THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

 (From the Examiner.)

SOUNDS come to us from abroad, and echoes to them are not wanting even in the House of Commons, of a proclamation of war by the friends of "order" against the International Working Men's Association. In a very grandiloquent circular note of tho Spanish Minister of State to tho representatives of Spain in foreign countries, the late debate in the Cortes on the Internationale is described as " one of the most important ever sustained in any Legislative Assembly," and the association which has the honour of eliciting this " grave debate" as one whose "powerful and formidable organization " and rapid development within a few years " invite the serious attention of all who are interested in tho preservation of social order." The very foundations of the existing social system—which, of course, is the very best conceivable—are threatened by this hateful society ; and the means by which they are going to upset everything and make everybody uncomfortable are (if we may take the word of the Spanish Minister) truly terrible. This cosmopolitan association for turning everything upside down will commence, according to Senor De Blas, by breaking up " all the traditions of humanity,"—a calamity to which we feel half-resigned, on condition that the destructives save the pieces as historical relics. Their next exploit is to be the erasure "from thought of the very name of God." This is curious. The name of God, it seems, is so lightly inscribed on the mind of man that it is in danger of being wiped out by this wicked society, unless, indeed, tho Spanish Government comes to the rescue of the Almighty. Some people may think that the implication that the Omnipotent himself is no match for the International partakes slightly both of exaggeration and of blasphemy ; but such persons cannot be aware that his Holiness Pope Pius has lately extended his patronage, in an indirect way, to the Government of King Amadeo, and that, therefore, the "faith and morals" of his Majesty of Spain and his Ministers and advisers are under infallible protection and guidance. After this remarkable performance, the rest of the doings of the Working Men's Association, as sketched by the Iberian prophet, are comparatively tame. The overturning of "the life of the family and of inheritance," may be a very terrible consummation; but, as it may possibly mean nothing more than the substitution of a democratic ideal in family life for the present paternal autocracy, we acknowledge to not feeling very much alarmed. So, too, with regard to the erasure of the name of nations from the civilised world,this may mean much or little, good or bad; but if, is we suspect, it must be understood as the substitution of a love of humanity for a narrow and selfish love of one's own country, it appears to us less a subject of fear than of hope. The last count in the Spanish Government's indictment is that tho object of their denunciation "aspires only to increase the prosperity of the working classes on the basis of universal equality." The not very surprising end of this long string of accusations is that "even under the most liberal of political institutions"—which of course are those of Spain at the present time—the International Working Men's Association is declared outside tho bounds of toleration. To defend liberty, "properly understood," Senor De Blas finds it necessary, like the hero of Cervantes, to "sally to the encounter" and he invites every state to "benevolently and sympathetically " join the new crusade against an organisation which is pledged to "overturn everything existing."

This society with so extensive a programme—the overthrow of all existing things—has accordingly been outlawed by the Government of Spain. France seems rapidly following in the wake of her southern neighbour. The first clause of a bill prohibiting any international association of workmen for the purpose of organising strikes, "or the abolition of the rights of property, family, country, or creeds recognised by the State," was passed by the French Assembly on Wednesday by a large majority. In vain did M. Jules Favre point out the injustice and dangerous character of such legislation—in vain did M. Louis Blanc protest that the doctrine of tho "fatality of misery" which was laid down by the committee would strengthen socialism. The majority of the Assembly was bent on avenging itself on the Internationale, and thus committed the stupid blunder of making that association the representative of the right of labourers to combine for the purpose of raising their wages. The feeling of distrust and enmity already existing between tho capitalist and the artisan classes in France will certainly be intensified by this measure; while workmen who have hitherto held aloof from the Internationale will be driven into sympathy with an association which is persecuted in their name.

We cannot but look upon these repressive measures as very dangerous and very unjust. If liberty has any meaning at all, it is violated by the denial of the right of combination for any purpose whatever, consistent with the equal liberty of others. If the Internationale has proclaimed war on the rights of property as at present established, so long as that war is carried on by an endeavour to convert others to its views, it is tyrannical to interfere with it. We are far from being enamoured of the economical views of Dr Marx. " The expropriation of the expropriators" has no charms for us ; and, if attempted by violence, should be resisted by the whole power of the State. Our economical ideal is to be found in a very different direction to that which is indicated by the manifestoes of the Internationale. Our hope is in the growth of prudential checks to population, and the acquisition by the labouring classes of capital of their own. In this way the existence of capitalists, as a separate class, would gradually pass away, and the organisation of industry would pass into the hands of the workers. With these changes, and such a solution of the land question as we have repeatedly advocated, and which, we believe, is sooner or later inevitable, the whole face of tho industrial world would be transfigured, and poverty, instead of being the normal condition of a large section of the people, would be an altogether exceptional thing, the result of individual misfortune or misconduct. We believe this easily attainable without any violent measures, and are not disposed to look upon any programme in which "expropriation" has a place with favour. But for the very reason that we think the political economy of the Internationale unsound and mischievous we most strongly condemn any intervention of the State in order to stifle its discussion or prevent association of its adherents. The cause which has truth and justice on its side needs no State patronage. The economic fallacies of the Internationale will be rather strengthened than weakened by the attempt at Governments to prevent their being openly debated; while, if they were allowed fair play, they would be slain by argument—the only way in which they can be slain so that they have no resurrection.

The other provisions of the bill which the French Assembly seems determined to make law are, if anything, still less justifiable. Nothing that Governments can do will stave off discussion of the moral effects of family life as at present organised, of creeds recognized or unrecognized by the State, and of the separation of humanity into a variety of hostile sections. Governments may do much to make the discussion of these subjects unhealthy by making it illicit. Prevent it they cannot. All that is good in family life would shine out more clearly and more resplendently the more it was burnished by the friction of argument. All that is true in the current creeds would have nothing to fear from investigation, and much to gain from it. All that is wise and useful in the principal of nationality is invincible from the attacks of its adversaries, but not from the discredit brought on it by its champions. If orthodoxy, political, social, and theological, has truth on its side, it needs not the poisoned weapons of Senor De Blas and M. Thiers. The only way in which the ideas that the French rurals hate can be legitimately combatted from the orthodox point of view is that lately pointed out by the Comte De Mun, who has put himself at the head of the committee of the Cerces Catholiques d'ouvriers. "To subversive doctrines," said the Count, "we must oppose the Gospel; to materialism, the notion of sacrifice; to the cosmopolitan spirit, the patriotic idea; to the atheistical negation, the Catholic assertion." It will no longer do, as he acknowledged, to throw an anathema at the heads of the opponents of currently received doctrines. Those doctrines must be contrasted on their merits with those which are opposed to them; and by the result of that comparison, let Governments do what they will, they must stand or fall.

Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Monday 27 May 1872, page 3