almost worships Eliza Cook, and is for ever quoting her poems, introducing each recitation as that pretty little verse by Miss Eliza,' or 'one of Miss Eliza's best.' He invariably asks me whether there is anything new in the book-line; and is extremely angry when I reply in the negative. When he hears a new song, he makes a note of it for my especial edification.

'Do I know him? Ah, now, I see what you're driving at. I know him fast enough. If he wasn't a hawful vagabond, he'd perhaps be a most respect-'I heard a pretty little thing last night, sir,' he will able man; but what might be, and what is, is two wery different horses.'

nature and abstract merits of its doctrines at more

I have generally found the cad to be a sprightly to carry out in practical experiment the principles of good-natured creature, rather too fond of indulging the economical system vaguely denominated Socialism. in 'chaff, but capable of displaying considerable This being the case, it is possible to inquire into the attachment to his regular customers. It would be impossible, within the narrow limits of this article, to do justice to my favourite conductors, but I cannot resist a temptation to lay before the reader a characteristic anecdote of Mr Edward Brown, or, as he is sometimes called, Smart Ned.

My friend Bilberry sometimes accompanies me to town; and as he has a strong objection to mount the box, I sacrifice my own comfort on the altar of friendship by riding inside. Bilberry is a popular lecturer of considerable fame, and what is more to the point, a very charming companion. He is a huge man, with a jolly round face, which is slightly tinted by the best of clarets. He dresses in a very clerical style; and his turned-up hat, gold spectacles, and black suit, gave him the outward semblance of some high-church | dignitary. A few mornings ago, we met at the corner of the road, and waited for our omnibus, which happened to be the one to which Mr Brown is attached. On our way to town, I could not help noticing that worthy's frequent glances at my portly friend. Every now and then he would peep cautiously into the vehicle, and look at Bilberry's hat, his shoes, or his spectacles. At last he dismounted from his elevated post, and took up a position on the step, so that he might enjoy an uninterrupted view of the lecturer. He seemed completely fascinated with the massive gold spectacles, and never averted his gaze for a moment. At Charing Cross I got out, and Bilberry followed. Brown touched his hat to him with a reverential air.

'Beg your pardon, sir,' said he; 'may I speak with you a minute?'

What is it, my man-what is it?' asked my friend.

'I'm afraid, sir, you'll think me wery rude, but the fact is, me and the driver has a bet on about you.'

A bet about me, man? What do you mean?' Bilberry is rather irascible, and will not be trifled

with.

"Well, sir, it's rather a ticklish question to put to you, but ain't you Cardinal Wiseman?'

'Cardinal Wiseman!' roared Bilberry, flourishing his cane.

'Do you mean to insult me, you impertinent rascal. I have a very good mind to'

My excited friend could not finish his sentence before Smart Ned had slammed the door, mounted his perch, and shouted out at the top of his voice: All right, Bill! Drive on! It is his Heminence!'

SOCIALISM IN GREAT BRITAIN. SOME years ago, the present generation witnessed what we may probably regard as the last expiring efforts of a school of political and social reformers, whose name is perhaps more unpopular and less respected than that of any other sect of philosophy. The extreme section of the Republican party in France, and some of the most earnest and liberal members of the clergy and laity of the Church of England, were each engaged in their respective countries in endeavouring to lay the foundation of a new system of society, by which all the worst evils of the present phase of human affairs were to be avoided, and which was to effect, sooner or later, a complete moral revolution throughout the civilised world. The failure of the political Socialists of France, and of the Christian Socialists in England, was complete and decisive; and it is not likely that we shall, during the lifetime of the present generation, see another attempt made

leisure, and with more impartiality, than could be expected at a time when the questions at issue were presented in a practical shape, and appeared as subjects of political contention rather than of philosophic discussion. And, though such an inquiry may savour somewhat too much of a warring with the dead,' which is at once unprofitable and undignified, it has its value both for those whose minds have been attracted by the brilliant promises of the Socialistic writers and speakers, and for those who have rejected their system as a monstrous and palpable absurdity, without any very clear idea of its character, or of the definite objections which have been conclusively urged against it. There are thousands of the workingclasses, and among them often the most intelligent and estimable, who have neither forgotten nor wholly lost faith in the doctrines which they or their fathers first learned some quarter of a century ago. They cling to the idea that existing evils, and the inequalities of human conditions, are the fruit, not of any causes within the control of the sufferers, or beyond all human control whatever, but of an abnormal state of society, which might be cured and rectified, but for the obtuseness of those who are not stung into reflection, and the selfishness of those to whose lot have fallen the prizes of fortune. Holding this belief, they are naturally and rightfully discontented with their fate, and disposed to murmur against all who are more happily situated, as against those who keep them out of their due.

