the season sometimes to hear complaints, settle disputes, and now
and again to carry off some heinous offender. Twice Mr. Wallace had
an opportunity of seeing the little community under circumstances of
difficulty. During his first visit a man was caught trying to steal
a piece of iron from a neighbour, in whose wall he had made a hole
for the purpose. That evening most of the traders met to discuss the
affair, and decided to give the would be robber twenty lashes then
and there. “They were given with a small rattan, in the middle of the
street--not very severely, as the executioner appeared to sympathise a
little with the culprit. The disgrace seemed to be thought as much of
as the pain; for though any amount of clever cheating is thought rather
meritorious than otherwise, open robbery and housebreaking meet with
universal reprobation.” After a visit to the natives in the interior,
Mr. Wallace returned to Dobbo, and one evening saw a dispute going on
over a game of football. There was a great row, he says, and he feared
the disputants would betake themselves to their knives, not only the
two who began, but a dozen or twenty of their backers on each side.
But no. “After a large amount of talk, it passed off quietly, and we
heard nothing about it afterwards.” In fact, during the whole seven
months that Mr. Wallace was at or near Dobbo there does not appear to
have been any serious disturbance or any act of violence. “Where this
is possible amongst a casual population of rough and ready traders,
one of whose principal amusements is cock-fighting, it should not be
impracticable,” comments _Freedom_, “in a settled industrial community,
where the motives for peaceful mutual understanding would be far
stronger than amongst the semi-socialised self-seekers of Dobbo.”
It is interesting to know that the British Empire includes at least
two successful but unconscious Anarchist communities. The one is at
the island of St. Kilda, in the remote Hebrides, where government and
police are conspicuous only by their absence; the other is at Tristan
d’Acunha and Gough Island, the principal of a group of islands, which,
according to the “Colonial Office List,” are situate in lat. 37° 6′
S. and long. 12° 2′ W. It was taken possession of by a military force
during the residence of Napoleon at St. Helena. Upon his death, the
garrison was withdrawn, with the exception of three men, who, with
certain shipwrecked sailors, became the founders of the present
settlement. For a long time only one of the settlers had a wife, but
subsequently the others contracted with a sea captain to bring them
wives from St. Helena. The population has since increased to about a
hundred, and remains practically stationary, as the younger and more
ambitious settlers migrate in batches to the Cape. The inhabitants
practically enjoy the possessions in common, and there is no strong
drink on the island, and no crime. It was at one time proposed to give
them laws and a regular Government, but this was found unnecessary, for
the above reasons, and they remain under the moral rule of the oldest
inhabitant, Governor Green, successor to Governor Glass, corporal in
the Royal Artillery, and founder of the settlement. The inhabitants
are spoken of as highly religious, and this must be the explanation of
their success.
[Illustration: WHEN WILL HE GET THERE? (From an Anarchist Print.)]
X.
ANARCHISM IN ENGLAND: ITS HISTORY, LEADERS, AND PRINCIPLES.
It is now some twenty odd years since the gospel of knife, revolver,
torch, and bomb was first introduced into the arena of English
politics. At this time a “group” of Anarchists--among them the famous
Prince Kropotkin--met at a house in Newington Green Road and issued
a monthly “anti-political and revolutionary” publication called the
_Anarchist_, which later appeared as the _Revolutionary Review_.
Dissensions arising among the “companions,” a number, among whom was
the Prince, dissatisfied with the conduct of the paper, now seceded
and started a rival journal--_Freedom_--which appears at irregular
intervals to this day. Following on these events came the split in
the Social Democratic Federation, in 1884, owing to the political
and anti-anarchist policy of that body, a number of whose members
left and formed themselves into the Socialist League, which, from
its inception, evinced Anarchistic leanings, in that it favoured
forcible methods. A field having been created for their activity,
several Anarchists joined the new body with the object of diverting
its propaganda into Anarchistic channels. This they soon succeeded in
accomplishing, for, one by one, the Socialists deserted the League
in disgust, leaving the Anarchists masters of the situation, and in
possession of printing plant and machinery which had been presented to
that body by William Morris, the poet, for the furtherance of Socialist
principles. The Socialist League now-dissolved, and in its place
appeared the “Commonweal Anarchist Group” (named after the paper it
published), a number of whose members soon after, for various criminal
offences, fell into the hands of the police.
