BAKUNIN  THE  APOSTLE  OF  NIHILISM.  21$
The  country  is  admirably  administered  ;  education  reaches  all
classes,  and  well-being  is  real  and  widely  diffused.  Sweden
^d  Norway  have  seemed  to  me  to  be  the  happiest  countries
in  Europe,  and  the  most  worthy  of  being  so.  No'  doubt
Socialistic  ideas  have  penetrated  there  as  everywhere  else,  and
from  time  to  time  strikes  break  out,  especially  among  the
miners  ;  but  the  International  has  been  unable  to  take  deep
root  Axel  Krook,  a  rival  of  Schulze-Delitzsch,  has  brought
about  the  establishment  of  co-operative  societies  both  of  production ­
  and  of  distribution.
In  Norway  the  famous  association  has  had  still  less  success. ­
  In  September,  1873,  Jansen,  a  working  saddler  from
Copenhagen,  went  to  Christiania  to  preach  Socialism.  Nobody
would  let  him  a  room,  not  even  the  innkeepers.  At  last,  in
the  environs  of  Tyreholmen,  he  was  able  to  hold  an  open-air
meeting,  at  which  thirty  persons  were  present.  Hagen,  a  Norwegian ­
  carpenter,  joined  him  in  spreading  Socialistic  ideas,
while  basing  them  on  Christianity.  Some  students  followed
them,  and  a  society  was  founded.  Nevertheless,  these  propagandist ­
  efforts  met  with  no  support.  A  German  Socialist
newspaper  at  Hamburg  thus  gloomily  sums  up  the  results  of
this  campaign  :  “  It  becomes  more  and  more  evident  that
Norway  is  a  very  ungrateful  field  for  any  efforts  for  the  improvement ­
  of  the  lot  of  humanity.”
The  examples  of  Switzerland  and  Belgium  prove  that
nothing  is  more  efficacious  for  attenuating  the  dangers  of
Socialism  than  liberty.  It  was  in  these  two  countries  that  the
International  used  to  hold  its  congresses  ;  its  propaganda  was
in  no  way  interfered  with  ;  it  enjoyed  the  most  absolute  liberty
of  assembly,  of  the  press,  of  association,  and  of  speech,  and
yet  order  was  never  seriously  disturbed.  In  France,  where  there
was  no  right  of  assembly  or  of  association,  and  where  the
International  was  twice  prosecuted  and  finally  interdicted,
matters  ended  in  the  Commune.  In  Italy,  prosecutions,  trials’
convictions,  exceptional  measures,  have  not,  been  wanting,  and
there  have  been  disturbances,  insurrections,  and  frightful  assassinations. ­
  In  Spain,  where  there  has  been  still  more  rigorous
suppression,  the  majority  of  the  large  towns  fell  into  the  hands