These are men who deserve attentive and respectful sympathy; and the social theories on which they rest their hopes of a good time coming are entitled to be heard with patience, to be elucidated with fairness, and to be refuted with care and in good feeling.

The horror with which the name of Socialism is still regarded in the spheres of sober and commonplace conservatism, had its origin in the associations attached to it by the earlier and less-considerate professors of the doctrine. The idea which the term is intended to convey is simple enough. As generally used and understood, Socialism implies the association of labour, while Communism infers the association of property. The Socialist advocates the extinction of all competition for employment or for custom, for profit or for wages. He would organise the industry of the country after a republican fashion, dividing among the labourers the produce of their toil, instead of a stipulated sum in wages from the master-capitalist, to whom that produce now belongs. He would have the labourer to work not for a master, as in our factories, the small workshops of Britain, but jointly for himnor for himself, as on the small farms of France, or in self and his fellow-workmen. The Communist proposes, in addition, that the produce, instead of being divided, shall be held in common property by all. These theories are put forward, not as plans to be forthwith carried into effect by a sudden and violent revolution in the whole frame of society, but as the natural and most hopeful development towards which civilisation should tend.

competition is the idea that lies at the root of the The unhealthiness, folly, and mischievous nature of idea. Competition is regarded as the master-evil of society; nor-unreasonable though it be-is this view unnatural. It is not surprising that men, seeing

only the mechanism through which an effect is produced, should mistake that mechanism for the cause. It is but as if some one, not seeing the engine at work, should attribute the motion of the wheels and shafts to the revolving fly-wheel. It is natural that men of sensitive benevolence should be pained and outraged as they witness the ceaseless jar, and jostle, and struggle of life. It is terrible, in very truth, to see how, in every business, in every rank and grade of existence, men are crowding one another out of the comforts and decencies of life-sometimes actually elbowing one another out of life itself-merely in the effort to make their own way, or even to maintain their own ground. It is not wonderful that men more philanthropic than philosophical should regard this scramble and strife as wanton and needless, and attribute to it the sufferings of which it is the instrument; forgetting that, if it were to cease, while the want of room continued to impede progress, stagnation and suffocation must be the result.

its working would produce results of very questionable benefit to society. Communism is liable to objections far more vital and fundamental; as a theory which could only be carried out by the annihil ation of all existing rights, which would be an enormous retrogression in civilisation, and could hardly fal to prove most fatal both to the material and the moral wellbeing of mankind. It seems exceedingly improb able that, under a system which should render it impossible to dismiss a labourer for idleness, which should deprive him of the stimulus to industry afforded by the stern necessity of earning his bread, and under which he would derive only an almost inappreciable individual advantage from the imme diate results of his toil, men would labour as diligently and heartily as when their present and their future comfort, if not their very existence, depend on their own exertions. One great economist, who is inclined to look with favour upon the communistic scheme of society, expresses a strong belief that the influence of public opinion would be sufficient to prevent any ma from shirking the task assigned to him. That such influence, in a community so constituted as to give it the fullest possible effect, would be very powerful, we can hardly doubt; but it is by no means certain that it would obtain labour half as effectual as that of workman at present paid by the piece; and it is not likely that many men will be found to labour as assiduously for the community as they would if work ing on their own account and for their own sole profit. In thus speaking of Communism, we are comparing it of course with the best developed portions of the actual fabric of industrial organisation, and with the still more healthy forms towards which it may seem to tend. Tried by this test, compared with the condition of the intelligent and well-paid mechanic, or that of such a peasant-proprietary as exists in Flanders, Switzerland, and the western provinces America, the Communistic state of society will not appear to most minds enviable, beneficial, or attrac tive. But to the Dorsetshire peasant, whose family have to be supported on eight or ten shillings a week, or to the London seamstress who earns some sixpence a day at most by sixteen hours' constant toil, the position of the member of a community in which there should be no squalid poverty, and no grinding overwork, must seem an object of fervent desire. I appears, then, that a social system based on the institution of private property may be made far more desirable than that of Communism: it is equally cer tain, that there are phases of our present system which amply justify those who believe them to be irremediable under that system in sighing after one in which there should be no poor.

