TO THE POOE. 287 



Mazzini, Victor Hugo, Louis Blanc, and Mill have all 

 pleaded powerfully in their behalf; and though contem- 

 porary intellect is on the whole not unfriendly to any 

 projected form of socialism which, like co-operative 

 labour, promises anything good and practicable, there 

 has not yet appeared, nor does it seem likely that there 

 will shortly appear, the Luther of the new social refor- 

 mation, the St. Bernard of the new holy war in behalf 

 of the workmen. Still, the appearance of such a spirit 

 or of more than one, is within the range of possibility 

 a hope which the poorer classes may indulge in, and a 

 possibility which the rich and ruling classes might 

 profitably reflect on; the continuance of the need of 

 such reforming spirits being the one cause likely to call 

 them up at last in the fulness of time. 



But in the mean time, while the toiling millions need 

 not wholly abandon hope of some general improvement 

 in their condition, even within the limits of a single 

 generation, the advice of both Mill and Spencer is good, 

 more especially as coming from the former, who proved 

 himself the sincere friend of labour the advice to trust 

 most of all to their own exertions, and in a world which 

 grants to them at present only harsh conditions, to 

 endeavour, by prudence and foresight, by knowledge 

 and attention to the monitions of science, by patience, 

 self-denial, and resignation to the inevitable wherever 

 necessary, to work out to the best of their own ability 

 their individual and social salvation. 



At the same time, a word of admonition, if not of 

 advice, might even be profitable to rulers, statesmen, 

 and legislators in these days. The socialist and nihilist 

 movement all over Europe, from Russia to Spain, the 

 simultaneous attempts on the lives of most of the Conti- 

 nental sovereigns, as the recognized key-stone of the 



