lution of 1848, and was in consequence condemned to six months' imprisonment. After 1859 he was enabled, by the intercession of Humboldt, to reside in Berlin, where he produced his "System of Acquired Rights." This learned work was an application of the historical method to legal ideas and institutions; and it may perhaps be regarded as the first step in that intellectual development which led Lassalle into Socialism, since the net result of his studies was the discrediting of the chief existing social institutions.

The year 1862 marks the beginning of the two most remarkable careers in the history of modern Germany. In that year Bismarck became chief minister of Prussia, and entered on that line of policy which issued in the re-formation of the German Empire; and in the same year Lassalle began his leadership of the German proletariat and the organization of the Social Democracy. The future may yet reverse the estimate now entertained of these two men, and the significance of their lives and achievements, and put Lassalle on the pedestal that Bismarck has now occupied for a generation.

There had never ceased to be social discontent in Germany; as the peasantry developed into the proletariat, this discontent did not lessen; but the people had become hopeless. Reformations and revolutions had passed over Germany times without number, and still the lot of the poor seemed little improved, if any at any rate, the progress in their comfort and uplift had no just proportion to the general progress of Germany in wealth and intelligence. It was Lassalle's work to arouse these sluggish masses, to put new hope into their hearts, and to organize them for action. He did not begin with a

deeply reasoned philosophy of social life, or with any thorough knowledge of economic conditions and economic laws, still less with a well-considered practical programme. He began with a heart much moved by the sufferings of the poor, with a conviction that these were in large part unnecessary and remediable; and gradually, observing men and studying books as he went on, he worked out his ideas in a series of speeches and pamphlets, arriving at the last at a tolerably consistent philosophy and a thoroughly practical political programme.

A lecture that he delivered in 1862 on "The Workingman's Programme" was epoch-making -lucid in style, scientific in treatment. He declared that men were entering on a new era of history, of which the workingclasses will be the makers and representatives. He showed most strikingly the injustice and selfishness of present social institutions. The workers had no right to be contented with their lot; their too easy acquiescence was their ruin. The daring orator was prosecuted for this offence, but was fortunate enough to get off with a light fine. He was not lacking in audacity when he appeared in his own behalf before his judges. "You do not believe in revolution," he said, "but my studies have taught me to believe in revolution. It will either come in complete legality and with all the blessings of peaceif people are only wise enough to resolve that it shall be introduced in time and from above or it will one day break in amid the convulsions of violence, with wild, flowing hair, and iron sandals upon its feet. In one way or the other it will come, and when, shutting myself from the noise of the day, I lose myself in history- then I hear its tread."

In the following year, in "An Open Letter," Lassalle outlined a political and social-economic programme that was clear and practical. He advocated a separate political party of workingmen to secure State coöperative production as the only hope of betterment. The government should be asked, as a first measure, to pledge its credit to the working-classes to the amount of 100,000,000 thalers, to establish coöperative associations for production. To this extent Lassalle was a follower of Louis Blanc, as to practical methods. Nobody is entitled to say that the method would not succeed, until it has been fairly tried and its futility demonstrated. On the other hand, nobody is entitled to assert that the plan would succeed, because that is just what nobody knows. It is certainly worth trying, on a sufficiently extended scale to insure a fair experiment; and Germany, with her system of strongly centralized government, offers a peculiarly inviting field for the trial. Its failure would go far to prove Socialism to be economically impossible; its success would remove many of the most serious objections hitherto urged against Socialism. Is it because governments are afraid that the experiment might succeed that none of them have had the courage to try?

The idea of organizing the German workmen, and even of forming them into a separate political party, was by no means original with Lassalle. Others had preceded him in this line, and with several leaders who had the advantage of priority and a recognized position he and his projects came into violent collision. The result was for some time in doubt, and the final battle was fought at Frankfort-on-Main, May 17, 1863. Lassalle ad

G

dressed the thirteen hundred delegates present with great confidence and vehemence :

If you vote against me, if the great majority of the working-class vote against me, then I shall say to Herr Schulze [his chief opponent]: "You are right - these people are not yet educated enough to be helped." If I thought only of myself and my natural egoism, I should be compelled to desire ardently that you would decide against me; for if you, and not only you, but the great majority of the working-class were to do that, I should justified in the eyes of science and certain of being justified by history-withdraw quietly to science; I should, with a sad smile at your unreadiness, stretch myself out perhaps in the Gulf of Naples, and let the soft breezes of the South blow over me; I should spare myself a life full of torment, vexation and worry. Thus your decision would be exceedingly easy to bear. But you would lose one of the best friends of your class, and you would not only lose me, but perhaps for decades every one wishful to help you would be frightened. He would say to himself, "This class is not ready; let me be warned by the example of Lassalle." Therefore I tell you, by all the love for the cause of the working-class which I bear in me, my whole soul hangs on your decision.

Won by this persuasive version of "Codlin's your friend, not Short," the delegates voted almost unanimously in Lassalle's favor, and on May 23 following the "Universal German Working-men's Union Association" was formed, avowing as its fundamental principle, “the conviction that the adequate representation of the social interests of the German working-classes and the real removal of class antagonism in society can be secured only by universal, equal, and direct suffrage"; and as its purpose "the acquisition of such suffrage by peaceable and

legal means, and particularly by gaining over public opinion."

Universal suffrage was won in Germany in 1867,1 three years after Lassalle's death, but though the gaining of the ballot has doubtless promoted the recent growth of Social Democracy, the first streaks of the millennial dawn are not yet visible on the horizon, even to the most hopeful eyes. The agitation thus begun went on with varying success, but the leader became despondent towards the last over the slow rate of progress. There seemed indeed some prospect that the movement might collapse, when Lassalle became involved in an unfortunate love affair, which led to a duel in which he was mortally wounded, and expired August 31, 1864. "I shall not live to be forty years old," he had prophesied. Even if the bullet of his adversary had not slain him, disease would have claimed him in a few months more. His death caused consternation and even a temporary paralysis in the party he had formed, but after a time it rallied and pursued its course.

II

Before following its later history, let us pause to consider more carefully the contribution that Lassalle made to the movement. That contribution was so overrated at the time that there has since been some danger of underrating it. Lassalle was unquestionably a man of rare abilities and force. He had tremendous energy, uncom

1 This is true only as to elections for the Reischstag, for which all males of twenty-five years and over may vote. Equal suffrage, that is, suffrage for women, has not been granted even in imperial affairs. In the various States of the German Empire, suffrage is limited, even for males.