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SOCIALISM  IN  ENGLAND.

author  of  a  number  of  pamphlets  and  brochures,  but  his  most
considerable  work  is  a  book  entitled  “  The  Historical  Basis
of  Socialism  in  England,”  written  to  aid  the  work  of  the
Federation.
This  book,  as  its  name  implies,  is  mainly  historical,  but  it
contains  two  chapters,  one  on  “  Labour  and  Surplus  Value,”
and  another  on  the  “  Great  Machine  Industry,”  which  are
almost  entirely  concerned  with  economics.  The  whole  work,
especially  the  economical  part,  is,  as  the  author  acknowledges,
largely  derived  from  the  writings  of  Karl  Marx,  Rodbertus,  and
Friedrich  Engels.  The  historical  part  gives  a  sketch  of  the
social  and  economical  development  of  England  from  the
fifteenth  century  to  the  present  time.*  It  is  of  necessity  a
dark  picture,  but  Mr.  Hyndman  has  deepened  the  shadows
and  left  only  such  lights  as  make  the  shadows  by  contrast
darker  still.  As  a  scientific  study  it  is  greatly  disfigured  by
the  constant  ascription  of  evil  motives  to  landlords,  capitalists,
free-traders,  and  generally  all  persons—and  they  are  many—
with  whom  Mr.  Hyndman  does  not  agree.  In  the  economic
portion  may  be  found,  though  somewhat  spoilt  in  the  borrowing,
all  those  theories  of  Karl  Marx,  of  which  M.  de  Laveleye  has
given  an  account.
First  of  all  there  is  the  Marxist  theory  of  value,  which  Mr.
Hyndman  expresses  as  follows  “  Human  labour-force  applied
to  commodities  reckoned  useful  in  existing  social  conditions
constitutes  the  basis  of  exchange-value  ;  the  quantity  of  labourforce
  socially  necessary  to  produce  such  commodities  and
bring  them  forward  for  exchange,  constitutes  the  measure  of
their  relative  exchange-value,”  this  labour-force  being  itself
measured  by  “the  time  during  which  it  is  exerted.”  In
Publishing  Company,  London.  Many  of  Mr.  Bradlaugh’s  arguments  were
unanswerable  and  were,  of  course,  left  unanswered.  For  instance,  he  put
a  case  to  this  effect  :—“  Suppose  I  want  to  start  an  agitation  against  your
Collectivist  system.  M/  ill  your  Socialist  State  grant  me  lecture  halls  for  the
purpose  of  clenouncing  it?  Will  it  give  me  a  printing  press  to  enable
me  to  publish  books  and  papers  advocating  a  new  revolution  to  overthrow
Socialism  ?  If  not,  and  if  all  land,  machinery,  capital,  and  credit  is  to
belong  to  the  State,  what  becomes  of  freedom  of  speech  ?
*  A  very  suggestive,  though  unhappily  fragmentary,  sketch  of  the
period  from  1760  will  be  found  in  Mr.  Arnold  Toynbee’s  “Industrial
Revolution  in  England  ”  (1884).