NATIONS.

'And that which we believe to be true for a single people, we believe to be true for all. There is but one sun in heaven for the whole earth: there is but one law of truth and justice for all who people it.

'Inasmuch as we believe in Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and Association for individuals composing the State, we believe also in the Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and Association of Nations.

'We believe that the map and organization of Europe are to be remade.

We believe, in a word, in a general organizantion having God and his law at the summit, Humanity, the universality of Nations free and equal at its base, common progress for end, alliance for means, the example of those peoples who are most loving and most devoted for encouragement on the way?

We do not believe that men can righteously band together to commit wrong; nor that by any combination or assembling of numbers, they can escape from the individual responsibility of their moral being.

We believe that Wrong is wrong, whether perpetrated by individuals or by nations that Right does not alter its character, whether its pursuer be one or a multitude.

A Nation is an assemblage and combination of individuals: each of whom is endowed with conscience, each of whom is bound by his very nature to combat evil, each of whom is impelled by the divine law of his being to seek good and to maintain the right. Their very assembling and combination as a body is that they more effectually combat evil, seek good, and maintain and perpetuate the right.

To grow healthily, to love, to aspire, and to progress,-this is as much the destiny of Nations as of the individuals of which Nations are composed.

If equal liberty is the right of each member of the Nation in relation to his fellows, not only in the Nation but throughout the whole world,-so is it the right of the collective body-the Nation, in relation to all other Nations. If one Nation may be shut out of the pale of national liberty, what becomes of the universal equality and liberty of mankind?

If it is the duty of Man in his Nation to serve Humanity, it is equally the duty of the Nation, as an organization of Men, to serve Humanity. Else the individual serves not Humanity, but some national egotism.

'Peoples are the individuals of Humanity.' As men differ from one another in character, aptitude, or calling, so also do Peoples. Their national organization is the means, not only of perfecting that special character, but of applying the various aptitude and calling toward one great object-the progress of the whole of life. England, if an organization of healthy, high-thoughted men, would recognize itself as the world's servant; would toil for that, not for the wretched aggrandizement of England against the world, or without care for the world. England, now stealing in every corner of the earth for the most wretched aggrandizement of Self, would then be no more hated or despised as a bullying ruffian or an unprincipled eyeless-needle-selling pedlar, but loved and honoured as the brave champion of Freedom and ablest civilizer of the time. But what would become then of the miserable doctrine of NON-INTERVENTION,-the refuge or pretence of Whig knaves, the shallow subterfuge of traders who care nothing if

the whole world go to wreck so they may have a percentage on the breaking up? The mission of a Nation is the same as that of an individual: to assert its own rights and to fulfill its duty toward others. The duty consists in associating with others, for the maintenance of their rights, for the sake of mutual growth, for the realization of the brotherhood of Humanity.

'How very wicked!' says some atheisical peace-monger: And you would actually have nations go to war in defence of other nations?' Yes, certainly, if Right should demand it. For we believe in God, in his law of association and progress, in the harmony of the universe: that is to say, we believe that, as an individual cannot detach himself from his kind without breaking the chain of human life, so a nation cannot as one man isolate itself from the world without causing a million-fold greater gap. I call the peace-monger atheistical, because his amiable egotism loses sight of this, forgets God and his scheme; because his theory (I do not meddle with his undeniable 'good intentions,' which so 'pleasantly' pave the hell-path of the worst despotisms, but only with his theory) would make life anarchical. Every man for himself and no God for us all.

If

For what is human brotherhood?' Seeing one's brother quietly murdered unless the stone-deaf assassin will listen to our eloquence? Standing out of the way to see our brother wronged? English law of all periods, and English sense of some, would call this being an accomplice in the wrong. I see a wrong being committed, I have the power of preventing it, I do not prevent it. Whatever sympatbetic cant may froth my lips, my deed consents to the wrong-I am the accomplice. The wrong-doer's accomplice,-is not he wrong-doer also? Richard Cobden had been brother to Cain, would he have stood by with folded hands, prating of peace proprieties, while he saw the Righteous murdered? Or is only the murderer his brother's keeper,' and the accomplice no blood-relation? When History shall gibbet Assassin Barrot for his ruffianly outrage upon Rome, she will hang beneath him his dastardly accomplices-the 'English' Whigs and their 'liberal' supporters.

Non-intervention between States is the same as Laissez-faire between individuals: the liberty of the strongest-the right of ruffianism-ANARCHY.

