SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND. 
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universe. That is a lie. The time has come for us to declare 
that it is a lie by word and deed. I see no way but associating 
for work instead of for strikes.” “ It is my belief,” said 
Kingsley, “ that not self-interest but self-sacrifice is the only 
law upon which human society can be grounded with any hope 
of prosperity and permanence.” 
They differed from Socialists generally in that they did not 
look to the State for the regeneration of the social system. 
Maurice, indeed, had a theory that the State could not be 
communistic, but was “by nature and law conservative of 
individual rights and individual possessions,” and that it was 
only by accident, as it were, and by going out of its own more 
peculiar sphere, that it was compelled to recognize another 
principle, as in the case of the factory children ; while the 
Church, on the other hand, was “ communistic in principle, and 
conservative of property and individual rights only by accident, 
bound to recognize them, but not as its own special work,” In 
the union of Church and State, accordingly, Maurice saw the 
true fusion of the principles of communism and of property. 
It is true that Kingsley publicly called himself a Chartist, and 
in one of his letters, written under the famous pseudonym of 
“ Parson Lot,” said that his only quarrel with the Charter was 
that it did not go far enough in reform ; but he immediately 
explained his meaning by adding that the mistake the Chartists 
made was in fancying that legislative reform was social reform, 
and that men’s hearts could be changed by Act of Parliament. 
At the time, he was, perhaps, prepared to grant all the points of 
the Charter, but neither then nor afterwards was it to political 
action that either he or any of those who worked with him 
looked for the salvation of the labourers. They sought no 
State-aid for their co-operative societies, but merely a fair 
field. Even private individuals could do little. They might 
“boycott” the slop-shops which adopted the “sweating 
system ; ” they might encourage the growth of associations and 
deal exclusively with them ; the rich might even provide healthy 
workshops at a low, fair rent ; but, in the main, the workers must 
fight their own battle, aided only by “ Him whose everlasting 
Fatherhood is the sole ground of all human brotherhood.”