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 The life, times and labours of Robert Ow 
 
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THE LIFE, TIMES, AND LABOURS 
 
 ROBERT OWEN. 
 
EDINUUKGM 
 
 CO-OPERATIVE I'KINTING COMPANY LIMITED, 
 
 HRISTO PLACE. 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030362820 
 
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 /^^'■''' ".-■-t^v -^^J^^r^'/; - 
 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE, TIMES, AND LABOURS 
 
 OF 
 
 ROBERT OWEN 
 
 E 
 
 BY 
 
 LLOYD JONES 
 
 DITED BY WILLIAM CAIRNS JONES 
 WITH TWO PORTRAITS AND A FACSIMILE 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SWAN SONNENSCHEIN AND CO. 
 
 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 
 1890 
 
fCJj 
 
 
 Kjxij 
 
 ^ 
 
 l2^ 
 
 
 ccrneTl ■^..■ 
 university 
 
 H 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 TO 
 
 EDWARD VANSITTART NEALE, Esq., 
 
 IN TOKEN OF THE 
 ESTEEM IN WHICH HE WAS HELD BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
IN publishing " The Life, Times, and Labours of 
 Robert Owen," I desire to tender to the Co- 
 operative Newspaper Society my warmest thanks for 
 their kindness in making over all rights to me. 
 
 The work has been revised by my brother, Mr 
 William Cairns Jones, and is now issued in the hope 
 that its reception may warrant the publication of 
 other of my father's writings. 
 
 MALCOLM L. LLOYD-JONES. 
 
LLOYD JONES. 
 l3li— 1886. 
 
fio9ra:iJhical §kctch of the c^ttthor. 
 
 WHEN the republication of " The Life, Times, 
 and Laboui^s of Robert Owen " was decided 
 upon, it was suggested that if I were to write a short 
 notice of my father, to be prefixed to the work, it 
 might impart to it a sk'ght additional interest, in the 
 eyes of some of its readers in the co-operative move- 
 ment. I received, at the same time, concerning the 
 character of what I should write, one or two sug- 
 gestions, of which I have availed rnyself. 
 
 Though the following sketch is not intended to be 
 in any sense biographical, I may state that my father 
 was, as "his name implies, of Welsh extraction, being 
 the descendant of a Glamorganshire family. During 
 the Revolution of 1688, an ancestor of hisj one Morgan 
 Jones, served under William of Orange as an officer of 
 cavalry, and, after the Battle of the Boyne, settled in 
 Ireland as a stock farmer. In 1798 my grandfather, 
 who was at the time a youth living in Dublin, 
 took part in the insurrection. On the capture of 
 
X Lloyd Jones. 
 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, he made his escape to the 
 Wicklow Hills, where a number of the insurgents, 
 gathering head, fought a skirmish with a body of 
 troops by whom they were defeated ; when my grand- 
 father, travelling by night and hiding during the day, 
 made his way farther south. Ultimately he became a 
 small employer of labour, in the fustian-cutting trade, 
 in Bandon, where he married, and where my father 
 was born in the year 1811. 
 
 Subsequent to the insurrection, and after settling 
 in Bandon, my grandfather turned Roman Catholic. 
 This was, I believe, to a considerable extent, due to the 
 fact that, living in the midst of an English Protestant 
 settlement where religious prejudice was, even for 
 that period, unusually strong, he witnessed much that 
 revolted his sense of justice on the one hand and 
 excited his sympathy on the other. In any case, it 
 would appear that, to the last, he remained a steadfast 
 convert to Roman Catholicism. But, though in many 
 people belief, of whatever nature, is the result of early 
 training and association, I imagine that my father 
 must, while very young, have developed tendencies 
 which were unfavourable to an acceptance of many 
 things involved in an adherence to the faith in which 
 he had been educated. I should suppose moreover 
 that my grandfather had none of the narrowness 
 which commonly belongs to converts from one reli 
 gious faith to another. I take him to have been a 
 very liberal-minded man of good information and 
 reading, as I have heard my father mention that he 
 himself was familiar with the names of many cele 
 brated authors while he was still a child, and Ion ' 
 before he read their works. This may have helped t^ 
 
Lloyd Jones. xi 
 
 impart to him that great fondness for books which, as 
 was well known to those who were intimate with him, 
 was one of his chief characteristics. 
 
 My father's knowledge of literature was extensive 
 and varied. To many who had intercourse with him, 
 his reading might have appeared to be more or less 
 confined to subjects an acquaintance with which was 
 essential to the part he took as an advocate of political 
 and social reform. But, though he had not the same 
 opportunity of utilising it as he had of utilising 
 information acquired through a study of political, 
 social, and economic questions, perhaps the most 
 remarkable thing in connection with his reading was 
 his knowledge of English poetry, from the earliest 
 writers down to those of the present day. In this 
 branch of literature, his reading had, over a long series 
 of years, been very extensive, insomuch that there was 
 hardly a poet belonging to any period of our history 
 with whom he was unacquainted. His memory was 
 excellent, and it was astonishing with what readiness 
 he would recall passages from some of the oldest and 
 most obscure of our minor poets, even though he might 
 not have looked into their pages for years. I think 
 that few readers excelled him in taste. His judg- 
 ment was discriminating, and he was not easily 
 betrayed into exaggerated praise, though he had a 
 ready eye and a keen appreciation for beauty of 
 thought and expression. In especial, whatever urged 
 an exalted conception of human duty, or commemor- 
 ated any example of self-sacrifice, in terms appropriate 
 to the inspirations of genius, never failed to have a 
 powerful effect upon him. I may mention, as a 
 characteristic fact, that one of the last poems he 
 
xii Lloyd Jones. 
 
 requested to have read to him was Mrs Browning's 
 " Mother and Poet." 
 
 His disposition was sanguine. The vicissitudes and 
 mischances from which his life was seldom free, would 
 have been sufficient to depress, or even to render dis- 
 contented and morose, many men of different tem- 
 perament; but, in the presence of misfortune, he seldom 
 failed to maintain a cheerfulness and a hopefulness 
 which very few would have been likely to possess in 
 similar circumstances. This disposition not only sup- 
 ported him in the midst of personal calamity, but also 
 enabled him to carry into the efforts with which his 
 public life was associated an eager enthusiasm and 
 confidence in the success of the principles he advo- 
 cated ; though he was not one who had any faith in 
 the " barren optimistic sophistries of comfortable 
 moles." 
 
 Notwithstanding his antipathies were sometimes 
 strong, he was by nature unsuspicious and trusting 
 to an extent which, as I think, more than once led to 
 his being too readily deceived in the characters and 
 motives of those with whom he had intercourse. In 
 the absence of some very convincing proof of insin- 
 cerity, he was apt to place unreserved confidence in 
 the professions of those who were interested in what- 
 ever cause he had most at heart ; and, though he 
 would sometimes express, in unmistakable terms, 
 disapprobation of the proceedings of men with whom 
 he was brought into contact, anything approachino- to 
 a steady and rooted distrust, even in cases where 
 many might have considered such a feeling prudent 
 and justifiable, was almost impossible to him. I have 
 often thought that in judging of men, he was, as a 
 
Lloyd Jones. xiii 
 
 rule, disposed to make insufficient allowance for the 
 vanity and self-interest by which their conduct was 
 likely to be influenced. But even had he, in this 
 respect, been more incredulous than he was, it could 
 not have destroyed his belief in the accomplishment 
 of some good purpose, in the midst of all that could 
 tend to discourage such a belief In consequence of 
 an unfortunate inability on my own part to altogether 
 share this hope, I had the more frequent opportunity 
 of hearing him repudiate the opposite view. I have 
 spoken of his love for the poets. One of his chief 
 favourites, among those of the present century, was 
 Wordsworth. ; and I think this preference was due to 
 Wordsworth's never-failing recognition of the theory 
 that human nature cannot be so degraded but that 
 there exists in every heart the capability of respond- 
 ing to a true and earnest appeal. It was this 
 poet's thorough belief in humanity which attracted 
 him beyond every other quality, for it was with this 
 he most deeply sympathised. 
 
 In dealing with the questions in which he took a 
 leading interest, he rarely failed to make allowance 
 for all those circumstances which, in different classes 
 of men, tend to create a divergency in regard to the 
 formation of opinions. If an occasional impatience 
 were visible in his manner, it was due to the earnest- 
 ness of his character rather than to any want of con- 
 sideration for the opinions of others, even when these 
 were most at variance with his own. I think I am 
 justified in saying that seldom was his warmest 
 denunciation of principles of which he disapproved, 
 made on the assumption that they were not conscien- 
 tiously maintained by those whom he sought to con- 
 
xiv Lloyd Jones. 
 
 fute. He was very slow to attribute unworthy motives 
 to his opponents, and if during his early life, he attacked 
 certain men or classes of men, it was, to judge from all I 
 have heard and read concerning those times, in circum- 
 stances of extreme provocation, and in retaliation upon 
 an unscrupulous intolerance which never hesitated to 
 unjustly attack the characters and motives of himself 
 and his associates. Taking into consideration, how- 
 ever, the fact that his name was so often identified 
 with the warfare of important and conflicting interests, 
 the greater part of his career was especially free from 
 misrepresentation ; and it is no more than just to say 
 that it was also free from whatever could have fur- 
 nished an excuse for calling into question the motives 
 from which he acted. Whenever he was called upon 
 to do so, as happened more than once, he never hesi- 
 tated to make an upright choice between his own 
 personal advantage and an adherence to principle. 
 
 When he decided, during the election of 1886, to 
 become a candidate for Parliament, I undertook to 
 urge upon him the fact that he was about to engage 
 in a contest in connection with which it was a gene- 
 rally accepted theory that men of average conscien- 
 tiousness in the ordinary affairs of life, might, without 
 censure, avail themselves of the most contemptible 
 methods of securing the triumph of their own faction 
 — that he was about to strive for a victory which was 
 difficult of achievement, and, if gained, not worth 
 having. But he had taken part as an earnest politician 
 in most of the political movements of his time without 
 injury to his own sincerity, and he declined to regard 
 otherwise than as an honour, the privilege of repre- 
 senting a large body of his fellow-countrymen in the 
 
Lloyd Jones. xv 
 
 House of Commons. He was, moreover, persuaded 
 that as a member of Parliament he would have a more 
 effective opportunity of advocating the cause of those 
 in whose behalf he had laboured for so many years, 
 and on such a point it was impossible to question the 
 justice of his being entirely guided by his own experi- 
 ence and judgment. At the same time, it is undeniable 
 that, while acknowledging that a too positive assertion 
 of the right of independent thought and action might 
 become both inconvenient and injurious, he was a 
 " party man " only in a sense in which the interests of 
 party are understood to be subordinate to the interests 
 of the nation, and their sticcess consistent with an 
 honourable self-respect on the part of those who seek 
 to secure it. 
 
 My father never estimated the possibilities of any 
 cause in which he was interested, by the measure of 
 success which attended his own efforts. Had he been 
 destined to recover from the illness which occasioned 
 his death, there is no reason to doubt that during the 
 years which might have remained to him, he would, 
 in spite of failure and disappointment, have exhibited 
 the same hopefulness and, so long as he retained his 
 health and strength, the same energy that had marked 
 the years through which he had already passed. 
 Once, in reply to an observation I made to him, he 
 read aloud the following passage from the " Sayings 
 of George Eliot," the pages of which he happened to 
 be turning over at the moment : — " The only failure a 
 man ought to fear, is failure in cleaving to the purpose 
 he sees to be best. As to just the amount of result he 
 may see from his particular work — that's a tremendous 
 uncertainty ; the universe has not been arranged for 
 
xvi Lloyd Jones. 
 
 the gratification of his feelings. So long as a man 
 sees and believes in some great good, he'll prefer 
 working towards that in the way he's best fit for, come 
 what may." 
 
 These words indicate the principle by which he was 
 guided through long years of labour and trial, and to 
 which he remained constant to the end. 
 
 WILLIAM CAIRNS JONES. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PREFATORY CHAPTER i 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Birth and Boyhood 7 
 
 CHAPTER ir. 
 Starts AS HIS Own Master 15 
 
 CHAPTER ni. 
 The Dying of the Old 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Birth of the New 36 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Struggles Onward 46 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Visit to Scotland 51 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Purchase of the New Lanark Mills 54 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 -His Policy at New Lanark 63 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Mr Dale's Confidence in Him 67 
 
xviii Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 The Fight and its Difficulties 72 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 New Partnerships 79 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Education Struggle . 84 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 ' Thf.ory in Regard to the Importance of Education 90 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Better Prospects 94 
 
 CHAFER XV. 
 Importance of his Work at New Lanark 103 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 William Allen hi 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Driven Oct 121 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Factory Labour — Reform 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 Factory Reform 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 Factory Bill Struggle 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 General Activity 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 Plans and Principles - 
 
 129 
 
 138 
 146 
 
 iSS 
 
 164 
 
Contents. xix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 His Religion 173 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 His Trip to the Continent 182 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 Operations in London— Owen's Position 188 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 His Correspondence with the Duke of Kent 195 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 >^His Disposition and Public Teaching 204 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 Visits Halkham, and Stands for Parliament 211 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 Visits Ireland and A merica . 219 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 Visits the West Indies and South America 225 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 Mexico 232 
 
THE LIFE, TIMES, AND LABOURS 
 
 OF 
 
 ROBERT OWEN. 
 
 prefatory. 
 
 In commencing this memoir, I feel how inadequately 
 any mere narrative of the everyday events of such a 
 life, would bring into view the importance of the work 
 in which from early manhood Robert Owen had been 
 engaged. Had he been a statesman or a soldier, a 
 literary man or a mere diner-out, much of his life 
 would have been spent amongst men whose position, 
 acts, or sayings would have given interest to him ; 
 and much of the pleasure and profit to be derived 
 from a perusal of his biography, would be due to the 
 public events in which he had taken a part, and in 
 what he had been able to relate concerning the public 
 men with whom he had been associated. Books of 
 biography, constructed on the principle here indicated, 
 are both instructive and amusing. Our interest in the 
 past arises to a great extent out of what we know of 
 those who have played an important part in it ; but, 
 away from the beaten paths of the world, there. are / 
 fields of action which may be laboured in with great 
 profit to those who need the sympathy and help of 
 their fellows, and there are men who, unattracted by the 
 honour or the profit of success, enter these fields and 
 
 A 1 
 
2 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 labour in them ; receiving frequently, as their reward, 
 the censure of those on whose behalf they have been 
 struggling, and the losses that always attend efforts 
 made in resisting wrong, or in overcoming errors sup- 
 ported by authority, prejudice, and self-interest. 
 
 "^^Robert Owen entered, at an early age, the field 
 in which he laboured during a long life, never for 
 a moment turning aside from the pursuit of the 
 object for which he had decided to struggle. He 
 accepted cheerfully labour and loss, censure and dis- 
 appointment. Derision and scoffing came to him, but 
 never produced in him despondence or despair. He 
 had lived amongst the people, and knew what they 
 suffered through ignorance and poverty ; and he_ took 
 on himself, as the chief duty of his life, to war 
 against these, whatever he might suffer in the con- 
 
 "flict. The interest of such a life lies in its practical 
 wisdom and its faithfulness to principle, not in the 
 
 I completeness of its success. The highest to be hoped 
 
 )by the wisest and ablest who engage in such a work, 
 is that practicable openings may be made by which 
 future success shall be reached by others, "•^i^^ 
 
 In this narrative attention will be given especially 
 to a description of the state of things that existed in 
 Great Britain during Owen's lifetime. The social 
 
 , and industrial condition of the masses of the people 
 j, will be described, so that the character of the work in 
 which he engaged may be the more distinctly under- 
 stood. I have endeavoured to describe the plans 
 devised by him for helping forward his proposed 
 reforms, the measure of success he met with, and the 
 position in which things stood when his long labours 
 were brought to a close. 
 
Prefatory. 3 
 
 vBetween the date of his birth and that of his death, 
 there took place a greater number of important '^ 
 developments in mechanical discovery and applied 
 science, in connection with the business of the 
 country, than had taken place within the same space 
 of time at any other period of the world's history, i 
 The conditions of labour became entirely changed, 
 and during his most active period as a manufacturer' 
 and reformer, the changes were producing results of 
 a most undesirable kind. There was a rapid and\ 
 extensive displacement of human labour by mechanical 
 labour, and the people so displaced had neither time 
 nor opportunity to fit themselves to the industries 
 brought into existence by the new applications of 
 mechanical' science. Hence there was deep poverty 
 and severe' suffering amongst the working portion of 
 the population, who, in their inability to understand 
 the new position, became irritated. The increase of 
 the productive capacity of the country brought to 
 them chiefly an increase of suffering. For many 
 years the changes made in the situation of the work- 
 ing people were changes for the worse, and they 
 could not see any satisfactory explanation, nor could 
 they hope for any improvement. -* — 
 
 In making comparisons between the England of 
 the past and the England of the present, the power of 
 creating wealth in the past as compared with the 
 present should be carefully considered ; also the 
 relative proportions of the accumulated wealth of the 
 country possessed by the different classes of the com- 
 munity, and the prevailing content or discontent of 
 the people in regard to its apportionment. The 
 danger in connection with this, and how to avoid it, 
 
4 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oweji. 
 
 has been a sore trouble to some of the wisest heads ; 
 and this was the question which presented itself to 
 
 /"Robert Owen's mind, from the moment he took his 
 place amongst those who were then busy in develop- 
 ing and directing the new productive power which 
 was rapidly coming into existence, — how to regulate 
 its use, how to arrange for an equitable distribution 
 of its results, how to employ the masses of the people 
 in connection with it, that they might find in its increase 
 an improvement of their condition, and by this a growth 
 of wealth and an expansion of power in the nation. 
 
 Beyond these considerations there were others that 
 actively occupied his thoughts in regard to the 
 education of the people, with a view to a higher life 
 in connection with their daily labours, — an increase 
 of knowledge, a love of truth, a kindlier intercourse, a 
 wiser tolerance of every form of difference in thought. 
 
 V This was the work on which Robert Owen employed 
 the labours of his life, and 'i&w^ of those acquainted 
 with the work he did will doubt that a large measure 
 of success has been obtained. ^ 
 
 The industrial system of the country had up to 
 then been limited in its operation, and had not led to 
 any of those marvellous developments in regard to 
 the trade and population of the country which have 
 since taken place. The general condition of the 
 
 I population began at that time to undergo a radical 
 
 / change. The artisans were drawn out of their 
 cottages, in which nearly all manufacturing opera- 
 tions were carried on, and were supplemented by 
 large numbers of the rural population, who sought 
 employment in the factories erected on the river 
 sides, where water could be applied as the moving 
 
Prefatory. 5 
 
 power to the vast mechanical forces which were 
 coming into use. Except in the fields, and in thosfe 
 smaller household industries to which the new in- 
 ventions did not apply, a complete change took place 
 in the relation of employer and employed, and in the 
 habits of both. The largeness of the employers 
 undertakings, and the great increase in the numbers 
 employed, rendered personal supervision next to , 
 impossible ; whilst the rapidly increasing wealth of / 
 the factory owners, and their consequent change of 
 habit, gradually separated the two classes from each 
 other, not only in sympathy but in interest, as mere 
 payers and receivers of wages. The domestic rela- 
 tions, that were a necessary condition of life in the ' 
 old system of household industry, were rendered less 
 intimate. The loom and the spinning-wheel, together 
 with the cultivation of a certain portion of the land, 
 had been the occupations of the family. The father 
 and sons attended to the land when, as weavers, they 
 had distanced the mother and daughter as spinners ; 
 parental superintendence, therefore, was constant, and 
 parental teaching and example were felt. These, to 
 a great extent, ceased when the workers, particularly 
 the young, were drawn" from their homes into the 
 factories. When, in addition, it is remembered that 
 over the whole of this initiatory period the principal 
 inconvenience felt by the employers was want of 
 workers, or "hands," it will not be wondered at if, 
 in the absence of home influences, the evil effects of a 
 bad companionship on the minds and habits of factory 
 children began at an early period to be apparent. 
 
 It was at the commencement of this new system of 
 industrial life that Robert Owen was born. During its 
 
6 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 )<^arly development he had to decide how he should 
 act as an employer in reference to it. The system 
 itself and its consequences, actual and probable, came 
 to thousands of others, as they came to him. These 
 had to make their choice, as he made his ; and it is 
 because he stood aside from the great body of the 
 employers of the country, not acting for himself alone, 
 but thinking and acting for those who were rapidly 
 
 ^ becoming the victims of the new industrial system, 
 that his thoughts, his plans, and his labours should be 
 interesting to the present generation. Just now the 
 great industrial struggle, which may be said to have*' 
 commenced with him, is proceeding with vigour ; but 
 now the combat is in the hands of the masses of the 
 working people, who were at that time totally unable 
 to help themselves, but who had in him a true 
 
 ^^hampion. There were other good and true men 
 
 ; even at the beginning, of whose labours I shall have 
 to speak ; but none of them comprehended the magni-' 
 tude of the growing danger, nor did any of them 
 attempt, as did Owen, to grapple with it in all its 
 (forms and ramifications, physical, moral, and indus- 
 trial, — not by exposure and denunciation alone, but 
 by forethought, business arrangement, and by calm 
 constructive work. 
 
 Some short time previous to his death, Robert 
 Owen wrote and published what he called " Recollec- 
 tions of My Life." These " Recollections " are what 
 they profess to be, and make no pretensions to fulness 
 of detail, to strict accuracy in sequence, or to order in 
 the importance of the events comprised in a long and 
 active life extending over eighty years. He seems 
 not to have noted the scenes and circumstances of his 
 
Birth and Boyhood. 7 
 
 daily life, or to have kept a record of his dealings with 
 the world, while actively pursuing his duties as a large 
 manufacturer and as an earnest reformer. 
 
 It may be said of him, however, that his memory 
 was always clear, and his judgment on matters of 
 business singularly sound. Up to the latest period 
 of his life, he talked of past occurrences, however 
 remote, with clearness and readiness, so that all he 
 states in his " Recollections" may be relied on for its 
 closeness to fact. When it is considered, moreover, 
 that all he said and did was influenced by candour ' 
 and love of truth, whether in dealing with friends or 
 opponents, it may be taken for granted that what is 
 inserted here from his brief autobiography, is above 
 ■ suspicion so far as concerns fairness of statement and 
 ■honesty of spirit. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Birtb an& Bo^booD. 
 
 Robert Owen was born at Newtown, Montgomery- 
 shire, on the 14th May 1771, and was the youngest but 
 one of seven children. His father, a native of Welsh- 
 pool, had been brought up to the saddlery business^^ 
 His mother, whose maiden name was Williams, was 
 the daughter of a farmer in the neighbourhood of 
 Newtown, which was then a neat, clean, beautifully- 
 situated country town. 
 
 /judging from all we can learn of him, at this early^ 
 period, Robert Owen was an active, cheerful, and 
 intelligent boy. His school time was necessarily short, 
 but he was fond of learning, assiduous in his attend- 
 
8 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 ance, quick at his lessons, and he acquired at a very 
 early age a taste for reading. /•''in a country village 
 people of all ages and conditions are known to each 
 other. The desire in young Owen for books became 
 known to the clergyman, the physician, and the 
 lawyer of the place, who permitted him to borrow any 
 book they possessed. In this way he read " Robin- 
 son Crusoe," " Philip Ouarles," " Pilgrim's Progress," 
 Harvey's "Meditations among the Tombs," and 
 Young's "Night Thoughts," as well as Richardson's 
 novels, and other stories. 
 
 ^ While still very young he was, in accordance with 
 a neighbourly arrangement, allowed to serve in the 
 shop of a tradesman of the town. This, however, was 
 but temporary, as it had been settled that when he 
 attained the age of ten he should go to London, 
 his eldest brother having settled there as a saddler at 
 No. 8 1 High Holborn. 
 
 This was an early age at which to face the world, 
 and a difficulty, the extent of which cannot be easily 
 appreciated in the present day, lay in the very front 
 of his undertaking, namely, the distance between 
 Newtown and London. Those who can realise the 
 discomfort and inconvenience of a long journey by 
 coach in the old days, will be able to understand what 
 anxiety this must have caused his parents. But in such 
 cases, to those who are not blessed with affluence, sub- 
 mission to painful and hazardous separations becomes 
 a necessity. He himself faced the matter cheerfully. 
 He had forty shillings over and above his expenses, 
 and felt, in the possession of this sum, fit to cope with 
 and overcome all the difficulties that lay before him. 
 The London coach started from Shrewsbury, at which 
 
Birth and Boyhood. 9 
 
 place he commenced his journey at night. Perched 
 on the roof, he was whirled through the darkness in 
 the direction of the metropolis, little dreaming of the 
 remarkable future that lay before him. The proprietor 
 of the coach wa.s disposed to give the young traveller 
 an inside place, but a voice from the interior of the 
 conveyance protested against the intrusion of an out- 
 side passenger, so he had to be contented with a cold 
 and sleepless journey in the night air on the outside. 
 " It was dark," he rernarks, " and I could not see the 
 objector, nor discover how crowded the coach might 
 be ; coaches then carried six inside. I was glad 
 afterwards I did not know who this man was, and 
 therefore I could not be angry with him, as I should 
 have been, for refusing admission to a child." 
 
 On his arrival he was welcomed by his brother and ^ 
 his sister-in-law, but having procured, through the 
 interest of some friends, a situation with Mr James 
 M'Guffog, who carried on a large drapery business at 
 Stamford in Lincolnshire, he left London within six 
 weeks. The conditions of his engagement with 
 M'Guffog were, that he should serve the first year for 
 nothing, the second for a salary of eight pounds, and 
 the third for an advance to ten pounds. _^ 
 
 Owen speaks of M'Guffog as of a man possessed of 
 many excellent qualities. He was honest, methodical, 
 and liberal in his conduct. His business was respect- 
 able and large, the house orderly and comfortable. 
 He had originally been a Scotch pedlar, and had 
 commenced life with a few shillings and a basket, 
 which in a little time he changed for a pack ; ulti- 
 mately becoming a large and comparatively a rich 
 trader, respected and trusted by all who knew him. 
 
lO Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 A man of good principles, traversing the lonely places 
 of the land, would, with a mind predisposed toward 
 such reflections, find, like Wordsworth's traveller, time 
 for serious and elevating thought, when, the petty 
 cares of trade for the time forgotten, he saw, at the 
 close of his day's tramping, 
 
 "The hills 
 Grow larger in the darkness ; all alone 
 Beheld the stars come out above his head." 
 
 Mr M'Guffog was apparently a man to feel the influence 
 of such' scenes. He had read and studied in addition 
 to punctually attending to his business. He was 
 evidently qualified to win the respect of those with 
 whom he had intercourse, and Owen speaks of the 
 confidence he gained from his equals and from his 
 poorer neighbours. Many of his customers "were 
 among the highest nobility in the kingdom, and often 
 six or seven carriages belonging to them were at the 
 same time in attendance at the premises. His shop 
 was, in fact, a kind of town rendezvous for the nobility 
 and principal gentry of the neighbourhood when they 
 visited the town." 
 
 In this position Owen acquired much experience, 
 which he accounted of great value when he in after- 
 life became a manufacturer and commercial man on 
 a large scale. What, however, was perhaps of most 
 service to him as a youth of active and inquiring 
 mind, was the well-selected library in his employer's 
 house, to which he had unrestricted access. The 
 hours during which he was most busily engaged were 
 from ten in the morning to four in the afternoon. 
 During the rest of the day his time was pretty much 
 at his own disposal, so that he read about five hours 
 
Birth and Boyhood. 1 1 
 
 daily, during the three years he remained at Stam- 
 ford.THis habit of early rising, which never left him 
 during any period of his long life, was of great 
 advantage to him in this respect. One of the 
 entrances of Burleigh Park stood near the town, and 
 in summer his chief pleasure was to go into the 
 park to walk, read, think, and study, among its noble 
 avenues. " Very often," he says, " I was in the park 
 from between three and four in the morning until 
 eight, and then again in the evening from six or 
 seven to nearly dark. I had transcribed many of 
 Seneca's moral precepts into a book, which I carried 
 in my pocket, and to ponder over these in the park 
 was one of my pleasurable occupations. In this park, 
 which I made my study, I read many volumes of the 
 most useful works I could obtain. At the early hour 
 mentioned the only person I used to see taking his 
 first walk for the day was the Earl of Exeter, the 
 uncle, I believe, of his successor who married the 
 miller's daughter, the subject of Tennyson's exquisite 
 poem, and who was the father of the present marquis."* 
 " I often recur," he adds, " to the recollection of the 
 many happy healthy hours I enjoyed in that park, 
 healthy both in body and mind. Frequently in the 
 morning I hailed the rising sun, and in the evening 
 watched its setting and the rising of the moon." 
 
 There is some uncertainty as to whether Robert 
 Owen stayed three or four years in Stamford. He 
 
 * It will be seen that Owen's acquaintance with Tenny- 
 son was not very intimate. I need not say that the " Miller's 
 Daughter," and the " Village Maiden " who was led wondering 
 from hall to hall by her noble lover, were not one and the same 
 person. 
 
12 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 was very much pressed to remain by Mr M'Guffog, 
 but he was anxious to see more of the world, and 
 desirous of understanding more of the business in 
 which he was engaged than he could by remaining in 
 one locality; besides, it is natural to suppose that 
 after so long an absence he was anxious to see his 
 family, attachment to his parents, brothers, and sisters 
 ? being a prominent feature in his disposition. 
 ^ When he left Stamford he carried with him high 
 recommendations as to character. With these he 
 started for London, and again took up his residence at 
 his brother's house, remaining there for some months. 
 At about this time he visited his parents in North 
 Wales, and he expresses himself very much gratified 
 by the hearty welcome and the kindness he met with 
 from all his old neighbours. 
 
 His next situation was with Messrs Flint & Palmer, 
 large retail drapers, whose place of business was 
 situated on old London Bridge, at the Borough end. 
 This was one of the most respectable trades conducted 
 on the ready-money principle. Here he had £2^ ^ 
 year besides his board and lodging, and with this sum 
 he considered himself "rich and independent." It may 
 be remarked here that he never during his life drank 
 ordinary intoxicants or smoked, or contracted any of 
 those habits common among young men. His work was 
 very hard. ) The assistants were up and had breakfast 
 so as to be prepared for attending to customers by 
 eight o'clock, and during all the spring months busi- 
 ness went on till ten or half-past ten at night. The 
 day's work did not finish even then, as it was the 
 custom to put the goods hurriedly by during the 
 day, so that at eleven o'clock, when the doors were 
 
Birth and Boyhood. 1 3 
 
 closed, nearly everything had to be refolded, and 
 replaced on the shelves in proper order for the next 
 day's business. This frequently kept them up until 
 two o'clock, and he says that "after being actively 
 engaged on foot all day from eight o'clock in the 
 morning, I have scarcely been able, with the aid of 
 the banisters, to go up stairs to bed." This alarmed 
 him, on the ground of his health, as well it might ; 
 and if it be remembered that young women, as well 
 as young men, were thus employed, he certainly does 
 not use too strong a term when he speaks of it as 
 "slavery." One curious custom at Messrs Flint & 
 Palmer's is worth mentioning. " Dressing," he says, 
 " was then no slight affair. Boy as I was, I had to 
 wait my turn for the hairdresser to powder, pomatum, 
 and curl my hair,^ for I had two large curls on each 
 side, and a stiff pigtail, and until this was very nicely 
 done no one could think of appearing before a cus- 
 tomer." Fearing the effect this drudgery might have 
 on him, he applied to his friends to procure him 
 another situation ; but when the spring trade closed 
 his work became much more pleasant and easy. He 
 now enjoyed his life so well that he forgot his request 
 concerning a new situation, but nevertheless an offer 
 of one came to him from Manchester. Mr Satterfield, 
 of that town, who carried on a wholesale and retail 
 business in St Ann's Square, offered him an advance 
 to £ip a year, with board and lodging. It was 
 a first-class house, and, accepting the proposal, he 
 parted from his London employers, though not with- 
 out some regret, as they had personally been very 
 kind to him. 
 
 Robert Owen always regarded himself as fortunate. 
 
14 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 not only in the personal character of his employers, 
 but in the character of the people who constituted the 
 
 t bulk of their customers. In Stamford, these were 
 to a great extent of the higher class ; while on Lon- 
 don Bridge, they were the ordinary crowd of street 
 customers, — working people, shopkeepers, and others. 
 In Manchester, they were made up of the middle- 
 class, — merchants and manufacturers ; " and thus," 
 he says, " in Mr Satterfield's I became acquainted 
 with the habits and ideas of this class." In this way 
 he had, at an early age, constant opportunities of 
 observing the conduct and language of people differ- 
 ing very much from each other; and as he was always 
 ready in his appreciation of what was excellent in 
 
 I whomsoever he had to deal with, it is not surprising 
 I that the variety of his experience during this part of 
 his life had considerable influence on the formation , 
 of his own manners. Always quiet and unobtrusive 
 in what he had to say, always considerate of the 
 thoughts and wishes of others, and never in the slightest 
 degree impatient or overbearing, all who came near 
 him felt that he was a man to be liked, to be trusted, 
 and to be loved, if for nothing else, simply for the 
 manly, and at the same time child-like, earnestness 
 
 I which characterised all he did and said. 
 
 ( He remained in the employment of Mr Satterfield 
 until he was eighteen years of age. As this period 
 he became, in the course of business, acquainted with 
 a wire-worker named Jones, who supplied Mr Satter- . 
 field with wire bonnet frames. It being Owen's duty 
 to receive these frames from the maker, Jones told 
 him of the new discoveries which were then being 
 applied to cotton spinning, and added that he was 
 
Starts as his Own Master. 1 5 
 
 doing all he could to get a knowledge of these, 
 believing there was a fortune to be made in that 
 direction. After some time he informed him he had 
 seen certain of these new machines at work, and felt 
 satisfied that he could make them. He proposed 
 that the young draper should join him, and bring 
 into the venture one hundred pounds, as with 
 even so small a sum to start with the profits alone 
 would serve to increase and continue the business. 
 At the present day this amount of capital looks so 
 trivial as to seem almost ridiculous, but in connec- 
 tion with the cotton trade those days were the 
 days of romance. Robert Owen borrowed from his 
 brother William the required sum, gave his employer 
 notice of his intention to leave, and entered into 
 partnership with Jones. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Starts as bis ®wn /IDaster. 
 
 To understand the important and ambitious step 
 mentioned at the conclusion of the last chapter, and 
 taken by Owen at the age of eighteen, the man and 
 the time must be considered in relation to each other. 
 Robert Owen, at his entrance into manhood, was, 
 from all we can learn concerning this period of his j 
 life, singularly quick and clear in his apprehension ; 
 steady, punctual, and conscientious in the performance 
 of his duties ; and anxious in the discovery of improved 
 methods. Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, and 
 
1 6 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 Watt had placed their wonderful inventions at the 
 disposal of their countrymen, and these inventions 
 were daily receiving a more extended application. 
 The inventors created new conditions of work, which ■ 
 led in all directions to new acquisitions of; fortune. 
 Fox Bourne, in his " Romance of Trade," quoting 
 from Dr Aikin, gives an account of the mode of life 
 that existed among the Manchester manufacturers 
 previous to this, which contrasts very strangely with 
 what prevails at the present time, and which rnust 
 have been very different from the habits and usages 
 of the same class in 1789, when Owen entered on his 
 first partnership. " An eminent manufacturer of that 
 age," says Aikin, " used to be in his warehouse before 
 six in the morning, accompanied by his children and 
 apprentices. At seven they all came in to breakfast, 
 which consisted of, one huge dish of water pottage, 
 made of oatmeal, water, and a little salt, boiled thick 
 and poured into a dish. At the side was a pan or 
 basin of milk, and the master and the apprentices, 
 each with a wooden spoon in his hand, without loss of 
 time, dipped into the same dish, and thence into the 
 milk pan, and as soon as it was finished they all 
 returned to their work." 
 
 In 1789 this state of things was much altered, but 
 the general change was shown by individual instances 
 which must have been constantly occurring within 
 Owen's own knowledge ; and where these were 
 sudden and remarkable, they were no doubt frequently 
 subjects of conversation among those with whom he 
 associated. His partnership, therefore, and his new 
 business were, in the circumstances, and considering 
 his character, the most natural things imaginable. 
 
Starts as his Own Master. i'j 
 
 He and his partner, who seems to have been an 
 ignorant and unbusiness-like man, arranged with a 
 builder for the erection of a machine-shop, with rooms 
 for cotton spinning, and in a short time they had 
 about forty men at work making machines, with 
 abundant credit for the materials necessary to carry 
 on their operations. Owen soon found that Jones 
 was deficient in the kind of business knowledge which 
 was most needed. He did not himself understand 
 practically anything about the machinery they were 
 making, but he understood book-keeping and general 
 financial matters, and also how to overlook the men [ 
 they employed. They manufactured what were called 
 " mules," and though the business was doing well, and 
 succeeding under his intelligent and attentive super- 
 vision, he seems nevertheless to have been anxious to 
 get out of it in consequence of his partner's incapa- 
 city. While Owen was in this frame of mind, a man 
 with some considerable capital agreed to join with 
 Jones ; and as they preferred having the business 
 entirely in their own hands, after some hesitation 
 they proposed terms which he at once accepted. The 
 offer for his share in the business was six "mule" 
 machines, such as they were making for sale, a reel, 
 and a "making-up" machine, which was used to pack 
 the yarn, when finished in skeins, into bundles for 
 the market. 
 
 He was now nineteen years of age, and had to face 
 the woi-ld with, so far, only a promise of the machines.-' 
 he had . bargained for as the price of his retirement 
 from the firm. When the time for settlement came, 
 instead of six he only got three of the " mules " for 
 which he had stipulated ; and with these, and the 
 
 B 
 
1 8 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oweil. 
 
 other articles enumerated above, he commenced busi- 
 ness in Ancoats Lane, Manchester.; To supply his 
 "mules," his reel, and his making-up machine, he 
 bought what are called rovings, which he converted 
 into fine yarn, and sold to the manufacturers of 
 muslin. In his " Recollections of My Life," he 
 informs us that when he was with Mr M'Guffog, in 
 Stamford, the chief, if not the only, manufacturer of 
 muslins was a Mr Oldknow, of the neighbourhood of 
 Stockport, who commenced this braneh of the cotton 
 manufacture about the year 1780. To distinguish 
 these from the Indian manufacture, the maker called 
 them British twill muslins. They were less than a 
 yard wide, and sold in the Stamford shops at from 
 9s. to 9s. 6d. a yard, being much in demand. At the 
 time when Owen wrote (1857), an article of much 
 better quality might be purchased at 2d. a yard. 
 
 With his " mules " and other machinery, and the 
 labour of three men, Owen made about ;£^300 a year 
 profit, and considered that he was doing very well. 
 From this point he might have gone on increasing his^ 
 machinery as his profits increased, but such a process 
 would have been very slow at first, and no doubt he 
 felt that in a town like Manchester, where large 
 amounts were being constantly invested in cotton 
 manufacture, a connection with a large firm, even 
 though it were for a time as a servant, would be 
 preferable to a long struggle as a small employer. A 
 chance soon offered. A man named Lee left his 
 situation as manager in the factory of Mr Drinkwater, 
 to take a partnership in another concern. Mr Drink- 
 water advertised for a manager in the Manchester 
 paper, and Robert Owen at once applied for the post. 
 
Starts as his Own Master. 19 
 
 Mr Drinkwater, struck by the youthfulness of his 
 appearance, asked him his age, and what salary he 
 required. " Three hundred a year," was the reply. 
 " What !" exclaimed the questioner ; "three hundred 
 a year. I have had this morning I know not how 
 many applying for the situation, and do not think that 
 all they asked would, together, amount to what you 
 require." " I cannot," answered the young applicant, 
 " be governed by what others ask, and I cannot take 
 less. I am now making that sum by my own busi- 
 ness." This statement was followed by an offer to 
 show his business and books. Mr Drinkwater went 
 with him, inspected them, and after inquiry as to 
 character, the bargain was struck, Mr Drinkwater at 
 the same time taking the whole of his machinery at 
 cost price. 
 
 The number of people employed in the mill of 
 which Owen had now to take the superintendence 
 was about five hundred. Robert Owen confesses 
 that the acceptance of this new position led to serious 
 doubts as to whether or not he had committed a rash 
 and inexcusable act. He was young, and but im- 
 perfectly educated ; he was shy, and almost timid in 
 his intercourse with strangers, when such intercourse 
 went beyond his business duties. The more he 
 thought of these things, the more he mistrusted his 
 own power. But he had accepted the position with 
 his eyes open, and whatever came of it, the struggle 
 to succeed in it must be made. 
 
 When the duties he had undertaken to discharge 
 are considered, one need not wonder that his resolu- 
 tion should to some extent give way. He had, in the 
 first instance, to assume the command of a mill with- 
 
20 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 out a previous introduction to the workpeople. He 
 had to purchase the raw material, to fit up the mill 
 with some new machinery, to manufacture the cotton 
 into yarn, to sell it when manufactured, to keep the 
 accounts, to pay the wages, '' and, in fact, take the 
 whole responsibility of the first establishment for 
 spinning fine cotton that had ever been erected,'' as 
 successor to one of the most scientific managers of the 
 day. 
 
 The account given of the mode in which he over- 
 came the difficulties of his new position is interesting. 
 " I inspected," he says, " everything very minutely, 
 examined the drawings of the machinery, as left by 
 Mr Lee [his predecessor] ; and these were of great 
 use to me. I was at the mill with the first in the 
 morning, and I locked up the premises at night, 
 taking the key with me. I continued this silent 
 inspection and superintendence day by day for six 
 weeks ; saying merely yes or no to the questions as 
 to what was to be done or otherwise, and during that 
 period I did not give one direct order about anything." 
 
 The factory at that time had attained to a higher 
 perfection than any other in the production of " fine 
 counts," but Owen soon succeeded in greatly improv- 
 ing the quality, and as a natural consequence increased 
 the business and its profits. The proprietor no doubt 
 kept himself well informed as to the progress made. 
 He visited the mill seldom, but the improvement of 
 f his reputation as a spinner, combined with the steady 
 gentlemanly demeanour of the young manager, must 
 have convinced him that he had secured the services 
 of no ordinary man. Robert Owen makes a very 
 frank acknowledgment of his own deficiencies in 
 
Starts as his Own Master. ii 
 
 education ; stating that he at this time spoke, 
 ungrammatically, a kind of Welsh-English, and was 
 awkward in his manners. This, however, may be an 
 exaggeration, the result of a too acute self-conscious- 
 ness, as in after-life he wrote with correctness, and 
 spoke without any peculiarity of accent. 
 
 At the end of the first six months, Mr Drinkwater, 
 who had not previously asked him to visit his house, 
 sent .him an invitation to his country residence, 
 stating that he had something of importance to 
 communicate. Owen obeyed this call with consider- 
 able anxiety. When he arrived, he was ushered into 
 Mr Drinkwater's " room of business," when that gentle- 
 man addressed him thus : — " Mr Owen, I have sent 
 for you to propose a matter of business important to 
 you and to me. I have watched your proceedings, 
 and know them well since you came into my service, 
 and I am well pleased with all you have done. I 
 now wish you to make up your mind to remain 
 permanently with me. I have agreed to give you 
 three hundred pounds for this year; and if you consent 
 to remain with me, I will give you four hundred for 
 the next year, five hundred for the third, and, as I 
 have two sons growing up, the fourth year you shall 
 join them in partnership with me, and you shall have 
 a fourth of the profits, and you know now what they 
 are likely to be. What do you think of this proposal ?" 
 The reply was, " I think it most liberal, and willingly 
 agree to it." "Then," said Mr Drinkwater, "the 
 agreement shall be made out while you are here, and 
 you shall take a copy of it home with you." This 
 was a satisfactory business very rapidly transacted. 
 Well might the manager declare that, when both 
 
22 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 copies of the agreement were prepared and signed, 
 he returned to Manchester "well pleased with his 
 visit." He was born in 1771, and this event took 
 place in 1790, so that he had not quite completed his 
 twentieth year, and already a fortunate concurrence of 
 circumstances, united with his own good character and 
 intelligence, had advanced him so far on the high road 
 to fortune that he might, without being over-sanguine, 
 conclude that a prosperous future lay before him. 
 
 At this interview he had also conferred upon him 
 the power of doing what he thought proper for the 
 improvement of the business. He at once began 
 operations by which he increased the fineness of the 
 yarn ; and to distinguish the new from the old stock, 
 much of which was left by his predecessor, and much 
 produced upon the plan which remained in operation 
 after his departure, he marked the "bundles" or parcels 
 of new yarn with his own name. With this improve- 
 ment in fineness he easily got the produce of the mill 
 into the market, and obtained for it a high reputation 
 among the muslin manufacturers of the country. In 
 pursuing this branch of the cotton trade, it was 
 necessary that he should be particularly exact in the 
 purchase of raw cotton, as none but the finest and 
 best would answer his purpose ; and the constant 
 efforts he made to get this gave him so great a 
 skill in buying, that he came to be regarded as one 
 ^of the best judges of cotton ifi the market. During 
 this time, that is towards the close of 1790 or the 
 beginning of 1791, the first two packages of American 
 Sea Island cotton came to England, and were placed 
 in his hands that he might test their value by manu- 
 facturing them into yarn. When finished as yarn, the 
 
Starts as his Otvn Master. 23 
 
 colour was so bad that he sold a portion at a very low- 
 price to a Scotch muslin manufacturer named Craig. 
 This man, however, soon returned to procure as much 
 more of it as possible, the bleaching having given it 
 an appearance and quality better than any produced 
 up to that time. 
 
 Continuing his improvements, in about a year after 
 he commenced the management of Mr Drinkwater's 
 factory he had acquired such a knowledge of the various 
 qualities of cotton, and had so improved the accuracy 
 of the machinery used and the correctness of all the 
 processes through which the material had to pass in 
 order to be turned into finished yarn, that he increased 
 the fineness from 120 "counts" to upwards of 300, — 
 which means, that he spun out of a pound of cotton 
 that number of "hanks," each hank containing 840 
 yards of thread. For this yarn the purchaser paid 50 
 per cent, above the list price, and even at this price he 
 could not, when the mill was in full work, meet the 
 demand for these fine counts.* A large muslin yarn 
 trade grew out of this, and that the profitableness of 
 these yarns may be understood, he informs us that he 
 gave 5s. for a pound of cotton, which when finished 
 into fine thread for the muslin weaver extended to 
 near 250 hanks, for which he got from the manu- 
 facturers £g. 1 8s. 6d. per pound. He adds that he 
 brought these counts afterwards to upwards of 
 300, and says that if he had been able to do this at 
 
 * The yarns were made up for the market in 5-lb. bundles, 
 the "hanks" were 840 yards each, and the "counts" were 
 according to the number of hanks in the bundle ; and the list 
 price, was a point below which inferior goods fell, and above 
 which superior goods rose, 
 
24 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 the time he realised the price stated, he could have 
 made above £^6 on one pound of yarn. The only- 
 real competitor Mr Drinkwater had in these fine yarns 
 was a Mr Buchanan, and his goods were so much 
 inferior, that while the yarns spun by Robert Owen 
 realised 50 per cent, above the list price, Buchanan's 
 only realised 10 per cent, above it. 
 
 The disastrous year of 1792 brought no change 
 in the relationship between Robert Owen and his 
 employer. Mr Drinkwater was rich, and stood the 
 strain firmly, whilst many of his neighbours were 
 sunk or stranded. So satisfied was he with his 
 manager, that he put a factory he had at Northwich, 
 in Cheshire, under his management also, leaving the 
 old manager in his place, but giving Owen the control 
 of the mill, to which he attended by riding over to 
 Northwich once a fortnight. 
 
 Things were going on with him as prosperously 
 as he could wish, when an unexpected circumstance 
 broke the connection, and again threw Robert Owen 
 loose on the world to pursue his fortunes as best he 
 could. Mr Drinkwater had a daughter of marriage- 
 able age, and her hand was sought by a large 
 muslin manufacturer, a man of wealth and high 
 standing in the business. He was accepted by 
 the father, and, after some reluctance, by the 
 daughter ; and as he was ambitious that he and his 
 intended father-in-law should stand among the fore- 
 most of the cotton lords of the district, he was 
 very anxious that Mr Drinkwater's agreement with 
 Owen as to a partnership should be cancelled, that 
 the spinning concern might belong altogether to 
 the family. Robert Owen had heard hints of this. 
 
The Dying of the Old. 25 
 
 and when he was sent for by Mr Drinkwater he put 
 into his pocket the agreement which was to take effect 
 the following year. When he arrived he was at once 
 informed by his employer of the intended marriage of 
 his daughter with Mr Oldknow, and of the desire of 
 that gentleman that the entire business of both houses 
 should remain in the family. He then inquired on 
 what condition he would give up the agreement, and 
 retain the management of the mill. " You have now,'' 
 he said, " ;£^500 a year, and whatever sum you name 
 you shall have." " I have brought the agreement 
 with me," replied the manager, at the same time 
 producing it, " and I now put it in the fire, as I never 
 will connect myself with any parties who are not 
 desirous to be united with me ; but under these 
 circumstances I cannot remain your manager with 
 any salary you can give." The agreement was 
 burned on the spot, and Owen returned to Man- 
 chester, simply promising that he would remain at 
 his post until a suitable successor could be found. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 XTbe Dicing of tbe ®15. 
 
 In order to understand the contrast between the old 
 and the new systems of industrial life in Great Britain, 
 it will be useful to draw two distinct lines, one at 
 1770, the year before Owen was born, and the other 
 at 1790, when he may be said to have commenced life 
 as a manufacturer. The period dating back from 
 
26 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 1770 may be described as one of hand labour, when 
 men, women, and children, assisted by certain crude 
 mechanical appliances, performed the whole of the 
 work necessary to feed, clothe, and shelter the popu- 
 lation. Human labour was the supreme element in 
 production, the most important in all calculations 
 regarding wealth and progress. From 1790 the man 
 has been undergoing displacement to such an extent, 
 that at present the machine has taken the first place, 
 in a way to alter the basis of all calculations as to the 
 production and accumulation of wealth. 
 
 In the old days, human labour and the condition of 
 the labourer had to be first considered. Now the first 
 consideration is how machinery can be applied where 
 work has to be done, and how it shall be regulated in 
 its operations so as to produce the most profitable 
 result. The interim of twenty years between these 
 two periods was one of unprecedented change. Old 
 methods of work were rapidly giving place to new 
 methods ; our captains of industry were arming them- 
 selves with the new weapons forged by Watt the 
 humble machinist, Hargreaves the Lancashire car- 
 penter, Arkwright the barber, Crompton the son of 
 a working man who divided his labour between his 
 little farm and his cottage loom, and others who, like 
 Whitney the private tutor in America, were overcom- 
 ing new difficulties by new appliances, as wonderful in 
 their complicated construction as by their opportune- 
 ness and almost miraculous concurrence in point of 
 time. These twenty years did not so much comprise 
 a period of struggle for mastery in commercial competi- 
 tion, as a preparation for the mighty and ceaseless battle 
 that has been waged from that time to the present day. 
 
The Dying of the Old. 27 
 
 Prior to 1770 the progress of manufacturing indus- 
 try was slow. The foreign trade was scarcely worth I 
 taking into account. All figures given at this period / 
 were more or less unreliable guesses. The accounts ' 
 of the Custom House were badly kept, there was / 
 much smuggling, and Ireland was treated in the 
 returns of trade as a foreign country; while down to 
 1798 quantities only were given and not prices ; 
 besides which, a large proportion of our exports con- 
 sisted of produce, not manufactures, as corn, wool, &c. 
 In the absence of a foreign trade of any consequence, 
 the people depended for employment principally on 
 the home market ; and as nearly all labour was hand 
 labour, employment extended as population increased. 
 Making allowance, therefore, for occasional plagues , 
 and failures of crops, the business of the country i 
 would be much the same one year as another. The ' 
 production and consumption would balance each 
 other; and, in proportion to the population, the 
 balance of accumulated capital would be little more 
 than was necessary to supply the new demands occa- 
 sioned by an increase of the people. Speculation in 
 trade was scarcely known, — there was no new com- 
 modity to speculate in, no new markets to compete 
 for, no rapid fortunes of mushroom growth to be 
 striven aften 
 
 There were large flocks of sheep, because wool was 
 needed for home use and for foreign export, and 
 therefore mutton was abundant and cheap. The 
 workers combined small farms with their spinning, 
 weaving, and other occupations ; and therefore bacon, 
 eggs, milk, vegetables, and other household supplies 
 were home production.s, and by the masses of the 
 
28 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiven. 
 
 people easy to be obtained in moderate sufficiency. 
 Panics in trade only occurred when a plague or a 
 famine scourged the land ; and even then, as mere 
 matter of loss of profit to employers, or insufficiency 
 of wages to the workers, they were not severely felt, 
 except in rare instances. What we now understand 
 by the word " business " was unkno\vn. The nianu- 
 factures were for the most part domestic, and were 
 carried on in the houses of the peopIeT The manu- 
 facturer employed a group of journeymen and a few 
 apprentices, the number of the latter being appor- 
 tioned by law to the number of the former. In this 
 way the proportion of workers in each trade was 
 balanced, according to the relative growth of each ; 
 and as there were no sudden displacements of labour 
 by the introduction of machinery, as years went on 
 old habits and methods of life were preserved, while 
 the relation between employers and employed, com- 
 mencing under an indentured apprenticeship, usually 
 for seven years, and continued under a system of 
 journeymanship, became a kind of family relation. 
 As a rule, with personal knowledge there was personal 
 respect, though not without those occasional dis- 
 agreements which opposing interests will sometimes 
 beget, however carefully they may be regulated. 
 The employer, who had himself passed through an 
 apprenticeship in the workshop, in most cases lived 
 carefully, and saved a portion of his profits. With 
 this he provided for the extension of his trade, adding 
 room to room, or shed to shed, as demand for his 
 commodities increased, employing as he went on a 
 few more journeymen and taking one or two more 
 apprentices. When ordinary slackness of trade oc- 
 
The Dying of the Old. 29 
 
 curred, it was seldom accompanied by absolute dis- 
 missal. Each got less to do, but as a rule all got 
 something ; while a general depression, out of such a 
 relation of friendliness as the everyday life of the 
 workshop begot, led to such neighbourly help as pre- 
 vented the most necessitous workers from throwing 
 themselves on the poor-rates as a last and only 
 resource. Trade was healthy, because it grew natur- 
 ally by the pressure of its own requirements ; and it 
 did so in the hands of men who, being practised in it, 
 knew what these requirements were, and therefore 
 fitted the increased power of supply to the demand 
 of the market. Production, depending as it did on 
 manual labour, could not be on a sudden rapidly 
 extended, as such extension would require a sudden 
 increase of skilled labour. To obtain this was im- 
 possible, and even though it had been possible by 
 immigration to procure this increase, the new comers 
 would have been consumers, and could not have 
 glutted the general market as does machinery, which 
 produqes without consuming. 
 
 Gaskell, in his useful work on " Artisans and 
 Machinery," throws light on the changes made in the 
 condition of the people, in what are now called the 
 manufacturing districts, by the introduction of ma- 
 chinery. "In the year 1770," he says, quoting from 
 William Ratcliff, " the land of our township (Mellor, 
 fourteen miles from Manchester) was occupied by 
 between fifty and sixty farmers ; rent, to the best of 
 my recollection, did not exceed los. per statute acre ;* 
 
 * Mr Pitt, in 1798, twenty-nine years later, valued the land of 
 England at an average of 12s. per acre. 
 
30 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 and out of these fifty or sixty farmers, there were 
 only six or seven who raised their rents directly from 
 the produce of their farms. All the rest got their 
 rent partly in some branch of trade, such as spinning 
 or weaving woollen, linen, or cotton. The cottagers 
 were employed entirely in this manner, except for a 
 few weeks in harvest. Being one of those cottagers, 
 and intimately acquainted with all the rest, as well as 
 the farmers, I am better able to relate particularly 
 how the change from the old system of hand-labour 
 to the new one of machinery operated in raising the 
 price of land. Cottage rents a-t that time, with con- 
 venient loom-shop and a small garden attached, were 
 from one and a half to two guineas per annum. The 
 father of a family would earn from eight shillings to 
 half a guinea at his loom, and his sons, if he had one 
 or two or three alongside him, six or eight shillings 
 per week each ; but the great sheet-anchor of all 
 cottages and small farms was the labour attached to 
 the hand-wheel, and when it is considered that it • 
 required six or eight hands to prepare and spin yarn, 
 of any of the three materials I have mentioned, suffi- 
 cient for the consumption of one weaver, this shows 
 clearly the inexhaustible source there was for labour 
 for every person from the age of seven to eighty years 
 (who retained their sight and could move their hands) 
 to earn their bread, say one to three shillings per 
 week, without going to the parish." 
 
 From 1778 to 1803 was the golden age of spinning 
 
 knd weaving, according to William Ratcliff. The new 
 
 machinery had superseded the spinning-wheel-s, and 
 
 weaving therefore was unchecked by want of weft. 
 
 The weaving still went on in new loom-shops added 
 
The Dying of the Old. 3 1 
 
 to the cottages, and all were filled ; cotton, cotton, 
 and nothing but cotton, was in demand, and thus 
 all were busy and well-to-do before the great all- 
 devouring factory, filled with steam looms, swallowed 
 up everything else. 
 
 Up to this time the principal staple trade was wool 
 and woollen fabrics, which was carried on, as Postle- 
 thwayth says in his " Universal Dictionary of Trade 
 and Commerce," " more or less " in almost every part 
 of the kingdom, some making one species of goods, 
 some another. " From the multitude of people there 
 is a great home consumption of all sorts for their use 
 in all places ; so no part of the nation making every 
 kind or having near at hand the materials necessary 
 for the particular kind they do manufacture, they are 
 obliged to send for such articles as they want to the 
 counties where tliey are made, or to London, which 
 is the centre of their commerce. This occasions so 
 general an intercourse of trade and correspondence 
 among ourselves for the native commodities of our 
 own country, that the inland trade of no other 
 nation in Europe, perhaps, is equal to it." Postle- 
 thwayth's huge book, crammed with information, 
 describes with much detail and fulness the various 
 trades carried on, and the principal places for 
 each branch of our textile fabrics. " The manu- 
 factures called Manchester wares, such as fustians, 
 cottons, tapes, incles, &c., are sent on pack-horses to 
 London, Bristol, Liverpool, for exportation, and also 
 to the wholesale haberdashers for home consumption, 
 whence the other towns of England are likewise 
 served, or by the Manchester men themselves, who 
 travel from town to town throughout the kingdom." 
 
32 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 Of these goods, we are gravely informed that at the 
 date of the publication of the book (i7S7), "they 
 make at Manchester, Bolton, and the neighbouring 
 places, above ^600,000 worth annually." The writer 
 tells us also that coarse woollen goods called "double- 
 dozens and kerseys are largely manufactured in York- 
 shire, and are carried to the consumers in the same 
 manner as the Manchester wares ; and as these are 
 used for clothing the poorer sort of people in other 
 counties, even where finer clothes are made, so the 
 shopkeepers in these very counties of Yorkshire are 
 obliged to buy the fine medley cloths of Wiltshire 
 and 'Gloucestershire, the stuffs and serges of Norwich' 
 and Exeter, the duroys and silk druggets of London 
 and Taunton, for the wear of the people of better 
 condition. In like manner the traders of Devonshire 
 and Somersetshire buy the fine woollen cloths of 
 Wilts and Gloucester; and their camblets, crapes, and 
 women's stuffs from Norwich ; their stockings from 
 Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire, York- 
 shire, or London." 
 
 London was, as it now is, the great centre, the 
 several counties sending large quantities of their 
 goods there, and getting the goods of other counties 
 in return ; and besides all this there were the great 
 fairs of Stourbridge, Bristol, West Chester, Exeter, 
 and Woodboroughhill, at which a great traffic was 
 carried on. Just as this extensive and active inter- 
 change of manufactured goods was conducted, so was 
 the exchange of raw material, wool, yarn, and other 
 manufacturing commodities. "The fine-fleece wool 
 of Lincoln, Leicester, and Northamptonshire, is carried 
 on pack-horses south to Cirencester and Tedbury, in 
 
TJie Dying of the Old. 33 
 
 Gloucestershire, where it is bought up and afterwards 
 spun into yarn for the clothiers of Wilts, Gloucester, 
 and Somersetshire, to mix with the Spanish wool in 
 making their broad cloths ; eastward the same is 
 carried to Norwich and Bury for the manufacture of 
 those parts ; and northward to the farther parts of 
 Yorkshire, and even into Westmoreland and Cumber- 
 land, where it is made into fine yarn, which is brought 
 up to London to the amount at least of 100 horse- 
 packs a week, for the making of fine druggets and 
 camblets in Spitalfields." By this description it will 
 be seen how active the home trade of the country was 
 in production and distribution, as well as steady and 
 unvarying in its operations and its results. Domestic 
 industries were everywhere promoted and encouraged, 
 and the population was employed, without at any time 
 being seriously disturbed, in spinning and weaving, 
 and otherwise preparing goods for the market, and 
 exchanging them throughout the country. In 1750, 
 before the old habits of trade or of life were interfered 
 with, the sum expended on the poor was a few pounds 
 under ;^690,ooo, which rapidly augmented after machin- 
 ery began to be applied. In 1776 it was over ;^694,ooo, 
 whilst in 1783 above two millions sterling were thus 
 expended ; an alarming advance which, as year followed 
 year, amounted, notwithstanding the vigorous attempts 
 made to hold it in check, in 1880 to the extraordinary 
 sum of over eight millions sterhng ; and what makes 
 this increase of the poverty of the working people of 
 England the more remarkable is, that the foreign trade 
 of the country, which in 1782 is given at a little over 
 twenty-three millions sterling, import and export, is 
 returned in 1880 as over 634 millions sterling. 
 
 C 
 
34 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 The contrast given here is not intended to indicate 
 any preference for the older times, or any desire to 
 see restored what has passed away beyond our power 
 of recall. Much of what has been changed has been 
 improved ; while much that has been made worse 
 may be fairly regarded as the result of a process of 
 change, and preparatory to a higher and better 
 condition of things. Once the necessary machinery 
 was invented, it would have been madness to attempt 
 to continue the old household system of manufactur- 
 ing. A more generous thoughtfulness, however, might 
 have led to the establishment of a factory system 
 unattended by the many grievous evils that we now 
 shudder at as matters of history. Many of these 
 have been done away with after much sharp conflict, 
 and in time it may be counted on as certain that most 
 of those yet remaining will disappear. 
 
 The great change in the manufacturing system of 
 Great Britain may be truly regarded as a crisis of 
 extreme danger. An alteration in the daily business 
 life of the nation, which changed the occupations and 
 modes of life of large masses of the people, dooming 
 multitudes to poverty and unusual temptation, and 
 conferring on others large gifts of fortune ; destroying 
 family influence on one side, by superseding domestic 
 employments and the salutary relations of home ; 
 and, on the other side, so separating the employer 
 from the worker, and so estranging both classes in 
 regard to interests which had previously been almost 
 identical, — the wonder is how the interruptions of the 
 internal peace of the country, and the attacks on 
 property by the suffering and discontented, are so few 
 as they have been. 
 
The Dying of the Old. 3 5 
 
 The interest atta ching t o_ Robcd:_QmExi!a_lif£._y,ill 
 be round in^ the ii3e ke- look, -ajid_the..character of the 
 battle hejfou^rt^for the purpose of hfting up^ those 
 who^sufferedJnJJiis great change, and so directing the 
 new forces as to give them a beneficent in si£ad_o£-a 
 baneful tendency. He did not recommend at any 
 "period of his life the bringing back of the old, but the 
 safe and equitable institution of the new. He did not 
 fight against old oppressions, but rather against a 
 new order of things fraught with mischief ; his objec 
 being to seek for the highest advantages for th' 
 whole of society from the new productive forcesi 
 for an equitable use of the new wealth then flowin 
 into our manufacturing districts, and to establis 
 such a system of education as might produce a moraj 
 growth in the people at least equal to the growth of 
 the nation in material wealth. It was no part of hi^ 
 policy to bring back what had passed away, but rather 
 to understand and welcome the new, — not as it might 
 force itself on the world in a conflict of greed and 
 self - seeking, but modified and regulated by the 
 wisdom and generosity of those who prize justice 
 as the first necessity in the dealings of men ; who 
 know how marked are the retributions for its neglect, 
 and that 
 
 " Even-handed justice 
 Returns th' ingredients of the poisoned chalice 
 To our own lips." 
 
36 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Bfrtb of tbe mew. 
 
 The twenty years which followed Robert Owen's 
 birth saw the close of the era which preceded the 
 introduction of machinery, and the opening of that 
 in which mere human labour became secondary and '' 
 subordinate. The manner in which cotton factories 
 sprang up on the banks of the rivers where water- 
 power was available has been referred to, and also 
 the rapidity with which the people were drawn into 
 them. The change may be described as complete. 
 Numbers of the old workers, unsuited by age to fall 
 into the new arrangements, remained, and continued 
 to work in connection with the handloom ; but the 
 youth and life and growing activity of the manu- 
 facturing industry passed into the mills or factories, 
 and it is in these alone, and through them, that the 
 progress of our huge textile industries is to be traced. 
 In certain branches of factory industry the labour 
 of young people was a necessity, but there existed a 
 strong indisposition on the part of parents to allow 
 their children to enter the factory gates. Frequently 
 the population was thinly scattered about the places 
 where available water-power made it most desirable 
 to erect cotton mills, and therefore the inconvenience 
 felt for want of child labour was very great. Indoor 
 apprenticeship was the rule in connection with the ■ 
 small industries of the kingdom ; but in the factories 
 this arrangement was impossible, as the factory 
 owners did not profess to teach any handicraft, as 
 
Birth of the New. 37 
 
 the old master did ; besides, it would have been 
 difficult for a man to charge himself with the main- 
 tenance and care of some hundreds of young people, 
 to whom, from the press of business, he could pay 
 little or no attention. The obstacle, however, had to 
 be overcome, and the plan resorted to was to obtain 
 as apprentices, from the various workhouses of the 
 kingdom, as large a number of the pauper children 
 as were required, and bind them under indenture 
 to the foreman or manager under whose super- 
 intendence they worked. They were bargained for 
 and sent to their destination in droves ; the work- 
 house authorities, glad enough to get rid of them, 
 prudently stipulating that those who contracted for 
 them should take a due proportion of the ailing and 
 idiotic. When these children entered on the employ- 
 ment at which they were to spend their lives, they 
 were housed and bedded in sheds ; their food was of 
 the poorest kind, and frequently insufficient; while 
 the beds in which they slept (in consequence of the 
 double shift system then commonly worked) were no 
 sooner vacated by the day shift than the night shift / 
 took possession of them, and through this quick/ 
 succession of occupants they were said never to get 
 cold. These poor creatures were unable to look after 
 themselves, and, as there was no one near connected 
 with them by ties of blood, they were entirely ^t the 
 mercy of those who regarded them solely as imple- 
 ments of labour. The records we possess of the 
 treatment and suffering of these children are heart- 
 rending in the extreme ; but bad as this state of 
 things was, it remained unnoticed until the diseases 
 bred among the sufferers spread alarm amongst the 
 
38 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 people dwelling in the neighbourhood of the factories ; 
 and thus, gradually, the general outside public were 
 made aware of this new danger. 
 
 Special facts need not be produced in proof of 
 what is stated here. In John Fielden's " Curse of the 
 Factory System," in Gaskell's " Manufacturing Popu- 
 lation," in a pamphlet by Robert Blencoe, — a frightful 
 cripple who had himself been a factory apprentice, 
 and knew and had suffered what he described, — 
 we find accounts of this early system of factory 
 apprenticeship, than which there is nothing more 
 appalling in connection with the history of the 
 British people. These apprentices were not only 
 half-starved and neglected, but they were brutally 
 flogged to keep them from sleeping at their work, 
 while the ceaseless drudgery hurried them in crowds 
 to their graves. Except in fitful discussions carried 
 on by newspaper correspondents, little notice was 
 taken of the growing abominations of the factory 
 system. When they were mentioned with a view 
 to their condemnation, cases were brought forward 
 in which the children were treated with kindness 
 and humanity. In 1796, however, a committee 
 was appointed in Manchester, known as the " Man- 
 chester Board of Health," and to this committee Dr 
 Percival, president of the Manchester Literary and 
 Philosophical Society, and a friend of Robert Owen, 
 submitted for consideration certain points connected 
 with the factories then springing up in all directions. 
 The objects of the association on whose behalf he 
 reported, were to prevent the generation of diseases, 
 to obviate the spreading of these by contagion, and to 
 shorten the duration of those in existence, by affording 
 
Birth of the New. 39 
 
 the necessary aids and comforts to the sick. " In the 
 prosecution of this necessary undertaking," he says, 
 "the board have had their attention particularly 
 directed to large cotton factories established in the 
 town and neighbourhood of Manchester, and they 
 feel it a duty incumbent on them to lay before the 
 public the result of their inquiries: — i. It appears 
 that the children, and others who work in the large \ 
 cotton factories, are peculiarly disposed to be affected 
 by the contagion of fever, and that when the affection ', 
 is received it is rapidly propagated, not only amongst ; 
 those who are crowded together in the same apart- 
 ments, but in the families and neighbourhoods to 
 which they belong. 2. The large factories are gene- 
 rally injurious to the constitution of those employed 
 in them, even where no particular disease prevails, 
 from the close confinement which is enjoined, from 
 the debilitating effects of hot or impure air, and from 
 the want of active exercises, which nature points out 
 as essential in childhood and youth to invigorate the 
 system, and to fit our species for the duties of man- 
 kind. 3. The untimely labour of the night, and the 
 protracted labour of the day, with respect to children, \ 
 not only tend to diminish future expectations as to ^ 
 the general sum of life and industry, by impairing the , 
 strength and destroying the vital stamina of the 
 rising generation, but it too often gives encourage- 
 ment to idleness, extravagance, and profligacy of the 
 parents, who, contrary to the order of nature, subsist 
 by the oppression of their offspring. 4. It appears 1 
 that the children employed in factories are generally ' 
 debarred from all opportunity of education, and from 
 moral and religious instruction. 5. From the excellent 
 
40 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiven. 
 
 regulations that subsist in several factories, it appears 
 that many of these evils may, in a considerable degree, 
 be obviated ; and we are therefore warranted by ex- 
 perience, and are assured that we shall have the 
 support of the liberal proprietors of these factories, in 
 proposing an application for Parliamentary aid (if 
 other methods appear not likely to effect the purpose) 
 to establish a general system of laws for the wise, 
 humane, and equal government of all such works." 
 This report throws a strong light on the first begin- 
 ' ning of our present gigantic factory system. It makes 
 known the fact that this .system of itself, worked with- 
 out a wise consideration for the welfare of the people, 
 had a tendency to produce physical and moral evils of 
 the worst kind. It proves also, that those who were 
 profiting by these evils allowed them to strike root 
 and flourish without any attempt to overcome them 
 by general understanding, or salutary regulations 
 calculated to prevent them from becoming rapidly 
 developed, except in certain individual cases referred 
 to in the report. ' The factory agitation which con- 
 tinued so fiercely for so many years, may be said 
 to have begun with this document, and the evils 
 pointed out were those for the destruction of which 
 the fight continued to the end, viz., the effect of the 
 factory system in producing disease and causing 
 deterioration of the people ; its prevention of educa- 
 tion by double shifts and long hours ; the dreadful 
 moral results produced by an indiscriminate herding 
 together of young people of both sexes, without 
 instruction or proper control. In grappling with 
 these evils much opposition had to be encountered. 
 It was insisted, that as the employer's capital was his 
 
Birth of the New. 41 
 
 own, he had a right to use it as seemed best to him- 
 self, without being interfered with by sentimentalists. 
 It was urged, that if profits were large, risks were great ; 
 and that any meddling, by increasing the cost of pro- 
 duction, would throw the trade into the hands of 
 foreign competitors unhampered by vexatious and 
 costly interference. It was asserted, that as machinery 
 was expensive, it ought not to be allowed to stand 
 idle when it could be kept in motion ; and, to crown 
 all, doctors and others who were said to have had 
 experience in the factory districts, assured the world 
 that the work was light and trivial, and added, rather 
 than otherwise, to the health and happiness of the 
 children engaged in it. 
 
 This latter was a desperate step to take, but as 
 factory villages and towns were growing rapidly, and 
 as doctors and other professional persons were flocking 
 to them for patronage, as tradesmen were for custom, 
 any amount of testimony was obtainable through the 
 position and influence of the factory owners. Another 
 great difficulty lay in the fact that it was strongly 
 inculcated in the minds of the workers, that any 
 shortening of the hours of labour would be a diminu- 
 tion of the wages earned, — a statement so plausible at 
 first sight, that it is not to be wondered at if the people, 
 who ought to have been the first to move, regarded with 
 suspicion the honest and zealous reformers who took 
 the field on behalf of the factory children of Great 
 Britain. There was also a strong belief cultivated in 
 the minds of the working men, that attempts at inter- 
 ference in connection with labour were a practical in- 
 fringement of their liberty, and if once permitted might 
 lead to future interferences of an oppressive kind. 
 
42 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiven. 
 
 The question of factory labour was therefore 
 difficult to touch. The selfishness of the great body 
 of factory owners, united with the gross ignorance of 
 the factory workers, compelled, at the commencement, 
 limited action. A general regulation of the factory 
 system by legislation was regarded as hopeless. The 
 factory owners were almost furious in their opposition, 
 whilst the workers were suspicious and indifferent. 
 There was no public opinion to rely on for the 
 purpose of enforcing the claims of the children, and 
 therefore the first step was limited to an attack on 
 the apprentice system, with a loose statement as to 
 "others" (i.e., children who were not apprentices), 
 which rounded the title of the Act, but did not 
 interfere with the labour of those who were not 
 apprentices. In 1802 this first Factory Act was 
 passed by the help of the first Sir Robert Peel. It 
 was a commencement which, whether it failed or 
 succeeded, opened the way for earnest men de- 
 termined to continue a work the vast importance of 
 which has never been fully estimated. By this first 
 effort the hours of work each day were limited to 
 twelve, — not to commence before six in the morning, 
 nor to be continued after nine at night. It provided 
 that night work should not be practised after the 
 June of 1804; that instruction for all apprentices in 
 reading, writing, and arithmetic should be provided ; 
 that one suit of clothes for each apprentice should be 
 supplied each year. It also provided that the factories 
 should be whitewashed twice a year and properly | 
 ventilated ; and that there should be separation of 
 sexes in the sleeping apartments. The provision for 
 factory inspection is in itself a curiosity. If the need 
 
Btrth of the Netv. 43 
 
 of inspection be estimated by the provisions of the 
 Act in regard to hours of work, cleanhness and 
 ventilation, separation of the sexes in sleeping apart- 
 ments, instruction and clothing, it will be seen with 
 what trembling hands such industrial abominations 
 were touched, when it is found that to enforce the 
 observance of a law so important, it was provided 
 that, at the Midsummer Session of each year, in 
 districts in which factories were situated, the justices 
 of the peace should appoint two factory inspectors, 
 one a justice of the peace, the other a clergyman of 
 the Established Church ; and that the mills and 
 factories under the Act were to be registered 
 annually with the clerk of the peace. The penalty 
 following on any known violation of the Act was a 
 fine not exceeding £^, nor less than 40s. The great 
 importance of this measure was, that it was the first 
 step, and that it indicated a strongly felt want, and 
 an active desire to check gross evils which had been 
 proved to exist, and which were specified as offences 
 against the law. 
 
 As a mere expression of opinion entertained in the 
 country, and franked by Parliament, it was invaluable; 
 but as a correction of the abuses against which it was 
 directed, it was not of much use. The inspection was, 
 as nearly as possible, worthless ; whilst the fines were 
 too trivial to deserve a moment's consideration. The 
 apprenticeship system to which this law applied was, 
 by the time the law came into operation — so far as it 
 ever did become operative — rapidly declining. When 
 water was the sole moving power, and the factories 
 had to be erected where the labour of children could 
 not be procured in sufficient quantity, it flourished. 
 
44 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 When Watt fitted his engine to the mechanism 
 of the factories, these buildings were run up in the 
 towns, where thickly-planted populations enabled their 
 owners to hire child labour without apprenticing the 
 children ; and thus a law which, perhaps, would never 
 have been of much use, became unnecessary, as the 
 state of things for which it was framed was rapidly 
 ceasing to exist. The parents, who were in the new 
 situation, the natural guardians of the children, settled 
 what should or should not be practised in regard to 
 the employment of child labour. 
 
 The general statement made here covers a multi- 
 tude of most painful details, every item of which has 
 had overwhelming proof, — vicious example, lack of 
 proper mental growth, coarseness and impurity, dis- 
 ruption of family ties and home affections, dram 
 drinking, over-crowded dwellings, cellar residences, 
 diseases incident to and consequent upon early and 
 excessive toil, infant mortality, effect on adults from 
 breathing cotton dust, scrofula, indigestion, fever, con- 
 sumption, premature old age, and the pauper's pro- 
 vision in death. All these evils and more existed, in 
 fact or in promise, and every thoughtful man entering 
 on the active duties of life had to ask what his duties 
 were to himself and his fellows. The few were 
 gaining possession of the new implements of industry, 
 and what ought to have been a general blessing was 
 rapidly taking the form of a class monopoly. Society 
 in the districts where our manufacturing industries 
 were established, was divided into two distinctly 
 marked classes, — those who had everything, and 
 those who had nothing ; those who were every 
 day augmenting their possessions in land, machinery. 
 
Birth of the Nezv. 45. 
 
 and capital ; and those who, having only their 
 hands to depend on, must find employment or 
 perish. It is not necessary to say whether this state 
 of things was an imperious necessity or a foolish 
 blunder; whether it was soundly economic or in- 
 herently vicious. It existed, and had a tendency to 
 grow ; and it was when Robert Owen had becomer— 
 convinced of this that he decided what his duties in 
 regard to these new circumstances were, and' deter- 
 mined to perform them at whatever cost to himself 
 He was not a man of aggressive temper, or of com- 
 bative habits ; he was, in fact, an extreme example 
 of cheerful patience and kindly tolerance. His 
 sympathies with those who suffered were strong, and 
 his action as a reformer was prompted by the humane 
 activity of his thoughts as a sympathetic man. If it 
 could be said of anyone who, at any time, sought the 
 improvement of society, that he acted from sober and 
 thoughtful conviction, and from a careful examination 
 of the facts connected with his proposals, it could be 
 said of Robert Owen. His schemes for the improve- 
 ment of the condition of ,the people had to be carried 
 on by the voluntary aid of others ; and success or 
 . failure should be judged not solely by the character 
 of the undertaking, but also by the character of the 
 help received, (tie, saw distinctly that the great de- 
 ficiencies of the time were want of education, lack of 
 consideration for the working people, want of experi- 
 ence in applying the new productive forces for the 
 benefit of the community generally, and he deter- 
 mined to do all in his power to remedy these evils.N 
 
4-6 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Struggles ©nwarb. 
 
 When Owen gave up the management of Mr Drink- 
 water's mill, he had proved his value so conspicuously 
 in the trade that, upon his resignation becoming 
 known, he was offered a partnership by Samuel Mars- 
 land, who was going very largely into the spinning 
 business. Marsland offered him a partnership with 
 one-third profits, but Owen refused to accept it unless 
 half profits were allowed. Another arrangement was 
 near being completed with Messrs Moulson St Scarth, 
 in which the profits were to be equally divided, and 
 the management of the mills left entirely in Owen's 
 hands; but before this arrangement was finished, he 
 entered into partnership with the old-established 
 house of Borrowdale & Atkinson, the management 
 of the business being left to him and a brother of one 
 of the partners. 
 
 As it was Robert Owen's duty to superintend the 
 manufacture of the yarn, and the sale of it when 
 made, he had to be much away with the customers 
 of the firm. Among the places he had to visit was 
 Glasgow, and the journey there, when he performed 
 it for the first time, he undertook in company with a 
 Preston manufacturer, who was on a tour of pleasure. 
 To the traveller of the present day the journey from 
 Manchester to Glasgow is easy enough, taking little 
 time, and causing no anxiety in regard to trouble or 
 risk. In the early part of Owen's life it was different. 
 "It was," he says,"before mail-coaches were established, 
 
Struggles Onward. ^.y 
 
 and we were two nights and three days incessantly 
 travelling in coaches. The roads were then in a 
 deplorable condition, and we had to cross a well-known 
 dangerous mountain about midnight called Freekstone 
 Bar, which was then always passed in fear and trem- 
 bling by passengers." 
 
 (' This visit to Glasgow was in a short time followed 
 by another, and at no distant period led to his mar- 
 riage and settlement in Scotland. 
 