By its propagandist activity the “Commonweal Group” inspired the
formation of a number of English “groups” throughout London and the
provinces. In London, these “groups” were to be found at Canning Town
(with close on a hundred members), Hoxton, Peckham, Clerkenwell, Mile
End, Stratford, Woolwich, Brixton, and Deptford. In the provinces,
“groups” of English Anarchists were active in Leicester, Sunderland,
Hull, Northampton, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, and Walsall.
Among the foreigners who, in England, espoused the Anarchist gospel,
there existed a feeling of utter contempt for their moderate English
companions. Some half dozen first met in a small back room in Little
Goodge Street, Soho, about the time of the formation of the Socialist
League. As their numbers augmented, so they took more pretentious
premises in Rathbone Place, till eventually the lease of a house
was taken in Windmill Street. This latter establishment was the
now-historical “Club Autonomie,” within whose four walls was planned
more than one outrage which was destined to startle the world. One
of the earliest members of this club was Stanislaus Padlewski, who
some time afterwards murdered the Russian General Seliverstoff, and
himself escaped to America. A considerable sum was offered by the
Russian Government for the body of Padlewski, dead or alive. Tracked
by the police to Italy, to Malta, to Gibraltar, he arrived in London,
much broken down by this life of a hunted wild beast, and was taken in
charge by the “comrades” of the Autonomie. But no sooner had he arrived
in London than the police got scent of him, and commenced a real orgie
of espionage. He was hidden, however, and in a disguise provided by
members of the Autonomie, arrived safely on American soil, where, in
1891, he committed suicide in the park of San Antonio, Texas.
[Illustration: MALATESTA addressing the “comrades” at the “Club
Autonomie.”]
At this club, also, at different times, were to be seen men and
women whose names and appearance were familiar to the secret police
of practically every capital in Europe: Dedajeff, the slayer of
Colonel Sudekin; Louise Michel, the “Red Virgin,” who fought behind
the barricades in the Paris Communist Insurrection of 1871, and who,
in 1883, was sentenced to six years’ supervision for helping the
mob of Lyons to sack the bread shops; Enrico Malatesta, the leader
of the Italian Anarchists, and the most dangerous plotter of modern
times--who, however, whenever trouble comes--when the death of
kings and presidents is in the air--appears in the background; Felix
Volkovski, the one time sub-editor of Stepniak’s paper, _Free Russia_,
who, although not an Anarchist, was a frequent visitor; François
Meunier, who, extradited to France, was sent to penal servitude for
an explosion at the Café Very in Paris; Emile Henri, who blew up the
Café Terminus; Pietro Gori, the expelled Italian Anarchist lawyer;
Dr. Merlino; Emile Pouget, ex-editor of _Le Père Peinard_; Bernard
Kampffmeyer, and many others of lesser note. It may also be remembered
that one of the Walsall prisoners was arrested while passing the
Tottenham Court Road police station on his way to the Autonomie Club
with a large bottle of chloroform in his possession.
Bombs were even made in this club, and, in one or two instances, the
actual explosives with which the bombs were charged were stored for
a considerable time on the premises. Chemistry classes were formed
and experiments made, with the result that the club was burnt to the
ground. When the premises were rebuilt, the Anarchists did not inhabit
them long. One of the “comrades,” the Frenchman Martial Bourdin,
bent on destroying the Greenwich Observatory, was, one afternoon,
blown to pieces with his own bomb. In his possession was found a card
of membership of the Autonomie. That evening the police raided the
premises, and the club ceased to be.
Contemporary with the Autonomie there sprang up also a number of
foreign Anarchist clubs in London and the provinces--the Scandinavian
Club in Rathbone Place; the “Communistische Arbeiter Bildungs Verein”
in Great Charlotte Street; the German Club in Grafton Street, three of
whose members are now in penal servitude for an attempted burglary in
Dulwich and shooting a policeman; the German “Forwards” Club, Hoxton;
the Jewish International Club in Berner Street, E.; the Italian Club,
Clerkenwell, which comprised among its members the man Farnara, who,
with the boy Polti, were sentenced to ten and twenty years’ penal
servitude respectively for making bombs. In the provinces the most
active among the foreign groups were the German “Club Liberty” in Hull,
and the Jewish Club, Leeds.
