Until 1916, though much had been written about Labour's Wrongs and Labour's Remedy), nothing was known of the life of its author John Francis Bray, except that he was a journeyman printer in Leeds. In December of that year John Edwards published in the Socialist Review the results of research that he had made into Bray's career based on letters discovered in Leeds which had been written to Bray by his brothers. With these, he described Bray's life up to 1850 and discoveries of other letters by Alfred Mattison of Leeds brought the story up to 1854 which is the last date mentioned by Max Beer in his article on Bray in the Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences.

The author of this article points out that up to the present there exists no critical study of the relation between the First International and the Commune. This he deems very regrettable, as ever since the year 1871 a connection has been established between the two movements.

So did also the French Government, for when it had destroyed the Commune, it brought an action against the First International. To this end, Jules Favre ordered the French ambassadors to undertake the necessary steps with the governments to which they were accredited. The dispatches published in this article, which were the replies to Favre's circulars—also reproduced here—, reveal that these steps carried no direct results. For a greater knowledge, however, of facts and of the notions prevalent with the governments of various European countries, they are of considerable historical interest. Thiers, moreover, introduced a bill into the Assemblée Nationale to the effect of making punishable whoever was connected with the International. The Assemblée appointed a commission to examine this bill; the records of this commission are also to be found in the above article. An explanatory text, finally, links up the various documents published.

About Ludwig Gall (1791–1863), the first propagandist in Germany between 1825 and 1835 of the ideas of Owen, Saint-Simon and Fourier, no documents from public archives have until now been published. Nor were there any documents known before written by himself. This greatly adds to the value of the present publication.

The preface and the documents published throw some light on Gall's work as substitute secretary of the Gewerbeverein at Coblenz, on his travels in the countries of the Danube monarchy, and his relations with the Hungarian government. In the above article the author tells us something about this little-known period of Gall's life, sketching for example the part Gall played in the flight of Franz Pulszky's wife and his meeting with the authoress Malwida von Meysenbug.

Marx met the then 22 years old Blind) for the first time in May 1848, when he and Engels made their appearance in the revolutionary state of Baden (Germany), after the Neue Rheinische Zeitung had been suspended. At that time they declared to the members of the republican committee at Karlsruhe (Landesa usschuss), that they considered the revolt in the South-West of Germany irretrievably doomed to failure, if no decisive moves in Hungary or another revolution in Paris should come to its rescue. The only members of the committee who supported this opinion were, as stated by Engels), Karl Blind and Amand Gögg. Soon afterwards Marx and Blind met again in Paris. On September 5 Marx gave Blind's address to Freiligrath as his own. Blind had been sent to France by the revolutionary governments of Baden and the Palatinate as one of the members of the legation, which these two shortlived republics intended to establish there. But Louis Napoleon's government ignored this legation, and consequently did not respect Blind's diplomatic immunity, when the latter, soon after his arrival, proved to be involved in the abortive coup of Ledru-Rollin of June 13. Blind was placed under arrest and expelled from France on the same day, on the ground that his presence was “such as to disturb public order and calm”.

In 1789, d'Argenson (1771–1842) who was a grandson of one of the ministers of Louis XV, embraced the new ideas. For a considerable time he held himself aloof from public life, while conscientiously managing his extensive estates. All the same he was a “prefét” unter Napoleon. It is only with the Restauration, however, that he started out on his political career. Elected a deputy, he was a member of the leftist opposition, though paying far more attention than his faction to social questions, and particularly to the lot of the peasants whom he had come to know very well. In 1824 he announced the birth of a new science, viz. “the Science of Social Justice”, which was to correct the evils of inequality.

The revolution of 1830 fired him with passionate ardour in the defence of his ideas. He was encouraged, moreover, through his intimate connection with the aged Buonarotti, a friend of Babeuf's.

D'Argenson published a brochure of a revolutionary character entitled Boutades d'un riche à sentiments populaires, and defended this before the jury—by which he was acquitted—and before the Chamber. As he was not re-elected in 1834, he retired to his properties, remaining true to the socialist doctrines, however, up to the end of his life.

