BAKUNIN THE APOSTLE OF NIHILISM. 237 
death pronounced by the Mano Ñera and executed in the same 
way as the agrarian murders in Ireland. It is asserted that in 
Andalusia and the neighbouring provinces of Estremadura, 
Jaén, and Murcia, without counting the rest of Spain, there are 
130 federations with 34® sections and ^2,000 members in the 
rural parts. 
The organizers of the Black Hand declare in their statutes 
that the society has for its aim the defence of the poor and 
oppressed against their robbers and executioners who exploit 
them and tyrannize over them. “ The land, they add, exists 
for the common welfare of mankind, all of whom have an equal 
right to possess it It was created by the productive activity 
of the labourers. The existing social organization is absurd 
and criminal : it is the workers who produce everything and 
the rich idlers hold them in their clutches. It is impossible, 
therefore, to feel too profound a hatred against all political 
parties, for they are all equally contemptible. All property 
acquired by the labour of another is illegitimate, whether it 
proceeds from rent or interest, and none is legitimate except 
that which results from direct personal labour usefully employed. 
Consequently, the Society declares the rich outside the law of 
nations, and proclaims that in order to fight theni as they 
deserve all means are good and necessary, not excepting sword 
or fire or even slander.” * 
The association affirms that it acts in concert with all 
those of similar character established in other countries. The 
Organic statutes are short and categorical. The general sane- 
* In the fourteenth century Socialism m England expressed similar ideas, 
with the exception of the appeal to force. The following are the words 
that Froissart puts in the mouth of John Bull, ‘‘the mad pnest of Kent, 
speaking in the name of the peasants Good people, things wil never 
go well in England so long as goods be not in common, and so long as 
there be villains and gentlemen. By what right are they whom we ca 
lords greater folk than we ? Why do they hold us in serfage ? If we all 
came of the same father and mother, of Adam and Eve, how can they say 
or prove that they are better than we, if it be not that they make us gam by 
our toil what they spend in their pride ? They are clothed in velvet and 
Warm in their furs and ermines, while we are covered with rags. l hey 
have wines and spices and fair bread, while we have rye, thin oats, and straw, 
and water to drink. They have leisure and fine houses ; and we have pam 
and labour, the rain and tne wind in the fields. And yet it is of us and < 
toil that these men hold their state.” 
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