WCP6657

[1] [p. 255]

with, on the whole, most satisfactory results. On the one hand, the socialists are agreed that, as a first step, free access to land, with a view to its future nationalization is vitally important; while on the other hand, the workers no longer say, as they did at the congress, "Land nationalization will be of no use to us." This is an important advance in the short space of twenty years.

Among the few eminent men who joined our movement was Professor F.W. Newman¹, and I had the pleasure of meeting him several times at the house of my friend Mr. A. C. Swinton², and I also had some correspondence with him; but there is little in the few letters I have worth quoting. The following is the concluding paragraph of a letter dated June 6, 1882: "Our duty is to do what we can, in detail; but the longer I live the less hope I have of justice, without changes so great in the persons who hold power that it will be called a revolution. I mean justice, not as to land tenure only, but as to many other things equally sacred, perhaps more vital. Until popular indignation rises, I expect no result; and when it rises it may seem easier to make a clean sweep than carry a quarter measure.

Be assured that I look up to you with gratitude."

"F.W. Newman."

Soon after our society was started, Henry George³, author of that remarkable work, "Progress and Poverty," came to England, and I had the pleasure of making his acquaintance. He spoke at several of our meetings and elsewhere in London, as well as in various parts of England and Ireland. He was a very impressive speaker, and always held his audience. His delivery was slow and deliberate; so much so as to appear sometimes as if he had broken down, but he was always cool and collected, and when the next sentence came one saw that the pause was made either for the purpose of choosing the right phrase or of producing a greater effect. The following passages, in a letter written from Dublin in November, 1881, soon after his arrival, show