32 HISTORICAL 



writers wished to see adopted by the working classes ; an anony- 

 mous letter accompanied them asking her to help in distributing 

 them. Mrs. Fildes was very indignant, and the whole story was 

 published in the journal called the Black Dwarf. The bills attained 

 a great notoriety and became known as the ' diabohcal handbills '. 

 Suspicion seems to have rested upon Robert T)wen ; it was stated 

 in the Black Dwarf, and has often been repeated since, that 

 Neomalthusian methods were in use at New Lanark. It is far 

 more probable that Francis Place was the author both of the 

 handbill and of the letter. Whether this is so or not, Place was 

 occupied for the next few years in doing all he could to spread the 

 new opinions, for the sake of which he was prepared to sacrifice 

 much popularity.^ In 1834 the Society for Promoting Useful 

 Knowledge refused his help because of his opinions on the subject. 

 He was" violently attacked by Cobbett and Richard Carlile ; the 

 latter was afterwards converted and published in 1825 articles 

 advocating these practices. The articles were reprinted in 1826 

 as Every Woman s Book, which went through several editions. At 

 this early date it is clear that on the one hand these books and 

 pamphlets were widely read among the working classes ; Carlile 

 in the Bepuhlican, for instance, asserted that they were ' circu- 

 lating by thousands in the populous districts of the north '. On 

 the other hand Neomalthusian ideas were held by many eminent 

 men of the day. The Utilitarian leaders, if not actually concerned 

 in the propagation of these views, made their approval known. 

 J. S. Mill in his youthful days got into trouble with the police 

 through distributmg some of these pamphlets. Grote somew^hat 

 later presented to London University a copy of the famous Fruits 

 of PJiilosopliy, of which there will be more to be said below. 



After a while the propaganda died down, and for some fifty years 

 there was little heard of it.^ Some books were, however, published 

 intheinterval which subsequent events madefamous. R. D. Owen's 

 Moral Physiology appeared in 1830. Knowlton's Fruits of Philo- 

 sophy and Drysdale's Elements of Social Science appeared in 1833 

 and in 1854 respectively. It was many years, however, before 

 they became well known. For many years no objection was taken 

 to the Fruits of Philosophy, or any similar w^ork ; such books were 



1 Graham Wallas, Life of Francis Place, p. 169. '^ For the later history of 



this movement see Hans Ferdy, loo. cit. ; Gamier, Du Principe de la Popvlation ; 

 and Leroy-Beaulieu, loo. cit. 



