the rise and fall of the internat/onal. 153 
delegates from the Continent brought discouraging news. 
Except in Switzerland, adhesions were rare. The Belgian 
delegates complained of the apathy of their countrymen ; the 
French, of the vexatious.interference of the police ; the Italians, 
of the hostility of Mazzini’s followers. It was determined to 
hold a General Congress next year at Geneva. 
The first sitting did, in fact, take place on the 3rd of Sep 
tember, 1866, at Geneva, under the presidency of Jung, who 
represented the General Council. There were in all only sixty 
delegates, seventeen of whom were French. Besides Jung, 
the General Council had sent Odger, Cremer, Eccarius, and 
arter. 1 he statutes drawn up in London under the inspira 
tion of Marx were adopted almost without change. They 
were very skilfully conceived. They presented a well-planned 
application of the federal system and of voting by several 
stages. Local initiative was respected, while the central 
authority, emanating from the several federated groups, was to 
direct the whole. These statutes were framed so as not to 
alarm Governments and to avoid the risk of suppression by the 
law. 
The association is founded, says the first article, to provide 
a centre of communication and co-operation between working 
men of difierent countries who have the same end in view, 
namely, “ the joint action, the advancement, and the complete 
emancipation of the working class.” The Association, and all 
societies and individuals joining it,"recognize truth, justice, and 
morality as the basis of their conduct, and take for their motto 
“No duties without rights and no rights without duties.” 
These were golden words. How could the tribunals think for 
a moment of prosecuting such an association ? 
The unit of the Association is the section. A section is 
composed of the working men of a particular locality or trade 
who become members and unite in order to study and defend 
their common interests. All the sections of a region are 
grouped so as to form a federation. Lastly, the statutes say, 
“as the utility of the General Council will be the greater in 
proportion as its action is less diffused, the members of the 
International Association ought to make every effort to estab-