xxxtv] LAND NATIONALIZATION 255 



with, on the whole, most satisfactory results. On the one hand, 

 the socialists are agreed that, as a first step, free access to land, 

 with a view to its future nationalization, is vitally important ; 

 while on the other hand, the workers no longer say, as they 

 did at the congress, " Land nationalization will be of no use 

 to us." This is an important advance in the short space of 

 twenty years. 



Among the few eminent men who joined our movement 

 was Professor F. W. Newman, and I had the pleasure of 

 meeting him several times at the house of my friend Mr. 

 A. C. Swinton, and I also had some correspondence with him ; 

 but there is little in the few letters I have worth quoting. 

 The following is the concluding paragraph of a letter dated 

 June 6, 1882 : " Our duty is to do what we can, in detail ; but 

 the longer I live the less hope I have of justice, without 

 changes so great in the persons who hold power that it will 

 be called a revolution. I mean justice, not as to land tenure 

 only, but as to many other things equally sacred, perhaps 

 more vital. Until popular indignation rises, I expect no 

 result ; and when it rises it may seem easier to make a clean 

 sweep than carry a quarter measure. 



" Be assured that I look up to you with gratitude. 



"F. W. Newman." 



Soon after our society was started, Henry George, author 

 of that remarkable work, " Progress and Poverty," came to 

 England, and I had the pleasure of making his acquaintance. 

 He spoke at several of our meetings and elsewhere in London, 

 as well as in various parts of England and Ireland. He was 

 a very impressive speaker, and always held his audience. 

 His delivery was slow and deliberate ; so much so as to 

 appear sometimes as if he had broken down, but he was 

 always cool and collected, and when the next sentence 

 came one saw that the pause was made either for the 

 purpose of choosing the right phrase or of producing a 

 greater effect. The following passages, in a letter written 

 from Dublin in November, 1881, soon after his arrival, show 