 By this time the firm with which he was connected 
 had become celebrated for the excellence of its goods. 
 He was known to be the managing partner, and had a 
 high reputation as the best fine spinner of the district, 
 so it need scarcely be said he had entered upon a path 
 which could not but lead to the accumulation of a 
 large foilune. It is evident, however, that he could 
 not give his attention solely to such an object. At 
 that time Manchester was, as it still is, a great centre 
 of manufacturing skill and industry, but it was also 
 the centre of the cultivated and active thought of that 
 part of the country. There were then residing in the 
 town many men whose names have since become 
 known in connection with science and literature, as 
 well as with philanthropic effort in the interest of the 
 children connected with the factory system. There 
 were two societies, the Manchester Literary and Philo- 
 sophical Society, and the Manchester College Society. 
 Owen was elected a member of the first, and at its 
 meetings he became personally intimate with such 
 men as Dr Percival, the president ; John Dalton, after- 
 wards so celebrated as a philosophical thinker ; Dr 
 Ferrier, author of " Illustrations of Sterne," " Theory 
 of Apparitions," and other works. A young man like 
 
48 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 Owen, engaged in the trade of the district, whose 
 education as a boy was limited to what was obtain- 
 able at a village school, and ceased altogether 
 before he had completed his tenth year, must have 
 been a diligent student to fit himself for association 
 with such men even in the humblest way. His own 
 narrative, which is sufficiently unpretending, gives us 
 to understand that he was regarded by his associates 
 as fitted to share in their labours and deliberations. 
 He mentions particularly a discussion he had with 
 Coleridge, when the enthusiastic young poet visited 
 Manchester with a view to the establishment of the 
 Watchman; and though he was very much the inferior 
 of Coleridge in fluency and grace of expression, the 
 eloquence and learning, he says, being certainly on 
 the side of his antagonist, he claims for himself a 
 superiority in directness and closeness of argument. 
 
 The leisure part of his last years in Manchester 
 seems to have been spent chiefly among its professional, 
 scientific, and literary men ; and he informs us that he 
 regularly contributed papers which were read at the 
 meetings of the Literary and Philosophical Society, 
 some of which were printed in its transactions. 
 
 It was with this society that the factory agitation 
 began. The apprentice system which prevailed during 
 the latter part of last century was, as has already been 
 mentioned, characterised by many very grievous evils. 
 The boarding, the lodging, and general treatment of 
 the apprentices, had bred and propagated disease to a 
 degree that had become alarming. In the January of 
 1796 the question was taken up by the Manchester 
 Board of Health, and was reported on by Dr Per- 
 cival, the president of the Literary and Philosophical 
 
Struggles Omvard. 49 
 
 Society. This report established a certain number of 
 general facts by a crowd of individual statements, and 
 led to an Apprentice Bill, which, in the hands of the 
 first Sir Robert Peel, was passed through the House 
 of Commons in 1802. There can be little doubt that 
 the able and humane Dr Percival, whilst investigating 
 the facts on which he reported in 1796, had the active 
 assistance and practical advice of Robert Owen ; and 
 that 'it was the share the latter took in this early 
 agitation of the factory question, which prepared him 
 for the more prominent part he afterwards played in 
 securing better conditions of life and work for the 
 factory population of the country. 
 
 The attention of Robert Owen, at this period, was 
 not confined to cotton spinning, nor to the meetings 
 and discussions of the Literary and Philosophical 
 Society. In 1794 he lodged at No. 8 Brazenose 
 Street, Manchester, and one of his fellow-lodgers was 
 the celebrated Robert Fulton, then unknown to fame 
 and unblessed by fortune. Fulton informed Owen 
 that he had invented a machine for more expedi- 
 tiously digging and raising earth, to be used in 
 cutting canals. Like most inventors of scanty means, 
 he had had his resources almost entirely drained by 
 the preliminary expenditure connected with patenting 
 his invention and introducing it to the notice of the 
 public ; and he told Owen that there was little or no 
 chance left for him but to sell a portion of his interest 
 in the invention, which he was very unwilling to do. 
 Owen supplied him with money to go to Gloucester, 
 with the view of obtaining a contract for digging with 
 his machine some portion of a new canal which was 
 about to be commenced there ; and soon after this a 
 
 D 
 
50 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Otven. 
 
 partnership was entered into between them. In 
 Owen's biographical sketch, page 65, a copy of the 
 minutes of this partnership is given. They were 
 drawn up between the time when Owen left Mr Drink- 
 water's and that at which he entered into his partner- 
 ship arrangement with the Chorlton Twist Company in 
 Manchester ; but Fulton and Owen being both young 
 men at the time, the money transactions between 
 them were not heavy, and as Fulton had offers of 
 larger financial support than Owen could render him, 
 and as Owen found openings in the trade where he 
 had acquired his experience and his reputation, each 
 went his own way without any forfeiture of friendship. 
 In what he has to say of Fulton, Owen always speaks 
 of him with respect and kindness ; while Fulton's 
 letters to Owen, several of which are published, show 
 that these feelings were reciprocated. 
 
 There is one paragraph in Owen's autobiography 
 which, as it throws some light on the relative claims 
 of Bell and Fulton as originators of steam navigation, 
 may be worth reproducing : — " The money he received 
 from me enabled him to go to Glasgow, where he saw 
 Bell's imperfect, and as to profit, impotent, steamboat 
 on the Clyde, which was not capable of going, without 
 cargo, more than five miles an hour. Fulton saw 
 immediately where the defect lay, and, knowing how 
 to remedy it, proceeded to the United States, and did 
 more to promote their rapid progress to great pros- 
 perity than any one living, and I consider the little 
 aid and assistance which I gave to enable him to 
 bestow so great an advantage on his country and the 
 world as money most fortunately expended." 
 
Visz^ to Scotland. 5 1 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 IDistt to Scotlana. 
 
 Soon after Robert Owen entered on his new partner- 
 ship the business began to prosper. Indeed, it may 
 be said that from the first the concern took its place 
 as one of the best firms in the trade. The new 
 Chorlton Twist Company succeeded in procuring a 
 great reputation, and as a consequence the highest 
 prices and the most remunerative profits. In this 
 way a grand future, so far as wealth could secure it, 
 was rapidly opening before him. It was at this point, 
 however, that a very important change took place in 
 his circumstances. During his first visit to Glasgow, 
 and when he was about twenty-seven years of age, he 
 met accidentally in the street a Miss Spear, who was 
 then on a visit to the family of David Dale, the pro- 
 prietor of the New Lanark Cotton Mills, as well as of 
 other large commercial establishments in different 
 parts of Scotland, and a very remarkable man, being 
 at the time an extensive manufacturer, a cotton 
 spinner, merchant, banker, and preacher. Miss Spear 
 was accompanied by Miss Dale, who, during the con- 
 versation occasioned by this accidental meeting, 
 inquired if Owen had seen the Falls of Clyde and 
 her father's mills there. Receiving an answer that he 
 had not, but was anxious to do so, she offered him 
 a letter of introduction to her uncle, who was the 
 manager. 
 
 New Lanark, with its beautiful surroundings of hill, 
 wood, and water, could not fail to interest even the 
 
52 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 dullest and least romantic person. It greatly im- 
 pressed Robert Owen, and he tells us that when he 
 had inspected the establishment (which consisted of 
 four mills for spinning cotton, and a primitive village, 
 all grouped on the banks of the Clyde, in one of the 
 pleasantest parts of the valley), he turned to the 
 friend in whose company he had journeyed to Glas- 
 gow and said, " Of all places I have seen I should 
 prefer this in which to try an experiment I have long 
 contemplated, and have wished to have an opportunity 
 to put in practice," not, as he adds, supposing for a 
 moment that his wish would ever be gratified. When 
 he returned to Glasgow he called on Miss Dale, to 
 thank her for the pleasure she had afforded him, and 
 found her just leaving her father's house for a walk on 
 the Green, on the edge of which her home stood. He 
 accompanied her and Miss Spear, and thus he and 
 Miss Dale commenced an acquaintance which shortly 
 after resulted in marriage. 
 
 During this visit to the west of Scotland he dis- 
 covered that the printing of his name on the bundles 
 of twist had made him known to the muslin manu- 
 facturers, and through this he was able to considerably 
 extend the business connection of his firm. 
 
 After his return from Scotland he met Miss Spear 
 at her brother's house in Manchester, and on his next 
 visit to Glasgow he took charge of a letter from 
 her to Miss Dale. In consequence of Mr Dale's 
 many engagements, Owen had not up to that time 
 met him ; but a few more visits to his house led to a 
 proposal of marriage, which was not unfavourably 
 received by Miss Dale, though with an assurance 
 that she would take no step without the full know- 
 
Visit to Scotland. 53 
 
 ledge and consent of her father. How an entire 
 stranger was to obtain this was an embarrassing and 
 difficult question. Mr Dale was a man of the highest 
 character and standing, and his daughter, therefore, 
 would naturally be regarded as one of the most 
 desirable matches among the mercantile community 
 of that part of the country. Owen was a stranger, 
 and, though entered on a career which led almost 
 certainly to fortune, was not rich. Questions as 
 to his position would naturally be asked, and he 
 felt his answers to these would scarcely be regarded 
 as satisfactory. 
 
 He had heard that the sale of New Lanark had 
 been talked about. Mr Dale was well advanced in 
 years, and probably began to feel over-taxed by work. 
 As the best excuse for seeking an interview, he decided 
 to call at his place of business and ask if the report 
 were correct ; and if so, what were the conditions on 
 which the property could be purchased. Owen was 
 at this time twenty-seven years of age, but looked 
 much younger. When he was shown into the 
 counting-house, and had made known his business, 
 Mr Dale replied doubtingly, and told him bluntly that 
 he thought him too young for such an undertaking. 
 Owen replied that he was in partnership with persons 
 older than himself, mentioning their names, and 
 assuring Mr Dale that if an agreement could be come 
 to as to price, there was capital enough to work the 
 concern. On receiving this information Mr Dale 
 became more interested, and asked him if he had 
 seen the mills. Owen informed him that he had, but 
 that he had in no way examined details. " Well," 
 said the old man, " I would recommend you to go and 
 
54 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 examine, and return to Manchester, and make your 
 report to your partners. If they should have any 
 desire to become the owners, I shall be prepared to 
 enter into negotiation with them for the whole of the 
 property." /Owen was a sound man of business, his 
 undertakings in trade throughout his life were signal 
 successes. In these, as a rule, he held the managing 
 power in his own hands, however many partners he 
 might have ; and whatever differences he may have 
 had with his partners during the time he conducted 
 the New Lanark establishment, it may be noted that 
 no misunderstanding arose on mere business grounds. 
 The establishment was always profitably conducted 
 as a trading concern, and always paid well. That he 
 differed with one set of partners and separated from 
 them is true; but this difference arose simply because 
 the other members of the firm thought he was ex- 
 pending too much of the profits in the interest and 
 for the advantage of the workers, especially in regard 
 to the schools he erected for the children of the 
 village. / 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 purcbase of tbe IRew Xanarft /llMlls. 
 
 Robert Owen determined to fight his battle with 
 Miss Dale's father on the most tenable ground he 
 could find. He felt that a display of business ability 
 was most calculated to ' forward his plans, and he 
 determined to set himself faii'ly to work. 
 
 Having received from Mr Dale the authority to 
 
Ptirchase of the Netv Lanark Mills. 5 5 
 
 examine the Lanark establishment thoroughly, he at 
 once left Glasgow for New Lanark. Having made a 
 careful examination of the whole concern, so as to 
 understand its actual condition as well as its capacity 
 for development, he proceeded to Manchester, and 
 placed a report on the matter before the members of 
 both the firms with which he was connected. Know- 
 ing his business sagacity they at once decided to open 
 negotiations, and, as a preparatory step, deputed a 
 member of each of the firms to return with him to 
 Scotland for this purpose. In the meantime Miss 
 Dale had told her father of Robert Owen's proposal. 
 Such an alliance, however, was far from acceptable to 
 him, and he at once expressed himself opposed to it, 
 at the same time stating his belief that nothing more 
 would be heard of Owen either as a wooer or a pur- 
 chaser. He regarded the proposal to buy the mills 
 as a pretence. In this state of things, Owen and his/ 
 two partners, Mr John Barton and Mr John Atkinson/ 
 arrived in Glasgow. They immediately waited on, 
 and made all necessary explanations to, Mr Dale, who 
 seemed surprised and pleased by their presence, and 
 by the frank manner in which the interview was con- 
 ducted. The two houses of Borrowdale & Atkinson, 
 of London, and Messrs Barton's, in Manchester, stood 
 high in the commercial world; and as Mr Dale was 
 one of the directors of the Bank of Scotland, to which 
 they referred him, he asked them to call on the 
 following day, saying that in the meantime he would 
 make such inquiries as he thought necessary. His 
 inquiries satisfied him, and when the three partners 
 again called upon him, he said he was willing 
 to treat with them for the land, village, and mills 
 
56 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 at New Lanark, with everything as it then stood. 
 When questioned as to the price, however, he was 
 at a loss how to value the property, as his brother 
 and another person managed it for him. He him- 
 self was very seldom there, and only for short 
 periods, as his chief business lay in Glasgow. 
 ' But ," said he, " Mr Owen knows better than I do 
 the current value of such property, and I wish he 
 would name what he considers a fair price as between 
 honest buyers and sellers." After some consideration, 
 and after recovering somewhat from the surprise 
 which this proposal caused him, Owen said, " My 
 estimate, after having made a general inspection of 
 the establishment, is that ;^6o,ooo, payable at the 
 rate of i^3,000 a year for twenty years, would be 
 an equitable bargain on both sides." Mr Dale was 
 known to be a man of good business capacity, and 
 of plain straightforward speech. No doubt, as he 
 had entertained the idea of selling the place, he knew 
 about the sum it ought to bring, so, to the surprise of 
 all, he merely said, " If you think so, I will accept the 
 proposal, if your friends also approve of it." The 
 purchasers were prepared to reply at once, and on 
 the spot the bargain was made by which New Lanark 
 passed out of the hands of David Dale into those of 
 the New Lanark Twist Company. Here again Owen's 
 attachment became mixed up with business. The new 
 proprietors had agreed to enter on immediate posses- 
 sion, but there was a slight, though not to Robert 
 Owen, an unpleasant impediment. In the middle 
 of the village there were two gardens, and in each 
 of these there stood a house, one occupied by the 
 manager of the mills, and one used by Mr Dale as a 
 
Purchase of the New Lanark Mills. 57 
 
 summer residence for his daughters, who at the time 
 of the purchase were there. Mr Dale proposed to 
 remove them at once, but this was protested against, 
 and they therefore remained undisturbed for about 
 six weeks longer, when Mr Dale sent for them to 
 return, " learning, I suppose," says Robert Owen, 
 writing some fifty years afterwards, " that Miss Dale 
 and I had frequent opportunities of seeing each 
 other ; " and he alludes to the fact that " with her 
 sisters we often enjoyed walks among the beautiful 
 scenery on the banks of the Clyde, passing our time 
 very much to our satisfaction." 
 
 Ultimately all difficulties vanished, and this " ro- 
 mance of trade " ended in a marriage, so prosaic and 
 simple that it is worth recording in Owen's own 
 words. " Our marriage took place in Mr Dale's 
 house in Charlotte Street, near to Glasgow Green, 
 where our early courtship commenced. The cere- 
 mony, if ceremony it could be called, was according 
 to the marriage rites of Scotland, and surprised 
 me not a little. We were married by the Rev. 
 Mr Balfour, an old friend of Mr Dale, although 
 he was of the regular Scotch Church, and Mr Dale 
 was at the head of a dissenting or independent sect. 
 When we were all met on the morning of our marriage, 
 waiting for the ceremony to commence, Mr Dale being 
 there to give his daughter to me, and the younger 
 sisters of Miss Dale acting as bridesmaids, Mr 
 Balfour requested Miss Dale and me to stand up, 
 and asked us if we were willing to take each other 
 for husband and wife. Each simply nodding assent, 
 he said, without one word more, 'Then you are 
 married, and you may sit down,' and the ceremony 
 
58 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 was over." Mr Balfour afterwards explained to the 
 bridegroom that the ceremony was usually longer, 
 the rule being to address the young people on their' 
 duties in the marriage state, but that he could not 
 think of doing so to one of Mr Dale's children, as 
 their father was well known to be a man whose 
 exhortations and example left nothing to be done 
 in that respect. 
 
 Immediately after their marriage, Owen and his wife 
 set off for Manchester, it having been decided that in 
 the meantime the management of the mills should 
 remain in the hands in which it had hitherto been, 
 until other steps could be taken. It was very soon 
 decided, however, that the necessary changes should 
 take place with as little loss of time as possible, and 
 arrangements having been made to admit of 
 Owen remaining altogether in Scotland as managing, 
 partner, he returned to that country within three 
 months, and on the ist of January 1800 commenced 
 operations as a cotton manufacturer at New Lanark. 
 In recording this he uses the word "government" , 
 instead of management, his intention being, as he 
 states, not to be a mere manager of cotton mills, as 
 such mills were at that time generally managed, but 
 to introduce principles which he had successfully tried 
 with the workpeople in Mr Drinkwater's factory, and' 
 to change the condition of the people, whom he found 
 surrounded by circumstances which had an injurious 
 influence on the entire population of New Lanark. 
 
 On commencing his task he had to encounter many 
 obstacles. All those in any position of management 
 had acquired their habits and modes of action under 
 a system of which he entirely disapproved. Much 
 
Purchase of the New Lanark Mills. 59 
 
 had to be undone, before anything tending in the 
 direction he wished to go could be accomplished. 
 He therefore first set to work with the purpose of 
 ascertaining and making record of everything that 
 appeared to him to require alteration, and, as he 
 pursued his inquiries, he came gradually and de- 
 liberately to the conclusion that it was absolute re- 
 construction, not partial alteration, that was necessary. 
 The character of the people employed in the mills 
 was anything but satisfactory. Drunkenness and 
 consequent neglect of work were but too common ; 
 while theft was practised to such an extent, that Mr 
 Dale had suffered seriously through this evil habit. It 
 is almost a necessity in great establishments situated 
 in out-of-the-way places, that the persons employed 
 should, to a considerable extent, be made up of waifs 
 •and strays, who, settling permanently nowhere, are to 
 be' found everywhere, without being of much use any- 
 where. There was a ■ prejudice at the time against 
 employment in cotton mills, and therefore sober, 
 honest, steady people were not willing to break up 
 their homes wherever they might live and take up 
 their residence in places where the character of the 
 population was not likely to be to their taste, and 
 where, if anything occurred to interfere with the 
 
 ' prosperity of the establishment they worked in, they 
 must again remove before they could hope for new 
 
 ,employinent. 
 
 It is evident, from the trouble taken by Robert 
 Owen to explain the difficulties that beset him at the 
 commencement of this undertaking, that he regarded 
 it as a critical point in his life. He seems to have 
 felt that he had on his hands a great commercial and 
 
6o Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiven. 
 
 social experiment, entered on chiefly by his advice, 
 carried on under his management, and depending on 
 him for its success. His first difficulty lay with the 
 people, and the ordinary way of getting over it would 
 have been to discharge them in large numbers, at 
 whatever cost, and get others in place of those dis- 
 missed. This is the way in which, in other hands, 
 it is most likely the improvement would have been 
 
 . commenced. Owen, however, had other plans in his 
 mind, the soundness of which he was anxious to prove. 
 He believed that by judiciously altering the con- 
 
 j^itions in which the people worked, so as to make 
 those conditions better, a corresponding change would 
 be gradually effected in the character and disposition 
 of the people themselves ; and that, in this way, a more 
 permanent improvement, beneficial to all, would be 
 effected, than by the ordinary method of coercion or 
 
 [discharge. Working men as a rule so seldom receive 
 \this kind of consideration, that when good employers 
 in any degree adopt it, they seldom believe it is 
 meant for their good, and hence they too frequently 
 continue in the attitude of suspicion and distrust 
 caused by the ordinary treatment they are subjected to. 
 " When," says Owen, " I mentioned to my friends and 
 nearest connections that my intention was to com- 
 mence a new system of management, on principles of 
 justice and kindness, and gradually to abolish punish- 
 ment in governing the population, they one and all 
 smiled at my simplicity in imagining I could succeed 
 in such a visionary scheme, and strongly urged 
 me not to attempt so hopeless a task. My mind, 
 however, was prepared for it, and also to encounter 
 whatever difficulties might arise." The population 
 
Purchase of the New Lanark Mills. 6\ 
 
 consisted of about thirteen hundred people in famiHcs 
 settled in the village, and between four and five 
 hundred pauper children procured from the surround- 
 ing parishes, whose ages appeared to be from five to 
 ten years, but were said to be from seven to twelve. 
 These children were well lodged, fed, and clothed by 
 Mr Dale's directions, and there was an attempt made 
 to teach them to read and write after the labour of 
 the day was over ; but, as Owen remarks, endeavours 
 to teach the children when they were thoroughly 
 exhausted, however well meant, tormented them 
 without doing any good. In relation to this part of 
 the population, he made up his mind at once that no 
 more pauper children should be received, and also 
 determined that the village streets should be im- 
 proved, and new and better houses built to receive 
 additional families to fill the places of the pauper 
 children who otherwise would have to be brought 
 into the village. He decided, also, that the interior 
 of the mills should be re-arranged, and the old 
 machinery replaced by new, gradually and as oppor- 
 tunity occurred. Whatever of evil the factory system 
 was producing at this time accompanied it wherever 
 established. Cotton spinning and weaving were 
 highly profitable, and those who carried on the busi- 
 ness amassed large fortunes rapidly ; but, as already 
 pointed out, this was done without any kind of con- 
 sideration for the people. Whether they were healthy 
 or ailing, was simply a matter of calculation as to the 
 efficacy of their work, and the difference in cost of 
 providing for them in sickness compared with their 
 cost in a state of comparative health. In the old 
 system of labour, the associations of the workshop, as 
 
62 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 already stated, bred friendships that softened and 
 humanised the struggles of Hfe ; while in the present 
 day, our discussions and arrangements as to the rights 
 of the workers and the duties of employers, have led 
 to the establishment of practices legally enforced and 
 voluntarily adopted, which provide, to a considerable 
 extent, for the well-being of our factory workers ; but 
 at the time when Robert Owen entered on the govern- 
 ment of New Lanark, there was no protection even of 
 the slightest kind. Each individual man made his 
 calculations as to his sense of duty to his fellow- 
 creatures and his desire to enrich himself; and from 
 what we have seen, the desire to grow rich, leaving 
 the weak, the ignorant, and the poor to take care of 
 themselves, was the predominant desire among the 
 manufacturers of the country. 
 
 To go back from where we stand at present to 
 the last year of the eighteenth century, when Owen 
 entered on his duties as a factory owner and manager 
 at New Lanark, is to pass into a state of things almost 
 incredible in connection with factory labour ; but, 
 bad as it was, the employers had come to regard it as 
 the natural condition of things, brought about, not 
 because they did not do their duty, but because the 
 people were too ignorant and depraved to avail them- 
 selves of the many advantages, in regard to self- 
 improvement and progress, belonging to the new 
 system. There was some degree of truth in this, 
 not as an excuse for neglected duty on the part of 
 the employers, but rather as a statement of the 
 depravity that had extended and deepened, as a con- 
 sequence of the criminal indifference of a large majority 
 of the factory owners. The people employed in the 
 
His Policy at Nezv Lanark. 63 
 
 cotton mills, especially those who had worked in them 
 from boyhood and girlhood, had gradually lost all 
 proper sense of self-respect, and acquired degrading- 
 habits of self-indulgence, such as are usually found 
 among the ignorant and oppressed. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Ibis policy at IRew Xanarft. 
 
 Robert Owen's partners were commercial men, who 
 of course looked for interest on their investment, and 
 also for a fair profit on the undertaking, and in every 
 change he made this had to be kept in view. On 
 the other hand, the workers were suspicious of new 
 masters, who were strangers from England, and 
 who as such were watched in all they did with 
 distrust, and opposed when any change gave a colour- 
 able excuse for .opposition. 
 
 As a stranger Owen did not understand the best 
 way of addressing himself to a population who spoke 
 a mixture of Lowland Scotch and Erse, a considerable 
 proportion of them being from the Western High- 
 lands. In fact, the general relationship was precisely 
 'the same as in nearly all manufacturing establish- 
 ments in the kingdom. The workpeople thought 
 they had been passed into the hands of a new body 
 of proprietors who would try to feed themselves fat 
 upon them, and then perhaps hand them over in turn 
 to another set of new men who would continue the same 
 process, leaving them poor, ignorant, and miserable, 
 
64 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiven. 
 
 as they had found them. It was not to be expected that 
 they could see or comprehend the schemes for their 
 welfare that had gradually been forming in the mind 
 of the young managing partner, nor could he, by any 
 process he was master of, convince them that he was 
 about to make the improvement of their condition 
 the basis of his work. As a first step towards gain- 
 ing their good-will, he sought out the individuals 
 who had most of their respect and confidence. 
 To these he explained himself fully, in such a 
 manner as to be clearly understood. He told them 
 they were not to judge hurriedly, and by each 
 individual act, but by the general policy he pursued ; 
 and he asked them to make known to the others, 
 in their intercourse with them, that his intention 
 was to permanently improve their condition, and 
 that it would be to their interest to co-operate with 
 him in carrying out the objects he had in view. 
 
 One of his first tasks was to teach them the value 
 of cleanly habits in regard to their persons and houses, 
 and all that was possible as example and encourage- 
 ment was done in this direction. He found, also that 
 the small retail shopkeepers of 'the village bought 
 and sold their goods on credit, and that therefore 
 the worst things were purchased at the highest prices. 
 The working people of the manufacturing districts 
 have grown rich in co-operative experience since 
 that time, and therefore need not be told that a 
 general system of credit involves heavy risks ; that 
 the goods paid for have to carry the cost of those 
 not paid for, and as much more as a credit system 
 among the poor may enable an unscrupulous dealer 
 to squeeze out of those who depend on his good-will 
 
His Policy at Nezv Lanark. 65 
 
 for the continuance of their daily food. In New 
 Lanark the quality of the goods supplied to the 
 people was very inferior, and the prices very high. 
 " I arranged," says Owen, " superior stores and shops \| 
 from which to supply every article of ordinary daily i 
 consumption." He bought everything with ready 
 money in the first markets ; and contracted for fuel, 
 milk, and other articles produced in the neighbour- 
 hood, so as to secure all the advantages of a large 
 ready-money purchase. These articles were brought 
 to the doors of the people, and supplied to them 
 at cost price, at a saving of 25 per cent, in the 
 expenditure of their wages. By this arrangement 
 alone an improvement in health and comfort very 
 soon became perceptible among them. 
 
 Working men are ready enough to credit the well- 
 intentioned action of employers when it is not accom- . 
 panied by conditions that counterbalance the proposed 
 good, and so it was in New Lanark. The suspicion 
 and distrust of the people gradually began to give 
 way. Their new employer and manager had been 
 six years among them ; and in such a relationship, 
 shut in as it were from the rest of the world, in the 
 seclusion of the Lanark valley, the feelings of people 
 towards each other soon become known. Robert 
 Owen discovered that he was rapidly growing into 
 favour with the workers at the mills. The event 
 by which he made a complete conquest of their good- 
 will occurred about this time, namely in the year 1806. 
 In this year the United States, in consequence of 
 diplomatic differences, placed an embargo on the 
 export of cotton to Great Britain. As a natural con- 
 .sequence, the prices of raw cotton advanced so as to 
 
 E 
 
66 Life, Times, and Laboiirs of Robert Oivcn. 
 
 greatly cripple the manufacturers in the working of 
 their mills. Whenever cost of production through 
 any cause runs unnaturally high, the manufacturer 
 has to calculate very narrowly, whether it is better 
 to make for a future market at the risk of sudden 
 reductions of price, or to partially or wholly stop his 
 mill. In this case, as in all other similar cases, 
 some acted on one policy and some on another. The 
 dilemma is a very serious one, particularly where 
 work is carried on in out-of-the-way places. To con- 
 tinue working, means heavy purchases of raw material, 
 as well as payment of wages. To stop, occasions the 
 disorganisation of the establishment by the dispersion 
 of the people, who are compelled to go elsewhere in 
 search of employment : and the misery communities 
 of men suffer is great when such a policy has to be 
 pursued. The thought of the privations of the people 
 weighed heavily on Robert Owen's mind, and though 
 he determined on the stopping of the works as the safest 
 course to be pursued for himself and his partners, he 
 decided to pay full wages to the people, for simply 
 attending to the machinery and keeping it in good 
 working condition. He did this for nearly four 
 1 months, and during that time paid seven thousand 
 pounds to the workers without one penny being de- 
 ducted from their full wages. This proceeding, he 
 says, won for him the " confidence and the hearts of 
 the whole of the population." From that time 
 forward they went confidingly with him in whatever 
 he proposed, so that he had no obstruction in doing 
 whatever his partners permitted him to undertake. 
 
 Up to this point we simply see him fighting man- 
 fully with the difficulties by which he was immediately 
 
Mr Dale's Confidence in Him. 67 
 
 surroupded ; reforming such abuses as were operat- 
 ing to the injury of the people ; giving to them 
 more comfort, more independence, more manliness, 
 more hope ; above all, gaining among them that 
 confidence and co-operation which might enable him 
 to work out the changes on which he relied for 
 proving the practicability of reforms that might be 
 applied to the rapidly growing cotton industry in all 
 its branches throughout the kingdom. Writing as an 
 old man, he says: — " When urging the improvement 
 of society, the question has often been asked. How 
 will you begin ? I have replied, In the same manner 
 in which I commenced the change of New Lanark.'' 
 He studied the causes that were producing the 
 evils he sought to remedy, and gradually superseded 
 these by methods less injurious, such as were cal- 
 culated to produce beneficial instead of mischievous 
 results. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 /IBr Dale's Confi&ence in Iftim. 
 
 In the sketch he gives of his own life, Robert Owen 
 passes very briefly over the private concerns of those 
 immediately connected with him. His relations to 
 his father-in-law became of the closest and most 
 affectionate kind. At first he and his wife spent the 
 summer in the house in the centre of the village 
 garden already spoken of, while the winter was passed 
 at Mr Dale's residence, in Charlotte Street, Glasgow, 
 Mr Dale being very much with them. We are told 
 
68 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 that from the time when Owen married his daughter 
 up to the time of Mr Dale's death, an unpleasant word 
 never passed between them ; and it is to the credit oi 
 both, that though David Dale was a leading man at the 
 head of about forty dissenting churches in Scotland, 
 and though Owen believed that the fundamental 
 doctrine of all of them — namely, the voluntary nature 
 of belief, and, therefore, responsibility for belief — was 
 erroneous, they argued their differences out with 
 a good temper founded on a strong faith in each 
 other's sincerity, and escaped the anger and unchari- 
 tableness to which people discussing such subjects 
 are often liable. Frequently, at the end of one 
 of their friendly disputes, the old man would say to 
 Owen, with a kindliness of expression which was 
 peculiar to him, " Thou needest be very right, for 
 thou art very positive." And this was certainly 
 true, as no man ever stood more firmly on the 
 side of anything which he believed to be of import- 
 ance to the world ; but it should be added, that no 
 man ever did so in a gentler and more kindly spirit. 
 It is clear, from what Robert Owen records of him, 
 that David Dale was, in every sense of the term, a 
 good man. Apart from their disputes on religion, 
 in conversation on general subjects, in the attention 
 they gave to practical measures of improvement for 
 the poor, and for the working people, they rarely 
 differed. " Such," says Owen, " were the feelings 
 created in me by his natural simplicity^ his almost 
 unbounded liberality and benevolence, and his warm- 
 hearted kindness, that my affection for him daily 
 increased as long as he lived." David Dale died in 
 the arms of his son-in-law, to whose care he confided 
 
Mr Dale's Confidence in Him. 6g 
 
 his unmarried daughters ; and in telling the story of 
 his death, Owen tenderly assures us that it was 
 "felt as a great public .loss, for he was universally 
 respected, and loved by all who knew him. There 
 was a peculiarly attractive and winning benevolence 
 in his manner that won the hearts of all who ap- 
 proached him, but especially of those who were 
 admitted to his confidence. As one who had his 
 full confidence in all his affairs for the last six 
 years of his life, to whom he was most affectionately 
 kind, I felt his loss, as a parent and confidential 
 friend, to whom I was attached in a manner only 
 known to and felt by myself, as though I had been 
 deprived of a large part of my own existence. 
 The morning after his decease the world appeared 
 a blank to me, and his death was a heavy loss 
 and was severely felt by every member of his 
 family." 
 
 Previous to his death, Mr Dale, with the help of 
 Robert Owen, very much contracted his manu- 
 facturing operations. Among other cotton mills, he 
 was a partner in one in Sutherlandshire, and this 
 Owen visited in company with Mr George M'Intosh, 
 partner of Mr Dale, and father of the inventor 
 of the macintosh waterproof This journey, like his 
 first trip into Scotland, is curious, by the facts he 
 notes in reference to travelling in Scotland at that 
 time. There were no steamboats, no mail-coaches, 
 not even common stage-coaches. The roads were in 
 a wretched state, having been originally made by 
 General Wade for military purposes. On foot or on 
 horseback was the ordinary way of travelling, but 
 Owen and his companion decided to post, if possible ; 
 
JO Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 and in order to do this they had to hire horses and 
 a carriage to go the whole distance and back again 
 with them. They arranged to pay thirty shillings a 
 day until their return, and not to travel more than 
 twenty miles a day, which he says was considered 
 hard work. They were also to pay all the tolls, and 
 the driver, but he is not quite clear whether they 
 had to feed the horses or not. He remembers, how- 
 ever, that they had to walk up all the hills, and 
 down many of them ; and occasionally, when the 
 hill was long and steep, they had to assist the 
 horses by pushing behind. 
 
 To Robert Owen this was a journey of great 
 interest. There were few travellers in Scotland at 
 that time, and he had never been in the Highlands 
 before. His companion, who had been over the 
 ground many times, entertained him with stories of 
 adventures, some of which had happened in the 
 mountain solitudes of Sutherland through which 
 they travelled. When passing one of the glens, Mr 
 M'Intosh told Owen that he had once been surprised 
 there by an eagle which suddenly swooped close beside 
 him. On following the flight of the bird, he saw 
 there was a pair of them, and in another moment he 
 was satisfied they meant to attack him. As he rode 
 forward, one of them darted directly at his eyes. 
 Being armed with a stout riding-whip, he beat off his 
 assailant, but they both attacked him several times 
 singly, one a minute or so after the other. Had 
 they attacked him together, their swiftness and 
 power were such that he doubted if he would have 
 been able to resist their united force. 
 
 At the time of this tour Owen's name was known 
 
Mr Dales Confidence in Hun. 7 1 
 
 generally as an active and intelligent manufacturer, 
 and successor to David Dale, while his companion 
 yfizs regarded with great respect in the north of Scot- 
 land for his patriotic attempts to introduce the manu- 
 facture of cotton into that part of the kingdom. In 
 Inverness they were entertained at a public dinner by 
 the corporation, the provost presiding, and had con- 
 ferred on them the freedom of that ancient royal 
 burgh, while on their return they visited many of the 
 respectable Highland families. 
 
 Owen kept a journal of this expedition, but during 
 his many changes and vicissitudes he lost it. This 
 was to him a matter of great regret, as he was much 
 interested and gratified by the hospitality he received, 
 and the many kindly qualities he found in the people 
 he met with ; but more especially as it was during 
 these visits, and the interchange of ideas that resulted 
 from them, that he first began seriously to advocate his 
 convictions on the subject of the formation of opinions 
 and character. This was in 1 802, and from this period 
 he never ceased to urge, by argument and practical 
 demonstration, the importance of education as a 
 national necessity, and the duty of the nation to 
 acknowledge this great truth, and to exert its utmost 
 power in training the masses of the people in accord- 
 ance with it. 
 
72 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Ozven. 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 'JCbe jffgbt an& its Difficulties. 
 
 However Robert Owen's mind might have been 
 occupied with his larger and more important plans 
 for the future, he never lost sight of the daily detail 
 by which he traced the progress he was making in 
 improving the manners and character of the people 
 under his care, or ceased from devising such additional 
 changes as might be useful in helping him to advance 
 the end he had in view. He found that through 
 habits contracted during the defective management 
 of the men acting for Mr Dale, small pilferings had 
 grown to be very common. To prevent or detect 
 these he contrived plans which in time were effectual. 
 He devised a series of checks in every department of 
 the business, by means of which a wrong thing done 
 at any one point, was almost immediately detected at 
 some other point ; and to compensate for any defect 
 there might be in this system of checks, he had 
 presented to him every morning, returns of the 
 previous day's proceedings, and obtained frequent 
 balances from every department ; thus impressing on 
 the minds of all, the fact that his eye was constantly 
 on them, and that whatever went wrong would be 
 discovered sooner or later. 
 
 One of these checks, which had reference to the 
 conduct of the workers, he states to have been ' 
 effectual. He had placed behind each a four-sided 
 piece of wood, about two inches long and one broad, | 
 each side painted a different colour, — black, blue, 
 
Tlie Fight and its Difficulties. 73 
 
 yellow, and white,— tapering at the top, and fitted so 
 as to hang on a wire, with any one side to the front, 
 and the side to the front indicated what the conduct 
 of the worker had been on the previous day. Black 
 meant bad, blue middling, yellow good, and white 
 excellent. Books of character were provided for each 
 department, and these colours were entered daily to the 
 credit or discredit of each individual worker, being 
 numbered i, 2, 3, 4 ; and these numbers were entered, 
 and an average made every two months, or six times a 
 year, so that Owen could tell at a glance how all the 
 workers had conducted themselves during the whole of 
 the year. There was no secret in this, it was done 
 openly, and every one knew what it meant. The 
 people knew that their employer would examine the 
 record, and that he would value each accordingly. 
 If any one thought injustice had been done, appeal 
 was open. When this plan was commenced, there 
 were many black and many blue marks, but gradually 
 these gave way to yellow and white. In this way he 
 saw regularly the change which was taking place for 
 the better, and in the end found that he had corrected 
 nearly all the errors and faults that existed so abun- 
 dantly when he entered on the management of the 
 mills. 
 
 For eight years he went on quietly doing everything 
 in his power to produce individual and local changes 
 for the better, previous to venturing on the more 
 important and more general experiments on which 
 he meant to base his appeal to the public and the 
 legislature for such general changes in the factory 
 system as might correct its worst evils. This was to 
 be made when he had done what was practicable to 
 
74 I^if^i Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 overcome the many evils he found existing in the 
 factories and the village in connection with the 
 employment and the homes of the people under his 
 control, and to introduce the plans he had been 
 meditating in their interest. With this view he 
 first turned his attention to the very young, — to the 
 infants, in fact. The accommodation in the houses of 
 the workers was far from being favourable to the 
 training of the young^ In every respect it was 
 too limited to allow mothers to go through their 
 household occupations without feeling inconveniently 
 the pressure of the children, without speaking to 
 them frequently in a manner and tone calculated 
 to be injurious in the early formation of their charac- 
 ters. " In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred," he 
 remarks, " parents are altogether ignorant of the right 
 method of treating children." That this was true of the 
 masses of the working people in the manufacturing 
 districts is certain. He saw how many evils in after- 
 life this state of things led to, but he also saw the 
 many obstacles that would be opposed to any attempt 
 he might make to alter it. To erect and furnish such 
 buildings as he thought necessary for the proper 
 education of the young, required an expenditure, in 
 the first instance, of about ;^S,ooo; and, when this 
 was done, a considerable annual outlay would be 
 needed to keep up such a system and carry it 
 on effectually. He was satisfied in his own mind that 
 in time this outlay and expenditure would bring a 
 satisfactory and an ample return, in the improved 
 character of the children, as well as in the improved 
 condition of their parents ; but he had to remember 
 that his partners went into the business for profit as 
 
The Fight and its Difficulties. 75 
 
 cotton spinners. They were commercial men, and it 
 was to the annual balance-sheet they looked for satis- 
 faction, and not to the character of the population 
 employed in the mills. Besides this, there were the 
 prejudices of the parents, who possibly would not like 
 to part with their children during the whole day, at so 
 early an age as he felt it would be desirable to take 
 them ; but perhaps the most serious difficulty was to 
 be found in the fact that he was opposed, as he says, 
 in all his views, by the parish minister. This gentle- 
 man regarded the managing partner at the New 
 Lanark mills as a dangerous innovator, and, conscien- 
 tiously enough no doubt, felt it his duty to watch Owen's 
 proceedings narrowly, and to oppose him by every 
 means in his power, when he suspected him of, even in 
 the most remote way, trenching on his right, as minister 
 of the parish, to the spiritual and moral supervision of 
 the people. With his ideas on education and the 
 formation of character, it was impossible that Robert 
 Owen could allow any religious minister to interfere 
 with the working of his plans; but it was perhaps just 
 as unreasonable to expect that any m.inister, zealous 
 for the welfare of his flock, should allow an experiment 
 in which he was denied active interference to go 
 on without opposition. The first difficulty of Owen, 
 however, lay with his partners. He had carefully 
 matured his plans, and worked out his estimates with 
 all necessary precision. The steps he had already 
 taken had greatly improved the population, and after 
 watching the results of his labours, in profit to the 
 establishment, for nearly nine years, he outlined the 
 further changes he proposed to make, and pointed 
 out the advantages likely to result from them ; but his 
 
"]& Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiveii. 
 
 proposals went so far beyond the view of his partners 
 as to alarm them seriously. The leading members of 
 the firm went from London and Manchester to visit 
 New Lanark, and stayed there several days, so as 
 to give it a thorough inspection. They were much 
 pleased with what they saw, and when they left 
 promised they would explain Owen's views fully to 
 the other partners. 
 
 When the London and Manchester partners met, 
 they decided to present him with a large silver salver 
 as a slight token of their satisfaction, and this he 
 regarded as a good augury. Some of them, however, 
 were timid ; and after he had waited a few months 
 he had another visit. To this second deputation he 
 explained his intended measures step by step, and 
 stated the beneficial effects he expected them to 
 produce. They hesitated, demurred, objected ; but 
 he told them firmly that he could only continue to 
 manage the establishment in the way he considered 
 best. Up to this point his plans had been highly 
 successful, and if they declined to go forward with 
 him, he was prepared to make suggestion of a price 
 for the establishment, which he would give or accept. 
 They asked him to name the amount he was pre- 
 ^ pared to offer, and he said he was willing to take 
 or give ;^84,ooo. They at once took the matter into 
 consideration, and ended by accepting the offer to go 
 out. The price was an advance on the original pur- 
 chase of i^6o,000, — a satisfactory increase of value in 
 nine years, though no doubt some portion of this 
 would be for improvements and new machinery. 
 
 At this point it may be said Owen's warfare for 
 principles began. Hitherto he had been gradually,' 
 
The Fight and its Difficulties. -jj 
 
 within the limits of his daily experience, testing 
 his ideas in regard to human character. He had 
 satisfied himself that the first and most important 
 duty men could impose on themselves, was that of 
 properly training and providing for the young ; and 
 that this should be proved, in connection with the 
 great industry he was engaged in, was the settled 
 determination of his mind. He saw growing up 
 around him a comparatively new business, day by 
 day increasing in bulk, and drawing to it the labour- 
 ing population of the country ; and he saw in 
 connection with this, as a result of the large profits it 
 yielded, a system of intensified individual selfishness, 
 which operated generally with little or no regard for 
 the public good. The natural fruits of such a system, 
 worked in such a spirit, were most painfully apparent 
 on all sides. The health, the morals, the happiness 
 of the workers were rapidly giving way, with nothing 
 that could be regarded as a compensating advantage 
 but the wealth that was as rapidly flowing into the hands 
 of the manufacturing classes. Individual interest was 
 fast establishing itself, as the all-sufficient and sole 
 regulating force in everything connected with busi- 
 ness. It is no doubt natural and powerful, and ought 
 to have its influence acknowledged and allowed for, 
 but not to the exclusion of combined action for 
 general purposes of good, unattainable, under certain 
 circumstances, by individual men. The right of com- 
 bination belongs to men in classes and communities, 
 and to the working men as to all other men ; and 
 much excellent work has been accomplished by trades 
 unions and other combinations since the power to 
 combine became legal. When Robert Owen was 
 
78 Life, Times, and Laboicrs of Robert Owen. 
 
 carrying on his operations at Lanark this power 
 did not exist, and therefore the working men of the 
 country, in all its industries, were at the mercy of their 
 employers. Individually they were too weak to do 
 anything, and the combination laws prevented them 
 from acting collectively, either for the purpose of 
 attack or defence. What they have done, since the 
 repeal of those most unjust laws, by trades unionism^ 
 and co-operation, might have been commenced many 
 years sooner, and much greater results have been 
 realised. 
 
 Owen's proposals, at the time they were made, 
 were admirably suited to the existing condition 
 of things. At that time no nation was competing 
 with Great Britain in the cotton tra^e. The com- 
 petition was only among native manufacturers, and 
 prices in their downward tendency were only checked 
 by the average profit expected, when added to the 
 cost of production. The performance of the duties 
 insisted on by Robert Owen, would have greatly added 
 to the wellbeing of the workers, but it is not at all 
 certain that they would have perceptibly added to ■ 
 the cost of production. His own practical experience i 
 convinced him, that the improvement in the people as 
 workers, as well as men and women, would have more 
 than' covered the cost ; and from his success as a 
 manufacturer, while making his experiments, it is j 
 reasonable to believe he was right. There were 
 further advantages, the importance of which need not 
 be discussed now; but it requires no great stretch 
 of the imagination to perceive that a foundation of 
 goodwill, of friendliness and co-operation, in regard j 
 to the great industries of the country, between 
 
New Partnerships. 79 
 
 employers and employed, would have produced far 
 higher results for all classes than any we can see 
 at the present moment. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 iRevv partnersbfps. 
 
 By this time it was well known that the New Lanark 
 establishment, under the management of Owen, was 
 almost certain to be successful,- and a new partnership 
 was soon formed. The high integrity of Owen and his 
 practical skill were beyond doubt. The only question 
 was whether, through zeal for the welfare of the 
 workers, or (to ascribe his action to a motive with 
 which many might be disposed to credit him) out of 
 a too great attachment to his own ideas, he might not 
 go so far as to land the company in a loss. However 
 the affair might be regarded, it is nevertheless certain 
 that he had no difficulty in getting as many partners 
 and as much capital as he wanted for the purpose 
 of carrying on the concern. -Two persons, named 
 Dennistown and Campbell, sons-in-law of Mr Camp- 
 bell of Jura, who was distantly related to Robert 
 Owen's wife, and who had placed ;£^20,ooo in his 
 hands for investment, joined him. Mr John Atkin- 
 son, one of his previous partners, also requested to be 
 admitted into the new co-partnery. 
 
 In a short time Owen set about the erection of the 
 new schools, and was proceeding in a manner satis- 
 factory to himself, when his new partners objected 
 
8o Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 as the old had done, declaring that they were cotton 
 spinners and commercial men carrying on business 
 for a profit, and, as such, had nothing to do with 
 educating children, any more than any other co- 
 partnery of cotton spinners in the kingdom. Not 
 only did they do this, but they objected to every 
 other form of improvement which he was making for 
 the benefit of the workers. In fact he found himself 
 in a worse position than ever, as these men objected 
 not only to the investment of money for such a 
 purpose in any form, but also exclaimed against the 
 salaries given for superintendence and the wages paid 
 for labour. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, Owen went quietly on, carry- 
 ing out his plans with his usual determination of 
 purpose, until they served him with formal notice not 
 to proceed with the schools. Finally, they gave notice 
 for a dissolution of partnership, — being determined, if 
 possible, to keep the works in their own hands, and to 
 rid themselves of Owen in the capacity of a partner. 
 He offered now, as in the previous case, to name a 
 sum which he would give or take. This proposal they 
 refused, and decided that the works should be dis- 
 posed of by auction. He was much averse to this, 
 but as the rest of the partners had resolved on this 
 course, there was nothing else to be done. The 
 determination of these gentlemen was to buy-in the 
 place, and that they might have a good bargain as 
 purchasers, they quietly reported unfavourably as to 
 its value, naming ^40,000 as the highest penny it was 
 worth. 
 
 While they were thus employed, Owen started for 
 London, where his name was by this time well known, 
 
Neiv Partnerships. Si 
 
 and succeeded in fornaing a co-partnery of the first 
 respectability, including Jeremy Bentham, the utili- 
 tarian philosopher. When his new partners asked 
 the value of the works, he replied that they should not 
 allow them to go under ^120,000. He was empowered 
 to go to that sum at the sale. Armed thus, he and 
 two of his new partners proceeded to Glasgow. One 
 of the conditions of the sale was that no bid should 
 be below ;^ioo. His old partners were all there, and 
 bid for themselves ; but he bid through an agent 
 to whom he had given orders to follow the other 
 side, always bidding just i^ioo in advance. What 
 is called the upset price was ;£'6o,ooo. They wished 
 to put it at ^^40,000, but as Owen offered to give 
 ^60,000, which they refused, it was put up at £60,000. 
 On the plan arranged, the agent acting for Mr Owen 
 followed, and steadily headed them by his quiet bid of 
 £100 in advance, until in the end the property they 
 had declared not to be worth more than ;£^40,ooo was 
 knocked down to Owen at ;^i 14,100, his opponents 
 having gone as far as £\ 14,000. 
 
 As soon as the purchase was completed, Owen and 
 his new partners — the two, that is, who had attended 
 the sale — posted off for the works triumphantly in a 
 cokch and four. The inhabitants of both the Lanarks 
 had sent scouts in advance, to give notice of their 
 coming ; and as they approached the old town, the 
 people poured out on them, hurraying with delight, 
 and unharnessing the horses, drew them into Lanark, 
 when they were handed over to the villagers, who 
 took them to the end of their journey, where they 
 were received with the most sincere and heart- 
 felt demonstrations of gratitude and joy. " My new 
 
 F 
 
82 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 partners," he says, when describing this scene, " seemed 
 to congratulate themselves that they had become con- 
 nected with such people and such an establishment. 
 It was a day and a proceeding which I shall never 
 forget. It interested me deeply, and, if possible, 
 increased my determination to do them (the people) 
 and their children all the good in my power." It is 
 with very excusable pride that Robert Owen dwells 
 with more than usual satisfaction on this part of his 
 story. He had managed the establishment for 
 fourteen years in such a manner as to win the entire 
 affection of the workers. He had done this by means 
 of a liberality which had caused two sets of partners 
 to separate from him. The second co-partnery had 
 only lasted for four years, through nearly the whole 
 of which time he had to put up with opposition of 
 the most vexatious kind, an opposition in which the 
 other partners were unanimous. Nothing but the all- 
 absorbing desire to improve the condition of the people 
 placed under his care, together with a positive belief 
 that he was not doing this to the injury of his 
 partners, could have supported him in the conflict. 
 Under such circumstances it must have been a matter 
 of great satisfaction to him, when the books were 
 balanced, that over the four years during which the 
 partnership continued, it was found, "after allowing 5 
 per cent for the capital employed, that the ne.t profit 
 was .^160,000." 
 
 Owen now felf at liberty to act, and therefore 
 pushed forward the schools which had been delayed 
 by the opposition of his late partners. In about two 
 years from this time, he had completed and furnished 
 them in such a manner as to attract the attention of 
 
New Partnerships. 83 
 
 all parties interested in education. In the infant 
 schools the young, were received at one year, or as 
 soon as they could manage to walk. The parents 
 could not understand what he meant to do with them, 
 but when they saw the improvement made in the 
 tempers, the character, and happiness of the children, 
 they were anxious to send them at any age, however 
 young, at which they could be received. 
 
 In addition to the infant school, there was school 
 accommodation for all under twelve years of age, 
 after which, if their parents wished, they might enter 
 the works, and contribute by their labour to the 
 support of the family. To prevent any thought of 
 charity in connection with the instruction they were 
 receiving, the parents were charged threepence per 
 month, or three shillings a year for each child. The 
 actual expense of the establishment amounted to 
 about two pounds a year for each child, and as there 
 were three gradations, according to the age and 
 acquirements of the children, the company paid the 
 difference, and considered that they received ample 
 value for the money thus expended, in the improved 
 character of the young people. There was consider- 
 able choice of employment for children, when the 
 working period of life arrived ; as, beside the various 
 branches of the cotton manufacture, there were 
 mechanics, iron and brass founders, forgers, turners 
 in wood and iron, and builders in all branches, so 
 that, without going outside the establishment, there 
 was employment in these various trades, in repairs 
 in the mills and the village, to the extent of eight 
 thousand pounds a year. 
 
 Looking at the whole thing, we cannot regard his 
 
84 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 self- congratulations as excessive, when he tells us in 
 his autobiographical sketch that " all the houses in the 
 village, with 150 acres of land around it, formed a part 
 of an establishment, which united, and working to- 
 gether as one machine, proceeded day by day with the 
 regularity of clockwork;" the effect of the whole being 
 such, that Henry Hase, cashier for the Bank of Eng- 
 land, when informed how long it had been going on, 
 said that " it looked like the work of generations." 
 
 CHAPTER XH. 
 
 Ebucation Struggle. 
 
 It will be seen, from what has been said, that firmly 
 determined as Robert Owen was that the people in 
 the employment of the New Lanark Company should 
 be educated, it was not because he was a man of 
 "one idea," or because on that one point he had 
 made up his mind to at all hazards carry out his 
 plans. His thought extended to the workers in all 
 the conditions of their lives. He had made human 
 character a study, and was devoting his time and his 
 means to the formation of an institution in connection 
 with his works, the object of which was the cultiva- 
 tion of intelligence and morality in the minds of the 
 workers. He had examined the effects of the factory 
 system, so far as they were then perceptible; and had 
 noted their influence on the health, the happiness, 
 and morality of the people. By making himself 
 acquainted, by practical work and by observation, 
 
Education Struggle. 85 
 
 with the whole of the system in all its details, he was 
 enabled to forecast the future, and to tell the world 
 what the result of the wretched system the cotton 
 manufacturers of the kingdom were developing and 
 establishing would be. He was not declamatory or 
 abusive. He did not, in any words he ever gave 
 utterance to, denounce the manufacturers as selfish or 
 wicked, — as men who were pursuing their own personal 
 ends, though they knew that injury to the nation 
 would follow. Before he spoke a word, he earned his 
 right to speak, by practically experimenting on the 
 points to which he meant to address himself From 
 almost the first years of his life as a manufacturer, 
 the experience of every year, and a considerable 
 portion of the gain of every ycr.r, were turned to 
 account, in correcting the numerous evils which, in 
 connection with factory labour, were visible every- 
 where around him. 
 / His first great labour was that of education. He 
 performed this in the best way he could when he first 
 undertook the management of New Lanark. He 
 noted, day by day, the effects produced with the 
 limited means at his disposal, and he urged, as we 
 have seen, on unwilling partners the necessity of 
 doing much more. During this time his studies as 
 well as his labours were incessant ; not only was he 
 battling with partners over the division of profits, and 
 insisting that some fair portion should be used for 
 the welfare of those whose labour had so materially 
 helped to produce it, but he was studying the 
 efifacts of education in religion, morals, general intelli- 
 gence, language, and manners, as observable among 
 the people of all nations as well as among those under/ 
 
86 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 his care. The more he reflected on this subject, the 
 more he became convinced of its paramount import- 
 ance, and of the smallness of his own efforts in the 
 Hmited sphere in which it was his lot to work. On 
 this important subject Owen always laboured in a 
 liberal and tolerant spirit. He believed that Lancas- 
 ter's system of education was infinitesimal, compared 
 with the requirements of the country. Lancaster had 
 invented new and easy methods of elementary instruc- 
 tion, by which one man could as a teacher get through 
 much more work than under the old system then 
 prevailing. He sought to distribute such education 
 as was then given to a portion of the workers) more 
 widely. Owen approved of this, but felt the necessity 
 of greatly improving the character of the education 
 given. He was a firm and liberal friend to Lancaster 
 and had given a thousand pounds to help him in his 
 work. Dr Bell's system was taken up by the Church 
 in rivalry to Lancaster's. Bell's system excluded 
 Dissenters ; but, inasmuch as it meant the spread 
 of intelligence by instruction, Owen expressed his 
 willingness to help it, by giving another thousand 
 pounds, if the committee would open the schools to 
 children of all denominations ; but only half that sum 
 if they continued to exclude Dissenters. This pro- 
 posal, he says, was debated two days in full committee, 
 and ultimately it was decided by a small majority to 
 continue the exclusion of all Dissenters, and to accept 
 only the five hundred pounds. In recording this, he 
 adds, " In twelve months after, I had the satisfaction 
 to learn that the practice which I had advocated was 
 adopted." 
 
 Towards the close of 1812 he published two "Essays 
 
Education Struggle. 87 
 
 on the Formation of Character." The first of these 
 deals simply with general principles, pointing out the 
 power of adult man over infant man, and the easiness 
 with which, by wise training, a good general character 
 may be secured to all. He urges the importance of 
 this truth, by reference to the actual evils that 
 had arisen in consequence of its non-recognition by 
 society; alluding, in illustration, to the large masses of 
 people in Great Britain, principally belonging to the 
 working classes, for whose education no provision 
 whatever was made, — who in consequence had fallen 
 into a state of misery and crime, and were by 
 their ignorance and criminal tendencies afflicting 
 and injuring society. It has been objected by persons 
 opposed to Owen's views, that there was nothing new 
 in the principle he laid down. This is quite true ; 
 but in putting it forth, he did not claim the credit of 
 a discovery. He simply claimed that he had systema- 
 tised a series of facts already discovered, and made 
 them applicable to the highest uses of life ; he had 
 tested the principle he asserted by educating the 
 children under his care, and had proved its truth and 
 power. Having done so, he urged its application 
 on the attention of society, not as a philosophical 
 problem to be discussed, but as a pressing work in 
 daily life upon which all thoughtful men should enter 
 without loss of time. " The present essays," he re- 
 mark.s, " are not brought forward as mere matter of 
 speculation, to amuse the idle visionary who thinks in 
 his closet and never acts in the world, but to create 
 universal activity, permeate society with a knowledge 
 of its true interests, and direct the public mind to the 
 most important object to which it can be directed, — - 
 
 D 
 
 \ 
 
88 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 to a national proceeding for rationally t'orming the 
 character of that immense mass of the population 
 which is now allowed to be so formed as to fill the 
 world with crimes." He calls attention to popular 
 ignorance on the plea that, under a better and more 
 universal system of education, " any character, from 
 the best to the worst, from the most ignorant to the 
 most enlightened, may be given to any community 
 in the world at large, by the application of proper 
 means, which means are, to a great extent, at the 
 command and under the control of those who have 
 influence in the affairs of men." 
 
 When he wrote his essays on the formation of 
 character, he saw very clearly the evils he had to 
 contend against. The degradation of the working 
 classes was always present to him. He saw it in 
 Manchester in its worst forms, deepening and spread- 
 ing with the system that helped to produce it. He 
 saw, in the law, religious exclusions, — the result of 
 prejudices possible only with men among whom ignor- 
 ance of human nature prevailed. In Great Britain, 
 Dissenters were trammelled by civil restrictions, 
 Roman Catholics were oppressed and degraded by 
 exclusive and ignominious laws, while Jews were by 
 the law as well as by public opinion regarded with dis- 
 like and distrust. Bad as such hatreds and oppressions 
 were in England, they were worse elsewhere ; for while 
 the people of England only disliked and oppressed, 
 in other countries — where religious differences were 
 more marked, and where religious prejudices were 
 more free to operate — there often occurred deeds of 
 violence which were prompted by a spirit of the most 
 bitter animosity. 
 
Education Struggle. 89 
 
 Such things in every form, whether near or remote, 
 horrified Robert Owen ; and it was that a higher 
 justice should come through a higher and better 
 instruction, that he sought so earnestly to inculcate 
 a belief in the soundness of his theory of the forma- 
 tion of character. 
 
 He said to all men, " You are the children of a 
 common Father whom you worship under different 
 names. In your relation to your common parent and 
 to each other, you owe duties of love and help, which 
 your ignorance and the antipathies springing from it 
 deprive you of the power to perform. Where you 
 ought to love, you hate ; where you ought to . help, 
 you hinder. You persecute and injure each other, 
 because your skins differ in colour; because your 
 religious opinions and forms of worship' are not the 
 same ; because you differ in language and habits ; 
 whereas, if you understood yourselves and knew each 
 other, and possessed that knowledge of the laws of 
 your being which you ought to possess, and which 
 ought most easily to be impressed on your minds, 
 you would understand that you do not create for 
 yourselves one of the distinctions concerning which 
 you quarrel. The colour of your skin, your religious 
 opinions and forms of worship, your language and 
 habits, have been given to you — not chosen by you. 
 You are the slaves of one set of prejudices, and not of 
 another, by no choice of your own. At your birth 
 you had no preference for black, brown, or white. 
 You had no choice as to what country you should be 
 born into, to what creed your parents should belong ; 
 whether you should be a Bhuddist, a Mahomedan, a 
 Christian, or a Jew ; what language you should speak. 
 
90 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 or what habits you should acquire. Your ' character 
 is to be formed for you, not by you ; ' so that instead 
 of blaming and hating, fighting with and kiUing each 
 other, it will be your duty in the recognition of this 
 great truth, palpable to all who will open their eyes 
 and see, to find out what is truest and best in each 
 of these differences, and to give by education such 
 qualities as will tend to produce the highest and 
 best results in the human race." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Ubeor? in IRegarb to tbe importance of 
 BDucation. 
 
 The efforts made by Robert Owen on behalf of 
 education, did not originate in, nor were they sustained 
 by, humane or philanthropic impulses only. He had 
 studied the subject carefully and deeply, and had 
 come deliberately to the conclusion, that education 
 for the development of the individual human creature, 
 as well as for the safety and progress of society, was 
 the highest and most important 'duty men could be 
 called on to perform. He deplored the wicked waste 
 of human faculty and human happiness going on 
 daily and hourly around him, in consequence of the 
 gross neglect of education. He was convinced that 
 mere isolated efforts could be of little use in forward- 
 ing so important and so pressing a work ; but he 
 knew, at the same time, that where associative or 
 national effort could not be secured, each individual 
 
Theory in Regard to the Importance of Education. 9 1 
 
 man was bound to do his best according to his /, 
 opportunities ; so that a true sense of duty might / 
 be awakened in the pubhc mind, and that, when this / 
 was done, practical methods, tested by experiment, 
 might be at hand to enable the public to carry 
 forward effectively so important a work. The or- 
 dinary plan was to set up a small school somewhere 
 in connection with the factory, and employ some old 
 man or old woman to struggle as he or she could, 
 enfeebled by age and ignorance, against the indis- 
 position of the children to learn, wearied as they 
 always were by the overwork of the factory. 
 
 Such education sometimes did a little good, but 
 advancing life, with its hardships and temptations, 
 soon undid what the schoolmaster or schoolmistress 
 had done; leaving the lives of the factory population 
 to flow on in the old channels, contaminated by the 
 new evil influences of the factory system. It was 
 Robert Owen's great desire to see the question of 
 education taken up by the nation in the truest and 
 most liberal spirit. He was impressed with the con-'") 
 viction that it was criminal, in a very high degree, to / 
 ■ appropriate the wealth then rapidly accumulating, and ( 
 the power it brought with it, to the creation of large ? 
 private fortunes, — 1<5 the growth or to the exaltation V 
 of one class, by the oppression and degradation of ) 
 another class. It was in this belief he commenced his 
 labours in the cause of education, and it was because 
 he felt deeply its importance to society, that he 
 emphasised his views of the capabilities of man's 
 nature, and the duty of instructing the young. 
 " Every minute dies a man, every minute one is 
 born," Owen saw in this old truth an awful signi- 
 
92 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 ficance, by comparing the innocence at birth with the 
 ignorance and depravity in life, and concluded that the \ 
 best use of his own life and fortune lay in a prudent but 
 earnest devotion of his time and means to the cause 
 of education, more especially in connection with those 
 in his employment. 
 
 The commencement of the educational effort at 
 New Lanark was meant to be the foundation of a 
 permanent work, founded on principles which were to 
 be sustained by a growing national conviction. From 
 the beginning, every point was carefully>reaso'hed out; 
 and though what Owen called the "fundamental 
 facts," on which the " rational system of society " was 
 to be based, were not published for years after his 
 schools were opened, yet the ideas contained in these 
 were frequently stated during the time he devoted to 
 the work of education among the population of New- 
 Lanark, as well as in several documents published 
 by him before he had taken any position as a leader 
 among the people. These " fundamental facts " were 
 briefly put. Possibly they might have been stated 
 with greater clearness ; still they were capable of 
 being easily understood by the intelligent and candid, 
 and beyond these Owen did not care to carry con- 
 viction, i 
 
 1. Man is a compound being, whose character is 
 formed of his constitution or organisation at birth, 
 and of the effects of external circumstances actine 
 upon that organisation from birth to death, such 
 original organisation and external influences con- 
 tinually acting and reacting on each other. 
 
 2. Man is compelled by his original constitution to 
 
Theory in Regard to the Importance of Education. 93 
 
 receive his feelings and convictions independent of his 
 will. 
 
 3. His feelings or his convictions, or both of them 
 united, create the motive to action called the will, 
 which stimulates him to act, and decides his actions. 
 
 4. The organisation of no two human beings is 
 ever precisely similar at birth, nor can art subse- 
 quently form any two individuals from infancy to 
 maturity to be the same. 
 
 5. Nevertheless, the constitution of every infant, 
 except in case of organic disease, is capable of being 
 formed or matured either into a very inferior or a 
 very superior being, according to the qualities of the 
 external circumstances allowed to influence that con- 
 stitution from birth. '•' 
 
 ' In the Scriptures, and out of them, among the 
 philosophers and the divines, much may be read as 
 to man's subjection to the forces of nature and 
 society, but nobody else applied what had been said 
 on the subject'.— in a very vague and fragmentary 
 way — so systematically to the lives of men, or 
 sought so earnestly to impress on others the necessity 
 of accepting and acting on these truths, with a 
 view to the promotion of charity and kindliness in 
 thought and action among men. And his over- 
 sanguineness in regard to the rapid consummation 
 of the work he had taken in hand, did not arise 
 from his belief in the newness of his facts or doctrines, 
 so much as from his strong faith in the effect of such 
 a system of instruction if zealously applied. 
 
 In his " Book of the New Moral World," pubhshed 
 as late as 1836, there is a carefully prepared explana- 
 
94 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 tion and defence of these propositions, which it may 
 be necessary to notice further on. They are inserted 
 here principally for the purpose of showing the 
 grounds on which he proceeded, and the importance 
 he attached to education, not merely as a means of 
 fitting men and women for the performance of 
 ordinary duties, but for the purpose of raising the 
 whole level of life in its manhood and womanhood ; 
 beginning with infancy, and never ceasing, by a wise 
 substitution of good for evil in its surroundings, to 
 increase its moral and intellectual power, and to 
 thus secure human progress by making the pro- 
 motion of it an important part of the common every- 
 day business of life. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 JSetter prospects. 
 
 The schools were now pushed forward and finished, 
 and a head master and mistress chosen. It is stated, 
 however, very distinctly, that they were not selected 
 because they possessed any high degree of fitness 
 through intellectual acquirements, so much as that 
 they were noticeable for good temper, patience, and a 
 strong love for children. They were prepared for 
 their new duties by instruction in the subjects they 
 had to teach. Infants above one year attended school 
 under special care. They were never permitted to 
 hear angry words spoken, or to be wearied by a 
 teaching unsuited to their age or capacity. The 
 
Better Prospects. 95 
 
 schoolroom was a place where they found pleasant 
 companionship, kindly superintendence, and an in- 
 struction made agreeable by the mode in which it 
 was conveyed. They were not unnecessarily troubled 
 with books, or with the ordinary grind of the school- 
 room. Their school hours were made enjoyable, and 
 their instruction an interesting play time, passed under 
 the supervision of persons who, by natural disposition 
 and a strong sense of duty, sought to cultivate kindli- 
 ness of character and manner, with as much, if not 
 with more pains, than to instruct the mind according 
 to the ordinary school routine. James Buchanan and 
 Mary Young, the first master and mistress of the 
 infant school, were informed, previous to entering on 
 their duties, as to the intentions of the founder. They 
 were never to speak angrily to, threaten, or beat a 
 child. They were to instruct them, by word and 
 action, how to make each other happy ; a duty also 
 carefully impressed on the minds of the older children 
 in relation to the younger. The children were to be 
 taught the nature and uses of common things by 
 familiar conversation, and the teachers were to 
 utilise opportunities to impart such lessons when the 
 children's curiosity caused them to ask questions 
 either in the playground or the schoolroom. There 
 was also a large and pleasant play-room, used 
 when the weather was unfavourable for out-door 
 recreation. The schoolroom was well furnished with 
 carefully painted transparencies of objects in natural 
 history, framed so as to pass before the children 
 on rollers. Large coloured maps of the best kind 
 hung on the walls. On these maps, as Owen tells 
 us, were delineated the usual national boundaries, but 
 
96 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 that there were no names of countries, cities, or towns, 
 the positions of these being indicated by smaller or 
 larger circles. Around these maps the children, to the 
 number of about one hundred and fifty, were grouped. 
 A long wand was provided, by which the smallest 
 child could reach to the highest point on the map. 
 The lesson commenced by one of the children taking 
 the wand, and when asked to do so by another, point- 
 ing to any particular country, city, mountain, or lake. 
 In this way, he says, children when they arrived at six 
 years of age became such adepts in geographical 
 knowledge, that one of our admirals, who had visited 
 most parts of the world, declared that he could not 
 answer many of the questions to which the New 
 Lanark children readily replied in his presence. 
 
 So efficacious was this kind of teaching, through 
 the delight the children took in it,- conducted as it 
 was, that their progress caused surprise and pleasure 
 to all who inspected the establishment, and the 
 schools had not been long in operation before they 
 were visited by men of all classes who took an interest 
 in the education question. Teaching by book Robert 
 Owen regarded as the least effectual method with 
 young children, and he expresses an opinion that 
 when the best means of instructing the young shall 
 be known and applied, books will not be used with 
 children under ten. 
 
 >pThe schools for the more advanced in years and 
 /^acquirements received equal attention, and the pro- 
 gress in knowledge, kindliness of temper, and good 
 manners was most satisfactory. One feature is thus 
 referred to : — " Those at two years of age and above 
 had commenced dancing lessons, and those of four 
 
Better Prospects. 97 
 
 years of age and upwards singing lessons, under 
 good teachers. Both sexes were also drilled, and 
 became efficient in the military exercises ; being 
 formed into divisions, led by young drummers and 
 fifers, they were very expert and perfect in these 
 exercises." Robert Owen gives in his own words 
 an account of his proceedings. " The children," he 
 says, " being always treated with kindness and con- 
 fidence, and being altogether without fear, even of a 
 harsh word from any of their numerous teachers, 
 exhibited an unaffected grace and natural polite- 
 ness which surprised and fascinated strangers. The 
 conduct of the children was to most of the visitors 
 so unaccountable, that they knew not how to 
 express themselves, or how to hide their wonder and 
 amazement. These children standing up, seventy 
 couples at a time^in the dancing-room, and often sur- 
 rounded by many strangers, would with the utmost 
 ease and natural grace, go through any of the dances 
 of Europe with so little direction from their master, 
 that the visitors would be unconscious that there 
 was a dancing-master in the room. In their singing 
 lessons, 1 50 would sing at the same time, their voices 
 being trained to harmonise ; and it was delightful to 
 hear them sing the old popular Scotch songs, which 
 were great favourites with most strangers, from the 
 unaffected simplicity and hearty feeling with which 
 they were sung. Their military exercises they went 
 through with a precision, equal, as many officers of 
 the army stated, to some regiments of the line, and at 
 their head in their marchings were six and sometimes 
 eight young fifers playing various marches. The girls 
 were thus drilled and disciplined as well ^s the boys, 
 
 G 
 
98 Life, Times, and Labojcrs of Robert Owen. 
 
 and their numbers were generally nearly equal. And 
 it may be remarked, that being daily brought up 
 together, they appeared to feel for and to treat each 
 other as brothers and sisters ; and so they continued 
 until they left the day schools at the age of twelve." 
 
 The visitors who went to New Lanark, for the 
 purpose of seeing the schools in operation, were 
 very numerous. They arrived " not by hundreds, 
 but by thousands annually." " I have seen," says 
 Owen, " as many as seventy strangers at once 
 attending the early morning exercises of the children 
 in the school." Among these visitors were many of 
 the first persons in the kingdom, as well as numbers 
 of illustrious stangers. The Duke of Holstein (Olden- 
 burgh) and his brother stayed several days with Owen 
 at New Lanark, that they might thoroughly under- 
 stand the machinery of the system of infant educa- 
 tion established there ; the Grand Duke Nicholas, 
 afterwards Emperor of Russia ; Prince John and 
 Maximilian of Austria ; many foreign ambassadors ; 
 among others. Baron Just, ambassador from Saxony, 
 whose sovereign presented a gold medal to Robert 
 Owen as a mark of approval. .? 
 
 When Owen visited London, and was residing in 
 Bedford Square, at the house of Mr Walker, one of 
 his partners, the Duke of Kent and his brother the 
 Duke of Sussex paid him several visits. For many 
 years the former was in close and constant com- 
 munication with Owen on the subject of the reforms 
 he was busy in projecting, not only in regard to 
 popular education, but in connection with the condi- 
 tion of the people generally. So strong was the 
 approval of what he was doing, that the friends of 
 
\ 
 
 Better Prospects. 99 
 
 education in London, among whom was Henry 
 Brougham, afterwards Lord Brougham, sought to 
 establish schools of the same character, and obtained 
 the assistance of Owen's infant-school master to that 
 end ; but this attempt was not a success, as allow- 
 ance had not been made for the many differences 
 between the child-life of New Lanark and that of an 
 overcrowded and demoralised metropolitan district. 
 
 ; As may be seen by the encouragement and support 
 he gave to Lancaster and Bell, Owen was in favour of 
 any effort that could be made for education.; He 
 was convinced that no labour in such a cause could 
 be thoroughly effective, that did not, as far as possible, 
 remove the evil example of the old from before the 
 eyes of the young, and shut out the contaminations of 
 their language and manners. The instruction of the 
 school he regarded as but one of many agencies, the 
 success of which did not depend altogether on the plan 
 of teaching or the things taught, the counteracting 
 influences of the home and the street powerfully 
 affecting the result of such instruction. What Owen 
 really thought on this part of the subject, may be 
 gathered from a speech delivered by him when pre- 
 siding at a public dinner given to Joseph Lancaster, 
 in Glasgow, in 181 2. Speaking of the plans of 
 Lancaster, he said, — " By education, I now mean the 
 instruction of all kinds which we receive from our 
 earliest infancy until our characters are generally 
 fixed and established. It is, however, necessary that 
 the value of this object should be considered, as well 
 as the means of putting it into execution. Much has 
 been said and written in relation to education, but 
 few persons are yet aware of its real importance in 
 
lOO Life, Times, and LabotiJ's of Robert Owen. 
 
 society, and certainly it has not acquired that promi- 
 nent rank in our estimation which it deserves, for, 
 when duly investigated, it will be found to be, so far 
 at least as depends on our operations, the primary 
 source of all the good and evil,- misery and happiness, 
 which exist in the world. Let us," he continues, 
 " observe the different appearances bodily and men- 
 tally which the inhabitants of the various regions of 
 the earth present. Are they inherited in our nature, 
 or do they arise from the respective soils on which 
 we are born ? Evidently from neither. They are 
 wholly and solely the effects of that education I have 
 described. Man becomes a wild ferocious savage, a 
 cannibal, or a highly civilised and benevolent being, 
 according to the circumstances in which he may be 
 placed from his birth." 
 
 Pursuing and illustrating the subject in hand, he 
 sought to impress on the gentlemen present the fact 
 "that if any given number of children were exchanged 
 at birth between the Society of Friends, of which our 
 worthy guest, Joseph Lancaster, is a member, and the 
 loose fraternity of St Giles in London, the children 
 of the former would grow up like the members of the 
 latter, prepared for every degree of crime, while those 
 of the latter would become the same temperate, good, 
 moral characters as the former. Let us," he proceeds, 
 " take every means in our power to interest all those 
 who have any weight or influence in the city, to enter 
 heartily into the support and extension of the Lan- 
 casterian system of education for the poor, until every 
 child of that class shall find a place in one of the 
 schools. The schools which will contain the younger 
 children in the day time will likewise serve for even- 
 
Better Prospects. lOi 
 
 ing and Sunday schools, at which times those who 
 may be past the proper age for the first, and strangers 
 that come amongst us, may be instructed. But," he 
 continues, " it will be almost in vain to well educate 
 the few, if they are to spend the greater part of their 
 time among the ignorant and the vicious many. The 
 manners and habits of the latter will counteract our 
 good intentions to the former.'' 
 
 At the commencement of his public life he was 
 very desirous to obtain the co-operation of his brother 
 manufacturers, and for this purpose he appealed to 
 them in a document prefixed to his third " Essay on 
 the Formation of Character," and addressed to " The 
 superintendents of manufactories, and those individuals 
 generally, who, by giving employment to an aggregated 
 population, may easily adopt the means to form the 
 sentiments and manners of such a population." In this 
 address he says, — "Many of you have long experienced 
 in your manufacturing operations the advantage of sub- 
 stantial, well contrived, and well executed machinery. 
 Experience has also shown you the difference of the 
 results between mechanism which is neat, clean, well 
 arranged, and always in a high state of repair, and that 
 which is allowed to be dirty, in disorder, without the 
 means of preventing unnecessary friction, and which 
 therefore becomes and works much out of repair. In 
 the first case, the whole economy and management are 
 good, every operation proceeds with ease, order, and 
 success ; in the last, the reverse must follow, and a 
 scene be presented of counteraction, confusion, and 
 dissatisfaction among all the agents and instruments 
 interested or occupied in the general process, which- 
 cannot fail to create great loss. If, then, due care as 
 
I02 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 to the state of your inanimate machines can produce 
 such beneficial results, what may not be expected if 
 you devote equal attention to your vital machines, 
 which are far more wonderfully constructed ? When 
 you shall acquire a right knowledge of these, of their 
 curious mechanism, of their self-adjusting powers, 
 when the proper mainspring shall be applied to their 
 varied movements, you will become conscious of their 
 real value, and you will readily be induced to turn 
 your thoughts more frequently from your inanimate 
 to your living machines. You will discover that the 
 latter may be easily trained and directed to procure a 
 large increase of pecuniary gain, while you may also 
 derive from them high and substantial gratification. 
 Will you, then, continue to expend large sums of money 
 to procure the best devised mechanism of wood, brass, 
 or iron, and to retain it in perfect repair, — to provide 
 the best substance for the prevention of unnecessary 
 friction, and to save it from falling into premature 
 decay ? W^ill you also devote years of intense applica- 
 tion to understand the connection of the various parts 
 of these lifeless machines, to improve their effective 
 powers, and to calculate with mathematical precision 
 all their minute and combined movements? And 
 when, in these transactions, you estimate time by 
 minutes, and the money expended for the chance of 
 increased gain by fractions, will you not afford some 
 of your attention to consider whether a portion of 
 your time and capital would not be more advan- 
 tageously applied to improve your living machines? 
 From experience that cannot deceive me, I venture to 
 • assure you that your time and money so applied, if 
 directed by a true knowledge of the subject, would 
 
Importance of his Work at New Lanark. 103 
 
 return you not 5, or 10, or 20 per cent, for your capital 
 so expended, but often 50 and in many cases 100 per 
 cent." 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 importance of bis Morft at mew Xanarf?. 
 
 Robert Owen knew by experience the degraded 
 condition of the people employed in the cotton 
 factories, and he felt that the longer such a state of 
 things was permitted to continue, the more difficult it 
 would become to lift them out of that condition. His 
 exertions aroused the active opposition of a large 
 section of the factory owners. Whilst Owen was in 
 London fighting the Factory Bill before a Parlia- 
 mentary committee, the employers were compelled to 
 give time and trouble in resisting the proposed legisla- 
 tion, and in endeavouring to discredit those who were 
 fighting resolutely to forward it. One of the methods 
 used was to awaken public distrust and hatred, by 
 attacking on religious grounds the system pursued by 
 Owen at New Lanark; and so far did they proceed in 
 this direction, that watch was set over Owen by means 
 of the clergyman belonging to the parish. This was 
 carried so far, that Mr Menzies, the minister employed 
 for this purpose, was taken to London by the manu- 
 facturers' committee ; but no attempt was made to 
 prove anything against Owen, though whispers as to 
 his infidelity in religion, and the dangerous nature of 
 his proceedings generally, were beginning to circulate. 
 The moral and intellectual elevation of the masses 
 
104 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiven. 
 
 of the working people still continued, after the close of 
 the French war, to be regarded as a serious political 
 da,nger; and though liberal men of enlightened minds 
 were friendly to popular progress, so saturated was 
 the public mind with terror of a dreaded democracy, 
 t/iat reform of any kind lay open to the chance of 
 peing denounced as the carrying out of covert designs 
 to upset the throne, attack property, and subvert 
 Religion. What Owen's attitude was at this moment 
 has been fully explained by himself in many docu- 
 ments extensively circulated. No man was less 
 reticent. In regard to his ideas on religious and 
 social subjects, he had no concealments of thought or 
 policy. On these points, nevertheless, it may be 
 better that others should speak for him. He was not 
 a controversialist in the ordinary meaning of the term, 
 — more truly might he be called an experimentalist. 
 Had his first attempts to organise a useful system of 
 education failed, the probability is that he would have 
 confined himself more exclusively to his duties as a 
 mere manufacturer, and in the ordinary way enlarged 
 the pecuniary gains of himself and his partners ; 
 aiding, most likely with a liberal hand, whoever 
 might be promoting the instruction of the young. 
 He was successful, however, beyond his most sanguine 
 expectations, and therefore he was determined to 
 push forward and complete an experiment promising 
 so much good as an example to others. 
 
