II. LAMENNAIS; OR, CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM IN FRANCE III. CHARLES KINGSLEY; OR, CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND IV. LAMENNAIS AND KINGSLEY: A COMPARISON AND A CONTRAST INTRODUCTION. SOCIALISM, after a season of comparative quiescence, has of late once more assumed a threatening attitude. It is at this moment producing considerable agitation in several European countries, and has been the subject of diplomatic activity among their governments. Now, every movement which is strong enough to engage public attention will appear in a different light to different individuals and bodies of men according to their personal standpoint or corporate position. This applies more especially to movements affecting the well-being of society, as a whole, inasmuch as they aim at changes in the existing order vitally affecting large classes of men. The Church and the religious world, therefore, may justly regard the socialistic movement of the day from their own standpoint without incurring, or at least without meriting, the charge of "religious bias." In proportion as the religious interest is to religious persons chief in importance, they will naturally endeavour to guard it with a godly jealousy against adverse influences, real or supposed, arising from political or economic modifications or rearrangements such as are proposed by the would-be improvers of society. If the socialistic movement of the day has not attracted until quite recently to any great extent the attention of the religious world in this country, it is chiefly owing to the fact that to all outward appearances it has not yet taken root on British soil to the same extent as on the Continent. When, in the more stormy days of 1848, a wave of Socialism passed over England, a body of Christian Socialists immediately arose, with Maurice at their head and Kingsley for their spokesman, who claimed the right of the Church to take up a prominent position in relation to what appeared then a formidable social movement. With the disappearance of Chartism, the Christian Socialist movement, too, collapsed. It. must not be supposed, however, that the causes of social discontent have been removed altogether. Far from it. The mass meetings organized by the "Democratic Federation" for purposes of social agitation, attended by thousands of working men; the large sale of Mr. Henry George's now famous work on "Progress and Poverty," in a cheap and popular form; and many other facts and figures we could mention, prove the existence of a widely extended socialistic propaganda in the great centres of British industry, and of late, too, in country districts. It would be the height of imprudence to ignore the fact. For the social problem, supposing it to exist, must be faced sooner or later, as, no doubt, it is capable of a satisfactory solution on Christian principles. A reconciliation of conflicting class differences on the basis of Christian justice and liberality ought, at least, to be attempted. The spread of Christian knowledge and the formation of Christian character among the labouring classes under Church influence would go far towards reconciling them to their present position, whilst at the same time enabling them to improve it by their own exertions. It is well, therefore, not to under-estimate the force and direction of the movement in question, nor to neglect its study, but to appreciate the intimate connection which exists between Socialism in the best sense of the word and Christian philanthropy. Such is the line of thought taken up by Christian Socialism. Its main object is to establish the kinship between the genius of Christianity and that "passionate faith in the illimitable possibilities of human progress which has been variously expressed in the schemes put forward at different times by those social idealists, who now go under the general name of Socialists. But the distinguishing mark of Christian Socialism is its firm faith in the power of Christian ethics to bring about a complete transformation of industrial economy. Hence its main efforts are directed towards bringing about a reconciliation of classes with the fuller development of the passive virtues of Christianity, and with it ultimately a regeneration of society as the result of a previous improvement in the individual. From the growth of the active virtues of Christianity among all, it expects important social reforms, founded on Christian principle ; and these are to remove the causes of social discontent, and so bring about social peace; in short, Christian Socialism works by means of spiritual dynamics, or religious influence, whereas Socialism proper (at least, in its most recent forms) aims at a mechanical reconstruction, or governmental regulation, of society on purely materialistic principles. Yet, notwithstanding Su their essential differences, both have much in common, and are frequently met in company in the historical development of European society. Thus from the very first, when Christianity appeared in a corner of the Roman Empire, the constitution of the Church presented a new "type of social union," that of a |