Republicanism is opposed to anarchy. We would organize. Let the Nation, as the Individual, be the true servant, and soldier (if need be), of God upon the earth,-serving, or fighting, as the case may be, for God's children, his brethren, under the sure leadership of Justice-who does not fear lest 'the heavens should fall' upon the shop while she is out on duty. O, again for a real government of England, echoing the people's heart, to hurl its armed hand in the teeth of the beast Tyranny, and by at least one manful act for 'God and his Right,' to redeem the national honour, now ever pawned by Tyranny's infamous subveners for any petty private object of their own. Promise-breaker!'-'traitor !'-coward!'Why should a Nation endure taunts which would rouse a slave? Win we our Republican Government, and our name may be redeemed: then only. When a healthy Nation shall take its place among the struggling Peoples, as a brother among his equals, lovingly to aid them in their aspirations and in their progress; weighing peace (O, ever-desired peace) and war, not in the false scales of diplomatic intrigue or personal baseness, but in the eternal balance of Right and Wrong. Loving peace, the Republic will not, like some shabby monarchy, flinch

from war when it sees a brother-nation attacked in the first of all rights-the right of an independent individuality. The escaping slave shall not be hunted back to slavery, nor even given up to the hunters, by the true Republican. Jealously as he would guard his own individuality-which even himself cannot alienate or make the slave of another, so will he defend the liberty of even the least of his brethren.

Peoples are the individuals of Humanity. Nationality is the sign of their individuality, and the guarantee of their liberty: it is sacred. Indicated at once by tradition, by language, by a determined aptitude, by a special mission to fulfill, it ought to be held sacred, in order that it may be free to harmonize itself with the whole, and to assume its proper functions for the amelioration of all, for the progress of Humanity?

Apply these principles to the present partitioning of Europe, and it will be clear why the Republican believes in the necessity of remaking the map and organization of Europe,' to bring them into accordance with his faith. Poland parted among thieves-Italy-Hungary-Germany-Greece: there is no need to enumerate. Draw these upon the republican map, and say, where will be the present landmarks? Where the 'existing' empires? The present arrangement of Europe has been made for the benefit of a few families, in violation of the most decisive marks of nationality, in order to facilitate the spoliation of the peoples. All that arrangement of Vienna shall be torn to pieces by the Republican Nations, and their natural boundaries, recognized at an European Congress, be thenceforth assured.

'We believe that a pact, a congress of the representatives of all nationalities, constituted and recognized, having for mission to serry the holy alliance of Peoples and to formalize the common right and duty, are at the end of all our efforts.'

So shall the free Nations, standing each in its own perfect dignity, be as a band of brothers, sworn to serve God and to extirpate Tyranny from the world.

SUMMARY

We believe in EQUALITY, LIBERTY, and FRATERNITY: in the equal ground of human right, on which alone true freedom can be based,-the freedom which is not the unlimited sway of the stronger, but the opportunity of healthy growth to the utmost of natural capability for the weakest as well as for the mightiest, in order that the fullest perfection of each may be obtained, toward a brotherly combination of strengths for the surer and greater progress of the whole world.

We believe in the PERFECTIBILITY OF THE HUMAN RACE: that is to say in its power of continual improvement. And we believe that this improvement may be systematized, and insured, and immensely accelerated, by men acting in concert, in ASSOCIATION,-freely organizing themselves under the Government of the Wisest and Most Virtuous among them.

We believe that Government, however chosen or however worthy of rule, is not required by society to be the dictator over the lives of individuals—as a

f With the exception of France-the non-partitioning of which the now regretting. They shall some day know regret for England too, under her oligarchy, so pliant a tool for despotism.

Holy Alliance' is for all she is now,

central despotism would be-but to order the combined action of the whole Nation and to protect the rights of all. We believe that the world-old circles of FAMILY, CITY, and COUNTRY, are natural arrangements, and worth preserving. That, as the Individual is complete in his own nature, so the Family is also a perfect sphere, needing no ordering from authority, the City also sufficient to itself for all its own requirements, and the Country the same-a special workroom, built by God for a special purpose, whose walls shall not be thrown down.

We believe that the business of GOVERNMENT is to do that which neither the Individual nor the City can efficiently do: to maintain throughout the Nation the harmony of equal rights, which includes provision that the best means of growth at the nation's command shall be furnished to all the individuals of the nation. It is therefore the province of Government to guard the LAND--which is common property-from the encroachment of individuals,-to care that none hold it without paying a fair rent for it to the State, and that it shall never be so monopolized, at whatever rent, that any shall be debarred from it; to protect the PRIVATE PROPERTY-the honest earnings and acquirements—of individuals; to maintain the RIGHT TO LABOUR by lending the CREDIT of the state to all who need it, so insuring to every one employment at a fair remuneration; and to provide the highest possible EDUCATION for every one of the nation's children.

