BAKUNIN THE APOSTLE OF NIHILISM. 219 
Seraing, attracted a great deal of attention to the International. 
The leaders, however, were unwilling to encourage strikes, for 
fear they should fail. Thus, at the second National Congress 
of Antwerp, which sat from the ist to the 15th of August, 1873, 
it was resolved that the federations should make every prepara 
tion for the universal strike, but that it was necessary to give 
up entirely partial strikes, except “ in a case of legitimate 
defence.” 
At the time of its greatest diffusion the International 
counted eight federations : those, namely, of Brussels, Ghent, 
Antwerp, Liège, the Vesdre, the Borinage, the Centre, and 
Charleroi. As to the number of members, it has been variously 
estimated from one to two hundred thousand ; but as member 
ship is acquired by a purely platonic adhesion, exact statistics 
are impossible. However, the organization has been more 
complete here than anywhere else. After the schism of the 
Hague, the Belgian Internationalists pronounced against the 
exclusion of Bakunin, without however adhering to his doctrines. 
Since the Universal Association has ceased to operate, the 
Belgian Socialists have attempted to reconstitute it on a national 
basis. Two tendencies exist : some, like the German Socialists, 
wish to obtain power by means of the elections, and they call 
for universal suffrage and common action with the bourgeois 
radicals ; others, represented by the newspaper Le Mirabeau, 
assert, like the Nihilists, that it is necessary to begin by de 
stroying everything. “ Whoever,” says this journal, “ has not 
borne the rags of wretchedness cannot desire the true revolu 
tion. The labourer alone can bring it about. All weapons 
are employed against him ; be it so : an eye for an eye and a 
tooth for a tooth. Let us put in operation fire, sword, poison, 
and petroleum. Let us make a tabula rasa. Let us level to 
the ground this rotten society based on our misery and our 
ignorance. As conquerors, we shall build up a new society 
founded on labour and justice.” 
Prosecutions on account of these appeals to violence having 
only given them a notoriety that they would not otherwise have 
possessed, all interference with them has ceased. During the 
past few years Socialism does not appear to have gained