SOCIALISM OLD AND NEW.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 2271, 29 January 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOCIALISM OLD AND NEW.

On a recent Saturday a lecture was delivered to a very large audience at the Working Men's College, Great Ormondstreet, by Mr H. H. Asquith, M.A., M.P., on "Old and New Phases of Socialism." In the earlier portion of the lecture the history of labour and social organisations was traced from the Greeks and Phoenicians down through the Roman and medieval periods. The most important forerunners of the modern trade organisations were the guilds of the 15th and 16th centuries. The great cause of the difference between the latter and the modern organisations was . the sharp distinction now existing between capital and industry. The great mechanical discoveries of the last century were the causes of the widening and the gradual estrangement [between the employing and the employed classes. The hardship which the change had brought upon the labourer was in this country palliated by a series of laws, of which the Repeal of the Corn Laws was the principal; and a clearer conception of the idea of liberty had made the violent ideas of Continental Socialism difficult to acclimatise. The ideas of Laselle came nearest to the lecturer's ideal, but the later anarchists, led by Bakomine, had greatly deteriorated from them. In England Socialism appeared to be divided into two camps—theCollectivists and the Anti-Collectivists, whose ideas might be gathered from the following appeal which closed a recent article in their organ, " to clear away all property, dominion, laws, and Government, and all would be well." The lecturer himself seemed to be of the .opinion that within the limits of two necessary conditions the widest possible liberty of discussion of social questions should be permitted. These conditions were :—l. No violation of the Ten Commandments (cries of " Oh!" followed by loud cheers). 2. No violation of the rules of arithmetic must be permitted. A vote of thanks was cordially passed, on the motion of the chairman.