 There is every reason to believe that Owen's last 
 set of partners felt thoroughly satisfied with his ' 
 management as a mere employer of labour and 
 maker of profit. The profit realised was more than 
 the deed of p^jrtnexghip asked for, and the condition 
 
Importance of Ids Work at Neiv Lanark. 105 
 
 of the works and the people employed was all that 
 could be desired. The celebrated Jeremy Bentham 
 was one of the partners, and his well-known liberality 
 of mind removed any suspicion that he would 
 interfere with the working of the establishment be- 
 cause the orthodoxy of Owen was suspected. The 
 schools had gone on improving and developing, and 
 the results, shown by the improvement of the people 
 from day to day, became more evident. 
 / From 1816 to 1S22 they had attracted so much 
 notice, that his general plan of dealing with the popu- 
 lation of his village was regarded as suited to the 
 general condition of society, especially as applied to 
 the poor of the kingdom. Pauperism just then was 
 rapidly increasing, while on all hands discontented 
 workers were threatening the peace and safety of the 
 kingdom. The British and Foreign Philanthropic 
 Society was organised principally for the purpose of 
 trying Owen's plans ; but though at the first general 
 meeting subscriptions to the extent of ;£^5 5,000 were 
 announced, practical operations could not be under- 
 taken, with any fair chance of success, unless a much 
 larger sum was subscribed ; and as by this time, and 
 soon after, a very widespread suspicion of the hetero- 
 doxy of his opinions was spread abroad, the more 
 timid took flight. When the meeting took place, the 
 first whispers of alarm only were heard. The list of 
 vice-presidents contained ten names of ambassadors 
 and foreign ministers, while the acting committee 
 included those of no fewer than fifteen members 
 of Parliament. This first general meeting was held in 
 the Freemason's Hall, Great Queen Street, London, 
 on the 1st of June 1822, — Viscount Torrington in the 
 
io6 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 chair. The report, read to the meeting by the Earl of 
 Blessington, contains an outhne of the plans and pro- 
 ceedings of the association ; and in this report, and in 
 the speeches that, followed, the highest praise is be- 
 stowed on Robert Owen, his character, and his labour. 
 "The committee," says the report, "have been favoured 
 with the most liberal communications from Robert 
 Owen, Esq., of New Lanark, in- whose humane and 
 enlightened mind originated the plans which have 
 since (under his prudent management) been brought 
 into successful practice ; and to whose benevolence, 
 public spirit, and practical knowledge, the public are 
 indebted for the most valuable collection of facts and 
 successful experiments that have ever been attended 
 to in the cause of suffering humanity. They would 
 therefore consider it a dereliction of duty not to 
 confess the high sense they entertain of Mr Owen's ■ 
 intelligence, candour, and obliging courtesy, in sub- 
 mitting all his plans to their most scrutinising 
 examination." James Maxwell, M.P., in seconding 
 the adoption of the report moved by the Earl of 
 Blessington, said, " I have seen sufficient of the plan 
 proposed by my friend Mr Owen, to know that there 
 are means by which a great deal of the vice and the 
 miseries of the lower orders may be removed. Giving 
 rational education, and accompanying that education 
 with the Bible, must promote the great and important 
 interests of society ; while it holds out the prospect 
 which leads to the attainment of happiness hereafter, 
 it makes active virtue the road by which alone it can 
 be approached. Mr Owen, for a great length of time, 
 has devoted his attention to the state of the working 
 classes, by which he has considerably promoted their 
 
Importance of his Work at Neiv Lanark. 107 
 
 comfort and happiness. He has formed good habits 
 even in children, by moral and religious instruction." 
 
 Sir W. de Crispigny, M.P., said that when he first 
 heard of Mr Owen's plans, he looked on them as 
 visionary ; but reflecting on the amount of good 
 that must result from them, if practicable, he took a 
 journey into Scotland, and visited Mr Owen. " I 
 examined everything, both when he was with me and 
 when he was not with me. The latter method I 
 adopted, to see how the plan proceeded at a time 
 when no one was expected to examine it, and to 
 discover if I could possibly find any trippings. First, 
 I saw little children a year-and-a-half old, some a 
 little older, in a sort of playground, — but with a 
 degree of harmlessness, of fondness, and of attention 
 to each other, which we do not often witness in this 
 country ; thus proving that an attention to their 
 education, in this early period of life, tends to form 
 the salutary habits which will hereafter grow up to 
 maturity. I went on, and observed another set learn- 
 ing to read. I saw them reading the Bible, — that 
 book designed and calculated to impress them with 
 their duty to God and man, and to produce all those 
 results which lead to present and future happiness. 
 Here, then, is the best fruit, and the strongest recom- 
 mendation of our cause. On the Sunday I attended 
 their services. There are different places of worship 
 which they frequent. Near them is the orthodox 
 church. The Dissenters and Methodists have one or 
 two places, and some other denominations. But I 
 never saw more propriety, good conduct, and devo- 
 tion, in any place, and I wish to God I could always 
 see such in this country." 
 
to8 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 Lord Torrington, on leaving the chair, said, " I had 
 long heard a great deal of New Lanark, I therefore 
 took an opportunity of visiting that far-celebrated 
 place, and nothing has been to-day stated respecting 
 it that is not confirmed by my own knowledge, or to 
 which I do not wholly agree. No language can do 
 justice to the excellence of the arrangements in that 
 establishment. At New Lanark Mr Owen has fre- 
 quently a meeting of from i,000 to 1,200 persons, 800 
 of them are from sixteen to twenty years of age, all 
 uniting in friendly conversation, accompanied by some 
 instrumental music. I stole out about a quarter of an 
 hour before the meeting broke up, to see if I could not 
 discover a little irregularity among so many young 
 people; but their conduct was that of friendship and 
 brotherly regard, and in ten minutes every individual 
 was in his house with order and regularity. In my 
 walks about the establishment 1 requested Mr Owen 
 not to attend me, that I might judge for myself; and 
 I am convinced that whoever has seen what I have 
 seen, can have no doubt as to the excellence of the 
 plan, and must be a hearty supporter of the measures 
 we have this day met to promote." 
 
 In fact, nothing could be more complete than the 
 success of New Lanark ; and Robert Owen, in speak- 
 ing of it in after -years, though he insisted on the 
 necessity of kindly and generous treatment for the 
 adult workers in connection with their employment, 
 — indeed, for the old and the young at all times and 
 under all circumstances, — yet his master-belief was, 
 that the careful and kindly education of the young was 
 [the truest foundation for a good and useful life, and the 
 best safeguard for the peace and welfare of society. 
 
Importance of his Work at Nezv Lanark. 109 
 
 His village, during his efforts in the cause of educa- 
 tion, consisted of from 2,500 to 3,000 persons of all 
 ages. An American traveller (Mr Griscom) who stayed 
 some time at New Lanark, sums up his conclusions 
 in the following words : — " There is not, I apprehend, 
 to be found in any part of the world a manufacturing 
 village in which so much order, good government, 
 tranquillity, and rational happiness prevail." Another 
 visitor of some importance was Dr Macnab, physician 
 to the Duke of Kent, who went by the desire of His 
 Royal Highness to inspect and report on the con-, 
 dition of the establishment. His report has been 
 published ; but there is only space to say here, that his 
 praise of Owen's general management is unbounded, 
 particularly in regard to the education of the young. 
 
 To give a correct idea of what Owen effected at 
 New Lanark, it would be necessary to furnish a con- 
 trast by describing the ordinary factory establishment 
 to be found at that time in the cotton districts of 
 Lancashire and Cheshire. In these districts there 
 was often, among certain of the employers, an entire 
 neglect of everything but mere money-making, and 
 the consequence was a state of life and morals unfit 
 to be referred to except in general terms, — ignorance, 
 immorality, crime, and physical deterioration. In 
 New Lanark, there was recognition of the capabilities 
 of the human creature, and the duty of developing 
 these by a careful culture ; of devoting a portion 
 of the profits made by the business in which the 
 people were engaged to the education of their children 
 and the improvement of their lives, intellectually, 
 niorally, and socially. 
 
 The importance of Owen's work at New Lanark 
 
no Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 was not in the improvement he made in the children 
 by education, or in the condition of their parents by 
 general good treatment, taken as the final result, so 
 much as in the fact that he had commenced and 
 carried on his operations at what may be called the 
 opening of our huge system of cotton manufacturing, 
 when, through indifference and neglect on the part of 
 the manufacturers, the worst and most deplorable 
 consequences had begun to show themselves. At 
 such a time efforts like those of Owen were 
 specially needed. And as he had proved not their 
 practicability alone, but their economy in a business 
 point of view, his example, had it been continued, 
 might have spared the nation, in connection with this 
 one great branch of its industry, the shame of the 
 physical and moral degradation by which it has been 
 attended, as well as the serious loss and deep humilia- 
 tion resulting from the ignorance and vice of the 
 people. The " cry of the children " was not unheard 
 by Owen, nor unattended to ; and what is more, as 
 an earnest labourer on their behalf, that which he did 
 was well planned, and so wisely carried out, that the 
 results were an astonishment to all who examined 
 them. 
 
 The story as to how the New Lanark experiment 
 was brought to an end is rather disheartening, as it 
 shows how good men with excellent intentions may 
 defeat the best efforts, through defects of character 
 which, though regarded as virtues, yet produce results 
 much the same as vices. Just at the time when 
 Owen had won the approval of large numbers of the 
 most influential people, and when outside inquiry and 
 effort were making known and aiding in the promul- 
 
William Allen. 1 1 1 
 
 gation of his ideas, the narrow fanaticism lie so much 
 condemned began to operate actively against him, 
 and from such a quarter that it was out of his 
 power to guard himself against it, unless by going 
 through another process of breaking up and recon- 
 structing, which, after what he had already passed 
 through, would have been too much to expect. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ) Milliam Ellen. 
 
 ^MONG the last set of Owe n's partners the most 
 active was William Allen. He was a member of the 
 Society of Friends, and a very conscientious and 
 well-intentioned man, but to all appearances full of 
 the vanity of piety, being narrow^in his views 
 and vScaHongTy aggressive in small matters. This is 
 certainly the impression left by a perusal of his " Life 
 and Selections from His Correspondence." He visited 
 St Petersburg in 1819, and was invited to dinner, in 
 company with two or three of his friends, by the 
 Minister of the Interior, Waradaveloff, and he solemnly 
 writes, — "We were treated with the most marked 
 respect, and I had to hand the Princess Troobelskoy 
 into the dining-room. Such conspicuous positions are 
 very trying to me, but I endeavour to put the very 
 best face upon the matter, and must acknowledge that 
 hitherto I have been favoured to acquit myself upon all 
 trying occasions in a manner which has offered peace 
 in the retrospect." Prospectively or retrospectively. 
 
112 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 taking a lady to the dinner-table does not seem to be 
 a matter a sensible man would trouble himself to write 
 about or think of after the lady had taken her seat. 
 During the same visit to St Petersburg he writes, — 
 " After tea, dear Stephen and I sat down together, 
 and had a precious season of religious retirement. 
 My petitions were mentally put up to the Lord that 
 He would be pleased to look down upon His two 
 poor solitary servants, wandering over the face of His 
 earth ; and my mind was so filled with divine good 
 that I was ready to say, ' It is enough.' We were 
 sweetly refreshed together." This kind of self-con- 
 sciousness cannot be made subject of reproof or of 
 ridicule, but it is pretty clear that the man who is 
 troubled with it can scarcely be regarded as an agree- 
 able or profitable fellow-worker where there is not 
 conformity of opinion, and between William Allen 
 and Robert Owen this did not exist. 
 / From the first he regarded Owen with suspicion ; 
 while there can be no doubt Owen was on the look- 
 out for trouble from a partner whose judgment it was 
 impossible he could respect, and whose opportunities 
 to interfere with his educational efforts he knew 
 would be frequent. Owen's mind was vigorous and 
 courageous. He was decidedly in favour of allowing 
 truth and falsehood to fight their battle out fairly, 
 and therefore encouraged general reading, music, 
 singing, and dancing ; and would have laughed at an 
 admonition to be found in the first volume of William 
 Allen's '' Life and Correspondence," and given to a 
 young Frenchman under his care, " Be careful not to 
 read books of an immoral tendency,as novels, romances, 
 &c., and endeavour to discourage it in others ; they 
 
WiUiam A Hen. 1 1 3' 
 
 are poison to the mind." A man of this kind be- 
 ginning to labour with Owen was no doubt entitled 
 to exercise circumspection, but Mr Allen went much 
 further than this. In his " Life," &c., we find these 
 entries : — " Ninth month. Attending the committee 
 of the Borough Road. Also a conference with some 
 of the partners of Owen. Robert Owen is in town, 
 and I am much distressed about him. He has 
 blazoned abroad his infidel principles in all the public 
 newspapers, and he wishes to identify me with his 
 plans, which I have resisted in the most positive 
 manner. I am resolved not to remain in the concern 
 of New Lanark, unless it be most narrowly and 
 constantly watched by some one on whom we can 
 thoroughly rely." Again, same month : — " I had a 
 conference with Lord Sidmouth, and stated to him 
 how much we held in abhorrence the principles of 
 Robert Owen." -f^ 
 
 The best reply to so unfounded an accusation is 
 that one year and eleven months after this " blazoning " 
 of infidel opinions in all the public newspapers, the 
 committee appointed to report on Mr Owen's plan, 
 under the presidency of the Duke of Kent, and includ- 
 ing the names of the Duke of Sussex, Sir Robert Peel, 
 M.P., David Ricardo, M.P., Matthew Wood, M.P., Sir 
 W. C. De Crispigny, M.P., W. A. Mackinnon, M.P., 
 John Smith, M. P., besides twenty-nine other names of 
 the highest respectability, treat this particular charge 
 in the following way : — " The committee are aware 
 of many objections which have been urged against 
 Mr Owen's system, but none of those stated have 
 appeared to them as founded in reason or in fact. The 
 private opinions which Mr Owen has been supposed 
 
 H 
 
114 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 to entertain on matters of religion form one of such 
 objections. This is a point on which it has not been 
 thought fit to require Mr Owen to make any pubhc 
 declaration, it is deemed sufficient to have ascertained 
 that Mr Owen is not known to have in any one 
 instance endeavoured to alter the religious opinions 
 of persons in his employment ; that the desires of his 
 workmen to attend their respective places of worship 
 are complied with, and aided to the utmost extent ; 
 that a minister has long been paid by the proprietors 
 of the rnanufactory under Mr Owen's management 
 for performing divine service in the Gaelic tongue to 
 the Highland workmen ; that Mr Owen's own house 
 is a house of daily prayer ; that he is the father of a 
 large, well-regulated, moral family ; that his conduct 
 appears to be free from reproach ; and that his char- 
 acter is distinguished by active benevolence, perfect 
 sincerity, and undisturbed tranquillity of temper." 
 / Sufficient as this may be considered for sensible 
 and fair-minded men of the world, it was not enough 
 for the person who could write of novels and romances, 
 &c., — including, most likely, the works of Shakespeare, 
 — as of "immoral tendency," and as being "poison 
 to the mind." On the 20th of April 1818, William 
 Allen writes as follows : — " This has been a trying 
 week, as I have had deep exercise of mind on account 
 of Robert Owen's infidel principles. I have sustained 
 many disputes with him." On May the 6th, the same 
 year, he writes that he asked Mrs Owen whether the 
 workpeople at New Lanark would meet the London 
 proprietors, three of whom were then at Lanark. 
 Mrs Owen at once said they would be quite ready ; 
 and when Owen met William Allen at dinner he 
 
William Allen. 1 1 5 
 
 asked him if they were disposed to have a meeting. 
 " I told him that I did feel inclined to meet the 
 people, but it was only fair to state that if I did, I 
 could not answer for what I might say to them. I 
 added that I should certainly prepare nothing before- 
 hand, though since he had addressed them on his 
 principles, I might feel it right to state what were 
 ours. He immediately said, ' Will to-morrow evening 
 do?' I assented ; and in the kindest manner he said 
 that notice should be given to all the village." This 
 meeting went off very well, but a curious incident in 
 connection with it was the presentation of a written 
 
 /Address by the people of the village to the three 
 London partners, containing the following words : — 
 
 r'' We, the inhabitants of New Lanark, beg to address 
 ourselves to you as part proprietors of the establish- 
 ment, on your appearance amongst us. We are fully 
 aware, gentlemen, that although your other pursuits 
 may prevent your continued residence in the village, 
 yet, whatever tends to add to our comfort or render 
 our circumstances easier will meet with your appro- 
 bation, and, in this view, we regard it as not un- 
 necessary to thank you, thus publicly, for the many 
 advantages we enjoy through your co-operation with 
 Mr Owen, and the other partners in the concern. 
 The care that is taken in gratuitously educating our 
 children, and the humane treatment we experience 
 under the persons to whom is committed the manage- 
 ment of the various departments, are advantages that 
 call forth our earnest expressions of gratitude. We 
 are sensible that our circumstances are much superior 
 to those of all other cotton-spinners, and it is our 
 desire by a steady attention to our various duties 
 
Il6 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Ozven. 
 
 to merit a continuance of the kindness we now 
 experience. We hope the interest you have taken 
 (in conjunction with the other proprietors) in the Bill 
 now pending in ParHament, having for its object to 
 place others of the labouring class in some degree on 
 a footing with ourselves, will be rewarded by your 
 seeing it pass into law. We conclude by expressing 
 our desire that all cotton-spinners may enjoy the same 
 advantages as we do ; then would the masters feel 
 the superior gratification arising from possessing the 
 affections of a well-treated and happy people, and 
 their servants that pleasure which a continued kind 
 attention on the part of the master is calculated to 
 afford. With much respect, gentlemen, we sign our- 
 selves in the name and by the request of the inhabit- 
 Jts of New Lanark." (Here follow eight signatures.) 
 There is only one paragraph omitted from this 
 remarkable address, but this is for no reason beyond 
 mere condensation. In the first volume, page 348, 
 of Allen's " Life," the substance of a long reply by Mr 
 Allen to this address is given. It speaks of the pleasure 
 felt by himself and the other partners in second- 
 ing and supporting their "benevolent friend, Robert" 
 Owen, in those judicious and enlightened plans " 
 devised by him for the temporal comfort of the people, 
 "and prosecuted with so much success." "Woeful 
 experience in other places has shown, that to en- 
 deavour to extract the greatest quantity of profit 
 from such a concern at the expense of the health 
 and comfort of those employed in it, is a policy at 
 once short-sighted and cruel, and calculated eventually 
 to lead to results baneful to society at large and 
 highly dangerous to the State." There is followihg 
 
William Allen. wj 
 
 this some three pages of the ordinary religious ex- 
 hortation, very good, but not very applicable to the 
 community to which they were addressed. The 
 language addressed by the New Lanark workers to 
 their employers, and by Mr Allen to them, furnishes 
 ample proof that the relations existing between the 
 employers and the employed were as good as could 
 be, that this was owing to the kindness and intelligent 
 management of Robert Owen, and that in his teaching 
 nothing had been done to awaken even the slightest 
 suspicion on the part of the parents that the minds of 
 the children were being unfairly tampered with. 
 yOn the day these proceedings took place, we find 
 the following from the hand of the pious Quaker 
 partner: — "Joseph Foster and I took a walk to Old 
 Lanark to see the minister there, and inquire into the 
 moral state of the people of the mills. He said he 
 was not aware of any case of drunkenness for a year 
 or two past, and he did not think that Owen's princi- 
 ples took any root among the population. We then 
 went to another of their ministers ; he gave us a very 
 good account of the morals of the people at the mills, 
 and I find that he visits them often. He seemed 
 heartily glad to hear our sentiments on the subject of 
 the Scriptures, &c.,and we urged him to visit the schools 
 and see that they were taught there, and also to corre- 
 spond with us if he saw any attempt made to intro- 
 duce anything contrary to revealed religion." Clearly, 
 the man who could set up a secret supervision of this 
 kind could scarcely be regarded as a desirable fellow- 
 worker, notwithstanding the piety of his character or 
 the purity of his intentions. >X' 
 ^No opportunity of interference was neglected from 
 
Ii8 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 the moment William Allen first began meddling with 
 the school arrangements at New Lanark, until Robert 
 Owen hopelessly abandoned the attempt to persevere, 
 thwarted as he was by the sickly and persevering piety 
 ^f his Quaker partner. l^In the January of 1824 Allen 
 Succeeded in forcing oh' the schools a master from 
 (London, no doubt properly instructed as to the 
 
 Jchanges to be made. He says in regard to this : — " My 
 
 / mind was much relieved ; I believe that through the 
 whole of this trying and exercising business divine 
 
 I support has been near. Though the family are very 
 kind, yet the one thing is wanting." In parting from 
 
 I the two young Owens, he tells his readers that he 
 •' reminded them that the time would come to each of 
 them when they would find that religion was no fiction 
 but a solemn reality." Even with this sort of unctuous 
 vanity, when he believed it to be well meant, Robert 
 Owen was not the man to quarrel. " I now feel peace- 
 ful," Mr Allen exclaimed ; but it may be taken for 
 granted that Owen, who had given so many years of 
 his life to the organisation of the Lanark schools, and 
 to the promotion of the welfare of the inhabitants, 
 felt anything rather than peaceful and happy in the 
 thought of a life's work being rendered of little or no 
 avail by a fanatical imbecility, to have striven against 
 which would have only wasted his time and his 
 energies. William Allen, however, was not satisfied 
 with an absolute non-interference with the liberty of 
 religious teaching, and the charity attending it, 
 though the people were well-behaved and kindly in 
 their lives, and Owen, by his plans and labours, had 
 succeeded in making those under his charge excep- 
 tionally virtuous and happy. ' 
 
William Allen. 1 19 
 
 The general statements in William Allen's " Life 
 and Correspondence" give no idea of the true cha- 
 racter of his opposition to Owen. When he speaks 
 of " proper " education, he means simply what he, 
 in his extreme sanctimoniousness, deemed to be 
 " proper ; " and what this might be with a person 
 who regarded novels and romances as immoral and 
 poisonous books, it is not difficult to imagine. The 
 points on which he took his .stand, when he had finally 
 made up his mind to iinish the educational work that 
 had answered so admirably in Owen's hands, were 
 dancing, singing, drilling, and the use of the Highland 
 costume. These, in his eyes, were all exceedingly 
 improper ; they poisoned the mind with lightness and 
 vanity, with a taste for military display, and, it might 
 be, the glory of the battlefield ; \\hilst the naked legs 
 of the children so shocked his sense of propriety, and 
 foreshadowed so much of immorality in after-life, 
 that his stand against the New Lanark schools was 
 final and successful. The schools went on for several 
 years after, and, as long as Owen remained, without 
 their efficiency being lessened, but there was no hearty 
 co-operation from the London partners. William 
 Allen writes to Owen after the visit in 1822, when he 
 had made his mind up to have his own way : — " I 
 yesterday received thy reply to my letter announcing 
 our safe return to London. That reply awakened 
 afresh all the sympathy which I have ever felt for the 
 benevolent part of thy character. Sorry indeed am I 
 to see that our principles are diametrically opposite ; 
 and may that Great and Holy Being, who seeth not 
 as man sees, so influence thy heart, before the shadows 
 of the evening close upon thee, that it may become 
 
I20 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 softened and receive those impressions which He 
 alone can give ; then thou wilt perceive that there 
 is indeed something infinitely beyond human reason, 
 and which human reason alone can never compre- 
 hend, though in itself perfectly reasonable. At present, 
 /iwever, it is quite plain to me that we must part!' 
 The assumption of personal superiority in such 
 passages as this, coupled with a rejection of reason 
 as regulating human duty, could not but make a most 
 painful impression on the mind of Owen ; and when 
 he saw that the other London partners countenanced 
 Allen's proceedings, the necessity of parting must 
 have been as obvious to his mind as to that of the 
 London Quaker.'^ The two previous dissolutions of 
 partnership in connection with the treatment of the 
 people at New Lanark, leave no doubt of Robert 
 Owen's thorough earnestness, and his determination 
 to make the happiness of the workers' lives an im- 
 portant part of his duty. This to him was a supreme 
 obligation, and he frequently states his reasons for so 
 considering it. With him to think a truth was to act 
 it, leaving the mere talk to others. His Lanark ex- 
 periment was an attempt to carry into practice what 
 he felt to be a pressing necessity, not only in the 
 interest of Great Britain, but in the interest of the 
 masses of the people in every part of the world. He 
 had in early life adopted the idea, that a greatly 
 improved state of existence in connection with the 
 manufactures of the country was realisable; and when 
 the opportunity offered he realised it, not without labour 
 and sacrifice. The merest conception of the misery 
 produced by our factory system in other parts of the 
 country, compared Vvith the state of things created by 
 
Driven Out. 121 
 
 him in New Lanark, is the best proof that he was a 
 practical as well as benevolent man, who knew how to 
 carry out, on the spot where he stood, the work which 
 he believed to be practical, and necessary for the well- 
 being of his fellow-creatures. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Driven ®ut. 
 
 * Owen was not a dreamer, nor was he given to crude 
 experimenting, as is constantly alleged. The manner 
 in which he struggled for education for the young, 
 and the principles he asserted as the necessary basis 
 of all instruction, when taken in connection with the 
 class he had to deal with, show him to have been 
 in this field of human duty a man of exceptional 
 intelligence, benevolence, and perseverance, ready to 
 give reasons for what he did, and realising, if not his 
 highest ideal, large and satisfactory results in proof of 
 the soundness of his theories. 
 xHe insisted on the general truth, that the infant 
 
 ) from its birth might be trained to good, or so mis- 
 managed or neglected as to give the worst intellectual 
 and moral results. In proof of this last assertion, he 
 adduced facts which were apparent to all save those 
 who were blind to them through self-interest. He 
 had rigorously shut out from his mind the then 
 common belief, that boys and girls belonging to the 
 working classes should be educated solely with a 
 view to fitting them for the ordinary tasks they were 
 
122 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 to perform in after-life; that they should be made 
 imperfect tools, available for the convenience or profit 
 of others, without any knowledge as to the higher 
 aspects or nobler duties of human life ; to do with 
 docility the work of the shoemaker, the tailor, the 
 spinner, or the weaver, without a single aspiration 
 in connection with a manhood or womanhood, that 
 was but too frequently either partially or wholly 
 obliterated by this unjust and shortsighted pro- 
 cess. 
 
 His aim was to show in the carrying out of the 
 system he adopted at New Lanark, that education 
 added to the value of the workman ; whereas a child 
 brought up in ignorance, it may be by bad example 
 habituated to crime, was a burden to itself, and a 
 serious obstruction to the happiness of the general 
 community; and, beyond this, the cause of an 
 enormous outlay for criminal correction and punish- 
 ment, to say nothing of a huge pauper system that 
 called, without ever ceasing, for the expenditure of 
 annual millions of money. On the face of it, the 
 losses by educational neglect were heavier than the 
 cost of a sound system of education could be, 
 especially if the more indirect and less immediate 
 losses of neglect and bad example were taken into 
 account. Throughout his published writings and his 
 spoken addresses these ideas were continually put 
 forth and insisted on, with a view to the promotion of 
 educational effort in the country, that every human 
 creature brought into existence might be so treated 
 from infancy as to become in after-life an addition 
 to the happiness instead of to the misery of the 
 world. 
 
Driven Out. 123 
 
 Owen regarded as a duty not only to utilise the 
 best means of education, but also to remove injurious 
 example, and to prevent evil association. He ex- 
 claimed against the useless, and as he regarded it 
 the vindictive, punishment of the rod, the prison, the 
 transport colony, the gallows. Though he had his 
 own special ideas in regard to education, and to the 
 manner in which it should be carried out, he hailed 
 it apart from these as the great safeguard to 
 national progress. No labour was too heavy for 
 him to incur, no expense too great, ho patience 
 too prolonged ; and though the thoughtless and 
 censorious spoke of him as a fanatic, a monomaniac, 
 a man of one idea, and a disturber of society, 
 such terms were, when applied to him, in the 
 highest degree undeserved, seeing that in all he 
 said and did he contemplated nothing beyond a 
 peaceful and equitable adjustment of every human 
 interest. 
 
 One set of unfriendly critics cry out that a man 
 who sets his heart on one great general purpose, how- 
 ever varied and numerous the objects it may include, 
 is narrow and blind ; whilst another set is, at the same 
 moment, charging him with presumption, because, as 
 they say, he imagines himself capable of knowing 
 how to cure the full sum total of the world's ills. 
 Owen could not justly be placed in either class ; 
 though Bastiat classes him with those who say, "From 
 the days of Adam to our time the human race have 
 been upon a wrong course, and, if only a little con- 
 fidence is placed in me, I shall soon bring them back 
 to the right way." 
 
 In any project that may be mooted in regard to 
 
124 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert 0^ven. 
 
 education, or any branch of social and industrial 
 reform, Owen, or any other projector, may be mis- 
 taken in what he recommends ; but when Bastiat 
 sets up millions of men against individuals as 
 proof by numbers that a new proposition must be 
 wrong, or assumes the absurdity of a too compre- 
 hensive purpose, he forgets that in the beginning 
 nearly every plan of reform appears altogether 
 inadequate to the object in view, but that every 
 day is a day of change during which the new is 
 substituted for the old. Alteration at some point is 
 always going on, and is, when wisely made, the great 
 moving power of the world, moderating the hostilities 
 and antagonisms of men, and reconciling their interests 
 in a spirit of equity and peace. 
 
 When Owen decided to leave New Lanark, he felt 
 the necessity of obtaining, if possible, so much con- 
 viction in the public mind as to the necessity for 
 popular education as would neutralise the mischievous 
 bigotry by which his own efforts were foiled. At that 
 time what we now call public opinion was not a 
 recognised force in influencing the action of the State. 
 There was a public opinion belonging to certain great 
 families, and to the wealthy and influential classes, to 
 which our rival political parties attended. But that 
 general intelligence among the masses of the popula- 
 tion, — that unity of thought and general acceptance of 
 common ideas diffused by popular newspapers, and 
 hardened into conviction by the discussions of the 
 factory and woi-kshop, was then almost non-existent. 
 Men with special ideas, like those entertained by 
 Owen, felt how little could be done once it was 
 clearly understood that the general improvement of 
 
Driven Out. 125 
 
 the working classes was intended, especially when 
 this improvement included the abolition of prejudices 
 clung to by those who are called the respectable 
 classes, as necessary to the maintenance of religious 
 belief, and to that respect for property which was 
 regarded as even more important. 
 
 The great wars arising out of the French Revolution 
 had not long been closed. The suppression of thought 
 and prevention of combined action on the part of the 
 masses were so vigorously carried out during that 
 time, that it left the people without habits of thought- 
 fulness on public matters, and, as a consequence, 
 without the discipline or the power of acting together, 
 except secretly and as conspirators. After the war, 
 distress was deeply felt, through the cessation of an 
 extensive war demand, and the sudden influx of a 
 discharged soldiery into the fields of industrial 
 occupation. 
 
 At this period, also, a new difficulty made itself 
 felt. An enlarged application of machinery for pro- 
 ductive purposes had been going on for some time, 
 and for several years after the close of the war was 
 displacing hand labour, thus causing distress, before 
 it had opened up for the increased production 
 outlets that ultimately called into activity the super- 
 abundant labour of the country. Machine breaking 
 became common in several of the manufacturing dis- 
 tricts, and a widespread fear of the working classes 
 was extensively and deeply felt. The Government 
 contributed its share to the public dread of thought, 
 speech, and action on the part of the people, by 
 suppressing associations, of whatever character, by 
 the operation of the combination laws. There was 
 
126 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 a fear of popular tumults on one side, suffering 
 and dissatisfaction on the other, and little or no 
 opportunity of saying a word or suggesting a plan 
 of action, with a view to any thoughtful proposal or 
 method of reform that might calm men's passions, 
 restore their confidence in each other, and reconcile 
 their interests on grounds of mutual advantage. 
 
 The position of Robert Owen was, in this state of 
 things, a very difficult one. There was no common 
 thought upon which the different classes of the com- 
 munity could be brought together, no generally enter- 
 tained hope that could bind them one to another for 
 common action, and hence Owen had to set to work 
 in the best way open to him. He saw and explained 
 to his brother manufacturers, and to the propertied 
 classes, the dangers by which they were surrounded ; 
 pointed the way out of these, and worked hard that 
 the practicability of his plans might be understood. 
 He thus drew round him a large number of influential 
 people, that, by an influence extending downwards, 
 public opinion might be widened, until the masses of 
 the working people were drawn into a great national 
 movement. Unfortunately, the greater number of 
 those above the workers, with the great middle class 
 as a centre, suspected and hated popular movements; 
 and the crude state of public opinion at this time, 
 combined with the suffering among the workers, 
 would most likely have rendered dangerous any 
 great popular movement. 
 
 Owen felt this so strongly, that, from the first, 
 wherever his voice was heard, one of his most 
 frequent and impressive lessons was, that whatever 
 wrong or suffering existed amongst the people was 
 
Driven Out. 127 
 
 due to a defective system of society for which no 
 individual was to blame, and not to the personal action 
 of particular men ; that, therefore, wise thought and 
 judicious action, not anger, were absolutely necessary 
 before the evils of society could be remedied ; that 
 the violent appropriation of what belonged to others 
 would only be the substitution of one wrong for 
 another, and that this meant a ceaseless anarchy, that 
 carried in it no germ of promise, no solid foundation 
 of hope. 
 
 Nothing was more easy than to misrepresent his 
 teaching, by distorting the reforms at which he aimed, 
 and falsifying the means proposed by him. His 
 opponents represented him as a revolutionist ; but of 
 all those who laboured to accomplish needful changes, 
 there were none who regarded with more horror 
 anger and violence as the means of attaining even the 
 best objects; for the reason, that he was convinced that 
 movements begun in such a spirit were animated 
 neither by the thought nor temper to propose the 
 best remedies, or to pursue the best methods, for the 
 accomplishment of good ends. 
 
 It was in this spirit he worked at New Lanark, so 
 jlong as he was permitted to do so ; and when he was 
 ^interfered with and forced to retire, he determined 
 to appeal to public opinion, that he might, by the 
 support derived from it, demonstrate how much 
 could be done for the improvement of the masses of 
 the people. Nine years before he quitted New 
 Lanark the Duke of Kent referred to the position 
 of Owen, at a meeting held to investigate and report 
 on his proposals. On 26th June 1819, His Royal 
 Highness said : — " Conjectural reports respecting Mr 
 
128 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 Owen's religious opinions have been much abroad ; 
 but it appears from the testimony of the same parties, 
 and indeed of all who have visited New Lanark, that 
 it has been Mr Owen's uniform practice through life 
 to give every facility to the free performance of 
 religious duties ; but he has always inculcated the 
 superior advantages which arise from introducing into 
 the everyday practice of each individual of every per- 
 suasion the genuine spirit of charity, and this recom- 
 mendation is now actively operative in the conduct of 
 the members of each sect to the others. In conse- 
 quence of this wise proceeding, religious animosity 
 does not exist, while every benevolent feeling more 
 abounds, and a cordial harmony, not known in any 
 other situation in which there is a variety of religious 
 persuasions, is seen to prevail in this little colony. 
 If I understand Mr Owen's principles, they lead them 
 not to interfere to the injury of any sect ; but he 
 claims for himself that which he is so desirous to 
 obtain for his fellow-creatures, — religious liberty and 
 freedom of conscience ; and this he contends for, 
 because his experience compels him to conclude that 
 these principles are now necessary to secure the well- 
 being and good order of society. There may be those 
 who differ from him on this single point, but this will 
 form no reason why we should not derive advantage 
 from a life spent in unremitting exertions to prove 
 experimentally what measures can really benefit the 
 poor, who, we all acknowledge, stand in need of some 
 substantial relief" 
 
 Extracts on this point have been perhaps unduly 
 multiplied. Owen saw how religious opinions, all over 
 the world, in a multitude of well-defined forms, kept 
 
Factory Labour. — Reform. 1 29 
 
 men apart who might otherwise have joined in good 
 work. Behef, in its narrowest conceptions and most 
 exclusive spirit, had divided men, and he, by pointing 
 out how, much unreasoning bigotry was due to early 
 inculcation, strove to get this important truth so far 
 acknowledged as to make charity the animating spirit 
 in all faith. Very possibly his zeal was animated 
 by what he had himself to endure, from the annoying 
 antagonism of a man belonging to one of the 
 smallest sects to be found in connection with any 
 of the great faiths of the world, — a sect too, that, 
 whilst conspicuous for its honesty and good works, 
 had been sorely persecuted by the sincere bigots of 
 the more orthodox creeds. The trial Owen had to go 
 through in abandoning an experiment on the success 
 of which he had set his heart, must have been very 
 severe ; and he left New Lanark amid the deep 
 regret of those on whose behalf he had so long and so 
 generously laboured. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 jfactorg OLabour.-IReform. 
 
 When Robert Owen left New Lanark he was fifty- 
 seven years old. In such a work he had needed 
 sympathy and help, and found little else than opposi- 
 tion. Some of his partners had objects of their own 
 to pursue, and gave little time to an understanding of 
 the true facts of his situation ; and no doubt Mr 
 Allen, living near them, contrived to instil into their 
 minds a portion of his own distrust. Jeremy Bentham 
 
130 Life, Times, and Labo7irs of Robert Owen. 
 
 could not be influenced by any unworthy prejudice, 
 but he was always busy in the work to which he had 
 devoted his long life, and could afford little time 
 to disputes which, however important in regard to 
 the condition of the New Lanark people and their 
 children, were, apart from the studious working out 
 of his own ideas, away from the strivings and con- 
 tentions of the world. 
 
 It is true that Owen made the New Lanark concern 
 pay well. According to the report of Bentham's 
 friends, it was the only one of his speculative ventures 
 that did pay. There was alarm on another head, 
 however, and it is just possible that men living so far 
 away from the spot where the practical operations of 
 the co-partnery were carried on, might have regarded 
 Owen's proceedings as involving risks they were not 
 disposed to run. It must be remembered too that 
 at the time of the dissolution the Limited Liability 
 Act had no existence. To teach the young was not 
 his only determination. He had so strongly resolved 
 that the system of factory labour, which was destroy- 
 ing the health, the happiness, and the moral worth of 
 the people connected with it, and thus prospectively 
 working the nation's ruin, should be altered. In a 
 great manufacturing system, including the operations 
 of many hundred employers, it is very difficult for 
 one, or for a small number, to set an example of 
 improvement. Equal conditions of economy in work- 
 ing are almost necessary amongst manufacturing rivals 
 competing in the same markets. The few in such 
 cases cannot safely take on themselves charges which 
 the many refuse to incur. Owen had, therefore, to 
 feel his way — to count the cost of such changes as he 
 
Factory Laboiir. — Reform. 131 
 
 might make, and only to act where what he proposed 
 to do did not threaten danger to his success as a 
 manufacturer. He was associated with partners from 
 iirst to last, and therefore he had to succeed in re- 
 alising a satisfactory profit, and only when this was 
 Successfully accomplished could he use a portion of 
 the overplus in improving the condition of those by 
 whose labour it had been created. 
 
 His two first dissolutions of partnership were not 
 connected with business losses. On the contrary, the 
 business profits were large, — so large, in fact, that their 
 amount was what induced his partners to exclude the 
 workers from any share in their apportionment. Owen's 
 success as a business man was one of his principal 
 drawbacks, as realising large profits for dividend on 
 share capital created a disinclination in the partners 
 to decrease these dividends, by incurring expenses on 
 behalf of the workers which were not included in the , 
 charges of ordinary factory management. As has been 
 stated, the separation from the last set of partners had 
 quite a different cause. But whatever the disposition 
 of his partners, or whatever the motives through which 
 they acted, his mind was made up to one course, to 
 insist on the education of all the young under his 
 control, and to work the establishment on such condi- 
 tions as included the welfare of everybody connected 
 with it. 
 
 The first of his public acts of which we have any 
 record had reference to this latter point. His paper 
 read before a committee of management of the 
 Board of the Cotton Trade, at Glasgow in 1 803, is a 
 remarkable document, both in regard to its general 
 statements and the arguments it contains in connec- 
 
132 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 tion with the national importance of the cotton trade 
 to Great Britain, and the danger of treating such a 
 trade in the way in which British statesmen at that 
 early date were treating it. " For a number of years," 
 says M'Culloch, "previously to 1831, the only duty 
 on foreign cotton amounted to 6 per cent, ad valorem; 
 but in order to make up, in part at least, for the loss 
 of revenue caused by the repeal of the duty on printed 
 cottons, it was raised in that year to 5s. lod. per cwt. 
 Such a duty would have materially affected the 
 imports of the inferior species of cotton and the price 
 of coarse goods, and being, of course, justly objected 
 to, it was reduced in 1833 to 2S. i id. per cwt." 
 
 In 1803, at the meeting mentioned, Owen presented 
 his memorial, which was ordered to be printed and 
 circulated for the " information of the world at large." 
 It was prepared and published twelve years before the 
 corn laws were enacted, — when the Government, as 
 Mr Dunckley says, " seized on every article which, by 
 any stretch of possibility, an Englishman could want," 
 when " considerably more than a thousand different 
 kinds of foreign produce were prohibited from enrich- 
 ing us unless they purchased that privilege at the 
 custom-house." The class to which Owen's paper was 
 addressed was in favour of duty-free cotton, because 
 its members were personally interested. Robert Owen, 
 however, thinking of the interests of the nation, sought 
 to enforce principles applicable to all trades; while his 
 brother manufacturers, though deprecating the duty 
 on cotton, were against a free export of machinery, 
 and opposed the emigration of men skilled in its 
 manufacture. 
 
 I shall give here the principal part of this document, 
 
Factory Labour. — Reform. 133 
 
 as, independent of everything else, it contains figures 
 and arguments of permanent value. 
 
 " In the year 1765, cotton as an article of commerce 
 was scarcely known in this countrj^ A few years 
 afterwards Mr Arkwright obtained his patent for 
 working cotton by machinery. In 1782 the whole 
 produce of the cotton manufacturer did not exceed 
 i^2,ooo,ooo sterling. In 1801 the import of cotton 
 wool into Great Britain was ;£'42,ooo,ooo, and the esti- 
 mated value of the cotton manufactures iTi 5,000,000 
 sterling ; such was the rapid increase of this trade to 
 the end of the year 1801. From authentic documents 
 it appears that the import of this article in 1802 has 
 not been less than ;£'54,ooo,ooo, and the increase in 
 the value of the manufacture has been corresponding. 
 The following particulars of the trade, it is presumed, 
 will be found accurate. The raw material, when 
 delivered on board the merchant ships, now costs 
 about ;^4,ooo,ooo sterling. Upwards of 30,000 tons 
 of shipping, and 2,000 seamen, are employed in 
 bringing the cotton wool to this country, and in 
 exporting the goods manufactured from it. 
 
 " To work the wool into thread requires a capital in 
 buildings and machinery to the amount of ^^9,225,000; 
 and those buildings and machinery are chiefly com- 
 posed of bricks, slates, glass, timber, lead, iron, copper, 
 tin, and leather, — from most of which, in one shape or 
 other, a considerable duty is collected for the support 
 of the State. 
 
 "This trade gives employment or support to up- 
 wards of 800,000 individuals, and the annual return of 
 the manufacture is nearly as follows : — 
 
134 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 Cost of cotton in the countries where it grows, 
 insurance, freight, other shipping charges, and 
 merchants' freight ^4,725,000 
 
 The interest at 5 per cent, upon the capital of 
 ^9,225,000 sunk in buildings and machinery, 
 with 10 per cent, for wear and tear of ditto.... 1,383,75° 
 
 Wages of spinning, value of material consumed in 
 the process of spinning the cotton into thread, 
 and spinners' profit 5, 100,000 
 
 Value of materials consumed in subsequent manu- 
 factures, manufacturing wages, interest of 
 capital, and profit 9,000,000 
 
 ^20,208,750 
 
 Of which sum at least ;^ 13,000,000 sterling are paid 
 in wages to the natives of Great Britain. 
 
 " The above calculations, both with respect to the 
 money and the people employed, are considerably 
 underrated, that no room might be left for any species 
 of exaggeration ; and it should be noticed, that a 
 great proportion of the materials employed, such as 
 ashes, soap, candles, leather, oil, dye-stuffs, &c., pay 
 very considerable sums as duties to the Government. 
 
 " But the importance of this manufacture will be 
 more justly appreciated, when we consider that the 
 ^13,000,000 paid for manual labour in this trade are 
 annually expended in purchasing the produce of land, 
 and also in buying other articles of necessity, which, 
 by excise duties or other taxes, contribute in a very 
 great degree to put the finances of Great Britain in 
 a situation infinitely superior to any other nation in 
 Europe. 
 
 " From this cause also, more than from any other, 
 has proceeded the late, otherwise astonishing, increase 
 in the value of landed property, and in the revenues 
 
Factory Labour. — Reform. 135 
 
 of this country ; and should this branch of our manu- 
 facture be injured or lost, it may be confidently 
 predicted, that both land and revenue would suffer by 
 its decline in the same proportion that they had been 
 benefited by its success. 
 
 " It therefore becomes the duty of those imme- 
 diately interested in the cotton business, as well as of 
 every well-wisher to the landed property, revenues, 
 and general prosperity of the empire, to inquire what 
 influence the Act of Parliament passed last session, 
 laying certain duties upon the importation of cottorl 
 wool into Great Britain, may have upon this most im- 
 portant source of our wealth, industry, and prosperity. 
 
 " Independent of the universally acknowledged 
 impolicy of imposing a duty on the importation of 
 raw material, which is afterwards to go through a 
 multiplied and highly valuable manufacture, and 
 without considering the essential injury which this 
 country will sustain by being prevented from becom- 
 ing the emporium in Europe of cotton wool, can it 
 be supposed that, under the circumstances before 
 mentioned, a commercial nation, so well informed of 
 her interest as Great Britain is, should impose a duty 
 on a raw material upon which her prosperity now so 
 greatly depends, and which operates as a bounty to 
 the same amount to the foreign .manufacturer, who is 
 afterwards to meet in competition with the British 
 merchant for the sale of goods manufactured from 
 this material ? 
 
 " On many qualities of this raw material the duty 
 amounts to from 10 to 20 per cent, on the first cost of 
 cotton. 
 
136 Life, Times, ana Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 " To prove that this duty is not of small considera- 
 tion to the trade, it is only necessary to mention that 
 some houses, in an r.arly stage of the manufacture, 
 pay each, in part of il, upwards of ;£'6,000 per annum. 
 Is this to be considered but a trifling inducement to a 
 foreign manufacturer to establish works of an equal 
 extent in situations where the raw material can be 
 imported free of duty; and, with such encouragement 
 held out to strangers, will Acts of Parliament pre- 
 vent our artisans from being enticed abroad, and our 
 machinery from being smuggled out of the kingdom ? 
 
 " But there is another circunistance relative to the 
 cotton trade which calls for the most serious consider- 
 ation of the Legislature of this country, which is, that 
 duties may be levied, and restrictions laid, upon it 
 without the evil effects of these being immediately 
 discovered, because whatever encouragement may be 
 given to the foreign manufacturer by restrictions and 
 duties imposed upon the trade in this country, it will 
 require time for him to erect his buildings, construct his 
 machinery, and initiate his workpeople in the operative 
 parts of the manufacture; but when these are completed, 
 and the produceof them brought tomarket.the impolicy 
 of these duties and restrictions will be obvious when too 
 late ; and then neither the repeal of them, nor even 
 bounties given for the importation of cotton wool, will 
 repair the loss which must be sustained, first by the 
 British manufacturer, and afterwards, in a far more 
 extensive and serious degree, by the British nation." 
 
 At the time when this paper was issued, there was 
 no disposition, on the part of the men in power, to 
 take note of the admonitions it contained, and for 
 several years longer the cotton duty was not much 
 
Factory Labour. — Reform. 137 
 
 thought of. Owen could do nothing as an individual 
 in connection with such a question, as when legisla- 
 tion requires to be forced, especially in regard to the 
 abrogation of taxation, such action as individual men 
 can take counts for little. Under these circumstances, 
 he confined himself chiefly to making such improve- 
 ments among the population of New Lanark as 
 would enable him to judge of what might be ventured 
 on, or recommended as ameliorative legislation for the 
 workers. From 1803 to 18 15 the factory system had 
 gone on developing. The legislation of 1802 (Peel's 
 Act) did little or nothing, as already pointed out. 
 The apprentice system had died a natural death, — 
 the pauper children were no longer needed. The 
 population had been taken possession of, body 
 and soul. Among the general mass of the factory 
 population the idea of the family was rapidly dis- 
 appearing. Parents trafficked in the lives of their 
 children, whom they neglected in education, morals, 
 and health. In return, the children neglected the 
 parents when their turn to need help came ; what 
 they earned they required for self-indulgence ; and in 
 this way, wherever the factory system prevailed, the 
 old virtues of English family life disappeared, and in 
 their place came individual selfishness, indiscriminate 
 vice, and the debility caused by premature and ex- 
 cessive work. 
 
138 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiven. 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 jfactors IReform. 
 
 Volumes might be filled with illustrations of the 
 foregoing general statement on the condition of the 
 factory population. There was another danger in 
 addition to this, which forced on the minds of 
 thoughtful men of every class the gravest considera- 
 tions and questionings as to the evil condition of the 
 nation socially and industrially. 
 
 In 181 1 the Ludd riots, as they were called, began 
 to assume serious shape. The Luddites entered on a- 
 crusade against machinery. Their operations, com- 
 menced in Nottingham, were carried on extensively 
 in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lancashire, Cheshire, 
 and Yorkshire ; and though these were the principal 
 centres, the riots extended to every part of the 
 kingdom where machinery was making inroads on 
 the industry of the people, and, as they phrased it, 
 " eating their bread." Bodies of men attacked at 
 night places where machinery was employed, and 
 the outrages committed were often of a serious char- 
 acter. When they were suppressed, the discontent 
 that bred them still remained ; everywhere, throughout 
 the manufacturing districts, the people were ready 
 for riot when any kind of unusual excitement 
 prevailed. 
 
 Up to 181 5 little was done to press on Parliament 
 the repeal of duty on raw cotton. During this time 
 Owen had applied himself to the discovery of methods 
 which would combine a just and considerate treat- 
 
Factory Reform. 139 
 
 ment of the workpeople with the requisite profit on 
 capital, to the introduction, in fact, of a plan which 
 would unite the two interests — labour and capital — 
 which, as embodied in our great and rapidly-growing 
 factory system, were separated and antagonistic. In 
 his management of the New Lanark mills he suc- 
 ceeded so well in his undertaking, that when his 
 partners forced a dissolution under the fear that, by 
 his expenditure on the people, he might injure their 
 interests, it was found that, after paying " 5 per cent, 
 on the capital employed, the net profit was i^i6o,000, 
 and this was on the working of four years only, being 
 ;f40,ooo a year. 
 
 In 18 1 5, after an interval of twelve years, Robert 
 Owen became again publicly active. What at the 
 opening of the century were prophecies as to the evil 
 effects of the factory system as then worked had 
 become facts. Men had no longer to speculate as to 
 what might be the result of such a system in future 
 years, it was now under their eyes in all its hideous- 
 ness. Domestic life had as nearly as possible dis- 
 appeared. Gaskell* says the workpeople had to rise 
 between four and five all the year round ; that, still 
 weary from the previous long day's work, old and young 
 hurried to the mill, with or without food. At eight 
 o'clock, half-an-hour, and in some cases forty minutes, 
 was allowed for breakfast. The engine frequently 
 worked on, so that the meal had to be eaten and the 
 work overlooked at the same time. Breakfast, which 
 was brought to the mill, usually consisted of weak tea, 
 
 * " The Manufacturing Population in England," by P. Gaskell. 
 Baldin & Cradock, 1833. 
 
140 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Ozven. 
 
 nearly cold, with bread, or milk and meal porridge, 
 sometimes a little gin or other stimulant. When the 
 hands lived near the mill they went home to break- 
 fast, but this was not the rule. After this there was 
 nothing but the continued never-ceasing grind of 
 the machinery, without one minute's interruption, till 
 twelve o'clock. The mill then stopped till one, and 
 the hands rushed home to snatch their dinner, which, 
 says Gaskell, consisted of boiled potatoes, very often 
 eaten alone, and sometimes with a portion of animal 
 food, this latter being only found at the tables of the 
 more provident. If the houses, as was commonly the 
 case, were some little distance from the factory, much 
 of the hour was consumed in going and coming. An 
 old woman in the neighbourhood of the home usually 
 cooked, in the worst way, such food as the family 
 devoured in a kind of scramble, and as soon as this 
 was over the family again dispersed each to his or her 
 work, — no rest, no pause ; a hurry from work, a 
 voracious rapidity at the meal, a hurry back to the 
 straps and wheels, and cranks and pulleys, and 
 cotton dust. From one o'clock till eight or nine, the 
 wearying labour of the mill went on without ceasing, 
 with the exception of twenty minutes allowed usually 
 at four o'clock for tea, or " bagging" as it was called; 
 and thus for old and young, from year's end to year's 
 end, the terrible grind went on. The rooms they 
 worked in were crowded ; there was no rest, little 
 attention to cleanliness ; the atmosphere necessarily 
 overheated ; whilst the food taken to the mill was 
 frequently covered with cotton flue, — the result of all 
 being, deformity, ignorance, premature death, and 
 much else, that made the factory system of England 
 
Factory Reform. 141 
 
 for many years the worst curse by which the people 
 of this country were ever afflicted. 
 
 Nor can it be said that the evil was confined to the 
 workers ; the sons of the manufacturers were ignorant, 
 and to a great extent vicious, their habits and amuse- 
 ments differing from those of the workers chiefly in 
 their expensiveness. There were, no doubt, here and 
 there groups of educated and studious people, resemb- 
 ling those of whom Coleridge spoke when he visited 
 Manchester with a view to the establishment of his 
 paper ; but such glimpses as were to be had into the 
 life of a middle class, suddenly become wealthy and 
 luxurious, though they did not impeach the com- 
 parative purity of middle class family life, leave no 
 doubt as to the general character of the men who 
 at that period were the owners and directors of the 
 factories and warehouses. 
 
 The nobler thoughts in connection with human life, 
 its duties and responsibilities, were not likely to take 
 root and flourish in a soil so saturated with greed and 
 selfishness. To make money was the one great object 
 of existence, and no class of men ever succeeded better 
 in carrying out this master-thought than the factory 
 owners of the cotton districts. Except in rare individual 
 instances they did nothing to prevent the degradation 
 of the people whose fate was at that time in their 
 hands. For many years this bad state of things has 
 been altering for the better. Much of the public 
 work of Manchester and its neighbourhood has been 
 of a generous and noble kind, whilst her people, 
 struggling out of the slough into which they were cast, 
 are moving forward ; but the time and the opportunity 
 were lost when the great cotton industry began its 
 
142 Life^ Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 giant growth, and hence recent efforts, whatever they 
 may amount to, are but the bringing up of an arrear 
 of duty, the accumulation of which an earher thought- 
 fulness would have prevented. 
 
 The reforms effected by Owen at Ne\v Lanark were 
 frequently brought under the notice of the public, the 
 works being open to the inspection of all who thought 
 proper to visit them. His address to his brother 
 manufacturers, already quoted, shows how anxious he 
 was that they also should endeavour to make their 
 profits as manufacturers compatible with the welfare 
 of their people. His name was well known as that of 
 the leading spinner of fine cotton, and as such the 
 various mills of the country were open to him. " I 
 visited most of them," he says, " from north to south, 
 to enable me to form a correct judgment of the 
 condition of the children and workpeople employed 
 in them. I thus saw the importance of the machinery 
 employed in these manufactories, and its rapid annual 
 improvements ; I also became vividly alive to the 
 deteriorating condition of the young children and 
 others who were made the slaves of these new 
 mechanical powers." To this statement he adds an 
 opinion, that the condition of the house slave which 
 he afterwards saw in the West Indies and in the 
 United States, was better than what he had wit- 
 nessed amongst the factory workers of Great Britain, 
 especially in food and clothing. 
 
 In the early part of 1815 Owen decided on making 
 a public attempt to call the attention of the manu- 
 facturers to the condition of the cotton trade and the 
 people employed in it. At his request a meeting was 
 called in the Tontine, Glasgow, "to consider the 
 
Factory Reform. 143 
 
 policy of asking the Government to remit the heavy 
 duty on raw cotton, and to consider measures for 
 improving the condition of the children and others 
 employed in connection with the various textile 
 manufactures '■ This meeting was presided over by 
 the Lord Provost, and was attended by the leading 
 manufacturers of the district. The propositions read 
 to the meeting on these two subjects were differently 
 received. The first, asking for a remission of the tax, 
 was enthusiastically accepted ; whilst the second, ask- 
 ing for the relief of those employed, did not even find 
 a seconder. When this occurred, Owen declined to 
 proceed any further in the business of the meeting. 
 Driven back thus, by the disinclination of the factory 
 owners to look beyond their own selfish and im- 
 mediate interest, he determined to go to work in a 
 different way. He sent a copy of the address he had 
 read at the meeting, to the Lord Provost of Glasgow 
 as chairman, to the members of the Government, 
 also a copy to each member of both Houses of 
 Parliament, and in addition procured its publication 
 in the London and provincial newspapers. 
 
 An extract or two may convey some indication of 
 the importance of this address : — " Hitherto, in con- 
 sequence of the conflict of contending nations for 
 their political existence, we have had no competitors 
 in this manufacture that could materially retard its 
 progress. But this conflict is now terminated ; peace 
 pervades the continent of Europe ; and, I trust, ere 
 long we shall receive intelligence of the ratification of 
 peace between the British empire and America. We 
 must, however, now prepare for a new rivalry, a 
 rivalry in arts and manufactures ; and, as the political 
 
144 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Ozven. 
 
 importance of the cotton trade is already duly 
 appreciated in every State in Europe, from seeing 
 and feeling the effects of the wealth and power which 
 it has created in this country, we may rest assured 
 that all means will be used by those States to partici- 
 pate in its advantages, and that each Government will 
 willingly render its subjects every assistance to pro- 
 cure some share of its benefits." He then recounts 
 the many advantages of the cotton trade in connec- 
 tion with the industry and wealth to be gained by it, 
 and takes into consideration the objections that have 
 been urged against it. " These lamentable results, 
 however," he remarks, " can be known only by experi- 
 ence, and now that the experience is acquired, it is 
 too late to retrace our steps. Were we inclined, we 
 cannot now return to our former state, for, without 
 the cotton trade, our increased population cannot be 
 supported, the interest of our national debt paid, 
 nor the expenses of our fleets and armies defrayed. 
 Our existence as an independent power now, I regret 
 to say, depends on the continuance of this trade, 
 because no other can be substituted in its place. 
 True indeed it is, that the main pillar and prop of 
 the political greatness and prosperity of our country 
 is a manufacture which, as it is now carried on, is 
 destructive of the health, morals, and social comforts 
 of the mass of the people engaged in it." 
 
 But he asks, "Cannot these evils be remedied ? " and 
 to this question gives the following reply : — " I know 
 there are those who have not thought on the subject, 
 and others who, if they are well off themselves, care 
 little about the sufferings of those around them. To 
 these, if there are any such present, I do not now 
 
Factory Reform. I4S 
 
 address myself. I wish rather to fix the attention of 
 those who can look beyond the passing hour, who can 
 accurately trace future consequences from existing 
 causes, — those who feel an extended interest in the 
 welfare of their species, who have discovered that ' 
 wealth is not happiness, and that an apparent great- 
 ness, founded on the miseries of the people, is not 
 permanent and substantial power." " It is only," he 
 continues, " since the introduction of the cotton trade 
 that children at an age before they had acquired 
 strength or mental instruction have been forced into 
 cotton mills, those receptacles, in too many instances, 
 for living human skeletons, almost disrobed of 
 intellect, where, as the business is often now con- 
 ducted, they linger out a few years of miserable 
 existence, acquiring every bad habit, which they dis- 
 seminate throughout society. It is only since the 
 introduction of this trade, that children, and even 
 grown people, were required to labour more than 
 twelve hours in the day, not including the time 
 allotted for meals. It is only since the introduction 
 of this trade, that the sole recreation of the labourer 
 is to be found in the pothouse or ginshop. It is only 
 since the introduction of this baneful trade, that 
 poverty, crime, and misery have made rapid and 
 fearful strides throughout the community." 
 
 The following earnest and humane appeal is 
 addressed to his brother manufacturers : — " Shall we, 
 then, go unblushingly and ask the legislators of our 
 country to pass legislative acts to sanction and 
 increase this trade, — to sign the death-warrants of the 
 strength, morals, and happiness of thousands of our 
 fellow-creatures, — andnotattempttoproposecorrectives 
 
 K 
 
146 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 for the evils which it creates ? If such shall be your 
 determination, I, for one, will not join in the applica- 
 tion ; nay, I will, with all the faculties I possess, 
 oppose every attempt to extend a trade that, except 
 in name, is more injurious to those employed in it 
 than is the slavery in the West Indies to the poor 
 negroes. For deeply as I am interested in the cotton 
 manufacture, highly as I value the extended political 
 power of my country, yet knowing as I do, from ' 
 long experience both here and in England, the 
 miseries which this trade as it is now conducted 
 inflicts on those to whom it gives employment, I do 
 not hesitate to say. Perish the cotton trade ! perish 
 even the political superiority of our country ! — if it 
 depends on the cotton trade — rather than they shall 
 be upheld by the sacrifice of everything valuable in 
 life." 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 jfactorg JSill Struggle. 
 
 As soon as Robert Owen had given a wide publicity 
 to the address referred to in the last chapter, he 
 proceeded to London to consult with the Government 
 as to whether any steps could be at once taken to 
 rescue the factory workers from the suffering and 
 degradation of their position. He had stated to th'e 
 Glasgow meeting that there were certain points that 
 ought to be insisted on in the interest of those 
 engaged in the factories. First, " To prevent children 
 from being employed in cotton or other mills of 
 
Factory Bill Struggle. 147 
 
 machinery until they are twelve years old." At that 
 time they were commonly put to work at seven, and 
 not unfrequently at six years of age. Secondly, 
 " That the hours of work in mills of machinery — 
 including one hour and a half for meals and recrea- 
 tion — shall not exceed twelve per day." The hours 
 at that date were, for children as well as for adults, 
 fourteen, and in many cases only one hour was 
 allowed for meals. Third, " That, after a period to 
 be fixed, no child should be received in a mill of 
 machinery until he shall have been taught to read, 
 to write a legible hand, and to understand the first 
 four rules of arithmetic ; and the girls, in addition, 
 to be taught to sew their common articles of clothing." 
 These heads he had put into the form of a Bill, 
 defining the meaning, and method of carrying them 
 out ; but he altered the age at which children were to 
 be admitted to work in the factories to ten years, in 
 the conviction, no doubt, that insisting on twelve 
 would increase the difficulties his proposals would 
 have to encounter. He also altered the hours from 
 twelve to twelve and a half; the extra half hour 
 was, however, to be devoted to instruction, leaving 
 ten and a half hours as the time of working, as 
 originally proposed. The Bill provided also for in- 
 spection on a more efficient plan than had hitherto 
 existed. The inspectors were to have considerable 
 power ; and to make their action more effective it 
 was provided, " That if any person or persons shall 
 oppose or molest any of the said visitors in the 
 execution of the powers entrusted to them by this 
 Act, every such person or persons shall for every 
 such offence forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding 
 
148 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 ten pounds nor less than five pounds." In addition, 
 it was provided that offences against the provisions 
 of the Act should be punished by a like fine, one 
 half of which was to be paid to the informer, thus 
 giving the " hands " an opportunity of defending 
 themselves against breaches of the law. 
 
 This may be considered the fii^st real attempt, in 
 connection with our new manufacturing system, to 
 force the duty of inspection and control upon the 
 Government of the country, for the purpose of pro- 
 tecting the worker against injurious action on the 
 part of the employer. The principle of Government 
 interference was then strongly opposed, and the 
 opposition was carried on by persons who were 
 powerful in the State compared with those for whose 
 protection such legislation was sought. A great 
 revolution was going forward in regard to the in- 
 dustry of the country, and the question was, whether 
 the nation, represented by the State, had a right to 
 check by law the growth of evils which, if left 
 unchecked, might produce the worst calamities ? A 
 crowd left to act without any true sense of collective 
 duty, is not likely to correct what is wrong, or very 
 effectually promote what is right. Nor should much 
 attention be given to persons who undertake to speak 
 authoritatively in regard to public duties which may 
 be performed by men, as individuals, but which they 
 assert cannot be done by them in their collective 
 capacity. Sensible people will not deny to themselves 
 the right to correct evils or promote benefits by joint 
 action which they find difficult to correct or promote 
 by individual action. Neither should great respect 
 be paid to the habit of sustaining individual and 
 
Factory Bill Struggle. 149 
 
 class interests by abstract arguments, — to denouncing 
 as unsound, in a politico-econonnic sense, reforms that, if 
 carried, would result in great advantage to the public. 
 
 It was forgotten by those who opposed the inter- 
 ference of the State, that each case where the action of 
 the State is called for, must be argued on its own merits 
 as being practicable' and useful to the community, 
 and not in accordance with any abstract doctrine of 
 State duty. There may be many things which it 
 would be unwise for the State to touch ; but the people 
 who would seek to abolish organised action for public 
 purposes, and reduce each man to the necessity of 
 attending to his own sewers, or carrying his own 
 letters, are not likely to be listened to with patience ; 
 and looking at the condition of our factory workers 
 now, compared with what it was when Owen under- 
 took his labours on their behalf, there are few sane 
 men in the kingdom who, in deference to the most 
 eloquent pleadings, would consent to undo what since 
 then has been done on behalf of the working people. 
 
 At that early date no movement had been made 
 by the factory people themselves, — they were rapidly 
 sinking to a condition too low for this. Nor were 
 the working people outside the factories much better. 
 The Combination Laws had prevented them from 
 acting together in joint undertakings. They were as 
 feeble as isolation and ignorance could make them, 
 and hence the few men who undertook to iight their 
 battle, had to struggle, without assistance from those 
 they sought to serve, against an opposition formed by 
 those who were united to preserve a power by which 
 they were rapidly growing rich at the cost of the 
 morals, the health, and the happiness of the workers. 
 
150 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 When Owen went to London in 181 5, there was 
 no strong party behind him, there was no deeply-felt 
 sympathy on the part of the people with him, though 
 there were a few friends who stood firmly on his side. 
 In London he was known to considerable numbers of 
 influential people, many of whom had visited the 
 New Lanark establishment, and had become much 
 interested, not only in his educational labours, but 
 also in the great improvements he had made in the 
 mode of carrying on factory labour. On his arrival 
 he had an interview with Mr Nicholas Vansittart 
 (afterwards Lord Bexley), and obtained from him a 
 favourable hearing on the cotton tax. The Govern- 
 ment he also found favourable to the claims of the 
 children for further protection; but as at this time the 
 enormously increased wealth of the manufacturers 
 had made them powerful, not only in the country but 
 in the House of Commons, he felt that at every step 
 the strongest opposition would have to be encountered. 
 
 It was fortunate, however, that, with such a work to 
 be done, his determination could not be abated by any 
 kind of opposition. " I waited personally," he says, 
 " on the leading members of both Houses, and 
 explained to them my object, which was to give some 
 relief to a most deserving yet much oppressed part 
 of our population. I was, in general, well received, 
 and had much promise of support, especially from the 
 leaders of the various sections into which parties were 
 then divided." When in this way the leading men of 
 all parties were prepared to consider the question, it 
 was felt desirable that the Bill which he had taken to 
 London with him should be introduced. 
 
 A final meeting of the gentlemen who were co- 
 
Reform Bill Struggle. 1 5 1 
 
 operating with him was called by himself and Lord 
 Lascelles, afterwards Earl of Harewood. After some 
 discussion, it was decided to ask Sir Robert Peel to 
 take charge of the Bill in the House of Commons. 
 He was an extensive manufacturer, had been active 
 in procuring protection for the factory apprentices, 
 stood well with the House and also with the Govern- 
 ment, and, though up to that time he had taken no 
 active steps in the new movement, he was believed to 
 be friendly to the objects the promoters of the Bill 
 had in view. Owen waited on Sir Robert, to ascertain 
 his views on the subject, and procured his promise to 
 introduce and support the measure in the House. 
 He agreed to attend the next meeting of those 
 favourable to the Bill, that the best mode of proceed- 
 ing might be decided upon ; but Owen, who was not 
 disposed to suspect on slight grounds, was persuaded 
 that when he undertook this task his heart was not in 
 it, in consequence, perhaps, of the length to which it 
 was proposed to go in shortening the hours of labour. 
 It was not suspected that he was not thoroughly 
 honest in his intentions ; but the proposed measure 
 was different in principle and wider in scope than the 
 measure of 1802, and it is fair to assume that Sir 
 Robert, as a manufacturer, was to some extent influ- 
 enced by his brother manufacturers, who wer.e greatly 
 alarmed as to the probable effect of the Bill, and who 
 had made their minds up to give it all the opposition 
 
 in their power. 1 ^^ 
 
 It took four years to get the Bill through Parlia- 
 ment, and then it was so mutilated that Owen felt it to 
 be scarcely worth the trouble it had cost. It was con- 
 fined in its operation to cotton mills, and altered the 
 
152 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 ten years fixed as the time at which children should 
 be admitted into factories to nine. It extended 
 the ten and a half hours which were to constitute the 
 day's work to twelve, for young persons of from nine 
 to sixtpen years ; Owen having fixed the ages from 
 ten to eighteen. There were many other alterations 
 which, precluding a settlement of the question for a 
 considerable period, opened the whole matter up as 
 the subject of a contention, which, on the factory 
 question alone, was continued for thirty years, and 
 which when carried into the workshops may be said 
 to have lasted for half a century. 
 
 During these four weary years of parliamentary 
 struggle, Owen always remained in London in the 
 session. At page 116 of his slight autobiographical 
 sketch he tells us his experience of our legislative 
 assembly and its proceedings : — " At the commence- 
 ment I was an utter novice in the manner of 
 conducting the business of this country in Parlia- 
 ment ; but my intimate acquaintance with these 
 proceedings, for the four years during which this Bill 
 was under the consideration of both Houses, opened 
 my eyes to the conduct of public men, and to the 
 ignorant vulgar self-interest, regardless of means to 
 accomplish their object, of trading and mercantile 
 men, even of high standing in the commercial world. 
 No means were left untried by these men to defeat 
 the object of the Bill in the first session of its intro- 
 duction, and through four years in which, under one 
 futile pretence and another, it was kept in the House 
 of Commons.'' 
 
 Every clause of the Bill contained overwhelming 
 proof of its necessity ; and knowing this, they sought 
 
Reform Bill Struggle. 153 
 
 to damage Owen's facts and destroy his influence by 
 personal attacks, and to this end sent a deputation 
 into Scotland to seek for some flaw in the character 
 of Owen himself This very discreditable attempt 
 was a signal failure. The minister of the parish 
 church was taken to London, but returned having 
 done nothing. The Bill was passed, after the delay 
 mentioned, and in the condition already indicated ; 
 and though Owen ceased to take much interest in it 
 or its working, it completely altered the relations of 
 employers and employed in the cotton factories of 
 the country, and, in the end, over the whole field of 
 the nation's industry. 
 
 It has already been said that the Act of 1802 had 
 reference only to apprentices, and did not raise the 
 question as to the right or the duty of parliamentary 
 interference with what was called free labour. The 
 conditions of the indenture continued to exist, and 
 the State by the Act of 1802 simply placed itself 
 in the position of guardian to pauper children, which, 
 though inconvenient to certain of the employers, could 
 scarcely be regarded as an interference with any 
 private right either of the parent or the employer. 
 The Act of 1 8 19 was the assertion, however, of a 
 distinct right on the part of the State to protect its 
 citizens from the injurious consequences of their own 
 acts, in one of the most important branches of the 
 nation's industry; and therefore did actually open the 
 door to all that has since followed in all our most 
 important industries, and to such an extent that the 
 doctrine of laissez faire, in regard to the factories, 
 mines, and workshops of the country, is as dead as the 
 doctrine of divine right. 
 
154 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 This was not overlooked by the opponents of the 
 Bill. It was urged that " legislative interference 
 between the free labourer and his employer is a 
 violent, highly dangerous, and unconstitutional in- 
 novation, and can be justified only upon the strong 
 ground of a well established necessity." This was. 
 the strongest ground that could be taken up. The 
 opposition, therefore, entrenched itself behind the 
 demand for a "well established necessity'' for inter- 
 ference, and on this ground were established claims 
 for Government interference extending to nearly 
 every important branch of industry carried on 
 throughout the kingdom, — and, in every case, evi- 
 dence was forthcoming in proof of the necessity for 
 such legislation. 
 
 The discussions that took place during the whole of 
 that period were accompanied by prophecies of loss 
 of every possible kind in connection with the industry 
 of the nation ; not only loss of profit to the manufac- 
 turer, but of loss of wages to the workers, and, to 
 crown all, the loss of the country's trade, in conse- 
 quence of the more enlarged freedom of action 
 enjoyed by the foreign producers. Not one of these 
 prophecies has been fulfilled ; neither profits nor 
 wages suffered injury from the legislation complained 
 of, nor did foreigners take our trade by lowness of 
 cost in their own productions. Had they done so, 
 they would have had no occasion to protect them- 
 selves in their own markets by import duties, a policy 
 which nearly all nations where manufacturing is 
 carried on have adopted, including certain of our own 
 most important colonies. 
 
General A ctiv ity. 155 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 (Beneral Hctiviti?. 
 
 The four years occupied by inquiries into the factory 
 system, and the progress of the Bill through both 
 Houses, were actively employed by Owen. His first 
 care was for the factory children, and what made 
 him more anxious for success in his undertaking 
 was a fact which was developed prominently by the 
 evidence given from the employers' side before the 
 committee, namely, that the practices which prevailed 
 were not considered as regrettable, but as necessarily 
 arising out of the situation, — as perfectly right and 
 justifiable, — as good, in every way, for all parties con- 
 cerned. In truth, the system of factory working had 
 so morally corrupted the men in whose interest it was 
 carried on, that the distinctions between right and 
 wrong, good and evil, in everything connected with it, 
 were becoming rapidly obliterated. 
 
 To confine the attention of the nation to one of 
 the numerous evils connected with the several new 
 industries then coming into existence would have been 
 an error. Owen saw many injurious symptoms out- 
 side the factory system, in connection with the labour 
 of the country, and in conjunction with the newly- 
 developed mechanical power then rapidly coming 
 into use for protective purposes. One class, as he 
 pointed out, was suffering deeply, but labour gene- 
 rally was rapidly getting into wrong grooves, and 
 producing miseries and discontents until then com- 
 paratively unknown, as instanced in the Ludd riots ; 
 
156 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 and these, if not explained and corrected, were likely 
 to lead to the worst consequences. During the 
 years 1815 to 18 19 he wrote several papers, which 
 he circulated very extensively, and put himself into 
 communication with many influential persons, that 
 they might understand his views, and help in averting 
 the dangers he apprehended. 
 
 In his " Observations on the Effect of the Manufac- 
 turing System," published in 181 5, he dwelt on the 
 rapid transference which was then taking place of the 
 agricultural population to the manufacturing districts; 
 upon the astonishing growth in the country of industry, 
 population, and wealth; the consequent importance 
 of our manufacturing system to the nation, and the 
 paramount necessity of keeping it free from evils 
 which, if unchecked in their growth, would more than 
 counterbalance the benefits by which it was attended. 
 " Hitherto," he says, " legislators have appeared to 
 regard manufactures only from one point of view — as 
 a source of national wealth. The other mighty conse- 
 quences which proceed from extended manufactures, 
 when left to their natural- progress, have never yet 
 engaged the attention of any legislature. Yet the 
 political and moral effects to which we allude, well 
 deserve to occupy the best faculties of the greatest 
 and the wisest statesmen. The general diffusion of 
 manufactures throughout the country generates a new 
 character in its inhabitants ; and as this character 
 is formed upon a principle quite unfavourable to 
 individual or general happiness, it will produce the 
 most lamentable and permanent evils, unless its 
 tendency be counteracted by legislative interference 
 and direction." 
 
General A ctivity. 1 5 7 
 
 He referred to the dangers by which a widely ex- 
 tended export trade might be attended, and the 
 possible dangers of foreign competition should too 
 much dependence be placed on foreign trade. In 
 reference to the Corn Laws, which had been passed in 
 the same year, 18 15, and which had produced riots in 
 London, he says : — ■' The direct effect of the Corn 
 Bill will be to hasten this decline in the foreign trade. 
 In this view, it is deeply to be regretted that the Bill 
 passed into law ; and I am persuaded its promoters 
 will ere long discover the absolute necessity for its 
 repeal, to prevent the misery which must ensue to the 
 great mass of the people." After this he alludes to 
 the deteriorating effect on the trading class of having 
 their minds actively trained to the all-absorbing con- 
 sideration of buying cheap and selling dear ; and 
 goes on to urge consideration of the many mischiefs 
 likely to attend a too early employment of the young, 
 and a too constant drudgery for a bare subsistence 
 imposed on all, without time for rest or healthy sports 
 and amusements. He contrasts a rational system of 
 treating children with the treatment which, as proved 
 by the strongest evidence, they were then receiving in 
 the factories. "In the manufacturing districts," he 
 • says, " it is common for parents to send their children 
 of both sexes at seven or eight years of age, in winter 
 as well as summer, at six o'clock in the morning, 
 sometimes of course in the dark, and occasionally 
 amidst frost and snow, to enter the manufactories, 
 which are often heated to a high temperature, and 
 contain an atmosphere „far from being the most 
 favourable to human life." And then, going more 
 generally into the subject, " I ask," he continues 
 
158 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 " those who have studied the science of government 
 upon those enlightened principles which alone ought 
 to influence the statesman, what is the difierence, in a 
 national view, between an individual trained in habits 
 which give him health, temperance, industry, correct 
 principles of judgment, foresight, and general good 
 conduct ; and one trained in ignorance, idleness, in- 
 temperance, defective powers of judging, and, in 
 general, vicious habits? Is not one of the former of 
 more real worth and political strength to the State 
 than many of the latter ? " 
 
 The following is the closing paragraph of this paper: 
 — " I now, therefore, in the name of the millions of 
 neglected poor and ignorant whose habits and senti- 
 ments have been hitherto formed to render them 
 wretched, call upon the British Government and the 
 British nation to unite their efforts to arrange a 
 system to train and instruct those who, for any good 
 or useful purpose, are now untrained and uninstructed ; 
 and to arrest by a clear, easy, and practical system of 
 prevention, the ignorance and consequent poverty, 
 vice, and misery which are rapidly increasing through- 
 out the empire : for, ' Train up a child in the way he 
 should go, and when he is old he will not depart from 
 it.' " 
 
 In March 18 17 Robert Owen published a report 
 addressed to the Committee for the Relief of the 
 Manufacturing and Labouring Poor. This is a 
 carefully-drawn report, and is accompanied by plans 
 of buildings ; and, in connection with these, by a full 
 explanation of the internal economy of such establish- 
 ments as colonies for the poor. The employment 
 of paupers is arranged for with regard to its useful- 
 
General A ctiviiy. 159 
 
 ness as well as to its value as discipline, and esti- 
 mates furnished of the cost per head in building and 
 furnishing. " The immense sums," he says, "annually- 
 raised for them (the poor) are lavished in utter dis- 
 regard of every principle of public justice and 
 economy. They offer greater rewards for idleness 
 and vice than for industry and virtue, and thus 
 directly operate to increase the degradation and 
 misery of the classes whom they are designed to 
 serve. No sum, however enormous, administered 
 after this manner could be productive of any other 
 result, — rather will pauperism and wretchedness in- 
 crease along with the increase of an expenditure thus 
 applied." In this plan he proposes to do away with 
 the heavy annual expenditure of poor-rates, by making 
 these establishments self-supporting ; to prevent the 
 continuance of a pauper race, by the interposition of a 
 system of education and industrial training, which 
 would render the new generations unfit for the 
 paupers' condition of life. 
 
