The law of libel in New York was amended, to some extent in the interest of the freedom of the press, in consequence of the many suits instigated by Mr. Cooper and by black-mailing lawyers; but there, as elsewhere, it is still susceptible of great improvement, in the interest both of the people and of justice.

Mr. Greeley, in the work from which we have just read an extract, concludes his account of his connexion with libel-suits with interesting biographical facts and a wise practical suggestion. He says:

Twice, in the course of my thirty-odd years of editorship, I have encountered human beings base enough to require me to correct a damaging statement, and after I had done so to the extent of their desire, to sue me upon that retracted statement as a libel! I think this proves more than the depravity of the persons implicated, that it indicates a glaring defect in the law or the ruling under which such a manœuvre is possible. If the law were honest, or merely decent, it would refuse to be made an accomplice of such villainy.

Ere many years, I hope to see all the reputable journals of this city, if not of the entire State, unite in an association for mutual defence against vexatious and unreasonable libel-suits. They ought to do this; employing a capable and painstaking lawyer, to whom every suit for libel against any member of the association should at once be referred, with instructions to investigate it candidly, and decide whether its defence ought or ought not to devolve on the press generally. If not, let it be remitted to the counsel for the journal prosecuted; but, if the prosecution be clearly unreasonable and vexatious, - a lawyer's dodge to levy black-mail, - then let no money or effort be spared to baffle and defeat the nefarious attempt. Such a combination for mutual defence would arrest the prevailing habit of paying $50 or $100 to buy off the plaintiff's attorney as the cheapest way out of a bother, would soon greatly reduce the number of suits for libel, and would result in a substantial and permanent enlargement of the Freedom of the Press. It should have been formed long ago

'Page 267.

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CHAPTER IX.

SOCIALISM AND OTHER "ISMS."

Mr. Greeley's Socialism - His Mature Views as Set Forth by HimselfThe Famous Discussion With Mr. Raymond - The Effect of Mr. Greeley's Supposed Opinions Upon New-York Journalism - Establishment of The Times - "Grahamism "— Spiritualism - Jenny Lind Attends "the Rappings" at Mr. Greeley's House — Summing up of His "Isms."

MOST young men of generous dispositions who are led seriously to reflect upon the past progress and present situation of mankind, take a tilt against society as it is organized. It is perhaps true that a majority of such men are, for a longer or shorter period of their lives according to circumstances, sincere, earnest enemies of the existing state of things. Men who have become poets of world-wide renown, others who have largely contributed to thought, philosophy, science, statesmanship, were in the fresh flush of their manhood socialists "of the most straightest sect,"-unquestioned "destructives," "agrarians," and the rest of those horrid things, in youth; staid conservatives and even adulatory poets-laureate when they reached that part of their lives when the sere and yellow leaves of age sadly rustled along their prosperous pathway. The plan by which to extirpate poverty, vice, crime, which has been adopted at least in theory by more men than is commonly supposed, from the establishment of the first Christian Church down to the present time is socialism. With thousands of pure men this has been a delightful dream; a magnificent mirage, with beautiful structures built of the viewless air on the shifting sands of desert waste.

It was natural and logical that Horace Greeley, a most generous nature, one hating all forms and manifestations of injustice, a born Reformer, should look with approbation upon a scheme, which claimed to be able to drive poverty and vice

and misery from the land, and build up a community of prosperous, virtuous citizens. Moreover, he had a strong natural repugnance-last infirmity of noble mind--to receiving any person's or any number of persons' ideas upon trust. He had very little respect for authority, as such. This is always the case with men whose fixed, unselfish purpose is to leave the world better for their having lived in it. He was a lover of fair play, and ever insisted on giving men a chance to publish their views, if there were a possibility of any good coming from them. He became Socialist The fact was of grave import in his life. It subjected him to a vast deal of harsh criticism, ridicule, and misrepresentation. I deem it but simple justice, therefore, that his mature views upon this subject, as set forth by himself years after the fierce newspaper conflicts to which they gave rise, should be here incorporated in extenso in his own words. Thus will men be able righteously to approve or condemn, as may seem to them reasonable and just. Besides, those who condemn in advance, thus have the opportunity afforded them of skipping the few following pages, of complacently nursing their wisdom to keep it warm, and then going on with the rest of us in our biographical journey.

Mr. Greeley thus relates at length how he became a Socialist, nd just what his Socialism was:

"The Winter of 1837-38, though happily mild and open till far into January, was one of pervading destitution and suffering in our city, from paralysis of business and consequent dearth of employment. The liberality of those who could and would give was heavily taxed to save from famishing the tens of thousands who, being needy and unable to find employment, first ran into debt so far as they could, and thenceforth must be helped or starve. For, in addition to all who may be said to belong here, legions of labourers, servants, etc., are annually dismissed in Autumn from the farms, country-seats, and watering-places of the suburban districts, and drift down to the city, whence they were mainly hired; vaguely hoping to find work here, which a small part of them do: the rest live on the good-nature of relatives, if such they have here, or on credit from boarding-houses, landlords, or grocers, so long as they can; and then make their choice between roguery and beggary, or change from this to that, or take them mixed, as chance may dictate. Since the general diffusion of railroads and the considerable extension of our manufacturing industry, business is far more equable than it was, even in

