and freshly minted idea to me, is the Parisian notion of Communism,
as far as I understand it, (which I don't profess to do altogether,
yet, or I should be wiser than I was, with a vengeance).
For, indeed, I am myself a Communist of the old school--reddest also
of the red; and was on the very point of saying so at the end of
my last letter; only the telegram about the Louvre's being on fire
stopped me, because I thought the Communists of the new school, as I
could not at all understand them, might not quite understand me. For
we Communists of the old school think that our property belongs to
everybody, and everybody's property to us; so of course I thought
the Louvre belonged to me as much as to the Parisians, and expected
they would have sent word over to me, being an Art Professor, to ask
whether I wanted it burnt down. But no message or intimation to that
effect ever reached me.
Then the next bit of new coinage in the way of notion which I have
picked up in Paris streets, is the present meaning of the French word
'Ouvrier,' which in my time the dictionaries used to give as 'Workman,'
or 'Working-man.' For again, I have spent many days, not to say years,
with the working-men of our English school myself; and I know that,
with the more advanced of them, the gathering word is that which I
gave you at the end of my second number--"To do good work, whether we
live or die." Whereas I perceive the gathering, or rather scattering,
word of the French 'ouvrier' is, 'To undo good work, whether we live
or die.'
And this is the third, and the last, I will tell you for the
present, of my new ideas, but a troublesome one: namely, that we
are henceforward to have a duplicate power of political economy; and
that the new Parisian expression for its first principle is not to be
'laissez faire,' but 'laissez refaire.'
I cannot, however, make anything of these new French fashions of
thought till I have looked at them quietly a little; so to-day I will
content myself with telling you what we Communists of the old school
meant by Communism; and it will be worth your hearing, for--I tell you
simply in my 'arrogant' way--we know, and have known, what Communism
is--for our fathers knew it, and told us, three thousand years ago;
while you baby Communists do not so much as know what the name means,
in your own English or French--no, not so much as whether a House of
Commons implies, or does not imply, also a House of Uncommons; nor
whether the Holiness of the Commune, which Garibaldi came to fight
for, had any relation to the Holiness of the 'Communion' which he
came to fight against.
Will you be at the pains, now, however, to learn rightly, and once
for all, what Communism is? First, it means that everybody must work
in common, and do common or simple work for his dinner; and that
if any man will not do it, he must not have his dinner. That much,
perhaps, you thought you knew?--but you did not think we Communists of
the old school knew it also? You shall have it, then, in the words
of the Chelsea farmer and stout Catholic, I was telling you of,
in last number. He was born in Milk Street, London, three hundred
and ninety-one years ago, (1480, a year I have just been telling my
Oxford pupils to remember for manifold reasons,) and he planned a
Commune flowing with milk and honey, and otherwise Elysian; and called
it the 'Place of Wellbeing' or Utopia; which is a word you perhaps
have occasionally used before now, like others, without understanding
it;--(in the article of the Liverpool Daily Post before referred to, it
occurs felicitously seven times). You shall use it in that stupid way
no more, if I can help it. Listen how matters really are managed there.
"The chief, and almost the only business of the government, [18]
is to take care that no man may live idle, but that every one may
follow his trade diligently: yet they do not wear themselves out with
perpetual toil from morning till night, as if they were beasts of
burden, which, as it is indeed a heavy slavery, so it is everywhere the
common course of life amongst all mechanics except the Utopians; but
they, dividing the day and night into twenty-four hours, appoint six
of these for work, three of which are before dinner and three after;
they then sup, and, at eight o'clock, counting from noon, go to bed
and sleep eight hours: the rest of their time, besides that taken
up in work, eating, and sleeping, is left to every man's discretion;
yet they are not to abuse that interval to luxury and idleness, but
must employ it in some proper exercise, according to their various
inclinations, which is, for the most part, reading.