Among the leaders of Anarchist thought in England it is surprising
how many, during the past few years, have recanted their opinions:
Henry Seymour, editor of the first Anarchist journal ever published
in English, is now a peaceful individualist, and occasionally takes
part in political agitation; H. B. Samuels, the one-time sensational
editor of the notorious _Commonweal_, has discarded Anarchist opinions
for those of Social Democracy; Dr. Merlino, once leader of the Italian
section, and Miss Agnes Henry of the Freedom Group, are now moderate
constitutional Socialists; Carl Quinn, the “Christian Anarchist,” has
severed his connection with the party, and is now a “Perpetualist”
(whatever that may be); and the Misses Rossetti, who edited and printed
the _Torch_, and who are related to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, have left
the movement for good.
Among the leaders of present-day Anarchism in England may be mentioned
the names of John Turner, president of the Shop Assistants’ Union;
Enrico Malatesta, the stormy petrel of revolt; and Prince Peter
Alexeivitch Kropotkin, the most distinguished of all Russian exiles.
It is difficult to imagine the latter--this quiet scientist--as a
leader of revolt, yet leader of revolt he certainly is. He is a regular
contributor to _Freedom_, as well as to Anarchist publications abroad.
His ideas may be judged by the following phrases taken from one of
his writings--“Law and Authority”--“Instead of inanely repeating
the old formula, ‘Respect the law,’ we say, ‘Despise law and all its
attributes!’ In place of the cowardly phrase ‘Obey the law,’ our cry
is, ‘Revolt against all laws!’ ... No more laws! No more judges! Burn
the guillotines; demolish the prisons; drive away the judges, policemen
and informers, the impurest race upon the face of the earth; treat as a
brother the man who has been led by passion to do ill to his brother.”
A wit has said that the profession of faith of the Anarchists reduces
itself to two articles of a fantastic law: (1) There shall be nothing.
(2) No one is charged with carrying out the above article. According
to the Manifesto of the Anarchist-Communist Alliance, the object
of Anarchism is the “paralysation of all existing authoritarian
institutions and organisations, the prevention of new organisations
of this character, and the expropriation of the rich.” And it further
candidly confesses that “when asked what we intend to put in their
place we reply, ‘Nothing whatever.’” Verily, to the Anarchist,
all is vanity and vexation of spirit; to him, social reformers
are “mere quacks, place-hunters, etc.;” political work is “idle
electioneering;” patriotism and religion are the “first and last
refuges and strongholds of scoundrels;” the very word “church” is a
“disgusting word” to the Anarchist; he has “no belief in trade-unions;”
“co-operation is” to him “impracticable;” while the “meanest and most
repulsive ‘friends’ of the workers,” he thinks, “are the teetotallers
and advocates of thrift and saving.”
To-day there are practically no purely English Anarchists, and
the foreign element here is gradually but surely dwindling and
disappearing. This is due largely to the political branch of the
Criminal Investigation Department, which, by its elaborate system of
espionage, has so estranged the “comrades” that mutual suspicion reigns
among them, and one “comrade” is afraid to trust another. It may be
asked, What of the English “groups” I have spoken of? Numbers of their
members, disgusted with the propaganda of violence, and convinced of
the falsity of Anarchy, have reverted to the political bodies they,
in most cases, originally seceded from, namely, the various Socialist
organisations throughout the country. Let no one imagine that these
latter bodies at all favour revolutionary methods. On the contrary,
every Socialist now-a-days is a constitutional political reformer, who
believes in achieving his ideal Commonwealth through the ordinary
channels of Parliamentary and municipal activity.
