lived only in one room. It was this population, thus committed
to his care, which Owen now set himself to elevate and ameliorate.
He greatly improved their houses, and by the unsparing and
benevolent exertion of his personal influence trained them to
habits of order, cleanliness and thrift. He opened a store,
where the people could buy goods of the soundest quality at
little more than cost price; and the sale of drink was placed
under the strictest supervision. His greatest success, however,
was in the education of the young, to which he devoted special
attention. He was the founder of infant schools in Great
Britain; and, though he was anticipated by reformers on the
continent of Europe, he seems to have been led to institute them
by his own views of what education ought to be, and without
hint from abroad. In all these plans Owen obtained the most
gratifying success. Though at first regarded with suspicion as a
stranger, he soon won the confidence of his people. The mills
continued to be a great commercial success, but it is needless
to say that some of Owen’s schemes involved considerable
expense, which was displeasing to his partners. Tired at last of
the restrictions imposed on him by men who wished to conduct
the business on the ordinary principles, Owen formed a new firm,
who, content with 5% of return for their capital, were ready to
give freer scope to his philanthropy (1813). In this firm Jeremy
Bentham and the well-known Quaker, William Allen, were
partners. In the same year Owen first appeared as an author
of essays, in which he expounded the principles on which his
system of educational philanthropy was based. From an early
age he had lost all belief in the prevailing forms of religion, and
had thought out a creed for himself, which he considered an
entirely new and original discovery. The chief points in this
philosophy were that man’s character is made not by him but
for him; that it has been formed by circumstances over which
he had no control; that he is not a proper subject either of praise
or blame,—these principles leading up to the practical conclusion
that the great secret in the right formation of man’s character
is to place him under the proper influences—physical, moral
and social—from his earliest years. These principles—of the
irresponsibility of man and of the effect of early influences—are
the keynote of Owen’s whole system of education and social
amelioration. As we have said, they are embodied in his first
work, A New View of Society, or Essays on the Principle of the
Formation of the Human Character, the first of these essays (there
are four in all) being published in 1813. It is needless to say that
Owen’s new views theoretically belong to a very old system of
philosophy, and that his originality is to be found only in his
benevolent application of them. For the next few years Owen’s
work at New Lanark continued to have a national and even a
European significance. His schemes for the education of his
workpeople attained to something like completion on the opening
of the institution at New Lanark in 1816. He was a zealous
supporter of the factory legislation resulting in the act of 1819,
which, however, greatly disappointed him. He had interviews
and communications with the leading members of government,
including the premier, Lord Liverpool, and with many of the
rulers and leading statesmen of Europe. New Lanark itself
became a much-frequented place of pilgrimage for social reformers,
statesmen, and royal personages, including Nicholas, afterwards
emperor of Russia. According to the unanimous testimony of
all who visited it, the results achieved by Owen were singularly
good. The manners of the children, brought up under his
system, were beautifully graceful, genial and unconstrained;
health, plenty, and contentment prevailed; drunkenness was
almost unknown, and illegitimacy was extremely rare. The
most perfect good feeling subsisted between Owen and his
workpeople, and all the operations of the mill proceeded with
the utmost smoothness and regularity; and the business was
a great commercial success.
Hitherto Owen’s work had been that of a philanthropist, whose great distinction was the originality and unwearying unselfishness of his methods. His first departure in socialism took place in 1817, and was embodied in a report communicated to the committee of the House of Commons on the poor law. The general misery and stagnation of trade consequent on the termination of the great war was engrossing the attention of the country. After clearly tracing the special causes connected with the war which had led to such a deplorable state of things, Owen pointed out that the permanent cause of distress was to be found in the competition of human labour with machinery, and that the only effective remedy was the united action of men, and the subordination of machinery. His proposals for the treatment of pauperism were based on these principles. He recommended that communities of about twelve hundred persons each should be settled on quantities of land from 1000 to 1500 acres, all living in one large building in the form of a square, with public kitchen and mess-rooms. Each family should have its own private apartments, and the entire care of the children till the age of three, after which they should be brought up by the community, their parents having access to them at meals and all other proper times. These communities might be established by individuals, by parishes, by counties, or by the state; in every case there should be effective supervision by duly qualified persons. Work, and the enjoyment of its results, should be in common. The size of his community was no doubt partly suggested by his village of New Lanark; and he soon proceeded to advocate such a scheme as the best form for the reorganization of society in general. In its fully developed form—and it cannot be said to have changed much during Owen’s lifetime—it was as follows. He considered an association of from 500 to 3000 as the fit number for a good working community. While mainly agricultural, it should possess all the best machinery, should offer every variety of employment, and should, as far as possible, be self-contained. “As these townships,” as he also called them, “should increase in number, unions of them federatively united shall be formed in circles of tens, hundreds and thousands,” till they should embrace the whole world in a common interest.
His plans for the cure of pauperism were received with great favour. The Times and the Morning Post and many of the leading men of the country countenanced them; one of his most steadfast friends was the duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria. He had indeed gained the ear of the country, and had the prospect before him of a great career as a social reformer, when he went out of his way at a large meeting in London to declare his hostility to all the received forms of religion. After this defiance to the religious sentiment of the country, Owen’s theories were in the popular mind associated with infidelity, and were henceforward suspected and discredited. Owen’s own confidence, however, remained unshaken; and he was anxious that his scheme for establishing a community should be tested. At last, in 1825, such an experiment was attempted under the direction of his disciple, Abram Combe, at Orbiston near Glasgow; and in the next year Owen himself commenced another at New Harmony (q.v.), Indiana, U.S.A. After a trial of about two years both failed completely. Neither of them was a pauper experiment; but it must be said that the members were of the most motley description, many worthy people of the highest aims being mixed with vagrants, adventurers, and crotchety, wrong-headed enthusiasts. After a long period of friction with William Allen and some of his other partners, Owen resigned all connexion with New Lanark in 1828. On his return from America he made London the centre of his activity. Most of his means having been sunk in the New Harmony experiment, he was no longer a flourishing capitalist, but the head of a vigorous propaganda, in which socialism and secularism were combined. One of the most interesting features of the movement at this period was the establishment in 1832 of an equitable labour exchange system, in which exchange was effected by means of labour notes, the usual means of exchange and the usual middlemen being alike superseded. The word “socialism” first became current in the discussions of the Association of all Classes of all Nations, formed by Owen in 1835. During these years also his secularistic teaching gained such influence among the working classes as to give occasion for the statement in the Westminster Review (1839) that his principles were the actual creed of a great portion of them. His views on marriage, which were certainly lax, gave
