The principal purpose of these notes is to correct certain misunderstandings which I believe to be widely prevalent concerning the character of British Trade Unionism during the quarter of a century which followed the establishment in 1850—1851 of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. The period covered thus begins with the inauguration of the ‘new model’ type of Amalgamated Society, and extends to the end of the trade boom of the early seventies, stopping just short of the Great Depression which set in about 1875.

The aim of the author of this article was merely to write an introduction, i.e. to offer some observations on the methods and theories appropriate, in his opinion, to the study of the Christian Syndicalist Movement.

In part I he deals with the organisations' internal life. Here he examines in turn:

The circumstances of the organisations' foundation, namely partly clerical and doctrinal influences, partly the reactions of the workers. The various ways in which Christian Trade-Unionism is influenced by the clergy. The structure of the confederations, especially the problems of centralism and bureaucracy, democracy and federalism. And finally recruiting-conditions, viz. the degree of confessionalism of the organisation, the religious attitude of the members as a whole, and the distrubution both geographically and vocationally. Here he adds a comparison between the fluctuations in the number of members of Christian and of socialist organisations.

The great strike movement in France in the summer of 1936, which took its peculiar form of action in a series of stay-in strikes, can only be explained by the general state of mind of the French working-class in the spring of 1936. France had found itself for the last two years in a state of growing social and political fermentation. The danger of the militant social and political reaction, which manifested itself particularly clearly in February 1934, had roused the socially and politically progressive elements in France and enabled the reconciliation of the two great labour parties. It also surmounted the discord in the trade-unions and led to the formation of the “Popular Front”, which gained a glorious victory at the elections of deputies on April 26th and May 3rd 1936. In the course of this development of events the social consciousness of the working-class was strengthened. The feeling no longer to have to accept meekly the privations they had had to suffer during the years of depression, and no longer to stand deprived of their rights by their employers, gradually grew stronger. The beginning of 1936 marked a tremendous growth of the membership in the trade-unions and everywhere in the working-class there was a state of ferment. Characteristic of this development is, above all, the fact that in the beginning of the movement of 1936 the material claims, the claims for raising wages, often played a less prominent part and fell back behind the aspiration for mitigation of the social inferiority of the working-class, that is to say, the actual acknowledgement of the workman's right to join a trade-union, the realization of the system of collective contracts, the admittance of representatives of the workers in the different industries.

The aim of this study is to link up the general trend of Dutch and international political developments with certain events in the domain of social history, some of which are scarcely known and some exciting little attention, being regarded as of mere local interest.

A description of the organising methods and the political tactics of the early socialist movement in Western Europe forms an introduction to this enquiry. There are in the main three methods of proceeding in the matter and the one chosen is determined by the particular political conditions of a country at a given moment.

Educational societies for the working classes are being founded and the leading executive positions occupied by men belonging to socialist-communist secret societies. These, which are perfectly legal and in every sense public societies, serve as a means for collecting into a body the active-minded workers; at the same time they form a sieve for the selection of such elements as might seem useful and worthy of admittance to membership of the secret society.

Monsieur George Bourgin discovered in the National Archives in Paris several manuscripts shedding light on the life and doctrines of Saint-Simon. One is a petition addressed by Saint-Simon to the Chamber of Deputies under the Restauration. Here the great utopist exposes a political system most suitable for his country and gives a survey of the means how to increase France's wealth, how to start a really national education-campaign, and how to guide the French morale in the path of positive peace. The other texts consist of letters, probably addressed to Decazes, in which he endeavours to obtain his assistance in favour of the young school of Saint-Simon.

These letters of Varlin addressed to Albert Richard show Eugène Varlin first and foremost as the precursor of French syndicalism.

Between the years 1868–1870 a great development took place in the French labour movement of which Varlin was the heart and soul as well the brains. He saw the great advantage of labour having its own organs for propaganda and founded a short-lived weekly le Travail; the Marseillaise, a daily paper for which he asked Richard's support took its place.

Notwithstanding the financial hardships entailed on the workers, he welcomed, in a sense, the numerous strikes, because they were a sure means of compelling the workers to organise. “We must be ready with our organisation against the day of the revolution. It is essential that we shall be able at once to replace existing institutions by a more perfect system of our own; it will fetch all the doubters.” He mentions the advisability of enlisting the bakers' union in the general strike movement. “For a general strike to be successful, it is imperative to have them with us.”

Among the projects for a new social organisation which were published during the French revolution a special place must be allotted to the scheme submitted in the work De la propriété ou la cause du pauvre, plaidée au Tribunal de la Raison, de la Justice et de la Vérité (Property, or the case of the poor man, presented before the Tribunal of Reason, Justice and Truth). This work, which appeared anonymously in 1791, was attributed by A. Aulard and by the catalogue of the National Library to the Abbé de Cournand, professor of literature at the Collège de France from 1784–1814, and best known during the revolution for his courageous advocacy of the marriage of priests.

The author of this article on the activities of the Hungarian refugee and spy Johann Bangya based himself on archival sources hitherto unused. As early as 1845/46 Banya had already occasionally served the Austrian Government in some confidential capacity. A spy in the grand style, however, he became after the collapse of the Hungarian fight for independence of 1848/49. He succeeded in establishing himself among the London circles of emigrants, and it was he who put the authorities on the track of the „Kommunistenbund” in Germany. The arrest of the emissary Nothjung and the Cologne Communist Trial, moreover, may be traced back to him as well. Bangya managed to get into close contact with Marx and he smuggled the former's polemic pamphlet Die grossen Männer des Exils into the hands of the police. Marx subsequently accused him of theft of this manuscript and denounced him as a spy in the New York Criminal-Zeitung of May the 3rd, 1853.

I. Le mouvement socialiste, très intense en France dans la première moitié du siècle dernier, cess de se manifester à la suite du coup d'État de décembre 1851. A peine commençait-il à relever la tête après la chute de l'empire lorsque la sanglante répression de la Commune lui porta un nouveau et terrible coup. Ce ne fut qu'après les élections républicaines d'octobre 1877 et après que le vote de l'amnistie eût permis aux exilés de rentrer en France qu'il put reprendre son activité. L'impulsion donnée en France fut suivie dans les autres pays et l'organisation socialiste devint vite internationale.