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SOCIALISM  IN  ENGLAND.

benefits  are  remote  and  doubtful.  Of  course,  this  does  not
apply  to  the  case  of  new  countries  making  grants  of  land  in  the
first  instance.  It  certainly  seems  desirable  that  our  colonies,
for  example,  should  not  part  with  the  fee  simple  of  their  lands,
and  the  Land  Nationalization  movement,  which  is  active  in
New  Zealand  and  New  South  Wales,  is  more  likely  to  succeed
with  them  than  with  us.  There  is  much  to  be  said,  too,  in
favour  of  the  “  municipalization  ”  of  lands  in  the  neighbourhood
of  growing  towns,  where  the  unearned  increment  is  often
enormous,  and  where  it  is  particularly  important  not  to  allow
private  rights  to  grow  up  which  interfere  with  the  good  of  the
community.  Into  this  question,  however,  I  cannot  now  enter,
but  must  pass  on  to  the  second  socialistic  movement  which  I
propose  to  consider.
Christian  Socialism  may  be  said  to  have  originated  in
England  in  1848,  when  Charles  Kingsley,  Frederick  Denison
Maurice,  Tom  Hughes,  Mr.  Ludlow,  and  some  others  started
the  Christian  Socialist  newspaper,  issued  a  series  of  tracts,
and  formed  a  society  for  promoting  co-operative  associations.
The  leaders  of  the  movement  do  not  appear  to  have  been
influenced  by  the  writings  of  Lammenais,  who  was  one  of  the
first  Christian  Socialists  of  modern  times,  and  whose  burning
denunciations  of  the  capitalistic  system  have  never  been  surpassed ­
  ;  still  less  can  they  be  connected  with  the  Utopian
Reformers,  such  as  Cabet  and  St.  Simon.  The  idea  of  introducing ­
  Christianity  as  an  active  factor  and  guiding  principle  in
business  life,  appears  to  have  suggested  itself  spontaneously  to
an  earnest  band  of  noble-minded  and  unselfish  churchmen,  as
a  means  of  coping  with  the  wide-spread  distress  and  discontent
which  existed  in  England  at  the  time,  and  which  had  raised  a
threatening  voice  in  the  Chartist  agitation.  They  had  no
definite  socialistic  scheme  in  view,  but  they  were  profoundly
impressed  with  the  evils  of  unrestricted  competition,  and
dreaded  above  all  things  the  ascendency  of  the  Manchester
School  with—to  use  Kingsley’s  extravagant  language—its
“  narrow,  conceited,  hypocritical,  anarchic,  and  atheistic
scheme  of  the  universe.”  “  I  do  not  see  my  way  further  than
this,”  said  Maurice;  “competition  is  put  forth  as  the  law  of  the