 
 expectations," as A. E.WALLACE says, "must not be interfered 
 with. But no such rule applies to the unborn. They have 
 neither expectations nor proprietary rights ; and they may be 
 justly disregarded when their supposed rights are opposed to 
 the general well-being of the community." 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. The Spectator, arguing against Socialism, shrewdly and truly re- 
 marks that "there is not a sentence in the Gospels implying that robbery 
 of the rich is more moral than robbery of the poor." We admit it. But 
 what is "robbery"? And is that term really applicable to our aims as 
 Socialists ? We admit, of course, that the Rich are legally entitled to their 
 wealth whether land or money, and that to strip them of any part of it 
 by illegal means would be an act of " robbery " in a legal, if not in a moral, 
 sense. But we as Christian Socialists do not propose to employ " illegal" 
 means ; nor "legal" means either, to do what is morally wrong ; but only 
 legal means to do what is morally riyht. Is it then "morally right" by 
 even legal means to deprive the Rich of any part of their possessions ? 
 Certainly not on the mere ground that they are "Rich." But if it can be 
 shown that any man, whether Rich or Poor, holds legal possession of aught 
 to which he has no moral right, and to which some other has a moral right, 
 we think we are justified in using legal means to rectify such wrong. Now 
 we believe (1) that no one man has a moral right to a larger share, in the 
 first instance, of Nature's gifts than any other man ; (2) that no one man 
 has a moral right to a better start in life to better opportunities of pros- 
 pering, so far as this depends on social arrangements than any other man ; 
 and we believe, further, that most of the wealth of wealthy men is due to 
 their having enjoyed either more than their proper share of Nature's raw 
 materials, or a better start in life than their compeers. And so believing, 
 we do not think it wrong to try to substitute a juster system for the one 
 which has permitted nay, encouraged these injustices. 
 
 B. Mr. Goldwin Smith clarum et venerabile nomen ! has recently 
 (1886) published a little book entitled "False Hopes; or Fallacies, Soci- 
 alistic and Semi-Socialistic, briefly answered." "False" indeed proved 
 the "Hopes" which the sight of the author's name excited in at least one 
 reader's breast ! And as to the "Fallacies " they are so numerous that it 
 is quite impossible for them to be "briefly answered," else they should be 
 answered here ! 
 
 C. It is the author's intention to publish almost immediately a new 
 edition of a tract entitled " Society Classified ; or How far is the Saying 
 True that Everyone lives either by Working, or by Begging, or by 
 Stealing?" in which the question of an Idler's " money-payment " being, 
 or not being, a true economical, and a just, equivalent for the " personal 
 service rendered him," is thoroughly sifted.
 
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