The great object was to discover some system of social arrangements by which the present evils and inequalities of human life might be avoided or redressed. Believing that these misfortunes sprang principally or wholly from the competitive principle which underlies all existing social institutions, and from the selfishness which it engenders, something to supersede this mainspring of society was sought for. Association and organisation from without, instead of organisation naturally arising from competition among the individual members of the social body, were expected to remodel the world. By this means the socialists hoped to insure that every man should have a sufficiency of leisure, and an adequate share of the produce of the common labour. By this means they hoped so to adjust the supply of all articles of desire to the wants of the community, as that neither scarcity nor repletion should ever afflict them. It was their intention so to distribute labour among different occupations, as that none should ever be unemployed because his particular trade was overstocked, or should be forced to labour day and night for a remuneration which hardly suffices to save him from dying of hunger. It was their endeavour, moreover, to pave the way for a juster and more equal distribution of the produce of human labour and abstinence, than at present exists. Pure Socialism, as the word is understood in this country, would achieve this simply by a more equitable method of partition, and by such a general diffusion of education as would preserve and elevate the classes now poor by reason of ignorance and vice. Communism, with less patience and more audacity, would sweep away at once all inequalities of fortune, by destroying at one blow the institution It must not be forgotten, however, that under of private property. The writers and preachers of Communistic régime, all those restraints which are this doctrine propose to return to that which may at present mechanically effected by the necessary not improbably have been the first condition of operation of our social institutions-restraints on human society, and which is not unlike the form of indolence and indulgence, coercion to industry and proprietary rights subsisting among the nomad tribes to economy, checks on an increase of population of the east. The community, state or family, is to more rapid than that of food, and the like-must be the sole proprietor; distributing to all, not accord-be artificially imposed by the legislation of the ing to their deserts, but according to their needs. All community, and enforced by penal statutes. Numlabour is to be employed and directed by the state; berless matters which now are regulated by the the produce is to belong to the state; and the state necessities inherent in what may be called the is to be responsible for the comfortable maintenance individualistic organisation of society, or safely left of each individual citizen. Now, there is the widest to individual discretion under the inevitable control possible difference between these two theories. The of those necessities, must under Communism be former proposes simply a different organisation of ordered and settled by law. What scope there would industry from that at present subsisting; the latter be left for individuality of thought and actiondemands a complete reconstruction of human society, hardly to be accomplished without a radical change in human nature. The objections to the schemes of the Socialist lie in matters of practice and of detail, and amount on the whole to this: that the plan could not be made to work, and that if it were set in action,

what degree of personal freedom could subsist with such a system-cannot be accurately determined; but we can hardly doubt that a tendency towards the tyranny of a most oppressive uniformity would be one of the very worst perils involved in the theory of the Communist. In this respect, his doctrine contrasts

most unfavourably with the work of the practical Socialist, whose 'labour-partnerships,' at least so far as they have yet been actually tried, have done much to develop individual character and personal dignity on the part of their members. That the tyranny of a Socialist organisation which should embrace the whole industry of a country, leaving all trades and workmen at the mercy of a vast centralised administration, would be intolerably severe, no clear-sighted person can well doubt. But the habit of working together with others in a self-governed association, with the feeling of strong personal interest in the work done, and in the dignity of independence which is so highly prized by the educated British workman, is a training, moral and industrial, than which it would not be easy to devise a better.

buried them; and in doing so, it has shewn how much of sound sense lay at the bottom of a theory which had been pushed to such irrational extremities.

OUR NEW ORGANIST.

THE old man who for upwards of thirty years had been organist of Waldon Cathedral, was not forthcoming one spring morning: being sought for, he was found dead in his bed.

For some months after the death of our old organist, I was a reluctant occupant of this house of mine. As spring gave place to summer, my impatience to escape from the drowsy heat that settled down on Waldon was great. The two or three ignorant and self-complacent young men who alone applied for the vacant situation, received questionably courteous dismissal.