We believe that the only Government which can safely be trusted with these powers is the Elect of the Nation, empowered by THE MAJORITY to act for them. We believe that the right to rule resides only in a Majority: their rule being only limited by the RIGHT OF THE INDIVIDUAL. The most overwhelming Majority may not override the right of an independent nature. Society and Individuality are mutually sacred and inviolable.

Nevertheless we believe in INDIVIDUAL DUTY: that every one (saving his right of conscience) ought to enroll himself dutifully in the ranks of his fellow-men, to act obediently within the appointed and ascending spheres of organization, to devote the utmost of his powers to the service of his Family, his Country, the World, and Truth.

And we believe that, based upon a written constitution recognizing these rights and duties, the Nation may be so organized that the long sought problem of the HARMONIZATION OF INDIVIDUAL WELFARE WITH NATIONAL PROGRESS may be speedily solved, and the present Anarchy give place to Order, under which we shall thenceforth be enabled to fulfill God's law-the Destiny of Life-to grow healthily, to love, to aspire, and to progress.

We believe, in a word, in the possibility of a social state, based upon already ascertained rights and duties, in which might be forthwith commenced the realization of the 'dream' of all prophetic minds,-the beginning of the BETTER TIME, in which the wretchedness of extreme want might immediately cease, and strife and wrong gradually diminish, checked by the strong hand of enthroned justice, and fading from the ever-increasing light of education and of hope.

Such is the aim of our exertions for our own Country. And for the Nations we believe with a no less fervent hope: looking for the establishment of the universal FEDERATION OF REPUBLICS, for the proclamation of God's Law as the religion and rule of the enfranchized and organized World. May our own Nation

be of the first to swear fealty to the common pact, among the worthiest of endeavourers to reach the goal,-that goal which will be but the starting-place of the Genius of Humanity, toward the indefinite perfection of the future.

Is all this utopian? Not so. We do not undermine the Present nor fling away the Past. We would build upon the Present, laying sure foundations. We ignore neither tradition nor history, We would preserve, with more than 'conservative' zeal, all that has already been gained for Humanity. We do not think of overthrowing all, expecting, after a general scramble, some fine day to begin the world anew. Neither are we Utopians of the 'finality' school We are practical men, who would work with means lying around us, toward an end logically deduced from ascertained premises, clear to the universal conscience. We take our stand upon the equal brotherhood of Freedom, that ground which Christian Europe from one end of it to the other has already recognized, at least in words and thereupon we would build our future. What sane man will contest our principles ?' What slave, in his heart acknowledging their truth, will remain silent? I at least-if none other will-must repeat in the ears of my countrymen the appeal of the Apostles of Democracy :

To all who share our faith:

'To all those who think that every divorce, even for a time, between thought and action, is fatal:

To all those who feel stirring within their hearts a holy indignation against the display of brute force which is made in Europe, in the service of Tyranny and Falsehood :'

WORKING-MEN! I appeal to you. To you first, because among you, victimized but not yet vitiated by the selfishness of Trade, I have found that clearness and integrity of soul, the simplicity of the loving nature, which enables you almost intuitively to comprehend great principles, and courageously to devote your lives to their realization:

STUDENTS, ARTISTS AND MEN OF LETTERS! I appeal to you. To you who pride yourselves upon a generous education, you by your daily studies introduced to a companionship with the illustrious of the great Republic of Genius, who have learned even from the lips of the wisest of all time those heavenward aspirings which should sanctify your lives as priests of Truth, raising you above the commonness of mean and cowardly thoughts:

YOUNG MEN! Who yet trust the inspiration of hope, whose souls are pure, whose days are not yet bowed and crippled by the ignoble yoke of a huckstering egotism, whose hearts are not yet eaten out by commerce, who yet are able to believe and love and dare,-to you also I appeal :

Which of you, who have read these Chapters will join me in an endeavour to spread their principles yet further, to commence the propagandism of faith, to throw wide the seed for our harvest? I do not ask you to agree with every

detail, with every bearing of the argument, nor, still less, that you should adopt my phraseology. Look beyond word-faults and, it may be, cloudy reasonings, to the principles themselves; and say if you can subscribe to them. me to begin the foundation of the English Republic.

Then join

W. J. LINTON.