"But the time appointed for labour is to be narrowly examined,
otherwise, you may imagine that, since there are only six hours
appointed for work, they may fall under a scarcity of necessary
provisions: but it is so far from being true that this time is not
sufficient for supplying them with plenty of all things, either
necessary or convenient, that it is rather too much; and this you
will easily apprehend, if you consider how great a part of all other
nations is quite idle. First, women generally do little, who are the
half of mankind; and, if some few women are diligent, their husbands
are idle: then,-- ..."
What then?
We will stop a minute, friends, if you please, for I want you before
you read what then, to be once more made fully aware that this farmer
who is speaking to you is one of the sternest Roman Catholics of
his stern time; and at the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, became Lord High
Chancellor of England in his stead.
"--then, consider the great company of idle priests, and of those that
are called religious men; add to these, all rich men, chiefly those
that have estates in land, who are called noblemen and gentlemen,
together with their families, made up of idle persons, that are kept
more for show than use; add to these, all those strong and lusty
beggars that go about, pretending some disease in excuse for their
begging; and, upon the whole account, you will find that the number
of those by whose labours mankind is supplied is much less than you,
perhaps, imagined: then, consider how few of those that work are
employed in labours that are of real service! for we, who measure
all things by money, give rise to many trades that are both vain and
superfluous, and serve only to support riot and luxury: for if those
who work were employed only in such things as the conveniences of life
require, there would be such an abundance of them, that the prices of
them would so sink that tradesmen could not be maintained by their
gains;"--(italics mine--Fair and softly, Sir Thomas! we must have a
shop round the corner, and a pedlar or two on fair-days, yet;)--"if
all those who labour about useless things were set to more profitable
employments, and if all that languish out their lives in sloth and
idleness (every one of whom consumes as much as any two of the men
that are at work) were forced to labour, you may easily imagine that
a small proportion 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: this appears very plainly
in Utopia; for there, in a great city, and in all the territory that
lies round it, you can scarce find five hundred, either men or women,
by their age and strength capable of labour, that are not engaged
in it! even the heads of government, though excused by the law,
yet do not excuse themselves, but work, that, by their examples,
they may excite the industry of the rest of the people."
You see, therefore, that there is never any fear, among us of the old
school, of being out of work; but there is great fear, among many
of us, lest we should not do the work set us well; for, indeed,
we thoroughgoing Communists make it a part of our daily duty to
consider how common we are; and how few of us have any brains or souls
worth speaking of, or fit to trust to;--that being the, alas, almost
unexceptionable lot of human creatures. Not that we think ourselves,
(still less, call ourselves without thinking so,) miserable sinners,
for we are not in anywise miserable, but quite comfortable for the
most part; and we are not sinners, that we know of; but are leading
godly, righteous, and sober lives, to the best of our power, since
last Sunday; (on which day some of us were, we regret to be informed,
drunk;) but we are of course common creatures enough, the most of us,
and thankful if we may be gathered up in St. Peter's sheet, so as not
to be uncivilly or unjustly called unclean too. And therefore our
chief concern is to find out any among us wiser and of better make
than the rest, and to get them, if they will for any persuasion take
the trouble, to rule over us, and teach us how to behave, and make
the most of what little good is in us.