When at Waldon-this was never for very long at a time, though not exactly young, I was still in my Wanderjähr; I had often officiated for old Jackson; and now, at the bishop's desire, I took upon myself the trouble and responsibility of appointing a new organist. Waldon-for reasons of my own, I do not speak of A few such associations are still flourishing, of my native town by its right name-is a very behindwhich we need only advert to the most successful-the-time, out-of-the-world place; my gazetteer says the Rochdale Co-operative Store-which does infinite that it is 'chiefly noted for its cathedral, a magnificent, credit to the working-men who founded and managed cruciform structure; and its palace, the residence of it, and which has been the best possible school, in the lord-bishop of the diocese;' but I do not think every sense, for all connected with it. Institutions that it is noted' at all. Nevertheless, though I have of this kind may, and generally do fail, either travelled much, I have never seen any building that from want of capital or from want of the necessary appeared to me so imposing and grandly suggestive qualities of patience, prudence, resolution, and as Waldon Cathedral; but then I have that familiarity mutual confidence and forbearance on the part of with it which breeds, not contempt, but truest revertheir members. But there is no reason whatsoever ence for what is truly admirable. I own a house in why, if these requisites be found, they should not the cathedral-yard, in which I was born, in which I achieve success; and there is every reason to wish hope to die. that they should do so, as much for the sake of the virtues they call forth, and the valuable lessons inculcated by their difficult struggles towards security and prosperity, as for the material benefits conferred on those who belong to them. When organised by the working-classes themselves, and kept in their own hands, they may be made most valuable instruments for the elevation of their members both in moral worth and temporal wealth, and for the material and educational improvement of their neighbourhood. And perhaps not least among their advantages, we may reckon the insight they can afford to the working-class into the practical truths of political economy; into the hard necessities of commerce, of which they are not the only victims; and into the true nature of those laws which, when their operation is severely felt, they are inclined to break, as mere excuses for the selfishness of masters or the avarice of landlords; into the possibilities of their own future, and the means by which the highest and happiest of those possibilities may be realised; as well as into the practical value of those exalted ideas of a coming industrial regeneration, and a triumph of Socialistic principles which perhaps inspired them at the outset. Those who have talked with the working-men who have had experience of the management of these concerns, cannot fail to be struck with their superiority to their fellows in soundness of thought upon economical matters, and by their more rational views on the questions peculiarly interesting to their class. Were such institutions more commonly successful, and such knowledge and judgment therefore more generally diffused, it is probable that much of the money and time wasted, and good feeling destroyed, by fruitless and irrational strikes, might have been spared. Whatever might be the views of the original teachers of Socialism, it is quite certain that the only portion of their work which has taken practical root in this country, is so far from being hostile to the wellbeing of society as at present constituted, that no better education could be found for the workingclasses than the establishment in every large town of such co-operative associations as the Rochdale Store and the Leeds Corn-mill. The test of practice has been applied, and has effectually separated the really valuable principles from the mass of error and extravagance in which the preachers of Socialism had

One sultry midsummer evening, my thoughts turned with especial longing to Norwegian fjelds and fiords. I rose from my organ practice abruptly, and left the cathedral by a small, low side-door, of which I always made use. The bishop was absent. I went to stroll in the palace-grounds, and, remembering that in the morning I had needed a work of reference, which I knew to be among the ancient volumes in the library above the cloisters, I obtained the key of the library from the bishop's housekeeper. Afterwards I sauntered beneath the ancient trees on the close-shaven lawns, the while denouncing the stifling heat, a good time; then I paced the wall above the moat dividing the palace-grounds from the cathedral precincts. Presently I fancied that I heard the tones of the organ. I had left the door ajar, the organ and my music-book open. Rather indignant that any one should intrude into my domain, the organ-loft, I left the palace-grounds immediately. As I passed into the cathedral-yard by the heavy arched-way, from which an avenue of glorious old limes leads to the principal entrance, I was startled by a full burst of rich harmony; it died away as I reached my little door. Just within it, I paused and listened: I was not disappointed; the organ again sounded. Open upon my desk I had left a collection of intricate fugues; these the unknown musician began to play. I detected signs of diffidence, and of ignorance of the resources of the instrument in the style of the player; but I also detected the presence of feeling, refinement, enthusiasm.

"This man will do,' I thought, as I listened. 'He needs confidence and practice, but he has genius. Ah, ye Waldonites, ye shall slumber through your services no longer! The power of music shall stir ye.'

Twilight was gathering; fine full chords melted into silence; the instrument was not touched again. I proceeded to mount the stairs of the organ-loft. It chanced that I still had in my hand the key of the library; unfortunately, I dropped it, and the consequent