 Many details are entered into, which show how 
 carefully he had considered the subject. This pauper- 
 ism is still (1882) a terrible drag on the nation's 
 resources. It still descends as an inheritance from 
 father to son ; its cost still increases ; it still calls for 
 annual millions. The fifteen years ending 1881 give 
 a return as actual expenditure on pauperism of 125 
 millions sterling, and, as in the last of these years 
 more money was spent than in the first, it is not 
 unreasonable to suppose that the next fifteen years 
 may increase the sum to something approaching 1 50 
 millions. Owen insisted that these enormous sums 
 could be saved were rational practical steps taken 
 
i6o Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 for the employment of the poor, and, in his report, he 
 pointed out how this might be done. 
 
 Carlyle's remarks on the condition of the paupers 
 of England in 1843, some years after the whole 
 system had been " reformed," are more picturesque, 
 but not more true than Owen's. " Passing by the 
 workhouse of St Ives, in Huntingdonshire, on a 
 bright day last autumn, I saw, sitting on wooden 
 benches in front of their Bastille, and within their 
 ring wall and its railings, some half hundred and 
 more of these men. Tall, robust figures, young 
 mostly, or of middle age, of honest countenance, 
 many of them thoughtful and even intelligent-looking 
 men. They sat there, near by one another, but in a 
 kind of torpor, especially in a silence, which was very 
 striking. In silence, for, alas, what word was to be 
 said ? An earth all lying round, crying, ' Come and 
 till me, come and reap me,' yet we here sit enchanted. 
 In the eyes and brows of these men hung the 
 gloomiest expression, not of anger, but of grief and 
 shame, and manifold inarticulate distress and weari- 
 ness. They returned my glance with a glance that 
 seemed to say, ' Do not look at us, we sit enchanted 
 here, we know not why. The sun shines, and the 
 earth calls, and, by the governing powers and im- 
 potence of England, we are forbidden to obey. It is 
 impossible, they tell us.' " 
 
 Further information on this head may be derived 
 from Mr Nassau W. Senior, who, in the most prosaic 
 way, and in the fewest words, tells the world in his 
 essay on the English Poor Laws, that from 1784 to 
 1830, side by side with our enormous growth of 
 manufacturing industry and what is called prosperity, 
 
General A ctivity. 1 6 1 
 
 poor-rates had increased from slightly over two 
 millions sterling to close on seven millions per annum ; 
 and in "whole counties the rates equalled a third of 
 the remaining rental, while estates were abandoned, 
 and whole parishes were on the point of being thrown 
 up, without capital or occupier, to the poor." During 
 the progress of such a state of things, it is no wonder 
 that a man like Owen thought and preached, and 
 projected and laboured, so that men might be brought 
 to a wise use of the wealth -creating power they 
 possessed, and to a more humane and equitable dis- 
 tribution. 
 
 In the July of the same year (1817) Owen published 
 a further development of his plan for the relief of the 
 manufacturing and labouring poor. In this he more 
 fully explains, by question and answer, how his plans 
 were to be carried out, and replies to many of the 
 theoretical objections which at that time were dis- 
 cussed by those whose minds had been directed to 
 the subject. One of the questions put and answered 
 in this document relates to the objection founded on 
 the argument of Malthus as to the rapid increase of 
 population and its pressure on the supply of food. 
 
 The question is, " But will not these establishments 
 tend to increase population beyond the means of sub- 
 sistence, too rapidly for the wellbeing of society?" 
 He answers, " I have no apprehension whatever on 
 this ground. Every agriculturist knows that each 
 labourer now employed in agriculture can produce 
 five or six times more food than he can eat; and, 
 therefore, even if no other facilities were given to him 
 than those he now possesses, there is no necessity in 
 nature for ' the population to press against subsist- 
 
 L 
 
1 62 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 ence' until the earth is fully cultivated. There can be 
 no doubt that it is the artificial law of supply and 
 demand, arising from the principle of individual gain, 
 in opposition to the general wellbeing of society, 
 which has hitherto compelled population to press 
 upon subsistence. The certain effect of acting on the 
 principle of individual gain is ever to limit the supply 
 of food, in an average season, to a sufficiency accord- 
 ing to the customs of the times for the existing 
 inhabitants of the earth ; consequently, in a favour- 
 able season, and in proportion as the season may be 
 favourable, there will be abundance of food, and it 
 will be cheap ; and in an unfavourable season, in pro- 
 portion as the season may be unfavourable, food will 
 be scarce and dear, and famine will ensue. And yet 
 no one who understands anything practically on the 
 subject, can for a moment doubt that at the period 
 immediately preceding the most grievous famine ever 
 known, the means existed in ample profusion to have 
 enabled the population, under proper arrangements, 
 had they possessed the knowledge to form them, to 
 produce a stock of food amounting even to an ex- 
 cessive superabundance. Whatever may have been 
 imagined by intelligent individuals who have written 
 and thought upon the subject, the annual increase of 
 population is really one by one. We know its utmost 
 limit, it is only — it can be only — an arithmetical 
 increase ; whereas each individual brings into the 
 world with him the means, aided by the existing 
 knowledge of science, and under proper direction, 
 sufficient to enable him to produce food equal to more 
 than ten times his consumption. The fear, then, of 
 any evil to arise from an excess of population until 
 
General Activity. 163 
 
 such time as the whole earth shall become a highly 
 cultivated garden will, on due and accurate investiga- 
 tion, prove a mere phantom of the imagination, 
 calculated solely to keep the world in unnecessary 
 ignorance, vice, and crime, and to prevent society 
 from becoming what it ought to be, well-trained and 
 well-instructed, and, under an intelligent system of 
 mutual goodwill and kindness, active, virtuous, and 
 happy." 
 
 Since these words were written tons of paper have 
 been used in controversies relative to the correctness 
 of the views of Malthus on the different ratios of 
 increase in food and population. Such a dispute can 
 scarcely be considered worth the paper used in carry- 
 ing it on. Our population in 1801 was over nine 
 millions. According to the ratio of increase with 
 which Malthus frightened our fathers, it ought in 1882 
 to have been over ninety millions, whilst the census 
 taken in 1881 tells us that we are still under twenty- 
 six millions. The food supplies, however, in their 
 increase, have distanced anything the wildest imagi- 
 nation could have dreamed of, as in 1880 our imports 
 of food amounted to no less a sum than I2ii millions 
 sterling. Our population is sixty-four millions less 
 than it should have been, as prospectively added up 
 by Malthus ; whilst our food supplies from foreign 
 sources are at least 115 millions of pounds' worth 
 more than he or his disciples took into their reckoning, 
 whilst the fields from which this marvellous supply 
 comes are daily widening, and becoming by power of 
 transit more accessible. Owen grasped the higher 
 and more essential truth when he said, " It is the 
 artificial law of supply and demand, arising from the 
 
164 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 principles of individual gain, in opposition to the 
 general wellbeing of society, which has hitherto com- 
 pelled population to press upon subsistence." 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 plans anb principles. 
 
 When Robert Owen was in London, fighting his 
 battle for the factory children, he derived no support 
 from the working people. He had never made any 
 appeal to them through the press or from the plat- 
 form, as he counted on getting the kind of support 
 he most needed from persons who by their wealth 
 and' influence were likely in the shortest time, and in 
 the most practical way, to give effect to his proposals. 
 " At this period," he says, " I had no public intercourse 
 with the operatives and working classes in any part of 
 the two islands — not even in the metropolis. They 
 were strangers to me and to all my views and future 
 intentions. I was at all periods of my progress, from 
 my earliest knowledge and employment of them, their 
 true friend ; whilst their democratic and much-mistaken 
 leaders taught them that I was their enemy, a friend 
 to all in authority, and that I desired to make slaves 
 of them in these villages of unity and mutual co- 
 operation." 
 
 Owen had, in fact, to hold his first meeting with no 
 support beyond what came through the sympathy of 
 the friends he met in London, of those who had visited 
 New Lanark, or of such persons as had come to him 
 
Plans and Principles. 165 
 
 through reading his pubHshed addresses. Empha- 
 tically he had no party. The subject he had to deal 
 with was not in its true character easily understood ; 
 and the common run of Tories and Whigs, combined 
 with those w^ho had taken religion under their charge, 
 disliked his proposals as tending to open up ques- 
 tions in relation to which they desired quietude and 
 silence. 
 
 He had around him a large number of influential 
 persons, but he suspected that many of these would 
 fly off when public opposition became vigorous. His 
 great reliance was on the newspaper press, and he 
 secured the insertion of his first addresses by agreeing 
 to purchase largely the papers which inserted them. 
 The proceedings connected with the great meetings 
 held in the City of London Tavern, 18 17, cost him 
 four thousand pounds. His addresses were published 
 in full in every London morning and evening news- 
 paper, and, beyond the ordinary circulation of these 
 papers, he purchased thirty thousand extra copies, 
 and had one copy sent to the minister of every parish 
 in the kingdom ; one also to every member of both 
 Houses of Parliament, one to each of the chief magis- 
 trates and bankers in each city and town in England, 
 and one to each of the leading persons of all classes 
 in each of these cities and towns. In addition, he 
 published three broadsheets, containing the details of 
 his proceedings as given in the Times and in the 
 other London morning and evening papers. Of these 
 broadsheets he printed forty thousand copies, and 
 such, he says, " was the eagerness to procure them, that 
 the forty thousand were called for in three days." 
 
 It was while he was making these efforts he became 
 
1 66 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 aware of the steps taken by his opponents to destroy 
 the effects of his labours by secret attempts at de- 
 famation, especially on religious grounds. He found 
 that these efforts were not entirely without success, as 
 some who had been friendly up to that time drew off 
 in alarm. He expresses himself as not surprised at 
 this, seeing that much he had said was calculated to 
 excite the prejudices of those not thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with his meaning and intentions. To himself 
 such an opposition was not of much consequence; but 
 these attempts, coupled with what was done in the 
 same way by the factory owners, put upon him the 
 necessity of stating distinctly his views in regard to 
 religion. He says, " When the weapons used in this 
 warfare, however unfair and illegitimate they may 
 have been, were directed against the individual only, 
 they were disregarded. , I cared, and do still care, as 
 little for the individual as any of his opponents did 
 or can. I make him, as they shall now be made, an 
 instrument to forward measures for our mutual and 
 general benefit. He has been hitherto so employed 
 without regard to vanity or self- consequence of any 
 kind. But as absurd and ridiculous insinuations now 
 set afloat are intended to retard the work I have 
 undertaken, they must be met, and they have deter- 
 mined the next step that I shall adopt, and about 
 which I was deliberating. It is that a public meeting 
 shall be held in the City of London Tavern, on 
 Thursday the 14th day of August, to take into con- 
 sideration a plan to be proposed to relieve the country 
 from its present distress, to remoralise the poor, reduce 
 the poor-rates, and abolish pauperism and all its 
 injurious consequences. At that meeting I invite 
 
Plans and Principles. 167 
 
 those parties, and any others whom they can enlist in 
 their cause, to come forward and make everything 
 they have to say against me pubHcIy known. I wish 
 to gratify them to the utmost of their desires, and as 
 they may not possess all the requisites for the purpose, 
 I will give them the clue by which they may pursue 
 and discover all the errors of my past life." 
 
 After this follows a short sketch of the life he had 
 lived up to that time, and he adds, " I wish that 
 everything which can be said against the individual 
 may be urged by those who are desirous so to do, in 
 order to have done with these trifling and insignificant 
 personalities, and that I may proceed onward to the 
 accomplishment of that which is of real practical 
 utility. Let them, therefore, at such public meeting 
 bring forward every saying and action of mine that 
 has displeased them. I only ask that the attack 
 shall be fair, open, and direct. It shall then be met, 
 and shall be overcome. I shall," he continues, " not 
 ask for or accept any quarter. My purpose has been 
 long fixed, and my determination is not to give any 
 quarter to the errors and evils of the existing systems, 
 — civil, political, and religious." 
 
 Owen, at his meetings, fulfilled his promise. He 
 certainly kept nothing back ; indeed, it is question- 
 able whether he did not go further than was necessar}^ 
 in challenging the hostility of enemies. Upon the 
 whole, perhaps, his conclusion was the right one ; for 
 though he had at the moment raised up much 
 opposition, it is certain that time being given the 
 opposition would have come, as the charges of un- 
 charitable bigots once commenced seldom cease until 
 their objects are accomplished. 
 
1 68 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 The worst part of the opposition was not that 
 made on religious grounds. Curiously enough, the 
 liberal political men, who ought to have given him 
 support, thronged to his first meeting in a spirit 
 of unmitigated hostility, — Henry Hunt, the Radical 
 leader, who, two years afterwards, figured at Peterloo, 
 Manchester ; Mr Wooler, of Black Dwarf notoriety ; 
 Mr Waithman, afterwards well known as Alderman 
 Waithman, and in connection with his publication, 
 The Reformists' Register ; William Hone, the author 
 of the " Everyday Book," whose attack was severe, 
 though not damaging. An impartial examination 
 of the proposals that called forth this strange anta- 
 gonism will show how unreasonable it was, and how 
 deplorable the spirit of party is when those who lead 
 take no trouble to examine and comprehend what 
 they undertake either to oppose or support. 
 
 The Government of the day was actively hostile to 
 political reform of every kind, and by the Radical 
 party they were always suspected and opposed. 
 Several of its members were in favour of Robert 
 Owen's proposals for a reform of the factory system, 
 and this made the Radicals suspect him ; but had 
 they listened and understood, they must have seen 
 that in the reforms he asked for and advocated, he 
 was one of the most thorough Radicals of his time. 
 He laid it down emphatically, — "(i.) That a country 
 can never be beneficially wealthy while it supports a- 
 large portion of its working classes in idle poverty, 
 or in useless occupation. (2.) That ignorance and 
 poverty must demoralise the inhabitants of any 
 country. (3.) That a population so demoralised, 
 surrounded by such temptations as gin-shops, low 
 
Plans and Principles. 169 
 
 pot-houses, gambling, and other inducements to evil 
 conduct, must, as a matter of mere necessity, become 
 imbecile and useless, or vicious and criminal. (4.) 
 That strong coercion, and cruel and useless punish- 
 ments, must necessarily follow. (5.) That discontent, 
 and every kind of opposition to those who govern, 
 must inevitably ensue, at a heavy cost both in crime 
 and punishment to the general community. (6.) That, 
 while these incentives to everything vile and criminal 
 shall be permitted and encouraged by Government, 
 it is downright mockery to talk about religion, and of 
 improving the condition and morals of the working 
 classes. (7.) That to talk and act thus, in a vain 
 attempt to deceive the public, is inconsistent and 
 unmeaning jargon, by which the public cannot con- 
 tinue to be deceived. (8.) That to expect any per- 
 manent national improvement, whilst such a condition 
 of things is allowed to remain, is the same as to 
 expect the drying up of the ocean while all the 
 rivers of the earth are pouring their streams into its 
 waters." 
 
 Then follows this query : — " Shall yet another 
 year pass in which crime shall be forced on the 
 infant who, in ten, twenty, or thirty years, shall 
 perhaps suffer death for the ignorance and bad ex- 
 ample that led to such crime ? Should such be the 
 case, the members of the present Parliament — the 
 legislators of to-day — ought, in strict and impartial 
 justice, to be amenable to the laws for not adopting 
 the means in their power to prevent the crime, rather 
 than the poor, untrained, and unprotected culprit, 
 whose previous years, if he had language to describe 
 them, would exhibit a life of unceasing wretchedness. 
 
170 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 and that arising solely from the errors of society." 
 Notwithstanding these extreme views, and this bold 
 expression of strong Radical thought, the political 
 leaders, not finding in it the ordinary slang of the 
 political warfare in which they had been engaged, 
 gave so fierce an opposition that, although the first 
 resolutions proposed were ultimately passed, the 
 meeting had to be adjourned for a week. William 
 Hone, a thoroughly honest reformer, who had fought 
 and suffered for his principles, did not see the posi- 
 tion. He was a believer in Malthus, and was indig- 
 nant that Owen should thrust aside without ceremony 
 an authority who had proved so clearly that, whilst 
 population increased in the geometrical ratio of i, 2, 
 4, 8, 16, 32, food could only increase in an arith- 
 metical ratio of i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. This misleading 
 popular fallacy now only lingers here and there, like 
 the belief in witchcraft. 
 
 This meeting was the occasion of one of his large 
 investments in newspapers. He purchased and cir- 
 culated thirty thousand through the post-office ; and 
 as in those days the mail-coaches alone were available 
 for transmission, the secretary of the post-office had 
 to send an official minute to the Treasury to say that 
 Mr Owen had sent so many extra newspapers, that 
 the mail-coaches leaving London had to be delayed 
 twenty minutes beyond the regular time. 
 
 It was not on the political side, however, that 
 Owen saw his chief danger. The opposition sud- 
 denly started on him at his great city meeting was 
 the result of ignorance as to his character and 
 intentions, but this, as the agitation proceeded, might 
 have been easily corrected. His earnestness, and the 
 
Plans and Principles. 1 7 1 
 
 comprehensiveness of his proposals in connection 
 with the condition of the working population, would 
 have overcome all popular opposition in a reasonable 
 time. The opposition on religious grounds could 
 not be thus vanquished. Delay promised a serious 
 increase of danger, and he decided at once to take 
 up the challenge given by those who had entered 
 the lists against him on religious grounds. His plans 
 for industrial villages contained provision for educa- 
 tion, and there can be no doubt that he was strongly 
 opposed to any kind of sectarianism. Much as we 
 condemn the attempts which were made to damage 
 his reputation, allowance must be made in some 
 degree for honest alarm in regard to the religious 
 teaching that might be introduced into these proposed 
 villages. 
 
 His enthusiasm in favour of his plans was un- 
 bounded, while the knowledge he possessed of the 
 evil effects of an active sectarianism, then felt by him 
 in his own person, led to his decision to immediately 
 face this difficulty. It is not unlikely, if he had 
 succeeded in starting one or two of his villages, that 
 gradually an over-active proselytism might have crept 
 in, as his leading friends belonged to many sects, and 
 it was hardly to be expected that in small com- 
 munities, composed mostly of the poor, a restraint 
 not practised elsewhere would be found. At Lanark, 
 he was absolute master. What he did for the people 
 in his employment was so obviously done with a 
 view to their welfare, that, so long as his partners 
 consented, he could meet with no powerful opposition. 
 In educating the children he carefully abstained from 
 interference with religious views or prejudices. The 
 
172 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 workers who knew him, and who had the utmost 
 faith in his honesty of purpose, trusted him fully. 
 The outside world did not know him so well, and 
 therefore it was not unreasonable that his proceedings 
 should be regarded with some degree of suspicion. 
 The facts of his life were all in his favour ; but the 
 suspicions that grow out of the common practices of 
 the world were against him. He began to see clearly 
 that the fight must come sooner or later ; to enter on 
 it at once, therefore, was perhaps the wisest thing he 
 could do. 
 
 Looking at the way it came, it cannot be regarded 
 as a challenge by him to the prejudices of the world, 
 but as an assault on him by the prejudiced and intoler- 
 ant. Had he avoided meeting the attack, his position 
 must have become worse rather than better, as the 
 suspicions raised would have followed him, whatever 
 he might have attempted, and in the end might have 
 broken him down. At that time the Test and Cor- 
 poration Acts were not repealed. In fact, the many 
 injuries inflicted even through law for differences in 
 creed, furnished proof that, however much we may 
 fall short in true liberality now, our fathers, in the 
 early portion of the present century, were much 
 behind us in the liberality of thought that frankly 
 acknowledges the right of difference in regard to 
 religious opinions. Taking into consideration the 
 opposition at the meeting of August the 14th, covert 
 and open, political and religious, it was a great 
 success. The amendments were negatived, but, on 
 Mr Owen's motion, the meeting was adjourned to the 
 2 1 St of the same month. Five resolutions had been 
 passed, but as there were several others, and as he 
 
His Religion. 173 
 
 had not said what he had desired to say in relation 
 to the opposition he had encountered on religious 
 grounds, this second meeting was looked forward to 
 with so much interest by the public, that it was, says 
 Owen, " densely crowded, although held at noon, and 
 again hundreds and thousands had to be disappointed 
 who could not gain admittance, and many waited till 
 five o'clock before any moved to allow of their en- 
 trance, and even afterwards, until its dismissal at 
 seven, it remained crowded." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 1bis IRelfgion. 
 
 It was important that Robert Owen should, if possible, 
 clear out of his way the difficulties that had arisen 
 in regard to his religious opinions. He had to decide 
 whether he should publicly explain away views that 
 were distasteful to many of his friends and supporters, 
 and thus allay a threatened antagonism, or stand 
 firmly on his own ground, meeting all attacks without 
 permitting any doubt to exist as to the opinions he 
 entertained of certain accepted beliefs, which he 
 regarded not only as obstructive of good, but as 
 abundantly productive of many evils, including divi- 
 sion, hatred, and persecution, and as most mischievous 
 in preventing the kindly alliance among men which 
 was necessary for the promotion of the associative 
 objects he had in view. He was not, nor did he ever 
 pretend to be, a judge of differences in religious 
 dogma; but he believed that it was the duty of men 
 
174 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 to . dwell together in peace, and labour earnestly 
 as brethren in an intelligent consciousness of their 
 common requirements, for the reasonable satisfaction 
 of their common wants, and in an acknowledgment of 
 their common duties. 
 
 There was in the position he assumed no hatred 
 of old creeds. He neither disputed the right nor 
 questioned the sincerity of those who taught or pro- 
 fessed them. His wife was a zealous believer in the 
 religion in which she was brought up, and he never 
 disputed or interfered with her desire to educate his 
 
 'Children in the creed she thought the best; and there- 
 fore when those who sought to injure his character 
 inquired as to his habits and mode of life, they were 
 informed that the Bible was regularly read in the 
 New Lanark schools, and that in his house family 
 
 _ prayer was a daily practice. He never disguised his 
 opinions publicly or privately, where it was necessary 
 to state them ; but he never sought by authority, or by 
 unseasonable and over-zealous argument, to force them 
 on others. He did not undervalue speculations in 
 regard to religious or any other kind of truth ; but, 
 considering the great main divisions into which men 
 are separated, and the minor or sectarian sub-divisions 
 in each of these, he did not expect that agreement 
 could be easily brought about. He had, nevertheless, 
 a strong belief that as men came to understand each 
 other better, they would make a more generous allow- 
 ance for these differences, and thus draw into their 
 various creeds so much of charitable and kindly con- 
 sideration, as might render their intercourse more 
 productive of mutual goodwill and joint endeavour in 
 promoting the happiness of all. 
 
His Religion. 175 
 
 He considered that the various religious beliefs of 1 
 the world were not voluntarily adopted, and could not | 
 be given up by any effort of the will; that the growth! 
 of knowledge led to improvement in religious thought,! 
 as the more that was known of the universe and its 
 operations, the more elevated would be our human 
 conceptions of the power and wisdom that " directs 
 the atom and controls the aggregate of nature." 
 The evil effect of holding men responsible for their 
 opinions he studied in the grim story of religious wars 
 and sectarian persecutions. He had learned how one 
 infallibility sought to exterminate another by means 
 of torture and death, for differences of opinion which 
 perhaps neither of them understood ; and he knew 
 enough of the struggles for free thought in the world, 
 to be horrified by the cruelties practised by the 
 majority to strangle the new belief of the individual 
 or the minority. It was impossible to make him 
 understand that there were really such differences as 
 justified persecution even to death. It is no wonder, 
 therefore, that he regarded persecution on the ground 
 of difference of creed as by far a worse crime than any 
 possible error in doctrine ; and believing as he did in 
 the necessity of mutual goodwill among men, for the 
 realising of their highest aims by joint effort, it appears 
 natural that he should deprecate any doctrine that 
 divided men from each other in bitterness of spirit. 
 
 It was because of the want of charity among 
 men calling themselves Christians that he insisted so 
 strongly on the doctrine of non-respOnsibility for 
 belief At that time the penal laws against the 
 Roman Catholics were unrepealed, the laws against 
 the eligibility of Dissenters to municipal office still 
 
176 Life, Times , and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 existed. Quakers were excluded from their rights as 
 citizens, and Jews were regarded as unfit to be ad- 
 mitted to their civil privileges. The rack and the 
 fagot had been laid aside, but the spirit of persecution 
 was by no means dead. Every man who took any 
 part in promoting freedom of thought felt this in his 
 own person, and among these Robert Owen was soon 
 made aware that in disturbing and seeking to destroy 
 old prejudices, he was laying himself open to the 
 attacks of bigots of every denomination. 
 
 He might have gone on explaining and denying, 
 and excusing and apologising, if such a policy was to 
 him possible, but it was not. He believed himself 
 right, and he preferred saying this, and justifying him- 
 self, whatever might come of it. Michelet, in his 
 " Life of Luther," describes the determination with 
 which that reformer met the challenge of his enemies. 
 Every argument was used to dissuade him from 
 attending the Diet at Worms. " I will repair thither," 
 he said, " though I should find there as many devils 
 as there are tiles on the house-tops." Owen went to 
 his meeting of 21st August 18 17 in this spirit, quietly 
 determined to do what he believed to be his duty. 
 He described to those assembled the measures he 
 suggested for improving the condition of the people, 
 and then, addressing himself to the religious aspect of 
 the question as it had been forced on him, said, " It 
 may now be asked, if the new arrangements proposed 
 really possess all the advantages that have been stated, 
 why have they not been adopted in universal practice 
 during all the ages that have passed ? Why should 
 so many countless millions of our fellow-creatures, 
 through each successive generation, have been the 
 
His Religion. i jy 
 
 victims of ignorance, of superstition, of mental 
 degradation, and of wretchedness? A more im- 
 portant question has never yet been put to the sons 
 of men ! Who can answer it ? Who dare answer it 
 but with his life in his hand, — a ready and willing 
 victim to 'the truth, and to the emancipation of the 
 world from its long bondage of disunion, error, crime, 
 and misery? . . . Whatever may be the conse- 
 quences, I will now perform my duty to you and 
 to the world ; and should it be the last act of my 
 life, I shall be well content, and know that I have 
 lived for an important purpose. Then, my friends, I 
 tell you that hitherto you have been prevented from 
 even knowing what happiness really is, solely by 
 means of the errors, gross errors, that have been 
 combined with the fundamental notions of every 
 religion that has hitherto been taught to men, who 
 in consequence have been made the most incon- 
 sistent and the most miserable beings in existence. 
 By the errors of these systems, man has been made a 
 weak imbecile animal, a furious bigot and fanatic, or 
 a miserable hypocrite ; and should these qualities be 
 carried, not only into the projected villages, but into 
 paradise itself, a paradise would be no longer found. 
 In all the religions that have been hitherto forced on 
 the mmds of men, deep, dangerous, and lament- 
 able principles of dissension, division, and separation, 
 have been fast entwined with all their fundamental 
 notions ; and the certain consequences have been all 
 the dire effects which religious animosities have, 
 through all the past periods of the world, inflicted 
 with such unrelenting stern severity, or mad and 
 furious zeal. If, therefore, my friends, you should 
 
 M 
 
178 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 carry with you into these proposed villages of in- 
 tended unity and unlimited mutual co-operation, one 
 single particle of religious intolerance or sectarian 
 feeling of division and separation, maniacs only 
 would go there to look for harmony and happiness, 
 or elsewhere, as long as such insane errors shall be 
 found to exist." 
 
 Having delivered himself thus, he added, " I am 
 not going to ask impossibilities from you. I know 
 what you can do ; and I know also what you cannot 
 do. Consider again on what ground each man in 
 existence has a full right to the enjoyment of the 
 most unlimited liberty of conscience. I am not of 
 your religion, nor of any religion yet taught in the 
 world. To me they all appear united with much — 
 yes, with very much — error. Am I to blame for 
 thinking thus ? Those who possess any real know- 
 ledge of human nature know that I cannot think 
 otherwise, that it is not in my power, of myself, to 
 change the thoughts and ideas which appear to me to 
 be true. Ignorance, bigotry, and superstition may 
 again, as they have so often done before, attempt to 
 force belief against conviction, and thus carry the 
 correct-minded conscientious victim to the stake, or 
 make a human being wretchedly insincere. Therefore, 
 unless the world is now prepared to dismiss all its 
 erroneous religious notions, and to feel the justice and 
 necessity of publicly acknowledging the most un- 
 limited religious freedom, it will be futile to erect 
 villages of union and mutual co-operation ; for it will 
 be vain to look on this earth for inhabitants to occupy 
 them, who can understand how to live in the bonds of 
 peace and unity, or who can love their neighbour as 
 
His Religion. 179 
 
 themselves, whether he be Jew or Gentile, Moham- 
 medan or Pagan, Infidel or Christian. Any religion 
 that creates one particle of feeling short of this is 
 false, and must prove a curse to the whole human 
 race." 
 
 I have given here, I think, the strongest form of 
 Owen's infidelity. Beyond this I cannot find that he 
 ever went. He attacked warmly and earnestly the 
 belief that a man's religious opinions were under his 
 own control and could be changed at will. This false 
 supposition, as he considered it, led to uncharitable- 
 ness of thought and to persecution ; it preyed on the 
 minds of individuals, disturbed the peace of families, 
 produced miephievous and cruel contentions between 
 sects, and not unfrequently plunged nations into war. 
 For this belief he' had no mercy, as he considered it 
 at all times the worst obstacle to human progress. 
 
 So far, therefore, as this may be considered an 
 essential part of any religion, he may, without hesi- 
 tation, be regarded as an unbeliever ; but I have 
 nowhere found in his works, or in his reported words, 
 any attack on the accepted Christianity of the country. 
 If classed at all, he would have been regarded as a 
 Unitarian. Of Christ and His labours he always 
 spoke with the most profound respect, and regarded 
 His persecutions and death as the result of the error, 
 in regard to the voluntary action of belief, which he 
 so strongly and so constantly condemned. Perhaps 
 there never was a man who regarded with greater 
 dislike attacks on religious opinions or prejudices^ 
 He stood firmly on the right to think for himself and 
 speak for himself on all matters, but he most frankly 
 and sincerely insisted on the same right being accorded 
 
i8o Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 to others. When what is now known as the SociaHst 
 movement was active in the work of propagandism, 
 and when men of all shades of religious belief were 
 encouraged to enter its ranks, many did so who 
 were strict believers, though the majority were by 
 no means of this character ; but whatever their 
 creed, or want of creed, they were made welcome if 
 they could add what he called " religion of the new 
 moral world " to such creed as they might profess. 
 This religion, or whatever else it may be called, was 
 simple, and had reference to practice rather than faith. 
 It consisted in the unceasing effort to promote the 
 happiness of every man, woman, and child, to the 
 greatest possible extent, without regard to their class, 
 sect, party, country, or colour. This simple creed 
 was all that his follbwers were called on to believe in, 
 and whatever they thought proper to join to this ' 
 might be added without offence. 
 
 He published in later years his own personal ideas 
 of the Deity, but they were only his own. He says 
 he had been requested to state them, and he did so 
 without any wish to dogmatise. His words are, that 
 " human knowledge is not sufficiently advanced to 
 enable us to state upon this subject more than pro- 
 bable conjectures, derived from those laws of nature 
 which have been made known to us." That from 
 these we deduce the following probable truths : — 
 " That an eternal, uncaused existence has ever filled 
 the universe, and is therefore omnipresent. That this 
 eternal, uncaused, omnipresent existence possesses 
 attributes to govern the universe as it is governed. 
 That these attributes, being eternal and infinite, are 
 powers which are incomprehensible to man. That 
 
His Religion. 1 8 1 
 
 these eternal and infinite attributes are probably those 
 laws of nature by which, at all times, in all places, the 
 operations of the universe are incessantly continued. 
 That it is of no importance whether men call this 
 eternal, uncaused, omnipresent existence, matter or 
 spirit, because names alter nothing, explain nothing, 
 and man knows the forms and qualities of the exist- 
 ences around him only so far as his senses have been 
 made to perceive them. That if this power had de- 
 sired to make the nature of its existence known to 
 man, it would have enabled him to comprehend it 
 without mystery or doubt. That as this knowledge 
 has not yet been given to or acquired by man, it is 
 not essential to his wellbeing and happiness. That 
 man is formed to be what he is by this power ; and 
 that the object of his existence is the attainment of 
 happiness. That the power that made man cannot 
 ever, in the slightest iota, be changed in its eternal 
 course, by the request or prayer of so small and in- 
 significant a being as man is when compared with the 
 universe and its operations. That all dissensions 
 among men on these mere speculative matters are 
 the greatest mistakes that man has ever made, and 
 are now the most formidable obstacles to his attain- 
 ment of happiness — the ultimate object of his nature. 
 That for the convenience of discourse it is necessary 
 that some concise term should be adopted, by which 
 to designate this eternal, uncaused, omnipresent 
 power ; and that the term God is perhaps as un- 
 exceptional for this purpose as any one word that 
 can be employed ; and it has the additional recom- 
 mendation of general use in its favour." 
 
 To the question as to what is the duty of man to 
 
1 82 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 this power, he repHes, " That it is to attain the object 
 of his existence ; which is to be happy himself, to 
 make his fellow-beings happy, and to endeavour to 
 make the existence of all who are formed to feel 
 pleasure and pain as delightful as his knowledge and 
 power and their nature will admit." It may be 
 J necessary to make one remark here. Some of the 
 ^ words used may mislead if not interpreted as under- 
 stood and used by him. For instance, the word 
 "^ {'-\ " happiness " had with him no low, sensual meaning. 
 It indicated the greatest good attainable by the fullest 
 development and noblest use of the highest human 
 faculties and powers. 
 
 ^/ 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 t)fs tlrip to tbe Continent. 
 
 Mr Sargant, in his book " Robert Owen and his 
 Philosophy," tells his readers that when Owen made 
 his declaration on the subject of religious belief, it 
 brought him " neglect, hatred, contempt, calumny, 
 and all the ills that follow an excommunicated man." 
 I shall offer no contradiction to this beyond that 
 furnished by a statement of facts, especially as the 
 censures in which this writer indulges may be classed 
 among those which Owen himself treated with 
 indifference. 
 
 The declaration was made on the 2 1st of August 
 1817, when no public steps of any importance had 
 been taken to realise Owen's plans for the relief of 
 
His Trip to the Continent. 183 
 
 the poor. A considerable number of people had 
 gathered around him, and some of these drew off 
 when they found he was not a man of accommodating 
 orthodoxies. Charities, and other public efforts into 
 which benevolence entered, were in those days very 
 frequently worked with a sectarian bias, and in that 
 way obtained sectarian help. A number of people 
 otherwise likely enough to help in Owen's movement, 
 were no doubt strong sectarians, and of these many 
 would naturally disconnect themselves with a man 
 who so openly declared his opinions, not on religious 
 dogma so much as on the persecuting tendencies and 
 practices of those who, insisting on the voluntary 
 nature of belief, held individuals responsible for their 
 religious convictions, and hated and oppressed them 
 in consequence. 
 
 But when all allowance has been made, to speak, 
 as Mr Sargant does, of " neglect, hatred, contempt, 
 calumny, and all the ills that follow an excommuni- 
 cated man," falling on the head of Robert Owen, is 
 worse than misleading. That men like Mr Sargant 
 denounced him, may be true; equally so that they did 
 so without being careful as to facts. To say that, 
 " if he was the prince of cotton spinners, he was after 
 all a cotton spinner,- — a trader, who had fed himself 
 fat on the practices he now pretended to decry," is 
 a statement that must have been dictated simply by 
 prejudice, as it was well known that Owen was not 
 such a person. He never at any time pursued such 
 a course. His proceedings were from the first based 
 on a detestation of such practices, as was witnessed 
 by hundreds of visitors, men of unimpeachable posi- 
 tion and character, many of whom bore ample 
 
184 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 testimony to results very different from those pro- 
 duced elsewhere by the practices Owen condemned. 
 He never fed himself fat on the profits of his trade, 
 but spent them to help forward the reforms he 
 deemed so necessary. His reply to a similar charge, 
 made by the Bishop of Exeter, may serve as answer 
 to Mr Sargant, who made the above accusation ten 
 years after the following statement had been pub- 
 lished : — " I have always expended to the last shilling 
 my surplus wealth in promoting this great and good 
 cause, for funds have always been required to hasten 
 its progress as I desired. The right reverend prelate 
 is greatly deceived when he says, as he is reported to 
 have said, that I had squandered my wealth in profli- 
 gacy and luxury. I have never expended a pound 
 in either ; all my habits are habits of temperance in 
 all things, and I challenge the right reverend prelate 
 and all his abettors to prove the contrary, and I will 
 give him and them the means of following rne 
 through every stage and month of my life." 
 
 Soon after his declaration, he visited France, in 
 company with Professor Pictet. Pictet was a man of 
 eminence, and had been sent by the Swiss Republic 
 as envoy-extraordinary to the Congress of Vienna 
 in 1 8 14, and to that of Paris in 181 5. Owen's 
 principal object in this trip was to visit the establish- 
 ment of M. de Fellenberg at Hofwyl, for the purpose 
 of inspecting a system of instruction then famous all 
 over Europe ; and so greatly pleased was he by what 
 he saw, that he arranged to send his two eldest boys 
 there to complete their education. 
 
 At Paris he was well received, especially by Louis 
 Philippe, then Duke of Orleans, to whom he carried 
 
His Trip to the Continent. 185 
 
 a letter of introduction from the Duke of Kent. He 
 was introduced to the French prime-minister, who, 
 being acquainted with his ideas, stated his conviction 
 of their soundness, but pronounced them to be pre- 
 mature. In addition to this, he made the acquaintance 
 of Alexander von Humboldt, and La Place. From 
 Paris he went to Geneva, where he met with 
 Sismondi ; examined carefully the educational estab- 
 lishment of Father Oberlin at Friburg, and Pestalozzi 
 at Yverdun. Then to Frankfort, where he prepared 
 the memorials which he afterwards presented to the 
 allied sovereigns assembled in congress at Aix-la- 
 Chapelle. 
 
 Having arranged with Lord Castlereagh for the 
 presentation of his memorials, he left Aix-la-Chapelle 
 to return to Switzerland. He attended, by the invita- 
 tion of M. Pictet, who was president, a meeting of 
 the " Swiss National Society of Natural History," at 
 Lausanne, and he explained his views by invitation of 
 the meeting, after which he was unanimously elected 
 an honorary member of the society. On reaching 
 Paris, on his way to England, he was informed by a 
 member of the French Administration that his memo- 
 rials had been laid before the Congress at Aix-la- 
 Chapelle, and had been very favourably received. 
 
 The first is entitled a " Memorial to the Govern- 
 ments of Europe and America, on Behalf of the 
 Working Classes." It is dated 20th September 18 18, 
 and after stating the number of years over which his 
 observations extended, he explains that he is not 
 influenced by partiality or prejudice for or against 
 any class, sect, party, or country. That he views the 
 whole human race as men created with the same 
 
1 86 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 general faculties and qualities, though varied in 
 degree,' and trained by circumstances over which 
 society has control, to despise, hate, and oppose each 
 other, even to death, when they might be trained to 
 esteem, to love, and to aid each other. "The imme- ■ 
 diate causes," he goes on to say, " which make this 
 change necessary, are the overwhelming effect of new 
 scientific power and the rapid increase of knowledge 
 among all classes of men. The former will soon 
 render human labour of little avail in the creation of 
 wealth ; while the latter will make evident to the 
 people the absolute necessity which has thus arisen 
 for them to give a different direction to their powers, 
 and will inform them, also, how the change is to be 
 effected. To this day," the memorial says, " the 
 means of consumption, or of obtaining the necessaries 
 of life, by the working classes, have been acquired solely 
 through the medium of their labour, the value of which 
 the new power has already much diminished. And 
 the certain consequences of the undirected progress 
 of this power will be to reduce the value of manual 
 labour, until it falls below the means of procuring a 
 wretched subsistence for any large proportion of the 
 working classes, while the remainder of them must be 
 starved out of existence. Such is the nature of the 
 contest, which has already continued for some time, 
 and which now exists in full activity, between scien- 
 tific power and manual labour ; between knowledge 
 and ignorance ; but no one who comprehends any- 
 thing of the subject can for one moment doubt the 
 result." 
 
 The character and condition of the time must here 
 be taken into account. Exhausting war^ had been 
 
His Trip to the Continent. 187 
 
 carried on throughout Europe for more than a quarter 
 of a century. Thousands of human lives had been 
 sacrificed, and milHons of money spent. Everything 
 had been unsettled, whilst nothing had been per- 
 manently restored. During this time an enormous 
 mechanical power had been developed and applied in 
 Great Britain through a most fortunate concurrence 
 of inventions, and by the security our insular position 
 afforded. The first effect of this was to over-supply 
 existing markets before new ones could be discovered, 
 and hence a displacement of manual labour and a 
 sudden increase of suffering among the masses of 
 the people. This naturally led to discontent. While 
 Owen was employed on his memorials, in England 
 they were hanging Luddite rioters, and the Peterloo 
 Massacre was only a few months distant. 
 
 The yet unsolved difficulty of how to turn the new 
 mechanical producing power to the best account in 
 the interest of society had scarcely been looked at 
 except by Robert Owen. 
 
 It would, perhaps, be going too far to say that 
 Robert Owen was right in all his speculations as to 
 the true causes of the misery of the people ; nor is it 
 necessary to insist that he was absolutely correct in 
 all the methods of reform he recommended. It may 
 be claimed for him, however, that what he discovered 
 to be wrong in the operations of our industrial system, 
 as carried on in his day, was fairly and perseveringly 
 investigated, and temperately and practically brought 
 under the attention of those whose duty it was to 
 correct it. And it is but the simplest truth to assert, 
 that before he suggested anything, he carefully made 
 his experiments, so that his recommendations might 
 
1 88 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 be sustained by proof. His appeals were not made 
 to the people, with the view of forcing the reforms 
 he advocated, by rousing their passions or by reliance 
 on the fears popular anger might excite. He ap- 
 pealed to those who were doing the wrong, that they 
 might understand the danger they were incurring ; and 
 he appealed to the Government, that, as a matter of 
 public policy, such regulations might be enforced as 
 would secure the country against the evils to which 
 he pointed. He was the first man who, with any 
 comprehensive grasp of the subject, insisted that the 
 relations of labour and capital should be thoroughly 
 examined with a view to their rectification. The 
 methods of improvement suggested by him in regard 
 to the factory system have had to be followed, and 
 the changes that have been effected by years of agita- 
 tion, were what, at the commencement, he asked our 
 law-makers to sanction. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 ©perattons in 3Lonbon.— ©wen's iposition. 
 
 In the April of this year (1819) Robert Owen issued 
 his first appeal to the working classes, in an address 
 published in the Star newspaper. In referring to 
 those who were declaring that, though true in theory, 
 his proposals were not practicable, he said this meant 
 no more than that those who came to this conclusion 
 were unable to reduce them to practice, — they hastily 
 decided without sufficient data, and "would have 
 
operations in London. — Owen's Position. (189 
 
 made the same random assertions respecting any of 
 the great improvements in science prior to their 
 introduction. Such individuals forget that it is a 
 modern invention, to enable one man, with the aid of 
 a little steam, to perform the labour of a thousand 
 men." 
 
 It is noticeable that in this address there is not any 
 touch of the demagogue. The oppressions of the 
 people, as an outcome of power tyrannically used, are 
 not alluded to, nor is there reference to any question 
 that might in an angry spirit excite " class against 
 class." On the contrary, his first plea is for mutualy 
 toleration. "You have been filled," he says, "with all' 
 uncharitableness, and have in consequence cherished 
 feelings of anger towards your fellow-men who have 
 been placed in opposition to your interests. These 
 feelings of anger must be withdrawn before any being 
 who has your real interest at heart can place power in 
 your hands. You must be made to know yourselves, 
 by which means alone you can discover what other 
 men are. You will then distinctly perceive that no 
 rational ground for anger exists, even against those 
 who, by the errors of the present system, have been 
 made your greatest oppressors and your most bitter 
 enemies. An endless multiplicity of circumstances, 
 over which you had not the smallest control, placed 
 you where you are, and as you are. In the same 
 manner, others of your fellow-men have been formed 
 by circumstances, equally uncontrollable by them, to 
 become your enemies and grievous oppressors. In 
 strict justice, they are no more to be blamed for these 
 results than you are, nor you than they ; and, splendid 
 as their exterior may be, this state of matters often 
 
190 Life, Times, and Labours of Robei't Owen. 
 
 causes them to suffer even more poignantly than you. 
 They have therefore an interest, strong as yours, in 
 the change which is about to commence for the equal 
 benefit of all, provided you do not create a more 
 formidable counteracting interest on their parts, of 
 which the result must be to prolong existing misery, 
 and to retard the public good." 
 
 He goes on to tell them, that if they cannot com- 
 prehend the truth of this doctrine of circumstances, 
 the time has not come for their deliverance. " Had 
 the upper classes been permitted to discover what 
 human nature really is, they would have known long 
 ago that by being raised, as it is termed, to the 
 privileged ranks, they are placed in circumstances 
 which render their successors, except by some extra- 
 ordinary chance, increasingly useless to themselves 
 and to society." They are, he says, " trained from 
 the cradle to take pride in themselves for pursuing 
 measures which deprive the great mass of mankind 
 of the most essential benefits that belong to human 
 nature, in order that they, a most insignificant part in 
 point of numbers, may be distinguished by advan- 
 tages over their fellows. The feelings," he continues, 
 " which this absurd conduct generates throughout 
 society, keep the whole population of the world in a 
 lower degree of enjoyment and rationality than most 
 of the animal creation. They are the very essence of 
 ignorant selfishness." 
 
 There is neither hesitation nor compromise in these 
 words ; but disbelieving, as he did, in the efficacy of 
 anger or violence, he adds : — " The privileged classes 
 of the present day throughout Europe are not influ- 
 enced so much by a desire to keep you down, as by an 
 
operations in London. — Owen's Position. 191 
 
 anxiety to retain the means of securing to themselves 
 a comfortable and respectable enjoyment of life. Let 
 them distinctly perceive that the ameliorations which 
 you are about to experience are not intended or 
 calculated to inflict any real injury on them or their 
 posterity, but, on the contrary, that the same measures 
 which will improve you must, as they assuredly will, 
 essentially benefit them, and raise them in the scale 
 of happiness and intellectual enjoyment, and you will 
 speedily have their co-operation to carry the contem- 
 plated arrangements into effect." 
 
 In the state of parties then existing, such language 
 as this displays an over-sanguineness of belief in the 
 efficacy of his plans, and it may be admitted that he 
 was sanguine; but he had a certain groundwork of 
 justification for this, which must not be overlooked. 
 As has already been stated, his practical experiment 
 had at this time attracted the attention of vast num- 
 bers of people, a large proportion of whom were 
 persons of position and influence. His eldest son, 
 Robert Dale Owen, in his book, " Threading My 
 Way," says, " I have seen as many as seventy persons 
 in the building at one time. The number of names 
 recorded in our visitors' book, from the year 1 8 1 5 to 
 1825, was nearly 20,000," whilst at the time Owen's 
 address to the working classes was penned, a com- 
 mittee appointed to investigate and report on his plan 
 for providing for the poor by the creation of industrial 
 villages, contafned the names of the Dukes of Kent, 
 Sussex, Bedford, and Portland ; the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury ; the Bishops of London, Peterborough, 
 and Carlisle; the Marquis of Huntly ; Lords Grosvenor, 
 Carnarvon, Granville, Westmorland, Shaftesbury, and 
 
192 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 Manners ; General Sir Thomas Dyce and General 
 Brown, besides those of the following members of the 
 House of Commons : — Messrs Smith, Ricardo, De 
 Crespigny, Wilberforce, Joseph Butterworth, and Sir 
 T. Baring. 
 
 In this year also a committee was appointed by the 
 guardians of the poor at Leeds, for the purpose of 
 inquiring into the causes of the " present increase of 
 pauperism," and " whether the existing evil, as to its 
 causes, be of a complexion merely temporary, and 
 may be supposed soon to right itself ; " or " whether 
 it may not be prudent, in case the causes that induce 
 the evil be permanent, to inquire into the best means 
 of finding a more productive source of labour for the 
 unemployed poor." This committee appointed a 
 deputation to visit New Lanark, to examine and 
 report upon the successful operations of Owen for 
 improving the character and condition of the work- 
 people. This deputation consisted of Mr Edward 
 Baines, afterwards member of Parliament for the 
 borough, and father of the present Sir Edward, a 
 Dissenter ; Robert Oastler, father of Richard, so well 
 known for his subsequent exertions on behalf of the 
 factory children ; and John Cawood, a respected mem- 
 ber of the Established Church. The first paragraph 
 of their report runs thus : — " Mr Owen's establishment 
 at Lanark is essentially a manufacturing establish- 
 ment, conducted in a manner superior to any other 
 the deputation ever witnessed, and dispensing more 
 happiness than perhaps any other institution in the 
 kingdom where so many poor persons are employed, 
 and is founded on an admirable system of moral 
 regulation." In regard to the education of the young. 
 
operations in London. — Owen's Position. 193 
 
 the report says : — " In the education of the children, 
 the thing that is most remarkable is the general spirit 
 of kindness and affection which is shown towards 
 them, and the entire absence of everything that is 
 likely to give them bad habits, with the presence of 
 whatever is calculated to inspire them with good ones ; 
 the consequence is that they appear like one well- 
 regulated family — united together by ties of the 
 closest affection. We heard no quarrels, from the 
 youngest to the eldest ; and so strongly impressed are 
 they with the conviction that their interest and duty 
 are the same, and that to be happy themselves it is 
 necessary to make those happy by whom they are 
 surrounded, that they had no strife but in offices of 
 kindness." Of the boys and girls, from ten to seven- 
 teen, it is said : — " These are all employed in the mill, 
 and in the evening, from seven to half-past eight, 
 they pursue that system of education to which their 
 attention has, up to ten years of age, been directed in 
 the day time." In regard to the adult population, the 
 report adds : — " In general, they appear clean, healthy, 
 and sober ; intoxication, the parent of so many vices 
 and so much misery, is indeed almost unknown here. 
 The consequence is that they are well clad and well 
 fed, and their dwellings are inviting." At the time 
 when, as Mr Sargant informs us, Owen was being 
 shunned by his countrymen, and treated with "neglect, 
 hatred, contempt, and all the ills that follow an ex- 
 communicated man," for his attacks on religion, this 
 Leeds deputation wrote of his service to religion in 
 the following terms : — " The Scotch character has in 
 it, no doubt, something that disposes to a more exem- 
 plary observance of the Sabbath than is generally to 
 
 N 
 
194 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 be met with in England ; but this circumstance apart, 
 it is quite manifest that the New Lanark system has 
 a tendency to improve the religious character ; and so 
 groundless are the apprehensions expressed, on the 
 score of religion suffering injury by the prevalence of 
 these establishments, that we accord with Mr Owen 
 in his assertion, that the inhabitants of that place form 
 a more religious community than any manufacturing 
 establishment in the United Kingdom." The report 
 continues : — " For this well-regulated colony, where 
 almost everything is made that is wanted by either 
 the manufactory or its inhabitants, no cursing or 
 swearing is anywhere to be heard. There are no 
 quarrelsome men or brawling women." 
 
 The deputation, after describing the New Lanark 
 establishment, expressed something like regret that 
 the law and the necessity of obtaining public sanction 
 were obstacles to such an attempt in the neighbour- 
 hood of Leeds, but strongly recommended that 
 something like Owen's plan should be applied to the 
 orphan children. The success of his action at New 
 Lanark, the interest taken in his proceedings in 
 London, and the evidence of approval with which he 
 was everywhere met, might induce a temperament so 
 sanguine as his to hope for more than was realisable ; 
 but, though an accurate estimate of probabilities is in 
 all cases desirable, yet, with the encouragement he 
 received from men who, had their zeal been equal to 
 his own, might have secured the triumph of the 
 reforms for which he strove, it is not surprising if his 
 expectations outran the means of accomplishment. 
 Mr Sargant's account of the way Owen was treated 
 is ludicrously exaggerated, yet there was an activity 
 
His Correspondence with the Duke of Kent. 195 
 
 of misrepresentation and depreciation which, being 
 used for that purpose, in time prejudiced the general 
 public against him. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Ibfs Correspondence witb tbe Dufee of Iftent. 
 
 The book of Dr Henry Grey Macnab, physician to 
 the Duke of Kent, and employed by him to visit and 
 report upon the establishment at New Lanark, is 
 perhaps the fairest in spirit and fullest in detail of 
 any work written concerning Robert Owen. He 
 examined carefully the ideas of Owen, and objected 
 to what appeared to him unsound, with the result of 
 obtaining explanations where differences in interpre- 
 tation of terms and phrases had led to misunder- 
 standings. Many of the utterances of Owen were 
 not given with strict regard to the precise meaning 
 of the words used. Indeed, seeing that his early 
 education was limited in its range and brief in its 
 duration, an exact and scholarly style was not to 
 be looked for ; but allowing for this, his conversation 
 was lucid, and in writing he expressed himself in 
 plain and vigorous language. Dr Macnab was not 
 prepared to admit that Owen's doctrine of the for- 
 mation of character was absolutely true. He admitted 
 that, considered generally, it was indisputable that 
 language, religion, general habits, customs, and modes 
 of thinking were due to surrounding influences acting 
 on the young frora birth up, but he believed in 
 special thought and action being under the control of 
 
196 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 the individual will. A mere dogmatist at the head of 
 a sect would not have permitted any alteration in 
 the wording of what he had formulated ; but Owen 
 authorised Dr Macnab to state, in explaining his 
 views, that in the existing condition of society it 
 would be sufficient " to regard as a truth that the 
 characters of the generality of mankind are chiefly 
 formed by the good or bad education they receive, 
 and the circumstances in which they are placed." 
 This, no doubt, appeared to him as a sufficient com- 
 promise to secure co-operation for the attainment of 
 the end he had in view, and this with him was always 
 one of the most important of considerations. 
 
 It was a rule with Robert Owen not to stand in the 
 way of attainable good by insisting on unattainable 
 conditions of action, — never to postpone what may be 
 done, because all that is sought cannot be obtained at 
 once. It is true that in explaining his principles, he 
 never attempted to disguise or to suppress anything. 
 Yet, however far-reaching his principles, he was ever 
 ready to begin humbly, and to proceed step by step, if 
 the small beginnings gave promise of success. He was 
 quite willing to proceed " bit by bit," provided that he 
 was asked to do nothing contradictory or dangerous 
 to his general plans. His success at New Lanark was 
 the result of experiment following upon experiment 
 over a long series of years, but the ground was always 
 carefully prepared, and each experiment well thought 
 out in principle and detail before it was commenced. 
 When, however, he had to obtain the approval and 
 help of others in all he planned and attempted, the 
 case became altered, as success or failure depended 
 on others rather than on himself But he was not a 
 
His Correspondence with the Duke of Kent. 197 
 
 bigoted, dogmatical, or reckless experimenter. What 
 he sought was the hearty co-operation of earnest men, 
 and to obtain this he was always willing to concede 
 anything that might tend to the success of his pro- 
 jects without compromising his principles. 
 
 The Duke of Kent, who had made himself 
 thoroughly acquainted with Owen's character, and 
 who also caused the fullest and most searching 
 inquiries to be made as to the nature of his pro- 
 ceedings, appears to have treated him upon all occa- 
 sions with unusual respect and confidence. Writing 
 from Kensington Palace, i8th July 18 19, he says : — 
 
 " I am happy to find that you have fixed the 
 general meeting for the 26th, on which occasion I 
 shall certainly endeavour to discharge the duties of 
 the chair to the utmost of my poor abilities, and to 
 satisfy you and your friends as well as the public 
 that I have a most sincere wish that a fair trial 
 should be given to your system, of which I have 
 never hesitated to acknowledge myself an admirer, 
 though I was well aware to set it going that we 
 should have a great deal of prejudice to combat ; 
 and that in order to make a beginning many points 
 must necessarily be conceded. ... I think it right to 
 mention that my illustrious friend and relative, Prince 
 Leopold, goes to Scotland next month, and has pro- 
 mised me faithfully to visit the establishment at 
 Lanark. Were it not for my domestic engagements 
 I should willingly do the same ; and I shall envy him 
 his good, fortune until I am able to accomplish it." 
 
 On the 13th September, the Duke wrote to Owen 
 a long letter concerning his income, his marriage, and 
 expenditure, giving a number of details, including 
 
198 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 plans for the future in regard to himself and his 
 family, and concluding thus : — 
 
 " I have now said enough of myself, and shall just 
 add that I received a summons to attend your com- 
 mittee on Thursday afternoon on my return from 
 Oatlands, which gave me only an hour's notice, and 
 therefore I was unable to comply with it. I rejoice 
 to hear that so many persons of respectability are 
 visiting New Lanark this year, to which number I 
 should certainly have added myself but for my un- 
 willingness to absent myself from the Duchess, and 
 the impossibility of her undertaking the journey with 
 me at present. I wish, however, that in addition to 
 Sir William De Crespigny, some other members of 
 the House of Commons, possessing equally philan- 
 thropic feelings, but of the other political party, might 
 be induced to do the same ; and this I mention with 
 the view of Parliament taking up the matter seriously 
 next session. At all events, I trust my illustrious 
 relative. Prince Leopold, will not fail to fulfil his 
 promise, in which case I am confident the re.sult 
 cannot fail of being most satisfactory to him." 
 
 Writing from Kensington Palace again on the 2nd 
 October, the Duke says : — 
 
 " As to myself, you know how sincerely I am 
 engaged in the cause, and if any measures are to be 
 taken in Parliament with respect to it, which should 
 render it indispensably necessary that I should be 
 able to vouch for facts from having had ocular 
 demonstration of them, I shall not hesitate — although 
 we intend wintering in the west, in order that the 
 Duchess may have the benefit of tepid sea bathing, 
 and our infant that of sea air, on the fine coast of 
 
His Correspondence with the Duke of Kent. 199 
 
 Devonshire, during the months of the year that are 
 so odious in London — to post down to Scotland 
 for the purpose ; and if the Duchess's health continues 
 good, and there is no cause to render her travelling 
 imprudent, I have no doubt but she will most readily 
 accompany me. In the meanwhile, I am delighted 
 to find that you have so many visits from individuals 
 whose suffrages will be of importance ; the more your 
 establishment is seen, the more I am convinced it 
 must carry with it the full and entire approval of 
 every benevolent heart. With regard to Dr Macnab 
 I consider him as a kindred soul with your own, and 
 am delighted to perceive that you appreciate him, as 
 I thought you would. I long to see him on his 
 return to hear a full report of his visit to you, as it 
 was entirelyundertaken at mysuggestion ; and from his 
 letters I perceive the result has been to render him 
 quite enthusiastic as to what you have accomplished, 
 and what he foresees may be accomplished if once we 
 can succeed in carrying the public opinion with us. 
 Wishing you health to continue your zealous exertions 
 for the good of mankind, I beg to subscribe myself, 
 with sentiments of friendship and esteem, my dear sir, 
 yours faithfully, Edward." 
 
 I shall give one more communication of His Royal 
 Highness. It shows how very zealous he was in the 
 interest of the masses of the working people, how 
 open in his communications, and how cordial and 
 friendly with Owen personally : — 
 
 " Kensington Palace, 31^^ October 1819. 
 " My dear Owen,- — Having been absent four days 
 on a visit to the coast of Devonshire to fix upon a 
 
200 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 house where we could cheat the early part of the 
 approaching winter, I did not receive till late on 
 Thursday night your favour of the 19th, since which 
 I have been so overwhelmed with business as scarcely 
 to have been able to find a moment to devote to you ; 
 I will not, however, suffer to-morrow's mail to depart 
 without just answering your kind and interesting 
 communication. 
 
 " I was delighted to perceive you had the visit of 
 General Desseaux, and I look forward with pleasure 
 to hear him converse upon your establishment. Pray 
 express to Lady Mary Ross, whose brother. Lord 
 Robert Fitzgerald, is a particular friend of mine, how 
 grateful the Duchess and myself feel for the kind offer 
 of her house in your vicinity in case we should be 
 enabled to pay you a visit during the period of her 
 absence in South Britain ; but as there is an absolute 
 necessity that the Duchess should take tepid sea 
 baths in the first instance at Sidmouth, which have 
 been strongly advised by her medical attendant, to 
 strengthen her health after her confinement and 
 nursing, I fear, with every wish on both our parts to 
 do so, we shall not be able to avail ourselves of it, at 
 least for the present year. < 
 
 " At the same time, I cannot deny that your 
 tempting offer would be a strong inducement to 
 undertake the journey were we not so circumstanced 
 at present as to preclude almost the possibility of 
 thinking of it. But though this pleasure must be 
 deferred, I by no means think of giving it up. On 
 the contrary, I look forward with pleasure to realising 
 it at a future day. I congratulate you upon having 
 had a visit from some of the particular friends of Mrs 
 
His Correspondence with the Duke of Kent. 201 
 
 Fry, as I am sure they can only have gone to New 
 Lanark with motives of benevolence. I think it also 
 extremely fortunate that the celebrated Mr Ellis, of 
 Kent, has determined upon viewing your establish- 
 ment in person ; for it is the opinion of such valuable- 
 men as he is which, if favourable, must give strength 
 to the cause. Lord Torrington, who is to accompany 
 him, is certainly a very worthy, well-meaning man, 
 but I am afraid you will not find the judgment that 
 you will in his travelling companion. However, it is 
 a satisfaction to find that one nobleman has thought 
 it worth his while to undertake the journey; and I 
 hope his example will be followed by a great many 
 more, being satisfied that nothing can tend so much 
 to establish a conviction of all the good that may 
 result from forming establishments upon your prin- 
 ciples as ocular demonstration. And I say this with 
 the more feeling, being strongly impressed, like you, 
 with the belief that the change contemplated for the 
 relief of the suffering poor of the country must indeed 
 be made more speedily and generally than many seem 
 to anticipate, if the object is to restore the country to 
 a state of order and tranquillity before it is too late. 
 
 " My only fear is that ministers, having chosen 
 to draw the sword, will turn a deaf ear to the repre- 
 sentations of those who, from motives of benevolence, 
 like yourself, and viewing the matter with unbiassed 
 judgment, would adopt measures of a totally different 
 tendency. It may be right to apprise you that I 
 recently received the enclosed papers from Mr Bourne, 
 who certainly is a most zealous and active member of 
 the committee, but, after having so long adjourned 
 our meetings, I should like to have your opinion upon 
 
202 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 his suggestions before we act upon them. Pray write 
 by return of post, your doing which will, I apprehend, 
 enable me to hear from you on the 9th, or at latest 
 on the loth of November; and in the meanwhile, 
 believe me ever to remain, with the most friendly 
 regard, my dear Owen, yours faithfully, EDWARD." 
 
 The Duke presided as chairman of the London 
 general committee on the first of December 1 8 19, 
 and died with unexpected suddenness on the 23rd 
 of January 1820. This was a loss as serious as it 
 was unexpected to Owen. Mr Sargant* thinks that 
 by his sudden death the Duke was rescued from the 
 " odium which he was incurring as the zealous advo- 
 cate of views grossly tainted with infidelity, and 
 saved from that contempt which the unthinking world 
 is apt to bestow on Utopian schemes earnestly pur- 
 sued." Owen's schemes at this time concerned the 
 regulation of labour in the factories of the country ; 
 the establishment of industrial villages for the im- 
 provement of the condition of the poor, and for 
 bettering the position of the working classes generally, 
 and both these objects may have been Utopian. As 
 a security for the peace of these villages, he con- 
 demned those old responsibilities for religious belief 
 which had caused so much persecution ; but this 
 can hardly be regarded as gross infidelity, for which 
 the Duke of Kent would have incurred '' odium " and 
 " contempt." In a country like England, where 
 freedom of thought is an inheritance, and where new 
 industrial developments were at the time referred to 
 producing the misery they ought to have been in- 
 
 * " Robert Owen and his Philosophy," p. 158. 
 
His Correspondence with the Duke of Kent. 203 
 
 strumental in preventing, to say this raises a suspicion 
 that Mr Sargant partakes largely of the spirit that 
 visits with the penalty indicated efforts honestly made 
 in the interest of those who suffer through ignorance 
 and want. 
 
 Mr Sargant says that, after' the death of the Duke 
 of Kent, " Owen was left without any prominent 
 disciples in England." Yet when the " British and 
 Foreign Philanthropic Society" met in the June of 
 1822, at the Freemasons' Hall, Great Queen Street, 
 the following names appeared on the list of vice-presi- 
 dents : — His Excellency Count De Lieven, Russian 
 Ambassador ; Viscount De Chateaubriand, French 
 Ambassador; Don Luis de Onis, Spanish Minister; 
 Baron De Werther, Prussian Minister ; Richard Rush, 
 American Minister ; Baron De Stierneld, Swedish 
 Minister ; Count De Ludolf, Sicilian Minister ; Count 
 St Martin D'Aglie, Sardinian Minister ; Baron Langs- 
 dorf. Resident Minister for Baden and Hesse ; M. De 
 Moraes Sarmento, Charge d'Affaires, Portugal ; the 
 Right Honourable the Earl of Lonsdale, Earl of 
 Blessington, Lord Archibald Hamilton, Lord Viscount 
 Torrington, Lord Viscount Exmouth, Lord Nugent, 
 Due de Broglie, Baron de Stael, and John Randolph, 
 Esq., Virginia, U.S. The acting committee for the 
 year 1822 contained the names of fifteen members 
 of Parliament. A list of subscriptions and loans ap- 
 pended to a report of a meeting of this society, held 
 on the 1st of June 1822, includes the following: — 
 A. J. Hamilton, ;£'s,ooo ; James Morrison, ^5,000 ; 
 John Smith, M.P., ^^1,250; George Smith, M.P., 
 ;^625; Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, £2^0; J. M. Morgan, 
 :^Soo ; Sir Charles Grey, Bengal, £'^00 ; Geo. Dawson 
 
204 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 M.P., ;^250 ; Henry Jones, Devon, ;^5,ooo; General 
 Brown, London, £1,2^0 ; M. Rothschild, London, 
 ;£'25o; Mrs Rathbone, Liverpool, ^1,000; Anthony 
 Clapham, Newcastle, ^^1,000; W. Foster Reynolds, 
 ;^500 ; Robert Owen, New Lanark, ;£'io,ooo ; William 
 and Joseph Strutt, Derby, ;^5,000. The list of 
 smaller sums is a long one. Altogether, over £^^,<X)0 
 was subscribed. 
 
 These subscriptions were not called in, as the above 
 sum was not sufficient for the commencement of an 
 experiment such as was contemplated. There was 
 nothing proved by this effort except that Robert Owen 
 had a large number of enthusiastic friends, who were 
 interested in the success of his plans,, and who offered 
 to subscribe liberally in order that a well-considered 
 experiment might be made. But they were not 
 numerous enough to subscribe the amount needed, 
 and were therefore compelled to abandon an attempt 
 which, between that period and the introduction 
 of the Poor Law Amendment Acts, might, if fairly 
 successful, have saved the owners of property many 
 millions sterling which had to be paid in consequence 
 of a maladministration of the poor laws. 
 
 CHAPTER/XXVll. 
 
 1bt8 Dispositfon an& ipublic Ueacbing. 
 
 Robert Owen was over strong in his belief that 
 truth spoken out frankly, in the interest of those to 
 whom it was addressed, must in the end command 
 
His Disposition and Public Teaching. 205 
 
 acceptance and support. He did notjnake sufficient 
 allowance for habit, prej udic e, seilf^interest, individual 
 ambition^^d a multitude of minor but nevertheless 
 poweriuTlnfluences by which men „are moved. ^ He 
 saw the success he had achieved in New Lanark, shut 
 in with his people from the world and its ordinary 
 influences. His own influence there was predominant, 
 and it was felt by the people to be wisely exercised. 
 His plans might not always have been understood, 
 but his motives could not be called in question, while 
 the results were always beneficial to the people and 
 profitable to the employers. 
 
 He did not achieve success through a series of 
 blunders that brought suffering or loss to others ; on 
 the contrary, every step was successful, so much so 
 that mistakes in management, such as would have 
 interfered with commercial success, were never alleged 
 against him. The disputes through which he had to 
 separate from his three sets of partners were chiefly 
 as to the methods of appropriating profits. The 
 first two sets believed that too much was done for the 
 workers at their expense, while the last set, as repre- 
 sented by William Allen, made the conflict one of an 
 interference arising out of a prejudice and self-opinion 
 which could not but be fatal to Owen's plans. 
 
 Owen did not abandon the good work he was 
 engaged in at New Lanark in consequence of any 
 ambitious desire to become a public teacher, but when 
 his partners not only supported William Allen, but 
 also sent a teacher to his schools that jthis opposition 
 might have practical effect, he could not remain. 
 Besides, coincidently with this, theattempts- made^in 
 London by the Philanthropic Society had broken 
 
2o6 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 down. The necessaivmonev co uld not bg _obtained. 
 and— thereiore^the only hope th at could reasonably 
 exist Th his mmdrwaJthaFthe working peo plelnight 
 be induced tc3 take the matter up for them selves, if 
 they could be brought to understand_th£_£YiIsTrom 
 which they were suffering, and to exert the .power they 
 possessed to apply the proper- remedy. 
 
 At this point in his career, two courses were open 
 to him, — either to retire, and live in ease and compara- 
 tive luxury on the fortune he had made ; or to enter 
 on a work of public teaching, with the view of bring- 
 ing the working portion of the population to share his 
 convictions, and causing them to take an active part 
 in the working out of their own regeneration. When 
 asked, subsequently, why he decided to abandon the 
 tranquillity of private life for the trouble and calumny 
 attending an active warfare against established in- 
 justice, he replied, that whatever the blessings of 
 retirement, he felt he could not live simply for himself ; 
 he knew, he said, from what needless miseries the 
 poor suffered, and thinking of these would make 
 happiness impossible to him, unless he laboured to 
 make them less. 
 
 When he retired from New Lanark, it was not to 
 rest, but to work in one of the most painful situations 
 a man unused to public warfare could occupy. The 
 people — the poor who suffered — did not understand 
 him ; and though he had among them many devoted 
 adherents, all the support and encouragement they 
 could give him was as nothing to the abuse, misrepre- 
 sentation, and opposition that came from those who 
 regarded him as an enemy to society, for the reason 
 that he protested against the continuance of a system 
 
His Disposition and Public Teaching. 207 
 
 which condemned the masses of the people to poverty, 
 ignorance, and suffering ; as well as from considerable 
 numbers of persons who looked on him as an enemy 
 to religion, because he denied the voluntary nature 
 of belief, and condemned the discords and persecu- 
 tions that originated in the acceptance of an idea 
 which he considered a gross and mischievous error. 
 
 It is generally believed that he was not sufficiently 
 equipped at all points for such a combat as he 
 challenged when he entered the field, and this to a 
 certain extent is true. He understood his general 
 principles with singular clearness. He had made 
 himself thoroughly familiar with the evils against 
 which he contended, and no man could deal better 
 with the objections that were generally made to his 
 proposals. His manner was manly, straightforward, 
 and dignified. What the late Lord Brougham (then 
 Mr Henry Brougham) said of him in the House of 
 Commons, in the debate on Sir William De Crespigny's 
 motion for inquiry into Owen's plans, in the December 
 of 1820, was strictly correct : — " Of Mr Owen, he did 
 not hesitate to state his conviction that a more honest, 
 amiable, and simple-minded man was not to be found 
 on the face of the earth. He was indeed a rare 
 character, for, though a projector, he was candid to a 
 degree that he (Mr Brougham) could not have be- 
 lieved had he not himself had personal experience 
 of that candour. Let a person treat his projects as 
 severely as he pleased, Mr Owen was never irritated, 
 never offended, because truth only was the object he 
 had in view.'' 
 
 He needed all this candour and calmness to carry 
 him through the trial before him. Such conflicts as 
 
2o8 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiuen. 
 
 he was entering on had always been fought without 
 much regard for candour or forbearance on any side, 
 and with an overabundance of charges and proofs in 
 which truth was not the first or principal considera- 
 tion. Beyond all things, Owen sought to avoid making 
 angry charges, and the heaping of blame on the heads 
 of those who might defend existing abuses. He had 
 a horror of such a mode of warfare, as alike unjust 
 and ineffectual. He hated retaliations of evil, because 
 he believed that most of the wrong men did to each 
 other was done through ignorance and misunder- 
 standing, not from evil intention, and therefore that 
 angry condemnations were to be avoided above all 
 things by those who took upon themselves the work 
 of reform. In fact, he regarded the chief part of the 
 law-making, law-breaking, law-enforcing business of 
 the world as a kind of inevitable Walpurgus revel, 
 that must be continued until men saw their way to a 
 wise education of the young, and to such an equitable 
 distribution of the fruits of the country's industry as 
 would secure all from " want or the fear of want," and 
 thus check an over-eager and injurious pursuit of 
 individual gain, and, at the same time, tend to remove 
 the many temptations to crime arising from poverty, 
 ignorance, and evil example. 
 
 For some years before Owen left New Lanark, and 
 for many years afterwards, the state of England, 
 considering the means at the disposal of those who 
 governed its affairs, was most deplorable. There-was 
 division and strife arising out of vexatious inter- 
 meddling with freedom of worship. There was an 
 active fermentation of political discontent among the 
 masses of the people, in consequence of an irritating 
 
His Disposition and Public Teaching. 209 
 
 and obstinate denial of political justice, partially- 
 checked by the Reform Act of 1832. There was also 
 a widespread poverty, which created demands on 
 property through the poor-laws, which were rapidly 
 depriving land of its value, and thus dragging its 
 owners into complications of distress from which 
 they saw no means of escape. In addition, there was 
 a vigorous demand for a free and untaxed press, and 
 for a further extension of popular rights than had 
 been obtained in 1832; and an increasing agitation 
 for a repeal of the corn laws, sustained by cries of 
 suffering from the masses of the people. These things 
 were liable at any moment to occasion acts of revolt 
 against the authority of Government, such as might 
 have taxed its strength and resources to the uttermost. 
 Owen's principles were principles of peace. They 
 could only be thought out or worked out apart from 
 excitement and violence. Popular excitement was 
 calculated to in every way hinder the progress it was 
 his most earnest desire to make. For this reason, if 
 for no other, he was a steadfast and determined enemy 
 to violence, and hence the publications first put forth 
 by those who gathered round him take for granted, 
 not the impossibility perhaps, but certainly the folly, 
 of attempting the work Owen had outlined otherwise 
 than in a spirit of peace and regard for the interest of 
 all. The times were dangerous. Public anger was 
 strong and widely spread ; the passions of the people 
 easily moved ; and, as Owen's protests were directed 
 against the evils that existed in the country, both social 
 and political, he might have started an agitation that, 
 vigorously conducted, would have aroused popular fury 
 in every corner of the land. 
 
 O 
 
2IO Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 f It ought to be remembered to Owen's credit, that he 
 mever lost an opportunity of condemning personal or 
 \ class invective, and of impressing on the minds of his 
 supporters that they were acting in opposition to his 
 principles when they said or did anything in con- 
 y^demnation of individual men. The work to be done 
 was a positive work, a new foundation, and this he felt 
 could not be effected by denunciation, by rousing 
 prejudices, or by outstepping the bounds of peace or 
 legality. He did not believe that the emancipation of 
 the human race was not worth fighting for, but rather 
 that there were other and far better ways of obtaining 
 it, and that it was the people's duty to adopt these. 
 I Liberty of thought and speech was what he asked for, 
 land this once granted, he never doubted that the 
 \accomplishment of desirable ends must follow. In 
 this conviction he strove to secure liberty of speech, 
 and to promote an activity in the direction of wise 
 reform, such as would make free speech and free 
 action in the interest of progress a foremost necessity 
 among men. When through any indiscretion his 
 followers got into trouble with the authorities, he 
 maintained it was by acting in opposition to the well- 
 understood policy and express instructions of the 
 association and its directors. At a time of widespread 
 popular discontent, and, it may be added, of real 
 danger to the peace of the country, the Socialists of 
 England considered it a duty to calm public excite- 
 ment ; to explain the mistakes by which misery and 
 suffering were produced ; to devise and recommend 
 remedies involving injury to no man or class of men, 
 and free from conflict with any political party. 
 
Visits Holkham, and stands for Parliament. 2 1 1 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 IDisits 1bol??bam, anb stanbs for parliament. 
 
 Owen's life, as already stated, derives its chief interest 
 from his continuous efforts to permanently improve the 
 condition of the masses of the people. It has been 
 alleged that he theorised and talked too much, and this 
 can, with some plausibility, be supported by reference 
 to his plans, if at the same time due reference be 
 omitted to the practical work he performed in order 
 to test his ideas. 
 
 The subject he undertook to deal with, was difficult 
 to understand thoroughly without ample time for 
 experiment ; it was so vast in its connection with 
 various conditions of human life, and the way in which 
 human happiness could best be promoted by im- 
 proved education, and by a better treatment of the^ 
 working population of the country. His theories in 
 regard to education, and the conduct of business, were 
 formed on the observation and study of his early life ; 
 and his many years of practical labour, and the proof 
 derived from this, left no doubt in his mind that a 
 most important work for the improvement of society 
 might be entered on at once. In this belief, he set 
 himself to convince the public that no time should be 
 lost if society were to be saved from the ignorance, 
 poverty, and misery then afflicting it almost beyond 
 endurance. It can hardly be brought as a charge 
 against Owen, that, after practically testing his ideas, 
 he was anxious to produce in the minds of others the 
 conviction that existed in his own, though in striving 
 
212 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 to do so he did not escape the rash and uncharitable 
 judgments of the cheaply virtuous ; indeed, it is 
 curious to observe with what bitterness some of those 
 who have dealt with his public proceedings have 
 assailed him. Vanity, love of notoriety, quackery, 
 hatred of religion, allied to a kind of diseased bene- 
 volence, are stated to be his most prominent charac- 
 teristics, by writers from whose professions of liberality 
 something more in accordance with truth and candour 
 might have been expected. 
 
 From the time Robert Owen left New Lanark up to 
 the time when he became actively engaged in forming 
 and arousing public opinion, his work seems to have 
 been preparatory rather than progressive. He visited 
 Holkham, by invitation of Mr Coke, and spoke at a 
 meeting of agriculturists. His speech, when his health 
 had been drunk, was condensed and to the point. 
 After thanking the company for the honour done him, 
 he " regretted that he had been destined to differ 
 essentially in principle from gentlemen for whom he 
 entertained the highest regard and most sincere 
 friendship ; but as he conscientiously differed from 
 them, and knew there could be no advantageous 
 intercourse between any parties when differences 
 could not be freely expressed, he should, as an act 
 of imperative duty, which he felt himself called on 
 to perform, state wherein his sentiments concerning 
 public distress were not in unison with those of the 
 gentlemen present. He could not be callous to the 
 unwearied exertions of his honourable friend (Mr 
 Coke), or to the praiseworthy attempts of many of 
 the gentlemen present to reduce the public expendi- 
 ture of the country within just and proper limits. 
 
Visits Holkham, and stands for Parliament. 213 
 
 Economy in the application of public funds would 
 ever continue to be a most valuable principle to act 
 upon, and, as such, it should at all times receive his 
 approbation and support; but he could not agree 
 with those gentlemen who thought that a reduction 
 of our public expenditure, or a reform in the Commons 
 House of Parliament, could, under the new and extra- 
 ordinary circumstances in which this country and 
 the world were placed, give us that prosperity we 
 sought, or which the late improvements in machinery, 
 opening a mine of inexhaustible wealth to all the 
 inhabitants of the world, now so justly entitle us to 
 expect." 
 
