EVANGELICAL  SOCIALISTS.

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happy  marriages  and  inspired  the  husband  with  respect  for
his  wife.  After  he  had  developed  these  ideas,  Most  replied
to  him  :  “  I  do  not  deny  the  good  effect  of  Christianity  on
savages,  and  therefore  I  would  urge  many  missionaries  and
court  preachers  to  go  and  deliver  their  sermons  to  Hottentots.
With  civilized  people  they  can  only  produce  weariness  and
annoyance.”  The  meeting  broke  up  half  an  hour  after  midnight, ­
  when  the  ladies  left,  singing  the  Marseillaise  of  Audorff.
The  formation  of  the  Social  Evangelical  party  was  received ­
  by  the  Liberal  press  in  almost  as  hostile  a  way  as
by  the  demagogue  papers.  “We  prefer,”  said  one  newspaper,
“socialists  in  blouse  to  socialists  in  surplice.”  The  official
and  Conservative  press,  on  the  other  hand,  praised  the
attempt.  “We  are  glad,”  wrote  the  ¡Norddeutsche  Allgemeine
Zeitung,  “  to  see  men  who  are  enlightened,  patriotic,  and
devoted  to  the  monarchy,  bravely  confronting  the  atheistic
and  anarchic  movement  which  is  daily  gaining  ground.  It  is
a  mistake  for  the  upper  classes  to  shut  their  eyes  to  the  danger.
Let  them  support  the  efforts  of  these  men,  who  are  placing
themselves  in  the  van  in  defence  of  all  that  we  hold  dear.  It
would  be  well  if  local  societies,  animated  with  the  same  spirit,
were  formed  in  all  parts  of  the  country.”  This  was,  in  fact,
what  the  evangelical  party  of  social  reform  were  endeavouring
to  do.  They  showed  the  most  praiseworthy  activity.  Besides
frequent  and  well-attended  conferences  at  Berlin,  when  the
different  points  of  the  programme  were  discussed,  they  sent
missionaries  into  the  provinces  to  convene  meetings,  explain
the  objects  to  be  pursued,  and  found  local  associations.  In  this
way  they  succeeded  in  forming,  in  many  districts,  groups  of
well-to-do  persons,  who  were  disposed  to  take  up  the  social
question  in  both  its  theoretical  and  practical  aspect  But  they
had  much  less  hold  on  the  lower  classes  than  the  Catholic
areles  had.  Obedient  to  the  word  of  command,  all  the
Catholic  priests  were  engaged  in  the  work,  while  the  Protestant
pastors  acted  in  an  isolated  way  and  in  accordance  with  their
own  convenience  and  convictions.
The  attempts  against  the  life  of  the  Emperor  and  the  presentation ­
  of  the  Anti-Socialist  Bill  placed  the  Social  Evangelical