The present article is the second part of a study on the Dutch working-class movement between 1876 and 1886, (the first part was published in Vol. III of this Review), and deals with the economic crisis and the unemployment problem in the years 1884 to 1886.

The economic position of Holland was very bad at that time. Apart from an agricultural crisis, which set in about 1875, a crisis in commerce and industry, especially in ship-building and other building trades, made itself felt after 1883. The number of unemployed was considerable throughout the country; it was particularly great, however, in the large towns, to which numerous labourers from the rural districts had migrated. The author tries to ascertain the magnitude of this unemployement on the strength of certain figures, which, although incomplete, are important as the first data on the unemployment in Holland in the 19th century. Then follows an investigation into the methods of fighting this unemployment, which brings out that, generally speaking, both the government and the individual municipalities were of the opinion that interference in this matter did not fall within their sphere of action. When the normal church- and municipal dole proved to be insufficient, private persons were expected to provide for the extra wants of the poor. This was indeed the case in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and various smaller towns in the form of a special dole and the organization of relief work. Unemployment insurance was practically not yet thought of at that time.

From the reports of the Solicitor-Generals on the “moral and political conditions”, extracts are being published, which throw a light on the reawakening of the labour movement during the first years of Napoleon the Third's reign.

After a short period of great confusion a sense of solidarity grows up among the working classes in almost every part of the country, but particularly in the growing industrial centres, resulting from the contrast between labour and capital, which feeling often manifests itself in the formation of some or other organization. The working classes rise in opposition against the employers and the State-institutions, in so far as they act as employers, without however constituting a political opposition against the régime itself. Napoleon's general policy, and above all his foreign policy, is often even approved of by the lower classes. The manifestations of this awakening solidarity among the working classes are various: able management of the imperial charitable institutions, coalitions, hunger demonstrations, strikes etc. In times of economic prosperity such practices are little observed, but they become more general in times of economic depression.

The present article deals with the attempt made in Austria from 1934 to 1938 to found berufständische Gewerkschaften (corporative trade unions) within the framework of the autoritarian system of government. The Gewerkschaftsbund (league of trade-union societies) of the Austrian workmen and employees, whose constitution, structure, basic principles and internal development are being discussed here, was to organize the workmen and employees in compliance with the corporative social order, on the principles of the new social doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. Since this attempt was made on the basis of former trade-unionistic organizations, the author dwells on the structure of the Austrian trade unions prior to the break-up of the greatest of the then existing organizations, viz. the “free trade unions”. Then follows a detailed examination of the principles of organization of the league of trade-union societies, founded by state decree in March 1934. As this league formed part of the corporative upbuilding initiated by the State, its position is sketched, both within the organization of the State, and as part of the corporative structure. This survey of the corporative structure of Austrian economic life raises the question to what extent the new economic methods are compatible with the basic principles of the Austrian league of trade-union societies. This leads up to the problem how far this league corresponds with the principles laid down by the encyclical Quadragesimo anno. Closely connected with this problem is another question, much contested in Austria between 1934 and 1938, i.e. whether in a completed corporative social order independent workers' associations can exist, separate from the employers' organizations.

The best-known episode in the early history of Britsh Trade Unionism is the dramatic rise and fall of the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union in 1833—1834. Robert Owen's sudden emergence as the leader of a mass movement reported to number a million adherents, the trial and transportation of the unfortunate ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs’ for the crime of administering unlawful oaths, the presentation of the ‘document’ demanding renunciation of Trade Union membership by masters in many parts of the country, and the complete eclipse of the Grand National within a year of its first foundation, make a story which has been told many times with effect, and does not need telling over again. But though this particular story is well-known, there is a good deal that remains obscure in Trade Union history both during this critical year and, still more, during the few previous years when the idea of an all-embracing ‘General Union of Trades’ was taking hold of one section after another of the British working classes.