SOCIALISM  IN  ENGLAND.

For  good  or  for  evil,  England  no  longer  enjoys  an  immunity
from  Socialism  or  socialistic  propaganda.  I  do  not  allude  to
what  has  been  called  the  socialistic  tendency  of  recent  legislation,* ­
  important  as  that  tendency  is  as  showing  the  growing
confidence  of  democracy  in  officialism.  I  allude  to  more  active
and  further  reaching,  if  for  the  moment  less  effective,  socialistic
movements.  There  is,  in  the  first  place,  the  movement  for  the
“  Nationalization  of  the  Land,”  which  has  recently  received  a
great  impetus  from  the  writings  of  Mr.  Henry  George.  Secondly,
there  is  the  movement  of  “  Christian  Socialism,”  which  is  to-day
advancing  far  beyond  what  Maurice  and  Kingsley,  who  were  the
first  to  call  themselves  Christian  Socialists,  ever  had  in  view.
Finally,  there  is  the  out-and-out  Collectivist  agitation  conducted
by  the  members  of  the  Social  Democratic  Federation,  who  may
be  looked  upon  as  the  disciples  of  Karl  Marx  in  England.t
There  are,  no  doubt,  some  individual  Anarchists  in  this  country,
but  they  are  not  an  organized  body.  There  is  every  reason  to
•  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  the  great  apostle  of  Individualism,  has  recently
inveighed  against  this  tendency  in  articles  in  the  monthly  reviews  on  the
“New  Toryism,”  the  “Coming  Slavery,”  etc.  These  articles  have  lx;en
collected  and  published  as  a  book  :  “The  Man  versus  the  State”  (1884).
A  society  also  has  been  formed,  called  the  Liberty  and  Property  Defence
League  ^  “  for  resisting  over-legislation,  for  maintaining  freedom  of  contract ­
  and  for  advocating  Individualism  as  opposed  to  Socialism,  entirely
irrespective  of  party  politics.”  Central  offices,  4,  Westminster  Chambers.
f  Miss  Eleanor  Marx,  one  of  the  daughters  of  Karl  Marx,  is  a  prominent
member  of  the  Federation.  She  contributes  to  To-day,  its  monthly
magazine,  a  “Record  of  the  International  Popular  Movement.”