 In the above words Owen expresses that which, 
 though true, stood much in his way as a reformer. 
 He was strongly impressed with the belief that it 
 was little better than waste of time to correct 
 the evils of society by temporary expedients. He 
 forgot that society was divided into sections of be- 
 lievers in such expedients, and that he was placing 
 such persons in opposition to him. It was certainly 
 true that the settlement of the questions then before 
 the country, could not relieve the people from what 
 they were suffering, yet it is just as true that most of 
 them were measures of justice, tending to promote 
 good government and prepare the way for those ' 
 bolder proposals that went more thoroughly to the 
 root of the evil. He was friendly to economy in the 
 expenditure of the public funds, and to reform in the 
 House of Commons, but he offended those who 
 specially championed these, and got credit for being 
 an enemy rather than a friend. In this he made a 
 mistake, as by so doing he lost the support of large 
 
214 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 numbers of men who would have gone heartily with 
 him, had he — whilst approving of the work in which 
 they were engaged — refrained from a depreciation of 
 its value, and taken advantage of their friendliness to 
 him, as a reformer, in obtaining their aid for pro- 
 moting the work he himself had in hand. There' is 
 nothing truer than that retrenchment in expenditure 
 and reformation in Parliamentary representation have 
 done much good, but not of the kind or to the extent 
 the people expected ; and it is certain that those who 
 were most sanguine and unreasonable in their ex- 
 pectations, have, in many cases, ceased to be reformers 
 in consequence of their disappointments. This is 
 unwise. Curtailment of an unwise and corrupt ex- 
 penditure is a good in itself The extension of the 
 suffrage is good in itself, because it sustains and 
 carries forward the nation by the intelligence and 
 efforts of the people, — not by a class of the people; 
 and this is but a preparation, perhaps a necessary 
 preparation, before reforms such as those proposed 
 by Owen, which require public spirit and public 
 virtue to sustain them, can come generally into 
 operation. At this Holkham meeting, after pointing 
 out how a superabundance of everything required by 
 the people might be obtained, he urged, in illustration 
 of his argument, the management of the estate of his 
 host, Mr Coke : — " He found the property, when he 
 received it from his predecessor, a barren sandy 
 waste, almost without cultivation or inhabitants, and 
 the few of the latter which it contained were often 
 fed with food imported from other soils and districts. 
 It was rented at three shillings an acre, and the 
 farmers in possession of it would not venture to give 
 
Visits Holkham, and stands for Parliament. 215 
 
 five shillings an acre for the renewal of a long lease. 
 At that time it might have been said of this beautiful 
 domain that it was over-peopled, that there was such 
 an excess of population that they could not be sup- 
 ported from the soil, and that every addition to the 
 number would be an evil, because they must either 
 starve or emigrate. Is not this the language now 
 applied by those who have great authority apiong us, 
 whose opinions influence public affairs, when they 
 describe the situation of the British empire ? and are 
 the sentiments more just in the one case than in the 
 other? I contend they are not, and that the British 
 empire is, at this moment, the waste and wild that 
 Holkham was; that it is equally destitute of the 
 number of inhabitants that it is competent to support 
 advantageously for the land, the landed proprietor, 
 the freeholder, and the industrious part of the com- 
 munity ; and to make this now suffering, complaining, 
 and wretched country a second Garden of Eden, to 
 enable it to support in high comfort a population five, 
 nay, tenfold its present number, all that is necessary 
 is closely to follow, as statesmen, the example of Mr 
 Coke as a landlord and agriculturist. He found 
 Holkham waste and wild, and the few inhabitants it 
 kept, poor and ignorant. You now see what it is, — a 
 domain unrivalled in many respects by any other in 
 the world, and the inhabitants are increased sixfold, 
 living in a degree of comfort that must delight every 
 one who has examined their residences and enjoyed 
 their good cheer, as many of us have done. Our 
 statesmen have only to follow the example thus 
 commenced. Let the subjects of the empire be 
 governed with paternal kindness, such as we see 
 
2i6 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 exercised here; let them be instructed in valuable 
 practical knowledge, as the tenants of this estate 
 have been ; let their powers of activity sedulously 
 have a full scope, as these have had, unrestrained by 
 ignorant clauses and conditions which injure landlord 
 and tenant ; let them be encouraged freely to expend 
 their capital in substantial permanent improvement, 
 or let it be expended by the landlord for them, as 
 we hear has often been done here ; the proprietor re- 
 ceiving ample interest for such expenditure, and then 
 production will far outstrip any increase of popula- 
 tion, or the wants of production ; but above all, let 
 our legislators follow Mr Coke's example in allowing 
 the producers of his wealth to have a fair and liberal 
 proportion of that which they create." 
 
 A long speech by Robert Owen in explanation of 
 his principles, would have been out of place at such a 
 gathering as the one at Holkham. The position was 
 most interesting. Owen, at Lanark, had proved what 
 could be done on behalf of the factory -workers of the 
 country, were the factory-owners disposed to take a 
 humane interest in the welfare of the people in their 
 employment. He had made evident what mighty 
 results for good could be brought about, if the improve- 
 ment of the worker was accepted as an important 
 part of the duty of the factory proprietor ; and at 
 this meeting he had to address country gentlemen 
 and farmers in reference to an experiment connected 
 with the land. An intelligent, public-spirited, and 
 humane man had not only improved his land up to 
 a condition . in which it supported its own inhabit- 
 ants, which it had not done before, but had increased 
 these sixfold, at the same time adding to the wealth 
 
Visits Hoik ham, and stands for Parliament. 217 
 
 and comfort of the people to an extent almost 
 incredible. Two experimenters, one in manufacturing 
 industry, and one on the land, had given an example 
 to the country and its Government, which if followed 
 in regard to agriculture and manufacture, might have 
 saved the nation much of the painful experience it 
 has since gone through. 
 
 It ought to have been mentioned that two years 
 previous to this (18 19) Owen offered himself as 
 candidate for the representation of the Lanark burghs 
 in Parliament. His address to the electors contrasts 
 curiously with such documents as are now usually 
 addressed to voters on the eve of an election. There 
 is not a word in it as to specific demands of any kind. 
 He held strong views in regard to the corn laws ; but 
 at that time the manufacturers of the country were 
 not free-traders, and therefore there was no public 
 opinion to which he could appeal in favour of the 
 abrogation of these laws. Five years after this an 
 attempt was made to allow the makers of machinery 
 to export to foreign countries, and to permit the 
 artisans who constructed machinery to seek employ- 
 ment in foreign lands, but both these objects were 
 defeated through an opposition led by the Manchester 
 Chamber of Commerce. There was little or no poli- 
 tical commotion beyond what had its root in the 
 deep distress of the working classes in the manufac- 
 turing districts. The " Manchester Massacre " was 
 occasioned by a demonstration of the working people, 
 filled with discontent in consequence of their suffer- 
 ings, and believing that if they possessed political 
 power they could change the law so as to improve 
 their condition. The constituencies in 18 19 were 
 
2 1 8 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 little more than a name — a few people whose right of 
 voting was nearly always used for the great proprietors. 
 In his address Owen explains his motives for coming 
 forward, rather than his views on any political subject. 
 One paragraph runs thus : — " The country is in dis- 
 tress ; the labour of the working classes is reduced 
 to the value of bare existence by the rapid and 
 extensive introduction of machinery and other scientific 
 power, by which the old proportion between produc- 
 tion and consumption is entirely destroyed." He 
 then refers to the study he had given to the subject 
 with a view to preventing the threatened evil conse- 
 quences. " These," he says, " are the motives which 
 urge me to desire a seat in the House of Commons, 
 and I should greatly prefer receiving it from the 
 district in which I have resided the last twenty years. 
 You know now my pretensions, and I wish not to 
 deceive you in any respect ; I have no patronage ; I 
 expect none ; for, whoever may be in power, I will 
 not ask a private favour for myself or others. If, 
 under these circumstances, you believe my services in 
 the House of Commons can be of public utility, I 
 shall be gratified by your support." He was not 
 returned, but this he seems to have counted on, in 
 consequence of certain pledges given to another 
 candidate before it was known he intended to stand. 
 He had no parliamentary ambition, and though he 
 allowed himself to be nominated for Marylebone, 
 between twenty and thirty years after, it was for the 
 purpose of addressing the electors, and not with any 
 intention of going to the poll. 
 
Visits Ireland and America. ,219 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Disits Jrelanb anb Hmedca. 
 
 Owen visited Ireland in 1822 in consequence of the 
 deplorable condition of the people, who had passed 
 through one of their periodical famines. He care- 
 fully examined into the state of the country, and 
 held meetings at the Rotunda in Dublin, and at 
 certain of the large towns in the provinces. He also 
 consulted with considerable numbers of the Irish 
 aristocracy, as well as with the Catholic and Protestant 
 hierarchy. He visited Maynooth, and stated his 
 views to a meeting of the authorities and others in 
 that establishment, and finally he reported on the 
 condition of the country generally. Those under 
 whose government it was had no notion of advising 
 or doing anything practical with a view to its per- 
 manent relief 
 
 At this time, what are now called the measures of 
 Catholic relief were a subject of violent contention in 
 and out of Parliament. Anything approaching to 
 reasonable thought in connection with religious tolera- 
 tion did not exist in Ireland on the part of the 
 dominant faction, and naturally the masses of the 
 people and their leaders hated very heartily the 
 Government and the bigoted faction by which they 
 were oppressed. Instead of being a land of " settled 
 government," Ireland was full of strife — religious and 
 political. No proposal for the welfare of the people 
 could be carried out where the co-operation of the 
 two sections into which the people were divided was 
 
220 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 impossible, and where mutual suspicion was so intense 
 that whatever one party proposed or supported the 
 other was sure to distrust and oppose. No duty was 
 mutually understood as a common necessity, and 
 nothing, however needed or well intended, could be 
 suggested or entered on without leading to party 
 contention. 
 
 But the worst part of the business was, that distress 
 of the most shocking kind was, in the nature of things, 
 of frequent occurrence ; and before anything could be 
 done to permanently overcome a difficulty so fatal, it 
 was necessary to entirely change the character of the 
 land laws. In a matter of such consequence and such 
 pressing necessity, Owen was altogether powerless. 
 There was at that time no public opinion in England 
 in regard to the Irish land lav/s, whilst in Ireland the 
 burning question of the day was one of religious 
 toleration, of political power to be obtained by 
 Catholic emancipation ; and so urgent was this as an 
 immediate necessity, that what lay behind as desir- 
 able for the political and social welfare of the country, 
 had to be, if not overlooked, at least postponed until 
 the religious equality of the people was secured. 
 
 Even the least informed need not now be told how 
 utterly iniquitous the system of landlord and tenant in 
 Ireland was. The great bulk of the people lived on 
 and by the land. Their occupations were agricul- 
 tural, and a vast majority of them had to cultivate the 
 land without any security in their holdings. A few 
 months' notice only was required to remove the cul- 
 tivator from his home and his few acres, should the 
 landlord will it, and to this end the whole civil and 
 military force of Ireland was available, being in all 
 
Visits Ireland and A merica. 221 
 
 times and seasons at the landlords' disposal. The 
 sad story of actual Irish evictions, and the dreadful 
 sufferings by which they have been usually attended, 
 is very old ; but these, bad as they were, were not the 
 worst part of the picture of Irish misery. The people 
 evicted died, or found their way to America or else- 
 where as emigrants, and in time those who escaped 
 with life found in their new homes more hospitable 
 shelter than their own country afforded. The evicted 
 were those who either failed to pay exorbitantly 
 advanced rents, or who resisted in any way the 
 dreadful exactions of the landlord. The masses of the 
 tenants-at-will in the western, southern, and eastern 
 provinces paid and remained, but were always strug- 
 gling in a state of semi-starvation. 
 
 The means of the cultivator to keep life in him and 
 his, consists of what is left between what he obtains for 
 his crop, and what it costs him in seed, labour, manure, 
 and rent. It can be seen, therefore, that with a power 
 on the part of the landlord to increase rent at will, 
 nothing can be expected but that the people shall be 
 kept in a condition of chronic poverty. Nourishing 
 food was not to be obtained, and, at last, the worst kind 
 of potato became the constant diet of the people. Of 
 this even they had not sufficient ; and when it is 
 remembered that the potato at best can only be 
 regarded as fit for food during about nine months out 
 of the twelve, it needs little reflection to understand 
 that the people who depend on it must, as a matter of 
 pure necessity, live continually on the verge of their 
 graves. If all seasons were good, such a state of 
 misery as this might be indefinitely prolonged ; but 
 with failures of crop through any of the many causes 
 
222 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 that operate to produce them, death by hunger must 
 inevitably follow, and hence death by hunger in Ire- 
 land was a common and almost an everyday occur- 
 rence, culminating periodically in famines. 
 
 Against this Owen could do nothing. It required 
 a thorough amendment of the land laws to adequately 
 meet the requirements of the case, and this was not 
 at that time even thought of by the British public. 
 His public meetings were well attended, offers of help 
 were made by some of the landlords who, as patriotic 
 men, felt that something thorough should be at- 
 tempted. Money subscriptions were offered, and had 
 the public mind at the time been in a condition to 
 enter on such a work, something might have been 
 attempted ; but it is not going too far to say, that the 
 application of Owen's plans could not, under such 
 circumstances, have been carried out, and if attempted 
 could scarcely have resulted in anything but failure. 
 
 In the year following his Irish efforts, Owen visited 
 the United States of America for the first time. In 
 the year 1824 he purchased the estates of New Har- 
 mony from the Rappites, with the view of making a 
 practical experiment of his own plans on his own 
 land, and under such conditions as he thought most 
 favourable to success. Pending the necessary pre- 
 liminary arrangements, he visited many of the leading 
 statesmen of the great Republic, having previously 
 made the acquaintance of some of them in London, 
 in special that of John Quincy Adams, at one time 
 Ambassador from the United States Government to 
 the Court of St James's. Those friendly to him made 
 efforts to have his views discussed by the Congress. 
 His son, Robert Dale Owen, then a very popular 
 
Visits Ireland and A merica. 223 
 
 member of that body, wished to bring the question 
 forward, but Owen, having an offer of the same kind 
 from John Quincy Adams, preferred to avail himself 
 of it, knowing that much would be gained by a wise 
 and careful handling of the matter by so experienced 
 a statesman. " Mr Adams," he says, " advocated the 
 subject with great ability and earnestness, but the 
 motion was lost, as anticipated, although the minority 
 was large and respectable. And my object was 
 gained, for even then the population of the Union 
 was too undeveloped, and made too selfish by their 
 false education, for a system true in principle and 
 too pure in practice for dollars and cents to compre- 
 hend." 
 
 This is true, but a man less zealous than Robert 
 Owen, and more observant of the difficulties that lay 
 in his way, would have seen this before he presented 
 his proposals to Congress, or before he submitted 
 them to the trial of a practical experiment. The 
 Americans are fond of dollars and cents, and are 
 actively and earnestly engaged in their acquisition. 
 They live in a world where dollars, cents, pounds, and 
 shillings are, as a rule, more highly estimated and 
 more ardently desired than any other possession 
 under heaven. The master-passion of the modern 
 business man centres in these. The higher virtues of 
 humanity are but ornaments, not absolutely necessary 
 to life, though desirable when they can be attained 
 without too much sacrifice. America is the country 
 above all • others where the hunters after money 
 abound ; where the struggle for comfortable main- 
 tenance and wealth is more exciting, and promises 
 more success, than it does in any of the old 
 
224 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 countries of Europe. Nearly every man in America 
 had some plan which he was pursuing, in the hope of 
 realising what he desired ; and his chances of success 
 being as a rule reasonable, prevented him from taking 
 up plans like those of Robert Owen, which, however 
 just, and however full of promise, were new and not 
 easily understood, and therefore not likely to be 
 attractive to those who had attained worldly success 
 or who saw before them the prospect of attaining it. 
 
 Those most apt to respond to such a call as that 
 made by Owen, when he attempted to found his New 
 Harmony Colony, in Indiana, were more or less likely 
 to help in the direction of failure. There were the 
 over-sanguine, disposed to hope for more than could 
 be at first realised, and who would be prone to lose 
 heart if success were less or longer delayed than they 
 imagined it should be. Then there were the odd 
 men of special ideas, who float about and find it diffi- 
 cult to fit in anywhere, through a habit they acquire 
 of considering their merits and deservings beyond 
 anything that may come to them as reward, especially 
 if their rewards require hard and continuous labour. 
 In addition to these there were the self-willed and 
 ambitious, who abound everywhere, but who in such 
 an experiment as that started at Indiana would have 
 more play for their special faculty ; who seek to 
 magnify their own virtues by depreciating those of 
 others, who cannot become satisfied with anything 
 but what they do themselves, and whose efforts 
 usually give little satisfaction to anybody else. The 
 best conditions that can exist leave difficulties to be 
 surmounted of a most serious kind, — difficulties 
 through lack of means, through faults of character. 
 
Visits the West Indies and South America. 225 
 
 through want of the necessary experience. The 
 American experiment was most certainly a mistake. 
 Indeed, it is difficult to see how it could have brought 
 forth satisfactory results, and its failure might be 
 considered as a real gain to those who were anxious 
 to see Robert Owen's opinions actively propagated 
 throughout Great Britain. The best success that 
 could have been accomplished by a practical experi- 
 ment in Indiana, would have amounted to little more 
 than an imperfectly understood fact, so far out of the 
 way as to be of limited interest to those who heard of 
 it ; while the propagandism opened up in England 
 by the agitation which Owen subsequently conducted, 
 led to discussions by which principles were formu- 
 lated, and policies set on foot, of the utmost practical 
 importance to the nation, in connection with the 
 educational and social condition of the masses of the 
 British people. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Disits tbe Mest JnWes an& Soutb america. 
 
 While in America, Robert Owen was treated by all 
 parties with the most sincere marks of respect. He 
 gave, by request, a course of lectures from the 
 Speaker's chair in the room of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives at Washington, — the Cabinet, the Senate, 
 and the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States being present. He afterwards lectured in 
 several of the principal cities, and returned to Great 
 Britain towards the end of 1825. 
 
226 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 In 1826 he again visited America, to deliver public 
 lectures, and also with a view to the settlement of his 
 family in that country. In 1824 he had, as already 
 stated, purchased an estate from the Rappites, a colony 
 of German Communists, who were about to abandon 
 it for the purpose of settling on another of their estates 
 more suitable for their purposes. In 1827 he once 
 more returned to England, and in 1828 he went back 
 to the United States, taking with him several members 
 of his family, for though he did not intend to per- 
 manently leave Great Britain, he had decided that 
 America should be the future home of his children. 
 
 While in England he was solicited by M. Roca- 
 fuesti, the Mexican Minister in London, to apply to 
 the Mexican Government (at the time a Republic) for 
 the provinces of Cohahuila and Texas, with the view 
 of trying one of his experiments. He did so, though 
 it is difficult to see how such an acquisition could have 
 been otherwise than embarrassing to him, whether he 
 undertook its government or simply sought to establish 
 a model colony. Several of the South American 
 Ministers solicited him to undertake the work of 
 colonisation in certain parts of South America. He, 
 however, decided to apply for Cohahuila and Texas, 
 and to this end he sent a memorial, by means of 
 Rocafuesti, to the Government of Mexico, backed by 
 letters of recommendation from a large number of 
 influential persons, including one from the Duke of 
 Wellington to Sir Richard Pakenham, British Ambas- 
 sador at Mexico, soliciting his services in Owen's 
 behalf He also had letters from the American 
 Embassy in London to M. Poinsett, the American 
 Minister at Mexico. 
 
Visits the West Indies and South America. 227 
 
 A month after forwarding his memorial and letters, 
 he commenced his voyage to the West Indies, Vera 
 Cruz, and Tampico. At Jamaica he fell in with Ad- 
 miral Fleming, then in command of the West India 
 station, who introduced him to the authorities of the 
 island, invited the officers of the fleet to meet him at 
 dinner, and requested him to say whether he could 
 in any way help him to forward the object he had in 
 view. Owen informed him that he had two difficulties 
 which troubled him. He possessed abundant letters 
 and recommendations to the authorities in Mexico, 
 but he had none to the ecclesiastical dignitaries, — this 
 being a very serious oversight in regard to such a 
 country. Admiral Fleming, however, speedily relieved 
 his anxiety on this head. He informed him that since 
 the last revolution there was only the Bishop of Puebla 
 remaining, and he was at the head of all ecclesiastical 
 affairs. The Admiral knew him very well, having 
 conveyed him from Old Spain to Mexico. He at 
 once offered to give Owen a letter to the Bishop, and 
 this was no doubt better than any recommendation he 
 could have obtained in England. His other difficulty 
 concerned the finding of a vessel at Vera Cruz, on his 
 return from Mexico, to convey him to New Orleans, 
 for the purpose of fulfilling an engagement he had to 
 meet and discuss with a minister of religion named 
 Campbell at Cincinnati on a given date. Travel- 
 ling was not then what it has since become, and this 
 second difficulty no doubt troubled him a good deal, 
 lest his non-appearance at the appointed time should 
 be attributed to an unwillingness to defend his ideas. 
 Here again the friendly services of the Admiral 
 relieved him. " It may be," he said, " that I can send 
 
228 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 a ten-gun brig to Vera Cruz, to wait your return and 
 convey you from there to New Orleans." This being 
 arranged, Owen took his departure. 
 
 The packet in which he sailed called at St Domingo 
 with mails, and here he was also received with much 
 warmth. In the true missionary spirit he distributed 
 among the merchants several copies of his " New 
 Views," and left the place much pleased with the 
 kindness with which he had been treated. He made 
 no delay at Vera Cruz, but on the morning after his 
 arrival started for the city of Mexico, in a " litera " 
 drawn by two mules, accompanied by two Mexican 
 muleteers who were to conduct him to Xalapa. 
 
 Travellers from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico 
 remain some days at Xalapa, to accustom their lungs 
 to breathe an atmosphere much lighter than that of 
 Vera Cruz, and here Robert Owen found the Governor 
 of Vera Cruz and several other travellers, and after 
 four or five days he induced them to start for Mexico. 
 Their hesitation in proceeding was caused through 
 the Governor's known unfriendliness to the Govern- 
 ment then existing in Mexico. To the surprise of all, 
 on entering Perote they found themselves in the midst 
 of General Santa Anna's army, and almost gave them- 
 selves up as lost. " We are prisoners," they exclaimed, 
 " what shall we do ? " Owen told them to put a good 
 face on the matter, to go at once to the General, and 
 ask for an escort on account of the danger in proceed- 
 ing unprotected. The question at once arose as to 
 who should go, and Owen agreed to go himself, if no 
 better person could be found. As soon as he had 
 made this offer two others agreed to accompany him. 
 " I was introduced," says Owen, " to the General as an 
 
Visits the West Indies and South America. 229 
 
 Englishman going in haste to the city of Mexico on 
 important business. He received me poHtely, and 
 inquired my object. I said, ' I am going in haste to 
 the city of Mexico to communicate with the Govern- 
 ment, and I wish an escort to Puebla.' 'When will 
 you want it ? ' ' To-morrow morning at five o'clock.' 
 ' You shall have it.' " Seeing his frankness, Owen 
 ventured to ask him where he would be about six 
 weeks after that time. " I do not ask the question 
 from idle curiosity, but I expect to be then on my 
 return, and to have an important communication to 
 make to you." " I shall then be at Xalapa," was the 
 answer, " and will be glad to see you." An escort of 
 six dragoons was ready at the time fixed, to take him 
 safely to Puebla. What became of the Governor and 
 his party he could not say, but supposes they retreated 
 as rapidly as they could from Perote. 
 
 Upon arriving at Puebla, Owen presented his letter 
 of introduction to the Bishop, and had a long and 
 interesting conversation with him. The Government 
 at that time was considered Liberal, a word which 
 meant opposition to ecclesiastical domination. The 
 Bishop had suffered severely, and was under appre- 
 hensions that he would be again attacked. His 
 income, which had been $120,000, had been reduced 
 to $80,000, and he was uncertain how long even that 
 much would be left to him. He was the only bishop 
 then remaining in Mexico, but he promised to use 
 such power and influence as he still retained in 
 Owen's favour, and it was arranged that they should 
 meet again on his return from the city of Mexico. 
 Owen considered it a curious circumstance that he 
 should find himself in friendly communication with 
 
230 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 one of the leading ecclesiastics of an intensely Roman 
 Catholic country, for the purpose of introducing 
 methods of education unfavourable to the system it 
 was his business to uphold. 
 
 In the city of Mexico he was domiciled with an 
 Englishman named Exeter, a person of ability and 
 influence. On the day of his arrival he presented 
 his letters to Mr Pakenham, the British ambassador, 
 who told him he had instructions to do what he could 
 to forward his object with the Government. He 
 promised to see the President of the Republic at once, 
 and true to his promise arranged for an interview at 
 twelve o'clock on the following day, offering in addi- 
 tion to this his services as interpreter. 
 
 Mr Pakenham told the President what had been 
 done at New Lanark, and of the strong recommenda- 
 tions Owen had brought with him, adding words of his 
 own in praise of Owen. The President in reply said 
 that his Government had, by the previous mail, received 
 Owen's memorial, besides many letters of recom- 
 mendation, couched in such terms that he and the 
 members of the Government regretted they could not 
 give him the government of the provinces of Cohahuila 
 and Texas, because the governor was elected by the 
 population of these provinces. He added, however, 
 that the Government had reserved to itself the full 
 jurisdiction over one hundred and fifty miles in breadth 
 along the whole frontier between the United States 
 and Mexico, from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, 
 about two thousand miles in length, and that his 
 Government, after due consideration, had come to the 
 determination to offer the government of this district 
 to Mr Owen, for him to establish within it his rule of 
 
Visits the West Indies and South America. 231 
 
 peace. Owen says that this offer staggered him. He 
 saw, however, at a glance, that there was one great 
 obstacle, namely, that the Roman Catholic religion 
 was the only religion permitted by law in the Republic, 
 and nothing could be attempted in accordance with 
 his plans where full civil and rehgious liberty did not 
 exist. This statement being interpreted to the 
 President, he replied, " We thought this would be 
 made an objection by Mr Owen, and we are prepared 
 to propose to the next congress to pass a law to place 
 the religion of Mexico upon the same base of liberty 
 as now exists in the United States of North America." 
 When this was explained, Owen promised that when 
 the law was passed he would accept the government 
 of the extensive district offered to him. 
 
 At the termination of this interview he was intro- 
 duced to all the Mexican authorities, and to the four 
 foreign ministers in the city, among whom was the 
 American ambassador, Mr Poinsett. He remained 
 between five and six weeks, and was treated by all 
 with " kindness, attention, and hospitality." " I 
 knew," he says, "that at the time there was a dis- 
 agreeable, distrustful, and most unpleasant feeling 
 between the British and United States Governments, 
 and a consequent jealousy between the officials in 
 the countries to which they were appointed as repre- 
 sentatives. My great desire was to terminate this 
 feeling, and to create a good understanding. On this 
 subject Owen addressed himself to Mr Poinsett, telling 
 him what he thought of the existing mistrust between 
 the two Governments. That gentleman said he was 
 aware that the position into which they had drifted 
 was a false one. "As you see this subject in the 
 
232 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 same light as I have viewed it in," remarked Owen, 
 " if you will give me letters to General Jackson and 
 Mr Van Buren, your president and his secretary, 
 expressive of these views, I will return home by 
 Washington, and will see what I can effect between 
 the two Governments." Mr Poinsett assented, and 
 before Owen's departure placed the letters in his 
 hands. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 /Iftejfco. 
 
 Owen left the city of Mexico, after having made 
 arrangements with the Government to forward a 
 measure for the establishment of absolute religious 
 toleration. He had received a communication from 
 Admiral Fleming, informing him that he had sent the 
 ten-gun brig " Fairy," Captain Blair, to Vera Cruz, 
 to wait his convenience, and to carry him to New 
 Orleans. On receiving this information, he set out 
 on his return journey almost immediately. In ac- 
 cordance with his promise, when he had reached 
 Puebla, he waited on the Bishop, and was received by 
 him in a most cordial and kindly spirit. Owen 
 explained to him a project he had conceived of 
 bringing the heads of the English Church and the 
 Church of Rome into friendly relations with each 
 other. This was really an impracticable suggestion ; 
 but it shows the anxiety that existed in Owen's 
 mind to promote brotherhood and peace. 
 
 Taking leave of the Bishop of Puebla, he continued 
 
Mexico. 233 
 
 his journey to Xalapa, to keep the appointment he 
 had made with General Santa Anna. Here he found 
 him in the midst of his army, and was at once 
 admitted to his presence. " I told him," says Owen, 
 " I had, written in manuscript, the principles and 
 practices recommended, in the most condensed forms 
 I could then put them ; and if he wished, I would bring 
 them from my hotel at any time he would appoint, 
 and we would consider them principle by principle, 
 and point by point, in the practice." An early hour 
 next morning was appointed for the meeting. When 
 Owen arrived, he found the General attended by three 
 intelligent-looking officers, who spoke English fluently, 
 and the discussion was at once opened. 
 
 Owen, whose mind was full of his subject, and 
 whose pen was rapid in the expression of his thought, 
 came prepared with twelve principles or sections of 
 his subject, each requiring separate consideration. 
 The discussion seems to have been carried on with 
 much frankness, and it is said that the Republican 
 general at its close declared himself satisfied with the 
 correctness of Owen's views, and stated that whether 
 he should be at the head of the army or of the 
 government, Owen might count on his help in for- 
 warding the project he had in hand. An invitation 
 to dine with the General and his officers had to be 
 declined, in consequence of Owen's eagerness to reach 
 Vera Cruz, where the " Fairy " was waiting to convey 
 him to New Orleans. His journey was expeditious, 
 and, except that they had to encounter two severe 
 north-westers, pleasant. On his arrival he started at 
 once for Cincinnati, arriving three days before the date 
 for which the discussion with Mr Campbell was fixed. 
 
234 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 The debate, which continued for eight days, morn- 
 ing and evening, was no doubt interesting to those 
 who took an interest in such contests. The general 
 impression of those who heard it seems to have been 
 that, in mere dialectical skill, Mr Campbell had a 
 considerable advantage over Owen, but that in solidity 
 and force of argument, in the coherence and consist- 
 ency of his ideas, as well as in regard to the practical 
 value of what he had to say, Owen was immeasurably 
 superior. It was a fixed idea with Owen, that in 
 all discussion the principal object should not be to 
 attack the error put forward by an opponent, so much 
 as to place the truth beside it, and trust to the force 
 of truth for victory in the end. Error being multi- 
 tudinous in its forms, and presenting so many points 
 of attack, he regarded it a useless waste of time to 
 attempt refutation by finding arguments that would 
 expose its subterfuges and deceptions. 
 
 It was frequently alleged against Owen's doctrine 
 of the formation of character, that it was not in 
 accordance with the literal meaning of the account 
 given of the fall of man, and the consequent corrup- 
 tion and innate sinfulness of human nature. On such 
 occasions he never would attempt to prove that the 
 account given of the disobedience in Paradise was 
 false, or that it admitted of any other but the ordinary 
 interpretation ; but he would insist that at birth, and 
 from birth to maturity, the human creature might be 
 spoiled by neglect, or improved by wise culture ; that 
 ignorance and vice, or intelligence and virtue, might 
 be propagated and made general by brutal neglect or 
 judicious instruction ; and, as he always carefully 
 put it, that the idea of educational duty was not 
 
Mexico. 235 
 
 confined to the school, but should also be made the 
 business of life out in the world. He was satisfied 
 to trust to such effect as time might produce on those 
 who heard what he had to say. He was, in fact, an 
 expositor, rather than a controversialist ; and seeing 
 that his efforts were not for immediate results, few 
 men were so successful in drawing around him con- 
 verts of a thoughtful and intelligent character. He 
 complains that Mr Campbell, contrary to agreement, 
 put a question to the audience for a vote as to whether 
 they would continue to support Christianity, which, 
 very properly, and as a matter of course, was carried. 
 Owen, however, who had not addressed himself to 
 such a question, and neither expected nor looked for 
 such a vote, was in no way desirous for any decision 
 but what the audience came to. He obtained what 
 he informs us was the most he expected, as " through- 
 out the whole of the long-continued disputation, he 
 noticed that, day by day, the feelings of the audience 
 were much with him." At such meetings much 
 warmth of feeling is naturally to be looked for, but, 
 to the credit of the people of Cincinnati, he says : — 
 " I remained several days afterwards in Cincinnati to 
 transact business, which occasioned me to pass daily 
 from one extremity of the city to the other, and, 
 considering the heterodox principles I had so openly 
 advocated, it was surprising to me to experience the 
 profound respect paid to me as I passed along the 
 streets." 
 
 When the business that delayed Robert Owen at 
 Cincinnati was concluded, he at once took his depar- 
 ture for Washington, with the view of trying what he 
 could do to promote a better understanding than up 
 
236 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 to that time had existed between the Governments 
 of the United States and Great Britain. On his 
 arrival at Washington he proceeded at once to wait 
 on Van Buren, the then Secretary of State, who had 
 by Mr Poinsett's letters been prepared to listen 
 favourably to what he had to say. He tells us that 
 he "explained fully his view of the real interests of 
 the two nations, and day by day for about ten days 
 we met and talked over all the subjects of difference 
 then existing between the two Governments, and I 
 endeavoured to point out how easily, both parties 
 being willing, the whole might be finally settled to 
 the benefit of both nations." 
 
 Mr Van Buren told him he had communicated his 
 views to General Jackson, and that both were agreed 
 as to the policy recommended. General Jackson, the 
 President, sent an invitation for Owen to dine with 
 him the next day, which he did, meeting Van Buren 
 and several relatives of the President. After dinner, 
 the rest of the company withdrew, leaving the 
 President, Mr Van Buren, and Owen together. " Mr 
 Owen," said the President, " your Government imagine 
 I am opposed to them, but it is not so. I wish to be 
 on friendly terms with them and the British nation, 
 knowing how much the United States and Great 
 Britain will be benefited by a well-understood cordial 
 union ; and if your Government will fairly meet us 
 half way, we will soon adjust all differences now 
 between us." Owen replied that he thought the 
 British Government would frankly meet America half 
 way, and added the assurance that the British people 
 would be favourable to a good understanding. 
 
 This finished the diplomatic portion of their inter- 
 
Mexico. 237 
 
 course. The President then entered famiharly into 
 conversation with him on his home and foreign pohcy, 
 often using words and phrases as nearly as possible 
 the same as were used in his succeeding annual 
 message. He arranged with Van Buren to give Owen 
 letters of introduction to the United States Ministers 
 in London and Paris, that they might consult with 
 him, after he had seen and conferred with Lord 
 Aberdeen, the then Foreign Secretary in England. 
 When he returned to England, he asked and obtained 
 an interview with Lord Aberdeen, explained fully to 
 him what had taken place between himself and the 
 President of the United States, informing him, at the 
 same time, what he had ventured to promise as good- 
 will on the part of the British Government and 
 people. Lord Aberdeen said, " Mr Owen, I highly 
 approve of what you recommend, and of what you 
 have done. If the American Government will meet 
 us half way, we will meet it in the same spirit.'' 
 Owen explained that he had in his possession instruc- 
 tions to the United States Minister from his Govern- 
 ment to the effect that, if he found Lord Aberdeen 
 willing, he was to enter at once into a negotiation for 
 the settlement of all differences. " I am quite ready," 
 said Lord Aberdeen, " to meet Mr M'Lane on these 
 conditions." On leaving Lord Aberdeen, he visited 
 the American Ambassador, gave him the instructions 
 he had brought with him from the American Govern- 
 ment, and a good understanding was established, which 
 seems to have lasted till the Oregon question led to 
 new misunderstandings. 
 
 The Mexican project came to nothing. The 
 opposition raised to complete religious toleration was 
 
238 Life, Times, arid Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 too great. Had everything Owen looked for been 
 conceded, it is difficult to believe that any attempt at 
 colonisation on a large scale could have been success- 
 fully made. Land in any part of America was an 
 encumbrance rather than an advantage, and all the 
 land that could be wanted was as much as might be 
 required by so many emigrants as could be sent from 
 England. To transplant a population to Mexico in 
 such numbers as would have made even a beginning 
 to such a scheme as was contemplated, would have 
 required revenues not obtainable by Robert Owen or 
 his friends, and therefore all these negotiations were 
 connected with vague hopes, rather than with careful 
 calculations. At this time the condition of the people 
 was almost as bad as it could be ; and so many persons 
 of position and means had promised help, that his 
 anxiety for, and belief in, a great effort to carry through 
 an experiment of the kind, need not be wondered at. 
 
 " It was my intention," he says, "to have peopled 
 this new, and, in many places, wild district, with an 
 intelligent and moral working class from the British 
 Islands and Europe, great numbers being anxious at 
 this period to commence a true communistic life, 
 which I intended gradually to introduce into this 
 new social government of peace. Those from Europe 
 would also have been joined by multitudes from the 
 United States, and by many from the old Mexican 
 states. It was my intention also to have made peace 
 with all the Indian tribes, and to have invited them to 
 settle at first in their own way, within the new territory, 
 and by degrees to accustom them to the true family 
 commonwealth arrangements, for which they were 
 already in some measure prepared." He adds : — " My 
 
Mexico. 239 
 
 early acquaintance with the working classes enabled 
 nne to see the downward progress they were making, 
 in proportion as chemical discoveries and mechanical 
 inventions increased so as to diminish the general 
 value of their labour. I noticed the increasing power 
 that wealth, especially in the manufacturing districts, 
 was acquiring over them, and how, gradually, the 
 mass of them were sinking into real slavery." 
 
 To relieve the suffering then existing, and to prevent 
 the misery which he knew, in an unaltered state of 
 things, must continue to afflict his countrymen, was 
 the settled purpose of his life ; and in predicting what 
 must come to pass if the system he protested against 
 were continued, his words were words of truth and 
 soberness. The war of classes is as fierce as it was 
 then. There has been no reconcilement of interests, 
 no abatement of antagonisms ; and looking at Ireland 
 alone, the nearness to a total dissolution of society 
 is more apparent than ever. We laugh at the failures 
 of philanthropists and enthusiasts, and pursue our 
 onward course, willing to believe that what is not at 
 the worst cannot be far from the best, — tempting 
 Providence by closing our eyes to the numerous 
 possibilities of escape open to those who, with high 
 hopes, combine wise and well-considered efforts. 
 
 End of Vol. I. 
 
THE LIFE, TIMES, AND LABOURS 
 
 OF 
 
 ROBERT OWEN 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE, TIMES, AND LABOURS 
 
 OF 
 
 ROBERT OWEN 
 
 LLOYD JONES 
 
 EDITED BY WILLIAM CAIRNS JONES 
 WITH TWO PORTRAITS AND A FACSIMILE 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SWAN SONNENSCHEIN AND CO. 
 
 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 
 1890 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 TO 
 
 EDWARD VANSITTART NEALE, Esq., 
 
 IN TOKEN OF THB'. 
 ESTEEM IN WHICH HE WAS HELD BY THE AUTHOR, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Co-Operative Stores i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Efforts to Improve the Condition of the Poor- ii 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Plan of Labour Exchange 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Causes of Failure - - 35 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Preparations. New Movements 42 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Agitation in Manchester 54 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Manchester Congress. Extended Work 66 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 A Disputed Question S3 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 The Bishop of Exeter. Popular Agitations 95 
 
viii Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Progress and Opposition m 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Riots at Burslem and Bristol ng 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Practical Operations 136 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Change of Policy - 152 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 End of the Queenwood Experiment. Misrepre- 
 sentations - - 168 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Close of Leadership. Parentage of Store Move- 
 ment- - - 182 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. ^ . 
 
 Termination of Career - - , - igo 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Conclusion - - - -196 
 
^ 
 
 THE LIFE, TIMES, AND LABOURS 
 
 OF 
 
 ROBERT OWEN, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 (ro*operativ>e Stores. 
 
 Before Robert Owen visited Mexico he had been 
 busy in promoting active operations among his 
 friends in England. Considering the magnitude of 
 the work to which he devoted himself, it must have 
 been clear to him from the beginning, that of himself 
 he could do little beyond explaining his principles 
 and his plans. In the nature of things, if others did 
 not assist him liberally, it was almost certain that his 
 efforts must end in disappointment, as no private in- 
 dividual, however wealthy, or however willing to part 
 with his wealth, could reasonably hope to meet the 
 money requirements of such an undertaking. 
 
 When Owen's appeal to the upper classes had 
 ■proved ineffectual, and it was made certain that the 
 wealthy would not supply the necessary funds, there 
 was nothing left but to abandon his designs or to try 
 what could be done by an appeal to the masses of the 
 people. An appeal for financial help to the working 
 classes is usually unsuccessful ; nothing but generally 
 and strongly felt convictions can operate effectually 
 VOL. II. A 
 
2 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 to such an end, and as no agitation of any consequence 
 had been carried on in favour of Owen's principles, it 
 was not possible that there could exist any widely- 
 spread conviction in favour of them, or any general 
 enthusiasm for their adoption. The production of 
 strong conviction in the public mind in regard to sub- 
 jects to which public attention has not been constantly 
 directed, is not to be reasonably looked for. For the 
 instruction of the people where conviction has to be 
 produced and a knowledge of method of action incul- 
 cated, active missionary work is necessary. A centre 
 had to be formed from which men of strong convic- 
 tions and enthusiastic temper might go forth to deliver 
 to others the faith by which they themselves were 
 animated. These men had to be found. Time was 
 necessary for the discovery of the requisite qualities 
 in men newly drawn together, and the social move- 
 ment originated by Owen was as yet in its infancy. 
 Beyond what he had himself done by means of public 
 meetings, and printed essays and letters, little had 
 been attempted ; and therefore, although in 1817, and 
 for a couple of years subsequently, much discussion 
 was carried on, it had not attracted the attention of 
 the masses of the people, nor penetrated among them so 
 as to impart an understanding of what was really meant, 
 or beget the enthusiasm necessary for effective effort. 
 The Ecotiomist, the first number of which was pub- 
 lished on January 27, 1821, price three pence, and 
 which seems to have terminated its existence in 
 March, 1822, was a publication of sixteen small octavo 
 pages. Owen himself seems to have had little if any- 
 thing to do with it. The editor, who signed himself 
 " Economist," was, I believe, a gentleman named 
 
Co-operaiive Stores. 3 
 
 Mudie, and it may be said that he wrote like a Clevel- 
 and sensible man on subjects which had con- 
 nection with the social and industrial improvement of 
 the working people. One thing noticeable was an 
 eagerness to begin small experiments in connection 
 with groups of families, and as this was a form of 
 co-operation of which Owen disapproved, it was very 
 likely the reason why he kept clear of the paper and 
 the projects it encouraged. 
 
 The Orbiston Register, printed at Edinburgh, and 
 edited by Abram Combe, the brother of George and 
 Andrew Combe, was of octavo size, eight pages, closely 
 printed. This, while Combe's health permitted him to 
 attend to it, was a well-written and most useful publica- 
 tion; but when failing health compelled Combe to relin- 
 quish his editorial duties, it was less ably conducted. 
 The Co-operative Magazine was started in 1 826, and was 
 issued in monthly numbers. It consisted of forty- 
 eight closely-printed pages, and contained much in- 
 formation as to what was then going on as co-opera- 
 tive work : instances of the misery and crime in 
 society, and comments thereon ; also explanations of 
 the new proposals of Owen, and expositions useful 
 for the furthering of co-operative propagandism. The 
 Co-operator, a small four-paged paper, in reality a 
 series of tracts, contained disquisitions on co-operation 
 as a business, rather than speculations as to a new 
 state of society, and recorded progress with a com- 
 mendable brevity. At the end of the first number 
 there is the following announcement: — "Societies upon 
 this principle, viz., that of accumulating a common 
 capital, and investing it in trade, and so making 10 per 
 cent, of it, instead of investing it in the funds at only 4, 
 
4 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Otven. 
 
 or A,\, with the intention of ultimately purchasing land 
 and living in community, have been established in the 
 following places — 36 Red Lion Square, London ; 37 
 West Street, Brighton ; 10 Queen's Place, Brighton ; 
 and 20 Marine Place, Worthing." The word " com- 
 munity" in this case signifies a group of people living ' 
 together in common neighbourhood for the sake of the 
 advantages to be derived from common arrangements 
 for promotingeducation, employment, social intercourse, 
 economy, and comfort. That there might be no mis- 
 take, as to the kind of change they proposed, it is 
 declared that the three essentials for co-operation 
 were labour, capital, and knowledge. 
 
 Ridicule has been thrown on the early efforts of 
 co-operators. Their proceedings, however, are best 
 vindicated in their own words, and the results that 
 have followed on the spot where these words were 
 spoken. A meeting was held in Leeds in the Decem- 
 ber of 1828, of the members of the benefit societies of 
 that town, for the purpose of listening to a discourse 
 on co-operation by Mr. Carson, a working man from 
 Birmingham. The address was an excellent practical 
 address. Mr. Carson proposed that they should form 
 a co-operative society of sixty families, each subscrib- 
 ing IS. a week to a general fund. "This sum would 
 in one year amount to £1^0, with which they might 
 commence business. The society might at the end of 
 the year, or sooner if expedient, be enabled to go to 
 market with money sufficient to buy the commodities 
 they might require ; because it would be one of their 
 fundamental rules that every purchase should be 
 made with ready money, inasmuch as their profits 
 would be increased one-third by discount on pur- 
 
Co-operative Stores. 5 
 
 chases. He calculated that they spent at the rate of 
 los. per week each for the various necessaries of life, 
 and this sum would amount in a year to ;^i,5oo. 
 Profit and discount on this was calculated at 15 per 
 cent., and this would give £2},/^. " They might," Mr. 
 Carson said, " procure an agent to manage their busi- 
 ness for ^i per week, the rent of a showroom and 
 premises would not be more than ;^30 a year, and, 
 after these deductions, the society would have a clear 
 income of ;£^iS2 a year." This was Mr. Carson's cal- 
 culation in Leeds, as a recommendation to the work- 
 ing men of that town fifty-four years ago, or sixteen 
 years before the twenty-eight Rochdale pioneers put 
 their ;^i each together to commence practical 
 operations in that town.^ The Co-operator, page 
 3, No. 10, comments favourably on Mr. Carson's 
 address. " Mr. Carson," it says, " sees clearly the 
 enormous profits which the working classes are 
 daily giving away to other people by not market- 
 ing for themselves. Other people grow rich upon 
 these profits, and all the riches of the world in fact 
 are got out of them ; for they can be nothing else than 
 the overplus of the labour of the workman above his 
 own subsistence saved up in the shape of capital. 
 Those who save most get most capital. The work- 
 men, if united, might save as well as anybody else. 
 There might as well be a company of workmen as a 
 company of capitalists. A joint-labour company is as 
 
 1 This account is taken from the pages of the Co-operator, 
 which was presented to the writer by James Smithies, of Roch- 
 dale, and which is, most hkely, the copy that guided the Roch- 
 dale men in what they did in 1844 — tl^s date of the foundation of 
 their store. 
 
6 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 simple as a joint-stock company. The only differ- 
 ence is that the one has been invented and the other 
 not. But all things must have a beginning. There 
 was a time when joint-stock companies did not exist 
 Capitalists were too ignorant to form them. As the 
 knowledge of capitalists increased, they formed joint- 
 stock companies ; and as the knowledge of the work- 
 ing classes increases, they will form joint-labour 
 companies. They will keep these enormous profits in 
 their own hands. Mr. Carson alludes to the goodness 
 of articles which a club or union would naturally sell 
 in their own shop. This is another very important 
 consideration. It is quite notorious that every article 
 capable of being adulterated is adulterated. There 
 are persons who live by carrying on trades expressly 
 for the purpose. The generality of people cannot 
 possibly distinguish genuine articles from counterfeits. 
 Whoever buys the counterfeit for the genuine cheats 
 himself out of so much health and strength. This is 
 particularly the case with the workman. To him it is 
 of the utmost consequence to have his food pure, and 
 the most nourishment in the least compass. This he 
 will never attain to without a shop of his own, and 
 this shop he can never possess without co-operation." 
 In this way the advantages of co-operation were 
 pointed out, and though in Leeds only sixty families 
 were calculated on to start with fifty-four years ago, 
 they have now above 20,400 members. The business 
 done by the co-operators of Great Britain at the present 
 time amounts to about twenty-five millions sterling per 
 annum, while the profit and interest returned to the 
 members of co-operative societies are reckoned at 
 about two-and-a-quarter millions sterling per annum. 
 
Co-operative Stores. 7 
 
 At the end of the number of the Co-operator for 
 December, 1829, the following announcement ap- 
 pears : — " There are about one hundred and thirty co- 
 operative societies now established." From this it 
 will be seen that there was no disinclination on the 
 part of a section of the working people to give it as 
 fair a trial as their knowledge and means permitted. 
 
 There has been a disposition to mix up and con- 
 found the proceedings of co-operators of various 
 kinds, and if those concerned were not unfriendly to 
 Robert Owen, to credit him with the blundering or 
 failure of the various experiments. He, in fact, ab- 
 stained from encouraging any of the small experiments 
 so much talked of up to 1835, in the belief that 
 success could only be obtained by the possession of 
 large capital ; and when men with more enthusiasm 
 than prudence urged initiatory experiments, he so 
 strongly discouraged them that he more than once 
 incurred the displeasure of persons who much re- 
 spected him, but who thought he was aiming at more 
 than working men needed as the commencement of a 
 better state of things. 
 
 The great question, however, was how to acquire 
 funds for co-operative purposes. The people who 
 gave countenance to the social awakening produced 
 by Robert Owen's experiments, discourses, and 
 writings, never encouraged any idea of procuring 
 pecuniary help, beyond what might be derived from 
 their own industry and thrift. In the agitation car- 
 ried on they made themselves responsible both as to 
 means and ends. They excited in others only such 
 hopes as they themselves entertained : such hopes as 
 might be entertained after a full consideration of th; 
 
8 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 whole subject, as to its practicability by means of 
 such power in number and in finances as the people 
 actually possessed, or might hope to possess, by the 
 exercise of a wise and reasonable activity. One thing 
 is certain, namely, that any popular movement, 
 depending for its success on the sobriety, thrift, in- 
 telligence, and forethought of the people, even though 
 it fail in realising the precise object at which it aims, 
 brings to those who engage in it such large gains in 
 discipline, self-denial, and effort for improvement, that 
 instead of incurring reproach it ought to be hailed 
 with approval by all friends of progress. 
 
 From 1825 to 1834 co-operative action was con- 
 fined almost entirely to the establishment of co-opera- 
 tive stores. The exact number of these cannot be 
 accurately given. At the close of 1829, as we have 
 seen, the number of societies was stated to be 130. 
 It may be said, perhaps, that by the close of 1831 this 
 number had increased to 250 at least. What is called 
 the "bonus ' or "dividend" in the present co-opera- 
 tive movement, was unknown at this time. There 
 was, therefore, no personal interest of a palpable kind 
 to hold the members together, should their faith in the 
 ultimate results of co-operation cool. The profits 
 were to be funded to the credit of the investors as 
 capital for the employment of labour, and therefore 
 the slowness of progress and the fact that the principal 
 investors being the best situated~' of the members, 
 looked more to immediate advantage, while the worst 
 off were impatient for results, the promise of which 
 did not approach with sufficient rapidity, caused at a 
 given point the process of disintegration to become 
 more rapid than that of growth; and gradually, though 
 
Co-operative Stores. 9 
 
 the movement never completely died out, it ceased to 
 carry in it any hope for the redemption of labour. 
 
 John Finch of Liverpool, a merchant in the iron 
 trade, put the cause of failure, so far as it had then 
 gone (1832), on its true ground. In that year the 
 third annual Co-operative Congress was held in 
 London, and at this Congress many of the stores had 
 representatives. " The progress that has been made," 
 said Mr. Finch, addressing a large public meeting 
 held by the Congress, "in acting upon these principles 
 has not been so rapid as the progress of the principles 
 themselves. But the diffusion of knowledge is the 
 first thing. There have been societies formed in ^ 
 various parts of the kingdom called trades unions or 
 co-operative societies, the object of which is to unite 
 their members in the attainment of knowledge, and 
 also to obtain possession of capital. The first pro- 
 posed object of these unions has been realised. Large 
 numbers of persons, chiefly of the working classes, 
 have been brought together in one common bond of 
 interest and affection. But I am sorry to say that 
 some of them have failed in the other object of their 
 association ; that is, the attainment of capital. I 
 shall enumerate some of the causes, as I have ob- 
 served them, of this failure. The first cause has beenv 
 a want of union and active co-operation amongst the 
 members. They have neglected their meetings, 
 failed to make themselves properly and familiarly 
 acquainted with the principles and proceedings of 
 their society, and left the management of their con- 
 cerns to a few individuals. Another cause of their 
 failure has been the existence of a spirit of selfishness 
 amongst them — a spirit which has been engendered 
 
10 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 in some degree, perhaps, by those societies them- 
 selves. Shopkeeping has no tendency to improve 
 either their principles or their morals. In the next 
 place there has been a general neglect of business on 
 the part of the members. They have not carefully 
 audited their accounts, diligently looked after the 
 purchases made for them, or superintended and 
 regulated their stock. Another cause has been the 
 members not dealing at their own stores. It v^as not 
 to be expected that the trading societies should 
 answer their ends if the shop were deserted by its 
 own proprietors. Another difficulty attending these 
 societies, and which has tended to render them some- 
 times abortive, is the great responsibility that attaches 
 to the trustees, whilst there is no bond of union with the 
 members. The trustees take upon themselves the 
 responsibility of paying all accounts, and answering 
 all demands upon the society. The members, on the 
 other hand, take upon themselves no responsibility ; 
 and if the society should be found unprosperous, they 
 walk themselves out, leaving the trustees with all the 
 responsibility of a losing concern. The incapacity or 
 dishonesty of storekeepers, or managers, has also been 
 a cause of loss and failure." 
 
 This is, doubtless, a true picture ; but it should be 
 remembered that the combination laws had been re- 
 pealed only eight years previously ; that there was con- 
 sequently no habit of association among the working 
 people, and that the laws, giving security and freedom 
 of action since passed through the instrumentality of 
 the Christian Socialists, were not then in existence. 
 The situation has, therefore, altered greatly in favour 
 of successful operations by the people. 
 
CHAPTER 11 
 
 Efforts to improve tbe Con&ition of tbe poor. 
 
 I What the store movement aimed at was, as we have 
 seen, the accumulation of capital for the establishment 
 of depots, where the working people, by doing their 
 own business, could appropriate to themselves the 
 profit hitherto made on it by others. [They were 
 aware that such an attempt was atteriaed by risks 
 arising from inexperience, but they also -knew 
 that whatever they might attempt, risks and disap- 
 pointments would have to be encountered. They 
 knew, too, that their first efforts must necessarily be 
 feeble, and progress slow ; but this was an indispen- 
 sable, condition in connection with any experiment 
 the people might make, where a knowledge of prin- 
 ciple and requisite business experience were only 
 beginning to be acquired. 
 
 The conception of this store project, whatever re- 
 sult it might have, was a bold one, and, considering 
 the condition of the working classes at that time, 
 though not encouraging, yet carried in it sufficient 
 promise to tempt ardent reformers. In 1867 Leone 
 Levi estimated the earnings of the working classes at 
 .^418,000,000 per annum ; 10 per cent, on this would 
 have been close on ;£'42,ooo,ooo a year. If we take 
 ;^300,ooo,ooo as the earnings of the working people in 
 
1 2 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 1825, it will be seen that ;^30,ooo,ooo a year was the 
 stake played for. Those who commenced this 
 movement knew very well that only a very small 
 portion of this could be obtained by co-operative 
 effort ; but it was all there, and was every day increas- 
 ing in amount, and therefore the attempt was worth 
 making, however slight the success might at first 
 be. 
 
 The idea included two important points, namely the 
 accumulation of capital for self-employment, and the 
 organisation of consumption by means of the store, 
 with a view to controlling production, and thus re- 
 moving the chief difficulty in the way of self-employ- 
 ment. That at first looked shadowy ; but the ex- 
 perience acquired by perseverance made it daily 
 easier, until gradually, and after much disappointment, 
 changes of plan, new developments of business experi- 
 ence, and many vicissitudes, the new shape was 
 assumed, and success may now be considered as 
 assured. It was certain from the beginning that a 
 large proportion of the earnings of the working people 
 could not be dealt with by themselves. Their hou.ses 
 had to be found by the owners of property, profes- 
 sional services were beyond their control, while as to 
 their enormous drink expenditure, the men of the co- 
 operative movement from the first, refused absolutely 
 to have anything to do with it as part of their trade. 
 There can be no doubt that the idea embodied in the 
 co-operative store movement, which the men in it 
 have not yet completely realised, will, when they 
 come to understand and apply it, work the most 
 extraordinary revolution in the practices of trade. It 
 might be going too far to say that Robert Owen 
 
Efforts to Improve the Condition of the Poor. 1 3 
 
 foresaw and understood what might be done by its full 
 application. It is clear from his writings, however, 
 that he saw very distinctly it would place a mighty 
 power, capable of great results, in the hands of 
 the working classes, and it is evident that even when 
 its working was clumsy and unsatisfactory as a money 
 investment, it was producing good in many ways to 
 those who had gone into it. 
 
 It put on its members the necessity of keeping out 
 of debt, at a time when indebtedness was the general 
 condition of the working classes. It put upon them 
 also the necessity of prudence and foresight, that by 
 taking care of the wages, when earned, they might be 
 able to conform to the ready-money payments of 
 their new system. It led to an extensive association 
 among its members, and to a daily intercourse in 
 which economy and business were subjects of conver- 
 sation ; and, which was of still greater advantage, it 
 gave them, by service on their committees, a know- 
 ledge of business the importance of which could not 
 be over-estimated. It had also a most beneficial effect 
 on the morality of trade. By their practice of ready- 
 money dealing, they kept clear of speculative business, 
 and risk of bankruptcy through bad debts. By the 
 constancy of their custom, through membership, the 
 demand became so easily calculated that their stock 
 was, as it were, sold as soon as it was bought, and 
 wholesale purchase could be easily fitted to retail 
 demand. 7\s they bought for themselves and sold to 
 themselves, dividing the profit among themselves, 
 there was no temptation to adulterate, to use false 
 weights or measures, or to represent anything to be 
 other than it was. These were moral and business 
 
14 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 advantages which had a direct effect on the working 
 classes. It may also be said that its tendency was to 
 carry the people over to the side of order, as political 
 disturbance was not likely to proceed from those who 
 required peace and the pursuits of peace for the 
 carrying out of their ideas. 
 
 That themen who had engaged in thestoremovement 
 from 1825 to 1835 were working in the interest of the 
 nation by promoting peace and aiding good govern- 
 ment, may be seen by glancing at the state of the 
 country at the time during which their labours 
 continued. It is important to note that they were 
 not seeking to disturb and alter a state of things that 
 in any sense could be regarded as satisfactory. They 
 were not recommending anything that dissipated the 
 people's means, deepened their poverty, or excited 
 their discontent. They were not making any class of 
 men objects of special blame, or exciting the anger of 
 the people against them. What they did was to re- 
 cognise the miseries and the difficulties of the situa- 
 tion, and to put upon themselves the duty of practi- 
 cally remedying the evils of which they complained, 
 and from which they suffered. 
 
 The deep distress of large numbers of the working 
 population in the manufacturing towns, where the co- 
 operators were most active, and where the workers 
 ought to have been better off than in any other part 
 of the kingdom, was simply appalling. Inquiries of a 
 careful and minute kind had not then been carried as far as 
 they have subsequently been, but when they were en- 
 tered on, a few years later, they rendered vast service 
 in laying bare to the public gaze a state of things that 
 had existed for several years. 
 
Efforts to Improve the Condition of the Poor. i $ 
 
 John Noble, in the appendix to his work on 
 National Finance," has taken the following statements 
 from " Hansard's Parliamentary Debates." " They 
 afford," he says, " conclusive evidence of the condition 
 of general distress and wretchedness into which the 
 population had been plunged." Mr. Slanley, February, 
 4, 1840, says : — " In Liverpool in 1839, there were 
 7,860 cellars used as dwellings, inhabited by 39,000 
 people, or one-seventh of the then population of the 
 town. In Manchester and Salford also a considerable 
 portion of the population inhabited cellars. Out of 
 37,000 habitations which were examined, no less than 
 18,400 were ill-furnished, and 10,400 altogether with- 
 out furniture. In Bury, the population of which is 
 20,000, the dwellings of 3,000 families were visited. 
 In 773 of them the families slept three and four in a 
 bed ; in 209 four and five slept in a bed ; in 6'j five 
 and six slept in a bed ; and in 1 5 six and seven slept 
 in a bed. In Newcastle-on-Tyne the residences of 
 26,000 poor persons were examined, and those who 
 saw them gave a most appalling account of the misery, 
 filth, and want of air, which prevailed." Mr. Schol- 
 field, June 1 5, 1841, read from a letter to the effect that 
 workmen, in Birmingham, with large families, "are 
 receiving from 6s. to lis. per week, and would be able, 
 if they could work full time, to earn from 15s. to 30s. 
 per week. How these families live and pay rent can 
 only be answered by the poor creatures themselves." 
 Mr. Baines, member for Leeds, in the same debate de- 
 clared that in the town he represented there were no 
 less than 10,000 persons out of employment, or depen- 
 dent on those in- that situation ; the population at that 
 time was slightly over 151,000.30 that one-fifteenth 
 
1 6 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 had no work. In the same debate a few nights after, 
 Sharman Crawford, member for Rochdale, declared 
 that in that town "there were 136 persons living on 
 6d. per week, 290 on lod., 508 on is., 855 on is. 6d., 
 and 1,500 on is. lod. per week. Of these five-sixths 
 had scarcely a blanket amongst them ; 85 families 
 had no blanket ; and 46 families had only chaff beds, 
 without any covering at all." Mr. J. Brotherton, mem- 
 ber for Salford, said that there were in that town 
 " 2, 030 houses untenanted, which, if occupied, would 
 yield a rental of £27, 000 a year. The poor-rates had 
 doubled since 1836. In Manchester, during the last 
 year, upwards of 10,000 families had been relieved by 
 public subscription." Dr. BowTing said that, " at 
 Bolton, 1,400 houses were unoccupied. Of the poor- 
 rates, only two-thirds could be collected, in conse- 
 quence of the distress." Mr. Cobden declared that, 
 " in Stockport, twenty-nine large concerns were closed. 
 A 2s. rate only yielded one-sixth of what it did two 
 years ago, and a is. rate only two-thirds of what a6d. 
 rate did at that time." Much more might be added, 
 but to register the growth of public distress in the 
 manufacturing districts is only making known what, 
 at the time, was admitted as a fact beyond contradic- 
 tion. 
 
 In the agricultural districts, pauperism had become 
 so general as to seriously interfere with Ihe value of 
 property. In a work dedicated to the members of the 
 committee of the Poor- Law Conference, published in 
 1876,1 J. R. Prettyman says, quoting from the 
 report of the Poor- Law Commissioners : One 
 witness, whose evidence is given in the Report for 
 ^ " Dispauperizature."— Longmans. 
 
Efforts to Improve the Condition of the Poor. 17 
 
 1834, says, in the parish of Cholesbury, all the land 
 was offered to the assembled paupers, who refused it, 
 saying they would rather continue on the old system, 
 namely, receiving wages out of rates. The Rector, 
 whose whole income had been absorbed by pauperism, 
 says : " The rates, having swallowed up the rents, 
 the parish officers threw up their books, and the poor, 
 left without any means of maintenance, assembled, at 
 my door, whilst I was in bed, and applied to me for 
 advice and food. My income being under £\6o a 
 year, rendered my means of relief small, but I got a 
 rate-in-aid of ^50 from Drayton. The present state 
 of the parish is this — the land almost wholly 
 abandoned, the poor thrown upon the rates, and set 
 to work on the roads and gravel-pits, and paid for this 
 unprofitable labour at the expense of another parish." 
 Mr.- Majendie, an assistant commissioner, says: "In 
 Lenham, Kent, some of the land was out of cultiva- 
 tion. A large estate has been several years in the 
 hands of the proprietor, and a farm of 420 acres of 
 good land and tithe free, and well situated, had just 
 been thrown up by the tenant, the poor rate on it 
 amounting to £l<X> a year." It is also reported to 
 tfie commissioners that " the owner of a farm at 
 Granden, in Cambridgeshire, could not get a tenant 
 even at Ss. an acre, and that Downing College, which 
 has a property of S,ooo acres, in the same county, 
 found it impossible, notwithstanding the lowering of 
 the rents to an extreme point, to obtain men of 
 substance for tenants ; " and at Great Shelford, in the 
 same county, the absolute absorption of the land, it 
 was anticipated, would take place in ten years. Cases 
 of this sort might be quoted from a large number of 
 VOL, II. ]3 
 
1 8 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 counties, extending almost throughout the kingdom, in 
 proof of the manner in which the poverty of the 
 country was rapidly eating away the value of property. 
 Evidence on the subject is so overwhelming that 
 special references need not be given. 
 
 The moral and intellectual condition of the people 
 was on a level with their poverty. Forty-eight per 
 cent, of the children in Birmingham were- receiving 
 some kind of scholastic training in common day and 
 Sunday schools, while over 5 1 per cent, were receiving 
 no education whatever. In Dudley, Walsall, Wednes- 
 bury, and Stourbridge, " the proportion that could read 
 was represented as being unusually small, some who 
 stated that they could read, when examined, were 
 found unable to read a word, and out of forty-one 
 witnesses under eighteen years of age examined at 
 Darlaston, only four could write their names." The 
 same report, page 203, says that in Sheffield, " two- 
 thirds of the working class children and young persons 
 are growing up in a state of ignorance, and are unable 
 to read." So far as the welfare of the masses of the 
 working people was concerned, the Government was 
 not in any true sense of the word a real government. 
 It repressed turbulence, and punished crime, in 
 defence of property ; but it neither sought to cultivate 
 the faculties of the people, nor to satisfy by wise 
 provision of law their legitimate wants ; to give them 
 the knowledge or opportunity which would enable 
 them to do these things for themselves. 
 
 In such a state of things, it became the duty of 
 every thoughtful man to exert himself for the promo- 
 tion of needful reforms. The only action for such a 
 purpose was associated action ; hence the many 
 
Efforts to Improve the Condition of the Poor. 19 
 
 societies then at work, especially among those who 
 strove for a cheap and free press, and Robert Owen 
 and his friends, wlio laboured zealously for education^ 
 and voluntary endeavour on behalf of the workers of 
 the country. 
 
 Luckily for Robert Owen, when he was most 
 active in doing all that lay in his power for improving 
 the condition of the working people, there did not 
 exist one-half the books we now possess, explaining 
 the intricacies of what is called political economy. If 
 they had existed, however, it is probable he would 
 not have read them, and if he had, it is impossible to 
 believe that he would have been better fitted for the 
 work to which he devoted himself 
 
 He always insisted that we either had, or might 
 have, a surplus of wealth over and above what our 
 population could require, and the thought that most 
 occupied his mind was not how to fit our population 
 to our supplies, but how to distribute equitably our 
 supplies among our population. How to get rid of 
 the people by emigration need puzzle nobody who can 
 find the money to carry the idle hands of Great Britain 
 to ■ the boundless unoccupied tracts of the United 
 States, the Dominion of Canada, and the Australian 
 colonies. If human creatures were simply a species 
 of merchandise, in connection with which there was 
 nothing to consider but the means of transport, our 
 difficulty in connection with our population would 
 soon disappear. This is not the case. Human 
 passions, and affections, and prejudices, and interests, 
 complicate the matter very seriously, and therefore 
 Owen put before him quite a different problem, 
 namely, how to keep the people undisturbed in the 
 
20 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 country into which they were born, how to employ 
 them productively, and how to distribute the produce 
 of their industry in such a manner as to secure the 
 necessaries and comforts of life to those whose labour 
 had created the nation's wealth. 
 
 It was to him an astounding fact that with the 
 power of creating wealth possessed by Great Britain, 
 a large proportion of people should be in a state of 
 starvation, or semi-starvation ; — that in a country 
 where so many were excessively rich, large num- 
 bers were forced to remain idle, leaving unpro- 
 duced what the people were dying for, simply because 
 there was not statesmanship enough to use the 
 unemployed hands for the purpose of filling the 
 empty mouths. His pressing questions at this point 
 were — How can the idle hands be employed ; how 
 can the empty mouths be filled ? 
 
 Among the many things that have been estimated, 
 it is questionable whether the value of the time 
 wasted, wholly or partially, by the workers of Great 
 Britain, through want of employment, has ever yet 
 had a money value put upon it. Some instances were 
 given in the last chapter as to how matters stood in 
 this respect in 1839. One-fifteenth of the population 
 of Leeds being out of employment altogether, we 
 may safely say that 50 per cent, in addition were only 
 partially employed. This applied to the whole 
 population would mean many millions sterling in 
 wages alone ; what it might mean in uncreated wealth 
 to the nation it is, perhaps, impossible to say. 
 
 In his Labour Exchange plan, this was the questiori 
 to which Owen tried to give a practical answer. That 
 he had thought the matter out, is clear from his 
 
Efforts to Improve the Condition of the Poor. 2 1 
 
 " Report in the County of Lanark." In this report, 
 which was made, at the request of a committee of 
 gentlemen of the " Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, to a 
 general meeting of the county, held at Lanark on the 
 1st of May, 1820," he insists, " That the natural 
 standard of value is, in principle, human labour, or 
 the, combined m.anual and mental powers of men 
 called into action!^ I have referred to a small book,^ 
 which defines the words most in use among political 
 economists, and I find no fewer than twenty-nine 
 definitions of the word value ; and I think I may say, 
 that though the men quoted from for this purpose, are 
 the very first as writers of reputation, it would be 
 better, on the whole, if those who are really anxious 
 to understand the meaning of the word, did not read 
 the list of obscurities and contradictions given by Mr. 
 Constable. Owen agreed with no one of the orthodox 
 definitions of value. His idea was that gold and 
 silver were artificial standards. These, which ought 
 to represent the wealth of the country, lost true rela- 
 tion by a growth of wealth. When the circulating 
 medium fails to meet the business requirements of the 
 country, credit becomes a habit, inflation of credit 
 follows, as a matter of course, and, as this rests on 
 confidence, as soon as a panic can be got up, collapse 
 and ruin follow, and idleness, through lack of employ- 
 ment, and deep suffering, through want of wages, 
 result to the masses of the working people. 
 
 Beginning with 1817, Mr. Halbert^ shows that out 
 
 1 " Constable's Anatomy ofWealth." — Simpkin, Marshall, 6^^ 
 Co. 
 
 ^ " Halbert's Exposition of Economic and Financial Science," 
 page 83. 
 
22 Life, Times, and Laboicrs of Robert Owen^ 
 
 of sixty years, closing with 1877, there were thirty- 
 two years of panic, depression, over-trading and com- 
 mercial reaction. This state of things, with the awful 
 misery attending it, cannot be explained so as to put 
 it beyond the control of a wise statesmanship. In 
 1826 there was a crisis brought about by foreign loans 
 and mining speculation. In 1837-38 there was the 
 great American panic; in 1847 the great railway 
 panic and Irish potato failure; in 18157 the Western 
 Scottish Bank failure; 1866, Overend and Gurney's 
 crushing fall, with " hundreds of limited liability 
 companies and newly-started bank companies, bankers 
 and speculators going down in one 'grand melee' o{ 
 ruin and disaster." Subsequently to this, in one year 
 alone, the year 1S75, Mr. Purdy, in his " City Life, 
 Its Trade and Finance," page 206, gives a list of 
 great commercial failures, including Alexander Collie 
 & Co., amounting to .^37,058,373. There are words 
 by which such business can be explained, but there 
 are no words by which the awful suffering that at- 
 tends it can be described. Commercial scheming 
 and money-jobbing lie at the root, iSV^Hk and in the 
 folly and greed of men, not in the ine'<ier^)e decrees 
 
 of Providence, are to be found t he Ca uai!lp for such a 
 state of things. ' t " 
 
 These commercial dislocations, to whatever causes 
 traced, may be regarded as hitches in our system of 
 exchange. Either the money arrangements are at 
 fault, or the system of supply and demand has got 
 out of gear. In either case, the industrial machine 
 becomes ungovernable, and breaks down. In con- 
 nection with the working people, the constant fluctua- 
 tions ot trade are severely felt. When trade is not at 
 
Efforts to Improve the Condition of the Poor. 
 
 '^ ^ 
 
 its best or at its worst, it is either improving or de- 
 clining. When at its best, it can scarcely ever be 
 said that all are employed. When at its worst, 
 there is, among the unemployed, a general misery 
 which no system of relief can meet, and no effort of 
 private benevolence greatly mitigate. In the improv- 
 ing or declining condition, there are always large 
 numbers wholly or partially unemployed, and suffer- 
 ing" in a greater or lesser degree, so that, except in 
 the rare intervals when things are at their very 
 best, the condition of the labouring population 
 in Great Britain is a condition of uncertainty, of 
 competition for employment, of depressed wages, and 
 comparative want. Out of the sixty years already 
 alluded to in the work of Mr. Halbert, the term of 
 decided and prosperous commercial enterprise is 
 stated to be eighteen years, whilst that of bad 
 trade and of decline and recovery stands at forty-two 
 years. — - 
 
 Owen's Labour Exchange plan was meant to apply 
 principally to the unemployed and partially em- 
 ployed. It accepted labour as the standard of value 
 and as the source of wealth. He started in this from 
 the ground laid down by Adam Smith, who, in his 
 introduction to the " Wealth of Nations," says : " The 
 annual labour of every nation is the fund which 
 originally supplies it with all the necessaries and 
 conveniences of life which it annually consumes, and 
 which consists always either in the immediate pro- 
 duce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that 
 produce from other nations. According, therefore, as 
 this produce, or what is purchased with it, bears a 
 greater or smaller proportion to the number of those 
 
24 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owert. 
 
 who are to consume it, the nation will be better or 
 worse supplied with all the necessaries and con- 
 veniences for which it has occasion." M'Cullock says, 
 p. 73 : " That the great practical problem involved in 
 that part of the science which treats of the production 
 of wealth, must resolve itself into a discussion of the 
 means by which labour may be considered most 
 efficient, or by which the greatest amount of neces- 
 
 , sary, useful and desirable products may be obtained 
 with the least outlay of labour." In this view of the 
 
 -rfiatter it must be plaiij- that, to have inactive any 
 portion of the comrnu'nity that might be engaged in 
 productive employment, is injurious not only to those 
 who are forced into involuntary idleness, but also to 
 society which has to support them in idleness, instead 
 of deriving profit from their labour. The science of 
 the political economist, if it can only attempt an 
 explanation instead of accomplishing a cure, must be 
 at fault, and in such a situation, instead of being 
 satisfied with the explanation of the political econo- 
 mist, it is our duty to encourage such experiments as 
 may promise a solution of the difficulty. 
 
CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Iplan of Xabour Bscbange. 
 
 Owen in many ways asked the question — why, ifi 
 labour be the parent of wealth, the workers of the 
 country were compelled to starve when they were able 
 and anxious to work ? The statesmen and politicians 
 gave no answer. The political economists spoke of at^ 
 falling off in demand — of the unremunerative condition 
 of the markets; overlooking the fact that these idle 
 people, if put to work, would of themselves create 
 markets by the supplying of their wants. The pro-/' 
 ducer was also a consumer, and Robert Owen and 
 his followers felt that some intelligent effort should be 
 made to at least produce as much by the labour of 
 the unemployed as would enable them without injury 
 to others to keep life in themselves. 
 
 It would perhaps be too much to expect statesmen 
 to devote their time to any subject which has not first 
 been discussed by the public, and the condition of the 
 unemployed never received that kind of public atten- 
 tion which leads to a comprehension of principles and 
 an understanding of details. Public discussion has 
 always taken the form of how to feed and employ 
 paupers at the least expense to the rate-payers, when 
 the consideration ought to have been how to employ 
 unpauperised workers with advantage to themselves 
 
26 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiuen. 
 
 and the public, and at no cost to the rate-payers. 
 The worker, forced into poverty by want of employ- 
 ment, may be said to have no refuge but pauperism ; 
 at first perhaps only partial, but, in the end, complete. 
 When the pressure on the rates is not heavy, or when 
 it is not expected to be of long continuance, out-door 
 relief is given ; but if the pressure increases and con- 
 tinues, out-door relief is gradually cut off, and the 
 doors of the workhouse thrown open in the belief that 
 large numbers would suffer anything rather than 
 enter them. In this way there is sometimes a 
 temporary saving in money, but there is always a per- 
 manent increase in the inmates of the " house," and 
 there is an increase also in that abjectness of spirit by 
 which pauperism is accepted as a permanent condition 
 of life. 
 
 Owen, and those who thought with him, saw what 
 was obvious to the world at the time when the Labour 
 Exchange was organised (1830 to 1832), that the 
 growth of pauperism, through want of employment, 
 was enormous, and that multitudes of people, who had 
 up to that time struggled to provide themselves with 
 food, lodging, clothing, and fire, by heavy, disagreeable, 
 and continous labour, were rapidly coming to the 
 conclusion that the lodging, clothing, and food of the 
 pauper were better than they had been in the habit of 
 procuring for themselves, and that they got it in what 
 was miscalled the " workhouse"," without working. In 
 this way the labour of the country was becoming 
 demoralised, and there was no method of dealing with 
 it understood either by the Government or the local 
 authorities, that could prevent the complications and 
 dangers rapidly multiplying and becoming worse as 
 
Plan of Labour Exchange. 27 
 
 they increased in number. It is true that wealth was 
 increasing in the hands of certain classes of the com- 
 munity, and when this wealth was boastingly spoken 
 of, as a national aggregate, there was reason for the 
 boast; but the wide-spread poverty, on one hand, 
 presented such a striking contrast to the growing 
 riches and luxury on the other, that it was a question 
 if the position were not more calculated to excite 
 alarm than satisfaction. 
 
 It would be difficult to conceive any plan by which 
 the whole unemployed ;^rtion of the labouring popu- 
 lation could be set to work under the ordinary condi- 
 tions of depressed trade. There were niillions of 
 people at this period unemployed and partially em- 
 ployed. It would have taken so much capital, and 
 engaged so much of the managing faculty of the 
 country, as would have disorganised the established 
 system. Any project where such a tendency was to 
 be apprehended was out of the question. 
 
 The Labour Exchange project interfered with 
 nothing that formed part of the existing system. Its 
 proposal was to establish a centre of exchange, in 
 which every worker who produced anything of ex- 
 changeable value might dispose of it, and receive its 
 value in time notes. The material that had^to be 
 purchased was paid for in these notes at market value, 
 and the time spent in its manufacture calculated at 
 the rate of 6d. per hour. Suppose the article to be a 
 pair of shoes, the value of the material 3s. 6d., and 
 the time occupied in making them seven hours. In 
 material, leather, &c., and labour, this would bring 
 the value up to 7s., which would be paid in the cur- 
 rency of the exchange in fourteen sixpenny notes. 
 
2S Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 With these the maker of the shoes might purchase, in 
 the exchange, material for the continuing of his worl<, 
 and food for his family. While he was engaged in 
 making boots or shoes, other people were employed 
 in producing things needed by him, in depositing them 
 as he had done, and taking home for their use the 
 shoes he had made. There need be no limit to the 
 operations carried on in such an establishment, nor 
 need there be any idleness among the people con- 
 nected with it, so long as there is a want that can be 
 supplied by mutual interchange. 
 
 In such a system every unemployed hand might be 
 brought into employment, every particle of skill util- 
 ized to supply a demand otherwise non-existent, and 
 the absence of which implied terrible suffering. In 
 this way labour is exchanged for labour, and so long 
 as men can produce what they mutually require, want, 
 in the ordinary meaning of the term, would be un- 
 known. This is the idea that was entertained by 
 Robert Owen and his fellow-labourers. 
 
 The carrying out of this plan was in the nature of 
 things a difficult task and required a larger capital, 
 and at first, no doubt, a more matured experience 
 than was possessed by its most ardent advocates. The 
 organisation of a primary establishment in London 
 could not but be costly. At first, only the working 
 classes were likely to take an interest in the move- 
 ment, and capital was the thing they were least likely 
 to possess. Large premises would have to be taken 
 and fitted up, men acquainted with the value of the 
 different goods brought in for exchange would have 
 to be engaged, and money wherewith to procure a stock 
 of various kinds of raw material would be necessary. 
 
Plan of Labour Exchange. zg 
 
 There would also be needed an office at which 
 money at a moderate discount might be given for 
 notes when the holders could not procure what they 
 required on the spot Ordinary articles of food ought 
 to be added for the convenience of members, that the 
 notes might not be carried out of the institution to 
 neighbouring traders who might be disposed to take 
 them at an injurious depreciation. As a matter of 
 course the managers would be under no compulsion 
 to receive whatever might be brought to them. They 
 might refuse any article in which they were already 
 over-stocked, or any article not in general or frequent 
 demand. Indeed, one of the chief duties of the man- 
 agement would be to keep constant watch over the 
 proportions of the stock. In this system it need not 
 be supposed that every one of the evils growing out 
 of want of employment could be overcome. There 
 are many employments in which those who work do 
 not produce what could be exchanged in such a place, 
 but all who labour in the production of articles in 
 common use among the masses of the people would 
 not need to spend their time in idleness. 
 
 It is no objection to say that in great manufactur- 
 ing establishments the articles exchanged could be 
 made more economically than under a system of 
 domestic industry; because in this case they would be 
 the produce of a skill and industry that would other- 
 wise be utterly wasted. They would not be made for 
 competing markets, but for their own special market, 
 and would not be made at all if this special mode of 
 exchanging them to the advantage of the producer 
 and consumer were not in operation. Once such a 
 system as this was fairly established it would be 
 
30 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 above the accidents of financial disarrangements. 
 Whether a panic w as brought on by over-trading, or 
 bank-breaking, or war, or any other cause, the wants 
 of the people could be satisfied, so long as they pre- 
 served a method of exchanging what they produced. 
 CHad the capital at the command of Robert Owen 
 been sufficient, it is almost certain that the business 
 ability which secured to him a uniform success in all 
 his private undertakings would have carried him 
 safely through his labour exchange experiment. This 
 not being the case, he was forced to do the best he 
 could with the means at his disposal^Y One writer 
 gives a description of the Labour Exchange, in which 
 there is not one of its features truly represented, the 
 description has not even the exaggerated resemblance 
 of a caricature. In principle and detail it is miscon- 
 ception ^ from beginning to end. 
 
