XIV 
INTRODUCTION. 
In the debate which took place on the 23rd May, 1878, 
in the German Parliament, when the Anti-Socialist Bill was 
introduced by the Imperial Government, Deputy Joerg, one 
of the most distinguished orators of Catholic Germany, very 
justly said, “ A movement almost imperceptible at its outset 
has spread with unprecedented rapidity. This extraordinary 
development of Socialism can only be accounted for by con 
sidering it as the consequence of the profound modifications 
which have taken place in economic and social conditions. 
Yes, modern civilization has its dark side, and that dark side 
is Socialism. It will not disappear so long as civilization 
continues to be what it now is. Socialism is not a plague 
peculiar to Germany. It has taken up its head-quarters here, 
and has received in our country its philosophical and scientific 
education, but it is to be met with everywhere, it is a universal 
evil.” England alone seemed to be free from it ; but the extra 
ordinary success which has attended the schemes for the 
nationalization of the land, and the publications of Mr. Henry 
George and Mr. A. R. Wallace, prove that this immunity is a 
thing of the past. 
What is Socialism ? I have never met with either a clear 
definition or even precise description of the word. Every one 
is a Socialist in somebody’s eyes. Since his agrarian legislation 
for Ireland, Mr. Gladstone is considered by the Irish Con 
servatives as a Socialist of the worst type. Prince Bismarck, 
the friend of Lassalle and Schæffle, the author of the terrible 
proposal for establishing, by means of the tobacco monopoly, 
a superannuation fund for invalid workmen, can hardly defend 
himself from the charge of being a Socialist; and, for the matter 
of that, he readily avows that he is one. The statesmen in 
France, who recently wished all the railways to be taken up 
and worked by the State, were assuredly Socialists. Finally, 
since the famous pamphlets of Bastiat, every out-and-out free 
trader and every rigid economist is firmly convinced that 
whoever does not admit the wisdom of full freedom of com 
merce is infected with Socialism and Communism. Proudhon, 
far from wishing to strengthen the action of the State, called 
for its abolition under the name of “ Anarchy.” Was he not.