BAKUNIN  THE  APOSTLE  OF  NIHILISM.  22$
longer  mere  republicans.  Of  what  avail  to  overthrow  a  king
more  devoted  to  his  country  than  the  best  president  ?  Many
of  us,  however,  are  Socialists.”  At  Bologna,  the  Prefect,
Marquis  Gravina,  said  to  me,  “  I  do  not  think  that  there  are
more  than  five  hundred  working  men  regularly  affiliated  to
the  International,  but  almost  all  of  them  have  adopted  its
ideas.”  In  the  working  men’s  societies  visited  by  me  I
heard  repeatedly,  “  Those  who  do  nothing  live  in  opulence  ;
we  labour  and  yet  we  are  in  extreme  want  That  cannot
last”
The  first  working  men's  societies  in  Italy,  dating  from  1848,
were  founded  under  the  inspiration  of  MazzinL  In  1863  they
numbered  453  with  111,608  members,  and  in  1875  more  than
1000  with  about  200,000  associates.  A  good  many  of  them—
over  300—were  federated  so  as  to  constitute  the  “  Fraternal
Union  of  Working  Men’s  Societies  ”  {^Società  operaie  italiane
affratellate).  They  have  a  managing  committee  sitting  at  Rome,
where  a  congress  is  held  almost  every  year.  Mazzini,  after  his
secession  from  the  International,  became  more  and  more  hostile
to  it  in  proportion  as  the  influence  of  Bakunin  over  it  increased.
He  reproached  it,  in  the  first  place,  for  denying  the  notion  of
God,  the  sole  basis  of  right  in  the  name  of  which  the  labourers
could  demand  justice  ;  secondly,  for  suppressing  the  Fatherland,
  the  essential  form  of  human  brotherhood  ;  and  lastly,  for
abolishing  property,  the  sole  incentive  to  the  production  of
more  than  men  require  for  their  immediate  wants,  and  consequently ­
  the  sole  agent  of  economic  progress.  He  did  not
reject  social  reforms.  On  the  contrary,  he  sought  for  a  system
which  would  ensure  the  union  of  capital  and  labour,  and  would
transform  property  without  abolishing  it  ;  but  he  had  a  horror
of  Communism.  He  condemned  with  indignation  the  Commune ­
  of  Paris,  just  as,  in  1848,  he  had  cursed  “  the  days  of
June.”  The  Anarchists  reproached  him  bitterly  for  doing  so
^Mazzini  was  not  an  Economist.  He  looked  for  salvation  to
•  Published  in  1871,  without  name  of  printer  or  place  of  publication.
Q