 The idea of the Labour Exchange was explained in 
 Owen's report to the County Lanark, issued on May 
 1st, 1820 ; and again in the report of the proceedings 
 in Dublin, in 1823. It had been extensively discussed 
 in the public press, especially in the Crisis. 
 
 At the Co-operative Congress held in the May of 
 1832, Owen submitted a report to the meeting which 
 is thus noticed under the head of " Exchange Labour 
 Bank : " " Mr. Owen then observed, that to render 
 their operations effective, money, which formed the 
 sinews of war, was requisite. He then submitted a 
 report, containing a proposal for facilitating and secur- 
 ing the exchange of labour for equal labour." Indeed, 
 the matter had been the subject of close and careful 
 consideration for several years, and it was not 
 ^ Sargant's " Robert Owen and His Philosophy," p. 303. 
 
Plan of Labour Exchange. 31 
 
 commenced until it had been gone over in its minutest 
 details by those who projected it, and who were 
 anxious for its success. 
 
 Owen did nothing haphazard, or without requisite 
 deliberation. Robert Dale Owen says : " My father 
 found the political economists urging a reduction of 
 taxes as a cure for existing" evils ; but his experience 
 taught him to regard that as a mere temporary 
 palliative. The very reduction of Government bur- 
 dens might be taken as an all-sufficient plea for the 
 further reduction of wages. Labour could be afforded 
 for less. And down 10 the very point at which it can 
 be afforded, which means at that point on the road to 
 famine at which men are not starved suddenly, but 
 die slowly of toil inadequately sustained by scanty 
 and unwholesome food, down to that point of 
 bare subsistence, my father saw the labourer of 
 Britain thrust. How ? Wherefore ? By what leger- 
 demain of cruelty and injustice ? Thus the problem 
 loomed upon him. We may imagine his reflections. 
 Why, as the world advances in knowledge and power, 
 do the prospects and the comforts of the mass of 
 mankind darken and decline ? How happens it that 
 four or five centuries have passed over Britain, bring- 
 ing peace where raged feuds and forays, affording 
 protection to person and property, setting free the 
 shackled press, spreading intelligence and liberality, 
 reforming religion, and fostering civilisation ; how 
 happens it that these centuries of improvement have 
 left the British labourer twofold more the slave of 
 toil than they found him ? Why must mechanical 
 inventions — inevitable, even if they were mischievous, 
 and in themselves a rich blessing as surely as they are 
 
32 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 inevitable — stand in array against the labourer in- 
 stead of toiling by his side?" "Momentous questions 
 these ! " exclaims the son, " my father pondered them 
 day and night." They were constantly with him, and 
 all that he said and did was the result of long thought 
 and painful anxiety, never hurried, if for no other 
 reason than that everything he undertook was delayed 
 in its prosecution and robbed of its best chances of 
 success by want of means and of preparedness among 
 the people. Noyes ^ says that Josiah Warren com- 
 municated his views on " Labour Exchange " to 
 Owen at New Harmony, in 1826. The reply to this 
 is, as already stated, that Owen had published his 
 views on " Labour Exchange" in 1820. It would be 
 useless to attempt any refutation of the multitude of 
 absurd things written on this project. It no doubt 
 had its shortcomings, as most untried projects have, 
 and it is certain that blunders were made at the 
 beginning which were checked and corrected as ex- 
 perience begot knowledge. But the idea was simple, 
 namely, to deposit manufactured goods, raw material, 
 provisions, and so forth, receive their value in labour 
 notes, representing time, at the rate of sixpence per 
 hour, and then purchase with these notes anything 
 the holder of them might require that was in stock. 
 On the exchanges made, for the purpose of covering 
 expense of management, a percentage was charged, so 
 that with the exception of this charge, which was 
 slight, everything that passed from the hands of one 
 man to another went at the cost of production, //?« 
 8-i per cent, or a penny in the shilling, which was the 
 charge made as commission. 
 
 ^ " Histor)' of American Socialism," page 95. 
 
Plan of Labour Exchange. 33 
 
 At the outset Robert Owen had to contend against 
 the impatience of his followers. He held them back 
 as long as he could, but, as in such a business en- 
 thusiasm is worth a good deal, he had to give way, 
 and commence before the necessary preparation could 
 be completed. The building in which the business 
 was carried on, and which was large and convenient, 
 belonged to a man, who, under pretence of enthusiasm 
 in the cause of labour, pressed it on them, free of rent. 
 When this man saw how successful the undertaking 
 was, his enthusiasm gave way to thoughts of self- 
 interest, which led to a demand for £\,']00 a year for 
 rent and taxes. Up to this the success of the 
 undertaking had been very encouraging. Even in 
 their almost unprepared state they were doing a 
 business of about ;^i,ooo a week, and this would have 
 rapidly extended, had time been given before a 
 demand so unexpected and heavy was made. In the 
 reports which the Crisis gave of the progress of the 
 business, it is stated several times that the doors bad 
 to be closed to check a pressure of custom for which 
 they were not prepared. In fact, everything being 
 new to those engaged in conducting the project, the 
 large number of transactions puzzled and confused 
 the attendants, and frequently bred discontents that 
 were, however, rapidly giving way to a better 
 understanding, when the landlord, who had con- 
 ceived the idea of possessing himself of the premises 
 and the business, took possession of the bazaar in 
 Gray's Inn-road, and turned the Exchange busiiiess 
 and those who were transacting it into the streets. 
 
 It is true that its managers should not have com- 
 menced their undertaking till they had full legal 
 VOL. II. C 
 
34 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 security for continued possession of the building in 
 which it was to be carried on ; but in such a move- 
 ment there must be much real generosity, much mutual 
 confidence among its most active friends, and it is not 
 surprising that pretended beneficence should occasion- 
 ally be used to cloak interested and sordid motives. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Causes of failure. 
 
 The Labour Exchange Bazaar was a failure, and it 
 became so when, by improvement in its working and 
 rapidity in its growth, it gave the fairest promise of 
 success. So far as manufactured articles were con- 
 cerned, there could be no question that it even sur- 
 passed the expectations of its projectors. Men filled 
 up their spare time and taxed their ingenuity to pro- 
 duce something of exchangeable value. The notes// 
 given for the goods deposited, were used by the holders 
 for the purchase of whatever they might require. 
 Everything was marked at the price at which it wasi/ 
 valued, with a separate ticket stating the amount of 
 the 8 1 per cent, charged to cover the cost of the trans- 
 action. 
 
 When the people got to understand the routine of 
 the business, complaints ceased. The officials could 
 have no motive for under or over-valuing the goods 
 brought to them. There was no private interest at 
 work, and, therefore, no private purpose could be 
 served by any description of false or fraudulent deal- 
 ing. Everything was open to depositor and purchaser. 
 Yet every person who in any way had suffered disap- 
 pointment in any transaction, had the use of the public 
 press for the purpose of attacking the institution, and 
 
^6 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiven. 
 
 as a matter of course this was taken advantage of, 
 more particularly by those who did not realise, in 
 connection with their exchanges, advantages which 
 the institution was never meant to confer. 
 
 Nor was this all. Up and down London, in districts 
 where the working people most resorted for the pur- 
 pose of marketing, shop-keepers announced their 
 establishments as having adopted the labour exchange 
 system, and large numbers of people, not being aware 
 of the fraud, had to pay for their ignorance. In this 
 way the officials of the bazaar were called upon not 
 only to defend their own proceedings, but to defend 
 themselves from attacks brought on by the proceed- 
 ings of dishonest traders. Such impediments, how- 
 ever, could only have lasted for a time. As the public 
 became better acquainted with the nature of the 
 establishment in Gray's Inn Road, they would have 
 disappeared, and the institution would have had a 
 vigorous growth. 
 
 There were, however, tj^o dra wbacks for which the 
 enemies of the Exchange were not accountable, and 
 which will have to be carefully guarded against if any 
 future attempt should be made to organise such a 
 system. The first thing required is that the labourer, 
 or worker, should be provided with the mea'ns of pro- 
 ducing. That is, that in addition to his skill and his 
 time, food and raw material should be supplied to 
 him. At Gray's Inn Road, though an attempt was 
 made to do this, it failed, partly through lack of 
 accommodation, principally through want of capital. 
 An attempt was made to add green-groceries, meat, 
 and bread, by arrangement with tradesmen who dealt 
 in these articles, payment to be half in labour notes 
 
Causes of Failure. 37 
 
 and half in money ; but it did not work satisfactorily. 
 The most necessary kinds of raw material should have 
 been kept in stock, and in order that they might be sup- 
 plied to members at the lowest price, should have 
 been purchased in large quantity in the wholesale 
 market ; but an arrangement for turning notes into 
 current coin was established, so that purchases might 
 be made outside the bazaar. This was so much of a 
 deviation from the original plan that it could only be 
 justified by such a lack of capital as would indicate a 
 dangerous financial weakness. 
 
 Had the machinery been complete, and the capital 
 sufficient, every working man in London, and through- 
 out the country, might have been exempt from want 
 of employment, except through illness, intemperance, 
 or indolence. Nothing need have been disturbed. 
 The labour exchange project did not carry in it a 
 revolution of displacement ; that the old order might 
 give place to an entirely new condition of industry. 
 It simply sought to prevent poverty, distress, and dis- 
 content ; to put a stop to the misery by which the 
 homes of the workers were invaded, whenever slack- 
 ness in business rendered powerless the hands of those 
 without whose labour bread could not be procured. 
 
 Mr. Sargant tells his readers ^ that " Owen himself 
 felt that the scheme had not proved to be what he in- 
 tended. He said that really in this its first stage — its 
 infant and imperfect state — it was little better than a 
 superior pawnbroking establishment, but that he hoped 
 it was proceeding to the second stage of a retail trade, 
 and that it would eventually become a wholesale 
 trade ; a great falling off from first expectations.'' 
 }, " Robert Owen and His Philosophy," p 315. 
 
38 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 This passage does not represent Owen's meaning. 
 He was speaking of the first imperfect stage of a plan 
 that was improving in a most hopeful manner, and he 
 in no way expresses disappointment. On the con- 
 trary, he described the progress as highly satisfactory; 
 not at the beginning all that could be wished, because 
 the means to make it so were not in his possession, 
 but moving in a right direction ; the branch at Black- 
 friars more particularly was from the commencement 
 in a condition to pay its own expenses. 
 
 It is difficult to account for the narrow spirit of op- 
 position in which this most legitimate and important 
 experiment was criticised. There could be no possible 
 harm in enabling the working people to exchange 
 with each other, for their mutual benefit, the products 
 of their industry. No economic principle was attacked 
 nor was any interest interfered with. It would have 
 utilised time, which must have been otherwise wasted; 
 it would have increased wealth, which has a tendency 
 to diminish during periods of commercial depression ; 
 it would have tended to preserve habits of industry, 
 which at such seasons suffer injury ; and, so far as its 
 influence was felt, it would in every true sense of the 
 word have been wholesome and profitable ; and yet 
 during the whole time it was carried on, it was made 
 the subject of ridicule and misrepresentation. It may 
 now be difficult to believe in the existence of a deter- 
 mination on the part of any particular class of men to 
 designedly oppose or suppress such an undertaking. 
 It must be remembered, however, that at the time 
 when the experiment was made, associations for public 
 purposes among the working people were only be- 
 ginning to make their influence felt. Trade unions 
 
Causes of Failure. 39 
 
 were in their infancy, but were seriously feared by the 
 manufacturing and trading classes. The 1832 reform 
 agitation was over, but it had called out popular 
 vehemence as an element in political discussion, a 
 circumstance not very generally regarded with favour. 
 A very determined movement was even at the moment 
 on foot for an untaxed press, with a view to popular 
 education for political purposes. The friends of 
 Robert Owen, such as Henry Hetherington, James 
 Watson, and John Cleave, were the leading actors in 
 the cheap press movement, and were warmly sup- 
 ported by Owen's followers. In whatever way the 
 prejudice arose, there can be no doubt it existed, and 
 that, in consequence, Owen had to defend himself and 
 his proceedings against misrepresentation and attack, 
 in a way that occupied his time, and impeded the pro- 
 gress of that which he was seeking to carry out. 
 
 When the parent exchange left Gray's Inn Road, it 
 removed, after a temporary sojourn at the Surrey 
 Institute, Blackfriars, to Charlotte Street, Fitzroy 
 Square, but the inconvenience and interruption to 
 business proved fatal when taken in connection with 
 the inadequate capital with which so large an under- 
 taking had to be carried on. A resolute fight was 
 made, but whatever the object of any undertaking, 
 the business conditions of success must be present, 
 and in this case they were not present. The want of 
 money stood in the way of all improvements. No 
 important difficulty could be overcome ; no pressing 
 want supplied ; and, in such a state of things, what- 
 ever the zeal of the projectors, the general public fear 
 inconvenience, and decline help even in cases where 
 they regard success as desirable. 
 
40 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 Those who have taken the trouble to study the plan 
 of the labour exchange can hardly entertain a doubt 
 as to the great benefit it was capable of conferring on 
 the community, and on the working portion of the 
 people in particular. It may now be said that the 
 more forward condition of the co-operative store 
 movement is rapidly preparing the people for it ; and 
 it is not too much to add that at no very distant time 
 it is likely to receive a new trial, which, with the help 
 of the store organisation, could hardly fail to be a 
 success. A prepared public opinion, and abundant 
 money power, will be capable of accomplishing much, 
 when the public comprehend more fully the pow^r of 
 association and the fitness of the co-operative idea for 
 grappling with the industrial evils which now seem to 
 defy cure. 
 
 In one of his addresses in 1832, Robert Owen 
 spoke of the Labour Exchange, then being tried in 
 Gray's Inn Road, as a kind of bridge over which the 
 people might pass into a more secure condition of 
 life ; but it may be said : 
 
 They tried the abyss on wings unskilled, 
 
 That wilful generation ; 
 Their children sound, and mete, and build, 
 
 On deep and piled foundation. 
 With slow increase of arch to arch, 
 
 Across the dreary region, 
 A bridge to bear the onward inarch 
 
 Of many a victor legion. 
 
 The great difficulty, however, in all these early ex- 
 periments, was the lack of wider knowledge and 
 higher motives on the part of the masses. The 
 leaders were for the most part intelligent and earnest 
 
Causes of Failure. 41 
 
 but a multitude of the followers expected to give little, 
 and receive much ; and it does not require any large 
 number of such to lower the character and im- 
 pede the progress of any movement. Few men 
 could have come out of such failures as Owen did, 
 without suspicion or stain. The hopes that inspired 
 him were genuine, and he was always personally a 
 loser by the experiments he tried. But when the 
 losses incurred by him, his friends, and followers, are 
 counted up, they are as nothing in the gross to the 
 failure of many a single trading firm in the ordinary 
 business of the world. Robert Owen had one 
 object in view, but he never brought himself to 
 the belief that there was only one way of attain- 
 ing it. The co-operative stores and the labour ex- 
 change were methods of approaching it, nothing 
 more ; and when these failed they were only failures 
 in method ; and, hence, he and his friends again set 
 to work, in as strong a belief as ever that the condi- 
 tion of society led to the existence of needless evils 
 and unnecessary suffering, and that it was the duty of 
 men to labour for its improvement. In this faith 
 they entered on the socialistic campaign which in its 
 progress attracted so much attention and caused so 
 much alarm to people, who, if they had known more, 
 would have feared less. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 preparations. IRew /llbovements. 
 
 Before entering on what may be regarded as the 
 last great effort made by Robert Owen on behalf of 
 the people, it may not be out of plaee to refer briefly 
 to certain previous events. 
 
 (^he Store Movement was commenced about 1822. 
 The Labour Exchange in 1832. In 1834 the Labour 
 Exchange effort may be regarded as closed, but in 
 1835 Robert Owen was again active in the cause of the 
 working people^ 
 
 The New Moral World was then in the first year 
 of its existence, and in its columns may be found a 
 record of the activity with which the efforts originated 
 by Owen were carried on. At page 348, vol. i, are 
 the minutes of a meeting, held at the Exchequer 
 Coffee-House, Palace Yard, Westminster, on August 
 II, 1835, Lord Dudley Stewart in the chair. The 
 object of the meeting was to consider the practicability 
 of adopting measures to give permanent useful 
 employment and instruction to all who were incapable 
 of obtaining such employment and instruction for 
 themselves. At this meeting, Mr Thomas Attwood, 
 of Birmingham, was the principal speaker, and being 
 the first to address the meeting, he expressed his 
 belief that some part of the plans recommended by 
 Robert Owen might be carried into execution through 
 
Preparations. New Movements. 43 
 
 the means of a joint-stock company. There was 
 considerable discussion on this, and a committee was 
 appointed to take into consideration the various 
 proposals and suggestions made, and Messrs. Owen, 
 Altwood, and James Braby were appointed as a sub- 
 committee to report, which they did at a meeting of 
 the general committee, held at the same place, on 
 August 19, Thomas Wyse, M.P., in the chair. This 
 report is a well-drawn document, and contains much 
 in reference to the actual condition of the country at 
 that time that is well worth reproducing. 
 
 About this time the country was reduced almost to 
 hopelessness by its pauper system. The only cure 
 suggested by the usual counsellors consisted in 
 sweeping those who needed relief, and applied for it, 
 into the workhouses, and rigidly denying relief to 
 those who would not enter these abodes of misery. 
 The report above referred to contains the following 
 words: "Your sub-committee perceived at once that 
 the subject could not be understood until the cause of 
 the evil was ascertained ; for without such knowledge, 
 it would be impossible to provide an efficient 
 permanent remedy. From the information which is 
 patiently collected, it found that there was no profit- 
 able employment for a large amount of the capital 
 which is daily accumulating in the hands of com- 
 paratively few over-grown wealthy individuals, whether 
 landed proprietors, manufacturers, commercial men, 
 or great capitalists, trading on public securities, 
 domestic and foreign. It also found that under the 
 present system of individual competition, no large 
 additional amount of capital could be beneficially 
 employed in the extension of agriculture, manu- 
 
44 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 factures, or commerce ; that there was, in each of these 
 departments, much unemployed labour wasting most 
 injuriously for all parties ; and that the professions 
 were over-supplied with young applicants, seeking the 
 means of very humble support. . . . Your sub- 
 committee was also convinced that it will prove a 
 waste of the most valuable powers possessed by 
 society to attempt any longer to sustain a system, 
 which the inventions, discoveries, and improvements 
 of the age have rendered impracticable to maintain, 
 except by the hourly increasing misery and degrada- 
 tion of the millions of the producers of wealth and 
 consequent danger of non-producers. . . . Your 
 sub-committee soon decided that evil only, to an 
 incalculable extent, would arise to all parties by the 
 mass being induced to look for relief from the 
 possession of the wealth already created and possessed 
 by individuals. It must be evident to those who 
 reflect, that, if all the wealth now in existence were to 
 be divided equally between the population of the 
 world, without arrangements being made to produce 
 more, that almost all this population would, for want 
 of the necessaries of life, be in less than two years 
 starved out of existence. This wealth has been 
 slowly creating, through many centuries ; and were it 
 to be violently destroyed, and men ignorant of the 
 effects of such a combination, were to attempt to 
 govern the empire, the greatest disorder and misery 
 would inevitably ensue." 
 
 The report goes on to state that whatever was 
 attempted should be done in a sound knowledge of 
 the facts, by the application of funds raised in the 
 form of joint-stock company investments, and adds, 
 
Preparations. ISiew Movements. 45 
 
 as a suggestion, that should emigration from this 
 country become at any time necessary, individuals 
 properly trained and selected from the establishments 
 it was proposed to create, would be the best people 
 for forming colonies abroad. No inducement seemed 
 strong enough to draw from the wealthy classes the 
 aid required for the improvement of the poor. The 
 report, signed by Thomas Attwood, Robert Owen, 
 and James Braby, was issued by the committee that 
 appointed them, but the response was not such as to 
 encourage further action. 
 
 The new Poor-law Act was relied on, and a great 
 saving was made in the rates. The disease of 
 pauperism was driven in, and the State doctors, like 
 practical men, congratulated themselves on the 
 improvement that had taken place. With all the 
 wealth producing power they had obtained they could 
 not manage to feed an industrious people who were 
 ready to work, but they could manage to save the 
 rates by imprisoning and starving paupers, and as the 
 saving of the rates was the main thing to be desired, 
 there ensued a tiding-over and a content which gave 
 tolerably general satisfaction, where the convenience 
 of the rate-paying portion of the public was the first 
 and principal consideration. 
 
 The movement did not absolutely languish, though 
 little of any consequence was done to enlist the 
 attention of the public. In London, Owen delivered 
 lectures at Burton Rooms, Burton-crescent, on the 
 best means of trying a practical experiment on the 
 land, with a view to the education and employment 
 of the people. The real starting point, however, of the 
 Socialist agitation was Manchester. Without the 
 
46 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 newspaper press, in those days nothing could be 
 effectually done in London ; small meetings held in 
 the various districts of the metropolis might keep a 
 belief alive, but could not spread it. In Manchester 
 where the industrial evils complained of were acutely 
 felt, and where the intercourse among great bodies of 
 men was more complete, the case was different, and 
 the words of Owen and his followers carried a meaning 
 and significance which caused them to be taken to 
 heart. It is true that those who entered on the new 
 form of the agitation were, with few exceptions, 
 working men, and entirely without influence ; but 
 they deal with matters belonging to their own lives 
 and experience. (They had not to go out of their 
 own homes and workshops to find their facts, 
 arguments, or illustrations, and their earnestness and 
 zeal were stimulated by what they suffered themselves, 
 and what they saw others suffer ; by the desire to lift 
 the poor and ignorant into the condition of an intelli- 
 gent and decent manhood. Living in a world of new 
 industrial developments, they saw not only that old 
 evils were perpetuated, but that there were daily 
 coming into existence new ones that foreboded the 
 worst consequences, not only to themselves and their 
 class, but to society generally ; and they determined 
 to fight against these by every legitimate means in 
 their powerT^ 
 
 The movement with which I am now about to deal 
 began, as I have already stated, in Manchester. A store 
 had been started in Oldfield-road, Salford, of which 
 I myself was a member, but as we were for the most 
 part young unmarried men, it was not in our power to 
 to be good customers to our own business. We were, 
 
Preparations. New Movements. 47 
 
 as far as I can remember, utterly inexperienced, and 
 it is, therefore, more than likely that the goods we 
 offered for sale had little or no attraction, either on 
 the ground of price or quality. We, nevertheless, 
 went resolutely on, making no profit, yet not losing 
 much on the business we did. This, if I am not 
 mistaken, was in 1831, and when we discovered that 
 we were not likely to make any headway, we prudently 
 decided to wind up, and set to work in a different 
 fashion. We had counters and shelves, and a few 
 tables and chairs, so we took a couple of large rooms, 
 close to St Philip's Church, and opened a school for 
 the instruction of boys and girls, and of such adults as 
 might think it worth their while to learn what we 
 were able to teach. We had among us two carpenters, 
 who were found useful in turning the shelves and 
 counters into desks and forms, and in a short time our 
 night school was ready for the reception of pupils. 
 
 We taught drawing, music, singing, and dancing, 
 in addition to all the ordinary branches of tuition, 
 my own position being that of writing master. We 
 drew up a small handbill, which was distributed 
 among the houses of the working people in the 
 neighbourhood, and when this was done, we made a 
 house-to-house visitation, begged the people to send 
 their children, and if possible, to come themselves. 
 The result of this was that in six months after we 
 opened the school we had no fewer than 170 scholars 
 of both sexes, who were steady and regular in their 
 attendance, and whose ages ranged from about twelve 
 to forty. No charge was made, nor did any of the 
 teachers receive any remuneration. The majority of 
 the pupils were factory girls and boys, but I can 
 
48 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 recollect mechanics of mature years learning to write, 
 with a desperate determination to be successful, 
 though the difficulty was great. 
 
 We carried this school on for six years, during 
 which time we also held Sunday meetings at which 
 essays were read and lectures delivered, having 
 reference chiefly to the condition of society, the 
 changes that were taking place, the further changes 
 that in the interest of labour were desirable, and the 
 duties of the working portion of the population in 
 connection with, these. 
 
 The first two or three years of our co-operative 
 effort were the busiest years in promoting and carry- 
 ing the Reform Bill of 1832. I need scarcely say, 
 that, as young men taking an interest in advanced 
 thought, we were zealous political reformers, Man- 
 chester and Salford having then no parliamentary 
 representation. This was also the time at which the 
 struggle for an untaxed newspaper press began. 
 Many of us were active in this agitation, and in pro- 
 moting sound legislation. Those who were disposed 
 to work found plenty to do, and for those who joined 
 in the cry for education, factory legislation, social 
 reform, and freedom of thought in matters of religious 
 faith, there was little else than calumny and abuse ; 
 and it must be confessed that many of those most 
 active in this regard themselves, were working people, 
 though it is fair to state that they were among the 
 most ignorant of their class. 
 
 Though the improvement which has taken place 
 since then is not all that it might have been, it is so great 
 that most men of the present day would find it diffi- 
 cult to realise the brute indifference, and the blind 
 
Preparations. Nezv Movements. 49 
 
 hostility, with which the social and industrial refor- 
 mers of the earlier part of the present century had to 
 contend. A very considerable advance had been 
 made on the condition of things in which Church and 
 King mobs had their origin. The working people 
 generally were acquiring knowledge, and were fast 
 becoming independent and liberal thinkers, but there 
 was a frightful residuum of gross ignorance and of the 
 multiform brutality by which ignorance among the 
 masses of the people is always attended. Multitudes 
 were willing to sell their votes — where they possessed 
 them, as freemen, in the old Parliamentary boroughs 
 — and where they had no votes their violent opposi- 
 tion to liberal men was obtainable by drunkenness, 
 and by the excitement of party passion. 
 
 In regard to the employment of their children in 
 factories, the conduct of many of the working people 
 was as bad as it could be. Habit in this matter had 
 utterly brutalised large numbers, and improvidence 
 and poverty tended to confirm evil habits. The 
 masses of the factory workers were ignorant and poor, 
 and they were assured by those interested in keeping 
 them so, that any reduction in the hours of labour, or 
 any change in the treatment of children that added to 
 the cost of production, would inevitably lower wages, 
 and, as this meant a deepening of their poverty, they 
 looked upon the advocates of short time in the factor- 
 ies as their enemies. To this it was added that what 
 we were recommending would drive the trade out of 
 the country into the hands of foreigners, and, clumsy 
 as this device was, and untrue as it has proved, the 
 ignorant and brutalised portion of the population had 
 come to believe that if they did not continue to sell 
 VOL, II D 
 
5o Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 their children, body and soul, at the lowest figure, 
 they themselves would suffer loss, and the trade of 
 the country be ruined. Such persons did not, as a 
 matter of course, patronise the cheap, unstamped 
 press. Knowledge was, above all other things, what 
 they did not desire, but, as the battle went on, the.se 
 gradually, and especially the young, rising generation, 
 came over to the side of justice and reason, and the old 
 political and industrial masters had to give way be- 
 fore a reasoning they could not answer, and a force 
 they were unable to resist. 
 
 A specimen of the manner in which what was 
 called the Socialism of the day was combated was 
 published at that time, as having been sung at St. 
 Phillip's Sunday School, Salford, on Whit-Monday, 
 May 23, 1 83 1. St. Phillip's Church, when we first 
 began our co-operative labours in Salford, had, as it 
 were, a special duty to perform in counteracting the 
 new and dangerous doctrines which we had the auda- 
 city to propagate within a stone-throw of the parson- 
 age. My readers will understand how suitable the 
 following song must have been to the kind of people 
 I have just described : — 
 
 Here's a health now to honest John Bull, 
 
 When he's gone we shan't find such another ; 
 Here's a health to old honest John Bull, 
 
 Here's a health to old England his mother. 
 She gave him a good education, 
 
 Bid him stick to his Church and his King, 
 To be loyal and true to the nation. 
 
 And then to be merry and sing, 
 
 Fol de rol, &c. 
 
 For John is a good hearty fellow, 
 Industrious, honest, and brave, 
 
Preparations. New Movements. 51 
 
 Nor envies his betters, brave fellow, 
 
 For betters he knows he must have. 
 There must be fine lords and fine ladies, 
 
 There must be some little, some great. 
 Their wealth the support of our trade is. 
 
 Our trade's the support of their state. 
 Fol de rol, &c. 
 
 The plough and the loom would stand still. 
 
 If we were made gentlemen all, 
 All spmners, or weavers ! who'd fill 
 
 The senate, or pulpit, or hall ; 
 " Rights of man " makes a very fine sound. 
 
 Equal riches a plausible tale ; 
 But whose labour would then till the ground ? 
 
 All would drink, but who'd brew the ale ? 
 Fol de rol, &:c. 
 
 Thus naked and starved in the streets. 
 
 In despair we should wander about, 
 Should liberty find us with meat. 
 
 Or equality lengthen our coat. 
 That knaves are for lev'ling no wonder. 
 
 You may easily guess at their views ; 
 But who would get most of the plunder ? 
 
 Why, those who have nothing to lose ! 
 Fol de rol, &c. 
 
 Then away with such nonsense and stuff, 
 
 Full of treason, confusion, and blood, 
 Every Briton has freedom enough 
 
 To be happy as long as he's good. 
 To be ruled by a merciful king, 
 
 To be govern'd by juries and laws, 
 And then to be merry and sing 
 
 This, this is true liberty's cause. 
 
 Fol de rol, &c. 
 
 This is a sample of the way in which we were 
 attacked in verse, and, as might be expected, the 
 
52 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oweii. 
 
 attacks in prose were not less lively and well-intended. 
 Many specimens of the advice given to working men, 
 and the kind of reasoning used, might be given. The 
 following is taken from a pamphlet entitled " Ten 
 Minutes' Advice to Labourers," published by Hatchard 
 and Son. After cautioning the poor against gamb- 
 ling, gin-drinking, and drunkenness generally, the 
 writer tells them that they should be industrious, 
 economical, saving, contented with their station, care- 
 ful how they marry ; that they should not grumble 
 about taxes, nor be noisy about reform. Then the 
 following satisfactory explanation of the world's deep- 
 est puzzles is given : — " It should also be remembered 
 that, except a rich man locks up his money — a very 
 rare case, indeed — he pays away his income to ser- 
 vants, labourers, and tradespeople, who again lay out 
 the money in food and clothes for their families ; so 
 that, in fact, a division is at present made of his pro- 
 perty among the poor, though not, indeed, an equal 
 one. But all forced attempts at equalising property 
 have ever failed in producing the end designed, and 
 must ever fail, for it is as much a law of nature that 
 some .should be rich, and some should be poor, as 
 that some should be tall, and some should be short." 
 The writer then goes on to say, " It is the will of God 
 that everything in this world should be liable to 
 change — the sun does not always shine ; a rainy day 
 must come. Sickness will succeed to health, want to 
 plenty. Those changes have happened in all times 
 and countries, and no doubt will continue to take 
 place as long as the world lasts. Many, however, are 
 . too apt to spend all they get in drinking and intem- 
 perance, perfectly indifferent as to the future, the con- 
 
Preparations. New Movements. 53 
 
 sequence of which is, when work is scarce and wages 
 low, they are reduced to great want and^distress ; then 
 they are ready to find fault with the times, the laws, 
 the governments, &c." 
 
 We were always ready with our replies to this sort 
 of criticism. We knew that the people who resorted 
 to such shifts were not themselves deceived by them, 
 and that in speaking of the poverty and sufferings of 
 the people as Providential arrangements they were 
 hypocritically disgracing religion, and destroying its 
 influence for good among the people. We felt this 
 very strongly, and did not hesitate to say so, though, 
 for doing this, we incurred much blame from such as 
 believe that the true policy in relation to the evils of 
 society [is to hoodwink the people and leave to time 
 the cure of all the wrongs by which men are afflicted. 
 I need not say that the ideas such opponents ascribed 
 to Robert Owen and his friends were not those held 
 by them. It was order, not anarchy, they sought for ; 
 and it was justice, not an impossible and absurd 
 equality, they laboured to establish. 
 
 The Congress of 1836 was held in London, but no- 
 thing of a practical character was attempted. Dele- 
 gates were sent from Manchester, who brought back 
 favourable reports as to what had been talked about 
 and done, with which we were not quite satisfied. We 
 had among us in Manchester more life and energy, 
 united to an active system of teaching. We possessed 
 a number of men who had proved their fitness to 
 teach, and we were, therefore, determined to throw 
 ourselves into the movement and try whether or not 
 we could secure a substantial following, with a view 
 to further effort on behalf of the working people. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Hgitation In /Iliancbester. 
 
 Between the London Congress of 1836' and the 
 Congress held in Salford in 1837, there was a great 
 activity in Manchester. Robert Owen visited the 
 town and delivered lectures at several places in the 
 district. Not only were there crowded audiences in 
 the New Hall, in Salford, but a three years' engage- 
 ment had been made to occupy every Sunday a large 
 new hall in Peter Street, Manchester, and this, which 
 held about three thousand people, was always full. 
 
 Nothing of the kind had ever been tried before in 
 the mannfacturing districts. There were doctrines, 
 practical projects, and a continuous teaching by men 
 appointed for the purpose by a solidly-organised 
 association. A good band of music was formed, 
 singers were drilled, a hymn book published, a form 
 of service arranged, and everything connected with 
 the Sunday meetings was orderly and decent. First, 
 a hymn was sung, then a lesson read, a hymn again 
 sung, an address delivered, discussion invited, ap- 
 plause or disapprobation being strictly prohibited, 
 and when the time allotted to this had expired, 
 another hymn was sung, and the proceedings were 
 brought to a close. 
 
 The people attracted to these meetings, as well as 
 
Agitation in Manchester. 55 
 
 those who constituted the membership of the associa- 
 tion, were, as a rule, the most respectable portion of 
 the working classes, with a fair sprinkling of the most 
 thoughtful and independent of the shopkeeping and 
 middle class. Those who wished to join were 
 entered as members, and became active in forwarding 
 the work in hand. Nothing as immediate advantage 
 was held out to those who joined the society. On^the 
 contrary, they were called on to pay regular weekly 
 subscriptions, and to assist in many ways that in- 
 volved trouble and expense. People from the sur- 
 rounding districts flocked into Manchester and 
 Salford on Sundays, and during the week-days held, 
 in their own neighbourhoods, meetings which were 
 usually addressed by deputations from Manchester. 
 After a little time good rooms were opened in every 
 town and village of any size, lectures and discussions 
 were commenced, and brought into the field active 
 young men, who, in this way, had opportunities of 
 forming and uttering opinions in connection with 
 this new awakening of the people. 
 
 It was not a sudden outburst of enthusiasm calling 
 for nothing but the excitement of the moment to give 
 it strength. The first thing it protested against was 
 the ignorance of the people, and the vices that sprang 
 from and flourished in this ignorance. Drunkenness, 
 swearing, dog-fighting, man-fighting, and violence of 
 whatever kind were attacked. The factory owners 
 were condemned for taking no care for the educa- 
 tional and moral welfare of the people. The clergy 
 of the Established Church, and the ministers of the 
 various sectarian chapels were attacked for living 
 without protest in the midst of a state of ignorance 
 
S6 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 and depravity, which it was their special duty to war 
 against, but which was more than half tolerated by 
 their raild, conventional, weekly censures. Perhaps, 
 in the whole time, between 1816 and 1845, when the 
 proposals and plans of Robert Owen were, in one 
 form or other, constantly under discussion, there was 
 no busier year than 1836. 
 
 Owen, himself, made an extensive lecturing tour, 
 taking in all the manufacturing districts, from 
 London to the West of Scotland. Writing from 
 Manchester, on February i6th, 1837, he says: — "On 
 Saturday morning I left Birmingham and found my- 
 self comfortably in my old quarters with my friend, 
 Mr. E — , at Stony Knolls, about a mile from 
 Manchester, at nine o'clock in the evening. The 
 next morning our friends from Salford came to me to 
 say that I was expected to deliver a lecture in their 
 new large room, Peter Street, in the evening. I went 
 there accordingly, and to my surprise, I found an 
 audience of certainly not less than two thousand 
 persons. It is a fine, spacious, magnificent room for 
 the purpose. It is, as I am informed, the largest 
 public room in Manchester." 
 
 The True Sun, one of the London daily papers, 
 gave the following notice of the lecture : — 
 
 " On Sunday evening last, Robert Owen delivered 
 a lecture in Bywater's Room, Manchester, to an 
 audience of two thousand persons, upon his peculiar 
 doctrines. Pie was listened to with considerable 
 attention, and concluded by courting discussion, upon 
 which Mr. Hewett, a gentleman of some literary 
 attainments, rose and catechised Mr. Owen in a very 
 clever and lucid manner, and, we think, evinced a 
 
Agitation in Manchester. 5^ 
 
 very sound knowledge of his subject. However, the 
 venerable lecturer never lost that amiable equilibrium 
 of temper which is such a distinguishing trait of his 
 character." ' 
 
 I insert this paragraph, as, in connection with the 
 agitation of Owen, it should be remembered how free 
 his language and manner were from anger or hos- 
 tility ; how anxious he was to impress on friends and 
 opponents the necessity of dealing calmly, though 
 resolutely, with the evils against which he protested. 
 And it is right to add that his friends, as far as they 
 could, followed his example by accepting the most 
 adverse criticism even gross misrepresentation, and 
 occasionally violent abuse, without angry retaliation, 
 or any protest, beyond what was necessary to check 
 uncalled-for insult, or to vindicate their principles and 
 proceedings. 
 
 The spirit that had for some time been growing in 
 Manchester and its neighbourhood, was now taken 
 advantage of A double course of lectures during the 
 week were delivered by Robert Owen, besides which 
 the Sunday lectures were more than usually crowded. 
 The press took the matter up, and while the papers 
 of the old Tory type denounced the " socialists " as in 
 every way wicked, and as deserving to be hounded 
 from .society, the liberal papers, the Morning\Adver- 
 tiser particularly, were eloquent in praise of Owen 
 and his followers. He was at this time sixty-six 
 years old, but full of vigour and energy. 
 
 Before Owen commenced his double course of 
 lectures, he issued an address on the necessity of united 
 action for the promotion of public good. " You live," 
 he said, " in the midst of a society altogether different 
 
58 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oweti. 
 
 from that in which your ancestors lived in this district 
 one hundred years ago. At that period there was not 
 the improved steam engine of Watt, nor Arliwright's 
 improved spinning machinery ; the power-loom, mail 
 coaches, steamboats, gas lights, steam carriages ; and 
 a thousand minor inventions now familiar to you, 
 were then unknown. There were no cotton, woollen, 
 ilax, or silk mills ; there were no children employed 
 in mills of machinery ; there were no women taken 
 from their domestic duties and from their homes to 
 public works. There were no feelings of hatred 
 between masters and servants ; there were no poor 
 wretches over-exhausted with labour in unhealthy 
 atmospheres, doomed in bad times of periodical 
 and frequent occurrence to live miserably, or to die 
 by slow starvation, while surrounded by wasteful and 
 extravagant luxury ; there were light poor rates, and 
 all ashamed to apply for them ; there were many 
 holiday periods in the year, much health, and a con- 
 siderable degree of rustic enjoyment for the working 
 classes, who were then chiefly employed in agriculture, 
 living in the family with their employers, and work- 
 ing daily with them, or living and working in a 
 similar manner." . . . "This change," he goes on 
 to say, " has produced many advantages, but it has 
 also produced many disadvantages. . . . The 
 change from the agricultural system to the manu- 
 facturing, commercial, and money-dealing system is 
 one of the necessary steps in the progress of what is 
 called civilisation." 
 
 In a subsequent paragraph he points to the growth 
 of combined action among all classes of the population 
 for common purposes, and hails this as one of the 
 
Agitation in Manchester. 59 
 
 most promising signs of the time. "Thousands of 
 highly advantageous results may be obtained by well- 
 concerted union, not one of which would be obtained 
 by isolated effort. But society is yet acquainted only 
 with the puny operations of the individual system. 
 The human mind will be astonished when it shall be 
 enabled to compare what is accomplished by conflicting 
 individual efforts, with those which may be immediately 
 obtained by a well-devised rational system of union." 
 Alluding to his proposed lectures, he goes on to say : 
 " I propose to show the existing strong necessity for 
 the change, and the benefit of it to every class, sect, 
 party, country, and colour, as well as the easy means by 
 which it maybe commenced, and finally accomplished, 
 without the slightest injury to the person, property, 
 or conscience, of a single individual. In Manchester, 
 the seat of my early aspirations after knowledge, I 
 intend giving a full double course of lectures ; in the 
 mornings at eleven o'clock, for that class of the 
 population who have most leisure ; and the other at 
 eight o'clock in the evening, for those who are too 
 much engaged in the morning to attend. The pro- 
 ceeds of the lectures will be equally divided between 
 the Athenaeum and the Mechanics' Institution, 
 Manchester." The morning lectures were but thinly 
 attended, but the evening lectures were crowded, and 
 excited the liveliest interest among the thinking por- 
 tion of the working people. 
 
 It has been complained of Owen, that he spoke as 
 one with authority, rather than as an inquirer ; but 
 those who made this charge should have remembered 
 that he had been for at least thirty-six years practically 
 experimenting on the two leading points he was most 
 
do Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 anxious to enforce ; — His theory as to the formation 
 of character by education, wisely administered, he had 
 demonstrated ata heavy expenditure of moneyandtime, 
 and by his experience he had convinced himself that if 
 the people would save themselves from the growing 
 evils of the new system of manufacture, then becoming 
 everywhere established, they must possess themselves 
 of the implements of production. The knowledge he 
 had acquired during his early life, coupled with his 
 special experience in connection with the effort to 
 establish Co-operative Stores and with the Labour 
 Exchange, had carried him beyond the position of a 
 mere inquirer. He was neither dogmatic nor im- 
 patient. His manner was never offensive ; on the 
 contrary, inquiries and disputes which were forced on 
 him in a cavilling and contentious spirit, when not met 
 by silence, were treated with a respect and attention, 
 neither they nor their authors merited. 
 
 During this visit, a discussion took place between 
 Owen and a clever young dissenting minister named 
 Roebuck. As might have been expected, the dis- 
 putants ran side by side, scarcely touching each other 
 on any one of the points in dispute. Owen based all 
 he had to say on the influence of education on 
 character, and on the necessity of so reforming society 
 as to secure justice in all conditions of life. These 
 points he enforced with eloquence and earnestness, 
 producing a very powerful effect on his audience. 
 
 On the other hand, his opponent, who was also both 
 eloquent and earnest, urged nearly everything that 
 could be said in favour of freedom of will in the choice 
 of doctrine, and the responsibility of man for the 
 correctness or error of his opinions and the truth of 
 
Agitation in Manchester. 6i 
 
 his religious creed. Of the wide range of subjects 
 connected with the employment and condition of the 
 people he knew nothing, and therefore could say- 
 little, beyond making a general defence of the existing 
 condition of things. 
 
 The activity of Owen, during this part of the year 
 of 1837, was the opening of a movement in favour of 
 a social and industrial reform in England which since 
 that time has borne noble fruit, and which is yet 
 filled with noble promise. 
 
 When the annual Congress met at Salford, in the 
 May of 1837, an active and vigorous agitation was in 
 operation in the manufacturing districts. It was 
 carried on, however, by purely local effort, and by the 
 zeal of a few men who held themselves in readiness to 
 answer any call that might be made on them. 
 
 When anyone was needed at any point within 
 reasonable distance, to lecture, or to discuss, Man- 
 chester was applied to, and some person was sent. As 
 a matter of course, as the principles spread the duties 
 in this way became heavier, and when the work in the 
 school is considered in addition to lecturing and 
 discussing, sometimes at a distance of forty or fifty 
 miles, it can easily be seen that no man who had 
 to earn his own living could carry on such a work 
 continuously. 
 
 The Congress had to take this into consideration — 
 to find the means whereby the stress should be taken 
 off those who had worked unremittingly up to that 
 time. It had also to define the constitution and aims 
 of the society, so that the character of the work to be 
 undertaken and the objects to be achieved should be 
 clearly understood by all. The purpose of the 
 
62 Life, Times, and Labours oj Robert Owen. 
 
 agitation could be clearly stated ; what could be 
 realised would of course depend to a great extent on 
 the amount of public support the agitation might 
 receive. There was repeated at the Salford Congressthe 
 following declaration which had been made two years 
 before : " The object of this association is to effect 
 peaceably, and by reason alone, an entire change in 
 the character and condition of mankind, by establish- 
 ing over the world, in principle and practice, the 
 religion of charity for the convictions, feelings, and 
 conduct of all individuals, combined with a well- 
 devised, equitable, and natural system of united 
 property ; which united property is to be created by 
 the members of the association, without infringing 
 upon the rights of any private property now in 
 existence. This great change to be introduced and 
 accomplished by devising and adopting new arrange- 
 ments for forming a superior character for the human 
 race ; for producing and distributing in the best 
 manner the best qualities of all kinds of wealth 
 abundantly for all ; and for governing mankind with- 
 out artificial rewards or punishments." 
 
 This was certainly an ambitious undertaking. It 
 may occur to some that the terms in which it is 
 expressed might have been more moderate and more 
 discreetly chosen ; but an effort of the kind was 
 needed, and though the result might fall short of the 
 somewhat extravagant hopes many might entertain, 
 it was better than that nothing should be attempted. 
 
 The method suggested by the Congress was to 
 establish a central association with branches extending 
 to every part of the world, and by means of this 
 central association and its branches to create a new 
 
Agitation in Manchester. 6s 
 
 public opinion in favour of an entire change in the 
 character and condition of society, by the aid of 
 pubhc meetings, lectures, d iscussions, missionaries, cheap 
 publications, and so forth ; by founding communities in 
 which to educate and employ all the members of the 
 association, under arrangements favourable to their 
 health, intelligence, and happiness. Then follows the 
 statement that the association discarded the funda- 
 mental errors by which the past and present deplorable 
 condition of the human race had been produced. 
 These fundamental errors are stated to be " that man 
 is bad by nature, and that he can believe or disbelieve, 
 feel or not feel, as he pleases ; that he forms his own 
 character, and that, consequently, he ought to be 
 rewarded or punished for it, both in this world and 
 the world to come." 
 
 It would not be correct to suppose that the Socialists 
 at this time entertained the common idea of popular 
 education, or that their notions as to the better treat- 
 ment of the people simply meant a change whereby 
 more leisure and a greater abundance of food and 
 other necessaries might be obtained by those who 
 worked. They went much further. On the question 
 of education, Owen took much trouble to explain 
 himself, and, although the most active of those who 
 opposed him on religious grounds, mistook and 
 sometimes misrepresented him, his followers were 
 sound believers in his principles, and regarded the 
 creation of the people as the first duty of society. 
 
 y't was Robert Owen's dream that society might be 
 lught to entertain and act on the belief that the 
 moral faculties of man had never had the develop- 
 ment they were capable of receiving, and while he 
 
64 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Given. 
 
 regarded the acquisition of wealth, and its just 
 distribution, as necessary to the happiness of men, his 
 leading thought was concerned with the attainment 
 of the higher moral life in which all things are subordi- 
 nate to a sense of duty begot of the recognition of a 
 universal brotherhoodT] He believed in the gains that 
 would result from earnest effort in the work of 
 education, even in the limited sense in which the term 
 was usually understood ; but he, nevertheless, con- 
 sidered all that could be accomplished on the ordinary 
 plans as trivial and disappointing compared with what 
 might be done. 
 
 When the Socialists arranged their plans for the 
 establishment of village communities, their first thought 
 was directed to the land to be purchased, or held on 
 long lease ; their next to the organisation of labour 
 on the land, especially of skilled labour in the ordinary 
 trades of the country, with the view of making the 
 worker the director of, and the chief gainer by, his 
 own industry ; of conferring on all the best education 
 that could be obtained. 
 
 Society was then afflicted, as it is now, by the com- 
 petition of individual interests. The multitudes were 
 suffering whilst the few were being enriched, and all 
 idea of a common interest was disappearing rapidly 
 before the growth of personal selfishness. 
 (_The advocates of Socialism were not violent men. 
 They had pleged themselves by their public declara- 
 tions against violence of every kind. They had made 
 known, as widely as they could, and with the strongest 
 emphasis, their firm conviction that the wrongs they 
 condemned could not be rectified by disturbance of 
 the peace. Their constant contention was that reform, 
 
Agitation in Alanchester. 6$ 
 
 political or social, must be thoughtful, deliberate, and 
 peaceful ; that violence is the offspring of impatience 
 and ignorance, except where free thought, free speech, 
 and the right of association are prohibited ; in which 
 case physical force as the natural defence of freedom 
 is a necessity that justifies itselfT] 
 
 Vol. It 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 /iDancbester Conoress. Ejten&eb Morft. 
 
 The Congress of 1837 was well attended. There 
 were delegates from many of the important towns in 
 Yorkshire and Lancashire, who reported encouragingly 
 as to the growth of opinion in favour of co-operation, 
 among the people in their various localities, and the 
 letters received and read from towns that had not 
 sent delegates were also encouraging. 
 
 It was strongly recommended that a system of 
 teaching should be organised, and missionaries and 
 tracts employed, to make the general public more 
 thoroughly acquainted with the principles of Owen. 
 A resolution was passed in favour of sending out 
 missionaries, and two were appointed ; but as much 
 had to be done in the way of mere organisation, no- 
 thing further was accomplished in reference to this. 
 It was also agreed to enrol the society under the 
 4th and 5 th of William IV. The form of government 
 was likewise the subject of much discussion, and as it 
 created more division than any of the questions sub- 
 mitted to the Congress, I may describe the point on 
 which the dispute arose. 
 
 The ordinary and popular method of governing 
 societies was by the election of committees by general 
 vote. At this period the habit of association was 
 
Manchester Congress. Extended Work. 67 
 
 new, and, in the management of popular bodies, led 
 to delay, blundering, and endless talk. In the new 
 movement it was determined, if possible, to check 
 this, and the mode most in favour was to elect at the 
 head one man, and in each branch one man, having 
 the full confidence of those who elected him. To 
 these was to be left the conducting of the society, 
 with the aid of a council elected by the members of 
 the society, or the branch to which they belonged. The 
 chairman, or head man, was to be elected for two or 
 three years, or, as the resolution expressed it, until 
 a sufficient number of the members acquired the 
 knowledge and experience necessary for conducting 
 the affairs of the society. It was never questioned 
 that the popular method of management was the best, 
 but where those engaged in the work undertaken 
 were deficient in experience, it was thought a fit 
 exercise of the power possessed by the society to place 
 it in the hands that could best use it. This has been 
 construed into a despotic tendency on the part of 
 Robert Owen and his disciples, but it really grew out 
 of a desire to adopt the best method of carrying out 
 that which they wished to accomplish. Practically, 
 by monthly meetings and annual congresses, the 
 members had ample power. 
 
 During the Congress, a great meeting of the work- 
 ing men of the West Riding of Yorkshire, was held on 
 Hartshead Moor, near Huddersfield, for the purpose 
 of protesting against the New Poor-Law Bill. The 
 numbers attending this meeting are stated at 200,000, 
 — an immense gathering, when it is considered that 
 most of those present must have travelled miles from 
 the surrounding towns. At this meeting a deputation, 
 
68 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 of which Robert Owen was one, attended from the 
 Congress. In accordance with the habit of the news- 
 paper press, the speeches were but briefly reported in 
 the London papers, and that of Owen was wholly 
 omitted. A report of it was, however, given in the 
 Manchester Advertiser. He said he " attended there 
 that day not merely to say that he was opposed to 
 every part of the New Poor-Law Bill, but also to say 
 that he was opposed to every poor-law whatever. 
 There ought not now to be a poor-law in this country 
 — there ought not to be a necessity for one. There 
 might have been a time, years ago, when a poor-law 
 was necessary." After denying that the labouring 
 classes required the interference of the idle and inex- 
 perienced rich to assist them in bettering their con- 
 dition, seeing that they had such ample means to that 
 end within themselves, he alluded to the following 
 circumstance : " I have," he said, " interested myself 
 from an early period in the condition of the labouring 
 classes. When Mr. Sturges Bourne's committee was 
 sitting I presented a report to it, which was admitted 
 to be true in every part, and had it been acted upon, 
 more than one hundred millions sterling would have 
 been saved to the country ere now, and not one child 
 need have been left uneducated. I communicated 
 the plan contained in this report to the Dutch Am- 
 bassador, Mr. Falck, who saw its importance, and 
 sent it to his Government, and the present poor 
 colonies of Holland are founded upon it. Land was 
 provided, and paupers were established thereon to 
 cultivate it." He also referred to his education scheme, 
 which had been communicated by him to the King of 
 Prussia, and which, he believed, had in some degree 
 
Manchester Congress. Extended Work. 69 
 
 helped to found the first system of national education 
 established in Europe. 
 
 The principal speakers at this meeting were Richard 
 Oastler, Joseph Rayner Stephens, Robert Owen, 
 William Stocks, jun., James B. Bernard, Geo. Flem- 
 ing, and Alexander Campbell. These gentlemen 
 met at Fixby Hall, the residence of Richard Oastler, 
 and published, as the result of their meeting, the fol- 
 lowing minute, dated May 17, 1837 : 
 
 " The present extensive and rapidly-increasing dis- 
 tress which is everywhere overwhelming the most 
 numerous and most industrious portion of our home 
 population, loudly demands the immediate, strenuous, 
 and united efforts of the true patriots of all parties, 
 inasmuch as, unless some plan for instant as well as 
 ultimate relief be proposed, the interests of all classes 
 must be sacrificed, the safety of all the inhabitants of 
 the State endangered, and the whole country hurried 
 headlong into anarchy and revolution. It is, there- 
 fore, resolved, 'That in the opinion of the undersigned 
 friends, now present, of the unemployed producers of 
 wealth, the first and most pressing duty of the people 
 is to demand immediately from the Government of the 
 country such an advance of capital as would be suffi- 
 cient to set those who are now starving to work, so as 
 to enable them permanently to support themselves, 
 by a due mixture of agricultural and manufacturing 
 operations in their native land, the surplus of which 
 newly-created wealth, after fully providing for the 
 wants of the producers themselves, to be applied to 
 the payment of interest, and the gradual repayment 
 of the principal originally advanced, after which the 
 whole wealth and property thus created to be the en- 
 
70 Life^ Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 tire, sole, and undivided possession of its proper 
 owners, after furnishing their fair proportion to the 
 maintenance of the national government.' " 
 
 In connection with this document the state of the 
 country at the period must be borne in mind. A 
 rapid change for the worse in the condition of the 
 people was going on. The charge for the support of 
 the poor up to 1776 had not been more than one 
 million and a half. Sixteen years previously (1750) 
 it was only ;^69O,O0O. It is true there was a consider- 
 able increase of the rates during the latter years of 
 the century. The American War and the French 
 Revolution had caused prices to advance without any 
 advance in wages, and coupled with this the enclosure 
 of the common lands had deprived the rural popula- 
 tion of certain privileges, and deepened their poverty 
 so as to cause a considerable increase of pressure on 
 the rates. Manufactures had commenced to grow 
 rapidly, and the agricultural labourers flocked into 
 the towns ; but this did not raise the price of field 
 labour, through a number of causes which need not 
 be stated here, as it is the fact only we have to deal 
 with. 
 
 In the towns, which became rapidly overcrowded, 
 things were no better. The power of production, in 
 consequence of the substitution of mechanical for 
 manual labour, reduced wages in such old handicrafts 
 as had been interfered with ; and the difficulty of 
 finding markets for the large quantities of goods pro- 
 duced by mechanical power led to a want of employ- 
 ment among the working people of Great Britain such 
 as all men regarded as undesirable and dangerous. 
 In 1S34 the poor rates amounted to the enormous 
 
Manchester Congress. Extended Work. 'ji 
 
 sum of ;^7,5i 1,219. We have nothing to do with the 
 number of ingenious explanations given to account 
 for this. The ^^690,000 of 1750 had grown to be 
 above seven and a half millions, while the trade of the 
 country had been rapidly increasing, and most natur- 
 ally there was great suffering and deep discontent 
 among the people. The landlords were neither re- 
 spected nor trusted, as their conduct over the whole 
 time had been unpatriotic and selfish. By the alchemy 
 of statecraft, while manufacturers and landlords grew 
 rich the people became poor — a spirit of successful 
 self-interest was the basis of loyalty on the one side, 
 while, on the other, a wide-spreading misery made the 
 people hate the kind of government their task-masters 
 were profiting by. Byron's description of the land- 
 lords in the "Age of Bronze" can scarcely be regarded 
 as over-coloured : 
 
 " See these inglorious Cincinnati swarm, 
 Farmers of war, dictators of the farm ; 
 Their ploughshare was the sword in hireling hands. 
 Their fields manured by gore of other lands ; 
 Safe in their barns, these Sabine tillers sent 
 Their brethren out to battle — why ? For rent ; 
 Year after year they voted cent, per cent. ; 
 Blood, sweat, and tear-wrung millions — why ? For rent. 
 They roar'd, they dined, they drank, they swore they meant 
 To die for England — why then live ? — For rent. 
 The Peace has made one- general malcontent 
 Of these high-market patriots. War was rent ! 
 And will they not repay the treasures lent ? 
 No ; down with everything, and up with rent ; 
 Their good, ill, health, wealth, joy, or discontent, 
 Being, end, aim, religion— rent, rent, rent ! " 
 
 The people who had to eat the tax-branded loaf 
 
72 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiven. 
 
 knew how just this denunciation was. In another 
 way the same was true of the new manufacturing 
 aristocracy. They had not got hold of the land, but 
 they had got possession of the new implements of in- 
 dustry, and these they were applying without reference 
 to anything but the profit to be derived from them. 
 The state of things that grew out of this in connection 
 with men, women, and children has been vividly 
 painted, not only in the songs of poets, but in the 
 plainest prose of parliamentary inquiry. Ebenezer 
 Elliot's " Preston Mills " is a sad picture of factory 
 child-life, but it is no exaggeration, and its two con- 
 cluding lines : 
 
 ■ O, who would be or have a child ? 
 A mother who would be ? " 
 
 contain queries that must have perpetually haunted 
 the minds of all who could understand or feel. The 
 lines of Miss Barrett, too, were but an echo of the sor- 
 rows of the people, and the sufferings of the young : 
 
 " Do ye hear the children weeping, O,- my brothers ! 
 Ere the sorrow comes with years, 
 They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, 
 
 And that cannot stop their tears. 
 The young lambs are bleating in the meadows, 
 
 The young birds are chirping in the nest, 
 The young fawns are playing with the shadows. 
 
 The young flowers are blowing toward the west ; — 
 But the young, young children ! O, my brothers, 
 
 They are weeping bitterly ! 
 They are weeping in the playtime of the others. 
 In the country of the free." 
 
Manchester Congress. Extended Work. 73 
 
 The air was loaded with the horrid factory griev- 
 ances and with the wails of poverty, proceeding from 
 workers whose lives had become almost unbearable 
 by the uncertainty of employment, the insufficiency 
 of wages, and the hopelessness of the struggle in which 
 they were engaged. The evils protested against were 
 not shams. Those who felt them in connection with 
 their daily lives knew that they were real. The trade- 
 unionists knew that a war was being waged against 
 oppression in the factory and in the workshop ; and 
 the working people generally, when not excited in 
 relation to some deeply-seated prejudice, gave every- 
 where a welcome to those who sought to carry it on. 
 
 During the Congress of 1837, the trade-unionists or 
 the United Mechanics, held a meeting in Manchester, 
 and a deputation from that body attended the Congress, 
 upon which occasion Mr. Owen addressed them. His 
 advice was that their efforts should be mainly directed 
 to self-employment ; but the impediment then was, as 
 it is now, the difficulty of applying funds raised to 
 resist aggression on the part of employers who were 
 opposed to any scheme of self-employment, and the 
 objection urged by Robert Owen to strikes was met 
 by the assertion that though strikes were an evil, they 
 were resorted to chiefly for the purpose of preventing 
 a worse evil for which no other remedy was within 
 reach. 
 
 But the two acts of the Congress that most in- 
 fluenced the progress of the Socialist movement, were 
 the removal of the New Moral World, the society's 
 paper, to Manchester, and the appointment of a 
 Central Board in Manchester to superintend and 
 direct the movement from that town as a centrci 
 
74 Life, Times, mid Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 Alderman Heywood, then a young man in the publish- 
 ing trade, undertook the printing and publishing of the 
 paper. The appointment of the Central Board was a 
 matter of much consequence. Everything depended 
 on the energy and intelligence of its members. It 
 was felt that if they did their work well as organisers 
 and propagandists, a great advance might be made ; 
 but, on the other hand, if they failed in this respect 
 the movement might languish and die. Robert 
 Owen was appointed general chairman, or, as he was 
 designated, " Social Father," the idea being to con- 
 stitute the society as much as possible on the model 
 of the family, and to blend the authority and kindli- 
 ness of the family tie in the officers of the society. 
 Owen resided chiefly in London, while the members 
 of the "foreign department," as it was called, were 
 located there, and consisted of six members, whose 
 duty it was to correspond with persons outside the 
 kingdom, who, as believers and friends, took an in- 
 terest in the proceedings of the society. There were 
 also seven provincial directors who attended to the 
 districts into which the country had been ■ divided, so 
 that action over the whole might proceed with 
 harmony, and without troubling the directors at the 
 centre, who had charge of the movement in every- 
 thing connected with its finances, its principles, and 
 its general 'management. There were six of these 
 elected by the Congress, namely, John Booth, vice- 
 president of the society ; John Green, William 
 Baxter, Joseph Smith, and myself; George Alexander 
 Fleming being at the same time appointed as general 
 secretary and editor of the New Moral World. 
 . The effect of the change in the management of the 
 
Manchester Congress. Extended Work. 75 
 
 society, and the removal of the society's paper from 
 London to Manchester, was soon manifest. The ex- 
 position and advocacy of the leading ideas of the 
 movement began to find illustration in a wider field. 
 Such public questions, moreover, as had any bearing 
 on the objects of the movement were made the subject 
 of comment and discussion. Mr. Attwood's currency 
 views, as explained by him in the House of Commons, 
 were not approved by Robert Owen, who made the 
 following reference to them in a letter addressed to 
 the population of the United States of North 
 America : — 
 
 "I have just read Mr. Thomas Attwood's speech in 
 the House of Commons on the currency question. 
 Although I have great respect for this gentleman, yet 
 I have no faith in his currency views. No private 
 individuals or association of individuals ought to be 
 permitted to make a profit by the currency. The 
 currency ought to be the representative of real wealth, 
 to be capable of expanding and contracting with the 
 expansion and contraction of wealth, and to be issued 
 solely by the nation and for its benefit." 
 
 In the same letter the same subject is dealt with: — 
 "Why has the cry of distress come from your shores 
 — a cry of poverty among your wealthy merchants, 
 and of traders in money — a cry that America never 
 suffered so much since the struggle which gave her 
 independence, and that nothing but ruin is anticipated 
 to all her more wealthy classes ? Have you lost any 
 of your land ? Have your industrious classes 
 diminished ? Have you been deprived of your skill, 
 of your industry, of your mechanical and chemical 
 inventions or discoveries, or of any of your other 
 
^6 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 powers of production? Have you experienced famine, 
 or any devastation from fire or water to destroy your 
 wealth, or has any party robbed you of any — the 
 smallest portion of it? Nol None of these things have 
 occurred ; but yet you cry, 'We are in the deepest dis- 
 tress for want of money, and if we cannot obtain it, ruin 
 from all quarters stares us in the face.' You are really 
 then in distress for want of money, and if asked what 
 money is, you reply, 'It is the representative of 
 wealth, and without it we are powerless, and all our 
 means of producing wealth itself are consequently 
 useless.' This is, indeed, a most strange position for 
 a people who have obtained all the political freedom 
 they desired to possess. It is an anomaly new in the 
 history of man ; but it is one from which the most 
 valuable knowledge may be derived." 
 
 After enumerating what the nation possessed as 
 real wealth and the means to abundance, he goes on 
 to say: — 
 
 " Now, with these advantages, if you do not set the 
 example of national and individual superiority, pro- 
 sperity, and happiness, you must be the worst 
 conducted people under Heaven, for no population 
 has ever been placed within such domestic, or 
 surrounded by such foreign favourable circumstances 
 as you may now secure to yourselves and children's 
 children through all future ages. But you are now 
 overwhelmed with distress ; yes, just such distress as 
 a child would experience who supposed he could not 
 be happy without he had the moon for a plaything, 
 and therefore cried and was tormented because no 
 one would bring it to him. You want more money 
 or you will be ruined ! Why ? Because, say you, 
 
Manchester Congress. Extended Work. "/j 
 
 money is the representative of wealth, and the sub- 
 stance is of no use to us without we have the 
 representative. This itself is abundantly childish, for 
 while you have a vast superfluity of the substance, 
 why, in the name of common-sense, cannot you devise 
 the means of making a useful representative of it, 
 co-extensive with the substance ? You vainly imagine 
 you must starve without gold or silver money, or 
 paper to represent gold or silver. Yet these are no 
 more representatives of wealth than iron and steel, or 
 paper to represent them would be. A real repre- 
 sentative of wealth can be created alone by the wealth 
 itself, and must possess the capacity of being 
 increased as real wealth increases, of being diminished 
 as real wealth diminishes, and of being unchangeable 
 in its value or estimation throughout society. And 
 this representative of wealth ought to be made and 
 issued alone by each nation, through such officers 
 under its immediate control as the nation may ap- 
 point ; the nation itself being the responsible party 
 for its value to individuals and to other nations." 
 
 I have given these views on the money question not 
 as correct (being, as they are, without any explanation 
 of the process by which they were to be carried out), 
 but because they are as nearly as possible in agree- 
 ment with the view since put forward in American 
 agitation on the money question. 
 
 Mr. Wyse, in the House of Commons, was, at this 
 time, pressing the subject of education, and the New 
 Moral World supported him in a leading article 
 which appeared on September 23, 1837. 
 
 " The question must be answered in some way, and 
 speedily. Great Britain must no longer put up with 
 
7? Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 the disgrace of being almost the only European 
 nation in which the training of the rising generation 
 is left to chance ; nor must we longer continue to 
 suffer the manifold evils which result from such a 
 wretched and irrational mode of procedure. Yet the 
 Government will not move in the matter untU the 
 people compel them, and the people cannot move 
 until they are made generally to perceive the desirable- 
 ness and the beneficial effects of a change in our 
 educational institutions. ... All thinking men 
 must perceive that this question lies at the root of all 
 our schemes of re-form, and that any other course is a 
 lopping of the branches of the moral upas which 
 desolates society, while the root remains untouched — 
 a useless war with effects, instead of boldly attacking 
 and removing causes. . . . But this state of things 
 must not be allowed to continue. We must no longer 
 be distinguished among the nations by our advanced 
 and proud position in a knowledge of phyical science 
 and the arts of producing wealth, and marked at the 
 same time for the intellectual darkness and social 
 degradation of our producers, and our profound 
 practical ignorance of moral science and the arts of 
 producing happiness. The elements of social pro- 
 gression, now scattered in many directions, must be 
 gathered together and brought to bear with a 
 concentrated and continuous force upon the public 
 mind, until all other questions succumb to this primary 
 and radical object, and every British child be provided 
 from infancy with a good, useful, impartial (unsectarian) 
 education by the State." 
 
 The article goes on to call for united action on this 
 question, in the interest of the nation ; and then adds : — 
 
Manchester Congress. Extended Work. 79 
 
 " We consider we are in advance of the views lield 
 by many of the parties likely to be active in its 
 support, it being a fixed opinion with U5 that any 
 education, to be truly effectual, must combine good 
 physical circumstances with mental instruction ; yet 
 believing, at the same time, that every step we take 
 towards the enlightenment of the masses would create 
 fresh powers for future and beneficial reforms, that, 
 as they advance in intelligence, they would see more 
 clearly the true cure for our social grievances and 
 anomalies, which they now fail to perceive, entirely in 
 consequence of the ignorance forced on them by the 
 present institutions of society; we say, seeing this, 
 that we shall at all times be found in the ranks of 
 those who advocate the extension and systematising 
 of intellectual tuition, based on the principle of 
 imparting a knowledge of facts, unconnected with 
 party prejudices or sectarian dogmas ; and we believe 
 that the numerous branch associations we are now 
 forming throughout the country will be found valuable 
 auxiliaries in the good work — composed, as they are, 
 of the most reflective, intelligent, and moral portion 
 of the productive classes.'' 
 
 Another question was that of shortening the hours 
 of labour. This was almost necessarily a part of such 
 an agitation as the Socialists had entered on. They 
 had made the general improvement of the condition 
 of the masses their chief object, and long hours in the 
 factories and workshops constituted a serious hindrance 
 to such an undertaking. With arguments as to the 
 danger to our foreign trade from shortened hours of 
 labour they had no sympathy. They were convinced 
 that such arguments were the pleadings of un- 
 
8o Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiven. 
 
 scrupulous selfishness. Such public documents as 
 threw light on the subject were as accessible to them 
 as to the friends of the manufacturers, and they knew 
 that these pleadings were not entitled to respect. 
 They were personally acquainted with the interior 
 of the factories and workshops, and were not to be 
 misled by men who were employed to deceive the 
 public. 
 
 Two years previous to the time of which I am 
 writing, Dr. Andrew Ure published his Philosophy of 
 Manufactures, which in many respects was a useful 
 and interesting work ; but when he described the 
 appearance of the people employed in the factories, 
 especially the young women, he excited the disgust of 
 those who lived in the daily presence of the actual 
 things, and who knew how false the description was. 
 He says : — 
 
 " So much nonsense has been uttered about the 
 deformity and diseases of factory children, that I may 
 hardly be credited by some of my readers when I 
 assert that I have never seen among a like number of 
 the young women of the lower ranks in any country 
 so many pleasing countenances and handsome 
 figures. . . . Their light labour and erect posture 
 in tending the looms, and the habit which many of 
 them have in exercising their arms and shoulders, 
 as if with dumb-bells, by resting their hands on the 
 lay or shuttle bearer, as it oscillates alternately back- 
 wards and forwards with the machinery, opens their 
 chest, and gives them generally a graceful carriage. 
 Many of them have adopted tasteful modes of wearing 
 neat handkerchiefs on their heads, and have altogether 
 not a little of the Grecian style of beauty. One of 
 
Manchester Consress. Extended Work. 
 
 '"t) 
 
 them, whose cheeks had a fine rosy hue, being asked 
 how long she had been at factory work, said ' Nine 
 years,' and blushed from bashfulness at being so 
 slightly spoken to." 
 
 We had no occasion to enter into argument with 
 the people in the manufacturing districts on this 
 subject, nor to lose time in citing medical testimony. 
 Those we addressed knew the facts, and they knew 
 that we were acquainted with them. And we all 
 knew that these monstrous misrepresentations were 
 matters of sale and purchase. This writer, however, 
 goes further : — 
 
 " Nothing," he says, " shows in a clearer point of view 
 the credulity of mankind in general, and of the people 
 of these islands in particular, than the ready faith 
 which was given to the tales of cruelty exercised by 
 proprietors of cotton mills toward young children. 
 The system of calumny resembles that brought by the 
 Pagans against the Primitive Christians, of enticing 
 children into their meetings in order to murder and 
 devour them." 
 
 We felt how useless it would be to lose time in 
 combating the falsehoods of self-interest among a 
 people the greater part of whom could not be led 
 astray on a subject in connection with which they had 
 to spend their lives. 
 
 Another important question was that of Free Trade. 
 The Anti-corn-law League had not then come into 
 existence ; and therefore it was not known whether or 
 not the manufacturers, as a body, would lend their 
 aid to repeal the Corn Laws. We had not any 
 connection with them, nor any means of influencing 
 them, but we knew that the working classes were very 
 VOL. II. I' 
 
82 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 much interested in repeal. The New Moral World 
 of August Sth, 1837, contained an article on 
 Free Trade from which the following passage may 
 be taken. " The only true principles," says the 
 writer, Mr. G. A. Fleming, " on which a for- 
 eign commerce can rest with reciprocal benefit, is the 
 free and unfettered exchange of their surplus commo- 
 dities, that is, after every individual employed in their 
 production has been well and amply supplied with 
 them, the remaining portion, small or large, forms the 
 legitimate and natural export wealth of the community. 
 Thus, each country possesses the means of lodging, 
 feeding, clothing, and educating its inhabitants, and 
 the natural application of these means is to shelter, 
 clothe, subsist, and educate all the people, before 
 sending any of these necessaries abroad ; but if we 
 neglect this, and export to other countries our neces- 
 saries, and receive from them only curiosities or things 
 less necessary in return, we violate the principle of 
 beneficial foreign commerce, and establish just such a 
 free trade as now exists between Great Britain and 
 Ireland, by which the inhabitants of the latter country 
 are condemned to unending toil to ship from their 
 harbours cargoes of grain, and all other staple produc- 
 tions of their country, whilst they themselves are cursed 
 with an overflow of pauperism." 
 
 Ten years later in Ireland the madness of what is 
 here referred to was proved by the starving to death 
 of a milHon of the people of that country, while the 
 food of the nation was being exported to pay exorbi- 
 tant rent to landlords who were living in luxury in 
 London, Paris, and other great capitals of Europe, 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 H Disputed diuestion. 
 
 Between the congress of May, 1837, and that which 
 took place the same month of 1838, the whole of the 
 manufacturing districts were in a state of activity, and 
 lecturers were sent up and down in all directions to 
 address the people. Every week the pages of the 
 New Moral World contained ten or a dozen reports, 
 from the surrounding towns, of lectures delivered and 
 discussions held. 
 
 Such a sudden awakening so aggressively mani- 
 fested, had the appearance of a challenge to all recog- 
 nized authorities. Ministers of all denominations 
 were roused. Political economists denounced us as 
 unscientific because we refused to accept their nostrums 
 and because we protested against the wholesale man- 
 ner in which they were doing the people to death on 
 principle. 
 
 Owen was fiercely attacked from all sides. Public 
 prejudice was excited to an extent which was both 
 disagreeable and inconvenient. Halls that had been 
 hired for public meetings, even when some of these 
 meetings had been expensively advertised, were re- 
 fused at the last moment. Owen was locked out of 
 the Music Hall in Liverpool, notwithstanding a signed 
 contract and a considerable outlay in calling the 
 
84 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 meeting. This was a thing of frequent occurrence, 
 but an appeal to the law would have done no good. 
 The misconceptions and prejudices that existed had 
 penetrated everywhere, and it was felt that the best 
 policy was to bear with the wrong, and to endeavour 
 to secure or build commodious halls for our own use. 
 The objects Robert Owen and his followers had in 
 view were strictly legal, and the means adopted to 
 carry them out was in the highest degree peaceable. 
 Legal proceedings were therefore avoided, and what- 
 ever the expedients resorted to, quietness and 
 patience were, as a rule, relied on. In consequence of 
 this policy, many very active opponents were in a 
 little time brought over to the movement. 
 
 Looking back over the many years that have 
 elapsed since 1837, it is right to acknowledge that the 
 opposition met with, however irritating at the mom- 
 ent, was seldom vindictive or cruel. And although 
 the questions we had undertaken to deal with, excited 
 suspicion and alarm, the quiet manner in which we 
 took the opposition, generally led to toleration of our 
 proceedings, which, in the end; came to be regarded 
 as legitimate, and as honestly entered on in the inter- 
 est of the public. Religious people had come to be- 
 lieve that all religions were rejected and opposed 
 by the Socialists, and therefore, their hostility was not 
 to be wondered at. It is a curious fact, however, 
 that a considerable party in the country, who openly 
 professed unbelief and attacked religion in a sense of 
 public duty, also opposed us very strongly. 
 
 Richard Carlile, who had suffered years of imprison- 
 ment for his unbelief, regarded us as his most danger- 
 ous enemies, though he had never met with opposition 
 
A Disputed Question. 85 
 
 from us. Carlile was a quiet man, of gentlemanly de- 
 meanour, but combative and determined. The follow- 
 ing letter which he addressed to the editor of the 
 New Moral World shoves the spirit in which he opposed 
 us : — 
 
 " Sir, — Having read over the professed discussion 
 at Huddersfield about the principles of Mr. Owen, be- 
 tween the Rev. Mr. Dalton and Mr. Lloyd Jones, I 
 was disappointed at not finding the subject really 
 touched by Mr. Dalton. In connection with my in- 
 tention to visit every town in Lancashire and the 
 West Riding of Yorkshire in the course of the present 
 year, to oppose wherever I may find an association 
 under the name of Mr Owen's principles, I offer to 
 meet Mr. Fleming at Huddersfield, on the same terms 
 as Mr. Dalton met Mr. Jones, if arrangements can be 
 made. I care not how early the day or days, so as 
 they be not Sunday or Monday. 
 
 " I do not make choice of Mr. Fleming, but use his 
 name because he has put it forward ; and as I wish 
 to avoid all impertinence, I hope I may be excused 
 in saying that I would rather meet Mr. Owen himself 
 anywhere — in Manchester, Liverpool, or where best. 
 I hereby offer to meet one or all of the associated 
 body of men calling themselves socialists— a silly and 
 unmeaning title, by-the-by — having the feeling, the 
 conviction, and the will to show that on their proposed 
 ground they can make no beneficial change in the 
 present state of society, and that as to their building 
 scheme they are not acting on one sound or rational 
 principle. — I am, &c., RICHARD Carlile. 
 
 "Oldham, Jan, 31, 1838." 
 
86 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 It fell to the lot of the writer to undertake such 
 discussions as were entered on with Richard Carlile. 
 One was held in Manchester, one in Bradford, and one 
 or two elsewhere. Carlile was a man of cool temper, 
 and in discussion behaved with candour and fairness. 
 He had, as a publisher, issued a large amount of anti- 
 Christian literature, chiefly of an argumentative and 
 philosophic character, which had brought him under 
 the notice of the Attorney-General. He was several 
 years in prison, much to the disgrace of the Govern- 
 ment of the day, and it, perhaps, was not pleasant, 
 when he came out, to find a new party in possession 
 of the field, with a new set of ideas, and a new policy 
 which attached no importance to mere negative ideas. 
 It was the business of the Socialists to teach the 
 people what to believe, instead of what not to believe. 
 It was a conviction with them that when truth took 
 possession of the public mind error would die out of 
 itself 
 
 Mr. Carlile had been so long in active conflict with 
 what he believed to be mischievous error, that he 
 could not agree with our mode of action, and, there- 
 fore, we had his opposition. The habit of his mind 
 necessarily rendered him feeble in discussing questions 
 nearly altogether positive and practical. It was 
 necessary to be acquainted with the condition of edu- 
 cation in the country, and to have some conception 
 of plans for its improvement. It was necessary, also, 
 to know the effect of the manufacturing system on 
 the condition of the people, and to entertain and un- 
 derstand measures for altering it. Mr. Carlile's mind 
 had been eniployed on quite a different class of sub- 
 jects, 'and in the discussion of these the Socialists 
 
A Disputed Question. ?i7 
 
 found little to interest them. He was really a clever 
 man, but he seemed more at home in exposition than 
 ii discussion, and to feel that the principles and facts 
 to be dealt with required more examination and study 
 than he had been able to give them. I judge this to 
 be the conclusion he had arrived at, as his antagonism 
 was in a short time abandoned, although some of his 
 less able followers continued long after to offer an 
 active though not a very effective opposition. 
 
 The fact of not adopting extreme anti-Christian 
 views was brought as a charge against Owen by anti- 
 religious zealots. They thought they had hit on the 
 right way of establishing truth, and not to accept their 
 method and their views was considered as cowardice. 
 But from the beginning the Socialists condemned and 
 opposed such a policy, and held that criticism of false 
 ideas on general subjects is an endless task ; that 
 when such criticism is applied to the dogmas of re- 
 ligious sects, it draws after it prejudices and hatreds 
 that had much better be avoided, if for no other 
 reasons than that they constitute the most effectual 
 hindrances to progress. 
 
 It has, on the other hand, been insisted upon that 
 the socialism of Robert Owen was actively and in- 
 tentionally hostile to the Christian faith. The charge 
 that it was a deliberate and combined attack on 
 religion was used as a justification of the conduct of 
 those who so unscrupulously misrepresented and 
 denounced the movement as anti-religious and 
 anarchical. Facts have already been adduced to 
 repel this accusation. The great aim of the leaders of 
 the movement was to suppress all attacks on religious 
 opinions of whatever kind, and for this purpose every 
 
8S Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 possible effort was made to hold enthusiasts and 
 bigots in check. 
 