So much for the first law of old Communism, respecting work. Then
the second respects property, and it is that the public, or common,
wealth, shall be more and statelier in all its substance than private
or singular wealth; that is to say (to come to my own special business
for a moment) that there shall be only cheap and few pictures, if any,
in the insides of houses, where nobody but the owner can see them; but
costly pictures, and many, on the outsides of houses, where the people
can see them: also that the Hôtel-de-Ville, or Hotel of the whole Town,
for the transaction of its common business, shall be a magnificent
building, much rejoiced in by the people, and with its tower seen far
away through the clear air; but that the hotels for private business
or pleasure, cafés, taverns, and the like, shall be low, few, plain,
and in back streets; more especially such as furnish singular and
uncommon drinks and refreshments; but that the fountains which furnish
the people's common drink shall be very lovely and stately, and
adorned with precious marbles, and the like. Then farther, according
to old Communism, the private dwellings of uncommon persons--dukes
and lords--are to be very simple, and roughly put together,--such
persons being supposed to be above all care for things that please
the commonalty; but the buildings for public or common service, more
especially schools, almshouses, and workhouses, are to be externally
of a majestic character, as being for noble purposes and charities;
and in their interiors furnished with many luxuries for the poor and
sick. And, finally and chiefly, it is an absolute law of old Communism
that the fortunes of private persons should be small, and of little
account in the State; but the common treasure of the whole nation
should be of superb and precious things in redundant quantity, as
pictures, statues, precious books; gold and silver vessels, preserved
from ancient times; gold and silver bullion laid up for use, in case
of any chance need of buying anything suddenly from foreign nations;
noble horses, cattle, and sheep, on the public lands; and vast spaces
of land for culture, exercise, and garden, round the cities, full of
flowers, which, being everybody's property, nobody could gather; and
of birds which, being everybody's property, nobody could shoot. And,
in a word, that instead of a common poverty, or national debt, which
every poor person in the nation is taxed annually to fulfil his part
of, there should be a common wealth, or national reverse of debt,
consisting of pleasant things, which every poor person in the nation
should be summoned to receive his dole of, annually; and of pretty
things, which every person capable of admiration, foreigners as well as
natives, should unfeignedly admire, in an æsthetic, and not a covetous
manner (though for my own part I can't understand what it is that I am
taxed now to defend, or what foreign nations are supposed to covet,
here). But truly, a nation that has got anything to defend of real
public interest, can usually hold it; and a fat Latin communist gave
for sign of the strength of his commonalty, in its strongest time,--
"Privatus illis census erat brevis,
Commune magnum;" [19]
which you may get any of your boys or girls to translate for you,
and remember; remembering, also, that the commonalty or publicity
depends for its goodness on the nature of the thing that is common,
and that is public. When the French cried, "Vive la République!" after
the battle of Sedan, they were thinking only of the Publique, in the
word, and not of the Re in it. But that is the essential part of it,
for that "Re" is not like the mischievous Re in Reform, and Refaire,
which the words had better be without; but it is short for res,
which means 'thing'; and when you cry, "Live the Republic," the
question is mainly, what thing it is you wish to be publicly alive,
and whether you are striving for a Common-Wealth, and Public-Thing;
or, as too plainly in Paris, for a Common-Illth, and Public-Nothing,
or even Public-Less-than-nothing and Common Deficit.
Now all these laws respecting public and private property, are
accepted in the same terms by the entire body of us Communists of the
old school; but with respect to the management of both, we old Reds
fall into two classes, differing, not indeed in colour of redness,
but in depth of tint of it--one class being, as it were, only of a
delicately pink, peach-blossom, or dog-rose redness; but the other,
to which I myself do partly, and desire wholly, to belong, as I told
you, reddest of the red--that is to say, full crimson, or even dark
crimson, passing into that deep colour of the blood which made the
Spaniards call it blue, instead of red, and which the Greeks call
phoinikeos, being an intense phoenix or flamingo colour: and this
not merely, as in the flamingo feathers, a colour on the outside,
but going through and through, ruby-wise; so that Dante, who is one
of the few people who have ever beheld our queen full in the face,
says of her that, if she had been in a fire, he could not have seen
her at all, so fire-colour she was, all through. [20]
And between these two sects or shades of us, there is this difference
in our way of holding our common faith, (that our neighbour's property
is ours, and ours his,) namely, that the rose-red division of us are
content in their diligence of care to preserve or guard from injury
or loss their neighbours' property, as their own; so that they may be
called, not merely dog-rose red, but even 'watch-dog-rose' red; being,
indeed, more careful and anxious for the safety of the possessions
of other people, (especially their masters,) than for any of their
own; and also more sorrowful for any wound or harm suffered by any
creature in their sight, than for hurt to themselves. So that they are
Communists, even less in their having part in all common well-being
of their neighbours, than part in all common pain: being yet, on the
whole, infinite gainers; for there is in this world infinitely more
joy than pain to be shared, if you will only take your share when it
is set for you.
