BAKUNIN THE APOSTLE OF NIHILISM. 213 
decline of the power of the International. The general 
council, which, in accordance with the decision of the Congress 
of the Hague, had fixed its seat at New York, exercised no 
influence there and soon ceased to exist. Nevertheless, the 
seeds sown by the International grew apace. The struggle 
of labourers against capitalists is organized everywhere to-day, 
and the Labour newspapers constantly notify strikes. In the 
late elections in California a large number of Socialists were 
returned. Macaulay's famous prophecy of the barbarians that 
will one day appear in the midst of the American cities does 
not seem so improbable as it did thirty years ago. The 
remarkable book, “ Progress and Poverty,” recently published 
by Mr. Henry George, at San Francisco, graphically describes 
the circumstances that are bringing these “ barbarians ” into 
existence. 
The only efficacious preservative against revolutionary 
Socialism is the diffusion of property. A new proof of this 
IS presented by the fact that, in the Scandinavian countries, 
e International was the less successful in proportion as the 
agrarian system was the more democratic ; that is to say not 
at all in Norway, to a small extent in Sweden, and more in 
Denmark. The International penetrated into Denmark in 
the spring of 1871, a short time after the fall of the Commune 
1 he apostle of the association was Pio, a retired militant 
officer. He found a devoted lieutenant in Paul Geleff who 
used to write in an Ultramontane newspaper, Heimdal. Geleff 
went through the different towns preaching the “ glad tidinirs ” 
amihesm:ceak:d infoumffi^rs^^rionsinriie gmakr number 
of them, at Aalborg, Randers, Aarhuus, Skanderborg, Horsens 
Cklem.,, ^id Nakskov: /Lt the beginning of 1872 thele section: 
already counted eight thousand members, of whom five 
thousand belonged to the capital. Many women joined the 
1 tookiflace fi-om this time forth. 
. ..:z,