302 
SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND. 
The connection between the Christian Socialist efforts of 
Maurice and Kingsley and their friends, and the co-operative 
movement out of which the present co-operative organization 
has grown up, is very candidly stated by Mr. E. V. Neale, who 
was concerned in the Christian Socialist movement of 1848, and 
is now the venerable general secretary of the Co-operative Union. 
In a letter published by Professor R. T. Ely,* Mr. Neale says 
that the two movements were “independent of each other in 
their origin, though they have subsequently, to a certain extent 
coalesced.” The Rochdale Pioneers, who gave the first 
impulse to the distributive societies in 1844, were Owenite 
rather than Christian, and it was not until the beginning of 1850 
that the “ Society for promoting Working Men’s Associations ” 
was started in London under the presidency of Mr. Maurice. 
Most of the societies formed under the special influence of the 
Christian Socialists in London failed from one cause or another, 
and, as Mr. Neale says, “ had it not been for the growth of 
distributive co-operation in the north, the movement would 
have been at an end in England.” The efforts of the Christian 
Socialists were, however, not without fruit. It was mainly 
through their instrumentality that a most desirable change in 
the law as to Industrial and Provident societies was effected 
in 1852, and when the first steps towards the present organi 
zation had been taken, the influence of Maurice and Kingsley 
was undoubtedly felt in the moral and broadly Christian tone 
infused throughout the movement, f 
The Christian Socialists of to-day in England maintain that 
they are but carrying out the teachings of Maurice and Kings 
ley, though the more advanced add that they are doing so in 
the light of the economic investigations of Karl Marx, Lassai le, 
and Henry George. Many of them are far more radical in 
their aims than their Continental namesakes, whether of the 
school of Bishop Ketteler or of that of Dr. Stocker. The most 
extreme section is represented by the “ Guild of St. Matthew,” 
• See his “French and German Socialism in modern times” (1883), 
p. 2152. 
t Seethe “Manual for Co-operators,” edited by Thorny Hughes, Q.C., 
and E. V. Neale, and pubhshed for the Central Co-operative Board.