very appropriate introduction to the history of the world, especially of the European world, and those countries of antiquity from which European civilization and institutions were derived. After pointing out the deficiencies of history in regard to the masses, the author enters upon his task of a brief, strong, and bold outline of the changes of condition which these masses have passed through in various stages of the progress of humanity. His sketch includes, of course, the history of slavery before the advent of Christianity, before which time, he says, the justice of the relation was never seriously questioned; and also after Christianity, the progress of which for several centuries was marked by the emancipation of immense multitudes of slaves, although neither Christ nor his apostles denounced it as inconsistent with their teachings. These enfranchisements, made with more kindness than prudence, he shows to have been the fruitful source of crime, misery, and degradation, among those who were freed from compulsory service, but not admitted to the full level of freemen, nor placed in a position where their labour would command a just remuneration. He shows that the worst of the European population are descendants of emancipated slaves, who, as a body, have sunk below the level of slavery, and have never been able to emerge into a better situation under European institutions. The crimes of slaves in the Roman Empire were far fewer than in the same number of the lower classes of modern Europe. Freedom from personal servitude in Christian Europe does not raise the masses to the level of slaves in the Roman Empire. This is illustrated and shown by a vast number of references and proofs, which make a strong impression of his correctness. We must add, as the result of our own investigations, that the feudal slaves liberated in England in the 15th and 16th centuries, sank after their liberation to the condition of paupers, from which, as a body, they have never emerged. Something more than liberty is due from the master to the slave, from the community to its poor, and from man to his neighbour. Our author dwells upon the rise of the commune, the isolated castles of the nobles, the cities, villages, and walled towns of the people, the history of property, and the history of the peasantry, so completely forgotten by historians. But we cannot enumerate the topics of a work so condensed. It is rich in allusion to the Bible, of which the author had an enlightened comprehension, rich in classical allusion, in Greek and Roman antiquities, in knowledge of the civil law, in church history, and in the history of European civilization. The History of the Working Class, from the Slave to the Proletaire of our Day, a work in four super-royal octavo volumes, by ROBERT (DU VAR,) Paris, 1847, is a production evidently dictated by an extreme regard for the best interests of the class of whom it treats. The first words of the author are: "The increasing diffusion of knowledge, by awakening the sentiment of justice in souls the most withered, is extending daily the discovery of what is painful and grievous in the situation of the labouring classes. God forbid that any should be hereafter astonished that those who produce so much and consume so little should insist, by all possible arguments, upon the amelioration of their condition! This general feeling is to the thinking man a prophecy. It is the solemn guarantee of the early emancipation of labour." After enlarging upon the importance of the history proposed, he proceeds : "The very idea raises grave and capital questions: we inquire at once, by what great and terrible deviation from justice, human society has become so disturbed and so badly adjusted as to produce, for some only, wealth, leisure, liberty, and comfort, while leaving to the greater number only labour, misery, and all the ills of slavery? Whence springs this disinherited class?" Robert does not accord to slavery so high an antiquity as Granier de Cassagnac, but believes "there was a time when man was not the servant of man; when every one, living for himself, made his own wants his master, and gathered without hindrance the fruits of his own industry;" but he traces the poverty and misery of the masses at this day to ancient slavery. "We have looked upon the toil of the slave of antiquity, the serf of the middle ages, and the labourers of modern times, and have set forth their reward in each period. We have lifted the veil at each epoch which conceals the misery of the working classes; we have not feared to descend to those minutia which, however apparently unimportant, are the real index of their condition; we have inquired, along the progress of ages, how they were nourished, lodged, and clothed, whose industry produced the food, built the houses, and manufactured the clothing." "But the labourer, although a labourer, is yet a man in the fullest extent of the word, and as such he exists in the presence of the body politic. Citizen or not, the state, by the fact of his existence, is obliged to recognise his presence— to pronounce upon him;-hence the historian must take account of this legis lation. From the definition of slavery by pagan laws to the legislation of the present day, by which the working-men are excluded from all voice in the direction of their own interests, and completely exiled from the path of power, we have noticed and numbered the charges which legislation has brought against them, the penalties it has inflicted, and the thousand chains in which it has held them bound." "Of course, we have followed step by step the intellectua. compression to which they have been so long subjected, their consequent ignorance, and their dangerous prejudices: to give these facts full relief, we have disclosed the different methods of education and training successively applied to the masses." "Consolation is not wanting!