 The society insisted on the most complete toleration 
 of each other by the members, whether they were 
 fervid believers or extreme unbelievers ; but as the 
 members were drawn indiscriminately from the 
 public, a kindly toleration all round was a most 
 difficult thing to enforce : as men brought with 
 them their old habits of thinking and speaking, and 
 frequently gave pain to each other without intending 
 it. A discipline of charity and kindness had been 
 introduced, which in time produced excellent fruit, 
 but a society daily drawing new members into its 
 ranks was always more or less subject to have its 
 peace disturbed by bigotries difficult to control. 
 Besides this, certain of the members and others in 
 their criticisms of religion and religious opponents, 
 had, though speaking on their own authority 
 simply, led to the belief that the movement was 
 hostile to religion, when, in fact, its opposi- 
 tion was solely directed against an intolerant con- 
 demnation of freedom of thought. Large numbers of 
 people who were sincere believers were eager to join 
 the movement, but they were unwilling to do so 
 without guarding, so far as they could, against being 
 mistaken on a point so important. The mode of 
 affiliating branches was to receive an application for 
 a charter, and if there were no reason why it should 
 not be granted, a framed and engraved document 
 was issued to be hung up in the branch institution, 
 and by this the branch was known to have accepted 
 the laws and principles of the society. 
 
 An application of this sort was made from Edin- 
 
A Disputed Question. 8g 
 
 burgh, accompanied by a communication which fully 
 raised the question of religious policy, and as the 
 document and the replies to it from the officers of the 
 society are unreserved and explicit, the simple repro- 
 duction of such parts as deal directly with the re- 
 ligious aspects of the subject will explain the position 
 taken up by the Socialist movement. When this 
 application was made to the Central Board, with a 
 request that it might be published in the society's 
 paper, the editor at once complied, prefacing it with 
 these words : — 
 
 " The following application for a charter has been 
 forwarded from our friends in Edinburgli with a 
 request for its insertion in our pages. We cheerfully 
 give it a place, and trust that the manly independence 
 of its sentiments is universal among the social body. 
 The world has been ruined by man and name wor- 
 ship, and its happiness wrecked upon the rocks of 
 verbal disputation. The projectors of a new state of 
 society must take care to avoid both errors." 
 
 In this case, what applied to Edinburgh applied to 
 the whole society in all its branches, and, as the 
 documents now under consideration were published 
 for the perusal of the whole society at the time, the 
 explanations asked for and given, should leave no 
 doubt in the mind of any candid person in regard to 
 the policy pursued by the society. 
 
 If there was anything true of Robert Owen as a 
 public man, it was that he never sailed under false 
 colours at any period of his life. It never troubled 
 him that people differed from his views, or con- 
 demned him for entertaining them. He knew that 
 to be mistaken and misrepresented was inevitable 
 
90 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 when the ideas promulgated were new, or difficult to 
 understand, or if they were opposed to the interests 
 or prejudices of any large section of the public. With 
 this sort of impediment, he had to deal in the best 
 way he could. But neither he, nor those belonging to 
 the society at the head of which he stood,studied how to 
 lay before the public the principles in which they 
 believed, for the purpose of entrapping proselytes 
 under false pretences. They stated their objects with 
 care, and what these were declared to be at the 
 beginning, they remained to the end, while their 
 advocacy from first to last was open and consistent. 
 
 It has been said that when attacked by the Bishop 
 of Exeter and others, the policy of the Socialists was 
 changed out of fear for the consequences. There is 
 not a single fact by which such a charge can be 
 justified. The principal accusation brought against 
 them is that they made it part of their business to 
 attack religion, whereas, in fact, they' made it a 
 special duty to discountenance attacks on religion. 
 What the leaders of the society desired was the most 
 unreserved expression of thought on matters of 
 public interest, especially those connected with their 
 own proceedings, provided always that no offence 
 was unnecessarily given. 
 
 It could not be expected that liberty of speech 
 would not be sometimes abused by those who in 
 advocating their opinions, were betrayed into a want 
 of consideration for the opinions of others ; but the 
 following correspondence to which allusion has just 
 been made, will, I think, show that the general spirit 
 of the association was not antagonistic to religious 
 belief. 
 
A Disputed Question. 9 1 
 
 " We, the undersigned inhabitants of Edinburgh, in 
 the county of Midlothian, having been made ac- 
 quainted with the objects, principles, and laws of the 
 ' Universal Community Society of Rational Re- 
 ligionists,' and being desirous of promoting the 
 objects of that society, and willing to abide by the 
 laws which are now promulgated, or which may be 
 from tirtie to time enacted, in accordance with the 
 constitution of the society, do hereby request that a 
 charter may be granted to us to open a branch of the 
 society in Edinburgh." 
 
 To prevent any mistake, however, as to what the 
 Edinburgh applicants meant by this step, the follow- 
 ing was added : — 
 
 " We regard the objects for which we seek to be 
 associated with you as strictly of a moral and econ- 
 omical, and not at all of a theological character, as 
 involving no collision with the different religions of 
 mankind, except in so far as these religions are 
 opposed to the fundamental facts ofour system. . . In 
 other words, by assuming the name of Rational 
 Religionists, we do not intend to found or to form a 
 religious sect, but only to declare that we consider 
 the public or professed religion of this society, in so 
 far as it lays claim to any peculiarity, to consist in 
 the pursuit of knowledge, and in the love and 
 practice of goodness in all its forms. But we do not 
 mean to say that other religions may not or do not 
 possess these characteristics, whose excellence we 
 acknowledge in whatever sex, class, sect, party, 
 country, or colour they may be found." 
 
 One of the paragraphs of the Edinburgh letter had 
 reference to the use of the pronoun " It " as applied 
 
92 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiviri. 
 
 to the Deity, but this was rather a matter of taste and 
 form. Another contained the following declara- 
 tion. 
 
 " Our adhesion to the constitution and laws of the 
 society shall not be held to infer the slightest re- 
 linquishment on our part of the great principle of 
 Protestantism — the right of free inquiry and of private 
 judgment in matters of religion — a right which is 
 destructive of the domination of all Churches or 
 bodies of men over individual opinions, or which may 
 rather be said to constitute every man, in his own 
 proper person, a separate and independent church, 
 amenable to no other jurisdiction than the court of 
 his own conscience, and from which right flows the 
 corresponding duty of respecting the conscientious 
 convictions of our neighbour." 
 
 These extracts bear upon two or three points of 
 some consequence ; one, that the men who joined the 
 movement were not those who entered lightly and 
 thoughtlessly on the labour the society imposed, 
 without understanding the relative rights of the 
 society, and the individuals who made up its 
 membership ; another, that the principles and 
 policy of the society were clearly defined, and the 
 spirit in which the work was carried on distinctly 
 stated and understood — also that arbitrary dictation 
 in matters of opinion on the part of the leaders, and 
 submission on the part of the members, was neither 
 expected or permitted. 
 
 In its reply the Central Board declares the objects 
 of the society to be " moral and economical, not of a 
 theological character, and involving no collision with 
 the different religions of mankind." It considers the 
 
A Disputed Question. 93 
 
 sentiments of the applicants " perfectly in accordance 
 with the objects and principles of the society." 
 
 To an objection on the part of the Edinburgh men to 
 be bound by any of the writings of Robert Owen, ex- 
 cept such as the constitution of the society accepted, it 
 replies : " The Board consider that the subscribing to 
 the principles and laws of the society does not in any 
 way involve assent to all the writings of Robert Owen, 
 and they further conceive that the great Protestant 
 principle — the right of free inquiry and private judg- 
 ment in all matters of religion — is a right which is 
 especially set forth in articles 19 and 21 of the laws 
 as pertaining to all members of the society, and they 
 consider it to be a most sacred privilege." 
 
 "Many of the applicants," the Edinburgh letter 
 said, " are Christians from sincere conviction. They 
 see in the principles of the society nothing but an 
 attempt to reduce to practice the precepts of the re- 
 ligion of Jesus Christ, which, unfortunately for the 
 world, have hitherto existed in theory only. The 
 philosophy of the system, even to its minutest details, 
 they find to be not only in harmony with, but to 
 spring directly from, the principles of that religion, 
 interpreted by enlightened reason ; and they cannot 
 therefore but regret the false position, as it seems to 
 them, into which Socialism has been thrown, of appar- 
 ent antagonism to a religion whose corruptions only 
 it opposes. Mr. Owen has, like every other human 
 being, his own peculiar notions in regard to religion, 
 and expresses these freely in his works ; but by join- 
 ing the society we wish it to be distinctly understood 
 that we embrace neither Mr. Owen's religious opinions, 
 nor those of any other man or body of men ; but 
 
94 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 assert our own individual right to form an indepen- 
 dent judgment on all such matters." 
 
 The following words express very distinctly the 
 views of Mr. Owen on the religious part of the sub- 
 ject, and may be taken as indicating the position 
 occupied by the Socialists : 
 
 " The Board most readily express their complete 
 concurrence in your opinion, that Socialism is in har- 
 mony with the Christian religion, interpreted by 
 enlightened reason, and they would add that they 
 consider it to be the only means by which that religion, 
 so interpreted, can ever be established in universal 
 practice over the earth. . . . The Central Board most 
 earnestly desire that the society may be an effectual 
 means by which all may be brought to hear the voice 
 of truth, that disunion of feeling may be destroyed, 
 and that all mankind may become one fold under one 
 shepherd." 
 
 It may be mentioned that during the whole agita- 
 tion the Edinburgh branch was one of the most active 
 and loyal. 
 
 When the missionaries and teachers were appointed 
 in 1838, Robert Owen, as president of the society, 
 published an address to them, containing instruction 
 and advice. '' If," he said, " you should be challenged 
 to hold discussions on religious mysteries or dogmas, 
 you will kindly and respectfully decline by stating 
 that the authority by which you are appointed, and 
 under which you act, will not permit you to occupy 
 your time in discussions which arouse angry, irrational 
 feelings, tending to separate man from man." 
 
 The policy indicated was deliberately adopted, and it 
 will be seen how little it sanctioned attacks on religion. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Ube JBisbop of Exeter, popular Hgitations. 
 
 From what has been stated, the objects of the Socia- 
 Hsts and the methods they adopted for the purpose of 
 carrying them out, will be understood. Education of 
 the people ; village communities, where production 
 and distribution were to be carried on equitably, were 
 the primary objects ; but, in connection with these, 
 all Liberal questions were to be taken up and advo- 
 cated. Free trade, a free press, short time in factories 
 and workshops, free discussion, and all else that 
 directly, or indirectly, had a tendency to improve the 
 condition of the masses. 
 
 In addition to the missionaries appointed, numbers 
 of young men became active for the furtherance of 
 the work in hand. These proceedings attracted too 
 much attention to remain unnoticed, and hence zeal- 
 ous advocates for the preservation of things as they 
 were, took the field in opposition. Chief among these 
 was a man named Brindley, whose zeal was of that 
 violent kind which defeats its own object, and by ex- 
 aggeration assists refutation. The most formidable 
 of all the opponents of the socialist movement, how- 
 ever, was Henry, Bishop of Exeter. It has been said 
 that he fought his way to his bishopric by his energy 
 and unscrupulousness as a writer of pamphlets, He 
 
96 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 was the busy, and not over-scrupulous person satirised 
 by Moore as " The Rev. Pamphleteer " : 
 
 " All prais'd the skilful jockeyship, 
 Loud rang the Tory cheer, 
 While away, away, with spur and whip. 
 Went the Reverend Pamphleteer. 
 
 " The hack he rode how could it err ? 
 'Twas the same that took last year. 
 That wonderful jump to Exeter 
 With the Reverend Pamphleteer. 
 
 " ' Stop, stop,' said Truth, but vain her cry 
 Left far away in the rear ; 
 She heard but the usual ' gay good-bye ' 
 From her faithless Pamphleteer." 
 
 The bishop, whatever his zeal, possessed no real 
 power to impede the socialist movement. He could 
 only excite anger against it, in men of the same spirit 
 with himself, from the pulpit ; and lamentations and 
 exclamations of horror in the House of Lords, where 
 his denunciations were delivered. It was too late to 
 frame laws against new heresies, and as the few years 
 during which the agitation had been carried on had 
 to some extent opened the eyes of the people, his mis- 
 statements and exaggerations were seen through by 
 thinking men, and by those who possessed influence 
 among the masses of the people. There was in reality 
 no apprehension on the part of the Socialists as to 
 the capability of the bishop to injure them, and, there- 
 fore, from the platform and in the columns of the 
 New Moral World, he was treated as an angry man 
 who had lost his temper, and with it a respect for 
 
Popular Agitations. 97 
 
 truth. The first proceeding of the bishop was to pre- 
 sent a petition, on the 24th of January, 1840, to the 
 House of Lords, signed by 4,000 of the clergy, bankers, 
 merchants, manufacturers, and other inhabitants of 
 Birmingham, setting forth the evils of socialism, and 
 praying that means might be taken to put a stop to its 
 progress. The speech accompanying the petition was 
 long and laboured, and crowded with mis-statements ; 
 and it is certain the information on which he spoke was 
 gathered with no greater scrupulousness than usually 
 marks such proceedings. 
 
 The bishop seems to have employed certain people 
 to attend the social halls, and report to him the hor- 
 rible things said, and, certainly as given by his lord- 
 ship to the House of Peers, they were bad enough. 
 He also related stories of dreadful deaths of unbe- 
 lievers, and old tales that had served for a long time 
 to frighten people into the ordinary ortliodoxies of 
 the world. Lord Brougham, with courage equal to 
 his ability, defended Mr. Owen's character, first on 
 the testimony of Mr. Wilberforce, and next on his 
 own personal knowledge of Owen. He assured the 
 House that he had never before heard of the outrage- 
 ous charges brought against the Socialists by the 
 bishop. The Marquis of Normanby also made a long 
 speech, in which he threw doubt on the correctness of 
 the bishop's statements, and twitted him with sup- 
 porting his charges by extracts from papers printed a 
 considerable time before the Government took office. 
 Lord Melbourne took some trouble to defend himself 
 for having presented Mr. Owen at Court, with an 
 address signed by a large number of people, and pre- 
 tested against being held responsible for Socialistic 
 VOL. II G 
 
98 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 opinions, because he had performed a mere formal 
 act. The Duke of Wellington delivered himself in- 
 dignantly, especially in regard to the presentation to 
 the Queen. The Earl of Galloway was more indig- 
 nant still at the atrocity of such an act. On the same 
 night the Socialists petitioned the House for inquiry, 
 but this their lordships did not want, being satisfied 
 w th the matter in the form in which the bishop had 
 given it to them. It is a curious fact that during the 
 delivery of all this indignation it was never mentioned 
 that Robert Owen was a friend of Her Majesty's 
 father; and that, of all those who assisted in the pro- 
 motion of his views, there was no one more zealous 
 or constant than the Duke of Kent. Possibly the 
 noble speakers did not remember that while they were 
 labouring to insult and degrade Robert Owen, their 
 effort included the father of the Sovereign for whom 
 they were expressing such unbounded reverence. 
 
 The society met the bishop in the following way. 
 They extracted from his speech every accusation it 
 contained, and appended to each a distinct refutation. 
 Most of the charges made have already been dealt 
 with, and need not be again referred to, except in a 
 few instances. One of the points most strongly urged 
 in the House of Lords by the bishop, was the danger 
 and wickedness of the doctrine of non-responsibility. 
 It is true that the Socialists insisted that to rely for 
 the prevention of crime solely on the punishment it 
 entailed, was a mistake ; that it was unreasonable to 
 punish miserable creatures for the commission of 
 crimes which, in ninety-nine out of a hundred cases, 
 were the result of the state in which they were suffered 
 to grow up. It was held to be an immoral act on 
 
Popular Agitations. gg 
 
 the part of society to leave the young to ignorance 
 and misery, and then punish them for doing those 
 things which their ignorance and frequently the cruel 
 necessities of their lives led them to do. But the idea of 
 non-responsibility was never urged as capable of being 
 acted on in the existing state of society, but rather as 
 an argument to stimulate public action in the direction 
 of national education, and the establishment of a con- 
 dition of things in which the natural and legitimate 
 wants of all should be considered. 
 
 It was a condemnation of an unwise reliance on 
 penalties, and not a doctrine the promulgation 
 of which was likely to lead to the commission of 
 crime by insisting on its impunity. In fact, the 
 charges of the Bishop of Exeter were in the very 
 worst spirit of unjust accusation, and the part played 
 by the House of Lords in listening to them with ap- 
 proval was not calculated to elevate its character in 
 the estimation of sensible and fair-minded people. 
 
 The bishop declared that " he had always deemed 
 Mr. Owen not to be a bloody-minded man. Up to 
 this period he had considered him a visionary ; but he 
 was now of opinion, from a part of the controversy 
 that Mr. Owen had had with Mr. Roebuck, that he 
 must look upon him in a different light. In that 
 passage there was an appearance of a tendency to 
 bloodshed." Owen replied to this uncharitable im- 
 putation by describing the many evils of society, and 
 stating his reasons for seeking to make such 
 improvements as he thought conducive to the welfare 
 of the community. The sanguine belief entertained 
 by Owen, led him to conclude that the new ideas he 
 was engaged in teaching, and the new practices he 
 
100 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 was recommending would supersede the old ideas 
 and practices which he condemned. He says 
 in the " Manifesto," by which he replied, " The new 
 moral and sane system cannot otherwise interfere 
 with the old immoral and insane system of the world 
 than by causing its gradual and peaceable destruction 
 and entire annihilation : and this is now evident by 
 the consternation of all who have been taught to think 
 that they have some pecuniary interest in maintaining 
 this old worn-out irrational system." It is clear that 
 while the bishop believed that he meditated abolish- 
 ing every old law and institution by bloodshed, Owen 
 himself was fully convinced that the bishop and his 
 Church establishment, and many other things that he 
 held to be irrational, would by mere pressure of a 
 reformed public opinion pass into disuse. The 
 bishop's error, it need scarcely be said, carried him 
 far away from truth and Christian calmness of 
 spirit. 
 
 There is given in Owen's manifesto, a brief account 
 of the labours of his life, touching by its simplicity of 
 statement, and the evidence it bears to his activity and 
 devotion to the welfare of others. The bishop was 
 not bound to know what Owen had done, or what 
 manner of man he really was ; but before making 
 such abominable charges, it is not unreasonable to 
 think that he ought to have entered on some inquiry 
 as to their truth. Robert Owen had been known to 
 the world for his humane exertions for above thirty 
 years, and his reputation was without stain. His 
 worst enemies admitted the purity of his motives, and 
 when the worst imputations were made, and public 
 prosecution solicited, some little investigation should 
 
Popular Agitations. loi 
 
 have been regarded as a decent if not a necessary 
 preliminary. 
 
 Robert Owen bore the abuse and threatenings of 
 the bishop without any kind of personal disquiet. To 
 the threat of a legal crusade, he replied, " I am the 
 discoverer, founder, and open promulgator of this 
 system, and of all the error, immorality, and blas- 
 phemy which it contains (if a particle of either can be 
 found in it). I alone am the author, and, therefore, I 
 alone ought to be, if anyone shall be, prosecuted and 
 punished for the wickedness that may be extracted 
 from it." This manifesto goes on to say : — 
 
 " From the beginning of my career, when I had no 
 
 one to support me, I had, for the cause of truth, to 
 
 place myself in direct and open opposition to all the 
 
 most deeply-rooted prejudices of the past ages. I 
 
 then anticipated and made up my mind to. incur fines, 
 
 imprisonment, and death ; and what are these to an 
 
 individual when his mind and feelings are deeply 
 
 imbued with a desire permanently to benefit the 
 
 human race ? But instead of fines, imprisonment, or 
 
 death, I have been a favourite of the world, have lived 
 
 a quiet, peaceful, and unostentatious life, happy in 
 
 myself, and in my family ; which in New Lanark, in 
 
 Scotland, and in New Harmony, in America, has been 
 
 one of the most happy families on either side of the 
 
 Atlantic. It is true, I have always expended to the 
 
 last shilling my surplus wealth in promoting this 
 
 great and good cause, for funds have always been much 
 
 required to hasten its progress as I desired. But the 
 
 right rev. prelate is greatly deceived when he says, as 
 
 he is reported to have said, that I had squandered my 
 
 wealth in profligacy and luxury. I have never ex- 
 
102 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 pended a pound in either. All my habits are habits 
 of temperance in all things ; and I challenge the right 
 rev. prelate, and all his abettors, to prove the contrary, 
 and I will give him and them the means of following 
 me through every stage and month of my life. Having 
 made this statement, I mean not to trouble myself 
 with what any parties may say, in or out of the 
 Houses of Parliament. My life is the true answer to 
 any falsehood that may be stated." 
 
 From 1830 to close upon 1850, the working men 
 in England and Scotland were active in agitating for 
 measures which they believed to be of importance to 
 their class. At the commencement of this period, 
 Tory influence, in connection with the Government of 
 the country, was in the ascendant. It had received a 
 serious blow by the forced abolition of the penal laws 
 in 1829, and it was again threatened by the introduc- 
 tion of a Reform Bill that was declared to be 
 revolutionary ; but the old spirit of exclusion and 
 monopoly, in the holders of office, was still rampant. 
 The people, however, had begun to feel that they 
 possessed power which might be turned to goojj 
 account when they could come to an understanding 
 with each other as to how it could be best used. Im- 
 pressed with the conviction that agitation Was 
 necessary before anything desirable could be obtained, 
 they went into combination with the middle classes 
 for the purpose of forcing on Parliament the reform 
 measure of 1832. 
 
 The training acquired in connection' with the 
 agitation necessary to carry this measure, was of great 
 value to them in their battle for a cheap press ; which 
 was followed by the Chartist agitation. There was, 
 
Popular Agitations. I03 
 
 in addition to these, the short time agitation, all being 
 intensified by the distress which existed among the 
 people and which was made doubly unbearable by 
 the enactment of the new poor law, and its adminis- 
 tration. There were disturbances in the manufactur- 
 ing districts, and plug-drawing ; while in the 
 agricultural districts there were swing riots and 
 nightly fires, lit by the match of the incendiary, 
 blazing in all directions. Robert Owen and his 
 followers had no influence in the agricultural districts, 
 and, therefore, could do nothing to check such a spirit ; 
 but in the big towns of Lancashire, Yorkshire, and 
 other counties, where manufacturing operations were 
 carried on, they were active, while doing all in their 
 power to help forward the measures agitated for by the 
 people, in preventing resort to any kind of violence 
 or lawlessness. This was, in the circumstances then 
 existing, a difficult work. Robert Owen believed that 
 if the people committed themselves so far as to come 
 into collision with the troops, the worst consequences 
 would follow. He had many times stated, in his ad- 
 dresses, that the working men should in every way 
 short of a sacrifice of principle, labour to get the 
 middle classes on their side. He was convinced that 
 the knowledge of business they possessed was 
 necessary for working out effectively the plans he had 
 promulgated for improving the condition of society, 
 and he deprecated anything calculated to widen the 
 breach already existing between them and the masses 
 of the people. He felt very strongly that any kind of 
 extensive outbreak of violence would lead to much 
 bloodshed and destruction of property. The troops 
 which were spread throughout the midland and 
 
104 Life, Tunes, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 northern counties, were under the command of Sir 
 Charles James Napier. There can be no doubt that 
 they would have put down any popular rising that 
 might have taken place, but nobody felt more keenly 
 than Napier himself how difficult the task would be, if, 
 through discontent in the large towns, simultaneous 
 risings and widely-diffused attacks on life or property 
 should take place. He was a man full of resource, 
 ability, and courage, yet he repeatedly protested 
 against the scattering of the force under his command 
 for the protection of outlying places, where manu- 
 facturers and other persons were alarmed for their 
 safety ; and he complained of the disinclination of 
 such persons to do anything, either by enrolling them- 
 selves as volunteers orproviding proper accommodation 
 for detachments of the soldiery sent for their protec- 
 tion. He was also apprehensive that billeting the 
 soldiers in the public-houses, where they would al- 
 most necessarily become friendly with the discontented 
 people, endangered their loyalty, and that even should 
 their loyalty not suffer, they would be at the mercy of 
 those who, in case of a raising, would defeat, and, it 
 might be, destroy them piecemeal. 
 
 In the journal kept by Sir Charles at this time, we 
 find the following entries : 
 
 "Manchester, May 8, 1839. — All quiet for the 
 moment, but all information speaks of a rising on 
 Whit Monday. May 9. — I have over and over again 
 stated the danger of having billets. Why will they 
 not let me hire barracks ? The country cannot be 
 protected by detachments. Let the gentlemen and 
 yeomanry defend themselves ; local defence should 
 meet local attacks ; I cannot, I will not give troops. 
 
Popular Agitations. 1 05 
 
 Yet I have not called in any detachment, because if 
 that were now done the people would rise, and the 
 blame be cast on me ; moreover, with so little know- 
 ledge of this district it would be too decided a step — 
 all that can be done is to put some infantry in build- 
 ings where the cavalry are in billets. I have, by 
 letter, endeavoured to animate magistrates and 
 colonels of yeomanry, but all were apathetic, all want- 
 ing soldiers, and doing nothing for themselves." ^ 
 
 Writing on May the 23rd, of the defence of Man- 
 chester, he says : 
 
 "All the north-east of Manchester is riotous, the 
 south quiet. Which of the seven positions indicated 
 should be occupied would depend on the place where 
 the mob assembled ; but in each my left is protected 
 by the river, my right by the canal, and they are 
 shorter than they look, as only the openings of streets 
 need be guarded, and a few windows occupied. The 
 bridges could be easily barricaded and defended by 
 the armed citizens, and from any one position men 
 could be detached against the rioters if needed, or an 
 advance made with my whole force." 
 
 There follows this account of the preparations made 
 for suppressing Chartism, a proclamation, unsigned, 
 calling on the Chartists to see that their arms were 
 ready and that their ammunition was sufficient, as in 
 a day or two, at a moment's notice, they were to be 
 called upon to take the field. " Now or never," con- 
 cludes this sanguinary document, " is the time. Be 
 sure you do not neglect your arms, and when you 
 strike, do not let it be with sticks or stones, but let 
 the blood of all you suspect moisten the soil of your 
 1 Charles Napier's Life, vol. ii., p. 26. 
 
lo6 Life, Times, and Labotirs of Robert Owcn. 
 
 native land, that you may for ever destroy even the 
 remembrance of your poverty and shame." Sir 
 Charles was very anxious to call out the yeomanry, 
 but got no encouragement from the Government, or, 
 with but few exceptions, from the gentlemen of the 
 district. Writing to Mr. Phillips, he says : 
 
 " It is an operation of great expense ; but when I 
 consider the extent of the present bad spirit, and of 
 the armings, I cannot but hold the opinion that it is 
 absolutely necessary to concentrate the greatest pos- 
 sible force to overcome the people of this district. 
 The primary object is to save the country from de- 
 vastation, expense must therefore be a secondary 
 consideration. The Chartists affirm that they have 
 250,000 men armed in Lancashire alone. This is 
 probably a lie, but if they can assemble 50,000 the 
 most dreadful ravages would be committed by the 
 march of such a body ; hence any inconvenience it 
 may cause to gentlemen in the yeomanry, to put 
 them on permanent duty will be trivial to what they 
 would suffer if the Chartists get under arms." ^ 
 
 I give these extracts to show the state of the manu- 
 facturing districts, the spirit of the people, and the 
 apprehensions of the authorities. During this time 
 the leading men in the Socialist movement were not 
 idle. They felt how deplorable a rising of the people 
 would be, not only in its consequences to the people 
 themselves, but in the effect it was almost certain to 
 have on the future propagation of liberal opinion. 
 They knew better than the authorities did what was 
 going forward. The only mode the latter possessed 
 of obtaining information was by their spies, and the 
 ^ Vol. ii., p. 31. 
 
Popular Agitations. 107 
 
 information these communicated seems to have been 
 full of invention and exaggeration. The Socialists 
 were in the habit of visiting the various neighbour- 
 hoods where disaffection was most widely spread and 
 most active. The people came to them to consult 
 them and ask advice. Fathers and mothers, whose 
 sons had become participators in the preparations for 
 the intended struggle, came to solicit their aid in 
 holding them back ; while many of the men them- 
 selves, who believed in the propriety and necessity of 
 what they were doing, also consulted them. The 
 members of the society considered it a duty to go 
 among the Chartists to beg of them not to risk the 
 cause of progress by an outbreak, which could only 
 end in failure and needless bloodshed. 
 
 Having done all they could privately, they met in 
 council to discuss the propriety of taking some public 
 step for the purpose Of expressing strong disapproval 
 of physical force as a means of pushing forward re- 
 form. It was decided to call a large public meeting, 
 and instead of several resolutions and a number of 
 speakers, to have but one speaker and one resolution, 
 the seconder to confine himself simply to formally 
 seconding the resolution. I was the person appointed 
 to deliver the address, and I felt that a very important 
 and delicate task had been imposed on me. The 
 announcement caused a lively commotion among the 
 Chartists of Manchester and the surrounding towns, 
 and when the time for the meeting arrived, the Car- 
 penters' Hall in Manchester, which held about 2,000 
 people, was densely packed, the audience for the most 
 part standing, while outside there was a crowd of 
 people amounting to between four and five thousand. 
 
io8 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 My friends were apprehensive that an attack would 
 be made on me, and massed themselves between me 
 and the body of the meeting. For myself I can say 
 that I never for a moment considered myself in danger. 
 I had at that time much experience in addressing 
 public meetings, and always found that the people 
 were disposed to listen patiently and act peaceably 
 when addressed in a spirit of sympathetic earnestness. 
 I had carefully arranged what I had to say, not in 
 words, but in regard to the general order of my ideas, 
 leaving to the inspiration of the moment the form in 
 which I should utter them. I referred to the wrongs 
 of which the people complained ; to the existence of 
 popular ignorance, together with ample means for a 
 system of national education ; to the long hours of 
 labour in the factories, mines, and workshops of the 
 country ; to the denial of political power, which 
 rendered the people impotent to peaceably remove 
 the evils they were called upon to endure ; to the 
 taxation of the newspaper press, which constituted a 
 bar to the acquisition by them of political knowledge. 
 When I had dwelt briefly on their grievances and ad- 
 mitted the evils resulting from the abuses against which 
 they protested, I found myself on the best possible 
 terms with my audience. I then told them that the 
 only difference between them and the Socialists was 
 as to the best means of putting right what was wrong. 
 Having stated this, I referred to their chance of suc- 
 cess in opposition to a drilled and disciplined army 
 skilfully led, and backed by every influence that the 
 prejudices or fears of the middle and upper classes 
 could bring to bear in such a conflict. I contrasted 
 this with the lack on the part of the people of every- 
 
Popular Agitations. 109 
 
 thing necessary to ensure success in such a struggle. 
 No arms, no discipline, no military leaders, no money, 
 no commissariat ; nothing, in fact, but their cause, 
 their poverty, and their angry impatience, which, if 
 for a short time successful, would lead to plunder and 
 destruction of property, and, in the end, to such dis- 
 order as would make it the business of every man 
 who had anything to lose to assist in hunting them 
 down. 
 
 I then told them that up to that point my argument 
 dealt chiefly with the practicability, not with the 
 propriety or the justice, of attempting to rectify the 
 evils of society by violence. As I went on to show 
 how difficult it was to make the required rectifications, 
 except in peace, and with thoughtfulness and care, 
 unless the intention was to set up one set of wrongs 
 on the ruins of another, the meeting seemed to assent 
 most willingly. I concluded by pointing out how 
 failure in a physical conflict would throw them back, 
 and fasten them down as thralls of brute force, while 
 in a peaceful and intelligent endeavour for the 
 establishment of justice, every step forward was 
 secured. I conjured them to give up all thought of 
 putting matters right by remaining idle, for a month's 
 holiday was then the intention of the Chartist leaders 
 — a sacred month, as it was called. I told them there 
 was nothing sacred in idleness, that redemption to 
 them and theirs must come, and could only come by 
 thinking and working, that all else was delusion and 
 must end in disaster. The most marked attention 
 was paid to every word I said. Indeed, I can truly 
 say that I never addressed a more orderly and 
 attentive meeting. 
 
1 10 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 When the resolution embodying these views was 
 moved and seconded, it was carried, with only about 
 half-a-dozen dissentients, and amid great applause. 
 The test as to the temper of the people was thus 
 fairly made. It proved to us, at least, that though 
 there might be local disturbances, there could be no 
 revolution, and in this conviction we laboured, 
 not without success, among the Chartists ; not to 
 persuade them out of their opinions, which in the 
 main we regarded as correct and sound, but out of 
 whatever intention they had of carrying them into 
 effect by the help of physical force. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 progress anb ©pposition. 
 
 It is not necessary to claim for the Socialists any 
 special credit for preventing an outbreak of violence 
 in the manufacturing districts during the Chartist 
 agitation. They knew that the reports made day by 
 day in the newspapers were gross exaggerations, and 
 they suspected that those who were labouring to 
 create a political terror had unworthy purposes of 
 their own to serve which would be defeated if the 
 people could be prevented from breaking the law. 
 
 The principles and policy of the social reformers 
 alike made them active with this object. Their 
 influence was, therefore, zealously exercised to prevent 
 any destruction of life or property, and while the 
 Bishop of Exeter and others were busy exciting the 
 anger of the general public against Robert Owen and 
 the Socialists, whom they denounced as promoters of 
 bloodshed and enemies to property, these were 
 labouring to prevent violence. That the authorities 
 were not quite so ignorant of this matter as the 
 bishop, may be seen by the following fact. When the 
 fever created by the bishop was at its worst, Sir 
 Charles Shaw Kennedy, who was at the head of the 
 police of the district, and whose headquarters were in 
 Manchester, sent to the Social Institution, requesting 
 
1 1 2 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 that a deputation might wait on him at the Town 
 Hall, and four or five persons were sent of whom I 
 was one. When we arrived, and were shown into his 
 private office, he told us that what he had read in the 
 papers had made him desirous to inquire for himself 
 what groundwork there was for the extraordinary- 
 reports about us and our proceedings that had found 
 their way into the press. He then went over the 
 heads on which he desired information, and without 
 hesitation or consultation we replied fully on every 
 point. 
 
 Sir Charles expressed his belief in the truth of 
 what we told him, and became, in his turn, quite frank 
 in relation to his own views of the action we had 
 taken. He referred to the great meeting held in the 
 Carpenters' Hall for the purpose of protesting against 
 the national holiday, and told us he was so appre- 
 hensive that violence would be offered to me, that he 
 had sent to the meeting in plain clothes every officer 
 that could be spared. Before parting, he said, " I 
 quite believe what you have told me, and I utterly 
 disbelieve what is said against you. I have means," 
 he continued, " of finding out what you are doing, and 
 if a committee of inquiry should call on me, I am 
 prepared to state that you have laboured honestly to 
 preserve the peace, and to express my belief that had it 
 not been for the influence exercised by your people 
 in this district, nothing could have prevented blood- 
 shed." 
 
 During this period the Times newspaper abused 
 Robert Owen in "good set terms." His practices 
 were spoken of as " monstrous abominations," 
 " beastialities," " matured and infernal atrocities,'' 
 
Progress and Opposition. Ii3 
 
 while he himself and the men who agreed with him 
 were described as " execrable monsters." The 
 following extract deals with a reference made by 
 the Marquis of Normanby to Owen's benevolence : — 
 
 "That this egotistic old Welshman has spent a deal 
 of money in the diabolical attempt to Owenise the 
 community we do not mean to deny, but where did 
 that money come from, and under what understanding 
 did he receive it ? When Owen, who originally had 
 scarcely a shilling of his own, married Miss Dale, of 
 Glasgow, with whom he obtained a large fortune, he 
 was a rigid orthodox Dissenter. In virtue of his 
 religious profession alone he inherited the immense 
 funds of David Dale, his father-in-law, who, had he 
 entertained the slightest anticipation of Owen's 
 apostacy, would sooner have engulfed them in the 
 Clyde. It is very true there was no testamentaiy 
 destination of these funds to prevent the application 
 of them in any way whatever ; but, with the perfect 
 knowledge which the legatee had, as well of the 
 testator's pre-eminent devotedness to the interests of 
 pure religion and morality, as of the horror he would 
 have felt at the possible prostitution of his property 
 for the subversion of those interests, there was 
 undoubtedly such a moral obligation not to misapply 
 Mr. Dale's estate to purposes foreign to the convictions 
 under which he bequeathed it as must have effectually 
 controlled every upright man in determining its 
 practical application. What is called Owen's benevol- 
 ence, therefore, is substantially a breach of trust." 
 
 With the exception of- the statement that Owen 
 was married to Miss Dale, there is not a particle of 
 truth in this abominable attack on the character of a 
 
 VOL. II. H 
 
1 14 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 public man. Owen did not receive a large fortune 
 with Miss Dale, nor did he spend for the propagation 
 of his principles a penny out of any funds but those 
 made in his own business. Out of his fortune obtained 
 in trade, he purchased lands in the United States, 
 which were settled on his family, an annual sum being 
 reserved for his own use. Whatever money he spent 
 was, in the strictest sense, his own, and neither his 
 necessities nor his inclinations led him to traffic in his 
 principles. It is doubtful whether there ever lived a 
 public man whose motives were more pure or whose 
 conduct was more free from anything approaching to 
 merited censure. 
 
 I have been informed by those who were with him 
 when these attacks were made upon him, that he 
 wrote to the Times, to correct its misrepresentations, 
 but his letter was not inserted. He then sent an 
 advertisement of his works, that those who were so 
 disposed might judge for themselves of his aims and 
 intentions, but this was also refused insertion. 
 Against this sort of attack there is no defence, unless 
 other members of the press are disposed to open their 
 columns. This was the case to some limited extent 
 when charges of assassination were brought against 
 Mazzini. It was the case, also, when charges of 
 exciting to plunder were made against Messrs. 
 Cobden and Bright. Owen, however, had no means 
 of reply. He was declared to be an enemy of religion, 
 family, and property, and the press generally felt it a 
 duty to pour its wrath on his head, and at the same 
 time prevent, so far as it could, explanation, denial, or 
 protest. In these days, when the character of a 
 public man had to be destroyed, there was an auda- 
 
Progress and Opposition. 115 
 
 city, an unscrupulousness and a dash not to be sur- 
 passed. 
 
 It is a curious fact in connection with popular 
 leaders and their efforts, that the chief force by which 
 they are, as a rule, opposed, should be the force of 
 personal calumny and malicious imputation. It is 
 questionable whether the history of popular move- 
 ments can furnish one case in contradiction to this 
 statement. The purest motives, the most blameless 
 life, the noblest aims, give no security against this vile 
 custom, whenever, in the cause of truth or of public 
 justice, an interest is disturbed or a prejudice touched. 
 Owen's life was altogether exceptional, by its temper- 
 ance, its kindliness, its devotion and sacrifice. He 
 thought no ill, he practised no wrong, and never under 
 any provocation returned evil for evil, and yet he was 
 represented day by day as a monster of iniquity, whose 
 life had been spent in planning and advocating spolia- 
 tion of property, corruption of morals, and of every- 
 thing that men prize as tending to sanctify human 
 life. 
 
 During these days of conflict, Robert Owen was 
 employing himself in preaching and teaching the 
 leading ideas of his system, by the adoption of which 
 he hoped to see the comfort of the people and the 
 prosperity of the nation increased ; and, above all, the 
 intelligence of the people so improved by sound 
 education as to secure a satisfactory progress for the 
 country. An examination of the New Moral World 
 will show that at this time increased opposition only 
 produced increased activity and determination ; and 
 while misrepresentation and falsehood may have 
 caused timid and bigoted people to keep at a distance 
 
1 1 6 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 from the movement, the courageous and inquiring 
 were in large numbers attracted to it. 
 
 Those who were active as writers and speakers on 
 behalf of Robert Owen's ideas, so far as these ideas 
 were accepted by the social movement, did not confine 
 themselves to mere defensive action. The war was 
 carried into the enemy's camp. The plan was to 
 collect the statistics of education for the purpose of 
 proving a criminal neglect of duty on the part of the 
 Government, the Church, and others in authority, who, 
 while wrangling over political party differences and 
 rival sectarian dogmas, were allowing the people to 
 remain in an ignorance so deplorable that they were 
 incapable of understanding, much less performing, the 
 most ordinary and necessary duties of everyday life. 
 The socialist teachers had free access everywhere to 
 the homes of the people. Even the very, poorest and 
 most degraded communicated freely with the leaders 
 of the movement, as they were brought into contact 
 with them by working men, who were known to them, 
 and could converse with them without suspicion or 
 distrust. 
 
 I myself visited the worst parts of Glasgow — the 
 " Goose Dubbs," the " New Vennel," and certain parts 
 of the wynds in the " High Street " close to the college. 
 When I undertook this visitation, I was prepared to 
 see much that would shock and distress me, but I had 
 no conception of the actual state of things. To write 
 a description of all that I saw would be impossible. 
 The dirt, the rags, the squalor, the evidences of hunger, 
 I'he expression of hopelessness on the faces of the 
 women, the appearance of the children, and the horror 
 of the whole thing as the condition of life for multi- 
 
Progress and Opposition. 1 1 7 
 
 tudes of people generation after generation, shocked 
 the heart and almost paralysed the understanding. I 
 was compelled to abandon the exploration on which 
 I had entered. Nerves of steel would have been re- 
 quired to carry such a task through to the end, and I 
 had not got them. What I did see, however, filled me 
 with determination to go forward with the work I had 
 commenced, and it was in this way, by investigations in- 
 to the facts of life, that we met those who opposed us. 
 Our weapons were not forged out of anger, springing 
 from the unjust attacks of our opponents, but from a 
 sympathy with poor human victims of neglect, whose 
 sufferings and vices had come to be regarded by the 
 community as necessary concomitants of a progressive 
 civilisation. 
 
 In addition to the Bishop of Exeter and his 
 prompter, Mr. Brindley, there were four of less note in 
 the field against Robert Owen, namely Joseph Barker, 
 John Easby, a person named Hawthorne, and another 
 named Pallister. Joseph Barker possessed considerable 
 cleverness, but the other three had little or no skill 
 in argument. They could repeat misrepresentations, 
 and in this way sometimes caused the discharge of a 
 few men from their employment, and on two or three 
 occasions excited the mob to violence ; but beyond 
 this their opposition was serviceable to the movement 
 rather than otherwise. These persons played on the 
 prejudices of people, many of whom, among the work- 
 ing classes, were ignorant and easily excited, but there 
 were large numbers who knew that however much we 
 might disagree with them on certain points, we were 
 their active and zealous friends on all political 
 and social questions in which they took an interest. 
 
1 1 8 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 The progress made in spreading tiie principles 
 advocated by the Socialists was rapid during this 
 time. Large halls for holding public meetings were 
 erected in the various towns in the manufacturing 
 districts. In Manchester, a hall was built, which was 
 afterwards purchased and opened as the free library 
 of that town. These halls were used for lectures, 
 classes, social gatherings, and discussions on all im- 
 portant public questions. It is doubtful if there was 
 ever a period during which, in connection with the 
 manufacturing population of the country, there existed 
 so much activity in the direction of earnest inquiry ; 
 and the importance of a training such as this for 
 working men can, I think, scarcely be over-estimated 
 in a country the progress of which depends so much 
 on an enlightened public opinion. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 IRiots at Burslem an& Bristol. 
 
 The crusade against Robert Owen and the Socialists 
 was, at certain places, becoming dangerously active, 
 in consequence of the anger excited by those for 
 whom the Bishop of Exeter was acting in the House 
 of Lords. The people generally, even though they 
 could not be regarded as encouraging the agitation, 
 did not actively oppose it. Nor did the Government 
 oppose it. The proceedings of the Socialists were 
 carried on within doors, they made no offensive 
 public demonstrations, nor did they do anything to 
 arouse public anger. Still, during the years from 1838 
 to 1842, an opposition was organised for the purpose of 
 hunting down, by public clamour, persons, who in the 
 promulgation of their principles, refused to be in- 
 timidated by men incited to activity by ignorance 
 and prejudice. Mr. Brindley was the principal in- 
 strument in this work, and whether to his credit or 
 discredit, it is right to say that no one could have 
 laboured with more zeal. It was he who instructed 
 the Bishop of Exeter. What the bishop uttered in 
 the House of Lords gave the cue to the press, and 
 between him and the newspapers, most extraordinary 
 conceptions of Robert Owen and his plans took 
 possession of the minds of large numbers of people, 
 
1 20 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 who became warm in their antagonism, without tak- 
 ing much trouble to ascertain whether or not they 
 were justified in what they were doing. 
 
 Mr. Brindley went up and down the kingdom, and 
 wherever he went, by placards and meetings, he 
 managed to inflame the minds of the violent, the 
 bigoted, and the ignorant. In the June of 1840, he 
 visited the Staffordshire Potteries. The patronage of 
 some few of the bishops, and a considerable number 
 of the clergy of the Established Church, together 
 with an adverse address by the Wesleyan Congress 
 to the people of that denomination, caused many of 
 the employers to give open support to Mr. Brindley, 
 not only by subscribing to defray the expense of his 
 efforts, but by dismissing from their employment 
 persons known to be friends and adherents of Owen. 
 Mr. Brindley 's success in the Potteries was very con- 
 siderable ; public buildings were engaged for him, in 
 which he delivered exciting addresses, and the tickets 
 of admission to such meetings were bought by the 
 employers, and distributed among the people who 
 worked for them. Arrangements were made for a 
 discussion in the National Schoolroom at Burslem, 
 between Mr. Brindley and Mr. Robert Buchanan, but 
 without consulting Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Brindley and 
 his supporters changed the place of meeting to the 
 covered market, and took the precaution to have it 
 well filled with their friends before the other side 
 was aware. In fact, so violent and unscrupulous 
 were their proceedings, and so great the number of 
 people who suffered through being thrown out of 
 employment, that it was considered best to act 
 quietly, though firmly, until the worst of the storm 
 
Riots at Burslem and Bristol. 121 
 
 had blown over. The years 1838 and 1839 were 
 years of great depression in trade, during which the 
 working people suffered much, whilst 1840 was a 
 year of slow recovery, and as the pressure of bad 
 times on the workers was becoming gradually re- 
 lieved by increase of employment, it was decided not 
 to do anything that could be avoided through which 
 suffering might be brought on struggling men who 
 were at the mercy of those disposed to act at the 
 instigation of Mr. Brindley and his friends. During 
 this time arrangements had been made for a course 
 of lectures to be delivered by Robert Owen, at 
 different towns, and the principal public halls were 
 engaged. In each case the agreement was violated, 
 and the halls refused. In addition to this, the 
 following placard, without signature or printer's name, 
 was extensively posted. " Owen again ! at Dalehall. 
 Mr. Owen, after being driven out of Newcastle and 
 Stoke, is coming here to-night, at six o'clock, to 
 propagate his blasphemous principles. Will you 
 have him after Friday night's exposure ? If not, 
 assemble before the meeting, in a peaceable and 
 orderly manner, and respectfully, but firmly and 
 decidedly, declare that this poison shall no more be 
 retailed among you." That this peaceful and orderly 
 assembly might not be deficient in the element 
 needed, drums and fifes were sent through the town in 
 various directions, and a crowd of several thousands 
 of the roughest portion of the inhabitants was col- 
 lected, while a platform was erected for the purpose 
 of holding an opposition meeting exactly opposite 
 the institution where the meeting of Robert Owen 
 was about to take place. The playing of music and 
 
1 22 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Ozven. 
 
 the processions through the town led to much drink- 
 ing, the liquors being, for the most part, supplied free 
 of cost. Addresses of a most violent kind were 
 delivered from the platform, and everything- was in a 
 state of preparation. Mr. Owen arrived a few minutes 
 before seven o'clock, in a gig, accompanied by a 
 young friend from Stoke ; but before he could alight, 
 an effort was made to upset the gig, for the purpose 
 of inflicting personal injury. To prevent this, 
 his friends went to his assistance — he was at this 
 time seventy years of age — and got him safely out of 
 the gig, though several were savagely beaten while do- 
 ing so — one young man having his jaw bone broken. 
 The police, being, no doubt, previously instructed, 
 looked calmly on. The mob, being overwhelming, 
 forced Mr. Owen through the streets to the house of 
 a man who was one of his most active enemies, where 
 he had to remain for two hours the object of gross 
 insult. At the end of this time Mr. Williams, a 
 friendly solicitor, arrived to take him home with him, 
 but the moment Owen appeared he was assailed with 
 stones and mud, from which he had to again take 
 shelter. After a time, however, he got safely off to 
 the neighbouring town where he was staying. 
 
 Mr. Alexander Campbell, the social missionary 
 who attended Mr. Owen, not knowing what had 
 become of him, was making his way through the mob 
 in search of him, but found that he had got off Mrs. 
 Williams, the wife of the solicitor above referred to, was 
 with Mr. Campbell anxiously looking for Owen, who was 
 her guest. As soon as they discovered that he had 
 escaped they began making their way back, but Mr. 
 Campbell was recognised. He was at once separ- 
 
Riots at Bur stem and Bristol. 123 
 
 ated from the lady who accompanied him, and 
 severely beaten. In his efforts to escape, he had to 
 pass over a field and a canal bridge, and here an 
 attempt was made to throw him into the canal ; he 
 escaped, however, and took refuge in a house where 
 he had to remain for several hours. 
 
 The persons who had assembled in the hall to hear 
 the address fared no better. The account published 
 at the time says that when it became known that Mr. 
 Owen was forcibly prevented from lecturing, the 
 audience was dismissed ; but on leaving the institution 
 they were most inhumanly treated, their clothes being 
 torn, and, in some instances, the hair pulled from their 
 heads. Those who organized the meeting remained 
 behind, and were at once besieged. An attempt was 
 made to force the door, which had been strongly 
 barricaded. This failing, a room adjoining the lecture 
 hall was taken possession of, and a breach made in 
 the party wall. Here a fierce battle ensued, the at- 
 tacking party being driven back. A double attempt 
 to enter was then made — one from the cellars, and 
 another from the roof of the building. A clergyman 
 and the head constable then put in an appearance, 
 and tried to obtain a surrender, offering a free and 
 save passage if the parties promised not to assemble 
 again in their own hall. This offer was refused,, and 
 after some further parley it was agreed that they 
 should be allowed to return home unmolested. It 
 was then arranged that several women who were there, 
 the wives of some of the party, should leave first, on 
 the supposition that no attack would be made on 
 women. The men, not being sure of this, followed 
 close behind, and their suspicions were well founded. 
 
1 24 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 One woman received a severe blow on the head, 
 while the secretary of the institution had his head 
 badly cut through his hat by a stone. They again 
 took shelter in a private house, and here they had to 
 remain till late into the night when the mob dispersed. 
 No attempt was made to check these proceedings, and 
 bands of music were allowed by the police to parade 
 the town for the purpose of keeping up the excitement 
 till late at night, and, although several persons were 
 severely wounded, nobody was arrested. The press 
 took the same approving view as that taken by the 
 authorities. The Staffordshire Gazette, describing the 
 treatment of Mr. Campbell, says : — " A large party of 
 individuals pursued and overtook him, and proceeded 
 to treat him without ceremony. They rolled their 
 victim in the field, and afterwards anointed him with 
 that more useful than agreeable material, clay, like- 
 wise subjecting him to that elegant process called 
 ' bonneting.' Eventually he made his escape to the 
 Britannia Inn, Navigation Road, and we apprehend 
 that the worthy people of Longport will, after this 
 spectacle, not be inclined rejoicingly to sing ' The 
 Campbells are Coming.' " Such proceedings as these, 
 however, are not to be considered as fairly exhibiting 
 the spirit of the people towards the Socialists. No- 
 thing approaching to riot or personal violence was in- 
 dulged in by the people when left to themselves, but 
 only where Mr. Brindley, or some person like him, in 
 league with one or two clergymen of the fanatical 
 sort, set themselves to work to excite them. Besides, 
 this sort of opposition never spread. Where the 
 irritation was provoked it occurred, and as soon as the 
 incentive was withdrawn all became quiet again. 
 
Riots at Burslem and Bristol. 125 
 
 About six months after this, Mr. Brindley exerted 
 himself to create in Congleton and Macclesfield the 
 same spirit he had called into existence in the Pot- 
 teries. He was so successful that large numbers of 
 persons were discharged from their employment, and 
 this method of dealing with the progress of Robert 
 Owen's views was spreading so rapidly, that it pro- 
 duced quite a panic among all who had in any way 
 expressed opinions favourable to them. Mr. Joseph 
 Smith was sent to Congleton to neutralise the effect 
 Brindley was producing, and when things were in this 
 state I happened to arrive in Manchester on my way 
 from Glasgow to London. A deputation from Mac- 
 clesfield and Congleton waited on me, with a request 
 that I would go among them, and help in the defence 
 they were making. I at once started, and had Cong- 
 leton placarded for two addresses. Mr. Brindley had 
 possession of the Town Hall, and had meetings on 
 the same night. Some half-dozen of the leading men 
 of the town waited on me, and begged me to go to 
 Mr. Brindley's meetings, and discuss the matters in 
 dispute between us there. I at once refused, being 
 determined not to be drawn from the line I had laid 
 down for myself and announced to the public. My 
 first meeting was crowded and most successful. Next 
 morning an insolent placard was issued, for the pur- 
 pose of forcing me into compliance with the wishes of 
 Mr. Brindley and his supporters. It ran thus : — 
 " Mr. Lloyd Jones — will you, dare j'ou, meet. Mr. 
 'Brindley to-night, no shuffling, no evasion ; but a fair 
 manly open discussion ? Unless you are a downright 
 coward, turn out. Unless you feel assured that Social- 
 ism is the foul abortion that it is, come and submit it 
 
126 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 to a fair trial. Now all will be able to see who it is 
 that is afraid the truth should prevail." 
 
 To this absurd bombast I replied by a refusal, 
 given from the mouth of that ancient authority, the 
 bellman, to depart from the programme already ar- 
 ranged. My meeting that night was densely crowded, 
 the door having been fastened to prevent pressure. 
 The men who had got Mr. Brindley's tickets from 
 their employers to attend the meeting at the Town 
 Hall came to my meeting, and left Mr. Brindley, the 
 employers and clergy to comfort each other. In 
 the middle of my address the door was forced open, 
 and the mayor, several of the corporation, and other 
 gentlemen of that class, rushed into the meeting, 
 forced their way to the front of the platform, and put 
 Mr. Brindlej' forward to commence a discussion. I 
 had made my arrangements, and at once told Mr. 
 Brindley that if he persisted in speaking he should be 
 ejected. He did persist, and at a word from me two 
 strong young men liftedhim up, carried him tothedoor, 
 and deposited him outside, his clerical and manu- 
 facturing friends following of themselves. This was 
 very quietly done, and when they were fairly gone, 
 the mayor got up to address the meeting. I asked 
 him if he intended to speak as the mayor of the town 
 or as a private person — if as the mayor, I promised a 
 respectful hearing, but if as a private gentleman he 
 should be put out as Mr. Brindley had been. He 
 meant to speak, he declared, in a non-official capacity, 
 but after what had been said, he would withdraw. He 
 did so, and my meeting proceeded to the end in per- 
 fect order, and to the satisfaction of those assembled. 
 
 The next day I waited on the mayor at the court- 
 
Riots at Burslem and Bristol. 1 27 
 
 house, and talked matters over with him and his 
 brother magistrates at a private interview, which 
 ended in an understanding, at once carried out, that 
 they would use all their influence to get the discharged 
 men taken back by their employers. During the 
 following week I held a three nights' discussion with 
 Brindley, in the large schoolroom at Macclesfield — 
 the vicar, Mr. Burnett, in the chair. I fully ex- 
 plained our principles and objects, exposed the false- 
 hoods so industriously circulated, and established a 
 peace that was not afterwards disturbed. 
 
 While these things were taking place in Congleton 
 and Macclesfield, a legal crusade was being carried on 
 in Manchester, to compel the taking of the dissenting 
 ministers' oath by the social missionaries. There 
 were some law proceedings, and finally Mr. Buchanan 
 took the oath. At Bristol, some few months after, 
 being summoned before the magistrates to do the 
 same, I did it without a moment's hesitation. This 
 proceeding has been declared as having caused a re- 
 volt in the society. This is not the fact, inasmuch 
 that in the movement led by Robert Owen no man 
 was questioned as to his religious belief, so no man 
 was controlled as to his willingness or unwillingness 
 to be sworn. It was never made a subject of discus- 
 sion in the society, as in such matters every man was 
 left to do what appeared right in his own eyes. Our 
 halls were, as a rule, licensed as places of worship, and 
 a licensewas necessary to make speakingin them lawful, 
 should it be demanded. The demand in two or three 
 cases was made, as an obstacle to our proceedings. 
 It failed, and there the matter ended, without causing 
 disturbance, discussion, or division of any kind. 
 
128 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 The Bristol riots were the most serious that took 
 place in connection with the public teaching of Robert 
 Owen. Like those of Burslem, they were designedly 
 and wantonly produced, but the danger attending them 
 while they lasted never extended beyond the spot on 
 which they occurred. There was no extensive and 
 powerful organisation behind them. Mr. Brindley, as 
 the agent of certain parties who subscribed to pay his 
 expenses, appeared at certain points at certain times, 
 and from the moment he made his appearance to the 
 time he took his departure, there was excitement and 
 sometimes riot ; but when he withdrew everything 
 became quiet. 
 
 About six months after the Burslem attack, Owen 
 visited Bristol, his friends there having taken and 
 fitted up a large hall in Broadmead. He was to ad- 
 dress the public on the occasion of its opening. Mr. 
 Brindley got to the town before him, and by the time 
 he arrived, had stirred up a very strong feeling against 
 him by resorting to his usual system of false represen- 
 tation. Owen's books were publicly burned, and a 
 serious attack was made on his life. As he was 
 entering a cab to drive to his hotel, it was suddenly 
 seized by the wheels, and on the point of being over- 
 turned, when he was dragged from it by his friends, 
 and surrounded by a party of resolute men, who kept 
 the mob off by sheer fighting. In an entry into 
 which his friends pu.shed him, at the same time firmly 
 guarding the entrance, some sort of disguise was 
 adopted, and by the friendliness of one of the resi- 
 dents, he was led through a back passage, and in that 
 way got to his inn without suffering injury. 
 
 News of the danger to which he had been exposed 
 
Riots at Biirslem and Bristol. 1 29 
 
 arrived next day in London, and I started at once, 
 travelling all night, so as to be with him as soon as 
 possible. At that time (the January of 1841), the 
 railway only went as far as Reading, and from there 
 the coach continued the journey to Bristol. It was a 
 hard winter, and the night was bitterly cold, so that 
 when I got to Bristol in the morning, 1 was by no 
 means in a comfortable condition. I found that 
 Owen's friends, being convinced that his life was in 
 danger, had begged of him to return at once to Lon- 
 don by the early coach. After much pressing he 
 complied, and I must have passed him as he was 
 leaving the town. The condition of things was not 
 very cheering. The large hall in Broadmead, which 
 had been newly fitted up, was in a state of utter 
 wreck. The seats were all broken, the rostrum torn 
 down, the gas fittings demolished, the doors and 
 windows smashed, and all that could be done in the 
 way of destruction fully accomplished. This had 
 taken place on the previous evening, so that be- 
 tween the wrecked building and the excited state of 
 public feeling, I felt that however my visit might end, 
 its beginning was not of the most propitious kind. I 
 went that night to a meeting of Mr. Brindley's, held 
 at a large circus in the town, and on the following 
 night held my first meeting, the hall in Broadmead 
 having been hurriedly fitted up again by a crowd of 
 young volunteer workmen. Somewhere about three 
 thousand persons were packed into the building, while 
 outside the crowd was dense and excited. No dis- 
 cussion was allowed until I had said all I intended to 
 say, and though Mr. Brindley and his friends did all 
 they could to throw the meeting into disorder, it 
 
 VOL. II. I 
 
1 30 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 finished peaceably, and with good effect in allaying 
 prejudice. 
 
 When I got into the street to return home, I was 
 surrounded by a furious mob, that yelled at me and 
 made other angry manifestations. In a short time 
 stones began to fly, several of our party, including 
 myself, being struck. We took refuge in a public- 
 house, and barricaded the doors and windows on the 
 ground floor. The police, hearing of the riot, soon 
 arrived, and we escaped, under their protection, at the 
 back of the premises; and, though we were discovered 
 and the mob signalled to, we managed to get a cab 
 and drive off too rapidly to be overtaken. The police 
 acted very well. While one of them jumped on the 
 box-seat to direct the driver, the others faced round 
 and kept back the advancing crowd. 
 
 The next night I lectured again, and everything 
 went off quietly inside the building. The mob out- 
 side was, however, more numerous than on the previ- 
 ous night. There was no way of getting out at the 
 back of the building, as the premises in that direction 
 abutted on a river, and had neither door nor windows, 
 nor was there any means of egress at the sides, while 
 in front a long passage built in on each side made it 
 necessary to pass out right into the midst of the mob. 
 The constables, who had been sent into the meeting, 
 arranged that they would walk at some little distance 
 before and behind me, while about twenty young men 
 were placed around me. In this order we moved 
 right into the crowd and along the road leading out 
 of the city toward the place where I was staying. 
 
 The struggle began the moment we left the hall, 
 and for about a mile it was carried on fiercely. 
 
Riots at Burslem and Bristol. 131 
 
 Sometimes by a determined pressure of the crowd we 
 were forced back ; then again we were forced to the 
 right or left, as the opening of a street gave oppor- 
 tunity. It was quite clear the mob was under the 
 control of certain leaders, as their object the whole 
 time seemed to be to separate me from those who 
 were protecting me, and deal with me singly. The 
 police saw that the situation was becoming very 
 dangerous, and instead of advancing straight to where 
 I had taken up my quarters, they turned suddenly 
 into a police station, close to the street we were in, 
 and as soon as they entered fastened the doors. Re- 
 inforcements arrived, the portion of the mob nearest 
 the building was driven back, and for the moment I 
 was safe. A rumour that I had been killed by the 
 mob got circulated, and several persons of respectable 
 position in the city came to the police office, and 
 when they found that I was safe, offered me refuge in 
 their houses ; but I declined, and having changed my 
 overcoat and slightly disguised myself, I left by a 
 back door, and, passing through two divisions of the 
 mob which were on the look-out for me, reached home 
 in safety. 
 
 The morning after, as I sat at breakfast, a man 
 called and inquired for me, and when he was shown 
 into the room, where I sat alone, he looked at me and 
 said, " I am glad you are safe.'' I asked him his 
 business, and he told me that he was appointed to 
 attend all my meetings, and report to the Govern- 
 ment ; that this was his business in Bristol, and that 
 he was most anxious I should not get into trouble. 
 He had, he said, to report what I said, and if I at any 
 time talked wildly, harm would come of it. " I do 
 
132 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 not think you will," he said, " but as I entirely believe 
 in the work you are doing, I am anxious you should 
 continue it without injury to yourself." Having thus 
 delivered himself, he bid me " Good-morning," and 
 hurried out of the room. After he was gone, it struck 
 me that there was on his face, as he spoke, a painful 
 look of self-accusation, and I have from that moment 
 entertained a kindly remembrance of the man who, 
 being placed in such a position, could perform such 
 an act. Nothing very particular occurred after this, 
 beyond an attempt at assault one night when I was 
 alone, but as I carried a good stick, I had no difficulty 
 in getting rid of my assailants. I remained in Bristol 
 for some weeks, but was never again in similar danger. 
 After this Mr. Brindley tried his fortune in London, 
 where I, through my friends, arranged for a debate in 
 the theatre of the Coliseum, Regent's Park, which 
 attracted a good deal of attention, and did much in 
 bringing Robert Owen's views under discussion with 
 the general public. There was no disturbance of 
 any kind, and everything went off satisfactorily. 
 Then Mr. Brindley made his appearance at Birming- 
 ham, to which town I followed him, Robert Owen 
 going with me. At Birmingham, as well as in London, 
 the verdict of the public, taken by resolution, was 
 overwhelmingly with us. It became apparent that 
 what was meant to crush us was rapidly giving us 
 strength, hence in a short time Mr. Brindley ceased 
 to trouble the public as an active and noisy opponent 
 of Socialism, and after some small tribute to him, got 
 up chiefly by the clergj', he disappeared so far as we 
 were concerned, and was no more heard of An at- 
 tempt was made in the early part of 1840 to burn the 
 
Riots at Biirslem and Bristol. 133 
 
 Manchester Institution, and there occurred some minor 
 attempts at assault in different parts of the country, 
 but beyond this there is notliing to record of any 
 consequence as violent interference with the proceed- 
 ings of the Socialists. 
 
 The impression made on the mind of Robert Owen, 
 and on the "minds of those who joined with him in 
 this agitation, which extended fully over ten years, 
 was that a fairer, more tolerant, and well-disposed 
 audience cannot be got together, than one composed 
 of the average run of the working class in the manu- 
 facturing districts of Great Britain. Had Owen and 
 his followers not been grossly misrepresented, and the 
 doctrines they taught designedly misinterpreted by 
 men whose object it was to excite the worst prejudices 
 in a class below that of our ordinary working people, 
 it is fair to surmise that no disturbance would have 
 taken place. Having had a special experience in 
 connection with excited crowds at public meetings, I 
 may say that where a hearing was granted, I never 
 knew sound argument fail in producing a satisfactory 
 result. There is, no doubt, much unfairness in 
 sectarian contentions, in contentions where money 
 interests are at stake, and when the conflicts of party 
 politics become hot. In such cases there are fixed, 
 foregone conclusions, and heat and violence too 
 frequently take the place of argument; but away from 
 such questions and the excitement they beget, it may 
 be asserted that there is in Great Britain as clear a 
 " stage " and as little " favour " as men of the world 
 desirous of preserving the amenities of debate need 
 wish for. 
 
 In passing on to the effort to establish an industrial 
 
1 34 J^fe, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 community, it must be borne in mind that from the 
 commencement of the agitation, its promoters had 
 two objects in view. There was, as it were, a society 
 within a society, each society having its own duties 
 and objects, though at all times in strict agreement 
 one with the other. The larger section may be 
 described as purely propagandist. Its object was to 
 make known to the general public the principles of 
 Robert Owen in regard to the formation of character, 
 and the necessity of education as a check to vice and 
 crime. In addition it exposed existing evils in con- 
 nection with the industrial system of the country, and 
 urged the necessity for practical effort with the view 
 of bringing the worker into better relation with his 
 work, that poverty and misery might cease to be the 
 general and almost constant attendants on labour. 
 
 The expenses necessary for carrying on the agita- 
 tion were paid by weekly subscriptions imposed on 
 the people by themselves, and there was no responsi- 
 bility incurred beyond this, as, while education was 
 insisted on as a national duty, and improvement in 
 the condition of the people urged as a matter of 
 supreme necessity, nobody was pledged to any special 
 effort for the purpose of realising either of these 
 objects. The great aim was the extension of a belief 
 in the truth of certain principles and a faith in their 
 practicability. In fact, the propagandism carried on 
 was simply a preparation of the ground with a view 
 to practical action, and as there was nothing to rely 
 on but public opinion, and the support to be derived 
 from it, the efforts of Owen and his friends were to 
 create such public belief in their ideas as might lead 
 to these ideas being acted upon. 
 
Riots at Biirskm and Bristol. 135 
 
 This society was called, very ambitiously, the. 
 " Association of all Classes of all Nations," but this 
 was not so much in the expectation that it had any 
 chance of becoming what such a title implied, as to 
 express the fact that it was open to all, without any 
 kind of exclusion on grounds of country, class, or creed. 
 
 Inside the larger society, and worked by an organi- 
 sation of its own, was the " Community Friendly 
 Society," which had for its object the promotion of 
 practical effort. It enrolled members who desired to 
 see a model village for industrial and educational 
 purposes established, and who were willing to subscribe 
 for such a purpose. Its members were not so 
 numerous as those of the propagandist association, 
 but they paid a much larger and a separate sum as 
 a weekly subscription. In the one case a penny per 
 week was found sufficient to carry forward the general 
 wofk, while the members of the "Community Friendly 
 Society " paid one shilling a week each in addition. 
 This society was recruited from the other, but those 
 not subscribing for community purposes could not 
 interfere with the conduct of its business, nor could 
 they be elected as inmates to any establishment that 
 might be set on foot. During the whole of the agita- 
 tion de.scribed in previous chapters, the " Community 
 Friendly Society " was going quietly on with its own 
 special work. It gathered in adherents, collected 
 subscriptions, discussed projects and plans, kept in 
 view offers for the sale' or letting of lands, such as 
 might suit the purpose it had in view, and considered 
 how best to proportion trade, education, and agri- 
 culture, so as to promote the success of the projected 
 undertakine. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Ipractical ©peratioiis. 
 
 At the annual Congress of 1840, the Central 
 Board made the following report to the society in 
 relation to practical operations on the land. 
 
 " Since the last annual session of Congress, the estate, 
 situate at East Tytherly, in the county of Hants, has 
 been secured by the directors on a lease of ninety- 
 nine years ; and it is now vested in trustees on behalf 
 of the society, and preparatory steps for the establish- 
 ment of a community have been taken to the extent 
 that the collected funds of the society admit. The 
 estate consists, as stated in page 140 of the report of 
 last Congress, of two farms, one of 301 acres, named 
 Queenwood, which is tithe free ; the other of 232 
 acres, which is extra-parochial, named Buckholt. 
 The annual rent is .^350, having been fined down 
 from ;£^37S, by payment of .£^750 ; and the society have 
 power further to fine down the rent to ^300, ;£^250, 
 and ;£^200, on making three successive payments of 
 ;^l,5oo each. Possession of this property was obtained 
 on Tuesday, the first day of October, 1839, when the 
 directors paid the sum of i^ 1, 694 for the stock upon 
 the farms, it having been valued, according to the 
 custom of the country, at that sum." 
 
 This was an important step. A great deal had 
 
Practical Operaiiani. 137 
 
 been done in propagandism as a preparation for it, 
 but over the whole time, there had been much 
 difference of opinion as to the policy to be pursued in 
 practically working out the society's plans. There 
 was always a party in the society that professed not 
 to believe in talking, and who grumbled at lectures, 
 discussions, or public meetings of any kind that did 
 not directly insist on practical work on the land. 
 They saw no disadvantage in an inadequate public 
 support, and not much in a deficiency of funds, or 
 even in a lack of agreement as to necessary pre- 
 liminaries. On the other hand, there was a very strong 
 party who were thoroughly convinced as to the 
 necessity of continued and extended propagandist 
 effort. Excellent results were becoming daily mani- 
 fest from the teaching that was carried on. Large 
 numbers of people were joining the movement, in 
 the manufacturing districts more particularly ; and 
 not only were these, as members of the association, 
 giving Hfe and progress to the agitation, but the 
 general public, notwithstanding the opposition of Mr. 
 Brindley and his supporters, was rapidly coming to 
 understand that although our proceedings stirred up 
 religious disputations, the main, in fact, the only 
 object of our association was to promote education, 
 and to improve the condition of the working people 
 of the country, without disturbing order, or in any 
 way attacking property. 
 
 Our missionaries were, for the most part, young, 
 active, and zealous men, who acted by direction of 
 the central authority ; while the district lecturers 
 operated locally for the branches by which they were 
 engaged, and, hence, there was a constant, properly 
 
138 T-iifi, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiven. 
 
 supervised system of teaching going forward in 
 thorough sympathy with the people. It is therefore 
 reasonable to suppose that if ten additional years had 
 been given to this kind of work, a mass of public 
 opinion would have been prepared, by which the 
 inertia that was allowing things to go their own way 
 in the direction of ignorance, vice, and misery, would 
 have been effectively antagonised. It was an old 
 dispute that cropped up among the social reformers, 
 just as it had done in past days in all sorts of move- 
 ments, and as it will in future, whenever men have to 
 act together for common ends. The tendency of 
 persons who cannot talk will always be to believe that 
 they can work, and in this belief to do much mischief 
 by attempting to act without the necessary conditions 
 of success ; while the tendency of eloquent propa- 
 gandists will be to avoid such practical experiments 
 as they think unlikely to bring the desired results. 
 There is, no doubt, a true point of action between the 
 two ; but, like many true points, it will be difficult to 
 hit. On the other hand, where contention is strong, it 
 will be easy to miss, and in this instance there can be 
 no doubt that it was missed. 
 
 Robert Owen himself stood stoutly out against 
 p.remature action, and up to the last moment he 
 insisted that that which was contemplated was too 
 hurried. At this time, however, there were outside 
 causes operating to produce premature activity. A 
 small landed proprietor had declared himself a 
 convert to the principles, and a believer in the plans 
 of the Socialists. He was a man of good address and 
 some ability, and he took advantage of the organisa- 
 tion to go from place to place, address meetings, and 
 
Practical Operations. 139 
 
 make offers to such as were disposed to join him. 
 There was also a man of the same sort in Wales, who 
 had land to experiment on, and who was anxious to 
 set up a colony. A third experiment of a different 
 kind was also in preparation. Rightly or wrongly, 
 these things influenced Owen's movement, and helped 
 to throw obstacles in its way, as both the men above 
 alluded to got money and labour invested in their 
 land, without giving any security for either, and, in 
 the end, kept possession of what they had obtained. 
 These did not start before the society, but their 
 preparations hurried forward its project. 
 
 Owen, at first declared he would withdraw himself 
 from the movement, but as this would have amounted 
 to a breaking up of the whole thing, he reluctantly 
 consented to continue, though under very distinct protest 
 against the policy of rashness that had been adopted, 
 and with an understanding that nothing of importance 
 should be done without his knowledge and consent. 
 Upon this understanding he was appointed governor 
 on condition that he should hold office nominally 
 until, at the following Congress, the whole matter 
 should be fully discussed. It will be seen from what 
 is stated here, that the acquisition of an estate was 
 not regarded by many people connected with the 
 movement as an unmixed good. The initial 
 difficulties ought- to have prevented the step taken. 
 The capital in hand was utterly inadequate to the 
 carrying through of such an undertaking. A good 
 deal was promised, and much of this was forthcoming 
 when wanted, but a certain outlay, that had to be made, 
 and could not be postponed, was not adequately 
 'provided for by a contingent and uncertain income. 
 
140 Life^ Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 There were no buildings on the estate beyond an 
 old farmhouse and some ordinary farm buildings, in 
 consequence of which the foremost requisite of the 
 new colony consisted in accommodation for the first 
 batch of residents. Three gentlemen were appointed 
 as deputy governor, agricultural manager, and resident 
 trustee, to direct and manage the undertaking. A 
 good-sized brick building was first erected, which was 
 intended to subsequently serve for a school. The 
 upper floor was divided into apartments for the first 
 people who arrived, the ground floor being used for 
 giving lessons to the children already there, and as a 
 dining-room. 
 
 The land was not good and did not promise average 
 crops, but, by proper treatment, in a season or two it 
 yielded very satisfactory returns. Large garden 
 grounds for the use of the people were laid out, and 
 an abundance of the best vegetables planted and 
 grown. Good gardeners who were members of the 
 society were sent to the estate, together with a 
 number of skilled artisans. The stock on the farm 
 was increased, and a larger breadth of land manured 
 and sown than many of the neighbouring farmers 
 thought prudent, but it turned out well, and on this 
 head no difficulty arose. 
 
 In a few months there was quite a little colony 
 settled on the land, but as the members of the society 
 had been sent from the manufacturing districts, and 
 were skilled workmen, their labour was employed in 
 skilled work, while the agricultural labourers of the 
 neighbourhood, instead of being superseded, found 
 themselves fully employed, and on better conditions 
 as to wages and general treatment. " Queenwood," 
 
Practical Operations. 141 
 
 though in its situation and surroundings already a 
 beautiful place, gradually began, in the hands of the 
 industrious people who had been sent there, to 
 assume an improved appearance. Those who were 
 set to work out the experiment were sober, indus- 
 trious, intelligent men, who had been led to study the 
 conditions of society as they found it in their own 
 experience ; who had revolted against the painful 
 lives led by the working people, and who determined 
 to make an experiment with a view to elevate and 
 improve them. The difficulties which had to be 
 encountered did not detract from the merit of the 
 attempt, as these difficulties were nearly altogether 
 of a pecuniary kind, such as often defeat the best 
 understood and most ordinary business. The land had 
 to be properly cultivated ; buildings to be erected 
 suitable for residence, and for carrying out efficiently 
 the several objects in view. One of the first of these 
 objects was to establish a good school in which to 
 educate the children of the people resident on the 
 estate, and also the children of such as could afford 
 to pay a charge to cover the cost of good plain living, 
 and teaching ; and, at the same time, leave something 
 towards defraying the expenses of the establish- 
 ment. 
 
 As a principal source of |_income, the intention was 
 to draft workers in various skilled trades to the 
 estate, whose labour did not require extensive and 
 costly machinery ; and the produce of whose in- 
 dustry might be disposed of to the general public 
 and to the various branches of the society. The 
 difficulties attending such an undertaking were never 
 overlooked. From the first it was felt that unless 
 
142 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 sufficient funds were supplied from the outside, it 
 could never be successful. The sums supplied 
 were not sufficient. Active operations were scarcely 
 commenced, when it was discovered that the money 
 at command was scarcely enough to stock and work 
 the farm, and that if the experiment had to rely on 
 the support of the society, it would collapse before 
 the plan could be tested on its merits. This was no 
 time to bandy accusations ; the impatient practical 
 men were rapidly discovering that impatience is the 
 least practical thing connected with human affairs, 
 and that '' raw haste " is not only " half-sister to 
 delay," but is also the mother of endless disappoint- 
 ments and failures. 
 
 Mr. John Finch, of Liverpool, who was appointed 
 deputy governor, was a very excellent man, full of 
 honesty of purpose and good intention ; but -rather 
 deficient in insight and tact. He was kindly in 
 spirit, and prepared to do all in his power for the 
 comfort and welfare of the people with whom he had 
 to deal. He had, however, a half joking way of say- 
 ing unpleasant things which made him rather un- 
 popular, and though the differences that occurred 
 between the people and the deputy-governor, seldom 
 involved anything which was not referable to faults of 
 temper on one side or the other, they constituted an 
 unfitness that rendered Mr. Finch's withdrawal de- 
 sirable. A severe illness rendered it necessary to 
 Mr. Finch himself, and it therefore took place without 
 any unpleasantness. Mr. Heaton Aldam, who man- 
 aged the farming department, was an able and 
 pleasant man ; but he undertook his duties without 
 calculating the difficulties of his new position. On his 
 
Practical Operations. 143 
 
 own farm he was master, possessed ample resources, 
 and ordered what had to be done in the certainty that 
 it could be done, without demur or objection. He 
 was out of place, therefore, where consultation was 
 occasionally necessary, and where " ways and means " 
 required to be discussed. Charles P'redcrick Green, 
 the resident trustee, in a few months was called away, 
 and settled in America. His practical training and 
 general usefulness would have made his help of value, 
 but he had to leave, and thus the management had to 
 be re-arranged, with an improved 'knowledge of the 
 requirements of the new colony. The three gentle- 
 men named did not over-weight the establishment 
 with expense, as they gave their services without 
 charge of any kind beyond their board ; but as mere 
 depositaries of authority, the work to be done did not 
 need them. There was over-much of management, 
 and, as there was not always agreement, this was felt 
 to be an evil. 
 
 At the Congress of 1841, held in Manchester, the 
 difficulties at Queenwood began to be apparent, and 
 though they were not at that time very formidable, it 
 was evident that unless the financial resources of the 
 society could be developed they would rapidly become 
 greater. There existed in the community pressing 
 need for an increase of members to carry on opera- 
 tions that could not be postponed without loss. Thei e 
 was also a desire in the branches throughout the 
 country to send additional residents, that the business 
 of the establishment might be carried actively for- 
 ward. But as the sending of each additional person 
 involved a permanent increase in expenditure, it was 
 felt by the more cautious that the pursuit of such a 
 
144 J^if^i Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 policy would be ruinous, unless at the same time pro- 
 vision could be made to permanently enlarge the 
 income of the society. There was no branch of in- 
 dustry on the estate that could bring any immediate 
 return, and, therefore, whatever might be necessary for 
 carrying on farming and building operations, as well as 
 what was needed for the supportof residents, had to be 
 found by the non-resident members of the association. 
 Up to that time loans could not be resorted to, if 
 for no other reason, because among the members 
 generally, lenders of considerable amounts could not 
 be found. There were people in connection with the 
 society who could lend, but they were not likely to 
 do so while the members in the various branches had 
 the power (by hurrying forward operations so as to 
 overweight the establishment) to render the capital 
 invested unprofitable. These persons, as matters 
 stood during the early stages of the attempt, showed 
 no disposition to come forward. Many ways were 
 suggested of encouraging small investors by making 
 the money they advanced available in certain forms 
 that might meet their requirements. It was proposed 
 that a certain portion of the money so advanced 
 should be at call, while another portion should be 
 subject to conditions of deferred payment. As many 
 of those who subscribed funds never meant to reside 
 at Queenwood, a system of mutual insurance was 
 proposed, from which, at a certain time of life, annual 
 payments were to be made. There were other sug- 
 gestions, but obviously such plans were useless with- 
 out some guarantee for success and profitable work- 
 ing, and this was precisely what such an experiment 
 could not offer. 
 
