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.”
am
our