-as we advance to modern times, humanity, pushed on by the invincible cravings of its nature, appears to comprehend its old error. The revolts of the ancient slaves against their masters, those of the serfs of the middle ages against their lords, had for their chief motive anger, vengeance, and other hateful passions. Modern labourers begin to call to their aid philosophy and science; the organization of industry and the application of the principle of human brotherhood are the ideal which now stimulates the working classes. After having revolved for ages in the fatal circle of individualism, of war and contention, a necessity for harmony begins to be felt where irritation would be most excusable-order and peace begin to be sought in the arena of the interests of all." These extracts are from the introduction. The field surveyed in this work is so extensive that we cannot even enumerate the topics. His notice of the influence of Christianity in procuring the enfranchisement of slaves is interesting: 66 'Certainly, that influence was remarkable. To pass from paganism to Christianity was to pass from slavery to liberty."-Vol. i. p. 247. He examines the effects of slavery upon the habits and history of the enfranchised, and concedes that the blessing of liberty was far from an unmingled benefit. His details upon this head are of great interest, but his views of the whole subject are less broad than those of Granier de Cassagnac. In the progress of his work he details, with evident satisfaction, the career of the great reformer Wickliffe, who attacked the Romish hierarchy with so much boldness and vigour; he tells us, that reformer disputed the theory of property, which was prevailing then in England, and insisted that the great wealth of the clergy was wholly inconsistent with their character, and that those who would be ministers of Christ must follow his example of poverty and personal kindness to the poor. He claims Wickliffe as an apostle of humanity, holding views in accordance with those of modern reformers, and then proceeds to show at length that John Huss followed him closely in these views. (Vol. iii. p. 356 and 386.) Our author takes a wide distinction between the Protestant Reformation of Luther and his colleagues, and the reforms proposed by Wickliffe and Huss. The reforms of the former were merely aimed at the abuses of the Romish Church, while the latter contemplated also social amelioration. The noblesse and the rich could readily coalesce with Luther's principles; but they would have been slow to sustain those of the two earlier reformers, who contemplated measures for the temporal benefit of the masses. He shows the bearing of the wars of the peasants, which followed the teachings of Huss and the doctrines of the Anabaptists, on social questions. This work has great value as a history, and for the details it furnishes upon subjects yet very far from being exhausted; its leanings are, however, plainly to some form of socialism. This proclivity does not often mar the course of the history, and is only made clear in the fourth volume, in which he reviews the plans of various schools of socialists. He insists that, whatever may be their errors and their want of agreement among themselves, they have rendered the cause of humanity essential services. He avers that they only have rightly framed the problem of social amendment, which, alone, is a long step towards a correct solution. He evidently believes the solution will come from the side of the socialists, and that the strongest guarantee of the success of social reform is the prevalence of modified views upon the subject.* The great problem of adjusting the relations of human labour to human well-being has been met in France, with more or less zeal, by all schools of politicians, philosophers, and writers: all are not equally enlightened, nor equally liberal, but all admit the urgency of the inquiry, and all contribute some aid to the solution. The political economists have shown great activity of the pen, perceiving that their craft was in danger from any direct inquiry into what would most promote human welfare. They have yielded to the pressure of the time whatever they can surrender without destruction of their theory of the wealth of nations. It might be as profitable as agreeable to enter into an examination of the large number of works published in France, within the last twenty years, on the subject of labour, the liberty of labour, the organization of labour, the right of labour, the laws of labour; but the *We are absolutely compelled to refrain from extending these notices by the space they are consuming, thus leaving unnoticed the productions of many writers of great power and research. As the discussion proceeds, it is instructive to watch the advance which the later writers are making under the advantages and the light derived from their predecessors. But we must forego the profit as well as the pleasure of such an examination. greatness of the task and the narrowness of our limits forbid.* The phrases thus employed and made the subjects of elaborate and profound inquiry, are ridiculed in England, and even in this country, as implying impossibilities, or nonsense, or socialism. In France, humanity is placed, in importance, above human institutions and laws; or it is acknowledged as their object. In Great Britain and in the United States, it is assumed that our institutions and laws are perfect, or so nearly perfect that any consideration of mere humanity, or beneficence, which interferes with them, or calls for their amendment, is regarded as the puling conception of a visionary. Such a man, in the estimation of men of the world, is unacquainted with the stern and inevitable realities of life; he is a labourer at that which is impracticable, and is rather to be pitied for his ignorance than encouraged in his investigations. Such, in the main, is the language of the Protestant ministry and the religious press, who very promptly extinguish all such inquiries as belonging to the domain of socialism or communism, for which the horror exceeds that which is felt for mere infidelity. For, certainly, German infidelity is tolerated in many libraries for the sake of its learning, where works of socialism would not be admitted for the sake of humanity. *We refer to the following, as well deserving the attention of the inquirer :The Liberty of Labour; an exposition of the conditions under which human powers are exerted with the most effect. By Charles Dunoyer. 3 vols. 8vo., Paris, 1845. Essay upon the Organization of Labour, and the Future of the Working Classes. By Theo. Morin. 1 vol. 8vo., Paris, 1845. The Laws of Labour. By Gustavus Dupuynode. 1 vol. 8vo., Paris, 1845. The Right of Labour. A complete collection of the speeches made at the National Assembly on that subject. 1 vol. 8vo., Paris, 1848. Essay upon the Relations of Labour to Capital. By Ch. Dupont White. 1 vol. 8vo., Paris, 1846. |