Practical Operations. 145 
 
 If money was to be forthcoming, it was quite clear 
 that those able and willing to lend must be consulted, 
 and, as far as possible, their views adopted. Matters 
 could not remain as they were in the early part of 
 1841, except at the risk of an immediate failure, and 
 there were many who would have very much re- 
 gretted such a result. Several of these were willing 
 to advance money, but they were not disposed to do 
 so without stipulating that they should in a certain 
 way control its expenditure. Naturally, their first 
 desire was to prevent the society, acting through its 
 branches, from sending residents at will. For this 
 purpose they formed themselves into a society called 
 the " Home Colonisation Society," and by contribu- 
 tions, principally taking the form of loans, got together 
 large sums of money, and, as afterwards became 
 known, received promises of other large sums, which 
 were not kept when the money was required. Practi- 
 cally, the " Home Colonisation Society " superseded 
 the old society, by causing such alterations to be 
 made in its constitution as reduced it to a subordinate 
 position, in which it became a follower and helper 
 with little or no power of initiation in anything that 
 required the spending of money, or that involved the 
 safety of what was, or what might be, invested. 
 
 The changes thus brought about, though many of 
 them were necessary, all of them well-meant and 
 made with the assent of the members of the society, 
 had a deadening effect on the spirit of the most active 
 and zealous. Enthusiasm was not needed, and, as a 
 natural consequence, it began to disappear. Such 
 variations were made in the laws as caused the will of 
 the president and governor to be paramount in almost 
 
 VOL. II. K 
 
146 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 everything connected with business. Robert Owen 
 combined both offices in his own person, and as he' 
 had the common weakness of regarding those who 
 agreed with him as the fittest to be trusted in the 
 carrying out of his views, the soundness of judgment 
 arising from a comparison of ideas was hardly to be 
 expected, and, in many instances, was not to be 
 found. 
 
 Another important result of the proceedings re- 
 ferred to, was the breaking up of the organised system 
 of propagandism that had been at work from the be- 
 ginning. There were seven district missionaries, 
 whose salaries, it was thought, would be better spent 
 in assisting practical operations on the land, and 
 within a year after the new system was brought into 
 operation, their services were dispensed with. Most 
 of them had rendered unpaid service, before they had 
 imposed on them the duties of missionaries, and after 
 their services in this capacity were no longer called 
 for, they passed into the ranks, and again took on 
 themselves their share of the volunteer work necessary 
 for carrying on the operations of the society. An- 
 other effect of this new policy was to diminish the 
 value of the halls which had been erected in several of 
 the large towns. Up to this time, these had been man- 
 aged in the interest of the movement, and though not 
 profitable as money speculations, they served the pur- 
 pose the shareholders had in view, being well em- 
 ployed in the improvement of the people who attended 
 them for instruction and amusement. When the 
 members of these institutions slackened in their zeal, 
 in consequence of the pure business action of the new 
 management, attendance fell off ; and other means of 
 
Practical Operations. I47 
 
 using the halls had to be resorted to for the purpose 
 of preventing a serious loss. 
 
 At this time trade was so bad that the working 
 people were suffering greatly, and although those who 
 had joined Robert Owen's movement were not of the 
 poorest — were, indeed, as a rule, the most provident 
 — yet in times of bad trade all suffer, though naturally 
 the improvident have to endure most. Whatever the 
 cause, the attendance at the various institutions 
 slackened, and the enthusiasm the people felt when 
 they themselves were the directors of their own ex- 
 periment, subsided to a considerable extent, leaving 
 the management nearly altogether in the hands of 
 those who, as a Home Colonisation Society, had 
 taken on themselves the duty of furnishing the chief 
 portion of the funds. 
 
 The Congress of 1841 was held in Manchester at 
 the time when this change was being carried out. 
 The reports of the various delegates were encourag- 
 ing ; but several of them pointed out that the build- 
 ing of halls in many localities had so absorbed the 
 means of members, that they were unable to subscribe 
 as largely as they had previously done for aiding ex- 
 periments on the land. They were as much alive as 
 ever to the importance of pushing forward social re- 
 form ; but it was difficult to raise money among 
 people suffering through want of employment, and 
 this fact furnished an additional reason why such re- 
 sources as could be commanded should be more 
 exclusively applied to operations on the land, seeing 
 that these had been commenced, and could not be 
 brought to a standstill. 
 
 The Manchester Congress was marked by a spirit 
 
148 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 of cheerful confidence, and it may be added that at 
 these Congresses the business was conducted without 
 any view to outside effect. Such a thing would have 
 been very difficult had there been any disposition to 
 attempt it. The " family meetings," as they were 
 called, which were regularly held in all the branches, 
 kept the members thoroughly acquainted with the 
 minutest details of their business, in consequence of 
 which the delegates, who were as a rule active and 
 intelligent men, came to the annual consideration of 
 their affairs with minds so informed in regard to the 
 subjects with which they had to deal, that any attempt 
 to impose on them, or on the public through them, 
 would, had it been contemplated, have been imprac- 
 ticable. Outside, matters were progressing as well as 
 could be expected, and if nothing had required atten- 
 tion beyond the influencing of public opinion, the pro- 
 spects of the movement at the time of the Congress 
 of 1841, would have left little to be desired. The 
 lecturing was carried on with great activity. Eighteen 
 missionaries and paid lecturers were constantly at 
 work. In addition there were discussion classes in 
 all directions, and a tract distribution so active that 
 it was declared publicly at a meeting in Birmingham, 
 of the Auxiliary Church of England Tract Society, 
 that the Socialists had distributed more tracts in that 
 town in a week than the Church party had circulated 
 in a year.' 
 
 Notwithstanding this, many were already appre- 
 hending trouble from the experiment on the land. 
 Future progress, even in regard to propagandism, de- 
 pended very much on its success, and it was every 
 day becoming more clear that an experiment entered 
 
Practical Operations. 149 
 
 on so hurriedly, would be a cause of much danger, 
 and, unless saved by some fortunate set of circum- 
 stances, likely enough to end in disastrous failure. At 
 the Manchester Congress, Mr. James Rigby, who had 
 been appointed deputy governor, reported as to the 
 then condition of the estate ; and though his report 
 was hopeful, it gave hints of disagreements and diffi- 
 culties that, even though they might be overcome, 
 were not encouraging. The inmates were dissatisfied, 
 and they were written to, and asked to state frankly 
 the causes of their dissatisfaction. In reply, they 
 complained of the head -farmer acting without proper 
 control, and rendering his accounts irregularly. When 
 asked their opinion of the new deputy governor, Mr. 
 .Rigby, they expressed approval of his kindness, and 
 the general character of his policy, but more than 
 hinted a want of faith in his infallibility. To a query 
 as to the domestic arrangements, they complained 
 that their bedrooms were too small and had no fire- 
 places, so that during the winter months they had to be 
 too much together in the common sitting-room. This, 
 however, was but a temporary inconvenience, as the 
 building they were in was not intended for their 
 dwelling, and was only to be occupied while better 
 buildings were being erected. They complained also 
 that the cooking accommodation was defective, being 
 simply what had been used in the old farmhouse, but 
 of their food, which was the most important item, 
 they had no complaint to make, as it consisted of a 
 good variety of dishes, and was as a rule well-served. 
 Neither had they much complaint to make on the 
 score of their clothing, though they could have done 
 with more ; they declared, however, that they did not 
 
150 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 desire to press any claim that would interfere with 
 the necessary expenditure in seed and manure for the 
 land. Indeed, all were disposed to do the best they 
 could, for the purpose of overcoming the difficulties 
 consequent upon the hurried commencement of a 
 scheme which, before it was entered on, required care- 
 ful and ample preparation. From the reports given 
 in, it appeared that they had been working hard, and 
 that everything connected with the land was in a 
 thriving condition. The account given by the deputy 
 governor of the manner in which they conducted and 
 employed themselves during the week and on Sun- 
 days, was interesting, and as it touched slightly on 
 the Sabbath question it may be repeated in his own 
 words. " On Sundays no more cooking is performed 
 than cannot possibly be avoided, as on Saturday this 
 operation is done for both Saturday and Sunday, so 
 that Sunday may be as much as possible a day of 
 rest. Our people never hurt the religious feelings of 
 their neighbours by not paying all the attention they 
 are able in this respect, and the feelings of their 
 neighbours have altered much in their favour." Indeed, 
 Mr. Rigby himself had been proposed as churchwar- 
 den, and would have accepted the position had his 
 residence in the parish been long enough to qualify 
 him. 
 
 On a week day, " they rose at six o'clock, and went 
 out to work before breakfast till eight or half-past. 
 For breakfast there was milk, cocoa, bread and butter, 
 salad, &c. They then pursued their labours until 
 dinner-time. Dinner was served up in a good style, 
 and generally consisted of puddings, bacon, beef, 
 mutton, vegetables, with hare and rabbit occasionally, 
 
Practical Operations, 151 
 
 and an hour was allowed for the meal. At five all 
 came in from work, and having dressed and partaken 
 of tea, either joined in some amusement or attended 
 to study." 
 
 In many respects the life at Queenwood was better 
 than that of ordinary workers outside, and in some 
 respects it was not so good. Had it included a sense 
 of security, there can be no doubt it would have been 
 greatly superior to the life led by our artizans in the 
 large towns of the kingdom. As it was, there was a 
 great desire to get there ; but the change from a 
 crowded bustling town, to a neighbourhood which was 
 comparatively a solitude, was trying to men whose 
 previous habits had tended to unfit them for such a 
 life. Upon the whole, however, the people there suited 
 each other, and so far as agreement in association 
 went, there was very little to complain of. Watch 
 making and printing were introduced at an early 
 stage of the experiment. In printing there was a 
 good deal to be done in the society ; and the weekly 
 journal, which was a large sixteen-paged paper, fur- 
 nished, together with tracts and pamphlets, a fair start. 
 But in every step taken there were many difficulties, 
 every one of which, however, could have been over- 
 come had there been ampler means at the disposal of 
 the managing body. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Cbange of policy. 
 
 It will be seen that what may be regarded as a fatal 
 error was committed in commencing operations on 
 the land before obtaining possession of the funds 
 necessary to carry them out. Such changes as 
 resulted from a better knowledge, and a wider ex- 
 perience, might have been useful ; but changes made 
 under the pressure of necessity, were likely to be 
 mischievous, as they were almost sure to touch, at 
 some point, the convenience or comfort of those con- 
 cerned, and by so doing to beget differences of 
 opinion and mutual opposition. In this way the 
 passing of the authority, that had up to this time 
 belonged to the members of the association, into the 
 hands of those who composed the " Home Colonisa- 
 tion Society,'' though it produced no positive dis- 
 satisfaction, furnished ground of complaint to a small 
 minority. These indulged in unfriendly criticism, 
 which led, for the first time, to the development of a 
 party spirit, and occasioned disagreements which 
 might have been avoided, if a more sober view of 
 the situation and its necessities had continued to be 
 taken. 
 
 During 1842 and the first half of 1843, building 
 and farming operations were carried on. \ ery briskly. 
 
Change of Policy. 153 
 
 Two farms, called the Great and Little Bently Farms, 
 were added to the land already held, and were entered 
 on under a long lease. The foundation stone of a 
 very handsome structure, estimated to cost a large 
 sum of money, had been laid, and building operations 
 were commenced. The Home Colonisation Society 
 having the controlling power in their hands, found 
 funds to carry on these new operations, and, as the 
 progress made was a source of much satisfaction, 
 very little fault was found with what was being done, 
 and no questions were pressed that those in power 
 were indisposed to answer. In the branches, among 
 the members, who belonged nearly altogether to the 
 working classes, the buildings in course of erection 
 were not approved of They said that in themselves, 
 and in the accommodation they offered, they were 
 far beyond what working people were used to, or 
 desired ; and if instead of what appeared to them a 
 palace, comfortable cottage houses were built, the 
 expense would be less, and the comfort greater.' On 
 the other side, it was urged that although the 
 expense per head might be more, the extra con- 
 venience would be such that, after a moderate period, 
 the superior buildings would be found in many ways 
 more economical ; also that the habits of the 
 residents would gradually alter. Expressions of 
 dissatisfaction were also heard in the branches, 
 among certain of the members, and might be con- 
 sidered as purely local. In the management there 
 was no difference of opinion. The report of the 
 central board to the Congress held in 1842, on the 
 Queenwood estate, says : — 
 " You will have to witness during some days the 
 
154 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 extent of these operations, whereby you will, no 
 doubt, come to the conclusion that they must be 
 entirely under the direction and superintendence of 
 one controlling mind. It will become equally obvious 
 that this mind must be enabled to comprehend the 
 whole subject, or confusion will soon arise. And not 
 only must the governor comprehend his plans, but he 
 must be assisted in carrying them into effect, even to 
 the minutest detail, by the best parties that can be 
 selected, in whom he has confidence. This will be 
 the great means of future success or failure. If 
 dissension, even the most trifling, can arise as to how 
 our objects are to be effected, the time has not come 
 when they can be carried out. To the board it 
 appears impossible — and they speak with consider- 
 able experience on the matter — that the slightest 
 interruption can be permitted to the decision of 
 the governor, and it will be for the Congress seriously 
 to consider how far they coincide in this opinion, and 
 to make their regulations accordingly. It will be 
 requisite now, in the early stages of community 
 arrangements, that all should clearly understand the 
 terms on which they are admitted, and where the 
 authority is vested." 
 
 The meaning of this cannot be mistaken. The 
 governor's orders were not in any way to be disputed, 
 and though this discipline of submission was meant 
 honestly in the interest of those on whom it was 
 imposed, it was nevertheless certain that the position 
 of people dwelling in such an establishment might be 
 made unbearable, should the governor lack either 
 equity of spirit or soundness of judgment in regulat- 
 ing the affairs placed under his control. The 
 
Change of Policy. 155 
 
 experiment was not altogether satisfactory. The 
 personal disagreements and disputes were few, the 
 people having lived together in peace and friendli- 
 ness, but the blunders made in general management 
 were sometimes serious, and might have been pre- 
 vented if the right of free discussion had been more 
 fully permitted.^ 
 
 . Much may be said in favour of so much authority 
 as may be necessary to control factious opposition ; 
 but authority itself has a tendency to become factious, 
 and to be in such circumstances more dangerous than 
 opposition. The evils of arbitraiy power, and those 
 of factious resistance, when balanced, tend to create 
 a belief that free discussion, with all its drawbacks, is 
 very much to be preferred to an enforced silence that 
 can neither approve nor condemn. For good or for 
 evil the power the central board asked for was 
 granted, and the proceedings in Hampshire went 
 vigorously forward. A large amount of money was 
 expended, much the greater part of which was fur- 
 nished by the members of the central board them- 
 selves, in their character as representatives of the 
 " Home Colonisation Society." 
 
 At the 1842 Congress, everything was done in 
 regard to the estate in Hampshire without any 
 approach to interference, either by the residents at 
 Queenwood, or the members of the general society ; 
 yet though matters looked encouraging in May, 
 when the regular yearly Congress met, three months 
 after, the central board was compelled to call a special 
 
 ^ The writer was almost alone, amongst the leading members 
 of the society, in opposition to this plan of management from 
 the beginning. 
 
156 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiven. 
 
 Congress, for the purpose of considering the position 
 of the society ; the whole thing having been brought 
 as nearly as possible to a standstill. It may be 
 mentioned that the crisis which had then arrived, 
 and with which the special Congress called in London 
 in August 1842, had to deal, was not brought about 
 by unreasonable, extravagant, or foolish conduct on 
 the part of the people at Queenwood. The plans on 
 which the place was conducted, the cost of carrying 
 out these plans, and the means of defraying it, rested 
 entirely with the central board, acting in conjunction 
 with the " Home Colonisation Society.'' 
 
 It is more than likely that the colony in Hampshire 
 would have come to a standstill if the society had 
 been left to itself The work undertaken, however 
 economically conducted, was beyond the means at 
 the disposal of the society. To erect buildings for 
 farming, for schools, for workshops in various indus- 
 tries, and to find capital to carry on these industries, 
 meant an enormous expenditure ; and as every branch 
 of business was, at its commencement, a mere experi- 
 ment, though one might succeed, another might not, 
 and it is plain that the probabilities were on the side 
 of failure. 
 
 An outlay was incurred which, though perhaps not 
 extravagant for the work which had to be executed, 
 was quite out of proportion to the capital at command, 
 or to any amount of capital that could be reasonably 
 expected. Mr. Owen was at this time surrounded and 
 assisted by men as sanguine as himself, who shared 
 to the full his hopes and expectations. They were as 
 disinterested and sincere as men could be, and did not 
 expect from others more than they were themseh'cs 
 
Change of Policy. 157 
 
 prepared to do. Those -who had capital advanced it 
 liberally, but when they had gone as far as they could, 
 those upon whose sympathy and assistance reliance 
 had been placed, did not fulfil the expectations which 
 had been entertained. When, therefore, the special 
 Congress was called in August, 1842, the confession 
 had to be made that there were not funds wherewith 
 to meet the current expenses. Mr. William Galpin, 
 General Secretary, a man of high honour and strict 
 integrity, who possessed an amount of quiet deter- 
 mination that usually carried him over difficulties 
 before which most men would have given way, ex- 
 plained the position with the utmost frankness. He 
 said : — 
 
 " At the Congress held in May last, the proceedings 
 of the president and the central board, for the past 
 year, had given such general satisfaction that the con- 
 fidence before reposed in them was carried to an 
 extent greater, perhaps, than was ever previously 
 placed in any officers of a public body. The position 
 we then occupied, and the unanimity with which the 
 various measures were passed, led me to believe that 
 we should continue to progress, without any material 
 check, to the accomplishment of all those great 
 objects for which we are associated. This belief still 
 exists to a great degree, but I must confess that I 
 have felt most strongly the unsoundness of our posi- 
 tion in being even momentarily deficient in the funds 
 to meet our liabilities, inasmuch as all the arrange- 
 ments were based on the understanding that such a 
 deficiency should never exist, and I most fully deter- 
 mined on being a party to no other." 
 
 After a few more paragraphs, he added : — 
 
I $8 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 "The temporary inconvenience now felt has been 
 brought on by the operations being extended beyond 
 the means advanced to carry them forward, and it 
 will be for you to ascertain in what manner this has 
 been done, and whether it is calculated to effect more 
 permanent advantage to the cause we are engaged in 
 than would have resulted from an adherence to the 
 arrangements previously agreed on." 
 
 With regard to the expenditure that had been in- 
 curred it was, Mr. Galpin said, made by order of the 
 governor ; but though this might be true, it did not 
 entirely excuse the men in conjunction with whom l^e ' 
 acted. In truth, so far as miscalculation led to diffi- 
 culties in this case, no one of those concerned was 
 more to blame than the rest. They were all over- 
 sanguine, and instead of checking each other by pru- 
 dent calculation or business-like protest, they encour- 
 aged each other by mutual enthusiasm. This, though 
 a serious error, was not fatal ; and in proof of the 
 good faith of the men who committed it, not one of 
 them for an instant incurred suspicion in respect of 
 anything that had been advised or executed. At this 
 special Congress there was nothing called in question 
 beyond the business ability of the men who had been 
 appointed at the Congress of 1841, in accordance with 
 the new system, and what the special Congress had to 
 do was to appoint successors to the board, and decide 
 on plans for future management. This was done 
 without any kind of disagreement or personal un- 
 friendliness between those concerned. There was 
 much explanation and some sharp enough criticism, 
 but at the close of the discussion a long resolution was 
 passed unanimously declaring : — 
 
Change of Policy. 1 59 
 
 " That this Congress, having heard the address of the 
 governor of Harmony and explanations from members 
 of the central board, and examined the accounts and 
 liabilities of the society, Resolved, — That in the 
 opinion of the Congress, the present financial condition 
 of the establishment in Hampshire has mainly arisen 
 from the too great confidence of the governor in the 
 disposition of capitalists, not immediately connected 
 with the society, to advance capital for its purposes 
 when practical operations had been advanced to a 
 certain stage, which confidence induced him to press 
 forward practical operations in the said establishment 
 at a rate which exceeded the actual income and avail- 
 able funds of the society. And the Congress further 
 considers that this result has been aided by the im- 
 plicit and unbounded faith reposed in the late gover- 
 nor by the principal officers of the society, which pre- 
 vented them from exercising that judicious and 
 prudent control over the expenditure of the funds 
 which their uniform business-like and satisfactory con- 
 duct in other respects shows that, under other circum- 
 stances and but for such confidence, they would have 
 felt it to be their duty to exercise. This Congress, 
 however, after mature consideration, fully exonerates 
 all the parties concerned from the imputation of any 
 intentional error in policy or practice with reference 
 to these operations, and declares its firm belief that 
 every step they have taken has been dictated by a 
 sincere desire to benefit the society, and accelerate the 
 realisation of its principles. The Congress further 
 expresses its fullest conviction that the temporary 
 difificulties arising from loo sanguine hopes and im- 
 plicit confidence may be easily removed by a united 
 
i6o Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Oiven. 
 
 and energetic effort on the part of the members and 
 friends of the society to give full effect and profitable 
 employment to the extended arrangements and 
 greatly improved capabilities of the establishment ; 
 the explanations which have been given fully satisfy- 
 ing the Congress that the principal officers of the 
 society perceive the error that has been committed, 
 and that the experience thus gained will prevent a 
 similar course from being pursued by their successors." 
 
 It would be wrong to infer from what has been 
 stated that there was any revolt against Robert Owen 
 on the part of his followers. He and those who had 
 been acting with him made a very serious blunder, and 
 the gravity of this was understood. The necessity of 
 changing the policy of the society was seen by all 
 parties, and to change the policy it was necessary 
 there should be a change of men. Robert Owen and 
 his friends of the " Home Colonisation Society '' felt 
 this. They had advanced over iT 14,000 for the 
 purpose of forwarding the operations at Queenwood, 
 and now that they were compelled to call a special 
 Congress, in consequence of the difficulties that had 
 arisen, it was found that, in advancing this large sum, 
 they had exacted no security, and in handing their 
 power back again they asked for no terms beyond 
 such as the future condition of the concern might 
 afford. 
 
 When the new men were appointed to carry out the 
 new policy, the retiring officers did not withdraw 
 themselves so long as they could furnish information 
 or advice, and in many ways the plans that had been 
 set on foot to make the establishment remunerative 
 were pursued to the end. In a carefully- written ad- 
 
Change of Policy. i6i 
 
 dress, Robert Owen advised that the farms and 
 gardens should be brought into the highest state of 
 cultivation, and that the hall and other buildings 
 should be completed and furnished, so as to provide 
 accommodation for a number of well-to-do friends as 
 paying boarders. There would have been no lack of 
 these, as it was a desirable place of residence, and 
 many eligible persons were ready to go there when 
 suitable accommodation should be provided. 
 
 At the special Congress a delegate from Queen- 
 wood was present — Mr. William Sprague, who lived 
 there as saddler and harness-maker. ' He brought 
 with him instructions from the residents, and an ex- 
 pression of opinion in regard to the work in which 
 they were engaged. He said, " They had met to 
 consider the situation, and to express their opinions 
 in connection with it. What the resident members 
 asked for by resolution was a share in the government 
 of the establishment." On discussion by the members 
 of the Congress, however, it was feared that such an 
 arrangement might lead to inconvenient interferences 
 with the management, and, in the end, it was 
 negatived : but a strong desire was at the same time 
 expressed by the delegates present, that in everything 
 seriously affecting them they should be consulted 
 Inside the establishment a very good feeling prevailed. 
 Mr. Sprague said, " That with reference to the feelings 
 of the members on recent occurrences, at first con- 
 siderable consternation was created, but, subsequently, 
 explanations had restored confidence, and the 
 strongest determination now existed to do all in their 
 power to aid the success of the establishment. They 
 hoped that any past occurrences would not be reverted 
 VOL. ii] ^ 
 
1 62 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 to by the Congress except for the purpose of future 
 guidance." 
 
 New officers were appointed, plans of action were 
 settled, a budget drawn up, and the Congress 
 separated without anger or ill-will, in consequence of 
 what had happened, Mr. Finch, the new governor, 
 declaring that in whatever he might do, he would seek 
 the advice of the gentlemen who had just retired from 
 office. It is needless to reproduce here the many un- 
 friendly statements made by the press on these 
 proceedings. There was never the least attempt to 
 make a secret of anything connected with the situa- 
 tion. Critics might have informed themselves very 
 accurately, at any time, of all that was done. But 
 instead of taking the trouble to find out the actual 
 condition of things, the newspapers sent abroad the 
 wildest charges against all concerned with the Hamp- 
 shire experiment. The whole thing, according to the 
 press, had broken down disgracefully and dishonestly, 
 while Robert Owen and those who acted with him 
 were denounced, and hunted by their deluded and 
 infuriated dupes. So far was this from the fact, that 
 the new president, in his first address to the members 
 of the society, made the following remarks : — ■ 
 
 " In commencing the administration of your affairs, 
 I must declare to you that I consider the society in a 
 better position than it has ever yet been placed in. 
 It is true that some temporary inconvenience has 
 arisen from the energy and perseverance with which 
 our venerable founder, the late governor, has pressed 
 forward the grand and glorious objects which are ever 
 present to his mind ; but the extremely generous 
 manner in which those friends who advanced the 
 
Change of Policy. 163 
 
 funds which have been expended within the last 
 twelve months have met the society on this occasion 
 has given the Congress the firm assurance, that with 
 anything approaching to zeal on your parts it will 
 speedily be found that the position we occupy is a 
 most advantageous one." 
 
 This statement was true, but the danger at Queen- 
 wood did not lie in the temporary embarrassment, to 
 deal with which the special Congress was called. It was 
 far deeper than this, and even though every incon- 
 venience had been effectually removed, the danger, 
 though postponed, could not have been prevented. 
 ^It must not be forgotten that the purpose of the 
 experiment was to discover whether labour on the 
 land, labour in the workshop, labour in the school, and 
 such labour in management and government as might 
 be needed, could be so united, and rewards so 
 distributed, as to prevent excessive wealth an,d 
 excessive poverty existing side by side as a social 
 necessity. Successful farming and gardening, or a 
 successful school and boarding establishment, or any 
 other kind of success outside this, would not have 
 solved the problem. It is a mistake to suppose that 
 the form of government made any part of the danger. 
 This was simply a trial for the purpose of discovering 
 how best to carry on a difficult and special work, and 
 was adopted and abandoned without creating hostile 
 divisions among the members of the society. At the 
 special Congress, one or two men objected to the 
 form of government, and used strong expressions in 
 reference to it, but such language was utterly dis- 
 regarded by the body of the delegates. Mr. Galpin 
 spoke out of a very intimate acquaintance with the 
 
164 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 working of the establishment and the general condi- 
 tion of the society, when he said, in closing the debate 
 on the question of government : — 
 
 " As to the unity form of government, the general 
 alterations made in the laws at last Congress em- 
 bodied entirely his own views as to what was essential 
 to good government. One thing, however, must be 
 understood, every member must now know what 
 measures the executive had in contemplation. This 
 must be known throughout the society. None but 
 ordinary operations should proceed unless they were 
 first published in the New Moral World. Their pre- 
 sent liabilities must be speedily and entirely got rid 
 of, and no additional ones contracted. The errors 
 that had been committed were financial ones, and in 
 future the amount of funds should always be clearly 
 known by all the members, that their confidence might 
 be obtained." 
 
 In fact, all felt that too much had been undertaken 
 considering the means at the command of the society. 
 The work could not be brought to a standstill with- 
 out serious loss, nor could any other be entered on 
 without additional capital to an amount beyond their 
 .power to obtain. The blunder committed could not 
 be rectified, but notwithstanding this the work 
 went on. 
 
 Alexander Somerville, who acted as an agent of 
 the Anti-Corn-Law League, and who wrote, in 1842, a 
 series of very interesting letters from the farming dis- 
 tricts in the Morning Chronicle, visited the Queen- 
 wood establishment, and gave a very full account of 
 what he witnessed there. 
 
 "Though," he remarks, 'T think the Socialists were 
 
Change of Policy, 165 
 
 foolish to waste three or four years of their time and 
 ;^30,ooo^ or ;£'35,ooo of their money in other works 
 than the improvement of the land, they now have 
 such works, and they now are improving the land. 
 And if there are any of the elements of Socialism 
 dangerous to our high land-owners and our venerable 
 institutions, let them be defeated by stepping in front 
 of the Socialists with-the spade and the plough, giving 
 to each labourer an implement and his wages, show- 
 ing him what can be done without being a Socialist. 
 Though there may be fundamental errors in their 
 system, and though much has been said against them, 
 this community, holding one thousand acres of land, 
 giving employment and wages, and reaping profits 
 more liberally than other land-holders around, are not 
 to be despised. And, moreover, it is not to be over- 
 looked that, while they refrain from proselytising by 
 lecturing to the neighbourhood around, they are 
 spreading their influence by their industrial schools. 
 They offer to take, and to some extent have already 
 taken, pupils from all parts of the country to be 
 brought forward in every department of useful know- 
 ledge now taught in the best schools, which will be 
 combined with practical as well as theoretic instruc- 
 tion in the arts and sciences; besides an infant school, 
 presided over by a lady of great experience and 
 acknowledged talent in this department, whose atten- 
 tion will be mainly directed' to the development of 
 the physical powers of the children, the inculcation of 
 good habits, the manners and dispositions, and the 
 formation of correct moral feelings. As their educa- 
 
 ^ The amount spent was ;£30,ooo, only one half of which was 
 laid out in buildings. 
 
1 66 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 tional prospectus states, they have an elementary 
 school for children between seven and fourteen years, 
 and also a polytechnic school for the instruction of 
 youth from the age of fourteen years and upwards in 
 the theory and practice of agriculture and gardening, 
 and the arts connected therewith, and in various other 
 arts and trades carried on within the establishment. 
 'The farms,' he continues, 'are managed by a 
 bailiff and assistants of great practical experience, 
 and comprise many varieties of soil and surface. A 
 very extensive and well-arranged garden is being laid 
 out and cultivated, under the direction of an able 
 superintendent, and the other departments of art and 
 manufacture are under the management of persons of 
 acknowledged skill.' " ^ 
 
 Mr. Somerville adds : 
 
 " The people in the neighbourhood dreaded them 
 when they came at first, but now they respect them. 
 They are bringing from all parts of the kingdom the 
 best improved implements and methods of working ; 
 the scattered facts of well-authenticated experiments 
 they are collecting from all the improved agricultural 
 districts and introducing them to a part of the king- 
 dom eminently defective, and in those respects 
 neglected. Amid a poor population they are creat- 
 ing and enjoying wealth; amid an ignorant population 
 they are dispensing education ; amid an imperfectly 
 employed population they are spreading employment ; 
 amid a population not remarkable for correct moral 
 conduct they are showing themselves as an example 
 which compels the respect of all who know them, and 
 who at first distrusted them." 
 
 ^ Morning Chronicle, Dec. 23rd, 1842. 
 
Change of Policy. 167 
 
 The industries carried on were returning a profit, 
 and there was nothing to prevent the undertaking 
 being prosperously continued, had not the extent of 
 the operations to which they were committed, together 
 with the insufficient means at their disposal, hung 
 heavily on those concerned in it. 
 
 The aim was to set an example, in the following of 
 which the condition of the people might be improved, 
 by means of education, well-directed employment, 
 and equity in distribution. The task was difficult, 
 the sacrifice considerable, and it is hard to see why 
 those who undertook it should have been subjected 
 to misrepresentation and abuse. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 j£nt> of tbe diueenwoob Ejpertment. 
 /nbisrepresentations. 
 
 Matters went on after the change had taken place 
 much as they had done before the special Congress 
 was held, except that no new extension was made, 
 nor any new obligations incurred. The work already 
 entered on could not be abandoned, though the 
 strictest economy, wherever it could be usefully 
 applied, was enforced. Beyond this, existing obliga- 
 tions were successfully grappled with. Nothing that 
 could be done to overcome existing difficulties, and to 
 bring out a satisfactory result in the end, was left 
 untried. 
 
 In the April of the following year, Mr. Finch, whose 
 health was feeble, decided to resign the presidency of 
 the association, and the address in which he made his 
 intention known, published before the meeting of the 
 May Congress, explained the position of the society's 
 affairs at that time. 
 
 " The special Congress of our association, called by 
 the late Central Board, in July last, and held in John 
 Street Institution, London, having by unanimous vote 
 called upon me to take the office of president of the 
 association, and in conjunction with an excellent and 
 long-tried friend of the cause, the situation also of 
 
Misrepresentations. i6g 
 
 governor of Harmony, as the best means of 
 removing difficulties which had unexpectedly occurred: 
 animated with a love of our divine principles, a 
 determination to use our best endeavours to bring 
 them into practice, and fully relying on the integrity, 
 zeal, and persevering support of the members and 
 friends of the society, we cheerfully accepted the 
 invitation, went down to Harmony, and devoted 
 ourselves to the work assigned to us. I have now the 
 pleasure of stating to our friends, that though very 
 much still remains to be done before Harmony is 
 complete, the objects for which we were chosen have 
 been accomplished. All the most pressing engage- 
 ments of the society have been discharged in full, the 
 buildings are nearly finished, many improvements in 
 the farms and gardens have been made, the schools 
 have commenced, proper teachers have been engaged, 
 a considerable number of pupils and boarders have 
 arrived, more pupils are promised ; and from these a 
 large revenue is already realised, which, with the 
 surplus produce of the estate, there is every reason to 
 believe will make this interesting experiment self- 
 supporting before the end of the present year. In the 
 meanwhile public opinion has greatly changed in our 
 favour ; the calumnies and falsehoods circulated 
 respecting us have been exposed, the excellence of 
 our system is extremely appreciated, and the receipt 
 of nearly ;£'5,ooo since the Congress of July, is the 
 most convincing proof that confidence in the society 
 is undiminished." 
 
 The question as to whether the society could have 
 got over its difficulties, if it had pursued the policy 
 acted on by Mr. Finch, need not now be discussed. 
 
I7Q Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 When the Congress of May, 1843, met at Queenwood, 
 its first business was to elect a president, and Robert 
 Owen was unanimously chosen to act in that capacity 
 during its sittings. The recommendations of the 
 central board were sufficiently clear, but it will be 
 seen that the means of carrying them out were not 
 absolutely at the command of the society's officers. 
 The report says : — 
 
 " In proportion as funds are placed at their disposal, 
 after the completion of the works already commenced, 
 the board will recommend the occupation by the 
 society of the additional estates of Rosehill and Great 
 Bently, and that the cultivation of the whole be carried 
 tothe highest pitch that agricultural science willpermit. 
 They also recommend that the garden be proceeded 
 with as rapidly as possible, as it will be a great means 
 of support and occupation for the members and 
 pupils, and a source of attraction to all who visit the 
 establishment. They next advise that the schools be 
 placed in the best possible state of organisation, and 
 that the education be made practical, in accordance 
 with the principles of the system, to the greatest 
 possible extent. That a printing press be established 
 to print the general works and tracts of the society, 
 and, as early as possible, the New Moral World. 
 That the present trades carried on in the establish- 
 ment be extended, where desirable, and that additional 
 trades be introduced. That machinery be brought, 
 wherever practicable, to the aid of human labour, and 
 that profitable manufactures be introduced in the order 
 of their utility. The board is convinced that the great 
 means of procuring a profitable return will be derived 
 from the society possessing the most superior skill 
 
Misrepresentations. 171 
 
 and intelligence in performing all the operations they 
 undertake." 
 
 The advice given here, however good, does not 
 positively indicate a policy. It is to be followed if 
 funds are forthcoming, but nothing is said as to what 
 shall be done should the funds not be obtained. The 
 original intention having been to combine labour in 
 the workshop and on the land, and to unite with this 
 scholastic instruction, it could not be satisfactory to 
 those who had made this their ideal, and who had 
 subscribed for the purpose of realising it, to see 
 success aimed at by establishing boarding-houses. 
 This was possibly the best thing that could be done 
 in the circumstances, and it is not unlikely, that by 
 trusting to this under the pressure that had arisen, 
 success might have been in the end attained ; but to 
 patiently labour on in the expectation that such would 
 be the case required much self-denial, and much of 
 that deferred hope which maketh the heart sick. 
 There was, for a time, a mitigation of the money 
 pressure, activity in pushing forward improvements, 
 and apparent ground for a growing confidence ; but 
 the progress which was made was of a nature to 
 suggest, at every step, questions as to whether this 
 was the kind of success originally aimed at. There 
 were not wanting men throughout the society who 
 encouraged a feeling of dissatisfaction, and although 
 a determined struggle against this feeling took place, 
 it continued to spread, so that in a little time it 
 became clear it would produce most undesirable 
 results, and that the unity so much to be wished for 
 was in danger of being destroyed. A distinct party 
 grew into existence, and several persons, from the best 
 
1/2 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen, 
 
 motives, connected themselves with it as leaders and 
 supporters. Widely different views were taken, those 
 in power believing that the first thing to be aimed 
 at was success, if not by the most preferable means, 
 by those that lay nearest. The objectors, on the 
 other hand, believed that if the establishment were 
 managed in accordance with the original intention, 
 by increasing the number of residents and finding 
 work for them, and by limiting the labourers or 
 dispensing with them altogether, so as to provide 
 more accommodation for resident members, the 
 necessary funds would be found. 
 
 At the Congress of 1S44, such alterations were 
 made in the laws of the society and the selection of 
 its officers as were found necessary to ensure the 
 carrying out of the new policy. Mr. George Simpson 
 of Manchester became general secretary, and Mr. 
 John Buxton, of the same city, president. Mr. 
 Simpson was a man of very good ability as an 
 accountant, and of high character. Mr. Buxton was 
 a man of good intention, and beyond this little could be 
 said. 
 
 Had both, however, possessed the best possible 
 qualifications, they would have found the plans they 
 undertook to carry out utterly impracticable. In 
 such an experiment it is necessary not only that the 
 principle shiould be sound, but also that there should 
 be the utmost confidence placed in the man at the 
 head of it. Robert Owen and the friends who worked 
 with him, were known and respected all over the 
 country in connection with the Socialist movement, 
 while Mr. Simpson and Mr. Buxton, though of good 
 local repute, were not known throughout the society, 
 
Misrepresentations. 173 
 
 and, therefore, did not obtain so general a support 
 from the members. 
 
 Besides, it became very evident to those acquainted 
 with the actual condition of things, that any attempt 
 to increase the expenditure must soon bring the 
 whole thing to a standstill. Apprehensions were 
 aroused among the boarders and the parents of the 
 children, who were now a source of fair revenue to the 
 schools. The prospect which thus disclosed itself of 
 an increased expenditure and a decreased revenue be- 
 came alarming. Outside enthusiasm did not fulfil the 
 expectations of those who trusted in it, and ultimately 
 the experiment was brought to an end. The value of 
 the property as security for the liabilities began to 
 diminish. To stop this the trustees took action, and 
 such distribution of the assets was made as left all 
 connected with the proceedings without any kind of 
 imputation on their personal honour. There was 
 much difference of opinion, .some recriminatory 
 argument and opposition ; butduring the proceedings by 
 which the estate was wound up, no charge or scandal 
 ever came out of this in reference to any one con- 
 cerned. 
 
 I have endeavoured to explain what I take to be 
 the principal reasons why the experiment at Queen- 
 wood failed, though many minor defects of policy may 
 have contributed. Many people rejoiced at the defeat. 
 Mr. Booth, in his book " Robert Owen," seeks to 
 account for the ill-will manifested towards the society 
 and those belonging to it, by saying that, "The 
 Socialists certainly advanced their views in the most 
 offensive manner, and the leaders of the movement 
 courted controversy." This is the reverse of the truth. 
 
174 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 Everything possible was done to prevent the giving of 
 needless offence, and in proof of this as much might 
 be produced from the pages of the New Moral World 
 as would fill a volume. That harsh and offensive 
 expressions were sometimes used is certain, but it 
 should be remembered, in extenuation, that there 
 were many speakers and much provocation, and it is a 
 fact that offensive language was uniformly condemned. 
 The same writer says that " the ' Book of the New 
 Moral World,' in which Mr. Owen had fully explained 
 the new system, was adopted as a sacred writing, and 
 read in the services of the Church ; " the fact being 
 that a belief in Mr. Owen's writings was authoritatively 
 declared unnecessary, as will be seen from the 
 correspondence given in connection with the Edinburgh 
 charter. Mr. Booth, at page 194, also quotes a number 
 of exceedingly offensive expressions, as used by 
 Robert Owen and his followers in speaking of the 
 Christian religion ; and in a footnote refers his readers 
 to vol. 4, page 239, of the New Moral World. Having 
 referred to the volume and page given, I can say that 
 it contains not a single word to justify Mr. Booth's 
 charge. The page is occupied by a long letter ex- 
 tracted from the Coventry Standard, in which the 
 writer attempts to fasten the growth of unbelief on 
 the influence of mechanics' institutions. 
 
 It is a pity that a writer like Mr. Booth, who seems 
 to be a zealous professing Christian, should have 
 sought the promotion of any good object by circulating 
 groundless charges, conscious, as he must have been, 
 that such charges were personally injurious to those 
 against whom they were made. There cannot be any 
 doubt that much of the rejoicing over the Qucenw6od 
 
Misrepresentations. i "j 5 
 
 failure was the result of a false conception of Robert 
 Owen and his associates, as well as of the work in 
 which they had engaged ; and while on this subject, 
 it may not be inappropriate, before concluding the 
 present chapter, to refer to certain misguiding state- 
 ments which occur in the books of those who have 
 dealt with Owen and his proceedings. I do not pro- 
 pose to examine the many errors to be found in the 
 several works treating of the labours of Robert Owen; 
 but in some of the cases where these errors are unjust 
 to the character of Owen, or tend to lower the credit 
 of the movement he originated and led, a few words of 
 correction cannot be considered out of place. 
 
 The statements made by Mr. Booth nearly always 
 tend to degrade Owen both as a thinker and a man 
 of business, while his friends and followers are spoken 
 of as if they were in the constant habit of advocating 
 every kind of extreme thing in the most offensive 
 manner. Nothing can be more reprehensible than 
 this method of dealing with public men and public 
 movements, than to select odd passages from the 
 speeches of extreme or indiscreet men in proof of such 
 statements. Mr. Booth, however, goes beyond this, 
 in dealing with the things which he attributes to Owen 
 and his adherents. I have followed him in his refer- 
 ences to the documents from which he professes to 
 quote, and have so frequently found his assertions to 
 be without foundation, that 1 have come to the con- 
 clusion he made them in the belief that no one would 
 take the trouble to test his accuracy. Among other 
 things, he says of the Socialists that they " never lost 
 an opportunity of outraging the feelings of Christians." 
 Nothing can be further from the truth, as every reason- 
 
176 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Ozuen. 
 
 able affort was made to avoid giving offence to all men of 
 honest conviction. At page 199, Mr. Booth gives the 
 following extracts from a lecturedelivered against Owen 
 and his system by Mr. Giles, a Baptist minister at 
 Leeds ; observing that the reverend gentleman was 
 remarkable for much energy of thought and expres- 
 sion. " Socialism was a union of all sects but the 
 worshippers of God, and all practices but those of 
 charity and virtue." Of the Socialists' paper, the 
 same gentleman remarked that it " offered a way to 
 perfect happiness by blending the blasphemy of the 
 atheist with the sensuality of the brute." This lan- 
 guageis certainly asenergeticasitisuntrueandlibellous. 
 Yet this is a fair example of the accusations which 
 were brought against Owen. Because he denied that 
 punishment was an effectual method of dealing with 
 crime, where, through a want of education, there ex- 
 isted so much ignorance and brutality, it was said 
 that his design was to remove all obstacles to indi- 
 vidual vice and a general corruption of morals. The 
 wild absurdity of this did not carry it outside the 
 region of belief Reiteration amounted to proof, and 
 hence a man of unblemished character, seeking the 
 promotion of justice, had to bear through life the 
 heaviest weight that unscrupulousness of accusation 
 could lay on him. 
 
 His ideas on the marriage question were dealt with 
 in the same spirit, but Mr. Sargant puts this matter in 
 its true light when he tells us that Owen's object " was 
 not to abolish marriage, but to improve and render it 
 a more effective means of promoting happiness and 
 virtue," and it goes on to say that " he demanded less 
 than Milton and Luther would have granted him ; 
 
Misrepresentations: 177 
 
 that his aim was by no means to lessen conjugal 
 fidelity or the permanence of marriage, but to pi'omote 
 to the greatest possible extent true purity, delicacy, 
 virtue, and happiness." He desired to see marriage a 
 civil contract, accompanied by a law by which divorce, 
 under wise arrangements, and on principles of common 
 sense, might be obtained equally for the poor as well 
 as for the rich. 
 
 In justifying the Bishop of Exeter's attack on 
 Owen, Mr. Booth says ! — " It is not in the interest of 
 truth that each noisy prophet should strengthen the 
 number of his adherents from the ignorant who are 
 attracted by his violence. And the Bishop of Exeter, 
 and those who thought with him, had exceptional 
 cause for anxiety, A dangerous heresy was abroad 
 that might entail misfortune to which no limits could 
 be assigned ; and if, as they well knew, it is no longer 
 possible to maintain truth by law, they might at least 
 claim for the majority of the nation an exemption 
 from the outrageous blasphemy of reckless men ; 
 they might, with perfect justice, insist that the propa- 
 ganda should be carried on with a due regard to the 
 feelings of respect and awe with which those who are 
 most entitled to consideration are accustomed to 
 contemplate the solemn mystery that hangs around 
 the destiny of man." 
 
 I have already described the part played by Robert 
 Owen, and by those who acted with him, at the time 
 referred to; and I repeat that neither he nor they 
 ever addressed the people in language such as that 
 indicated by Mr. Booth ; that they never attracted or 
 sought to inflame the passions of the ignorant by 
 their violence ; but, on the contrary, did all in their 
 
 VOL. II. M 
 
178 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 power, during a period of dangerous popular excite- 
 ment, to prevent violence of whatever kind. It is not 
 very easy to exonerate Mr. Booth from intentional 
 misleading ; but whether he erred intentionally or 
 otherwise, the charges he makes are as unfounded as 
 they are calumnious. 
 
 Mr. Sargant, who has written his work, " Robert 
 Owen, and his Philosophy," in a fairer spirit, commits 
 serious mistakes in speaking of Owen's character. 
 He insists strongly on his " egotism," " vanity," 
 " conceit,"- or whatever else an offensive self-assertion 
 may be called ; "and this charge is supported by 
 reference to the undue importance he is said to have 
 attached to the work in which he was engaged. But 
 even if this implication be true, did that to which it 
 has reference really arise from any disposition on his 
 part to underrate other men, and the efforts with 
 which their lives were connected, as compared with 
 himself; or from the consequence he attached to the 
 work of human improvement which the condition of 
 the people rendered so necessary? His behaviour 
 and speech, in his intercourse with others, was con- 
 siderate almost to a fault. His deportment was as 
 unassuming as it was amiable. He seemed never to 
 consider anybody below him, so that his bearing had 
 in it neither the reserve nor the arrogance of patron- 
 age ; and very often those who were least in agree- 
 ment with him in opinion were attracted by the 
 kindliness of his manner. Mr. Sargant also speaks 
 of Owen's drawbacks as a self-instructed man, and 
 condemns the slight respect which, he tells us, Owen 
 had for the higher culture of educated men. This is 
 certainly a mistake Owen frequently censured what 
 
Misrepresentations. 179 
 
 he called "learned ignorance," and we have the 
 authority of Milton for saying that " though a linguist 
 should pride himself to have all the tongues that 
 Babel cleft the world into, yet if he have not studied 
 the solid things in them, as well as the words and 
 lexicons, he were nothing so much to be esteemed a 
 learned man, as any yeoman or tradesman com- 
 petently wise in his mother dialect only." No one 
 had a higher esteem than Owen for true culture, 
 which he regarded as embracing among other things, 
 the knowledge which enabled its possessor to be of 
 practical service to the living world round about him ; 
 and as allied to a wisdom that had nothing in 
 common with the mere vanity of scholarship. I 
 acknowledge very willingly the number of kind and 
 just things Mr. Sargant has said of Owen ; but the 
 charge of undervaluing the importance of education 
 can hardly, with any justice, be brought against the 
 man who considered the education of the whole 
 people the truest foundation for national morality, 
 and surest means to a safe and steady national pro- 
 gress. When, in addition, we are told that the 
 opposition with which Owen and his fellows met was 
 caused by their own offensiveness and by their habit 
 of giving insulting expression to outrageous opinions, 
 this statement may be met with an unhesitating con- 
 tradiction. The more correct explanation of the 
 opposition alluded to, lies in the fact that people, as 
 a rule, object to have their opinions, their prejudices, 
 or their interests interfered with, even in the most 
 gentle and considerate manner. Owen's movement 
 alarmed many persons of very honest and sincere 
 convictions ; also many with strong prejudices, and 
 
1 80 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 others whose fears sprang from what they believed to 
 be an attack on their interests. To admit this is 
 simply to recognise facts which have been developed 
 in every stage of the world's progress, and is therefore 
 no special reproach either to the men who opposed, 
 or the men who led the agitation. It is true that 
 zealots, in whatever cause, have usually found it 
 difficult to act temperately towards those who oppose 
 them, or to at all times pay the most scrupulous 
 respect to the opinions of others. This will, no 
 doubt, to some extent apply to those who took part in 
 Owen's agitation, as well as to those who were 
 antagonistic to it. To claim for the former an abso- 
 lute immunity in this regard, would be to claim for 
 them infallibility ; a freedom from human imperfec- 
 tion ; but this admission being made, it is only right 
 to couple with it the assertion that the movement 
 generally, and its leaders, never sanctioned, but, on 
 the contrary, invariably condemned anything that 
 could justify the charges to which I have referred as 
 having been brought against it. 
 
 In concluding these references to Mr. Sargant's 
 book, I may mention that he is in error when he states 
 that Owen entertained, as a pet fallacy, the '' vulgar " 
 belief that "machinery supersedes labour, and causes 
 distress.'' Mr. Sargant himself admits that it does so 
 in particular cases and for a time, and I think it has 
 been shown that Owen never insisted on more than 
 this, and never entertained the idea condemned by 
 Mr. Sargant. He had the highest appreciation of the 
 value of machinery, but maintained that increased 
 power of production should bring to all a com- 
 mensurate increase of comfort. The assurance is also 
 
Misrepresentations. 1 8 1 
 
 given that " Owen's grand error " was his entire 
 neglect of the population question. This is certainly 
 not the fact, as he expressed himself very strongly on 
 the subject. He regarded the ideas of Malthus as 
 mischievously untrue, and stated his reasons for so 
 doing. He may have been wrong in the position he 
 took up, but it cannot be said that he entirely 
 neglected the population question. He held, in fact, 
 very clear ideas on the subject, which were the result 
 of much study and deliberation. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Close of Xeabersblp. parentage of Store 
 jflBovement. 
 
 With the winding-up of the Queenwood experiment 
 Robert Owen's career as the leader of a public move- 
 ment may be said to have closed. His activity in 
 what he sincerely believed to be the cause of truth 
 only closed with his life ; his earnest desire for and 
 hope in the progress of the human race never deser- 
 ted him ; and what is perhaps more remarkable, he 
 never suffered himself to be cast down or dejected. 
 Most men who set their hearts upon the attainment 
 of some great end, have been troubled with painful 
 moments of despair, when they turn their faces to the 
 wall. He never despaired of the work to which he 
 from the first set his hand ; though over and over 
 again he was defeated and driven back. This indom- 
 itable courage and unwavering hopefulness was not in 
 him the result of perversity of spirit, of recklessness 
 as to consequences. He believed that when once a 
 true principle in relation to life was seen and accepted, 
 its triumph was but a question of time, and that 
 whether the time should be long or short depended 
 on the activity and wisdom of its advocates. He was 
 not indifferent to failure, but he believed that the work 
 in which he was engaged was good, and that it was 
 
Parentage of Store Movement. 183 
 
 his duty not to lose heart. When his last great de- 
 feat came at Queenwood he was seventy-five, but 
 though younger men were cast down he was as calm 
 and confident as ever. When things were at the 
 worst, and one of his friends expressed regret at cer- 
 tain occurrences which, as it was thought, were 
 mainly instrumental in causing the disaster, he re- 
 plied, " I am an old man, and I have watched narrowly 
 the events which have most influenced my life and 
 my fortunes, and have noted that things which when 
 they happened appeared to me most unfortunate, 
 when their consequences were developed proved 
 themselves to be most fortunate, while others which, 
 at the moment of their occurrence, brought me pleas- 
 ure and satisfaction, frequently turned out to be un- 
 fortunate and unsatisfactory. This being the case, I 
 wait until I can fairly estimate the consequences — if 
 good, I rejoice in them ; if otherwise, my disappoint- 
 ment arrives gradually, and is rendered less painful." 
 It has been alleged that there was a tendency to- 
 wards despotism in Owen, and that at Queenwood he 
 endeavoured to set up a kind of oligarchy with power 
 to compel obedience. This has been started by 
 several persons who knew little or nothing of Owen 
 personally. A better knowledge of his character and 
 motives would have prevented such a misconception. 
 Owen had a strong belief in settled pre-arranged plans 
 as an indispensable preliminary to successful action. 
 He also believed in one man governing with full power 
 to work out the plans agreed upon ; while he dis- 
 trusted the kind of management that was open to in- 
 terference and intermeddling on the part of others 
 when practical operations were going forward. On 
 
1 84 Life, Times, and Labours of Robett Otven. 
 
 the other hand he never advocated an authority which 
 should be above criticism and censure, or in conjunc- 
 tion with which there did not exist an opportunity 
 for the expression of discontent and disapprobation. 
 
 As already pointed out, however, the setting up of 
 the l<ind of authority that existed in the movement 
 at the head of which Owen stood, especially in con- 
 nection with the experiment at Queenwood, was a 
 mistake. It is necessary that every leader of the 
 people whose object is to obtain for them political 
 power, and who desires to see that power properly 
 used when it is obtained, should above all things seek 
 to train them to a wise use of whatever influence they 
 may possess during their preparatory struggles. When 
 they begin to distrust themselves up to the point of 
 self-exclusion from participation in public affairs, or 
 when they permit others to exclude them under any 
 plea whatever, especially the plea of incompetence, 
 from that moment are they apt to become the tools 
 and the victims of those who may desire to mislead 
 them. Since government was first instituted, as a 
 necessary part of the business of mankind, the in- 
 justice that has been suffered may be in the main 
 measured by the extent to which the people have been 
 excluded from power. This being recognised as a 
 fact in connection with the past history of the world, 
 the first thing to be aimed at is the admission of the 
 people to a share in the management of national 
 affairs. This is what the friends of the people should 
 assert, and what the people themselves should enforce. 
 That such a system might, like other systems, lead to 
 blunders of various kinds may be admitted, but when 
 we have given such an assertion all the force it is 
 
Parentage of Store Movement. 1S5' 
 
 entitled to, it is but an assumption that becomes less 
 and less in its probability as the people increase in 
 intelligence and in the habit of exercising constitu- 
 tional rights. On the other hand, the exclusion of 
 the people and the wrongs suffered by them in con- 
 sequence of the powerlessness such exclusion involves, 
 cover the pages of history in connection with every 
 country in the world in every age. 
 
 It is not to be maintained, either in regard to poli- 
 tics or religion, that whatever has, with slight varia- 
 tions of form, preserved its influence for centuries, can 
 be suddenly destroyed, and new dogmas, however 
 suitable to a newer era, be as suddenly set up. What 
 can be done, however, is to endeavour to instil into 
 minds of men an instinctive love of truth, justice, and 
 humanity, so as to qualify them to wisely mould and 
 modify dogma and usage in deference to the changes 
 demanded by an advancing civilization. 
 
 Robert Owen had a new doctrine to preach, and a 
 new practice to recommend ; but instead of giving 
 new and improved applications of old methods for 
 the purpose of introducing and establishing these, he 
 and his fellow-workers invented a new system which, 
 by its novelty, excited differences of opinion and 
 became a difficulty in their path, and was, so far as it 
 led to discussion and division, an impediment to 
 success. 
 
 It must be admitted that however good the object 
 aimed at, a failure, however honourable, places those 
 who have incurred it at the mercy of the unfriendly. 
 The failure of Owen's movement has been attributed 
 by many people to his ideas in regard to certain of 
 the beliefs and habits of the world : to his ideas on 
 
1 86 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 religion, marriage, education, and human character. 
 With the exception, however, of the doctrine of the 
 formation of character, and the idea of industrial 
 villages, Owen's followers were not pledged to his 
 special notions, and no more sought to carry them 
 out than did any other portion of the British 
 community. His ideas on- religion, whatever- they 
 were, were not accepted by those who engaged in the 
 Socialist movement, or those who sought to carry out 
 the Queenwood experiment. They were no doubt 
 occasionally discussed, but never with a view to their 
 general adoption, and when, after the collapse, the 
 inhabitants of Queenwood went back to their ordinary 
 occupations, each carried away his own special 
 convictions, just as he brought them. With regard to 
 Owen's views on marriage, he considered the marriage 
 laws of Great Britain unjust, and advocated a system of 
 divorce that should not need a previous criminality to 
 make it available. He went on this question beyond 
 the subsequent alteration in the marriage laws in 
 England, but not so far as the law goes in certain of 
 the States in America. He lectured on the subject, 
 and a brief report of what he said was published, 
 which, though perhaps correct so far as it went, lacked 
 the fulness necessary to prevent mistakes and mis- 
 interpretations. But whether the views expressed by 
 Owen on this subject were objectionable or not, they 
 were his own, and in no way mixed up with the 
 proceedings of his followers, who never professed to 
 go with him in all things. No marriage was disturbed 
 for any reason in connection with Owen's views on 
 this question. It is true that the Bishop of Exeter 
 and others made charges against the society on these 
 
Parentage of Store Movement. 187 
 
 grounds ; but they utterly misrepresented the views 
 of Owen, and in addition committed the error of 
 attributing them to a body of men who never accepted 
 them, and by whom they were more than once openly 
 repudiated. 
 
 Robert Owen's friends remained as numerous and 
 as constant as ever, but to whatever cause his failure 
 may be attributed, it was so generally referred to a 
 want of soundness in his principles, rather than to the 
 want of means to carry them out, that any attempt at 
 a renewed agitation would have been unsuccessful. 
 As a writer in the October number of the Westminster 
 Review for i860 says, the Rochdale experiment which 
 commenced in 1844 was on foot when Queenwood 
 failed, but it was not constructed on a similar basis. 
 The objects and the means by which they were to be 
 obtained were different, though they were as nearly 
 as possible identical with the original store movement. 
 If the first store movement and the second are 
 considered together, and if it be borne in mind that 
 the promoters of the first movement were those who 
 tried the Queenwood experiment, and that the 
 originators of the second store movement were many 
 of them the friends and followers of Robert Owen, the 
 inspiration and origin of the vast work now on foot 
 will be understood. When it is added to this, that, 
 when they were about to commence their new venture, 
 the founders of the Rochdale Store sent a deputation 
 to Queenwood for advice and instruction, the parentage 
 of the present movement will be apparent. This is 
 stated here not for the purpose of transferring the credit 
 of having originated the present store movement from 
 any one set of men to any other, but to show that the 
 
1 88 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 great idea which has proved itself so successful, and 
 which is now taking such rapid possession of the public 
 mind, is the result of many years' agitation, of much 
 local and varied experiment ; that in its failures and 
 in its triumph it furnishes a proof of what unwearied 
 and peaceable endeavour may do in promoting the 
 welfare of the working people, and the success by 
 which such efforts may be ultimately crowned, when 
 pursued with an honest determination to overcome 
 the obstacles which at first impede them. The first 
 men who entered on the work took their discomfitures 
 and losses cheerfully, without losing heart or hope. 
 They were succeeded by others, who, though varying 
 their experiments, were still defeated ; but there were 
 again others who, with altered plans, tried once more, 
 andwho,conqueringthe great initial difficultyof poverty, 
 have become possessors of capital sufficient to com- 
 mence and carry on any enterprise in connection with 
 production or distribution. The present men in the 
 co-operative movement owe much to those who 
 preceded them, but at the same time it has been left 
 for them to prove that the highest purposes may be 
 attained through the humblest agencies, and that 
 progress may be secured without violence or wrong, 
 when the people seek the improvement of their 
 condition by intelligent and peaceable means. 
 
 Robert Owen had at all times, and under all circum- 
 stances, a horror of violence. He knew enough to 
 understand that though statesmen are at all times 
 ready to make professions of peace, they are just as 
 ready, when they dream that some advantage is to be 
 gained, to make encroachments that lead to war ; 
 and perhaps of all possible wars that he most dreaded was 
 
Parentage of Store Movement. 189 
 
 one between Great Britain and the United States. 
 At about the time when the affairs of Queenwood 
 were brought to a close, something approaching to a 
 serious misunderstanding had arisen in regard to the 
 North-West Boundary Question in America. His 
 eldest son, Robert Dale Owen, was at that time an 
 active member of Congress, and he at once took it 
 upon himself to visit America, and to see what with 
 the aid of his son could be done to settle the matter 
 in an amicable spirit. The newspapers, as is their 
 wont, had begun to put exasperating one-sided views 
 before their readers, and the ordinary fermentation of 
 accusation and anger was actively proceeding. 
 Robert Owen at this time was in his seventy-fourth 
 year, but he nevertheless determined to do all in his 
 power to get at the merits of the case, in order that 
 he might assist in creating in both countries a 
 disposition for peaceable settlement. On this errand 
 he crossed the Atlantic four times, and as he always 
 had access to the chief men among our British states- 
 men, and everybody who knew him believed him to 
 be a man of strictly honest purpose, he was listened 
 to with respect, and with as much confidence as 
 politicians and statesmen could be expected to give 
 to anyone outside their own craft. On his return 
 from his second trip, he called upon me on a summer 
 morning before five o'clock, and remained for several 
 hours, during which he related, in a most animated 
 strain, what he had done, and what his anticipations 
 were. He walked about the room briskly while he 
 ran on with his narrative, and seemed hopeful that 
 his efforts might not be entirely without effect in 
 helping to preserve peace between the two nations. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 termination of Career. 
 
 After this there is but Httle to record in connection 
 with Owen's personal activity as a philanthropist and 
 reformer, though he would often call his friends to- 
 gether to speak with them of what might be done in 
 furthering the objects to attain which he had striven so 
 long and so faithfully. He apparently gave up all 
 thought of any new experiment, but he never failed to 
 point out the grounds on which rested his hope that 
 fresh activities would carry the work forward ; that 
 new plans and efforts would ultimately lead to a 
 permanent improvement in the condition of the people ; 
 by which, as was at all times obvious, he did not 
 simply mean that the poor should have a more equit- 
 able share in the national wealth, in order that they 
 might, after their own fashion, imitate the luxurious- 
 ness which was corrupting the rich. His own life, 
 from its commencement to its close, was simple, 
 unostentatious, and temperate. Nothing shocked him 
 more than the arrogant displays and half-brutal 
 assumptions of wealth, becoming every day more 
 intensified through the rapid accumulation of money 
 in the hands of men who, blinded by a sense of their 
 self-importance and power, took no pains to either 
 hide or repair defects which rendered their sudden 
 
Termination of Career. loi 
 
 prosperity incongruous and offensive. But he felt 
 that until the masses of the people had been raised 
 above the contaminations of squalor, ignorance and 
 want, no struggle to secure to them the higher con- 
 ditions of life that belong to decency and independence 
 could be very effective ; and during the years that 
 followed the failure at Queenvvood, he never lost- an 
 opportunity of helping forward whatever aimed at 
 the social elevation of the people. His belief in 
 spiritualism, of which I shall here say a few words, 
 was chiefly influenced by his sympathy with the 
 struggles and sufferings of his fellow-creatures, which 
 never ceased to disquiet and perplex him. His imag- 
 inary revelations from the spirit world referred to this 
 almost exclusively. To the last his entire thought 
 was to enforce the great truth that the creating power 
 of the universe had furnished men with abundance for 
 the satisfaction of their legitimate wants, with the 
 means of developing their highest intellectual faculties 
 and moral susceptibilities, and that it was their duty 
 to take counsel together and heartily co-operate for 
 the attainment of all that was implied in an acknow- 
 ledgment of this truth. 
 
 Much has been said and written in ridicule of 
 Robert Owen's belief in spiritualism during the last 
 few years of his life. He had, during his long public 
 career, so much to say as to the necessity of being 
 guided by the proved facts of life, that it was a triumph 
 to those who had opposed him and a disappointment 
 to a large majority of his friends, when he made 
 known his first communications with the spirits, and 
 did so by adopting the methods and the language of 
 the ordinary believers in spiritualism. It is not sur- 
 
192 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 prising that many people made themselves merry at 
 his expense, for having allowed himself to be drawn 
 into what is still considered one of the most absurd 
 and least defensible superstitions of the modern world. 
 
 It is not necessary to discuss the truth or falsehood 
 of spirit revelations generally. From the time of the 
 oracles of old to the spirit rappers of to-day, there 
 has always existed in the human mind a disposition 
 to pry into the secrets of the other world. The 
 methods devised have, as a rule, not been very suc- 
 cessful ; but, however much they may have failed, or 
 however ludicrously they may have blundered into 
 discredit, there have always been new plans ; new 
 experts have come to the front, and new revelations 
 been made known which never failed to find new 
 believers. To say nothing of the multitudes of ordin- 
 ary mortals who have fallen into such spiritual snares, 
 many men of the highest and brightest intellect 
 have accepted as true absurdities of the wildest 
 kind. 
 
 In speaking of Robert Owen and his belief in 
 spirit-rapping, one or two circumstances should be 
 borne in mind. He had turned his eightieth year — 
 his sense of hearing had become so much dulled that 
 he had to depend a good deal on others for explana- 
 tions of what he but imperfectly heard, and as the 
 simplicity and truthfulness of his mind were well 
 known, it is easy to understand with what ease he 
 might be imposed on by any person who from what- 
 ever motive might desire to deceive him. He never 
 suspected in anybody a disposition to impose on him, 
 and this confidence on his part, as is the case with 
 many men, was increased, if those who desired to take 
 
Termination of Career. 193 
 
 advantage of him expressed a perfect agreement with 
 his opinions and principles. He had been before the 
 world for fully half a century. He had laboriously, 
 and, wherever possible, by practical experiment, sought 
 to convince men of the truth of his views, and in this 
 life-long labour he had borne many a reverse, and 
 suffered many a disappointment. We must not, then, 
 be too severe in our criticism, if at an advanced age, 
 towards the close of such a life, he was induced to 
 listen to what were declared to be messages from 
 friends in whom he trusted and who had passed away ; 
 especially when they comforted him with promises 
 that at no distant time his hopes would be fulfilled. 
 In his ordinary conversation he was a man of remark- 
 able frankness, and as his memory was good, he would 
 often refer to old times and relate anecdotes of many 
 ■ of the people with whom he had had intercourse. In 
 this way any person in frequent communication with 
 him, might easily acquire a knowledge of many cir- 
 cumstances connected with his past life, as well as of 
 the characters and dispositions of those with whom he 
 had associated; In addition to this, he possessed 
 strong family affections, and when persuaded that it 
 was possible to hold communication with old friends, 
 and with those who had been still dearer to him, it is 
 not hard to believe that the yearnings of his heart 
 might overcome the doubts suggested by his under- 
 standing. The voices of the living had ceased to 
 speak of hope in connection with his schemes for the 
 regeneration of mankind, and he therefore turned to 
 the voices of the dead, and kept his hope alive and 
 his heart light by the promises he received. An 
 American woman named Hayden, in conjunction, 
 
 VOL. II. ^ 
 
194 J^if^, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 probably, with some of his friends who were already 
 believers in spiritualism, assisted in leading him to this 
 new faith. It is likely, also, that his eldest son, Robert 
 Dale Owen, being a strong believer, had something to 
 do with the inclining of his mind in this direction. 
 The departed with whom he held council, and whom, 
 it must be confessed, he frequently consulted on 
 trivial matters, were, when in the flesh, sensible and 
 able people, and the advice they gave him generally 
 sounded very much like what might be reasonably 
 uttered by any intelligent person. He remarked how 
 uniformly they discountenanced all divisions of class, 
 country, and colour. The object of the spirits he de- 
 clared, " was to permanently benefit all human kind 
 equally, without reference to divisions of any kind." 
 They said, " do not dispute with those who do not . 
 and cannot yet believe in these (to them) new and 
 strange manifestations, for we adopt means to con- 
 vince all, without your doing more than stating the 
 facts within your own knowledge and experience." 
 
 In one of his publications, the " Future of the 
 Human Race," he gives an account of his conversations 
 with the Duke of Kent, which, had they taken place be- 
 tween two ordinary individuals, would not be worth 
 the least attention. Some of them are very trivial, 
 but as spiritual siances seldom went beyond useless 
 communications, the only apparent reason for their re- 
 petition is that importance was attached to them as relat- 
 ing to the public affairs with which Owenwasatthattime 
 engaged. That Owen was a very sincere and honest 
 believer in spiritualism, during a few of the latter 
 years of his life, there can be no doubt. He carried 
 with him to the spirits, a heart overladen with sorrow 
 
Termination of Career. 195 
 
 for human suffering, and a painful anxiety as to how 
 it might be mitigated ; and of one thing we may be 
 certain, that whatever the ground of his belief, the 
 great sustaining hope of his new faith was that the 
 impenetrable veil might be lifted, and that he might 
 see in near prospect a world made happier by a wiser 
 use of the blessings bestowed by God. 
 
 Any argument on the truth or falsehood of spirit- 
 ualism would here be out of place. It is doubtful 
 whether such a question ever was or will be much 
 influenced by argument. Yet it is, I think, impossible 
 for those who knew Robert Owen, who were ac- 
 quainted with the character of his mind, not to con- 
 jecture that he was imposed upon : that questions 
 were suggested and answers made up in order to serve 
 the purpose of those who were practising on the 
 credulity of the public. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Concluston. 
 
 For the last ten or twelve years of his life, the pro- 
 ceedings of Robert Owen had ceased to be discussed 
 in the newspapers and on platforms. It need not, 
 however, be concluded from this that he was alto- 
 gether inactive. He republished a- considerable 
 portion of his earlier writings, among other things his 
 plans for dealing with the wretched condition of 
 Ireland. He restated his views on national education, 
 maintaining that, " the great want of the world was a 
 good training from birth, and a sound practical educa- 
 tion for all, based on true principles." He drew up 
 proposals for a treaty of federation between Great 
 Britain and the United States of North America, the 
 gist of which was that Great Britain and America 
 should declare their interests to be the same ; should 
 agree to a federative union which to all other countries 
 should be admitted, and recognise it as a duty to ter- 
 minate war and live in the abundance of peaceful 
 industry and friendly exchange. Though this cannot 
 be regarded otherwise than as a dream, it might not 
 be amiss if the statesman of the world could have 
 visions somewhat similar. 
 
 The French Revolution of 1848, and the disturb- 
 ances that followed on the Continent led to much 
 
Conclusion. 157 
 
 discussion as well as to some very important public 
 action in England. Christian Socialism, with the 
 Rev. F. D. Maurice at its head, was a far more im- 
 portant movement than it at first appeared to be. The 
 foremost actors, being for the most part men of ex- 
 ceptional ability, soon came to exercise a strong 
 influence on public opinion, and though the old 
 Socialists did not rally to them as a body, very large 
 numbers individually sought to forward their objects. 
 These were yearsofbreakingup,ratherthan of formation 
 and advance ; but for what they contained of practical 
 work in the direction of progress, the country is largely 
 indebted to Mr. Maurice and his friends. What they 
 had to say reached the ears of the most intelligent 
 and thoughtful of the old Socialists and Chartists, and 
 as their appeals were made on the ground of a lofty 
 and liberal Christian unity, and in a profound convic- 
 tion of the necessity of peaceful effort, there can be 
 no question that their influence was not only well- 
 timed, but most wholesome and valuable in its results. 
 Robert Owen was too old and too much occupied 
 with his own plans to take any active part with Mr. 
 Maurice and his followers, even had it been desirable 
 that he should have done so ; but they had always 
 his good wishes, and, whenever an opportunity offered, 
 his good word. 
 
 The formation of the Social Science Association was 
 also hailed by Owen with enthusiasm, as he believed 
 that it would in time produce excellent results ; and 
 though its labours have been represented as not at all 
 commensurate with its pretensions, there can be little 
 doubt that its discussions and publications have had a 
 most beneficial effect in helping the various reforms 
 
1 98 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert OiveH. 
 
 since entered on. The first meeting of the Social 
 Science Association was held at Birmingham, in 1857. 
 Robert Owen attended, and read a paper entitled 
 " The Human Race Governed without Punishment." 
 At this time he was in his eighty-sixth year. In 
 the following year it met at Liverpool, and though he 
 had during the interval been losing strength, he never- 
 theless determined to be present. On this journey 
 Mr. James Rigby accompanied him, for, though he 
 was cheerful and courageous, it was evident that the 
 end was approaching. It has been said that his deter- 
 mination to be present at this Congress was the result 
 of mere restlessness, or it might be vanity. Those who 
 knew him best believed him to be influenced by a 
 different motive. It has also been asserted that what 
 he had to say had become tiresome by repetition. So 
 is it told of Saint John that his constant cry was 
 " Little children, love one another," and that when 
 asked why he repeated this so frequently, he answered 
 that it included everything. For fifty years Owen's 
 mind dwelt constantly on the importance of a sound 
 moral and intellectual training for the young, as the 
 most effectual means by which to secure the exercise 
 of justice, humanity and mutual consideration among 
 men ; as the only safe foundation for national prosper- 
 ity. It is perhaps natural, therefore, that his persis- 
 tence in urging this view upon the attention of others, 
 should be irksome to those who differed from him, 
 or who did not care to be repeatedly confronted with 
 all that bore evidence to a neglect of duty. 
 
 Upon arriving in Liverpool, Owen had to take to 
 his bed ; but was carried from there in a sedan chair 
 to the platform of the Congress, so that he might in 
 
Conclusion, igg 
 
 person deliver his last message. Lord Brougham led 
 him to the front, and supported him when he com- 
 menced to read his paper. In a moment or so he 
 broke down. His friends gathered about him, again 
 placed him in the sedan chair, and sorrowfully 
 carried him back to the bed from which he had just 
 before been taken, and where he lay for an hour or 
 more quite unconscious. 
 
 Having rallied somewhat after a fortnight's rest, he 
 decided to travel to his native town and to die there. 
 When he arrived at Newtown, he and Mr. Rigby 
 sought for accommodation in the house in which he 
 had been born. This not being obtainable, he 
 took up his quarters next door, or next door but one ; 
 and after a while felt, as he thought, so much im- 
 proved by his native air, that he returned to Liver- 
 pool. Upon reaching there, however, he felt con- 
 vinced that his earthly labours were over, and set out 
 once more for Newtown, that his life might end 
 where it had begun. His eldest son, Robert Dale 
 Owen, who was at that time charge d'affaires at 
 Naples, in the presidency of Franklin Pierce, hurried 
 over to England ; arriving in time to be present at his 
 father's death. The following is the letter in which 
 he announced the event. 
 
 " November 17th, 1858. 
 
 " It is all over. My dear father passed away this 
 morning, at a quarter before seven, as quietly and 
 gently as if he had been falling asleep. There was 
 not the least struggle, not the contraction of a limb or 
 a muscle, not an expression of pain on his face- His 
 breathing gradually became slower and slower, until 
 at last it ceased so imperceptibly, that even as I held 
 
2CX) Life, Times, and^ Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 his hand I could scarcely tell the moment when he 
 no longer breathed. His last words, distinctly pro- 
 nounced about twenty minutes before his death, were, 
 ' Relief has come' About half-an-hour before he 
 said, ' Very easy and comfortable' " 
 
 He lies in the old Churchyard at Newtown, by a 
 picturesque bend of the Severn, in the grave in which 
 his parents are buried. 
 
 In tracing the main incidents of Robert Owen's 
 life, I have omitted many things such as belong to 
 the work of the ordinary biographer. My reasons 
 for doing this were referred to in the opening chapter, 
 where I spoke of that which gave to such a career 
 its chief interest. I may also, at times, have ap- 
 peared to assume the tone of the advocate, rather 
 than that of a simple narrator. This I venture to 
 think excusable. His principles were novel in the 
 method in which they were advanced, and in the 
 application he sought to give them. Almost neces- 
 sarily, as I have already said, he offended prejudices, 
 and disturbed personal and class interests, and those 
 who, from whatever cause, disapproved of his prin- 
 ciples or failed to understand his motives, made him 
 the object of an attack in connection with which they 
 misrepresented his views and discredited his efforts, 
 i, in consequence, have felt it encumbent on me to 
 enter upon fuller details than I otherwise might have 
 considered necessary, in vindication of his ideas and 
 policy. 
 
 It frequently happens that though a man sees 
 clearly what he means, and understands distinctly 
 what he intends to do, he may express himself so as 
 to be misunderstood by those who listen to him when 
 
Conclusion. 201 
 
 he speaks, and who read what he writes. I do not 
 insist that Robert Owen always explained himself in 
 the clearest possible manner, though I am satisfied 
 he took much trouble to do so. However this may- 
 be, his views as he explained them, and as his op- 
 ponents interpreted them, were not in agreement. 
 As I have stated, much that he had to say was 
 opposed to prejudices which existed in the public 
 mind, and many of his proposals alarmed men who 
 thought their interests endangered. He therefore 
 incurred strong opposition, and much misconception 
 and misrepresentation. It was not a habit with him 
 to indulge in controversies of denial, contradiction, 
 retort, or counter accusation. His almost invariable 
 practice was to state and restate his propositions, and 
 leave the result to time ; but though this might have 
 been sufficient, had the channels of communication 
 with the public been equally open to both sides, and 
 the disposition to fairly investigate the questions in 
 dispute been all that it should have been, as matters 
 stood, only the adverse side received attention from 
 the general public ; not only because the press shut 
 out what Owen had to say in his own behalf, but 
 because trouble is seldom taken to hunt after re- 
 butting evidence where a desire to believe the charges 
 made predominates. 
 
 Owen's personal friends had ample opportunity of 
 understanding his ideas correctly, and as I had to 
 discuss in public with those who were most violently 
 opposed to him, I often sought him for the purpose 
 of obtaining such explanation as might assist me in 
 the work I was called upon to perform. I think I 
 may say that from conversations occurring frequently 
 
202 Life, Times, and Labours of Robert Owen. 
 
 and extending over a period of ten years, I came 
 to accurately comprehend his ideas. The peculiar- 
 ities of thought attributed to him were not his, 
 but were, as a rule, invented for him. His views 
 were not eccentric, but they were new and very 
 strange ; and his failures, where he failed, were 
 the result of insufficient means, rather than of defective 
 plans. 
 
 The agitation of Owen was unsuccessful in its 
 immediate results ; but though the immediate con- 
 summation of our hopes be denied, it is for us to work 
 on as wisely and faithfully as we can, trusting the 
 fulfilment will come, perhaps in a better way and at 
 a time more suitable than any we could appoint. For 
 everything done by Robert Ow^ii-and_hia_jjriendsjn 
 founding co-operative villages and workshops, there is 
 ample recompense in the present success of the 
 co-operative idea. I think it constitutes a special 
 claim on our gratitude that Owen brought into 
 practical activity for the public good, the energies of 
 the humblest and the poorest, to augment the vast 
 popular power by which the present co-operative 
 movement is sustained. It is only since Owen's 
 influence has been felt .that it can -be. trulx said the 
 masses of the people have been brought collectivdy 
 into action for the promotion of objects^_which have 
 been attended by results that are, likeJy~~to~Fe 
 permanent, because, while they secure general 
 advantages, they confer general discipline and 
 -sixfingth,^ The co-operative movement is rapidly 
 becoming a national movement, and a national move- 
 ment, sustained by the development and activity of 
 an increasing popular knowledge, can never attaifT the 
 
Conclusion. 203 
 
 limit of its usefulness so long as any good work 
 remains to be done. 
 
 No man's labour for good is in vain, 
 
 Tho' he win not the crown but the cross ; 
 Every wish for man's good is a gain, 
 
 Every doubt of man's gain is a loss. 
 Not the price that we bargain to pay. 
 
 But the price that she sets on herself, 
 Is the value of tmth. Who can weigh 
 
 What the weight of her worth is in pelf ? 
 To the soul, by whose life-long endeavour, 
 
 Age hath won from the losses of youth, 
 The mere loss of an untruth is ever 
 
 Good as great as the gain of a truth. 
 
 In this faith Owen worked without intermission : 
 it is one of the great lessons such a life as his affords, 
 and it is to be hoped that those who follow in his 
 steps as practical workers will also profit by the 
 example he set in the spirit of his teaching. 
 
 In every effort he made for the benefit of society- 
 his aims were honest ; his patriotism unimpeachable ; 
 his generosity unbounded ; his sacrifices great and ; 
 unhesitatingly incurred. He laboured for the people ; 
 he died working for them ; and his last thought was 
 for their welfare. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 . Cowan if Co., Printers, Perth. 
 
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