TUE RISE AND FALL OF THE INTERNATIONAL. 185 
and Eccarius for the Bethnal Green branch in London. The 
report contains a remarkable address from the “ Italian Com 
mittee for the Social Revolution.” This address gives a 
faithful picture of the peculiar character of the Socialist move 
ment in Italy, and it further proves that it is not well to 
exclude such a movement from common rights, by depriving 
it of the power of acting openly. The address contains the 
following extracts :—“ The Italian masses, being inclined to 
conspiracy, accept the International only with great distrust 
. . . this organization in the light of day is absurd. . . . 
Freedom of speech, the right of assembly, liberty of the press, 
and all the other liberties inscribed on the Italian Statute-book, 
are so many snares of which our enemies know how to make 
use. Therefore, from all parts the demand arises for a radical 
change of system, and already a vast and solid revolutionary 
Socialist conspiracy is beginning to push its roots down to the 
lowest stratum of the Italian proletariat. . . . Wholesale sup 
pression, decreed by the government, has led us to an abso 
lutely secret conspiracy. As this organization is far superior 
to the former one, we may congratulate ourselves that persecu 
tions have put an end to the public International. We shall 
continue to march along the secret path that we have adopted, 
as the only one which can lead us to our final goal, the Social 
revolution.” Suppression tried in Germany has had similar 
results. Socialism, instead of acting openly, has been trans 
formed into a conspiracy, the advance of which is equally 
rapid, as the recent elections have shown, and the danger of 
which is far more real. Liberty has a double advantage : it 
soon reveals the impotence and the nothingness of false 
doctrines ; and, on the other hand, it warns Conservatives to 
keep on their guard and to introduce reforms demanded by 
justice and the general weal. 
The eighth congress, which met at Berne, on the 26th 
October, 1876, was no more International than the preceding. 
It was composed almost exclusively of delegates from the 
Federation of the Jura, to whom were added a Belgian, two 
Spaniards, two Frenchmen, and some Italians. The reports 
from the different countries stated that the International saw