I have spoken of the Anarchist “movement,” but I have used the
word solely for convenience’ sake. For the only movement among the
Anarchists here in England is a struggle with fast-approaching
dissolution. What with the ever-increasing number of seceders who
desert the party to join the individualists or the Tolstoyans, and the
still larger number who enlist under the banner of Social Democracy,
together with the systematic police-spying, the cessation of the
various journals and the break-up of so many “groups” and clubs, the
Anarchists, as a party, are fast becoming defunct. I could give a long
list of groups and clubs which have lately become _non est_. In a year
or two Anarchism will be as extinct in England as the dodo.
XI.
SOME ANARCHIST APOSTLES.
I.--P. J. PROUDHON.
Pierre Joseph Proudhon has been described as the “Father of Anarchy.”
He was born at Besancon on the 15th January, 1809. His writings
and correspondence, which, in their entirety, fill no fewer than
forty-seven volumes, are regarded by the Anarchists as their Bible.
“What is Property?”--Proudhon’s first great work--was issued in 1840,
and created quite a stir. The question contained in the title he
himself answered in the words so often since adopted as a summary
of their belief on the point by Anarchists--“property is theft.” In
1842 his work, “A Notice to Proprietors,” was seized, and its author
summoned to the Assizes at Doubs. He read a written defence to the
jurors, who acquitted him.
In June, 1848, Proudhon was elected to the Constituent Assembly, as a
representative of the _Département de la Seine_, in opposition to his
Anarchist principles which forbade all dealings with authority or with
the State. Proudhon, says Langlois, “saw that the Constituent Assembly
was endangered by the coalition of the monarchical parties with Louis
Buonaparte, who was already planning his _coup d’état_.” He did not
hesitate to openly attack the man who had just received 5,000,000
of votes. He wanted to break the idol; he succeeded only in getting
prosecuted and condemned himself. The prosecution demanded against him
was authorised by a majority of the Constituent Assembly, in spite of
the speech which he delivered on that occasion. Declared guilty by the
jury, he was sentenced, in March, 1849, to three years’ imprisonment
and the payment of a fine of 4,000 francs, which he evaded by fleeing
to Belgium.
Anarchy, according to Proudhon, was the culmination of social
progress, and he deprecated and violently condemned the existence of
any authority other than a man’s own moral sense. “No more parties,”
he says; “no more authority; absolute liberty of the man and the
citizen--in three words, such is our political and social profession
of faith” (“Les Confessions d’un Révolutionnaire,” pp. 25-36). Such
opinions, even when put into writing, are all very well when held in
theory by people possessing education and a fair share of ordinary
commonsense, but it will at once be seen that tremendous danger arises
when half-educated men and women of the type of modern Anarchists,
who, owing to their own laziness or the pressure of circumstances
and environment, cherish a grievance against society at large. Such
writings, couched in violent language, only have the effect of
feeding the hatred of the discontented until at last they take the
revolutionary statements literally, and carry out in practice what was
taught as a theory. The faith the Anarchists have in Proudhon and his
writings proves the danger of such ideas being put into circulation
by the educated. Certainly there were some before Proudhon’s days
who preached the rottenness of society and occasionally hinted at
the desirability of a revolutionary upheaval, but it was Proudhon
who collated these opinions, and enlarged upon them with results the
disastrous effect of which can never be fully known.
Proudhon died near Paris, on the 19th of January, 1865.
II.--MICHAEL BAKOUNINE.
Michael Bakounine, “founder of Nihilism and apostle of Anarchy,”
was born of an ancient aristocratic Russian family in 1814. He was
an enthusiastic admirer of Proudhon. In Paris, in the year 1848, he
delivered a public appeal inciting the Poles and Russians to organise
a grand Pan-Slavonic revolutionary confederation. The Czar of Russia
demanded Bakounine’s expulsion from France, which was acceded to.
A reward of 10,000 roubles was next offered for his arrest and
transportation into Russian territory, but the Revolution of February
brought him back to France. However, he quickly quitted to attend at
the Congress of Slavs. After this he went to Dresden and became one of
the chiefs of the May revolution. Forced to fly from Dresden, he was
arrested, sent to prison, and condemned to death in May, 1850, which
sentence was afterwards commuted to imprisonment for life. Bakounine
escaped and fled to Austria, but was again arrested and sentenced to
death for high treason, which sentence was again commuted to life
imprisonment. The Austrian Government finally handed him over to the
Government of Russia. He was confined in a fort for several years, and
finally banished to Siberia, from which he managed to escape and obtain
passage to Japan, and from there to California. In 1860, he alighted,
like a thunderbolt, in London.