The vermilion, or Tyrian-red sect of us, however, are not content
merely with this carefulness and watchfulness over our neighbours'
good, but we cannot rest unless we are giving what we can spare of
our own; and the more precious it is, the more we want to divide it
with somebody. So that above all things, in what we value most of
possessions, pleasant sights, and true knowledge, we cannot relish
seeing any pretty things unless other people see them also; neither
can we be content to know anything for ourselves, but must contrive,
somehow, to make it known to others.
And as thus especially we like to give knowledge away, so we like
to have it good to give, (for, as for selling knowledge, thinking it
comes by the spirit of Heaven, we hold the selling of it to be only
a way of selling God again, and utterly Iscariot's business;) also,
we know that the knowledge made up for sale is apt to be watered
and dusted, or even itself good for nothing; and we try, for our
part, to get it, and give it, pure: the mere fact that it is to be
given away at once to anybody who asks to have it, and immediately
wants to use it, is a continual check upon us. For instance, when
Colonel North, in the House of Commons, on the 20th of last month,
(as reported in the Times,) "would simply observe, in conclusion,
that it was impossible to tell how many thousands of the young men
who were to be embarked for India next September, would be marched,
not to the hills, but to their graves;" any of us Tyrian-reds "would
simply observe" that the young men themselves ought to be constantly,
and on principle, informed of their destination before embarking;
and that this pleasant communicativeness of what knowledge on the
subject was to be got, would soon render quite possible the attainment
of more. So also, in abstract science, the instant habit of making
true discoveries common property, cures us of a bad trick which
one may notice to have much hindered scientific persons lately, of
rather spending their time in hiding their neighbours' discoveries,
than improving their own: whereas, among us, scientific flamingoes
are not only openly graced for discoveries, but openly disgraced for
coveries; and that sharply and permanently; so that there is rarely
a hint or thought among them of each other's being wrong, but quick
confession of whatever is found out rightly. [21]
But the point in which we dark-red Communists differ most from other
people is, that we dread, above all things, getting miserly of virtue;
and if there be any in us, or among us, we try forthwith to get it made
common, and would fain hear the mob crying for some of that treasure,
where it seems to have accumulated. I say, 'seems,' only: for though,
at first, all the finest virtue looks as if it were laid up with the
rich, (so that, generally, a millionaire would be much surprised
at hearing that his daughter had made a petroleuse of herself, or
that his son had murdered anybody for the sake of their watch and
cravat),--it is not at all clear to us dark-reds that this virtue,
proportionate to income, is of the right sort; and we believe that
even if it were, the people who keep it thus all to themselves,
and leave the so-called canaille without any, vitiate what they keep
by keeping it, so that it is like manna laid up through the night,
which breeds worms in the morning.
You see, also, that we dark-red Communists, since we exist only
in giving, must, on the contrary, hate with a perfect hatred all
manner of thieving: even to Coeur-de-Lion's tar-and-feather extreme;
and of all thieving, we dislike thieving on trust most, (so that,
if we ever get to be strong enough to do what we want, and chance
to catch hold of any failed bankers, their necks will not be worth
half an hour's purchase). So also, as we think virtue diminishes in
the honour and force of it in proportion to income, we think vice
increases in the force and shame of it, and is worse in kings and
rich people than in poor; and worse on a large scale than on a narrow
one; and worse when deliberate than hasty. So that we can understand
one man's coveting a piece of vineyard-ground for a garden of herbs,
and stoning the master of it, (both of them being Jews;)--and yet the
dogs ate queen's flesh for that, and licked king's blood! but for two
nations--both Christians--to covet their neighbours' vineyards, all
down beside the River of their border, and slay until the River itself
runs red! The little pool of Samaria!--shall all the snows of the Alps,
or the salt pool of the Great Sea, wash their armour, for these?
