THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.

116

CHAPTER  VIII.
CATHOLIC  SOCIALISTS.
I N  former  chapters  we  have  given  an  account  of  the
doctrines  of  the  masters  of  German  Socialism,  Lassalle
and  Karl  Marx.  But  in  order  to  understand  the  power  of  this
great  movement  of  ideas  against  which  the  German  Empire,  in  /
the  midst  of  all  its  triumphs,  deems  that  exceptional  measures
are  necessary,  it  must  be  studied  in  all  its  varieties,  and  these
varieties  are  numerous.  There  are  Democratic  Socialists,  In-  ;
ternational  Socialists,  Christian  Socialists  and  Social  Christians,
Catholic  Socialists,  State  Socialists,  Socialists  of  the  Chair,  and
many  more  besides.  It  is  the  Catholic  Socialists  whose  ideas  i
we  shall  now  endeavour  to  make  known.
An  Italian  diplomatist,  Baron  Blanc,  a  man  of  great  penetration, ­
  and  one  who  had  constant  intercourse  with  Cavour,
often  told  me  how  this  great  and  far-seeing  patriot  had  predicted
that  one  day  Ultramontanism  would  ally  itself  with  Socialism-M.
  Blanc  himself  confidently  believed  this.  Prince  Bismarck,
too,  has  many  a  time  spoken  of  the  union  of  the  Red  with  the
Black  International,  and  in  its  good  as  well  as  its  bad  sense
the  saying  is  true.  The  two  doctrines,  Catholicism  and  Socialism,
do,  in  fact,  both  place  their  ideal  above  and  beyond  the  father
land,  and  dream  of  the  establishment  of  a  new  order  of  things
in  which  the  same  principles  shall  reign  everywhere.  Whether
it  be  a  virtue  or  a  fault,  both  are  ready  to  sacrifice  nationality
to  universality.  The  predictions  of  Cavour  and  Bismarck  seem  ,
to-day  to  be  realized.  In  Germany  the  Catholic  Socialistic
movement  can  now  count  fifteen  years  of  existence.  At  the
last  elections  for  the  Imperial  Parliament,  Socialists  and  Ultra-  !