[Illustration: Founder of Nihilism and Apostle of Anarchy. (From _The
Anarchist_.)]
Here he assisted Herzen and Ogareff in editing and publishing the
“_Kolokol_” (The Bell), a revolutionary sheet which appealed to the
Poles and Russians to join hands in a revolutionary confederation.
On September 28, 1870, he organised an insurrection at Lyons, the
failure of which necessitated his flight to Geneva. The Paris Communist
rising of 1871 is attributed largely to the teaching and influence of
Bakounine.
Of the many writings of Bakounine, “God and the State” is, undoubtedly,
the most important. In opposition to Voltaire’s famous phrase, “If God
does not exist it will be necessary to invent him,” Bakounine puts this
extraordinary opposite, “If God exists, it will be necessary to abolish
him.” His Anarchistic sentiments may be judged from the following
excerpt from his “God and the State”: “In a word, we reject all
legislation, all authority, and all privileged, licensed, official, and
legal influence, even though arising from universal suffrage, convinced
that it can only turn to the advantage of a dominant minority of
exploiters against the interests of the immense majority in subjection
to them. Such is the sense in which we are really Anarchists.”
The famous “Revolutionary Catechism,” which some attribute to
Bakounine, and others to the Anarchist Netschajef, is as follows: “The
Revolutionist is a man under a vow.... If he continues to live in this
world, it is only in order to annihilate it all the more surely. A
revolutionary despises everything _doctrinaire_, and renounces the
science and knowledge of the world in order to leave it to future
generations; he knows but one science, that of destruction. For that,
and for that only, he studies mechanics, physics, chemistry, and
even medicine. For the same purpose he studies day and night living
science--men, their character, positions, and all the conditions of
the existing social order in all imaginary spheres. The object remains
always the same; the quickest and most effective way possible of
destroying the existing order.... For him exists only one pleasure, one
consolation, one reward, one satisfaction, the reward of revolution.
Day and night he must have but one thought--inexorable destruction....
For the purpose of irrevocable destruction a revolutionist can, and
may, often live in the midst of society, and appear to have the
most complete indifference to his surroundings. A revolutionist may
penetrate everywhere; into high society, among the nobility, among
shopkeepers, into the military, official or literary world, into the
‘third section’ (the secret police), and even into the Imperial Palace.”
The Catechism divides society into several categories; those in the
first of these categories are condemned to death without delay. “In
the first place we must put out of the world those which stand most in
the way of the revolutionary organisation and its work.” The members
of the second category are to be allowed to live “provisionally” in
order that “by a series of abominable deeds they may drive the people
into unceasing revolt.” The third class, the rich and influential,
must be exploited, for the sake of the revolution, and made to become
“our slaves.” With the fourth class, of Liberals of various shades of
opinion, arrangements must be made on the basis of their programme;
they must be initiated and compromised, and made use of for the
perturbation of the State. The fifth class, the _doctrinaires_, must
be urged forward, while the sixth and most important class consists
of the women, for making use of whom, for revolutionary purposes, the
Revolutionary Catechism gives explicit directions.
* * * * *
Bakounine died at Berne, in Switzerland, on July 2, 1876.
III.--ELISÉE RECLUS.
Although a leader of Anarchism in France, is also a professor of
geography at the Brussels Free University. He is the author of a
gigantic work entitled, “The Earth and its Inhabitants,” for which he
has been decorated by a French scientific society.
A revolutionist by nature, he took part in the Paris Communist
Insurrection of 1871, and was taken prisoner. Imprisoned for some time
on the convict ships in Brest Harbour, he was ultimately released
at the instance of an international appeal of men of science. His
Anarchist writings are not many, but they have been translated into
several languages.
Elie Reclus, brother of Elisée and librarian of the National Library
under the Commune, is also an Anarchist and an ethnologist of high
repute, and is employed in scientific work by the publishing house of
Hachette & Co.