PROLOGUE. TO-DAY we stand in the grey dawn of a new era. The shadows are lifting, and the mountain peaks above us are golden in the first gleam of day. A sincere belief that inquiry will elicit the truth, which alone can make us free, has brought about the growth of tolerance in the minds of Christian Englishmen, and the misery and despair which are directly paralysing millions, and indirectly saddening thousands of lives in all classes, are slowly but surely bearing their fruit in the conviction that wrongdoing and injustice are at the root of our social anarchy. The creed that little can be done by man to lighten the burden of suffering of his brothers is finally discredited. Last January; before an audience in London, a professed political economist said that "it is now apparent to all that the long and bitter controversy between economists and human beings has ended in the conversion of the economists." In another part of this issue will be found striking confirmation of this view, drawn from contemporary literature. Signs are not wanting to show that social disruption or social reform must shortly take place. "Bitter voices say it, voices of battle and of famine through all the world, which must be heard some day, who ever keeps silence." We declare for social reform. Who is on our side? To professing Christians we say, "You are bound to follow in your social life the commands you acknowledge in your private life. As men of business, and as citizens, whatever your shade of belief, you are bound to remember to 'Do justice and judgment.' You but our success by our cause." MILFORD. ONE PENNY. BY POST, 1d. YEARLY, 1s. 6d. ) are bound to investigate every proposed scheme of social reform, and to follow it out at any cost, if it would have met the commendation of the Poor Man of Nazareth." To the Radical, the Democrat, and the Socialist we say, with the deepest sympathy with their motives and their aims, that no legislative reform, no equalisation of voting power, no redistribution of wealth will effect the results they desire. Can the world be made happy by Acts of Parliament alone? Will those who now will not stir a finger to get votes use their electoral power truly well? Would the Socialist's object be really gained if every man in England were as wealthy as an alderman or an archbishop? We wish to go deeper into the heart of the matter than that. interest that one political party may be more often We shall find in dealing with matters of present on our side than the other; we shall find ourselves probably obliged to speak against the crimes and follies of certain strata of society nearly as strongly as the Christian communists of eighteen centuries ago. But we disclaim any political bias; we declare that class hatreds and class prejudices shall be excluded from our pages, and that to us "class" grievances have no meaning, for "Labouring man and labouring woman The belief that not hate but love is the law of life will cleanse our most vehement protests from the bitter personalities and disgraceful imputations of motive that too often supply the place of argument and patient discussion. If we believe our opinions. are based on truth, which is great and must prevail, we shall be able to advance them with a force that will gain from calm strength of conviction much more than it will lose by the absence of the energy of despair. If we think that the faults and vices of our poorer or more ignorant brothers are almost wholly the result of vicious conditions of life, our belief in the absolute equality and brotherhood of rich and poor, of wise and weak, will force us to extend pity to the peer whose pride ruins a province, as well as to the peasant whose folly desolates a home. In separating the sinner from the sin, our love for the man will not make our voice tremble in the denunciation of his crime, nor in the exposure of its hideous consequences. The Enthusiasm of Humanity that shrinks from resolute thinking and plain speaking in these days is a guilty and hypo critical sentiment. We, at any rate, are not afraid to take the name of which Maurice and Kingsley were proud, with all the broadened meaning of the term brought out by the lives and teachings of our predecessors in the title "Christian Socialist," and with all the added significance which Socialism has derived from 35 years of patient economic investigations. We are convinced that the fulfilment of the wish to give to the labourer the fruits of his labour, as well as the performance of the command that "if any would not work neither should he eat," should be the aim of those who are the disciples of Him who saw— The sin and sorrow in the world, the stream Of evil gathering on from age to age, With all its rocks and all its wrecks of life; And men's hearts hardened, and the tender lips Of women loud in laughter, and the sobs Of children helpless, and the sighs of slaves, And priests with dead lies for the living truth, And kings whose rights were in their people's wrong. And looking, the miraculous tender eyes, Upon these perishing and gone astray, Lifted the hands of help, alone, unarined, Struck singly out and dashed upon the rocks: And in that shock did meet His human doom Of suffering, and took it for a crown; So that for ever since in minds of men By some true instinct this life has survived In a religious, immemorial light, Pre-eminent in one thing most of allThe Man of Sorrows-and the Cross of Christ Is more to us than all His miracles. THE ORIGIN OF A LANDED GENTRY.-"What we call real estate the solid ground to build a house on--is the broad foundation on which nearly all the guilt of this world rests. A man will commit almost any wrong-he will heap up an immense pile of wickedness, as hard as granite, and which will weigh as heavily on his soul to eternal ages-only to build a great, gloomy, dark-chambered mansion for himself to die in, and for his posterity to be miserable in."-NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, UNCONSIDERED TRIFLES. "The Conservative party have lately started a new things to result from this exhibition of energy, but they magazine and a big club. No doubt they expect great are doomed to disappointment. They are merely adding a dab of fresh paint to a rotten structure." These are the words of Lord Dunraven. Not the least remarkable feature, however, in the formation of the new club is its name. It professes to be "constitutional," and yet the names which guarantee that quality are the names of men who have for three years succeeded in violating the first principles of the Constitution by sheer physical force, depriving a large constituency of its electoral rights, and degrading the House of Representatives to the level of a racecourse. The outrage at Monte Carlo, which occasioned so much excitement, has many parallels in London and other large towns. The desire of the conspirators at Monte Carlo was to create a panic, during which the tables would be deserted, and they could help themselves to the money. The desire of those who "operate " on the various markets is to cause a similar panic, during which stocks (whether of money or goods) are deserted, and the conspirators help themselves to the difference between the panic sale price and the amount which they demand for restoring the stock. The Liberty and Property Defence League has issued a circular to Members of Parliament in opposition to Mr. that it interferes with "freedom of contract." Those who Staveley Hill's Agricultural Holdings Bill, on the ground have studied the modern notions of "freedom of contract can form a very good idea of how misleading is the title of this League. We shall hope later on to further explain its objects. For the present, it may be sufficient to point out that the "liberty" it defends is the liberty of the rich to oppress the poor, and its notion of defending property is not very different from that which a pirate entertains after he has accumulated all he requires. We are told, and truly, that "Relief" degrades the recipient. But do we ever search deeper, and inquire into the real cause of the degradation? If owners of capital engage in business with owners of labour only, the former expect the latter to replace both the capital and the labour, but with this difference, that the capital is to take to its owners the whole of the increased wealth which is produced over and above what is necessary for the aforesaid replacement. When the partnership ceases the owners of capital withdraw the equivalent of their original property, and live on the increase. The owners of labour withdraw the equivalent of their original property, so many arms, legs, heads, &c., and live on "Relief." It is degrading to receive as charity that which your own exertion has produced. Lord Randolph Churchill is trying to make the best use of the few remaining years in which it may reasonably be expected that pocket-boroughs like Woodstock will be allowed a representative in Parliament. The course to which his fear has driven him is, however, scarcely a wise one. To attempt to disfranchise a large constituency is not the best way of distracting attention from the fact that in another constituency less than one-seventh of the number of electors return a representative to Parliament. Mr. H. Villiers Stuart, in his report on the condition of Egypt, says that, "in one small village the Greek had 200 acres, and no other inhabitant had more than a few acres left. The Greck's estate had been carved out of theirs, and the little community had been reduced by this means from prosperity to poverty.' |