prosperous times, thirty years ago; but Winter is still a scason of privation and suffering to many thousands who live in tolerable comfort through the warmer seasons. To say that ten thousand young persons here annually take their first lessons in debauchery and crime would be to keep quite within the truth; and, while passion, ignorance, and miseducation ruin their thousands, I judge that destitution flowing from involuntary idleness sends more men and women to perdition, in this city, than any other cause, - intemperance possibly excepted. "I lived that Winter in the Sixth Ward, - then, as now, eminent for filth, squalour, rags, dissipation, want, and misery. A public meeting of its citizens was duly held early in December, and an organization formed thereat, by which committees were appointed to canvass the Ward, from house to house, collect funds from those who could and would spare anything, ascertain the nature and extent of the existing destitution, and devise ways and means for its systematic relief. Very poor myself, I could give no money, or but a mite; so I gave time instead, and served, through several days, on one of the visiting committees. I thus saw extreme destitution more closely than I had ever before observed it, and was enabled to scan its repulsive features intelligently. I saw two families, including six or eight children, burrowing in one cellar under a stable, a prey to famine on the one hand, and to vermin and cutaneous maladies on the other, with sickness adding its horrors to those of a polluted atmosphere and a wintry temperature. I saw men who each, somehow, supported his family on an income of $5 per week or less, yet who cheerfully gave something to mitigate the sufferings of those who were really poor. I saw three widows, with as many children, living in an attic on the profits of an apple-stand which yielded less than $3 per week, and the landlord came in for a full third of that. But worst to bear of all was the pitiful plea of stout, resolute, single young men and young women: 'We do not want alms; we are not beggars; we hate to sit here day by day idle and useless; help us to work, help; why is it that we can have nothing to do?'

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we want no other

"I pondered these scenes at intervals throughout the next two or three years, and was impelled thereby to write for The New-Yorker-I think, in the Winter of 1839–40 - a series of articles entitled, 'What shall be done for the Labourer?' I believe these attracted the attention of Mr. Albert Brisbane, a young man of liberal education and varied culture, a native of Batavia, N. Y., which he still regarded as his home, but who had travelled widely and observed thoughtfully; making the acquaintance in Paris of the school of Socialists called (after their founder) St. Simonians, and that also of Charles Fourier, the founder of a different school, which had been distinguished by his name. Robert Owen, by his experiments at New Lanark and his 'New Views of Society,' was the first in this century to win public attention to Socialism, though (I believe) Fourier had not only speculated, but written, before either of his colabourers. But Owen was an extensive and successful manufacturer; St. Simon was a soldier, and the heir of a noble family; while Fourier was a

SOCIALISM.

149 poor clerk, reserved and taciturn, whose hard, dogmatic, algebraic style seemed expressly calculated to discourage readers and repel adherents; so that his disciples were few indeed, down to the date of his death in 1837. Mr. Brisbane, returning not long afterward from Europe, prepared and published his first work - which was an exposition and commendation of Fourier's industrial system in 1840. My acquaintance with the author and his work commenced soon afterward.

"I sum up these three competing projects of Social Reform as follows:

Owen. Place human beings in proper relations, under favouring circumstances (among which I include Education and Intelligence), and they will do right rather than wrong. Hitherto, the heritage of the great majority has been filth, squalour, famine, ignorance, superstition; and these have impelled many to indolence and vice, if not to crime. Make their external conditions what they should be, and these will give place to industry, sobriety, and virtuc.

"St. Simon.-‘Love is the fulfilling of the law.' Secure to every one opportunity; let each do whatever he can do best; and the highest good of the whole will be achieved and perpetuated.

"Fourier.- Society, as we find it, is organized rapacity. Half of its force is spent in repressing or resisting the jealousies and rogueries of its members. We need to organize Universal Justice based on Science. The true Eden lies before, not behind us. We may so provide that Labour, now repulsive, shall be attractive; while its efficiency in production shall be increased by the improvement of machinery and the extended use of natural forces, so as to secure abundance, education, and elegant luxury, to all. What is needed is to provide all with homes, employment, instruction, good living, the most effective implements, machinery, etc., securing to each the fair and full recompense of his achievement; and this can best be attained through the association of some four to five hundred families in a common household, and in the ownership and cultivation of a common domain, say of 2,000 acres, or about one acre to each person living thereon.

"I accept, unreservedly, the views of no man, dead or living. The master has said it,' was never conclusive with me. Even though I have found him right nine times, I do not take his tenth proposition, on trust; unless that also be proved sound and rational, I reject it. But I am con. vinced, after much study and reflection, that the Social Reformers are right on many points, even when clearly wrong on others; and I deem Fourier-though in many respects erratic, mistaken, visionary-the most suggestive and practical among them. I accept nothing on his authority; for I find many of his speculations fantastic, erroneous, and (in my view) pernicious; but on many points he commands my unreserved concurrence. Yet I prefer to set forth my own Social creed rather than his, even wherein mine was borrowed from his teachings; and mine is, briefly, as follows:

"I. I believe that there need be, and should be, no paupers who are not