I promised in my last letter that I would tell you the main meaning
and bearing of the war, and its results to this day:--now that you
know what Communism is, I can tell you these briefly, and, what is
more to the purpose, how to bear yourself in the midst of them.
The first reason for all wars, and for the necessity of national
defences, is that the majority of persons, high and low, in all
European nations, are Thieves, and, in their hearts, greedy of their
neighbours' goods, land, and fame.
But besides being Thieves, they are also fools, and have never yet been
able to understand that if Cornish men want pippins cheap, they must
not ravage Devonshire--that the prosperity of their neighbours is,
in the end, their own also; and the poverty of their neighbours, by
the communism of God, becomes also in the end their own. 'Invidia,'
jealousy of your neighbour's good, has been, since dust was first
made flesh, the curse of man; and 'Charitas,' the desire to do
your neighbour grace, the one source of all human glory, power,
and material Blessing.
But war between nations (fools and thieves though they be,) is not
necessarily in all respects evil. I gave you that long extract from
Froissart to show you, mainly, that Theft in its simplicity--however
sharp and rude, yet if frankly done, and bravely--does not corrupt
men's souls; and they can, in a foolish, but quite vital and faithful
way, keep the feast of the Virgin Mary in the midst of it.
But Occult Theft,--Theft which hides itself even from itself, and
is legal, respectable, and cowardly,--corrupts the body and soul of
man, to the last fibre of them. And the guilty Thieves of Europe,
the real sources of all deadly war in it, are the Capitalists--that
is to say, people who live by percentages or the labour of others;
instead of by fair wages for their own. The Real war in Europe, of
which this fighting in Paris is the Inauguration, is between these
and the workmen, such as these have made him. They have kept him
poor, ignorant, and sinful, that they might, without his knowledge,
gather for themselves the produce of his toil. At last, a dim insight
into the fact of this dawns on him; and such as they have made him
he meets them, and will meet.
Nay, the time is even come when he will study that Meteorological
question, suggested by the Spectator, formerly quoted, of the
Filtration of Money from above downwards.
"It was one of the many delusions of the Commune," (says to-day's
Telegraph, 24th June,) "that it could do without rich consumers." Well,
such unconsumed existence would be very wonderful! Yet it is,
to me also, conceivable. Without the riches,--no; but without the
consumers?--possibly! It is occurring to the minds of the workmen that
these Golden Fleeces must get their dew from somewhere. "Shall there
be dew upon the fleece only?" they ask:--and will be answered. They
cannot do without these long purses, say you? No; but they want to
find where the long purses are filled. Nay, even their trying to burn
the Louvre, without reference to Art Professors, had a ray of meaning
in it--quite Spectatorial.
"If we must choose between a Titian and a Lancashire cotton-mill,"
(wrote the Spectator of August 6th, last year, instructing me in
political economy, just as the war was beginning,) "in the name of
manhood and morality, give us the cotton-mill."
So thinks the French workman also, energetically; only his mill is
not to be in Lancashire. Both French and English agree to have no
more Titians,--it is well,--but which is to have the Cotton-Mill?
Do you see in the Times of yesterday and the day before, 22nd and
23rd June, that the Minister of France dares not, even in this her
utmost need, put on an income tax; and do you see why he dares not?
Observe, such a tax is the only honest and just one; because it tells
on the rich in true proportion to the poor, and because it meets
necessity in the shortest and bravest way, and without interfering
with any commercial operation.
All rich people object to income tax, of course;--they like to pay
as much as a poor man pays on their tea, sugar, and tobacco,--nothing
on their incomes.
Whereas, in true justice, the only honest and wholly right tax is
one not merely on income, but property; increasing in percentage as
the property is greater. And the main virtue of such a tax is that
it makes publicly known what every man has, and how he gets it.